2016 in films - according to Film Excess

The Top 10 of 2016:

1. Captain Fantastic - Matt Ross

2. Arrival - Denis Villeneuve

3. Florence Foster Jenkins - Stephen Frears

4. Snowden - Oliver Stone

5. Finding Dory - Andrew Stanton, Angus MacLane

6. Kung Fu Panda 3 - Alessandro Carloni, Jennifer Yuh Nelson

7. The Jungle Book - Jon Favreau

8. Hacksaw Ridge - Mel Gibson

9. Looking: The Movie, TV movie - Andrew Haigh

10. Café Society - Woody Allen

Good, recommendable movies of 2016 (in alphabetic order):

The Conjuring 2 - James Wan

Ghostbusters - Paul Feig

Lights Out - David F. Sandberg

The Neon Demon - Nicolas Winding Refn

Sausage Party - Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon

Star Trek Beyond - Justin Lin


The Worst of 2016:

1. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Gareth Edwards

2. London Has Fallen - Babak Najafi

3. Warcraft - Duncan Jones

Other less than good movies of the year (in alphabetic order):

13 Hours/13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
Hail, Caesar! 
Pete's Dragon 
X-Men: Apocalypse 

[23 titles in total]

Notes:

The first, tentative summary of the year 2016 in movies contains in the top 10 2 masterpieces:
Matt Ross' emotionally riveting Captain Fantastic and Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi drama thriller Arrival. The remainder of the list is filled out by Stephen Frears' delightful Florence Foster Jenkins, Oliver Stone's highly topical Snowden, Andrew Stanton and Angus MacLane's excellent sequel Finding Dory, Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh Nelson's hilarious Kung Fu Panda 3, Jon Favreau's magical The Jungle Book, Mel Gibson's forceful true-story war movie Hacksaw Ridge, Andrew Haigh's touching, romantic TV movie Looking: The Movie, and finally Woody Allen's deeply funny and poignant showbiz period picture Café Society.
The year also offered an unusual, very adult and very funny animation (Sausage Party), another fine Star Trek movie (Star Trek Beyond), a funny Ghostbusters reboot (Ghostbusters) and a slew of successful horrors (The Conjuring 2, Lights Out, The Neon Demon).
On the still short worst-of list we find three big-budgeted blunders: Gareth Edwards' tentpole blockbuster for Disney, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Babak Najafi's senseless terrorism actioner sequel London Has Fallen and Duncan Jones' insipid computer game adaptation Warcraft.
Needless to say, the lists are in this first iteration wildly lacking in titles, which will be improved in about a year in the first update of it.

Still on the 2016 watch-list:

Midnight Special, Gods of Egypt, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Baskets (TV-series), King Cobra, War Dogs, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, It's Only the End of the World, I, Daniel Blake, Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, American Honey, Elle, Spa Night, Sully, Undrafted, Why Him?, Hidden Figures, Nocturnal Animals, Moonlight, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Shin Godzilla, Paterson and The Salesman.

Previous annual lists:
  
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2014 in films - according to Film Excess
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2013 in films - according to Film Excess   2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  

What do you think of the 2016 lists?
What films of the year are your favorites and least favorites? 

Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016) - More high-spirited, hilarious pandatainment for everyone

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Comedy of the Year

The fun-filled poster for Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh Nelson's Kung Fu Panda 3

The Dragon Warrior, panda hero Po is about to finish his training under Master Shifu, just as the supernatural villain Kai comes back from the spirit realm to claim all the chis of the masters, and Po learns revelatory news of his own parentage.

Kung Fu Panda 3 is the highly awaited third movie in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger (Kung Fu Panda (2008)) and directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)) and Alessandro Carloni (The Shark and the Piano (2001, short), co-director).
We are once again spoiled with a delicious visual universe of fresh, deep colors, amazing landscapes, effects that will woo 3D and 2D audiences alike and a barrage of great characters. The franchise comes to a natural high here, as Po meets his real Panda family, who are simply a ton of fun. The unveiling of the secret panda village works phenomenally as a kind of paradisiacal dream haven that everyone should be overjoyed to get to visit here.
Kung Fu Panda 3 might well be the best Kung Fu Panda movie yet!

Poe finds the amazing secret panda village in Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh Nelson's Kung Fu Panda 3

The film intersperses a wealth of returning as well as new characters, gags and a strong storyline that both plays on an immediate, outer threat and a more personal development (just as the previous films do), and does so impressively well. While some of the concluding plot points might seem a bit nonsensical to some, - this is a film about a kung fu panda, and kung fu movies don't have to make perfect sense. What's more important is that the heart is in the right place, and it certainly is here: Kung Fu Panda 3 is a very spirited and edifying piece of family entertainment.
It is also packed with cool action and more fun than any live-action comedy out right now. I laughed countless times, and I think the film must count as one of the funniest major animation films yet. It is filled with especially physical comedy of all varieties.
But it also is heightened by its great voice cast: Jack Black (Bernie (2011)) is once again a joy in the title role; J. K. Simmons (Whiplash (2014)) is good as the scary Kai, who seems to crave destruction for its own sake just as some of the real-life villains of today seem to; James Hong (Kung Fu Panda) returns and is again a lot of fun as Po's goose 'father'; and Kate Hudson (Good People (2014)) will be recognized by few here, but the character she voices, (which Rebel Wilson was supposed to voice), a theatrical lady panda of the village, is a real hoot.

Related posts:

Jennifer Yuh Nelson: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) or, The Heritage of Po

 Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 145 mil. $
Box office: 521.2 mil. $
= Big hit
[Kung Fu Panda 3 was released January 23 (in China first) and runs 95 minutes. The film was done as an American-Chinese co-production, the first major animation to be done so, with 1/3 of the production done in China, where the film received a more favorable release bargain in return. A fully animated (lip-synced) version was also created especially for the Chinese market. It opened #1 to a 41.2 first weekend, the biggest January opening for an animated film ever, but lowest in the franchise, in North America, where it has grossed 139.4 mil. $ (32.3 % of the total gross). It hung on to the #1 spot in its second week before getting thrown off by the arrival of Deadpool. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were South Korea with 26.3 mil. $ (6.1 %) and China with 22.6 mil. $ (5.2 %). It also opened #1 internationally, but was overtaken in its second week by The Revenant. Another 3 (!) sequels in the franchise have been announced by DreamWorks. Kung Fu Panda 3 is certified fresh at 86 % with a 6.8 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Kung Fu Panda 3?
Is it the best in the franchise so far, in your opinion?