Here at Film School Rejects, we believe that a healthy movie diet is at least one new release per week. We don’t all have time to see every single one of the more than 300 feature films that will be released in the next calendar year. Our critic Rob Hunter might come close, as will an elite few whose time and finances line up perfectly with seeing a bunch of movies. For the rest of us, we’ll have to be on a diet. There will be plenty of great TV to watch, a cornucopia of titles on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and iTunes to stream, and of course, plenty of time spent reading articles on the Internet.
As we’ve done in years past, we’d like to help you navigate the oncoming tidal wave of new movies. We believe that your movie diet is best balanced by seeing one new release for every week of the year. This doesn’t mean that there will be a good new release every week, but you get the idea. It’s with that in mind that we present our list of the 52 Most Anticipated Movies of 2016.
If you’d like, you can catch up on previous years below:
52. 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
Release Date: January 15
The Pitch: It’s been a while since Michael Bay has made an earnest “Rah! Rah!” movie about the military, but it’s a theme that he’s continued, albeit in a minor way, throughout the Transformers franchise. The man loves to make movies that go boom, but he also loves to make movies that are favorable to America’s armed forces. Considering the acclaim that Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper received, this should be a movie that speaks to America’s most gun-toting, flag waiving demographic. Plus, as a bonus for more Conservative viewers, it’s all about Benghazi. The possibility of seeing a Michael Bay movie that unintentionally balloons into a political quagmire is far too interesting to pass up. Plus, Michael Bay does make blowing stuff up look really fun. Harrowing. I meant harrowing. (Neil Miller)
Watch the Trailer
51. I Saw The Light
Release Date: March 25
The Pitch: Earlier this month, Jason Bailey of Flavorwire wrote a great piece on why the biopic – and the “cradle-to-grave” narrative that it implies – was a bubble poised to burst. That’s not exactly great news for Tom Hiddleston, who looks and sounds the part of a young Hank Williams in I Saw the Light and certainly hoped for better than a March release date. Still, it’s not all bad news; movies like Ray and Walk the Line have shown that that audiences and critics alike will let their guard down for a quality movie about famed singer-songwriters, and the musical numbers included in the film will undoubtedly give it some cross-genre appeal. Maybe we’re tired of biopics, but a good ol’ fashioned Country musical? That dog’ll hunt. (Matthew Monagle)
Watch the Trailer
50. The Purge 3
Release Date: July 1
The Pitch: The first film was a home invasion thriller focused on one family’s efforts to resist the Purge, and the sequel followed a small band of survivors trapped outdoors when all hell broke loose. Little is known about the third film’s plot specifics, but there’s really only one detail needed to get our butts in seats opening weekend. Will Frank Grillo be returning to kick ass for the underdogs? The answer is yes. (Rob Hunter)
49. Pete’s Dragon
Release Date: July 1
The Pitch: We wouldn’t normally be excited about a rehash of a beloved Disney family film, especially since the Witch Mountain redo was merely passable. However, the studio has turned this new take on their 1977 sorta-classic live-action and animation hybrid into a kind of prestige pic by hiring visionary indie darlings David Lowery and Toby Halbrooks. They’re the writer/director and producer, respectively, of Ain’t Them Body Saints and have also been involved with such non-mainstream efforts as Upstream Color and Listen Up Philip. And with their acclaimed short Pioneer (watch it), they’ve already kind of tackled children’s story territory. Add to all this Robert Redford cast in the Mickey Rooney role and we see this as the most exciting auteur-helmed kids movie since Robert Altman’s Popeye — and yes, we love Robert Altman’s Popeye. (Christopher Campbell)
48. Synchronicity
Release Date: January 22
The Pitch: Writer/Director Jacob Gentry’s 2007 film The Signal is a film with which we had a lot of fun. We expect a little bit of the same from Synchronicity, his new film about time travel, love and corporate interests. In his review of the film at the Fantasia Film Festival last year, Rob Hunter called it “Gumby sci-fi,” a film that (for better and sometimes worse) is too worried about being bendy and fun. It’s the “bendy and fun” part that has the rest of us interested. It promises to be a little bit of Blade Runner with a twisted sense of humor. In fact, it sounds like a movie that might make a nice reprieve from the doldrums of January. (Neil Miller)
Read Our Review
47. Eddie the Eagle
Release Date: April 29
The Pitch: In a surprise debut at Butt-Numb-a-Thon in Austin this past month, Eddie the Eagle was met with cheers from a weary-eyed crowd of movie marathoning nerds. That is to say that apparently it’s a lot of fun. The story of Britain’s first ever Olympic ski jump competitor, the colorful Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, Eddie brings together a number of fan favorites. Kingsman‘s Taron Egerton stars in the titular role. Hugh Jackman plays his unorthodox coach. Christopher Walken is there, too. According to the vibes from the trailer, it’s going to be a rambunctious feel-good movie. One of those quirky, yet triumphant sports tales. And for those, we have a spot in our collective heart. (Neil Miller)
Watch the Trailer
46. Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
Release Date: May 20
The Pitch: It’s unlikely that this comedy sequel will be as good as the original, but as long as Rose Byrne is back, we’re on board, as well. We’re actually hopeful that director Nicholas Stoller and his writing collaborators Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have recognized that Byrne was the best thing about Neighbors and put her even more front and center in part two. After all, the adversary this time around is a sorority girl (Chloe Grace Moretz), and from a presumable gender-matching standpoint, she’d be the Zac Efron (who is also returning) to Byrne’s Rogen. Even if she’s not its primary lead, though, Byrne will still steal the show anyway. (Christopher Campbell)
45. Demolition
Release Date: April 8
The Pitch: Jean-Marc Vallée has been on an incredible run over the last 3 years. In 2011, he delivered Dallas Buyers Club and earned an Oscar nomination for editing. In 2013, he helmed the Reese Witherspoon soul searching drama Wild. In 2015, he took his new film Demolition to the Toronto Film Festival where it earned some praise from critics. The film tells the story of an investment banker (Jake Gyllenhaal) who struggles to deal with the loss of his wife in a car crash. Any movie that combines the eye of Vallée with talents like Gyllenhaal and his co-star Naomi Watts should be a film that deserves our attention. (Neil Miller)
44. The Accountant
Release Date: October 7
The Pitch: It feels like it’s been a few years since we spent any real time with “Ben Affleck, Actor”. Sure, we’ve spent months with “Ben Affleck, Husband” courtesy of the tabloids and the highly visible dissolution of his marriage. And sure, we’ve had plenty of time to check out “Ben Affleck, Human Action Figure” with the new publicity stills and trailers for the Batman V. Superman movie. Hell, we’ve even gotten used to “Ben Affleck, Prestige Filmmaker” thanks to Argo and the latest season of Project Greenlight. But “Ben Affleck, Actor”? Someone who reads a script, likes the character he is being offered, and does his best to play said character in an engaging and exciting way? We can’t think of a better way to get reacquainted than with a thriller about a professional killer. (Matthew Monagle)
43. Everybody Wants Some
Release Date: April 15
The Pitch: In March, Richard Linklater will bring his spiritual sequel to Dazed and Confused back to Austin to kick off the South by Southwest Film Festival. About a month later, audiences around the country will have the opportunity to go back to the 1980s with one of film’s preeminent purveyors of Americana. This time it’s the story of a group of college baseball players who have recently become unburdened of supervision and make their way through the highs and lows of early adulthood. It’s not quite as ambitious as Boyhood, but Linklater’s comfort zone is riding around in cars with the good ole’ boys, so this should be a lot of fun. (Neil Miller)
Watch the Trailer
42. Zootopia
Release Date: March 4
The Pitch: If the rest of this movie is as good as the sloth-scene teaser currently killing it in theaters, we could be getting the best non-Pixar animated feature from Disney in decades. Or at least the funniest, which would make sense coming from the union of directors Byron Howard (Bolt) and Rich Moore (Wreck-It Ralph). Set in a metropolis populated by anthropomorphic mammals, the buddy cop comedy looks like the big-screen Richard Scarry movie we’ve never gotten. Zootopia stars the voices of Jason Bateman and Ginnifer Goodwin as a con artist fox teamed up with a by-the-books police officer bunny for a missing person — er, missing otter — case. (Christopher Campbell)
Watch the Trailer
41. The Free State of Jones
Release Date: March 11
The Pitch: Matthew McConaughey plays a southern farmer named Newt Knight who, during the Civil War, teams up with a group of slaves to lead a rebellion against the Confederate Army. Aside from the fact that some of the puns just write themselves for this one (“Alright, alright, all Knight” or “Alright, alright, White Knight”), there’s also a great deal of prestige behind this pic. It’s written and directed by Seabiscuit and The Hunger Games director Gary Ross and it will co-star the rising talent of Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Also, Kerri Russell. This isn’t likely to be a charming McConaughey romp, but rather a dark, thoughtful movie about a small area of the deep south that stood up against the ugliness of the slave-owning states that surrounded it. Most importantly, the McConnaisance continues. (Neil Miller)
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