Best and Worst Films of 2021

2021 YEAR IN REVIEW

Movies I liked in 2021:

Below the Fold
The Deep House
Fear Street Part One:  1994
Jakob’s Wife
Last Night in Soho
Luca
Meander
The Retreat
Silent Night
Slaxx
Slumber Party Massacre
The Stylist
 
Movies in 2021 I feel will get better with time:
 
Autumn Road
Honeydew
The Night
Night at the Eagle Inn
The Night House
Werewolves Within
Willy’s Wonderland
 
Movies I disliked in 2021:
 
The Alpines
The Amityville Scarecrow
Apex Predators
The Banishing
Don’t Look Up
Dune
The 8^th Night
Fever Dream
First Date
The French Dispatch
Fried Barry
The Green Knight
Hypnotic
The Legend of Fall Creek
Locked In
Lucky
The Nest (dir. James Settles)
The Penthouse
Pig
Prisoners of the Ghostland
Road Head
‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas
The Unholy
Virus Shark
Voyagers
The Woman in the Window
Zola
 
TV Shows I liked in 2021:
 
AlRawabi School for Girls (Netflix)
Are You Afraid of the Dark?: Curse of the Shadows
Calls (Apple+)
Elves (Netflix)
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (season three)
Midnight Mass (Netflix)
Reservation Dogs (Hulu)
Secrets of Sulphur Springs (Disney+)
 
TV Show in 2021 I feel will get better with time:
 
Chucky (season one)
 
TV Shows I disliked in 2021:
 
Brand New Cherry Flavor (Netflix)
The Chestnut Man (Netflix)
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Jurassic World:  Camp Cretaceous (season two and four)
Just Beyond (Disney+)
 
Other superlatives:
Coolest Title(s):  Death Rink; Sharks of the Corn
Good-but-not-as-much-as-the-hype:  Raya and the Last Dragon; Squid Game (season one)
Not-as-bad-as-they-said:  Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin
Biggest Disappointment(s):  Benny Loves You; Fear Street Part Two: 1978; Ghostbusters: Afterlife;             Nightmare Alley
Most Disappointing TV Show(s):  Creepshow (season two); Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (season        two and four); Just Beyond (season one); Servant (season two)
Most Overrated:  The Mitchells vs. the Machines; Pig; PG: Psycho Goreman
Most Unnecessary Sequels:  The Addams Family 2; Don’t Breathe 2; The Forever Purge; Nobody                Sleeps in the Woods Tonight II; Spiral (From the Book of Saw)
Worthy Sequels:  Candyman; Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin
Most Unnecessary Remakes/Re-imaginings:  Dune; He’s All That; Nightmare Alley; Tom & Jerry
Worthy Remakes/Re-imaginings:  Night of the Animated Dead; Slumber Party Massacre;                             Wrong Turn
Best Anthology Film:  Bad Candy
Worst Anthology Film:  The French Dispatch
Best Documentary:  Clerk.
Worst Documentary:  ‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas
Most Anticipated in 2022:  Film---Clerks III; Evil Dead Rise; Jurassic World: Dominion.                              TV---Wednesday
 
Commentary:  Movies suck nowadays.  Period.  I don’t know how many times I have to stress that every year I make these lists.  But you know what?  I thought of something not that long ago.  Sometimes movies age better.  There have been movies I wasn’t so crazy about the first time, but liked better a second time.  There have also been instances where I liked a movie the first time, but wasn’t so crazy about it the second time.  So I’m wondering if best-of lists need to be put on hold for a year or so?  Perusing through my year-end lists I’ve noticed movies that didn’t make my best list but would most definitely make it had I made the list later.  Believe it or not, some of the titles on my worst lists weren’t so bad over time; some, not many.  I didn’t love films like High Tension, Trick ‘r Treat, Let the Right One In, and Paranorman the first time I saw them, but eventually they became some of my favorite films, at least in their subgenres.  So, I don’t know, perhaps I’ll feel differently about these titles I picked later on, or I’ll wish I included other titles?  Sometimes I wonder if the films I claim to love from the past are partially due to nostalgia.  Some films I loved the first time and still love to this day, such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Evil Dead, and Black Christmas, to name a few (I hope I don’t need to verify that I’m talking about the originals for all those titles, thank you).  Opinions change and criticism will always be subjective (as I always needlessly say).  It is nice to hear other opinions though and my opinions have changed sometimes due to hearing others and thinking of the film differently.  That’s why I made a list of titles this year that I think might age better.  As with the last couple years, I also just listed the best and worst titles alphabetically instead of numbering them since I don’t really know how to list either one in descending order; some better than others and some worse than others, of course.  You can always read my reviews at http://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/, and check out the ratings only at https://myfilmratings.blogspot.com/2019/02/my-film-ratings-in-alphabetical-order.html (under the ‘About Me’ section you can also click on ‘View My Complete Profile’ to check out all my blogs).  Unsurprisingly, and unfortunately, the movies I disliked far outnumbered the movies I did like (which I didn’t really love any of them; at least not yet).  I also included lists for best and worst TV shows for the first time since I watched a lot of them last year and couldn’t really choose a favorite and least favorite one.  Well, I hate to sound like a broken record, and a bit pessimistic, but I’m not looking forward to 2022 being a spectacular year for film (or TV), but, as long as movies and shows continue being released, I’ll keep watching.  Perhaps I should start making updated lists every year now too…2/7/2022

---Sean O.

2/8/2022

Best/Worst Films of 2021...so far

Movies I liked in 2021 (so far):

Fear Street Part One:  1994

Jakob’s Wife

Luca*

Meander

Slaxx

The Stylist*

Movies I kind of liked in 2021 (so far):

The Night

Willy’s Wonderland

Movies I disliked in 2021 (so far):

The Banishing

The 8^th Night*

Fried Barry*

Lucky

The Nest

Oxygen

The Penthouse

Voyagers

The Woman in the Window

Other Superlatives:

Good-but-not-as-much-as-the-hype:  Raya and the Last Dragon

Biggest Disappointment:  Fear Street Part Two:  1978

Most Unnecessary Remake:  Tom & Jerry

Actually Worthy Remake/Re-imagining:  Wrong Turn

Most Overrated:  The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Best TV Show(s):  Calls; Jurassic World:  Camp Cretaceous (Season Three)

Most Disappointing TV Show(s):  Creepshow (Season Two); Jurassic World:  Camp Cretaceous (Season Two); Servant (Season Two)

Commentary:  I know 2021 is a little more than halfway over, but whatever.  I’m not going to complain about the lack of good movies anymore, because it’s what I pretty much have come to expect from here on out.  I hate to sound like a close-minded codger, but they just don’t make movies like they used to anymore.  I still try to be open-minded though and watch new movies hoping some of them, if not most of them, will be worthy.  As I’ve done for at least the past two years, I don’t even list them in order from greatest to least greatest or worst to least worst anymore, I just list them alphabetically, and I don’t even try to limit it to just ten, if I even have that many titles to choose from.  The movies I picked for the best so far weren’t even that great, Luca and The Stylist probably being the best of the bunch, but I liked them enough to include them; yes, I did enjoy that movie about killer pants more than I thought I would.  The 8^th Night and Fried Barry are probably the worst of the worst bunch.  I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Calls, it consisting solely of words displayed on the screen, enough to give it the best TV show honor, in addition to season three of Camp Cretaceous, which was a big improvement over season two (it seems like season two for at least three shows didn’t work out so far this year).  Well, there’s a little less than half the year left for good movies/shows to be released, but, like always, I’m not keeping my hopes up…I’ve been letdown too many times…7/21/2021

Best and Worst Films of 2020

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW

Movies I liked in 2020:

 

Alien Xmas

The Beach House*

Books of Blood

Color Out of Space

The Hunt

Sea Fever

Soul

Spontaneous

Vampires vs. the Bronx

The Vast of Night

The Wolf of Snow Hollow

You Don’t Nomi 

Movies I disliked in 2020:

The Amityville Harvest

Amulet

The Bay of Silence

The Binding

Carrion

Clownface

Evil Eye

Greener Grass

The Grudge

The Haunting of Margam Castle

The Night Clerk

Nocturne

Outback

Parallel

Retaliation

Scoob!

She Dies Tomorrow*

Souvenirs

The Turning

Underwater

0.0  MHz 

Other Superlatives:

Coolest Title(s):  Alien Xmas

Good-but-not-as-much-as-the-hype:  Wolfwalkers

Not-as-bad-as-they-said:  Antebellum; Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island

Biggest Disappointment(s):  Koko-di Koko-da; The Lodge; VFW; Welcome to the                            Blumhouse (series)

Most Unnecessary Sequel(s):  The Babysitter: Killer Queen; Black Water: Abyss; Deep Blue Sea 3;     Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula

Actually Worthy Sequel(s):  Bill & Ted Face the Music; Tremors: Shrieker Island

Most Unnecessary Remake(s):  The Grudge; The Invisible Man; The Turning; The Witches

Actually Worthy Remake(s):  Color Out of Space

Most Overrated:  His House; Host (Shudder)

Best Documentary:  You Don’t Nomi

Best TV Show(s):  The Haunting of Bly Manor; Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (season one); The     Woods (season one)

Most Disappointing TV Show(s):  The Outsider (season one)

Worst TV Show(s):  Ju-On: Origins (season one)

Most Overrated TV Show(s):  Outer Banks (season one)

Best Comeback:  Bill & Ted Face the Music

Needs a Comeback:  Good movies!

Most Anticipated in 2021:  Fear Street Trilogy

Commentary:  Well, another year down and another shitty year for movies.  2020 was not a good year for a lot of things, good movies being one, although an abundance of good movies hasn’t existed for years now.  Bad movies, on the other hand, will always be in abundance, or even movies that are just okay.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Roger Ebert (R.I.P.) once said that “life is too short to see movies that are just okay.”  As you can see, I didn’t make a top ten list for best and worst films like I also did last year for the first time.  There just aren’t enough good movies to compile from greatest to least greatest, and even though there will always be much more on the worst list (unfortunately), sometimes it’s hard even determining which of those to list in order.  Therefore, I simply listed which movies I liked and disliked in alphabetical order again.  If I had to pick from each list though, I would say The Beach House, originally a Shudder exclusive (you can purchase the DVD now), was the best movie I saw last year, and She Dies Tomorrow would have to win for the worst (it was also one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen!).  I only included The Wolf of Snow Hollow and Vampires vs. the Bronx on my best list, because the former was a different kind of werewolf film, even though, SPOILER, it wasn’t really a werewolf film at all, and the latter because it contained vampires of the more traditional variety, which proves I didn’t have much to include on my “best list” this year.  I included Books of Blood because it was an anthology movie containing segments that were all worthy enough (something rare for such films).  I always wait until around this time to compile and post this list just so I can watch more films that are released on video (a.k.a. DVD/Blu-ray/streaming/etc.) in January or early February.  Plus, the Oscars and Golden Globes and whatever other award shows aren’t aired until around this time either!  Unfortunately, I’ll likely see films released from here on out that I wish could’ve been included on at least the best list, but, I know, I can always come back and make adjustments.  Superlatives were added again because they’re always fun to make and read and include films that might not have made either list; plus TV shows are included (I don’t watch enough TV shows during the year to make a separate list for that).  Well, I would say let’s hope for a good year in film for 2021, but the last couple years haven’t been giving me much hope.  I always say I should just re-watch movies I know I like instead of most new ones, but there’s always that undeniable thrill of watching a movie for the first time and possibly discovering a premature classic (subjective or otherwise).  So, I’ll keep watching new movies (hopefully I’ll see some on the big screen again too after the spread of certain viruses completely dissipates), but won’t expect much good to be released.  Prove me wrong filmmakers…2/14/2021

---Sean O.

2/16/2021

Best/Worst Films of 2020...so far

Best of 2020 (so far):

Color Out of Space

The Hunt

Sea Fever

The Vast of Night

You Don’t Nomi

Worst of 2020 (so far):

The Grudge

The Night Clerk

Outback

The Turning

Underwater

Other Superlatives:

Good-but-not-as-much-as-the-hype:  Da 5 Bloods; Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness

Not-as-bad-as-they-said:  Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island

Biggest Disappointment(s):  The Jack in the Box; The Lodge; VFW

Most Unnecessary Remake(s):  The Grudge; The Invisible Man; The Turning

Most Overrated:  The Half of It; The Invisible Man

Best Documentary:  You Don’t Nomi

Best TV Show(s):  The Woods (season one)

Most Overrated TV Show(s):  Outer Banks (season one)

Most Disappointing TV Show(s):  The Outsider (season one)

Commentary:  Well, half the year is over and I haven’t seen that many movies.  Of course this year has been a bit different than others.  The movies I have seen haven’t been excellent, like the last couple years it seems, and the ones I listed as the best so far weren’t even entirely spectacular, but I did like them enough to include them on the list.  I only listed 5 for each given that the year is half over and 5 is half of the normal 10 for the entire year (even though my list for last year was a bit different).  I listed both sets alphabetically as I’m not entirely sure where any would stand on a best to worst ranking, although I think The Grudge remake (the second one!) would surely be the worst so far.  I listed some superlatives (as you can see) as well, because why not?  I hope the rest of the year somehow gets better with movies, but I’m not counting on it…7/1/2020

---Sean O.
7/1/2020

Best and Worst Films of 2019

2019 YEAR IN REVIEW

Movies I liked in 2019:

Antrum:  The Deadliest Film Ever Made

Brightburn

Child’s Play

Climax

Eli

Everfall

47 Meters Down: Uncaged

Greta

Joker

Klaus

Nightmare Cinema

Parasite

Ready or Not

You Might Be the Killer

Movies I disliked in 2019:

Among the Shadows

Captive State

Clownado

Crypto

Dumbo

The Fanatic

Hellboy

Isabelle

Isn’t It Romantic

The Lion King

Lucky Day

Mayday

Play or Die

Polaroid

A Score to Settle

Under the Silver Lake

Velvet Buzzsaw

Other Superlatives:

Coolest Title(s):  Candy Corn

Good-but-not-as-much-as-the-hype:  Midsommar; Us

Not-as-bad-as-they-said:  Serenity

Biggest Disappointment(s):  Clown Motel; Dumbo; Jay and Silent Bob Reboot; Once                    Upon a Time in Hollywood

Most Unnecessary Sequel(s):  Frozen II; How High 2; Jay and Silent Bob Reboot;                         Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island; 3 From Hell; Toy Story 4

Actually Worthy Sequel(s):  Annabelle Comes Home; A Dog’s Journey; 47 Meters Down: Uncaged; Zombieland: Double Tap

Most Unnecessary Remake(s):  All the live-action Disney movies; Black Christmas; Hellboy; It: Chapter Two; Pet Sematary

Actually Worthy Remake(s):  Child’s Play

Most Overrated:  Booksmart; Hustlers; The Irishman; The Lighthouse

Best Documentary:  Hail Satan?

Best Biopic:  The Dirt

Best TV Show(s):  Creepshow: Season One; Stranger Things: Season Three

Most Disappointing TV Show(s):  Are You Afraid of the Dark?; Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Part 2

Worst Performance:  John Travolta (The Fanatic)

Best Comeback:  Leprechaun Returns

Needs a Comeback:  Kevin Smith; Quentin Tarantino; Tim Burton

Commentary:  What can I tell you?  Movies just keep sucking and sucking and sucking as the years go on (at least I think so).  I don’t have much faith in movies made from here on out, even though good ones are still being made, but it seems like the bad ones keep winning in large numbers.  As you can see, I didn’t make a top ten for best and worst with honorable and dishonorable mentions as I’ve done in the past; instead, I alphabetically listed movies I liked and disliked more than others.  The last couple years it seemed I put the majority of titles in random order just to have a top ten for both.  I can’t truly say that any of the movies on my “best” list this year stood out as #1 despite some being good; as for the worst, I could probably say Among the Shadows and The Fanatic take those prizes, but I wanted to format both lists similarly.  I still made a superlative list because those are always fun (to make and read) and often seem easier to do than the best and worst lists.  As you can see, I think three of my favorite filmmakers (Tim Burton, Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino) made bombs last year, and I ended up being a fan of the movie I badmouthed immensely before its release (Child’s Play), it being a whole lot better than it had any right to be (many agree with me too).  Speaking of remakes, 2019 proved live-action Disney remakes are unnecessary (in addition to remakes in general), and sequels are always going to be hit and miss, usually miss, with two disappointing entries, again, coming from Disney (Frozen II and Toy Story 4).  Well, agree or disagree with me (everyone is their own critic as I always say), these were my best and worst films of 2019.  Below, I also made a best of list from the previous decade since I saw others were doing it, and I probably missed a few titles that I’ll likely recall as time goes on, but I digged deep and these 20 were the ones that bubbled to the surface.  I didn’t make a worst of the decade list because that was a lot harder to compile being there were way too many.  Anyway, here’s to hoping 2020 will be a better year for films, but I say that every year and it hasn’t happened in a while, so whatever…2/4/2020

Best of the Decade (2010-2019):

Annihilation

Attack the Block

The Belko Experiment

Black Swan

Burning Bright

The Cabin in the Woods

Clown

Frankenweenie

The Guest

Honeymoon

Inside Out

It Follows

John Dies at the End

Jurassic World

Krampus

Kubo and the Two Strings

The Loved Ones

Paranorman

Prisoners

The Shallows

---Sean O.
2/4/2020

Best and Worst Films of 2018

2018 YEAR IN REVIEW

Best of 2018:

1.         Annihilation

2.         Summer of ‘84

3. (tie)  All the Creatures were Stirring

            Ghost Stories

4.         Three Identical Strangers

5.         Searching

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

           

Honorable mentions:  The Strangers: Prey at Night; The Ritual; Love, Simon; Hold the Dark; Assassination Nation; Incident in a Ghostland; Santa Jaws; The Terror of Hallow’s Eve

Worst of 2018:

1.         House on Elm Lake

2.         Western

3.         The Lost Day

4.         The Cloverfield Paradox

5.         Sheep & Wolves

6.         The Lucky Man

7.         Killing Joan

8.         Bus Party to Hell

9.         Gray Matter

10.       House of the Witch

(11.)     A Wrinkle in Time

(12.)     Night School

(13.)     Dark River

(14.)     The Little Mermaid

(15.)     Mara

Dishonorable mentions:  The Neighbor; Action Point; Nostalgia; Winchester; Early Man; Acrimony; Deep Blue Sea 2; Deadpool 2; American Animals; The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time; Hotel Artemis; Minutes to Midnight

Other Superlatives:

Coolest Title(s):  Trailer Park Shark; The Devil’s Doorway

Good-but-not-as-much-as-the-hype:  Mandy; Black Panther; Eighth Grade

Not-as-bad-as-they-said:  Slender Man

Biggest Disappointment(s):  The Meg, The Meg, The Meg; Halloween (I watched it twice and wasn’t impressed either time)

Most Unnecessary Sequel(s):  The Cloverfield Paradox; Victor Crowley; Deadpool 2 (I wasn’t even crazy about the first one); Deep Blue Sea 2; The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time; Lake Placid: Legacy

Actually Worthy Sequel(s):  The Strangers: Prey at Night; Paddington 2; Goosebumps 2:              Haunted Halloween

Most Unnecessary Remake(s):  Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle; Suspiria

Most Overrated:  A Quiet Place; Hereditary; Roma

Most Unnecessary Amount of Memes:  Bird Box    

Best TV Show:  Castle Rock

Most Disappointing TV Show:  The Haunting of Hill House

Worst TV Show:  Maniac (I stopped after the first episode, that’s how much I hated it)

Commentary:  2018, much like the last couple years, was a shitty year for movies.  At least for me; apparently other sources, including horror publications, disagreed.  I’m getting very picky as I get older.  Usually I make a list of ten movies for both best and worst of the year, but since there weren’t too many good movies but many bad ones unfortunately, I made five for best and an extra five for worst to still make it an even 20.  Why didn’t I just put some of the honorable mentions on my top ten you may be wondering?  While I did like those honorable mentions, I didn’t quite think they made top ten material and didn’t want to list titles just for the sake of completing the list.  I honestly think I added titles just to make a top five (top six since I cheated with the tie) since Annihilation was the only movie of 2018 I could say I completely enjoyed (I even read the book afterwards and plan on reading the next two in the series).  It was the only movie that made my top five for the halfway list (blog entry dated 7-7-18) and it made other critics best of 2018 lists, so I feel somewhat on par with published and/or renowned critics.  Summer of ’84 was one of the better Eighties throwbacks I’ve seen lately, so that was worthy of inclusion.  I counted the two anthology films, All the Creatures were Stirring and Ghost Stories, as one since they were both good (not great) in the sense all the segments were worthy, and it’s rare when the good overshadows the bad in an anthology film, let alone completely.  Three Identical Strangers was the best documentary I’ve seen in a long time and surprised me at how dark it was.  Searching was a whole lot better than I thought it would be, so I gave it some recognition.  I’m not going to get into any of the worst films; just take my word for it or recall my reviews for them, re-read them, or read them for the first time (abcreviewarchive.blogspot.com).  Unfortunately, there’s always going to be bad movies but I would hope there’d be an equal amount of good ones which hasn’t been the case the last couple years; for me at least.  I would say, here’s to 2019 being a better year for movies and many other things, but it’s better not to expect anything and hope for the best…1/30/2019

---Sean O.

Best/Worst Films of 2018...so far

Here are my best and worst films during the first half of 2018...

Best of 2018 (so far):

1. Annihilation

2.

3.

4.

5.

Worst of 2018 (so far):

1. House on Elm Lake
2. Sheep & Wolves
3. The Cloverfield Paradox
4. The Neighbor
5. Nostalgia

(6.)       Early Man

(7.)       Deep Blue Sea 2

(8.)       Anon

(9.)       Mute

(10.)     Winchester

Other superlatives (so far):

Most Overrated:  A Quiet Place

Biggest Disappointment:  Hereditary

Best TV show:  Everything Sucks!

Worthy Sequels:  The Strangers: Prey at Night; Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Unnecessary Sequels:  The Cloverfield Paradox; Deep Blue Sea 2; Victor Crowley;                       Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell

Unnecessary Remake:  Day of the Dead: Bloodline

Commentary:  2018 doesn’t look like a very good year so far, at least not for good movies.  Other than Annihilation, nothing else was worthy enough to include on the best list.  Usually I only do five for each at the halfway point, but I made ten for the worst since I didn’t have enough for the best list.  Sadly, I could’ve actually added more to the worst list.  There always seems to be many more candidates for the worst list than the best.  I lost faith in modern movies a very long time ago.  We still have half a year to go, but I’m not expecting anything even though it would be great if there were an equal amount of candidates for both lists.  It would be even better if good candidates far outweighed the bad ones, but I don’t see that ever happening.  Yes filmmakers, I’ll hold all your beers if y’all try to prove me wrong…

---Sean O.