The Blu-Ray.com Community Top 25 Films of 2015 (Please Read 1st Post)

[Talleyrand]

Originally Posted by Jasonic

Only film festivals in the US during 2014, didn't get a limited/wide release till 2015, so yeah it counts for 2015.

Cool thanks. Will post a list tomorrow (today lol).

[levcore]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Yes it does.

Thanks Foggy! Awesome movie IMO.

Originally Posted by levcore

1. Mad Max: Fury Road (3D)
2. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
3. Pan (3D)
4. Terminator: Genisys (3D)
5. Paper Towns
6. The Walk (3D)
7. Tomorrowland
8. The Martian (3D)
9. We Are Your Friends
10. Spectre
11. Jurassic World (3D)
12. The Gallows
13. The Revenant
14. Everest (3D)
15. Goodnight Mommy
16. Minions (3D)
17. Chappie
18. Avengers: Age of Ultron (3D)
19. No Escape
20. Sicario
21. Shaun the Sheep Movie
22. The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
23. Fast and Furious 7
24. Jupiter Ascending (3D)
25. The Final Girls

[See u at da party!]

1. The revenant
2. The hateful eight
3. Terminator Genisys
4. Maggie
5. Sicario
6. Creed
7. Mad max
8. Run all night
9. Spectre
10. The night before

That's all I can think of at the moment. May add more later. Got Arnold!!

[dvd_mazter]

1. Star Wars - The Force Awakens
2. Jurassic World
3. Kingsman: The Secret Service
4. Avengers: Age of Ultron
5. The Night Before
6. Focus
7. Mad Max: Fury Road
8. Ex Machina
9. Straight Outta Compton
10. The Martian
11. Crimson Peak
12. Spectre
13. Inside Out
14. The Wedding Ringer
15. Entourage: The Movie
16. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
17. Tomorrowland
18. The Revenant
19. Pixels
20. Sleeping with Other People
21. Trainwreck
22. The Hateful Eight
23. San Andreas
24. Ted 2
25. Unfriended

[Talleyrand]

Alright here goes. Some pretty tough rankign decisions here, in particular 2-4 could be in almost any order, 5-9 could be in almost any order, and beyond that it's fairly tight all around.

1. The Hateful Eight - 25 points
2. The Revenant - 19 points
3. Sicario - 18 points
4. The Big Short - 17 points
5. Spotlight - 16 points
6. Mad Max: Fury Road - 15 points
7. Cop Car - 14 points
8. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - 13 points
9. Spectre - 12 points
10. Black Mass - 11 points
11. Son of Saul - 10 points
12. 88 - 9 points
13. Straight Outta Compton - 8 points
14. Beeba Boys - 7 points
15. 99 Homes - 6 points
16. A Christmas Horror Story - 5 points
17. Hyena Road - 4 points
18. Beasts of No Nation - 3 points
19. Wild Tales - 2 points
20. Kilo Two Bravo - 1 point
21. Remember - 1 point
22. Macbeth - 1 point

No time for a full writeup but some general notes:

• Yes, I put the Tarantino film in first, after already giving PTA the top spot last year. I fear I am becoming predictable putting the films I was most excited for in the top spot; but, on the other hand, there was no Counselor or Killing Them Softly this year to come out of nowhere and blow my mind. Instead, QT came and blew my mind, albeit he did not come out nowhere, I was stoked for this for over a year, and it more than delivered. One of his best ever, with the dialogue and violence we have come to love. When a 3 hour film feels like barely an hour, something has been done correctly.
• Glad to see AGI back on track. Birdman was a good film, but he's back in masterpiece mode.
• Go Canada!! Dennis Villeneuve with another terrific film, the man does not stop. He's definitely the non-American MVP for the decade so far.
• A good year for franchise films. Mad Max, MI:RN and Spectre all fantastic additions to their franchises, helping cement the 2010s as one of the greatest decades ever for pure action.
• Good for Black Mass for making the list, but still a bit of a disappointment, in that, given its cast (minus the lead, I guess) and premise, it could easily have defaulted to #1 on my list just by nature of my tastes. But it was not quite that good (still great, though, but no masterpiece). Legend is another somewhat disappointing film of this mold, as it too did not reach my expectations, and indeed is not to be found on the above list.
• On the other hand, Go Canada!! again. Never even heard of this woman (Deepa Mehta) before this, her previous films not being in my wheelhouse, but wow! This thing is a great, unexpected crime film and should be seen by all.
• Krampus is fun, but A Christmas Horror Story is the REAL king of 2015 Christmas-themed horror films that involve the Krampus.
• Go Canada!! once again. Paul Gross directs a film that's not a boring mess this time, but maintains it's respect for the armed forces of Canada. A tightly done, great film that should be shown to anyone who jokes about Canada not doing out part. Also has possibly 2015's most hilarious line (if we exclude TV, in which case Dominic West, as recorded in my sig, takes the crown with ease). n.b., incidentally, Paul Gross is also in Beeba Boys. Either way, with three Canadian directors on the list and not one of them named Cronenberg, this may be the most Canadian directors I ever featured in my top 25 (that I can think of offhand, anyways).
• Macbeth is a bit of disappointment. Yes it's there, and yes it's a very good film, but I was going in hoping for a reaction similar to Aaron's. Unfortunately that is not what happened, and I'm not sure why, as going in I thought it could easily be my #1 of the year. I definitely want to rewatch it, hopefully it would shuffle up a few places lol.
• Yes I rather arbitrarily ended my list with 22 entries, rather than an even 20 or 25, mostly just to be contrarian. There was no reason to leave Remember and Macbeth on there but leave out Kingsman, Bridge of Spies and Bone Tomahawk, any of those five could either be on the list or off it, I'm indifferent, but that's what I'm going with.

[Talleyrand]

Really hoping for Mad Max to be #1, as I really don't want SW to be it. Any other year it'd be long settled that JJA's black hole would win, but luckily there happened to be a somewhat transcendetal action film this year too.

[Lepidopterous]

Originally Posted by Talleyrand

Really hoping for Mad Max to be #1, as I really don't want SW to be it. Any other year it'd be long settled that JJA's black hole would win, but luckily there happened to be a somewhat transcendetal action film this year too.

Why didn't you like Star Wars? Just curious, as it's not on your list either.

[Coenskubrick]

Disappointed to have only seen about 15 films this year, including some that aren't applicable. But it's astounding, looking at the list for last year, how many more incredible and interesting films there were in 2014.

[Hucksta G]

Originally Posted by Talleyrand

Really hoping for Mad Max to be #1, as I really don't want SW to be it. Any other year it'd be long settled that JJA's black hole would win, but luckily there happened to be a somewhat transcendetal action film this year too.

Pretty sure Mad Max will win.

[Hucksta G]

Originally Posted by Talleyrand

[*]Yes I rather arbitrarily ended my list with 22 entries, rather than an even 20 or 25, mostly just to be contrarian. There was no reason to leave Remember and Macbeth on there but leave out Kingsman, Bridge of Spies and Bone Tomahawk, any of those five could either be on the list or off it, I'm indifferent, but that's what I'm going with.[/LIST]

Why not just put those three at the end that way you have 25 films

[Talleyrand]

Originally Posted by DjMethod

Why didn't you like Star Wars? Just curious, as it's not on your list either.

Well, I feel like I have gone over this many times and fear that people may get irritated with me. I am happy to go over it again, though, as it does merit further mention imo. That being said, I will spoiler it so people don't have to see my long post if they don't want.

[Show spoiler]For starters, it's not that I hated it. Or even disliked it. But, no, I didn't like it either. I literally had no feelings one way or the other. I often lable things "mediocre" because they are, but SWTFA has gone ahead and become, effectively, the dictionary defintion of mediocrity. This is the greatest and truest of all 5/10's, this is the standard by which nothingness will be measured for all time. This is not just a 5/10 in the sense that we round a 4.85236/10 or 5.0152/10 to 5/10 in order to have a functional rating system; this is precisely 5/10, 5.0000000000000..../10 if you will, this film has managed the incredibly feat of being rated a point value on a continuous scale!

Okay, enough general yapping. The film is a souless black hole of emotion. It is a cynical cash grab, designed precisely not to be terrible (see the prequels, although that didn't stop the money from coming in), but also not to take a single risk, bring nothing to the table, just offer a remake of the old films and hope that the nostalgia dollars will pour in. The safest of safe bets.

I would go on; but there's nothing really to say. Disney was never going to take any chances, but they took "not taking chances" to the limit, they made a film that offers nothing either way.

[Talleyrand]

Originally Posted by Hucksta G

Why not just put those three at the end that way you have 25 films

Because I'm a unique and special snowflake and my list won't have the same number of entries as anyone else's

[Al_The_Strange]

Updated my list for The Revenant - now my #1 movie of the year.

Still holding off on finalizing my list until I see The Assasin, probably next week. It just feels like I need at least one more movie on my list that isn't total junk food.

[Lepidopterous]

Originally Posted by Talleyrand

[Show spoiler]The film is a souless black hole of emotion. It is a cynical cash grab, designed precisely not to be terrible (see the prequels, although that didn't stop the money from coming in), but also not to take a single risk, bring nothing to the table, just offer a remake of the old films and hope that the nostalgia dollars will pour in. The safest of safe bets.

I would go on; but there's nothing really to say. Disney was never going to take any chances, but they took "not taking chances" to the limit, they made a film that offers nothing either way.

Its reliance on formula is too heavy, I agree. Nostalgia is JJ's favorite (e.g. Super 8). But I also took it as a strength that the film (in my eyes) succeeds despite having had to walk such a fine line ("playing it safe"). There were so many ways it could have gone wrong given the expectations and the fanbase.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by Talleyrand

Really hoping for Mad Max to be #1, as I really don't want SW to be it. Any other year it'd be long settled that JJA's black hole would win, but luckily there happened to be a somewhat transcendetal action film this year too.

It terrifies me that either of those films could win. Note, it doesn't surprise me in the least. But it does terrify.

Now, I haven't seen TFA and have little desire to. I did see MM:FR and I find the idea of that ... movie ... being voted as the best film of 2015 utterly soul-wrenching.

[levcore]

Originally Posted by Talleyrand

Really hoping for Mad Max to be #1, as I really don't want SW to be it. Any other year it'd be long settled that JJA's black hole would win, but luckily there happened to be a somewhat transcendetal action film this year too.

Actually you've inspired me to remove Star Wars from my top 25, i don't why i put it in there at all. I've replaced it with The Final Girls.

[levcore]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

It terrifies me that either of those films could win. Note, it doesn't surprise me in the least. But it does terrify.

Now, I haven't seen TFA and have little desire to. I did see MM:FR and I find the idea of that ... movie ... being voted as the best film of 2015 utterly soul-wrenching.

Regardless of what you think of it, the VAST majority of film fans absolutely loved it.

If you find the thought of it winning a poll 'soul wrenching', then you should probably seek help.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by levcore

Regardless of what you think of it, the VAST majority of film fans absolutely loved it.

If you find the thought of it winning a poll 'soul wrenching', then you should probably seek help.

Yes, well, what majorities or even minorities think interests me very little usually. I gave my reasons for why I thought it was mediocre at best. It's a lot of stuff blowing up and running into one and other. If that's your thing -- and I know it is yours -- then fine. It isn't mine. I need at least something -- anything -- in the film that resonates with me other than loud noises and big splashes of explosion.

The movie could have been improved with a couple changes. But they weren't willing to go in those directions. That's unfortunate. Interesting character arcs were abandoned, fascinating themes were never investigated. The entire film became about spectacle and only spectacle. To me, that's not enough.

EDIT: Then again, looking at the writers' credits I'm not entirely surprised that they took the easy way out, and didn't really lay any foundation or do any investigating.

[levcore]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

Yes, well, what majorities or even minorities think interests me very little usually. I gave my reasons for why I thought it was mediocre at best. It's a lot of stuff blowing up and running into one and other. If that's your thing -- and I know it is yours -- then fine. It isn't mine. I need at least something -- anything -- in the film that resonates with me other than loud noises and big splashes of explosion.

The movie could have been improved with a couple changes. But they weren't willing to go in those directions. That's unfortunate. Interesting character arcs were abandoned, fascinating themes were never investigated. The entire film became about spectacle and only spectacle. To me, that's not enough.

No disrespect but your criticisms of this movie seem crazy. It knocks it out the park in every area. I think that you just didn't 'get it' and i realize how patronizing that sounds and wish it didn't. But look at the reviews! The vast majority of people saw that the movie is way more than just stuff blowing up and running into one another as you put it. The interesting character arcs are there, fascinating themes ARE investigated, just not in a blatant way that most Hollywood movies do it. It's a superb movie that you just didn't like, but the stuff you say make it a bad movie is nuts to me, as the stuff you seem to want from the movie is all there in the movie, you just can't see it!

The entire film is NOT about spectacle. Good lord this isn't Jurassic World. There are so many deep themes and dark subjects explored in it, repeat viewings just reveal more and more. I'm not trying to change your mind of course, that will never happen. It's just kind of hilarious to see someone calling a classic movie like Mad Max Fury Road just spectacle and eye candy. It's the richest big budget movie in a LONG time. It's not for everyone sure but it achieves so much on every level.

If it didn't it wouldn't have got across the board unanimous positive reviews. If it was any of the things you say it is, the reviews would not have been nearly as good.

EDIT: Not sure what you mean about the writers credits but two of them are storyboard artists so that's why are known primarily for.

So i can better understand where you're coming from perhaps you could tell me what big budget action movies DO achieve the things that you're saying Fury Road doesn't.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by levcore

No disrespect but your criticisms of this movie seem crazy. It knocks it out the park in every area. I think that you just didn't 'get it' and i realize how patronizing that sounds and wish it didn't. But look at the reviews! The vast majority of people saw that the movie is way more than just stuff blowing up and running into one another as you put it. The interesting character arcs are there, fascinating themes ARE investigated, just not in a blatant way that most Hollywood movies do it. It's a superb movie that you just didn't like, but the stuff you say make it a bad movie is nuts to me, as the stuff you seem to want from the movie is all there in the movie, you just can't see it!

The entire film is NOT about spectacle. Good lord this isn't Jurassic World. There are so many deep themes and dark subjects explored in it, repeat viewings just reveal more and more. I'm not trying to change your mind of course, that will never happen. It's just kind of hilarious to see someone calling a classic movie like Mad Max Fury Road just spectacle and eye candy. It's the richest big budget movie in a LONG time. It's not for everyone sure but it achieves so much on every level.

If it didn't it wouldn't have got across the board unanimous positive reviews. If it was any of the things you say it is, the reviews would not have been nearly as good.

EDIT: Not sure what you mean about the writers credits but two of them are storyboard artists so that's why are known primarily for.

Deep themes. Hmmm. Really? The #2 movie on my list was Macbeth. I don't care how much I "didn't get it" when it comes to MM:FR, you really think that the thematic foundation in MM:FR was "deep?" Macbeth was written over 400 years ago. It has been performed innumerable times since, adapted, translated, and everything else you can imagine in those four centuries. Why? Because it does actually contain real thematic vibrance. The characters are incredibly memorable. Individual lines are memorable.

And no: I'm not saying anything that's not Shakespeare sucks. My #1 film was Carol. But again, it's a wondrously beautiful film about the most powerful of human drives: love. It's also a commentary on a particular time and place in American society. Finally, it delves into what makes people who they are, what forces them to sometimes act knowingly against one self-interest while trying to satisfy another. How do these competitive forces work themselves out in the human heart?

So, no, I didn't "get it" while watching MM:FR. I didn't see any of that. If it's on me, then so be it.

EDIT: Big budget action movies? None. At least none that I've seen. Although X-Men: First Class and X-Men: DoFP as well as Nolan's Batman trilogy came the closest.