The Best Films of the Year - The 2015 Version

[The Killer Snark]

Re Creed, I admit I've noticed Stallone does talk this way, but he seems almost self-parodic here.

I've just realised I've missed out Sicario. D'oh.

For the purposes of the list, I'm treating The Revenant and The Hateful Eight as '15 films, in light of others who saw them last year, though as I've said I'm a UK resident, and haven't seen them yet. I'll add them to my first post if necessary.

 

 

[Veltigar]

I can't understand why people loved Fury Road.  It had, literally, no plot.  If you hadn't seen Mad Max and the Road Warrior you would have no idea what was going on at any time.  Yes it was beautifully shot.  But a 2 hour car chase with no plot, hardly any dialog, no characterization of anyone.  I don't get it.  

If you look up 'action movie' or 'blockbuster' in the dictionary, there should literally be a picture of Mad Max: Fury Road included in the lemma. It's one of the greatest, if not the greatest action film ever. Sure, it has a plot that is simple, but simplicity sadly isn't easy to achieve. The execution of the plot was picture perfect, which is just something that can't be said of very many films. Also, while the plot might be simple, the film's story certainly isn't. There is enough (feminist) subtext burried in there to keep the internet going for quite some time.

I also have to say that I really don't get your argument about having to see the previous Mad Max films. I saw Road Warrior once, many years ago and I could perfectly follow everything. And many of my friends, who had never even heard of Mad Max were blown away by it on their first watch. It's very easy to get what's going on, you really don't need to have seen any of the other films to appreciate the greatness. That's one of the lovely things about it imo.

[Mark Antony]

Yeah I tried to watch the old Mad Maxes but just could not do it, Fury Road was fucking awesome though. 

[Jack Bauer 24]

Force Awakens

The Revenant

Hateful 8

Mad Max

Sicario

Jurrasic World

Ultron

Rogue Nation

It Follows

[Cas Stark]

If you look up 'action movie' or 'blockbuster' in the dictionary, there should literally be a picture of Mad Max: Fury Road included in the lemma. It's one of the greatest, if not the greatest action film ever. Sure, it has a plot that is simple, but simplicity sadly isn't easy to achieve. The execution of the plot was picture perfect, which is just something that can't be said of very many films. Also, while the plot might be simple, the film's story certainly isn't. There is enough (feminist) subtext burried in there to keep the internet going for quite some time.

I also have to say that I really don't get your argument about having to see the previous Mad Max films. I saw Road Warrior once, many years ago and I could perfectly follow everything. And many of my friends, who had never even heard of Mad Max were blown away by it on their first watch. It's very easy to get what's going on, you really don't need to have seen any of the other films to appreciate the greatness. That's one of the lovely things about it imo.

I hated it.  I don't want to see an "action movie" that is literally nothing but action, that never stops to take a breath and allow for some story and characterization.  I am dumbfounded at the raves it has gotten.  

[polishgenius]

I hated it.  I don't want to see an "action movie" that is literally nothing but action, that never stops to take a breath and allow for some story and characterization.  I am dumbfounded at the raves it has gotten.  

 

Yeah, but Fury Road demonstrably did all those things.

As for your previous assertation - I hadn't seen Road Warrior and had no problems following Fury Road at all. They're not connected at all, what are you actually trying to claim there?

[Cas Stark]

 

 

Yeah, but Fury Road demonstrably did all those things.

As for your previous assertation - I hadn't seen Road Warrior and had no problems following Fury Road at all. They're not connected at all, what are you actually trying to claim there?

I'm claiming that I hated Fury Road, thought it lacked any decent plot or characterization or even dialog, and that being beautifully shot and choreographed and costumed doesn't make up for being, what is, in effect, a 2 hour car chase.  

[Nictarion]

Furiosa absolutely had characterization. 

[Red Tiger]

Furiosa absolutely had characterization. 

[polishgenius]

I'm claiming that I hated Fury Road, thought it lacked any decent plot or characterization or even dialog, and that being beautifully shot and choreographed and costumed doesn't make up for being, what is, in effect, a 2 hour car chase.  

Yeah, but even if one accepts those things, why would not having seen The Road Warrior be any impediment to understanding it?

[Cas Stark]

 

Yeah, but even if one accepts those things, why would not having seen The Road Warrior be any impediment to understanding it?

Maybe it isn't.  Obviously I am in the minority in having thought the film was just one long action sequence pretending to be a movie.

[Veltigar]

I'm glad this thread is back, I had a blast compiling my list last year  I'm going to agree with the general view in this thread, to me 2015 wasn't a very good year for films. At least so far. It wasn't bad either I think, but after the high that was 2014, it's quite a downer. I have yet to see a lot of films other people already mentioned, so I'll update my list accordingly and hopefully they will all blow me away sufficiently to conclude that 2015 was just as awesome as 2014. January is going to be busy (one of two months in the year that I hardly have time to go to the theatre, so I hope I'll be able to see everything I want to see), but some films like Brooklyn don't come out until April or May! Utter madness

My list will thus eventually contain a lot of 2015 films I have only been able to see in 2016, but that's life I guess. I'll do my best to stick to rank them according to quality and not purely on how much I enjoyed them (which will be hard and I might not always succeed).

1) Son of Saul (aka Saul Fia)
2) Mad Max: Fury Road
3) Chi-raq
4) Ex Machina
5) Slow West
6) Le Tout Nouveau Testament
7) Inside Out
8) It Follows 
9) The Assassin
10) Star Wars: The Force Awakens
11) D'Ardennen
12) The Martian
13) An Inspector Calls
14) Avengers: Age of Ultron
15) Dheepan
16) Beast of No Nation
17) Ant-man
18) Kingsman: The Secret Service 
19) The Wedding Ringer
20) Sicario
21) Bone Tomahawk
22) Spectre

The first seven were very close in quality to me (excellent to very good). Eight - fourteen were good. Fifteen - nineteen solid. Twenty - twenty-two bad (I know one choice in there is going to be controversial). 

2015 Films I still want to check out:

Spoiler

The Revenant
The Hateful Eight
Creed
Brooklyn
Carol
Spotlight
Anomalisa 
MacBeth
45 Years
The Lobster
The Witch
Room
99 Homes
MI V: Rogue Nation
Phoenix
Girlhood
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night 
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Hard to Be a God

[JonArryn]

My top 5 so far:

Sicario

Ex Machina

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Kingsman

Ant-Man

I still have more movies too see so that list will definitely change when I've seen some more movies I'm anticipating. There's a big jump from position 2 to 3, since I consider the top 2 movies great movies, but the other ones are more ok or good. So the list will definitely change up.

Movies I still need too see: The Martian, The Revenant, Hateful Eight, Spotlight, The Big Short, The Assassin, Creed

I probably need to explain why Mad Max and Star Wars aren't on my list even though I've seen them. But Mad Max I feel the same as an above poster about. I don't feel that it had an interesting story to tell, and there was basically nothing gripping in the movie for me. Just a 2 hour chase scene with cliched writing and at the end I was just like, is that it? Is that all it got good reception about, because it was just a mediocre and bland movie to me. Star Wars was a big letdown for me too, it was way too cliched and just a big rip-off of the original trilogy with no clue about Star Wars mythology. 

[Red Tiger]

I probably need to explain why Mad Max and Star Wars aren't on my list even though I've seen them. But Mad Max I feel the same as an above poster about. I don't feel that it had an interesting story to tell, and there was basically nothing gripping in the movie for me. Just a 2 hour chase scene with cliched writing and at the end I was just like, is that it? Is that all it got good reception about, because it was just a mediocre and bland movie to me. Star Wars was a big letdown for me too, it was way too cliched and just a big rip-off of the original trilogy with no clue about Star Wars mythology.

Ah yes, I remember you saying the Star Wars prequels were better than the Force Awakens.

[JonArryn]

Ah yes, I remember you saying the Star Wars prequels were better than the Force Awakens.

I did, and I meant it. I feel every one of the prequels is better then TFA. And there's not even a contest between Revenge of the Sith and TFA, because Revenge of the Sith is a pretty good movie, in my opinion. But I've already been over this in the Star Wars thread so I don't feel the need to explain why I feel that way again. 

[The Killer Snark]

Three of the films on Veltigar's list are on my 'to see' list also. Hard to Be a God I'm planning on buying. A Girl Walks Home Alone looks excellent, and I heard a bunch of good things about The Lobster. Diary of a Teenage Girl I've seen, and I enjoyed it, but I thought it could have either been more erotic or worked better as a coming of age comedy. It seemed to lack an inner consensus on what it was trying to be.

As for the criticisms of Mad Max, I'll agree that Max himself lacked characterisation, though Furiosa didn't, but I don't think it really matters much. It fulfils its main obligation as an inventive and rapidly paced action movie, and the opening half-hour long or so car chase at the cinema just took my breath away.

D'oh. I forgot Macbeth.

 

 

[Guest]

I hated Kingsmen.  I think I get that they were trying to be subversive, but I thought they were trying to be too cool.  Just didn't work for me.  Just saw Ex Machina and thought it was incredible.

[Nictarion]

I hated Kingsmen.  I think I get that they were trying to be subversive, but I thought they were trying to be too cool.  Just didn't work for me.  Just saw Ex Machina and thought it was incredible.

That church scene though......

[The Killer Snark]

I didn't like Kingsman's church scene that much either. It just seemed off kilter with what went before in the movie. I might change my mind if I watch it again. Samuel L Jackson's lisping villain was probably what I enjoyed most, and the anal sex gag at the end.

[HexMachina]

I didn't like Kingsman's church scene that much either. It just seemed off kilter with what went before in the movie. I might change my mind if I watch it again. Samuel L Jackson's lisping villain was probably what I enjoyed most, and the anal sex gag at the end.

How was it in any way out of sync with the rest of the movie? Over the top ridiculousness was what the film was all about