With the box office and critical failures of Jupiter Ascending, The Seventh Son and Fantastic 4 to name a few, it was a rocky start for Hollywood at the beginning of the 2015-16 season. However, fast forwarding the clock by a full 12 months, Tinseltown has more than made up for the ground it failed to cover last summer. As Oscar season draws closer with each passing day, here's a look at five movies that have made a strong case to take home hardware from 1, or more, of the 24 available categories in the Academy Awards thus far:
5. Captain America: Civil War
Although the storyline conceived by the writers strayed far from the comics, this didn't prevent the third instalment of the Captain America franchise from taking the box office by storm. Grossing $1.151 billion on a $250 million budget, the film became the 12th highest grossing film of all time. But Civil War's success didn't stop there, able to carry over and build upon the pulse-pounding intensity from its predecessor Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it secured a 'certified fresh' score of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics dubbing it as 'one of the best superhero films of all-time'.
As an action film, it probably won't score in the big categories if it finds away into the ballots at the Oscars, but don't be surprised to see it compete for the technical categories such as Best Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects and Cinematography.
4. The Nice Guys
Among the movies on the list of 'must-sees' this summer, Shane Black's The Nice Guys somehow managed to evade the attention of even the most avid movie buff. Grossing just $57.1 million, The Nice Guys was barely able to make back its $50 million budget. That said, this film contains superb writing, while displaying some beautiful acting and an unforgettable chemistry between lead stars Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling who are overwhelmingly hilarious.
But the real star was Angourie Rice, who made her feature film debut as Holly March. Rice's sass and plainspoken wit are what allow the 15 year-old to steal the show from right under the feet of Gosling and Crowe. Black's latest project also features the likes of Kim Basinger, who forever remains idolized for her Oscar winning performance as Lynn Bracken in L.A. Confidential.
3. Zootopia
Disney is killing it. And its not just in the Marvel Universe, but in Pixar, where their filmmakers continue to deliver with flawless perfection. From the realm of emotions (Inside Out) and fighting balloons (Big Hero 6), Disney opted to revert to a storyline that once again revolved around talking animals in Zootopia. A theme constantly reused in the past years to fuel the success of Ratatouille, The Good Dinosaur, Finding Nemo and A Bug's Life, skeptics were probably wondering whether filmmakers in Pixar would finally outdo by themselves.
But it wasn't to be the case in Zootopia. Accruing $1.023 billion on a $150 million budget, the animated blockbuster not only soared to 2nd place for highest grossing films of 2016, but became the 24th highest grossing film of all-time. While the story suffers from a few plot gaffes that borderline the corny and cliched, the characters still exhibit a combination of humour and loveability that remains unique only to Disney. The homage in one particular scene paid to The Godfather is a priceless classic.
2. Finding Dory
If your a fan of Warner Brothers, Fox or any of the other big studios, you might have to throw in the towel for now, because Disney pretty much hogs this entire list, and perhaps, rightfully so. Sequels tend to be met with skepticism since they tend to display a poor record in being able to match, or surpass, the performance of their predecessors. Nevertheless, Finding Dory has more than convincingly established itself as an exception to this rule.
Having the biggest opening in North America for any animated film and placing 6th on the highest grossing films of 2016, Finding Dory is still playing and thus, still has a chance to surpass Zootopia. However, looking past the films financial success, critics were also enamored by a combination of tear jerking humour and heartbreak woven into the movie's storyline. Able to rival the poignancy of Finding Nemo, its a film that thoroughly entertains by sending you on an emotional roller coaster.
1. The Jungle Book
See, told ya, its been Disney's show all summer. Only that this time, their success stems beyond the realm of pixar into live-action. Whatever it is, when talking animals make up a bulk of their character cast, Disney projects are just incapable of failing. Opening in theatres back in April, The Jungle Book currently sits 3rd on the list of highest grossing films of 2016.
Featuring an all-star cast consisting of Scarlett Johanssen, Bill Murray, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong'o and Christopher Walken, the film impressed critics with its stunning visual effects, musical score, and near flawless voice acting (its too bad the Oscars doesn't have a category for the latter). What also allowed The Jungle Book to strike an endearing chord with its viewers was the level of faithfulness it retained towards the cartoon adaption (1967) of Rudyard Kipling's beloved collection of short-stories under the same name. Its jungle counterpart The Legend of Tarzan, produced by Warner Bros, figures in merely as a bad copy when a comparison is drawn.
