Numbers' Numerical Numbering: Vol. III, A 2016 Top 50 (COUNTDOWN COMPLETE)

[MrPink]

1 minute ago, Telemachos said:

 

 

 

 

You've been on the list since 2014.

[aabattery]

9 minutes ago, Telemachos said:

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

I still haven't seen it so I'm just bandwagoning. But I stand by it.

 

[Plain Old Tele]

7 minutes ago, MrPink said:

 

 

You've been on the list since 2014.

 

Technically since Dec 14, 2013.

[chasmmi]

A few of these are pretty much where I put them.

 

A lot are films I didn't manage to see.

[4815162342]

4 hours ago, chasmmi said:

A few of these are pretty much where I put them.

 

A lot are films I didn't manage to see.

 

Which ones? Or would that spoil your own list?

[chasmmi]

48 minutes ago, 4815162342 said:

 

Which ones? Or would that spoil your own list?

 

I have not seen Sully or the Wahlberg films  

[4815162342]

#24

 

Spoiler

 

 

Directed By: Dan Trachtenberg

 

Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, John Gallagher Jr.

 

Domestic Release Date: March 11, 2016

 

 

The second film in the Cloverfield universe for about 92% of the way is it's own little thing and in many ways is a feature-length Twilight Zone episode. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is very good as Michelle, displaying a range of emotions and behavior from confused to desperate to spunky to rageful to terrified as she schemes and strategizes ways to escape her bunker prison. John Goodman is terrific as her captor, shifting from friendly to utter domineering psychotic anger in seconds as he alternates between trying to befriend Michelle and trying to impose sheer will and submission upon her. For almost all the film we're kept in the dark as to what's really going on, and aside from a couple hints we're not quite sure how much Goodman's character is making up just to try and cow his prisoners into staying put. The ending twist bothered some people here a lot, but I'm fine with it. Knowing what the original ending for the film was, I would have liked that better, but the sudden shift of things that CJohn was spoiled to worked well enough for me.

 

 

[4815162342]

#23

 

Spoiler

 

 

Directed By: Sean Ellis

 

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Jamie Dornan, Anna Geislerova, Charlotte Le Bon, Toby Jones

 

Domestic Release Date: August 12, 2016

 

 

Anthropoid is the tale of the desperate plan by British-trained and funded Czech resistance fighters to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, one of the most powerful leaders of Nazi Germany and one of the architects of the Final Solution. The film follows two parachutists, played ably by Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan, as they link up with resistance cells in Prague and plot out step by step their assassination mission, and then desperately scramble to stay one step ahead of the massive and bloody German manhunts and reprisals. The film is very well-paced and doesn't forget to include a number of softer moments that develop the main characters, making several of the emotional beats in the film's second half as the fallout from the assassination attempt occurs earned and touching. The film does a good job of building the tension and the action beats, while small in scale, feel very powerful for their punch. A small film that's well worth taking a look at.

 

 

[4815162342]

#22

 

Spoiler

 

 

Directed By: Gareth Edwards

 

Starring: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Riz Ahmed, Alan Tudyk, Mads Mikkelsen, Forest Whitaker

 

Domestic Release Date: December 16, 2016

 

 

The first non-episode Star Wars film really isn't a spinoff, since it comfortably fits into the main episode narrative as the appetizer to A New Hope. So really it's Episode 3.95. The film starts off a bit sluggish and choppy as it slowly uploads the various plot threads and characters, jumping around a bit too much and having some awkward introduction scenes and editing. However once the heroes reach Jedha City the film starts to pick up the pace and the tension, and by the time they leave for Scarif...we are off to the races. Felicity Jones is good as Jyn Erso and she does her best to sell some big emotional moments, but some of them just don't feel that earned. The rest of the Rogues all do their part, with Donnie Yen stealing the movie like taking candy from a blind man. The villains are appropriately sneering and hammy, and the action beats improve as the film progresses, culminating in the third act that resulted in a bigger cinema explosion for many than Ethan's La La Land adventure. It's a very promising start to the new Star Wars Expanded Universe.

 

 

[4815162342]

#21

 

Spoiler

 

 

Directed By: John Madden

 

Starring: Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alison Pill, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sam Waterson, John Lithgow

 

Domestic Release Date: December 9, 2016

 

 

A drama that flopped at the box office thanks in part to a marketing campaign that bet heavily on a different outcome to the US presidential election, Miss Sloane is still a very good and tense political drama that chronicles a successful amoral lobbyist taking a chance on an ideological cause that is outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered, outplanned. Aside from a subplot that really doesn't go much of anywhere and doesn't shed much light on Sloane's character before getting hamfistedly forced into the third act main plot, the film is pretty well paced and calculated. It does try to be a bit too clever and preachy in said third act, but that's more of a quibble than a complaint. Chastain gives a ferocious, energetic performance as she tries to destroy every potential antagonistic character through sheer force of will and raised-voice-but-not-quite-yelling lecturing and monologuing. A Best Actress nominee snub for sure. The rest of the ensemble cast does very well in their roles and the dialogue, aside from aforementioned preachyness, is sharp. A shame this film got buried.

 

 

[cannastop]

Clues?

[4815162342]

Hints for #20-16

 

20- @4815162342

 

19- Old School Social Climbing

 

18- 

 

17- No dead father in this one

 

16- Richard I

[4815162342]

Come on, at least someone try to guess at least some before I get back to this tonight.

[chasmmi]

12 hours ago, 4815162342 said:

Hints for #20-16

 

20- @4815162342

 

19- Old School Social Climbing

 

18- 

 

17- No dead father in this one

 

16- Richard I

 

20. Pet? 

19: No Idea

18: La La Land?

17. Moana?

16. Deadpool?

[Plain Old Tele]

18 better not be Handmaiden.  

[cannastop]

13 hours ago, 4815162342 said:

19- Old School Social Climbing

Zootopia?

 

That was my guess for the safari thing, though.

[The Stingray]

1 hour ago, Telemachos said:

18 better not be Handmaiden.  

 

Wait, I thought you liked Handmaiden?

 

Personally, I think 18 would be a tad too low.

[chasmmi]

3 hours ago, The Stingray said:

 

Wait, I thought you liked Handmaiden?

 

Personally, I think 18 would be a tad too low.

 

I think Tele considers it 17 places too low

[4815162342]

#20

 

Spoiler

 

 

Directed By: Theodore Melfi

 

Starring: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kevin Costner

 

Domestic Release Date: December 25, 2016

 

 

This was a movie that kinda snuck up on me since I really wasn't aware of its existence until a couple months before release when I first saw the trailer. And I am glad I caught it. The movie is very well-paced as it shifts between the perspectives of three African-American women working for NASA in its infancy as it struggles to keep pace with the Soviet Union. All three of the respective leads do a great job in their roles and every character struggle and triumph feels earned and genuine. The various supporting players ranging from Kevin Costner to Kirsten Dunst to Glen Powell all do well in their jobs as well, it really is a film where the whole ensemble just clicks together. The film also avoids the trap of going for the melodramatic, saving the big emotional outbursts for only one or two moments so you can really get hit with their impact. An inspiring and uplifting film that soars above much of the rest of the year.

 

 

[4815162342]

#19

 

Spoiler

 

 

Directed By: Whit Stillman

 

Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Xaver Samuel, Tom Bennett

 

Domestic Release Date: May 13, 2016

 

 

Taken from a Jane Austen novel, in the middle of a month of blockbuster booms and clanking we got a delightful little period comedy with sharp writing and larger-than-life characters. Kate Beckinsale is deliciously evil as an ambitious selfish social climber who is willing to use every trick in the book to maintain the lifestyle she is accustomed to. She runs rings around the rest of the cast with her schemes and cutting remark. Yet she is actually upstaged by Tom Bennett, whose turn as Sir James Martin ranks as one of the best pleasantly foppish dunces of all time and who steals every scene he is in. The sets and costumes are all lush and well-designed, and the pacing at 93 minutes is downright speedy. It's a fun and witty movie that'll have you chuckling throughout with all the schemes, counterschemes, and so on.