Stand-out film of the year - Black
Panther. A very enjoyable Marvel
escapade featuring ace sets and battle rhinos! (DVD on loan)
Cinema - Muse: Drones. A one-night only, world-wide cine event. Really cool effects especially the robots, with
some AR added especially for the film thus apparently better than the live tour.
Best found gem - Chemical wedding. Alistair Crowley as told by the mad
brain of Brian Dickinson. Like a good
old fashioned Hammer Horror, with ace music. What a hoot! (DVD)
Best Sci-fi - What Happened to Monday. Fantastic Noomi Rapace as septuplets in a
future with a strict one-child policy… lovin’ the anti-EU vibe, especially the
evil Glenn Close/ ‘Hilary Merkle’. (Netflix)
Sci-fi horror – Bird Box. Very good story and apparently a massive hit. Annoyingly, the strange
phenomena making people commit suicide was never explained (Netflix)
Best shiny sci-fi- Valerian. A touch of
the Avatars with a big nod to Fifth Element.
Some ace comic turns especially by Rihanna (DVD on loan/Netflix)
Best comedy sci-fi - Safety Not
Guaranteed. An original idea, quirky and
good script (TV)
Scariest idea - Bushwick. Imaginative tale of confederates making a
resurgence – like IS in Brooklyn – with the excellent Dave Bautista and (Netflix)
Silliest sci-fi - Geostorm. Far-fetched disaster movie but didn’t top 2012,
but then nothing ever will). DVD on loan)
Most disturbing factual drama - The
Institute. Wherein said institute drugged and groomed posh young women into
being slaves. And the place didn’t shut till 2009! Shocking!
(Netflix)
Most educational true story - The Big
Short. Really good explanation of the
financial crash (DVD)
Best biopic – Black Mass. Johnny Depp as the notorious gangster James
‘Whitey’ Bulger. Odd seeing him with no
hair. (Netflix)
Funniest biopic - The Disaster
Artist. Hilarious story of Tommy Wiseau,
an enigmatic eastern European (Polish?) American who made a terrible movie
called The Room, which became a cult classic. (DVD)
Best action film based on a true story –
Operation Mekong. War on drug lords in the Golden Triangle. (Netflix)
Best sequel - T2: Trainspotting. A
jolly good jape, with a couple of LOL moments, although it posed a tautology at
the end; or did it? (Netflix)
Best comedy cast - Death of Stalin. Very funny and ace cast especially Jason
Isaacs as the head of the Red Army. (DVD)
Best Horror - ‘Errementari: The
Blacksmith and the Devil. A very dark, Basque
tale of devils and demons with great scenes of hell. (Netflix)
Best demonic possession -Deliver us
from Evil. A Cop pairs up with a priest
to deal with demonic possession with excellent punk collage art tips. Would make a good TV series (Netflix)
Most stylish horror - Neon Demon. Uber stylish and ace music but a tad thin on
plot. (DVD)
Most imaginative horror – Ghoul Interesting
low-budget Brit flick with handy tips on dealing with depression although it
did not end well. (DVD)
Best Poe derivative - The Raven. Sicko copies murders from Edgar Alan Poe
stories with shambling detective trying to find out whodunit. (DVD)
Creepiest horror - The Babadook. Genuinely
creepy Australian horror and very clever that kept you guessing until the end. (TV)
Best heist film - Den of Thieves. Very complicated heist but good old fashioned
cops n robbers in many ways. (Netflix)
Best Acting Dog- Bullet Head. Billed as a heist film, but no heist (a theme
at present, like space films with no actual space). More about a fighting dog who was the real
star despite a great minimal cast of John Malkovich, Adrien Brody, Rory Culkin
and Antonio Banderas. (Netflix)
Best war movie - The
Man with the Iron Heart. This re-telling of Prague in WW2 explained the story
much better than others with scenes of training Czech resistance fighters in
Scotland. (Netflix)
Best WWI - Forbidden
Land. Very relaxing for a war movie. (Netflix)
Best prequel to WWI – Sarajevo. How the
assassination of Franz Ferdinand was all a set-up to precipitate WWI by blaming
the Serbs. Confirmed my suspicions about
how horrendously pointless it all was! (Netflix)
Best girly war film - Suite Francaise. In many ways, the usual tale of woman in Nazi
occupied France accused of being a collaborator but with a twist – it was written
by a Jewish woman, during WWII. The unpublished
script was only recently discovered by her ancestors. (Netflix)
Most depressing - The Secret Scripture.
A bunch of Irish Catholic Nazis! (Netflix)
Best action/thriller - Act of Vengeance. Turkish film about man accused of terrorism. (Netflix)
Best spy thriller - Operation Finale. Israeli spy network fetches Eichmann for trial
in Jerusalem. A good; old fashioned espionage tale. (Netflix)
Best Crime thriller– Message from the
King. A bit of a turnaround with South African
guy mingling with lowlifes of LA. So
remind me; which is the 3rd world country? (Netflix)
Best Foreign Crime - Invisible Guardian.
Decent Spanish drama about FBI-trained cop going back to her homeland to find a
serial killer. (Netflix)
Best Asian film - Steel Rain. Well -balanced Korean film showing
perspectives from both north and south. (Netflix)
Best NZ film– Dead lands. Definitely the best NZ film I’ve ever seen,
and the first in their native language. (Netflix)
Best European– Gun City. Tale of corrupt cops vs anarchists in 1920’s
Barcelona. (Netflix)
Best Historical - Outlaw King. This story of Robert the Bruce had great
battle scenes. Not sure why it received mediocre
reviews - maybe people don’t get the history. (Netflix)
Best historical characters– Fall of an
Empire (aka Katherine of Alexandria).
Loved the assorted women of Briton! (Netflix)
Most Hilariously low budget– 1897. Told the tale of the demise of Benin. Looked like they’d raided their mum’s linen
cupboard and dressing up box for costumes and the props were made of gold
foil. Very am dram! (Netflix)
Best Literary classic - Ben-Hur. This 2016 version got slated by the critics.
No idea why (DVD)
Best Western – Hostiles. Christian Bale as a grizzled old vet in this
atmospheric western. (DVD)
Most amusing western - In A Valley of
Violence. Set in a really crap town with
a total cast of 14 including Ethan Hawke as his usual character, Karen Gillan
with a creditable Yankee accent and John Travolta as useless marshal. (Netflix)
Best kids - Beauty and the Beast. The
best Disney I’ve seen in ages (DVD)
Best animation - Kubo. Adorably cute and funny with lovely animation. (Netflix)
Best version of the Jungle Book – Mowgli. Andy Serkis excels with his amazing
motion-capture people animals! (Netflix)
Most ridiculous Action - F&F8. Predictably ludicrous, especially the nuclear
sub, with a brilliant piss take of U571 “It’s all in Russian!”
Best TV film – Calvary. Irish priest knows he’s doomed but carries on
anyway. (TV)
Best cross-cultural - Dragon Blade. Roman legion meet Chinese warriors on the
silk road (Netflix)
Best road trip – Kodachrome. Ed Harris
as a grumpy old git. Nice photos. (Netflix)
Best pirates - God of War. Chinese vs
Japanese pirates inspired by Johnny Depp.
(Netflix)
Best Idris Elba - Netflix – Beasts of
No Nation (pretty good; Idris relished his turn as a warlord)
Best re-make - The Foreigner. Intelligent re-make of the Chjnaman with
Jackie Chan beating the IRA at their own game.
A good turn by Pearce Brosnan as NOT Gerry Adams. (Netflix)
Top Easter Film - Risen. Roman follows Jesus when he comes back from
the dead. (Netflix)
Top Christmas film - The Man who invented Christmas. Wherein Dickens writes a Christmas Carol in 6
weeks (Netflix)
Top Christmas re-run - Children of Men. Count how many people say ‘Jesus Christ!’
(DVD)
