Dr. Strange is a big leap forward for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in terms of special effects. MCU movies’ special effects tend to be adequate, generally fine but occasionally a little cheap looking. That is not the case in Dr. Strange. While it makes no effort to differentiate itself from other superhero movies in terms of plot or characters, it does raise the bar with its trippy and impressive special effects.

On the surface there is a lot to like about Dr. Strange. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Stephen Strange, a talented but arrogant neuro-surgeon. After a car accident destroys his use of his hands, he becomes obsessive about finding a way to repair the damage. That leads him to Kathmandu, where he is initiated into training in the mystical arts. It is essentially the same story that Marvel showed us in Iron Man. And in Thor. And in Ant-Man. Dr. Strange is the same as all the other Marvel heroes, and his story is the same. Like the rest of those movies, it plays out the same sort of origin story, hitting all the same beats in essentially the same order. Unlike Ant-Man or Iron Man, though, Dr. Strange’s attempts at humor generally fall flat. The best gag is with his cloak of levitation, which acts much like Aladdin’s flying carpet with a mind of its own, only the movie keeps going back to it with consistently diminishing returns.

There is a slew of potentially interesting secondary characters, all played by talented performers who are given absolutely nothing to do. The worst is Rachel McAdams as a completely empty love interest of sorts. Her character, Christine, has nothing to do but be the target of Strange’s “wit.” Tilda Swinton’s role as The Ancient One should have made the movie, but even she can’t make something from nothing this time. While she supposedly plays Strange’s teacher and mentor, the movie doesn’t give enough examples of her teaching to make any later revelations have any impact. The only character that actually feels like a character is Mordo, who acts as the Ancient One’s second in command and actually does more training with Strange than anyone else. Like the rest of the details of Kamar-Taj, what exactly is Mordo’s deal is never exactly clear, but it is clearer than anyone else’s.

While the characters and story are largely flat, the visuals make up for it. While the movie spends a lot of time using very normal portrayals of magic, glowing flaming lines and symbols that are as unnecessary as they are uninteresting, the way the movie shows the various characters warping reality is stunning. Dr. Strange takes the folding city bits from Inception and bumps them up to 11. During one of the big fight scenes they turn the entirety of New York City into essentially a 3D kaleidoscope. It is stunning, unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a movie before. The special effects are consistently jaw-droppingly excellent.

Dr. Strange ends up being kind of a mixed bag. The story provides absolutely nothing new, not even on the level of Ant-Man’s turning the hero into a petty crook. This is the same super hero origin movie we’ve seen a dozen times before. It is not a badly done rendition of the story, but it feels really tired. However, the special effects are enough to keep someone watching. It left me constantly wanting to like it more, even as I grew bored of its characters and plot. It has such a great cast and a hook that I am a sucker for, but it only brings a visual pop to the table.

***1/2

The Accountant sets a lot of plots going, but doesn’t manage to pull them together into a satisfying whole. There is a lot to like here, not the least of which is Ben Affleck’s autistic protagonist. While many of the films elements are worthwhile, the puzzle pieces don’t all fit together. Still, it features some moderately satisfying action and a lot of entertaining performances giving entertain performances.

Affleck stars as Christian Wolff – one of many aliases – an accountant for organized crime and warlords, anyone who can’t just call up the usual CPA to help with the books. For once he takes a supposedly normal job, finding missing money for a robotics company. A discrepancy was found by a young accountant, played by Anna Kendrick, so they call in Wolff. While he quickly finds what appears to be the source of the missing money, the thief turns up dead and the business owner (John Lithgow) wishes the matter dropped. Wolff is unwilling to drop it, and things go south from there. Interspersed with this are scenes with Treasury agents tracking the mysterious accountant and scenes with a charming heavy; as well as scenes showing Wolff’s experiences growing up with his harsh father and younger brother.

While most of the actors give fine performances, notably Jon Berenthal as the charming mercenary, this is Affleck’s movie. He makes his character’s autism obvious, without turning it into full Rain Man shtick or making it seem like a superpower. He is blunt in his personal interactions, furtively avoiding eye contact and speaking flatly and plainly, with none of the small talk to make things move easy. It is clearly a performance designed to take his condition seriously.

Honestly, I might have liked the movie more if it had completely eschewed the action. The scenes with Affleck doing his work and spending time with Anna Kendrick are charming, if brief. The action is actually fine, whether it is Affleck’s complete efficiency or Berenthal’s more conversational tone. Affleck’s character had been trained by his strict and not especially likeable father, to master his body, giving him skills that he can use when his communication skills break down.

The only scenes that really don’t work are the ones with the Treasury Agents investigating his activities. Despite JK Simmons’ best efforts, those scenes don’t amount to much. Partly because they are too far behind the whole movie, slowly unraveling the Accountant’s methods and origin while the more immediate story is happening. It mostly amounts to the younger agent watching videos on her computer and relating that to Simmons’ character.

Then there are the various third act revelations that should tie everything together. They really don’t. Some of them are obvious, some are preposterous. It turns the ending into something of an anti-climax, since the movie’s humanity gets in the way of the usual structure. I liked one big departure; it made the end of the movie something completely different even if the whole thing didn’t quite work. The Accountant is a movie with too many plot threads to adequately service all of them, so it ends up feeling a little bloated and unfinished, though completely enjoyable.

***1/2

A new Christopher Guest movie, another mockumentary at that, is certainly cause for celebration. It has been more than a decade since the last Guest movie and even longer since he has done a mockumentary. After the trio of Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, any Guest mockumentary would be worth watching. Mascots is good, giving viewers more of what his earlier movies delivered. The problem with it, though, is that it doesn’t deliver anything more nor does it do anything better than those previous films. It is new Guest, but it is not the best Guest.

Many of his usual players return for this one. The cast is filled with the likes of Jane Lynch, Ed Begley Jr., Fred Willard and Parker Posey. They all give fun performances, crafting characters in some small parts. Then there are the new additions, like Chris O’Dowd and Zach Woods who do a lot of the heavy lifting. Tom Bennett, who was amazing earlier this year in Love & Friendship, plays the closest thing this film has to a straight man and still manages to stand out in this excellent cast.

The set up for Mascots is nearly identical to that of Best in Show; an eclectic group of contestants vie to excel in a competition that really only matters to them. This movie is about sports mascots fighting to win a Fluffie award from an awards show that if things go well it might just be televised next year. In mock interviews they unwittingly reveal who they are. There is the sad sack (Peter Moynihan) and the bad boy. There is Posey’s Cindi Babineaux, an altogether too earnest Southern Belle with a makeshift armadillo costume and an off putting modern dance routine. There are the Murray’s (Woods and Sarah Baker) a married team of mascots that clearly hate each other. It is frequently chuckle worthy, but rarely inspiring full laughs.

What the movie is missing from Mascots that Guest’s earlier work had is affection. It is the same sort of collection of obsessed weirdos, but they were still human. Harlan Pepper from Best in Show was strange and obsessive, but in a way that is relatable to anyone with a hobby they love. In that same movie, Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara played a dorky married couple, but there was heart behind their eccentricities. I think the lack of those two regular Guest players, Levy and O’Hara, is why this movie doesn’t quite stack up with previous efforts. The heart just isn’t there. This is just watching sad people flail sadly.

There is still a lot to like about the movie. The routines at the end are enjoyable, as are many of the little off the cuff conversations that crop up in various scenes. It can’t quite escape the feeling of being a greatest hits album of a movie. It has all the things you want to see in this sort of movie, but doesn’t have anything new to offer. While it will be hard to displace the best of his movies, Christopher Guest and company doing their thing at even this level is very welcome.

***1/2

This was originally supposed to be posted when I was doing my rankings of all of Disney’s animated features, but I put it aside for reasons I can’t remember. I honestly remembered posting it, but it seems that I didn’t. I had two versions of this list on my harddrive, one that covered just the films directed by Hayao Miyazaki and one that was all of Studio Ghibli’s output. Since I have seen all of Miyazaki’s films but still have a couple other Ghibli movies to see, I’ve decided to just post this Miyazaki list. It was a hard list to make since there isn’t a Miyazaki movie I don’t like. So here they are, all of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies ranked from least best to most best.

11) Ponyo – It feels odd to call Ponyo the worst anything. This is a fine movie, I just think Miyazaki has done a lot of the stuff he did in this movie better in other films, like Spirited Away or My Neighbor Totoro.

10) Howl’s Moving Castle – This may have the lest compelling central plot of any of his films, but it also has some very well realized characters and some truly astounding sequences, but it doesn’t come together with quite the force of some of the other films on this list.

9) Nausicaa – This is an amazing film in terms of scope and imagination, but it feels like there are big chunks of story hacked out of it. It is a movie that feels like it is trying to do a little too much.

8) Spirited Away – Endlessly charming and visually amazing; I don’t know that I have anything else to say. Spirited Away is great.

7) My Neighbor Totoro – A low key, heartfelt film that is just perfect at being what it sets out to be.

6) Princess Mononoke – Easily his most epic, this is also Miyazaki’s most labored. It is epic and amazing at times, but can also be heavy handed.

5) Castle of Cagliostro – This is likely to be the shocker, a personal favorite of mine that is objectively one of Miyazaki’s weaker films. Still, for just sheer fun and excitement I don’t know that there is a movie on this list that surpasses it. It is a delightful, if slight, romp.

4) The Wind Rises – While this is based on a historical figure, it also feels like one of Miyazaki’s most personal films. It still has many of his prominent themes, like an anti-war message and inventive flying machines, but it also feels like an artist looking back on his work and wondering about his legacy. Just excellent.

3) Kiki’s Delivery Service – My favorite of his young girl comes of age movies. It is just so charming.

2) Laputa: Castle in the Sky – This feels like a refinement of Nausicaa. It is the last and best of Miyazaki’s early action movies and is just an endlessly rewatchable delight. It is also directly or indirectly the inspiration of nearly all of my favorite video games, which I guess means something.

1) Porco Rosso – This movie is it. It has a perfect melancholic story, with Porco’s survivor’s guilt keeping him from moving on with this life and dealing with the rise of fascism in Europe. It has some gorgeous flying sequences and vistas. Every character manages to feel bully formed and like the movie is holding something back about them. I really just love every part of this movie

This remake of a great movie that itself was a remake of an all-time great movie is not in the same league as its predecessors. It doesn’t seem likely to be remembered this time next year, let alone in a decade or two. Still, it delivers enough on its premise and its stars are charismatic enough to carry it through.

The plot of this film is likely known to everyone considering heading to the cinema to see it. An impoverished town is menaced by a bandit, so they take all that they have to hire some fighters to save them from this menace. This changes some things up from the original Magnificent Seven, such as the bandit actually being an unscrupulous robber baron. Other than that, though, it plays out just as you’d expect.

There have been changes to the make-up of the heroes. This Magnificent Seven unobtrusively features a diverse cast of gunslingers. Denzel Washington plays Sam Chisolm, the first of the gunmen recruited by Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett). He is soon joined by Chris Pratt’s Faraday, a gambling, drunken trickster, as well as duo played by Ethan Hawke and Byung-hun Lee. They are soon joined by a Mexican outlaw, an mountain man and a lone Comanche. Each gun fighters has their role and quirks and while none are particularly well-developed as characters they do work as delivery methods for the shoot outs. While Denzel is Denzel, Chris Pratt does his “Harrison Ford, but goofier” thing and Ethan Hawke creates as tortured soul in his character, the most entertaining is Vincent D’Onofrio as the mountain man Jack Horne. He rumbles around scenes, using his size and power in a fight while reciting Bible verses in his high pitched wheeze of a voice. It is always unexpected and amusing.

The Magnificent Seven nails a tone that is serious without being too heavy and humorous without being too light. That is apparent in its two leads, Washington and Pratt. Pratt brings the same energy he had in Jurassic World and Guardians and the Galaxy. That contrasts but doesn’t clash with the more somber Washington who is a deadly serious man on a mission. The rest fit in somewhere between those two, often managing to do a little of both. The villain, played by Peter Sarsgaard, is given too much time for it to be okay for him to be as vague as he is. He believes he has the God given right to take what he wants, but he is given no real motivation.

There are some great shots of western scenery, and the shoot outs are largely intelligible if not especially impressive. It is a movie that is competently made, but not flashy or especially memorable.

The Magnificent Seven is an unusual specimen these days, a straight western. There is no twist to it; it is just a shoot up between obvious bad guys and obvious good guys. That simplicity is one of the films greatest strengths. It is a simple tale told well, with a cast that is worth coming to see. It will likely be little remembered, though it will be remembered fondly.

***

While everyone involved does a good job, Sully is a movie trying to do too much with too little. The scenes of the crash, ahem, forced water landing are exhilarating. As long as it is about the plane and its abbreviated flight the movie astonishes. But that takes all of four minutes. The rescue afterward, in real time, took another twenty five. That gives the movie about thirty downright excellent, dramatic minutes. Unfortunately, Sully sort of flails to fill the other hour of its run time.

Chelsey Sullenberger, as played by Tom Hanks, is a quietly competent man. Hanks brings his usual warmth to the role, making Sully really feel like a man who was just doing his job even if he was doing it extremely well. The movie shows him plagued by doubts about his decision to land the plane in the Hudson, especially after the investigators contend that he could have returned to the runway, and shows him uncomfortable with all of the media attention, but that is rather thin gruel as far as drama goes. The recurring nightmares of the plane crashing in the city, with echoes of the 9/11 attacks, are visually effective at first, but soon overkill that exist just to keep the potential tragedy in mind.

Those four minutes of flight and forced landing are played over and again, from many perspectives. Each time it is enthralling, even though the viewer knows how things turn out. This is a movie about a tragedy that wasn’t; where everyone comes together and saves the day. It is heartwarming, but since the film starts after everyone has been saved it isn’t as dramatic as it could have been. The film occasionally tries to build up stuff around that, giving some lip service to introducing the passengers and giving Sully some things at home to worry about, but those don’t amount to much in the grand scheme.

The main conflict comes from the NTSB investigation, who suggests that Sully could have gotten the plane back to LaGuardia. Eastwood sets them up as comically combative with Sully and Skiles, the co-pilot, seemingly determined to prove that the crash was due to pilot error. That sparks lingering doubt in Sully’s mind, even as everyone continues to treat him as a hero. At least it does until he figures out why the simulations are wrong.

Other than Hanks as Sully, the rest of the cast is also solid. Aaron Eckhart is delightful as the somewhat more boisterous copilot, eager to step up and give the retorts that Sully isn’t interested in. Sam Huntington has a few great moments as the Air Traffic Controller trying to lead them back to a runway, who is despondent after Sully says they are going into the river.

Again, the crash and rescue are amazing bits of filmmaking, but the investigation stuff seems to be there to pad the movie out to its full length and to give voice to some off putting anti-intellectualism. There are hints of a how dare they attitude when it comes to questioning this movies hero, even if they are just doing their job in trying to determine why an airplane ended up in the river. Still, Sully manages to tell its story in an economical ninety or so minutes. When it’s good, Sully is very very good and when it isn’t good, it still really isn’t bad. It is worth seeing just for Tom Hanks or Eckhart’s mustache.

****

In my summer movie preview I included April movies, so I guess I will include them in my wrap-up as well. I don’t think I’ll be seeing any more films this summer. That puts me at more than a dozen movies seen this summer, which is the most since I’ve started doing this blog. I would also say that this is the worst summer for movies in that time frame. Really, this summer was filled with disappointments, even in the movies that made the top half of this list. The best I can say about most of these movies is that they were vaguely enjoyable.

13: Warcraft – This spot was the easiest one to fill. I didn’t see a more dreadfully boring movie this summer than Warcraft. It had that special combination of dullness and stupidity that made it almost completely unwatchable.

12: The Jungle Book – I think most people would rank this one higher, but I found it to be a flat retelling of a well-known story. What they achieved with the visual effects does not make for an interesting movie.

11: The BFG – I saw no bigger disappointment this year than The BFG. I love Spielberg, but much like the Jungle Book this movie mistook visual effects for storytelling. I guess the flatulent antics might entertain some kids, but it just doesn’t work as a movie.

10: X-Men Apocalypse – You’ve seen this movie before and better. It moves another step toward bringing in all the fun comic book stuff, but it does it in service to the same Xavier, Magneto and Mystique story that we’ve seen in the last two movies. The promising new crop of mutants is largely irrelevant. I might be being too hard on this one, but it left a bad taste.

9: The Huntsman: Winter’s War – Like its predecessor, this movie feels like a bit of a throwback to the fantasy movies of the 80’s that I grew up with. SO despite it having three great actresses and no clue what to do with them, I was amused by this adventure. It lacks any real spark, but it was fun enough.

8: Central Intelligence – This was one of the few pleasant surprises this summer. It wasn’t great or anything, but both The Rock and Kevin Hart are funny and the disparity in their sizes is inherently funny.

7: Legend of Tarzan – I don’t know why Warner Bros spent so much money on a Tarzan movie, but I am kind of glad they did. It is trapped between the pulpy fun of Tarzan and the somewhat more serious movie it wants to be, but what it is is largely really enjoyable.

6: Finding Dory – I know I should slide this one up, it is objectively a well-made film. I just don’t like it that much. I never really cottoned to Finding Nemo, and this is just more of the same. I am a big sucker for Pixar movies, but the Nemo movies are among my least favorites. Still, I’m happy for its success.

5: Suicide Squad – I know I should slide this one back; it is objectively a mess. But I find something about it oddly compelling. I like Will Smith and Margot Robbie. Once the movie gets out of the blender that is the first half hour I think it really finds its footing.

4: Ghostbusters – Some of the highest highs this summer were in this movie, but is an uneven experience. I loved Kate McKinnon’s Holtzmann and the movie was largely very funny, but it felt kind of flabby. A little too much letting the characters do something funny and little too little story. Still, I it was mostly a good time.

3: Kubo and the Two Strings – Beautiful and touching, this movie was everything I hoped it could be. Laika usually does good work, though generally in stuff with a horror theme that leaves me cold. This is simply wonderful

2: Captain America: Civil War – The first real movie of the summer was for the bulk of the season the best. It avoided most of the bloat of Age of Ultron and was only deliberately unsatisfying. For all that it felt like the Marvel side of the movie taking over the Captain America part, the whole remained satisfying.

1: Star Trek Beyond – This movie did an excellent job of washing away increasingly unpalatable taste of its predecessor, going somewhat smaller than other recent Star Trek movies, but doing a better job of capturing that classic Star Trek feeling.

So what is on the docket for the rest of the year? Not much, really. There are a few things that look really interesting, but while the stuff coming is almost certainly to be better than the summer fare, it is also much harder to judge from a distance. Still, after trolling through the coming soon stuff on boxofficemojo, I have found quite a few movies that are at least interesting over the rest of 2016.

September

• Sully – Clint Eastwood may be an angry old coot, but he hasn’t forgotten how to make a fine film. This one isn’t high on my list, but you can’t just dismiss Eastwood.
• Magnificent 7 – A remake of the Magnificent 7 with a really great cast. I’ve been burned by this several times this year, but the trailer was great.
• Masterminds – An oft delayed comedy with a stellar cast. I’ll wait on the reviews, but I have some hopes.

October

• The Accountant – Some kind of action thriller starring Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick. I like the cast and concept.
• Jack Reacher: Never Go Back – There was no Tom Cruise this summer, but hopefully this will make up for it. The first Jack Reacher was fine.

November

• Doctor Strange – Marvel’s second outing this year. As much as I like Cumberbatch, this just looks like another Marvel movie. Which isn’t really a bad thing.
• Arrival – A sci fi movie starring Amy Adams. The trailer made it look really great.
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – A return to the world of Harry Potter. That is enough to get me to the theater.
• Moana – Another Disney animated movie, this one set in the South Pacific. They’ve been on a hot streak lately.

December

• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – A Star Wars movie a year for the rest of your life. If it is half as good as The Force Awakens it will be great.
• Assassin’s Creed – One the one hand, judging by Warcraft video game movies are still terrible and Assassin’s Creed is nonsense at best, but Fassbender’s great.

That is what I am paying attention to for the rest of the year. I am sure there is more coming out that looks good, please tell me if there is anything noteworthy that I missed. Hopefully there are enough hits to make up for how bad that summer was.

Kubo and the Two Strings is Laika’s best film to date. It eschews the horror theme of their previous films for more of a fairy tale and it completely enchanting. Kubo doesn’t do anything particularly special with the broad strokes; a young boy goes on a quest, but it combines absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful animation with some rather heartfelt moments of love and loss. It is easily the best animated film of the year and one of the best movies of the summer.

The movie starts with young one-eyed Kubo caring for his near catatonic mother and putting on a show in the small town where he lives that combines origami with music and magic. He tells a story of a brave samurai who must retrieve three treasures but he always stops before the ending in order to get back home before nightfall. His mother has a few moments of lucidity as the moon first comes out, telling Kubo stories of his heroic samurai father before drifting back into nothingness. Her admonishments to avoid being out at night are quickly discarded, bringing his aunts along to try to steal his other eye. That sets in motion Kubo’s own quest aided only by a monkey, an origami samurai and a beetle man.

Kubo’s quest to retrieve a magical sword, armor and helmet lead him through the movies astonishing set pieces. They fight a giant skeleton with numerous swords protruding from its skull and a horde of hypnotic submarine eyeballs; all while being hounded by his unearthly witch aunts. Along the way, Kubo learns more about his family and what happened to parents. Eventually, Kubo is forced to confront his eye stealing grandfather, the Moon King. Each location and encounter is amazing. Laika has really outdone themselves this time, with the sweeping scope of some of the epic fights.

The story, the emotional details of which are being purposefully omitted, is carried by a strong voice cast. Charlize Theron voices Monkey, whose stern no-nonsense outlook keeps the ragtag group on task. On the opposite side is Matthew McConaughey as Beetle, who is a charmingly forgetful goofball that adds some fun to the serious proceedings. Art Parkinson plays Kubo with a convincing mix of enthusiasm and longing. However, if there is one place the movie falters, it is in the forced humor of some the Beetle and Monkey scenes. They work from a character standpoint, but the humor falls woefully flat. That is no fault of the voice actors, merely a failing in the dialogue. The rest of the cast, from Ralph Fiennes to George Takei, does good work as well.

What Laika has done in animating this is breathtaking. It is impossible to overstate how good this movie looks. Not that their previous efforts, employing the same eerie stop-motion techniques, were lacking but Kubo and the Two Strings scales things up to epic heights. The most impressive scene is likely the sword fight between one of the Aunts and Monkey on a ship made of fallen leaves as it breaks apart in a rain storm. Or maybe it is the fight against the giant, fire-eyed skeleton. Or maybe the climactic show down. Just as effective are the smaller moments, like Kubo brushing his inert mother’s hair out of her eyes.

Kubo and the Two Strings is a delight in every way. It looks great and all of the emotional moments hit. I have complained repeatedly about how disappointing the movies this summer have been but at least the season is going out on a high note.

****1/2