The 2015 Movies That Need to Be on Your Radar

You don't need us to tell you that you should look forward to Avengers: Age of Ultron or Ant-Man or Mad Max: Fury Road. It's not that we have anything against megablockbuster movies. Far from it, as they're absolutely some of our most anticipated movies of the year. But odds are they're all on your radar already.

So we want to turn your attention to a boatload of other movies coming out in 2015 that we should all be looking forward to. We're sure you've heard of many of these, just keep them in mind when you're counting down the days to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Auteur Directors with New Movies

Blackhat - Michael Mann (Heat, Miami Vice, The Insider). A thriller about an unrealistically handsome hacker (Chris Hemsworth) that the U.S. government has to trust in order to save the free world may not sound like a Michael Mann plot, but hey, we'll watch anything he makes.

Selfless - Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall). About an incredibly wealthy old guy who cheats death by having his consciousness transferred into the body of a young man, only to discover there are unexpected strings attached to the operation.

Untitled Cameron Crowe Project - Cameron Crowe (Say Anything, Vanilla Sky, Almost Famous). Let's just rattle off this cast list: Bill Murray, Rachel McAdams, Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Jay Baruchel, John Krasinski and Danny McBride.

Ricki and the Flash - Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married). Meryl Streep stars as an old rock star who tries to reconnect with her estranged family.

Regression - Alejandro Amenábar (Thesis, Open Your Eyes, The Others, The Sea Inside). Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson star in this thriller about a father who is about to go to jail for committing a crime he has no memory of.

The Visit - M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable). Two young kids visit their grandparents. Presumably M. Night Shyamalan-y things happen after that. He may have earned himself a bad reputation with his last few films, but this is his attempt to make a small, under-the-radar thriller again, and we hope it pays off.

Triple Nine - John Hillcoat (The Proposition, The Road, Lawless). Kate Winslet, Aaron Paul and Norman Reedus star in this crime drama about corrupt cops who plan the murder of a rookie on one side of town in order to pull off a heist on the other side of town.

The Sea of Trees - Gus Van Sant (Elephant, Good Will Hunting, Milk). Matthew McConaughey stars in this drama about an American who plans to commit suicide in Japan's infamous forest at the base of Mount Fuji. There he meets a local man (Ken Watanabe), and together the two contemplate life.

A-List Directors Making Period Pieces That Are Probably Already on Every Oscar Short List

Untitled Cold War Spy Thriller - Steven Spielberg's latest collaboration with Tom Hanks is about a lawyer who is recruited by the CIA during the Cold War to help rescue a pilot that's being held prisoner in the U.S.S.R.

Silence - Martin Scorese's historical drama about two priests who are persecuted for their beliefs when they travel to Japan in the 1600s.

The Hateful Eight - Quentin Tarantino's latest is set in the late 1800s and follows a bunch of bounty hunters that all find themselves trapped in the same saloon during a blizzard.

The Walk - Robert Zemeckis directs this retelling of legendary wirewalker Philippe Petit's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) attempt to cross between the tops of the World Trade Center buildings in the '70s.

Who Doesn't Love a Small-Scale Drama?

Straight Outta Compton - A biopic about the rise of the rap group NWA in the '80s. We're guessing this is going to be a bit more raw and rowdy than your average movie about music icons.

Jane Got a Gun - Natalie Portman stars in this Western about a woman who has to turn to an old lover to help save her current husband from the people who want to murder him.

Sicario - Emily Blunt stars in this thriller about an FBI agent who goes to work for the CIA to attempt to take down a Mexican drug cartel. That sounds like gold as it is, but this is also the new movie from Enemy and Prisoners director Denis Villeneuve, who has yet to make a bad thriller.

The Revenant - Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy star in this Western about murder, mystery and revenge for Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu. At the very least, that duo should make for one of the best showdowns of the year.

Sequels That Didn't Cost $100,000,000 to Make

Pitch Perfect 2 - If you don't love the first Pitch Perfect, you should probably just move along now. But if you're like us and can practically quote it by heart already, you should go ahead and carve May 15, 2015 into your calendar. And if you haven't seen Pitch Perfect, get on that already. It's hilarious.

Sinister 2 - The first Sinister is one of the scariest movies of the last few years. That's a tough title to live up to, but we're curious to see if they can pull it off this time around.

Magic Mike XXL - Magic Mike is just a flat-out fun movie, and we're guessing the sequel is going to dial down the drama a bit and instead milk all the comedy out of the behind-the-scenes life of male strippers.

Comedies We Hope to Break Ribs Laughing At

Trainwreck - Judd Apatow directing a script from the very funny, very vulgar Amy Schumer. And it stars Tilda Swinton, Randall Park, Brie Larson, Bill Hader, Marisa Tomei and many more.

That's What I'm Talking About - This is director Richard Linklater's spiritual sequel to his own Dazed & Confused, which promises to do with the '80s what that movie did with the '70s.

Sisters - Tina Fey and Amy Poehler star in this movie about two sisters who plan to throw one last big party in the house they grew up in before their parents sell it. Bonus: from the director of Pitch Perfect.

The Taliban Shuffle - Tina Fey, Martin Freeman and Margot Robbie star in this comedy about a journalist remembering her time as a war correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Plus, that's just one of the best titles of the year.

Horror Movies We Don't Know Much About, and That's Exciting

The Devil's Candy - We really don't know anything about this movie except that it's from Sean Byrnes, the director of the awesome Australian movie The Loved Ones, and that it's produced by Snoot Entertainment (You're Next, The Guest). We're pretty excited based on those names alone.

The Invitation - Most people hated Jennifer's Body, we're going to pin a lot of that to people just bagging on Diablo Cody and not the actual movie director Karyn Kusama delivered, which is fun and icky in all the right ways. So we're very curious to see what she does with a movie about a man who is convinced his dinner-party hosts are trying to kill him.

XX - Karyn Kusama also directed a segment of this upcoming horror anthology helmed entirely by women directors. She's joined by the fantastic likes of Sofia Carrillo, Mary Harron, Jennifer Lynch and Jovanka Vuckovic.

Krampus - And here's director Michael Dougherty promising to do with Christmas what his Trick 'r Treat did with Halloween.

Sci-fi Movies That Embrace a Budget

Midnight Special - Mud and Take Shelter director Jeff Nichols is making a movie starring Michael Shannon, Adam Driver, Kirsten Dunst, Joel Edgerton and Sam Shepard. That's exciting enough on its own, but it's also about a father and son who go on the run after he finds out his son has psychic powers. That makes this one of our absolute most anticipated movies of 2015.

Ex Machina - A movie about two men competing for the affection of an artificial intelligence is interesting. Cast those two men as Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac, and we're more than a little intrigued. Throw in this as the directorial debut of The Beach, Sunshine and Dredd screenwriter Alex Garland, and now we're just crazy for it.

The Lazarus Effect - Olivia Wilde, Mark Duplass and Donald Glover star in this movie about med students who start pushing on the boundary of life and death. Basically, we're hoping for a new generation's Flatliners.

Family Movies That'll Warm Our Hearts

Paddington - You're probably thinking that the trailers for this haven't been very great, and you'd be right, but so far Paddington has gotten absolute rave reviews from critics who have seen it and are hailing it as one of the best family movies in years. That shouldn't really be a surprise, though, considering this comes from Harry Potter series producer David Hyman.

Peanuts - A CGI Peanuts movie sounds like a bad idea, but everything from this movie so far just looks absolutely delightful.

The Jungle Book - Jon Favreau's Iron Man is great and all but the director is often at his best when making family movies. So if his version of The Jungle Book can have the same magic as Elf and Zathura, we may be in for a new classic.

Action Movies We Hope Kick Our Ass

The Night Comes for Us - The last time directors Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Evans wrote and directed a movie together, the result was Safe Haven, the crazy cult segment of V/H/S/2. They both wrote the script for this, with Tjahjanto directing the bulk of it and Evans handling the action scenes. That alone should be exciting enough, but it also stars Joe Taslim (The Raid, Fast & Furious 6) and Julie Estelle (Hammer Girl from The Raid 2).

Hardcore - From producer Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) comes an action movie that is told entirely from the first-person perspective of a cyborg trying to chase down the telekinetic tyrant who has kidnapped his wife. That's our kind of nuts.

Run All Night - This is the third time Liam Neeson has starred in a thriller for director Jaume Collet-Serra, and considering Unknown and Non-Stop are both solid guilty pleasures, we expect the same here. Plus, Liam Neeson as a former hitman is obviously a must-see.

Remakes and Reboots We Really, Really Hope Won't Suck

Poltergeist - We're not dying for a remake of the classic '80s haunted-house movie, but since it is inevitable, we're at least glad that Sam Raimi is producing and that Monster House's Gil Kenan is directing.

The Transporter Legacy - The Transporter series isn't exactly an untouchable franchise, so new entries aren't exactly going to tarnish its pristine reputation. We just hope that it can introduce the world to a new Jason Statham with new star Ed Skrein.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - A feature-film reboot of the TV series about American spies trying to take down international crime syndicates. Most people who will see the movie have probably never even seen the show, so hopefully Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes) can give them a good reason to look it up.

Terminator: Genisys - We're just tired of bad Terminator movies. Please don't let this one suck.

2014 Festival Movies That Are Finally Coming Out in 2015

What We Do in the Shadows - A New Zealand vampire comedy from Flight of the Conchords' collaborators Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. Everyone who has seen it since Sundance 2014 has loved it.

It Follows - One of the most refreshing horror movies we've seen in ages. We're so glad audiences all over will get to discover it early 2015. Go in knowing as little as possible and you'll be golden.

Spring - Imagine if in the Before Sunset series one of the people in the relationship was hiding a supernatural secret. That's not exactly what Spring is, but if you picture that then you've got a good starting point for this cool new movie from the guy's who made Resolution.

The Voices - Ryan Reynolds in a dark comedy about a guy who starts killing people after his talking cat and dog tell him to.

Movies Starring Aging Actors We're Glad Haven't Retired Yet

Mr. Holmes - Ian McKellen stars as an old, retired Sherlock Holmes who starts to reflect back on a case he could never solve.

Green Room - Patrick Stewart leads a gang of neo-Nazis who torment a young punk rock band. Bonus: from the director of Blue Ruin.

A Walk in the Woods - Robert Redford and Nick Nolte star in this movie as two old guys who decide to hike all 2,100 miles of the Appalachian trail.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Ba-dum-ching!

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