Best Epic - Exodus
- Gods and Kings. Ridley did not let us
down
Best action flick - Fast
& Furious 7. Ridiculous but
entertaining as ever
Best repeat - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
Last year’s film of the year and still awesome!
Best has-beens caper -
Expendables 3. Excellent lark although
the plot rambles a lot in the middle.
Banderas is a gem and the end fight scene in a ruined Russian hotel
resort is a hoot
Most original plot
device - The Dying of the Light. Nic
Cage as aged CIA agent in pursuit of aged terrorist, both with health issues. A novel idea well executed
Best Arnie romp - The
Last Stand. Arnie as sheriff foils
baddies in shit stick Arizona
Oddest Arnie flick – Sabotage. Like three different films stuck together: i.
everyday tale of a weary DEA squad; ii. A whodunit; iii. A Colombian-set western
Best Statham flick
– Hummingbird. Jace shows he can actually act as a down and out ex-soldier
Most pointless remake
– 13. The budget was so low Statham couldn’t afford a shave. The basic premise appeared farfetched and the
characters’ actions often seemed implausible.
When we watched the original –13 Tzameti (a Georgian tale) it made a lot
more sense and rendered the American remake totally pointless
Best film with one
character on screen - Locke - Tom Hardy in a car on the phone
Most complicated plot
- Cleanskin. Even after reading the
Wikipedia entry, I was perplexed
Most disappointing
title - In the Electric Mist.
Adapted from the book ‘In the Electric Mist with confederate Dead’ which
sounds way cooler. Also, a disappointingly pedestrian plot
Grimmest film set in
South Africa- Zulu. Cape Town set escapade with Forest Whitaker
and Orlando Bloom in scruffy loser cop mode
Creepiest Christmas
film – Calvaire. Unsettling Xmas
fare with shades of Deliverance
Best Horror film
location - Chernobyl Diaries. The characters
seemed incidental to the ghostly post-nuclear meltdown backdrop
Most imaginative
Zombie film plot - Fallen Soldiers.
Interesting Napoleonic war undead caper
Best low budget
horror – Vampire. Imaginative Belgian low budget offering; funny and
entertaining. We guessed it was
crowd-funded as the production values improved during the film
Best film based on
real events - The Devil’s Double. Story
of the madness of Sadam Hussein’s son.
Inappropriate partner laughter during the first viewing distracted me
from some excellent scenes
Close second - the
Iceman. True tale of a Mafia hit
man. I especially liked his ice cream
van-driving colleague who used it to get rid of evidence; made a change from
selling drugs
Best sci-fi sequel - Monsters
– Dark Continent. Set 10 years later and
very different. More like a war movie with
cool monsters
Cutest robot film
– Chappie. Impossibly cute South African
robot. Good story with obvious
undercurrents of Robocop
Close second - Robot
& Frank. Lovely, funny, quirky
little film about an old ex-con and his robot helping him do crimes
Best British sci-fi
– Narcopolis. Really good low budget
tech-noir
Best Australian
sci-fi – Predestination. Interesting
time travel tale with awesome turn by Sarah Snook. Might even be the best Aussie movie I’ve ever
seen
Most disappointing
sci-fi – Franklyn. Billed as futuristic
steampunk flick but a missed opportunity and more could have been made of the
device
Most puzzling sci-fi
- Ex-Machina. Better than expected. The
puzzle was why feminists were up in arms about it as the men get their
comeuppance at the end
Best Western - The
Homesman. The excellent Tommy Lee Jones and
Hilary Swank in a sort of Western road movie
Most relaxing Western
- All the Pretty Horses. Very calming adaptation f the Cormac McCarthy book
Best shoot-out -
Open Range. Fantastic final gunfight
scene
Best WWII flick –
Fury. Very realistic and engaging. Young actor Logan Lerman (previously known
as Percy Jackson) is outstanding
Best British WWII
flick - The Imitation Game. Really good
despite suggesting that Turing invented the computer
Best feel-good WWII
film - Free Men. Muslims save Jews
in the Grand Mosque de Paris during the war.
Surprisingly relaxing with not many Nazis in it
Best Russian film
– Citadel (Burnt by the Sun Part 2.2). Last
instalment of the epic series. Apparently
unpopular in Russia due to an unfavourable portrayal of Stalin. Odd for two reasons: firstly, he came across as a bit of a card,
and secondly I didn’t think they still cared.
Best costume drama
- The Devil’s Violinist. Entertaining
tale of the notorious Paganini
Best jazz film –
Howl. The Allen Ginsberg obscenity
trial with imaginative use of animation
Most
thought-provoking German film - Stations of the Cross. A devout catholic girl sacrifices her life
for Jesus. Austere young priest gives best
argument ever for renouncing the trappings of Satan
Most worthy watch
– Leviathan. Russian sticks it to the
man with grim results
Unexpectedly good - American
Sniper. An interesting narrative from Mr Eastwood
Most impossible to
watch - The Iceman (not to be confused with film of same name cited above). After trying for
hours to get it to play, we got 5 minutes into this tale of a 500 year old coming back to life and couldn’t continue it was so
bad!
