What did I see in 2015? Movies!

Happy New Year! This is my first of my annual movies and books and sometimes music of the past year review. Last year I saw quite a few movies, I even saw more movies than a good friend of mine who I feel is always at the movies.  Technically 21 but I saw one twice...can you guess which.

Here's the quick and dirty view of what I saw and my immediate thoughts afterwards (***Star Wars maybe spoilers if you haven't seen it yet****)

1. Big Eyes- good, predictable, but good
2. Whiplash- so good!!! OMG why aren't I a musician?
3. Mortdecai- about what was expected which was not a lot...I don't know why I saw this...who's idea was this?
4. A Most Violent Year- SO GOOD! Really enjoyed. OMG
5. The Last 5 Years- terrible, awful, no good. Why God why?
6. 50 Shades of Grey- about as expected- actually I expected a little more maybe...thank god for purse alcohol
7. Woman in Gold- nothing special, but fine
8. Aloha- not as bad as I expected but not good
9. Magic Mike 2- Tanning Chatum is everyone's type...
10. Trainwreck- not nearly as good as expecting- such an average chick flick
11. Minions- saw for work..it was fine
12. Ricki and the Flash- excellent mother daughter movie...awwww
13. The Gift***- soooo good!
14. The Man from UNCLE- really good, very enjoyable, just fun
15. Grease- Sing-A-Long...ummmm I remember this movie differently 
16. American Ultra- weird but good
17. Psycho- TCM September movie- good
18. The Intern- cute chick flick nothing special
19. The Martian- LOVE! 
20. Joy- interesting...not bad but not excellent, loved the actors
21. Star Wars: The Force Awakens- OMG! Why, why did you kill him? Rey is so Luke's, I must see this again.
22. Star Wars: The Force Awakens- second viewing...Duh Rey is so Luke's bite me if you don't believe me listen to the music. Also why is their piano, Star Wars doesn't do Piano...this deserves at least one more viewing...

So my favorite movie is a tie between The Gift and The Martian and yah I guess Star Wars (we'll get to that later). The Gift was a total surprise favorite I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. It was creepy it was suspenseful I'm not a good mystery solver so I was surprised. I just loved it.  The Martian was a non-surprise favorite. I loved the book and knew I'd love the movie. This was just a fun feel good movie. 

The three runner ups and also surprises that are in the favoritish category are Whiplash, A Most Violent Year and The Man from UNCLE.  Whiplash was intense, I hadn't planned to see it but some friends were going and I was invited- movies are $4 here it's easy to justify going to any of them- and I was so pleasantly surprised. I knew it would be good but didn't know how good. Fun, intense movie.  A Most Violent Year I really wanted to see because of the actors in it and it did not disappoint. I had just watched another violent movie that weekend and this fit right in. Not a feel good movie but great. It was so pretty in a dark mysterious way. I just really liked it and remember it fondly.  Then The Man from UNCLE I didn't hear about till the week it came out and was like, okay why not go to a movie. It was so fun! I loved it. I found it light hearted and entertaining something I don't normally go for in movies, so it was fun.

WORST movies I saw this year hmmm that' tough there were a lot...Mortdecai- still don't know why we went to this movie, seriously someone please remind me- terrible. The Last fucking 5 Years. Who is responsible for this?!?! Seriously WHO and WHY and please don't ever direct anything again. 50 Shades of Grey- eh we knew what we were getting into so we brought alcohol. It wasn't worse than expected though...

Everything else is somewhere in the middle.  Movies I'll probably purchase eventually from 2015- Ricki and the Flash, The Gift, The Martian and Star Wars. That's really it. 

Now Star Wars- oh Star Wars. I could probably just write a full review but I'm lazy. I loved Star Wars. I was supposed to originally see it at Midnight with my family, I was going to drive to SA and see it with them, but then we decided we were too old and would just see it when I get home. THEN one day I get a message from my brother in law asking me when I was coming home for Christmas...I responded and he said something along the lines of that sucks and I slowly learned that his office has rented out theaters to see it and he and my sister would be seeing it without me. I disowned them and told them they were dead to me...then got over it and made a plan to just see it with my dad when I got home. My sister loved it and decided she wanted to see it with our father too so she saw it for a second time when my father and I saw it for our first on the Saturday after Christmas.

I only cried 3 times. I was expecting more tears, but it was great. I loved it immediately and decided I needed to see it again.  So two days later I got to see it with my brother in law and his best friend for my second viewing. This time I got a little misty but not big tears. I still loved it. In the end I got to see it with my dad, sister and brother in law- the three people I wan't to see it with most and who care that I didn't get to see it when it first came out. I successfully avoided all spoilers for it and didn't know who died or really the backstories of anyone and so all was good. I will still probably see it one more time before it leaves theaters.

So it was a good year for movies. I think like last year I wouldn't have seen so many movies if I didn't live in a town that has $4 matinee prices. Evening prices are only $6 so that's not really bad either. In San Antonio I don't even want to think about how much 22 movies would have cost me, but here in College Station I'm fine with it.

Here's my movie post from last year.