2016 wasn’t particularly regarded as a great year. People died, things generally sucked, and so a lot of people were happy to see it end. However, I started 2016 with a list of the best things of 2015. So it only feels right that as we start 2017, I should take a look back at 2016 and talk about some of my favorite things from the year. Because 2016 wasn’t ALL bad.
Best Movie of 2016
The Nice Guys
It was a difficult decision this year to determine what my favorite movie was. There were a lot of “top 5” movies, but nothing really jumped out at me as the “best.” Definitely nothing that blew me away like Mad Max: Fury Road did in 2015.
That being said, The Nice Guys is a damn great movie. Shane Black is a writer/director that I have a soft spot for and his take on a buddy cop-esque romp through the 70s was hilarious. Russell Crowe plays slightly off-type as a disgruntled fixer who basically gets paid money to visit bad people and hurt them to make them stop doing the bad things. Ryan Gosling plays a ‘detective’ who does some detecting, but does more drinking and conning people out of money.
The two get together and end up investigating a case linked to the porn industry (which was a happening place in the 70s) and, of course, hilarity ensues. The two leads play off each other extremely well, and the young actress who plays Ryan Gosling’s daughter is great and doesn’t ever feel like one of the dreaded annoying children who ruin movies. Matt Bomer also shows up as a villain and is pretty menacing in his role.
This movie feels like an old-school 90s action comedy at times, which is why I was drawn to it so much. The more I thought about it, the more I enjoyed The Nice Guys, and as such it tops my list as my favorite movie of 2016.
Top 5 Movie Round-Up:
Captain America: Civil War
Arrival
Star Wars: Rogue One
10 Cloverfield Lane
Best Video Game of 2016
Overwatch
This is pretty much the biggest no-brainer out of all the lists for me. Overwatch basically consumed my soul from minute one, and it hasn’t let up yet. I’ve put close to 250 hours into this game since getting it at the end of May 2016. Which means out of seven months of the year, I dedicated around ten days of my life to playing this game. Addicted? Perhaps. But it’s a damn good game.
To start off, I’m not big on multiplayer-only games. I like playing games with my friends, of course, and growing up it was very fun to play games like Goldeneye, Smash Bros, Perfect Dark, and the like with all of us crowding around a small-ass CRT television to watch the splitscreen. But video games overall have been my escape to new worlds, which means I’ve gravitated towards single-player experiences as games went from local multiplayer focus to online multiplayer focus. I’ve never felt the need to get competitive with people across the world in multiplayer, it was more about hanging out with friends if I was playing games with other people.
Until Overwatch.
Now I play with random people all the time and I’ve made a bunch of new gaming friends who I team up with to play matches. I get frustrated and yell at my screen, turn the game off, go watch a few Overwatch videos, then turn the game back on and play some more. It’s addicting at every level. The game encourages you to play as many characters as possible because they’re all useful and they all have different abilities and different situations where they excel. And I’m a guy who has ADD when playing any sort of multiplayer, so being able to play new characters every match and still be good at the game was right up my alley.
The mechanics are all polished, the characters are bright and fun and varied, and Blizzard keeps putting out new content each month for all the players and most of it is free. From tanking as Reinhardt to building turrets with Symmetra to blowing shit up as Junkrat, I love playing each and every character (except McCree – fuck McCree) and I will probably continue to play this game all through 2017. Which is good. It will help me save money.
Top 5 Video Game Round-Up:
XCOM 2
Enter the Gungeon
Uncharted 4
Doom
Best Television Show of 2016
iZombie
I didn’t start watching this show until last year, even though it was already into season 2 by the time I picked it up on Netflix. But it was by and far the standout show of the year for me, and when season 3 starts airing in 2017 I will be there with bells on.
iZombie is basically Veronica Mars, but with zombies. Liv Moore (ha ha!), the main character, is a zombie who works as a medical examiner in the morgue. When she eats brains, she takes on the personality of the person’s brain she ate but also gets access to some of their memories. So under the guise of being a psychic, she helps her cop buddy solve murder mysteries while acting kinda strange.
All the characters are charming in that Rob Thomas-inspired witty banter kinda way. There are multiple season long story arcs and maniac villains that keep you on the edge of your seat, wanting to find out just what happens next. Rose McIver does a wonderful job as Liv, especially since she basically has a different personality every episode. David Anders is pitch-perfect as Blaine, Liv’s rival who just fucks up her life over and over again.
It’s not action-packed by any means, but the mysteries and plot twists are many and you won’t see all of them coming. Plus, Rob Thomas (the singer) actually shows up in the season 2 finale. Rob Thomas on a Rob Thomas show! How cool is that? (It’s very cool.) If you like mysteries and don’t mind brains for dinner, this is the show for you.
Top 5 TV Show Round-Up:
Person of Interest
The Flash
Mr. Robot
Lethal Weapon
Best Book of 2016
The Four Legendary Kingdoms, by Matthew Reilly
So I’m pretty sure this is the only book that came out in 2016 that I read, so by default it’s the best book of 2016. However it wasn’t the only book I read this year, and yet I would still say it was the best book I read. So I’m not just giving it top honors for releases in 2016, but it’s the best out of anything I read last year.
Matthew Reilly isn’t an author for everyone. His novels are action movies condensed into book form. Ridiculous shit that would never be possible in real life is done by the heroes and heroines. It’s pulpy, campy fun that is easy to digest and a thrill ride from start to finish. When I was 18, I visited England and found his book Ice Station in a used book store. I read it in one sitting that very night in the hotel room, and the next day I went back to the store and bought his other three books that they had and read them all, too. The main character of several of his books is Shane “Scarecrow” Schofield, an American marine who kicks ass and doesn’t chew bubble gum. And one of his crew is one of my favorite female characters ever: Mother Newman. Her introduction, word for word, from Ice Station:
“Mother was thirty-four, six-foot-two and had a fully shaven head. She weighed in at nearly two hundred pounds. Her call sign’Mother’ wasn’t supposed to mean ‘maternal figure.’ It was short for motherfucker.”
The Four Legendary Kingdoms, however, isn’t a Scarecrow novel. It stars Matthew Reilly’s other main protagonist – Jack West Jr., a former Australian army ranger who is tasked with a project to save the world in his first novel Seven Ancient Wonders. Unlike Scarecrow’s books, which are more Die Hard – military & technology based and usually involve Scarecrow infiltrating bases and fighting off scores of enemies with his badassitude – Jack West Jr.’s books are more Indiana Jones in style: action-packed, but involving historical artifacts like the seven ancient wonders and have puzzles and historical mysteries thrown into the action as well.
The Jack West Jr. novels are basically what I would write if I were to write action novels – ancient mythology infused balls-to-the-wall action. And The Four Legendary Kingdoms didn’t disappoint in that aspect. Not to spoil the story, but it ends up putting a twist on one of my favorite mythologies and does it in a way that I didn’t even figure out myself until Jack West himself figured it out. And on top of that, there was a moment very early on in the book that made me actually shout “No Way!” and put a stupid smile on my face for the entire rest of the book (which I read in one sitting, of course).
Okay, I’m done espousing about how much I love Matthew Reilly and his books. I wouldn’t recommend starting with The Four Legendary Kingdoms if you haven’t read any of his other books: pick up Ice Station, Seven Ancient Wonders, or Temple (a standalone story) if you want to see if you enjoy his work. If you like thrill rides with twists and turns and non-stop shit-your-pants adrenaline, read his books. I promise you’ll enjoy them.
Other Books I Read in 2016 That Were Awesome:
The Mistborn trilogy, by Brandon Sanderson
The Rook, by Daniel O’Malley
Vacant, by Alex Hughes
Best Album of 2016
Blink-182 – California
I’ve always liked Blink-182 – ever since I was a little freshman turd listening to Enema of the State in high school. They, along with The Offspring, were the band that defined my teenage years music-wise. They weren’t mature then, but I wasn’t mature either. It was a nice fit and I still enjoy a lot of their songs – perhaps driven by nostalgia, perhaps not.
17 years later, replacing Tom with Matt Skiba, Blink released a new album that immediately jumped into my favorites after a first listen. Their sound is different and they still haven’t quite matured all the way (go listen to Built This Pool for proof) but it’s definitely a Blink-182 album for better or worse. In my opinion, it’s almost all better.
I’m not going to spend too much time on this because as I’ve said previously, I always find it hard to talk about music because people’s taste varies and at this point, you probably know whether you like Blink-182 or not. My two favorite songs off the album are No Future and Teenage Satellites. Listen to those and if you like them, you might want to give the album a full listen.
As much as 2016 sucked, I’m gonna be honest – I’m glad I got a new Blink-182 album out of it. That’s a win in my book.
Top 5 Album Round-Up:
Bad Vibrations, by A Day to Remember
Revolution Radio, by Green Day
Ace, by Scooter
Death of a Bachelor, by Panic! at the Disco
The Shittiest Turd of 2016
Death
From the death of David Bowie a week into the year to Carrie Fisher’s death ending it, 2016 was one long reminder of our mortality and our finite existence. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a few mortality-induced panic attacks over the course of the year. It sucked to be reminded of death every other week as yet another hero or idol of yours ended up in a casket.
So for everyone who managed to survive 2016, here’s a big middle finger Death. Fuck off.
Top 5 Shittiest Turd Round-Up:
Donald Trump
Harambe memes
Mechanic: Resurrection
All the alt-right, white supremacist motherfuckers out there
That’s it for 2016. Onwards to 2017! Let’s see what this new year brings us, both in good and bad!
Warning! Opinions Ahead 