Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Dan's 2016 Movie Ranking: #40 to #31

The ranking continues as we move into the 30s and one step closer to our eventual winner.

No big introduction this time, we are just going to get started.



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#40


The reviews for this movie were tremendous. Just tremendous. Absolutely spectacular.

But I've never been too familiar with the character of Deadpool, so I was not as excited about the movie as everyone else seemed to be. Still, though, I was intrigued. I wanted to see how an R-rated Marvel film would work with violence and raunchy humor and sex, so the wifey and I decided to go see it in the theater.

I thought it was pretty good. It is definitely a refreshing change from a lot of the superhero movies out there. The movie has a lot of genuine laughs. The violence and gore level is over the top, which I approve of. And no matter how naughty he is or what bad things he does, you just can't help but love and root for the character of Deadpool.

My only problem with the movie was in its very basic, almost overly simple story line. Yeah I know you don't really watch superhero movies for their intricate plots, but as far as the story goes there is nothing I haven't seen here a countless number of times before. Yeah, the humor and violence makes it seem like a fresh idea, but at heart the plot of this movie is really nothing original. I think I even nodded off once or twice in the theater, which is never a good sign. I have a feeling that if and when I watch this movie again, I will like it a lot more now that I know what to expect of it. But for now it is stuck with its 40 ranking.



#39


Every few years or so I have this desire to fire up the Lord of the Rings movies and watch them all in short order. I like the movies, but I think I need to take a break for a while. Like, at least 5 or 6 years.

My problem is that the movies don't seem new or fresh anymore. I know what everyone's going to do, what everyone is going to say before they say it. And then I pull out my phone and stop paying attention. I tend to enjoy movies more when they are new or when I haven't seen them in a long time and I am like "oooh I forgot about that!". And I am nowhere near that level with the LoTR films.

Great movies, don't get me wrong. It is just that I am to the point where I am TOO familiar with them and it is severely affecting my enjoyment of the films. I put this one right below Return of the King because I enjoyed that film slightly more than this one.


#38


Everything I wrote in my comments for Fellowship of the Ring applies here. This movie gets the slightly higher ranking because I enjoyed it a tiny bit more than Fellowship.

The next time I get the urge to return to Middle Earth, I will watch the Hobbit movies since I am much, much less familiar with that series than this one.



#37

I am always on the lookout for disturbing movies and when I heard about this film I knew it would be right up my alley. The movie is about a woman who returns home to her twins after having reconstructive facial surgery. The twins think that something about their mom has changed, especially when she starts acting erratically. She punishes one of the twins much more severely than the other when he does something naughty. The other one it is like doesn't exist to her.

They begin to suspect that this woman is not their mom, that someone has replaced her while she was away. So they tie her up and torture her. Let's just say that some of these scenes are very uncomfortable. Which I like because I am weird!

There is a big twist in the end. You could tell there would be a twist, you just don't know what it will be. I felt a little let down by the twist, but I suppose it is an effective one because it catches you by surprise.

I wanted to like this movie more than I did, but there are some slow parts. And I really didn't find it very scary at all. I plan to watch this again someday and see if knowing the twist in advance will make me like it more or less.



#36


I originally watched this movie late in 2015. I am too lazy to do the research, but I am pretty sure this movie made the top 5 in my ranking that year.

I watched the film again in early 2016 and needless to say, I did not have as good a time with it the second time around. Not to say that I suddenly dislike the movie, but it was a case of watching it too soon after my initial viewing. I feel that if I had waited a year or two it would have ranked highly again. But watching it just a few months apart was a poor decision.

It took me a while to get into the film. I was a little bored at first and started playing games on my phone. It wasn't until halfway through the movie that I suddenly started paying attention again. And I had a great time from that point on. The action scenes in this movie are amazing, as are the atmospheric effects. It is one of the best filmed movies I have seen.

Fury Road would probably rank higher if I had actually paid attention during its first half. Thus, the mixed feelings and the relatively low ranking. I still think this is a fantastic movie, I just can't bring myself to rate it any higher than this based on how I basically only really watched half of it.



#35


When I was a little kid I was terrified of this movie. Especially the part with the skinned bodies hanging in the trees. Obviously the movie doesn't scare me anymore, but every time I watch it I always think back to how much I was afraid as a kid.

Predator runs into some problems that a few other movies on this ranking have encountered: I am too familiar with the film. It is tough to hold my attention when I know what is going to happen before it happens, what is going to be said before its said. I prefer new experiences rather than rehashing the same ones over and over again.

Why do I watch movies multiple times then? Nostalgia I guess.

I still had a pretty good time with Predator. It is a very intense film with a lot of great actors in it. I actually had more fun watching the first half of the movie than I did the second. I liked seeing all the actors struggle to cope with their situation. I liked watching them freak out while being hunted by the Predator. It is the second part of the movie when Arnold goes all commando that I tuned out a little bit. Not enough dialogue, some slow moving scenes. 

All in all I think this is a really great movie. But again it suffers the same fate of several other films on the list: overfamiliarity. 



#34


Here is another one of those movies I have seen a countless number of times in my life. While I usually tend to get tired of movies that I have seen multiple times, Forrest Gump never seems to lose its charm. I always seem to notice something I have never noticed before. Mostly involving the film's plethora of clever historical references.

The movie is filled with moments that either make me smile, laugh, swell up with pride, or tear up. It is truly one of my favorite movies of all time.

But unfortunately we are doing a ranking of my most enjoyable movie watching experiences of 2016, not of all time. It is true, I have seen this movie a countless number of times before. A lot of the movie's big emotional moments don't really hit home for me anymore, especially since I know what is coming. I do tend to tune out while watching movies I have seen before. While I tried not to do this during Forrest Gump, it did happen a few times.

If I had to rank my favorite movies ever, this would probably be in the top 10. But as for 2016, I just had to rank other movies which I have experienced for the first time (and thus, held my attention better) ahead of this.



#33


I started watching all of the Friday the 13th movies back in 2015.  So you won't see the first Friday the 13th making the list, since I didn't watch it in 2016. Its sequel was the first one I watched this year. In 2016 I watched all the way up to #8: Jason Takes Manhattan.

I think that of all the Friday the 13th films I watched in 2016, this one was the best. It was the first movie in the series to actually feature Jason as the main antagonist. He doesn't have the hockey mask just yet, so it is a little unusual seeing him with a sheet or a pillowcase on his head. But I like it. This was before he became the cliched horror movie villain that everyone is familiar with.

I guess in a way this is like a "lifetime achievement award" for the series, this movie making it this far in the ranking. There is nothing particularly groundbreaking about the series (at least looking at it from today's perspective). Slasher films like this are quite common.

But seeing as how this is the second film in the series, it is original for its time. When you watch one of its sequels you know what to expect. But this one broke the mold.... a little bit. Like I said, this is kind of a lifetime achievement award for the series. This film makes my top 50 but the rest do not. But I will still give the rest of the films a shout out in this write up, because I did enjoy them.



#32


Netflix usually produces some quality original shows and movies, so when I read the premise of this film I was immediately intrigued. It is kind of like a Groundhog Day/Edge of Tomorrow sort of thing. A man wakes up right before his home is invaded. He dies in the attack, but then wakes up at the same precise moment he woke up the first time. His home is invaded, he is killed, and then he wakes up in bed again. This cycle repeats itself through out the film.

Eventually through trial and error he is able to fight off the attackers. He discovers that they are after the ARQ in his house. The ARQ is a super powerful device he created that offers an unlimited source of power. It is worth a lot of money, and there are multiple factions that will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. It is also what is causing the time loop.

This is a very, very clever movie with a lot of great sci-fi elements to it. They don't dumb things down for the viewers, you have to pay attention and put some of the pieces together yourself. I thought ARQ was a ton of fun, however towards the end it becomes a little convoluted with technobabble. And I don't like the ending either, as it is WAY too open ended for my tastes. I am not a fan of open ended endings. I like a clear concise solution to the problem at hand. Not "oh maybe this worked. Maybe it didn't! You'll never know!!!"

So that soured the film a little bit for me. I'll probably have to watch it again someday and see if I like the ending more knowing what is coming. But for the most part I enjoyed the film. Great premise, and a lot of fun. With a better ending this could have ranked a lot higher.



#31


You are probably thinking that this is a WTF choice for me to have so high on the ranking. If you had told me at the start of 2016 that the Little Rascals would nearly crack my top 30, I probably would have laughed.

But here it is. I thought this was a really good movie. I had seen it back when I was a kid, but not since then. I liked it then and I like it now.

I don't know if I just have a poor sense of humor or what but I dislike comedies and normally they don't make me laugh at all. But this movie I found to be quite hilarious. The characters are great. A lot of the jokes are stupid, but really funny at the same time. This movie is super politically incorrect. If it was made in the present day, it would have been boycotted and ripped apart, probably. And that is part of why I found it so hilarious, I think. The humor in the film is so "omg I can't believe they just said that!"

And I love it for that. It is no cinematic masterpiece but I still had fun with it.



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That's it for now! Expect an update within the next few days.


Still in the hunt:
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
American Sniper
Room
Manson Family Vacation
Big Driver
Creed
The Revenant
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
No Good Deed
The Night of the Living Dead
Deliverance
Zombieland
Coming to America
American History X
Darkman
Quills
Platoon
Saving Private Ryan
Green Room
Captain America: Civil War
10 Cloverfield Lane
The Shallows
Funny Games
The Nightmare
Judge Dredd
The Rock
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Predators
Star Wars: A New Hope

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