My thoughts on Cinema in 2016

It's that time of year again folks! Where we sit down and realized that there were a ton of great films this year and that ultimately it gets tougher and tougher to rank them when so many are just as great as some others. Well without a further a due... here are my top 10 movies of the year!

1. Arrival
2. La La Land
3. The Nice Guys
4. Swiss Army Man
5. Don't Breath
6. Nocturnal Animals
7. Sing Street
8. The Lobster
9. Kubo and the Two Strings
10. Shin Godzilla

Now some films might have been better made than these or what have you but I honestly think that these films are what stood out to me the most when it came to how they looked sounded and ultimately made me feel leaving the theater. Now, there were plenty more than 10 movies that made me feel like there's a reason why I go to the theater weekly and sit down and watch these films of course. But I ultimately was able to chisel my list down to these 10. 

These next few movies though are movies that I considered for my list but when I started to actually rank them these just fell short of the list, now these aren't in any order except that out of all the movies that I saw these could have easily been placed in the bottom five of my list and I wouldn't have been ashamed about it.

Sausage Party
The Edge of Seventeen
Lights Out
Doctor Strange
Rogue One A Star Wars Story
Zootopia
Captain America: Civil War
The Jungle Book
Green Room
The Witch
Hush
Accountant
The Shallows
Hail Caesar
Ouija Origin of Evil
Sing
Hardcore Henry
Conjuring 2
Finding Dory
Star Trek Beyond
Moana 
Deadpool

Now when it came to my least favorite films of the year it was quite simple which ones I hated and which ones I despised. Now granted some movies just left me feeling dissapointed, like blair witch, in which case I was super excited back when it was calling it The Woods, then they went and let the cat out of the bag with the title of Blair witch and caused me to absolutely lose all excitement for it right there and then. Now without further a due here are my least favorite movies of the year. 

1. The Forest
2. Dirty Grandpa
3. The 5th Wave
4. How to be single
5. Fifty Shades of Black
6. Ride Along 2
7. Morgan
8. Alice Through the Looking Glass
9. Batman Vs Superman (Theatrical Edition)
10. Risen

And now here is the list of all the films I saw all year so you can get a better grasp behind my thinking of these list and how I got to the final conclusion.

1. Swiss Army Man
2. Finding Dory
3. Popstar
4. X-Men Apocalypse
5. Conjuring 2
6. The Nice Guys
7. The Lobster
8. Gods of Egypt
9. Hardcore Henry
10. The Witch
11. Green Room
12. Neighbors 2
13. The Jungle Book
14. Alice Through the Looking Glass
15. Captain America: Civil War
16. The Forest
17. Hush
18. Batman Vs Superman
19. The Boss
20. 10 Cloverfield Lane
21. Whisky Tango Foxtrot
22. Eddie the Eagle
23. Triple 9
24. London has fallen
25. Zootopia
26. Zoolander 2
27. Kung Fu Panda 3
28. Hail Caesar!
29. Risen
30. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
31. Deadpool
32. Fifty Shades of black
33. The 5th Wave
34. Dirty Grandpa
35. 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
36. Ride Along 2
37. How to be Single
38. The Boy
39. Sing Street
40. The secret life of Pets
41. Sing
42. Rogue One A Star Wars Story
43. La La Land
44. Office Christmas Party
45. Nocturnal Animals
46. Allied
47. Moana
48. Siren
49. Arrival
50. Doctor Strange
51. The Edge of Seventeen
52. Deepwater Horizon
53. Magnificent Seven
54. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
55. Ouija Origin of Evil
56. Shin Godzilla
57. The Girl on the train
58. don't breath
59. clown
60. Keanu
61. War Dogs
62. Sausage Party
63. Blair Witch
64. Sully
65. Storks
66. Masterminds
67. Kubo and the Two Strings
68. Batman The Killing Joke
69. How to be Single
70. The Brothers Grimsby
71. Lights Out
72. Suicide Squad
73. Ghostbusters
74. Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
75. The Purge Election Year
76. The Shallows
77. The Legend of Tarzan
78. Accountant
79. Morgan
80. Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them
81. Star Trek Beyond

The Secret Life of Pets (2016)

Director: Yarrow Cheney, Chris Renaud
Writer: Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio, Brian Lynch
Stars: Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart

Synopsis: 
Max (Louis C.K.) gets discouraged when his owner brings home a new dog, Duke (Eric Stonestreet), and because of their differences found themselves lost in the middle of New York. And must work together to found their way back home.

Review:
I'm just going to say it. This should have been called Pet Story, because it is the same exact plot of Toy Story. The first trailer released looked like this was just going to be about the title, the Secret Life of Pets, and probably have them actually going around New York and hanging with their friends, but then the more the trailers showed the more I noticed something, this was just going to be telling the story of Toy Story but with pets. And I was a bit sadly right.

Really if this movie's animation wasn't as beautiful as it is, and the characters weren't as great and hilarious as they are, I'd probably say that this was just a bland carbon copy of Toy Story, but the jokes and the animation and the voice acting do help this film out a lot. Kevin Hart's bunny character, Snowball, will probably annoy people depending on how they feel about Kevin Hart's comedy, because all he really does is his yelling type of line delivery, which I enjoy to an extent and was worried that it would get on my nerves, but because of how his character is, a psychotic bunny, I feel like it works well here.

Like I said the characters are all great, and even though I only enjoy some cats and am more of a dog person the cat named Chloe (Lake Bell) stole the show for me with every scene she was in. All the other characters though are great and spot on with their personalities. But the movie did lose points to me for copying off of Toy Story and not doing it's own thing.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Recommendation: See it if you're an animal person and don't mind it being a copy cat of Toy Story, but maybe rent it if you enjoyed the first trailer and thought it would be something original.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016)

Director: Jake Szymanski
Writers: Andrew Jay Cohen, Brendan O'Brien
Stars: Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick, Adam Devine, Aubrey Plaza

Synopsis:
Mike and Dave are two brothers that tend to get a little rowdy at family functions, so in order to keep them in control their family decides that instead of them being single and getting rowdy they should each find a date that would be able to keep them under control though out the week of their sister's wedding.

Review:
This movie honestly made me more upset at Dirty Grandpa earlier this year above all else, because Zac Efron and Aubrey Plaza showed that they can be really funny to me when their material is actually pretty good. Unlike in Dirty Grandpa where it felt like they were just trying to make something out of nothing and more than anything just get on my nerves more than make me laugh, but this one really did work for me. Anna Kendrick and Adam Devine really bring the laughs with them as well, which I'm glad because I thought they were both great in the pitch perfect films together so I was hoping they'd be just as good in this one. The story is a bit been there done that and I do think that some people might not like this and that some people might think some gags go a bit too far and too long but I didn't think that was the case. Honestly it's a bit of a squeeze between this Popstar and The Boss between which comedy is the best so far this year, I think Popstar would still take the cake.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Recommendation: See it

The Purge: Election Year (2016)

Director: James DeManaco
Writer: James DeMonaco
Stars: Frank Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchell, Mykelti Williamson

Synopsis:
Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell) is running for president to end the Purge once and for all but the new founding fathers don't agree with her and try to set up her assassination during the annual Purge sending her and her body guard Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) out on the streets to fend for themselves throughout the night.

Review:
The Purge movie series is one of the few series that I know that can actually improve upon themselves with each release. I thought the first one was a bit silly but still wasn't a waste of my time, but then I saw the second one and was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed it, even though it did still have its problems. This one though not only was it just as enjoyable as the last one, but a lot of the narrative problems I had with the last one have actually been improved upon to make this one my favorite and actually a bit excited if they do tend to make another one. This isn't perfect, there were a few things that did make me roll my eyes but they didn't linger as much though out the film like the last one's problematic portions did.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Recommendation: See it

The Legend of Tarzan (2016)

Director: David Yates
Writers: Adam Cozad, Craig Brewer
Stars: Alexander Skarsgard, Christoph Waltz, Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson

Synopsis:
Set years after Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgard) met Jane (Margot Robbie) and moved into civilization. He is asked to return to the jungle with George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson) and help investigate mining activities that are happening in the Congo.

Review:
This movie is serviceable. It respects the source materials and it looks great. Samuel L. Jackson is a blast as usual, and the rest of the cast does what they're suppose to do but this movie is mainly bland and boring most of the time. I honestly feel like if Samuel L. Jackson didn't bring in the much needed comic relief this movie would be mostly forgettable, especially compared to the animated movie.
But I do think that if you're a huge fan of the character of Tarzan then this is at least worth a look.

Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5

Recommendation:  Rent it

The Shallows (2016)

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Writer: Anthony Jaswinski
Stars: Blake Lively, Oscar Jaenada, Lozano Corzo

Synopsis: 
Nancy (Blake Lively) is on the search for an island her deceased mother had found when she was pregnant with her many years ago and she encounters a shark in the surrounding waters only a couple hundred yards away from shore.

Review:
This movie is the best shark movie since Jaws, which honestly hasn't had an honest contest considering not many other shark films, if any, before this even touched the bar set by Jaws 41 years ago. That isn't to say that this movie isn't good, it's quite unnerving and terrifying honestly. This is this generation's Jaws because along with being filmed with a Go Pro camera a tiny bit, the use of cell phones and Instagram being apparent in this movie even video calling shows up in a scene, this movie makes you afraid of the water again.
Now I would still say that Jaws is a better film but I would be shocked if something could be released today with the amount of heart and suspense that surrounds Jaws and makes it the classic it is. But with the white knuckle thrills and amount of tension that this movie delivers makes it a worthy competitor and could be used as a nice opener for a summer double header at a drive-in or at home next year with jaws.

Rating: 4 1/2 Stars

Recommendation: See it

Swiss Army Man (2016)

Director: Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
Writers: Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
Stars: Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Synopsis:
It starts out with Hank (Paul Dano) being stranded on an island and loosing all hope on being saved and is setting up to hang himself until he finds Manny (Daniel Radcliffe) washed up ashore. The only problem is that Manny is dead. The thought of love though does seem to reanimate Manny, more progressively the more he can remember what love was. Through this reanimation progress Hank realizes Manny's potential at being a helpful tool in helping Hank return to civilization.

Review:
Swiss Army Man is every bit as original as it is hilarious. I can't exactly remember a movie this charming and every bit bizarre as this movie was. Now I can guess that there probably are going to be some people that watch this and want to walk out or turn it off within the first 10 or so minutes because of the bizarre content in this film, but it does reward those who stay by delivering a once in a lifetime cinematic experience that I'd love to experience again before it leaves theaters.

Rating: 5 Stars

Recommendation: See it