Movies seen in 2020

 It's that time of the year again. 

Here are all the films I watched over the past 365 million days.

I ended up seeing just shy of 100 movies, so, it's - as usual - a bit of a lengthy post. Also, there may be the occasional spoiler here or there, so, you know, be warned if that sort of thing bothers you. (Although I think for the most part I keep my thoughts about movies spoiler-free.) 

So, with that out of the way...

MOVIES SEEN IN 2020

 

1.The Secret Life of Pets 2 - okay.  

2. Aladdin - rewatched the live action version for our weekly movie night. I liked it slightly less this time around, but it was still enjoyable enough. 

3. Amber Alert - yawn. “Found footage” movie that was about three minutes of plot stretched out to an hour and fifteen. Sam and Nate are making a video (with Sam’s younger brother Caleb as the camera operator) to audition for a reality show. While driving, they see an Amber Alert, and spot the car mentioned. They call the useless cops, and decide that they need to follow the car until the authorities arrive. Disbelief is stretched beyond any sort of suspension, and then there’s a downer ending.  

4. Ready or Not - Grace marries into a super rich, super dysfunctional (to put it mildly) family. On her wedding night, she discovers they have a tradition where a game has to be played by the new bride. Unfortunately, she picks the wrong game: a deadly version of Hide and Seek. This was funny, gory, mindless fun. 

5. It: Chapter Two - This was a step down from the first. It felt ...hollow? Like, there was no tension or suspense  - which is a little weird, because when I saw the trailer that was set in the old apartment, THAT was tense and disturbing, but then when I saw it in the context of the film, it wasn’t. But, yeah, Pennywise (and Bowers. Sigh.) never felt like a threat to the Losers, and all the CGI visions of their fears were just… monotonous. It wasn’t all bad. I *really* liked Bill Hader, and the flashbacks to the kids were mostly pretty great, too, because the kids were just amazing. But this was WAY too long. And just not nearly as good as I had hoped it would be.  

6. Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood - I think I’m officially over Tarantino. This was so damn boring and pointless. And long. Not every movie needs a 3 hour run time, folks. Especially if it’s gonna feel like 9. Oh, and it’s a minor thing, but the ellipses in the title go after “in” and before “Hollywood”. The library website has it correct. TVTropes has it correct in the main page, and then in the description takes the ellipses out. Wikipedia has it wrong (no ellipses). And IMDB has it wrong (ellipses after “Time”), which is super frustrating, seeing as how it has ads for the movie plastered RIGHT ABOVE THAT where they can see the freaking title.  

7. Willow - nothing to say about this; it’s just one of those feel good movies that still mostly holds up.  

8. Wrinkles the Clown - erm. A… “documentary” about a “clown” who provides the “service” of “scaring” kids. I have no idea how much of this was real, because halfway through it’s revealed that the person the filmmakers had been following/talking to who was the performance artist (for lack of a better term) known as Wrinkles ...was an actor hired by the true Wrinkles, so as to help hide his identity. And then the final 30 minutes or so was Wrinkles showing how he’d staged all his original viral videos. I thought originally this was going to be a horror movie about how a prankster/urban legend becomes real and starts actually showing up/scaring/murdering or whatever. So, having it turn out to be more of a factual display of events - but having THOSE be called into doubt… This whole thing just made me very tired of what the 21st century has evolved into. 

9. Joker - another boring clown movie. I had high hopes for this one, but this was a swing and a miss. I think part of the problem is Joker isn’t supposed to be explainable. He just IS. Revealing his origin story takes out the mystery. (Although, oddly, the ‘89 Batman movie also had Joker’s origin and...that one worked better than this.) Anyway, this was just meh, not worth the hype or the outrage and certainly not a freaking Best Picture nomination.

10. Gemini Man - the string of boring/bad movies in 2020 continues. The acting was okay, and the special effects with the de-aging of Will Smith was fine, but the action sequences were blah, and the pacing was off, and the story itself was just boring and predictable.  

11. Doctor Sleep - well, at least this was not bad. Not the best thing ever, either (the pacing at the beginning is pretty uneven) but this works pretty well as both a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s version of The Shining AND as an adaptation of the novel Doctor Sleep, by Stephen King, so, good job. 

12. Zombieland: Double Tap - Finally, it seems like the string of crap movies is coming to an end. This was a lot of fun. It’s rare that a sequel lives up to the original, but this one pretty much did, in my opinion. I mean, it was just lighthearted zombie jokes and gore, but that’s all I was asking for, really. 

13. Terminator: Dark Fate - fairly strong entry in the increasingly-muddled Terminator universe. It is weird how Hollywood seems to be obsessed with using nostalgia to lure people in, and also trying to completely demolish the past. “Hey, remember that character you grew to love 20 years ago? He dead.” But, you know, whatever, I’m not one of those fanboys who can’t adapt to newness in their IPs. It’s just...weird, is all. Anyway, this is mostly a mashup of bits and pieces of all the other Terminator sequels that have come along - a LOT of T2 replayed out; ignore the other sequels/timelines; T-800s can become human (and apparently still age) over time; one person is vital to the future resistance… But, I thought it was mostly enjoyable. I do wonder how [character redacted] was able to know certain bits of info, since, you know, that was supposedly coming from a timeline they weren’t from, but [shrug]. Timey-wimey, killer robots, action sequences with kickass females = all good. 

14. Parasite - Lots to unpack in this one. I’m not sure how I feel about it, to be honest.  

15. The Hole in the Ground - eh. Single mom, Sarah, and her son, Chris, move to a place near a forest, where the closest neighbor is an elderly woman who went insane a few years back claiming her son was an imposter. One night, Chris goes temporarily missing, and soon after Sarah begins to question whether Chris is actually her son. This was ...okay. Didn’t stand out at all, was all stuff we’ve seen before, really.  

16. Sorry to Bother You - I really liked this. Very funny, offbeat comedy that satirized capitalism and modern life, and was just ...very different. Cassius Green gets a job as a telemarketer, and soon begins shooting up the corporate ladder after discovering that using his “white voice” works wonders. His girlfriend and coworkers are left behind, struggling to unionize and get the respect and pay they deserve. Cash continues to focus on his career, only to discover some pretty horrific truths about the company he’s working for.  

17. Room - bits of this were really hard to watch, and the rug/truck sequence practically gave me a heart attack from the tension, but this was overall a very good movie. All about Joy, who has been held captive for 7 years, and her 5 year old son, Jack. Their captor keeps them in a shed, and so that small Room is the only world that Jack knows. Until Joy decides that they have to escape. Great performances all around. 

18. Hangman - heavy sigh. I think I found this listed on some internet list somewhere talking about creepy ‘found footage’ films. The “plot” of this is that an upper-middle-class American family goes on vacation, and a crazed voyeur breaks into their house, sets up a bunch of cameras, and moves into their attic. An hour and twenty minutes of him squatting in their home without their knowledge passes, with him doing increasingly boundary-crossing acts. Eventually he kills the parents. This was garbage, but it was oddly mesmerizing garbage. Still, I should find better things to watch. 

19. Knives Out - well there we go! This was a lot of fun. Murder mystery comedy flick that was just a joy to watch. I don’t really have a lot to say about it - I just found it quite enjoyable. 

20. The Other Guys - sometimes Will Ferrell’s comedy style works for me (Elf, Anchorman, most of his SNL stuff). This time it didn’t.  

21. I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore - Ruth is a bit of a sad sack, life is always giving her the short end of the stick. One day her home is robbed. She befriends her weird neighbor to help her recover her items, and their lives get entangled with the thieves’. This was good, but got incredibly dark in the last half hour.  

22. Frozen II - the animation was superb, the songs less memorable (although Into the Unknown did give me goosebumps). This probably wasn’t a necessary movie at all, but, Disney gonna Disney, so.  

23. The Lure - a horror-musical (we need more of those, by the way) about Golden and Silver, telepathic, bisexual, man-eating mermaids who get hired at a skeevy strip club in Poland in the 1980s.  (If that sentence doesn’t sell you, well, then this isn’t for you.)This was a dark reimagining of The Little Mermaid that wasn’t perfect, but was certainly *unique*. It was sort of like if Ginger Snaps was mermaids instead of werewolves. (Granted, it’s been years since I watched Ginger Snaps, so that comparison may not be accurate, but it was what I thought of while watching it.)  

24. Event Horizon - essentially a haunted house in space, this was a B-movie(ish) horror flick from the 90s that had somehow missed my radar until now. It was decent for what it was. Sam Niell, Laurence Fishburne, and, oh, hey! Jack Noseworthy! I always enjoy seeing him! The plot doesn’t make a whole lot of sense upon any sort of examination, but this ain’t what that type of movie is for. Turn off your brain and just enjoy it. (“Where we’re going, we won’t need eyes.” Pure awesome.) 

25. Jojo Rabbit - fantastic film. Johannes Beltzer is a 10 year old in 1940s Germany, who idolizes Hitler, and longs to be a Nazi (his imaginary friend is Adolf Hitler). All of the children in this film were superb, and the adults were all great too. Being set in the midst of World War II, it wasn’t all giggles, of course, and while I didn’t cry at a point near the halfway mark, the final five minutes had me bawling like a baby. If the point of a film is to move the audience, this movie absolutely worked its magic. Highly recommended. 

26. Toy Story 4 - zany adventures; heartfelt goodbyes; beautiful animation. You know, like every Pixar movie. 

27. The Godfather - So, finally saw this. It was a weird thing where even though I’ve never seen it before...I felt like I have, because of cultural osmosis, and all the numerous references to it (and since it was the trendsetter for essentially every mafia movie ever to follow it). Still, I’m glad that I’ve actually seen the real-deal, so to speak. The night we watched it, I wasn’t really feeling it - it’s a 3 hour movie, and we started watching it around 7:30, and I’m old. ANYWAY. It started off with a ton of characters, and keeping track of who was who was difficult at first, but as the movie went on, things got easier. Watching Michael’s corruption  (or rise to power, if you want to look at it that way) was compelling stuff. I still feel that Goodfellas is a better movie, although obviously without The Godfather, Goodfellas couldn’t have happened… so gotta give it props for that. My interest in seeing Part 2 has increased, and I’m sure that I’ll do that soon - although probably not for at least another month or so. See, we’re doing a ...thing now.  Rhett & Link came out with their Top 10 movies of all time lists… and Steph asked me to compose my own (and then she made her own as well)... and we’ve decided to watch all 40 films. This was Rhett’s #10. (correction - it was actually #9, we got his 9 and 10 movies backwards when we started this. Oh well.) 

28. Napoleon Dynamite - I HAAAATED this movie when I watched it back in 2007. Not a whole lot has changed in 13 years. It’s still massively unfunny, and I didn’t find any of the characters likable (maybe Pedro, maybe Deb… oh, and I guess Tina). This was Link’s #10, and ...man. I just hope his picks get better. (Don’t see how they can get much worse) 

29. Groundhog Day - This was my #10. It’s still a charming and funny movie about a loveable jerk stuck in an unexplained timeloop, but after this viewing… I don’t know if it’s really top 10 quality. Narrowing my list of great movies down to just ten was really difficult, and I’m pretty happy with what they are, I guess I’m just questioning all of my choices, and this one rounding out the bottom has me wondering if it actually should have made the cut. Ah, well, either way, it had been a while since I’d seen this, so it was nice to revisit it. This is one of those little gems of a movie that is just reliably good to watch. 

30. Stand By Me - Stephanie’s #10. I can remember seeing this in the theater back in 86, and thinking it was the greatest movie that had ever been made. I was 11, so just a year younger than the guys, and it connected with me big time. Even though it’s set in the 50s, the bond between the foursome felt very much like the bond I had with my core group of four friends (me, Matthew McCallister, Jason Strong, and Mike Buitron.) Anyway. I loved the friendship, the jokes, the profanity, the barf-o-rama story, the music (I was one of those dorks who largely ignored popular music in lieu of ‘classic rock’)... all of it just really worked for me. Rewatching it some 35 years later… most of it didn’t. Or, rather, not to the degree that it originally did, I guess. I’ve seen Stand By Me probably a few dozen times in my life over the years, but it’s been ...ten years, easily since I have last seen it from beginning to end. And while this is still a charming enough movie...I didn’t really feel connected to it anymore.  

31. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Steph’s #9. I’d only ever seen it once (as I’ve gotten older it’s truly rare (aside from doing this challenge, ha!) for me to rewatch movies. Anyway, I had seen this with Steph in the theater when it came out. I liked it then. I liked it now. Lucana is such a crappy company, though! Holy cow, all of their employees (save for Mary) are various levels of immoral jackasses. Which… considering what the company does makes a bit of sense, I suppose. Anyway, this is a fantastic romantic comedy that doesn’t fit in the typical rom-com mold. It’s neat seeing the relationship between Joel and Clementine in reverse. And it’s also interesting seeing their relationship (start to) reform before then, too. There’s probably an argument that the film could be making about fate… or perhaps that even after memories are erased, that the brain wants to go about rebuilding them. Anyway, pretty great movie. 

32. Guardians of the Galaxy - Link’s #9.  I had, of course, seen this before. It’s an okay Marvel installment. Not a bad popcorn flick. 

33. Die Hard - my #9. I… don’t know that Die Hard is *really* top ten material. Part of the problem(?) with doing this rewatch challenge, is I’m rewatching movies I haven’t seen in years, and with a much more critical eye than previously. So the flaws are more apparent. I struggled with my list when I was creating it - narrowing down all the movies I’ve seen to the best ten is a daunting task - and Die Hard was one that I questioned pretty hard (heh) before deciding to include it. After watching it again… I’m not sure I made the right decision. But, whatya gonna do? And while it was disappointing, it’s still got lots going for it! Alan Rickman is a treasure. Some of the lines are iconic (“Welcome to the party, pal!”; “Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho.”; “Gonna need some more FBI guys, I guess.”; and of course the Yippie-kay-ay line.). I do like how most of the writing pays off - the fists with toes thing coming back around, how smart the villains are (until they’re not), and how scared John is (but also smart). So… not a perfect movie, and maybe not as fantastic as my memory of it had led me to believe, but, I’m glad that I got to rewatch it in order to realize that. 

34. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - the good: seeing “Roland” on screen. (Or, at the very least what Stephen King wants to invoke with his gunslinger lead) The iconic soundtrack. A few of the bits of this were pretty funny. The bad: well….kinda everything else? As Steph said, this was just three assholes trying to get some money. The ugly: Actually, the vistas were quite beautiful. But, yeah, it was a pretty cynical film, with nobody to root for. This was Rhett’s #10. 

35. The Wizard of Oz - this is a classic for a reason. It’s truly timeless, and just a solid movie. Even with its faults and weirdness, it just stands the test of time. The songs are great (minus King of the Forest, which has always just been a miss for me), and it’s just a very easy film to get lost in. This was Rhett’s number 8 movie. 

36. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - this just so didn’t work for me. Bill Murray is Steve Zissou, an oceanographer who makes documentaries about his outings. Years ago they were critically acclaimed, but lately he’s lost his touch. After an accident where his longtime friend Esteban is eaten by a jaguar shark, Steve decides to get revenge, taking his quirky crew with him. I feel like this had potential to be good, but leaned WAY too hard on the quirky oddball aspects instead. Link’s #8. (Oh, and I gotta say, Link is not faring too well with his picks here. Both this and Napoleon Dynamite were stinkers, and Guardians of the Galaxy was okay, but certainly not top 10 worthy… I think, though, that his picks get better from here on out.) 

37. Superman: The Movie - my #8 movie. THE superhero movie that just set the tone for practically every other superhero flick  that followed. Is it cheesy and campy and ridiculous and illogical? Absolutely. And are the special effects outdated and silly looking? Yup. But I love it regardless. It’s just so much fun. And the soundtrack is the best. (I constantly flipflop between this and Star Wars as to which has the better John Williams music.) Yes, it’s very much a 70s movie, and it’s actually a little bit bloated, but, man. I just had a smile on my face for most of this, and despite having seen it probably hundreds of times, the helicopter scene (“I’ve got you, miss.” “You’ve got me? Who’s got you?”) gives me freaking goosebumps EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Christopher Reeve IS Superman. He’s earnest and pure (well, okay, the interview with Lois on her rooftop is cringey as hell… and let’s sort of ignore the ‘can you read my mind’ section completely, yeah?)... I don’t know. The whole thing is just a great movie. Am I blinded by nostalgia/my childhood love of this? Probably a bit, yeah. But I don’t care. I love this movie, flaws and all.  

38. The Phantom of the Opera - This was Steph’s #8 pick. Not normally my cup of tea, but I do have to admit that the songs/music is pretty great.  

39. The Princess Bride - this movie is so good that it was Rhett’s #7, and Steph’s #1. I would probably include it in my own top ten if I were to redo the list, it’s a pretty darn near perfect movie. 

40. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - Link’s 7. I get that this is a pulpy action romp from the 80s, and not meant to be anything but just fun. But it’s got SO many problems. And even just ignoring all the stuff that hasn’t aged well (and, let’s be honest, was problematic back in the 80s, as well)... it’s just not that good a movie. I think Indy does best when he’s punching Nazis.  

41. Night of the Living Dead - so tragic. My #7 pick, and still a tense awesome little horror movie. It’s interesting to see how ‘ghouls’ have evolved since their genesis. Yes, they ate flesh, and they shambled along, but they could also use tools (the first one encountered uses a rock to smash the window, later they use rocks to smash the headlights off the truck, and the little girl uses a trowel later…). Also, it’s funny/sad that Cooper was right. The basement WAS strong enough. Of course, Ben was also right. The basement WAS a deathtrap. Johnny was right, too! They WERE coming to get you, Barbara!  

42. Little Women - Steph’s #7, this was the 2019 version (apparently a version was made in ‘94 and possibly a few other times as well). I’ve never seen any adaptation of this, nor have I read the novel. It was decent enough, not something I would have normally seeked out to watch, but I enjoyed the performances and the characters. 

43. Get Out - Rhett’s #6. I’d seen this before and loved it. Knowing the twists this time diminished the impact just a tiny bit, but this was still a very clever, very enjoyable movie. Steph doesn’t care for horror movies, but she liked this one. It’s just a very well made film. 

44. The Big Lebowski - Link’s 6. I had seen this before, too, and my overall feeling then was that it was slightly amusing, but I didn’t understand the HUGE amount of love it gets from the online world. This time around, things clicked better, and I found myself really digging it. It does have a severe lack of worthwhile female characters (it doesn’t even pass the Bechdel test!), and some of the ‘trippy’ sequences go on a little bit longer than they should, but I did find myself appreciating this more this go around. (of course, that’s just, like, my opinion, man.) 

45. Terminator 2: Judgment Day - my top 6 pick. Some of the effects are starting to fray around the edges, but still very remarkable - especially for a nearly 30 year old film (!!) I love the Terminator franchise, with all its weirdness and flaws, and logic holes, so this was still a fun ride. The action sequences are still top notch - during the bike/truck chase, I found myself sitting on the edge of the couch, even though I’ve seen it dozens of times, and know it by heart. And when Sarah goes to the Dyson household, effectively becoming a terminator herself… I didn’t cry (I’m not *that* easily manipulated) but I DID actually feel her pain. The thumbs up ending is still cheesy, and I still 1000% believe that a better (though admittedly, much darker) ending to the film  (series??) would be if John was completely erased from existence due to their changing history, but those are small nicks in what is essentially a fantastic sci-fi action movie that has had a huge impact on my life. 

46. The Age of Innocence - Steph’s #6. I ...did not like this. The oppression of the culture that all of these characters were living in was uncomfortable to watch, and just made me feel badly for everyone. Like, nobody was able to be themselves and be happy, they all had to put on facades due to social pressure. I guess that’s been true throughout most of human history, but, still. This just wasn’t a movie I would normally seek out, and watching it didn’t change my opinion much. 

47. The Guyver - pure camp. An alien species known as the Zoanoids are on earth, searching for a piece of technology called the Guyver. When it falls into the hands of an innocent young man named Sean, he must battle against them in order to protect all of humanity. I only watched this because Jimmie Walker, Mark Hamill, and Michael Berryman are in it. It’s not anywhere near approaching ‘good’ at all, and I’m not sure it even hits the ‘so bad it’s good’ level.  

48. Uncut Gems - I despise Adam Sandler’s comedy movies, but when he decides to do dramatic roles, he can be surprisingly good! Here, he plays Howard Ratner, a jewelry store owner who consistently makes very bad decisions regarding money, bets, jewels, and women. He’s not a very likeable person, but I still was sort of rooting for him? The final twenty minutes or so of this were severely anxiety-inducing.  

49. Back to the Future - Rhett’s #5. A pretty good fun movie, but, as with so many of these rewatches...I think I’ve nearly hit my limit watching it. It was a good time, but it’s been analyzed and criticized so much that the flaws stand out, and the shine beneath is ...not as shiny, if that makes sense. Crispin Glover and Christopher Lloyd are still a joy to watch, though. (but seriously, where does original flavor Marty go??) (Also also - Biff sexually assaults (or attempts to, at least) your future wife… and ya’ll keep him around? I mean, I get it - it's comeuppance for the bully to have to be the servant to the dude he pushed around...but still. I’m sure it was awkward for Lorraine to have to see him around all the time, ya know? Also also also - it took you 30 years to write your book, George? [okay, I don’t have room to argue that, as I still haven’t completed any of my artistic endeavors, but instead of “your first book”, they could have the line been “your latest book” and it would have made me happier.] 

50. Good Time - I checked this out due to seeing previews for it when watching Uncut Gems - it’s made by the same directors - and I’m mostly glad I did. Robert Pattinson plays Connie, a guy who loves his brother, Nick, who is mentally disabled. After a semi-successful bank robbery leaves Nick in jail needing bail money, Connie attempts to get enough cash to bail him out. This was decent enough, but around the hospital scene, I wasn’t able to maintain my suspension of disbelief, and it didn’t have a strong enough conclusion to have made it worthwhile.  

51. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - Links’ #5. This was fine, but I think I’m Star Warsed out. 

52. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off - my #5. Such an enjoyable two hours. The Twist & Shout section always makes me cry tears of joy (this time was no exception) and I even got goosebumps (?!) when they went to the art museum. This is just one of those movies that I don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of. 

53. The Lighthouse - Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are lighthouse keepers in the 1880s, and they both might be a wee bit crazy. This was weird. It was enthralling for most of it (around the one hour fifteen minute mark, I did start to get a little bit bored), but… I felt like it didn’t have enough payoff. But it’s certainly unique, I’ll give it that. 

54. The Invisible Man - an update to the Universal Monster movie (which, admittedly, I haven't seen (heh)) that was also a neat, twisty thriller. This was a great popcorn flick that I really enjoyed. 

55. The Hunt - a group of “elites” decide to start hunting “deplorables” for sport. This movie was supposed to be satire, I guess, but it ...um. Wasn’t funny or biting or entertaining, really. It was violent and gory, but it was not much more than that. Sometimes that’s enough, this time… not so much. 

56. Bloodshot - Vin Diesel stars as Ray, a US soldier who gets killed by a psychopath, only to be resurrected by a high-tech company that specializes in these types of things. Ray soon discovers that the company is a bit more sinister than he had believed originally, and that much of what he thought had happened in his life was not true. A better-than-average (but not MUCH better) superhero movie.  

57. The Lodge - pretty creepy horror flick. I liked that for most of this movie you’re never quite sure whether the ‘villain’ is the stepmother or the kids or both or neither. The reveal at the end is a tiny bit of a step down from the tension and sense of dread that builds up for the most part, but this was still a movie I’d give thumbs up to. 

58. Jumanji: The Next Level - a neat sequel that is about on par with the Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle. Maybe a small step down, but still entertaining enough. 

59. Hamilton - oh wow. Okay, I knew about Hamilton, of course, but it largely seemed like something that i would not be interested in, despite all the praise it got. I was wrong. It was great. So many of the songs are fantastic and catchy, and it was funny, and very moving (tears flowed, yall), and goosebumps were had, and I’m probably going to watch this at least one more time, something that I do very infrequently, unless it’s a GREAT movie. Hamilton is such an experience. 

60. Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn - fun, but… somehow not very surprising. I expect Harley to be more chaotic/unpredictable than the movie ended up being. It was still fun. Margot Robbie is absolutely the best thing that the DC universe has going for it right now. 

61. The Goonies - Hey you guys!! Steph made this her #5 movie (her original pick was Pride & Prejudice, which, she later discovered, was actually a mini-series, not a movie, so she changed it to this instead). This movie is super dumb, and there are a number of things that haven’t aged well, but damn it, it’s still comfort food. Having been to Haystack Rock and Astoria only adds to the sentimentality of the film.  

62. Guns Akimbo - super dumb super fun super violent movie about an average meek coder, Miles (Daniel Radcliffe), who spends his free time trolling people online. When he runs afoul of Skism - an illegal murder-club that pits people against one another in death-fights - he ends up getting guns bolted to his hands. After accidentally shooting a police officer, and his ex-girlfriend also getting kidnapped, he’s gotta go exact revenge. It’s pure stupid, but somehow also sort of fun? Sure, the MCU exists, but this movie is one of the few I’ve seen that FELT like a comic book. (I haven’t checked to see if it’s based off one, it wouldn’t surprise me.) 

63. Come To Daddy - Elijah Wood plays a nerdy middle-aged guy named Norval whose father walked out on him 35 years ago. After he gets a letter asking to make amends, Norval goes to visit his old man. It turns out that he’s not exactly what Norval was expecting. This was an okay dark comedy. I am not sure I liked the ending, and I don’t know if there was meant to be some deeper symbolism or if it was just meant to be weird, but either way it was ...okay. 

64. Braveheart - ugh. Toxic masculinity, misogyny, flat characters, predictable as hell, and just way, WAY too long. I did like Mel Gibson’s eyes, though. He’s got pretty eyes. (Steph tells me he has the same eyes in every movie he’s been in, and while I’m sure that’s true, I just never really noticed them before.) This was Rhett’s #4. 

65. One Cut of the Dead - Japanese zombie flick about an indie zombie flick that has actual zombies invade during the filming. This was extremely clever, and a lot of fun. It’s best to go into it without knowing much, so try to see it without being spoiled, if you can. 

66. O Brother, Where Art Thou? - Link’s #4 pick. This was very amusing.  

67. Fight Club - my #4 pick. I ranked this much too high.  

68. The Little Mermaid - Steph’s #4 pick. Can’t go wrong with Disney. 

69. Night of the Comet - I’d last seen this probably 30 years ago, and figured I’d give it a rewatch. Doesn’t really hold up. I mean, it’s ok, but wasn’t something I absolutely had to seek out again. A well-done remake would be welcome. 

70. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - We’re in the homestretch… this was Rhett’s #3. Kind of weird to watch just 1/3rd of the movies, but, MAN this was a long flick. It’s a good movie and all, but whoo, boy, it was just a LOT. I think that the 3rd movie is actually the best, but it’s been so long since I’ve watched them all that I might be misremembering. Anyway, the rest of the movies on the list are all really good ones, so I’ve got that to look forward to. And after the challenge maybe we’ll rewatch the other two Lord(s) of the Ringses. 

71. Elf - Link’s #3 movie, and it’s a good one. Even watching it at the beginning of August, it’s just a good flick. As I’ve gotten older, a lot (MOST) of Xmas movies just irk me, but Elf is one of those exceptions. 

72. Clue - my #3 pick. While maybe not quite as hilarious as I remember it being, this is still very funny, and has some classic, classic lines. 

73. The Truman Show - Stephanie’s #3. So dark, man. I know they try to keep it light, but my brain can’t help but think of just how fucked up poor Truman would actually have been. And the townspeople, too. His wife, his best friend. His mom. (OR should I have said “wife”, “best friend” and “mom”?) I remembered this being ...funnier? Or at least, having more levity in it. This time, it didn’t seem very humorous, and while I knew that it would have a “happy” ending, the majority of it filled me with a sense of dread and heartbreak.  

74. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - my #2. I loved it the first time I watched it, loved it this time, too. This movie is just pure art. 

75. Labyrinth - Steph’s #2 pick. This movie makes no sense, has poor acting, bad pacing, special effects that have aged poorly, and it’s absolutely great. 

76. Pulp Fiction - Rhett and Link both put this in their top slot. It’s quite quotable, and has many memorable scenes, and the soundtrack is TOP-NOTCH,  but… I don’t know. I have only ever seen Pulp Fiction once, and while I really liked it that time… this one felt ...emptier? I think a LARGE part of the charm of Pulp Fiction is not knowing what is going to happen. Knowing the outcomes sorta diminished it somehow. That, and Quentin Tarantino, the person. His foot fetish, and his just all around aura of ...douche-bag-i-ness, I guess. Also, his obsession with the n word bristles. And the homophobia. I don’t know if I’m being too harsh on these rewatches or not. I’ve just discovered that for a large percentage of movies, it seems that it’s better to just have it live in my memory from the first time I viewed it. Anyway, we are thinking of doing a batch of “movies we’ve never seen but always wanted to” soon, so perhaps that will result in some more enjoyable viewings. (Not saying that these top 10s have been bad! I’ve mostly liked them, even the ones that I’ve bad-mouthed… Just saying that perhaps it’s time for me to watch some stuff without any previous memories to compare it to.) 

77. Sonic the Hedgehog - more or less what I was expecting. 

78. The Shawshank Redemption - my #1 pick. Very well acted, and one of those compelling movies that is easy to get sucked into. Probably a tiny bit overrated, but certainly a good one nonetheless. Now that we’ve gotten through our (and Rhett’s & Link’s) top tens… well. I think we’re going to make another top ten list. And also a list of movies we’ve never seen. 

79. Romeo + Juliet - could this movie scream “1996” any louder? I don’t think it could. This was #10 on Steph’s next top ten list (so, I guess #20?) Anyway. We had seen this together - one of the first movies we went to see together - so it was sentimental for those reasons, but we both had largely forgotten about it. But it’s not a bad movie! It’s Shakespeare! But set in modern times. Baz (or someone) should do this with more Shakespeare. I wouldn’t mind seeing Macbeth updated for the modern era, for example.  

80. Magnolia - my 2nd 10. I don’t think there were any good fathers in this. But, despite it being supremely long and melodramatic, I still enjoyed this sprawling epic of interconnectedness. Plus, the soundtrack is one of the best in the world. 

81. Pete’s Dragon - this movie is fucking weird. And VERY 70s. But so damn good anyway.  This was Steph’s #9. 

82. Spirited Away - my second #9. Ten year old Chihiro and her parents are moving to a new house. Along the way, her parents get turned into pigs, Chihiro loses her name, and she befriends a river spirit, among other things. This movie’s pretty amazing. 

83. Booksmart - A teen comedy for the new millennium. I thought this was very funny and nice to see a comedy that wasn’t entirely mean-spirited. All of the characters had depth to them, and it was a fun journey seeing their various layers revealed. At first I had avoided this movie because of hearing that it was like a gender-flipped Superbad, but unlike that movie, this one was actually funny, and I cared about the characters. 

84. The Secret of NIMH - The kids and Steph had recently read Mrs. Frisby and the Secret of NIMH, so we decided to watch the animated movie that it inspired. The consensus was overwhelmingly that the book was better. (I haven’t read the novel, but upon revisiting this, it… most certainly did not hold up to the nostalgia lens I had been viewing it thru.) 

85. Rear Window - Steph & I each made a list of 10 movies neither of us had ever seen (to mix up the amount of re-watches we’ve been doing with our top 10s), and I have a few Hitchcock flicks on there, since I’ve managed to make it 45 years on this planet and only seen Psycho. So, this was my number ten never seen before movie, and it was...okay. It was a bit of a slow burn, which is probably to be expected since it’s a 66 year old movie. But, honestly, the last 20-30 minutes when it picked up WERE pretty suspenseful.  

86. Little Joe - imagine Little Shop of Horrors got 2020-ified. Alice is a workaholic divorced mom raising her son, Joe. She is a professional plant breeder, and her latest obsession is a new breed of flower she’s named Little Joe that has been genetically engineered to produce chemicals that make the owners feel happiness. Alice steals a Little Joe and brings it home, giving it to her Joe. Little Joe spreads some pollen that Joe inhales, and things go decidedly downhill. The paranoia slowly increases as we can never really tell if people are changing from interacting with Little Joe’s pollen, or just normal reactions. The two take-aways from this movie are that genetic engineering is probably something we shouldn’t tinker with, and wear your damn mask. 

87. Enola Holmes - perfectly acceptable fluff. Sherlock Holmes has a younger sister (played by Millie Bobbie Brown) who is just as brilliant as he is. When their mother goes missing, Enola goes looking for her. This was apparently adapted from a series of Young Adult books, and it feels exactly like that. (Not a complaint!) 

88. Annihilation - Steph’s number 9 on her “never seen before” list. (I hadn’t seen it either) I ...don’t know how I feel about this one. The ending was one that I felt ...I don’t know. It shouldn’t have been that ending, I don’t think. My initial reaction after the film ended was simply “What.” Steph said she probably would have liked the novel better (this is based on a novel, which neither of us have read, either). I don’t know. THere were bits of this that I really liked - the overall atmosphere of the film was one of unease, and it worked pretty well. The nonlinear aspect played into that pretty well. And I liked that we got a scifi/action/horror type movie with an all-women ensemble for once. There was a lot of nightmare fuel (the video, and the um… guest that arrives during a certain interrogation being two of the biggest), and there was also a lot to mull over philosophically (like the self-destructive nature of each of the characters playing a role in how certain events played out…), but it also felt like… I don’t know. The nonlinear aspect also felt a bit unnecessary, and that damn ending just rubbed me the wrong way. I *almost* think I’d like this movie more if i watched it a second time, but I also know that that’s unlikely to happen.  

89. Say Anything… - this was my #9 on my list of movies I’d never seen. It was...okay.I think if I’d seen it 20 years ago, I probably would have enjoyed it more, but it was still a decent flick.  

90. Pride & Prejudice - we’re switching back to our top tens (part duex), and this was Steph’s #8. I gotta admit, it was hard for me to stay awake during this. Not sure why period piece dramas don’t click with me. I did see the majority of it, and the acting was fine, the costumes and whatnot were fine, the story itself was fine… Just not my cuppa tea, I guess. 

91. Grease - my #8. Timeless. While the upbeat tunes (“Hand Jive”, “We’ll Be Together”, “You’re the One That I Want”, “Summer Nights”) are my favorites, even the slower songs (“Totally Devoted”, “Worse Things I Could Do”, “Sandy”) are top notch.  

92. My Octopus Teacher - Steph had this on her “movies i’ve never seen” list, and so we scratched it off there. Very sweet (and, yes, sad) documentary about a man and an octopus he befriends. Ocean life is still extremely freaky looking, but, man, is it amazing to look at. 

93. Brazil - This was absurd and nightmarish and mildly amusing, but it felt like it was ...too much? Like, I get that bureaucracy is a hellscape and deserves to be mocked and belittled and satirized. This was just...it was hard to care about the characters, and I don’t know if the ‘love story’ aspect was necessary. It felt like someone just took a chunk of dystopian tropes put them in a blender and sprinkled in some visual jokes. This was on my list of ten ‘never seen’ movies. Now I have. 

94. Klaus - we opted to watch this animated holiday movie for our ‘holiday movie night’ activity. It was quite good! It’s essentially an origin story for the superhero known as Santa Claus. Turns out that he was a widowed toymaker in an arctic region known as Smeersburg. When an entitled rich young man gets stationed there as the new postmaster, the two become friends while also vastly improving the lives of the citizens.  

95. Bill & Ted Face the Music - Cotton candy. It was harmless, and even emitted a chuckle or two from me, but it felt toothless and completely unnecessary. I don’t know what I wanted from a third Bill and Ted movie, but this didn’t really deliver it. 

96. 10 Things I Hate About You - perfectly enjoyable teenage romcom that was just sort of comfort food. The cast was all really good. And it helped that quite a lot of it was very funny. This was plucked from Steph’s “Never seen it” list. I’d never seen it (entirely) either, but a LOT of the dialogue is stuff I’ve seen/heard through osmosis. *edit* - apparently I *had* seen it at some point, but had just forgotten that I had? Eh. Either way, I enjoyed it this time around.  

97. Brittany Runs a Marathon - This was on my “haven’t seen” movies. I liked it. Funny, emotional, the characters were very real. Good stuff.