[Zojokkeli]

I think I quit watching Mr Robot after 3 or 4 episodes. It just felt too edgy and try-hard. Maybe I should give it another shot?

 

[bavinck]

Exactly this. The first one to jump out at me (after #1 obviously) was The Dark Knight in 4th. It's not even the best Batman movie, let alone the fourth best film ever made. :rolleyes:  

And where is Kubrick? Spielberg gets his dues, but the fact that not one of The Shining, 2001, A Clockwork Orange or FMJ places in the top 25 is kinda ridiculous. Also, Saving Private Ryan above Apocalypse Now... the mind boggles.

Those movies came out before most people on that list that voted were born.

 

[Hutnicks]

Those movies came out before most people on that list that voted were born.

Exactly right. As new films come out and get voted on the old films slide further down the list. It will be tough going for anything one generation or more older to compete with the latest releases in theatre or DVD. It's more of a high schoolers popularity list than an actual honest critique of a films value as art.
 
 I doubt 10 per cent of the users who voted have ever heard of the Criterion Collection.

 

[WraithApe]

Those movies came out before most people on that list that voted were born.

 
That may well be true, but if you have a genuine interest in cinema, you can discover great films at any age - many won't resonate with you the same way when you're young as when you're older for obvious reasons, but you can still start to get some appreciation of why they are regarded as classics. Maybe I'm being optimistic to think there are still budding young cineastes out there, but I remember back when I was about 16 (a long long time ago now!), thumbing through an old copy of Halliwells marking off classics to try and catch. I'm pretty sure I saw my first Kurosawa film around that age. Too young to really appreciate it, but it whet my appetite for delving back into the great past of cinema history rather than just lapping up the latest Hollywood blockbluster.

 

[metalsonata]

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016): 9/10
 
And that rating is mostly just reflective of the stunning technical accomplishment that this movie is. Surely one of the finest examples of stop-motion animation ever.

 

[Hutnicks]

Assassin's Creed (2016)  2/10
 
 
Preposterously plotted hopeless mess of a film that plays to the screen like a mindless FPS game does on your pc. Interesting concept gets co opted by some damnfool DanBrownian nonesense  pseudo religious plot. Would have been nice if Tom Hanks could have stopped by and fixed it all up for them but no such luck. Fishfinder is apparently doing his Viggo lord O the rings impression here and is completely wasted in this minimal dialogue mess. The rest of director Kurzels usual gang of actors fleshes out the rest of the sets but really no one gets to perform as any real exposition gets pared down to about 45 second bursts that merely are there apparently to space out the fight scenes. That note, the fight scenes really are not all that great. To much of the genre has been done already and these get boring after the first one. The good news here is you can in fact steal out for a cigarette, coffee, pint of Courage, come back and not have missed anything of importance.
 
 
 Ludicrous things galore here. 500 years after the Inquisition the next gen of Assassins of course still maintain the traditional garb. Of course the well dressed killer in metro London would  hang on to the old school stuff, the garb the weapons ( why use a SIG when crossbow will do ?) . Perfect cover for the assassin of today.
 
Christmas release bringing more turkey again here.
 
Still it will undoubtedly spawn 500 sequels, lunch boxes a breakfast cereal and a commemorative edition Barnett crossbow or something. Another McMovie franchise is born
 
 Seeing this one has me having grave doubts about picking up Macbeth. If it got the same directorial treatment it will be Mad Max with a Shakespeare dialogue.

 

[tdockweiler]

La La Land - 4/10
 
I only went to see this because a friend told me it was his favorite movie of the year. I had about zero interest in seeing it, but went anyway since it was the $5 movie night.
Wish I had just stayed home. I didn't like it much from the very start and my opinion of it didn't change much. Thought that most every conversation was just small-talk nonsense you overhear at a party.
There is also no chemistry at all between the two main actors. I like Ryan Gosling in this, but that's not enough.
 
Felt like it was just the same thing over and over and what storyline there was just seemed to drag on and on. Not much substance to this movie at all really and it just felt rather pointless.
OK, I guess i'm a party pooper and should be enjoying this movie, but I couldn't. My mind kept wandering and I was often thinking of other things i'd rather be doing instead.
About halfway into this nonsense I wanted to walk out.
 
Not as boring as Rogue One, but worse overall as a movie. As a "romantic comedy" it's a total fail. I don't watch any musicals so I don't know how it compares.
I'm also not into jazz music and maybe that's a requirement to really love this movie. The movie felt like 4 hours long too. I just wanted it to end.
 
BTW if you want a good romance/love story see the Hong Kong film "Comrades: Almost a Love Story". Hong Kong seems to make good romance films, but unfortunately they end up being ruined by main character always dying. One I remember well is "Christmas in August" from South Korea. Back in the day I used to watch like 8 Asian films per week. I stopped watching so many because you couldn't rent them anymore and HK/south korean imports got too expensive (like $20+). I think I also attempted to watch ever samurai film I could get my hands on.
 
 
Michael Clayton - 10/10
 
I've been rating a lot of movies a 10 lately and this is another of my favorites that's near perfect.
I watched this for the 4th time last night at 1am when I was half asleep and still managed to sit through it.
This is normally not the kind of movie I'm into. It might be too slow for some people.

 

[FallenAngel]

  The Shawshank Redemption - 10/10
 
If I had to name my #1 all time favorite Hollywood film, this would be it. I think it's as perfect as you can get.
It's not one I could watch dozens of times per year though.
 
I don't know how many times i've seen this, but i'm guessing at least 2 dozen times.

 
One of my favorite movies of all time.
 
 

Have you seen the original movies?

 
Yes. There were problems there as well and I didn't really think they were overall great.

 

[bavinck]

 
7/10 - I enjoyed this one, even if it was a bit of a slow burn. Interesting look at the life of a sociopath, with a little sci-fi thrown in for fun. I do recommend this one.

 

[chadbang]

I almost feel like I should go see La-la Land because the critics are insisting on it, but something has been telling me I'd hate it, too. And since you also found Rogue One boring, I think out tastes must run similar so I'll skip it. Thanks for the warning.

 

[tdockweiler]

Ghostbusters 2 - 6.5/10
 
Worth watching if you can find it in the $5 bin at any Wal-Mart. That's where I got it.
The remake makes the original seem like some sort of masterpiece.
 
Not sure what i'd give the original, but at least a 9/10 for sure.
 
BTW it's funny to think they had 2 Ghostbusters cartoons when I was a kid.
There was a fake one and then the "REAL" Ghostbusters.
My mom used to not let me watch the cartoon because it was too scary etc.
Anything involving the supernatural, witchcraft, demons or even ghosts was a big no-no.
 
I think from age 10-16 I was rarely allowed to watch anything rated R.
She would monitor everything I would watch and if there was nudity (!) or too much violence she would turn it off!
Even in TV shows if there was too much cleavage she would turn it off.
 
Sorry, lately i've been thinking of the past a lot and all the movies I miss seeing.
 
PS it's funny to think that Americans are now so offended by nudity. Back in the 70s it was quite common to see nudity in even a PG movie.
You could even get away with saying the "F" word back then in a PG movie. Not anymore!

 

[Planar_head]

Rogue One: 7/10
 
My biggest gripe with the movie was the minimal character development and focus on big "set pieces" to satisfy the Michael Bay crowd. I didn't care for any of the characters in the movie, and while I think the final scene on the Imperial planet was telegraphed well, it was still awkward and useless for presenting the feelings of the characters.
I want less explosions and more talking! These characters seem like they would be genuinely likable if more time was spent developing them as a group and individuals as opposed to means to an end. There was so much room for real character development that it's really the biggest miss of the movie.
Pretty much everything else I had a problem with were just nits, mostly to do with the Star Wars technology and physics, and the very end of the movie.
 
I feel that if anything was left on the cutting room floor, it was the character development. 
 
Regardless of the score, I'm still a Star Wars fan and would watch it again in theaters to see if I can pick out some of the nuance in the characters that may have been buried in ham-fisted editing.
 
(If you're keeping score on my reviews, I originally gave the Force Awakens a 7/10; but in retrospect it really should be a 5/10 or a 6/10).

 

[Hutnicks]

Passengers (2016) 1.7/10
 
  Oh look! From a formerly promising director we get "Titanic in Space" except with a happy ending. Feel good chick flic that will comatize any being with the sentience of a gibbon or above.

 

[LouisLoh]

La La Land - 9/10
 
Call me a sucker for musical movies, but this film got me with its opening number. Contrary to other reviews in this thread, I found the chemistry between Stone and Gosling to be palpable. Their individual performances were stellar too - especially the long takes that involved dancing and the piano. Plot was predictable at times, but perfectly paced. Juxtaposition of parallel events/possibilities was done masterfully. 
 
Perhaps I'm more of a (day)dreamer than a realist.

 

[tdockweiler]

Our Little Sister - 10/10
 
This one is by my #1 favorite director so I had to see it as soon as it came out.
Loved it and I think it's my 2nd favorite movie i've seen in 2016.
I wish I could watch movies like this every day. It's a pretty simply storyline without too much going on.
Reminded me a little of something like an Ozu film or "The Scent of Green Papaya".
This movie really made me want to visit Japan or live over there. If I ever went there I would visit the countryside away from the big cities.
I doubt many would like this as much as me. This type of movie is why I watch Asian films.
I've seen a few old movies from south korea that were similar in style too.
 
It's really not as dramatic as the trailers make it seem. The trailer below is a lot better than the stupid US version: