2016 Movie Wrap-Up

December 13th, 2016 by Max Allan Collins

As regular readers here know, Barb and I go to a lot of movies – generally one a week. That doesn’t mean we see everything, of course, so view these lists in that context. No particular order within categories.

Here we go:

BEST MOVIES

Hail, Caesar!
The Nice Guys
Star Trek Beyond
Hell or High Water
Doctor Strange

MOVIES WE WALKED OUT ON

The Boss
Bad Moms
Ben-Hur
The Magnificent Seven
Keeping Up with the Joneses

MOVIES WE WALKED OUT ON & MAYBE SHOULDN’T HAVE

Captain America: Civil War
Kubo & the Two Strings

MOVIES WE SHOULD HAVE WALKED OUT ON
Girl on the Train
Conjuring 2
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice

BEST MOVIE WITH BRENT SPINER

Independence Day: Resurgence

WORST MOVIE WITH BRENT SPINER

Independence Day: Resurgence

MOVIES THAT WERE BETTER THAN THEY HAD ANY RIGHT TO BE

Zootopia
Gods of Egypt
Legend of Tarzan
Deadpool
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

MOVIES THAT WERE WORSE THAN THEY HAD ANY RIGHT TO BE

Finest Hours
Ghostbusters

MOVIES WE ENJOYED BUT BARELY REMEMBER

Keanu
X-Men: Apocalypse
Central Intelligence

MOVIES THAT DID THE JOB

The Infiltrator
Masterminds
Rules Don’t Apply
Allied

BEST MOVIE WITH THE GROWN-UP KID FROM PERDITION

Everybody Wants Some!!

MOVIES THAT WE DIDN’T SEE BUT HATE ANYWAY

13 Hours
Dirty Grandpa
The Divergent Series: Allegiant
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
Alice Through the Looking Glass
Office Christmas Party

PRETENTIOUS TWADDLE

Arrival
The Witch
Nocturnal Animals

A few comments, since I didn’t review all of these films here over the year.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR just wore us down. We left with half an hour to go, generally ready to swear off super-hero movies. DOCTOR STRANGE, then, was an intelligent surprise. So was DEADPOOL, and I understand why anyone might not like its over-the-top nilhistic approach, but we both liked the kick to the seat of the pants it gave to super-hero movies.

ARRIVAL is slow and full of itself, and I found its big surprise obvious. THE WITCH was an unpleasant ride to nowhere. NOCTURNAL ANIMALS is misogynistic and generally unpleasant, with only the story-within-the-story having any merit, most of that coming from the always interesting Michael Shannon. RULES DON’T APPLY is an interesting and quirky return to film by star/director/writer Warren Beatty, a loving though occasionally acid valentine to Hollywood and a disguised autobiography. GODS OF EGYPT we watched at home in 3-D and had fun – no apologies forthcoming.

* * *

Our local weekly paper, Voice of Muscatine, did this nice write-up on the Grand Master award.

Here’s a good review of The London Blitz Murders.

J. Kingston Pierce gives a nice mention to the complete version of Road to Perdition published by Brash Books. Order that yet?

Nice words about the Quarry TV series as one of the year’s best literary adaptations.

And here the Quarry show makes another “best of” list.

Finally, be sure to check out the Quarry Facebook page.

M.A.C.

* * *

And this just in!

QUARRY: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
Available February 14, 2017 on Blu-ray™ & DVD

New York, N.Y., December 12, 2016 – Season 1 of the “wildly entertaining” (TV Guide) Cinemax® series Quarry, loosely based on the novels of Max Allan Collins set in and around Memphis, is set to make its home entertainment debut on February 14, 2017. Starring Logan Marshall-Green as Mac Conway, this “impressively flawless” (Washington Post) series follows two soldiers’ return home from a second tour of duty in Vietnam. Quarry: The Complete First Season will be available to own on Blu-rayTM ($34.98) and DVD ($24.98), packed with bonus content including more than two dozen deleted scenes and new footage of interviews where Mac and his comrades testify to the events that led up to their discharge from the Marines. DVD and Blu-rayTM will also include a Digital Download copy.

Set in and around Memphis during the early 1970s, Quarry is a thrilling action drama that centers on the character of Mac Conway, a Marine who returns home from a second tour of duty in Vietnam. With his relationship with his wife Joni growing tenuous, Mac finds himself tempted by a lucrative offer from The Broker, a shady criminal involved in a network of killing and corruption that spans the length of the Mississippi River. After a series of events, Mac – whom The Broker codenames “Quarry” – finds himself conscripted against his better judgment into The Broker’s crew, a turn of events that has dire consequences for both himself and Joni. Gripping and “startlingly good” (Yahoo! TV), with action packed storytelling, the first season of Quarry promises to not disappoint.

Bonus Features include:

  • Deleted Scenes – A fascinating selection of more than two dozen deleted scenes from Season 1.
  • “Inside Quarry” – Get an inside look at each episode of Quarry with the cast and crew of the acclaimed series.
  • “Quan Thang Inquiry Scenes” – Check out declassified interview footage in which Mac (Logan Marshall-Green) and other soldiers testify to the events of the Quan Thang tragedy.
  • “About Quarry” – Delve inside the setting, characters and storylines of Quarry with the cast and crew.
  • “Music of Memphis” – Join the cast and crew for an inside look at the classic R&B soundtrack and live music seen in the show.
  • “Recreating 1972” – The cast and crew of Quarry reveal how they turned back the clock to recreate the sets and styles of Memphis in 1972.
  • “Love Letters” – Hear the recorded correspondence between Mac and Joni while he served in Vietnam.
  • “Car Chase Picture in Picture” – Join Quarry star Logan Marshall-Green for this action-packed look at the staging of a rough-and-tumble car chase from the series.
  • Music Videos – Watch a collection of music videos featuring some of the blistering tracks from the series.

Other cast members include: Nikki Amuka-Bird (“Luther”) as Ruth, a hardworking mother who is Joni’s close friend; Damon Herriman (“Justified”) as Buddy; Edoardo Ballerini as Karl, and Mustafa Shakir as Moses, three of The Broker’s most capable and ruthless henchmen; Jamie Hector as Arthur, Ruth’s husband and Mac’s best friend, who is also a Vietnam vet; Ann Dowd as Naomi, Buddy’s doting but unconventional mother; Skipp Sudduth as Lloyd, Mac’s father; Josh Randall as Detective Tommy Olsen, a dedicated member of the Memphis Police Department; and Kurt Yaeger as Suggs, who has fallen within The Broker’s sights.

Quarry: The Complete First Season
Blu-rayTM & DVD

Street Date: February 14, 2017
Order Date: January 10, 2017
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Approx. 480 minutes (excluding bonus materials)

* * *

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

6 Responses to “2016 Movie Wrap-Up”

  1. Matthew Hewitt says:

    No John Hillcoat Pilot? Would have been fascinating to see. I hope the ‘Complete First Season’ title means there’s more to come? One of the best new US dramas I’ve seen since Mad Men. I’ve watched the whole series through twice now and have been in 7th Heaven on both occasions. Just finished re-reading The First Quarry, still one of the funniest and horniest books I’ve read…

  2. Tim Field says:

    Your movie categories made me laugh. Your choices and assessments were spot on with the few movies that I saw this year.

    I was hoping to see an interview with MAC listed as a Quarry: First Season extra.

    I reviewed Quarry in the Black on Amazon. I’m still chuckling over a couple of scenes in the book. The series is picking up steam and is anything but tired after all these years.

  3. stephen borer says:

    LOVED the Brent Spiner / “I.D. ” snarky humor !

  4. Jacob Dzik says:

    Did y’all see 10 Cloverfield Lane, Edge of Seventeen, and War Dogs?

  5. Patti Abbott says:

    We loved HAIL CAESAR but I was surprised at how many people did not. HELL AND HIGH WATER will make my list too. I read the story by Ted Chaing ARRIVAL was based on and it still eludes me both in understanding the science and in understanding the fuss over it.

  6. Max Allan Collins says:

    The Hillcoat pilot was only assembled in rough form, so it’s highly doubtful HBO would ever bother with a final edit and scoring, color correction, etc. Several scenes (I can confirm this because I saw one of them shot) were used in the final pilot. Thanks, Matthew, for the kind words about THE FIRST QUARRY. All of the books are, to some degree, black comedy.

    While Michael Fuller and Graham Gordy (the writers) have been most respectful and generally great to me, there’s been little to no attention paid me by HBO/Cinemax. In fact we had to shake the contract at them to get them to give us art from the show for the reprint of the first novel. I would love to have participated but was not asked.

    Brent Spiner was the main reason I bothered with the INDEPENDENCE DAY sequel — big fan of his work on ST: NEXT GEN. But his character in the ID movies is pretty terrible. He did all he could with it.

    I have blu-rays on hand of 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE (with the original Joni starring!) and WAR DOGS but haven’t seem them yet. The previews for EDGE OF SEVENTEEN scared us off of that one.

    Thanks for dropping by, Patti. You sound like a woman of impeccable taste.