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
