My Top 10 Movies: Part 1 January-June, 2016

So I decided to create a list of my top 10 movies of 2016 thus far. We're almost done with the first 1/2 of the year (It's June 29th). In December, I'll create a new list, my part 2. Some of these movies I've already reviewed in other blog postings and others I haven't. For those, I'll do a quick review in this post. 

10.  Dirty Grandpa: Robert de Niro and Zac Efron. My goodness what a funny duo. This movie, by no means whatsoever, is an academy award winner, but what a fun, raunchy ride. If you're easily offended, pass this one up because the humor isn't for the faint of heart. Rated R

9. Me Before You: The only romance on my list. This was a novel, I didn't know that and I usually read the books first. Emilia Clarke is hilarious and fun as the quirky Louisa Clark. Her style is eccentric and her heart is worn on her sleeve. Sam Claflin plays Will Traynor, a onetime playboy, who suffers a serious accident and becomes paralyzed living out the rest of his days in a wheelchair. This movie does make you think about how fragile life is and what you'd do for love. There's something charming about Will, even with his now cynical view on life. What does one, who was once so active do in a wheelchair. At the end of his life, my father, who never truly retired, even with a cancer diagnosis, was stuck in a wheelchair. As much as he loved his wife and kids, he hated being in that chair. I've seen what that can do to a person. This movie isn't for everyone. It's definitely not a romantic comedy. Rated PG-13

8. The Jungle Book: What a visually stunning film. I know the talking animals are silly, but the CGI isn't bad. Young Mowgli is adorable. This isn't as good as Cinderella, but was still fun to watch. By the way, I love Jon Favreau. He's AMAZING and so talented! Rated PG

7.  Finding Dory: This is the sequel to Finding Nemo (which I think is a better film). I enjoyed this movie and the Pixar animation has gotten a lot better. Young Dory is the cutest thing in this movie. She's talking and then "squirrel". I just don't think that this film had the same charm as the original. Many great actors voiced the characters. Ellen DeGeneres is back as the voice of Dory. Rated PG

6.  Deadpool: The first of the superhero genre to make my list. Wow what an action packed, comedic spectacle. This is not a superhero movie to take the kids to. It's filled with crude humor and innuendos. This is not the same Ryan Reynolds "Deadpool" from X-men Origins: Wolverine. From my understanding, this Deadpool is more accurate to the actual comic book character. Rated R  

5. X-Men: Apocalypse: I already reviewed this movie in another post. I have issues with the continuity, but the plot was good. Rated PG-13 

4.  Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice: I reviewed this in a previous entry. Overall, Henry Cavill...... yum, I mean good, Ben Affleck...... ok (his staged fights looked too staged!) Gal Gadot...... just isn't Wonder Woman to me yet. I'm excited to get the extended version when it comes out July 18th. Rated PG-13

3. The Shallows: Jaws 5? I really enjoyed this movie. I like Blake Lively.I never really watched her films until The Age of Adaline and I loved that movie. She has a very classic look about her, which really fit that film. She was amazing in this too. Some of the CGI was questionable. Would a shark really do that to the buoy? I question that part of the film too. There was just enough gore and fear tactics to keep me interested. The seagull kept changing and that bothered me because he was my favorite character and I notice things like that. Thank goodness I saw this movie because I didn't want to write a top nine and there were slim pickings in movies this year. Rated PG-13

2. Money Monster: When it's George Clooney and Julia Roberts, the movie is bound to be good. I always love a movie about the corrupt business men who control the world. Premise: A young man (the guy from Unbroken) invests $60,000 in a fraudulent investment deal because, Lee Gates (George Clooney) the host of "Money Monster" tells the world that the stock is a sure thing. The guy from Unbroken, loses every single cent and decides to take "Money Monster" hostage. Julia Roberts is the shows producer, trying desperately to save her star and figure out what happened to the stock. I really enjoyed this movie because, yes, some (not all, all is an absolute) businesswomen/men are corrupt people who are only in it for themselves. The girl from Outlander is in this too and Jodi Foster directs. Rated R

1. Captain America: Civil War: This movie was already reviewed in another post. All I can say is, this is one of my favorite Marvel Movies!  Rated PG-13 

Let's be honest, 2016 has been a pretty crap year for movies so far. I'm not excited about many of the "Summer Blockbusters." Without the help of The Shallows this list would only have been my top nine. I hoping the second half of the year is better than the first!

Go See Captain America: Civil War

OMG, Wow! What did I just see and can I see it again? I just got back from watching Captain America: Civil War, and what a war it was. This is by far my favorite Captain America outing. The first movie, let's face it, was a snooze fest. The second, Winter Soldier, was 100 times better than the first, and this one just blew Winter Soldier out of the water.

The acting was smart and funny. The movie was a whole lot of fun. Robert Downey Jr. is an amazing talent, as is Paul Rudd. OK really they were all amazing, even the new Spidey! Elizabeth Olsen is my favorite Olsen and I grew up watching Full House. Chris Evans's arms, OMG Superman has some stiff competition. I'm still unsure about Vision and his vision, he reminds me of Dr. Manhattan from the Watchmen and the Silver Surfer from The Fantastic Four. All three are a bit boring and sound the same. Other than that, I loved all the actors in this movie. I'm not a huge fan of Scarlett Johansson, but this movie made me like her! Well, her character at least. Remember when Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans were in the Nanny Diaries together? I digress. 

The inclusion of Spider-Man made me excited to see him again. I'm so glad Sony is allowing Marvel to use their character again. From what I saw tonight, Marvel did a great job with him. I couldn't bring myself to watch the new Amazing Spider-Man movies (they should really be called the Amazingly Lame Spider-Man movies). It was too soon for a reboot and like the argument over which Batman is better, Tobey Maguire is the better Spider-Man. Again thank you Sony for letting Marvel borrow their character. You obviously didn't know what to do with him, maybe Marvel can fix what you broke when you made The Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man 3. I'm actually excited to see Tom Holland take on the role. 

The writers should be praised and given a raise. They had so many characters to write for and they did a really phenomenal job. Nothing in the film seemed forced. We had so many different story lines to watch, but unlike Batman V. Superman everything worked well together, everything made sense. 

Paul Rudd, I have loved you since Clueless. Paul has impeccable comedic timing similar to that of Robert Downey Jr. Other than Chris Evans's arms, he is the best thing in the movie! 

Let's face it Iron Man started off really strong and just went downhill after movie #1. The same thing happened with The Avengers.  Poor Thor and the Hulk, their movies just sucked. Captain America has progressively gotten better. I know Iron Man aka Robert Downey Jr. is finished with his solo films, but does this movie mean there will be another Captain America movie in our future? 

The moral of the story --- what would you do for friendship? What lengths would you go to protect your friends. OK this isn't really the moral of the story, but it could be. It's also about the world government and it's incessant need to control everything. But really though, who cares about the moral, the action was enough to keep you watching,

This was way more than just a Captain America movie. It was a fun ride and I can't wait until it comes out on DVD. I really need to start adding to my Superhero DVD collection. I want all of the DVDs, even the bad movies. I actually want to watch Captain America: The First Avenger again. I tried to watch it when it came out, but it put me to sleep. 

I'm going to now use my Jedi mind tricks on you:  You will now go see Captain America: Civil War and enjoy it! Sorry it's three in the morning and I'm tired. I'm not rereading this post, so if I have grammatical errors, which most likely I will, I'll fix them when the sun comes up.

Captain America: Civil War gets 4 1/2 Pink Gerber Daisies out of 5.

XOXO see you again soon, take care and goodnight.