Or, when I do, I have something on for colour and movement while I'm doing other things. For example, I've been working my way through the James Bond movies since the week before Christmas. But it's always when I'm doing other things... cooking, wrapping presents, tidying the apartment, writing blog posts and the like... and I don't count them because often I'm not paying any attention, or at least very little.
But I have watched 830 movies in the last 6 years (technically even more than that but I'm not counting the things I've seen multiple times)... which averages out to just over two and a half movies a week.
This year my grand total was 52 movies... and half of those were at the cinema. And almost all of the movies I saw this year, 82% in fact, were ones that I hadn't seen before (but again, that's because I didn't always pay that much attention while watching the movies I had already seen).
Because seeing 26 movies at the cinema is more of a return to form and possibly due to the fact that at the beginning of the year I changed my movie scores from a 1-10 scale to a 1-5 scale, the top five movies this year all scored full marks, and the next five (as well as the three honourable mentions) all scored four.
And there's not much between the top five to be honest. They're all definitely movies I want to own at some point, but they're only really separated by how much I remember enjoying them at the time.
My top ten movies for 2015 are:
- The Martian
The story by Andy Weir and the adaptation by Drew Goddard has the right amount of action, humour, suspense and emotion to draw you in from the very first minute and not let you go until the end credits roll.
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E
It's full of humour, but it's done with a fantastically light touch and the humour comes from the situations, not from intentionally "funny" lines.
- Kingsman: The Secret Service
The movie also doesn't take itself too seriously... it's not making a satire of the spy genre, but it's definitely poking fun at some of the conventions, and generally having fun with even some of the more serious scenes.
- Macbeth
This is a stunning version of the story, beautifully realised, brilliantly acted and a credit to everybody who was involved.
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
And if there is one thing that Joss Whedon does exceptionally well is write for a disparate group of characters and give them all a voice and find a way to bring them together believably.
- A Royal Night Out
The story is just fun... it's silly, it's clearly a complete and total invention, but it's incredibly well put together and genuinely charming.
- Big Hero 6
The heart of this movie are the relationships between Hiro, Tadashi and Baymax. And it's where the movie shines brightest.
- Ex Machina
Essentially it's not an easy movie to like in the usual sense... but it is intriguing.
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Is it a perfect movie, not in the slightest, but it did make me pretty damn happy for the majority of the 135 minute running time and it's a pretty damn good Star Wars movie.
- Woman in Gold
It's not a big movie or a showy movie, but it is definitely a movie worth watching.
And as always, those movies that just missed out on the top spots... and those that I really wished I hadn't seen...
Honourable mentions: The Good Dinosaur isn't the most inventive story from Disney Pixar, but it is one of the most stunning looking movies they've made to date. The Maze Runner series (specifically in this instance Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials) continues to impress me both with the calibre of it's young actors but also the maturity of the stories and Spectre, while not the best of the recent Bond movies, is still a hell of a movie.
Dishonourable mentions: Crimson Peak and Tomorrowland both squander either the director's past history in the case of the former or the potential for what could have been an excellent movie based on the promise of the trailer in the case of the latter.
When thinking about the other great movies I saw this year, it basically comes down to a couple of names...
- The Way He Looks aka Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (2014): The story of a blind boy who falls in love with the new boy in school and based on the amazing short film from 2010, I Don't Want to Go Back Alone. I'm still incredibly annoyed that this hasn't been released on DVD in Australia, as I desperately want a copy.
- Song of the Sea (2014): From the studio that created the beautiful Secret of Kells, comes another gorgeously animated Irish legend.
- I Know That Voice (2013): A documentary about voice over-actors, produced by one of my favourite VO actors, John DiMaggio (the voice of Bender on Futurama).
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