Ranking Every Film I Saw In 2016, #33: Jason Bourne

Ranking Every Film I Saw In 2016, #33: Jason Bourne

It seemed so fun on paper: Matt Damon, back playing the titular hero again after a nine-year layoff, Paul Greengrass again behind the camera, and after such a long break, surely a new world of stories to tell. Plus, throwing in pros like Tommy Lee Jones and Alicia Vikander as new agents to hunt down Bourne seemed exactly the sort of shot-in-the-arm a rebooting franchise wants (when you're doing a movie about tracking someone down, getting the guy who tracked down Harrison Ford in The Fugitive seems the absolute best choice). But, as we keep finding out from these Netflix reunions: sometimes the idea of getting the whole band back together is a lot more fun than the execution.

Ranking Every Film I Saw In 2016, Starting With #35: Batman Vs. Superman

Ranking Every Film I Saw In 2016, Starting With #35: Batman Vs. Superman

This is an inane complaint, but I don't like doing year-end movie lists at the actual end of the year.

You know, the only time that makes sense to do them.

I read heaps of official year-end lists for major publications, and they've already had the chance to see all the awards-bait movies, some of which are definites to be added to this list.* I'll have seen the rest of the 2016 nominees by the time we get to the Oscars, but it feels wrong to add Brooklyn or Bridge of Spies to this list just because I watched them this year, when they've already been feted at last year's Oscar ceremony.

*This list includes literally every theatrical release I saw this year, so I guess it would actually be impossible for them not to.

But, by the same notion, the odds that Damien Chazelle's La La Land ends up being one of my top-5 movies of the year seems extremely high, yet it won't be mentioned here, and if I find Martin Scorsese's Silence a complete boor (possible!), will I have no outlet for my complaints?*

*Since Silence is a film about Jesuit priests who have taken a vow of silence, this actually does seem appropriate.

Short Run of Posts

Like the end of most years, inundated with best-of lists, I find myself wanting to put together lists of my own favorites. Of course, as followers of this blog will know, this is always a short-lived impulse - this blog will dissolve back into dust and tumbleweeds before the week is out - but let's ride it as long as we can.

I'm counting down my favorite albums, songs, and films of 2016. Let's see how far we get. I'm making no promises.

"Is Pumpkin Spice Dead?" The Shopping Trip (Part III)

"Is Pumpkin Spice Dead?" The Shopping Trip (Part III)

You can catch up on what's happening here and read about the first two parts of the shopping trip here and here. If you want to skip all that, here's the quick summary:

I am on a hunt to buy everything in this grocery store that is pumpkin spice flavored, to prove that "Peak Pumpkin Spice" is over. To accomplish this mission, I've set up three ground rules:

  1. Any item labeled "Pumpkin Spice" must be purchased, no matter what it is.
  2. Anything that looks like it's trying to be pumpkin spice without actually calling itself pumpkin spice - "pumpkin flavored," "pumpkin and cinnamon," etc. - must also be purchased.
  3. Anything that seems just to be pumpkin product, minding its own business, ignoring current trends, can be ignored. Each of these products will be carefully considered on a case-by-case basis.

And now, back to the store, where I've just realized I'm going to have to learn how to bake pumpkin spice cookies and pumpkin spice bread and pumpkin spice pancakes. Things aren't looking good...

I turn from the baking aisle and into the bread aisle. Since I assume that anyone who wants pumpkin spice bread will be baking their own, I'm pretty sure I can make it down this one safely.

And I almost do, until right at the end: