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100 Movies to Watch in 2016

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60. Alice Through the Looking Glass

Release Date: May 27th

Synopsis: Alice Kingsleigh has spent the past few years following in her father’s footsteps and sailing the high seas. Upon her return to London, she comes across a magical looking glass and returns to the fantastical realm of Underland and her friends the White Rabbit, Absolem, the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter, who is not himself. The Hatter has lost his Muchness, so Mirana sends Alice on a quest to borrow the Chronosphere, a metallic globe inside the chamber of the Grand Clock which powers all time. Returning to the past, she comes across friends – and enemies – at different points in their lives, and embarks on a perilous race to save the Hatter before time runs out.

Director: James Bobin (Muppets, Flight of the Conchords)

Genre: Fantasy

Starring: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowski, Sacha Baron Cohen, Rhys Ifans, Helen Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman final Film role as voice

 

 

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59. Green Room

Release Date: April 1st

Synopsis: A punk rock band finds themselves trapped in a secluded venue after stumbling upon an act of violence, fighting for their lives against a gang of white power skinheads.

Director: Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin)

Genre: Crime-Thriller

Starring: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart

 

 

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58. War on Everyone

Release Date: March 11th

Synopsis: Two corrupt cops in New Mexico set out to blackmail and frame every criminal unfortunate enough to cross their path. Things take a sinister turn, however, when they try to intimidate someone who is more dangerous than they are. Or is he?

Director: John Michael McDonagh (Calvary)

Genre: Crime-Comedy

Starring: Alexander Skarsgard, Michael Pena

 

 

 

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57. Zootopia

Release Date: March 4th

Synopsis: The modern mammal metropolis of Zootopia is a city like no other. Comprised of habitat neighborhoods like ritzy Sahara Square and frigid Tundratown, it’s a melting pot where animals from every environment live together—a place where no matter what you are, from the biggest elephant to the smallest shrew, you can be anything. But when optimistic Officer Judy Hopps arrives, she discovers that being the first bunny on a police force of big, tough animals isn’t so easy. Determined to prove herself, she jumps at the opportunity to crack a case, even if it means partnering with a fast-talking, scam-artist fox, Nick Wilde, to solve the mystery.

Director: Byron Howard (Tangled)

Genre: Animated

Starring: Jason Bateman

 

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56. The Commune

Release Date: January 14th

Synopsis: A story about the clash between personal desires vs. solidarity and tolerance in a Danish commune in the 70’s.

Director: Thomas Vinterberg (The Hunt)

Genre: Drama

Starring: TBA

 

 

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55. Accountant / Jane Got a Gun

Release Date: October 7th

Synopsis: A forensic accountant “un-cooks” the books for illicit clients.

Director: Gavin O’Connor (Warrior)

Genre: Action-Thriller

Starring: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, JK Simmons, John Lithgow, Jeffrey Tambor, Jon Bernthal

 

Release Date: January 29th

Synopsis: Jane Got a Gun centers on Jane Hammond, who has built a new life with her husband Bill “Ham” Hammond after being tormented by the ultra-violent Bishop Boys outlaw gang. She finds herself in the gang’s cross-hairs once again when Ham stumbles home riddled with bullets after dueling with the Boys and their relentless mastermind Colin. With the vengeful crew hot on Ham’s trail, Jane has nowhere to turn but to her former fiancé Dan Frost for help in defending her family against certain destruction. Haunted by old memories, Jane’s past meets the present in a heart-stopping battle for survival.

Director: Gavin O’Connor (Warrior)

Genre: Western

Starring: Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Ewan McGregor

 

 

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54. The Great Wall

Release Date: November 23rd

Synopsis: The Great Wall tells the story of an elite force making a last stand for humanity on the world’s most iconic structure.

Director: Zhang Yimou (Hero)

Genre: Fantasy

Starring: Matt Damon, Willem Dafoe

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53. Arms & The Dudes

Release Date: August 19th

Synopsis: Two stoners, David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli, win a $300 million contract from the Pentagon to arm America’s allies in Afghanistan. The duo makes 85 deliveries of munitions to Afghanistan worth more than $66 million before their arms-dealing careers are cut short when federal agents raid their Miami Beach offices in August 2007, culminating in 71 counts of fraud.

Director: Todd Phillips (Old School, Road Trip, The Hangover)

Genre: Comedy

Starring: Miles Teller, Jonah Hill

 

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52. Finding Dory

Release Date: June 17th

Synopsis: Finding Dory takes place about a year after the first film, and features returning favorites Marlin, Nemo and the Tank Gang, among others. Set in part along the California coastline, the story also welcomes a host of new characters, including a few who will prove to be a very important part of Dory’s life.

Director: Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E)

Genre: Animated

Starring: Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Diane Keaton, Willem Dafoe, Idris Elba

 

 

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51. Crouching Tiger

Release Date: February 26th

Synopsis: The Green Destiny, an ancient sword, is stolen, and it is up to Yu Shu-lien, played by Michelle Yeoh, to find the weapon. She must team up with her former fiancé, Silent Wolf, played by Donnie Yen.

Director: Yuen Woo-Ping

Genre: Martial Arts

Starring: TBA

 

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50. Mojave

Release Date: January 22nd

Synopsis: In this intense classical thriller,  a violent artist, Thomas has an ominous encounter in the desert with a homicidal, chameleon-like drifter, Jack. Jack follows Thomas back to his privileged L.A. home life, holding a dark secret over his head as he attempts to infiltrate and destroy his seemingly-perfect life. Thomas must come to terms with his own insecurities and self-doubt to protect himself and his family, and go head-to-head with his nemesis in a riveting two-man clash that plays out in exciting and unexpected ways.

Director: William Monahan (Writer of Departed)

Genre: Crime-Thriller

Starring: Oscar Isaac, Garrett Hedlund, Mark Wahlberg

 

 

 

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49. Get a Job

Release Date: March 25th

Synopsis: A multi-generational comedy about four recent college graduates who discover that their lofty expectations and the realities of adulthood are two very different things. Marcia Gay Actor Harden plays Katherine Dunn, a demanding Vice President at an executive placement firm, who runs her division according to her own rules.

Director: Dylan Kid

Genre: Comedy

Starring: Alison Brie, Bryan Cranston, Anna Kendrick, Miles Teller

 

 

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48. Ghostbusters

Release Date: July 15th

Synopsis: Erin Gilbert and Abby Bergman are a pair of unheralded authors who write a book positing that ghosts are real. A few years later, Gilbert lands a prestigious teaching position at Columbia University, but her book resurfaces and she is laughed out of academia. Gilbert reunites with Bergman and others when ghosts invade Manhattan and try to save the world.

Director: Paul Feig (Spy, Heat, Bridesmaids)

Genre: Fantasy

Starring: Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Chris Hemsworth

 

 

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47. Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them / Legend of Tarzan

Release Date: November 18th

Synopsis: Magizoologist Newt Scamander stops in New York City on his travels to find and document magical creatures. Scamander meets Tina, short for Porpentina a witch who works her magic in the U.S.

Director: David Yates (Final 4 Harry Potter Films)

Genre: Fantasy

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight, Ron Perlman

 

Release Date: July 1st

Synopsis: It has been years since the man once known as Tarzan left the jungles of Africa behind for a gentrified life as John Clayton III, Lord Greystoke, with his beloved wife, Jane at his side. Now, he has been invited back to the Congo to serve as a trade emissary of Parliament, unaware that he is a pawn in a deadly convergence of greed and revenge, masterminded by the Belgian, Captain Leon Rom. But those behind the murderous plot have no idea what they are about to unleash.

Director: David Yates (Final 4 Harry Potter Films)

Genre: Fantasy

Starring: Sam Jackson, Margot Robbie, Christoph Waltz, Djimon Hounsou, Alexander Skarsgard

 

 

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46. HHhH

Release Date: TBA

Synopsis: HHhH follows Heydrich, who seemed indestructible until two exiled operatives, a Slovak and a Czech, killed him in 1942 and changed the course of history. The film chronicles the journey of Jozef Gabcík and Jan Kubiš from their dramatic escape from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to their fatal attack on Heydrich.

Director: Cedric Jimenez

Genre: Historical Thriller

Starring: Jason Clarke, Rosamund Pike, Mia Wasikowska, Jack O’Connell

 

 

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45. Batman vs Superman

Release Date: March 25th

Synopsis: The greatest Super Heroes in the world – Superman and Batman face off.

Director: Zack Snyder (Man of Steel)

Genre: Comic Book

Starring: Ben Affleck,  Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon, Amy Adams, Jason Mamoa

 

 

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44. Last Days in the Desert

Release Date: May 13th

Synopsis: Last Days in the Desert follows Jesus in an imagined chapter from his forty days of fasting and praying in the desert. On his way out of the wilderness, he struggles with the Devil, also played by McGregor, over the fate of an ordinary family in crisis, setting for himself a dramatic test with distinctly human conflicts.

Director: Rodrigo Garcia

Genre: Biblical

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Tye Sheridan

 

 

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43. Snowden

Release Date: May 13th

Synopsis: 29-year-old Edward Snowden discloses to several media outlets thousands of classified documents that he acquired while working as an NSA contractor for Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton. The leaked documents uncover the existence of numerous global surveillance programs, many of them run by the NSA and the Five Eyes with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments.

Director: Oliver Stone

Genre: Biopic

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Tom Wilkinson, Nicolas Cage

 

 

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42. Little Prince

Release Date: March 18th

Synopsis: The story centers on a pilot who crash-lands in the Sahara desert and comes across a little boy who says he is a prince fallen to Earth from his home on an asteroid. As the pilot repairs his plane, the little prince regales him with stories about his home and the foolish inhabitants of nearby asteroids.

Director: Mark Osborne (Kung Fu Panda)

Genre: Animated

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, Paul Rudd, Marion Cotillard, Benicio Del Toro, James Franco, Paul Giamatti, Albert Brooks

 

 

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41. The Boss

Release Date: April 8th

Synopsis: Melissa McCarthy headlines The Boss as a titan of industry who is sent to prison after she’s caught for insider trading. When she emerges ready to rebrand herself as America’s latest sweetheart, not everyone she screwed over is so quick to forgive and forget

Director: Ben Falcone (Tammy)

Genre: Comedy

Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage

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Kevin "OptimusSolo"

OptimusSolo is a Cartoon Historian and even has an actual History degree to go with it. He's also an avid Toy collector boasting an over 1,000 piece Star Wars collection and nearly 400 Transformer toys. He is one of the hosts of the Powers of Grayskull series. He also has a passion for cartoon Theme Songs, Star Trek, MacGyver, Baseball, and is a major Movie Geek!

3 Comments

  1. So Huntsman is essentially a live action “Frozen” … meh.

    Good list though, but I would not have put Jungle Book at #1 lol

  2. So Huntsman is essentially a live action “Frozen” … meh.

    Good list though, but I would not have put Jungle Book at #1 lol

  3. Awesome list. I’m a little taken a back that you have a Terrance Malick movie in your Top 20. Though from what I’m hearing about Knight of Cups it is not looking all that good but you never know.

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