The Student Room Group

Half way through 2015, what are your best and worst new films of the year so far?

Six months of the year have flown by and while we've still got tons of awesome films to look forward to, it's time to look back at the year so far at the best and worst movies to grace the big screen so far!

For me the choice of best film of the year was only going one way, and that was to Mad Max: Fury Road. An absolute adrenaline rush from start to finish, excellent performances and stunts, gorgeously shot and a terrific score, well paced and never bloated, there wasn't a second of this movie I didn't adore and it's now one of my favourite films ever, never mind just my favourite of 2015 so far!



My #2 and #3 choices are technically 2014 films, but they didn't get a UK release until this year so for my favourite films at the cinema in 2015 they both still count :ahee: Those films are John Wick and Birdman. John Wick was a very different style of action film to Fury Road, paying homage to the "gun fu" martial arts movies of the 80s and doing a great job of it. Birdman feels difficult to compare to anything else I've seen before, it's darkly comical narrative and the single-take cinematography blew my mind after I realised it had been fifteen minutes without any noticeable cuts, and it resulted in a really great and unique film.

However this year has had some massive stinkers as well, and my dishonourable mentions have to go to Jupiter Ascending, The Gunman and Big Game. Jupiter Ascending took an absolutely gorgeously realised sic fi world and wasted it on an awful plot with equally awful direction and dialogue, with some horrible performances thrown in for good measure- the Oscar winning Eddie Redmayne was razzie-worthy in this film. The Gunman took an intriguing espionage premise and made it utterly bland and boring, turning more into a showreel for Sean Penn's new bodybuilder physique than an actual film. Finally Big Game was just amateurishly poor, they may have roped in Samuel L. Jackson to play the president of the USA but everything else about this movie screamed low budget straight-to-DVD tosh.

So, those are my picks, but what about yours? If you need to refresh your memory on the year so far you can find a full list of films released by month here :h:

Scroll to see replies

My top would be Jurassic World and the worst was Entourage.
There are so many films I have wanted to see this year, and so far I've basically seen none of the ones that have come out.

From what i've seen this year, i really enjoyed the woman in black 2.

I really need to see the new Mad Max, Kingsman, Fast and Furious 7 and Jurassic World soon, however.
Reply 3
Fast and Furious 7, Avengers Age of Ultron, Taken 3. Soon Magic Mike XXL (Channing Tatum :perv::perv:)
Best films: Jurassic World and Mad Max Fury Road.
I swear some of the films on that website were released in 2014? Either that or January is much longer ago than I remember! Anyway I'll trust in the list, which gives me the following highlights:

Whiplash - 10/10
Best movie of 2014/2015 so far easily.

Ex Machina - 8/10
Solid Sci-fi, great performance from the female lead.

Predestination - 8/10
Awesome Ethan Hawk sci-fi film that some people might have missed.

Fast & Furious 7 - 8/10
The impressive revival of this series that started at number 5 continues.

White God - 7.5/10
I love dogs, what else can I say?

The Signal - 7.5/10
I know the critics were pretty rough on this and it hasn't been hugely popular but I'm a sucker for alien films.



One of my worst films of the year so far was John Wick! I thought it was utter garbage.

Fury Road was great, I'd probably give it an 8/10, but I watched it after reading everybody's rave reviews (you included, ) and 98% on rottentomatoes, etc, and I think that made me go in expecting something incredible, which ended with me feeling a bit let down.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by e aí rapaz
I swear some of the films on that website were released in 2014? Either that or January is much longer ago than I remember!

It could be that some of them had limited releases last year then wide releases after the Oscar nominations were published. I was the same though, I had to trawl back through my posts to remind myself whether or not I saw Birdman this year.

One of my worst films of the year so far was John Wick! I thought it was utter garbage.

It always surprises me to hear how polarising this film was, I don't think it's masterpiece by any stretch but after a few years of generic Taken-grade tat it felt like a breath of fresh air to the genre to me.

Fury Road was great, I'd probably give it an 8/10, but I watched it after reading everybody's rave reviews (you included, Gofre) and 98% on rottentomatoes, etc, and I think that made me go in expecting something incredible, which ended with me feeling a bit let down.

Yeah the hype around the movie got really nuts. I tried to go in reading as little about the film and the review scores as possible but I was massively excited just from the trailers, and to me it didn't disappoint. I can see why it won't be to everyone's tastes, but for me it was probably as close to the perfect action film as I can imagine.

Whiplash and Ex Machina are two that I'm gutted to have missed, I'm planning to do a bit of a catch up on 2015 over the next few weeks.
Reply 7
The Imitation Game if it is 2015 can't remember
and Mad Max

Furious 7 was good too

2014 was good for films and 2015 has been meh so far. Star Wars VII has not come out yet so :smile:))
Into the woods, The tale of princess Kaguya, Ex Machina, Big Hero 6 and Kingsman are my favourites. I should probably mention predestination as well actually. I wasn't expecting much, but it was a very good film!

My worst films were It Follows, 50 Shades of Grey and Blade Runner: Final Cut.

Although, with Blade runner, I think it was more that I was just incredibly disappointed rather than it actually being bad. I'd never seen any of the previous cuts, and I think my expectations were far too high. I just found it incredibly boring.
(edited 8 years ago)
Best: Avengers; Spy
Worst: Mad Max (unpopular opinion...)
Disappointing: Jurassic World
Rihanna's Home
Best film obviously was Fifty Shades. No doubt about it. Gotta love ****ty acting and sex scenes.
Reply 12
Here are my faves this year so far:

Chappie Movie
Ex Machina
Mad Max
Big Hero 6

:biggrin:
Mad Max was awesome!
The first half of the year has looked pretty pish for films so I've not even bothered going to see any. Oscar picks for 2015 were seriously poor, and probably the first time I've not even bothered watching it.

Second half of the year however I'm actually pumped for. Southpaw, Creed, Legend, The Hateful Eight, STAR WARS (gon lose my cool in the cinema), Ant-Man, Mockingjay pt 2, Sicario, Beasts of No Nation.
Reply 15
I haven't watched a lot of films this year but my favourite by far has been Jurassic World. It was intense action and much better than I anticipated it'd be.
Reply 16
I've seen a lot of films this year (77 to be exact) and my top 10 looks like this:

1. Whiplash
2. Spy
3. Jurassic World
4. Kingsman: The Secret Service
5. The Theory of Everything
6. X+Y
7. Mad Max: Fury Road
8. It Follows
9. Still Alice
10. Ex Machina

Thanks to Odeon Screen Unseen I saw Whiplash in 2014, but it's a 2015 release in the UK. Phenomenal film. Spy is hilarious I haven't laughed so much in ages, funnier than 21/22 Jump Street and Ted I think. Mad Max I wasn't completely on board with first time but second time I saw it, I could see what everyone was talking about. One of the greatest action films ever made, I've seen it 3 times now. It Follows isn't actually scary yet I thought it was amazing, by far and away the best Horror of 2015 and one of my all time favourites. Still Alice was the first film I've ever cried at in the cinema . Heartbreaking, the Oscar for Julianne Moore was well deserved.

As for the stinkers of 2015, I think there should be a collective award for comedy. Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, Mortdecai, Unfinished Business, The Wedding Ringer, Get Hard and Entourage are all mind bendingly terrible. Other stinkers include Taken 3, Seventh Son, Blackhat, A Little Chaos and Child 44.

Looking forward to the second half of the year: Mission Impossible, Bond, Hunger Games, The Walk, Maze Runner, Everest, In the Heart of the Sea, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and The Martian all look awesome.
(edited 8 years ago)
Birdman was such a piece of pretentious twaddle trying to satirize pretentious twaddle.

It may have that oh-so-amazing pseudo no cuts camerawork, but if you film a piece of dog**** on the pavement without cutting, it's still a piece of crap.
Mad Max by far, there is no other film like it
Things I've seen this year at the pictures (that link seems a bit off tbh)

One Star - would not recommend, would actively avoid a rewatch (note Whiplash might as well be on this list - I actively avoided seeing it even once as it just looked like the Devil Wears Prada but with less interesting and engaging characters)
Minions: utter **** :frown: so bad and unfunny that the historical/geographical inaccuracies got on my tits *
Home: :nope: *
Birdman: not impressed, it was interesting to watch but I came out feeling pissed off and grumpy *

Three stars - not bad, worth a watch, would rewatch if on the telly
The Imitation Game: pretty good, worth a watch. ***
The Hobbit: BOFA (saw this on new year's day so it counts :p: ) - ok ***
Focus: ok ***Chappie: pretty good, enjoyed it if only the bad guy hadn't been so one dimensional ***
Avengers: Age of Ultron: fun to watch but not as good as the hype ***

Four stars - excellent, definitely recommend, would record if on the telly
Paddington: excellent, good fun. Went in expecting a typical kids film but it was much better ****
Selma: Excellent, heartwarming, interesting - very good film ****
Jurassic World: pretty good, I was expecting it to be a bit meh but apart from the whiny kids surviving it was very well done ****
Big Hero 6: great film, not nearly so happy clappy as most disney and funny ****
Kingsman: marvellous film, wasn't sure what to expect but it was spot on - hoping for sequels ****

Five stars - top notch, go and watch them - NOW, here I'll drive you to the cinema
Mad Max: Fury Road: absolutely ridiculous and great to watch because of it *****
Spy: another one I wasn't sure what to expect but ended up loving it, stupidly silly *****
Shaun the Sheep: bloody brilliant...how it manages to be soo good without dialogue I don't know (does a better job than The Artist did a few years ago :yep: ) *****

Quick Reply