Top Ten of 2015

Internet!! Welcome to 2016, yes that’s right, it’s time to make every fathers favorite joke: I haven’t posted here all year.

I’m sorry guys, it had to be done. And speaking of things that have to be done, it’s also that time of year to re-cap last year. To look back at the things that made us laugh, the things that made us cry, and the things that reminded us that we were all still kids at heart, and the world was sort of a terrible place. But anyway, lets start off this year with that grand tradition of looking back at 2015 and remembering the movies we loved! The things that made us the happiest… or the saddest, in the case of certain animated movies.

Micah’s Top Ten of 2015
(With apologies to Mad Max: Fury Road, Steve Jobs, and Revenant… which I have not seen)

10. Mission Impossible: Something Something Impossible

The Mission Impossible series: A constant Tom Cruise hair experiment.

Mission Impossible 2015, wasn’t a bad movie per se it was just sort of… a movie. It happened. There was a plane, and a motorcycle, and Tom Cruise’s wasn’t quite as good as it was in the last movie. Hawkeye was in it for some reason… Like seriously, he plays the same person. I think Jeremy Renner is a talented guy but he basically is the same person here as he is in Avengers. Anyway, I enjoyed this movie, it was fine. But it wasn’t great. But in a year that was oddly underwhelming, it sneaks into the top ten. And some would say: that, is their greatest infiltration.

9. Pitch Perfect 2

This was a fun movie. It was a great example of a movie that didn’t really feel the need to go crazy big, or blow up the thing that made the first movie great and try something different. It’s a really solid, funny movie with a great cast, and catchy songs. That was all it wanted to be, and it was that. And that was it. And this and that. And that and this.

I seem to have gotten stuck.

8. Spectre

Spectre: Slowly turning Daniel Craig into a hollowed out husk of a helicopter.

Spectre slipped in ahead of Mission Impossible but I felt vaguely the same about it. It wasn’t as good as Skyfall or Casino Royale but it was better then Quantum of Solace and a decently fun movie. The whole time I was watching it though I couldn’t shake the feeling that I really could have been watching a better movie. The villain was predictable, James Bond seems stuck between trying to take himself VERY seriously and parachuting out of a car, and the whole thing feels a little tired at this point. I enjoyed it. I thought Danny Bautista’s villain, and Ben Whishaw’s Q were the best parts of the movie. But the whole thing just kind of ran its course. It occurred, and it was good. But it didn’t go beyond that.

7. Ant-man

The best of my ‘it was fun but predictable’ movies of the year, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a really really fun movie. But it transpired basically exactly like you thought it would. Paul Rudd was great but I felt he was a little under utilized. The action was great, but the plot was fairly predictable and the villain just kind of… existed. It was a really fun movie, but it wasn’t a great movie. It just kinda came in and hung out with you for a bit, and then left and took all your pizza with it.

6. Inside Out

Not only was this the best kids movie of the year, and it was one of the best movies period (as you can probably tell… cause it’s on this list.) A great mix of childhood whimsy and deep message, Inside Out was a surprise and a joy (no pun intended) to watch. Pixar drifted a bit in the last two years or so, but Inside Out marked a really strong return to form and showed us once again that Pixar can make movies that are more than just kids movies. There were moments that made you laugh, moments that you think, and moments that didn’t make you cry because you’re a grown man dang it. You’re a grown man… keep it together… keep it together.

5. The Martian

“Keep Jean Valjean out of here!!!” – Theatre Joke.

The Martian was a pretty tough movie to place on this list because I did really like it! It was awesome. But it just kinda bounced around a lot, between comedy, and drama, and space and survival and Skinny-Matt Damon. That said we’ve now reached the top 5 so from this point on I’m VERY open to debate. These 5 we’re all great for very different reasons and really any of 5-3 could be interchanged dependent on your mood.

4. Avengers: Age of Ultron

This is another great movie that sums up most of the things I watched this year. It was really good. I enjoyed it. But it didn’t change my life or anything. I also never understood the hatred some people had for this. It was really good, the cast was great, the script was really solid, and the action was spot on. No, it probably wasn’t as good as the first Avengers, but it was right on par with it. I thought the ‘Ultron becomes conscious’ scene was fantastic and aside from the weird Hulk and Black Widow love thing, the characters were really interestingly developed from the last movie. So shut up, haters. Shake it off… or something.

3. Creed

And a boxing movie. Yup. What can I say, it was real good. Sly Stalone (as it turns out) should do nothing but play Rocky at this point. He pulled a Harrison Ford in Star Wars and all the sudden became relevant and talented again after years of having people completely disregard him. Micahel B. Jordan proved that Fantastic Four was in no way his fault, by turning in an awesome performance and really breathing new life into the Franchise. I’m honestly excited to see what happens in the inevitable Creed 2: Keep on Punching.

Ummmmmmmmmm….. No.

 

2. Mr. Holmes

Definitely an under the radar choice here but this movie was great. It was basically just an hour and a half of watching Ian McKellen play Sherlock Holmes and what could possibly be better than that I ask you? It was a short, brilliantly paced movie, featuring great performances, and a small child that I didn’t spend the entire movie rooting for him to die and that’s high praise for me as far as children (in movies) are concerned.  It’s a very different type of movie, but it’s a great movie none the less. A calm intimate look at a life, that doesn’t feel the need to ramp up the adrenaline with fight scenes or forced action, it’s a mystery movie and a character study and it doesn’t better than anything else I saw this year.

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Yup, it was inevitable my friends. Mr. Holmes was my artsy under the radar movie, but here is my main stream blockbuster movie fueled primarily by nostalgia. I could have tried and gone all artsy with Mr. Holmes as my top pick, but (nostalgia included) this was the most fun I had in the theatre. It was, in fact, the only movie I went and saw a second time in theaters this year. It was a great, fun, adventure movie. Not a perfect movie, but just a really great, nostalgic return to a really, really great universe. It was (literally) the most fun movie going experience I had this year.

So, there you go friends. Citizens of 2016. Check back Thursday when I preview this years Top Ten Movies.