I vote Ex Machina, for the characters and aesthetic more than the story (which was clever enough, as those things go).
Still have conflicting feelings about Inside Out. Any movie that makes me cry nonstop for 90 minutes … it’s certainly something, but I never want to see it again.
How hipster of you… #3 highest grossing film since the dawn of time - “total dud!”
It was decent - I liked the original JP more but it certainly wasn’t the worst movie.
Fury Road for me too, but I haven’t seen Mr Holmes yet, and I’m a sucker for McKellen and Sherlock.
It’s a movie that I like less and less the more I think about it but I would agree it wasn’t a total dud.
Jurassic World and Ex Machina were just not very good. I’ve yet to see a really good movie this year but I haven’t seen Fury road…
I keep track of my favorite movie each month, so this year has yielded
Jan: Selma (admittedly, a 2014 release)
Feb: Timbuktu
Mar: Wild Tales
Apr: It Follows
May: Ex Machina
June: About Elly
July: Tangerine
For me, I would call it the “worst disappointment.” I had hugely high hopes for it since I loved the original JP and reviews suggested it captured the magic. Not only did it not capture the magic, but it had so many Idiot Plot moments that the spouse and I had more fun counting the plot holes than watching the movie.
Best movie I’ve seen so far this year is “Inside Out.”
From what I’ve heard from reviews, worst movie is “Pixels.” I’m not going to see it, though. It sounds like, in the words of Ian Malcolm, “one big pile of s@#t.”
Mad Max so far, though I haven’t seen Ex Machina yet.
Jupiter Ascending was terrible. I started watching it, realized at one point that I just completely zoned out while the space people were yammering about some crap or another, figured that said crap was probably going to be important to the plot and just called it a loss.
It has to be Spy for me.
I came in with pretty neutral expectations and was blown away with how funny that movie is.
Inside Out was a dud for me, but I had pretty high expectations for it and my problems with the plot/characters made it my biggest disappointment (not necessarily the worst movie this year).
It should be duly noted that this only applies if you don’t consider inflation. New box office records are being set all the time but that’s because you have to pay more for a ticket now.
When you account for inflation the list of all time box office champions is rather a different list. “Jurassic World” is 27th, not 3rd, which is certainly a very respectable showing indeed but a long way from the likes of Gone With The Wind or Star Wars, which it will never match.
My favorite of the year has been Mad Max, possibly because I went in with fairly low expectations and it turned out to be a couple of notches above most other action movies.
I saw Selma this year, so that would go on my list as #2.
I also liked Inside Out, but others failed to live up to my hopes (ahem, Jurassic World and Avengers 2).
Re: Ex Machina
I take it you’re unfamiliar with Frankenstein and a host of similar stories. “Derivative and predictable” nails it completely.