Film 2016: Part Two

Welcome to Part Two, in which we're counting down our favourite films of 2016 from #29 to #11! If you'd like to revisit Part One (#43 - #30), click here.

29. I'm not a Star Trek expert so I don't know if I'm really qualified to judge Star Trek films. However, I really enjoyed the sexy, accessible reboot Star Trek (2009) and its sequel Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). Star Trek Beyond was a poor third entry. Its a simpler film and yet somehow messier; overall, its just forgettable. Although really silly, the scene where the USS Franklin uses a Beastie Boys track as a weapon is actually awesome.

28. I've enjoyed previous entries in the Bourne saga, but the simple conceit they're based upon isn't strong enough to hold up five films alone. The plot of Jason Bourne is repetitive and it doesn't go anywhere. In order to be invested in any film, you need to identify with the hero, and I've never connected with Matt Damon as a leading man. Bourne remains one-dimensional and boring when compared to charismatic rivals James Bond and Ethan Hunt.

27. Laika have made some great stop-motion films, such as Coraline (2009) and ParaNorman (2012). Like its predecessors, Kubo and the Two Strings is imaginative and beautifully animated. The film is sombre in places, without getting schmaltzy. That's another string to Laika's bow.

26. Most cinephiles love the Coen brothers, but I’ve never really understood why. I fell asleep during Fargo and Raising Arizona. I enjoyed No Country For Old Men, Bridge of Spies and True Grit, though. Alice is a fan of the Old Hollywood setting so she persuaded me to see Hail, Caesar! It was fine but it wasn't really my kind of film.

25. Morgan is a creepy sci-fi with an excellent cast and an intriguing premise. Sadly, it doesn't deliver on its big ideas and veers off into daft, rote horror territory. Also, if the title led you to believe you were getting a Morgan Freeman biopic, prepare to be disappointed.

24. Pixar remains the gold standard for computer-animated features, but their films have become much less playful. This makes sense in pensive projects like Inside Out (2015) or the sensational 2020 film Soul, but the frequently melancholy tone feels misplaced in a colourful adventure like Finding Dory. Ed O'Neill and Eugene Levy are decent additions to the cast.

23. The zombie horror genre has never really appealed to me much; its a bit thin and dry next to melodramatic and thought-provoking stories about vampires, aliens or Frankenstein's monster. One of the things that sets this movie apart is that one of the survivors is a zombie- The Girl with All The Gifts. Its a solid watch with a great cast, but the book is even better.

22. There are plenty of interesting plots in Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels, so its bizarre that this sequel sends Jack on the run (hackneyed) with his long-lost daughter (annoying). Tom Cruise offerings are always dependably watchable, but Jack Reacher: Never Go Back isn't as fun or satisfying as its tighter predecessor, Jack Reacher (2012). You might say, it could never reach the heights of the original.

21. Your Name starts as a sweet, funny body-swap comedy, but then turns into a time-travelling romance! We couldn't always make sense of it, and its too long, but the film is genuinely emotional in places and the locations are absolutely beautifully animated.

20. After years of enjoying his work as British detective icon Sherlock Holmes, its jarring at first to see Benedict Cumberbatch attempting an American accent. Doctor Strange follows the established Marvel formula- a flawed protagonist (with a tacked-on romantic interest) undergoes a traumatic change and becomes a superhero who must face off against a power-hungry villain with similar abilities. Marvel do this very well, and incorporate Inception-style building folding this time, resulting in a film that's entertaining without ever being exceptional. Alice lost interest in the second half, but I liked that Strange won the day by outwitting the baddies, rather than just beating them up. Although I can take or leave this movie, Doctor Strange's appearances in Thor: Ragnorok (2017) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018) are sublime.

19. What do you know about the history of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia? Personally, I don't know much; when we study World War II in British schools, we're mostly looking at the effect on the people of Britain, Germany, Italy or France. This meant I went into Anthropoid completely unaware of the titular mission to assassinate high-ranking Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich, which made a tense film even more suspenseful, not to mention educational. The Czechoslovak soldiers played by Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan are likeable heroes, and the viewer comes to fear for many of the citizens of Prague as the violence escalates (Alice hated the torture scene, calling the film, 'well-acted but depressing'). I'd also thoroughly recommend Operation Finale (2018), which follows Israeli Mossad officers attempting to arrest SS officer Adolf Eichmann and extract him from Argentina.

18. Alice and I are both fans of Tim Burton. We could watch his films all day, even the widely panned Dark Shadows (2012). When actors are enjoying themselves, it tends to benefit their performance, and Eva Green and Samuel L Jackson had a ball on Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Although Alice thought it too long, the plot makes decent use of time travel and teenage hormones, the effects are impressive and the villains are really creepy. Despite being a YA film at heart, there's some gross moments of horror and a fun finale romp that pays homage to Jason and The Argonauts (1963).

17. The 2016 incarnation of The Jungle Book is more an adaptation of the 1967 animated feature than an adaptation of Kipling's stories, so comparisons between the two movies are inevitable. Mowgli is just as annoying as he was in the original, and the songs that haven't been cut are mostly weak imitations, but the computer animation is excellent and the voice cast are perfect. Ben Kingsley is arch and smooth like Sebastian Cabot, and Bill Murray recaptures the laid-back attitude of Phil Harris. Scarlet Johansson and Idris Elba both had big boots to fill, and somehow filled them, with totally different interpretations of Kaa and Shere Khan. The former exudes sex appeal (which is weird when the character is a snake) and the latter is cool and frightening.

16. Watching Moana in the cinema is probably the closest I'll ever get to a Polynesian island, so its fortunate that the film's animation is nothing short of outstanding. The recreation of the water and the characters' hair is particularly impressive throughout. When I asked Alice what she could remember about Moana, she said, 'It sets a good example for girls.' The titular hero is indeed forthright, brave and resourceful, especially compared to fellow aquatic princess, Ariel. It also makes a nice change that there's no superfluous romance in the movie. The songs are catchy too. Its all good; there's nothing to Moan(a) about.

15. In the US, this movie was known as Zootopia, but for legal reasons it was re-named Zootropolis in other territories, including here in the UK. Whatever you call it, its a surprisingly adult, witty noir. The film bludgeons the viewer with its big theme, but its an interesting one, and there's plenty of action and banter to be had with these memorable characters too. Fun fact: This is the last of four Idris Elba films in our list (the others were Star Trek Beyond, Finding Dory and The Jungle Book).

14. A lot of people hate Suicide Squad, and for good reasons- Enchantress is boring, ridiculous and poorly performed, Incubus is a pointless CGI leviathan, the monster henchmen are silly and gross, Killer Croc and Katana are wasted opportunities, we're not given a reason to care about most of the characters, the dialogue is mostly first draft standard, and though he isn't as awful as most people say, Jared Leto is the worst incarnation of the Joker, and remains stuck on the fringes of the film. Plus, sort-of reboot The Suicide Squad (2021) is out now, and is a far superior movie.

Despite all of this, I like Suicide Squad. It has action, quips, and what Alice refers to as 'a cool, neon aesthetic.' Viola Davis and Margot Robbie are both great and well cast (Robbie's Harley Quinn improves with each subsequent outing). The Batmobile chasing down the Joker's chrome-purple Infiniti G35 Vaydor is a brief but exhilarating scene. Above all, its just fun to watch Will Smith being charismatic while kicking ass.

13. Though stylish and thoughtful, Nocturnal Animals is undeniably a gruelling watch. Simultaneously telling the tale of two disintegrating marriages and the story-in-a-story of a man seeking vengeance for the rape and murder of his family, the film is at times unsettling, tense, bleak and morally ambiguous. As you can tell from my 2016 list, its much more serious than most films I watch, yet somehow I was utterly absorbed. I think this is partly because stories of revenge are always somewhat satisfying, albeit perversely. I also think I was drawn to the unique protagonists Edward and Tony, both portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal (Amy Adams, Michael Shannon and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are each firing on all cylinders in the film too). They're gentle idealists whose romanticism is eroded away, leaving them resentful and vindictive. I mentioned earlier that I never quite connect with Matt Damon; I think the opposite could be said of Gyllenhaal as I've strayed out of my comfort zone and enjoyed Brokeback Mountain (2005), Zodiac (2007), Nightcrawler (2014) and Velvet Buzzsaw (2019).

12. The original, award-winning 1988 graphic novel, Batman: The Killing Joke, is a masterful and inimitable examination of the Joker's possible origins and his relationship with Batman. Although its a celebrated landmark of the Batman mythos, the book is also considered controversial for its treatment of Barbara Gordon, a.k.a Batgirl. Effectively a cypher for the escalating conflict between Batman and the Joker, Barbara is paralysed, stripped and photographed; the photos are then shown to her kidnapped father. Consequently, the story has been heavily criticised and even Alan Moore, who wrote the story, has expressed regret over this decision. This misogynistic moment seemingly inserted for shock value isn't all there is to The Killing Joke, though- if you haven't read it, I'd strongly recommend it.

In an interview in July 2016, screenwriter Brian Azzarello said of his film adaptation, Batman: The Killing Joke, 'It's controversial, so we added more controversy.' Or, as Honest Trailers put it, 'Warner Bros is fighting fire- with gasoline!'

To make it feature-length, Azzarello added a 40 minute prologue which is undeniably and irredeemably awful. Batgirl investigates a criminal who manipulates her, tricks her and causes her to lose control, eventually prompting her retirement from crimefighting. Meanwhile, her domineering mentor, Batman, repeatedly condescends to her, and has sex with her, for which she feels the desire to apologise. In most continuities, and certainly in the Batman: The Animated Series continuity (strongly evoked in The Killing Joke by the animation and the involvement of Kevin Conroy, Tara Strong, Mark Hamill and Bruce Timm), Batman is a second father figure to Barbara and a friend of her father's, and Barbara used to date his surrogate son, Dick Grayson (Robin). It's all kinds of wrong.

If Azzarello really had to fill a longer runtime, he could have done so much better. He's a talented writer and I've really enjoyed some of his comics, especially his run on Wonder Woman (2011-2014). He could have done something empowering with Batgirl that could counteract her victimisation in the main part of the story. He could have focussed more on the Clown Prince of Crime, as The Killing Joke is first and foremost a Joker story; why not include some of Joker's career after his transformation, like the development of his animosity with Batman?

The animation is also a little shoddy when compared to Batman: The Animated Series or The New Batman Adventures- this is especially evident if you saw The Killing Joke on the big screen, as I did (Brian Bolland's visuals in the original comic, by stark contrast, are stunning). Even Kevin Conroy, the best Batman voice actor and one of the actors who has defined the character, gives a flat performance in this movie. So why have we placed The Killing Joke at #12 on our list?

Because the second half of the film is a faithful adaptation of the best Joker comic book story of all time. Whenever I watch the DVD, I skip the first half and cut straight to it. No other story drills as deeply into the parallels between Batman and his arch-nemesis, or gives us better insight into Joker's history and worldview. The Clown Prince of Crime's desire to bring normal people down to his level is an element of The Killing Joke that features prominently in The Dark Knight (2008), the best and arguably most popular superhero movie. The Killing Joke is a dark, uninhibited, adult tale of two tragically unhinged men on a collision course, their destruction mutually assured.

11. The Magnificent Seven has been made a couple times before so many people wondered why it needed to be made again. My answer to this question is that its the same reason any film is made- to entertain people and make a lot of money. The film made a respectable $162.4 million, against a net production budget of $90 million, and lots of people, including me, found it to be a great ride.

The straightforward plot is set in motion in the first ten minutes by the deranged, power-hungry villain Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) terrorising a small town, monologuing magnificently ('This country has long equated democracy with capitalism, capitalism with God. So, you're standing not only in the way of progress and capital, you're standing in the way of God!'), burning down the church and shooting anyone who questions him. Its a great performance so its shame he's mostly absent for the rest of the film. Luckily, there's plenty more magnetic characters for us to meet; namely the titular septet.

With the awesome line 'I seek righteousness...But I'll take revenge,' Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) sets out to recruit a heterogenous gang of experienced killers including Denzel Washington as the stoic yet haunted Sam Chisolm, a calm, cold lawman with a heart of gold, and Chris Pratt as the charming Joshua Faraday, a variation on his characters Peter Quill and Owen Grady, only more gleefully willing to gun people down (its a shame that Pratt characters in movies are so much more likeable than the conservative Prat character he reportedly plays in real life).

All the usual clichés of the genre are welcome here; the sheriff, the preacher, the Comanche warrior, the schoolhouse and the saloon- complete with batwing doors, piano and fraught card games. There are plenty of tense scenes that threaten violence, which often comes. James Horner and Simon Franglen's score is traditional and triumphant without being obtrusive.

When they're together, the Seven are prone to butch banter and peculiar jokes; they're fun to be around. There's a lot of mumbling, croaking and whispering though, so I'd recommend watching with the subtitles on. I suppose when you're a cowboy, you sometimes get hoarse.

Come back soon for the final part of our 2016 review, in which we'll be counting down the top ten!