1 - The Gift

Don't be fooled by the terrible trailer that made The Gift seem like a B-horror film, The Gift is one of the better films of 2015. It also happens to be one of the better thrillers in recent memory, a genre that has been neglected in recent years. The Gift is written, directed and also stars Joel Edgerton. He hasn't become a household name yet, but he's been turning out quality work for years now. He's probably one of those actors that is more recognizable by face than name, a fact that should soon change.  Edgerton also gave a standout performance opposite Johnny Depp in Black Mass. Jason Bateman also gives a solid performance.  It was interesting to see him in a drama. I thought he did a great job. I won't go into any detail about the plot.  The Gift is the kind of film that will benefit from not knowing a whole lot going in. It should be at the very top of any rental list.

2 - Bone Tomahawk

Don’t be fooled by the fact that there are two high-profile Western films (Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and The Revenant) coming out in the next week, both of which will be featured prominently come Oscar night, the genre has essentially gone extinct from the modern movie landscape. Enter Bone Tomahawk, a film that feels very much like many classic Westerns, but with a Cowboys Vs. Cannibals twist.  Kurt Russell, who can also be seen in The Hateful Eight, stars as a Sheriff that must rescue kidnapped townsfolk from reclusive cannibals. The fantastic cast is rounded out by Richard Jenkins, Patrick Wilson and a scene-stealing Matthew Fox. Bone Tomahawk isn’t on anybody’s radar, a true deep find, but worth the watch for fans of the genre.

3 - Beasts of No Nation

Netflix has created a lot of great original content in the world of TV, but Beasts of No Nation was their first shot at the big screen.  Well, kind of.  Most movie theaters boycotted the film and refused to screen it.  Relegating Beasts to be lumped in with the hundreds of straight to streaming stinkers on Netflix.  That's too bad because this is not some second rate film.  It has a big time actor in Idris Elba, who gives a powerhouse performance, and a director in Cary Fukunaga that has caught fire after season 1 of True Detective. Beasts isn't for everybody though. If you're surfing around Netflix looking for something light and fluffy to watch, Beasts of No Nation is not for you. The film is straight up vicious. Watching bright, loving young boys being turned into savage killers is even more distubing than I ever would have thought. That said, there's no excuse for anybody with a Netflix subscription to pass on Beasts.

4 - It Follows

It’s a shame when you see so many terrible horror films make millions of dollars and then spawn countless sequels, then an actual good horror film with an original premise comes along and it barely cracks 15 million at the box office. It Follows features rising star Maika Monroe (who stole scenes last year in The Guest, (my #2 Most Underrated Film of 2014). It Follows has a great 80’s vibe and the film really seems to be channeling films like Halloween. The soundtrack is another major plus of the film. The use of pounding synthesizers really amped-up the intensity of certain scenes. It Follows isn’t filled with tons of scares, but it’s the unsettling nature of the film that you will walk away remembering the most.

5 - The Walk

Nothing intrigues me more than what makes one film become a blockbuster, and another film bomb. It’s like a mystery, trying to figure out which factors led to the film’s poor showing. The Walk is a perfect example. It has a successful, name brand director in Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Back to the Future), a well known actor on top of his game in Joseph Gordon-Levitt and one of the most recognizable structures of all time - The World Trade Center. What went wrong? Is it the fact that the tragedy of 9/11 is still too close to people’s hearts? Is it the simple fact that people just plain don’t like heights and didn’t want to torture themselves for two hours? Who knows, but the fact is that The Walk is a really good film. It plays much like a heist film in many ways and ends up being a bitter sweet love letter to the Twin Towers themselves. The Walk is also a perfect film to see on the big screen. Zemeckis does a great job of conveying height and depth. You really do feel like you’re on that wire with Petit. I only wish I could have seen the film in 3D.

6 - Bridge of Spies

Bridge of Spies performed pretty respectably at the box office, especially factoring in its fairly meager budget. I can’t help but feel like the film is being somewhat underrated, mainly in regards to awards season. This seems to ring even more true when you look at the pedigree of names attached to the film. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have been Oscar darlings for years.  However, it’s a new name and face garnering the most attention and that is Mark Rylance. Rylance plays a Russian spy caught by the American government. Rylance’s performance is really what carries the whole film. He’s not portrayed as an evil man, but a good man and a good soldier, doing a job for his country. Just like an American soldier would be asked to do. There’s not a lot of spectacle to Bridge of Spies. Nothing blows up and there are zero bullets fired, it’s just a well made film aimed towards adults.

7 - The Visit

The Visit actually did quite well at the box office, but I still consider it underrated.  Mainly because it’s a better film than people are giving it credit for. It seems like the popular refrain from those that have seen The Visit is shock that it wasn’t as bad as M. Night Shyamalan’s recent films. That’s hardly a great endorsement and it’s not fair because The Visit is a solid horror film that does a great job of building tension. I’m not a fan of the found footage genre, but The Visit handles it well. The two children in the film did a fantastic job and the film kept me guessing the whole time. I’ve always loved Shyamalan’s early films, and I’m hoping The Visit marks the beginning of a Shyamalanaissance. (Spread it around, let’s make it a thing).

8 - Run All Night

I get it. People are experiencing Liam Neeson fatigue. Every trailer cut of his films make them all seem exactly the same. That wasn’t the case last year with A Walk Among the Tombstones, and that’s not the case with Run All Night.  Both films aren’t your standard Neeson action flick. Neeson plays the exact opposite of every other character he normally plays. To put it bluntly, he’s a scumbag. He’s a deadbeat dad with a nasty drinking problem, until one day his son kills the son of a former mob boss Neeson used to work for. The boss is played by Ed Harris, who’s always good, and the relationship between he and Neeson is the crux of the film. Run All Night is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who also directed Neeson in another underrated film from last year, Non-Stop.

9 - Child 44

Nobody saw Child 44, that’s just a fact.  I, however, would watch Tom Hardy act in a film about the history of the phone book. Two of Hardy’s films from 2014 made my Most Underrated Films list last year (#1 - The Drop, #4 Locke). I’m not sure what turned people off about the film, but it’s a pretty decent mystery.  Yes, it’s slow and a bit bloated at times and could have benefited from just focusing on the mystery, a common pitfall of films that are adapted from a novel. With that being said, it has a great cast and a solid mystery. As for Hardy, he continues to be one of the hardest working actors in Hollywood. This year he also starred in Mad Max: Fury Road, Legend and The Revenant, a role he’s getting Oscar buzz for. I better stop there because I could go on forever about what a quality actor Hardy has become.

10 - Tomorrowland

Everything Disney touches lately turns to gold. Star Wars, any Pixar film and any Marvel film. Pure gold. Not the case for Tomorrowland. On paper, the film doesn’t look like it did that bad, with a domestic gross of almost 100 million dollars. Then again, the film’s budget was close to 200 million. The film was supposed to rake in triple that and take the world by storm, igniting the imagination of adults and children alike. Except, it just didn’t happen. I’m not really sure why either. The film features George Clooney and boasts some slick visuals, you would think it’s the kind of film that’s ripe to gather a following. To me, the biggest culprit is the fact that the film was an original property. It’s been proven that mainstream audiences shy away from films that aren’t a sequel or based on another property. Then there’s the fact that a lot of people just didn’t really like the film. I actually thought it was pretty good. Hollywood doesn’t make films about young people on an adventures anymore, and that’s what Tomorrowland is. The film is worth a watch for young actress Raffey Cassidy.  She manages to outshine Hollywood royalty in George Clooney.