The closer that each of my reviews is to awards season, the more unconventional they become. For the past four or five years, I’ve tried to see as much as I can. If a movie gets nominated in one of the big six awards, I will see it regardless of how I feel about it. Sometimes this can be a painful experience, but it’s part of what I’m trying to do. So, before I get into my review of The Danish Girl, I want to talk about the Best Actor Academy Award nomination category. In a year where male lead performances have fallen short of the caliber they have achieved in recent years, the battle for Best Actor comes down to two individuals. These include Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything, My Week With Marilyn) for this movie and Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant. When Matt Damon (The Martian) or Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs) are the next guys in line behind these two, you know it’s a two-dog race. I am a massive fan of both Damon and Fassbender, but they each have at least three movies in their filmography in which they delivered better performances than the ones they gave this year.
Category Archives: Genre
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)
Honestly, there is no point in reading this review until after you’ve seen the movie. There is no way that my review of a Star Wars movie will influence your decision to see it or not. So this review will have spoilers. To be clear, this is not a review to belittle, but rather my honest thoughts on the film, not a recommendation on whether you should see it. If you come here quickly to look at the score, I gave it an 89/100. Undoubtedly, if you’ve watched the other films, you’ll want to see this one in the theater. If you’re new to the franchise and wonder which movies you need to see before watching Episode VII, I would recommend watching IV, V, and VI. Those are the ones that will help you best understand this film. You don’t need to see I, II, or III. I’m not sure if you can fully appreciate VII without seeing IV, V, and VI first. It is assumed that you have seen these films. If you haven’t, there is no real effort or desire to explain anything that happened in the past.
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In The Heart of the Sea (2015)
I was excited when I saw a blurb earlier this year about In The Heart of the Sea coming to the big screen in 2015. I’ve stated numerous times that Nathaniel Philbrick’s novel of the same name is the most descriptive book I’ve ever read. But Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex had a way to make me feel I was actually in the book. I read this book on a whim, probably seven or eight years ago, and was utterly engrossed. I didn’t understand the place of this movie in the context of historical literature. I learned that it was set to be released in 2015, directed by Ron Howard (Apollo 13), and starring Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Rush), which got me even more excited. Finally, I learned that this would have a December release. Unfortunately, it has failed to meet its critics’ expectations and has been squashed. Still, In The Heart of the Sea was my most anticipated movie of the year. This movie met all of my expectations and then some. It was exactly like the novel, and I gave it a solid A. However, I could envision a scenario where this movie might not be as enjoyable as it was for me.
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Secret in Their Eyes (2015)
Billy Ray’s (Breach, Shattered Glass) Secret In Their Eyes is a movie with a trailer that makes it look amazing. With an all-star cast that includes two Academy Award-winning actresses, a mystery/suspense/drama, and the murder of a teenage girl with close ties to the main character’s plot, this movie was sure to be a bona fide hit. Not so fast. As the mixed reviews started rolling in, you had to wonder what was holding this movie back from being great. There were enough negative reviews that would have saved me from seeing this movie, or at least had me wait for a home viewing if I weren’t a person obsessed with seeing as many movies as possible in the theater. It turns out I could have easily waited for or skipped it entirely. While entertaining, it’s not a movie that needs to be seen. When all is said and done, I can’t see this landing as even one of the 25 best movies I’ve seen this year. It wasn’t the most disappointing movie I saw this year because I had tempered my expectations, and it still held my interest for a brief moment. However, it was very uneven, pretty far-fetched, and didn’t have an audience for it.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
The second-best action movie heading into the final month of the year has got to be Mad Max: Fury Road, which also happens to be one of the best remakes of a movie ever. I’ll be honest in saying that I didn’t like the 1979 original movie, which starred Mel Gibson. I waited until maybe five years ago to watch the film, preferring to keep it as one of those classics to watch on a rainy day. Not so much. It was more disappointing to me than both Blade Runner and Total Recall. That is saying something, as both of those movies I felt were overrated. Blade Runner gets some slack because it was so far ahead of its time. However, I still thought it was overrated.