Was lucky enough to see Tenet in the cinema and enjoyed it. Flawed for sure, and not as smart as it thinks it is, but it was different from Marvel blockbuster fare and I had a good time. Like me some Nolan.
192. Corpus Christi
Final film for 2020. Polish film where an ex-con convinces a local town he's a preacher. Despite a very good lead performance the film itself never really fully engaged me. But I was never bored.
[6]
The biggest mistake people make with Tenet is thinking it is a 'smart' film.
I think it's a smart concept, very new and unique. But the film around it just doesn't live up to it. It'd almost be better suited to a style like Primer but with the cool action set-pieces like the main punch up which is probably the best (and most readable) scene. Like Retro said, it's a film that should likely be watched multiple times but it's not really fun enough, or pretty enough, or engaging enough to warrant those extra viewings.
But, like Cinty, I enjoyed seeing it at the cinema, on a big IMAX screen with the sound way too loud and me with my giant popcorn and coke.
67. Jumanji: The Next Level
Expected this to be garbage, bit like the first one I was pleasantly surprised. Plus, who doesn't want to see The Rock doing a Danny De Vito impression? 7.
1) Iron Man 2
2) The Incredible Hulk
3) Parks & Recreation (s1)
4) Thor
5) Avengers: Assemble
6) Iron Man 3
7) Thor: Dark World
8 ) Captain America: Winter Soldier
9) Guardians of the Galaxy
10) Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2
11) You (s1)
12) You (s2)
13) Parks & Recreation (s2)
14) Curb Your Enthusiasm (s10)
15) Parasite
16) Gravity
17) The Expanse (s4)
18) Sunny (s6)
19) Better Call Saul (s5)
20) Argo
21) Curb your Enthusiasm (s9)
22) Raising Arizona
23) Ozark (s3)
21) Curb your Enthusiasm (s8)
22) My Neighbor Totoro
23) Ex Machina
24) Birdcage
25) Dead to Me (S2)
26) P&R (S3)
27) P&R (S4)
28 ) The Green Book
29) Moonlight(??)
30) Children of Man
31) Rebecca
32) Extraction
33) Criminal (S2)
34) P&R (S5)
35) Queen's Gambit
36) The Undoing
37) Tenet
38) The Social dilemma
I should probably get back on my MCU watch again, that resulted off treasurer, having got me a solid start to the year. I think cos I started playing games again.
60 films this year for me. Probably the most I’ve watched in a year - I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise.
Looking back at the list, I think Ford vs Ferrari might well be my top film of 2020 … and I’m acutely aware that isn’t an all-timer. So not a great year for movies in my book.
Apologies for drifting away from this thread... I became increasingly unmotivated to review films watched at home, partly because it just didn't feel fair to give them scores compared to those that I did see in cinemas.
I managed to compile what seems to be a remarkably strong top 10 of films I saw at the cinema for the year
Babyteeth
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Calm with Horses
Jojo Rabbit
Les Misérables
Parasite
The Personal History of David Copperfield
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Queen & Slim
Waves
172. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Chevy Chase rants, raves and deadpans his way through Christmas with the family in this classic festive comedy. 8
173. Die Hard
Best Christmas film. Best action film. Best 80s film. Best Bruce Willis in a vest film. 9
174. Love Actually
I have this irrational hatred of this film that only dissipates for the two hours it takes to watch it where I decide it's not that bad, actually quite heartwarming and then I go back to hating it after it's finished. 7
175. Trainspotting
Iconic, 90s clash of music and drugs following Renton and his group of fellow Edinburgh smackheads. 8
176. Bad Santa
Billy Bob Thornton's safecracking Santa, drinks, fucks and robs to forget his severe depression in this hilarious and rude comedy. 8
177. Scrooged
Bill Murray's obnoxious, arrogant TV exec gets visits from ghosts of Christmas past, present and future in this tour de force Murray update of the Dickins classic. 8
178. Hot Fuzz
Pegg's supercop and Frost's bumpkin bobby team up to defeat middle England in this funny filth film. 8
GT: WEBBIN5 - A life in formats: Sinclair ZX81>Amstrad CPC 6128>Amiga 500>Sega Megadrive>PC>PlayStation 2>Xbox>DS Lite>Xbox 360>Xbox One>Xbox One X>Xbox Series X>Oculus Quest 2
163 for me this year, which is easily a record. This list only includes films that were new (to me) or that I'd seen so long ago that I couldn't remember them. This is clearly bollocks because it has T2 in there. For the most part though, new(ish) to me.
Spoiler:
Roadhouse
Wishmaster
Ghost
Waterworld
Silence of the Lambs
Happytime Murders
Revenge of the Ninja
Robocop 3
Galaxy of Terror
Law Abiding Citizen
Skyscraper
Lone Wolf McQuade
Species
Terminator
T2
Gremlins 2
Island of Dr Moreau
Daylight
Death Wish 4
Doom
Child's Play (Remake)
Bloodsport
Once Upcon A Time In London
Anaconda
Knowing
Death Wish (Remake)
Candyman
Under Seige 2
Eurovision
Harry and the Hendersons
In The Name Of The King
The Last Witch Hunter
The Changeling
Badlands
The Fly II
Death Wish 3
The Hollow Point
Vertigo
Blue Ruin
Bad Day For The Cut
The Equalizer
The Equalizer 2
Panic Room
O Brother Where Art Thou?
Angela's Ashes
Avengement
The Island Of Dr Moreau
Sound & Fury
Wolf Creek 2
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The First Purge
Backdraft
Hannibal
Peelers
Psycho II
In The Tall Grass
1922
A Prayer For The Dying
Hush
Uncut Gems
El Camino
The Purge: Anarchy
Breakdown
Insidious
Sinister
Lord of Illusions
Maniac (Remake)
The Last House On The Left (Remake)
Disturbia
Ghost
You Were Never Really Here
Cardboard Gangsters
Calm With Horses
Misery
Christine
The Last Stand
A Nightmare On Elm Street (Remake)
Dunkirk
Child's Play
Wishmaster 2
The Delta Force
The Substitute
12 Years A Slave
Hell Or Highwater
3:10 To Yuma
True Grit
Top Secret!
The Nightingale
Montana
Funhouse Massacre
Navy Seals
Childs Play 2
Creep 2
Michael Inside
Taken 3
Upgrade
K-9
The Seige Of Jadotville
Stripes
The Taking Of Pelham 1, 2, 3
Eye See You
Prince Avalanche
Shutter Island
Midnight Cowboy
Fear Dot Com
10 To Midnight
Darkman
Crimson Peak
Heavy Metal
I See You
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
Sixteen Candles
I'm Thinking Of Ending Things
Sudden Death
Cuties
GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra
Robin Hood
Zodiac
Cats
Bordello of Blood
Save Me
Halloween (2018)
Terminator Genisys
Guest House Paradiso
xXx: The Return of Xander Cage
Valkyrie
Memento
Yardie
Freddy Vs Jason
Ready Player One
Beyond the Mat
Never Back Down
Hunger
I, Tonya
The Da Vinci Code
Safe House
Kick-Ass 2
The Limey
The Gentleman
Venom
Borat 2
Borat
Knives Out
Dragged Across Concrete
Hollow Man
Tales of Halloween
Eden Lodge
Parasite
John Henry
Friday
The Dead Zone
The Debt Collector
Goon
Up! (1976)
Shadow Warriors: Assault on Devil's Island
Krampus
Brave
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
National Lampoons Vacation
Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo
The Prestige
50 Dead Men Walking
Deck The Halls
Loved all these 4k remasters this year, a good opportunity to revisit some classics, and catch up on some I missed. Let's try finish this:
46. V for Vendetta. (4k rewatch). This has aged well, worryingly so given the last year. You can see where some conspiracy nuts get their ideas from. A really compelling watch, hadn't seen it since it came out so it still felt fresh.
47. Scrooged. Haven't seen for many years, good fun.
48. It's a Wonderful Life. Never seen this all the way through, only ever snippets when it's been on TV. A timeless story of the necessity of socialism in society. Or something. I think it's less of a Christmas film than Die Hard though as it's only Christmas at the end.
49. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Classic.
50. Soul. Nicely done grown-up Pixar.
51. Lady Bird. This has been on my pile of shame for years, glad to finally get around to watching it.
52. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I've always refused to watch this version as I think the Gene Wilder one is close to perfection. Depp is annoying but Kudos for sticking so closely to the book where the original took a lot of liberties.
53. The BFG (2016). Another Dahl classic adaptation (I've been reading the books with the boy), sticks reasonably close to the book for the most part, for better and worse.
54. The Green Mile. Haven't seen this since release. It's long, but it's so good!
55. Lord of the Rings Fellowship... (Ext). (UHD rewatch). Immense. I just want to curl up on the sofa and absorb myself in the entire trilogy, but the kids won't let me.
My cork poppers were (all 9s): Hereditary
Under The Skin
Midsommar
Spotlight
Argo
Trainwreck
It Follows
Thunder Road
Manchester by the Sea
Captain Fantastic
In Search of Darkness
The Peanut Butter Falcon
The Lighthouse
Parasite
Die Hard
My prize turkeys were: Wet Hot American Summer
When A Stranger Calls
Final Exam
Grimsby
Jack Frost
Plenny of 7s and 8s and entertaining 5s. Might have to tweak the scoring for 2021. I feel like a few of my 8s and 9s were more deserving of an extra half so maybe films I rate 8 or above will be scrutinised further for that half mark.
GT: WEBBIN5 - A life in formats: Sinclair ZX81>Amstrad CPC 6128>Amiga 500>Sega Megadrive>PC>PlayStation 2>Xbox>DS Lite>Xbox 360>Xbox One>Xbox One X>Xbox Series X>Oculus Quest 2
I didn't really take part his year but as we're doing lookbacks the best new films I saw this year were Midsommar, The Lighthouse, Calm with Horses, The Vast of Night, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Soul, Dragged Across Concrete, Us, The Nightingale and Bait. I may have seen one or two of those in 2019 actually.
Most enjoyable rewatch award goes to Warrior, but Assassination of Jesse James pushes it close.
This year was fucked for me watching stuff in a number of ways, but here's some of the stuff I did manage to see, or rewatch, whether in bits and pieces, or full, that I really liked - stars for rewatches. I did manage to see other stuff, but Bill and Ted 3, Thunderball and 1917, among others, didn't really do it for me.
From Russia With Love *
Parasite
The Lighthouse
Little Women
Midsommar
Da 5 Bloods
Colour out of Space
Promare
Marriage Story
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Soul
The Phantom Menace *
Borat 2
Ended up on 261, the last film was Trains, Planes and Automobiles which I didn't expect to like and I was right.
Top ten not from this year but new to me. A few shoo-ins at the top:
1. Casablanca
2. Once Upon a Time in the West
3. Heat
4. The Killing (1956)
5. Armour of God 2: Operation Condor
6. Society
7. First Reformed
8. Charade (1963)
9. The Day the Earth Caught Fire
10. Mission Impossible: Fallout
Honourable mentions:
Judy Garland's filmography. While none of the ones I watched this year became firm favourites, she's always capable of transcending a formulaic film. There are limits though, even for me, and Gay Purr-ee was a test, truly the completist's Garland film.
Kore-eda and his occasionally-too-sweet suburban dramas.
Kurosawa's Ran, you're breathtaking.
Seeing Akira on the big screen which I now regret as it would've been quite an embarrassing way to die.
New ones, a strong dozen:
1. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
2. First Love
3. Uncut Gems
4. First Cow
5. Possessor
6. The Lighthouse
7. Da 5 Bloods
8. The Peanut Butter Falcon
9. Soul
10. Bait
11. Colour Out Of Space
12. Parasite