23.) Triple 9 [3/14/2016]

This was a poor man's Training Day, but without the benefit of Denzel Washington.  The movie started, people died, and then it ended.  I wasn't sure why, and I didn't particularly care.

22.) 10 Cloverfield Lane [IMAX 3/11/2016]

Full disclosure: I never saw the first Cloverfield, so I didn't carry any of that baggage into this film.  That said, I really enjoyed this movie.  I have a lot of time for films that take risks or try something new, and 10 Cloverfield Lane tried to do something different.  It's hard to talk too much about the movie without giving too much away, especially the parts I liked the best.  I'll leave it at this: it was a movie that was worth the time, if for no other reason that John Goodman's and Mary Elizabeth Winstead's performance.  It is not a perfect movie, by any means, and there were certainly some plot holes.  All in all, though, it was really enjoyable.

21.) London Has Fallen [3/10/2016]

The sequel to Olympus has Fallen (or possible White House Down, I can't be bothered to look it up and the two were identical movies), did not take a much more deft hand to international diplomacy than it's predecessor.  Again, some scary brown people took the President of the United States hostage as payment for the atrocities the US has caused around the world.  Strangely, they killed the leaders of about ten other nations, too, for good measure or some other reason.  Again, Mike Banning must go on a one-man killing spree to save him.  Oddly, though, the terrorists had a point in this film: America, by killing hundreds of innocent people at a wedding, had created this very situation, and the film failed to address that issue save for one last-minute speech by the Vice President (played by Morgan Freeman), arguing that we must "engage with the world," though it wasn't exactly clear how using the military to destroy innocent lives from a mile in the air counted as "engagement."  Outside of one interesting long shot were Mike Banning stormed the terrorist stronghold, the movie was a tonal mess, presented a problematic view of national security, and featured the sort of cowboy-style rescue antics that made John Wayne famous.  If that's your bag, then this movie should suit you well.

20.) Race [3/6/2016]

This late-Winter seems to be the time for movies about Olympic glory.  Unlike Eddie the Eagle, which took huge liberties with the source material, Race sacrificed the core of the narrative for devotion to the truth of Jesse Owen's life.  In the end, the movie glanced off Owen's incredibly interesting achievements to ensure that the viewer got a historically accurate image of Owen's life around the Olympics.  Some of the context which was needed to explain why this Olympics was so problematic, was left unexplained.  In the end, the complicated nature of Owen's involvement was noted, but hardly explored.  A good story told poorly.

19.) Gods of Egypt [3D 3/3/2016]

I'll say this about Gods of Egypt: the dubious choice to cast all the central characters as white Europeans was not the worst part of this movie.  It took the worst parts of Transformers, 300, and the Hobbit movies to produce what will likely end Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's budding career on the big screen.

18.) Eddie the Eagle [3/2/2016]

I don't care if the movie took giant liberties with the source material, this was a fun movie about a fun person who participated in a fun sport.  What's not to like about a middle-class guy breaking all the rules and willing himself to Olympic glory?  I also developed a lot of respect for Taron Egerton, who could have turned down the role of Eddie Edwards as it was not the sexiest of roles (and nothing like The Kingsmen, which is where I discovered him).  Eddie the Eagle was this generation's Cool Runnings, complete with tutting, all-white European rivals; down-on-his luck coach, and a moral victory in the place of any actual victory.

17.) Anomalisa [3/1/2016]

I love Charlie Kaufman, and fully realize that his movies aren't for everyone.  Not surprisingly, I liked Anomalisa, but I can also understand how people would hate it.  A movie full of puppets, metaphorical trickery, full-frontal puppet nudity (and a surprisingly long, incredibly awkward puppet sex scene), and a story about a shitty person struggling to find himself is not really something everyone is going to like.  My Mom hated it (though, I am sure seeing puppets go at it for what felt like twenty minutes while sitting next to your son would shade your appreciation of the movie).  I have a lot of time for movies that try new things, and this movie was incredibly clever in the way that most of his movies are clever.  Like Hateful 8, which was a pastiche of Tarantino movies, Anomalisa was the boiled down essence of Kaufman's entire set of work.  If you like weird, plodding movies about the human condition and can empathize with imperfect people, you'll like this movie.

16.) Deadpool [2/19-IMAX, 2/23, 2/28/2016]

Recently, I've been hard on superhero movies (all action movies, really). There has been a formulaic quality to most of Marvel's movies (Antman, The Avengers: Age of Ultron) and a fundemental misunderstanding of the characters in DC's movies (Superman: Man of Steel).  And then there was The Fantastic Four reboot, which holds a special place as one of the worst movies I have seen in living memory.  I was nervous about Deadpool.  His portrayal in Wolverine: Origins was almost aggressively bad, like the film-makers hated the viewer, and the studio was not really invested in what was turning out the be Ryan Reynolds passion project.  My anxiety could not have been more displaced.  I really enjoyed this movie.  This is not to say that it was perfect.  The masturbation jokes missed a few times, Colossus looked terrible, and the bad guy had some incredibly inconsistent powers.  Regardless, the movie was fun while working within and pushing against the confines of the genre.  I put Deadpool in the same category as Iron-Man, The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Batman: The Dark Knight: superhero films that were good stories that happened to include superheroes.

15.) Lady in the Van [2/25/2016]

The title of this movie pretty much sums it up: there is an old lady that lives in a van.  She manages to push her way, through guilt, stubbornness, and a decided lack of social graces, onto playwright Alan Bennett's driveway, who reluctantly ends up caring for her.  As the story unfolds, it turns out her circumstance was the result of several intersecting happenstances (some her own doing; some just poor luck).  Told from Bennett's perspective in the same vein as Maus, the movie is more about those around the lady in the van, and how she alters their lives for better or worse.  The incredibly watchable Maggie Smith plays the titular lady in the van, and that alone makes it worth the price of admission.