I do not usually get to see a lot of documentaries.  In fact, I have only seen a handful of documentaries this year.  In fact, over the last 48 hours, I beefed up the resume of docs seen thanks to Netflix, iTunes, Hulu and YouTube.

I do wish I could see more, but the only documentaries that tend to come to the theaters near me are the ones like Hillary’s Evil World and How She Plans to Destroy It.  Okay, that wasn’t the actually title of that film, but I did not see it.  Those types of political hack jobs by people like Dinesh D’Souza do not interest me.  I want to see a real documentarian.

I have a Top Ten list for Documentaries that I have seen in 2016.

#10.  Team Foxcatcher.  This was the real life story behind the film Foxcatcher.  The story of millionaire John E. DuPont and his building of a wrestling group he called Foxcatcher and the tragic end to the story.

#9.  Amanda Knox.  This was the amazing story of an American living in Italy who gets blamed, arrested and convicted of the brutal murder of her roommate.  However, the evidence is not compelling and “Foxy Knoxy” has to go through the Italian court system for years.

#8.  Michael Moore in Trumpland.  This was an interesting evening with filmmaker Michael Moore as he held a show in the heart of “Trump country” trying to convince Trump supporters that Hillary Clinton was the better choice.

#7.  Audrie & Daisy.  This documentary tells the stories of two underage females who had been sexually assaulted and how the community and the schools reacted to the girls.  This was very emotional and the sheriff from Maryville dealing with Daisy’s assault is one of the worst figures I have seen on film this year.

#6.  Beatles: Eight Days a Week. Ron Howard’s love letter to the tour of the Beatles across the USA.  There was very little conflict within this documentary, but the music is always great.

#5.  Gleason.  This was the sad but inspirational story of former NFL football player Steve Gleason who was diagnosed with ALS.  Watching the disease slowly eat away at Steve and seeing how it affected his wife and his father was heart breaking. And yet, he continues to fight to this day.

#4.  13th.  Director Ava DuVernay looks at racial strife and inequality in America and how the overcrowding in American prisons is one more symptom of the racial imbalance in our country.  The stats revealed in 13th are mind blowing.

#3.  The Resurrection of Jake the Snake.  A film focusing on former professional wrestler Jake Roberts and his attempt to get clean and sober.  Roberts got involved with Dallas Page and his DDP Yoga and credits that with saving his life.

#2.  Weiner.  This documentary followed around Anthony Weiner, former congressman who resigned in disgrace after he had sexted pictures of his penis to women.  Weiner decided to try to run for Mayor of New York, and this documentary followed him through that ill-fated campaign as the scandal returned.

#1.  Tickled.  This is easily the best documentary I saw this year, and it will be making my top movies list, somewhere.  Who thought that a fluff story for a New Zealand news program involving “competitive tickling” would devolve into a dark and sordid tale of harassment and online threats and cyberbullying?  There are things that happen in this film that you can not believe.

There are several disappointments from this year.  A disappointment does not have to be a terrible movie… just one that should have been so much better.

Previous “winners” of this award included:  In the Heart of the Sea, Amazing Spider-man 2, After Earth, Dark Knight Rises, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.

Here are the runners-up to this year’s Spider-Man 3 Award.

#10.  Batman: Killing Joke.  I liked this film overall, but the first half was just terrible.  They added material in order to stretch the film out longer, but what they added… ugh.  It was very disappointing.

#9.  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  I went into this looking forward to a new entry in the Harry Potter-universe and I came out thinking how “eh” this could be.  Fantastic Beasts was okay, but nowhere near worthy of the Potter world.

#8.  Sausage Party.  It had its share of laughs, but there are only so many “f-words” and sex jokes that you can handle.  And it may have had some laughs, but it was not enough to really overcome the disappointments of the movie.

#7.  The Accountant.  A lot of people liked this film, but to me, it was pretty dull and needed to be considerably better. I was really looking forward to this film and found it a serious disappointment.

#6.  Assassin’s Creed.  I was not looking forward to this, but there were tons of people who had placed their hopes that this would finally be the movie to be made from an existing video game and be good.  It is one of the worst films of the year.

#5.  X-Men: Apocalypse.  Quite a step back from Days of Future Past.  Apocalypse was a waste of what should have been an epic villain.  The 4 Horsemen was tossed away.  The finale was not what it should have been.

#4.  The BFG.  Steven Spielberg creating a film from a property of Roald Dahl.  How could this be a miss?  You make it dull and boring.

#3.  Hail Caeser.  I had looked forward to this film for awhile.  The new Coen Brothers film was not as funny as I had hoped, and was pretty dull.

#2.  Independence Day: Resurgence.  How can you be disappointed with the sequel of one of the great summer action movies of all time?  You make a overall rotten film that spoils what you remember of the original.

And the “winner” of the Spider-Man 3 Disappointment of the Year is….

#1.  Batman v. Superman

This was the easy choice.  Batman v. Superman should have been the greatest super hero film of all time.  It had the first appearance together of the two biggest icons of the super hero world as well as the first arrival of Wonder Woman.  And yet, there was so much wrong with the film.  From Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor to “Martha!”, B v S was the biggest disappointment of the year.

Here’s hoping that 2017 does not see The Justice League on this list.

Whereas 2015 was the year of the “spy” movie, I do not think there is any doubt that 2016 is the year of the Horror movie.  The horror genre had a fantastic year, with multiple movies that told interesting stories with great characters.  There was a lot of originality in a genre that was in desperate need of it.  The best horror movies avoided the nonsensical jump scare and concentrated on scaring us in other ways.

Not that there still weren’t bad movies in the horror genre.  Of course there was, but this year just seemed to make fewer bad films and much better good ones.

Now, let me state this.  There are two movies that could be considered horror movies.  I have seen others list these as horror, but I am going to disqualify them from the list and just mention them here.  These two films are 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Shallows.  I really enjoyed both of these (10 Cloverfield Lane for sure will be making the big list), but they are borderline horror movie.  And with as many great one available this year, I am taking them out of the running.

What follows is the top ten list of horror movies this year.

Top Ten Best

Honorable Mention:  The Witch ( I didn’t like this as much as many others did), and The Forest. 

#10.  The Boy.  This one I thought was going to be horrible, but turned out to be entertaining enough for what it was.  I enjoyed Lauren Cohen’s performance.

#9.  Blair Witch.  The surprise sequel announced at Comic Con was good, but too familiar.  Still, this was loads better than the previous Blair Witch sequel and had many frighteningly chilling moments.  I also relaly liked the time loop idea that I wished they had done more with.

#8.  I Am Not A Serial Killer.    Saw this recently on Netflix and it was a deceptively fun performance from Doc Brown himself, Christopher Lloyd.  A monster movie and a love story all combined into one.

#7.  The Autopsy of Jane Doe.  Another one I just saw recently, I really enjoyed this. It felt like a mystery story and a procedural as well as a tense horror story.  This had a great set up and basically became a haunted house in a morgue situation.  Brian Cox was great as well.

#6.  Green Room.  Great work from Patrick Stewart and the dearly departed Anton Yelchin.  Green Room was hard to watch, made you squirm, and filled you with emotion as these characters got picked off one after another.  It was a slasher film in a year without too many.  It also show us how much of a tragic loss it was with the accidental death of Yelchin this year.

#5.  Conjuring 2.  The return of the Warrens in another story of demonic possession.  This time the Warrens travel to England to deal with a little girl who may or may not be faking this possession.  This was an enjoyable sequel with one of the best uses of music of the year as Ed Warren sang Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You.”  I loved that scene.

#4.  Ouija: Origin of Evil.  There was no way this was going to be good.  It had a horrible trailer and was a sequel to a horrible movie.  And yet, this was great!  They focused on the characters and there were several really good performances.  Amazing.

#3.  Hush.  Another Netflix film, Hush was the home invasion film taken to a new level. It turned out to be almost a one-on-one battle for survival.  Very tense and suspenseful.

#2.  Lights Out.  A great concept for a horror movie and some really scary scenes.  Plus more development on character than on just jump scares.  Sure, there are a few plot holes in the story, but they can be excused because you are so invested in the characters.  Lights Out was an exceptional film.

And the winner of the Best Horror Movie Award for 2016 is...

#1.  Don’t Breathe.  This was another one that I thought was not going to be good.  I was not a fan of the trailer and I wondered how we could root for these kids who are trying to rip off this blind guy.  However, once I saw the film, all of those worries went away.  There were times when I literally did not want to breathe myself.  So intense.  So frightening.  This was so well done, so well written and acted that it was more than just a great horror movie.  It was a great movie.  And Steven Lang was just awesome.

However…. every horror movie wasn’t great this year.  We had our share of failures too.  So here is the top 5 worst horror movies.

Top 5 Worst

Dishonorable mention:  Neon Demon, The Disappointments Room

#5.  The Purge:  Election Year.  I am ready for the Purge movies to be over.  This even had LOST’s Elizabeth Mitchell and couldn’t be saved.

#4.  Incarnate.  Dreams.  Plus a good effort by Aaron Eckhart.  He really deserved better.  Of course, there was Mark Henry.  WWE produced.  Not good.

#3.  The Darkness.  Honestly, I don’t remember anything about this except for the movie poster with the prints on the bed.  (After a quick Google search)-oh yeah, this is Kevin Bacon and the kid who plays Bruce Wayne on Gotham.  That kid was in Incarnate too.  He really played the same character in both.   Bad horror year for him.

#2.  The Other Side of the Door.  This one has so many stupid things going on that it even gives horror movies a bad name.  Just don’t open the door.

#1.  Shut In.  Probably the stupidest killer ever.  This was a film that had Golden Globe nominated actor Jacob Tremblay and they had him be mute and deaf.  He had zero lines!  There were so many things that you had to accept to believe this movie was even possible.  What are Naomi Watts and Oliver Platt doing in this?  It had 0% on Rotten Tomatoes until recently.  It is now at 3% with one fresh review.

It is time, once again, to give out the John Carter Memorial Award.  This award is given every year to the biggest flop of the year.

A flop can be a fun movie.  It can be an entertaining movie.  However, it is one that fails to connect with the public and, because of that, fails to make any money or to reach expectations for said movie.

Now, these days, films are bolstered by their overseas numbers.  Many of these films in the running for The John Carter Memorial Award made a healthy chunk of their money back with overseas ticket sales.  Something like Warcraft could have been considered in this category except it had such a huge opening in China.

There are those films that opened poorly, but few people expected huge numbers from.  Films such as Rules Don’t Apply, Morgan, The Brothers Grimsby all had low low opening weeks (Rules Don’t Apply was the 6th worst ever in 2000 or more screens), but these aren’t massive blockbusters.

The BFG could have claimed this award, but, again, it has gained second life overseas as it was released in October and is still gathering money from other countries.  Whereas the USA rejected the film, the world seems to understand it more.

Previous “winners”:  John Carter (2012), The Lone Ranger (2013), A Million Ways to Die in the West and Expendables 3 (2014), and 2015’s trio of winners, Jem and the Holograms, Pan and Rock the Casbah.

So we are down to the final choices fro 2016.  The three runners-up and the “winner” of the John Carter Memorial Award.

• 2016 Runners-Up:  Ghostbusters, Gods of Egypt, The Divergent Series: Allegiant

The 2016 John Carter Memorial Award goes to….

Alice Through the Looking Glass.

The first Alice in Wonderland movie surpassed $1 Billion dollars.  This film only made $77 million domestically.  It made some money back overseas, but the expectation of this film reaching the monetary levels of the original was gone very quickly.  It made $700 million less than its predecessor.  Amazing.  And well deserving of the John Carter Memorial Award.

Yes, it is the time to present the 2016 EYG Stan Lee Movie Cameo Award.  This prestigious award has been given in the past to such luminaries as  John Cena, Stan Lee, Chris Evans, Sigourney Weaver and Hugh Jackman.  Who will join this list as this year’s winner?  Let’s see, shall we?

And of course…SPOILERS!!!!

#10.  Justin Bieber (Zoolander 2).  One of the only things worth the time in Zoolander 2 and it was spoiled in the trailers.  Bieber is killed at the beginning of the film, giving the iconic Zoolander look.  That started off one of the worst films of the year.

#9.  Ben Affleck (Suicide Squad).  Ben Affleck’s Batman was one of the best parts of B v S this year, so he returned in cameo as Batman in Suicide Squad.  However, the best part of the cameo came when Bruce Wayne showed up to face off with Viola Davis’s Amanda Waller in the post credit scene.  It indicated what could be happening in the DCEU’s future.

#8.  Johnny Depp (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them & Yoga Hosers).  Depp showed up at the end of the film as Grindelwald.  He will probably be in a larger role later. If you add the cameo Depp had in Yoga Hosers as his reoccurring character, Guy Lapointe, then Johnny Depp may have rediscovered his niche.

#7.  Hugh Jackman (X-Men: Apocalypse).  One more turn as Logan, we see the iconic moment when Logan breaks free from the Weapon X program.  We also see a sample of his blood which might be leading directly into next year’s Logan.

#6.  Bill Murray (Ghostbusters).  None of the cameos in the new Ghostbusters were great.  They all seemed to pull the viewer out of the movie and send them back to a happier time, when Ghostbusters was a great movie instead of a so-so one.  Bill Murray’s charatcer was a skeptic of the new Ghostbusters and that made it interesting if nothing else.

#5.  Justin Timberlake (Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping).  There were a ton of cameos in Popstar, but the Timberlake cameo as a chef was the best.  Justin Timberlake has shown a willingness to be funny, even if he is the butt of the jokes.

#4.  Melissa McCarthy (Central Intelligence).  McCarthy showed up at the end of the film as an old flame of the Rock.  She was unexpected but funny addition to a decent buddy “cop” film.

#3.  C3PO & R2D2 (Rogue One).  They have been in every Star Wars movie to date, and it was just a matter of time before they reared their droid heads in Rogue One.  Their cameo set up that they would be needed soon and was a good bit of fan service for two of the most popular characters in the franchise.

#2.  Chris Hemsworth (Dr. Strange).  Seeing Thor in one of the post credit scenes with Dr. Strange did two things.  One, it reminded us all about Thor and his problems with Odin and his brother Loki.  And Two, it placed Dr. Strange squarely in the middle of the MCU.  The Dr. Strange movie was fairly isolated from the MCU, but this dropped our soon to be Sorcerer Supreme smack dab in the middle of what is to come.

And our winner of the EYG Stan Lee Movie Cameo of the Year is………. our first time repeat winner of the award…. and who would be better to be the first two-time winner than the man whom the award is named after?

#1. Stan Lee (Deadpool).  This is arguably the greatest Stan Lee cameo of all time. Stan Lee as a disc jockey at a strip club?  Perfect!

Congrats to Stan for his the second victory in this category.  You are clearly the King of the Cameo!  (Stan Lee has appeared on this list every year since we started giving the award).

The year 2016 actually saw quite an upswing in young children acting in both TV and movies, so this category is filled with a bright future for the entertainment community.

Here are your runners-up and the winner of the “I See Kid Actors” Award for 2016.

Runners-Up

#6.  The Boys from Stranger Things.  Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Metarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin and Noah Schnapp.  These four young boys are one of the major reasons why Strangers Things was such an amazing hit.  They boys were so relatable that we all fell in love with them immediately and cared what would happen to them.

#5.  Lulu Wilson (Ouija: Origin of Evil).  She was really creepy in this surprise sequel.  This movie works in part because of the great performance by this young girl.  Who would have guessed it?  The trailer for this film looked horrendous and yet Ouija was all kinds of entertaining.

#4.  Ferdia Walsh-Peelo (Sing Street).  Ferdia had to carry this film and he did a brilliant job of it.  This was Ferdia’s film, including the singing and Sing Street succeeded beyond all wish.  Not only did he carry Sing Street, but it was his film debut.  He has a bright future in the entertainment business.

#3.  Angourie Rice (The Nice Guys).  Rice was one of the best parts about The Nice Guys and she held her own opposite Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling.  That is asking a lot of a young actress.  And we will be seeing more of her because she has the role of Betty Brant in the upcoming Spider-man: Homecoming film.

#2.  Neel Sethi (Jungle Book).  This performance is all the more impressive when you realize that the boy has no one to act off of.  Everything is CGI here.  I mean…everything.  And yet, Sethi is wonderful as the lost boy Mowgli.  Jungle Book is not as successful as it was without the performance of Neel Sethi.

And the winner of the “I See Kid Actors” Award for 2016 is….

#1.  Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things).  Once I saw the performance of Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven, I knew who was winning this award.  Eleven was a brilliant performance.  She was haunted by a past and confused by a world she did not know.  Eleven was such an anchor to Stranger Things that this role had to work.  And Millie Bobby Brown showed that she could do anything.

Shows I stopped watching.  These may not be bad, but they were shows that I began to watch but for whatever reason, I just let slip off.

#4.  American Horror Story: Hotel (FX).  Fell behind this show and just did not feel the need to catch up.  I did love the episode with the ghosts of the serial killers though.

#3.  Fear the Walking Dead (AMC).  A weaker version of the parent show.  Just could not get into the new characters.

#2.  Secrets and Lies (ABC).  I watched season one, and I started on season two, but it was on Sunday night and there were more interesting shows on at that same time.  I never caught back up on Hulu or other streaming services.  Plus, the character of Detective Cornell was the most annoying character on TV.

#1.  Grimm (NBC).  I really enjoyed Grimm for several years, but I got annoyed by its repetitive plots and twists.  Each season was basically the same, just with a different character.  I still watched because I liked Monroe and Nick, but it got to the point where I just did not care any more.

Worst Storyline:  Who’s going to die? (Agents of SHIELD).  This was very anti-climatic since the answer was Lincoln and the world as a whole said, Ok.  Don’t get me wrong, I am glad that it wasn’t Coulson or May or Mac.  It was the choice of least impact.  Runner-up: Flashpoint (Flash)

Worst Return:  Fish Mooney (Gotham).  Probably the only misstep Gotham made this year was bringing back Fish Mooney.  And they even did that reasonably well.

Worst Season Finale:  The Walking Dead (AMC).  Sure it created a great cliffhanger that paid off in the season opener, but the tease of the episode was uncalled for.  We did not see Negan until the very end and by that time, who cared?  It almost drove the viewers away, and it could be part of the reason why The Walking Dead has been hemorrhaging viewers since.

Worst character design:  Diamondback (Luke Cage).  See….

Biggest Mistake:  ABC canceling Agent Carter for Conviction.  Hayley Atwell was doing just fine as our favorite secret agent in the 1940s era USA until ABC pulled the plug after season 2.  Then they cast Atwell in a series that lasted only a handful of episodes.  Big mistake!

Biggest Insult to a Character:  Barb (Stranger Things). Hey, didn’t Barb get stuck in the Upside Down world too?  Ah, who cares…we got Will back.  To be fair, we did see the dead body of Barb in the other dimension, but it was the “so what” feel that everyone had in the real world that was insulting to the character.

Bad Trend:  General Hospital (ABC). I have watched GH for decades, but this season, I found myself skipping weeks at a time, not caring too much about what was happening.  The writing was pretty poor this year and characters were doing things I hated.  Even the death of Morgan could not get me back full time.  I hope this trend can correct itself soon or maybe the days of network soaps might be ending.

I Miss:  Top Ten Show (Collider).  John Rocha and Matt Knost would come up with a topic and would create their own top ten list of movies and then they would debate what the show’s top ten list would look like.  I miss this show that I would watch every Wednesday on YouTube.  Come on Collider…get this show back!!!

Better Call Saul (AMC)

I loved Breaking Bad, but I have never gotten into Saul’s solo prequel series.  Maybe one day I’ll binge it like I did Breaking Bad.

This is Us (NBC)

Apparently the pilot of this was just remarkable.  I was not interested.  Sterling K. Brown is amazing though.

Game of Thrones (HBO)

This is probably the biggest hole in my TV viewing, but I feel like I am too far behind to catch up.  Maybe one day….

Veep (HBO).  Julia Louis-Dreyfus is always winning awards for this show, but since I do not get HBO, I have to go out of my way to see it and that makes it a time commitment that I just do not have.

Atlanta (FX)

Collider’s TV Talk crew loved Atlanta, but I have not made time to see this either.  TV Talk has recommended other series before so maybe this will have to be a binge.

The third and final new category to divide the TV shows into is the Streaming category.  This includes all streaming sites such as Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime as well as the pay television networks such as HBO and Showtime.

Best Shows

Honorable Mention:  Black Mirror (Netflix), Edge and Christian’s Show that Reeks of Awesomeness (WWE)

#10.  The O.A. (Netflix)  This was just released last weekend and I binged it on late Saturday and Sunday.  I really enjoyed this series about a girl who returned after being missing for years but she was now able to see.  I especially liked the ending, which I know caused a lot of uproar in the online community.  I hope the series does not get a second season because I love the way the show ended with an ambiguous conclusion.

#9.  11/22/63 (Hulu).  Based on the Steven King novel, 11/22/63 was the story of James Franco going back in time to try and prevent the assassination of JFK.  Instead of releasing this all at once, Hulu released one episode a week just like normal television outlets.  Every Monday night I looked forward to the next chapter in the saga.

#8.  Orange is the New Black (Netflix).  Orange had another solid season, but there is only so much you can do by this point.  The accidental death of Poussey was shocking and traumatic. but I really disliked the season ending cliffhanger because it did not make sense with the rest of the narrative.

#7.  The Night Of (HBO).  Great crime drama that not only explored the world of racial stereotyping, but also looked at what the prison system can do to an innocent man.  Greta performances from both John Turturro and Riz Ahmed made The Night Of appointment TV.

#6.  The Tick (Amazon Prime).  This is just one episode that Amazon allowed you to vote on to decide whether or not it should go to series.  This episode was great.  It looked at the Tick in a different light, particularly Arthur who was darker and more troubled.  The Tick will be back for a full series order and I cannot wait.

#5.  House of Cards (Netflix).  The trouble between Frank and Claire highlighted this season as they tried desperately to get Claire as his running mate for the upcoming election.  The Underwoods are better together than apart and so is House of Cards.

#4.  Westworld (HBO).  Cowboys and robots.  How can you go wrong?  Westworld is based on a 1970s movie of the same name and it had amazing performances and a central mystery of exactly what was going on that engaged the viewer.  We have to wait until 2018 for season two of Westworld and that is truly a crime.

#3.  Luke Cage (Netflix).  Sweet Christmas!  Luke Cage came front and center in his own Netflix series based in Harlem.  This was funny, exciting, dramatic and full of great music and performances for the ages.  Luke Cage continued the trend of sensational Marvel series on Netflix.

#2.  Daredevil (Netflix).  Speaking of great Netflix Marvel series, the original series returned this year for season two and only upped its game.  Daredevil brought us the best ever cinematic Punisher and the best ever cinematic Elektra.  Daredevil and Frank Castle in the graveyard is one of the best episodes of TV of the year.

#1. Stranger Things (Netflix).  Didn’t see this coming.  This eight episode series dropped this year and became a huge pop culture phenomenon.  Set in the 1980s, Stranger Things touch on our nostalgia as well as creeped us out.  The great cast of young actors engaged us and we fell in love with them.  Millie Bobby Brown was one of the best young actors we have seen in a long time.  And the central mysteries and mythology of the show were some of the best since LOST.  It felt like the X-Files, ET, The Goonies, Alien, Silent Hill, Akira, John Carpenter all mashed into one.  I loved Stranger Things.

Best Actor-Streaming

#5.  Charlie Cox (Daredevil)

#4.  Mike Colter (Luke Cage)

#3.  Riz Ahmed (The Night Of)

#2.  Kevin Spacey (House of Cards)

#1.  John Turturro (The Night Of)

Best Actress- Streaming

#5.  Sarah Gadon (11/22/63)

#4.  Thandie Newton (Westworld)

#3.  Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld)

#2.  Robin Wright (House of Cards)

#1.  Winona Ryder (Stranger Things)

Best Supporting Actor- Streaming

#5.  Griffin Newman (The Tick)

#4.  Ed Harris (Westworld)

#3.  Mahershala Ali (Luke Cage)

#2.  Anthony Hopkins (Westworld)

#1. Jon Bernthal (Daredevil)

Best Supporting Actress- Streaming

#5.  Simone Missick (Luke Cage)

#4.  Blair Brown (Orange is the New Black)

#3.  Samira Wiley (Orange is the New Black)

#2.  Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things)

#1.  Alfre Woodard (Luke Cage)