DrogeMiester's Top 10 BEST Movies of 2019

We have come to the end of another year, which means it's time to reveal my favorite list I do each year. My personal favorite movies of the year. No room for objectivity here. There's no system or formula for how I rank these. This is just my completely biased, subjective favorites. And as I've said when I've come to the end of the last several years, this list was hard to make because there were so many good movies that came out. Although what made this year a bit unique is that it was the last three months where we got bombarded with a whole ton of quality movies. Prior to October, I had only given out one perfect score and things were seeming like they were pretty quiet. There were still plenty of good movies from the first nine months, but the flood gates opened in the final three months and it almost became too much for me to handle. Because of this, there were a lot of unfortunate movies that got left on the chopping block. You'll be quite shocked at some choices that I was raving about that didn't make it. There were around 50 movies I considered for this list and well over 25 that deserved a spot in the top 10. My list of honorable mentions would make a solid top 10 on its own right. But there could only be 10 and after much deliberation, here are those final 10.

10- Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

The Academy loves movies about movies, which is why "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" walked away with 10 Oscar nominations and is one of the two or three movies with a legit shot at actually winning best picture on February 9. And I will admit that the retro 60s Hollywood vibe was rather entertaining, led by great performances from Leo and Brad Pitt, the latter of whom is about to win an Oscar for essentially being himself in a movie, which I'm cool with. But despite all this, it's not the retro 60's Hollywood stuff that caused me to fall in love with this. It's a bit of a hard thing to describe without it sounding a bit strange, but I have a fascination with studying serial killers and "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" is all about the Manson Family. The more you know about them and what they did in the late 60s, the better this experience will be. I've talked to a lot of people who were confused about why Brad Pitt was hanging out with hippies or who Sharon Tate even was and thus a large portion of this movie was lost on them. Meanwhile, I was sitting back in my chair, loving every minute of it. I was more than a bit nervous about how Tarantino was going to handle all of this, but the final 30 minutes of this movie was absolutely phenomenal and even therapeutic.

9- Rocketman

After getting burned hard by "Bohemian Rhapsody" in late 2018, I was not ready for "Rocketman." Even when the movie started getting a lot of hype, I wasn't sold because "Bohemian Rhapsody" just got nominated for best picture and that movie was a smelly pile of overrated junk. Yet it didn't take me long at all to be completely won over by "Rocketman." It had nothing to do with any sort of attachment I had to Elton John, which is honestly not very much. I know and love Queen a whole lot more. I think what it comes down to here is narrative structure. This wasn't some sort of generic highlight reel of Elton John's life. This was a fascinating film with a lot of depth and emotion. It's a movie where you can know nothing about Elton John and walk out being very moved as the movie chooses to focus on specific themes from Elton John's life rather than choosing to do a two hour synopsis of everything that happened to happen. It's also one of the most entertaining and unique films I've seen. Yes, it is a musical biopic, but it's also equally a musical fantasy as well as a straight-up musical at times. In a strange way, it reminded me more of "Mama Mia!" than "Bohemian Rhapsody" as it built a musical around the songs. Elton John just happened to be the subject matter.

8- Shazam!

After a rough start to the DCEU where DC spent their entire focus trying to copy Marvel rather than do their own thing, DC is now on fire. The key moment here is when DC stopped trying to set up a cinematic universe and started simply making movies. Yes, their timeline is now all sorts of screwed up, but I don't even care because the individual movies are stellar. I hope they continue to simply hire directors who have a vision to make individual movies and are given the creative freedom to do so. Because then we get wildly entertaining movies like "Shazam!," a character whose history is too long and complicated for me to go over right now, but is nevertheless one of the earliest superheros created. And this film adaptation is absolutely hilarious, led by an excellent performance from Zachary Levi, who perfectly encapsulates what it would feel like if a young teenager was given superhero powers and could transform into the body of an adult male in the process. With that comes a lot of honesty with Billy Batson acting in a very immature way as he's forced to learn the hard way what life is like and what his priorities should be like. The movie cuts deep when it delves into themes of family, making it emotional powerful while also being off-the-wall hilarious.

7- Avengers: Endgame

You all know that "Avengers: Endgame" was going to be on this list. The big surprise here is how high it isn't. "Avengers: Infinity War" was easily my favorite movie of 2018 and this finale was the perfect cap to a 10-year, 22-movie story arc with this Infinity Saga. "Avengers: Endgame" is the ultimate fan experience as it rewards people like me, and thousands of others, who have been on the bandwagon from day one. Because of this, the movie has some of the best moments in cinema history, or at least in comic book movie history, with the likes of the "Avengers Assemble!" moment, Iron Man's heroics and Steve Rogers' dance. It also gave us some emotional farewells to characters we have come to absolutely love. But in ranking this movie among the movies of 2019, I had a hard time placing it because I'm not ranking and rewarding the entire Infinity Saga. I didn't want to do a lifetime achievement award. I'm just ranking the final movie in said saga. And if I'm being bluntly honest, it's not as polished as an individual movie as the likes of "Avengers: Infinity War" or even "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" or the original "Avengers." It's a very long movie that can drag at times and has no idea how to properly do time travel. But it still belongs on this list.

6- Jojo Rabbit

On the surface it might seem like a movie that makes light of Hitler and Nazi Germany is inappropriate and uncalled for. Which is why I was a bit skeptical going in because I didn't even know what this movie was. Now I'm no German or Jew, but in my American perspective, I think Taika Waititi has created one of the most genius pieces of film that approaches the subject of Nazi Germany. Obviously Hitler was one of the worst men to walk this Earth, but would a brainwashed 10-year-old boy know that? The reason why this movie is so genius is that it looks at Nazi Germany from the perspective of this young boy who has been raised up thinking that Nazis are the good guys and Hitler is the ultimate hero. And instead of taking a dark and dreary tone like most Nazi Germany movies,  the tone in this movie parallels that of what the boy is going through. It's not afraid to be lighthearted and comedic when the boy thinks Hitler is his hero. But Taika Waititi has proven time and again that he knows how to properly shift tones drastically. When our young protagonist takes an honest does or reality, the movie takes a dagger and jabs it into the hearts of everyone watching this movie as it suddenly becomes one of the most heart-wrenching films of the year.

5- Little Women 

If you had told me at the beginning of 2019 that I would end up putting "Little Women" ahead of "Avengers: Endgame" on this year-end list, I would tell you... duh. This is Gretta freaking Gerwig and she's brought my girl Saoirse Ronan along with her yet again. The combination of the two elevated the 2017 film "Lady Bird" above every movie that year in my eyes. So of course I was excited for this follow-up. And I knew absolutely nothing about "Little Women" as I had not read the book or seen any of the 10,000 adaptations. And as of this moment, this is still the only "Little Women" exposure I've had, but it was a phenomenal ride. I saw this in a sold-out screen wherein 99 percent of the people were female and they were all sobbing the entire time. And so was I along with them. Based on this movie and this movie alone, "Little Women" is not a girly chick flick about four sisters searching for their husbands. It's a movie about life wherein Greta juxtaposes the fantasies of childhood with the reality of adulthood in a beautifully edited and directed film that takes the two timelines and scrambles them together in a way that squeezes out every drop of emotion. With "Lady Bird" and "Little Women," Greta has proven herself to be a powerful force to be reckoned with.

4- Marriage Story

Scarlett Johansson had quite the year in 2019. Without giving too much away, between this, "Avengers: Endgame" and "Jojo Rabbit," let's just say I'm ready for Scar-Jo to be in a movie where she's given a happily ever after. And that's absolutely not the case here in "Marriage Story" as this is one of the most traumatizing films of the year. Starring right alongside Scar-Jo is Adam Driver himself and the two of them are the absolute perfect couple who know and love each other so well. And I wanted nothing more than for them to talk things out and become a happy family. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I like marriages to work out. I want people to be happy, especially when their oozing in positive chemistry. But that's just not the reality of life sometimes and "Marriage Story" is one of those films that decides to tread down the honest and brutal part of life as Adam Driver and Scar-Jo are going through a bitter divorce. Now I haven't gone through a divorce before. I haven't even done the marriage thing yet. But I imagine that this might be a bit too real for those who have gone through a divorce. Even without that experience, I finished this movie feeling absolutely shaken. I was a complete emotional wreck. For accomplishing that, of course I give this major props.

3- 1917

Here's a movie that exploded onto the scene last second. Due to it getting a limited release in December, I didn't even see this until the year was already 2020 and it was an absolute surreal experience. There's been nearly a countless number of war films, but "1917" immediately puts itself into the top echelon of this genre as it delivers a surreal experience like none other. There's been a few movies that have used the camera trick of stitching scenes together to give the illusion that it was filmed in one shot, but "1917" might be the most effective use of this as doing so immediately inserts the audience into the film. You're not just watching these two young men sneak their way through enemy territory during World War I to deliver an important message, you're walking along with them in a movie that feels like it's done in virtual reality. And that adds a whole new level to the horrors of war, especially when it comes to how brutal that first world war was. But "1917" is not only a movie with wizardry camera work, magical editing and stunning cinematography, it's also a movie that gives you a deep emotional connection to our two leads, which I think is a key element to a successful war film. All in all, this is a movie that deserves to be seen. Preferably on the biggest screen possible.

2- Parasite

When Bong Joon Ho, director of "Parasite," won the award for best foreign language film at the Golden Globes, he gave a speech that I think is one of the most memorable speeches I've heard at an awards show. And his message is very simple. If you can overcome the one-inch barrier of subtitles, then you'll be introduced to a whole new world of opportunity when it comes to cinema. As crazy as it may seem, the United States isn't the only country making movies. If you're sick of that status quo here, then you need to go outside your comfort zone and watch some of these foreign films. If you absolutely refuse to read subtitles, one of the experiences you'll be missing out on is "Parasite," which is an absolute stunning work of art with so much to say and so many different elements to it. The movie starts out as a heist film or a con film with a poor family taking advantage of a rich family in a very amusing and entertaining way. But halfway through, the tables turn in an extreme manner that I don't even want to get into. I was on the edge of my seat for nearly the entire second half of the movie as it became a super intense thriller, excellently acted and perfectly paced. I don't know if this is about to make history at the Oscars for a foreign film, but if it does, it's well deserved.

1- Joker

As I said before, DC is on fire. And as one who's always been more of a DC fan when it comes to the comic book world (although I don't know why we can't enjoy both), this has made me extremely happy. The concept behind this film was an extremely risky one. The Joker is arguably the most iconic villain in the history of comics. Part of the reason why he works so well is that is past is shrouded in mystery and he's just an agent of chaos in Batman's world. Yet we're going to take this and give the Joker an origin story? Yep. That's what they did. In this case, high risk becomes high reward as Todd Phillips created a beautiful and haunting picture of a man who was completely rejected by society, despite trying his hardest to fit in and make things work. Yet time and time again, he gets completely betrayed and thrown to the curb that he just snaps. And as he snaps, he gains a level of confidence and poise that he hadn't previously attained, turning him into the monster that is the Joker while inspiring a whole new level of crime and violence in Gotham. But in this case, is it really his fault? As one who loves psychological movies and DC comics, this was the perfect blend for me. In an extremely competitive field in 2019, "Joker" rather easily took the crown.

Just Mercy Review

We’re now onto my final review of a 2019 release before I dive into my list of favorite movies of 2019. That’s not to say I’m never going to go back and watch more movies I missed from 2019. There’s actually several of them that I plan on catching up on before the Oscars on February 9. This is just the last full review of a 2019 release that I’ll write on this blog. Once this is done, it’s time to dive into my favorite movies of 2019, a list I’m super excited to get into, even though it does make me slightly intimidated due to the large number of quality films that flooded in the last few months. Case in point. Most recently I posted my review of “1917.” Prior to seeing that, it was already a crowded field, but that is going to end up as one of my favorites. And then we have this one. “Just Mercy.” While the movie didn’t cash in on Oscar morning, audiences gave the movie an A+ on Cinemascore, which typically means people are responding very well. Once the credits rolled on my personal screening, after a few seconds of processing what we just saw, someone started clapping and immediately all of us joined, giving the movie a resounding round of applause, the likes of which you might get from a popular Marvel movie. So yeah, this is yet another movie that came to play.​

The story of "Just Mercy" is about Walter McMillan and his attorney Bryan Stevenson. Walter, whose nickname is Johnny D, was arrested in June 1987 for the murder of 18-year-old Ronda Morrison, who was shot and killed at a dry cleaner in November 1986. Upon his arrest, Walter was sent straight to death row pre-trail, where he stayed for over a year until his trial in August 1988. Following his trail, a jury of mostly white people found Walter guilty and recommended life in prison, which the judge overruled and gave the death penalty. All this despite no physical evidence, no motivate, and multiple witnesses testifying that Walter was at a fish fry for his church at the exact time of the murder. The only evidence that they had against Walter was the coerced testimony of a convicted felon that was given several months after the actual murder. So essentially Walter, a black man living in Alabama, was given the death penalty due to the horrendous actions of the blatantly racist justice system, led by a corrupt sheriff and other law officials who probably had no right being at those positions. The movie is mainly told from the perspective of Bryan Stevenson, a young black lawyer from Delaware who came in to fight this corrupt system. The movie is based on his memoir.

Given this premise, you know what you're getting into with this movie. And when I describe this premise to you, I'm actually describing the real life events of what happened to Walter McMillan. From my personal research on the situation, the movie does an uncanny job at portraying what actually happened. While watching the movie, having no idea what happened beforehand as I did my research afterwards, there was a part of me that wondered if there were some fictionalized elements to this because this story was so crazy and upsetting. Certainly there was a bit more ambiguity in this case, right? Maybe the sheriff wasn't an evil monster and maybe the judge and jury in charge weren't so blind with racism to give this honestly innocent man the death penalty. But no, this is not a movie that fictionalizes some life events in order for it to better fit into a narrative. All of the things portrayed in this movie actually happened. It made my skin crawl and my blood boil. At times while watching and researching the events, I wanted to lash out and hate the state of Alabama. We're over 120 years after the Civil War and 20-30 years after the Civil Rights movement and yet racism this strong was still happening?

But yes, I know. Racism still existed in the 80's and 90's. And stories from more recently unfortunately reveal that racism also is still very prevalent today. But racism isn't the only thing this very politically-charged film lashes out against. In fact, it's more of a side note to the main agenda of the film, which is unashamedly attacking the death penalty. And if this isn't the type of movie that you're interested in getting yourself into, you're more than welcome to go watch some escapism films like Star Wars or Jumanji instead. And while there's certainly nothing wrong with the latter type of films, I find myself rather enjoying the type of film that actually makes you think about real world issues because those are the type of films that actually mean something and can make a difference as audiences see them and discuss with their friends the issues presented. One thing that annoys me is when people tell me that they hate political movies and that politics have no place in movies. I strongly disagree with that. Granted, it's something that should be a case-by-case scenario, but there's certainly a place for politics in movies. Movies aren't just here to entertain us. Many movies are here to be educational and I think that element of filmmaking is very important.

I also don't like the unfair generalization of saying that one doesn't like politics in movies. What people really mean to say is that they don't like movies that disagree with their political opinion. Or instead of addressing the specific issue that's presented in the movie they watch, they'd rather have an easy out by saying they don't like political movies. But yet when a movie comes around about a subject they feel strongly, suddenly you don't see them hating the movie because of the politics. You see the double standard there? Now of course, I do understand the frustrations when you go into a movie specifically wanting some escapism and you get preached to instead. But "Just Mercy" is a movie where you should absolutely be well aware of what you're getting yourself into. The purpose of the movie is to make you upset. And there's a lot of sequences that are beyond heartbreaking. And not just with Walter's story. There's plenty of moments where Bryan interacts with other Death Row inmates, giving him more motivation to fight harder and stronger, despite the city officials not making things easy for him. They want their prisoner locked up and killed. They don't care about what evidence may or may not be there. Their reputations are on the line and that's their priority.

Now most of the details I've given you about this case is actually the background. The movie isn't about the murder of this girl, the arrest of Walter, or the initial trial. The movie is about Bryan's fight against the system to try to get Walter free. I thought the way in which the plot was constructed did a great job of keeping this flowing smoothly, despite it being a long process. There are plenty of movies out there that tell important stories, but do so in a way that fails to engage the audience, which is why I have to give a lot of credit to director Destin Daniel Cretton. If you don't know his name, you will before too long. In addition to "Just Mercy," he directed the 2013 film "Short Term 12," which I watched for the first time a few months ago and it is quite excellent. As far as why I say you will know his name eventually, Marvel has pegged him to direct the upcoming blockbuster "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," which is scheduled for release in February 2021. After watching both "Just Mercy" and "Short Term 12," "Shang-Chi" is in very good hands. The man knows how to direct a film. He had an excellent team working for him in "Just Mercy," with a phenomenal cast, but he took all of these tools and made an important film worth paying attention to.

Speaking of said phenomenal cast, we're led here by Michael B. Jordan as Bryan Stevenson and Jamie Foxx as Walter McMillan. This is a power duo here, both of whom are able to deliver emotional performances that drive home the poignant themes of the unjust system that was in place in this particular city during this time period. Jamie Foxx especially gives a very strong performance that I think was deserving of a supporting actor nomination. In fact, when I go look at the list of five nominees that got in instead, not a single one of them gave a better performance than Jamie Foxx in "Just Mercy," so that was a definite snub. I can't say that Michael B. Jordan was snubbed because the best actor race is extremely competitive this time around. And although he gave a solid performance that is worthy of recognition, Jamie Foxx is the one who deserved the Oscar nomination. These two performances weren't the only good ones in the movie. There's an excellent supporting cast here, highlighted by great performances from Tim Blake Nelson as Ralph Myers, Rafe Spall as District Attorney Tommy Chapman, Brie Larson as Ava Ansley, and  Rob Morgan as Herbert Richardson. I won't detail their specific roles in the movie, but their names deserved mentioning.

Most important, though, this is a movie that is certain to spark discussions about the death penalty. Due to the nature of the subject matter, as well as some interesting facts mentioned in the credits of the movie, that's the exact conversation that people will be having and I think that's important. Honestly, part of the reason why this movie had such a strong impact on me is that is that I feel very conflicted about the death penalty. While it's a very gray area, I lean towards life in prison over the death penalty. And I'm open to discussion about that in the comments of this post or on social media. If you don't want to comment personally, send me a private message or come talk to me in person. I won't detail all of my opinions and supporting arguments here in this review, but I really liked "Just Mercy" because it not only emphasized certain arguments that I've already had, but it brought additional arguments to the table that I didn't necessarily consider. The only "negatives" I have towards this movie is that there are plenty of other movies, documentaries and docuseries out there that are a bit more powerful in addressing this subject, but this is still an excellent addition to this subgenre of crime/justice movies that is worth seeing. My grade for "Just Mercy" is a 9/10.

1917 Review

We're a couple weeks into 2020, which means it's time to wrap up 2019 on this blog. I've got two more reviews to write, this review here in "1917" and "Just Mercy," two movies that recently expanded nationwide after opening around Christmas in limited release, then it's onto my year end movie lists, which is proving to be quite stressful the more I think about it due to the high number of quality films that were released in 2019, especially in the last few months. It's been a phenomenal awards season and roaring onto the scene at last second in said race is "1917." In order to get good awards attention, typically a movie has to be positioned perfectly on the release schedule and campaigned appropriately by the studio. "1917" nearly missed that window as it wasn't released in any of the film festivals due to it not being finished on time. In fact, the movie didn't start filming until April 2019, so they barely got this completed on time. But after an excellent advertising campaign in the last couple of months, which was followed by strong reviews from critics and a best picture win at the Golden Globes, "1917" has made its mark, resulting in a $37 million expansion in its first week of wide release and 10 Oscar nominations on Monday morning.

So yeah, "1917" is making quite the impact at the moment. I'll get to my annual Oscar predictions post here soon given that the ceremony is on February 9 this year, several weeks earlier than it has been in past weeks, but I think it has a solid chance at winning best picture. And if it does, I say that it's well deserved. Because, yes, "1917" is a jaw-dropping spectacle that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible. This is a movie that takes place in April of... yes, you guessed it... 1917. During World War I. A war that I honestly don't know a whole ton about. At least not compared to World War II, where I feel a large majority of our war films come from. World War I was just dark, grim and dreary. Not that any war is all rainbows and butterflies, but all the battling in the trenches in World War I I feel made it especially dark and cold. And that is the setting of this movie. Based on a specific event or battle in World War I? Well, perhaps. The credits say it was heavily inspired by stories told to director Sam Mendes from a grandfather of his or something like that. The movie follows two young soldiers who are sent on a mission to deliver a message to another section of the army that they're all about to walk into a big trap, so they should stop the attack.

Is this specific story arc the most unique war story ever told? Does it make it stand out from all the other thousands of war films? Perhaps not. It's a war story. Two soldiers sent on a mission. Then war happens eventually. But the thing that does make this unique is the method that they chose to tell the story. And I'm sure you're well aware of this by now, but the movie uses an editing trick used in "The Rope" or "Birdman" wherein the entire film is shot in a way to give the illusion that it was all filmed in one shot. This is a technique that's not done often, but when it is I'm a complete sucker for it. It's a rather mind-blowing way to film a movie and I don't know how they do it. Of course there's some obvious moments where you know a cut happens, which is also the case in "The Rope" and "Birdman," but for the most part it's pure wizardry. I became mesmerized the whole film while just watching the camera and what it was doing. And in certain sequences where the camera went through the barbed wire fence or over the water whole, I just sat there in disbelief wondering… how? Now perhaps there were some visual effects teamed up with the camera work, but either way, a lot of work went into the technical aspects of this film and it was impressive.

I haven’t seen a whole lot of backlash towards this film. At least not yet. But one thing I could see people saying is that this technique is simply a gimmick used to enhance or cover up an otherwise average war film. This is a sentiment that I would strongly disagree with. While it’s true that this technique is not always 100 percent necessary when it’s used, I would contend that in this case it’s used as a tool to add a unique perspective to this film that I haven’t yet seen in a war film. That perspective is that of me feeling like I was right there in the action. Instead of there being two soldiers that were sent on a mission, requiring them to sneak through enemy territory, I felt like there were three. The two characters in the movie and me. Thus there was in immersive element that added to the intensity of the situation. I wasn’t just worried for the well-being of the two soldiers I was following. I was worried for my own well-being. We’d be walking up a hill and the uncertainty of not knowing what’s at the top of that hill made my heart race. Or we’d be walking down a dark hallway and I’d see that we’re about to turn the corner and I was afraid that an enemy soldier would be waiting for me on the other side. Because of this, I don’t know if there’s a war film that compares.

But that’s not all. This isn’t just a visually pleasing war film with some wizardry camera work. It’s a movie that has a lot of heart and emotion to it. One element that I feel is critical to the success of a war film is a central character or a group of characters to latch onto. I don’t necessarily need to know their whole life history, but I need to care about them and what it is they’re doing. Now I don’t want to turn this review into a review of something else. And I certainly don’t want to dig up old wounds and cause this review to be a discussion of something, but there was another recent war film that I will leave unnamed that I wasn’t able to connect with because there wasn’t a main central character worth caring about. Certain ideas in the movie were interesting, but I had a hard time becoming emotionally invested in the film since there were no main characters to latch onto and thus the final results were underwhelming. The movie felt like a bunch of war sequences strung together that didn’t carry much emotional weight. Thus in contrast to that movie, “1917” felt very refreshing in a way because it gave me that emotional attachment with our lead two characters, Lance Corporal Blake and Lance Corporal Schofield, played by Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay.

In regards to the cast, there are actually several big names that show up, highlighted by Colin Firth, Andrew Scott and Benedict Cumberbatch, but those three get one brief scene each. They’re there to establish an authoritative presence as major leaders in the British army, but Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay are the stars of this movie and the two of them have excellent chemistry as two war buddies going on a mission together. Chapman’s character is very gung-ho and brave while MacKay’s character is the one who gets dragged along without realizing what he’s getting himself into until it’s too late. With this, there are some genuine character arcs between the two of them that I won’t dive into in much detail, but said character arcs were quite beautiful. And even though the movie takes place over the course of 24 hours or less, there’s a lot that we end up learning about these two as they go on this incredible journey into the heart of the enemy without knowing if they’re going to survive the day, but being strongly motivated to make sure they give it their all with everything that’s at stake, learning a lot about themselves and each other along the way. This relationship is the heart and soul of the film that’s garnished by the incredible technical features, making it an all around excellent experience.

When Sam Mendes won the Golden Globe for best film, he mentioned in his speech that he hopes this win means that people will go see this in theaters, because that’s the format that this movie was meant to be seen in. I share the same hopes as Mendes. The strong nationwide expansion that I mentioned earlier is a good indication that this movie has the attention of audiences, which makes me happy. But I hope this continues throughout the course of January and February because this really was a unique experience. I felt immersed into this world with these soldiers almost like I was watching the movie in virtual reality due to the techniques used with the camera work. And that’s extremely effective in a war film as tense and mysterious as this one given that we don’t know what’s around the next corner and oftentimes the camera doesn’t clue us in until the two soldiers themselves know. And the bigger the screen that you can watch this on, the more effective this experience will be. Given the emotional nature of the film that I’ve described, you should enjoy it regardless, but like “Gravity” in 2013, seeing this in theaters will enhance your experience. “1917” was a movie that entered the race late, but it’s one of my favorites of the year and I’m giving it a 10/10.

Movie Preview: January 2020

Most recently on this blog I published my large preview of the entire 2020 year in film. And now it's time to turn right around and look specifically at the month of January, which is, historically speaking, not the best month of the year when it comes to quality films. As seen in my 2020 movie preview, this January seems to be especially rotten. However, now is not the time to scrutinize the quality here, but rather to provide a slightly more objective overlook at the schedule as a whole, especially since it's not all bad. While, yes, January is often seen as a dumping ground for films that studios don't care as much about as its not the most optimal time of the year for various reasons. But it's also a month where holiday holdovers are still playing strong as well as a month where awards seasons contenders that opened in limited release in December expand nationwide to take advantage of the less crowded market and the awards season attention. So all of this means that, regardless of what the quality here may be, there's still plenty to talk about. And in terms of the box office potential here, it looks like it could be a fairly healthy month, even though it doesn't look like it has the firepower to break any January records. With all that said, let's dive in and explore.

January 3rd - 5th-

As was expected, the first weekend of January was dominated by holiday holdovers with “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” and “Jumanji: The Next Level” taking the top two spots, followed by "Little Women" and "Frozen 2." It wasn't until fifth place that we saw this weekend's lone new wide release, the 2020 reboot of The Grudge, which may or may not take place somewhere in the same timeline as the other movies in the franchise as opposed to being a straight-up remake. Loaded with jump scares and generic horror images, it's been essentially labeled as the dictionary definition of a throwaway January horror film made only for those involved to earn a few bucks. For those that did go see it, whatever it is that they were expecting, they certainly didn't get it as the movie earned a rare F on Cinemascore, which in turn makes its 16 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes feel a bit generous. But in terms of its financial prospects, it's on track to earn a fine profit as it opened to $11.4 million on a $10 million budget. Given the bitter negative reaction, this is certain to disappear rather quickly from theaters. Even though it might turn a profit, it likely won't inspire additional sequels as this total is less than a third of 2004's "The Grudge," which opened to $39.1 million.

January 10th - 12th- 

The second weekend of January has two new wide releases, but before we get to those, there are two movies that have been in limited release since Christmas that will be expanding nationwide this weekend. The first of those to is 1917. Fresh of its big win at the Golden Globes for best picture (drama), “1917” has a lot of momentum right now as the buzz has been high due to excellent reviews since opening in limited release on Christmas. Universal has also had a fairly aggressive marketing campaign that is now going to combine with awards season buzz that should help it open big this weekend. With the Oscar nominations being announced on Monday, January 13, followed by the ceremony taking place on February 9, “1917” has the potential to ride that wave to a very strong performance throughout January and February. The movie itself is a World War I epic that follows the story of two young British soldiers who are given a mission to deliver a certain message. What separates this from other war films is that the movie was shot in a way to give the illusion that it was all filmed in one shot, like Hitchcock’s “The Rope” or 2014’s “Birdman.” The movie is directed by Sam Mendes and stars Colin Firth, Richard Madden, Andrew Scott and Benedict Cumberbatch.

The second movie expanding into wide release this weekend is Just Mercy. While this movie doesn’t have quite the same level of buzz as “1917,” this is a movie directed by Destin Daniel Cretton who has directed movies such as “Short Term 12” in 2013 and “The Glass Castle” in 2017. He’s also been hired by Marvel to direct the upcoming 2021 film “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” “Just Mercy” is a movie that stars Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx and tells the true story of Walter McMillian who, with the help of his defense attorney Bryan Stevenson, appeals his murder conviction. McMillain is played by Jamie Foxx while Stevenson is played by Michael B. Jordan. The movie is based on the memoir of the same name written by Stevenson. As far as awards consideration goes, Jamie Foxx is the one getting the most buzz for best supporting actor, but outside him, the movie isn’t getting nearly as much awards buzz as “1917,” but it is riding a wave of strong reviews which could help it to have a decent box office total. While “1917” is looking at a weekend of at least $20 million (and possibly a lot more), “Just Mercy” could get close to $10 million. Last January the movie "On the Basis of Sex," in a similar position as "Just Mercy," expanded to $6.1 million.

Now onto the two movies hitting wide release and there's not really a guarantee for any success for either of, but the movie with the most potential of the two is Like a Boss. This stars Tiffany Haddish, Rose Byrn and Salma Hayek in a raunchy comedy about two friends wanting to start a beauty company together. That level of star power might be enough to make this a sleeper hit, especially when it comes to Tiffany Haddish, who has had a great track record in the last few years since her breakout role in "Girl's Trip." The movie might also benefit for there not being many adult targeted comedies in theaters recently. However, it's worth noting that there were a lot of comedies in 2019 that had a bit of a rough go of it. "Long Shot" ($9.7 million), "Stuber" ($8.2 million) and "Booksmart" ($6.9 million) are three examples that rode star power and/or good reviews to an opening weekend that failed to hit $10 million. If awareness for "Like a Boss" or excitement level is not super high, this could wind up as a January dud that is quickly forgotten about. On a slightly more positive note, while this won't hit the top tier Tiffany Haddish level, this could play similar to her 2018 film "Nobody's Fool" ($13.7 million) or 2015's "Hot Pursuit" ($13.9 million).

Of all the releases this weekend, new or expanded, the one that seems to have the least amount of potential at this point is Underwater. As the slightly uncreative title suggests, this movie is about a team of researchers who are working... underwater... when some sort of earthquake does significant damage to their laboratory, causing them to go on a side quest to figure out what's going on. And although the trailers don't reveal exactly what's wreaking havoc around them, the vibe given off is that this is a potential creature feature. The cast of this has a few big names in Kristen Stewart and TJ Miller, although the rest of them are fairly unknown, while director William Eubank has only directed one theatrically released film in 2014, called "The Signal," and that didn't even crack $1 million domestically in its entire run. So that doesn't inspire a ton of confidence. If "Underwater" is indeed a terror in the water horror film, then the comparisons from last year are "Crawl" ($12 million) and "47 Meters Down: Uncaged" ($8.4 million). And even, predicting that "Underwater" hits those levels might be a big generous. In the Kristen Stewart realm, last year's "Charlie's Angles" also hit $8.4 million.

January 17th - 20th-

The third weekend of January will be followed by Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday the 20th, giving us a four-day holiday weekend that is often the most lucrative weekend of January. This should inspire good holdover business from the films already in the market, but it also has two major releases that will be competing for the top spot and the first of those two is Dolittle. The origins of "Dr. Dolittle" spans back 100 years now with the original series of children's books that started being published in 1920 by author Hugh Lofting. There were 15 books published between 1920 and 1952. And said stories are now on their third film adaptation, with Rex Harrison portraying the doctor in 1967, Eddie Murphy in 1998 and now Robert Downey Jr. in 2020. Of note, the Eddie Murphy movie spawned four sequels, with Eddie Murphy reprising his role in the 2001 sequel while the last three were direct-to-video sequels without Murphy. That makes "Dolittle" the seventh Dr. Dolittle movie. Thus the recognizable source material combined with the star power of Robert Downey Jr and a huge list of voice actors doing all the animals will definitely help this perform well. Although how high this gets will ultimately be determined by reaction from the target audience.

For those of you who paid attention in my 2020 yearly movie preview, you may remember that one of the themes of 2020 will be belated sequels to franchises previously thought to be long over. That trend begins right here in January with our other big film of the weekend, Bad Boys for Life. Now it could end up being an interesting race at the box office to determine which of these movies will open out on top, but the two can certainly coexist with their target audiences being the exact opposite. "Bad Boys" was released in 1995 with the sequel opening in 2003. Both movies were directed by Michael Bay and both movies got panned by critics. Despite that, audiences didn't care what critics had to say as both were huge hits, making $65.6 million and $138.5 million total respectively. Adjusted for ticket price inflation, those totals jump up to $137.5 million and $209.3 million. With that level of success, it's surprising that they waited 17 years to do another one of these, which very well may result in the demand for this not being quite as high, despite the return of both lead stars, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Thus a potential comparison here might be to last year's "Men in Black International," which only opened to $30 million, despite previous entries being huge hits. 

January 24th - 26th-

The fourth weekend of January is a rather crowded one in terms of the number of titles being released, but this might be a classic January situation where a lot of titles are just dumped onto the schedule without much potential to perform well. That means whichever movie wins the "Dolittle" vs. "Bad Boys for Life" battle has a chance to repeat here. Unless The Gentlemen is somehow able to gain breakout status. This movie comes to us via Guy Ritchie who has been very busy lately adapting well known property into film, with last year's "Aladdin" as well as "King Arthur" in 2017 and "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." in 2015. In fact, with his two Sherlock Holmes movies preceding those titles, it's been a while since Guy Ritchie did a true Guy Ritchie film, like "Snatch" or "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels." Yet "The Gentlemen" looks like it's just that. Guy Ritchie taking a break from the big stuff to do something small that he wants to do. The movie is about a British drug lord trying to sell off his highly profitable empire to a dynasty of billionaires. The movie was released in the U.K. on January 1 and so far the word from across the pond is fairly positive. If the movie connects with its adult male target audience, this could sneak close to $20 million on the weekend.

The other potential breakout of the weekend is the third January horror film of the month, The Turning. The reason why this one has potential is that it's based on the 1898 horror novella "The Turn of the Screw." If you combine film and television, that story has been adapted well over 10 times, meaning the story is fairly popular. This latest adaptation has Steven Spielberg on as executive producer with Floria Sigismondi directing, who has most notably directed episodes of shows like "The Handmaid's Tale," "American Gods" and "Daredevil." So there's talent behind the camera here. There's also talent in front of the camera with Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard and Brooklyn Prince starring. But all that talent is not necessarily guaranteed to produce a quality film. Just ask people involved in 2018's "Winchester" what a talented cast and crew, as well as an excellent premise, did for their movie. That movie only opened to $9.8 million following a string of toxic reviews. With "The Turning," creepy mansion, large property and mysterious kids has all the workings of something belonging in January, so this might need positive reviews to actually do well.

Next on the list are a pair of movies whose potential don't seem very high at all. We'll start here with The Last Full Measure. On paper this sounds like it could be a big hit, at least in the indie realm. It stars Christopher Plummer, Samuel L. Jackson, William Hurt, Sebastian Stan and Ed Harris and is another war drama. Specifically it tells the true story of Vietnam War hero William Pitsenbarger, who personally saved over 60 men during Operation Abilene in the war. Pitsenbarger was offered the chance to leave on a helicopter, but chose to stay behind to help more people. The narrative of this movie seems to be focusing mainly on the potential conspiracy behind with Pitsenbarger wasn't awarded the medal of honor. Sebastian Stan in the movie plays a Pentagon staffer who is out to get justice for Pitsenbarger. So yeah, this sounds good enough to be a hit, or at least become well liked by people wanting another war drama. But Roadside Attractions conspicuously leaving this in January is worrisome, as is the presence of "1917," which is likely to attract the majority of audiences wanting a war film. Thus, while the box office potential here is minimal, if reviews are positive, this could be a movie that finds a life after its theatrical run with an older audience who enjoy war films.

Surprise! The final movie of this weekend is yet another horror film. Or, well, thriller in this case. It's a movie called Run. First thing's first, what this movie has going for it is that it comes from director Aneesh Chaganty, who directed the 2018 sleeper hit "Searching." Those who enjoyed that film might be curious to see what he's doing next. "Run" is a movie that stars Sarah Paulson and Keira Allen and is about a home schooled teenager who begins to suspect that her mother is keeping a dark secret from her. Those are the ingredients of a successful film. "Searching" rode positive buzz from Sundance to a $6.1 million opening weekend in August 2018, finishing with $26 million. It wouldn't be too hard for "Run" to at least replicate that opening weekend with the proper promotion. But that's the thing. Yours truly is having a hard time believing that this movie is actually being released on this date. A trailer seems to be M.I.A., both from YouTube and IMDb, while I've seen no promotion of any sorts. Yet I include it here because both The-Numbers and Boxoffice Pro claim this is being released by Lionsgate this weekend. I suppose we'll see what happens when this weekend gets here. At the very least, look for this to be released at some point during 2020.

January 31st - February 2nd-

The final weekend of January, which takes place mostly in February is cinematic suicide for new releases due to Sunday, February 2 being the Super Bowl. Yet there's two movies that are attempting the feat anyways and I'm not sure if either one even has the potential to dethrone whatever ends up No. 1 in the previous two weeks. Of the two, the movie I'm choosing to talk about first is Gretel & Hansel. This is actually not the first time an offbeat Hansel & Gretel adaptation ended of January. With this, I'm thinking about 2013's "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters," which starred Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as adult versions of the characters in a more action-focused film. "Gretel & Hansel" thinks its being rather clever by switching around the title to include Gretel first. The trailer is also rather amusing as it appears it thinks its being unique by turning the classic tale into a dark, creepy horror film. The reason that's amusing is because the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale is already quite dark. Anyways, with the recognizable property here, and a PG-13 rating, this has the potential to trick a few teenagers to go see. The cast and crew here is mostly unrecognizable, which doesn't help. The one exception to that is Sophia Lillis of "IT" fame playing Gretel.

The next movie braving the Super Bowl is The Rhythm Section, which is a revenge thriller of sorts wherein Blake Lively stars as a woman who seeks to uncover the truth behind a plane crash that killed her family, a flight that she was supposed to be on. To figure this out, she goes undercover as an assassin. With this being an action spy thriller, the Super Bowl is probably not the best weekend for this to come out on as that's typically a male heavy genre. Although it's worth noting that one of the movies to successfully brave the Super Bowl was 2009's "Taken," which opened to $24 million and was also an action thriller with the main character out for revenge due to family being wronged. So this could work. And teaming Blake Lively with Jude Law provides for a recognizable cast that could help. However, instead of comparing this to "Taken," some more recent comparisons might be to last year's "Anna," which opened to $3.6 million, or a pair of 2018 films, "Proud Mary" and "Peppermint," which opened to $9.9 million and $13.4 million respectively. The three of those movies are also female-led action thrillers. The three different box office totals suggest a potential range. Of note, "Proud Mary" might be the best comparison with it being a fellow January release. 

Movies of 2020: The Good, the Bad, and the Maybe

In case you missed the news, 2019 is over. Not only does that mean that we get to look back on the year 2019 to determine what the best and the worst of that specific year were, but we also crossed decades, which means we also get to look back on the best movies of the entire 2010s, a list I am very excited to get to. However, before we look back on all of those, we first need to look forward to the new year since movies don’t stop coming. We already have one new 2020 movie coming out this weekend and a whole bunch thrown into the dumping ground of January, so this comes as top priority. In previewing all of these movies for the year, I am once again using the format that I have used in the past several years, that being splitting this into three different categories: the good, the bad and the maybe. This is not a completely comprehensive list as there’s hundreds of movies that get released every year, many of which I’m not even aware of at this point of time. And the dates on these are subject to change. Some might not even come out this year. But these are just some highlights that I selected. The order in each section is determined by release date because I find that the easiest. Plus I think that looks the most organized. So without further ado, let’s jump in!

The Good:

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) – February 7
How about that for a movie title? Don’t expect me to type that out to often. For the most part I’ll simply refer to this as “Birds of Prey,” but I wanted to include that subtitle at least once because I find it fantastic. DC right now is on fire with the likes of “Aquaman,” “Shazam!” and “Joker” all in the last 13 months. They appear to have finally figured out that, instead of trying copy Marvel beat for beat (and failing miserably in doing so), that they need to simply focus on making good individual movies. The timeline itself may be a giant mess at the moment, but I couldn’t care less really because we’re getting some fantastic individual movies and as a life-long DC fan, that makes me super happy. And that looks to continue with “Birds of Prey,” headlined by the return of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, a character that even the most bitter “Suicide Squad” haters enjoyed. Joining Harley are the film debuts of Huntress and Black Canary as they going against Ewan McGregor’s Black Mask.

The Lodge – February 7
I don’t know a lot about this movie, nor do I want to. I know it stars Riley Keough in some sort of slow-burn, psychological horror film. That’s all I need to know. It also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019 and I’ve been excited for it ever since. Sundance horror films are typically my favorite. NEON purchased the rights to it and have taken their sweet time in getting it out, which has been mildly annoying. But come February 7, it’s finally here… maybe. That February 7 release date is technically a limited release date.

Onward – March 6

It’s Pixar. That’s all I need to say, right? Specifically, it’s a Pixar original and those are always Pixar’s best films. In regards to “Onward,” I’m personally convinced that someone at Pixar watched the 2017 movie “Bright,” that ridiculously awful Netflix film with Will Smith, then said, “We can do a better version of that!” Because, yeah, it’s the same idea. Fantasy creatures and characters living a normal, everyday life. And I’m convinced that this will work. In recent trailers we learned that our two main characters, voiced by Chris Pratt and Tom Holland, are out to spend one final day with the dad who has passed away, thus reminding me of the Michael Keaton snow-dad movie “Jack Frost.” And you know that Pixar is going to take that premise and pull at your heartstrings in true Pixar fashion.

A Quiet Place: Part II – March 20
While “A Quiet Place” didn’t quite make it into my list of my favorite movies of 2018, it was nevertheless one of my favorite theatrical experiences of that year as no one even dared to move a muscle. Even eating popcorn or walking down the isle was extremely loud. And was highly satisfying that everyone bought into that. The other fun thing about the movie was that all my non-horror friends all saw it, too. Most of whom loved it. So it was rather amusing seeing so many people love a horror film. A lot of people tried to pan it off as it not being a horror film, using that as a justification as to why they liked it. But no, it totally was. Some people just don’t want to admit that they watched and enjoyed a horror film because they enjoy hating on the genre, which I find silly, but whatever. I’m super stoked for a second trip into the world of “A Quiet Place,” especially with John Krasinski back as director while Emily Blunt and kids reprising their roles in the film.

Mulan – March 27
If I hear one more angry comment as to why there’s no Mushu in this “Mulan” remake, that person gets slapped. People complain at Disney for creating carbon copies of their movies with these remakes, then they also get mad when Disney decided to do something different. I mean, what do you want? And do you understand why Disney ignores the stupid people on the internet and instead makes decisions based on their bank account? When it comes to “Mulan,” this is one remake that actually makes a ton of sense. With the original animated “Mulan,” Disney took a Chinese legend and did what they do best. They Disneyfied it. Us Americans loved it, but the Chinese people actually hated that movie. So with this live action remake, they’re actually going back and being true to Chinese mythology, which is very smart when it comes to the movie’s box office potential given how huge the Chinese market is right now. And if they have to anger a few dumb Americans in the process, I think it’ll be totally worth it to them. No tears will be shed. Plus, this direction also creates something new and different than its predecessor, allowing the movie to stand on its own. I love that idea. If you don’t, then let me remind you that the animated “Mulan” still exists. Disney isn’t erasing that movie from existence, so you can still watch it.

No Time to Die – April 10
I feel like just about every other Bond movie, on average, ends up being a dud. And since “Skyfall” was excellent while “Spectre” was a bore, then said law of averages means that “No Time to Die” is going to be great, right? In general, I think Daniel Craig has done an excellent job as Bond, even if the movies he’s been in haven’t always been the best, so if this is his swan song, I’m excited to see it. The director here is Cary Fukunaga, the director of the 2015 Netflix film “Beasts of No Nation,” so I’m curious to see what he brings to Bond. There has been buzz that this movie will set up a female to take over as the new “James Bond.” While I’m generally against the idea of a simply recasting Bond as a female, if they instead take the route of a female taking over the 007 mantle, I think that can work. And if that female is Ana de Armas, I think that’s an excellent choice. Her and Daniel Craig already worked very well together in “Knives Out,” so at the least I’m excited to see them reuinted in this latest Bond film.

Black Widow – May 1
Some things in life are a no-brainer. At this current time, the last 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has taught me to always be excited for the next Marvel film. If at any point they start becoming a train wreck, then I suppose we can cross that bridge when we get there. But that’s not the situation. Phase IV in the MCU begins with “Black Widow,” a movie that we’ve all been begging for ever since Scar-Jo showed up in this universe. And now we’re finally getting it… (AVENGERS: ENDGAME SPOILERS AHEAD)… AFTER she dies. Confused? Don’t be. This is set during the time of “Captain America: Civil War.” So then how will this fit into Phase IV? Well, Scar-Jo herself might not be back for any future Avengers movies, but the movie is introducing Florence Pugh and Rachel Weisz as other characters who were trained as a Black Widow and we also have David Harbour as Red Guardian being introduced. I imagine one or more of them will be continuing on in Phase IV.

Scoob! - May 15
There’s a lot of things being rebooted and remade in today’s world. And I could get upset or angry at some of them, but not Scooby-Doo, especially not if it’s animated. When this trailer dropped, I was immediately won over. It looks like they’re capturing the spirit of Scooby-Doo. A Scooby-Doo origin story is not something I thought I ever wanted, but after seeing this trailer, as well as learning that it will transition into the current Scooby gang, I am on board. And apparently Hanna-Barbera is using this as a launching pad for a Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe, with films based on “The Jetsons,” “The Flinstones” and “Wacky Races” also being in development. We’ll see how that all turns out. I have no qualms with Warner Animation Group, though, but if they do the original animated properties justice, I’d say that’s a good thing.

Fast & Furious 9 – May 22
It’s the 10th movie in the Fast & Furious franchise, with this obviously being the ninth one in the main saga. The one non-saga spin-off was last year’s “Hobbs and Shaw.” Normally when a movie gets to its 10th film, the quality has gone downhill quite some time prior. But the only people complaining at how stupid it is to have this many Fast & Furious movies are the people who haven’t watched any of them. This franchise kicked it into full gear starting with the fifth movie and haven’t looked back since. At the very least, they’ve been extremely entertaining. Several of them have been quite epic, though. The thing that makes me the most nervous about this current movie is that it will be without Dwayne Johnson, partially because scheduling conflicts with “Hobbs & Shaw,” but also potentially because of the reported disagreements with him and Vin Diesl. I think the two need to work things out so we can get the best quality Fast & Furious movie. Until then, John Cena is stepping into this next movie, which makes perfect sense, all things considered.

Wonder Woman 1984 – June 5
I don’t like ranking movies in this blog post. I prefer listing them in the order they are released, then determine later how they stack together. But obviously this would easily be my most anticipated if I did do it that way. After a frustrating start to the DCEU, they struck gold by giving the world a Wonder Woman movie that had all the elements of a classic DC movie. The DC fan in my was shedding tears of joy during the whole experience. The trick? They put aside their goals of establishing a cinematic universe and just let Patty Jenkins make a good movie. And that made all the difference. Now with the whole timeline for the DCEU in shambles, their only current options is to make good individual movies, which I’m not complaining about. With Wonder Woman, Patty Jenkins has decided to cash in on the 80s nostalgia train, which I think will work beautifully. That trailer was fantastic. And I’m excited to see Kristen Wiig’s Cheetah, Pedro Pascal’s Maxwell Lord and... the return of Chris Pine as Steve Trevor?

Soul – June 19
Again, it’s a Pixar original. Need I say more? In this case, it looks like they’re going for an “Inside Out” sort of feel as our main character gets his soul separated from his body and he gets transported to the “You Seminar,” a center where souls go to develop and gain passions. Yeah, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect on this when the teaser was released, which resulted in this catching me off guard when I saw it. And I’m still not 100 percent sure what exactly this movie is going to be, but it’s Pixar and its unique, so that’s all I really need.

In the Heights – June 26
We’re living in a movie musical renaissance today, which I really enjoy, despite there being some of them that I don’t like. Yes, it’s true, I’m not going to salivate over a musical just because the sang music and danced. I need a bit more. But I’m always willing to give them a chance. And despite this movie not coming out until the middle of the summer, they’ve already been pushing the marketing pretty hard. I don’t know much about the musical itself. But I do know that the music for the original Broadway production was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda while this movie adaptation is being directed by Jon M. Cho, director of “Crazy Rich Asians,” so this seems like a good formula for success.

Free Guy – July 3
I just about died laughing when I saw this trailer and it opened with “From the studio that brought you ‘Aladdin,’ ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘The Lion King’… twice.” That’s such a Ryan Reynolds thing to do, so I’m sure he had a say in that. This is a 20th Century Fox production, so not Disney directly, but they are now of course owned by Disney, hence the joke. Ryan Reynolds is producer and star of this video game esque superhermo movie that reminds me of a hilariously ridiculous combination of “Ready Player One” and “Deadpool.”

Ghostbusters: Afterlife – July 10
“Ghostbusters” is back in business! For real, this time. Although if I’m being honest, I didn’t mind the female-led remake. It wasn’t the best movie in the world, but it was a lot better than the internet gave it credit for as well as being better than I personally was expecting. That said, instead of continuing that “Ghostbusters” universe, they’re going back to the original timeline, but much later on. With the movie being led by McKenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard, the initial trailer gave off a serious vibe of “Ghostbusters” meets “Stranger Things,” which a combination that makes all the sense in the world. I’m personally assuming that the original “Ghostbusters” cast will show up in this movie, but right now they’re making that a secret, only saying that our main characters are grandchildren of one of them and that said Ghostbusters team are more of a myth/legend at this point. The director of this movie is Jason Reitman, and although most of his movies have had zero relation to anything in the ballpark of “Ghostbusters,” he is the son of Ivan Reitman, director of the original two movies.

Tenet – July 17
It’s Christopher Nolan’s latest film. That alone makes this a huge summer event film. Although I still claim Nolan as one of my favorite directors, I’ve had a bit of a rough experience with his last three films, which have caused at uproar among the Nolan faithful. In hoping to counter those negative feelings, I did a ranking of all of Nolan’s movies. I don’t know if that sent enough positive vibes, but I’m crossing my fingers that “Tenet” is a return to form. The recent trailer made it look like a combination of “Source Code” and “Inception,” and I have no idea what’s going on, which for a Nolan film is how it should be.

The King’s Man – September 18
I’m angry at this movie for disappearing until September. It was supposed to come out in February, yet it wasn’t until I went to do this post that I learned that it had been postponed. Now I think I would be more excited if this was a “Kingsman 3” proper rather than a prequel movie that has none of the original cast. But Matthew Vaughn is still the director and as long as he implements a similar style, then I should be sufficiently entertained.

Last Night in Soho – September 25
Some movies in this list are simple as to why they are here. I looked at a movie called “Last Night in Soho,” had no idea what it was, so I looked it up and saw it was the next movie from director Edgar Wright. Yup. That’s all I need. Edgar Wright directed the Cornetto Trilogy (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz,” “The World’s End”), “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” and “Baby Driver.” Need I say more? But sure, I will. This is a psychological horror film about a young girl who is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s, encounters her idol her idol, who is a dazzling, wannabe singer. And then things start to go south. It's a strange enough premise that also stars Thomas McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith, among others.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 – September 25
The end of the year will bring a lot of awards hopefuls to the scene. Many of those end up being really good, yet I won’t know what those are until right before they get to theaters or until the festival circuits. So I’m not sure if this is really one of them. But it is a movie that is written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, who has three Academy Award nominations for “The Social Network,” “Moneyball” and “Molly’s Game,” all of said nominations coming in the writing department. “Molly’s Game” was his directorial debut, but generally speaking anything with Aaron Sorkin attached is really sharp. This movie is about the Chicago Seven, a group of seven defendants who were charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to anti-Vietnam War and other countercultural protests that took place in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The movie also has a really large cast that would nearly double the length of this paragraph, so I will let you look that up yourself.

Venom 2 – October 2
I thought “Venom” was a solid start to Sony’s parallel Spider-Man-less Cinematic Universe. Even though the plot of the movie itself left a bit to be desired, the character of Venom, as well as Tom Hardy’s portrayal of Eddie Brock, was quite excellent and left me wanting more. Then the end credits teased Woody Harrelson as Carnage, who is one of the coolest and most sinister villains. Most fans will be demanding an R-rating in order to properly do Carnage. I don’t require a specific rating. I just require a good movie. I just want them to do justice to Venom and Carnage in this movie and I think Andy Serkis is up to the task.

Death on the Nile – October 9
I’m a sucker for a good murder mystery and “Murder on the Orient Express” in 2017 was exactly. It was a fun, old-fashioned murder mystery with an excellent cast that I hear did justice to its source material, the 1934 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie, although I haven’t read the novel myself. The end of the movie teased a sequel, which intrigued me, but I forgot about that as I wasn’t sure if they had officially began production on that. It certainly made enough money for a sequel as it grossed $102.8 million domestically and $352.8 million worldwide on a $55 million production budget. Well, as you guessed, this is that sequel. And I didn’t realize that until I clicked on this movie, wondering to myself, “What in the heck is ‘Death on the Nile’?” Kenneth Branagh is back as director and star, this time bringing on Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening, Russell Brand and Letitia Wright as his costars.

Halloween Kills – October 16
I hope you know by this point in time that “Halloween” movies with Michael Myers will never end. The timeline is super fancy and confusing at this point with the various reboots they’ve done. And I certainly hope you knew that 2018’s “Halloween,” a direct sequel to the original film, wasn’t the end of Michael Myers. Even before they officially announced this sequel, which was announced at the same time as 2021’s “Halloween Ends,” I knew that this was coming given that 2018’s “Halloween” made $255.5 million worldwide on a $10 million budget. I mean, that practically guarantees like 25 more of these movies at least. And it’s usually when the sequels come that things get a bit sketchy, but for the moment I can get myself excited for this movie since David Gordon Green returns as director along with Jamie Lee Curtis and most of the rest of the surviving cast of the 2018 movie.

Those Who Wish Me Dead – October 23
Again, some of these make me excited simply by looking at the director. I mean, the premise is about a teenage boy being pursued by twin assassins after witnessing a murder in the Montana wilderness. He has a survival expert helping protect him as well as a forest first threatening to consume all of them. That alone sounds like something right up my wheelhouse. And Angelina Jolie, Jon Bernthal and Nicholas Hoult leading the way is intriguing. But this comes from director Taylor Sheridan, director and writer of "Wind River," as well as the writer of "Sicario" and "Hell or High Water." That's what seals the deal here.

Eternals – November 6
I know very little about "Eternals." And I'm willing to be that I'm not alone in this, which means Marvel is going to have to do a good job in advertising this thing after "Black Widow" comes out. I am intrigued by the idea of Kumail Nanjiani, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Kit Harrington, Salma Hayek and Brian Tyree Henry all now being a part of the MCU. And I also really like it when Marvel reaches outside the box and does something different. That's how we get things like "Guardians of the Galaxy." Like many people on the planet, I've been on board with Marvel for this whole ride and I see know reason why I should be getting off.

Godzilla v. Kong – November 20
I'm also mad that this is in November and not March. I mean, sure. Spend some extra time getting this one right since this entire Monsterverse here relies on this movie's success. "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" was one of the bigger disappointments in terms of box office performance in 2019, despite it giving Godzilla fans everything you want in a Godzilla movie. That means if "Godzilla vs. Kong" also fails, we all lose.

Raya and the Last Dragon – November 25
After going the sequel route for the last couple of years with "Ralph Breaks the Internet" and "Frozen 2," Walt Disney Animation Studios are going back to doing an original animated film. And for some reason this feels like a bit of a risk to me because it's also not a bombastic musical like "Moana" or "Frozen." But I'm personally down for any animated movie about a dragon, especially with a title that sounds as cool as that. The concept art they released for this at D23 also had my attention, so I'm hoping that this will be fun.

Dune – December 18
Rumor has it there is a movie from 1984 called "Dune," based on a book from 1965. I'm not going to pretend to know a whole lot about that. All that I know is that the genre here is science fiction. And we're redoing it in December. The reason why I'm excited for this is not due to me having any sort of emotional connect to the novel or the 1984 movie. It's because this is Denis Villeneuve directing this. And if this one guarantee in today's modern film industry, it's that Denis Villeneuve is going to make a great movie. With no sort of Star Wars movie this December, this will be the big sci-fi film we all see around Christmas.

West Side Story – December 18
This is the moment of this post where I'm going to pretend to be extremely knowledgeable about this thing called "West Side Story" so I don't look foolish around all my friends. So sure, let's call this a favorite musical of mine and say that I also love all the music. And as a major fan of this, who should I be feeling about a remake of "West Side Story"? Well, for one, stage musicals are redone thousands of times on various levels. As long as the production as a lot of heart and energy put into it, people tend to enjoy them. So why can't we be excited about another movie musical being remade? As long as it has a great director and talented cast, it can work, right? And in this case, we have a little known director name Steven Spielberg directing. And he's also brought his entourage with him.

The Croods 2 – December 23
Out of all the animated movies for DreamWorks Animation to do a belated sequel to, why are they choosing "The Croods"? Well, the answer is that they must've got word that "The Croods" is one of my favorite movies of theirs and that I would love to see a sequel. I'm not sure if the rest of the world is on board with this, but I'm grateful that they honored this personal request of mine. Truth be told, financially this did pretty well and this sequel would've come out a lot earlier, but DreamWorks went through a bit of a crisis around the time that this was released in 2013 after 2012's "Rise of the Guardians" nearly killed the company. So they ended up putting a lot of things on the shelf. That's also why we haven't had "Madagascar 4" or "Puss in Boots 2." They put all three of these things on a shelf. But now they've finally dusted off "The Croods 2," which means I finally get the sequel I've been wanting, even if it's five years too late.

The Bad:

The Grudge – January 3
I'm cheating on this one. By the time you will be reading through this post, this movie will already be out. And at the moment of me typing this up, the movie has a miserable 15 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes to go along with a 20 percent audience score. Are you surprised? Did the world really need a new entry in "The Grudge" franchise? January is an awful time for horror as so many bad horror movies get dumped in January each year with the hope of earning a quick buck or two. And this isn't the only one that's showing up here. Rest assured that even if I hadn't already known the reviews, I would've included this.

Dolittle – January 17
In watching the advertising for this movie, I have no idea what this is. And I'm not sure Universal does, either. They tried to make this look like a major awards contender when they released the initial trailer and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry because a Dr. Dolittle movie shouldn't be this epicly dramatic thing. But then they backtracked in the later trailers, showing a whole bunch of comedy mixed in with their continued attempts of being dramatic. And then in the most recent theatrical cut of the final trailer a dragon shows up at the end? Say what? The funny part of Dr. Dolittle is that it's a silly family comedy grounded in reality that has Dr. Dolittle all sorts of confused when the animals start talking to him. Having a dragon show up screws up that whole thing. So again, what the frack is this movie? I like the Eddie Murphy movies. And yes, plural. The sequel with the bear is really dumb, but it's adorably dumb, which is what this is supposed to be. If we're going to reboot Dr. Dolittle, own what you are and know your audience. Finally, the gimmick of casting all of Hollywood as the various animals just so that they can put their names in the trailer is rather shameful.

Bad Boys for Life – January 17
Why are there human beings on the planet that are excited for this? Yes, I know the two Bad Boys movies have a strong following, despite being trashed by critics. And said fans will probably show up for this one. But when will studios in Hollywood learn that bringing back old franchises that died years ago isn't a good idea? Because they keep trying and it keeps failing. So please, remind me what the definition of insanity is? Maybe after this movie gets panned by critics and fails at the box office, Will Smith can go back to making good decisions with his life.

The Turning – January 24
Remember what I said about January horror? This is the second of three of them here on this list. This one features a creepy house, gross imagery, loud noises, attempted jump scares that you can see from a mile away. A "modern take" on an old story, this time being Henry James' 1898 novella "The Turn of the Screw." This is just a waste of a perfectly good cast, led by Mackenzie Davis, Finn Folfhard and Brooklyn Prince. And I straight up laughed when the walking hand showed up in the trailer and was supposed to be creepy. I mean, are we trying to turn "The Addams Family" into an actual horror film?

Gretel & Hansel – January 31
January horror film No. 3. This time they take Hansel & Gretel and... switched the title around. They're advertising this as a dark and twisted version of the story, which is funny because they make it sounds like that's this crazy idea. Do they not realize that this is exactly how this story started? Or are they just trying to trick their audience into thinking this is something special? No, they're just taking a fairy tale and turning into a throwaway horror film. Granted, telling a version of Hansel & Gretel that's closer to the source material isn't a bad idea. But it'd have to be done by a director who is worth something and not released in January in order to convince me that it could actually be good.

The Photograph – February 14
I saw this trailer for the first time when I saw "Little Women" in theaters. And I thought it was going to be another one of those throwaway thrillers where the romantic guy ended up being this crazy psychopath. But nope. The trailer stayed as a romance film the entire time. And it looked like a really, cheesy, dumb romance film with zero personality and zero originality. I guess teenage girls need their romance fix come Valentine's Day. And this is from the same director as "Everything, Everything," so yeah.

Brahms: The Boy II – February 21
When I saw "The Boy" in theaters... FOUR YEARS AGO... I went in having no idea what the critics thought of it and I walked out enjoying it. It was a fun, little thriller. But part of the fun of the movie was the twist at the end, which makes it so there's nowhere to really take a sequel. Plus, the movie wasn't that successful and, for the most part, no one but me really liked it. So why make a sequel this long after the original? This is something that should've come out in 2017 or 2018 at the latest. This is way too late. Even fewer people are going to care. And it's bounced around on the schedule like a ping pong ball. And I'm not even confident that this is the movie's final destination on the calendar since the movie is seven weeks away and doesn't yet have a trailer. I know STX is going through a lot of financial difficulties, but they need to do some sort of advertising for their movies if they want to make money.

My Spy – March 13
Maybe I'm being a bit harsh here, but I feel Dave Bautista is trying a little too hard to be a funny comedian. His shtick as Drax in "Guardians of the Galaxy" worked really well, but it hasn't really translated too well into other movies. He tried last year with "Stuber" and no one cared about that movie as it was a huge dud at the box office. And now this movie is coming out and I have a sneaking suspicious that it might suffer a similar fate.

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway – April 3
The most frustrating thing about "Peter Rabbit" being a massive success... is this. The sequel. Because sometimes studios decide that empty, dumb slapstick for a whole movie is enough to create a quality kids movie. And then the parents get tricked into taking their kids to the movie, the kids all laugh at people getting hit in the face for two hours, then the movie makes money because of it, which encourages the studios to not try and create sequels to the dumb things. I think good parents will stay home and have their kids watch quality movies on Disney+ instead. But what do I know about parenting.

The New Mutants – April 3
They have postponed this movie so many times that I won't be convinced it's coming out until I am sitting in a theater watching it. And because we've been strung along so many times only to have the movie postponed again, this section is exactly where this belongs. In fact, I think this is the third year I've had "The New Mutants" on my yearly preview list, which is ridiculous. They just need to do something with this movie. Now director Josh Boone announced on Instagram that a trailer is coming on January 6 and that the movie is indeed being released on April 3. And not just that, but he also said that it's his original version that's being released. Does that mean all these postponements were pointless because the reported massive reshoots never happened? I'm so confused at this point.

Untitled Saw Film – May 15
I'm hearing that this might be called "The Organ Donor," but since that may or may not be a working title, I'm not going to commit to referring to it as that. But whatever this is called, Chris Rock came up with the story here while him and Samuel L. Jackson will be starring in the film. Not that I've really followed the timeline here, but apparently this also takes place in the main timeline and isn't a sequel to "Jigsaw," which recently rebooted the franchise. But whatever the heck is going on here, this is the ninth film in a horror franchise that wasn't even that interesting to begin with. This is what we call torture porn or splatter films. Horror films that are centered around graphic violence as a means of terror. That specific subgenre of horror has never intrigued me, so I'm not going to really care about this ninth film.

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run – May 22
I've never been a fan of SpongeBob. Perhaps I can understand kids liking it, but I know a lot of my adult friends who love SpongeBob who didn't necessarily grow up on it. It confuses me. So of course I am going to be a Grinch and throw this latest movie in here. But the bigger question with this specific movie is why is it necessarily to change the animation style here? SpongeBob has now been around for over 20 years, so what's the point?

Artemis Fowl – May 29
I know this series has many fans. I have a lot of friends who love these books and are at least cautiously optimistic about the movie. But I'll say here what I said last year when I talked about this movie. I think this movie is 10 years too late. And I'm not seeing a lot of confidence on the side of Disney. They had it dumped in August last year, but then pushed it back when they revamped their schedule following the official purchase of Fox. And now I suppose it's in a more prime summer release date, but they haven't started to re-advertise it yet, which is a problem since it's currently sandwiched between "Fast & Furious 9" and "Wonder Woman 1984" on the calendar. I realize that. I know there's not necessarily strong crossover audience between those three films, but we also have "Scoob!" and "SpongeBob" in May, as well as Pixar's "Soul" right around the corner in June. With all that competition, who all is going to decide to go see "Artemis Fowl" outside the core fan base?

Minions: The Rise of Gru – July 3
I'm not quite sure what to do with this thing. The minions worked well in small doses in the three "Despicable Me" movies. And 90 minutes of minion gags entertained me decently enough the first time around. But I'm not so sure they can get me again. Yet I'm not as angrily repulsed by a Minions sequel as most people on the planet might be. If you're curious as to why this is happening, "Minions" made $1.16 billion worldwide back in 2015, which is currently the fourth highest grossing animated movie, behind only "Frozen," "Incredibles 2" and "Frozen 2." I'm frankly surprised we didn't get this sequel sooner.

The Purge 5 – July 10
It's a Purge movie. They're going to come up with some sort of clever title that somehow relates into a political issue of sorts. It's going to make around $70 million domestically as the fan base here is impressively consistently. Yet I'm not going to care. Thus maybe it's unfair of movie to put this on here since I've never watched any movie in this franchise, but this is big enough that I felt like letting you know that another one is coming out.

Bob’s Burgers: The Movie – July 17
Well, this is technically a Disney animated release now, which is a bit weird to say. Certainly not Disney's animation studio, though. But either way, I've never been into any of these adult-targeted animated shows. I find most of them dumb. And I didn't realize that "Bob's Burgers" was big enough to warrant a movie. It's not like "The Simpsons Movie." That one made since and did quite well. But this one? I don't think so.

The Empty Man – August 7
An August horror/thriller from a nobody director and a nobody. August has the same problem as January. Studios just dump their trash there since it's a bit of an awkward time of the year. And I don't imagine this will make more than just $5 at the box office, so I'm not sure why I decided to bring up. But I did, so deal with it.

Escape Room 2 – August 14
You'll probably never hear about "Empty Man" beyond this post, but "Escape Room 2" you'll certainly here more about. As is typical with some horror franchises, this is an awfully fast turnover following the success of the first "Escape Room" in January 2019. And since Escape Rooms are pretty popular these days, it's smart to take advantage of the trend to do a horror franchise. But no one who saw "Escape Room" last year seemed to care about it, so it's a bit of a missed opportunity. And horror sequels pumped out this fast following an original that wasn't well liked is almost a guarantee for a poor quality film. But the studio here doesn't care since this probably only costing them a few pennies to make.

Bill & Ted Face the Music – August 21
Humor me here for one second, since I know many of you will be upset at me putting this here. Pretend here that I'm a fan of Bill & Ted. Belated comedy sequels rarely work out and I'm specifically looking at the likes of "Zoolander" and "Dumb and Dumber." Both beloved comedy classics. Both took forever to get a sequel out. Both got fans really excited when it was announced the original cast and crew were finally returning a sequel. But then both sequels ended up getting destroyed by critics and audiences alike. Belated comedy sequels don't work. And the two examples I brought up aren't the only examples, just the two biggest ones that come to mind. So again, if I was a fan, I would look at history here with belated comedy sequels and I would be nervous. But time to get real. I think "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" is an unwatchable, insufferable pile of horse manure that drives me up the wall. I've never understood the appeal, so why should I care one iota about a third movie, especially when I've never even heard anything good said about the second movie?

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard – August 28
“The Hitman’s Bodyguard” was a late August surprise back in 2017 that made $76 million domestically and $177 million worldwide. And I think the only reason why it did so was because it hit gold in terms of being released at a point in time where there was nothing else in theaters. The reaction from critics was that it was a throwaway action film that was only somewhat tolerable because of Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson. So forgive me if this is a franchise that I’m not in a huge rush to catch up on.

Monster Hunter – September 4
Here’s a great example of the power of a director, for better or for worse. I didn’t know what “Monster Hunter” was, but I saw the director and became excited because my brain registered the name as Paul Thomas Anderson, director of movies such as “Phantom Thread,” “Inherent Vice” and “There Will Be Blood.” However, after more careful inspection, I realized that the director was actually Paul W.S. Anderson, director of “Pompeii,” 2011’s “Three Musketeers,” the Resident Evil movie franchise, “Alien vs. Predator” and 1995’s “Mortal Kombat.” Most of his movies are pure trash. At best, people claim them as guilty pleasures. But I don’t think anyone will claim that he’s made genuine, quality movies. Also, “Monster Hunter” is a video game franchise, so anyone who is a fan of that better make sure they like those aforementioned Resident Evil movies because that’s the treatment “Monster Hunter” is getting.

Fatale – October 9
October is horror movie time and thus I’m always down for a good horror or thriller. But this October looks to have a few really good options, so I hope people aren’t tricked into seeing this thriller. This comes from director Deon Taylor, who is responsible for “Black and Blue,” “The Intruder,” “Traffik” and “Meet the Blacks.” Every once in a while a thriller like this comes around in the fall, usually from Screen Gems, that somehow tricks people into seeing it opening weekend. Good examples are “The Intruder,” “The Perfect Guy,” “When the Bough Breaks” or “No Good Deed.” This is one of those and deserves being skipped.

Clifford the Big Red Dog – November 13
I’m not inherently against anything related to “Clifford the Big Red Dog.” The books have been around since the 60’s and the TV show on PBS Kids in the early 2000’s was solid. But if you tell me that they’re planning a live-action movie, my reaction is going to be… WHY? I mean, if it turns out to be a solid kid’s movie, then great. But I’m going to need to see what’s going on here before I can consider being convinced that this was a good idea.

Uncharted – December 18
When will Hollywood learn that adapting video games into movies doesn’t work? I’m not a gamer, so my video game knowledge is limited, but the internet tells me that there are four main games for the Playstation, with a small handful of spin-offs in addition. The internet also tells me they are a series of adventure, third-person shooter games following a treasure hunter who journeys across the world uncovering history mysteries in an Indiana Jones style thing. So this idea could work, but it won’t because it’s a video game adaptation. And it might not come out this year, anyways. It’s been in production since 2008 with a lot of different directors attached. The most recent director was Travis Knight, director of “Bumblebee,” but he just dropped out within this past week. Tom Holland is set to star alongside Mark Wahlberg… if they can even get this off the ground.

Tom and Jerry – December 23
Jeff Goldblum’s quote in Jurassic Park rings true with this movie, and many others here. Said he, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” But take out scientists and replace it with filmmakers. Yeah, sure, we now have the ability to do a live-action Tom and Jerry movie. Doesn’t mean it should happen. Tom and Jerry is a fantastic cartoon, but it works best in the format of an old-fashioned, animated, episodic cartoon, not a modern, live-action, feature-length movie. And yes, they have made this into a movie before. That would be 1992’s “Tom and Jerry: The Movie.” And that’s more reason why this shouldn’t happen because that movie is complete trash.

The Maybe:

The Gentlemen – January 24
I’ve been really harsh on the new January movies this month as most of them look really bad. The only ones that I’m truly excited for are the ones like “1917” and “Just Mercy” that were actually December releases that are expanding in January. But yeah, of the new releases, “The Gentlemen” looks to be the one potential highlight. It’s a Guy Ritchie movie wherein it looks like Ritchie is going back to his personal style instead of taking on a bigger franchise film. It looks fun and exciting and it also has a large cast that includes Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsden, Colin Farrrell and Hugh Grant. I’m just slightly nervous about the January release date because that doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence from STX. Plus, the Super Bowl is right around the corner in this movie’s second weekend, meaning it has a week in theaters before it gets pummeled.


Sonic the Hedgehog – February 14
If I’m being completely transparent, I didn’t like the idea of a live-action Sonic movie. I also didn’t like the idea of Sonic coming to the human world for the movie. I think if we were to do a Sonic movie, it should be a CGI animated film in Sonic’s own world, made by an animation studio such as Warner Animation Group, Blue Sky, or even Illumination given that one of the bigger studios like Disney, Pixar or DreamWorks wouldn’t be interested. When the first trailer was released, the specific design of Sonic wasn’t my biggest complaint. That being said, I have mad respect for the team here who listened to fans’ complaints and decided to go back and fix things. That never happens. Because of that, I’ve definitely going to see this to give them my money. However, I still don’t think the idea behind this movie is a great one.


Fantasy Island – February 14
The concept behind “Fantasy Island” is an interesting one, but that might be because it’s based on a 1977 TV series of the same name that ran for seven years and had 152 episodes and two TV movies. The basic concept is that people would go to a mysterious island where their fantasies would be granted, but generally speaking the fantasy would turn out horribly wrong. This could make for an excellent supernatural horror film if they stay true to the original series. Or they could be turning a popular series into a jump-scare filled horror film. Based on the trailers, I’m not exactly sure which this will be and February horror films aren’t typically as disastrous films, so this could work. But if it doesn't, I won’t be one bit surprised.


The Call of the Wild – February 21
I haven’t read a whole lot of books in my life, but I’m pretty sure I actually have read Jack London’s 1903 novel “The Call of the Wild” at some point in my life. I’m just not exactly sure when. It may have been in grade school at some point. But the book title is certainly quite familiar. We’ve had a lot of dog movies recently, yet Harrison Ford hanging out with his dog out in the wild looks like it could be a decent, heartwarming family film made by Fox and distributed by Disney. It just doesn’t jump out at me as an absolute must-see. So I don’t know if it will be super high on my priority list, but I still might decide to give it a chance.


The Invisible Man – February 28
I was ready for Universal’s Dark Universe. They were planning a whole ton of modern adaptations of the classic monster movies. With the right directors and writers on board, those could be a lot of fun. But with the initial attempt, 2017’s remake of “The Mummy,” starring Tom Cruise and Sofia Boutella, they spent way too much time setting up a cinematic universe and forgot to make one good stand-alone movie, thus the movie fell flat on its face and the idea of a new Dark Universe seemed dead in the water. Until Jason Blum stepped in and expressed a desire to do “The Invisible Man.” So I don’t know what other movies in this Dark Universe are actually coming, but I think “The Invisible Man” could work out really well, especially as directed by Leigh Whannell, director of 2018’s “Upgrade.” The trailers don’t make me jump out of my seat in excitement, but I’m still holding out hope.


Bloodshot – March 13
This is not a Marvel or DC comic book property, but it is a superhero film released by Sony. Or, well, comic book film at least. Bloodshot comes from Valiant Comics. In reading about him, he seems like a combination of a lot of different characters. He’s essentially a genetically enhanced super solider. He has a billion nanobots in his bloodstream that give him powers of regeneration, allow him to interface with technology and shaft shift his mass. He’s also had his memory wiped on many occasions and afterwards gets sent out as an assassin to kill people. Generally speaking his main objective is to figure out who he is and get revenge on the people who did this to him. So I see elements of Captain America, The Winter Soldier, Wolverine, the Punisher and even Jason Bourne. In this movie version, him and his wife get shot and killed, which is when the organization turn him into this thing. Vin Diesel will be playing him. Given this is Sony and is directed by a first-time director, as well as being derivative of a long of things, this could be a disaster. Or it could be a sleeper hit.


I Still Believe – March 13
The last time we had a Christian movie based on the story behind a popular Christian song, it was called “I Can Only Imagine” and it was quite excellent. Now the Erwin Brothers, the directors of “I Can Only Imagine,” are out to see if they can catch lightning in a bottle twice. The song “I Still Believe” is sung by Christian singer Jeremy Camp and was written after the death of his first wife Melissa, whom he married despite knowing that she was dying of ovarian cancer. I hope I didn’t just spoil the whole movie, but that’s the history behind the song. Given all of that, it does have the ingredients of another good Christian movie, but these Christian movies also have a habit of being slightly generic, so I’m not 100 percent on board.


The Lovebirds – April 3
From director Michael Showalter, director of “The Big Sick,” and also starring Kumail Nanjiani, who portrayed himself in “The Big Sick,” which is the story about how he met his wife, comes “The Lovebirds,” a movie wherein the premise is described as a couple on the brink of breaking up who get caught up in a bizarre and hilarious murder mystery. I like murder mysteries and I like this team-up of Showalter and Nanjiani, so this sounds like a blast, but it’s getting released in April, so I don’t know what’s up with that.


Trolls World Tour – April 17
I never actually reviewed the movie “Trolls.” For some reason I never got around to seeing it in theaters. When I eventually saw it, I thought it was one of the more stupid and juvenile things DreamWorks has done. Sorry. But despite me having no attachment to “Trolls,” this trailer for “Trolls World Tour” had me rolling on the floor laughing. There are seven strings of music and trolls who represent each genre: pop, funk, classical, techno, country, rock and hip-hop. Yet the hard rock troll is out to destroy all other kinds of music to allow rock to rein supreme. If I didn’t do it justice there, just watch the trailers. It looks like one of the dumbest things ever, but in an extremely self-aware sort of way. I really kinda want it right now, but at the same time I’m nervous as to whether or not the movie can be as stupidly awesome as the trailers.


Legally Blonde 3 – May 8
I figured that I’d due my due diligence by informing the world that a “Legally Blonde 3” will be released a weekend after “Black Widow.” It’s been 17 years since “Legally Blonde 2” came out, which in turn was two years after the 2001 release of “Legally Blonde.” I’m not sure this is a third movie that the world was asking for, and the large space between the second and third movie is a bit curious, but as I’ve not seen any of the “Legally Blonde” movies, I’ll let you decide if this is a good thing or not. In the meantime, I guess I have four months to get caught up.


The Woman in the Window – May 15
This right here is a modern-day “Rear Window,” combined with elements of “The Girl on the Train.” A woman who is housebound thinks she witnesses a murder across the way, but she is too drugged up on medications to be trusted by anyone. This is based on a 2018 novel of the same name by A.J. Finn, a pseudonym for Daniel Mallory. The novel has generally positive reviews and the movie was one I was really excited for heading into the latter half of 2019, so long as it was a tribute to classic Hitchcock rather than a generic rip-off. The movie is directed by Joe Wright and stars Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Anthony Mackie, Brian Tyree Henry, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Julianne Moore. But then when Disney took over for Fox, they threw this movie into the first half of 2020 instead of keeping it in prime awards season territory after the final act of the movie was apparently poorly received in test screenings.


Candyman – June 12
“Candyman,” is a direct sequel to the 1992 version of “Candyman,” as it ignores the two sequels that came after. Thus it is taking a direct page from 2018’s “Halloween,” which ignored all “Halloween” sequels in being a direct sequel to the original while also having the same exact name. I don’t like this trend. If it’s a remake, then fine. Whatever. But sequels need to have a different name than their predecessors. Anyways, the original “Candyman” is on Netflix right now, so I’ll watch it some time before this sequel comes out in June. Jordan Peele is attached as a producer and the director is Nia DaCosta, director of the critically-acclaimed 2018 film “Little Woods” that not many human beings saw.  

Top Gun: Maverik – June 26
Belated sequels coming out long after their original movies is a theme this year. Of all the previous movies I’ve brought up on this list, this one currently has the record for longest time in between as “Top Gun” came out in 1986. And like with all the sequels before it on this list, I’m not quite sure what to do with this one, although I will say that Tom Cruise doesn’t look like he’s aged a day since the original movie. At the very least, it looks like he’s only 5-10 years older. Someone needs to show me where this fountain of youth is that he found. And I generally like Tom Cruise movies, so maybe this one will work. “Top Gun” was the highest grossing movie of 1986, so I’m not sure why it took 34 years to release a sequel.


Jungle Cruise – July 24
I’m sorry, theme park rides don’t seem like the best source material to make a movie from, even if it is a theme park like Disneyland where there are a lot of story-based rides. Yes, I know, “Pirates of the Caribbean” worked out phenomenally well, but is that because the ride lent itself to a wonderful movie or is it because pirates in general are good characters to have in movies? And is Jungle Cruise the type of ride that works great for a movie? The trailer doesn’t really do much for me. If it ends up working for me, it’ll be because of Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. If this is a movie where I have to know all the inside jokes in order to have the optimal amount of entertainment, that's not a good thing. 

Morbius – July 31
Sony is looking to kick their Spider-Man-less Cinematic Universe into full gear this year with “Morbius” set to premier just a few months before “Venom 2.” I’m not sure Sony really knows what they’re doing. I think they’re just throwing things at a wall to see what sticks. I like the idea of a Morbius movie, but I’m not willing to commit to a solid opinion on this because I don’t know a ton about Morbius. He’s an award-winning biochemist who gained vampire abilities after a failed experiment that was meant to cure a rare blood disorder. That makes for a really interesting Spider-Man villain, which is what he started out as until he got his own series of comics. And while those comics may have been quite popular, does a movie version without Spider-Man work well enough to separate itself from the other vampire movies?


Infinite – August 7
Late summer or early fall is usually a good time for a solid Antoine Fuqua movie. He’s the director responsible for movies such as “The Equalizer,” “Southpaw,” and the 2016 reboot of “The Magnificent Seven.” I’ve not been madly in love with all of his films, but generally speaking I’d say he’s a solid director. The premise of “Infite” involves a man who learns that visions he’s been having are memories of his past lives, which is intriguing enough. And the cast includes Mark Wahlberg, Dylan O’Brien and Chiwetel Ejiofor, but I suppose I just need to see a trailer for this before I decide how excited I am for it.


Malignant – August 14
A horror movie directed by James Wan. That’s enough to make me curious. In the past he’s been responsible for the likes of “The Conjuring,” “Insidious,” “Saw” and several other popular modern horror films. He’s also been responsible for helping write and produce many others. So he has his finger on the pulse of the genre better than most people in the horror industry. I just don’t know a whole ton about this specific project to get super exciting. Speaking of “The Conjuring,” was it worth him skipping out on “The Conjuring 3” in order to do “Malignant”?


The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It – September 11
Generally speaking, the Conjuring universe has been an entertaining one, despite several huge duds along the way, like “Annabelle” and “The Nun.” When it comes to the main saga, I think the first two movies are solid horror movies, although I personally have been a bit frustrated with their desire to shove the “based on a true story” angle down our throats, using that as their main way to scare people rather than simply making a good horror movie. I don’t care how true the story is. In fact, I know it’s all a bunch of B.S., which makes their desire to trick me into believing otherwise a bit off-putting. Just make a good horror movie. That’s all I want. And I hope that’s what they plan on with this third movie. Although the fact that it’s directed by Michael Chaves, director of last year’s “The Curse of La Llorona,” instead of James Wan, makes me less excited for this and more excited for the aforementioned “Malignant.”

Without Remorse – September 18
I don’t know a whole ton about the Jack Ryan movies or books, but “Without Remorse” is a 1993 novel by Tom Clancy that tells the story of John Clark, who is one of the recurring characters in the Jack Ryan Ryan universe. John Clark is played by Michael B. Jordan and the basic idea is that he’s out for revenge against the person who murdered his wife, yet he learns that the conspiracy behind everything is a lot larger than expected. Taylor Sheridan wrote the screenplay for this movie. He’s the writer and director I raved about when I talked about “Those Who Wish Me Dead,” which comes out in October. So refer to that above for more on him. Directing this movie is Stefano Sollima, who directed “Sicario: Day of the Soldado,” also written by Sheridan. I haven’t seen “Day of the Soldado,” but Sollima has also done a lot of other gritty crime dramas, so this movie seems like it’s in his wheelhouse.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines – September 18
This is an animated film from Sony Pictures Animation, the studio who is responsible for both “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” AND “The Emoji Movie,” so you never really know what you are getting from them. This movie specifically, while I don’t know a whole lot about it, is produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Usually the things they do work out.


The Witches – October 9
Three months ago, I made a request to my Facebook friends to suggest Halloween movies for me to review. Only one responded and he said "The Witches." So I reviewed "The Witches," a 1990 film based on a book by Roald Dahl. While it was a perfectly enjoyable movie, it was held back by the lack of technology to do Dahl's story justice. And they changed the ended, causing Dahl to hate the movie. That was the last movie adaptations of his that Dahl watched before he passed away, which is kinda sad. But now they have the chance to do Dahl's original book justice with this remake, which I didn't know existed until I had already watched the 1990 movie. Because of this experience, I have visions in my head of what this movie has the potential to be. I just hope me and Robert Zemeckis are on the same wavelength here.

Respect – October 9
A musical biopic based on the life and legacy of the great Aretha Franklin, with Jennifer Hudson playing the legend. I mean, that's quite the perfect pick when you think about. And Aretha Franklin herself agreed as she handpicked Jennifer Hudson to play her in this movie. So that's good, right? Well, I hope so. Thing is, musical biopics can go one of two ways, the "Bohemian Rhapsody" way or the "Rocketman" way. Let's hope it's the latter, but more often than not it ends up being the former. And we have Liesl Tommy directing and this is her first feature length film she's directing. Let's hope she's a revelation.

Snake Eyes – October 16
I'm not sure why the world thinks we need another "G.I. Joe" film. Both "The Rise of Cobra" in 2009 and "Retaliation" in 2013 were bad movies. And seven years after the second dud, we're trying again? OK. Third time's the charm, right? Either that or three strikes and you're out. Both of these are in play here. But at least if we're bringing back this franchise after a seven year absence, we're basing it around the movie's most interesting character. No, they aren't using the same actor from the other films. I was wondering that myself. In looking it up, I learned that Henry Golding of "Crazy Rich Asians" fame is the man of the hour here. 

Stillwater – November 6 
This is a drama/thriller wherein a father travels from Oklahoma to France to help his daughter who has been arrested for murder. It stars stars Abigail Breslin and Matt Damon and is directed by Tom McCarthy, who's last film was "Spotlight." OK. You have my attention.

Coming 2 America – December 18
You thought we were done with bringing back franchises of the past? This one doesn't quite beat the record of "Top Gun" for longest belated sequel this year that I brought up in this post as "Coming to America" was released in 1988 and was the third highest grossing film from that year. And yeah, they've titled the sequel, "Coming 2 America," which is all fine and dandy when you look at the poster, but when I try to verbally tell people the title of this movie, that still counts as a sequel that has the same title as its predecessor. It's just stylized differently. So stop it! Anyways, I haven't actually seen "Coming to America," so I don't have much to say here, but Eddie Murphy is back and the director is the guy who just recently directed Murphy in "Dolemite is My Name," so make of that what you will.

The Last Duel – December 25
The final movie of this list is so far out that I'm not 100 percent sure it will remain in 2020. There's also the chance that this is a limited release on Christmas that expands in 2021. And I also don't know a whole ton about it outside that it's a movie about King Charles VI and his duel with his squire Jean de Carrouges. It's directed by Ridley Scott, normally a good director who occasionally slips up and does something bad. And it stars Adam Driver, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Now I debated as to whether or not I should include this, but here's the kicker. In addition to starring in the film, Affleck and Damon also co-wrote the screenplay. The last time the two of them did that, it was a little film called "Good Will Hunting."