Movies watched in 2016

Best 1 The most terrifying film ever made. That might be a bold statement, but it is deserved. Every frame is full of fear. Every moment on the film is unnerving, creepy, dread-filled and harrowing. Every time Dennis Hopper is on screen or the title song starts playing, it's tempting to start screaming. This is not strictly speaking a horror film, but it displays perhaps the most terrifying concept of all- evil and darkness invading a seemingly normal place- in a truly unforgettable way. It's a weird, crazy, screamingly scary thriller that pulls its viewer into a nightmarish world and never lets go until the very end. It's a painfully disturbing masterpiece and in terms of films that explore darkness, depravity and madness, this might be the one to rule them all. It offers a rich, fascinating and intense cinematic experience at the same time, so even though it's a movie where watching it is like being a flaming car plummeting from a cliff top into the abyss, it's a strangely uplifting experience as well due to its tender moments, the story's resolution and the sheer genius of the film-making on show. It's a perfectly directed, visually flawless, beautifully acted and thematically rich film with a stunning screenplay and an endless sense of terror, soul and madness. This is a truly ingenious work where every frame is harrowing yet every moment is exhilarating and entertaining. Blue Velvet is easily the best film I've seen this year. It's a true masterpiece and as a disturbingly brilliant manifestation of nightmares on celluloid, it's also a fantastic tribute to the power- and limitless reach- of cinema.

Worst 1 On Netflix, you can find a hysterical stand-up show with Eddie Murphy, including this wonderful gag about his father ranting at everyone at a 4th of July barbecue. What happened to him? In this movie, he plays 3 roles: a mild-mannered guy, his abusive, hideously fat wife and an offensive Chinese character. The result is... what do you think? A cinematic turkey that's so unfunny it makes 12 Years a Slave look like The Simpsons. This is basically Eddie Murphy's Jack and Jill. Misogynist, stereotype-filled, mean-spirited, ugly and filled with unpleasant jokes about domestic abuse, Norbit is a film which is so bad it feels like a surreal dream. Endlessly unfunny, poorly directed and genuinely depressing, I beg you to stay far away from this monstrosity. If you find loads of boring fat jokes funny, you might like it. If you enjoyed the likes of Grown Ups 2, last years worst movie, you might like it. If you are a method actor trying to discover what it feels like to waste away slowly in a prison cell, or be strapped to a torture device for 100 minutes, or being put through a traumatic wartime experience or having their head shoved down a filled toilet, then the trauma of watching this movie will help them express these emotions in their acting. Otherwise, this is about as useful as a mud flavored lollipop. The horrible fat wife keeps saying in this odd way: "How you doing?" at random moments. How are we doing? Not well Eddie. Not very well at all.

Overrated 1 Welcome back, Quentin Tarantino, to the top of my Overrated list. So, what were you expecting this to be about? A group of Jewish soldiers hunting down Nazis? Nope. Brad Pitt and co barely appear. Here's the formula: 2 of more people sit down at a table. They talk, often in a different language, about absolutely nothing, for at least 20 minutes. A 30 second outbreak of violence occurs. Reset with different characters. Repeat. Over and over. For 2 and a half hours. Results? $321.5 million worldwide, 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and 8 Oscar nominations. I just don't get the love at all. This movie is pretty boring most of the time. Is it well-acted? Christoph Waltz is superb and some of the acting is good, but Brad Pitt just goes the motions and most of the characters are difficult to care for. Is it well-written? As always, the dialogue is electric but the plot is an utter mess. It goes off in far too many different directions and is utterly style-over-substance. Is it well-directed? Yes and there are good moments. Does it do anything for the viewer? All it does is show people getting shot and talking about nothing for 2 and a half hours. Such a style-over-substance and messy film being acclaimed shows the hypocrisy with film critics and award ceremonies. And people still wonder why most movie critics aren't trusted by most of the public.

Underrated 1 I absolutely love Lost Highway. It's outstanding. I actually prefer it to Eraserhead. Yet the critical reaction on this one seems fairly muted. The main criticism is the plot being incoherent, even for Lynch, which is admittedly true but like every Lynch movie it's a highly enjoyable puzzle to solve. Lost Highway, as far as I'm concerned, is a trippy, mind-blowing, terrifying and thrilling journey full of art, cryptic clues, moods and symbols. It's a dark, twisted nightmare which is so meticulously and brilliantly crafted it's almost Kubrickan. The complete lack of sense is what makes this so gripping and fascinating. David Lynch's writing and visuals are as weird, bizarre, yet also as human and affecting, as ever and the film is aided by a strong cast and a very creepy villain. It is a difficult film to follow at times, but for patient and understanding viewers this movie won't speak to them, but will get under their skin and never let go. It's an onion of a movie, as there are so many different layers beneath the surface. If you do dig below the surface (With the help of a few internet theory pages), you'll find a hugely compelling psychological thriller that really doesn't get enough credit. A minor masterpiece.

Best 2 With City of God, which sits at an incredible 21st place on IMDB Top 250, various things just don't exist. Much of the time hope and happiness do not exist, as this is a pretty depressing movie. It lacks heroes and villains; every character is a well-rounded, developed human being (Even the terrifying character who's arguably the main antagonist) with believable motives. It lacks any inauthentitcity, for it is based on a decade of research and it is filmed in stunning documentary-style. However, the biggest thing absent in this is flaws. It's very tough to fault City of God. It's a heart-breaking, shattering, thrilling and mesmerizing journey into the abyss which works as a drama, works as an action film and works best of all as a piece of social commentary. The performances are utterly outstanding, the writing is some of the best of the 21st century and as crime dramas go it's perfectly formed. It only got better the second time. This is a film which achieves that rare thing: it's a truly devastating crime drama with more scenes which produce effects akin to being shot with 8 different tasers while standing in a torrential downpour than you can shake a stick at, but it's also an exhilarating, gripping, entertaining and always compelling film. You won't want it to end.

Worst 2 Oh cringe. This sequel to the brilliant Keanu Reeves action thriller Speed takes place on a slow moving cruise ship despite having 'Speed' in the title, so you already know this might be bad. I don't think anyone knew it would be This bad. Keanu Reeves wisely sat this one out but unfortunately Sandra Bullock returned and while she isn't good in this film, Willem Dafoe as the hammy villain and whoever that Keanu Reeves replacement was are considerably worse. What made the first film work was the amazing premise and stunts, as well as the gently-developed characters who felt real. There is no human element, charisma or chemistry in this movie's screenplay at all, and as for action... to be honest, there isn't really any. There are set pieces, sure, but a movie about a slow moving vintage motor car circling a muddy field and chasing snails would be far, far more exciting than this. The title is so ironic, because everything here feels slow. It creaks along so much it makes the slow cinema of Terrence Malick look like Fast and Furious. All the set-pieces feel sluggish and slow, it takes ages for anything to happen and the whole time you're waiting for the big moment. The moment where you are thrilled. The moment where this movie becomes something resembling a 2 star film. That moment never comes.

Overrated 2 I just didn't care for this movie at all. I haven't even really given it any thought. I can't put my finger on why, but I just really didn't get the hype. I have various problems. Firstly, it's far too sentimental. It is often touching, but you can tell where it's going from the start and Phil Connors' transformation is so obvious and formulaic. Secondly, the premise is a good one but it didn't work for me like it worked for everyone else. I don't feel like the film explores the boundless potential of reliving the same day over and over enough and ultimately I feel like it largely comes down to repeated sequences of Bill Murray (Who is overrated but is to be fair quite good in this) and Andie MacDowell's (Who's thankfully tolerable) predictable central romance. Finally my big problem is that it just isn't funny. It's not a funny comedy, I don't feel like I get that big an idea of the town or the day in the movie, it's essentially just another rom-com with a fantasy twist and it's so predictable from the start. It's got its cute and interesting moments, but I can barely remember it. It just didn't strike me at all.

Underrated 2 This got both cheers and boos at Cannes and has not made an awful lot of impact. Drive was outstanding, Only God Forgives wasn't, so would this be a return to form for Nicholas Winding Refn? Some said yes, some said no. As for me? Oh yes. The thing is, I completely understand why some people hate this. It's not an easy film to watch in many ways. It's slow-paced, the characters are thin and it's more allegory than story. But not enough people have seen it. There is so much to this and so many people would just love this movie. The visuals are utterly stunning and every frame is a dark, haunting painting. The metaphors and emotions running this are so shocking and nightmarish and the ending will mess you up. It's a shocking, powerful, twisted and depraved horror film with an awful lot to say and a truly terrifying vibe running through it. It is admittedly a flawed work, but Refn's style is very visual-based and his films largely ride on whether or not you get it. If you do, you're in for a terrifying roller coaster of emotions and fear with achingly stunning cinematography, strong performances and some of the most depraved movie moments of the year. Say what you want about this, but I loved it.

Best 3 David Lynch's maddening masterpiece is a dense puzzle of a film. It does not make much sense at all. It's essentially a neo-noir with utterly brilliant visuals, mesmerizing performances and a thoroughly compelling story-line. However, as this is a Lynch movie, you are the one trying to unravel the mystery this time. It is a hard mystery to solve to put it mildly. It's an ingeniously constructed puzzle; it's a work of art and it's above all a hugely impressive combination of a frightening, haunting and emotionally gripping drama-thriller and an abstract, deep and difficult art film. It's a brilliant work of psychology. It's a never-ending mind bender and no doubt David Lynch will never reveal the movie's secrets. But that's OK. This movie is in many ways a magic trick. It's an utter work of genius where knowing the secret will only spoil the experience. It's like that wonderful scene in The Shawshank Redemption where Morgan Freeman states: "Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words". That sums this up. It's such a great movie and it creates a haunting, thrilling vibe that can't fully be expressed in words. To try and do so would take away the power of this shattering work.

Worst 3 Look, let's face facts: the Fantastic Four are boring. They're just 4 people with really obvious superpowers and there have been 3 attempts to make a successful blockbuster about them. The first 2 were overly kid-friendly cheese sandwiches but now I regard them nostalgically. Here's a film that's so lazy, so joyless, so ill-thought-out and so butchered by studio interference that it's even worse than the earlier ones. This one is Nolan-esque in style, but it has none of Nolan's depth and complexity. As a result it's a dour, downbeat and dull movie with no humour, no heart and no charisma of any kind. The team never feel like a team, there's virtually no action, the villain is laughable and it's just boring! It's so, so boring! Lacking in any kind of story, this is a difficult film to define. It essentially comes down to a series of washed-out shots of people looking moody. And no, this isn't a Twilight film. It was evidently made to stop the rights going to Marvel, but honestly Fox would have been better off using a Fantastic Four-themed Flash beat-em-up game, since that would've made a better case than this soulless, boring, confused and painfully superficial bomb. To be honest, it's so confused and so badly edited I can't even really describe it. The Batman and Robin of the 2010s? Yep. Looks like it.

Overrated 3 Martin Scorsese, possibly the Greatest director working today, finally the Oscar he should have won for Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas. Sadly he won it for his worst and more superficial film. This was basically just a lifetime achievement honorary Oscar, although his direction is of course superb. But best film of 2006? In the same year as Children of Men? Really? The Departed need to be seen as what it is. A perfectly enjoyable thriller that's intense, exciting and well-made with several great performances, especially from Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg. However, the criminally overrated Matt Damon is very bland and Jack Nicholson overacts his way through the film. The truth is, this is very superficial as a film and doesn't explore any themes aside from a throwaway line during the opening from Nicholson (An opening which basically remakes Goodfellas) and the morals and deeper side of the situation is never explored. Therefore, it is simply an enjoyable commercial film that's too style-over-substance and hyper-kinetic to be the great film many claim it is.

Underrated 3 This superb Shakespeare movie is widely unknown but needs to be seen. It doesn't hold back on the bleakness of Shakespeare's bleakest play and with its endlessly dark and somber atmosphere, total lack of happiness of any sort and even the Fool being incredibly gloomy, it's an intense watch. It captures the atmosphere of the play very well in this way. The dialogue is delivered well and the death scenes and key moments hit as hard as they should do. It does interesting things by making the daughters more sympathetic than Lear at times and fully brings out the nihilism at the story's core. By the end it makes you feel how the play should make you feel; utterly depressed and deprived of your faith in humanity. Admittedly the film is possibly too bleak for its own good at times, but the relentlessly dark interpretation of the play works surprisingly well. A bleak, beautifully filmed nightmare, this is not for the faint of heart and won't make you cheerful, but it is overall a very fine cinematic adaptation of a masterpiece which is, excluding Ran, possibly the finest performance or adaptation of King Lear that I've seen.

Best 4 This is a very early documentary with no narrative and no interviews. It is simply a visual symphony of city life in Soviet Russia during the 1920s. And it is the Best Documentary of All Time. You just can't get any better than this. It is such an exhilarating movie to watch and is yet another testament to the genius of Soviet Montage cinema. It was ahead of its time back then. To be honest, it's still ahead of many of today's films. Every visual trick imaginable- freeze frames, superimpositions, slow motion, sped up footage, backwards footage, tracking shots, visual metaphors- it's all here. It's a hugely thrilling meditation on life and its messages are subtle and not shoved down the viewers' throats. Visually it looks better than any CGI and just seems to get better and more and more entertaining as it goes along. It's a complex work of art using a movie camera instead of a paintbrush. This is not just a masterful documentary. It is not just a massively influential and vital part of film history. It is a tribute to and reminder of what film can really do and to the boundless power of human creativity.

Worst 4 This is a relatively rare movie that's zero-effort. The thing is, I saw this not that long ago and can't remember anything about it. Well, there's the central premise based around this board game. There's some silly CGI ghost. There are a bunch of terrible young actors but... this is actually worrying. I genuinely can't remember this movie at all. It's just too bland to be anything at all. It isn't scary or thrilling and it has no impact on the viewer of any kind. It's one of the most tedious horror films imaginable. If it was a 90 minute YouTube compilation of horror movie cliches or a film created to treat insomnia, it'd be a masterpiece. It has so many cliches and it's so, so boring so even though it's 90 minutes getting through it is a struggle. On the whole, this movie represents the worst of commercial cinema. It's no more than a film designed to make money with not one person involved even remotely invested in creating any kind of enjoyment for the viewers. The entire screenplay might as well have been written in half an hour with the writers picking things out of a hat and not even looking at what they were writing. Once again- a zero-effort movie. Awful.

Overrated 4 I like this movie. No, seriously, it's a good film. It's tense, atmospheric, very well-acted and it is a disturbing, thought-provoking dramatic narrative. But the scariest film ever? Like, seriously? It is a disturbing, unsettling film but it is not that scary anymore. This is a movie that's a victim of its over-hyping. It hasn't aged brilliantly in parts. All these things were shocking back in the day but now? Demonic presences in the attic? Every haunted house movie ever made. A child swearing? Kick-Ass and South Park. Possession? Too many movies to count. The various disturbing haunting incidents? They are still frightening, but in an era of films like Saw and The Human Centipede, it just isn't quite as striking anymore. People have hyped it as this endless scare-fest when it's actually, if anything, a drama. It is a slow-moving and overlong one at that. It is a film I respect, but time hasn't been kind to it and the way it's been hyped up over the years is completely over the top. It's yet another controversial film that doesn't live up to the hype. And in the version I saw, the spider walk scene wasn't even in it!

Underrated 4 Alejandro Jodorowsky's first film in 23 years is an unbearably beautiful extravaganza of surrealist madness and emotional drama. It is often genius in its use of symbols and metaphors, but it has a very powerful and compelling story as well. While it is overlong, it's a joy to behold and to take in. It is sadly not widely known at all. It was released initially in 2013 but took 2 years to get a release in the UK. It is an obscure film and thus a hidden gem. Here there is so much to appreciate and to admire and the artistry with which this film is crafted is staggering. It's an example of how surrealist cinema should be done. Despite being so weird it never forgets its characters and story. It is an exhausting film to watch due to the sheer volume of surrealism and emotion, but it will thrill you enormously. 2013 was such an awful year for film but we did get some good ones, and this powerful, beautifully executed surrealist drama should not be forgotten. So naturally it only made $558, 636 worldwide while Grown Ups 2 made $246 million worldwide.

Best 5 What a brilliant film. The first of only 5 films I gave a 10/10 this year, this is an uncut version of Hamlet, so it's 4 hours long. It doesn't waste a single second and gets every drop of complexity, depth, darkness and majesty out of its utterly superb source material. Naturally, because William Shakespeare was as far as I'm concerned the best writer who ever lived, the script is amazing. Hamlet is a fantastic tragedy that's endlessly quotable, thrillingly dramatic and ultimately, deeply moving. Therefore the strength of this rides on how they interpreted it. Luckily, the interpretation is fantastic. The acting is great and Kenneth Branagh directs the film beautifully. Despite its length it isn't ever boring and as its uncut all the complexity of the play and different shades of the characters comes out in force. It's a very sad film in the end, but it is nevertheless a pleasure to watch and shows just how stunning a play Hamlet really is.

Worst 5 2015, the year of big sequels, has this one, which absolutely no-one asked for. It'd be difficult to think of how to recommend this one. It's depressing to think of people paying a tenner to go and see this, for what does it offer? Well, there's Kevin James falling over and slapstick and... that's it. It's a crudely made, soulless cash cow which recycles the plot of the decent but largely unfunny original and doesn't serve up any good jokes. It's got one touching scene where Paul Blart gives a rousing speech at a security officers' convention, but immediately goes back to being insufferable. Worst of all, it's just a decent enough (Although he is played by the infuriating Kevin James) man being humiliated again and again, so this isn't a comedy; it's a sadistic exercise in mockery and embarrassment. So, the studio expects us to pay money to see this? A lame comedy about a fat man falling over. That's all folks. Of course it still made $107 million worldwide.

Overrated 5 Oh for crying out loud. Blockbusters get so much hate, but there's another side of the coin to cinema's weak output at the moment. If the only other thing available is these self-indulgent independent films of course people will go and see studio films. Why would someone go out and see this? It's overlong, slow-paced, sometimes emotionless, drained of energy and much of the time nothing is happening. It's an art-house film for sure, with its gratuitous nudity, pretentious voice-overs, deep themes, slow pace and beautiful visuals. Therefore, critics automatically seem to fall in love with it but audiences have been far more sensible about it. It is an OK, passable movie but it's got other problems as well as its indulgence. The plot is monotonous, there are several cringe-worthy third person voice-overs and the lead actress is utterly awful and murders the Scottish accent. Yet another film which isn't that amazing, but because it's arty and different critics go gaga over. If films like this and boring Oscar-bait dramas are the alternatives, of course people will go and see blockbusters.

Underrated 5 This hugely controversial and little-seen horror-drama is a fearsome work indeed, and it should be watched by more people. Mark Kermode has even listed it as one of his favorite films and it's not very hard to see why. It's a repulsive, frightening and overwhelming work filled with disturbing scenes and overwhelming visuals. Ken Russel's direction is excellent, the performances by Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave are strong and the plot has some seriously hard-hitting drama but the show is arguably stolen by Derek Jarman's fantastic sets. It is a flawed film admittedly, due to its propaganda-like themes of religious corruption, predictable narrative and often overwhelming atmosphere, but in many ways these problems add to the film in certain ways and make it even more of a powerful experience. It really should be seen by more people, but sadly it's largely unavailable in DVD form.

Best 6 A modern masterpiece. There isn't really any other way to put it. It is a film which can justifiably be called genius. On the surface, it's a beautifully acted, visually superb and emotionally shattering drama with some achingly powerful meditations on desire, love and loneliness. I, however, have had the privilege of studying it so I've seen it 3 times. It is genuinely completely genius. The complex network of hidden meanings, metaphors, references to other works and a surreal, shocking and mesmerizing interlude in the film involving a silent film come together to create a work so complex, so rich and so deep it can justifiably be compared to a great novel. This is more than just a film; this is art. This is a brilliantly clever auteur putting so many layers and ideas into his work and creating a mesmerizing, complex work of art which is so fascinating to study. I've only seen 4 Almodovar films. The other 3 were also very good, but this is surely his masterpiece. It lacks the relatively un-shocking nature of All About My Mother, the over-shocking nature of The Skin I Live in and the complicated narratives of Bad Education. It's a knockout.

Worst 6 I don't hate the Scary Movie franchise. They can be funny. Unfortunately, after a funny Exorcist parody this descends into a crude, lame, juvenile and sloppy excuse for humour. Like many terrible comedies, it doesn't know its audience. This is one seriously immature film which feels like it was written by sticking various idiotic bodily function gags on a dartboard, blindfolding someone, having them throw darts and then writing down whichever joke it landed on. It could have been written by a 5 year old! Except it couldn't, because this is actually an 18 and is very adult. As far as I'm concerned, little children are the ones humour so unsophisticated will appeal to, but they can't watch it so the film just gets seen by people who outgrew this kind of childishness a long, long time ago. What's more, this doesn't even have the funny horror movie jokes of the first or the Signs and The Ring spoofs in the third one. It's just a generic haunted house cliche filled with toilet humour, adult jokes and general silliness. In other words, a haunted house so awful it makes the Overlook Hotel look like Disneyworld. An actual haunted house would be preferable to this.

Overrated 6 Look, I found Deadpool as funny as the next man but its high placement in the IMDB Top 250 is excessive to put it mildly. While Ryan Reynolds is excellent and there are many very good bits, there are many downsides to the film. The film was hyped up as super-subversive, even though there'd already been a subversive adult superhero film- Kick-Ass- in 2010, yet the plot and villains are utterly generic. Most of the time the film leans too heavily on its R rating and seems to focus entirely on being offensive. It is a good, enjoyable film but both me and the 2 friends I saw it with enjoyed it more in hindsight rather than at the time. Sometimes its insufferably smug, at other times it's too dark and at others it's too slow. It's a fun, interesting little movie but unfortunately it seems destined to receive a backlash once people realize it wasn't as amazing as they all thought it was. Still, at least you care about the central romance for once.

Underrated 6 This virtually unheard of sci-fi film, probably only known to those on Netflix, is a hidden gem. While in many ways far from perfect, this has a killer premise and really uses it to not only wring huge amounts of tension and drama out of what is essentially a fairly short B movie but also explores some thought-provoking moral questions. A movie like this with a wide range of characters where you're trying to guess who will go next, who will survive, what's really going on with certain characters and where they're all in a scenario where they're killed or eliminated one by one is always hugely gripping. Here, there are 50 characters to get involved in! Most of them aren't developed massively, but are developed enough and feel like people, even if the acting isn't stellar. The conclusion and explanation behind the central mystery is disappointing but the thrills and thought-provoking dilemma beforehand are too powerful- not to mention entertaining- to miss.

Best 7 People do various things for thrill-seeking. They go to theme parks. They go skydiving. They do extreme sports. However, a much cheaper way to get an adrenaline rush so intense you'll frequently almost fall off your chair is to watch Aliens, James Cameron's sci-fi action masterpiece. It's better than the first film since the characters are far better and the story has more to it, and it boots Avatar into a bin liner. It's one of the most exciting films ever made and only gets more thrilling as it goes along. Visually, it's a high-octane, ultra-thrilling masterpiece where watching it is a sustained blast of utter joy, but this is also a stirring war film (Yes, a war film that's deeper than it looks) and Sigourney Weaver is, to put it mildly, brilliant and possibly the best movie heroine ever. It's a perfect action thriller; it has the thrills, it has the chills, it has the story, the characters and the soul. It's an utter knockout in every sense and one of the very, very best sequels of all time. When James Cameron finally gets around to releasing Avatar 2, maybe he should try and copy this a bit more?

Worst 7 OK, I promise no more Saw after this. Thankfully I'm nearly done walking through the franchise. Most think Saw 3D is the worst, but I definitely say this one is. The reason? Nothing is memorable here. Tobin Bell barely appears. Once again there are loads of convoluted flashbacks. The story is non-existent and feels like an extended bit of filler. Everything that isn't to do with the traps is fantastically boring. Much of the stuff to do with the traps is still really boring. I think gore is very boring when it's done in such a serious way (Comedy gore can be fun), but here the film barely earns its 18 certificate. The traps are incredibly dull and the people in the traps are very stupid. So, what exactly does this offer? It has to offer something right? Well... er... actually no. This horror sequel really is as dull as horror sequels get and is the definite low point for a wildly uneven franchise. Like I said, go on the roller coaster at Thorpe Park and skip the movies.

Overrated 6 Sometimes one wonders if Rotten Tomatoes has been hacked. Why on earth did this get 73%? Sure, it's well acted but that's kind of it. Boy oh boy did people go easy on this. It isn't very funny and I can't remember the last time I gave it any thought other than wondering why it was so popular. It's just another movie featuring people doing drugs, drinking, swearing and dropping crude jokes with the makers expecting people to laugh. It might be worth pointing out that since this is an R rated comedy most of its audience- at least I certainly hope not- aren't 5 year olds and most will require something more sophisticated than rude words. It's a shame, as it's a great premise and it has 3 good actors in the lead roles. It just isn't ever truly memorable. I kept waiting for that killer belly laugh moment every good comedy film should have to come along, but I was left waiting until the end. And, like always, they spoiled some of the good bits in the trailers.

Underrated 7 One of my favorite films of 2016 has flown under the radar. This nightmarish, brutally tense thriller has it all: Patrick Stewart playing against type as a frightening (If underwritten) villain, strong performances from its cast, terrifying direction and a wonderfully dark twist on the iconic London Calling album cover as its poster. This is a truly gripping, claustrophobic experience which will often make viewers feel like they're trapped in the garbage compacter from Star Wars Episode IV about to be crushed. It really is that intense. This is a hugely refreshing piece of movie art in a truly dismal year for cinema and this will have you jumping out of your seat more than once. I certainly did that anyway. If you missed seeing this on the big screen, that's a shame as this was a very good film to see in the cinema. Still, it likely won't lose any of its punch on a smaller screen so please watch this rather than Suicide Squad.

Best 8 Here's a comedy; a real comedy. Eccentric, smart, unpredictable, delightfully satirical and devastatingly funny, this packs a stunning amount of brilliant jokes into only 90 minutes. It's so full of memorable and ingenious moments that picking out the best bit is pretty tough, although I know what my favorite part is. There's a certain scene featuring a holy man in a pit and an unruly mob which is genuinely one of the funniest and cleverest scenes in comic history. This movie will split everyone's sides as there's something for everyone: it's both clever and endlessly witty, while despite being a British comedy it's also highly accessible for those used to other types of humour. This is a true comedy classic that fully lives up to the hype and it should be watched by all aspiring comedy writers. Then again, it's so good it might put them off, for topping this would be difficult.

Worst 8 The Saw franchise finally comes to an end, and what a relief. Even if Saw VI was better, this tired old franchise needed to be put out of its misery. And misery it is with this final installment. Saw 3D doesn't even bother to answer a lot of the questions in the series and never feels like an ending. Jigsaw is barely even in it. Instead, this is just one last opportunity to throw loads of gory death scenes out there, although due to the terrible special effects and lack of scares I doubt even those who like that sort of thing will enjoy those much. As always, there are loads of nasty torture scenes with no depth, soul or imagination. It's just gore, gore, gore with no human touch of any kind. It's disgusting and it isn't even entertaining. The acting is also noticeably bad in this installment. Unfortunately Saw 8 is coming soon, but at least for the moment we don't have to deal with any more of these increasingly dire movies. If you want a good splatter franchise watch Final Destination instead.

Overrated 8 The concept of a drama done with stop motion and an animated movie for adults are irresistible concepts. This one was good- it had stunning animation and many touching moments. But there is one central issue which everyone seems to say. All together now: it would have been better as a short film. It's just too mundane and repetitive to fill out 90 minutes and at times it feels like listening to someone moaning on and on about their lives. It's a ceaselessly cynical work and it's very pretentious. Despite some intelligent ideas it doesn't quite walk the tightrope between clever and arrogant. Alas, all 3 of the main Best Animated Film nominees from 2015 (Inside Out and Shaun the Sheep) have ended up on my overrated lists.This is a decent movie. For example, it has the best cast list of the year: David Thwelis and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Both of who are excellent) and then Tom Noonan- Everyone else which was pretty funny, but it also has one of the most cringe-worthy seduction scenes in recent memory that'd make Ricky Gervais- the master of making you cringe- green with envy.

Underrated 8 David Lynch's divisive movie spin-off from his brilliant TV show Twin Peaks admittedly doesn't entirely work. The amazing Twin Peaks theme only appears once, some of the acting from the younger characters is awful and the film does sometimes feel muddled and incoherent. The most disappointing thing of all is the lack of Dale Cooper. But this is still a good film. Sheryl Lee is excellent as Laura Palmer and David Lynch is as much of a directing genius as he's ever been here, so this is a visually brilliant film. It does also boast a psychologically compelling horror story with plenty of angst and emotion, and it still has That terrifying villain stalking across the screen. The absence of many of the characters is disappointing and the film doesn't answer certain mysteries as much as it should, but I overall saw this is as a successful effort which has been written off by too many. It's weird, but that's part of the fun.