Skip to main content

Movies From The First Quarter Of 2019


I've promised myself I'd laugh more in 2019, so I've been watching a lot more stand-up and I've also made decided to venture into some British (and soon American) TV series'. My film list might look a little slower, but nothing can be worse than the last two years. I am committed to getting back to exercising my mind and watching classics. Just not every night. I have Oscar winners to catch up on; some new, some very old.

The Top Three: Winter, Sleep, First Man, The Age of Shadows
The Bottom Three: Mandy, Neruda, The Innkeepers
The Biggest Surprise: Eighth Grade
The Biggest Disappointment: The Avengers Trilogy as a whole
Best Series: River 

  1. Bird Box - Tense, amazing acting, social commentary, homages. It lived up to the hype!
  2. Marvel: The Avengers - Fun, tons of action, corny humor. Comic book comes to life
  3. Avengers: Age of Ultron - nowhere near as much fun as The Avengers.
  4. Spider-Man: Homecoming - Great fun despite the lack of a bigtime villain.
  5. Avengers: Infinity Wars - Action-packed, decent humor early on, but lacks depth. 
  6. Annihilation - Trippy, but wondering if it is really as shallow as Ex Machina
  7. The Night Manager (series) - Hiddleston's best work. Bier's direction is incredibly tight!
  8. A Scandal in Belgravia - Lare Pulver's Irene Adler is worth the rewatch. Sherlock S2 E1
  9. Watchmen - Revisited one of my favorite comic book movies. Still amazing and relevant.
  10. The Truth About Alcohol - Silly documentary dispelling myths that were already dispelled.
  11. Russell Brand: Rebirth - I like Brand. He's smart, funny, and charming. This was a snoozefest.
  12. Tumbbad - Slow burn, literally. The ending may make it worth it. May have to try again. 
  13. Lucero - Solo descent into madness. No dialogue. At a brief 69 minutes, it works. 
  14. Treasure Planet - Animated Disney adaptation of R.L. Stevenson classic. Works well.
  15. The Long Good Friday - Epic Hoskins, plus solid, as always, Mirren, makes for a fun ride.
  16. Ted Bundy Tapes - Not much new information, so a bit of a waste. Surprisingly stale.
  17. Sebastian Maniscalco: Stay Hungry - One of the worst standup acts I've ever seen.
  18. Bill Hicks: One Night Stand - Still relevant and always hilarious
  19. Bill Hicks: Reflections - Great social commentary and always that biting wit!
  20. Morgan - Amazing cast makes up for a dull script and missed opportunities. 
  21. Venom - Great fun and often quite funny. Hardy is perfect and good chemistry with Williams.
  22. Morvern Callar - Morton is tops, but feels disjointed. Influenced by Varda, Influenced Korine!
  23. Polar - Graphic novel comes to life. Comic book feel, Mads is good, Hudgens is better. 
  24. Frozen River - Melissa Leo & Misty Upham shines in this simple story of desperation. 
  25. River - Exquisitely written, incredibly acted British drama with a dazzling cast. Amazing! 
  26. Neruda - Horrible script and acting with gimmicks that simply don't work. Bernal is trash! 
  27. Winter Sleep - Caylan does it again with an epic film about those rich and poor; in every way.
  28.  Inside the Mossad - Fascinating documentary inside Israel's incredible intelligence outfit
  29. What Makes A Psychopath - Average documentary with tiny glimpses that are scary. 
  30. Cargo - Feature adaptation of brilliant short horror film. Not as good, but acting is good.
  31. Ron White: If you quit listening, I'll shut up: Often hilarious, but pretty much standard Ron.
  32. Ant-Man and The Wasp - Good fun, but not as good as the original. 
  33. Leave No Trace - Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie are amazing. Film just misses greatness.
  34. Zodiac - Revisited this for 4-5th time. It gets better each and every time. Amazing cast!
  35. Jim Gaffigan: Beyond the Pale - rewatched for hot pockets. Hilarious!
  36. Three Monkeys - Ceylan's early work is tedious but shows glimmers of his vision.
  37. The Emperor's New Groove - Fun Disney film. Familiar funny voices make it better.
  38. First Man - Exceptional look at Neil Armstrong, the man, and the struggle. Foy is superb!
  39. Hold the Dark - Consistently misses the mark. Riley Keough needed a bigger part.
  40. The Innkeepers - Ti West norms: Bad direction, bad writing, bad story.
  41. Sixteen Candles - Hard to not cringe in today's climate and that doesn't excuse the 80's.
  42. Only Lovers Left Alive - Only my second viewing since 2015 and I still adore this film.
  43. Mandy - Over-hyped Nic Cage horror flick that tries to look unique, but fails miserably
  44. Eighth Grade - Wonderful coming-of-age story. Elsie Fisher and Josh Hamilton are perfect
  45. The Kirlian Frequency - Animated short miniseries starts strong, fades, then ends well.
  46. The Silence of the Lambs - Yes, again! I love this movie more each time! Foster! Hopkins!
  47. Solo: A Star Wars Movie - Much better than the last six movies. Interesting side characters.
  48. The Age of Shadows - Another epic adventure by Jee-woon Kim. Stunning, as expected. 
  49. Forgotten - Korean drama. Starts off slow, gets interesting, then somewhat silly.
  50. Broadchurch (Season One) - Solid acting saves it from red herrings and predictable end.
  51. Broadchurch (Season Two) - Absolute rubbish, saved (almost) by Jodie Whitaker.
  52. Broadchurch (Season Three) - The best of the lot, despite not a likable male character.
  53. Martial Arts of Shaolin - Standard Shaw Brothers fare, with very young, charismatic, Jet Li.
  54. Jim Gaffigan: Beyond The Pale - And the world was given "Hooooot Pockets!"
  55. Jim Gaffigan: Cinco - Hilarious as usual.
  56. Jim Gaffigan: Obsessed - Gaffigan in Boston talking about what he talks about best.
  57. Jim Gaffigan: Mr. Universe - Not my favorite of his, but still better than most
  58. Close - Noomi Rapace action flick is much better than it's getting credit for.
  59. The Favourite - Acting, music, and Cinematography is A+, but the story is painfully dull.
  60. Marie Kondo
  61. The Bride with White Hair - One of the best martial movies ever made. Huge surprise.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

White Privilege

This was a post I wrote on Facebook after surprisingly not seeing any moaning about the Documentary by Jose Antonio Vargas, titled White People Dayyum! I just scrolled my timeline and not a single white person got their feelings hurt by White People. I unfortunately haven't seen it, but the number of fake accounts that popped up on twitter, tells me it was a damn good show. Here's the thing. If someone of color aka non-white says "White Privilege," are you offended? If you said yes, then you are exhibiting white privilege. It has nothing to do with how hard you work or study, how you stayed out of trouble, because here's the thing, that is entirely the point. Somewhere out there, there are 100 Black, Spanish, Native American, Arab, Asian, who worked and studied as hard as you and never got in trouble, but they don't have what you "earned" or achieved. Stop looking at the one person you know who isn't white that achieved as your benchmark. Loo
10 comments
Read more

11 Rules of Life - Bill Gates?

I read this on Facebook this morning.  A friend had posted it and said that every child should have to receive this. I of course read it and started to think.  I immediately wondered who really wrote this, as I rarely see things like this attributed to the proper person.  I immediately found it was written by Conservative Charles J. Sykes when he wrote a book about how America is dumbing down our youth.  I read it twice and started to wonder how true it was.  Below is a link to the actual picture I saw. So let's look at each of the rules and analyze them. Rule 1: Life is not fair — get used to it! - Life is not fair in that we are not all afforded the same opportunities based on race, creed, color, socio-economic background, but in general, those who are afforded the same opportunities to succeed are very often rewarded for their individual efforts.  Sure there may be underlying circumstances, but hard work is proven to pay more often than not and those who strive for succ
Post a Comment
Read more

Quickie Review - Finding Vivian Maier

While I thoroughly enjoyed the film, especially the first 15-20 minutes, I was a little bothered by the way the film played out. The interviews with the clearly disturbed brother, sister and the mother, who obviously, was in for a cut, didn't need to be in the film. Then the woman who suggested abuse, yet seemed to have her life defined by Maier, as she tried to muster every ounce of emotion and fake guilt. Her friend, more than happy to be party of the charade. People who talk about abuse for the first time, usually don't do so on camera. The fact these scenes were so prominent, shows that they felt wronged that they were not rewarded. Maloof on the other hand, seems to disappear from the documentary during this part, almost hiding away from the fact, he went from complete praise, to even making money off of her, to destroying her personal legacy. He almost mentions the family of boys taking care of her rent, as an afterthought. Her burial spot, never shown, yet a video of her
7 comments
Read more