In order to get a top ten list we feel confident in, we got in a ton of movies this week. Up first was Ford v Ferrari, starring Matt Damon (The Bourne Identity), Christian Bale (The Fighter), and Jon Bernthal (Wind River) and directed by James Mangold (Logan).
See below for our thoughts
Up next was Jojo Rabbit, starring Roman Griffin Davis, Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story), and Sam Rockwell (Moon) and directed by Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok).
Brent’s review – “This is a comedy about a kid growing up in Germany during World War II that idolizes Hitler (so much so that he is the kid’s invisible friend) but is too kind to be a soldier. For me, the first hour of the movie was tough to get into as the humor felt very slapstick and didn’t work with the setting; once the movie started pulling at your heartstrings instead it won me over but not enough to make it a favorite among the Oscar nominees. 7.5 out of 10.”
Beth’s review – “I was really torn on how I felt about this movie, which is probably because one of the biggest issues with it was the tone. The subject was pretty dark, so the type of humor in the movie seemed really out of place. I think Scarlett Johansson was really amazing in this movie and I really liked her character. I would have probably liked this movie more if it was about her. 6.5 out of 10.”
Next was Knives Out, starring Daniel Craig (Skyfall), Chris Evans (Captain America: Winter Soldier), and Ana de Armas (Bladerunner 2049) and directed by Rian Johnson (Brick).
See below for our thoughts
Finally we watched Waves starring Taylor Russell (Before I Fell), Kelvin Harrison (It Comes At Night) and Alexa Demie (Mid 90’s) and directed by Trey Edward Shults (It Comes at Night).
Beth’s review – “This movie was just ok and will be one of those movies that when I hear the title in a couple of years I will probably have a hard time remembering the plot. It is about a high school student that struggles with some life things that I will never be able to relate with or in the end ultimately sympathize with. This seems a little too much like a hallmark movie for my taste. 6 out of 10.”
Brent’s review – “This was a real downer of a movie. On top of that, the director uses a lot of extended sequences with nothing happening but bad music playing while the camera spins. The acting was good, but none of the characters are particularly compelling, most of them mope around for the entire movie. 4 out of 10.”
This week we’ve been looking into different ways to tweak/upgrade our basement. We took the boys to a few arcades for different ideas and also because it’s Cliff’s birthday week and he’s been begging to go to Chuck E. Cheese. We ended up getting a classic arcade for our basement, but we’re still looking for different fun games to swap out for our older ones. If anybody has any suggestions for fun games we should try out or research, let us know.
In honor of the Academy Awards this weekend, we went back through all 71 new release movies we saw this year and picked our favorites each. Then we combined our two lists and figured out the overlap to pick our Top 10 and Bottom 5 movies of the year. For a look back at previous years lists, check out: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014.
This year we had a few honorable mentions that just missed the top ten. They were Long Shot (Beth’s favorite that got left off the top ten), Aladdin (amazing, compared to the other two Disney animated movies that were remade into live action films this year), Avengers: Endgame (Brent’s favorite that got left off the top 10), and 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (yeah, we were really surprised too). Without further adieu:
10. Happy Death Day 2U
Brent’s thoughts – “The original film Happy Death Day was a fun Groundhog’s Day meets I know What You Did Last Summer premise. This sequel amazingly took the horror/comedy premise into a very interesting science fiction direction while still building off everything that happened in the first film. Supposedly it was meant to be the middle installment of a trilogy but as the end of the series it was still quite satisfying.”
9. Fighting With My Family
Beth’s thoughts – “This was a fun movie based on the true story of a young female wrestler. This had a good mixture of humor and that feel good story.”
8. John Wick: Chapter 3
Brent’s thoughts – “Definitely the premier action movie franchising going, John Wick 3 was possibly the best in the series so far, or right around as good as the first one (which is already an all time action movie classic). The attack dogs allowed for some of the most unique action sequences I’ve seen in a movie.”
7. Ford v Ferrari
Beth’s thoughts – “Ford v Ferrari has a pretty straight forward and predictable plot, but the acting in it is great especially by Christian Bale. It also is based on a true story, that I did not know anything about before watching the movie.”
6. Parasite
Brent’s thought – “We just reviewed this one last week, so I’ll just say that this was a great movie that starts as a dark comedy and ends as a thriller along the lines of Get Out and amazingly features a poor people vs rich people storyline without being offensive to either side (something I don’t think Hollywood’s capable of making).”
5. Knives Out
Beth’s thoughts – “Brent predicted that we would like this movie before we watched it and he was not wrong. This movie had a great tone that was fun and quirky. It also had a pretty good mystery that was not super predictable.”
4. 1917
Brent’s thoughts – “Beautifully shot, with an ambitious and unique style that added to the movie. This movie set out to tell a thrilling war story and nailed it by delivering one of the best war movies I’ve seen.”
3. Terminator: Dark Fate
Beth’s thoughts – “Who would have thought that this movie would be so high on our list? It really was a great movie and felt like the action movies of our childhood. It also made sense in the Terminator story line while still being original.”
2. Good Boys
Brent’s thoughts – “By far the funniest movie we saw this year. I expected this to be more juvenile in its humor, and while there was certainly a lot of that thrown at the screen, it also is a movie about friendship and some great parental moments thrown in as well.”
1. Yesterday
Beth’s thoughts – “Danny Boyle never lets us down. This movie had a great plot, (what if everyone but one guy forgot The Beatles) while also being funny and heartwarming.”
Of course, it’s also tradition for us to pick the movies we thought were total garbage each year (no really, we’ve been dumping on bad movies for awhile now). Our worst five movies of the year were:
5. A Dog’s Way Home (tie)
5. Harpoon (tie)
4. Joker
3. Dumbo
2. The Lion King
1. Her Smell
Beth’s thoughts on the bottom five: “It was pretty easy to find 5 bad movies this year. To be honest the movies this year did not seem overall as good as the movies last year. We couldn’t even finish “Her Smell” which is pretty bad because we usually love music movies. I also think we would have stopped watching “Lion King” if we were not at a theater watching it.”
Brent’s thought on the bottom five: “There were a few movies this year that actually offended me. Star Wars: The Last Jedi and the Dumbo remake were both bad in a way that made me upset they were even made. But at least they both had some entertaining moments. The Lion King remake was hard to see (too dark for most of it), joyless, and had a crappy song added to it that made it feel much longer than the original. Her Smell was like being trapped in a room with somebody you can’t stand, only you paid 4.99 to be in there with them and you can’t leave for two hours.”
Rock N Jazz 
One Comment Add yours