My Year in Movies – 2016

shikungigi

I have been known to make fun of my sister for crying too much at the slightest provocation. I find it a tad too much. But as a grownup, I probably cry more than I should and I only realized this in 2016. I am just from tearing over the movie Siege of Jadotville. This is an amazing story about a five-day gunfight between Irish soldiers and mercenaries in Katanga, DRC. I had never even heard of the story before today. You should watch it if you haven’t already. Before that, I was watching The Magnificent Seven. I cried over this one too. Seriously. I cry over everything. Sometimes I do it so much, I end up sobbing. I have this peculiar way of rating movies, if I don’t cry, it was not that good. Even something like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them; I didn’t necessarily get the point of it or think it was an amazing movie, but I cried, so there is that. Something else, if a movie makes me spend minutes or hours on Google after the credits have rolled, that is an awesome movie.

Therefore, I will go down my Google History and tell you the movies that made me cry and Google, in addition to the above. I would track movies and shows I watched very easily in the past with what-was-that-app? I will remember by the time I am done here. Listed from most recent backwards.

Anthropoid – Another story I did not know about. Czechs planned the assassination of the “Butcher of Prague”, the third in command after Hitler and then went on to hold off German soldiers for hours after they were found hiding in a church. Good stuff.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation – I don’t think I cried over this one, but we can never be too sure. I loved the humour and every other stunt so much, I stuck around YouTube watching behind the scenes clips. Plus Tom Cruise any day.

Mission Impossible on a rainy Saturday morning

Minority Report – Okay, okay, I watched Tom Cruise is succession because my brother does this thing where he is into one actor and just brings me movies by one guy. This was awesome because movies that play around with time make you imagine a lot of things.

Don’t Breathe – This one was messed up, probably the only horror I watched. All the same, it is actually not that bad and you will clutch onto your pillow like me waiting for the ending, then it ends with a cliffhanger. :O

Collateral – This one was really great. Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox going around on some killing spree. And then Jason Statham appears for like one second in this whole movie. For some reason that is the one scene that cracked me up. Watu hutoka mbali.

Apollo 13 – I did not know this happened. For the longest time, I didn’t even know there were than many moon missions to get to 13. The line “Houston we have a problem” is from this mission. Plus it’s a Tom Hanks movie. Tom Hanks, every other day.

Queen of Katwe – I have written about this one before. It’s a delight and not just because it features Lupita. Over and above that.

The Jungle Book – This is a great picture. Very great CGI and the only human in it is the man cub. LOL. Another one that made me spend hours on YouTube looking at behind the scenes clips. There’s an honest trailer on it. You know a movie is big when it has an honest trailer from those stupid guys.

Sully – I mentioned this one too. I always like modern-day hero movies based on true stories. Plus aeroplane movies. Plus Tom Hanks.

Invincible – This was not super awesome but it was alright. It made me cry. Against all odds the star made it to the big league.

Zootopia – This was awesoooooome! I even rewatched with my sis. And then kept singing Try Everything everyday. Then used it in a presentation slide (as you can see above). Then made everyone I knew watch it. And of course, it has an Honest Trailer too.

The Bourne Trilogy – Rewatched from years ago. Because I love Matt even though a lot of people I know hate on these movies. I did this to be fully ready for Jason Bourne which I watched later. I will be honest with you, they eventually look like repeats of each other. You can only drag on a story for so long.

It’s a Wonderful Life – The most heartwarming movie I watched this year. I know some of you might not do black and white classics, but I promise you, this is worth it. It is a very beautiful story laden with life lessons.

Moneyball – So I gave this movie a second chance and I guess it was something. I think. Especially because it is based on a true story. A coach changes the way people think about making winning baseball teams.

13 Hours: The Soldiers of Benghazi – Awesomeness. Heroes again. True story. Action.

Gran Torino – This made me laugh out loud. It stars Clint Eastwood, his Gran Torino (Didn’t even know this was a car before this movie) and his Hmong neighbours. It also made me cry.

We Bought a Zoo – This was sweet.

Self/less – This one messes with your head just a little bit.

Million Dollar Arm – This was fantastic. A story about two Indian boys’ journey to the strange US to play a game they have never played in their lives.

The Blind Side – Now for this one I cried and cried and sobbed. This was too much emotion for me.

Coach Carter – another true story about a coach turning things around for a basketball team. Of course the real life people may disagree with the movie portrayal but it remains a great movie.

Batman vs Superman – Everyone kinda hated on this one, but I did not mind it one bit.

War Room – Literally everyone I know watched this one and when it made an entrance at home, mum and co could not stop rewatching it. Hehe. Somebody say Hallelujah!

Pitch Perfect 2 – This was not as awesome as the first one, no doubt.

Grace Unplugged – This was also family material with a nice lesson; something I could give mum and sis to watch.

Run All Night – Liam Neeson at his best.

Peaceful Warrior – While this was a bit strange, it was interesting.

The Martian – This also disappointed me, the way it changed up things from the book. Oh well.

I probably watched other motion pictures I can’t remember because I didn’t Google them. Others were not impressive but I still Googled. Secret in Their Eyes was just strange. I am not even sure I remember the exact story line. Some other movie that reminded me of Troy but a bad shadow of it. Alexander. Super boring and long. Didn’t finish it. I dozed off watching Secret Life of Pets. Me Before You was just a shadow of the book. I really did not like it.

And now for some TV Show honourable mentions: The Night Of, Night Manager and American Odyssey. All the rest I either got disappointed at the ending e.g. Secrets and Lies or just wondered why I was wasting time watching them e.g. Quantico. As you have now established, I like miniseries or something that ends fast. These things that drag out just take you captive for no reason. I think with age comes fast boredom.

I also learnt quite a bit from discussing movies with friends. Half the people don’t care who acts the movie or even what the movie title is. They just sit and watch. LOL. I can’t even understand how that works. I watch movies based solely of the person acting, someone’s recommendation and/or iMDb rating. Forget Rotten Tomatoes. The people on there just hate on movies for the sake of hating.

How was your year in motion pictures?

2 thoughts on “My Year in Movies – 2016

  1. I started out by saying I will post my own list but got discouraged by how good your list turned out to be.
    I have accepted that I will cry at whatever picture has a scene that I can relate with e.g family, death etc
    Ps. This part is true for my hubby too. “I watch movies based solely of the person acting, someone’s recommendation and/or iMDb rating. ”
    He ends up ignoring movies I pick for this reason.

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