#2,238 - Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Band of Robbers - ★★★★☆
This was really fun. I think it's such a smart move to go for cringe comedy up top because it makes the later suspenseful parts feel much more dangerous.

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter - ★★★☆☆
This is a lot like what Into The Wild would be if that movie weren't completely terrible.

The Hateful Eight - ★★★☆☆
This movie is built on an engine of slowly ratcheting suspense, so a climax made out of surprise makes me feel a little bit cheated. The Four Passengers doesn't matter at that point - that whole chapter feels like pre-emptive bickering with internet nerds who don't believe the story they're being told. All in all, a little too long for me - maybe I would've liked it better with the intermission.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - ★★★★★
I was almost embarrassingly excited to be going in to this one - we've all been burned before.

I'm so happy it delivered. I'm on board with most of our new characters and I loved the interactions between the OT characters. I can't remember the last movie that provoked so many feelings from me. I liked the sense of danger, I thought it was great that Han is smuggling Shuggoths, and I loved that there's mystery again in the Star Wars universe. Sure, the new EU will rush in to explore the personal backstory of every cantina patron over time, but for a little while there's an unexplained and unexplored galaxy out there.

#2,229: The Good Dinosaur

Unfriended - ★★★☆☆
This is very silly. The moc-doc / screencast thing works pretty well until kids start carrying their laptops around the house though. I know one of the thirty-something teens, so that's fun too.

Two Night Stand - ★★★☆☆
I guess I'm watching some Miles Teller movies for Christmas. This one seems like a pretty good indie script for a couple of young actors.

Fant4stic - ★½☆☆☆
I felt embarrassed for the actors, who we know to be perfectly good at their jobs under normal circumstances. Especially in the first half of the movie, which is supposedly the good part. The Human Torch effects looked okay though.

Oh! I did like how every line from the trailer turned out to have been taken out of context, and most of the shots in the trailer were cut from the movie. I mean, I don't -like- it, but I think it's interesting how hard the marketing department was working here for no discernible reason.

The Good Dinosaur - ★★★☆☆
Why are dinosaurs raising chickens? Are only some animals sentient? Why not the chickens, who are presumably descended from the dinosaurs? How do dinosaurs start a fire? Or get corn back out of the silo? Or measure temperature? Are Arlo's injuries near the beginning supposed to be slapstick? Why does he get to make his mark for not helping? Are we really supposed to believe that family isn't going to eat Spot once the winter comes? This is the weirdest movie I watched in 2015.

#2,225: Secret in Their Eyes

Best of Enemies - ★★★☆☆
On the one hand, it seems impossible to imagine people talking like this on television today. But on the other hand, this is how everyone on TV talks to each other today.

Riley's First Date? - ★★½☆☆
Sometimes you can see all the math. This is a logical 'and then' short film to support Inside Out, and it makes sense that it focuses on the jokier stuff from the movie. But it's boring.

The Big Short - ★★★½☆
This movie makes some bold choices about how to tell a complex story. Two specific scenes made me worry it going to teeter over the edge into the territory of slow and boring, but the pacing only picks up as it goes. I had fun watching this and I'm very curious to see how it does in wide release.

Secret In Their Eyes - ★★½☆☆
If you're going to watch just one version of this movie, make it the Argentinian original. The US edition has half a dozen distinct changes that, while I can easily imagine the completely reasonable concerns and conversations that would have lead to them, do not in any way make for a better movie.

Among those, the better changes are how the story gets wedged into the US setting and maybe the 'hollywood' ending. The changes for the worse are the boringified romance* and the boringified sports arena scene. And that goofy poster. Look at that. Somewhere there's a designer who submitted this thing on a dare who can't believe things got so far out of hand.

*When I saw the other one, I said I was looking forward to seeing how the lovely and cinematic device representing the romance would be adapted in the English version, because it was going to be tricky. So how did it turn out? It didn't! The closest we get is a couple scenes where folks stand around and talk about their feelings.

#2,221: Creed

Legend - ★★½☆☆
What a mixed bag. This has got some good things in it like the acting, but it also has all those terrible music choices and how not much happens.

The Other One: The Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir - ★★☆☆☆
I guess this was fine, I just didn't care about it at all.

CSNY/Déjà Vu - ★★½☆☆
At the outset, this seemed like a nice fluffy ad for the tour, but as it gets off track it makes me wonder if this movie and album are an easy coating to help a tough message go down, or if they're co-opting the difficult stories to help sell the merch. Sure, it seems like they're out to make a difference, but did they? The movie being self-produced makes it a little tough to know. It's sure a filtered audience attending shows at $200 a head.

I really liked the guy in the movie who gave his definition of art. This movie makes me feel a little bit suspicious, but that's better than nothing.

Creed - ★★★½☆
Far and away the best film in the 'final movie in the Rocky series' trilogy.

#2,217: Steve Jobs

The Peanuts Movie - ★★★★☆
I was worried this might just be a catalog of classic Peanuts bits. And you know what, even though it was, I was right on board after a couple of minutes. The adaptation to 3D works, the modernized bits blend gently with the not-modernized-at-all bits, and I really liked how Charlie Brown is portrayed as a good, smart kid who is reasonably resourceful, popular, and capable, just lacking in self-esteem. I think this should become a classic.

Housebound - ★★★½☆  
I went into this one cold, which is of course the best way to see every movie, and on this one it paid off. It was almost a slow reveal just how much of a comedy this is. Couple speed bumps when the plot turns around, but this movie was a pleasant surprise.

Spotlight - ★★★★☆
I like watching characters in movies perform their jobs brilliantly because of how much I would like to have a job where I myself could have the opportunity to do excellent work.

I haven't thought this part through, but maybe I always prefer a horror movie that keeps its distance a little and lets the horror speak for itself, instead of getting your face right in there.

Steve Jobs - ★★★½☆
I think that this was a good movie - my favorite Danny Boyle in fact - but also that it's bad history. I don't mind so much, but I bet the Apple-flavored internet crowd that was all mad about this would have loved a Citizen Kane-style angle of "this is obviously a story that's about a real guy, but legally, we assure you, it's not him." But this is a different era.