The best and worst movies seen in 2015

Best 1 I knew this would be number one from the moment I saw it early in the year, and here it is. Stanley Kubrick's ultimate masterpiece is a very controversial movie which may sometimes distract from how good it actually is. How many movies are this powerful, this thematically deep, this meticulously constructed, this visually stunning and this nightmarishly chilling? I can't think of many others. Perfect imagery, amazing writing, wonderful performances and too many overwhelmingly powerful moments to count; I just can't recommend this movie enough. Despite being over 40 years old, it's still relevant and has lost none of it's power. It's certainly not an easy film to watch in any way, and it is pretty harrowing. It's a bleak work of art; a twisted, fiendish and terrifying nightmare you won't want to wake up from. Despite being so controversial, it doesn't quite live up to the controversy and therefore that part of the film's history should just be ignored. It's a fantastic film, rooted in humanity and a full display of the power of cinema. This is the kind of project that deserves attention. Not all those awful Adam Sandler comedies which are less funny than this. Not all these terrible, formulaic sequels, reboots and rehashes which are less compelling than listening to radio static for 10 hours. This is such a meticulous, masterfully crafted movie which puts Friedberg and Seltzer to shame, is 10 times more interesting than all those boring Oscar baiting dramas and is at least 20 times more explosively powerful than any of Michael Bay's explosion porn. A great movie overall, and the best I've seen all year.

Worst 1 It was never going to be anything else. How could anything be worse than this... thing? Compared to this, I'm not even bothered about the other 19 movies. It's one of the very worst movies ever made, a comedy so painfully appalling it actually gives Movie 43 a run for its money. It's genuinely less funny than Schindler's List. Pretty much a collection of some of the worst jokes ever with the only semblances of plot threads being a terrible running gag about doing burpsnarts and members of a family saying "WHAAAT?" in a silly voice and populated with moronic characters, this is more depressing than the ending of King Lear and the horrible direction and writing doesn't help either. Picture this: a movie directed by Michael Bay (Transformers, Pearl harbour), written by Skip Woods (Die Hard 5, Sabotage), starring Sam Worthington, Jai Courtney, Keanu Reeves, Orlando Bloom, Tara Reid, Nicola Peltz and Kristen Stewart, 3 hours in length and focussing entirely on their battle with a bunch of poorly rendered giant CGI sharks, it would still be 10 times better than Grown Ups 2. This still made $246 million worldwide and as for the best bit? A CGI deer urinating on Adam Sandler's face. All together now: "WHAAAT?

Overrated 1 Here are some movies I enjoyed more than Django Unchained: Final Destination 5. The Lone Ranger. Die Hard 4. Fast and Furious 5. The Rock. The Equalizer. Pompeii. Muppet Treasure Island. Jackass 3D. The Fault in Our Stars. Johnny English. How to Eat Fried Worms. Piranha. To name but a few. Is Django Unchained a good film technically? Of course it is. The performances are great, particularly Samuel L Jackson (Aside from Jamie Foxx who's just good) and in terms of filmmaking it shows Tarantino, while known mainly as a great writer, is also a skilled filmmaker. It has plenty of good moments. Here's my problem: it's too... darn... long! There is no reason for this to be 165 minutes. The first third is pretty good. The second third sags and contains way too much talking. The final third is where at least something's actually happening, but at the same time it then just becomes an excuse to stage loads of over the top shootouts. With so much talking it's surprising Tarantino didn't make this an audio book, this also boasts some of his most boring writing to date. It's perfectly OK, but the hype is ridiculous. Tarantino really needs to hire a good editor and he needs to realize he's making a movie, not a Western themed chat show.

Underrated 1 Written off by many for being too confusing and too incoherent, Inherent Vice seemed to come and go with little fanfare. This is despite the fact it's one of the best movies I saw all year. A stoner detective story which refuses to follow conventions in any way, this is the unacknowledged masterpiece of 2014. While it's too long, it's so brilliantly acted, wonderfully filmed, funny, fascinating, thought provoking and even at times surprisingly moving that those flaws are forgotten very quickly. As well as boasting my favourite film posters of 2014, despite its weirdness it has a crucial sense of charm missing from so many films. This is perhaps a film many will find irritating, so it's better to go in not expecting to be able to follow the plot (Which isn't even as confusing as everyone said). A divisive film certainly, but being confusing and weird is part of the film's personality. It's just something viewers (and critics) need to accept. Masterpieces are often self indulgent. Similarly to The Lone Ranger, where critics couldn't handle a big budget, if people can't appreciate a great movie just because it's a bit different and weird we may be beyond hope.

Best 2 Martin Scorsese's magnum opus has to be seen to believed. Nearly everything here is note perfect. It's certainly not the easiest film to watch, but unlike other harrowing movies this one is deeply rewarding. It may look like a sports movie, but ultimately it isn't really. The boxing scenes don't take up that much of the movie, although they are pretty much the best sequences of combat ever filmed. Raging Bull is a boxer (Played by Robert De Niro in his all time greatest performance) battling his inner demons and a meditation on masculinity and rage. As a drama, it's a relentless, brutal, ferociously devastating assault on the viewer and easily one of the most hauntingly powerful movies of all time. Scorsese's directing has never been better than it is here, and this should have won Best Picture 1980. It's simply one of the most accomplished films ever made, and I would be surprised if there is a single more brilliant movie from the 1980s. Endlessly intense, emotionally hard-hitting, visually stunning, flawlessly acted, superbly constructed yet crucially watchable and fascinating as well, instead of just being relentlessly depressing. It's a knockout (Sorry).

Worst 2 I don't really know what to say about this one really. This appallingly, amazingly, unbelievably inept stink bomb masquerading as a movie went direct to DVD in the UK, so many won't even have seen this. Sadly, I have and I still don't know what to make of it many months later. The acting, writing, directing, visual effects, story, themes, everything. It's all utterly dreadful. And I mean every, single, microscopic thing is abysmal, aside from what is an admittedly tense finale. As for Nicolas Cage? No. He doesn't even go crazy here and just phones it in. I don't know what he was thinking. Most of the budget must have been his pay check, since this apparently $16 million movie looks terrible visually. The fact that sentient human beings could even go through with making this movie and send it to cinemas for people to actually spend money on is baffling. Maybe it was made by scientists to perform experiments on the effects of boredom. That's the only explanation for how something this awful could even be released at all. Well, whoever made it and whatever was going through their heads, it wasn't worth it. This barely made its budget back and everyone who saw it hated it. Leave this one behind in a bin. That's where it belongs.

Overrated 2 Atonement is fine. That's all. It's fine. James McAvoy is excellent and Saoirse Ronan is good, although not Oscar worthy. It's undeniably well directed, with the single take Dunkirk sequence being the film's highlight. It's a well constructed plot with a very good ending. But it's a flawed film as well. Keira Knightley once again proves she cannot change her facial expression or her voice, it's style over substance, the screenwriting is dull instead of powerful and it's just a bit flat. I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with this one specifically. For me, it just wasn't particularly compelling in the writing and nothing about it grabbed me that much. It's not a bad movie, and it has its good bits but I think we can all agree on one thing: it's actually quite boring much of the time. Joe Wright's visuals are excellent, but they start to overwhelm the story pretty quickly. Atonement is a competent enough drama but it's emotional core feels underdeveloped and it's all just a bit of serious, dry affair.

Underrated 2 Spring Breakers is tasteless, vulgar, over the top, insane and, despite the suggestion of just an entertaining party movie for adults with a side of crime from the marketing, it's actually an art-house film filled with biting social commentary. It's indulgent. It's ridiculous. It just doesn't care. And it's also slightly brilliant. Beneath all the insanity and party montages, there's a lot of maturity and depth beneath the surface. It's stunningly well filmed with a great use of colour, and despite its initial exuberance it does get serious and affect you on an emotional level. I can't understand why this was written off by so many. It's artful, it's clever, it's well acted and it's a wonderful mix of commercial and art-house filmmaking. It's not a flawless movie and people could get bored with it, but it still shouldn't be written off. This movie is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the best from 2013. Like Drive 2 years earlier, it was marketed as some formulaic tedium and then turned out to be something so much better and more interesting. I really liked Spring Breakers overall, and I will defend it proudly.

Best 3 A modern masterpiece is the best way to describe this one. Far better than The Silence of the Lambs, this has to be one of the most brilliant thrillers in recent memory. David Fincher's direction is masterful, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman both display some of the best acting of their careers, the plot is fiendishly disturbing yet endlessly compelling and it contains one of the best film endings of all time, orchestrated by one of cinema's greatest psychopaths. It wasn't a big awards winner and it only has 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. The main way this has received the acclaim it deserves is its extremely high placement in the IMDB Top 250. While perhaps placing higher than some of the other juggernauts on this list may seem odd, Se7en is entirely deserving. How many other films can be gruesome, nasty, painfully disturbing and thematically a terrifying, spiralling bungee jump (without the chord) into the abyss and yet still be so ludicrously entertaining and literally not have a single dull moment? Se7en is an exceptionally good thriller and David Fincher has never bettered it. To all the future serial killer movies: I wish you luck.

Worst 3 Is this supposed to be funny? Is this actually meant to be funny? No, really? The best way to sum this movie up is to apply Joe Pesci's terrifying "Funny how?" speech from Goodfellas to it because seriously, how on earth could this be considered funny? Are loads of empty pop culture jokes funny? No. Is seeing said jokes done again and again making them any funnier? No. Is loads of juvenile, offensive humour which just makes you groan funny? No. If it wasn't for the amount of vulgar jokes in this movie than it could have been written by 5 year olds. Someone needs to stop Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. They're still going but they are probably the worst directors ever. This movie is only 65 minutes long. To get it to feature length, the end credits are half an hour long. That's how thin the material is. Don't get mad with Friedberg and Seltzer. Pity them. They're the poor guys who are actually under some sort of mistaken belief that lots of celebrities being chucked into the pit of death again and again or Happy Feet having some ludicrous gross out battle with Leonidas is actually funny.

Overrated 3 This is currently 44 on IMDB Top 250. So, is this is better than Apocalypse Now, Back to the Future, Oldboy, A Clockwork Orange, Lawrence of Arabia and Toy Story? Of course it isn't. Whiplash is very well directed and edited, and the director of this movie is a very promising new talent. It's well acted as well, with JK Simmons giving a great performance as one of 2014's best villains. Miles Teller is excellent, but his character is underdeveloped, as are all the others. This movie is very intense and has some interesting themes, but it's not exactly enjoyable to watch. There's not enough story to sustain it, while the messages are conveyed with lots of shouting and little else. In general, it feels underdeveloped in the writing department (Although there's some interesting profanity here) and instead of being genuinely emotionally engaging and having even a hint of joy, it's just unpleasant to watch and uglier than a Lord of the Rings orc. I'm unlikely to watch this again.

Underrated 3 2015 wasn't the best year for dramatic movies, with many of them failing to be above an 8/10 level of quality. This is an exception. This retelling of Macbeth is brutal, harrowing, terrifying and twisted, with Michael Fassbender giving a typically great performance as Macbeth. What sets him apart as how much sympathy he creates for a monster. Lady Macbeth is mishandled here, but the film gets most stuff right. An undeserving box office flop, this doesn't seem to have got the awards attention it should have received. Perhaps a primarily visual experience, every frame is a painting here and it's a thoroughly cinematic retelling of the play, as opposed to a dialogue based one. Thankfully, it is cinematically brilliant thanks to its wonderful use of images and sound, and by the end it really is very powerful. It's certainly not the feel good film of the year and you might not want to see it again, but it doesn't release you from its ruthless grip until the very end.

Best 4 Martin Scorsese's haunting drama goes inside the mind of a psychopath and brings cinema's greatest antihero alive in a truly stunning manner. Robert De Niro is of course outstanding, while Paul Schrader's script is a completely amazing- and utterly chilling- dramatic narrative. Scorsese's direction is as masterful as always, and he actually shows up in the film to deliver easily the best director's cameo of all time (Sorry Alfred). Just when thought it couldn't get any better, there's even Jodie Foster with one of the great child actor performances. While most stories about a psychopath would go for dramatic acrobatics, loads of yelling and over the top story beats, this one takes a quieter approached. De Niro's performance is subtle and brilliantly restrained and the film takes its time, develops its characters and feels real. This is one of the many reasons for it being so nightmarishly effective.

Worst 4 Oh dear. This one was particularly nasty. Use the DVD of this Johnny Depp monstrosity for target practice. Then maybe it'll finally have a reason to exist. Atrociously written, poorly acted and disturbingly unfunny, you'll just find yourself feeling sorry for the makers of this movie who clearly thought this was something other than the cinematic bile that it is. Strange, maddeningly annoying and worst of all really quite boring this one is a struggle to sit through. If you managed to sit through this no-one should ever lecture you about being impatient ever again because to endure this requires a Lot of patience. The worst movie of 2015. And I've seen Paul Blart Mall Cop 2.

Overrated 4 I didn't realize sappy, boring TV movies masquerading as Oscar baiting biopics got nominated for Best Picture. I'm sorry but this was just ridiculous. Great performances, good direction and plenty of strong moments, but this was boring and feels like a syrupy montage of various random scenes from Stephen Hawking's life. It's not a complete failure and I can see why people like it, but it's really not a great film. Selma gets less attention, but that was a far more powerful film which was actually genuinely enjoyable and interesting. This is just irritating Oscar bait. We get these movies every year. This is just another one of them. This just isn't good enough to get so much awards attention. Just a bit of a snooze fest which doesn't tell you anything you haven't been told before by better movies.

Underrated 4 This is an intriguing Rubix Cube of a movie. What it's about, I'm not entirely clear but that's part of the fun. You can interpret it in many different ways and even though it's an enigma wrapped up in a multitude of enigmas protected with a secure coded padlock, it's not completely distant and at times it's strangely moving. It's an acquired taste for sure, but in what was not a very good year for films here is something original, bold, well directed and unconventional. It's a very interesting film, even if it does inevitably test your patience, and even though you can't understand it much of the time, I'll definitely take this over Man of Steel, Die Hard 5, Thor 2, Movie 43, White House Down, Now You See Me among others which got more attention than this despite being far worse.

Best 5 Now here is a masterpiece. Despite being dismissed as style over substance by some, here the style is the substance. The movie is more stunning than Renaissance Art, but there actually is a compelling narrative in here as well, and the story is told in a more interesting way than most action movies tell their stories. It's a truly extraordinary film which never loses momentum through each mind blowing set piece and it's the rare movie experience where I enjoyed every moment. In terms of fight scenes and visual style it is truly awe inspiring. This movie is true art, and there Is a soul. Among the many movies I've seen this year, few were so breath-taking and it's on Netflix, so don't delay and watch it now.

Worst 5 I don't even want to talk about this one, so let's get this over with. This is a terrible movie. The direction is painfully dull, every phony, pathetic line of dialogue in every lacklustre scene is either for exposition or designed to make you cry and it's all so soppy and manipulative. And no, I'm not forgetting what you all think is the best thing about the film. Despite being Hollywood's finest young actor, Chloe Grace Moretz, having learnt nothing from Carrie, once again mopes her way through playing a social outcast type figure, and has no chemistry with her wooden love interest. You could find more drama and emotion in a montage of Final Destination death scenes. And I mean that.

Overrated 5 A good movie. Some interesting historical context, an unpredictable plot and some good execution make this a watchable enough movie. But it won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Nothing about this is Oscar-worthy aside from the stunning single take stadium chase scene. The rest of the movie after that, despite a powerful ending, tries in vain to live up to that. There's nothing massively striking about this except for the political stuff, and it's just another crime thriller. How many of these have we seen? A good film, definitely, but not particularly exciting to watch and none of the main characters are interesting. It's difficult to see what got everyone hyped about it.

Underrated 5 A slow burn British horror thriller, which hasn't been widely seen but it will really take you aback by how clever it is. You never know where it's going and it will surprise you again and again. It actually gets better as it goes along, and the realism of the movie makes it even more effective. Ben Wheatley proves himself a skilled director, while the script is full of twists, turns and cleverly structured. It's not a film to watch again necessarily since the surprise factor will have gone, but this brutal, claustrophobic and endlessly involving horror film will grab you by the throat and despite its slow pace, never let go. It's so good it even reminds one of The Wicker Man, Britain's finest horror film.

Best 6 The film of 2015, which should win the Best Picture Oscar but won't, everything about this is a home run. The action, visuals, design, surprisingly powerful screenplay, memorable characters, intelligent world building. It's a non-stop, endlessly brilliant adrenaline machine which no-one saw coming. People thought it might be good. No-one knew it would be this good. Without a doubt, an action masterpiece and also the feminist element of the film is a pleasant surprise. An equally big surprise is the way it finds a compelling, human story within the action despite its extremely fast pacing. Whatever wins Best Picture come Oscar night, this is the best movie of the year. And if you search for other best of 2015 lists, many people agree with me.

Worst 6 Seriously. Is this movie some sort of joke? The plot is pure gibberish, it isn't scary, the writing is awful and it's one of the silliest, most mistake-filled movies I've seen in a long time. The film is a direct sequel to the original, taking place in 2012. The main character, a woman in her 20s, was a baby in the first film, set in 1974. She should be nearly 40 years old! How did they miss that? Oh of course. They didn't miss it. They just hoped no-one would notice. That sums this movie up brilliantly, which is a good thing because now I don't have to talk about it anymore. This is only entertaining in a so-bad-it's-good way. Otherwise, avoid this like the plague.

Overrated 6 I enjoy deeper movies. I do. At least they're not just completely focussed on style and entertainment. But there's also something which is almost as bad as the worst blockbusters: boring movies made only for critics. This is one of those. How are we meant to truly engage with this? Long, more meandering than the River Thames, pretentious and featuring characters you can't even tell apart, this got praised just because its a critics movie. The IMDB rating is lower than the Rotten Tomatoes rating and for a good reason. It's perfectly OK, but the first half seriously drags and you keep wondering 'Where is this going?'. And who can blame you?

Underrated 6 This one just wants to be entertaining. It's not an ambitious Disney movie at all and it's just a short, light buddy comedy. But still, this is pretty sharp. Despite an irritating main character and the film not being massively memorable in many ways, this should not be written off. The humour is very effective and the film never loses momentum, and you'll be surprised at how clever it is as well. You also can't predict the entire plot which is what you will often be able to do with the Disney Princess movies. It doesn't look like much and it's not ambitious, so the film is overall a pleasant surprise which is worth your time.

Best 7 Fusing action and art together brilliantly, this combines mind blowing visuals and a terrific soundtrack with an art-house screenplay and various action movie style moments to create a modern classic. This was the best movie of 2011. Not The Artist. This. With just brief action sequences or musical montages or even shots of someone staring into the distance the film conveys more than 10 pages of a script often will. The adverts were completely misleading though. This looked like a generic car based action flick. What we got was so much better and so much more interesting. It's not for everyone, but for me it's one of the greatest films of the decade.

Worst 7 This will end up on most worst movies of the year lists. It's not the nightmare I was expecting but it is pretty dire. How does a movie which is supposed to be so erotic and passionate end up being about as erotic and passionate as a muddy puddle of rainwater? Dark, dreary, outrageously overlong and poorly written, this is a slightly painful sit. To be fair, it stood little chance of being anything other than a dud. With little plot to speak off, and the sex scenes not even taking up that much of the film, this is pretty much 2 hours of nothing. A pretty terrible film overall, which naturally has 2 sequels coming up. Hopefully they will actually be about something.

Overrated 7 Well, this one's going to get me into a lot of trouble. But this movie has been too hyped up. It's a good, solid thriller with some masterful scenes, but overall the reviews building this movie up as if it was the Citizen Kane of horror movies (I think you'll find that's Jaws) appear to have just seen the scenes between Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. Those scenes are extraordinary but the rest of it is just good instead of great. The direction is fine. The script is very good although there are moments where it drags. The plot is formulaic aside from Hannibal Lecter. It's a good thriller, but it's more generic than it sounds and Se7en is far better.

Underrated 7 A gimmicky horror film for sure, but the gimmick works surprisingly well. It's destined to age horribly, some of the scares are mishandled and spending a movie with those awful characters is always annoying. Still, this is more effective than it looked at first. It's tense and frightening although in the scares department it doesn't always work, but it's impressive on a dramatic level and manages to get under your skin. It's no masterpiece, but I'll take this over The Wicker Man (2006). Or The Devil Inside. Or any of those wretched Paranormal Activity films.

Best 8 This gangster movie isn't quite Martin Scorsese's best film, but it's up there. This is a true classic; every shot is incredible, the performances are mesmerising, the script is stunning and tells a meandering but endlessly compelling story packed with drama and raw energy. Goodfellas isn't massively subtle. It's a brutal, relentless exploration of the gangster lifestyle that never pauses for breath. From a directing point of view, it could be Scorsese's biggest achievement and while Joe Pesci is outstanding, it is important not to forget Ray Liotta, whose wonderful performance here is often overlooked. A truly incredible film that's more powerful than a ballistic missile blowing up an oil freighter.

Worst 8 Terminator Genisys (What's up with the spelling seriously?) is many different things jumbled together into a chaotic whole. It's a tribute to the originals and even replicates scenes from them. It mixes up the mythology and tries to act as a reboot. It's got loads of new, underdeveloped plot points and character reinventions. These different elements jarringly clash together and ultimately this confused, boring action film is like the infamous ET video game where much of it is just ET repeatedly falling into big holes. Here, it's difficult to get through 10 minutes of screen-time without falling into yet another giant plot hole. It's difficult to know what they were thinking when they wrote this, or when they decided to do such boring action scenes or when they decided to cast Jai 'Die Hard 5' Courtney as Kyle Reese (Seriously, how is that wooden charisma vacuum finding work?)

Overrated 8 I've had enough of Marvel. There are only so many times I can watch them make the same mistakes again and again. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is incapable of coming up with a good villain, they repeat the same plot points over and over, it refuses to take any risks and by now they feel like artificial products coming off an assembly line. This movie is no different. It never tops its opening scene, it's overstuffed, it has no impact on the future of the MCU, it's totally forgettable and since it doesn't do anything different and doesn't take any risks, it's a wimpy, yellow bellied coward. It was fun to watch, but if I could remember anything about it that would be appreciated hugely.

Underrated 8 The ludicrous plot seems to be the reason for this one being written off. When's the last time modern movie plots made sense? Disposable, admittedly implausible and occasionally slow, this is still surprisingly watchable Friday night fare. Led with an excellent performance from Jodie Foster and unexpectedly well directed, this is a puzzle box of a movie. The mystery at its centre is one you will be trying to solve along with the characters, and it becomes genuinely maddening at times. The film may have its flaws, but it definitely gets your attention and it's a more successful airborne thriller than Liam Neeson's nonsensical Non-Stop.