Top 5 Films of 2015

In just 24 short hours 2015 will officially go down as the biggest year in box office history, a healthy seven percent increase over 2014 and a nearly two percent rise over previous record holder 2013.

Obviously behemoths like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jurassic World helped push numbers over the top, but there actually was a healthy dose of other worthwhile titles that arrived pretty steadily over the course of the year: Mad Max, The Walk and The Hateful Eight, to name a few. I did my part as usual, catching 26 films from January through December. Below are my top 5 of 2015.


1. Brooklyn: John Crowley's adaptation of Colm Toibin's 2009 bestseller concerning a young girl who leaves her Irish home for prosperity in 1950s America is not just a beautiful, perfectly told love story, it's a career triumph for actress Saoirse Ronan, who melts your heart with every smile, tear and word that falls from her mouth. Having Nick Hornby write the script doesn't hurt either.

2. Mad Max: Fury Road: George Miller's reimagining of his popular 1980s post-apocalyptic action franchise was easily the best and most original film of the summer, simply two hours of mind-blowing, in-your-face action the likes we've never seen before. Sure the story was a bit thin, but you tend to forgive such minuscule concerns when finding cinematic Xanadu.

3. Spotlight: Tom McCarthy's compelling true-life tale of the Boston Globe's investigation of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church is an All the President's Men for a new generation, all anchored by the terrific ensemble of Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Liev Schreiber. More than enough to forgive McCarthy's 2014 misstep The Cobbler.

4. The Martian: Ridley Scott's adaptation of Andy Weir's 2014 bestselling tale of an astronaut left for dead on Mars is grand Hollywood entertainment, full of thrills, humor and heart and featuring a masterful, Oscar-worthy performance from star Matt Damon. This is why we go to the movies.

5. Star Wars: The Force Awakens: J.J. Abrams' surprisingly effective, deeply moving continuation of the George Lucas' iconic space saga offered both a nostalgic look back and an exciting look forward for fans of all ages, making us pine for the revelations yet to come. Let's hope Luke has a few more lines in the next one.

If I Could Pick Five More: 6. Bridge of Spies 7. The Hateful Eight 8. The Walk 9. Trumbo 10. Steve Jobs

Happy New Year!

Quick Flick Review: The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight is pretty much business as usual for Quentin Tarantino fans, full of desperate, wily characters, thunderous, razor-sharp dialog and merciless, bloody violence. Exactly what we want, right?

Set in in the Wyoming wilderness not long after the Civil War, the film opens on a stagecoach racing across a snow-shrouded trail amidst a brooding opening theme by legendary composer Ennio Morricone. It's not long before the coach comes across stranded bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), asking for a lift into the town of Red Rock, as a blizzard is fast-approaching. The driver tells Warren he'll need to ask the passenger in back for permission, as the man has paid for a private ride into town.

That passenger is fellow bounty hunter John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell, doing his best John Wayne) and his prisoner Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh). After verifying Warren's identity and making sure the former Union officer has no interest in the $10,000 price on Domergue's head (Warren has three of his own dead bodies to cash in on), Ruth allows the man to board and the three roar off toward a nearby way station known as Minnie's Haberdashery.

Shortly thereafter, another man, one Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), is trailside asking for a ride. Mannix, a loose interpretation of a Southern gentlemen if there ever was one, claims to be the new sheriff of Red Rock and tells Ruth if he wants to get paid for Domergue, he'd better extend him a ride. After some "colorful" dialog insues, Ruth again agrees.

The four barely make it to Minnie's before the brunt of the storm hits and there they are met by four more "stranded" individuals: hangman Oswaldo Mosbray (Tim Roth), cowpuncher Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), former Confederate army general Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern) and storekeeper Bob (Demian Bichir). Of course it's not long before suspicion takes over and all hell breaks loose.

Every character in The Hateful Eight is memorable and each actor seems to to be having the time of their lives spouting that one-of-a-kind Tarantino verbiage, especially Jackson and Goggins. They really are the two linchpins of the film, sworn enemies at first, but strangely closer by journey's end.

As if the dialog and characters weren't enough of a draw, this time around Tarantino has chosen to shoot his film in the long-dormant, super-wide Ultra Panavision 70 format and release it as a throwback Cinerama roadshow presentation in select cities. I was fortunate enough to screen the film this way and while it was nice to have an overture, intermission and souvenir program, 70mm road shows just don't work in small, run-of-the-mill multiplex theaters, where The Hateful Eight has been relegated since every large, premier screen in the country is committed to Star Wars for the next month.

70mm aside, The Hateful Eight doesn't exactly break any new ground in the Tarantino canon, but it does extend an extremely talented filmmaker's incredible eight-film run of giving audiences exactly what they want: indelible entertainment. Grade: B+

Dec. 31: Top 5 Films of 2015

Quick Flick Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens delivers both a nostalgic look back and an exciting look forward for a 40-year-old saga that can easily be labeled the most influential and enduring film franchise in cinematic history.

Set 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, we learn from the now-iconic opening crawl that Luke Skywalker, the last of the Jedi, is missing and in his absence a new order of evil has risen from ashes of the old Galactic Empire and now threatens the entire republic, so much so that a resistance has formed (they called it a rebellion in my day), led by none other than General Leia Organa.

As the film opens, Leia has dispatched crack X-wing pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) to the desert planet Jakku to obtain a clue to Luke's whereabouts. Before Poe can take off with the vital information, the First Order, led by the Force-sensitive, Vader-esque Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), drops in looking for the same quarry, forcing Dameron to hide it inside his beach-ball-looking droid BB-8, who rolls off all alone into the desert night.

BB is soon befriended by the young scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley) and the two intersect with Finn (John Boyega), a morality-stricken AWOL Stormtrooper who's recently crash-landed on Jakku while helping Poe Dameron escape the clutches of the First Order. The trio barely get past introductions before a swarm of Tie fighters come calling, forcing our new heroes to escape in the only ship handy....a long-since-abandoned Millennium Falcon.

The Falcon isn't in the air long before it's swallowed up by a large freighter. Soon its crew, a certain Corellian smuggler of some repute and his Wookie cohort, are boarding the fabled "hunk of junk," claiming to be "home." Yes, a graying Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca have joined our adventure and eventually agree to help Rey and Finn get BB-8 to Leia and the resistance.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is surprisingly effective, full of subtle nods to the original trilogy while successfully marrying a believable, satisfying story with engaging, purposeful personalities, both new and established. While the film does mirror the 1977 original at times, right down to a Death Star-type weapon, and illicits more questions than answers, the enveloping narrative and characters allow you to forgive the little transgressions of unoriginality and plotting.

Ford hasn't been this energetic and enjoyable to watch in years, maybe decades. His Han Solo really drives this new installment and carries most of the emotional weight of what has come before, and will transpire later. It's a performance that stays with you long after you've left the theater. Carrie Fisher's Leia is a little more reserved than we remember, but it's nice to see our favorite princess still fighting the good fight and keeping Han in check.

Newcomers Ridley and Boyega are really the ones who will carry this new trilogy forward and they both have an easy, natural rapport and infuse their characters with just the right amount of heart and spunk.

The Force Awakens is an entertaining, deeply moving continuation of the Star Wars franchise, one that should satisfy both old and new fans alike, and make all of us yearn for the revelations to come. Grade: B+

Happy Holidays!

Quick Flick Review: Spectre

Sam Mendes' Spectre wants to be as good as 2012's Skyfall, and for a while it achieves its lofty goal, but unfortunately when it comes time for the big reveal, the much-anticipated confrontation between British super spy James Bond and the master villain pulling all the strings, the one we've patiently been waiting for over the course of nine years and four films, things fall a bit flat.

Set shortly after the events of its predecessor, Spectre opens during a Day of the Dead festival in Mexico City and finds Bond (Daniel Craig) hunting a terrorist who's keen on blowing up a stadium full of people. After an attempt to neutralize his target goes spectacularly awry, Bond is soon chasing his prey through reveler-packed streets, climaxing in a breathtaking helicopter battle that ultimately gives our favorite secret agent a new clue on a much bigger organization operating behind the scenes.

Placed on inactive field duty by the new M (Ralph Fiennes) for his unsanctioned stunt in Mexico, Bond secretly travels to Rome to attend the funeral of the operative he threw out of the copter. There he encounters the man's widow (Monica Bellucci) and through some "friendly persuasion" gleans that the mysterious cabal in question is actually meeting in the city the next night.

Bond of course gains entrance to this shin-dig (a dimly lit gathering of nefarious types in evening gowns and tuxedos huddled around a boardroom) and is soon called out by name by the head man, a soft-spoken, shadow-shrouded figure whose face we never see. Bond flees and narrowly escapes after being pursued in another breakneck sequence by a relentless, hulking thug reminiscent of Robert Shaw in From Russia With Love.

From there we travel to Austria and then Morocco as Bond follows more clues and enlists the help of one Doctor Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), the daughter of his old nemesis Mr. White from Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

Eventually, Bond comes face to face with the mystery man again and we learn he is one Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), an individual who shares a hidden past with our hero. As Oberhauser succinctly labels himself: "The author of all your pain."

There's no denying Spectre is wildly entertaining, full of the prerequisite kinetic action, exotic locales and beautiful women the franchise is famous for. It features several nods to previous Bond adventures and actually feels like a more natural follow-up to 2008's Quantum of Solace than Skyfall did.

Where the film ultimately stumbles a bit is in that eventual face-to-face between Bond and Oberhaueser. All the implied backstory, the hidden history the two share and they barely scratch the surface during their climatic encounter. We want Bond to ask questions, dig deeper. Instead he just sits there as Oberhauser peels back the layers of the last nine years. Bond treats it all like old news, a matter of public record, unworthy of response. You've got two great actors in Craig and Waltz just ready to verbally spar, and all we get is polite, benign chit-chat.

The end of Spectre pretty much guarantees hero and villain will meet again. Let's hope Craig does indeed return for another go-around and that we finally get that epic exchange we've all been waiting for. Grade: B

Quick Flick Review: Bridge of Spies

While Steven Spielberg's unparalleled cinematic artistry alone makes Bridge of Spies required viewing, it's really the star power of Tom Hanks that commands the screen, sometimes a little too well for its own good.

Based on true events during the height of the Cold War in the late '50s and early '60s, Hanks plays James Donovan, an extremely affable-yet-shrewd Manhattan insurance attorney who is asked by the U.S. government to first defend and then negotiate the swap of captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel for shot-down American pilot Francis Gary Powers.

The first half of the film toggles back and forth between Donovan's attempt to secure Abel a fair, impartial trial (not an easy task) and Powers getting up to speed on his super-secret U2 mission. The second half mostly unfolds in East Berlin as Donovan must not just negotiate the release of Powers, but a recently detained American college student as well. There are a lot of characters and moving parts to wade through at times, but Spielberg keeps things rolling along at an efficient pace. Every shot is meticulously framed and serves the story perfectly.

The one constant in all the action is Hanks' Donovan, the epitome of unflappable, seamlessly moving through the worlds of Madison Avenue and the federal court system with the utmost of ease. His suits are crisp, his confidence high and his snappy banter neverending.

You'd think by the time the CIA dumps him in East Berlin to more or less fend for himself, he'd start to show a little vulnerability, but it never materializes, and that, unfortunately, is where the character's believability begins to suffer a little. We realize we're being drawn in by the magnetism of Tom Hanks, not a fish-out-of-water insurance attorney.

While Bridge of Spies may come off as a bit of a star vehicle at times, it's still an extremely entertaining, well-made and well-acted film that reminds us how old-fashioned Hollywood craftsmanship can still deliver something truly special. Grade: B+

Quick Flick Review: The Martian

Ridley Scott's The Martian is grand Hollywood entertainment, full of thrills, humor and heart, all anchored by a masterful, Oscar-worthy performance by Matt Damon.

Scott's adaptation of Andy Weir's 2014 bestselling tale of an astronaut left for dead on Mars carries the director's usual visual flair and moves quickly to fit in all the science and problem-solving scenarios Damon and NASA must face to survive and effectively mount a rescue mission. It's a lot of data to digest at times, but it never slows the story, mainly because the film has strong supporting players like Jeff Daniels, Jessica Chastain and Chiwetel Ejiofor to effectively get its points across.

The film, though, truly belongs to Damon. His Mark Watney is an experienced scientist, smart and resourceful, but he's also a human being, alone on an alien planet and facing an increasingly grim chance of survival. Damon deftly toggles between both "realities" with the utmost of ease. We celebrate his triumphs and agonize in his defeats not because the story dictates it, but because we feel it from an affable, engaging soul that could just as easily be one of us.

The Martian is not just one of the most entertaining films of the year, it's one of the smartest, for its science and technology, but more importantly, for its humanity. Grade: A -

Quick Flick Review: The Walk

Robert Zemeckis' The Walk is truly a sight to behold on the big screen, a completely immersive, awe-inspiring experience that just may rank as the best 3D film Hollywood has ever produced.

Based on French high-wire artist Phillipe Petit's covert 1974 1,300-foot-high stroll between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the film admittedly starts off a little slow as we spend most of the first half in France getting acquainted with our key conspirators, but once the action moves to New York for first the Mission: Impossible-like planning and then the eventual feat itself, we're buckled in for a ride of truly epic proportions.

The towers are living, breathing characters, looming larger than life amidst the hovering fog and platinum skyline. We watch breathlessly as the steel walking cable is extended between the seemingly mountainous cavern separating the two chrome-laded behemoths. Then, just as our hearts have quieted, Petit steps off and begins a nearly thirty-minute-long traversal, spinning, lying down, basically floating on air, and we're right there with him amongst the clouds, searching for breath again.

The film really is all about that thirty-minute walk. The always-good Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives an endearing, whimsical performance as Petit and both Ben Kingsley and James Badge Dale provide nice supporting work, but the characters are really never fleshed out and that unfortunately gives the film at times a bit of a hollow, empty quality.

But make no mistake, we're there for the spectacle and The Walk surely provides it a way unlike anything we've ever seen, especially on the big screen and even more so in 3D. Run, don't walk to see it. Grade: B+