2015 Movie Awards

Also something I started doing last year is year-end movie reviews.

1. The Hobbit 3: The Battle of the Five Armies 6 Stars
2. Life of Crime 8 Stars
3. Ma Dai 1 star
4. Mad Max: Fury Road 10 Stars
5. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation 5 Stars
6. Spectre 2 Stars
7. Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens 9 Stars

Despite writing a blog dedicated to book and movie reviews, I generally consider watching movies to be a complete waste of time.  (I review them on my blog because my theory is that if I'm going to waste my time watching movies, I might as well review them as well.)  So in that sense, the fact that I only watched 7 movies this year should make me happy about how little time I've wasted.

But the fact is, I've wasted SO much time this year mindlessly watching Youtube videos and television.  And that REALLY is a waste of time.
By comparison, movies at least have an identifiable beginning, middle and end, and they have a plot structure you can critique.  And so I'm beginning to think watching movies is probably LESS bad for my brain than my current habit of just mindlessly zoning out in front of the TV.

So my resolution for the new year is to actually try to watch more movies and spend less time just mindlessly watching TV and Youtube.

Anyway, since I rate the movies as I watch them, the work of deciding which one is best and which one is worst is pretty much already done.
The caveat being that my ratings are just done off the cuff, and are often flawed.
(For example, The Hobbit Part 3 has been on TV a few times this year, and a couple re-watchings have made me think I was entirely too generous to this movie by giving it 6 stars.  Similarly, I might have been a bit too hard on Spectre.)
But, as with last year, I'm going to acknowledge the flaws in the system, but not going to open the can of worms of trying to re-evaluate everything.  The ratings are going to stand as they are for now.

Best Movie of the Year
Mad Max: Fury Road with 10 Stars
With Star Wars: The Force Awakens as a very close second.
(Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens got only 9 stars, and yet my nostalgia and fondness for Star Wars is such that as far as overall emotional impact and enjoyment factor goes, The Force Awakens probably made the bigger impact.)

Worst Movie of the Year
Ma Dai with 1 star.
I feel guilty about this because being too hard on a foreign film (which is made with a lot less money than a Hollywood release) feels like it's punching down a bit.  Plus I probably just didn't dig a lot of the humor because I wasn't from the culture.  And yet, I can only judge these films as I see them.

Link of the Day
The Empire Files - Noam Chomsky & Abby Martin, Electing The President of an Empire