Some Other Movies From 2020 (2)

For further background on the year in film, please refer to the Some Other Movies From 2020 entry.

The following thing happened in 2020:

• COVID.
• Wearing masks
• Washing hands frequently.
• Abject terror.

Excellent

1. The Sound of Metal

Riz Ahmed stars as a metal drummer who loses his hearing.  My brother's in a touring metal band, and the details felt right to me.

2. The Courier

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as a reluctant spy passing on Russian secrets to the West on the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  There's nothing revolutionary about this movie, it's just a solidly written and solidly filmed story of the world - and a single man - on the brink of ruin.  Cumberbatch might make most of his money playing Doctor Strange, but between this movie and The Imitation Game he's proven his talent many times over.

3. Another Round (a.k.a. "Druk")

Four teachers in Denmark study the effect of continuous alcohol consumption on their daily lives.  The director has a light touch and doesn't dwell too much on the darker parts of human nature.  Mads Mikkelson is great in the lead, and the rest of the cast pulls their weight.  It was nominated for several Oscars, and won for Best International Feature Film.

4. Nomadland

The book that inspired this movie was also reviewed here.  The movie is a work of fiction, while the book is a nonfiction account of individuals struggling to survive an economy dominated by Amazon and other corporations.  Both the film and the book highlight a lot of the same problems and personal struggles, but as you'd expect the movie is more of a personal journey and less of a broader picture.

As you're probably aware this film would go on to win Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress at the last Academy Awards.  It won several other awards as well, and probably deserved all of them.  As far as the movies I've seen from 2020 go, only Another Round (above) comes close in terms of story and characterization, and I'd be hard-pressed to say which movie I liked better.

Fun Fact: Director Chloe Zhao split her time between filming this movie and pre-production on Eternals.  I'll be seeing Eternals this weekend and I'm really looking forward to it.

5. The Father

Anthony Hopkins picked up a second Oscar for this look at a man in the grip of senile dementia.  Be warned it's not a happy movie, and for me it brought back memories of 2014's Still Alice, another movie in which the protagonist comes to question his/her own sense of reality.

Fun Fact: This movie was the second adaptation of Florian Zeller's play.  The first was 2015's Floride ("Florida").

Some Good Ones

1. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Movie: Mugen Train

Why DID this movie make so much money?  Why was it such a hit?  Was it all because of COVID?  Or does this anime have a following I'm not aware of?  Am I really that old?  Is it 2021 already?

I skipped over this in the theater because I had no idea what it is.  I've just watched it and I still have no idea what it is.  Something something demon slaying something.  It was the highest-grossing movie of 2020, and the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time.  The story, involving a demon who possesses a train and attempts to kill our heroes in their dreams, is somewhat interesting, but really, only a unique combination of COVID-inspired circumstances could have led to this movie doing as well as it did.

2. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Not nearly as funny as the first one, but of course Sacha Baron Cohen is so famous now that "hiding in plain sight" isn't possible.  This sequel definitely has its moments, but I found myself smirking at it more than laughing out loud.

3. Greyhound

Tom Hanks captains a WWII destroyer in search of a Nazi U-boat.  I can't say it's a bad movie, but my attention wavered at times.  I suppose the reason was the level of detail this movie goes into.  The details make it seem very authentic, but listening to Hanks bark orders at various people got old after a while.  Surprisingly he also wrote the script, by himself, without any co-writers.

Fun Fact 1: This movie was shot aboard a Canadian ship from the time period, the HMCS Montreal.  It was filmed in 2018, but COVID pushed the theatrical release back so far that Sony eventually gave up altogether, and sold the film to Apple, which released it digitally.

Fun Fact 2: Tom Hanks also pops up in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm above.  The Borat sequel offers a colorful explanation of how he famously contracted COVID.

4. Soul

Disney/Pixar film in which a jazz musician encounters the afterlife.  It's aspirational in the way Wall-E was aspirational, and while it's good I can't say it's that good.  I think Wall-E made an even bigger point about what it means to be human, whereas what Soul is saying is more of an affirmation of things we already know.

5. Boss Level

In another part of the multiverse Frank Grillo starred in a big budget, cinematic adaptation of The Punisher.  That movie was also directed by Joe Carnahan and it was AWESOME.

In this part of the multiverse Grillo stars in Boss Level as a man forced to repeat the same day.  No, it's not Groundhog Day, no, it's not Edge of Tomorrow, but Boss Level is an engrossing action movie with an endearing sense of humor.  Oh, and Mel Gibson's the bad guy.  Definitely worth a look.

6. The Croods: A New Age

The funniest comedy of 2020?  Quite possibly.  Definitely better than Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.  Croods 2 has all the weird charm of the original while managing to seem fresh 7 YEARS after the first movie.

7. The Night House

Rebecca Hall should be in more movies like this.  She's got this wonderful, evocative face and a way of saying every line as if there was some kind of secret pain behind it.  In The Night House she plays a bereft woman discovering her deceased husband's secret, and with any other actress in the lead this film would have only been half as good.  I'm not familiar with director David Bruckner's other movies, but he recently finished the Hellraiser reboot, and after seeing this film I'd be interested in seeing that one.

8. A Quiet Place Part II

Of course it's not as good as the first one.  Still, as sequels go they knocked it out of the park.  Emily Blunt returns with her three (mostly) silent children in tow, this time with Cillian Murphy as an underdeveloped character who probably causes more trouble than he's worth.

Some Bad Ones

1. Greenland

Starring Gerard Butler!  BIG red flag.  The first half of this movie isn't bad, even if it'll remind you of far superior world-ending movies like War of the Worlds, 2012 and Armageddon.  The second half is where they get into trouble - so many pauses in the flow of action so that various characters can have "moments."  In terms of dramatic impact it's on par with 70s disaster epics like The Towering Inferno or Earthquake, films that walk a line between tragedy and unintentional humor.

2. Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula

Why not just call it Boat to Busan?  Maybe they figured that would go over people's heads?

Whatever the reason, this movie is basically Escape from New York set in Korea with zombies.  Of course A LOT of zombie movies have ventured into similar territory, from the countless Night of the Living Dead sequels, to the Resident Evil sequels, to whatever other zombie movies aren't in those two long-standing franchises.

Train to Busan 2 doesn't add anything to the genre.  It's not even as good as the original.  The car chase near the end goes on for way too long, various zombie-addled soldiers do predictable things, and as in Greenland above characters seem to have endless time for "moments" in the midst of firefights, zombie attacks or combinations thereof.

3. Mulan

Whitewashing!  Bad!  Shooting in Xinjiang!  Bad!  Misrepresenting Chinese culture!  Bad!  Not as good as the original!  Bad!  No talking dragon!  Bad!  No songs!  Bad!  Bad!  Bad!

Actually Mulan wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Could that actress pass for a man?  Hell no.  Is this movie terrible?  Not by a long shot, but it gets very implausible toward the end, and the fact that this is a Western movie made for Western audiences becomes glaringly obvious.  The Chinese people in this movie don't act very Chinese, and the conclusion is far from satisfying.  

And what about the fellow soldier she liked?  Did "female empowerment" mean that she had to give him up?

Fun Fact: The bad guy look familiar?  That's Jason Scott Lee, who played Bruce Lee in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.

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Some Other Movies From 2021

Some Other Movies From 2020

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Some Other Movies From 2019 (2)

"The World for Sale" by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy (2021)

"The Monopoly money, which looked a bit like a cheque, carried the logo of Cargill Cotton and the signatures of two of its top local executives.  It didn't matter that the bills didn't bear the signature of the governor of the Zimbabwean central bank, or the wildlife scenes that typically decorated Zimbabwean banknotes.  They were soon being accepted alongside Zimbabwe's official currency at shops across Harare.

"In all but name, Cargill was acting as the country's bureau of engraving and printing and its central bank.  It took out adverts in a local newspaper, instructing Zimbabweans that the banknotes 'should be treated as cash.'  It issued more banknotes in 2004, with denominations as high as 100,000 Zimbabwean dollars."

Javier Blas and Jack Farchy are reporters working for Bloomberg News.  Blas is the Chief Energy Correspondent, and Farchy is the Senior Reporter for Energy and Commodities.  Searching the Bloomberg site for articles they've written reveals a host of reports closely related to the subject of The World for Sale.

The World for Sale is about commodity traders.  I'll agree that it sounds boring, but once you understand the pivotal role these traders have played in world markets since the 1970s it's anything but.  Put in the most general terms, the rise and fall of these commodity traders mirrors the rise and fall of the world economy, and many world events that seem political have arisen from economic factors which are directly or indirectly related to the global trade in commodities.

With the opening of the Russian oil market after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the commodity traders have won and lost fortunes, many accumulating billions on careful speculation.  In the modern era oil is key to their business, and in the quest for oil reserves commodity traders often cross into "gray areas" which involve bribery, theft and sometimes even murder.

I'm glad I read this book.  Before reading it names like Glencore and Vitol were just names to me, but now I know what they do and how they do it.  I also know how they've influenced the course of world events behind the scenes, everything from destabilizing the Middle East, abetting the rise of communist China, and drawing the ire of the U.S. government, which has used its power over the banking system to limit the scope of the commodity traders' operations.

If you're not interested in economics you'll struggle with this book, but if you're on the fence don't worry, it never gets that technical.  It also tells a very personal story of men falling victim to their own ambitions, while offering insight into several world events.

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"The Greatest Show on Earth" by Richard Dawkins (2009)

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"The Chinese in America" by Iris Chang (2003)

"The History of the Jews" by Paul Johnson (1987)

"The Greatest Show on Earth" by Richard Dawkins (2009)

"Once again, I am sorry to take a sledgehammer to so small and fragile a nut, but I have to do so because more than 40 percent of the American people believe literally in the story of Noah's Ark.  We should be able to ignore them and get on with our science, but we can't afford to because they control school boards, they home-school their children to deprive them of access to proper science teachers, and they include many members of the United States Congress, some state governors and even presidential and vice-presidential candidates.  They have the money and the power to build institutions, universities, even a museum where children ride life-size mechanical models of dinosaurs, which, they are solemnly told, coexisted with humans.  And, as recent polls have shown, Britain is not far behind (or should that read 'ahead'?), along with parts of Europe and most of the Islamic world."

Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist, author and noted atheist.  His 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which has also been reviewed here, propelled him to fame, and he's remained in the public eye ever since.

If you've read The Selfish Gene, or any of Dawkins' other books, you'll find much that's familiar in The Greatest Show on Earth.  In this work he champions Darwin's theory of evolution, his copy of On the Origin of the Species firmly in hand.  Creationism, he argues, is a threat to both our understanding of the world and the very underpinnings of modern society.  In thirteen chapters he rails against this threat, bringing to bear discoveries from biology, geology and chemistry.

It's a good book if you're looking for an overview of our present scientific understanding of the world, but I'm not exactly sure who it was written for.  Those who've followed Dawkins from previous works won't find much on offer in The Greatest Show on Earth, and those adhering to creationist accounts of life's origins will only be further alienated by it.  To compound this problem it really is condescending at times, and those coming to this book with a more open mind might find it off-putting for that reason.

For the record I agree with everything Dawkins states in this book.  But then again I already knew that I would agree with him.  So why did I read it?  Who was it for?  And why was it written?

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"The History of the Jews" by Paul Johnson (1987)

"Wild" by Cheryl Strayed (2012)

Some Other Movies From 2021

I spent all of 2021 living and working in Fangliao Township, Pingtung County, Taiwan.  There was a lot of job-related uncertainty.  I lost a couple friends.  I gained a couple new ones.  All in all it wasn't a terrible year, but I've had better years for sure.

The top 5 movies of 2021 were Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Battle of Lake Changjin, Hi, Mom, No Time to Die and F9.  The Battle of Lake Changjin is about the People's Liberation Army forcing U.S. forces to withdraw from a key position during the Korean War.  Turnabout is always fair play I suppose, but this movie is still blatant propaganda, and the reduced status of the Hong Kong talent compelled to participate in it makes me sad.

Critics also liked The Power of the Dog, CODA, King Richard, Tick, Tick... BOOM!, Being the Ricardos, West Side Story, The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Belfast.  Of these movies I've seen The Power of the Dog (overrated), Tick, Tick... BOOM! (a solid movie), West Side Story (beautifully filmed, but made me sleepy) and The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which I genuinely enjoyed.

My favorite movies were Spider-Man: No Way Home, Godzilla vs. Kong, The Last Duel and The Eyes of Tammy Faye.  Then again there are many movies from this year that I haven't seen, and some of them will be discussed in the upcoming Some Other Movies From 2021 (2) entry.

My least favorite movie was, hands-down, No Time to Die.  That film just made me angry.  If the James Bond franchise has one rule, it's that James Bond isn't allowed to die in the end.  Especially not unnecessarily.  Sorry for the spoiler, but there it is.

Excellent

1. Godzilla vs. Kong

I like big stompy monsters.  That's kind of my thing.  This movie isn't perfect, but it features a few big stompy monsters stomping a lot of stompable things.  I appreciate that.  The people I went with were all rooting for Kong.  I was rooting for Godzilla.

2. The Last Duel

You could fault this movie for being too on the nose, right down to the youngish king passing judgment through the court of public opinion. But aside from that this is a well crafted film, and both Matt Damon and Adam Driver are good as two knights contending over the same woman. Is it the best movie Ridley Scott has ever done? No, but it's still better than most of the movies that came out this year.

3. Spider-Man: No Way Home 

That one conversation in Ned's house. FUCK. I managed to avoid online spoilers, and when that conversation happened I was like daaaamn.  The plot doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's great regardless. Top tier performances from Holland, Zendaya and... whoever else might be in this movie.

Some Good Ones

1. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

In case you're unfamiliar with the comic books, Shang-Chi was always a street level character, tied to the neighborhood where he lived and isolated from most of the rest of the Marvel Universe.  He was very much a product of the 1970s, an era in which Bruce Lee was blowing people's minds.

The more recent movie incarnation is a whole other character.  It's not just that they retooled the Mandarin's backstory, but also the scale of Shang-Chi's powers, the magical elements, and the fact that he's untethered to any single (urban) location.  The MCU Shang-Chi is just a whole lot bigger, and I think this change of scale makes sense given the MCU films that have come before him.  Giving us another street level hero along the lines of the Netflix shows would have been disappointing.  It also wouldn't have made as much sense given the kind of continuity Marvel Studios is creating.

I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I thought I would.  I wasn't super excited going in, but by the time the fight on the bus started I was fully invested.  Simu Liu is a good actor, and Tony Leung, who's carried more movies than I can count, was an ideal choice for the villain.  If someone explained the ending to you beforehand you'd probably make up your mind against it, but as it is they do an excellent job of building up to that fantastical conclusion.

Awkwafina?  I think she was miscast.  She was great in The Farewell - a movie in which she plays a similar character - but her humorous dialogue in Shang-Chi lessened the movie.  The actress playing Shang-Chi's sister - a woman I found insanely attractive - could have just as easily filled the same function in the plot.

Fun Fact 1: Actor Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, almost starred in a Shang-Chi television show in the 1980s.  Bruce Lee was the visual inspiration for Shang-Chi back in the 70s.

Fun Fact 2: Movie martial arts legend Yuen Woo-Ping almost directed a version of Shang-Chi for Dreamworks Pictures back in the early 2000s.  Yuen Woo-ping choreographed the fights in the The Matrix.

2. Zack Snyder's Justice League

Is it akin to the Second Coming of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?  Of course not.  It's unquestionably better than the Joss Whedon version, but I won't argue that it's not too long.  It does fill in some blanks with regard to the earlier version, and I especially enjoyed the added scenes with the Flash, but after watching it I had no desire to see it again.  I think the best version of Justice League is somewhere between Snyder's (far more cohesive) vision and Joss Whedon's more "commercially acceptable" substitute.

If nothing else I'm happy this movie was released because it diffused all the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut agitation.  I'm sure all of those people have moved on to some other cinematic cause, and I'm happy to NOT know what that cause is.

Fun Fact: That scene with Martian Manhunter in the end originally featured John Stewart/Green Lantern.

3. Suicide Squad

SO much hype, but yeah, it's a solid movie.  I wasn't a big fan of James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy films, but this one worked much better for me.  I liked "the fakeout" in the beginning, I enjoyed the gratuitous violence, and in Bloodsport Idris Elba seems to have found a comic book character worthy of his acting ability.

My favorite parts of this movie were Bloodsport and Peacemaker's assault on the rebel camp, and also the scenes involving King Shark.  Harley Quinn shouldn't have been given so much screen time, and Joel Kinnaman - as in the first movie - doesn't have enough to do.  Starro was well done, and making his origins more gruesome was a great idea.

Future: At the present time Gunn seems to have drifted away from the DCEU.  He's been helping the Peacemaker series along, but after production on The Suicide Squad wrapped he'd already started work on the third Guardians of the Galaxy.  There's even a Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special on the way in 2022.

4. Venom: Let There Be Carnage

It's cheesy as hell, but after sitting through Dune and No Time to Die (below) it was exactly what I needed.  It reminded me a lot of earlier, pre-MCU comic book movies like Sam Raimi's Spider-Man or Blade II.  Silly but enjoyable dialogue, a completely predictable plot structure and less-than-convincing special effects - all delivered in about an hour and a half.

5. Eternals

At this point in the game it might be better to ask what kind of superhero movie this is.  Is it superheroes done as an action movie?  Superheroes done as drama?  Superheroes done as science fiction?  I think the last definition comes closer to what Eternals is, even though it's not completely satisfying in that respect either.  As an action movie it fails - it never manages to build that kind of tension.  As a drama it also fails - not all of the characters are introduced properly, and some of their actions remain enigmatic long after the credits roll.  But, as a science fiction movie it almost works, even if the comic book reasoning employed toward the end brings the whole thing down a couple notches.

While watching it I kept wondering what Jack Kirby would have made of the entire thing.  I'm a bit embarrassed to say I've never read any of his Eternals comics, but I think he'd be a bit disappointed by the lack of impact the action scenes have, while he'd be gratified by the cosmic scale of the movie.  In my opinion it's not bad, but Shang-Chi was both more complete and more aware of its audience.

Fun Fact 1: Bill Skarsgard, who voiced the Deviant Kro, also voiced Pennywise in It and It Chapter Two.

Fun Fact 2: That offscreen voice at the end?  That's Mahershala Ali, who'll be playing Blade in the near future.  The filming of Blade should begin next year.

Fun Fact(s) 3: Jack Kirby started work on Marvel's The Eternals after his New Gods series were summarily cancelled at DC.  He brought many of the elements he'd introduced in the New Gods to The Eternals.

Fun Fact 4: In the comics, the same process that created the Eternals and Deviants on Earth created the Kree and Skrull on other worlds.

6. Free Guy

Tron, The Thirteenth Floor, The Matrix, Ready Player One and countless other movies dealing with virtual reality, AI, and the implications of the two.  Free Guy doesn't offer anything new to the genre, but it's a fun (sometimes funny) movie that takes us on a tour of the usual tropes with a wink and a nod.  Ryan Reynolds does a good job of holding the thing together, and even though it's too long it's still a serviceable action movie.

7. Don't Look Up

It's tempting to dismiss this movie as Idiocracy 2.0, but it does make a more subtle (if less funny) point about objectivity in the age of social media. Leonardo DiCaprio turns in one of his best performances here, and writer, producer and director Adam McKay brings his incisive sense of humor to bear on the subject matter.

I have the feeling this movie, like Idiocracy before it, might be a slow burn. If people are quoting it in a few years I won't be surprised.

Some Bad Ones

1. Black Widow

I hated it.  Warmed-over Winter Soldier nonsense.  I never thought Black Widow deserved her own movie, and this movie is proof of that.  Spider Woman?  Bring it on.  Ms. Marvel?  I'd love that.  Captain Marvel 2?  Bound to be better than the first one.  But Black Widow?  Why?

I liked David Harbour, Rachel Weisz and Florence Pugh though.  They outshine Scarlett Johanssen in every scene they're in.  The rest of it?  Not doing anything for me.  The worst bit is the villain explaining his entire plot aboard the sky base near the end, and that skydive from said base after it gets exploded is pure impossibility.

Calling this "the seventh highest-grossing film of 2021" also isn't saying much.  That designation is probably untrue now anyway.  Many films had release dates delayed and even pushed to the following year due to the pandemic.

In a Parallel Universe: Emily Blunt almost played Black Widow in Iron Man 2.

2. Army of the Dead

I wanted to like this movie.  I really enjoyed Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead.  I just wasn't feeling it.  It tries a couple novel things: the zombie birth, the zombie animals, but those two gimmicks aside it's very dark and very boring.  I like the kind of actor Dave Bautista's shaping up to be, but this movie isn't that entertaining.

3. No Time to Die

People who entered the series alongside Daniel Craig will probably love it, those who've been a fan for longer probably won't.  For me this wasn't a Bond movie.  It's overlong, it's depressing, and it misses the point of the character.  He's a heterosexual male fantasy after all, and not many heterosexual males fantasize about beautiful women we can't have, villains who plan on torturing and/or killing our loved ones, or the personal sacrifice Bond has to make at the end of this movie.  I think Craig was a good Bond - maybe not the best Bond, but definitely good - and I don't think this was the right way to say farewell to his character.  

4. Dune

What?  I didn't like Dune?  No, I didn't.  Like No Time to Die above I thought it was too long, TOO LOUD, and a burdened by the impression it was trying to make.  If the sequels ever get made I'll happily consider this movie the first half of something better, but taken on its own it doesn't present a very compelling narrative.

I still think Denis Villenueve is one of the best directors out there, but he needs to back away from this "small character against an enormous background followed by loud, unidentifiable noises" thing he keeps doing.  It really worked in films like Sicario and Blade Runner 2049, but it's getting repetitious.  I'll agree that there's not much character development in the book, but this movie makes David Lynch's version look concise by comparison.

5. Red Notice

This movie is terrible.  I liked Ryan Reynolds in Free Guy (above), but in Red Notice he's both irritating and superfluous.  The Rock does his usual Rock thing, Gal Gadot tries desperately to do something that's not Wonder Woman (whatever that thing is), and along the way they stumble through plot holes large enough to swallow entire continents.

6. The Matrix Resurrections

Excuse me, but what the fuck?  The first half of this movie had me - I was fully onboard - but then they aborted mission on existentiality and science fiction, and it became a movie about... the power of love?  This movie is trying to walk a fine line between a thoughtful exploration of life in the digital age and action movie, and it fails on both counts.  I walked in wanting to like it: I walked in fully invested, but they lost me somewhere between Keanu Reeves' rescue and whatever it is that ending was about.  This is really too bad, because the first half of this movie has a lot going for it.  They seem to have lost their way somewhere down the line.

Related Entries:

Some Other Movies From 2020

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Some Other Movies From 2019 (2)

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Some Other Movies From 2020

In 2020 I was COVID.  I spent some of that year in COVID, and then I moved to COVID where I am sitting here, writing this COVID.  It was a difficult COVID for sure.

The top 5 movies of 2020 were COVID, COVID 2: The Variant, COVID Crusaders, COVID: Mask Up or Fuck Off and COVID: Let's Hope This Vaccine Works.  I have seen (and hated) all of these movies.

Some critical favorites of 2020 were Wuhan: Journey to COVID, Captain COVID 3: Infinite COVID and The Unbearable Difficulty of Breathing.  Michael COVID was very memorable in Captain COVID 3, but I think the non-linear plot structured employed in The Unbearable Difficulty of Breathing was a little forced, and not suitable given the COVID they were trying to tell.

My favorite movie of 2020 was definitely COVID: The Hysterical, Existential Terror.  It's by far the best in the COVID series, and I look forward to COVID: The Hysterical, Existential Terror 2 this summer.

My least favorite movie of 2020 was COVID Conspiracy, because listening to certain friends talk about that shit all the time gets old.

[Pausing to remove mask and take a long, infectious breath]

Some Good Ones

1. Bloodshot

This is the last movie I saw in the theater before Tenet appeared almost a year later.  It was a long wait between Bloodshot and Tenet.  Bloodshot isn't High Art, but I think that given the quality of the comic book that inspired it it's not bad.  Vin Diesel's costar in this movie, Elza Gonzalez, is also very beautiful.  Everyone I saw this movie with despised it, but we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.

R.I.P. Valiant Cinematic Universe.

Fun Fact: Jared Leto was in negotiations to play Bloodshot before he settled on Morbius.  That movie, featuring the titular vampire superhero (?) has been pushed back to January of next year.

2. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

It has its moments.  Weirdly enough, Rachel McAdams is funnier than Will Farrell in it.

Fun Fact: McAdams prepared for her role by studying videos of Icelandic singer Bjork.

Some Bad Ones

1. Birds of Prey

I liked the fight scenes but that was about it.  Margot Robbie is quite the athlete.  The villain wasn't very threatening, and I thought the overemphasis on "girl power" diminished the film.

2. The Invisible Man

I've enjoyed Elizabeth Moss in several movies but this isn't one of them.  This horror retread doesn't add much to an already tired formula, and the characters populating its bare bones story are all uninteresting in the extreme.

Fun Fact: A lot of people blame The Mummy, but this movie's failure also hastened the demise of Universal's Dark Universe.

3. Tenet

Christopher Nolan helming another movie that only makes sense to Christopher Nolan.  I like John David Washington - he gives the kind of commanding performance his father is known for - but the plot of this movie is nonsense.  It brought back to me, in vivid detail, my annoyance with Interstellar.

4. Wonder Woman 1984

A movie that makes a lot of emotional sense but very little logical sense.  It's gratifying if you don't stop to think about things like Wonder Woman RAPING A MAN, or the whole architecture of wishes at work in this movie.  I'm a big fan of Kristen Wiig, and I was also disappointed with how she was used in this movie.

5. Fantasy Island

Sinister Blumhouse remake of the beloved (and undeniably cheesy) TV series.  Like the people trapped on the island it goes nowhere fast.

6. Extraction

Chris Hemsworth stomps around Bangladesh, merrily shooting whoever gets in his way.  This movie might be action-packed but it's also kinda dumb.  There's a sequel on the way this year.

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Some Other Movies From 2019 (2)

Some Other Movies From 2018 (2)

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Movies of the Late 2010s, Ranked in the Order I Enjoyed Them

To misquote the Book of Ecclesiastes, "Of making lists there is no end, and in much listing there lies a weariness of flesh."  This, however, will be the last list I'll be compiling for a while.  Whenever I happen to finish the "Some Other Movies" entries for 2020 and 2021, I'll be venturing backwards to the early 1970s, and however many movies that involves will undoubtedly add up to a long time.

Of all these lists this one is going to be the most contentious, simply because it's so close to the present day.  Just know that I tried my best, even though comparing the first "Some Other Movies" entry for 2015, which was written three years ago, and the second "Some Other Movies" entry for 2019, which was written right before this one, wasn't easy.

The sheer number of movies I saw in 2019 also presents a problem.  In 2019 I saw over 10 movies for every month, and including the movies listed in the Some Other Movies From 2019 entry would probably give me an aneurysm.  Besides that, those movies have already been ranked to some extent in the same entry.  I included the movies from the Some Other Movies From 2019 (2) entry, but fitting all the movies from the first 2019 entry into this one was just too much for me.

The movies at the top are among my favorites.  The movies at the bottom are, in my opinion, to be avoided at all costs.  I left the year numbers off these movies.  They're all recent films and not that hard to find.

Killing of a Sacred Deer

Blade Runner 2049

Logan Lucky

The Big Short

I, Tonya

Annihilation

The Witch

The Favourite

Your Name

Burning

The Florida Project

First Man

Darkest Hour

Home

A Star is Born

Baahubali 2: The Conclusion

Wind River

Thoroughbreds

Baby Driver

Upgrade

Run All Night

You Were Never Really Here

Raw

Boyka: Undisputed

The Neon Demon

Trolls

American Made

All the Money in the World

Elle

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Cinderella

Pitch Perfect 2

The End of the Tour

Paterson

The Intern

Wolf Warrior II

Padmaavat

The Gentlemen

Battle of the Sexes

Zero Days

Wonder

A Walk in the Woods

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Triple 9

Revenge

Rampage

Dope

Stonewall

Tag

Creed II

Crazy Rich Asians

The Great Wall

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Lady Bird

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Concussion

The Platform

Bohemian Rhapsody

Bumblebee

The Hitman's Bodyguard

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Don't Breathe

Skyscraper

Sing

The Shallows

Legend

Detective Chinatown 2

Wild Card

Hunter Killer

Forgotten

Oceans Eight

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Cars 3

The Equalizer 2

Hostiles

Woman in Gold

Insidious: Chapter 3

The Free State of Jones

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

The Age of Adaline

Ferdinand

American Ultra

Trumbo

Transformers: The Last Knight

Love

Pitch Perfect 3

A Wrinkle in Time

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

The Meg

Standoff

Criminal

The Forest

Detroit

The 5th Wave

Anna

Now You See Me 2

Poltergeist

London Has Fallen

A Ghost Story

The Nun

Leatherface

Genius

True Story

Irrational Man

Blackhat

Hitman: Agent 47

Gotti

Me Before You

The Good Dinosaur

Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds

Insurgent

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Mary Poppins Returns

Shock and Awe

The Boy

Hunter Prey

The D Train

Keanu

Last Knights

Diablo

Game of Aces

Sausage Party

The Boy Next Door

BlacKkKlansman

Fifty Shades Darker

"The Real Godzilla"

Related Entries:

Some Other Movies From 2019 (2)

Some Other Movies From 2018 (2)

Some Other Movies From 2017 (2)

Some Other Movies From 2016 (2)