Chasmmi's Top Rundown of 2015 from worst to best - Time to release 7th up to 4th, I predict 2 yays, 1 huh? and 1 $%@! from the viewing public :D

[chasmmi]

52nd

Home

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 50-57/100

Actual Score - 77/100

 

I am more forgiving of recent Dreamworks animation than a lot (I even liked Turbo), but even I did not find myself overly infused by this outing upon seeing the trailers. However this was actually much better than it looked. It had a nice story, fun characters, a nice amount of imagination and overall it was a nice fun animation to watch.

[chasmmi]

51st

American Ultra

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 50-55/100

Actual Score - 77/100

A Bourne Rip off that had Kristen Stewart as a lead role. What’s not to love? Okay, sarcasm over, this was a film I was ready to hate for either being unoriginal, or ruined by the lead actress or both.

Yet it turns out this film is pretty fun. It’s quite Bourney in premise, but it does do a decent job of being its own film and is again a lot of fun to watch and worth a recommendation.

[chasmmi]

50th

Crimson Peak

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 85-90/100

Actual Score - 78/100

 

This film looked and sounded really cool when the premise and trailers started to appear. And when you watch it, the film is absolutely beautiful. The acting too is quite good and there is some good sinister undertones and I can understand why some would really like this film.

However, personally I was hoping for a little more in order to make it great and the revelations/twists did seem like they weren’t really revelations but obvious parts of the story.

[chasmmi]

49th

The Revenant

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 95-97/100

Actual Score - 80/100

 

So Leo grunts around in the snow for two hours and wins and Oscar. Why? I really looked forward to this film and when I saw it the opening 30 minutes was great and the film is stunning to watch. The cinematography made it almost feel like a 3D film it was that well shot.

But the film is just dull. Hardy is pretty good, but other than that it’s just a man walking around in the snow in search of an Oscar.

[chasmmi]

48th

The Danish Girl

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 95-97/100

Actual Score - 80/100

 

And another film that I was really hopeful for and turned out to be just another film that happened. Redmayne is a great actor and last year he showed how good he could be, this time however, the performance just missed the mark.

[chasmmi]

47th

Trainwreck

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 60-65/100

Actual Score - 81/100

 

So it turns out that John Cena and Lebron James have great comic timing and even outshine the fulltime comedians in this film. I was not interested in the trailer at all, but I decided to give it a shot and the film turned out to be much funnier and much better than I expected. It had heart, a decently thought out story and some great cameos.

[chasmmi]

46th

Hot Tub Time Machine 2

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 60-65/100

Actual Score - 82/100

 

I was expecting pretty much nothing from this film. It was an obvious cash-in that nobody wanted. However, I actually was surprised that some thought seemed to go into this. The time travel aspect was different from the first and worked as a concept within the rules of the film.

If you’re not expecting revolutionary comedy, then this is a good fun film to have on and watch in the background or during a time when one wants to just sit back and relax.

[Ethan Hunt]

10 minutes ago, chasmmi said:

51st

Home

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 50-57/100

Actual Score - 77/100

 

I am more forgiving of recent Dreamworks animation than a lot (I even liked Turbo), but even I did not find myself overly infused by this outing upon seeing the trailers. However this was actually much better than it looked. It had a nice story, fun characters, a nice amount of imagination and overall it was a nice fun animation to watch.

 

11 minutes ago, chasmmi said:

53rd

Home

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 50-57/100

Actual Score - 77/100

 

I am more forgiving of recent Dreamworks animation than a lot (I even liked Turbo), but even I did not find myself overly infused by this outing upon seeing the trailers. However this was actually much better than it looked. It had a nice story, fun characters, a nice amount of imagination and overall it was a nice fun animation to watch.

 

[chasmmi]

9 minutes ago, Ethan Hunt said:

 

 

 

Fixed, illness also stopped me watching a couple of the films that were destined for the list and thus a couple of positions get skipped.

 

Don't know why Home turned up twice though

[chasmmi]

45th

The Last Witch Hunter

 

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 60-65/100

Actual Score - 83/100

 

This film seemed primed to be one of the worst things produced in 2015 yet that turned out not to be the case. The film was never going to win Oscars, but it did its job of being a silly big budget B Movie well and there was a lot to enjoy.

 

Vin Diesel is good in the lead role and the story was decent enough to not completely scoff at. Entertaining fun.  

 

 

[chasmmi]

44th

The Hateful Eight

 

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 90-95/100

Actual Score - 84/100

 

I have not seen as many Tarantino films as I should have which is not great I admit, so maybe I am not as forgiving of his style as some will be. However I was quite disappointed by a lot of this. It was too long to the point where you could cut at least an hour out of this film and not lose any of the plot at all. The opening carriage ride is basically the exposition express and the final 30-45 minute while immensely entertaining, is pretty much in the genre of farce.

 

There is a lot to like and laugh at here, but it just missed a lot that was required to be great.

Spoiler

(Also you kind of ruin your own twist, when you advertise Channing Tatum in the opening credits)

 

[chasmmi]

43rd

San Andreas

 

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 65-70/100

Actual Score - 84/100

 

I'll be honest. The only reason I went out of my way to see this was because of the Rock. Not only is he a cool action star, but the thing he did getting himself ordained in order to marry Nick Mundy by surprise was so awesome, I wanted to support his film.

 

Turns out that this was another example of silly mindless enjoyable fun. (You will see a trend that mindless enjoyable fun gets you a score of 75-85 in my world). Again, it's not the greatest film ever made, but it is good fun if you like to see stuff blow up. Oh... and not to want to lower the tone but the breasts are pretty spectacular in this film (I wouldn't normally mention something like that, but they seemed to be presented as their own prominent major characters in the film).

[chasmmi]

42nd

Daddy's Home

 

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 55-62/100

Actual Score - 84/100

 

So I was expecting nothing from this at all. Will Ferrell hasn't been great for a few years now and Mark Wahlberg is not really my thing. However, this was quite nice. The story was worked out quite well, and they did a decent job of not making any character truly the villain, or the irredeemable arsehole that magically becomes a good guy with 5 minutes to go.

 

So it was trundling along towards a score of about 78 and then the ending came and it's really done very well. They wrap up pretty much every conflict mentioned throughout the film in a way that works really well and even verges on being sweet. It was overall a nice film that won a bonus 5 or 6 points from the ending that was a lot better than it had any right to be.

 

I actually want a sequel now.  

[chasmmi]

41st

Pan

 

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 80-85/100

Actual Score - 85/100

 

So this was another of the films that was almost universally panned (sorry) by critics and I refused to believe it. It looked good to me and I wanted to believe it was better than people were saying. Then I watched it...

 

...and it was good. It was fun, imaginative and had the fantasy I wanted from a Peter Pan story. Hook was cool and Jackman really gives a good performance that I enjoyed greatly. I really don't see what people disliked about this so strongly. It fun, fantastical and pretty. There is a lot to love here.

[chasmmi]

40th

Spectre

 

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 90-95/100

Actual Score - 85/100

 

So Skyfall was great right? Yeah it was pretty awesome and summoned a new dawn for great future James Bond Films. The trailer seemed a bit fun and I was ready to love this film a lot. Sadly though it wasn't even in the top 3 spy films of the year.

 

It was fine, but should have been better. Maybe a sign that A Daniel Craig that doesn't care anymore should maybe just hand in his License to Kill.

[chasmmi]

39th

Final Girls

 

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 75-80/100

Actual Score - 86/100

 

A heard about this film and was intrigued by its premise. It sounded a bit like Scream, a bit like Cabin in the Woods and a bit like something else unique. I eventually hunted the film down and yeah it was entertaining. There were a number of clever touches and plays on the idea of being stuck in a movie and overall it worked really quite well.

 

I think if you like Meta horror films, then you should track this down. Worst case, you will find the idea interesting, best case, you'll likely enjoy it a lot.

[chasmmi]

38th

Paddington

 

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 45-50/100

Actual Score - 87/100

 

As you can see from my anticipated score, I did not think this was going to be any good at all. The effects of the bear looked bad, the trailer did not interest me and I was just expecting another decimation of a childhood classic.

 

However, this was actually a really charming, nice, sweet, pleasant film. It is so hard to dislike this film and I really wanted to do so. It's testament to the fact that if you have a good script, good actors and performances that give a damn, even a cash in on a classic character can turn out to be a really good cinematic experience.

[chasmmi]

37th

Maggie

 

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 80-85/100

Actual Score - 88/100

 

So it turns out that Arnie can actually really act! Seriously he is really good in this and this film deserves to place a lot higher than I have placed it in many ways. However I feel the story just slightly chickens out on really going for it with their story and that was the difference between an 88 and a 94 in my book.

 

Regardless of that quibble though, this is a really recommendable film and an indication of where Arnie could choose to take his career in the next few years. It's a really interesting human take on the zombie virus trope and I strongly recommend it. 

[chasmmi]

36th

Minions

 

Anticipated /Expected Score - About 92-95/100

Actual Score - 88/100

 

This was pretty funny and silly and so I still enjoyed it a lot, but I was hoping for so much more. I was honestly expecting to enjoy this more than any other animated film in 2015 (even if I didn't expect it to be the best pure film), and it fell short on all fronts. There are some hilarious moments (they are still the minions) but it just was disappointing that the film was merely fun as opposed to hilarious.

[chasmmi]

With any luck I do 35th to 26th tomorrow and then can return to drawing pictures again.