Well, it's the end of August and officially the end of the summer blockbuster season, thank God! It's just one disappointment after another, with only a few good ones that were thoroughly mediocre compared to what came out last year. For movies like Suicide Squad and X-Men: Apocalypse, the only reason why they made money was because of marketing campaigns with more strategy involved than the D-Day landings. Still, there were some diamonds to be found in this glorified sewer, along with other things that actually warrant genuine enthusiasm.
So here are two lists: first, of the the ten best movies so far this year, and then of the five movies that you should look forward to. Here are the first one:
10. Deadpool: There have been some people out there who have a tendency to see all of the movies based on Marvel properties as too similar to each other. Well, 20th Century Fox took that notion, made it into a key, and threw that key down a well. Featuring great humor and a stellar performance from Ryan Reynolds, this was proof that you could make a R-rated superhero movie that wasn't underwhelming.
9. The Little Prince: For the longest time, the book that this film was based on had been considered pretty much unfilmable, much in the same realm as The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire. And like those two examples, someone had the guts to try it out, and they pulled it off. It captures the essence of the children's story, and then uses it as a foundation to tell a story to adults.
8. Eye in the Sky: To a certain extent, nothing is more resonant than seeing the final performance of an acting legend. Such was the case with the late great Alan Rickman, who like many others left us far too soon. With him acting alongside Helen Mirren and Aaron Paul, this is a thriller about drone warfare with no clear answers.
7. The Nice Guys: Every now and then, you need a good action film that is pretty much nonstop comedy. The Nice Guys was exactly that, with funny slapstick and lines like "translating f***wit to English". Plus, for most cinephiles, it was Ryan Gosling's way of atoning for The Notebook and the sludge of Nicholas Sparks garbage that followed it.
6. Finding Dory: Whenever Pixar does a sequel, the production company just seems to lose a bit of its luster. Pixar, despite its otherwise terrific run over two decades, cannot help but fall into the sequel trap... until now. It may have been more action-focused than the usual fare, but there were certainly enough feels to make up for it.
5. Kubo and the Two Strings: I was never too wild about The Boxtrolls, seeing as how it seemed to have stolen The LEGO Movie's nomination for Best Animated Feature back in 2014. However, the same crew did this epic of wonder, so perhaps I may give it another shot. Plus, considering the title character, one wonders if Hollywood is making sure that when they cast actors from Game of Thrones, that said characters are long dead.
4. Captain America: Civil War: Deadpool took the standard superhero film and minted high quality humor out of it. This movie took the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe and made it into a highbrow drama with great action on the side. It pretty much took the status quo and utterly shattered it, and in a way that could be seen as a political metaphor.
3. Hell or High Water: In its essence, this film is Grand Theft Auto V as written by the people behind No Country for Old Men. It involves two brothers who rob banks in a way that attracts the attention of a pair of Texas Rangers. Without wishing to give away spoilers, this film works wonders as a modern-day Western and a satire on the current economic status quo.
2. Zootopia: The fact that there are four animated films on this list shows already how good of a year animation is having at the expense of Hollywood live-action. Needless to say, this film was pretty much the crown jewel, the centerpiece of it all. Now if only Disney can release a DVD set that uses the original poster as a cover...
1. Star Trek Beyond: To be perfectly honest, I used to be not completely on board with the new rebooted Star Trek films. The first one was a good action thriller, and the second one was a thing that existed. But this was an incredible sci-fi blockbuster, with a villain that certainly sticks with the viewer long after the credits have rolled.
And now for the second:
1. La La Land: For me and several of my friends, this is a movie we are positively psyched to see. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone being directed by the guy behind Whiplash? Sign us up!
2. Doctor Strange: This is very much like Guardians of the Galaxy in that it is a Marvel film that is taking a major risk. Then again, that film was a complete success with a killer soundtrack, so consider me intrigued for this one. And it's usually very hard to go wrong with Benedict Cumberbatch.
3. Billy Flynn's Long Halftime Walk: Allow me to be candid: over time, I have learned to loathe American Sniper. Even though I was initially interested in it beforehand, everything that happened afterwards made my stomach churn. I'm just hoping that this succeeds where that failed.
4. Rogue One: Star Wars spinoff movies or specials, whenever they happen to appear, have generally not been very good. Especially that Clone Wars movie, which felt more like a two-hour long cutscene than anything else. But this one looks like it might be good for a change, and would a placeholder until the next proper sequel comes out.
5. Moana: In any other case, an animation house doing two movies in one year is going to lead to the second movie being a disappointment. Pixar themselves proved that much with The Good Dinosaur. But considering they have have talent with The Rock and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who knows what could happen?
