Baumer's Top 50 of 2015 5) Creed 4) Jurassic World 3) Trumbo 2) It Follows...number one on pg 13

[baumer]

35) A Walk in the Woods:  It says to intimidate the bears.

                                       Intimidate the bears?  How?  They're fucking bears!

 

Here's a film that is remarkable for this day and age of film making.  It'd isn't action packed, but has action.  It isn't hilarious but it is funny.  It's not preachy but it has a message.  And so on.  In fact, there is nothing outrageous about the film but it is one of my favourites of the year.  Robert Redford plays Bill Bryson and he's had a good life.  Emma Thompson is his wife.  He wants to hike the Appalachian trail but at the of 70 he isn't allowed to do it alone.  After being told he was crazy by all of his friends, he finally calls upon Stephen Katz, a man he hasn't seen in years.  Played by Nick Nolte, he's exactly the kind of character you'd think he would be.  This is what his character Jack Cates from 48 Hours would have turned into.  He's old and fat and brittle, has a deep and raspy voice from years of smoking and he's genuinely a slob.  But Bryson has no choice.  It's him or no one.  So they set out to hike the trail and along the way, like in Witherspoon's Wild, they meet interesting people, have a few laughs, meet the wildlife and at the end of the film each one is a better person.  And that's really about it.  Nothing earth shattering but an utterly fantastic film about two terrific actors finding themselves on the Appalachian trail.

 

Trivia:  The film has three Oscar winners in Redford, Emma Thompson and Mary Steenburgen and also Oscar nominee Nick Nolte.

 

[chasmmi]

There are a lot of films here that I have heard are not very good but haven't actually seen to be able to give my own opinion on them. If Jem and the Holograms turns up soon, this could actually be the most epic troll fake list of all time before Baumer's true list begins next week.

 

Have seen a couple now that are lower than I had hoped. Mostly Spy based ones.

 

[baumer]

Well Spectre did not make it

Nor did Southpaw

Jem might be top 25

[Avatree]

Walk in the Woods is not remarkable or complex, but I thought it was just a really enjoyable way of spending 2 hours. I just wanted to stay in the company of the two characters and their silly mishaps. A sweet road movie with some great talent involved.

[baumer]

Exactly as i saw it too @In the Heart of the Tree

[baumer]

34) The Martian:  Bring him home

 

I'll keep this one short and to the point.  I thought the movie was quite amazing, I don't however think it's anywhere close to the best of the year.  Matt Damon was terrific in it, Ridley Scott did some terrific work and the CGI and set design was very impressive.  It lost me a little in the middle and when China showed up to do something, it just felt a little out of place.  

 

Trivia:  Matt Damon was willing to lose a huge amount of weight for a scene near the end of the film but Scott forbade it and instead a body double was used.

 

[Empire]

Some of these movies are way lower than I would put them. 

 

Your list order is really surprising  and you have great write ups, so I am really enjoying your list and can't wait to see the rest of it. 

[RobinHood26]

So far a good mix of films , surprised to see some of these so "low" but its a strange list to judge.  8/10 means a film is great? So 45/75 films you see are actually great "above average"? I wish the same could be said for me. 

 

Edited January 15, 2016 by Jay Salahi

[baumer]

I don't think I am hard to please. If I enjoy the film I will give it at least at 7. If it does something a little bit extra to make me appreciate it then I will give it an 8. Anything above that means that I really enjoyed it,  thoight the performances were good, the direction was good and so on and so on. The films that got a nine and then 9.5 and so on those are the really good ones.

[baumer]

33) No Escape:  How far would you go to survive?

 

No Escape is one of the most intense films you will see.  Not of this year or this decade, but ever.  Director John Erick Dowdle got his start in horror films.  Quarantine and As Above So Below were good preludes to what he needed to do here.  This is a film about an American family forced to take work in a foreign land.  As they get there, there is a revolt and the bad guys kill the president and then go after all the western interests that are in their land.  Owen Wilson is terrific as the normal every man just trying to protect his family and Lake Bell is equally good as his wife.  Add in the charismatic former Mr. Bond, Pierce Brosnan as the mysterious Hammond and you have a cast that really shines.  We have all seen the insanely crazy shot of Wilson tossing his kids over the roof only to pray that his wife will catch them.  If you thought it was tense in the trailer, then wait until you see it in the movie.  It left me breathless in many scenes, that is just one of them.  No Escape is one of the finest action movies I've seen in quite a while.

 

Trivia:  Michelle Monahan was originally cast in Lake Bell's role, but had to drop out once it was delayed.  This was due to her pregnancy, obviously @Telemachos is the father.

 

[Dementeleus]

1 hour ago, Baumer said:

I don't think I am hard to please. If I enjoy the film I will give it at least at 7. If it does something a little bit extra to make me appreciate it then I will give it an 8. Anything above that means that I really enjoyed it,  thoight the performances were good, the direction was good and so on and so on. The films that got a nine and then 9.5 and so on those are the really good ones.

 

 

 

 

[Dementeleus]

4 minutes ago, Baumer said:

This was due to her pregnancy, obviously @Telemachos is the father.

 

Wait, what?!

[baumer]

32) The Age of Adaline:  The world has changed in the last century.  Adaline has not.

 

First and foremost this is a love story.  It's also a beautiful story about aging and our desperate attempts to deny this natural process.  

 

Starring Blake Lively is a career defining performance, this is a movie about a woman who develops the ability to never age.  This might sound like a blessing but it's just the opposite.  She can't love anyone, she watches as her parents grow to be older than her and she is always full of loss and regret.  This causes her to abandon those who have chosen to love her.  In an amazing scene stealing performance, Harrison Ford gives one of his best performances in his illustrious career.  This is the man who loved Adeline as a young girl and she left him without a word.  Now 40 years later, they meet again and although he is happily married, seeing her again brings back pain.  Ford absolutely shines here.  

 

Director Lee Tolland Kreiger does a remarkable job.  He takes his time and lets the story grow and he lets his actors do the rest.  The Age of Adeline is a beautiful film and one that left me with a smile on my face as I left the theater.  

 

Trivia:  Harrison Ford's character's surname is Jones.

 

 

 

 

[Ethan Hunt]

 

[baumer]

31) The Visit:  No one loves you like your grandparents

 

For years M. Night Shyamalan has made horrible film after horrible film.  I'm not even sure you can call something like Lady in the Water a film, it's more of a piece of toilet paper in the Taco Bell toilet.  And yet after years of poor writing and even poorer direction, he comes up with this original and very well done, truly horrific entry into the horror realm.  MNS has obviously been known to go for the twist ending.  There's not so much a twist in this one as there is a deliberate attempt to keep you guessing as to what is really happening.  I think the way it unfolds is pretty genius, although I have to admit that I called the "twist" so to speak in the first 10 minutes, even though I didn't realize I did.  All throughout the movie you get hints of something sinister, something devious and you know that these two grandparents aren't quite right.  And when it's revealed just what their quest is, it's quite a harrowing moment.  

 

Shyamalan has finally made his first good movie since Signs.  I just hope he can keep it up.  He was a brilliant film maker for the first few films.  You can add this one to his list of good ones.

 

Trivia:  The original title was Sundowning

 

[baumer]

Here's the next five.....I'll try to be more cryptic this time.

 

 

[baumer]

30) Hannibal and Nance do a dance

29) Kylo Ren's shrink answers to the Crocodile Hunter with a badge

28) Kylo Ren's brother goes after Tommy Doyle

27) Pig Vomit sees dollars in California

26) Three super heroes take drugs and Zod provides the drugs. 

[Kalo]

On 1/15/2016 at 9:33 PM, Baumer said:

38) Mission Impossible Rogue Nation:  Go rogue

 

Mission Impossible, you would think, should be running out of steam.  You would be wrong.  This is one of the better entries in the series.  One of the reasons it works is the cast.  I really enjoyed Cruise and Alec Baldwin in Rock of Ages and here they shine again.  They don't share much screen time, but they both shine when on screen.  And the new MI girl Rebecca Ferguson is quite the find.  She kind of looks like Tele's girlfriend, Michelle Monahan but she moves like Renee Russo in Lethal Weapon 3.  Check her imdb page and you'll see that she has 5 films upcoming.  You can thank MIRN for this.  In this one the Mission Impossible team take on the Syndicate and all hell breaks loose.  At the age of 53 Cruise still looks and acts like he's in his 30's.  It's also blessed with a great script by Usual Suspect scribe Chistopher McQuarrie. 

 

Trivia:  The film was finished only two weeks prior to its release.

Cruise did most of his own stunts in the film, including the infamous plane scene.

 

 

Just kidding

 

 

One thing that really bugs me about Rogue Nation, they never Mention Ethan's wife, I mean I know in GP she was like sent away for her protection. but are they like divorced now or what? not even a mention. 

[Blankments]

All I know is that 26 is

The Night Before

[Ethan Hunt]

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Edited January 16, 2016 by Ethan Hunt