Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Movies Roundup 2016

This is my favourite post of the year, every year. It usually comes a few days after Aamir Khan waits for everyone to showcase their best, and then blows away the competition in a Bhuvan-esque fashion. Here's a recap of the years gone by 20092010201120122013, 2014, & 2015.

This year was special in quite a few ways for my movie watching experience.

This was the year of #100MoviesPact, conceived by Diptakirti of Bollybook fame (perhaps somewhat inspired by his wife's #100SareesPact from the previous year) and participated with religious zeal by a group of us 10 friends. Rules were simple, as long as you watched a 100 different movies between Jan-1 to Dec-31, 2016 it counted. The #100MoviesPact became the #1000MoviesPact (100 X 10) as the year drew to a close and on Christmas afternoon we managed to record our 1,000th movie.

The other shout out of the year goes to the Seattle Public Library. A ridiculously comprehensive catalog, from Kanchenjungha to Karan Arjun, from the latest Hollywood blockbusters to obscure Iranian titles of the past, it has it all. And all of this for the princely sum of $0 per movie, $0 per year, $0 for membership. God bless the American Public Library system. 

Now coming to the numbers. 

I personally missed the #100MoviesPact but quite happy with 76 movies for the year (up from 53 last year). While watching movies in theaters remained a luxury with a toddler, I did manage to catch 4 (Fan, Dear Zindagi, Kahaani 2, and Dangal), 1 more than last year. Also, 30 of the 76 movies watched this year were 2016 releases (again up slightly from 26 last year). 

Now for the popular summary table, in its 10th year now (only for current year releases):

Year     # Seen    Hindi:English:Bangla   Top Rating  Avg. Rating
2007     32               22:10:0                           9.0             5.78
2008     30               23:7:0                             8.5             6.35
2009     24               18:6:0                             9.0             6.85
2010     25               16:9:0                             8.5             6.62
2011     22               15:6:1                             8.5             6.77
2012     28               12:11:5                           9.0             7.33
2013     28               14:14:0                           9.0             7.12
2014     16               10:6:0                             9.0             6.16 
2015     26               20:6:0                             9.0             6.55
2016     30               17:13:0                           9.5             6.98

Happy to have watched a bunch of good movies, thanks to great recommendations by the #100MoviesPact gang, greater discretion used due to lack of time thanks to parenting duties, and of course the great Seattle Public Library system. The average of 6.98 is one of the best over the last 10 years and the trend seems to be going the right way. FYI, the overall average i.e. not just looking at 2016 releases was 7.31, highly boosted by a bunch of Satyajit Ray DVDs and also the Oscar nominated movies from last year.

The split of the movies by source can be found below, almost all of the DVD-Loaned were from the library again.

DVD - Loaned47
Netflix8
Amazon Prime Video6
In-Flight5
DVD - Owned5
Theatre4
Amazon Instant Video1
Grand Total76

I also ended up watching movies in 7 languages, which was a new high for me.

English48
Hindi18
Bangla4
Turkish3
Spanish1
Romanian1
Marathi1
Grand Total76
And now for rankings. As always, Top 5 Hindi and Top 3 English movies of the year. Disclaimer: I haven't watched a bunch of highly acclaimed Hollywood movies, and among the Bollywood ones of note that I missed out on were: Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Aligarh, Neerja, Sultan, and Phobia.

English Movies

5. 10 Cloverfield Lane



4. Elvis & Nixon



3. The Jungle Book



2. Eye In The Sky



1. Zootopia



Zootopia9.0
Eye In The Sky9.0
The Secret Life of Pets8.0
The Jungle Book8.0
Elvis & Nixon8.0
Carol8.0
10 Cloverfield Lane8.0
Weiner7.0
Deadpool7.0
Suicide Squad6.0
Jason Bourne6.0
Finding Dory6.0
Brahman Naman6.0
Kung Fu Panda 35.5
Now You See Me 25.0
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice4.0
London Has Fallen2.0

Hindi Movies

5. Waiting



4. Kapoor & Sons



3. Nil Battey Sannata



2. Pink



1. Dangal (Movie Of The Year)



(Full List)

Dangal9.5
Pink9.0
Nil Battey Sannata8.5
Waiting8.0
Kapoor & Sons8.0
Fan7.5
Dear Zindagi7.5
Kahaani 27.0
TE3N6.5
Raman Raghav 2.06.5
Fitoor6.5
Airlift6.5
Wazir6.0

Special mention to Fan, perhaps the only movie (at least parts of the 1st half) which I can ever find somewhat autobiographical:)

And below please find the rest of 46 movies, by language, by rating, which I saw this year but were released earlier. 

Please do share your thoughts and lists, and wish you a very happy 2017 movie watching year.

Bangla
Aparajito9.0
Apur Sansar8.5
Pather Panchali6.5
Ganashatru6.0
English
Spotlight9.0
Midnight in Paris9.0
The Danish Girl8.5
The Big Short8.5
In The Loop8.5
Gone Baby Gone8.5
Zelig8.0
The Walk8.0
Steve Jobs8.0
Planes, Trains & Automobiles8.0
Pawn Sacrifice8.0
Martian8.0
Love and Death8.0
LOTR - Fellowship of the Ring8.0
Fatal Attraction8.0
Brooklyn8.0
A Clockwork Orange8.0
Trumbo7.5
The Revenant7.5
Purple Rose of Cairo7.5
Ex-Machina7.5
Creed7.0
Black Mass7.0
45 Years7.0
The Man From U.N.C.L.E6.5
Spectre6.5
Penguins of Madagascar6.5
Our Brand Is Crisis6.0
Kingsman5.5
Furious 75.5
Johnny English5.0
Hindi
Shatranj Ke Khiladi8.5
Shanghai7.5
Margarita With A Straw7.5
Tamasha6.5
Baahubali6.0
Marathi
Court8.0
Romanian
Buna! Ce faci?7.0
Spanish
Wild Tales8.5
Turkish
Mustang8.5
Taxi8.0
Offside7.5

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