AndyLL's "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue" Top Ten of 2015

[WrathOfHan]

2 minutes ago, AndyLL said:

 

Trust me... SteelBook worthy movies ahead....

He probably already has all 3 in Steelbooks though  

[AndyLL]

 

However I have to run out for a while... we'll continue when I get back.  There will be movies coming up that will  satisfy everyone.

 

Spoiler

And 1 or 2 that will stun and amaze everyone...

 

[CJohn]

19 minutes ago, WrathOfHan said:

He probably already has all 3 in Steelbooks though  

Kinsgman is a normal edition. Ant-Man and Ultron are steelbooks, tho 

[Fancyarcher]

Avengers: Age of Ultron was actually quite entertaining. Honestly, I think it gets too much undeserved hate myself, but that's neither here or there.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Daniel Dylan Davis

[AndyLL]

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

For those that don't pay attention... our family is big into Disney. 

At one time I ran a large Disney website, forums and had a Disney online store.  Even living in Colorado we had annual passes to at least one of the parks and some years had passes to both.  We now do a yearly Disney Cruise.

 

That Disney love includes Disney movies.  We own pretty much every Disney movie... on VHS, DVD and as they get re-released on Blu-Ray we are re-buying them.

 

So it's a no-brainer that we see every Disney movie that comes out.

 

Unlike many Disney fanatics I don't mind Disney remaking their older movies and I'm all for live versions of their classic animated movies.

 

I'm probably one of the few enjoyed Maleficent and was glad they changed the story.

 

With all that said I didn't think I would like Cinderella.  Of the 3 original Disney Princesses she was a distant 3rd to Snow White and Aurora.  

 

Not only did I not particularly like Cinderella herself... I didn't like the story.  I've probably only seen the original movie 2-3 times.

 

I went to the movie for my wife's sake and made my 12 year old boy go so he could get some culture.

 

I was more than pleasantly surprised by this movie.

 

A challenge of remaking the Disney classics is that the original stories tended to be tight and brief and the remake will have to fill in and lengthen it. Or in Maleficent's case go a different direction.

 

I thought Disney did an outstanding job of remaining true to the original story and the added pieces were all well integrated into the plot.   It didn't feel forced.

 

I thought the movie was visually stunning and I loved Lily James.

 

As a plus I thought they empowered Ella as much as they could without effecting the story.

 My boy liked it as well and we saw it several times in the theater.  On Disney cruises they show all the recent Disney movies and while my wife is off doing whatever she does on a cruise I did to spend most my time watching movies.   It was no different with Cinderella on my last cruise.  I'd grab my beer and go join the hordes of young girls and their moms and re-watched Cinderella at least 2 more times.

The quality of Cinderella has excited me for the live action Beauty and the Beast.

 

 

[Ethan Hunt]

Cinderella doesn't get enough love

 

[AndyLL]

2 minutes ago, Ethan Hunt said:

Cinderella doesn't get enough love

 

 

I've give her some love.

 

The Force could easily arise with her. 

[Plain Old Tele]

6 minutes ago, AndyLL said:

 

I've give her some love.

 

The Force could easily arise with her. 

 

Don't you mean she'd cause the Force to rise in you?

[CoolioD1]

this list...

 

 

[AndyLL]

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Avatree]

back to cube busters?

 

 

[incognitoo]

15 hours ago, AndyLL said:

Honorable mention #2

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

I know... I know.

 

Some people always hate Adam Sandler.  I only occasionally find him funny.

 

However I found this film hilarious... starting with the thought that the President's childhood friend is a member of the Geek Squad and they occasionally hang out together.  When I every meet up with my old High School buddies no matter what we are doing in life today we always revert back to the dorks we were back then.

 

Obviously one of the reasons I love this film is that I spent more time then I should have in high school and collage playing the games depicted in the movie.

 

To a certain degree I agree with Brenner's comparison to video games back then to how they are today.  Cheat codes, unlimited lifes, paying to gain an advantage.

 

Back in my day when I walked to school uphill both ways I stuck a quarter into a machine and hoped I played well enough to gain more lives.

 

BTW... I kicked ass at Star Gate and missed my Calc class more than once because I was doing so well.

 

When I 1st thought about doing a list I thought this would be in the top 10.  When I actually sat down and did the list it didn't make it.

 

However... in reviewing my list I guarantee that I will re-watch this movie more than half the movies in my top 10.

 

Everyone has those movies that you just watch that makes you feel good.

 

 

 

 

This would have been on my imaginary disapointment list. Where to begin? First of all, I knew what to expect from a Sandler/James movie, lotta jokes, some good, some bad some ugly. A stupid story does not necessarily make a stupid movie, so I was game with this nonsense story of aliens playing streetfighter against earth people using giant iconic videogame characters.

 

Then the movie started... and I was like

 

it started out so perfect! The atmosphere, the music, the nerdiness, the protagonists... everything clicked with me. Welcome to Geekheaven, pop. 1.862.158 (and counting).

 

Then the movie fast forwarded to the now and here... and from there thing fell quickly apart for me. I did not mind the Presidents geek squad stuff. I did not mind Blaster being such an ass. I did not mind the silly fights. But what did not sit very well with me, was this constant meandering between full silliness, childs play, dramatisation (or the trying for it) and geeking. It just felt to me as if they wanted to appeal to all possible demoscopic groups so badly - and in the end failed to connect with even one of them. It was bugging me so much, took me completely out of the movie. And the Ludlov / Red Sonja subplot was outright embarrassing. In Germany, we have an artifical word called "fremdschämen" which could be roughly translated to "second-hand embarrassment". At that specific point near the end, I really just wanted to teleport out of the screening room. Thank god the movie was over shortly after this.

 

Despite all that, I will give Pixels a second run on home TV, to see if it connects when seen there (happens sometimes). But scenes featuring a girl in a red dress and a flabby nerd will be fast forwarded.

[incognitoo]

8 hours ago, AndyLL said:

My #10 movie of 2105 is….

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

This was a film I had no interest in seeing but the trailer hooked me.

 

 

 

 

 

I love Vaughn and I absolutely loved Colin Firth.  I wish they hadn’t killed him off because a sequel without him in it would not be as interesting.  I would enjoy a prequel that explored the founding of The Kingsmen.

 

 

The Kingsmen is obviously a sarcastic parody of Bond and other spy movies.  Where Austin Powers was over the top humor this was over the top violence. 

 

 

I love how some people complained that this was sexist.  The Kingmen was making fun of the sexist stereotypes in the Bond movies.

 

 

 

 

This movie was a nice surprise early in the year.

 

 

 

 

This movie has, what (I think) Pixels has missing. The right balance of seriousness/dramatisation, comedy/parody and some drops of badassness added. Ok, better actors never hurt also. All in all, the movie felt much more "earnest" to me, while not shying away from stageing most of its scenes with tongue in cheek. Great movie, a pleasent surprise.

 

Edited January 8, 2016 by incognitoo
correcting typo

[incognitoo]

8 hours ago, AndyLL said:

Moving on to #9…

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

 

 

Another movie that I wasn’t overly excited about.  I am a Marvel fan but not a comic book reader/fan.   I thought the premise was stupid when I 1^st heard about it.  I thought Marvel was just throwing minor characters at the wall and hoping something would stick.  The IMAX extended preview was telling me that Disney thought they had a stinker on their hands and was trying to use marketing to save the movie.

 

 

 

However I was surprised on how much I enjoyed the movie.  I thought Paul Rudd was fantastic.  Pena and friends humor was a bit over the top but I felt it worked well with Rudd’s more quieter, stoic humor.

 

 

I was less thrilled with the other characters but not enough to overly bother me.

 

 

I felt the story and the feel of the movie was not typical of the CBMs we’ve been getting.  I have a friend that rarely goes to the movies and hates all CBM who I convinced to go see this.  He loved it.  This is a guy that hated avengers, GotG and Nolan’s batman series and hasn’t see any of the other recent CBM.

Ant-Man proved to me that Marvel is in good hands with Disney and I will no longer pre-judge the movies they put out.

 

 

 

I'll guess I'll have to exchange a honest word or two with my mother, since she never told me of a distant sibling on the far reaches of Korriban. Or what I really want to say is: you took the words right out of my mouth. I was awaiting a train wreck (or lackluster experience at best), but the Marvel formula (only real with their secret sauce added) did their magic again. Should be taken with a grain of salt though, since I liked Hulk (2008) and Green Lantern too.

 

 

Edited January 8, 2016 by incognitoo
correcting typo

[AndyLL]

[incognitoo]

5 hours ago, AndyLL said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Hide contents

459 million DOM, 1.4 billion WW, #7 all time (for now)… and it’s a flop?

Only on the BOT.

A longtime manager of mine used to always preach to us minions… under promise and over deliver.

AOU of course experienced the opposite.

To even come close to meeting expectations it had to be better than The Avengers and it wasn’t.

When I left my 1^st viewing of Avengers my first thought was… “I wonder if I have time to see it again”

When I left my 1^st viewing of AOU my thought was… “What the hell was that?”

The pace was too uneven… frenetic action with periods of insomnia curing scenes.  The time spent at the house in the woods almost killed the movie.  Hawkguy is not ‘glue’ that holds the avengers together.  I could have done without the beastly love between the black widow and the hulk.

I get they are trying to humanize the avengers… show their versatilities but I’m sure there are better ways.

The ending was stupid.  Come on… can’t a mega villain come up with a better way to destroy earth than to left up and drop a chunk of it.

And let’s be real…   when all of humanity is facing extinction I’m not sure the super heroes should be worrying about saving the 20,000 or so Salovkialithums.  I hope this wasn’t the case but I felt it was a shot directed at MOS.

An awful lot of bitching for a movie I have top 10…. Now the good parts.

It got better every time I saw it.

I loved Ultron.  Best Marvel villain yet.

I think to team is fantastic together.  The dynamics between Captain and Stark and Stark and Banner are great.

Scarlet Witch is a wonderful addition to the team.

The story itself was great. 

I rank AOU right around Winter Soldier.

 

 

Age of Ultron. Great Marvel movie. Yes, Ultron going from mega-villain to minor nuisance as soon as Vision enters the stage was silly. Also, I missed the over the top pick-poke-bicker-bicker from the first one (Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?). Yes, risking to lose the population of the whole planet, while trying to save the population of one city ist silly (though the inhabitants of said city may beg to differ). And *gulp* I loathed the Maximus pardon, Maximoff Tarkinsiblings. And Falcon. I loathe Falcon. Can't be helped, I don't like the character. I can stand green monsters, flying tincans and WWE rejects with a fetish for norse mythology. All that and more. But the wing costume of Falcon is downright... HOW IS HE SUPPOSED TO FLY WITH THAT SHIT!? Ho-hum... please forgive my rant, I apologise. Really, the character doesn't connect with me and takes me out of any movie he is featured in in an instant. Besides that, it was a great Marvel movie. Not necessarily a great Avengers movie, but does it always have to be great?* Especially since we only got two as far? (*please insert random innuendo joke here:___________________)

 

Also this

 

 

makes every point against this movie irrelevant. (did I just pull off a kal here? seems BOT brings out the worst in me) Thumbs up for this one.

Edited January 8, 2016 by incognitoo

[AndyLL]

Spoiler

 

 

 

Jurassic Park is one of my top 10 all time movies.

I knew exactly what I was going to get with Jurassic World.

 

1) Park with genetically engineered dinosaurs opens.
2) No matter how careful they are the dinosaurs escape containment.
3) Dinosaurs cause mayhem and eat people
4) Someone saves the day and they leave the island

 

I never expected to love this movie.  I figured it would be an enjoyable IMAX popcorn movie.

 

But I did love it.   It's hard to put in words exactly why.  Most likely the characters.

 

I love Pratt and I really liked Howard.  I felt they nailed their characters.

 

The plot was stupid.  But so was the originals.  The violence was at times gratuitous.    I didn't mind that however that was a big difference from the original.  JP did a much better job at building tension with the hint of violence instead of just having dinos eating people.

Still it was a fun, fun movie.  I saw it 3 times in IMAX and several times on Blu-Ray

This action scene... as stupid as it was... will likely be my top nominee for the BOFFYs

 

 

[4815162342]

 

[Ethan Hunt]

14 minutes ago, AndyLL said:

Most likely the characters.

 

 

 

[Plain Old Tele]

ANDDYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY