It's Back: Exceelent Movies I've Seen Lately

[overkill94]

With the Oscars coming up fairly soon, what are all your top 10 lists for the year?

My list is severely incomplete since I don't go to the theater often so a lot of the big shots aren't on DVD yet, but here's what I have so far:

1. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. Brooklyn
4. Straight Outta Compton
5. Dope
6. Spotlight
7. The Martian
8. While We're Young
9. Trainwreck
10. Star Wars VIII: The Force Awakens

[johnnya24]

My top "10" would be:

1. Sicario - got 3 token Oscar nominations ... best movie of 2015 IMO.
2. The Revenant
3. Ex Machina
4. The Big Short
5. Carol
6. The Hateful Eight

I was struggling to fill out the list after the first 6, so I didn't bother making a top 10.

Honourable mentions:

Macbeth, Everest, Steve Jobs, The Program (but could also go on my disappointed list!), Bridge of Spies, Cobain: Montage of Heck, Straight Outta Compton, The Gift, Selma, Grandma

So many I've yet to see:

Brooklyn, Beast of No Nation, Slow West, Amy, Spotlight, Southpaw, Far From the Madding Crowd, Suffragette, The Danish Girl, Legend, The Dressmaker, Joy, Room, Still Alice, The Walk, Dope, Son of Saul, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Movies that disappointed me for one reason or another:

1. Tomorrowland - this attitude to our current ecological disaster angers me ... I have more respect for people who say "I don't give a fuck"
2. Furious 7 - so so horrible
3. Spectre - 1st half = best Bond movie ever, second half = worst Bond movie ever
4. Mad Max - remove Max from the movie, it's the same movie ... didn't make it a horrible movie, it just disappointed me
5. Crimson Peak - nonsense ... what were they thinking?
6. The Man From Uncle - descended into rank stupidity after a promising start
7. Star Wars - opinion of the movie fell quite sharply when I watched it a second time. the bad parts were far worse than my first impression, and the good parts weren't as good. Initial impression (as a fan) was 7.5/8 ... after rewatching, it's more like a 6.5/7 ... and if you didn't really like Star Wars, I could see you legitimately giving this a 5/10 at best.

[DMT]

Just saw The Revenant and thought it was great.

[johnnya24]

My top "10" would be:

1. Sicario - got 3 token Oscar nominations ... best movie of 2015 IMO.
2. The Revenant
3. Ex Machina
4. The Big Short
5. Carol
6. The Hateful Eight

I was struggling to fill out the list after the first 6, so I didn't bother making a top 10.

Honourable mentions:

Macbeth, Everest, Steve Jobs, The Program (but could also go on my disappointed list!), Bridge of Spies, Cobain: Montage of Heck, Straight Outta Compton, The Gift, Selma, Grandma

So many I've yet to see:

Brooklyn, Beast of No Nation, Slow West, Amy, Spotlight, Southpaw, Far From the Madding Crowd, Suffragette, The Danish Girl, Legend, The Dressmaker, Joy, Room, Still Alice, The Walk, Dope, Son of Saul, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Movies that disappointed me for one reason or another:

1. Tomorrowland - this attitude to our current ecological disaster angers me ... I have more respect for people who say "I don't give a fuck"
2. Furious 7 - so so horrible
3. Spectre - 1st half = best Bond movie ever, second half = worst Bond movie ever
4. Mad Max - remove Max from the movie, it's the same movie ... didn't make it a horrible movie, it just disappointed me
5. Crimson Peak - nonsense ... what were they thinking?
6. The Man From Uncle - descended into rank stupidity after a promising start
7. Star Wars - opinion of the movie fell quite sharply when I watched it a second time. the bad parts were far worse than my first impression, and the good parts weren't as good. Initial impression (as a fan) was 7.5/8 ... after rewatching, it's more like a 6.5/7 ... and if you didn't really like Star Wars, I could see you legitimately giving this a 5/10 at best.

Seen both Room and Spotlight since I wrote this post, and both easily slide into the "Top 10". Creed just misses out.

Room is brilliant, and more than worthy of the 4 Oscar nominations. Shame about their marketing ... I was under the impression this was some kind of psychological horror type movie, and wouldn't have bothered seeing it if it wasn't for the nominations. Definitely see this if you still have a chance. No idea why the kid (Jacob Tremblay) didn't get an Oscar nomination along with Brie Larson.

Spotlight is also superb. Up there with the great "investigative journalism" movies of the past. Though, I'm not convinced that they could have been so much in the dark, considering that the exact same story dominated the 1990's in Ireland. Altavista, AskJeeves anyone? That had already sent tremors through the Catholic church. The Brendan Smyth case even brought down the Irish Government in 1994 when they tried to prevent his extradition.

Creed - very good also. Surprisingly good characters, narrative, character interactions, dialogue and acting. It's clear they put a lot of effort into the little things, and it pays off. I think the first fight scene was choreographed as 2 long single shot scenes ... impressive (at least that's how it looked). In fact the only bad part of the movie was the final fight scene, which had a little too much "rocky" ... no consideration of modern refereeing ... fight would 100% have been stopped like 10 times. I didn't expect to walk out of the theater thinking that the acting, characters, dialogue and story development would be the best part. Good stuff.

So:

1. Sicario
2. Room
3. The Revenant
4. Ex Machina
5. The Big Short
6. Carol
7. Spotlight
8. The Hateful Eight

Still 2 short of Top 10. Going to watch Slow West and Still Alice over the weekend.

[johnnya24]

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi - I almost didn't go and see this ... average reviews, I hate Michael Bay movies, and the timing of the release clearly designed with the primaries in mind.

But you know ... it's actually a good movie. Sure, there a few Michael Bay / James Cameron type moments with muscular regular folk battling against their incompetent Ivy League bosses. Some bizarre cut away shots of super buff soldiers working out with antiquated equipment. But Bay pretty much nails all of the incompetence and "Quiet American" arrogance associated with this fiasco, and delivers a more than solid action-war movie in a very modern "Black Hawk Down" vein.

I expected to be as angry as when I left the cinema after American Sniper ... but the opposite. It's actually a fairly balanced and well-informed piece. One of the things it does well is to present the chaos of intervening in these civil war situations. They had no idea who was a friend or foe, and this mess was portrayed with aplomb in the final fight scenes.

The political fallout isn't directly referenced at all, and most of the meta stuff is either implied or left for the audience to decide. Since there is little positive (or direct) that can be directed at Clinton and Obama with regards this fiasco, I suppose there is no real need for an explicit message. If anything, this comes of more as a criticism of the arrogance and naivete of Western foreign policy over the past 20 years rather than any direct dig at Clinton/Obama. I would never have guessed this is a Michael Bay movie.

---------------

Of course, the wider scope of American, UK and EU Foreign policy is the abandonment of the insane Bush/Cheney/Blair era war on Islam, and shifting attention to the phony manufactured neo-Cold War with Russia. So this movie fits in nicely with that abandonment meta - yeah we shat all over the middle east, yeah we have destabilized the whole region by forcing weak democracy all over the place, yeah we created generations of radicalized Islamic youths (who aren't going away), yeah we realize our mistake, and yeah, we don't give a fuck anymore ... so see ya ... enjoy cleaning up our shit with your blood, we've got a holiday camp to build in Ukraine.

[rhd]

I also saw 13 Hours recently. I was very interested in this movie because I saw an interview w some of the actual soldiers who participated in the attempted rescue. Acts of heroism, whether in war or peacetime have always appealed to me and these guys sure seemed heroic. I never have known exactly what the Benghazi fiasco was all about or who's to blame. I expected this movie to be pretty damning to Hillary and the Obama administration but I came away w a different feeling. As Johnny said, the movie seemed pretty free of political finger-pointing. The soldiers certainly were heroic and their actions were way above the call of duty. But it was still unclear to me why the administration did so little to try to help the people endangered at our diplomatic outpost. The CIA facility was trying to keep Qaddafi's weapons arsenal out of the hands of groups that could pose a threat to us. No one was supposed to know it was there. Apparently, maintaining the secrecy of the facility was a high priority (to avoid the perception that the US is trying to control Libya for its own purposes instead of helping it to build a democracy?). But how can you not send in help from someplace when civilian government employees are in grave danger? The gov't is supposed to protect the people who serve it, not leave them hanging out to dry (die). If you cant protect them, maybe they shouldnt have been there - I dont think the diplomatic personnel signed on for this. Just seems like big governmental incompetence and then a coverup. Dont know where the direct blame lies, but ultimately Obama and Hillary are in charge so the responsibility has to fall on them. I'm sure that I need more enlightening on this whole affair but that's what I think rt now.

Anyway, I thought the movie itself was good but not great. It's not one the Academy is going to favor so I dont see it getting many awards, if any. It seemed very realistic. Probably hard to do during a chaotic battle but I found it a bit hard to follow the action and I thought they could have done a better job of identifying who was who and what their roles were.

[johnnya24]

Deadpool - really good, and very funny. Ryan Reynolds finally found "that" role. I generally hate comic book movies, and this movie kinda hates being a comic book movie, so we're a good fit.

This will do insane business on word of mouth alone. Could be the highest grossing movie of the year, despite the R Rating.

Point Break - Ok ... so this is not a great movie, it's not even a good movie ... but it could have been decent. The story and plot just disintegrates the longer the movie goes on. It starts OK, then it's almost as if the writers, director and editors just got bored and wanted to finish it ASAP. The ending is so bad that that is all you will remember, which maybe explains the reviews. The action/stunt sequences, which make up most of the movie are great, and IMO, these are worth the admission price on their own. The cast is good, and the actors do as much as they can with the material they are given.

But here's the thing ... RT has this on 9%. If this wasn't called Point Break, and they had've put a bit more effort into the story and plot development, there is a half decent action flick in there. 9% is really harsh. 40-50% with an understanding that you're going for the spectacle rather than the story is a fairer rating.

[heyelander]

But here's the thing ... RT has this on 9%. If this wasn't called Point Break, and they had've put a bit more effort into the story and plot development, there is a half decent action flick in there. 9% is really harsh. 40-50% with an understanding that you're going for the spectacle rather than the story is a fairer rating.

I think that RT system creates some outliers (or non-outliers?) like this... if everyone pretty much agrees that it's a 2 star movie, it's not going to come in as a so-so movie, it's going to come in as a 0% favorably rated movie. Maybe Mad Max is the opposite if this? Everyone thought it was a 3-star movie so it comes in as 98% fresh and one of the highest rated movies of the year, while being just a good movie.

[johnnya24]

I think that RT system creates some outliers (or non-outliers?) like this... if everyone pretty much agrees that it's a 2 star movie, it's not going to come in as a so-so movie, it's going to come in as a 0% favorably rated movie. Maybe Mad Max is the opposite if this? Everyone thought it was a 3-star movie so it comes in as 98% fresh and one of the highest rated movies of the year, while being just a good movie.

Yeah, good point.

[DMT]

I also saw 13 Hours recently. I was very interested in this movie because I saw an interview w some of the actual soldiers who participated in the attempted rescue. Acts of heroism, whether in war or peacetime have always appealed to me and these guys sure seemed heroic. I never have known exactly what the Benghazi fiasco was all about or who's to blame. I expected this movie to be pretty damning to Hillary and the Obama administration but I came away w a different feeling. As Johnny said, the movie seemed pretty free of political finger-pointing. The soldiers certainly were heroic and their actions were way above the call of duty. But it was still unclear to me why the administration did so little to try to help the people endangered at our diplomatic outpost. The CIA facility was trying to keep Qaddafi's weapons arsenal out of the hands of groups that could pose a threat to us. No one was supposed to know it was there. Apparently, maintaining the secrecy of the facility was a high priority (to avoid the perception that the US is trying to control Libya for its own purposes instead of helping it to build a democracy?). But how can you not send in help from someplace when civilian government employees are in grave danger? The gov't is supposed to protect the people who serve it, not leave them hanging out to dry (die). If you cant protect them, maybe they shouldnt have been there - I dont think the diplomatic personnel signed on for this. Just seems like big governmental incompetence and then a coverup. Dont know where the direct blame lies, but ultimately Obama and Hillary are in charge so the responsibility has to fall on them. I'm sure that I need more enlightening on this whole affair but that's what I think rt now.

Anyway, I thought the movie itself was good but not great. It's not one the Academy is going to favor so I dont see it getting many awards, if any. It seemed very realistic. Probably hard to do during a chaotic battle but I found it a bit hard to follow the action and I thought they could have done a better job of identifying who was who and what their roles were.

I think one of the main points of the movie was the highlighting how difficult it is for US soldiers to identify who is who and what their roles are when stationed in the clusterfuck that is the Middle East.

[rhd]

I think one of the main points of the movie was the highlighting how difficult it is for US soldiers to identify who is who and what their roles are when stationed in the clusterfuck that is the Middle East.

Of course, but my point was that members of the audience need to be able to follow which main characters in the movie are who.

[revo]

Anyone see Bone Tomahawk? I think it went straight to video, and while it had a good cast (Kurt Russell, Matthew Fox, Patrick Wilson, etc), it was sort of low budget. Still, it was a very entertaining western and it had one of the most vomit-inducing scenes I could remember seeing in a non-horror flick. I'd recommend it if you're a fan of westerns.

[Gregg]

Anyone see Bone Tomahawk? I think it went straight to video, and while it had a good cast (Kurt Russell, Matthew Fox, Patrick Wilson, etc), it was sort of low budget. Still, it was a very entertaining western and it had one of the most vomit-inducing scenes I could remember seeing in a non-horror flick. I'd recommend it if you're a fan of westerns.

or vomiting...

[heyelander]

or vomiting...

And honestly, who doesn't?

[revo]

FYI, the Tom McCarthy who was up for Best Director is the same guy who played the journalist who made up the stories in the last season of The Wire.....