Top 10 movies of 2016

This was probably the toughest list I've had to make. There were so many great films this year, but in the end there can only be 10. Which are the best of the best?

10. Jungle Book: A lot of you are probably surprised it's on this list. I put it on here because the CGI was super realistic, the voice acting was stellar, there wasn't really anything bad about the movie. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, and was pleasantly surprised by how great it was.

9. The Little Prince: The animation alone is enough to warrant a spot on this list. You could put the movie on mute and still enjoy it just by the visuals. That plus a stellar plot and a great message that's reminiscent of Pixar's early days, it definitely deserves a spot.

8: Secret Life of Pets: Having pets myself, I enjoyed this movie a lot. I related to it, because I saw my own pets. Kevin Hart as the bunny had me laughing. It was a charming movie.

7: Suicide Squad: This movie was absolutely fun. The acting was great, as was the plot. I could tell DC listened to our complaints about Batman v. Superman,

6: Kubo and the Two Strings: This is one of the only movies on this list not based on previous source material. The stop-motion is extremely impressive, the comic relief characters are witty, and the plot was complex and intriguing. 

5: Doctor Strange: Benedict Cumberbatch's performance was fantastic. The humor was great, and I enjoyed seeing something different from the MCU. Marvel took a risk by making a movie out of a more obscure characters and it worked.

4. Moana: The adventure plot was exciting, the songs were catchy, the jokes were sharp. It needs an Oscar nomination

3: Captain America: Civil War: I wish I could take my 12-year-old self to this movie. He'd lose his mind! We finally got Spider-Man, and the battle sequences were some of the best, if not THE best in any Marvel movie. This will be hard to top, but I have faith Marvel can do it.

2. Rogue One: This was a VERY close number 1. I actually had to flip a coin between this and the movie in the number one spot, and it just barely missed it. My review is literally one post down, so I don't really feel the need to explain why it's on this list.

 

And the number one movie of 2016 is:

Zootopia:

The plot was clever, the metaphors for minorities and racism were well done and done in a way the target audience could understand, and the jokes were great. It's one of Disney's best, and it well deserved the number one spot. 

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Holy Kenobi, this was awesome!!!!! I do acknowledge that "Force Awakens" was a remake of "A New Hope." No worries here. This is a story we haven't heard before. The characters are awesome (and without giving anything away, let's just say it pays off if you watched the Clone Wars tv series), the action sequences are amazing, and it feels like classic Star Wars while at the same time providing something new. The comic relief character is extremely well written with how a bit too honest he is. This has some new genres being explored in the Star Wars universe, which was something I liked about the Clone Wars tv show. My only complaint is that at times the CGI used to make some of the cameos of characters from the Original Trilogy look young looks a bit fake, like you could tell it was CGI. It's not as bad as young Jeff Bridges in "Tron: Legacy", but it looks a bit too shiny and at times like it's from a video game cutscene.

Grade: A-  9/10 4/5 stars

Well, it's been fun, but it's time to take a leave from this blog. I'm going to post my top 10 movies from 2016, and then I'm not going to post again for about 2.5 years. Why am I not reviewing "Assassin's Creed" and "Passengers?" I read yesterday that "Passengers" has a few scenes I would need to filter with VidAngel, and "Assassin's Creed" is from Fox which is one of the companies suing them, and I'm going to boycott the studios suing until to show Hollywood they're not as powerful as they think they are. (No Disney, Warner Bros. or Fox)

Moana

I liked this much better than "Frozen." Much much better. "Frozen" felt like a typical nothing special movie that had already been done before in several Disney movies. This was very different. They even made fun of the typical Disney princess cliches. This was essentially the antithesis to the Disney Princess movies. The songs in "Frozen" were a bit too Broadway for my taste, but the songs here were fun island tropical songs that were fun to dance to. And some of the lyrics are very clever. (Thanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda). There were also some likes of dialogue where I was laughing so hard I was crying. That hasn't happened in a long time. This was more of an adventure epic instead of a princess movie. "Frozen" was clearly aimed at little girls, but everyone can enjoy "Moana." There is a short before the film that while it was clever, all I could think during it was "Disney copied their own thing. This is Inside Out with internal organs instead of the mind." One of the villains in the movie who was voiced by Jemaine Clement was fun, but I wish he had tried to change his voice a bit, because all I could think was "This is the bird from "Rio"". It was kind of distracting. This was a fun adventure movie that I give my highest regards. 

Grade: A+    10/10.  5/5 stars

Regarding future reviews

This post is for those of you who do not follow me on Facebook. So, there's a service called VidAngel and it allows you to filter out objectionable content. However, Hollywood sued them and they will more than likely  be shut down. Because of this I have decided that after Rogue One, I will not support any movies made by the studios suing them (Disney , Fox, and Warner Bros.) until they end up on VidAngel after the DVD release date. So this means pretty much every movie. I will not be seeing them in theaters. However, this is also a blessing in disguise. I'm addicted to movies, and knew it would be very hard for me to go 2 years without them when I leave for my mission in a few months. I have stated this from the very beginning that I am a Mormon. (Heck, it's even in the URL). I will be leaving sometime this summer and during that time I will not be allowed to see movies. So not seeing any in theaters starting in 2017 is my way of weening myself off of them so it won't be as hard. (Sorry, Lego Batman. As much as I love you, I love my religion more. God comes first.) So if I go for a few months without any activity, this is why. I'm not dead, I haven't quit, I'm just simply shifting my priorities over to other things for a while. So let's bring on the big one before my 2 and a half year hiatus: Rogue One! Hopefully it's a great one!

Spectral

This had so much potential, but just fell flat. It started out really strong, but then fell apart, and then redeemed itself, but then fell apart again by the end. Overall: meh. I thought this would be a lot better than it was. It looked really cool, and I will admit that the military armor in the final battle looks really cool, and some of the tech is really cool too, but overall I wasn't really invested in this movie. I was constantly checking the run time to see how much was left. It just wasn't that interesting to me. It was a really cool premise, but was poorly executed. And the twist at the end was out of nowhere, dumb, and made no sense. This didn't entertain me that much, and was honestly just a big waste of time. 

Grade: D.  6/10. 2.5/5 stars

The Angry Birds Movie

Considering this is a video game movie, I expected a lot worse. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it's not a recommendation. Considering we've had some phenomenal animated films this year like "Kubo," "Zootopia", and "The Little Prince", this should be ashamed to be released the same year as those. That being said the plot was surprisingly good. I wasn't sure how they'd be able to make a plot out of the "Angry Birds" games, but they pulled it off surprisingly well. There were also a lot of great visual puns that gave me a chuckle. And other than Josh Gad, all the voice actors did a good job, too. But that's really all the good things I have to say about this film. Here's the bad:
First of all....Josh Gad. I find him annoying in everything. The man cannot speak without yelling everything. If you have to yell to be funny, you're not funny. You're just desperate for attention. This film also had something I hate in animated films: Pop culture references that will be outdated in 2 years. Sometimes pop culture reference can work (There's actually a really good spoof on "The Shining" that made me laugh), but most of them are just there to pander to the millennials. ("Squad goals! Insta-ham). Boy, did typing those out make me cringe! There's also a lot of really lowbrow bodily function humor that even Dreamworks would think is too far. And, I'm sorry to say, but the filmmakers felt the need to slip in some "adult humor". There were some really inappropriate joke and references that had me saying "This is a KIDS' movie?!" There's actually some borderline PG-13 humor. How was this only released with PG? If you really want to show this to your kids (I beg of you, please don't. Don't insult their intelligence) at least have the decency to filter it on VidAngel ,because, boy does this really need it. Otherwise you may get some really uncomfortable questions from your kids. My final complaint: "Time slows down/stops while a character runs fast" cliche. We've seen it before. It's not funny or clever anymore. Please let this gag die. Overall, not bad for a video game movie, but that's not a phrase that should be taken as positive.
Grade: C+  6.5/10  3/5 stars

The Secret Life of Pets

One critic's review I read said "It's a beat-for-beat "Toy Story"". I don't know what movie that critic watched, because I didn't think that at all. It has some similarities in the beginning, but by the 45-minute mark it becomes different enough, and it was clever. There was one scene in a sausage factory that I found particularly hilarious. The film does a great job of capturing the funny, quirky things our pets do. I laugged several times at the hijinks the animals got into, because I've had some of those expereinces myself with my pets. The villain,voiced by Kevin Hart, was one of the best parts. His craziness and over-the-top voice acting made him one of my favorite characters. The animals' love and devotion for their owners was adorable. Overall, I'd say this has been a great year for animation. I rank this up there with "Kubo" and "Zootopia." Will it be nominated for an Oscar? Probably not, but that doesn't mean it's not good. This is definetely worth checking out. My only complaint: It felt too short. I wanted more.
Grade: A-    9/10  4/5 stars