Best Movies "That I Saw" Of 2015 · 6:22pm Mar 4th, 2016
Well I said I was going to be doing some stuff about movies. I wanted to order some more movies of 2015 which were big titles so that I could make this list better. However, it's March now, most people have already done their 2015 lists and if I don't get mine done now then it's basically going to be never. This is going to be list of the top 4 movies, "that I saw in theaters" of 2015. Last year we had some amazing films coming out, we also had a lot of bad films but that's only natural. I'll be talking about atrocities like Pixels sometime in the future. Now this is just my personal opinion, I tend to prefer some genres of films over others, so keep that in mind whilst reading this blog post, this is my opinion. Secondly, a lot of these movies you may not have seen, because for me I tend to prefer much smaller and more meaningful films to big blockbusters. A lot of the blockbusters are over hyped, and nearly all of them are superhero movies that I'm completely bored of, at least in my opinion. There will be some blockbusters, sure, but I'll let you see for yourself.
4. The Martian
I absolutely loved this movie. I know that Ridley Scott before this movie had kind of been falling out of favor with the general public due to his recent work not being great. However, I didn't see any of his recent stuff, or haven't done as of yet, so I didn't see it as a "great comeback", but just a really good and enjoyable movie which is on the same quality as stuff like Blade Runner. This isn't to say this movie is like Blade Runner, god no, I would probably say it's much more similar to Ron Howard's Apollo 13, which stars Tom Hanks. It's also very much a fairly light hearted movie, not to say it doesn't have it's serious moments in it, but fundamentally it wasn't supposed to be the most thought provoking movie. You have a guy, he get's trapped on mars, and he has to try and survive before people can come and rescue him. It's a very nice and straight forward plot, and as I said I really enjoyed this movie.
In fact, I saw this movie twice. I saw it once, and then I was tied into watching it a second time due to various reasons. I initially groaned, but actually I'm glad I saw this movie twice, because it was just as good me watching it the second time as it was the first time, in fact, I might have enjoyed it even more. And that's a symptom of a great movie, a movie which you can watch again and again and you enjoy it more every time you see it. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you do now that it's on DVD.
3. Star War's: The Force Awakens
Now you'd have probably have expected this to be much higher on the list due to it's unbelievable hype, but whilst I really enjoyed this movie, I've mostly forgotten about it now. There was this massive big hype for it, I went in, I enjoyed it, but.... it didn't leave much of an impression on me. Yes, it's miles better than the prequels and it had some genuine heart and effort put into it, but at the same time, it did borrow very heavily from the first movie. Now that isn't a bad thing, I see it more as a homage than a rip off, but somehow that does make it seem, like just another Star Wars movie. I'm also questioning whether Star Wars is really the bible people say it is, I mean this movie was enjoyable and all but it wasn't the best movie I saw all year. Maybe the first two Star Wars films were just amazing movies, which are as good as many other amazing movies throughout the history of cinema, and not the "religion" that it has come to be known as. Again, this is still in my top 4 list and I have seen a lot of movies this year, I really enjoyed it. But just because something is the biggest movie of the year, doesn't make it the best. You may remember the review I did on this movie a while back, and I do still stand by nearly all of my points, I did really enjoy the movie, but at the same time I don't really remember it as a "masterpiece." I just don't think it left as big of an impression on me as many of the other movies did this year, because some of them I did think were masterpieces, and I'm going to get to them soon.
2. Sicario
Remember what I said, that blockbuster films may not dominate this list. Well this was a very small and trivial film, barely making 80 million, but yet this movie was a beautifully made film which made a huge impression on me and continues to. The movie is basically about the horrors of the crime world and violence. The movie is incredibly graphic, and that really helps the movie. Because it shows you what the drug trade is really like, bloody, disturbing, unsettling.... Violence is not something which is harmless and fun, it's something that can make people cease to function in society after having witnessed such horrific sights and violence. And this is exactly what this movie was about, the way how violence destroys people. I really, really don't want to give too much away about this movie. It stars Emily Blunt in the lead role who I think does a fantastic job at playing the character of the cop assigned to deal with the drug cartel, and is very similar to No Country For Old Men, if you have seen or know of that movie. It contains very little music, and that helps the movie again, as it adds to the gritty feel of it. The direction is perfect, the acting is perfect, the writing is perfect, this is just a perfect, thought provoking movie which I highly recommend you see.
1. Bridge of Spies
Yes, this was officially my favorite movie of the year. A beautifully made, historic drama film made by the one and only Steven Spielberg. A man who has made countless masterpieces of movies which remain some of cinemas greatest treasures, such as Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan, and this movie is on the same level as those two movies. It's similarly a historical film, but about The Cold War. Recently there has been a lot of films coming about The Cold War and I really like that, The Cold War is a relatively recent compared to other periods of history and the fact that it's being recognized and made into art I think is really good. Because there are some great stories to tell, like this one. This movie was based on a true story. Tom Hank's plays James B Donovan, an Insurance lawyer who is called in by the U.S government to act as a defense to a known spy from the Soviet Union, Rudolf Abel, played by Mark Rylance. The government just wants him to defend the spy because everyone has to be given a fair trial, even though they are sure he is guilty, however Donovan develops a deep friendship with Abel as he comes to understand the man as a human being instead of a "communist", and so fights with all his heart for the U.S government to release him and let him go back to the USSR.
This movie is a masterpiece. It is a movie about the cold war but also a movie about friendship and the similarity of humanity. John Williams did not write the score for this movie due to health difficulty, so instead Thomas Newman did. However the music in this movie is absolutely beautiful, and if I did not know that it wasn't John Williams, I would have thought it was John Williams.
So, this movie in my opinion gets number 1 spot however this is "my opinion." I just tend to really like these kinds of movies, so this is a subjective pick, all of the movies on this list were awesome, this was just my personal favorite.
Bridge of Spies genuinely surprised me by how good it was. I know it's by Spielburg, so it's near guaranteed to be good, but it post much made my favorite movie of the late 2015s.
Plus, Tom Hanks absolutely delivered that role of the lawyer-negotiator.