Previous #1 most anticipated movies: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012), THE COUNSELOR (2013), THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (2014), STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (2015)
Some of those have worked out better than others. 2016 was probably the toughest of these lists to make because there isn't a whole lot that is really jumping out at me. There's a lot of films with promise, but not too many that are really getting me excited the way a new Star Wars or Wes Anderson movie gets me. Luckily, there are a lot of great directors with new movies to make up this list, hopefully a bunch of these really deliver.
- MIDNIGHT SPECIAL (Jeff Nichols)
- FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM (David Yates)
- THE NEON DEMON (Nicolas Winding Refn)
- SILENCE (Martin Scorsese)
- JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK (Edward Zwick)
- ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (Gareth Edwards)
- HAIL, CAESAR! (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
- TRIPLE 9 (John Hillcoat)
- WAR ON EVERYONE (John Michael McDonagh)
- THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE (Denis Villeneuve)
- GOLD (Stephen Gaghan)
- PATERSON (Jim Jarmusch)
- WAR MACHINE (David Michod)
- THE LOBSTER (Yorgos Lanthimos)
- KNIGHT OF CUPS (Terrence Malick)
Here was 2015's list and my grades for each (or reasons for not seeing):
- STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (J.J. Abrams) - A+
- THE HATEFUL EIGHT (Quentin Tarantino) - A-
- THE MARTIAN (Ridley Scott) - B
- MIDNIGHT SPECIAL (Jeff Nichols) - Will be released 3/18/16
- TRIPLE NINE (John Hillcoat) - Will be released 2/19/16
- BLACK MASS (Scott Cooper) - B
- BRIDGE OF SPIES (Steven Spielberg) - B+
- SICARIO (Denis Villeneuve) - B
- 99 HOMES (Ramin Bahrani) - A-
- THE REVENANT (Alejandro G. Inarritu) - B
- THE LOBSTER (Yorgos Lanthimos) - Will be released in 2016
- EX MACHINA (Alex Garland) - A+
- GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE PRISON OF BELIEF (Alex Gibney) - A-
- MAPS TO THE STARS (David Cronenberg) - C-
- TOMORROWLAND (Brad Bird) - B+
