My Favorite Movies of 2016

• It is now time to talk about my top 10 favorite movies of 2016. We had some disappointing movies this year and some really great ones too. In honor of the film artists we lost this year: Alan Rickman - 1946-2016, Anton Yelchin - 1989-2016, Gary Marshall - 1934-2016, Kenny Baker 1934-2016, Gene Wilder - 1933-2016, Carrie Fisher - 1956-2016, Debbie Reynolds - 1932-2016. And I'm sorry if I forgot anyone.

• Before I get started, There may be some movies you may be wondering why they aren’t on my lists. Maybe I possibly haven’t seen or heard of them. So here’s a list of movies I saw that were released this year that didn’t make any of my lists: Kung Fu Panda 3, Hail, Caesar!, Deadpool, Zootopia, The Jungle Book, The Angry Birds Movie, Money Monster, Now You See Me 2, Finding Dory, Batman: The Killing Joke, Nerve, Suicide Squad, Hell or High-water, Kubo and the Two Strings, Sully, Deepwater Horizon, The Accountant, Doctor Strange, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, Moana, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

• So now any other movie that I didn’t mention just now and isn’t on my either one of my lists, I probably haven’t seen it yet. I would have really liked to see and I think could have made my list are movies like A Monster Calls, Silence, Jackie, Paterson, Loving, Midnight Special, Cafe Society, Swiss Army Man, etc. So now that that's out of the way, let’s begin.

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• Honorable Mentions: The BFG Star Trek Beyond The Nice Guys Hunt for the Wilderpeople

• 10. Storks This movie really surprised me. It’s definitely my favorite animated movie of the year. I think this movie is actually really really funny. It’s produced by Phill Lord and Chris Miller the directors of The LEGO Movie and the upcoming Han Solo movie. And it’s directed by Doug Sweetland who directed a hilarious and one of my favorite Pixar shorts called Presto. So it makes sense why this movie would be really funny. Storks is filled with my kind of humor. It’s the humor that’s sort of breaking the fourth wall like the Muppets or The LEGO Movie or Phineas and Ferb. Like when someone will have a flashback and then the flashback ends and the person they were talking to says “You’ve been standing there for like 5 minutes staring off into the distance”. I love that humor. Pigeon Toady was easily my favorite character. And the story has a fun adventure. I loved Storks. Definitely check this one out.

• 09. X-Men: Apocalypse You probably won’t see this list on a lot of people’s list. I actually thought this movie was a lot of fun. Sure it’s got some plot holes and problems including the villain being boring and yeah Jennifer Lawrence should have been in her blue makeup more. And of course things in the timeline are jacked up again but we’ve all come to expect that in this universe. But I don’t really very much about all that stuff as long as I have fun, I loved this movie I thought it was a ton of fun. The Quicksilver scenes were even more amazing this time. I really having Quicksilver being more part of the story with his father rather than just another mutant. Michael Fassbender gives an amazing performance in a scene in a forest. And as usual Michael Fassbender’s Magneto is terrifying. And this is the X-Men movie that makes me love the X-Men as a family and a team the most. I actually loved the way the movie ended. It’s all awesome. Other than a few problems. I know some people will disagree with me.

• 08. Eddie the Eagle I think this is my favorite sports movie of all time. This movie was really great. Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman were great in this movie. It’s an extremely inspiring story and it’s a pretty funny movie. I really loved seeing the 90’s type sports movies like Cool Runnings making a little comeback with this movie and then this movie added a really great and beautiful story about this real guys life.

• 07. Pete’s Dragon Oh boy, Pete’s Dragon. If a movie takes 5 minutes to already get me a little emotional, It’s getting a spot on my list. This movie was so emotionally amazing. Everything from the score to the characters to the visuals gets you so emotionally invested. You love Elliott the dragon so much. So many scenes made me smile. I loved just about everything but Karl Urban in this movie. Robert Redford was a huge standout. And it ends in the best possible way you could ask. This movie was just pure Disney magic.

• 06. The Magnificent Seven This movie was so much fun. I loved seeing a new western. It’s got some of the best cinematography this year. It had a lot of awesome western moments that are just awesome. It’s got a lot of awesome humor especially from Chris Pratt. That’s the only word to describe this movie is just awesome. I love Chris Pratt as usual. I loved all the characters. All the actors had great chemistry and I really bought them as a team. Definitely the best action movie of the year. So much fun.

• 05. Captain America: Civil War I dare you to watch this movie and not love Captain America after seeing it. The only thing I didn’t love about this movie is that I wanted a little bit more fighting between all the heroes. But I really loved this movie. The Russo brothers are doing amazing in the Marvel universe. I can’t wait to see Infinity War even though I’m probably gonna die of a heart attack in the theater. I definitely love the new Spider-Man. I hadn’t read any of the comics so I didn’t know anything about the character past the movies. But I know now that everyone knew him as a relatable kid. Marvel has taken everything you love about him in the previous Spider-Man movies and added the relatable kid element which is amazing. I can’t wait for Spider-Man: Homecoming. I loved getting to see Ant-Man fighting alongside the Avengers and I want to see more of him and the Avengers immediately. And finally, the ending is so intense. It’s so intense watching Cap and Iron Man having this much hatred towards each other. The story of Civil War is something the characters have currently not recovered from yet. And to see Cap come out on top and he proves everyone he says he’s weak wrong by kicking the crap out of Iron Man. It was amazing!

• 04. Sing Street Sing Street is amazing. It’s a great story about the relationship between two brothers. It’s also a great love story not only between a guy and a girl but also between an artist and art. The music is absolutely fantastic. If you don’t see the movie (which you definitely should) listen to the soundtrack please! The ending doesn’t make sense entirely and I think that could have been a little better. It’s a great story about a guy forming this band and I just loved the relationships between all the characters. Sing Street is a very well made and emotional story. Really great movie and not enough people know about it. I loved it and Bono loved it. #driveitlikeyoustoleit

• 03. Arrival Arrival is a realistic terrifying movie. Arrival was fantastic - one of the top 5 alien movies I've ever seen. This movie is made extremely well by Denis Villeneuve. The acting is great. Amy Adams give the best performance I've even seen from her. The thing that makes this movie special to me is that it is the most realistic-feeling alien movie I've ever seen. The directing along with the score made me feel what I actually would feel if I encountered aliens. Some scenes were really intense. There were scenes that gave me a stomach ache because they felt so real and intense. In the words of Will Smith - "Now that's what I call a close encounter." I’ve got one problem with this movie and that’s the ending. Other than that it’s remarkable.

• 02. Hacksaw Ridge You can hear me go on and on about how awesome this movie was in my full review. This movie is remarkable. If Andrew Garfield doesn’t get nominated for this movie I’m gonna be furious. I was blown away by this movie. I can give myself chills thinking about some of the moments in this movie. Hacksaw Ridge was such an amazingly beautiful and moving story. If you’re a human being, you need to see Hacksaw Ridge at some point in your life. I gave it an A+. Hacksaw Ridge is very VERY close to being my favorite movie of the year.

• 01. La La Land La La Land is currently my favorite movie of 2016. Damien Chazelle understands what musicals are, and they aren't about reality. I'll talk more about that in my full review. Even if you don't like you musicals you're probably gonna like this movie. It's amazing to see musicals return and they return right. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are perfect in this film and have some of the best chemistry I've ever seen. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone both were rebooted out The Amazing Spider-Man series, and to see them come back and do two of my favorite movies of the year is really awesome to see. La La Land was such a special story to me personally. This is a story about dreamers for dreamers. You are missing out if you don't see this movie.

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• And that’s it. I recommend seeing all these movies. They were all great. Hope everyone agrees with me at least a little bit. I know that once I see movies like A Monster Calls and Silence this list will be very different. So maybe once I’ve seen all those movies I might come back and make an updated version. I will post my most anticipated movies of 2017 list tomorrow. Thanks for reading.