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

[baumer]

15) Baahubali: The Beginning:  A warrior can become a hero by killing ten people in a battlefield. But by saving one life, the warrior becomes a GOD!

 

This was my first Bollywood film in theaters, even though I have since been told that it is not Bollywood even though it is an Indian movie.  I'm not going to get into the specifics of this.  But what I will say is that this film took me back to when I was a teen.  It reminded me of Hollywood films in the 80's where heroes were larger than life.  Our hero in this film is strong, muscular, fights better than most, loves, can do magic in some ways, gets the girl, defends a kingdom and is then betrayed by those who he thought were his friends.  This is about as 80's as it gets.  And I mean that in the best way possible.  Reading up on this film, the production notes are what got me into the theater.  They spent a full year on pre-production designing waterfalls, palaces, villages, fortresses and they even made all the weapons by hand.  It took 200 days to construct all the sets with more than 1000 men working on it per day.  And this all pays off.  This is a film about two brothers who end up going to war, at first in battle together but as time goes on, they are against one another.  Shiva, the main character, is a curious boy who grows up to be a great warrior.  Along the way, there are princesses being held captive, there's a family struggle and there is lots of war.  

 

This is obviously not a movie for everyone's taste, but it piqued my curiosity and it kind of blew me away.  An absolute gem.  

 

Trivia:  Baahubali was the fastest Indian movie to make 100 CR, it did it in about 35 hours.  

I also thought @Fake and @jb007 might like this one.

 

[Kalo]

17 minutes ago, Baumer said:

15) Baahubali: The Beginning:  A warrior can become a hero by killing ten people in a battlefield. But by saving one life, the warrior becomes a GOD!

 

This was my first Bollywood film in theaters, even though I have since been told that it is not Bollywood even though it is an Indian movie.  I'm not going to get into the specifics of this.  But what I will say is that this film took me back to when I was a teen.  It reminded me of Hollywood films in the 80's where heroes were larger than life.  Our hero in this film is strong, muscular, fights better than most, loves, can do magic in some ways, gets the girl, defends a kingdom and is then betrayed by those who he thought were his friends.  This is about as 80's as it gets.  And I mean that in the best way possible.  Reading up on this film, the production notes are what got me into the theater.  They spent a full year on pre-production designing waterfalls, palaces, villages, fortresses and they even made all the weapons by hand.  It took 200 days to construct all the sets with more than 1000 men working on it per day.  And this all pays off.  This is a film about two brothers who end up going to war, at first in battle together but as time goes on, they are against one another.  Shiva, the main character, is a curious boy who grows up to be a great warrior.  Along the way, there are princesses being held captive, there's a family struggle and there is lots of war.  

 

This is obviously not a movie for everyone's taste, but it piqued my curiosity and it kind of blew me away.  An absolute gem.  

 

Trivia:  Baahubali was the fastest Indian movie to make 100 CR, it did it in about 35 hours.  

I also thought @Fake and @jb007 might like this one.

 

 

I was actually really interested in this movie, it's trailers were pretty good, but is it super cheesy?

[baumer]

Quick intermission...next 4 to bring us to top ten are:

 

14) Kylo Ren's brother's high school crush swears like a sailor 

13) Cotton Weary and Frank Dixon take on the Boston Bruins and Celtics and Patriots

12) The White Witch dishes out insults but genuinely likes her employees

11) Most emotional film of the year.  

[baumer]

@Kalo  I don't think it was cheesy at all.  At the very least, the story, the set design and the action should be enough to win you over.

[The Stingray]

Well, #11 has to be Room.

 

[Ethan Hunt]

14. IDK

13. Spotlight

12. Trainwreck

11. Room

[Fake]

Baahubali was pretty good. The first half was average but the second half was much better.

 

Baabhubali is now the third highest grossing Indian movie.

 

#2 highest grossing movie, i.e. "Bajrangi Bhaijaan" (starring Salman Khan) was released around the same time as Baahubali.

 

#1 movie, PK was released last Christmas.

 

You could check these two movies out, B. I think you'll like them.

[DAR]

6 hours ago, In the Heart of the Tree said:

Wow, someone actually liked Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse?

Wow, someone actually saw Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse?

[baumer]

I think more of you guys should give Scouts Guide a chance.  It was pretty awesome.

[baumer]

14) Spy:  One day, lady super spy, Susan Cooper, I will fuck you.

 

Spy is a movie, like Something About Mary, that never stops trying to make you laugh.  There's jokes at the beginning, jokes in the middle and jokes at the very end of the film.  I had a great time watching this one and although Melissa McCarthy is good, it's her supporting cast that make this film the classic it is in my eyes.  It was a stroke of genius to get Jason Statham to play up on his tough guy image.  With his strong physical skills, his character could have easily been played straight and narrow, but instead they have him as the most rigid and inept super spy you will ever meet.  He's so intense that he will go to whatever verbal lengths it takes to let his cronies know that he is the real deal.  There's a scene where he is telling Cooper (McCarthy) how bad ass he is.  He did everything from jump out of a helicopter with no parachute, to attaching his ripped off arm with his other good arm.  He also took up piano at a late age.  I'm laughing as I'm typing this.  And then you have Rose Byrne, who looks like a slutty penguin trainer.  Byrne is usually wholesome and sweet and the girl next door everyone wants to marry.  But here, she is allowed to cut loose, she says the word FUCK just about as well as JLaw did in Silver Linings Playbook and she's genuinely funny.  Melissa McCarthy is a good actress but she can pick bad movies from time to time imo.  This is not one of those movies.  It's pretty close to perfect.

 

Trivia:  Melissa McCarthy and Paul Feig are neighbours and she first heard about the script over dinner....she asked to read it and the rest is history.

Paul Feig was once a stuntman and he wrote the part for Jason Statham exclusively as he loves Statham's work.

 

[baumer]

13) Spotlight:  90 priests?  If there were 90, someone would have to know.

 

It's hard for me to separate this mini review from my personal feelings.  I've had issues with the church and those who are chosen to run it since I dated a girl in high school whose mother was seeing a priest, who was a married man.  I was never told this of course, but using my Sherlock Holmes ability, I found out.  Here's a quick story that has nothing to do with the movie.  My girlfriend's mother worked as a secretary at the church where this douchebag preached on Sunday's.  She was always trying to break us up and used the Bible and religion as some kind of reference.  Don't ask, I still don't get it.  She even had Pastor douchebag come to my  house....MY HOUSE and try to tell me how wrong it was that I am dating young, precious Denise.  Denise for the record was one year younger than me...yep, I was robbing the cradle.  Eventually, I started getting suspicious of the two of them when on Sunday's after church he would tell his wife that he was taking his autistic son out for a drive and every Sunday Denise's mom was never home.  And then one day, when unbeknownst to Denise's mom, she was going out with me and not her friends, I got to her apartment complex early and because I knew the license plate of the pastors car I looked for it in the parking lot.  And shockingly (sarcasm) it was there.  After basically grilling my girlfriend about it for an hour, she finally confessed to it all.  Her mother and pstor douchebag had been fucking each other for 5 years.  And this prick was married and he also had the audacity to get up in front of his congregation and preach on about fidelity and family and doing God's will and all the other bullshit that churches try to preach about.  Meanwhile he was banging my girlfriends mom while his autistic 5 year old son was in the other room.  I came within seconds of blowing the whole thing wide open in Church on a Sunday.  The only reason I didn't is because Denise implored me not to.  I loved her so I didn't do it.  They got found out eventually but it lasted for 5 years longer than it should have.  

 

Spotlight is a terrific and nerve wracking film about Catholic priests and their abuse of power.  It, like Straight Outta Compton, is a film that demands to be seen.  I don't think there is a more important film this year than this one.  It exposes these fuckers and the power they have over young kids.  This is a true story....this stuff really happened and it was covered up by the Catholic Church and the Vatican and it still goes on to this day.  People are gripped by religion and they don't want to come forward, but this Spotlight team made sure it was uncovered.  Mark Ruffalo gives one of my favourite  performances of the year and the rest of the cast is outstanding also.  I highly recommend you seeing this.  

 

Trivia:  The real Walter Robinson, Michael Keaton's character has said that watching Keaton was like looking at himself in the mirror but having no control over the image he sees.  He thought Keaton was brilliant.

 

[baumer]

12) Trainwreck:  I like you Amy.  You clever but you're not too brainy.  You're prettyish but you're not too gorgeous.

 

I like films that take risks.  Amy Schumer has made a career thus far out of making fun of herself.  That is taken to a whole new level in this film.  There is no off switch in this film.  If she thought it, she wrote it and if she wrote it she said it.  This is lude, crude, vulgar, colloquial and pretty much hilarious.  Schumer plays a gal who sleeps around a lot.  She loves men and she loves sex.  Her father taught her and her younger (Brie Larson) that monogamy is not realistic.  This turned Schumer into a free spirit.  She is afraid of commitment so she never really stays with one person very long.  Then she meets Aaron, a sports doctor who is different than anyone else she has dated.  When they have sex on the first date and he calls her for a second date, she is confused by him.  She's not used to men wanting to see her again after she put out so quickly. Aaron deals with a lot of famous sports stars including LeBron James, who plays himself in the movie and he might be the best thing about the film.  He's a revelation.  Funny, articulate, self deprecating and charming.  Add in John Cena who plays an emotional boyfriend and you have one of the best films of the year.  

 

Trivia:  Chris Rock was on set the days LeBron was filming.  He came up with many of his lines.

 

 

[baumer]

11) Room:  When I was small, I only knew small things.  Now that I'm five, I know everything!

 

Room killed me.  It absolutely ruined me.  It left me a blubbering fool.  I've spoken to three different people who have seen this, including @Telemachos and all have had the same reaction.  It's a tough film to  watch but so rewarding.  Brie Larson gives what I think is tied for the best female performance of the year.  I absolutely love her in this but I can't ignore the performance in the film at number 7.  Both of these performances left me in awe.  And nine year old Jacob Tremblay should have been recognized by the academy this year.  He carries the film and he's fucking 9.  I can recall some absolutely brilliant performances by young kids and this would be up there with the best.  

 

Room tells the story of Ma (the only name I think they ever give her in the movie) and Jack who are held prisoner in a small shed in the backyard of some guy called Old Nick.  Ma has been there for 7 years and Jack is Old Nick's kid.  Old Nick rapes her daily but she shelters Jack from it best she can by putting him in the small closet whenever Old Nick comes calling.  Eventually, she devises a plan get them out of there.  She fakes Jack's death, rolls him up in a carpet and Nick has to take the body to dump it somewhere.  Jack eventually jumps out of the back of the pickup truck and finds a man walking a dog.  He yells for help and the man calls the police.  The young female police officer puts all the pieces together and she frees Ma.  At this point in the film I was emotionally ruined.  I felt like I did watching Titanic after Jack dies.  I was sad, angry and exhausted.  Then the film changes gears and Jack and his mom have to deal with the outside world.  It's an incredible film and I'm quite sure Larson will win best actress this year.  If you haven't seen this one, go see it...like now.

 

Trivia:  Brie Larson isolated herself for a month and went on a strict diet so that she could get a sense of what her and Jack were going through.

 

[baumer]

Top ten will be started tonight.

 

Here's a preview of what is to come:

 

You think you know the story of Spartacus?  Think again

A best actress imo at number 7

A film that I thought I would not care for, became one of my favourites

John Goodman is like Ketchup, you wouldn't want to eat it by itself, but add it almost anything, and it becomes that much better.  This will be one film I don't think anyone saw coming or even knows about.

 

I'll get back to this later.

[#ED]

Jurassic World make it yet?

[WrathOfHan]

46 minutes ago, Baumer said:

Top ten will be started tonight.

 

Here's a preview of what is to come:

 

You think you know the story of Spartacus?  Think again

A best actress imo at number 7

A film that I thought I would not care for, became one of my favourites

John Goodman is like Ketchup, you wouldn't want to eat it by itself, but add it almost anything, and it becomes that much better.  This will be one film I don't think anyone saw coming or even knows about.

 

I'll get back to this later.

IDK

Brooklyn

Inside Out

Trumbo

[Dementeleus]

Baumer's already announced INSIDE OUT, it was in the low teens (#18, I think).

[baumer]

Inside Out was number 19.

 

Now onto the top ten.

[baumer]

[baumer]

The Big Short:  Now here's Margot Robbie in a bubble bath to tell you about the housing market

                       (after she finishes breaking it all down for us) NOW FUCK OFF!

 

I didn't understand most of The Big Short.  But by the end of it, I felt like I learned something and I felt like I had a very small, rudimentary understanding of what took place in our world in 2008.What's genius about the film is how Adam McKay knew that he had a difficult to comprehend subject on his hands and he realized he would need to jazz it up a bit to be accessible to the layman, the baumer's of the world.  So he added lots of comedy and gave us cameos from beautiful actresses and world renowned chef's and so on.  The line above, with Robbie in the bathtub might have been the hardest I laughed this year at any scene in any movie.  It just came out of nowhere.  There are plenty of films that do a terrific job of breaking the fourth wall, but I'm not sure any of them has been as funny as this.  It  was also very effective because when Robbie and Selena Gomez and the chef explained things to me, I understood it.  It actually made sense.  

 

The Big Short is brilliantly written and it's marvelously acted, especially from Crazy Stupid Love co-stars Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell. Gosling is the slimebag who takes advantage of the situation to make billions and Carell, while also making billions, is perpetually disgusted by the whole thing.  I kept waiting for him to punch someone out.  He never does but you can feel how he feels.  It's truly one of the great performances of 2015.

 

The Big Short is a must see.  Even if it's just to have Mrgot Robbie tell you to fuck off.

 

Trivia:  Paramount only agreed to allow Adam McKay to do this film if he agreed to direct Anchorman 2.