Top Ten Movies: 2015

24 January 2016

Seth Rogan movies tend to be hit or miss but seeing as Pineapple Express is one of my favorite movies, when they hit, they hit big. This is the case with The Night Before. This is the funniest movie he has done since Pineapple Express hands down. There are so many absolutely hilarious moments and a decent plot to carry you through. For that, I had to squeeze it into my top ten.

The first fifteen minutes of The Revenant made me think this was going to easily top my list for 2015. The shots were stunning, the nature was beautiful, and the action was handled amazingly. However, the movie seemed like it could have been condensed down into a much tighter, 20 minute shorter film and been just as, if not more, effective. I had similar thoughts with The Hateful Eight extended cut, except that movie keeps you captivated even when things play out a little longer than you’d expect.

I read the book after all the hype had built up around it and thought it was an enjoyable book but nothing spectacular. Ridley Scott did a great job turning it into something where you cared about the characters and wanted to see what was going to happen next, which can be a hard thing to do when your main character is all alone.

Guillermo del Toro did an amazing job leading the audience on but never giving away to much information. I was always wondering about the little things that were going on, trying to put all of the pieces together to really understand the motives of the characters, which really made this a wonderful experience.

Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, and Oscar Issac all did an amazing job in this movie. As much as I love the big, sprawling, world-building types of movies, it tends to be the small isolated films that really captivate my attention and with Ex Machina you’re never quite sure if you are one step ahead or one step behind with the twists that go on.

Investigative reporting movies always tend to be another favorite of mine. Getting to see the process that goes into breaking a story and getting to follow each of these unique characters that love what they do and all have one goal to not only break a story but put an end to what is a despicable thing that a large institution, that seemed untouchable, was getting away with.

Seeing as though I finished my MBA in Finance last summer I may be a little biased but I found this film fascinating. I already had a good deal of background about the entire housing crisis but seeing it played out on the big screen was great. I thought all the acting was top notch and don’t understand the hate some people have for Christian Bale and Steve Carrell in this movie at all. The celebrity cut away scenes were not only hilarious but filled with information. I get that some people think that those scenes were a little hokey but I loved it.

The Hateful Eight felt like Tarantino was writing a movie as a love letter to himself. It is pure Tarantino doing what Tarantino does best. The dialogue is snappy; it captivates your attention as only Tarantino can. I’m interested to see what the standard cut is like with this film since I’ve only seen the 70mm extended cut.

One of the most beautiful and visually stunning films I have ever seen. I was captivated from the first scene. With no prior experience to Mad Max, it only made me want to know more about this extraordinary world. With so many odd tidbits, it built a world within itself that was just so fascinating.