So the Oscar nominations came out recently and I have seen very little of them. The parents among you will understand — it’s tough to go to the movies when you have kids.
But I will say this — I was super happy to see a film like Mad Max get so many nominations.
Because at this point, I still think it’s the best film of the year and movies like Mad Max don’t typically get props at the Oscars. It’s about as far from ‘Oscar bait’ as you can imagine. The opposite end of that spectrum: The Revenant. I feel like the Academy just needs to go ahead and give Leo that Oscar so he can just move on with his life and make screwball comedies or some shit.
What is your film of the year?
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68 responses to “Off Topic: Favourite Movie Of 2015”
The Martian, easily. Never got around to seeing Mad Max, but The Martian hit all the right notes for me. Instant favourite.
Mad Max is brilliant – do yourself a favour and watch it. Planning to watch The Martian soon, currently enjoying the book.
Some day… if I ever catch it in the tv guide 😛
You’re right. It’s an exemplary comedy/musical 🙂
So glad Matt Damon took time out to learn to sing! 🙂
I agree, give Leo the Oscar already
http://ziboff.com/story/2965/leos-nightmares
The internet is going to lose its goddamn mind when Eddie Redmayne wins again.
Top 3, in order.
The Martian, Ex_Machina, Mad Max,
(Hon. Mention: Star Wars: TFA)
Inside Out was my favourite of the year. Can’t believe it didn’t get a best picture nomination, while something like Bridge of Spies did. Don’t get me wrong, Bridge of Spies was a good movie, but it did feel like Spielberg was kind of on autopilot.
Inside Out surprised me. When I finally got around to watching it, I thoroughly enjoyed it (edit – not the surprising bit), and thought it was a brilliant way to explain emotions to kids (the surprising bit). Gets across in a very colorful way why sometimes we need to be sad, and by extension, feel every other emotion.
It also did a great job in showing how things get more complicated as you get older.
Loved Inside Out. I rank it right up there with the best Pixar films, and the cat gag is my favourite visual joke they’ve ever made.
For me it was the “Girl? Girl! GIRL!” one. Had me endlessly giggling about it afterwards 😛
Yep, that gets me every time.
The whole end bit was great. Bus driver made me giggle the most.
I liked Mad Max, though I wish they hadn’t undercranked so much. Made the action look pretty silly, particularly at the beginning with his escape from the Citadel.
Having a bub around definitely makes it difficult to get to the cinema, though. Going to the Coburg Drive-In has been excellent because he can make noise through the whole movie and not bug anyone else.
I think it fit in with the style well to be honest.
Just personal taste, I guess. Donnie Yen freaking loved doing it in the ’90s and it’s always bugged me.
You can manipulate the speed a little to great effect but in the case of Mad Max I genuinely thought my stream had messed up for a second. They pushed it to the point that it looked like the video was running in fast-forward.
Mad Max all the way. Best movie I have seen in years.
Jurassic World
But in all fairness it was my predetermined movie of the year when it was announced and before it was even released. My blinkers were on from that moment on.
If I was being honest to myself and not looking through rose coloured teenager glasses then my favourite movie for the year was Inside Out. It was a movie that was just so close to home and had so much relevance to ones life that it just pushes all the right buttons from an emotional understanding.
Jurassic World had some nice nods to the original (and I like the way it almost completely ignored the second and third abominations), but overall the CGI spoiled the experience. Not that it was bad per se, but this video sums up my thoughts perfectly.
Loved JW, so much fun!
I don’t understand the love for JW, for me it was a basket case of a movie. Made the original look that much better. Will have to check out Inside Out, been mentioned a few times.
That’s because you didn’t have your rose coloured ‘yay I’m a teenager again watching dinosars’ glasses on,
You had your correct your blurry vision because of your astigmatism and old(er) age ‘boo i’m a pragmatic adult’ glasses on instead.
If I had my proper glasses on, I also would have said the movie was trite but I wanted to be a child again instead and enjoyed it from that perspective (hence why my true favourite movie was Inside Out if I was being honest with myself).
Woo dinosaurs YAY 🙂
I didn’t see Fury Road until very late in its run, in a quiet theatre. I managed to avoid the extrapolations about it, but still it left me a bit cold. I see its appeal, but I wonder how I’d would have gone if I had seen it first up, when it was like this cool little secret.
I didn’t get it at all :-/
Right now, I’d toss up between Mad Max and The Martian.
Given the respect given to the original movies, and the story behind getting Mad Max back on screen, it had a lot to live up to, so how well it delivered was magnificent. And as usual, was nice to see so many Aussie actors in a big movie. Was also nice to see the physical effects back in full swing with CGI kept to a (relative) minimum.
For The Martian, it surprised me how well Matt Damon made growing potatoes interesting. For a movie basically about one guy, it was surprisingly entertaining. I think he’s a smoky to beat Di Caprio for the oscar myself.
Everyone talks up how Di Caprio won the Golden Globe, but so did Damon. Having said that, I havent seen The Revenant yet.
The over rated movie of the year, for me, was Ex Machina. Wasnt BAD, but it just didnt flow and in the end it left me very meh. Watched it to the end, but not sure I’d want to sit through it again.
I felt that Damon did a much better job of making the audience experience his emotions. It’s what made the film so watchable. Di Caprio mainly scowled and angried his way through, with pockets of sorrow. Though it looks like that location shoot must have been hell, so he probably deserves something for effort.
Hateful 8
2015?
It got released in the US on Dec 30th, so… there’s that?
Ah true, wasnt it christmas day?
I only know what Google tells me. Google knows all.
Initial release: December 7, 2015 (Los Angeles) – The Google 2016
Probably tied between The Martian and Mad Max, with a leaning towards the first. Mad Max felt a bit silly when I saw it, and way too loud (get off my lawn!), but then the more I thought about it over the following days, the more it grew on me, and I really enjoyed it when I saw it again later in the year. By contrast, The Martian felt great as I was watching it, and would’ve been ever better if there ever felt like there was going to be uncertainty about the final outcome. The only downside was that I saw it in the US at a cinema with a bucket-o-drink with free refills, and so my bladder felt like it was going to burst by the end, and that kinda, well, dampened my enjoyment of the final act.
I did also enjoy Ex Machina and Nightcrawler this year (though I think that’s a 2014 film). The Revenant and Bridge of Spies were good, but not great.
I watched Nightcrawler last weekend, had no idea what it was about going in. Came out of it pleasantly perturbed.
Age of Ultron
Nailed that mixed universe, soap opera, continuity thing comics do so well.
The Vision was tops, he couldn’t exist on his own, every part of his origin relies on established & new parts on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
I didn’t enjoy it all that much. I actually fell asleep watching it in the cinema: I saw it again the other week and realised that I had no recollection of the entire fight on the flying island.
I saw it in the cinema twice! It’s been at least a decade since I’ve done so. Probably Revenge of the Sith was the last time.
So are you saying its the best movie you’ve seen since one of the Star Wars prequels?
High Praise!
Considering Revenge of the Sith is my favourite, yes.
Not that I’d rate big dumb Hollywood flicks over a proper film.
I had to look it up. I can’t believe that was only last year, it feels like forever ago.
I liked it, more than the original Avengers movie. I was also really pleasantly surprised by Ant Man, which I expected to be completely bored by. I just wish we could have seen Edgar Wright’s full version.
It Follows sits right at the top for me.
Followed quite a way after by Mad Max
the final third was seriously lacking.In a surprise move, Jurassic World, one of my most anticipated films, turn out to be my most hated release of 2015. So damn bad.
Take off the bloody high heels! There’s a dinosaur chasing you!!
See, watching JW logically ruins it.
It did indeed. Also, from reading the comments on this post (plus years of prior discussions) it’s pretty obvious that we have very different criteria for enjoying movies 🙂
You’ll come round eventually 😉
I really liked It Follows, but…
some of the plot holes were a bit off-putting, to the point where I couldn’t concentrate on the movie because I was wondering about the plot holes. Like… the thing will follow you until the day you die, but it’s stumped when the girl gets into a pool? Which was a little disappointing, given how phenomenally good the rest of the movie was.Not disagreeing…but
Everything the viewer knows about the antagonist is from an unreliable narrator, the previous quarry, or observations by the protagonist. That is what makes the agonist so good: viewers learn its capabilities and limitations as the protagonist does.Why should we be surprised it can’t enter a body of water? Up to that point we had no information about how it would react.
Is it just me or would the film have been that much better if it had ended at the conclusion of the pool scene?I agree, but I just ended up thinking ‘if it can’t cross water, why don’t they just go to an island? How shallow does the water have to be? How did the follower kill the guys on the boat? What happens if you take the follower out on a boat in the middle of the ocean and scuttle it?Oh man, they guys on the boat. I figured that she got into the water and then couldn’t bring herself to going out there. She’s then crying on the drive home because she’s buggered, can’t even pass the curse on. Even if that wasn’t the case, it’s not like the guys are going to be out on the boat forever: they navigate back to dock, drive home, it gets them later.The issue with the first statement is that the protagonist would have to first find out that the antagonist of its own volition won’t enter water, apparently. We see that upon being knocked into the pool the antagonist can seemingly function as normal, but once again we’re not presented with near enough information to make a reasonable determination.It’s implied throughout the film that the antagonist fucks with its quarry, so it may not even be the case that the antagonist doesn’t want to enter water, perhaps it was just more important to mock the protagonist by dismantling the implements of a failed trap: to break the hope of the protagonist.
Once again, the ambiguity is why I find the antagonist to be so effective.There’s a few points where it has to be fucking with them – like when it smashes the boathouse door open, stares at her… and just disappears for a minute. Not to mention
it appearing as people’s mothers twice.Star Wars, with The Martian a very close second.
Both Mad Max and Inside Out were brilliant, but space sci-fi is my jam.
ex_machina
Amazing film on so many levels…..
Sicario.
Great film.
I respect the majority opinion, but honestly I thought it to be the most overrated film of the year.
Mad Max was my favourite movie.
The Martian followed by The Force Awakens.
I watched Mad Max and I didn’t like it much. I’d give it a 6/10 personally but obviously I’m a minority in that regard.
The only other movie I watched this year was Jurassic World which was pretty good but not “film of the year” material in my eyes.
Mad Max for sure.
Star Wars runs distant second.
Jurassic World for me too. It just blew me away with its tongue-in-cheek tone and overall sense of fun. Certainly not my Best Movie of 2015, but by far my favourite.
The Revenant was fantastic, some of the most impressive camera work i’ve seen in a movie, if it doesn’t get best cinematography that”d be a travesty. (but it should totally win best picture)
Best movie going experience has to have been Star Wars just because of the crowds and joined anticipation/ participation all over one movie etc. Just doesn’t happen like that anymore you know. Best movie probably has to go the the Martian though.
Guys… Fury Road? The Martian? It Follows?
No.
When cinephiles and historians look back on 2015, it will only be remembered as the year that Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 was released.
Excuse me?!! If the year is to be immortalised into the annals of history it will take the form of the Sandler classic, PIXELS!
Ew dude no. We can’t even joke about that.
No, because we all know that The Ridiculous 6 was the true classic.
NO YOU ARE ALL WRONG. PAUL BLART IS LOVE. PAUL BLART IS LIFE.
Mad Max and/or Tangerine.
The Revenant. I thought it was amazing. Firstly, the cinematography, those idiosyncratic styles of shooting, long takes, right up close really drawing me in like I was there; and of course it just looked incredible. I was completely on the journey and drawn in. It was so brutal as well, pulling no punches.
It was also very long, but it did not lose me for a moment. When it ended, I was feeling tingly, weak, and adrenaline-y; actually hadn’t ever really felt that way after a movie in a cinema. I loved the soundtrack too.
Mad Max was an awesome top-of-the-game action movie, it was great.
The Revenant was my best film of 2015. I hope Leo finally wins, though Eddie’s role in The Danish Girl seems to be prime Oscar material (haven’t seen that).