100 Movies for 2020!!!

[Calamity Panfan]

Gonna start marking re-watches with asterisks.

1. Frozen II (Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee, 2019) - 1/2 - B
2. Uncut Gems (Josh & Benny Safdie, 2019) - 1/7 - A
3. You're Next (Adam Wingard, 2011) - 1/11 - B-
4. Arrietty* (Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2010) - 1/12 - B+
5. Anastasia* (Don Bluth & Gary Goldman. 1997) - 1/12 - B
6. The Room* (Tommy Wiseau, 2003) - 1/12 - A+
7. Bad Boys for Life (Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah, 2020) - 1/18 - B-

Thoughts on new viewings: Thought Frozen II was solid; not my favorite, but I enjoyed the story and the characters that weren't Olaf. Think overall the soundtrack isn't as good as the original, but "Into the Unknown" slaps (not the Panic! At the Disco version, though. That version decidedly sucks).

You're Next is a solid home invasion horror movie with black comedy elements that I missed at the time. I'd heard good things but wasn't blown away. It's got some fun moments and one of the twists got me but felt a decent amount of the rest was predictable. Wingard seems like an interesting director. This and The Guest were very praised indie horror movies but then he did the derided Blair Witch sequel and the dire Death Note Netflix movie. His next one is the Kong vs. Godzilla movie coming out later. Those reboots have been uneven but relatively fun so I'm interested to see if he bounces back, but his mainstream work so far has not impressed.

Uncut Gems is fantastic. As somebody who has recently had the worst panic attack of his life, I don't know if I should say "this movie feels like a panic attack" as praise but since that's basically what the Safdie Brothers are aiming for, it works. They're so adept at making these claustrophobic thrillers with desperate characters that just don't let up. Sandler is brilliant and should have been nominated for every award. His portrayal of a sad, desperate degenerate gambler who can't stop ****ing his life up is incredible and couldn't have been done by anyone else. The entire cast is perfect. Julia Fox is a revelation. Garnett gives maybe one of the best acting turns from an athlete I've ever seen. Oneohtrix Point Never's ambient synth score hits hard. There are at least five parts of the movie where you think that they can't possibly take things further and then Sandler's character does something more to intensify the situation and you want to scream. It's obviously not going to be for everyone (as evidenced by its CinemaScore going from A- to C+ as soon as the movie hit wide release). It's really the kind of movie that people will think is brilliant or unwatchable. But for people who are into tense as **** crime thrillers with great writing and a perfect cast, it's worth the increased heart rate it gives you.

And then my Little Women plans fell through so I ended up seeing Bad Boys for Life. They're basically the same thing, right?

The Bad Boys movies are films I have a nostalgic fondness for but have aged like dirt (Surprise! The Michael Bay buddy cop movies have a sense of humor that is... not great!) so I was very interested in Bad Boys for Life to see how they possibly try to make a new one of those. I expected it to be garbage (especially considering Will Smith's recent track record), but it was actually pretty solid? It's predictable as hell but Smith and Lawrence still have great chemistry so they're very good here. The humor actually got a few laughs out of me even if most of the jokes are extremely dumb. There's a twist that kind of took me out of it but there were enough explosions and fun action that brought me back in. January is an absolute dead zone for new movies so seeing a fun enough action with charismatic leads is good enough for me.

[Heroine of the Dragon]

The Addams Family 2019... I always go with the mindset to be entertained, and I was!!

[Booyakasha]

^I took everyone to see that when I was out in Dakota this halloween. I thought it was a very different animal from the nineties flicks. In a good way, I mean. They covered new ground.

[CaptHayfever]

10) A Day at the Races - B+
11) Dolittle - C+. Stubbins & Lady Rose, two of the most important roles in the film, get less character development than Dolittle's dead wife who only appears in brief flashbacks & has no lines. Also, literally all of Downey's dialogue was looped, which is understandable considering how the film had to be shot, but the dub was mixed in horribly & it's painfully jarring.
12) A Night in Casablanca - B+
13) Brain of Blood - D-. Terrible ripoff of Get Out, despite being made 45 years earlier. (I'm starting to watch through all of Cinematic Titanic.)
14) Room Service - B+
15) The Doomsday Machine - D-. Genuinely interesting concept marred by bad acting, incompetent cinematography, one of the worst endings I've ever seen, & killing off Casey Kasem in the first act.
16) At the Circus - A-
17) Almost Famous - A-

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

18) The Wasp Woman - C-. There could've been something here with a more competent director than Corman.
19) Animal Crackers - A
20) Blood Legacy - D. Again, good idea marred by incompetence. Freaky ending, though.
21) Duck Soup - A
22) The Family - B+

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Deku Tree]

4) I got to watch Kubo and the Two Strings today. What a beautiful movie.

[Valigarmander]

^ Laika is great. I still need to see Missing Link.

[Deku Tree]

I liked Smallfoot better than Missing Link.

[Heroine of the Dragon]

My Spy... very entertaining!!

[ScottyMcGee]

The first movie I saw this year was Frozen II and I wish I hadn't. The narrative was a mess and it wasn't as epic as the trailer made it out to be. I was kind of braindead by the end.

[Deku Tree]

5) Watched Pan's Labyrinth the other night. Really weird idea for a movie, but really well executed.

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

^ Yeah, it's pretty good but I didn't wasn't satisfied with the ending.

[CaptHayfever]

23) Ferris Bueller's Day Off - A
24) X-Men: Days of Future Past (Rogue Cut) - A
25) Once Upon a Deadpool - B+. The extra scenes are pretty good, & Savage's stuff is hilarious, but the reason "omitting parts" worked in Princess Bride was that Goldman had never actually written the "omitted" material in the first place.
26) The Lion King (1994) - A
27) Santa Claus Conquers the Martians - D+. A couple of the Martians are trying, but literally no one else in the cast & crew was.

Marcus Theaters was/is doing 90s Disney cartoon films on Saturdays right now, & the wife really wanted to go to Lion King. I said yes, because it's a darn good movie, & I'd rather pay $6 to see that than anything to see the new version.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[smol Kat]

That reminds me; my loud downstairs neighbors watched Lion King the other night, so I listened to it. That totally counts, right? I wish they'd watch more stuff like that, haha.

[RinkuTheFirst]

5. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) - 4/5

Extremely fun movie. I went in with very low expectations, but was blown away by the end. I would sell a kidney for one of those egg sandwiches.

[Booyakasha]

I just saw Jim Gaffigan's latest stand-up special, 'Quality Time'. It was a hoot.

[Calamity Panfan]

Rewatches have asterisks.

1. Frozen II (Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee, 2019) - 1/2 - B
2. Uncut Gems (Josh & Benny Safdie, 2019) - 1/7 - A
3. You're Next (Adam Wingard, 2011) - 1/11 - B-
4. Arrietty* (Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2010) - 1/12 - B+
5. Anastasia* (Don Bluth & Gary Goldman. 1997) - 1/12 - B
6. The Room* (Tommy Wiseau, 2003) - 1/12 - A+
7. Bad Boys for Life (Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah, 2020) - 1/18 - B-

8. Tremors* (Ron Underwood, 1990) - 2/1 - A+
9. Shrek* (Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson, 2001) - 2/2 - B
10. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (Cathy Yan, 2020) - 2/6 - B+
11. Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach, 2019) - 2/9 - B+
12. Toy Story 4 (Josh Cooley, 2019) - 2/10 - B+
13. Tremors* (Ron Underwood, 1990) - 2/11 - A+
14. Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory* (Mel Stuart, 1971) - 2/11 - B

Birds of Prey is really flawed but way more fun than a sequel to Suicide Squad ought to be. Robbie is still fantastic, and I think this does a good job at being pulpy comic book nonsense that's self-aware while not getting too Deadpool with it all. Not everything lands but this is a strong recommendation. The cast here is fantastic, especially Messina and McGregor hamming it up. The action is also great. Honestly some of the best-directed action scenes I've ever seen in a comic book movie.

Toy Story 4 is very good, but nothing on the level of the first three films. I enjoyed it. I don't ever need to see it again. Blah.

Marriage Story has some absolutely fantastic performances and writing, but there are several points where it all gets a little too "ACTING!"-y. I think the fight scene that got meme'd after the film's release was especially the case and probably the worst scene in the whole movie. The monologues and the fights are the weakest parts of the movie. The more understated moments of Marriage Story are where Driver and Johansson really shine. Dern is definitely the best part of the movie and deserved her Oscar. Also shout out to some great smaller roles played perfectly by Alan Alda, Julie Hagerty, Merritt Wever, Ray Liotta and Wallace Shawn.

[CaptHayfever]

28) Detective Pikachu - B. This was a good time. The characters were fleshed out well, things made sense, there was a plot...it's like somebody decided to make a good video game movie.
29) Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks - D-. So boring that I could barely pay attention even with the CT filter in place. Also, way to completely miss the point of the Frankenstein story.
30) Blood of the Vampires - F. Not just a bad movie with a bad dub, but also hella racist.
31) East Meets Watts - D+. The fight scenes were actually enjoyable....but nothing else was.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Deku Tree]

6) Birds of Prey was a blast. I particularly liked the use of Harley's narration, and the action scenes were super well put together. The humour consistently worked for me, too.

[CaptHayfever]

32) The Alien Factor - C-. Lotsa padding, lotsa bad acting, lotsa boring speeches,...cool twist ending!? Also, Zachary reminds me of Rowsdower.
33) Brides of Blood - D+. Genuinely hard to look at. Standard schlock.
34) To All the Boys I've Loved Before - B-
35) The Princess Bride - A+
36) The Hunger Games - B+

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"