Mental Receptacles and Other Passages: January 2017

Movies are almost incapable to be truly bad in my opinion. Except for one movie I actually forgot watching because I hated it so much- these movies I never hated even if they had major issues. They tried and some did better than others. But that other movie? That was a bad movie.

1. Green Room

Green Room was personally my favorite movie of the year. Which is surprising because it had such a limited release and I don't think it even got a profit. But yeah a kind of horror slasher film where a struggling punk band goes to the Pacific Northwest to try and break into the mainstream accidentally play for a group of neo-Nazis. Its pretty gory and all that so if you thought it was a PG-13 movie its decidedly not. The probably funniest thing to realize is the leader of the bad guys is Patrick Stewart and somehow he pulls off the evil. This movie is definitely not for everyone but if you like punk and horror or one of the two its nice. Why? Because it had atmosphere and nice cinematography. Won't give this away cause I like it.

2. Deadpool

I like superhero movies but if you notice the rest of my list, the other superhero movies did not do as well as this one. Primarily, its because in my opinion this realized what made Deadpool a character that people like. Its a raunchy superhero comedy that even when its plot or origin story is dark, it still tries to lighten the mood with jokes. Do all of them work? No. But at least it knows that the superhero genre needed some jokes in it to break the monotony of edge and that what they are making is a comic book movie. Have fun with it- don't always make everything so dark. Heck, even more dark comics have some kind of humorous bits.

3. Zootopia

My personal favorite animated movie of the year. Sure it had that one thing where the two characters have a disagreement and have a few minutes all sad but it wasn't the most egregious use of the trope in the animated movies of the year. But this was a good one because the setting was actually pretty funny and made sense that there was different sections of the city or different animals. The animation team must have loved working on this because the detail within each shot was fun to see on multiple rewatchings. Also having a tale where racism and racial tensions are discussed in a way that kids might not completely pick up the ideas presented and yet it makes sense that a city where predators are discriminated against because of their perceived danger to prey was impressive. Also having a police procedural kind of story for Disney was actually kind of new.

4. Captain America Civil War

Second favorite superhero movie. Sure its getting a bit much to deal with all these things going on in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and some movies have been only okay because of them being origin stories and all that, but having a pretty much Avengers 2.5 with all these characters in here makes the world more like a comic book. Now its nice to see different superheroes interact with one another in a more real life world with fantastical elements- or pretty much having the story based on ideas from the okay Civil War event in Marvel Comics from 2004, and make it more consistent with its quality and focus on the fallout from Avengers 2 where they saved the day but a lot of people died in order to. Pretty much seems like a spy thriller but with superheroes which is fun. Also has the introduction of my favorite Spider Man in films cause while I liked Spider Man 1 and 2- Spider Man 3 had some okay parts and the Amazing Spider Man films were Sony just trying to make their Spider Man universe and crashing super hard cause those were confusing. But this is a good superhero film which isn't like Deadpool with humor but it isn't a dour pain.

5. The Accountant

Like if Jason Bourne was a film where the protagonist was on the autistic spectrum. I mean having Ben Affleck play an accountant for mobsters and having a pretty normal life besides the military training his dad gave him and that he is a functioning member of society while showing that his childhood was hard because his family was dealing with the issues of having a child that had some form of disability- its a good movie. This would have been higher if one thing didn't happen- the kind of sort of romantic subplot for a few moments and that the plucky character that they have play the clueless normal lady was Anna Kendrick. I don't like Anna Kendrick in movies probably because I hate manic pixie dream girl archetypes- for the same reason I don't like Zoey Deschanel either when she's in movies often.But otherwise this was a decent movie even if it had mixed reviews. It did something that surprised me and that counts more than things I don't like in it.

6. Finding Dory

A sequel that I shouldn't have liked so much because I first thought it was a useless sequel to an okay movie. But no this was personally better than the original film and that's mostly because I preferred Dory as a character and having the goofy bad memory bits from the first movie maybe be some kind of sad memory loss or maybe Alzheimers in some way. Either way, the idea that Finding Dory, a sequel to Finding Nemo I liked way more because it felt kind of more adult and yet able to be watched fine by children. Also I don't like most Pixar movies because its literally Item with Feelings movies or their sequels or prequels are disappointing.

7. The Magnificent Seven

A remake of Magnificent Seven the Western movie people seem to like. I prefer the original Seven Samurai to the United Artists 1960's? 1970's? Western. Because that one is only okay. But this one is a good remake not because it has fantastic cinematography but because it feels like a kind of grittier version of the original and something that could be a PG-13 Tarantino movie. Sure its nowhere near perfect but the last fight scene was one of the more popcorn enjoyable things I saw in theaters. Also look at that a likable Chris Pratt performance. And yet the movie is full of good actors giving good performances. This never bored me.

8. Passengers

Like if Gravity and 2001 A Space Odyssey and The Shining had a baby. Sure there is more to it than that but its nicely like a kind of romantic thriller. I have issues with the film to be sure but Chris Pratt, yet again, performs a likable and yet creepy character trapped on a space cruise to a new planet and wakes up too early. Its a old school desert island in space. The design of the ship and the visuals alone make this one be weirdly likable even with its issues.

9. Doctor Strange

This one is hard because Doctor Strange is one of my favorite Marvel characters and the visuals were stunning in this. As if Inception was a superhero film it was that good. But after two months I looked back and saw an origin movie. Sure its super ungodly formulaic but there is actual humor- not often but it works. And unlike the superhero movies below, even when Marvel does the now cliche origin story to introduce a new character at least they are distinct and popcorn movies that work are better than big budget attempts to weld a cinematic universe together.

10. The Legend of Tarzan

I love Tarzan. I do have to say though that I hate the animated Disney Tarzan just if you guys even wondered. Now is this a good movie? No. But having the movie be pretty much a tale where Tarzan fights the Belgians because enslaving the Congo to mine diamonds is a bad time. But yeah combining the fantastical story of Tarzan with a historical narrative of European colonialism is something new in terms of the movies. Was it a problem free film? No, most of the sets were kind of painfully green screen at points and the whole white savior narrative where a white guy helps natives fix their issues cause they can't do that is highly problematic nowadays. But having Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz, the movie isn't a complete bore and actually had some decent fight scenes.

11. Moana

A Disney Princess movie. It was a good movie but this movie had that terrible misunderstanding that was completely useless since the two characters made up. It just seemed tacked on to me. But hey breaking free of the idea that Disney characters need dead parents is nice for once. The problem is that while I loved the songs, some just seemed not the best or there wasn't a unified villain- the movie preferring a road trip movie with some smaller villains instead of a really memorable villain. But having a Polynesian Princess that is trying to be more independent while also knowing that she would become the chief is good for once. It kind of mitigated the problems with other Disney Princesses who did things cause they were silly teenagers following love to the detriment of obligations to the family or kingdom.

12. Kubo and the Two Strings

Studio Laika's attempt to have stop motion and some nice 3d effects made this one be a uniquely stylized kind of movie. Was it a good movie other than breathtaking stop motion? Not really. IT was just okay but I do have to give them points for deciding to make a film that borrowed heavily from Japanese mythology- there's never enough of those kinds of movies.

13. The Purge: Election Year

The Purge series continues to be a guilty pleasure of mine. Each film builds onto one another- the original Purge is still one of my favorite horror type movies because unlike most current movies that are of the horror subgenre, it doesn't focus on cheap jumpscares- preferring more to use atmosphere instead, The Purge Election Year is kind of like that but Purge 2 and this really amped up the silly aspects while keeping the general idea of the first Purge movie. These movies are both super dumb and yet open to kind of be a critique on current day culture. Sure there's gory bits and I think a cult like almost torture scene in a church to get the creep factor up but this is just a run and gun fix the day and have the female protagonist survive and then win the election in order to outlaw the Purge and stop the New Founding Fathers. Seriously this is like a 1970's exploitation film in silly dumb things happening. But the series is just perversely fun in some way that makes me not hate the film series even though the rating is in my popcorn movie area.

14. Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them

1920's Harry Potter. Eddie Redmayne I don't like in the title role since even to me he sounds like an incomprehensible British dude. He's kind of boring and somehow he has a Tardis briefcase that stores a zoo of magical animals and yet he is kind of incompetent to keep them safe and in there. Its not a bad film I just thought it was okay and the CGI was not great in 2d. I don't know how they will make this series beyond this first film since it kind of wrapped up kind of. This was cool to see Wizarding America but J.K. Rowling, if I wanted to learn about the wizarding word you made- I don't want to see all the movies, read the books, and yet still have to read the extra material you keep turning out like crazy on your website. I just want to either read the books or see the movies. So to me wizarding America was barely seen since its a 1920's New York movie. I'll watch the rest when it comes out but the movie was just meh.

15. Jungle Book

Live action Jungle Book. Didn't need a remake of the Jungle Book first off. Also we didn't need a weird abomination mixing the tone of the lighter animated Disney movie and the tone of the original book- that does not work. Yes have Christopher Walken play King Loiue who looks like a smaller orangutan King Kong and have him sing I Wanna Be Like You. That is completely not a tone killer. Disney once again rehashes their repertoire and reminds me that the original is far superior and not a weird attempt to fix their original Disney sensibilities. Live Action Big Budget Remake Disney movies are terrible and they keep making them because there is a large enough market for people to like them and they make a ton of money all things considered.

16. X-Men Apocalypse

James McAvoy Professor X films with the X Men had been really good up to this point and then this movie happened. None of the actors are bad actually besides one person- too bad she had an increased role in the movie. Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique was probably the worst performance I have seen this year. If she wasn't in Passengers I would have thought that she was unable to act- because in that movie she was actually good. In this movie she just looks bored and somehow the takes they got of her saying her lines still were bad. The rest of the cast is actually not that bad even if the script is a bit silly but Michael Fassbender as Magneto and James McAvoy as Professor X do good work here. And even though I have issues with Oscar Isaacs portrayal as Apocalypse is silly looking and doesn't do much because of the prosthetics used made it hard for him to actually do stunts- he at least hams it up to a fun comic book level. I think its just a misstep in a now consistent X Men series of movies.

17. Batman v. Superman

Zack Snyder back at it again with cringy bad misunderstandings of comic book characters. Sure I loved Zack Snyder when he was doing things like 300, Watchmen, and personally loved Sucker Punch which were all good interesting movies. Watchmen actually was better than the comic in my opinion because it adapted the source material right to make it make more sense as a filmed media instead of the magic of comic panels. But this movie right here seems to adapt both somehow parts of the Dark Knight Returns comic, the Death of Superman Arc, and introduces Batman and Wonder Woman and hints of the rest of the Justice League. Also Lois Lane is useless and the extended Directors cut fixes some of the issues of the theatrical cut movie but if I wanted to see a mediocre movie that was long I would prefer to have the movie not have to have a extended cut. Also that was the worst Lex Luthor ever and that twist witjusth Doomsday was laughably bad. A good Batman and Wonder Woman and this was just a bad film.

18. Suicide Squad

Deadpool did good. DC saw that and "fixed" this movie since they saw that Batman vs. Superman was getting a lot of money but critically panned. I don't think rapid reshoots worked. This movie was just a weird and boring editing mistake of a first half throwing characters at us and the rest of the movie was just every other portal in the sky third act movie ending. Also Joker was barely in the movie and Harley Quinn was oversexualized that it was laughable. Pretty much this is what happens when you need to introduce some characters that might be important in some fashion later and try to make Marvel's Avengers movies with antiheroes. Yet the first Avengers movie was special because it had four or five origin movies and then the Avengers movie. We cared about the characters in that case because we already knew where they came from. This movie fails at introducing characters and the characters they do do that for are often spouting cliche backstories or barely one at all.

19. Hillary's America: The Secret History of The Democratic Party

I actually forgot I watched this movie. Welcome to Dinesh D'Souza's fantastic "documentary" about how the Democratic Party is evil and that good Republicans should vote for a Republican because he can't vote anymore because he was indicted for illegally contributing money to a Senate race. Which is illegal you goof. Campaign finance laws are actually strict and you broke it and this documentary makes you out to be the victim because the Democratic Party hates your movies or something equally crazy. But this is a ugly movie that is the Republican echo chamber propaganda film. I've seen documentaries and I actually like them as a genre of film- this is way partisan and I can't debate people that like this movie because I have literally tried multiple times to do that. This is a conspiracy film not a documentary. If I wanted to look at a hyper nationalist call to action to protect a nation from another party or side- I know I've seen more pretty propaganda films than this almost comedically insane Drunk History of the Democratic Party. Or is this an alternative film filled with alternative facts? Either way I hated this movie enough I had to watch it over days because it is painful and historically inaccurate. Or it is accurate at points and only skims over the bad stuff so you don't realize that different time periods were shockingly morally different or shockingly the party lines have switched since the 1800s. Welcome to probably my least favorite "movie" ever because that was not a movie. That was a call to arms to protect America from a person that was dangerous because it wasn't their type of candidate. Too bad the whole vote for the lesser of two evils approach met two evils of possibly similar badness for America just in different ways.

Mental Receptacles and Other Passages

Monday, January 30, 2017

Personal List of Favorite Movies of 2016 That I Saw And Short Thoughts On Them

Friday, January 27, 2017

Top 5 Favorite Movies List and List of Movies I Saw in 2016