Bml93's Film Experiences for 2016: Last Half

I didn't really need a sequel to Finding Nemo. I'd much rather see Pixar develop more unique films, as that's what they've had the most success with. For me personally at least. That being said, Finding Dory is a charming piece of entertainment with enough heart and humor to justify its own existence.

However, Finding Dory offers nothing new and when compared to the original, Finding Dory feels a little pale. It doesn't help that the third act also gets a little bit too silly, even for a story about talking fish. But it's an entertaining film and nothing I would hate to sit through again. Though I'd rather put on Finding Nemo instead.

It's a good film. An amusing one. One that entertained me throughout its running time. But is it a step down from what the Coen brothers usually dish up whenever they tackle these types of films? Yeah, it kinda is. There are plenty of amusing moments and memorable scenes here, but that's essentially all the film is. A couple of stand alone scenes. It works well enough, as the scenes themselves are good. But it prevents us from getting a properly and fully focused story, as well characters to care about.

The film is more or less an homage to old Hollywood, and thus we get some really long scenes of singing and dancing. Those are rather enjoyable, all though a bit overlong. I do not wish to go too hard on this film, as I enjoyed it a lot for what it was. It amused me quite a bit, and it's wonderfully shot and acted. The problem is however that there's not a lot to stick too here, and definitively not much of a reason to return to this film. Unlike most of the Coen brothers previous work.

In recent years we have gotten a lot of great and inventive horror films that manages to combine a dreading atmosphere with genuine terror and scares. Lights Out is another addition to that list of great horror films. It manages to transcend its gimmick into something that is extremely frightening. The nature of its gimmick means that there are a lot of jump scares to be found, but none of them feels cheap. They are always the result of proper build-up and an atmosphere that is well-crafted and well-earned.

It's also an intriguing family drama that ventures deeply into some interesting psychological themes, all with a nice shroud of mystery around it. Lights Out has a lot of thing going for it, and it successfully manages to put all of that into a very short running time. There's not a frame in it that feels wasted. With the addition of some nicely crafted characters brought to life by solid performances, Lights Out is both a terrifying and an interesting film.

REWATCH UPDATE
As you can see from above, that was my initial thought when I saw Lights Out for the first time this summer. But upon seeing it again there were a lot of things that bothered me. The main thing was how the film explained everything. As you can see from my previous comments, I didn't really mind that, but now I found that it drew away from the tension and suspense and made the scares less impactful. Of course the fact that I knew where the film was going did mean something, and I did juggle a bit with if I should leave my rating as it was, due to the film leaving such a strong first impression. My conclusion is however that the film doesn't hold up for a second viewing and that it would remain a stronger horror film if it left everything a mystery. There are still a lot of elements in it that I enjoyed, but revisiting it faded the film a lot for me. I'm lowering my original rating of 9/10 to 6/10.

It's a shame that these Norwegian partially stop-motion animated films never seems to truly reach a market outside of Norway's borders. These are wonderful films that should be experienced by everyone. Gorgeous to look at, brilliantly animated and very funny. They're full of weird and unique characters, in which each of them manages to emotionally resonate in one way or another, giving the film a lot of heart and warmth as well as being humorous. It's a perfect kids film.

Take a look at the list below for my thoughts on this David Fincher masterpiece.
2014 Films - Top 10.

I do appreciate that Norwegian filmmakers makes these kind of films, and explore the Norwegian history. It all has the possibility of being a great cinematic experience. The setting and the production values are all present here, and there are some decent chase sequences. Unfortunately, almost everything else falls flat.

The acting is subpar, although I can't really fault the actors for that, as almost all of the dialogue they've been given is atrocious. The characters are also paper thin and despite the film trying to give you some emotional hook to latch on too, the film fails to emotionally connect to me. Rendering this a dull affair.

This is first and foremost a very cool and well-made action film. The action sequences in this film are spectacular, and they are helped by Rogue One's gritter tone. It's a full-blown war film and it serves Star Wars well. Quality wise, it's as excellent as you would expect. The visuals are wonderful and the music is great, all though they've done some CGI trickery to "bring back" some of the cast from A New Hope and while the technology is impressive, it's not quite there yet. It's a little bit jarring. Besides that, everything looks and sounds great.

As far as the characters goes, Rogue One does slightly suffer from a few too many undeveloped ones. Felicity Jones is compelling in the lead role and Ben Mendelsohn is terrific as the villain. Besides them, most of them are rather one dimensional (all though, not without their moments.) I've read that a lot of people say that this essentially just a very good fan film, which is a statement that I will agree with. It takes everything that we like about Star Wars. Everything that we find cool and badass, and puts it into one package while serving us a story that's not really necessary, but fascinating nonetheless. It's all cool and extremely entertaining, but occasionally the film does shove a bit too much fan service down our throats.

Rogue One manages to slightly balance on the line of being both a fresh addition to the Star Wars and a safe entry of the same old stuff. It's a great film that I thoroughly enjoyed and one that I will watch again many times (if not only for the third act, which is amazing), but I do hope that future Star Wars films gives us more new things, and not just the same things recycled.

I'm not the biggest fan of the Despicable Me films, but I will say that the minions were the best parts of them. Particularly the first one, in which they came in as a very pleasant surprise. Now they're everywhere, and their own film was inevitable. There's not one inch of me that doubts that this a film that kids will eat up and watch again and again, and on that accord one might be able to say that Minions is great. But I have to judge the films that I see on my own merits and what they brought to the table for me. In this case, Minions ended up giving me a headache.

The thing with these little creatures is that they are just side characters. They are just comic reliefs in the simplest of forms. They more or less lack personality and there's nothing in them for me to relate too. As of that, it's difficult to get emotionally invested into them. The filmmakers have naturally attempted to give them character traits and something to latch on to, but some the traits aren't enough. They simply becomes a way for us to tell each minion apart from each other, to know which one is which. It's not a fully drawn character. This results in the film just running with its gag for the entire running time, and while it's charming enough to begin with, it quickly turns into a nightmare. The minions are meant to be digested in small dozes and a full feature film proved to be too much for them to handle.

An effective tearjerker. There are no big surprises here, but the film is so well-told and characters are fleshed out enough that they draw out proper emotion from me. The best parts are however some incredibly enjoyable animated sequences.

One of my all time favourites. Top-notch writing and acting. Compelling characters, brilliant cinematography and a great score. The film presents a very basic premise, but with some clever structuring and plenty layers of twists and turns, The Usual Suspects is film magic.

It's iconic twist ending is alone reason enough to see this film, and amazingly enough, the film is still a great watch upon revisiting it.

Short, sweet and immensely charming. Winnie the Pooh brilliantly manages to blend clever gags and jokes with a lot of charm and warmth. It's a film that fills you up with positive energy.

This was an extremely emotionally effective film too me. One that managed to pull on all the right strings. It's also a film that I'm glad I never read about before watching it. The film puts you through an emotional journey that goes through very different and difficult aspects of growing up and life.

It's a difficult task to make another film in a very much beloved universe, and to completely shy away from the characters that greatly participated in making this universe so wonderful. Thankfully Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them does a great job in establishing its own world within the Harry Potter universe. It manages to be its own thing entirely without the need of any prior knowledge to JK. Rowling's franchise. This is thanks to a different sort of world building.

We're presented to a great cast of charming characters that makes the transition from our favourite Harry Potter characters to these new ones. Eddie Redmayne is perfectly cast as Newt Scamander, Katherine Waterston is cute, Dan Fogler is fun and Colin Farrell is outstanding. The creatures in this film, the "fantastic beasts", are not necessarily as imaginative as one would think, but some of them are so amusingly adoreable that I'm willing to more or less overlook their boring design. It falls a bit short when it comes to rank among the best Harry Potter films, but as a beginning of a new series of films, this is a good start.

It tries to be a mystery, but it's quite simply too obvious and boring to work as that. The solution to the film is predictable and in your face throughout the entire time. The characters are flat and dull. I rarely call a film stupid, but Regression is just profoundly dumb. It's a film that wastes a potentially intriguing premise and a talented cast on something an average film student could cook up in a weekend.

Doctor Strange is first and foremost a visually impressive film. One that successfully translates its source material over to the big screen. There's a lot of fun visuals to behold and it's all used in very clever ways. This is a film that opens up a new door in the Marvel cinematic universe and it brings in a lot of fresh air at a moment in which the franchise is starting to need it. Doctor Strange's play with time and dimensions not only gives us some neat looking action sequences, but it also makes sure that film avoids falling into some of the traps and flaws that seems to haunt the Marvel superhero films. The biggest one being a weak villain and an underwhelming third act. The villain is not too memorable, but he's dealt with in such a clever way that it makes up for him being slightly subpar.

Benedict Cumberbatch is great in the lead role. Bringing some of that "asshole" persona that we've seen do so well in Sherlock with him, Cumberbatch manages to carry this film on his shoulders and offers himself up as a much welcome addition to future Avengers films.

This is the perfect horror film in absolutely every regard. James Wan have continuously grown as a horror filmmaker, and The Conjuring 2 might be his best outing. A suspenseful and atmospheric horror film that toys and plays with you and your expectations all the way through. Wan is at master at building atmosphere with the usage of his camera work, music and sound, along with some overall creepy imagery. He's exceptionally talented at slowly building dread and terror. Yet, Wan also knows that atmosphere isn't much if you don't release into full horror. Which he does. I very rarely jump in my seat, nor am I easily scared, but with The Conjuring 2 Wan scared the crap out of me.

You see, the one thing that Wan does that plenty of other horror director should take note off, is that Wan messes with the timing of his scares. In most horror films the scare usually comes at the exact moment when you're prepared for it, thus lessening the impact. In The Conjuring 2 the timing is constantly changing, meaning that you'll most likely end up being caught off guard, making the scare effective and frightening.

Wan also knows that scares and atmosphere is useless if you don't have proper characters to get emotionally invested in. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are amazing, and their chemistry is so wonderful that there where a few times were I teared up a bit. Wan knows that we wants to be scared, but he also makes sure that we care for the characters. Which is why he spends an equal amount of time to build up the characters. There is a scene in the film that has Patrick Wilson doing a rendition of Evis Can't Help Falling in Love. A very simple scene, yet so emotionally effective that it ups the film to a whole another level.

The Conjuring 2 is quite simply a collage of everything that Wan has done greatly previously, though this time he has managed to master everything to perfection. It's an atmospheric and scary horror film that also manages to be emotionally investing. That's something rare.

Outtake from my review:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is a visual feast, unlike anything I've seen recently. It is an epic. It's a spectacular blockbuster. The action is huge and massive, and there is no denying that David Yates have done an incredible job. To be able to portray 'the battle of Hogwarts' on the big screen, couldn't have been an easy job, seeing how big it actually is. But it certainly couldn't have been done any better. Then there is thing's that doesn't always get mentioned. It is beautifully photographed, the editing is superb, the set is massive, but gorgeous. The score from Alexandre Desplat is suting and amazing. But I did have a huge grin on my face when those well-known tones from John Williams legendary score came up from time to time.

Now, I feel like saying so much more. But, the truth is, I'm actually quite speechless. Yes, I know that I have said a lot now, but there is so much more I want to say. I want everyone to know what a masterpiece this is. What an emotional triumph it is. But I'm not sure if I have all the correct words for it, and I am a lousy reviewer. Anyway. This is one of my favourite films of all time, and is easily going to be on the top spot for my 2011 list. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" is more than anyone could have dared to hope for. It is the ending the franchise deserves, it is a love letter to the fans and a perfect way to conclude ten years of Harry Potter films. I don't remember exactly who said it, or the exactly how the quote was, but 2001 - 2011 will in film history be counted as the 'Harry Potter years'.

You can read the rest here.

A Potter movie for the fans. Seeing as I'm a huge fan of the books, this really was the Potter movie I've been waiting for. And it shows that the split was really needed. It's beautifully slow-paced, and it really catches the atmosphere of the book. It's dark and gritty. It's sad, and visually stunning. The action sequences are breathtaking and the cast have really grown in their roles. There are several emotional moments that is completely devastating, and which breaks my heart every time.

It is a bit sad too see that it didn't get as appreciated as it should, but I take it that if you were to fully love this film, you would have to be a fan of the book as well. Because this is a love letter to the fans, and it is a perfect set up for the grand finale.

It is my favorite out of the books. Which is why it is a bit sad that I think it is one of the weaker films. It is great in many ways, though. It's very funny, nearly every scene with Jim Broadbent's scene-stealing Horace Slughorn is hilarious. There are some teenager moments that are great, and the finale is touching and strong.

But. It basically ruined my favorite thing about the book. The relationship between Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley. It is just awkward in the film. There is no chemistry or anything whatsoever. Such a disappointment.

It is pretty much just as good as Goblet of Fire. I do however think it is a bigger feat, seeing as they took the longest book and descended it into one of the shortest films in the franchise. Which I am totally okay with, surprisingly enough. There are really not that many important moments let out, all though I do, perhaps, wish they would have showed more of the order.

Otherwise, it is quite like Goblet of Fire. It goes straight to the point, only allowing a few romantic detours. Imelda Staunton is terrifying as Dolores Umbridge, creating one of the most hated characters in film history.

While it does introduce us to some of the romance in the franchise, things are really starting to get dark in this film. Which has to do with that they did mostly leave out all of the more lighter things from the book, mainly focusing on getting the main story right. Which is fine. Things get darker from this point on and it was a wise choice to focus on that.

While I do love what David Yates accomplished to do with his last two Harry Potter films, I would have been intrigued to see that Alfonso Cuarón would have managed to do with even darker Harry Potter material. Because he goes in a whole different direction than any of the other Harry Potter directors, and creates an atmospheric and visually beautiful, magical universe.

It also throws in two of my favorite actors in David Thewlis and Gary Oldman, who both deliver terrific performances. The acting have also improved a lot since the first two films, and there is basically only one moment where I can really feel that Daniel Radcliffe's acting is way off. Other than that, this is also a fast-paced adventure, but a much more emotional one as well.

It doesn't necessarily feel as outdated as the Philosopher's Stone could do occasionally, but I do honestly still think this is the weakest entry in the franchise. Which is a bit surprising actually, seeing as I do like the book a lot more, because of it's much darker turn.

It is just as fun and entertaining as the first film. Everything that was great with it, is present here as well, but sadly, some of the weaknesses are as well. It is also a little too fast-paced from time to time. So it falls under the first film by a nose length.

It is not one of the better films in this beloved franchise, but it is still, perhaps, one of the most loved ones. Simply because it is the beginning. It is the start of the Harry Potter franchise. The beginning of a generation that would last a decade. Like the newer films, it is a fun, fast-paced fantasy adventure with a wonderful cast that entertains in every possible way.

But it is still one of the weakest entries in the series, despite being the first one, for a couple of reasons. One might be that it is simply a bit too fast. That characters don't have enough time to establish themselves, and the acting from the young stars gets a bit goofy. It is also seemingly a bit outdated in comparison to the effects of other films.

If you weren't a fan of The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, you're most likely not going to enjoy Inferno either. The fast-paced puzzle solving is still very much present here, all though probably not as much as in for instance The Da Vinci Code. While it's all more or less just gibberish, it did offer some neat ideas and it offered some topics for a fascinating discussion afterwards.

I think of Inside Llewyn Davis as solid filmmaking more than anything else. It's not really anything that I got emotionally invested in or cared to deeply about. I appreciated the acting, the variety of the characters, the cinematography and I enjoyed the music. It feels very much like a Coen film, but this was more enjoyable as a look at the craftsmanship than what they were actually trying to say with it.

As far as Norwegian films are concerned, The King's Choice is a huge step up in terms of quality in production and overall filmmaking. Particularly the use of sound is impressive. The sound is pretty much a ticking clock and therefore an accurate and effective way to keep the tension up.

The story is also rather well-told and more than fascinating enough for us Norwegians. Though some creative liberties have clearly been taken, and some of them seems rather unnecessary as they didn't really add anything of importance. There's for instance one scene that truly out the king under peril that failed to connect with me as it just withdrew me from what was really engaging.

With a premise like this, I did not expect this to be a good film. What I did expect was something that was slightly amusing. I did not get that. What I got was an utter snooze fest of a film. A film that is so incompetently made that one starts to wonder if it's made directly for something like Youtube or if it's an actual theatrical release. Poorly written, wooden acting and shamelessly unfunny.

Unless you're already a Marvel fan, and heavily invested into their cinematic universe, I don't think Civil War is going to gain much new fans. If you're already a huge fan, then you'll most likely drool all over it.

It does a lot of things right, and a few of those things can not be appreciated enough. It balances a really massive cast of both new and familiar superheroes, but manages to find the time to give them all character development and proper motivation. While you never truly feel that there's anything major at stake here, the fact that you get under the skin of the characters, causes the inevitable brawl to actually have some intensity and emotion to it. Setting it above being just a flashy spectacle.

The Marvel formula is still more or less the same, and Marvel is still struggling to find a really captivating villain whenever Loki is out of the picture. There are a few generic action sequences here and some plot points that doesn't make a lot of sense, but as someone who swallows superhero films without hesitating, Civil War is great fun.

It's quite simply a magical film and a prime example of a film that truly manages to awe and inspire you with its world. It's simplistic approach to all the weirdness and imagination in it suits it very well. With a well-established emotional connection we get to discover this film and the world of it at the same pace as our main character.

This is one of Studio Ghibli's absolute finest films. One that captures you again and again with its wonderful details.

It's a plethora of fun, color and clever ideas. While it's overall message is a bit too hammered in for my taste, this was a film that continuously kept surprising me with one humorous scene after the other. It's fast-paced, well-told and structured and have enough memorable characters in it, for us to care and get emotionally invested. Quite simply a very entertaining piece of animation and a fine achievement by Disney.

The Ultimate Edition does fix quite a few of the issues that were present in the theatrical cut of Batman v Superman and it is definitively the superior cut. However, much of the things that were fundamentally wrong with the film, is still present. It's still a narrative mess. That being said, I enjoyed the theatrical cut, so I naturally enjoyed this extended version as well. If you didn't like this film to begin with, the extra added minutes won't change your mind.

Everyone who has been following me throughout my time at Listal knows that my favourite film of all time is Christopher Nolan's defining masterpiece, Inception. One of the most clever, original, ambitious, thought-provoking, heartfelt and visually striking action films to ever hit cinema screens. It's a tremendously rich and inspiring experience, and one film that I doubt will ever lose its impact over me.

Then there's this score - www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxabLA7UQ9k

A film that is built around its first-person video game gimmick. There is no story or proper characters here. Everything is as simple as a violent video game. The closet thing that can resemble a story here is that "you" will get sent around to various places to neutralize some guy or get something, and along the way there's a lot of bad guys to kill. I love this very simple approach. It suits the style of this film perfectly, and I would much rather have absolutely no plot and no characters, than some half-arsed attempt at creating a story and some character development. Which is something that most action film struggles with. Instead we get a stylistic, violent and fun thrill-ride that never lets go of you until the end credits.

The film is so full of energy and creativity that the gimmick of it never wears out its welcome. There are plenty of surprises along the way, and everything in it so well-put together that you can't imagine the film being different in any way. The brutal violence, the humor, the soundtrack and frenetic pace all fits so nicely together with its premise. Hardcore Henry is a brilliant accomplishment and easily one of the best action films in years. This is one film I'm going to revisit quite frequently.

The Killing Joke is like going to a restaurant with a friend. Your main idea was to just go straight for the main course. The meat and potatoes. But suddenly your friend decides that he wants an appetizer. It's not something you really wanted, but you decide to order one as well. You get it, you eat it and you conclude with that it was decent enough. The main course arrives and it tastes and feels a lot better, though you don't really enjoy as much as you should due to having that "meh" appetizer previously. So while you leave satisfied, you also feel that your vist could have been a lot better.

This is essentially what I feel about The Killing Joke. There's a nearly 30 minutes long prologue in the beginning that is entirely focused around Batgirl until the actual Killing Joke begins. The problem with this is that this prologue is not really good and it is especially weak when compared to the Killing Joke partThe Killing Joke and hearing Mark Hamill voice these iconic Joker lines is just great.

Not the biggest fan if the first Ted and not the biggest fan of Seth MacFarlane himself. His humor is very hit-and-miss, and in the case of Ted 2 I found it to be more often miss than hit. Everything in it is naturally pure nonsense and there are very little in it to emotionally connect to. Aside from one brilliant cameo and a few funny jokes, Ted 2 is nothing I would see again.

Suicide Squad is truly a mess. It's a film that's an obvious result of studio meddling and a change of focus and direction. Suicide Squad is presented in such a way that very little of it makes much sense. There are scenes that are clearly meant to be displayed in another way than what they ended up as, and there are plenty story beats that either go nowhere or serves no purpose. The most obvious offender to that is Jared Leto's Joker. His performance is fine, but his character feels edited out and what remains feels disconnected from the rest of the film.

But that being said, Suicide Squad is still a lot of fun and while too many of the characters feels slightly under developed, most of them get to have their moment. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Will Smith as Deadshot are the stand outs. Harley provides the energetic, crazy and humorous feel to the film, while Deadshot offers the emotion. I'll end by saying that Suicide Squad is entertaining, but it's a very wasted opportunity.

It was short and fun. I did not particularly care for anyone or anything in it. I felt that it could have gone down some more extremer paths, and sacrificed believeability for that. But I was amused enough.

Jason Bourne feels outdated. Not only is this the kind of film that we've seen a countless number of times in other differently named films, but the plot of Jason Bourne is more or less the exact same thing that was in the previously Bourne films. I'm really struggling to find an artistic or creative reason for why this film was made. There was nothing in it that were worth telling.

That being said, it's competently made. It's all fine. Paul Greengrass knows how to put together a film. He's solid when it comes to the shaky action cam. The performances are all fine, while I will say that Alicia Vikander feels a bit miscast. I were occasionally entertained and thrilled and occasionally bored and shrugging my shoulders. At the end of the day, this is not something that I'm going to remember, despite the title.

It's very entertaining, and not surprisingly, quite heartfelt. The gravitas and emotional depth that Liam Neeson brings to these roles, gives this film a whole new layer. Making it even more enjoyable.

The chemistry and relationship he has with Ed Harris's character also gives this thrilling and suspenseful action film some added depth. This is a very well-crafted film in its genre, and it should be saluted for that.

As a horror film, The Boy is not entirely successful. For that it's not scary enough, but that doesn't mean that it's not an entertaining film nonetheless. The Boy is entertaining because it's pretty damned weird.

It's a slow moving film in which not a lot is really happening. The performances are good though, and the absurdity of the plot is amusing. I will not say a lot about it, as there's are a few surprising moments in it. It never got really good, but it was fun.

Locke is a one man show. This is all about Tom Hardy's performance. If he doesn't deliver, the film falls apart as a poorly constructed card house.

You see, the plot and themes that Locke tries to throw at you are only vaguely interesting at its best. It doesn't really have anything substantial to say, but with Hardy's impressive performance, there's an emotional connection to the film. One that causes you to buy into whatever is happening, and it allows the film's ideas to sink through, despite them not being interesting on their own.

There has been made quite a few disaster films that tries to balance out a rather large spectrum of cast and characters. While San Andreas is mostly a The Rock vehicle, it's a film that actively tries to juggle three groups of characters. And like most other disaster film, San Andreas also falls a bit short. None of the characters are properly developed and none of them manage to emotionally resonate with me, thus making their fight for survival tedious.

San Andreas does have solid action moments, and the scenes of destruction are all well put together. The film manages to be a decent distraction, but nothing that will be remembered or revisited.

The cutest, most charming and heartfelt film Pixar have made so far. WALL-E is a revelation. It's also the one animated film that truly broke me, and one of my earliest crying experiences while watching a film. It does such a great job of emotionally connecting you to two characters that are limited to just a few words.

It's extremely funny and charming. Emotional and engaging. It also got a very neat and interesting sci-fi premise to it that is fully explored upon. WALL-E is a plethora of creativity and nice ideas, while being emotionally fulfilling.

While Monsters, Inc doesn't quite posses the same emotional strength as some other Pixar outings, it still manages to be sweet and does have its heart in the right place. But even if its not as emotionally strong, it's still one of my favorite Pixar films due to its sheer creativity and fun.

It's just tremendously entertaining with an original and clever script that manages to combine clever gags with near flawless storytelling.

The Legend of Tarzan doesn't quite click or resonate with me. This is due to shallow characters and a massive lack of joy, but mostly due to awful pacing. The film trots along at an extremely sluggish pace. The main plot is constantly abrupt by several unnecessary scenes, such as weird flashbacks. The film is too long, and once the action kicks in, it's slightly lackluster. When a film is about Tarzan, you'd expect some proper hero moments, yet they're rarely there.

Alexander Skarsgård does have the physique to play Tarzan, but the script never allows him to get under the skin of him. He's just dull. Margot Robbie does have some fierce to her, and is the most enjoyable part of the film. There are some fine parts between her and Tarzan, though there are too few of them for them to truly sell us their relationship. Then there's Christoph Waltz, who is dull as a villain for once. Djimon Hounsou part as Tarzan's antagonist seemed way more interesting, as well as emotionally investing, yet it was wasted. Which is ultimately what The Legend of Tarzan is. It looks nice, there are some decent moments in it, but ultimately it's wasted opportunity.

As one would expect from a Tom Hooper film, the performances in it are good. Particularly Alicia Vikander is stellar. She is also the saving grace of The Danish Girl. While Eddie Redmayne is good, I'm struggling to connect emotionally with his character. This is not due to me having bigoted opinions towards transgendered people, but because the film is so superficial and manipulative in its portrayal of the changes that Redmayne's character goes through.

Vikander is the emotional force of the film. It's her we catch on to from the very beginning, and it's her we stay with until the very end.

At times when watching it I thought too myself that this is one of the best films of 2015. So real, humane and full of emotions. Despite it all being stop-motion puppets, Anomalisa transcended beyond that and gave us a character that felt more real than what many live action films is capable of. Not only thanks to the amazing animation or David Thewlis emotional voice acting, but due to the film fully immersing us into this character's mind. We do truly feel sympathy with him.

Yet for every stroke of brilliance, it would go on to do something annoying or a moment would stay out its welcome. It became slightly frustrating to watch, as there's so much tenderness and heartfelt moments in it. It's a thought-provoking film, that¨s for sure, but I think it easily could have cut 15-20 minutes off and still be just as impactful, if not more.

Deadpool is great. While it does play into a lot of familiar themes when it comes to the superhero genre, and fails to make anything interesting out of its supporting characters, it still succeeds at creating the Deadpool character everyone wanted. It's quite simply a blast, and the rewatch value of it is extremely high. I was just as entertained the second time around as when I saw it the first time. I'm most likely going to see it again before this year is over.

Once is one of my all time favorite films. An Irish low-budgeted musical that arguably is more about promoting Glen Hansard's music than anything else. Yet there's something naturally wonderful about Once. The simplicity of it is rather beautiful. There's nothing fancy or grand about it. It's a very simple story of a street musician who meets a girl. The story itself is basically also just that. Which is totally fine, as it gives these two characters room to breathe and grow naturally without anything getting in the way for it. It's as if someone just turned on a camera and filmed two friends, whom both actually love the other one, interacting with each other. Their charisma and chemistry is off the charts. It's simple, yet so emotionally effective.

It does of course help that I absolutely love all of the songs in it. I'm a sucker these kind of emotional songs, and Once hits all the right chords with me. I think that this film is an overlooked masterpiece. One of the best romances ever put to film and one of my biggest tearjerkers. There are a lot of films with memorable moments in them. Few of them holds as many as Once.