Aaron’s Top Ten Films of Summer 2016 & More
September 8th, 2016 by Aaron Neuwirth
The summer of 2016 was a weird one. While there was plenty of anticipation for potential big hits, more than a few of the supposed blockbusters ended up underwhelming. Some of the expected hits delivered as well, but there was plenty of disappointment among the big hits. As usual though, many of the smaller films and arthouse fair ended up being the most satisfying. Now it is time to take a look back at what the summer had to offer and which films stood the highest (and the lowest). Of course, feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments as well!
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The fourth episode of the Why So Blu? Podcast is now live and ready to be heard. Topics for this discussion include a very Spoilerific look at the recent release The Invitation, some discussion about the new trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and a few nods toward upcoming blu-ray reviews. If you haven’t already, find a way to watch The Invitation and listen to these WSBers talk about it.
A few of the contributors here at Why So Blu? have put together a Podcast. Here is a link to the second episode. In it we discuss the new Ghostbusters trailer, give some thoughts about the upcoming film Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, pontificate on the merits of some recently released blu-rays, expound upon the upcoming release of the blu-ray for Roots, examine some new comic book releases, and confabulate about Joseph Gordon-Levitt exiting the Sandman adaptation. 
I remember it like it was only a few years ago. It was 1982 and for my fifth birthday I received the Masters of the Universe figure that I was hoping for; Stratos. The jetpack-strapped, goggle-wearing birdman delighted my little childhood mind like only a He-Man figure could, as he would enter the foray in the imaginative fight against Skeletor and his evil minions. As time went on and I grew older, it was through some parental encouragement that had me peddling my collection at garage sales over time. Three words. Oh, the regret. Though I’ve long since outgrown the cartoon and playtime with these figures, it almost feels as if this band of unique heroes and villains have been lost to toy history. That is until now when a team of veteran filmmakers seek to bring all this nostalgia back into our lives.
There are two small, but deeply touching moments in Star Wars: The Force Awakens that played the right note on my sense of nostalgia and simultaneously confirmed the true feeling of humanity that was restored to the Star Wars franchise in 2015. I will discuss both of the moments below, but first I want to give a shout out to Shohan Cagle for detailing fairly precisely the same reasons that Inside Out would have been the movie I wrote about in this column if I didn’t choose the one I did. Please go check out 
I’m a bagpiper. Yeah I know, what the heck does that have to do with comic books, right? Bear with me as there’s a point to this. In the bagpiper community, we have a running joke as to how the rest of the world views our music. It goes something like this, “There are three tunes played on the bagpipes; Scotland the Brave, Amazing Grace and everything else.” That stereotype likely came about due to how so many tunes sound alike on the instrument. The same can be said of comic book publishers to the layman. There are three names in the comic book publishing world; Marvel, DC and everyone else. However, that ‘everyone else’ group puts out some of the most incredible stories in the genre.
2015 was a great year for movies and it seems that most of them, or at least most of the good ones, are saved for December. I was busy catching up on films right up until New Year’s Eve. I may be a week late but better late than never when it comes to film. This list is technically my “Top 11 or 12” but I could have made it bigger but then that wouldn’t be efficient. There are quite a few surprises in store, as well. In any event – I give you my favorite films of 2015! 
This year I probably got to see the least amount of films I wanted to at the theater. Such is the case with a full schedule of work, school and an Irish dance show. So what did the year bring us? We got revisits from popular franchises like Mission Impossible and Avengers, though for only the second in the series, Avengers: Age of Ultron felt tired and rather boring. Meanwhile, Tom Cruise keeps chugging away putting out better spy films than the famed Bond series. As for the bottom feeders, although I did miss out on the often criticized Fantastic Four reboot, I do have plenty to talk about as far as the duds that hit cinemas this past year. Without further fluff and rambling dialogue, I give you my best and worst of 2015.
Welcome to my version of the Top 10 Films Of 2015! No matter the year, whether it be considered a “good” or “bad” one, I still find it hard to whittle the thing down to 10. Last year I skewed it a bit, going for cute with 14 films in 2014. This year, tough as some of the cuts were, I was able to get it down to 10. The year had some very emotional highs for me, and every one of the films on the list grasped at me in some certain way. They left me with some good thought or appreciation while others exhilarated and had me very amped up after seeing them. With 2015, the typical Oscar bait didn’t really impress me too much and I’ve also decided I’m going with my gut and the films I’m going to revisit most after this year. Those really are the ones that are “best” to me. I look back at my previous Top 10s lists and there are ones I haven’t even touched since making the list. I’ve given up doing a Worst films list for my own reasons, but if you’re wondering The Human Centipede 3 was the worst film I saw this year and the worst film I saw at the theater was Terminator: Genisys (And yes, I did see Fantastic Four. But is it worth arguing which of those is more awful?). Now, onto my picks! 
The Why So Blu top Blu-rays of 2015 wheel has spun and landed on me. Once again, I’m honored to close this out and go last. 2015 was a game-changer year for me with Blu-ray personally. For years, my colleague Gerard has been nagging at me to get a region-free player. I would complain about awesome UK releases and such that would be locked and I couldn’t get them. He would have such sage words of advice like “If you’re complaining and not going region-free, then you’re part of the problem.” Or “You know a solution to this, its nobody’s fault but your own.” So, for my birthday (and to start the year, its in January) my amazing wife got me a region-free mod’ed player. Life has not been the same since. It unlocked a whole new crazy world of awesome editions and more independent distributors. My wallet has also shrunk in size too, haha. If you’re a film fan or collector, I highly recommend doing this. With this new aspect and more releases coming my way, I’m expanding my list of 20 to 25 this year. Most of all, thanks to Gerard for getting me to go region-free. 
Its been another wonderful year in the world of Blu-ray with a good chunk of titles coming off my wishlist and into my Blu-ray collection. In the past year I retired the somewhat weekly rendition of this column in favor of it being annual. It would have been nice to keep the weekly one going, but honestly, I just don’t have the time anymore to devote to it. If you follow my work, you’ll know this site keeps me very busy as has my blog and my new podcast (
