Baumer's best 42 films of 2016 (and 12 worst) and Ruk's breakdown of 2016 films (Finished!)

[rukaio101]

Also, on a different note, I'm saving my Top 10 until tomorrow, along my thoughts on a few 'Honorable mentions' (aka, movies I managed to watch after starting this list, like Hacksaw Ridge and The Handmaiden).

 

Until then, people are welcome to take a guess at what I've got. I know at least 4 of the movies on it should be incredibly easy to guess by process of elimination and I've given hints around the forum for most of the rest. As for more concrete clues, in my Top 10, I've got...

 

Two Animated movies

Two Horror movies

Four Foreign Language movies

One Documentary

Only 2 have been nominated for any Oscars. 

As of this date, only 3 have made more than $40m DOM

At least 4 of these should be really damn predictable for me. 

And finally, I will be amazed if anyone manages to correctly predict my No 1.

[Tower]

Regarding Suicide Squad, while I recognise its flaws and I definitely wouldn't put it in my top 10, I still genuinely had a good time watching it and thought it was better than plenty of other films this year.

[baumer]

1 hour ago, rukaio101 said:

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I'm going to assume we all know why that's silly and move on.

 

Incredible, isnt it, that not everyone shares your opinion.

[RandomCat]

24 minutes ago, Tower said:

Regarding Suicide Squad, while I recognise its flaws and I definitely wouldn't put it in my top 10, I still genuinely had a good time watching it and thought it was better than plenty of other films this year.

 

It's a movie I don't regret watching, and certainly got a few good jokes out of. It's certainly in that, 'It's bad, but I'm enjoying it, so I don't care', category.

[rukaio101]

21 minutes ago, baumer said:

 

Incredible, isnt it, that not everyone shares your opinion.

Don't worry. I have long since accepted that people can occasionally be wrong about things.

 

Except me, of course. I'm always right. About everything. Especially subjective things.

Edited January 26, 2017 by rukaio101

[SchumacherFTW]

2 hours ago, rukaio101 said:

Also, on a different note, I'm saving my Top 10 until tomorrow, along my thoughts on a few 'Honorable mentions' (aka, movies I managed to watch after starting this list, like Hacksaw Ridge and The Handmaiden).

 

Until then, people are welcome to take a guess at what I've got. I know at least 4 of the movies on it should be incredibly easy to guess by process of elimination and I've given hints around the forum for most of the rest. As for more concrete clues, in my Top 10, I've got...

 

Two Animated movies

Two Horror movies

Four Foreign Language movies

One Documentary

Only 2 have been nominated for any Oscars. 

As of this date, only 3 have made more than $40m DOM

At least 4 of these should be really damn predictable for me. 

And finally, I will be amazed if anyone manages to correctly predict my No 1.

Come on, somebody being in some Your Name love 

[baumer]

#9

Manchester by the Sea

Directed by Kenneth Lonergan

Starring:  Ben's brother, Dawson's one time girlfriend, Matt Damon's poker girlfriend and Ferris Bueller

Box office:  40 million and counting

 

After the sudden death of his older brother, Lee, played by Casey Affleck, is made legal guardian of his son Patrick. He then returns to his hometown and is forced to deal with a tragic past that separated him from his family and the community he was born and raised in.

 

Kenneth Lonergan is such an extraordinary and talented writer; his beautifully, and richly, textured drama draws upon the timeless themes of recovery, redemption, and the persistence of guilt in such a way that feels fresh. The emotion is never overbearing for the sake of being overbearing, rather it feels all too real, which is a credit to the writing as much as it is to the fantastic performances. 

This is the 'Casey Affleck show' from beginning to end; you can just give him the 'Best Actor' Oscar right now and save everyone a whole lot of trouble. He radiates this aura of subtle magnetism so brilliantly and effortlessly; there's not a single emotion on the spectrum that goes unexploited.

 

As much as the film is about Lee and his internal journey from tragedy to something a lot more hopeful, it's also about his nephew, played by Lucas Hedges, who has a very bright future, and his personal struggle to cope with his father's death. Despite having a small yet significant part in the film, Michelle Williams' performance is a treasure to behold. There's one scene, in particular, where she got everyone in attendance wishing they brought a tissue. 

 

Unlike many big-budget studio movies, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA is not afraid to make the audience work and test the viewer's patience with its constant, and unannounced, cutting between past and present, as well as its unwavering unravelling of character background and motivation. In fact, one of its best aspects is the lack of close-ups. Almost everything is filmed from afar, which reflects Lee's emotional distancing. And it's not until later where you finally find out why this guy has detached himself from the rest of the world. Then, from that point on, you're in his head; you watch the film unfold from a point-of-view almost entirely foreign to how you viewed it at first. 

 

[baumer]

#8

La La Land

Directed by Damien Chazelle

Starring:  Ryan and Emma

Box office:  176 million and much more to come

 

Everyone loves this one except Tele and La Binoche...so no need to get into why I loved it.  But the ending killed me and if the ending would have been more Hollywood like, then this would have made my top 5 but as it stands it's one of the best musicals I've ever seen.  And I'm not big on musicals.  Just a thoroughly enjoyable romp from beginning until about 5 minutes from the end.

 

[Plain Old Tele]

*grits teeth*

*hits like*

[baumer]

Hey I liked your Moonlight shit.  

[cannastop]

3 hours ago, rukaio101 said:

And finally, I will be amazed if anyone manages to correctly predict my No 1.

It's Your Name, isn't it?

[cannastop]

.

Edited January 26, 2017 by cannastop

[4815162342]

1 hour ago, Telemachos said:

*grits teeth*

*hits like*

 

Once you start down the like path, forever will it dominate your destiny.

[Porthos]

2 hours ago, 4815162342 said:

 

Once you start down the like path, forever will it dominate your destiny.

 

Should have gone with:

 

"Forgive me.  I feel it again. The pull to the like."

 

Scans better with the original quote. 

[4815162342]

34 minutes ago, Porthos said:

 

Should have gone with:

 

"Forgive me.  I feel it again. The pull to the like."

 

Scans better with the original quote. 

 

 The temptation to like I am dealing with here....is immeasurable.

[Daxtreme]

On 1/25/2017 at 8:49 AM, baumer said:

#18

Lights Out (Tie)

Directed by David S. Sanberg

Starring:  Teresa Palmer, Maria Bello

Box office:  148.8 million

 

This is the second of three Teresa Palmer films.  Besides her beauty, there's something intangible about her.  She commands the screen, imo, and it's no different in Lights Out.  

 

Here's a film that started out as a you-tube sensation.  The short (you should check it out) film was one of the most watched short films on line.  It just kept getting more and more views until finally Hollywood took notice and gave it a big screen adaptation.  And it doesn't disappoint.  There's some really tense moments and enough jump scares to satisfy the horror crowd.  I liked the film a lot but I do think it could have been just a bit better and that's why it doesn't make my number one horror of the year.  But still a very good film.

 

 

If you liked Light's Out, that might interest you:

 

The Director made an AMA on reddit, and is frequently active on /r/movies and even on /r/boxoffice as well!

 

He posts a lot, and answers people's questions.

 

Very cool  

[chasmmi]

16 hours ago, rukaio101 said:

Also, on a different note, I'm saving my Top 10 until tomorrow, along my thoughts on a few 'Honorable mentions' (aka, movies I managed to watch after starting this list, like Hacksaw Ridge and The Handmaiden).

 

Until then, people are welcome to take a guess at what I've got. I know at least 4 of the movies on it should be incredibly easy to guess by process of elimination and I've given hints around the forum for most of the rest. As for more concrete clues, in my Top 10, I've got...

 

Two Animated movies

Two Horror movies

Four Foreign Language movies

One Documentary

Only 2 have been nominated for any Oscars. 

As of this date, only 3 have made more than $40m DOM

At least 4 of these should be really damn predictable for me. 

And finally, I will be amazed if anyone manages to correctly predict my No 1.

 

Two Animated movies

Two Horror movies

Four Foreign Language movies

 

I am going to go out on a limb and predict that these 8 films are actually 5 films. 

 

If I am wrong then I will TRAIN myself to do better next time. 

 

(Also hoping that you reveal Handmaiden would have made it pretty high on the list if you had seen it in time) 

[rukaio101]

Before I get started on my Top 10 later tonight, I decided to take this time to talk about my Honourable Mentions. Specifically, the 2016 movies I only watched after I started doing this list. I only had time to see 5 films of varying quality, but I managed to type up some thoughts on each, as well as where I'd rank them on my list (out of 75 total).

 

Honorable Mention #5: The Wave (Would've come 67th)

 

 

How the fuck did this get a Boffy nomination for Best Foreign Language Movie? Seriously, it was utter shite. It was literally as if someone took all the generic, boring bits of cliche disaster movies and then forgot to add the exciting parts in return. I usually enjoy the hell out of disaster movies, even the cheesy stupid ones like San Andreas or The Day after Tomorrow, but this was just plain bad. 

 

The protagonist is the generic disaster movie protagonist who no-one believes until it's too late. His family is the generic disaster movie family that he has to go find after the disaster strikes. They have no chemistry with each other and I largely failed to give a crap about any of them. Yet the movie clearly believed otherwise because almost all the emotional stakes rode on me caring about them. Which I didn't. Thus the stakes fell flat. The effects for the wave itself was alright but only lasted about 5 minutes in a 100 minute film. And, quite frankly, I've seen bigger and better.

 

Honestly, that pretty much sums up the entire film. I've seen bigger and better. It really doesn't do enough different to set it apart from disaster movies already out there and almost every one of those disaster movies out there has already done what this movie did but far far better. 

 

Seriously BOT. Watch more/better foreign language films.

[Plain Old Tele]

I disagree entirely, but I'm glad you at least saw it. 

[rukaio101]

Honourable Mention #4: Patriots Day (Would've come 57th)

 

 

The lesser of the two Peter Berg/Mark Walhberg movies this year. And I wasn't particularly fond of Deepwater Horizon either. 

 

One of the major issues I've noticed with both of those movies is that they feel, well... lacking in actual content. Perhaps it's because they were both based on real-life stories (which are rarely naturally suited for basic movie structure) but a lot of the time it felt like both movies were trying to subtlety pad out their running time, yet still end up feeling lacking for it. It was somewhat noticeable in Deepwater Horizon, but it's a hell of a lot more blatant and annoying here.

 

See, the movie tries to do the thing where it follows several different viewpoints covering the incident, but it really does not do it well. Basically, it gives a backstory/foreshadowing role to almost everyone peripherally involved in the incident and just ends up spreading its attentions too thin. We've got Marky Mark's cop, the general police/FBI investigation, a couple of people caught up in the bombings, the bombers themselves, the bomber's old mates, a cop who was murdered, a guy who was held hostage by the bombers, the guy who shot one of the terrorists, all of whom get several scenes establishing them before they become relevant, but none of whom feel relevant until their scene comes up. The movie tries to do much and, as a result, most of those scenes feel like filler. I wouldn't even say they serve their purpose of creating sympathy for the characters because we don't spend nearly enough time with any of them. The movie would've done a lot better with just sticking a few viewpoints and getting the most out of them instead of trying to create for every person with even a passing relevance to the whole thing.

 

Still, it's not a terrible movie, it's competently shot and acted. It just tries to do too much with too little and ends up failing because of it.