harry365in2016

[harry365in2016]

Top Movies Seen in 2016 NOT Released in 2016

Hey all! This is my list of the best movies I saw in 2016 that were not released in 2016. If you’re looking for the top movies I saw in 2016 that were released in 2016 check it out here! [Link forthcoming]

IMPORTANT NOTE:  I'm gonna be honest, aside from #1 choice, the rest of this list is in a rough order rather than definitive.

20) Sunset Boulevard (1950)

While watching Sunset Boulevard I couldn't understand why it was classified as film noir. That is, until it became painfully obvious why it was film noir.

Sunset Boulevard is a pitch black movie about how far people will sacrifice they're own livelihood just for a taste of that Hollywood fame and fortune. It's about what happens when someone loses their fame and is desperate to get it back.

19) Everest (2015)

Disasters scare the piss out of me. Both real life disasters and fictional ones. Knowing this I'm not sure why I willingly chose to watch this movie. Even though it terrified me I'm still glad I watched.

It's a movie that shows even the most professional, most capable people can succumb to mother nature. There's no cartoonish dumbness in this movie. The mistakes that were made by the expedition team were all small, understandable mistakes. It just so happens that they all piled up to contribute to one of Everest's most deadly periods in history.

18) To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

In a lot of ways this movie and 12 Angry Men share thematic similarities. I happened to like 12 Angry Men more but this is still a great movie.

Atticus Finch (and by proxy Gregory Peck) are the human personifications of what decency means. Finch is a quiet gentle man who does not back down in the face of adversary nor does he give up on his convictions. He knows what's right and wrong and he fights tooth and nail for it.

17) The Limey (1999)

It's unfair to compare this movie to Memento but also completely accurate. Both movies are about the nature of memory and how it's colored by grief and trauma.

The Limey is one of Steven Soderburgh's best films. It's quiet and meditative until it's not. Terrance Stamp puts in a great performance as an aging badass who is seeking vengeance. It's also a movie that's sort of about the death of the hippie counter-culture movement from the 60s?

16) The Kid with the Golden Arm (1979)

I loved this movie because of how many characters were in it. It's a simple plot. One group of people are transporting money and goods. Another group wants to rob them.

But the characters! There's a duo called Long Axe and Short Axe, a drunkard who might be a special agent for the local ruler, and a fabled fighter who may or may not exist. The gang trying to steal the money and wares are ruled by a hierarchy. Their ranks include Golden Arm, Silver Spear, Iron Hide, and more outrageous villains.

15) Singing in the Rain (1952)

They don't make them like they used to. Singing in the Rain is a fun romp about a group of actors who are struggling to transition from silent pictures to talkies. It's fun, charming, and will make you grin like an idiot.  

I genuinely loved this movie but also my opinion of it was colored by the fact that I saw it in a ginormous theater with a ginormous screen.

14) Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)

The subtitle to this documentary is not lying. The story of the 1980s most infamous production company is amazing.

Aside from all the funny stories about how Cannon Films went about making their movies the movie is also an examination of what it means to be an artist who simply cannot help but make trash. The central figures to Cannon Films really did want to make good movies. They just time and time again ended up making at best B-grade flicks.

13) Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)

This movie is an exercise in making a movie the most purely charming thing ever willed into existence. In other words it's charming af.

What I love about Kiki's Delivery Service is that it's mostly just a story about a young person trying to make their place in the world. It's all about the difficulties of setting off on your own. It's about the struggle to provide for one's self.

12) 12 Angry Men* (1957)

What does it take to stand up (metaphorically) in a group of people to fight for what you believe in?

12 Angry Men is a meditation on that theme. Like a lot of other classic movies I saw in 2016 I didn't think this was going to hold up to the hype. It does.

It's also a movie I think people should watch or rewatch from time to time to remind themselves of what it takes to fight for the rights of other people.

In this movie the 11 other jurors are ready to throw the defendant of the case under the bus simply because they're acting on lazy and harmful stereotypes. They're convinced that just because the young man comes from the wrong side of the tracks that he's inherently guilty.

*Yeah, I made 12 Angry Men my 12th pick for the year. Do something about it.

11) Sorcerer (1977)

Ostensibly this movie is a remake of 1953's The Wages of Fear (also excellent), however Sorcerer is kind of its own beast.

It's one of the most tense, terrifying, and stress-inducing movies I've ever seen. Four desparate men are tasked with delivering two trucks full of nitroglycerin through the rocky mountains of South America.

The company that hired them needs the nitro to stop an oil field that is on fire and won't unless they blow it up.

The movie ends up being a sweaty and ugly meditation on the hell corporations put random, everyday people through just for the sake of profit.

10) Gaslight (1944)

"Gaslighting" is a term that has risen in popularity in the last few years. The term comes from this movie.

I don't want to spoil anything about it. The story is about a newly eloped couple who move in together. Then the wife starts having mental "episodes."

The movie is one of the most psychologically gripping films I've ever seen. It does a great job of putting you in the wife's headspace. You feel her frustration and terror as she loses grip on reality.

9) Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

Obviously the Creature is a monster, but I'm not sure why this movie is typically classified as horror. To me it's much more an adventure movie.

I'd hazard a guess that Michael Crichton loved this movie and it's what informed his writing. Cause it plays like a Crichton novel. A bunch of scientists discover that some lost creature is living in the lagoon and go to investigate. Along the way they have arguments about the scientific method and how to best deal with the creature.

8) Five Element Ninjas (1982)

There's a subgenre of martial arts movies that I love that I call "bat shit insane kung fu flicks."

Five Element Ninjas is one of the best.

Its story, if you can call it that, concerns a student getting vengeance for those who slaughtered the rest of his school.

The insane part is that the highest caliber fighters in this universe belong to a color-themed tier system of ninja clans each who base their fighting style off of Earth elements. There's the gold clan, earth clan, fire clan, and water clan. Each of these clans have looney ways of fighting. For instance, the gold clan is covered head to toe in gold cloth. Their clothes are so shiny it blinds their opponents.

This movie is sheer lunacy and I love it.

7) A Hard Day's Night (1964)

The best way I can describe A Hard Day's Night is that it's Animaniacs grandfather.

It's just a fun, absurd romp chronicling the life and times of the Beatles at the height of their fame.

It's movie magic. How many other pop bands tried to cash in on their fame with movies, tv appearances, or otherwise and failed miserably? This movie is lightning in a bottle that might not ever be repeated.

It's also barely a movie in that more than half of it is musical interludes (that also happened to inform the blossoming art form of music videos).

6) Casablanca (1942)

Gonna be honest, part of the reason I slept on Casablanca for so long was that I didn't believe the hype. I thought there was no way it still held up after all these years as one of the best movies of all time.

I was wrong wrong wrong wrong.

I'm in awe of this movie. I cannot think of many other movies in which literally every single character that comes on screen is a fully-formed character with their own rich backstory and traits.

This is one of those movies I want to get lost in. There's very few times in my life when I've wanted to immediately re-watch a movie after viewing it. You might wonder why it's not higher on the list but personal taste in art is a funny thing that's not easily explained. Anyway, the point is I still love this movie.

5) Inside Out (2015)

I guess it's called the Pixar Effect when you have a super charming and funny movie that turns on a dime to emotionally wreck you, yes?

Anyway, Inside Out, IMHO, might be Pixar's best movie to date. It's a fun, infectious movie that delivers a complex tale about how hard it is to grow up. Inside Out is one of those movies when you realize how important art is to explaining humanity. We might laugh at the Greek myths but what they were doing is no different than coming up with a brilliant metaphor for how memories and emotions are handled in the brain. In each case they're using the power of creativity and storytelling to figure out what life and humanity means.

4) Heathers (1988)

Heathers is my platonic ideal of what a satire should be. A heightened reality that is dark, off-kilter, and is still totally recognizable to audiences.

That a movie exists in which suicide is a fad is astonishing. Add a dash of everyday woes about surviving high school, a great performance from Winona Ryder & Christian Slater, and a hilarious script makes it for one of the best satires I've ever seen.

3) Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

This movie is one that suggests the expansion of the west was not simply carried out by man. Rather, it was a chaotic force upon itself. Once western progress was started in this country there was nothing that could stop it. Even if you tried to stay out of its way it could ruin you. You could be prosperous from western expansion but you'd have blood on your hands.

Of course, since this is a Sergio Leone movie it's also wildly entertaining. It features a great performance from Charles Bronson as a harmonica-weilding gunslinger.

2) Rope (1948)

I think a lot of praise gets thrown to Rope for it's illusions of editing. Namely, that in Alfred Hitchcock's movie it is seemingly one long take. There's only a small number of cuts in the movie -- some of which are obscured cleverly.

However, I think this movie deserves praise for its story. In this film Jimmy Stewart flippantly suggests something awful should be legalized. What he doesn't realize is that he's inspired two younger men to take his word as gospel.

Words have meaning. When you speak you should speak clearly and without any sort of flippant tone. Not respecting language can lead to disastrous results. In the age of the Internet it's incredibly important not to mince your words. There's times that it's hard to suss out the meaning of what someone says online. In communication clarity is king.

1) Shock Corridor (1963)

Shock Corridor is a movie that is unbelievably relevant to today's societal woes. The movie concerns a reporter going undercover in a mental asylum to find out the truth why one of the patients died.

In his journey he crosses paths with patients who become bullhorns for different aspects of American society.

It is a relentless, strange, and ballsy movie. It's loud, brash, and sometimes uncomfortable. It's a great exploitation flick and an even better allegory.

[harry365in2016]

Top Movies Seen in 2016 released in 2016

Hey all! This is my list for my top films that I saw in 2016 that were released in 2016. If you’re looking for a list of the top movies I saw in 2016 that WERE NOT released in 2016, click here! [Link forthcoming]

IMPORTANT NOTE: There’s a bunch, and I mean a bunch, of high profile/critically lauded movies I’ve still yet to see. That does not mean I put any of these movies on my list reluctantly. In fact, I hemmed and hawed over this list. IMHO there were a lot of great movies this year, but most of them were indie flicks instead of big budget ones. 

10) Ghostbusters

Who'd of thunk that this movie would be so polarizing and a dowsing rod for awful shitheels.

Anyway, I'd rather celebrate the movie than talk about the backlash. This movie did not surpass the original, but it can easily stand along side it. I have no serious qualms with what was put forth in this movie. I loved all the new Ghostbusters characters. I thought the ghost designs were neat. And I thought it was really funny.

This movie hits the four tenants of Ghostbusters: 1) It's funny, 2) It's about friends joining forces to defeat ghosts, 3) It has a few scary parts, and 4) It has fun with pseudo-science.

I've watched it twice now and each time I get a stupid grin on my face both because of what the movie does and how it reminds me of my childhood.

9) The Shallows

A lean and mean survival thriller. Blake Lively vs. a shark. That's it and it's great.

The brilliance of this movie is in its simplicity. There's about 10 minutes of exposition before the initial shark attack. After that it's watching Lively systematically figure out how to get out of her predicament.

Also, towards the end of the movie there was a scene featuring a particular sea creature that had me so terrified I nearly passed out. Not really. That’s a lie. But still it was gross and awful and I’m surprised more movies don’t utilize that particular sea creature. 

It's also a gorgeously shot movie. The open shots of surfers and the beach Lively goes to are spectacular.

8) Hardcore Henry

Hardcore Henry is the closest movie we're getting to Crank 3. That's why it's on this list. This movie is non-stop, chaotic, innovative action.

It also happens to be one of the best video game movies despite not being based on a video game. The whole movie is shot POV from the main character, Henry. Another character is constantly talking at, not to, Henry giving him exposition and missions much like in a video game. The bad guy looks like he's from some Japanese RPG like Final Fantasy.

7) 10 Cloverfield Lane

10 Cloverfield Lane is a sister movie to Green Room. It's a claustrophobic thriller but unlike Green Room this movie is all cerebral. It's Twilight Zone-esque. Is John Goodman's massive conspiracy nut telling the truth or just a plain old kidnapper? How will Mary Elizabeth Winstead use her noggin to escape?

These questions lead to a suspenseful and thrilling time at the movies.

6) Kill Zone 2

For the vast majority of martial arts movies the story isn’t an important part of the movie itself. Usually you judge these movie by how awesome the fight choreography is. 

But then a movie like Kill Zone 2 comes along and delivers a complex and thematically rich story embedded into the kick ass fights. In this movie's case it's a morality tale examining all sides of organ donation. What does it mean to be an organ donor? What is it like waiting for an organ? How can you justify using the black market for organ donation?

Oh and to be clear this movie does have incredible fight scenes. The finale is jaw-dropping. There’s also a prison riot sequence that is shot to look like it’s all one continuous take. I don’t think it is. I think they cheated edits somewhere, but still, it’s awesome. 

5) Green Room

No joke I spent the last 1/3 of this movie literally on the edge of my seat cradling my head in my hands horrified at what was transpiring.

You know when you watch a movie and are frustrated by decisions characters make? A lot of times the filmmakers force characters to do things just to advance the plot or put them into a position of danger? In this movie every single character acts logically to themselves. You can see why every character makes the decision they do.

The movie grabs you immediately and does not let up. It is a visceral experience watching this movie. You feel like you have to take a shower afterwards.

4) The Neon Demon

The story and theme of what's presented in The Neon Demon has been seen before. What's new and what puts it on this list is how jaw-dropping gorgeous the movie is. Since it's a movie about the L.A. fashion scene isn't that the point though?

Nicolas Winding Refn is a difficult filmmaker to engage with. His movies are not for everyone. Don’t be surprised if you watch this movie and are frustrated with it or think it’s a horrendous piece of shit. Refn is a provocateur. 

Do try to rent this on Blu Ray. Watching it over the internet on Netflix or iTunes will do it a disservice.

3) The Nice Guys

Nobody makes them like Shane Black. The Nice Guys is peak Shane Black. It's a concentrated dose of all his ticks and quirks put into a movie. Fun, unexpected action, great quips, hilarious bad guys and goons, and a healthy dose of creative swearing. 

Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe will be your new best friends. I've seen the movie 2.5 times already. Every time I watch I'm dropped into 1970s Los Angeles and I never want to leave. Oh yeah, this movie is also hilarious.

2) Arrival

Arrival is a movie that celebrates science and togetherness. It's a movie about letting scientists do their thing. These are professionals who have dedicated their live to understanding the world around us. When you let them do their thing we can all transcend our society to the next plane of existence.

It’s also a story about navigating through grief and utilizing your grief for good rather than wallowing in it. Amy Adams puts in an all time great performance. The entire weight of the movie is on her shoulders and she makes it look weightless. 

That this movie has this message and came out in this period of our history is nothing short of miraculous.

1) Swiss Army Man

Swiss Army Man is wonderful and beautiful life-affirming movie. It's a movie that celebrates life and why it's important to indulge and all that life has to offer rather than sit it out on the sidelines. It's also deeply immature and couched in an absurd number of fart jokes and toilet humor.

Paul Dano usually plays scumbags but in this his character is so openly wounded and sad. Dano bears his soul to portray the suicidal Hank. Meanwhile, Daniel Radcliffe puts in an amazing performance of physical comedy. His character, a talking corpse, learns to regain his humanity throughout the picture. As it progresses he introduces more and more dexterity into his role. 

The combination of philosophical musings with gross out gags makes it one of the most unique movies you will ever experience.

Honorable Mentions

OJ Made in America

Is it a movie? Is it a tv show? Is it a mini-series? Whatever it is it's one of the best things I watched all year. It's a thorough examination of OJ Simpson's life and how it relates to current events. Seriously, it's shocking how much of what OJ did and what surrounded his life that has had rippled through time and still to this day affects us.

High-Rise

Technically this movie was released in 2015 but had its wide release in 2016.

This movie is the cousin to Snowpiercer. It's literally about class warfare.

Whereas Snowpiercer was an action-thriller, High-Rise is an artsy experimental movie. It's difficult, it's dense, and I don't quite understand everything that happened. All I know is that at the end I sat stunned for a good five minutes as the credits rolled.

The Invitation

Technically this movie was released in 2015 but had its wide release in 2016.

The Invitation is a tense and stomach-turning examination of grief through the lens of an awkward dinner party.

Over the course of the dinner we bounce back and forth between thinking something wrong or everything is alright and it's the neurosis of the main character.

The ending is one of those all time great gut punches that really puts a bow on the top of an already unbearably suspenseful movie.

[harry365in2016]

#226 - The Secret Life of Pets (2016)

Welp! This is was my final movie of 2016. And it was… well… it had some laughs but overall I think it went way too over the line being wacky and zany. Don’t get me wrong, I like wacky and zany, but this movie was so intense and non-stop in its wackiness that it was borderline unbearable.

To put it another way, the jokes were so plentiful that they legitimately interfered with the story that was being told. There’s barely a thread of plot of story. Instead, the characters are shoved from one wacky set piece to another.

On top of all that everyone’s acting in the movie was dialed up to 11. I like a lot of the actors in this movie but it was all too much. Louis C.K., Jenny Slate, Lake Bell, Albert Brooks, and Dana Carvey are all great but it’s a shame they decided the best approach was to go super hard on the wackiness.

[harry365in2016]

#225 - Nacho Libre (2006)

I think I might just have an irrational chip on my shoulder about comedy movies. This is yet another movie that I laughed during but ultimately felt was kind of forgettable. I wonder what it is about comedy movies that causes this reaction in me? Maybe it’s because it feels like these movies are trying to deliver laughs without considering other aspects of storytelling or filmmaking?

Anyway, one thing I found interesting about this movie is how much the director was living in the shadow of Wes Anderson. Bottle Rocket came out a mere ten years prior to Nacho Libre’s release. Wes Anderson has had such a big impact on filmmaking that he immediately created imitators. He must feel flattered.

This was Jared Hess’ follow up to Napoleon Dynamite and it’s interesting to view how much he leaned into or away from Napoleon. I can imagine that Napoleon having such a huge impact made him really nervous to do a follow up.

Jack Black is in peak Jack Black mode in this movie. I mean, he’s a really talented actor/comedian but it’s also entirely fair to say he played a “Jack Black” type in this movie. But this time he has a Mexican accent! Hilarious! He’s slightly overweight but also athletic! What!

[harry365in2016]

#224 - Lucky Number Slevin (2006)

This movie ended up being even stevens to me. There were some things I really enjoyed and some things that really frustrated me. Really when you boil it down this is a classic screwball farce mashed up with The Usual Suspects.

I liked the dialogue but only when it was fast paced. There are times in the movie when people are dancing around each other being clever with their word and it’s infuriating. But when the characters are just having a conversation and it’s fast paced it’s fun.

I didn’t mind how twisty the plot was. Like the dialogue it was fine when it was twisty, but not when it was twisty and trying to be clever. Make sense?

Another thing I liked about the movie was how much fun it looked like everyone was having. This movie tries to play it cool but it’s really just a silly good time.

[harry365in2016]

#223 - Hell or High Water (2016)

This is one of those movies where I can see why it’s being critically lauded but personally it didn’t really do it for me. The movie is a little too slow and plays it’s cards a little too close to its chest. The metaphors the movie expresses are a little too on the nose. (As someone who adores Snowpiercer I know that’s hypocritical to say.) The whole movie just feels a little too obvious.

However, I will say I was a fan of all the actors in the movie. Each of the leads did an incredible job. Ben Foster and Jeff Bridges are routinely the best parts of any movie they appear in. Chris Pine continues to surprise me because of how low and dirty he’s willing to go with his characters. It’s funny how someone who looks like him works best as a dirty rotten scoundrel.

[harry365in2016]

#222 - Arrival (2016)

I found this to be a beautiful movie that celebrates science and communication over fear and war. It’s an incredibly timely movie that really speaks to what socio-political environment we find ourselves in.

This is a movie about the smartest people coming together to solve a problem using their respective fields. The entire world unites to figure out why the aliens are visiting us. It’s firmly fiction. It’s hard to imagine in our reality A) the world uniting or B) ceding to scientists to let them do their thing.

This movie exudes hope for our future. It supposes that we can, ultimately, band together to push our society into a more educated and peaceful one.

With this movie Amy Adams has firmly cemented herself as one of our greatest modern actors. She carries the whole movie and never falters. Jeremy Renner pulls a real surprise by playing a gentle, dorky physicist.

I’m in awe of this movie. I need space from it because of how emotional it made me, but I can’t wait to watch again when it hits Blu Ray.

[harry365in2016]

#221 - The Vatican Tapes (2015)

Ugh. I’m not a fan of the exorcist subgenre of horror movies. I mean, The Exorcist from the 70s is amazing, obviously. But other than that I feel like the subgenre has completely stagnated in the shadow of Friedkin’s movie.

The only reason I watched this one is because it’s directed by one half of the duo that made the Crank movies. Since I’m such a fan of those movies I have to support whatever else they do.

I felt this movie was kind of a mess. Nothing really lined up about the plot or the elements that were established. The “tapes” weren’t a big factor in the overall movie. The secret Vatican squad wasn’t really explored that well.

The main actress who was possessed was good but only after she became possessed. The ending was really nihilistic and kind of daring?

[harry365in2016]

#220 - Breaking News (2004)

This is a fun one. Johnnie To (heir to John Woo’s legacy) crafted a movie in which modern cable news directly affects the actions of the cops and criminals -- even though there’s barely any news-related characters in the movie.

Rather, each side uses the media like a weapon to sway the public’s opinion on how to assess the hostage situation that’s happening in real time. The police have press conferences and bribe the media with food. The criminals release shaky real time videos from inside the building that run counter to the police’s messaging.

Meanwhile, a team of cops who have no patience for the media games continue to stalk and track the criminals. In a deft touch it turns out these relentless cops were wrong in ignoring the media.

And, of course, since it’s a Johnnie To movie the action is sublime.

[harry365in2016]

#219 - The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)

This movie is like Death of a Salesman but with criminal types. Eddie Coyle is down on his luck. He’s a middle-aged, low-level criminal. Every time something looks up for him two more things come crashing down.

The whole movie is an exercise in showing how no one respects, cares, or loves this guy. And yet, he thinks people have his back. He snitches on his fellow criminals for a sentence reduction to no avail. He tries to set up deals and they fall through. His best friend is a barkeep and they’re barely friends.

Part of the reason I watched this movie is because the book it’s based on is often celebrated as a modern masterpiece in the crime genre. I can see exactly why that is. This movie runs counter to other depictions of crime. No one in this movie is living a lavish lifestyle. No one has a scary reputation that demands respect. Everyone is a schlub just trying to scrape by.

[harry365in2016]

#218 - American Ultra (2015)

Oh man. This movie frustrated me because it was so close to being something great and fun and unique.

I think the ultimate downfall to this movie was that the director was more interested in the action scenes than the comedy scenes. There were a lot of moments in the movie that I bet were hilarious in the script and fell flat in the final movie. I don’t want to blame Kristen Stewart or Jesse Eisenberg. Both of them have been funny in other movies. Rather, I think it’s an issue of tone as set forth by the director.

If the director at the helm was more interested in the comedy then that person couldn’t have ensured the humor in the movie worked. The humor of this movie is its soul. By pushing it to the side in favor of the action is its downfall.

[harry365in2016]

#217 - Mechanic: Ressurection (2016)

This movie was pretty disappointing to me. I’m a Statham enthusiast and it really let me down. The movie took too long to get to its central premise and once it got there it rushed through everything.

The Mechanic remake from 2011 was a fun surprise and full of cleverness. This movie was a slog. Even Tommy Lee Jones hamming it up as an arms dealer couldn’t save the movie.

All that said, the action scenes and assassination scenes did deliver. There just wasn’t enough of it. I also appreciated the movie’s commitment to stealth action. You don’t see that a lot in films. I’m a fan of stealth video games. It was cool to see it replicated in a movie.

[harry365in2016]

#216 - Finding Dory (2016)

Honestly, for the first two-thirds of this movie I was ready to claim it was one of Pixar’s best. I still do. The first two-thirds is a fantastic romp featuring Dory and her interactions with other characters. Plus there’s the patented Pixar-sadness-to-the-extreme with the prologue of Dory losing her family. I really enjoyed all the new characters: the octopus, the seals, the whales, they were all great.

It was fun and frantic and full of heart-warming silliness.

Then the final act pushed it all too far. Specifically, the idea that the octopus would be able to drive a truck just completely took me out of the movie. It was too far. It pushed the premise outside its parameters. The rest of the movie is great, but the end really sours the experience.

[harry365in2016]

#215 - Zootopia (2016)

I was kind of blindsided by this movie. After I finished it I realized it was that animated movie that was subject to many think-pieces over the summer. I erroneously thought it was a different movie. Anyway, I was blindsided by it.

At first I was drawn in by the charm of the interaction between the main bunny cop character and the sly fox. As the movie progressed I found myself quite invested in their adventures and investigation into the missing persons case. By the way, I’m a sucker for a great detective story.

Then at the end of the second act I realized this movie was about racial profiling. I was floored. I couldn’t believe that there was a major motion pictures, ostensibly for kids, about racial profiling. Was the movie a perfect metaphor or analysis about racial profiling? No, but still, I applaud the filmmakers for tackling that subject.

Also, shoutout to the sloth scene. That was one of the best laughs I’ve had from any comedy movie I watched this year. That scene was a masterclass on comedic timing.

[harry365in2016]

#214 - Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016)

This is one of those comedy movies I have a hard time critiquing. I mean, I have a hard time critiquing comedy movies in general, but this one especially.

Sure, I laughed a bunch during this movie. I find all the leads to be entertaining and capable of delivering great laughs. Zac Effron has, over the years, shown that he’s more than capable of standing toe to toe with modern greats like Adam Devine and Aubrey Plaza.

All that said though this movie felt really empty. This type of comedy movie feels like the equivalent of junk food. Tastes great but it’s horrible for you. Mere minutes after finishing the movie I struggled to remember what in the heck I just watched. This movie missed that certain X-factor of great comedy movies that makes them stick in your mind and return to them time and time again.

But still! I laughed a bunch!

[harry365in2016]

#213 - Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)

I find the Kung Fu Panda series to be underrated. They aren’t the best animated movies ever or anything, but I find that no one gives the series credit for creating solid entries each time. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve seen the first one. However, I remember being emotionally affected by the second one and found this third movie to be supremely entertaining.

This movie was a great story about finding inner worth/peace. I loved the aesthetics of the spirit world. I loved how this movie shows us a bunch of different animal masters giving us glimpses of different fight styles. Sidenote: It did kind of feel like spirit world stuff was ripped off from The Legend of Korra.

Furthermore, I found this movie to be a great riff on the tried and true genre of a small town defends itself from an external threat. Po’s training of the townsfolk was entertaining as hell and paid off well.

[harry365in2016]

#212 - Violent Cop (1989)

This is one of those movies in which you can see the past, present, and future of cinema all in one kaleidoscope. The movie is a descendant of Le Samourai and a forefather to Drive. There will be movies in the future that adhere to this mold. There are other movies in the past I’m not yet privy to that are also in the same mold.

The movie is about a cop who looks about as scary as a suburban dad. He dresses in ill-fitting suits, sometimes sweaters over dress shirts. His face is nearly always expressionless. His physical stature doesn’t set him apart from any other schmuck on the street. He seems almost like an invalid.

But when he gets violent you realize this guy is a monster hiding in plain sight. He smacks around criminals, beats them, runs them over, and more. He doesn’t break the rules. He just doesn’t care about the rules to begin with.

The movie largely plays out at a leisurely pace. There’s a chase sequence set to something that’s one step above elevator muzak. Once the violence hits, it hits hard and without mercy. In that sense it reminds me of something like A History of Violence. (More accurately, A History of Violence takes this as inspiration.)