Movie Moments: Top 5 Movies in 2015

In the past couple years I've been seeing more movies in theaters and it's become a tradition to catch a flick with my friends or family. Recently there have been more and more movies coming out that interest me, probably because I'm aware of a lot more of the new releases. This year I saw a total of fourteen movies in theaters. That's a lot. I figured that since I spent so much money at the box office, I should at least make a blog post about it. Think of it as research.

Movies I saw in 2015:

1. Into the Woods (2014), dir. Rob Marshall
2. Big Hero 6 (2014), dir. Don Hall & Chris Williams
3. Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), dir. Matthew Vaughn 
4. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), dir. Joss Whedon
5. Jurassic World (2015), dir. Colin Trevorrow
6. Inside Out (2015), dir. Pete Docter & Ronnie del Carmen
7. Ant-Man (2015), dir. Peyton Reed
8. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015), dir. Christopher McQuarrie
9. Trainwreck (2015), dir. Judd Apatow
10. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), dir. Guy Ritchie
11. The Martian (2015), dir. Ridley Scott
12. The Good Dinosaur (2015), dir. Peter Sohn
13. Sisters (2015), dir. Jason Moore
14. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), dir. J.J. Abrams 

There's no way I can rank the five movies I chose to include on my favorites list because I enjoyed every single movie I saw and the five I'm about to list all impacted me about equally. In the order that I saw them, here are my five favorite movies of the year:

Into the Woods (2014), dir. Rob Marshall

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Personally I'm a huge fan of musicals and, for the most part, my family isn't. I saw Into the Woods with Mikaela in January and the first thing I did when I got home was listen to the soundtrack and learn all the words. I was constantly singing it around the house and a couple months later, I showed some clips to my brother which inspired him to do his own research and he ended up watching a production of Into the Woods on YouTube. It wasn't long until he had most of Your Fault memorized. Into the Woods had me and my brother singing along to all the songs and I cherish those bonding moments so much that it'd be sacrilege not to include it on the list. Even now hearing Your Fault brings a grin to my face because I associate it with such fun times with my brother. It also has Chris Pine ripping his shirt in agony and that's really all you can ask for.

Big Hero 6 (2014), dir. Don Hall & Chris Williams

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I had three Disney(/Pixar) movies to choose from this year to put on my list and, while they all made me cry (no exaggeration -- there were buckets of tears for The Good Dinosaur) and tugged at my heartstrings (Inside Out knows exactly which buttons to press), it was Big Hero 6 that really hit home for me. I think it was the themes of grief that really left an impression on me. The friendships and relationships in BH6 made me take a good look around at the people I have in my life and realize how lucky I am to have such a great support system. Another thing I appreciated about this film is its representation. While it could have done better (the source material had an all Japanese cast), there was a good mix of races and featured girls pursuing science (and actually knew what they were doing! They were never the butt of the joke for being in the sciences!!!). It also didn't hurt that Baymax is the cutest thing (we all deserve a Baymax) and Tadashi. Just Tadashi. *heart eyes emoji*

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), dir. Matthew Vaughn 

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Words cannot describe how much I love this film. Some of my favorite things in movies are training montages, espionage, and some awesomely choreographed fight scenes. Kingsman had all of these and so much more. This film got pushed back from its November 2014 release date but I was smitten with the film from the moment it hit my radar in early 2014 (or even 2013?). There's so much to love about Kingsman. All the spy gadgets are ridiculously cool and Samuel L. Jackson played such a great villain. There are also puppies in this movie, in case you aren't sold already. I find myself thinking about the finale and church scene all the time. Colin Firth and Taron Egerton work so well together and every supporting character was so awesome (minus the snobby one we don't like him). Not only did I love the film, I also love the score. After I saw the movie the score to this movie was all I listened to for weeks. Kingsman is so violent but it takes me to my happy place. I don't know what that says about me as a person but it was so much fun, I will definitely be revisiting it many a time for years to come. (Note: This is easily my number one movie of the year I loved it that much.)

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), dir. Guy Ritchie

(x)

So, I guess spy movies are kinda my thing. There's so much to love about The Man from U.N.C.L.E. A Russian spy and an American spy having to work together is enough to get me on board but this movie took it so much further than that. It was so much fun watching the two super spies have to figure out how to work together and Alicia Vikander plays the best German chop shop girl you'll ever see, not that she's in that role for long. I loved uncovering the secrets with the team and watching all their relationships evolve was such a treasure. The boat chase scene is one of my favorite things to happen this year. It had the entire theater rolling with laughter. I wish more people would have seen it so there would be a higher chance for a sequel. They were just getting used to working together, it'd be incredible to see them working as a cohesive team. Imagine the damage they could do... Maybe I'll have to check out the TV show it was based off of to see if it can satiate me until the day a sequel comes. 

The Martian (2015), dir. Ridley Scott

(x)

I cannot stress how much I love this film. It was the buzz about this movie that got me to pick up the novel by Andy Weir (which is a name you are guaranteed to hear in another post next week) and I could not put it down. This is one of those movies that is just as good as the book. They both have their strengths and very few weaknesses. It's one of the funniest movies I had the pleasure of seeing this year,  which is not something you would think when the premise is a man stranded on Mars for years. The whole cast of characters (as well as the cast that plays them) is fantastic and wow what an experience it was to see in theaters. One of the best parts was the tension that was built up throughout the movie and the ending was so satisfying. And, I mean it's a movie about space and astronauts. Of course it's going to make the list. I loved seeing Pathfinder and NASA in general in this film. I have a lot of feelings about space travel. (I also don't want to talk about it too much because I'll be talking about it some more in my 2015 Wrap Up next Wednesday.)

I didn't get to see every single movie I was interested in and maybe it's better that way. I'm already having a hard time whittling down the list to my five favorite as it is. Originally I wasn't going to include the movies the released (in the US) last year in my top five, but looking back, those were the ones that changed my life the most so I couldn't not include them. And I did see them in 2015 so in my mind, they're 2015 movies. There are a lot of films on the list that didn't make the top five. There are a couple notable ones that just missed out.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is probably one that sticks out to a lot of people. It was so close to making it but having seen the original trilogy for the first time literally a week before, The Force Awakens just couldn't compare. I also felt like it hit a lot of the same beats as A New Hope so while it was highly entertaining and was a great installment to the franchise, it was overshadowed by the glory of its predecessors.

Personally, I was a bit surprised that neither Avengers: Age of Ultron or Ant-Man made it. I really thought I'd be able to shoehorn them in there somehow. Alas, it was not meant to be. Maybe Marvel will be able to beat out some of the hidden gems I find this year. Another action movie that just missed the list was Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. That was a good, explosive movie.


Really though, I didn't see any bad movies this year. If you think about it, every single movie I watched made it on to my Top 15 list. Have you seen any of these movies? Let's talk about them! Did I miss any of your favorites? I know I definitely missed a lot of good ones that I just didn't have the time to see. Let me know what your top five movies of 2015 are in the comments below! I'd love to see how our movie tastes compare. I have high hopes for the movie scene in 2016 (seven (!!!) superhero films if I'm counting correctly). Better prepare my wallet.


Talk to you soon!

xo, Yvette