12 Surprisingly Good Movies From 2015 (So Far)

Even in a movie year as stacked as 2015, there are tons of movies that audiences either won't watch or go in with low expectations for, simply because what trailers have shown off suggests a film that's lazy, best saved for a lazy Netflix Sunday, or perhaps just flat-out terrible. These 12 movies, for a variety of reasons, all invited these expectations for many viewers (and is it any surprise that almost half the list is spin-offs and sequels?), yet the pleasant surprise is that, in fact, each over-delivered compared to what most had let themselves in for. Whether they flew high over the bar audiences had set for the movie or cleared it effortlessly, these films are the year's most pleasant surprises so far, from cash-grab sequels that nevertheless entertained, to stuffy art-house fare that proved surprisingly effervescent, and of course, the single most troubled project in recent Hollywood history (and no, it's not Terminator Genisys).

12. Minions

What Everyone Expected: A cash-grab that goes one step too far by taking the cute sidekicks from the Despicable Me franchise and dumping them in their own wildly unnecessary movie, without the necessary charm to make it succeed. What It Was: Yes, few will argue that Minions isn't an attempt to milk the cash cow, and yes, it's totally unnecessary given how much screen time they already get in the Despicable Me series, but it's also unexpectedly hilarious, and sees out its brief run-time surprisingly well. The plot is utter nonsense, but the film is all the better for it: it never sits still in one place for too long, firing out one insane sight gag after another, while human voice performances from Sandra Bullock and Jon Hamm in particular are a ton of fun. It's not high art, and it was always going to be divisive, but considering the limp and lazy effort it could've been, it's surprisingly well-constructed and giddily entertaining.