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Worst Movies of 2016 

12/31/2016

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As we all know there are always opposites in the world, and now that I have done my list for 'Best Films of 2016' it's time to reflect on the bad, the ugly, the horrible and the horrific films of the year, the ones that made me want to walk out the cinema within minutes.  WARNING THIS CONTAINS MY ABSOLUTE HONEST OPPINIONS WHICH INCLUDES VARIOUS RANTS AND SHOUTS SO PLEASE DON'T BE OFFENDED IF YOU LIKED A FILM I TALK ABOUT I AM HAPPY FOR YOU BUT I PERSONALLY DIDN'T ENJOY IT. Here we go...

Dishonorable Mentions-These are the films that really sucked but they weren't horrible enough to make my Top 10!

Batman V Superman 

Painfully slow, dull, clumsy. There was no attempt at making a cohesive story line.
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Dad's Army 

Although it's characters played as a beautfiul homage; the jokes felt incredibly awkward and forced.
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Allied

Allied set out to be corrupt romantic thriller but turned out to be a missguided, anticlimatic mess.
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10. Hail Caesar!

Whilst critics seemed to love Hail Caesar, according to Rotten Tomatoes most audiences thought it was awful. What looked to be a charming, stylish love letter to Hollywood, turned out to be a boring, life less, Coen brothers work; that from start to finish has no idea where to takes itself durning the duration of the film.
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8. The Boss

From one of the funniest ladies in modern cinema today, starring in Bridesmaids, Spy and The Heat this was definitley not one of Melessia Mcarthy's best works. The humor was incredibly forced and the script awfully written, the premise was rather stupid and lacked a decent gag that didn't contain various unnessary explitives. But worst of all, the movie felt it should have stopted a good half hour before it did but it just kept going and going and going. 
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6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of the Shadows

Although the first one was a critical flop, I quite enjoyed the fun energy of the first Turtles film back in 2014, and granted this is even better than the orginal but it stills has so many probelms with it. With some of the most wooden, 'Saved By The Bell' esque acting I have ever scene, the turtles chemistry was much better in this film but the plot was the exact same flying robot type things in the sky, exactly like we have seen before in The Avengers, Transformers, Ghostbusters, Man of Steel, Suicide Squad, The FIRST FILM! and also just to note this film thought that going with a salivating bubble gum as a villan was a GOOD idea.

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4. Alice Through the Looking Glass

Alice Through the Looking Glass is as visually impressive as it's predecessor but the acting in the film will make you wince especially as the child actors start to perform their scene. The film feels like a wet blanket that dampens the spirits of the original. I've never seen such an unengergetic atempt by any cast in a film, it feels as if nobody wants to be there. Along with it's limp, one dimentional story line that under achives in so many areas. 
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2. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

What should be have been an action packed fun Tom Cruize flick ended up being a sloppy, dull family melodrama with bratty teenagers and awful dialog. Whilst Cobbie Smulders tries her best even Cruize isn't great in the film, he's just Tom Cruize being Tom Cruize. There was yet again, no solid plot to the film, just a few flimsy scenes stranded together to make some sort of story line. The one thing that could have saved this film was it's action scenes, which of cource were absolutley non exsistant, this was the cherry on top of the boing, lackluster midlife crisis of a film.


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9. The Huntsman: Winter's War

Snow White and The Huntsman was a fun, harmless action film that was quite enjoyable at the time, but much to our surprise we were given a sequal earlier on this year. Unlike many movies on this list, The Huntsman didn't utterly offend or irritate me, this film was just a case of 'Meh'. There was no need for it, the acting was quite poor and there was no excuse for it to be as bland as it was. 
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7. Absolutley Fabulous: The Movie

This movie was an example of why sitcom's should stay off the big screen. ABFAB feels well past it's sell by date, with most of it's jokes falling flat, and an over abundunce of cameos fells like the movie's big budget could of been spent on some better screen writers that having a five minute scence of Kate Moss hopelessly falling into the thames. Whilst Edina and Patsy try their absolute best, the films snail pacing drags along just like it's overly silly plot.
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5. The 5th Wave 
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As you can see I have not reviewed this film yet as I was unable to see it at the cinema and I only just got to watch it, but please contact me or leave a comment down below if you want a full review of The 5th Wave. I couldn't not mention this film for this year because HOLY MOLY, this film was horrific. What could be a great distopian teenage adventure, like The Hunger Games, turned out to be a hideous mess. The plot was great to start with but then straight away it slows right down and we just experience how dismal and flimsy this film truly is. I honestly don't know where Chloe Grace Mortez was during the filming of this film, because she was sleepwalking through this entire film, she had no idea what she was doing. It's just bad.
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3. Zoolander 2 

Much like ABFAB, Zoolander certainly has passed it's sell by date. There are more celebrity cameos ramed in then Derek Zoolander's quick whited gags. The acting is truly dreadful, it feels as if no one is actaully making any effort. The plot is overly ridiculous and it is so painful and cringy to watch two fourty year old men throwing objects and eachother for two hours. This is an unnecesary sequal that is so bad it makes me like the orginal even less. 
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1. IndependenceDay Resurgence

In the year we got the horrific Zoolander 2, the ghastly 5th Wave and the embarassing Alice Through the Lokking Glass there was only one film that was honetly so bad, I fell asleep for 10 miniutes near the end and that is... Independence Day Resurgence. This the most unnecesary sequal I have ever seen, the acting is shocking and laughable, the story line is 100% exactly the same as the original and whilst, granted, the special effects are impressive, there is absolutley no sense of urgency from any charcter in the film what so ever, it feels more like a dying franchise than the end of the world. Although I like Jeff Goldblum he sturgles to carry the entire film by himself. A terrifyingly unnecesary film.
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Best Movies of 2016

12/30/2016

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I can't believe 2016 and the first year of HMBW is almost over! It has been such a journey with all of you and I would just like to say thank you to everyone for such support and helping to set up such a strong community here at HMBW. 2017 is going to be a blast with the arrival of  Tom Holland as the new Spider-Man, the live action adaptaion of disney's magical french fairy tale Beauty and the Beast and revisting old friends later on next year with the return of Kingsman back with a brand new mission to take us on. But before we close up for another brand new year, we must look back on this years treasures and list my personal favourite movies of this year. Let's get into it...

Honorable Mentions- films that almost made the list but couldn't as there were too many good films this year. 

Me Before You 

A beuatiful love story that senestivley shows us how we always do what's best for others no matter how much it hurts us.
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War Dogs

Another example of a film that turns out to be completley differnet than the trailers. War dogs is a gripping, bio-pic that is beautifully acted on all parts.
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The Jungle Book

Once again disney shows us how well they can adapt a classic one of their animated works to a magical realistic live action, The Jungle Book is stunningly visuallised and directed by Jon Favreu.
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10. Deepwater Horizion 

9. How to be Single 

To start off my list, is the gripping real life bio-pic that really suprised me. The acting was stunning, the special effects were fantastic yet not overused and the screenplay was so well written it served as an increbibly hard hitting drama that I highly enjoyed.
A film that I almost didn't see, How to be Single portrayed itself as a ranchy, slutty popcorn comedy but turned out to be a fantasticly thought provoking drama that was full of great feel good vibes. Yes, the comedy was still there but the other sides of being single it explored were wonderful.
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8. Moana 

Next we have a fairly new entry from disney with Moana. A beautiful, Hawiian adventure cramed full of some of the best animation ever  seen in a disney film. Moana has it all, with a strong, young female lead and breathtaking music that helps the film stick to it's Hawiian roots. Definitley feels like this could be the new frozen.
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6. Rogue One

Rogue One was honetly one of this year's biggest suprises, it had the depth and emotional drive that The Force Awakens lacked in many areas . The space battle near the end was easily one of the most impressive, realistc sequences in the saga let alone the film, and the way Rogue One depicticted the idea of war, was very brutal and felt like an old war story being told by your grandparents. 
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4. 10 Cloverfield Lane 

Without having any ties to the 2008 Orgininal, 10 Cloverfield Lane stands alone as a suspenceful thirller than will honestly send a shiver down your spine. The film's orginality was formidable along with some stunning plot twists that added to the film's horrofic suspence of being trapped alone. One of the best films I have ever seen 


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2. Zootropolis

After a fabulous year for disney with Moana, The Jungle Book and Finding Dory, My favouite had to be the first animated film I saw this year Zootropolis. This film tackled various probelms in soceity like racisim and corrupt governments and had a lot more to it than meets the eye. With some fast paced action, beautiful disney animation and two very whitty, very charming protaginists who worked together perfectly. One of the best disney works since Wreck it Ralph.
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7. Bridget Jones's Baby

After fourteen years we revisit Bridget a lot older and a lot wiser but she certainly still has it. This film felt like a warm hug, full of, once again, fabulous performances from Rénee Zellweger and Colin Firth, a wondefully put together soundtrack and classic, perfectly timed british comedy, something we haven't seen since the glory days of 'Miranda'. This film is case of almost being just as good as the original.
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5. Deadpool 

I can't actually believe this film has really happened yet turned out to be a critical and commertial success. As well as pleasing the fans because, this film is bloddy amazing. Deadpool was hilarious, there were loud chuckles given off after nearly every line, from start to finish the film was oozing style; instead of following a basic chronological order it jazzes up an origin story, wisely cutting back and forth, with lots of blood and crude humor. Exactly how Deadpool is supposed to be portrayed; comic book movies don't come more accurate than this.
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3. Captain Ameria Civil War 

I don' think I have ever been excited for a film as much as this film, or it be just as good as I would have hoped. Captain America Civil War completley excceeded my incredibly high expectations and was everything I want a Marvel film to be. So many emotionally torn, conflicted charcters that made the gut wrenching film what it is. The only reason it isn't my number one pick is beacause the film is a continuation as it relys on past films where as my other picks are stand alone orginals.
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1. Arrival 

In a year of Batman v Superman, Captain America v Iron Man, Clintion v Trump, in mid November we were given 'Arrival' which we all expected to be a big blockbuster alien film. No, not at all. Arrival is a rare case of a film that portys itself as one thing but is actaually about another. In this case Arrival portrayed itself to be a alien film but however was about how we use communication and self discovery. With one of the most brilliant, original plot twists in any film I have ever seen, Arrival had stunning performances from both Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, the cinematography was breathtaking and the screenplay was fantastically written. I left the cinema after seeing Arrival and didn't talk for about two hours. 
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Rouge One: A Star Wars Story

12/18/2016

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is directed by Gareth Edwards and stars Felicty Jones, Diego Luna and Ben Mendelsohn and isn't the thought sequal to last year's 'The Force Awakens', but set long before, between 1977's 'A New Hope' and 2005's 'Revenge Of The Sith', and tells the untold story of the rebel alliance who plan to make a risky move in which they steal the plans to the Death Star. 

Rouge One see's a perfect ending to an incredibly pleasing year of the film indstry. After last year's delgihtful 'Force Awakens', I had my mind set on the sequal, rather than jumping backwards into the early days of Star Wars. Therefore I didn't have any expectaions for Rogue One. However this turned out to completley exceed my expectations and I can certainly say Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a MUST SEE.

Whilst the first third of the film was escruciatingly slow and felt completley unnecessary as it rushes through setting up dozens of characters without giving them any purpose of being there. Although the film opened with beautiful landscape shots the story was clunky and took it's time to get going. However once the film got going it flowed wonderfully with every scence adding to the excitment  more and more. The film's protanist 'Jyn Erso' was integral to the succes of the film, she didn't fall into the classic clichés of modern day main characters, but stood out on her own as a strong feamle lead who was incredibly quick whited and knowlegeable and Jones carried the entire film perfectly. K2SO must also be mentioned as he deleivered most of the film's jokes however the droid's compasion and dedication was increibly heart felt and gave a strong contrast to the charcter; Mendelsohn also added to the film nicely, he was incrediby evil and wicked as Krenic and certainly showed us how hard it is to come by great villans in cinema nowadays. However Luna was extremly stale and boring as Cassian and the only reason this is such a problem, is because he is the film's supporting actor. Forest Whitaker was in the film for about five mintutes and added absouletley nothing to the film but a very annoying case of laringytis. Like many big budget films we have seen this year, the cinematography was to it's best, the world of star war was once again brought to life by amazing camera work and visual effects and this was most apperent in the end beach sequence.

The most impressive aspect to Rogue One was it's diversity and it's ability to create a fasantatingly story that has almost absolutley no ties to any of the other films. Yes 'The Force Awakens' was very good and increbibly energetic but it's biggest flaw was it's lack of story telling, comparing the two films; Rogue One is far superior as it manages to create a story that is so well thought out and so cleverly crafted together. A strong theme explored throughout the film is the idea of war, and one can ceratinly say that Rogue One puts the WAR in Star WARS. The dialog bewteen characters and the idea of the trenches taken from the war to end all wars is explored in full depth. Not only does this film have a nobel morale to it but Rogue One feels like a old war story that has been passed down from generations that tells of those who risked there lives for the fate of the galaxy.

The serious tone of the film meshes together perfectly with the fantastic story line and it still does have fun elements to it as well. The big question, Is is this film necesarry?..., I can strongly say, Yes, it certainly is. Rouge One's amazing story telling allows it to fit nicely into the star wars universe without feeling scattered and confusing, it's diversity and ability to stand out as a Star Wars film witout being dependent on any ties to the originals. This film can't be over done, it isnt going to be obliterated with sequals and prequals, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is perfect as it is.

So, with strong lead characters, fantasticly fleshed out plot lines and one of the best, most suprising film endings, I personally have ever experinced. I can whole heartedly say Rogue One is quite possibly the best star wars film ever made.

I am going Rogue One: A Star Wars Story:

9.5/10
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Moana

12/3/2016

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Moana is directed by Ron Clements and Don Hall, stars Dwayne Johnson and introduces Auli'l Cravalho. It is set in an ancient Polynesian island, where we see a young Moana answer the ocean's call to  voyage across the seas to retrive the demigod Maui and return the heart of Te Fiti, a mythical stone, to its rightful home. Moana is a fresh take on the princess genre as we see a beautiful culture being explored in an exciting new world of Disney animation.

Whilst I quickly became sick of Fozen's flimsy story line and incredibly irrataing charcters  (not to mention a song that will forever be stuck in my head - and not in a good way!), Moana spends more time creating a tropical paradise in great and rewarding depth. Disney, branches out beyond it's recent works and delveries a fresh, new fantasy world. There are a few classic disney clichés slipped in alon the way - think 'She is the chosen one' - but Moana never strays from trying to make something orignal. The most stunning part about the film was certainly it's animation, It's safe to say this is one of Disney best animated works to date. The ocean is brought to life with beautiful details of  the waves, and stunning mixes of blues that make the sea so realistic. Off land too the swaying palm trees, the lucious green leaves of Hawii and it's array of coloured flowers are set as a beuatiful background for the happy Islanders

The charcter design is certainly something special. Moana is a strong, indepedent teenager as the films protaginst. Only at aged sixteen, Cravalho created an unforgetable young female lead that sets so many admirable examples as a new, teenage role model. The character that most suuprise me (to say the least) was Johnshon's Maui. What seemed like another incredibly annoying wise crack through the trailers, Maui turned out to be a hilarious addition to the Disney universe. The charcater's design was fantstic, the way his tatoos came to life and interacted with the audience was amazing.

In more serious moments of the film they dial his charcter down and give him more depth rather than only showing one side to his character. We instantly fall in love with the two characters and exactly like Zootropolis earlier this year the chemistry between Maona and Maui was so stong that they completmented each other perfectly. This film was also wonderfully scored, the music added so much to every single scene and really gave it the Polynesian feel it was trying to achive. The musical aspect of the film was not at all over used, songs were sloted in at just the right time and fit into the scences perfectly. 

Moana took us all on an exciting journey across the seven seas, it stuck to it's roots throught the entire film and it felt they made such an effort in refining every single detail. Senstivley writen, incredibly scored and stunningly animated, Moana is a perfect ending in what has been an amazing year for Disney.

I am going to give Moana 

9.2/10
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    Hi I’m James - a huge welcome to my film blog! I started this site just after my 14th birthday and have been bringing you my own take on the hottest box office arrivals and many art house triumphs ever since. 

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