IT’S happened again — December arrived so quickly and we’re about to celebrate another New Year.

But while the temperature drops, we all usually enjoy a good movie or two — and what better time than now to have a look back at our favourite films of 2016?

Here is our Top 10.

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THE REVENANT

HE did it. A full 22 years after his first Oscar nomination, Leonardo DiCaprio finally picked up the coveted Best Actor statuette for his role in The Revenant — and what a film it was.

Leo stars as Hugh Glass, a frontiersman in 1820s America.

While on a fur-trading expedition, Hugh is mauled by a bear and left for dead by his hunting team.

If Hugh is to pull through, he has to make the most of his survival skills to get back home, whilst simultaneously avoiding natives on their own hunt.

Determined to get revenge for having been abandoned in the unforgiving wilderness, Hugh sets out to trace John Fitzgerald, his former friend who betrayed him and left him for dead.

 

FINDING DORY

DISNEY plus Pixar equals . . . an amazing film, of course, and this year’s Finding Dory was no disappointment, even given the 13 years that we had to wait for the sequel to Finding Nemo.

Ellen Degeneres is hilarious as Dory, the little tang fish who struggles to remember anything for more than a few moments, and the plot sees the memory-challenged cutie begin a search to find her long-lost parents.

Bearing in mind that she says at one point during the movie: “I remember it like it was yesterday . . . of course, I don’t really remember yesterday very well,” she’s clearly going to need some help.

That comes from Hank, an octopus with seven tentacles, Destiny, a whale shark with poor eyesight, and Bailey, the beluga whale whose sonar skills aren’t quite as up to scratch as they should be.

Dory’s new-found chums will do the best that they can to help reunite her with her parents, but it isn’t going to be an easy challenge.

 

BATMAN V SUPERMAN

WHEN two superheroes wage war against one another, you know it has to be a special movie, and Ben Affleck’s Batman is pitted against Henry Cavill’s Superman in this.

But superheroes don’t fight each other — their focus is on helping people who need it, right?

Well, not quite, as the fact that Metropolis is left in ruins leaves the public trying to assess whether Superman should be given a hero’s status or if he’s actually a menace to society.

Batman is of the latter opinion and sees Superman as a threat to everyone, so he takes it upon himself to face up to the Man of Steel.

Elsewhere, Lex Luthor plans to destroy mankind, while Wonder Woman has her own ideas in mind. Will one triumph over the other, or is the world as we know it doomed?

 

THE BFG

STARRING Mark Rylance as the Big Friendly Giant — to give him his full title — this is the Roald Dahl story of a very gentle but misunderstood creature who befriends a young girl named Sophie.

The BFG might intimidate many people simply because of the fact that he towers over everyone at 24ft tall, but in actual fact, he is a kind-hearted soul who has been shunned by the other giants because he refuses to eat children.

Sophie ends up making herself known to undesirable bad guys such as Bloodbottler and Fleshlumpeater, and she and the BFG must join forces to persuade the Queen (Penelope Wilton) to help them get rid of the evil giants once and for all.

 

GHOSTBUSTERS

THE original Ghostbusters movie was such a hit that a sequel followed on five years later.

Another 27 years after that came the 2016 remake, which saw the fighters of anything strange in the neighbourhood reimagined as four women.

The film was also packed with cameos including the three surviving original Ghostbusters — Dan Aykroyd even uttered the line: “I ain’t afraid of no ghosts!” — Sigourney Weaver and Ozzy Osbourne.

Sadly, Harold Ramis, who played Egon Spengler, passed away a couple of years ago, but even he appears in some way, with a gold bust of the star popping up in an office scene.

When Manhattan once again falls victim to some supernatural behaviour, including the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, it’s up to our Ghostbusters to step up and save their city.

With the new line-up including Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, expect plenty of laughs.

 

THE JUNGLE BOOK

WE all loved the 1967 Disney version of The Jungle Book, but this one is so much better, utilising special effects, meaning that the live action can be mixed with computer graphics.

It makes it seem like the real boy actor Neel Sethi, who plays Mowgli, appears with actual animal characters, including Bagheera the panther, Ka the snake, a Shere Khan tiger and Baloo the bear.

The actor is never in any danger, with all the creatures being added in after Neel had filmed his scenes.

The story remains as traditional as ever, though.

The young boy who was raised in the jungle by some animals is under threat from tiger Shere Khan. Bagheera and the friendly Baloo do their best to help Mowgli flee the jungle.

With such heavyweight actors as Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba and Christopher Walken, it was guaranteed to be a hit even before its release.

 

BRIDGET JONES’S BABY

SHE’S back. Yes, when we last caught up with Bridget Jones, she was heading off into the sunset, engaged to the love of her life, Mark Darcy.

But the path to true love never runs smoothly, and now she’s split up from Mark, although there’s the mater of one-night stand with him and another with handsome American Jack Qwant.

Bridget is now a mummy to be, but who is the father, and which man will she pick?

Many people think — justifiably — that this is the best film of the series so far.

They filmed three alternate endings so that, during filming, even the cast weren’t clued in as to how the movie was going to conclude.

 

EYE IN THE SKY

THIS film is rather poignant given the fact that it was the last movie in which we saw the late, great Alan Rickman — he lent his voice to Alice Through The Looking Glass, but Eye In The Sky was his last appearance in front of the camera.

Also starring the brilliant Helen Mirren as Colonel Katherine Powell and Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul, this is the story of a military officer in command of an operation to capture terrorists in Kenya.

The targets have been identified, but just as fighter pilot Steve Watts is about to engage, a young local girl selling bread unknowingly enters the kill zone.

What happens next is a tense exchange between the various countries and officials involved.

Should they attack the kill zone anyway in the interests of murdering the terrorists or is the life of this one innocent child too important to stand in the way of the governments’ mission?

It’s gripping viewing and is all the more poignant given that it is a very real scenario that our soldiers could be faced with.

 

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

OF course, JK Rowling has to appear on this list.

Fantastic Beasts is a prequel to the Harry Potter era that we know and love, with the plot taking us right into the thick of the magical history that Harry would later be reading about at school in Hogwarts.

It’s the story of Newt Scamander, played by Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne, and his magical case filled with the creatures that he has caught.

When his case is opened accidentally, it means that these trapped beasts can get out, and havoc, of course, ensues.

If the regulars get wind of this, it will reveal to the world that there is a whole other world of magic right under their noses — and the witches and wizards will stop at nothing to prevent that from happening.

There are wonderful characters, such as the baker Jacob Kowalski, who help carry this movie, which will surely become a firm favourite with many.

 

SUICIDE SQUAD

WILL SMITH and Jared Leto are part of a decidedly-motley crew in this movie.

Known as the Suicide Squad, a group of the most-dangerous incarcerated super villains have been brought together by a secret agency to form a task force.

Their first job? To save the world from the apocalypse.

That said, with their collective talents including melting bullets, this bunch of crooks might just live to see another day.