38.) Pitch Perfect 2 [6/14/2015]

If you like Pitch Perfect, you'll probably like Pitch Perfect 2 slightly less; there is a lot I could say about the flawed narrative, but really, who goes to this movie for plot and characterizations?

37.) Love and Mercy [6/12/2015]

Growing up with Full House, I have always had a soft-spot for the Beach Boys, even as I grew up and realized most of their songs were about being high on the beach; this excellent bio-pic of the genius behind the group, Brian Wilson, and the album that broke him, Pet Sounds, was quite excellent and enjoyable, due in no small part to John Cusack (his best acting since High Fidelity), Paul Dano (his best since Little Miss Sunshine) and Elizabeth Banks (maybe her best ever).

36.) Tomorrowland [6/7/2015]

With a retro-sci-fi feel, George Clooney, and the promise of epic jet packing, I really was looking forward to Tomorrowland; unfortunately, the ham-fisted socially conscious message and undeveloped characters bogged down what could have been a really fun movie about jet packs, the future, and the survival of mankind on a slowly burning planet.

35.) Mad Max: Fury Road [5/30/2015]

There is a lot that can be said about this film: the feminist (or faux-feminist) undertones, the stellar acting by Charlize Theron and the mostly mute Tom Hardy, the incredible and mostly-practical special effects, the written dense with metaphor and poetry, and all of this in an action movie; in the end though, Mad Max: Fury Road is just fun, pure and simple.

34.) Aloha [5/29/2015]

I was really looking forward to this movie: Bradley Cooper, Bill Murray, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, John Krasinski - what's not to like about that line up, especially in a movie written and directed by the guy who brought us Almost Famous and Jerry McGuire; in actuality, the movie was just okay and could have benefit from about another half-hour of explication to round out the character and plot development; still though, the performances by the above mentioned actors turned what was just a half-decent film into a watchable, if not ultimately forgettable, movie.

33.) Avengers: Age of Ultron [5/14/2015]

As far as movies with robots go, it was not as good as Ex Machina, and for superhero ensemble movies, it wasn't as good as the first Avengers movie (and a far shade paler than Guardians of the Galaxy); likely, though, this is a movie that fails by comparison, as my expectations for Marvel movies might now be untenable; I didn't dislike it (James Spader was great), but it just wasn't as good as others they've put out, and because of that, it feels more disappointing than it probably was.

32.) Ex Machina [5/7/2015]

There have been a lot of films about AI recently: Transcendence, Her, even Lucy to an extent, but Ex Machina is the one that most realistically deals with the question of cognizant machines; the whole cast was great, the film was stuffed with haunting imagery (particularly the scene concerning Oscar Isaac's closets), and the writing was great (the most Alex Garland-y of Alex Garland movies), so if you like deeply probing films about robots, than you should love this one, as I do and did.