Not really. I didn't see a single movie in the 2015, movie release season that I thought was better or on equal footing than "Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" which deservedly won the Oscar for 2015 in the best picture catagory.
Overall I saw a lot of movies that were good, just not iconic great. Spent a lot of time in the movie theatre over my weeklong break. Did get to see Quentin Tarantino's "The Hatefull Eight". Parts of that movie were best movie of the year worthy, but overall--especially at the end when Daisy Demogue is getting teeth punched out then having blood puked all over her face was just too much gross for me to stomache. HUGE fan of Quentin Tarnatino. What a stud. Love his mind and the way he crafts his stories. Loved the snow shots of the rural, Wymoming scenrery, and the musical score for "The Hateful Eight" was the best I've heard, maybe ever. Yes, it's that good! The background music SHOULD win for best musical score in the 2016 Oscars, that alone is worth the price of admission. I don't thnk I've ever been as impressed with the orchastra score in a movie as I have with "The Hateful Eight", it accents the movie and slow burn action PERFECTLY.
I loved the rich assortment of characters that Quentin fills "The Hatefull Eight". This movie is A LOT like "Reservior Dogs" (1992), which was Quentin's first and best movie, imo. "The Hatefull Eight" is another robbery-gone-wrong film that keeps you guesing as it builds up to memoriable, but overly bloody conclusion. I like the savy way Quentin toys with the audiece's expectations for each character. Are Kurt Russell's character and Sameul L. Jackson's characters going to remain friends, or will they turn on each other? The mysterious caretaker, Bob. Who is he, and did he really kill of the owners of the inn? And who is Joe Gage, Michael Madsen's character? In "Reservoir Dogs" he was the wild hair that went off and caused all kinds of trouble--is he going to do the same here, under similar circumstances?
Therein lies Quentin Tarantio's BRILLIANCE and the core of what he does right, and why people like him so much (like me). He gets and understands dramatic, realisitic tension that oftentimes goes to a dark places and to unforseen extreames. He's a risk taker, and I'll always admire that about him and his movies.

So was "The Hateful Eight" E.C. Henry's favorite movie of 2015? You'll see soon enough. But it was my 3rd favorite Quentin Tarantino movie off all-time: 1) "Reservoir Dogs, 2) "Pulp Fiction" 3) "The Hateful Eight".
If not "The Hateful Eight" what were my favorite movies that were released in the 2015 movie-going season?
Well, the following are E.C. Henry's favorite movies of 2015 from lowest to best:
"Joy": 6.0 stars out a possible 10. Wow, did David O.Russell recyle the cast of "Silver Linings Playbook" or what!? Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro, and I even recognized one of the gambling buddies from that show too. I kinda liked this drama about a troubled housewife's oddesy to get back to her enterpernial roots as a creative child. The best part of this show was the wild card reationship between Joy and her estranged, divorsed ex-husband, as played by Edgar Ramirez, who was the main villain Bodi in the "Point Break" remake. Anyway, in this show I thought the not quite knowing/understanding/or trusting the Edgar Ramirez character was the best part of the show--and that's not really saying much. Still, Jennifer Lawrence does a great job acting as always, and I really liked how Bradley Cooper's character helped Joy turned the corner and get her magic mop idea to sell. Note: this was a late edition to this post as I saw this movie, "Joy" AFTER I had already done an intial post of this on Sunday, January, 3, 2016.
"Ted 2": 6.5 stars out of a possible 10. The smoking pot teddy bear character still works, as does Amanda Seyfriend's charm and appeal as John Bennet's new love interest. Some laughs. But overall the fight for Ted's rights really comes across as ludicrous. Bad choice made there by Seth McFarlene. Also John Bennett's character arc was severlely lacking and not nearly as strong as the one he had in the first movie.
"Jurasic World": 7.0 stars out of a possible 10. Kinda fun to watch the dinosaurs wreck havok again. Plot was a little boring and mirrored the first "Jurassic Park" movie too closely. My 70-year-old father saw the climax of this movie in the fist act: the crocodile dinosaur fights and takes out the generically altered dinosaur. Too predictable.

"Mad Max: The Fury Road" 7.5 stars out of a possible 10. GREAT action set peices. Looses some momentum with under-developed characters such as Mad Max and Immortian Joe. Great new thoughts brought in on the villain clan's cities, but then when you meet those villains those worlds kinda fall apart and seem more and more unbelievable.
"The Hateful Eight". 8.0 stars out of a possible 10. Great musical score, outside scenery shots, and collection of characters that keep you guesing untill this master of dramatic story-telling reveals their true intentions. A little too bloody for my tastes. Had Quentin dialed that back, just a scotch, I would have vaulted this movie to either a 9 or 9.5 rating, he was very close to having the best movie of the year.
"Star Wars Episode XII: The Force Awakens". 8.0 stars out of a possible 10. The blending of old Star Wars characters to the introduction of new ones was FLAWLESS. And the confrontation between Kylo Ren and his estranged father, Hans Solo on that long bridge was probably the best, on-the-edge-of-my-seat scene of any movie released in 2015. Sure "The Hatefull Eight" kept me guessing and had some good tension, but Kylo vs. Hans Solo takes the cake. And the acting by Harrison Ford here was his best--EVER! Unfortunatly, this movie has some lulls in it, like late in Act II where I actually looked down at my watch wondering how much time was left in the movie. The world-building in this movie was the weakest of ANY past "Star Wars" movie, and I thought the main shoot-out scene needed some work. Also, I didn't buy the Poe Dameron character. He needed more build-up, and INTERESTING backstory. Where did he come from, and why should I care about him?
"Trainwreck": 8.5 stars ot of a possible 10. BEST Judd Apatow movie since "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" (2005). La-oved the ending of this movie, Amy and Aarron make-up and make-out underneath the basekball hoop then you pull away to credits. THAT is how you end a rom-com. Laughed a lot at this movie, though I was pretty revolted by the blow-by-blow sex seen between Amy Townsend and Steven the muscle-bound love interest. This is a rom-com of substance and will get you to think about destructive life-style patterns--and this show has considerable heart too: like Amy's heart-felt tribute to her father at his funeral. Good stuff!

"Inside Out": 9 stars out of a possible 10. A great coming-of-age movie, with a real cool real life application to the trauma kids feel when their family relocates to a new city.

"The Duff": 9 stars out of a possible 10. This is an EXCELLENT, teenage romatic comedy. I venture to say THE BEST, teen rom-com of all-time. I really liked the Bianca Piper character as played by Mae Witman. She's funny, she's believable, she feels insulted by being labeled "the duff" (designated, ugly, fat friend) as is determined to carve out her own unique identity. THIS is kind of story that teens today need to hear and connect with. Why? Because it can get them to stop, think, and then live happier and more fulfilled lives. I LOVE it when movies have this kind of affect on people.

So there you have it, my favorite movies of the year. And as a bonus the following is brief assement of some other major releases that I saw in 2015 that didn't fare so well:

I wish, Bodhi, who ISN'T played by Patrick Swayze, I wish...
"Point Break" (the 2015 remake): 3.5 stars out of a possible 10. The belief system of the villains is stupid, and that's a key buy-in to this movie. The villainous group in this remake can't hold a torch to Patrick Swayze and his gang of crusading surfers in the original movie. The hero however, the extreame sports motorcyle guy, was an improvement over Keanu Reeves, but then again, that too isn't saying much, because I never liked Keanu Reeves vocals in speaking his lines, especially as a front-line hero that I'm supposed to be rooting for. Did like the machine gun shootout and coresponding chase, but in the end since I don't care about the villian's fool-hearted quest, my investment in the story is limited.
"Teminator: Genysis": 3.0 out of a possible 10. Liked the new angle on the Sarah Conor/Klye Reese love story. Thought that was some good re-imaging. Arnold works too... But recycling the rest of this, just dindn't prove intentive enough for my liking. Not worhy of either achieving good to great sci fi. Rather this movie aims more at rip-off medicorcity, so that's how I'm going to score it.
"Specter" 2.5 out of a possible 10. Can they PLEASE stop making James Bond movies. It. Is. Totally. Played. Out!!! And, NO, casting a new actor as James Bond isn't the answer.
"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2". 2.5 out of a possible 10. Never undstood how the gaming traps worked that slowed down the resistance's march on the captal. The underground monsters were a totally out-of-the-blue distraction that looked misplaced. Very uninteresing love triange between Katnis, Peta, and the other guy. Needed a stronger villain presence too.

"Avengers 2: Age of Ultron" 2.0 out of a possible 10. Already totally sick of this mish-mash collecton of superhero and their only on the 2nd movie. Morton Downey Jr.s' "Tony Stark/Iron Man" is still worth watching as is Scaret Johhanson's character, but the the rest of them? Bag it. They all suck! And as for the villain, not interesting enough, and that's sad because I'm a HUGE fan of casting James Spader as a villain, as I still remember his acting in "Wolf" (1994: Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pffifer).
Ran out of things to bash and praise. Overall, I think most movies I saw in 2015 were good ones, but their are no iconic, lock-solid classics in this group, though though charms of "The Duff" and "Inside Out" do come the closest. Sorry to report but looking ahead to 2016, I don't see much hope of better releases on the horizon. Was really looking forward to the new Star Wars movie coming out in 2015, and that that's come and gone, I don't see anything else on the near horizon that's of special note. Now I am looking forward to seeing how the filmmakers chose to contiue the story of Derek Zoolander in "Zoolander 2", but lets face it, that curiousity is not even in same ballpark with the "Star Wars Episode VII" antisipation that I had. Curious to see what J.J. Abrams choses to do next.

I'll close this post with a special highlight of who I consider the biggest, breakout star of 2015 to be. And that would be Amy Schumer, the writer and star of the hit, raunch-com "Trainwreck". Really hoping that Amy goes back to her 1/2 hour comedy varriety show on Comedy Central, "Inside Amy Schumer". I was really enjoying watching her perform in skits. Still, whatever she does in 2016 and beyond, she has one fan in me who will be tuning in, curious to see what other tricks she has up her sleeve.
