Top 10 Films of 2015 So Far

We made it to the half way point! As we move into the final 6 months of the year, I thought I'd take stock of my top 10 films released in the UK in 2015 so far. Even though Amy and Inside Out come out in July, I'm including them here as I was lucky enough to see them in Cannes. Otherwise, all of these were released in January to June in the UK.

As usual, because of my stubborn insistence on going with UK release dates, many of you who read this may consider these films to be 2014 releases, especially all the Oscar contenders. Still, hopefully UK readers will understand our collective pain at getting some of these later than other countries!

Surprisingly, I've actually reviewed all of these for a change so just click the titles to be magically transported to my reviews of these films at Starburst Magazine, Tastic Film, and this very blog.

10. The Theory of Everything

"The Theory of Everything is an inspiring tale of a great mind, perfectly rendered by a powerful and mesmerising performance from Eddie Redmayne."

9. Testament of Youth

"This is an incredibly moving story, driven by a brilliant performance from Vikander and a vital message that still resonates tragically today."

8. Birdman

"Inarritu directs with a visceral mixture of simplicity and complexity. Long takes complement the fluid dialogue, while the drumming score and use of real locations keep things grounded, even as Riggan really starts to lose his mind. Unlike the superhero movies it rails against, Birdman is smart and requires way more than one sitting to fully appreciate its complexity."

7. Whiplash

 "Whiplash is a film that strives for perfection and brings out the thrill in low budget, committed and quick filmmaking having been shot in just 18 days. It is a film about the sacrifices required to be the best at something, even if it means cowering in front of a madman and losing the enjoyment in doing what you love."

6. Ex Machina

"Ex Machina is an exciting and often challenging watch. Garland has surrounded himself with an expert team, meaning the film is gorgeous to watch, despite its limited locations. Its look and its sounds are essential to its gripping tale of men and machines. Compelling, claustrophobic, cutting edge and clever, Ex Machina is as smart and satisfying as science fiction gets."

5. Inside Out

"If you’ve ever wondered what’s going on inside someone’s head, Pixar have created a wonderfully inventive answer in Inside Out. Back at the absolute top of their game, Pixar’s latest is fresh, funny and positively bursting with emotions from joy to sadness. Crammed full of ingenuity, it’s a film that has been sprung from the very best minds of Pixar. With its perfect blend of high concept idea with intimate themes, Inside Out is a new peak for the animation studio."

4. Coherence

"Coherence is inconceivably thrilling; a must see if you want your head scrambled by comets and quantum mechanics."

3. Amy

"To even the most hardened of critics, Amy is a heart wrenching reminder of the deceased star’s enormous talent, and an early contender for Best Documentary."

2. Wild Tales

"Wild Tales may not get ten out of ten for all of its six short stories, but with its dazzling direction and audacious storytelling, it is clearly the work of an exciting cinematic genius."

1. Mad Max: Fury Road

"Strap in, say goodbye to your fingernails and prepare for a white knuckle ride of epic proportions. Mad Max Fury Road is everything and more that you could hope for from an action film, and viewers will be left shaken from its incredible levels of vehicular mayhem. Director George Miller may have taken twenty years to get this to the screen but his efforts have paid off with a film that rushes by in a breathless barrage of explosions and insane stunts."


So that's me done. I'd love to know your own top 10s of the year at this point, or what you think of my own list. Drop me a comment if you're feeling conversational, argumentative, or simply depressed and need someone to talk to.

Cannes Film Festival Day 6 and 7: Inside Out, The Chosen Ones and Sicario

On my last two days at the Cannes Film Festival, I saw 7 films, taking my total over the 7 days to 21 films.

Check out links to all my writing on Cannes here.

The films I saw on Monday and Tuesday were:

The Measure of a Man (La Lois du Marche)
Inside Out
The Chosen Ones
Marguerite and Julien

Sicario
Trap (Taklub)
Office (O Piseu)

That's it from Cannes for this year.

Monsters University Review

I'll start this by admitting I'm not a huge fan of Monsters Inc. There I said it. Toy Story, The Incredibles and Wall-E are the three pinnacles of Pixar to me. So Monsters University was not particularly appealing to me from the start. It's not that I dislike Monsters Inc, I just thought it was a wonderful film for children but lacked much for the adults in the audience.

Mike and Sulley are funny and the set pieces were fun but a sequel or a prequel would not be welcomed by me personally. Monsters University sees Mike and Sulley enrolling at the college for monsters in training, preparing to becomes Scarers and make their way out into the big bad world of terrifying little children in their sleep at night.

It is When Mikey Met Sulley if you like, the beginning of a bromance that we all know pretty much how it will end. There are references and characters from the original (beyond the central pair) who pop up playfully and the back to school coming of age vibe works quite well. The supporting cast at the frat house that Mike and Sulley join add some much needed fun after the set up focuses almost solely on Mike and provides a lack of laughs.

The story is completely predictable until a last minute shift into the real world plays brilliantly with slasher conventions in a secluded bunkhouse at a camp for little girls. The stuff that comes before it on campus is so bright and colourful, the monster design so seen-it-all-before and harmless (except Dean Hardscrabble) that when it finally gets to the really creepy stuff with Mike and Sulley becoming the hunted, it is an incredibly welcome detour.

Monsters University is heavily reliant on slapstick and the mildest of peril. It will endlessly amuse children but adults are likely to hope for more witty banter and will welcome the addition of the Oozma Kappa frat house team who steal laughs and heart from the central pair. The relationship between Mike and Sulley never feels too truly stretched but their overcoming of their personal problems provides a satisfying conclusion and ties things up nicely.

My main problem with Monsters University is the same as it was with Monsters Inc. These monsters are just too damn fluffy, cuddly and colourful for my liking. That may be the point; to show kids that monsters have hearts too and are really nothing to be scared of, but I just wish there were more monsters like the Helen Mirren voiced hideous Dean Hardscrabble out there.

Watch the trailer:

Recent reviews at I Love That Film:

Man of Steel Review

This is the End Review 

Fast and Furious 6 Review

Ruby Sparks Review

The Look of Love Review 

21 & Over Review

Iron Man 3 Review

Olympus Has Fallen Review

Spring Breakers Review

The Many Methods of Movie Marketing: Part 3 Merchandise

This is the third part of my many posts on the different methods of movie marketing, this one covering merchandise. This is mainly for my film students who are looking at the relationship between film producers and audiences. First we looked at how producers get information from audiences and now we move on to how producers give information to audiences. You can find part one on posters and trailers here. Part 2 on TV, radio and print media advertising and using the internet and viral marketing is here.

 

Merchandising is another useful way to market a movie and has become increasingly important since the days of films like Star Wars and Jaws. Not only can merchandise help to spread the word about a movie, but it also can make the studio a lot of money. The audience are basically paying to help market the movie. Merchandising means putting an image or logo from the film on a range of products and selling them to the public. Merchandise can range from t-shirts, toys, lunchboxes and duvet covers to collectible items such as replica weapons and props from films. 

Blockbusters and high concept films that can be sold on the strength of a single image can be particularly beneficial for selling merchandise as the image or logo is easy to recognise and gives the film brand recognition. Spiderman, Batman, Jurassic Park and Jaws all have distinctive, easy to reproduce and recognisable logos or posters which can be put on any products the studio wishes to sell. Transformers was a toy range before becoming a film but now with the film versions begin released, Hasbro can make more toys that tie in with the films. George Lucas, the writer and director of Star Wars kept ownership of the licensing and merchandising rights  (which the studio did not realise could be so profitable) and made a fortune from selling Star Wars toys, collectibles and games based on the franchise.

Merchandise is often, but not always, aimed at children so family movies can often have a larger and more successful range. Disney, Pixar and Marvel will make huge amounts of money from selling toys of the characters and a huge range of products with images from the films on them. The idea is that once a child sees the movie, they will want a souvenir and then fortunately for the studio, that piece of merchandise will advertise the film to more children.

Dystopian Visions: The Future is Bleak

I love a disturbing vision of the future.  In honour of The Hunger Games and it's tributes, districts, peacekeepers and televised battles to the death, here's my top 10 depressing movie dystopias.

But before I start, there are some films that are possibly disputed dystopian visions that need a mention here.  The documentary Collapse features Michael Ruppert dishing out his version of what he sees as the future of the human race and it is disturbing and terrifying and I have not been able to forget it.

The Truman Show, A Clockwork Orange, Nineteen Eighty Four, The Running Man, Battle Royale and Series 7: The Contenders must also get a mention here.  Some of these are clearly big influences on The Hunger Games.

But on to the main event.  Here's my top 10:

10. The Road (John Hillcoat, 2009)

Viggo Mortensen and son trudge the road to nowhere in a grey, depressing future full of cannibal survivors of environmental devastation.  Relentlessly grim and mournful, it's a bleak, miserable, whimpering end to the human race.  And even the planet itself is dying in this post-apocalyptic misery-fest!


9. District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, 2009)

Not sure if this is actually an alternative present but it feels like a not too distant future as aliens have got themselves shipwrecked in the townships of South Africa and humans go about treating them in much the same way we've been treating each other for the last god knows how many years.


8. 12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1996)

Disease has wiped out 99% of the population of the planet and the remainder live underground and send convict Bruce Willis back in time to find out what caused the epidemic.  Trippy, twisty, terribly clever tale of time travel that may not spend much time in it's terrible future but still has a big enough impact to make this list.




7. Planet of the Apes (Franklin J.Schaffner, 1968)

SPOILER!  One of the best twists of all time.  The planet of the apes is Earth!  We've been overrun by talking apes and now we are slaves on our own planet.  Of course this only becomes clear in the final moments of the film, but what a knockout ending and brilliant vision of the future.


6. Wall-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008)

Earth has become a (strangely beautiful) bin planet.  The corporations have taken the fat, lazy human race into spaceships and left the Earth to little rubbish robots like our hero Wall-E.  I'm not sure what's more frightening; the endless mountains of trash that cover the Earth or the depressing vision of what the human race becomes when they no longer have to get out of their seats anymore.


5. Waterworld (Kevin Reynolds, 1995)

Mad Max on water.  Beginning with the flooding of the Earth by the melting of the polar caps, Waterworld takes us into a future where the human race live on floating atolls, terrorised by The Smokers with their oil tanker and jet ski's and mad leader Dennis Hopper.  The sight of cities below the sea as revealed by the mutated hero (Kevin Costner with gills!) and the quest to find mythical dy land make this an exciting but worrying vision of the future.



4. Demolition Man (Marco Brambilla, 1993) 

You can't swear, you can't eat red meat, you can't have sex and you have to use three seashells to wipe your ass.  This is about the most joyless dystopia there is.  Ok so everyone seems fine, there's no murder etc etc but this is a vision of a nanny state gone mad.  So fortunately a killer from the past escapes which then requires a cop from the past to take him down.  Denis Leary leads the underground revolutionaries and Stallone swears and fights his way to a showdown with Wesley Snipes' loony.

3. The Matrix (The Wachowski Brothers, 1999)

Humans have been imprisoned by machines.  We're used as batteries and plugged into a grid that allows us to think we're living in the real world but actually it's a simulation created by the machines.  The real world however is even worse.  Those who have escaped the Matrix have to live in Zion, an underground hell of terrible raves and the constant threat of destuction from giant mechanical squids.  Ignorance is bliss.  Plug me back in.

2. The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984)

Only briefly glimpsed until Terminator: Salvation, this franchise created a similar vision to The Matrix.  Technology has become our downfall with machines taking over and waging war on the human race.  The resistance is led by John Connor but only if he can survive time travelling attacks on his mother in the 80s and then his teenage self in the 90s.  Fortunately for every terminator the machines send back in time, the John Connor of the future has a saviour of his own to send back to save his former self.

1.  Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006)

The best dystopias are recognisable from the present.  And they don't come any more recognisable than this.  In the not too distant future, the human race has become sterile.  Displaced immigrants are locked up and treated worse than animals in refugee camps by the sea.  Bombings are regular occurences as terrorist organisations spring up.  The human race is hopeless, obsessed with the youngest man on the planet who is killed in the first scenes of the film.  Patriotism is encouraged by the powers that be, but the people are downtrodden, miserable and ready to give up.  Only when Clive Owen hooks up with a miraculously pregnant young woman is there any sign of hope in this bleak vision of future England.

Now it's your turn!  What are your favourite movie dystopias?  Did anyone else like Michael Bay's The Island?  Would The Hunger Games make your list?

Battle Games of the Brave Trailers

Three trailers that have caught my eye this week but not always for the right reasons. 

Brave (Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman, 2012)  It's got amazingly red redheads, brave warriors, big bears and stunning CGI scenery.  It looks like a nice bit of feminism (but y'know for kids) with a feisty princess voiced by Kelly Macdonald (still sounding distractingly like Diane from Trainspotting) and Billy Connolly's grand Scottish brogue used as a voiceover to kick things off.  Looks like it should have some good action, beautiful visuals and some silly but not particularly funny attempts at comedy for the under 10s.

 Battleship (Peter Berg, 2012) Liam Neeson giving another gruff grumpy performance.  This time he's a navy man up against alien spaceships that look and sound just a tad too much like Transformers for comfort.  Ho hum another day another alien invasion.  Looks like director Peter Berg has been sitting in Michael Bay's filmmaking classes with sweeping shots of naval fleets, half naked girls bent seductively over things and big ass explosions.  It's also based on a game and therefore is unlikely to be any good at all.  Shame, I like Neeson.

The Hunger Games (Gary Ross, 2012) Except for the hints at romance creeping in (we don't need another Twilight!), this adaptation of a kids (?) book looks seriously promising.  Jennifer Lawrence can be captivating (see Winter's Bone) and the 1984 / Running Man / Battle Royale vibe looks if not terribly original, at least pretty exciting.  Might have to read the book before this hits cinemas.  Like Brave, it also features another kick-ass bow-and-arrow weilding heroine. 





And just in case you missed my post on Bellflower, here's the trailer again.  IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THIS YET, STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND WATCH IT NOW (please)!



Any of these taking your fancy?  If not check out some real reasons to start getting psyched for 2012.

Let me know what you think of the trailers above.  Especially Bellflower.  Seriously... watch that trailer!