I never was fully engaged with Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant but it is hard to deny both the technical and performance greatness behind the movie, most notably Leonardo DiCaprio’s impressive physicality that he brought to the role and almost equally impressive was the on-location filming.
The 5th Wave is a movie that maybe five years ago I would’ve been OK with but with so many YA adaptations, it would seem Hollywood will make just about anything and while I don’t think this is the weakest of the bunch, hard to be worse than the Twilight Saga, it’s really not a very good movie.
Although it could’ve been better, I was pleasantly surprised by Regression thanks to Amenábar’s writing and direction combined with yet another great performance by Ethan Hawke with honorable mention for Emma Watson and David Thewlis.
Tumbledown is one of the nice surprises of 2016 showcasing great performances from its two leads, Rebecca Hall and Jason Sudeikis, and while it’s not the most challenging films, I appreciated the understated tone as any movie dealing with death and grief can become overly dramatic.
Jane Got a Gun, when you push away all of the pre-production drama and switch-a-roos, isn’t a half bad western-adventure-drama that features two fine performances by Natalie Portman and Joel Edgerton backed up by at least a quasi-interesting story.
The Lady in the Van is a well made drama with another standout performance from Maggie Smith with honorable mention to Alex Jennings. It’s an interesting story that tells a story of an unusual woman.
Countdown is your typical WWE production with shoddy acting, bad writing and pedestrian direction though on the plus side, at least Ziggler possesses some charisma which was often lacking in these other films. Still, as poorly made as the film was, it’s at least watchable and there’s at least one well done scene, so… there is that.
“Eden of the East”, and its two feature films, is an incredibly fun and often inventive anime series with well written characters. At only 11 episodes, and about 3 hours for the movies, it’s not a big time investment and is worth watching with an engrossing storyline.
Death Becomes Her definitely has its moments and even though it was made in 1992 well before the visual effects technology had taken off to what it is today, but it features some respectable effects, particularly with the hole in Hawn’s stomach. Outside of that, the jokes don’t entirely work but at the very least the core cast work well against one another, Streep especially.
Ride Along 2 is no better or worse than the original. You’ve pretty much got the same type of jokes and the performances from its core cast isn’t anything special, though presumably they at least had a good time while filming. The action is rather ho-hum and although I don’t mind Kevin Hart, even he seemed to be going through the motions.
Concussion is, technically speaking, a well made film and features a good performance from Will Smith, but in spite of what works, at its core the movie is missing a soul. In the hands of a more skilled filmmaker it could’ve been emotionally charged and instead it’s rather forgettable.
It’s really a shame that, as with Dying of the Light, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see what director Gee Malik Linton’s original movie was like although I have read some have seen his cut. Instead, we get a hodge-podge mess of a film slapped together by the studio and the result was an utter mess of a film.
Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie, in spite of the lame subtitle, is an entertaining addition to the fascinating and enjoyable franchise that takes many cues from previous versions but tries out a different message. The animation is still fantastic and although new viewers will easily be lost, as a casual fan, I still found it well done, even if it’s a big step back from the “old” TV series.
While I didn’t care very much for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 for being so dissimilar from the original, it’s hard not to commend Tobe Hooper for at least trying something different rather than rehash the same plot with a new cast and bloodier kills. For me, however, it never quite clicked but I know the film has a strong fanbase.
Daddy’s Home might have a few laughs but it’s just another forgettable Will Ferrell comedy with sloppy writing and jokes that mostly are lame than actually funny, not to mention a sugar-heavy ending that was just awful, though family friendly I guess.