10 Surprisingly Great Movies From Summer 2016
Star Trek Beyond expectations.
There's no getting around the brutal truth that this past summer has been one of the most underwhelming and disappointing in recent memory, if perhaps ever.
On the other hand, while approximately nobody was surprised that movies like Captain America: Civil War, The Jungle Book and Finding Dory ended up scoring strong acclaim, there were more than a handful of successful films that soared high above most expectations.
From massive tentpoles to low-budget horrors and everything in-between, many of the summer's most satisfying movies came from surprising places, and prove that while Hollywood is by its nature unpredictable, it doesn't always have to result in crushed hope (looking at you here, DC).
In short, if you gave these movies a miss because they didn't look all that great, you might want to give them a second look. Here are 10 surprisingly great movies from summer 2016...
10. The Shallows
What We Expected: Ninety unbearably campy minutes of Blake Lively not acting and serving as nothing more than eye candy while she faces off against an unconvincing CGI shark.
What We Got: An uncommonly tense shark movie that dares to take itself seriously and is infinitely more compelling as a result. Sure, Likely is extremely easy on the eyes here, but director Jaume Collet-Serra doesn't overdo it on the lingering bikini shots, and perhaps most surprisingly, Lively carries the film extremely well with her committed performance, considering she's the only significant character in the entire movie.
It's not quite as convincing in its third reel showdown (which does admittedly go a little CGI overkill), but on the whole The Shallows delivers nail-biting suspense, terrific visuals and a surprisingly strong central performance.