W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

[W]

I decided to make my own place for my thoughts and ratings on the films I have seen, want to see, etc for 2016. Maybe I'll comment on the stuff I've seen so far in the next few days. My ratings are pretty generous and it bells out around a 6-7. You can see on the right here: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur21315095/?ref_=nv_usr_prof_0 if you really want to. They can raise or lower later in the year depending on what sticks with me. If something has been to theaters this year and you think I need to see it, let me know. Or, if there's something on my maybe list that I shouldn't watch let me know that too.

Fucking Amazing! 10/10
1. Green Room
2. 10 Cloverfield Lane

Excellent 9/10
3. Hacksaw Ridge
4. Me Before You
5. The Accountant
6. Hell or High Water
7. Doctor Strange
8. Deadpool
9. The Jungle Book
10. Race
11. Finding Dory
12. Zootopia

Very Good 8/10
13. Central Intelligence
14. Eddie the Eagle
15. Moana
16. War Dogs
17. Suicide Squad
18. The Secret Life of Pets
19. The Legend of Tarzan
20. Warcraft
21. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
22. I Saw the Light
23. Neighbors 2
24. Eye in the Sky
25. Keanu
26. Hardcore Henry

Good 7/10
27. The Man Who Knew Infinity
28. Sully
29. Magnificent 7
30. Queen of Katwe
31. Brother's Grimsby
32. The Nice Guys
33. Captain America: Civil War
34. Sausage Party
35. Money Monster
36. Kung Fu Panda 3
37. Free State of Jones
38. Star Trek Beyond
39. Now You See Me 2
40. Snowden
41. Arrival

Passable 6/10
42. Middle School
43. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
44. Demolition
45. 13 Hours
46. Hail, Caesar!
47. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
48. Popstar
49. Huntsman: Winter's War
50. X-Men: Apocalypse
51. Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
52. The Lobster
53. Girl on the Train
54. The BFG
55. Angry Birds
56. Dirty Grandpa

Not Good 5/10
57. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
58. Alice: Through the Looking Glass
59. Bad Moms
60. Zoolander 2
61. Ride Along 2
62. Triple 9
63. Inferno
64. London Has Fallen
65. Barbershop 3
66. Ghostbusters

Straight Up Bad 4/10
67. Independence Day: Resurgence
68. The Bronze
69. The Boss
70. The 5th Wave
71. Allegiant

License to Make Films Should Be Revoked 2/10
72. Norm of the North

Stuff That I Haven't Seen Yet (But Will): Deepwater Horizon, Loving, Arrival, Billy Lynn
Stuff I Missed and May or May Not See (probably on my phone): Search Party, Miles Ahead, Everybody Wants Some, Midnight Special, Sing Street, The Witch, Pride/Prejudice/Zombies, Gods of Egypt, How to Be Single, The Forest, The Boy, The Shallows, Swiss Army Man, Jason Bourne, Captain Fantastic, Anthropoid, Nerve, Florence Foster Jenkins, Don't Breathe

[Buscemi]

I'm probably seeing The Man Who Knew Infinity on Saturday. It's already down to one show a day here.

I did my rankings earlier this month on Facebook.

Best: Hardcore Henry
Worst: Cabin Fever
Best performance: (tie) Don Cheadle (Miles Ahead) and Kate Siegel (Hush)
Worst performance: Melissa Rauch (The Bronze)
Best film not released theatrically: Jim: The James Foley Story (went to HBO after its Sundance premiere)
Biggest surprise: The Jungle Book
Biggest disappointment: (tie) The Witch and Search Party
Better than the critics said: Hardcore Henry, Batman v. Superman
Worse than the critics said: The Witch

[Chienfantome]

W, you gotta see "Everybody wants some" and "Midnight Special" which are on your maybe list. Two of my favourite films of the year so far.

[numbersix]

I also think you'd dig Sing Street, so do consider seeing it (and that's not because my friend produced it)

[W]

I don't know if we got Everybody Wants Some and I think we only got Midnight Special for like a week (if at all). Maybe they're just not here yet... I just got out of The Man Who Knew Infinity a few minutes ago.

[JohnErle]

I've seen a grand total of 4 new movies this year, so the only thing you haven't seen or aren't already planning to see is The Witch, which I loved.

And I'm always surprised by how little IMDB has done to add a social element to their comprehensive database. I can view your profile, and it shows me a bit of a comparison between our tastes, but there's no way I know of to get updates when your friends rate new movies, etc.

I know I added someone here as an IMDB friend ages ago (Six?) but there's no way to even save a link to your friends' profiles.

[W]

I may watch The Witch. It was intriguing when I saw the trailer and all the reviews came out. I tend to stay away from horror film. I'm more a fan of suspense than jump scares and gore for gore's sake. And you typically have to wade through a ton of crap to find a good horror film. I don't think this is that kind of movie. I was leaning towards seeing it whenever the digital copy makes its way to me.

As for The Man Who Knew Infinity, I'm going between a 6 and 7 on this one. It's a lot like The Imitation Game, but much slower and with no urgency. It is a good, well acted movie but has been done better. I like knowing someone like the main character has existed and would like some more information about him. The are a couple of plots that are obviously pulled out of thin air or embellished in an attempt at the urgency the film needs. It's fine if they do it, but it didn't work for me and I like my biopics to not be obvious about it. Still a good film and Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Toby Jones, and the wife are all pretty good in it.

[Ron Burgundy]

Wow, you've been absolutely chewing up 2016. I've only seen a handful of 2016 films, thanks in part to my new job.

I started Norm of the North, got about 5 mins in. Credit you got through it!

Will most likely watch Eddie the eagle and race tonight. Should get the blood pumping

[numbersix]

Early days for me, with only about 33 out of an average of 100 films seen this year. From what I have seen here are my rough rankings

THE GREAT
The Witch
Raw
Little Men


THE GOOD
Midnight Special
Green Room
The Invitation
Under the Shadow
The Handmaiden
Sing Street
High Rise
Miles Ahead
Hail Caeser
10 Cloverfield Lane
Hush
Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures
Holidays
The Survivalist


THE OKAY
Bang Gang
Deadpool
Batman V Superman
My Beautiful Broken Brain
Triple 9
The Dancer
Evolution
X-Men Apocalypse


THE BAD
War on Everyone
Jane Got A Gun
Cherry Tree

[W]

Wow, you've been absolutely chewing up 2016. I've only seen a handful of 2016 films, thanks in part to my new job.

I started Norm of the North, got about 5 mins in. Credit you got through it!

Will most likely watch Eddie the eagle and race tonight. Should get the blood pumping

Well, my job is literally right across the street from our two movie theaters (both AMC, instead of building a giant 18 screen theater they left the original 6 and built a 12 right next to it). Movies start between fifteen minutes before I get off work and 45 minutes after (I can usually find one that starts the minute I can leave work). That combined with Movie Pass ($30 a month to see one movie every day), I'm pretty much in the utopia of movie-going.

I'll start off my review backlog chronologically with the three released 1/15:

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi 7/10: A very passable film that's much better than Michael Bay's perception. I've liked everything he's done not named Pearl Harbor or Transformers. I think he gets a bad rap (though those horrible ones I mentioned are like half of his directing credits), I mean The Rock, Bad Boys, Pain & Gain... I love Armageddon and The Island though and I know most don't. I'm pretty staunchly independent politically, so I didn't really watch this through red or blue colored glasses and viewed it as a pure war film. This is like a modern day rescue mission turned Black Hawk Down. It seems pretty well written, well acted, and well directed. I love Pablo Schriber popping up in this. It makes me wish they'd renewed the HBO show The Brink. It is Michael Bay, so you know there will be explosions. The action is great and seems technically spot on, militarily. So if you like these kind of military films and can go in without a political slant, you'll like it.

Ride Along 2 5/10: The first one was a good popcorn movie and this one is merely and ok popcorn movie. It's nice to see Ken Jeong in almost any comedy where he's not playing Mr. Chow. It's Ice Cube doing Ice Cube stuff and Kevin Hart doing Kevin Hart stuff, which is fun, but nothing groundbreaking. You know what this is.

Norm of the North 2/10: It's pretty much the worst thing I've seen in a while. I took my daughter to it because there was nothing else to see and we see most animated films together. The only thing that saved this from a 1 was that the animation was visually decent. Nothing in the film made sense at all. It was horribly written and edited. They call back to things that (I hope) were cut. They cast Rob Schneider as the main character. I mean, Adam Sandler hasn't done that in over ten years. My kid hated it and she likes everything we go see.

[numbersix]

Oh and if The Lobster was a 2016 film for me, it would probably be close to #1

[JohnErle]

I may watch The Witch. It was intriguing when I saw the trailer and all the reviews came out. I tend to stay away from horror film. I'm more a fan of suspense than jump scares and gore for gore's sake. And you typically have to wade through a ton of crap to find a good horror film. I don't think this is that kind of movie. I was leaning towards seeing it whenever the digital copy makes its way to me.

Definitely check out The Witch then. There's tons of suspense, only one subtle jump scare, and no gore to speak of. It's the kind of horror film that keeps me coming back to the genre despite countless disappointments.

[W]

1/22 and 1/29

The 5th Wave 4/10: Basically they scraped the bottom of the YA barrel and pulled this out. These things are getting progressively worse and make less and less sense. Why make the kids be soldiers and not just take over their brain? You care pretty much zero about the characters, the action sequences, etc. There are multiple scenes meant to be gut wrenching and you really don't care. And instead of making it it's own contained movie they thought they made a franchise so even if you liked the film you're disappointed.

Dirty Grandpa: On the very edge of passable is Dirty Grandpa. It's got some gross out humor, but is extremely forgettable. Four months out from watching it and I can't remember a single joke. To me, the best pure comedies are super quotable and are recalled with a group of friends when something happens (The Hangover, Billy Madison, The Big Lebowski, etc). This is not one of those. I'm pretty much always happy to see Aubrey Plaza and Jason Mantzoukas in any comedy, though, and without them it would have gotten a worse ratings. There are better things to do with an hour and a half, but there are worse too.

Kung Fu Panda 3 7/10: If you've got kids, there are much worse things you can see than a new Kung Fu Panda movie. They're generally well made. This one was as well. They're generally about acceptance, belonging, and family. Jack Black really embodies Po like very few other star actors in animation.

[W]

2/5, 2/12

Hail, Caesar! 7/10: A pretty average Coen Brothers movie, which is better than most films. I didn't care a ton for Clooney and Brolin was ok, but the secondary characters really stole the show specifically new Han Solo, Alden Ehrenreich.

Deadpool 9/10: A refreshing take on the superhero genre. Funny, action packed, and vulgar. The less boundaries you put in a film the greater it can be so it's good to see an R-rated superhero film (though he's really not a "hero"). I love the spectacle of tons of heroes flying all over the place, but things can be even better with just a couple. When it gets to the point where you're destroying an all-powerful being or saving the universe from an alien threat then Iron Man fighting Whiplash becomes irrelevant (where's Thor?). It's good to see what's basically a revenge film about an abnormal guy that just wants a normal life with the person he loves.

Zoolander 2 5/10: It disappointed my already low expectations. I hoped against hope that they would do something that rivaled the first one, but to no avail. Pretty much every joke fell flat every comedic performance was worse than the original and pretty much every new face brought in didn't pan out. The cameos were terrible. The first one was super quotable, with tons of rewatchability. This one tried to be the same thing fifteen years later and came off stale.

[W]

2/19, 2/26

Race 9/10: One of the better films of the year so far. Jason Sudekis is excellent in his first dramatic role (or at least the first one I've seen him in) as the washed up sprinter turned Ohio State coach. I'd give him the best guest actor in a comedy series Emmy for Last Man on Earth, but that's another thing... The unknown to me Stephan James is excellent as a Jesse Owens and they show the character's flaws as well as strengths. It was well told and one of the best parts was the subplot of Leni Riefenstahl, the German director best known for Triumph of the Will, (played by Carice van Houten from Game of Thrones) who seemingly wants to make the best documentary about the games that she can. The guy that plays Goebbels is really great as well. It is pretty excellent all around.

Eddie the Eagle 8/10: A pretty saccharine Olympic story starring Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman. Heartfelt sports films are one of the (almost) can't miss genres for me and this is one of the better ones. This is like a slightly more serious Cool Runnings based on Eddie Edwards, a hope filled nobody that becomes England's best (and pretty much only) ski jumper. Taron Egerton really gets into the role and gives one of the better performances so far this year. Jackman is his usual charming self.

Triple 9 5/10: A pretty meh dark for dark's sake, crooked cops type film. The cast is pretty much the only reason I watched this and it really doesn't pan out. You don't care whatsoever about the characters and I just wanted the thing to end.