Best & Worst Movies of 2016 • Most Anticipated Films of 2017

I saw 73 movies last year. Of those, 50 were released in 2016. I saw fewer movies overall than in 2015—22 fewer first-run movies, in fact. On  my 1-10 scale, I awarded only four first-run films a perfect "10" in 2016. (This downward trend has continued over the past several years.)

Unfortunately, I missed many of the better films released at the end of 2016 due to sickness and other factors. I need to catch up on numerous 2016 films that fell through the cracks (see below).

The best movie I saw in 2016 was Kubo and the Two Strings. I saw it three times in the theater—an unbelievable rarity.

The rest of my “perfect 10” movies were Hail Caeser, Zootopia and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. Awarded 9/10 were Deadpool, Eye in the Sky, The Meddler, Sing Street, Miss Peregrin’s Home for Peculiar Children, Denial and The Edge of Seventeen. 

WORST MOVIES OF 2016: The Lobster, Keanu, The Nice Guys.

VASTLY OVERRATED MOVIES OF 2016: Moonlight, Don’t Think Twice, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Arrival, Loving

BEST OLDER MOVIES I SAW IN 2016: Joy (2015), Noble (2014), Mud (2012), Wish You Were Here (1987), Patterns (1956), Home from the Hill (1960).

SORRY I MISSED YOU:
Moana (Viewed in 2017)
La La Land (Viewed in 2017)
20th Century Women
Rogue One (Viewed in 2017)
Fences (Viewed in 2017)
Manchester by the Sea
Jackie (Viewed in 2017)
Lion
Hacksaw Ridge 
Silence
Julieta
Passengers (Viewed in 2017)
Why Him?
Little Men
Gleason
The Witch
13th
The Handmaiden
The Little Prince 
A Monster Calls
Demon
Kung Fu Panda 3
Desierto
Hush
Wedding Doll
Hostile Border
The Great Gilly Hopkins
Miss Stevens
Zoom
Generation Startup
The Good Neighbor 
Swallows and Amazons
The Fits
Toni Erdmann
A Bigger Splash
Mountains May Depart
Wiener-Dog
Sunset Song
The Neon Demon
Our Little Sister


MOST ANTICIPATED FILMS OF 2017

At the beginning of each year, I present a list of the movies I'm most excited about being released in the upcoming year. It’s also a great time to take a look back and try to figure out why in the name of God I was looking forward to some of the crap that came out the preceding year. Invariably, that list turns out to include movies I lost interest in because of poor critical reviews, as well as movies I saw despite mediocre notices that turned out to be disappointing anyway. But it’s also cool to appreciate that there were some excellent films I knew nothing about as 2016 began.

MOVIES I LOST INTEREST IN—I deliberately didn’t see any of the following movies because of poor or lackluster reviews: Dirty Grandpa, The Brothers Grimsby, I Saw the Light, Shut In, I.T.

MOVIES THAT FELL SHORT OF EXPECTATIONS—The 5th Wave, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Hello My Name Is Doris, Demolition, Maggie’s Plan, The Secret Life of Pets, Café Society and Arrival were all movies that sounded cool; some were reviewed well, others not so well. But I found all of them disappointing in one way or another.

GREAT MOVIES I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT—When 2016 began, I knew nothing (or cared nothing) about the following very good films: Eye in the Sky, The Invitation, Allied, The Meddler, Sing Street, Miss Peregrin’s Home for Peculiar Children, Denial and The Edge of Seventeen.
Keeping this in mind, I’m going to go ahead and list the 2017 movies that sound the most appealing to me—even though, as experience has proven time and time again, many of these will be clinkers, and some of the very best films of the new year are a mystery to me as I type these words. I can’t wait to make some great discoveries as the months unfold!

SPLIT—Why does Hollywood keep giving M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) more chances? And more importantly, why should I look forward to seeing any more of his garbage after being disappointed so many times (most recently by 2015’s The Visit)? In all fairness, I really enjoyed his 2010 flop The Last Airbender, and I continue to live in hope that he will chalk up another hit. In Split, James McAvoy plays Kevin, a menacing predator who kidnaps three teenage girls and locks them in his basement; they then realize that Kevin suffers from a multiple-personality disorder.  (Jan. 20) UPDATE: Saw it, didn’t like it.

THE SPACE BETWEEN US—Gary Oldman co-stars in this sci-fi outing. (Feb. 3) UPDATE: Reviews were horrendous.

KONG: SKULL ISLAND—The big monkey is back on (March 10). UPDATE: Great special effects; otherwise, a pretty awful film.

THE SENSE OF AN ENDING—Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Emily Mortimer and Michelle Dockery star; I don’t need four better reasons to see any movie. (March 10) UPDATE: Kind of boring.

T2 TRAINSPOTTING—Sequel stars Kelly Macdonald, my new favorite actress! (March 10)

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST—Live-action version of the Disney classic animated classic stars Emma Watson as the free-spirited Belle. (March 17) UPDATE: So-so.

LIFE—An international space crew discovers life on Mars. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, Rebecca Ferguson and Hiroyuki Sanada. (March 24) UPDATE: So-so.

GHOST IN THE SHELL—A cyborg policewoman attempts to bring down a nefarious computer hacker. With Scarlett Johansson. (March 31) UPDATE: After the first horrendous hour, it finally got good.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2—The first installment was pure bliss. Now Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana are back in a sequel. I can’t wait! Except I’ll have to wait until (May 5). UPDATE: Like the first entry, this was pure fun!

ALIEN: COVENANT—Director Ridley Scott returned to the Alien universe five years years ago with the bloated but fascinating prequel Prometheus. Now he returns again with another prequel; this one is about a spaceship that stumbles on some weird eggs on a mysterious planet and then gets terrorized by an alien. (May 19) UPDATE: Nothing new, nothing fresh, same old story. Might as well have sat through Life again.

THE BOOK OF HENRY—A single mother raises a child genius. With Naomi Watts and Sarah Silverman. (June 16, pushed back from 2016) UPDATE: Moderately entertaining. Decent performances, story is so-so.

OKJA—A young girl risks everything to prevent a powerful, multinational company from kidnapping her best friend—a massive animal named Okja. Featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, Lily Collins, Tilda Swinton and Giancarlo Esposito. (June 28) UPDATE: Great beginning, gets more bogged down as it goes along. Almost ruined by a Razzy-worthy performance by the usually dependable Jake Gyllenhaal.

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES—In the third episode of the rebooted series, a nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar becomes embroiled in a battle with an army of humans. (July 14) UPDATE: Good action movie with some well-worn clichés; definitely about 20 minutes too long.

VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS—Time-traveling agent Valerian is sent to investigate a galactic empire, along with his partner Laureline. Rihanna is in it! (July 21) UPDATE: Got pretty bad reviews, but I kind of liked it! Cara Delevingne and Rihanna alone are worth the price of admission. SWOON!

THE DARK TOWER—I’ve never read Stephen King’s fantasy series, but I’ll give the movie a try since it stars Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. (July 28) UPDATE: Reviews were pretty brutal; the current TomatoMeter rating is an astonishing 16%.

KIDNAP—Halle Berry in an action thriller. (Aug. 4, pushed back many times)

AMERICAN MADE—Tom Cruise in the story of Barry Seal, a TWA pilot who became a drugs and weapons smuggler for the Medellin cartel, while also working for the DEA—eventually getting mixed up in the Iran-Contra scandal. (Sept. 29) UPDATE: Interesting mix of history and drama!

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE—Sequel to the excellent 2014 spy comedy-thriller. (Oct. 6) UPDATE: Great fun! Excellent follow-up to the original.

THE SNOWMAN—Adaptation of Jo Nesbø’s bestselling detective novel follows Michael Fassbender investigating the disappearance of a woman whose scarf is found wrapped around a snowman. With J.K. Simmons, Val Kilmer and Chloe Sevigny. (Oct. 20)

THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US—Kate Winslet and Idris Elba in a plane-crash survival story. (Oct. 20) UPDATE: It was pretty good, but the “postscript” section dragged. UPDATE: Pretty good!

ALL I SEE IS YOU—A blind woman (Blake Lively) begins to discover the previously unseen and disturbing details about her marriage after her sight unexpectedly returns. (Oct 27; pushed back from Sept. 15) UPDATE: Early reviews from film festivals have been lackluster. Early buzz is negative. Less than a month before its release, there was still no poster.

SUBURBICON—George Clooney directs Matt Damon, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin and Julianne Moore in a comedy-mystery film. (Oct. 27) UPDATE: Not very good.

THOR: RAGNAROK—Third entry in Marvel’s Thor series sees the Norse god of thunder (Chris Hemsworth) embark on some sort of intergalactic journey. Cate Blanchett plays the film’s villain. (Nov. 3) UPDATE: Pretty good!

WONDER WHEEL—Kate Winslet and Justin Timberlake star in Woody Allen’s period drama set in New York during the 1950s. (Dec. 1)

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI—Carrie Fisher’s swan song. (Dec. 15)

DOWNSIZING—Alexander Payne directs Matt Damon in this comedy-drama about a guy who shrinks himself. (Dec. 22)

PUSHED BACK TO 2018:

UNTITLED CLOVERFIELD MOVIE aka THE GOD PARTICLE—A shocking discovery forces a team of astronauts aboard a space station to fight for survival while their reality has been altered. This intriguing sci-fi movie is apparently the latest in the Cloverfield series, from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot production company.

MIDNIGHT SUN—Katie is a 17-year-old confined to her house during the day by a rare disease that makes even the smallest amount of sunlight deadly. Fate intervenes when she meets Charlie and they embark on a summer romance. Remake of the Japanese film. Sounds extremely similar to Everything, Everything.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF PHIL—A depressed dentist in mid life crisis tries to learn why one of his happiest patients suddenly commits suicide, and a dark comedic adventure ensues. Greg Kinnear, Taylor Schilling and Bradley Whitford, directed by Kinnear. (TBA)

SUBSEQUENTLY ON MY RADAR:

I KILL GIANTS—Zoe Saldana in an adaptation of the Joe Kelly graphic novel. (TBA)

THE DISCOVERY—Netflix is readying a weird sci-fi movie about alternate reality and the Afterlife, starring Rooney Mara, Robert Redford and Jason Segel. (March 31) UPDATE: Kind of draggy.

JOHN WICK, CHAPTER TWO—Until recently, I had completely forgotten having seen the first movie in the series, starring Keanu Reeves. I had also forgotten that I enjoyed it. This sequel is getting good reviews, so I think I’ll have to check it out. (Already in theaters)

THE VOID—Sci-fi/horror anthology flick is picking up good reviews. (April 7) UPDATE: Pretty bad; did not finish.

EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING—A teenager who's lived a sheltered life because she's allergic to everything, falls for the boy who moves in next door. (May 19)

THE BIG SICK—Kumail Nanjiani of TV’s Silicon Valley stars in a comedy that has gotten very good reviews. (June 23) UPDATE: One of the year’s best.

A GHOST STORY—Casey Affleck wears a sheet over his head as a ghost visiting his mourning wife. Was showered with praise at the film festivals. (July 7) UPDATE: Boring.

BRIGSBY BEAR—Kyle Mooney from Saturday Night Live in a comedy about a guy trying to make a film version of a beloved children’s TV series, Brigsby Bear Adventures. Andy Samberg has a role in this film, which won excellent reviews at Cannes, Sundance and other film festivals. (July 28) UPDATE: Saw it, liked it.

ATOMIC BLONDE—Charlize Theron in an action film. Seen the trailer at least half a dozen times by now. (July 28)

MENASHE—Drama that takes place in the heart of NYC’s ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish community. Reviews have been off the charts. (July 28)

GOOD TIME—Supposedly Robert Pattinson’s best film. (Aug. 11)

I DO... UNTIL I DON'T—Ensemble comedy with a great cast that includes Lake Bell, Ed Helms, Mary Steenburgen and Paul Reiser. (Sept. 1)

MOTHER— Darren Aronofsky’s latest is a horror movie with Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem and Michelle Pfeiffer. (Sept. 15) UPDATE: Starts out interesting, gets more and more awful as it goes along.

BETTER WATCH OUT—Home Alone meets Funny Games in this Christmas drama. Reviews have been perfect. (Oct. 6)

THE SHAPE OF WATER—Sally Hawkins stars in Guillermo del Toro’s latest. (Dec. 8) UPDATE: It was only OK.