Movie I saw in 2020

 So... to say 2020 put a damper on the whole point of my blog is a gross understatement...

It's supposed to be about "movie going"... I only got to a single theatrical release this year. All of the theaters shut down by late March-April and I honestly don't know what the situation is anymore. It may be ages before I get to an actual theater to see a movie again. 
That's really sad... cuz going to movies was always such a fun experience.

My one trip to the movies was to see my favorite actor.
Sadly, "Dolittle" was labeled one of the worst movies of the entire year... the review in the local paper didn't even give it a single star. The only issue I really had with it was the whole thing about Dolittle's apprentice wanting to learn how to speak to animals and they do it with actual grunting and growling... it's weird. Robert Downey Jr. was super quirky and brilliant as Sherlock Holmes, but this was a bit beyond that. Not to mention he did an accent for it. He's really good at accents, but sometimes I find it puts a wall up between me and him.

But I also have this weird pet peeve about accents in movies. Why is that so many British actors do roles where they have to do an American accent? Why can't they just keep their native accents? Part of me wishes Jamie Dornan kept his British accent when he played Christian Grey even though the character was born in Chicago and lives in Seattle. Or Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen- again, from Chicago, but I kinda wish he kept his British accent because accents are sexy. 
Anyway, it's a whole thing and another blog post... 

The other 53 movies I saw this year were at home in the conventional venues. We don't have Netflix or stream... although I spent a lot of the year paying for an Amazon Prime accent I only used for reruns I'd seen already... I really don't want to jump on that streaming bandwagon even with all of these new streaming platforms popping up. All we need is Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and Disney+... we don't need a million other ones like the ones that've been popping up lately.

A handful of them were Hallmark movies this past month. I like chick flicks, but typically not super schmoltz- which is what made-for-TV movies are typically. I made exceptions this year cuz these movies each starred actresses I enjoy watching. And I enjoyed myself each time.

In case anyone cares:

*Dear Christmas- starred Melissa Joan Hart, who hosts a podcast (I'd taken part of a Prince podcast a few times so that kinda intrigued me too) and finds love when she comes home for Christmas
*If I had Christmas- starred Candace Cameron and it's a very loose reimagining of Wizard of Oz where she helps people who work at a company find heart and courage
*A Christmas Charm- starred Ashley Greene (Alice from Twilight) who finds a charm bracelet left in donated clothes and goes to find the owner

I saw  a few of Disney movies for the first time I'd been meaning to see:

Big Hero 6, Bolt, and Coco... the whole idea of Coco was really cool, but the twist about who the bad guy is and something else that happens in the last few minutes... wow! The only thing that kinda put a damper on it was all the commercials. 
Ferdinard isn't Disney, but it aired on the Disney Channel without any commercials- that was a fun movie.
The third Hotel Transylvania movie was a lot of fun too.

A few biopics:

Ray was REALLY good... so good that I think it put a damper on Get on Up because it set the bar so high. No offence to the late Chadwick Boseman (still can't believe he had cancer and he was among the people we lost this year), but Ray was a better executed movie.
The Harriet Tubman movie "Harriet" was also really good. A lot of people complained that it was a little too Hollywood with how polished the plot was. But I liked it as is... otherwise I might not have been able to sit through it. It was a little awkward after the fact finding out that the bad guy was played by Taylor Swift's current boyfriend... he'd better be the exact opposite of his character.

A few of the recent trend of movies that highlight the music of certain artists:

Yesterday- I loved the idea of it, but when it was revealed that other things didn't exist in this alternate universe (one thing I couldn't imagine being without) and the fact things didn't resolved at the end... that was a deal-breaker
Rocketman- I liked it enough, but during the downward spiral in the third act, things got too depressing and I never quite recovered.
Blinded by the Light- Another great concept about finding oneself through Bruce Springsteen's music... but I couldn't get over the father in this movie. He was way too rigid and controlling and again, I got depressed when things were too dark for too long.
Last Christmas- I may need to revisit this one... the twist in this movie was really good and unexpected, but I still haven't recovered from all those feels

Yeah, "Bohemian Rhapsody" set the bar so high for me that nothing's been able to surpass it.

Aquaman was really good... beyond that, I don't remember much. But I enjoyed it a lot.

I saw a lot of older movies and enjoyed most of them:

*Dial M for Murder
*North by Northwest
*The African Queen
*An American in Paris
*The Apartment
*The Seven Year Itch- this was one of my favorite movies of any I saw this year- it was just a lot of fun. It was my third Marilyn Monroe movie and I've yet to find one I haven't enjoyed. She's a national treasure.

Flash Gordon was something else... it's been considered one of the worst movies ever made, but I kinda enjoyed it. I didn't come into it expecting Citizen Kane (as the cliche typically goes), but I expected it to be a lot worse. I actually liked it. Maybe not enough to see it more than once, though. 

Ford Vs. Ferrari was really good. Christian Bale isn't my favorite actor (thank Batman for that), but he was really good in this movie. The acting was good overall and the script was well done and had some funny moments in it. I kinda like it when dramatic movies have some moments in the script for laughs because it helps me stay invested in for longer. 

Ex Machina I've wanted to see for a while. It came out in theaters a few years before Oscar Isaac got his big Star Wars gig, but I was waiting for it to be on HBO. It only took 6 years for that to happen. It's a really interesting movie that makes you think about beings with A.I. and not misuse them. I know from experience with SuckerPunch (can't believe that's coming up on 10 years ago) that Oscar Isaac is really good at playing a certified creep and I kinda enjoy seeing him do that... but it was nice in this movie that he got what he had coming to him. This was worth the wait for sure.

BlacKkKlansman was really thought-provoking and interesting. I just found it a little weird that Spike Lee do his documentary thing with the beginning and end. I know it was based on a true story, but I found the connection back to current events a little jarring. This isn't to say that isn't important and not worthy of mention. And I know Spike Lee is a documentary type of guy. I just found it a strange method of storytelling... I'm sorry, there's no way for me to explain this without it sounding politically incorrect. 
What was cool was seeing "To Tell the Truth" and they had the actual Ron Stallworth on the show. It brought everything full circle for me.

Full Metal Jacket was bananas... that drill sergent dude was awesome. I'm still astonished with all of the language and stuff they got away with in this movie. And it's another of those movies that really demonstrate how the Vietnam War screwed with people's heads. I liked it better than Platoon in how they showcased that.

Just three more... not necessarily my top three that I saw this year, but ones that really stood out.

Office Christmas Party- maybe it's because he was Nick in "Zootopia," but I find that I'd gravitating to more Jason Bateman movies lately... he and Ryan Reynolds were in "The Change-Up," and while not the best movie and some of the humor was super gross, the movie had a lot of heart and I kinda enjoyed it.
"Office Christmas Party" has him and a crazy cast of characters like TJ Miller and Kate McKinnon and Dopinder from Deadpool. It was over the top and goofy in a lot of places, sure, but I didn't mind it so much. I'd been considering seeing this movie for a year or so and it was better than I expected it to be at first glance.

The Grinch remake with Bendict Cumberbatch... that was really good! I think a lot of people wrote it off because remakes are dodgy territory and you don't miss with things that have been around for decades. Some of the humor was a little over the top and ridiculous, but the heart of this movie really got to me. I really liked this different Grinch where he was alone on Christmas and he was afraid of letting anyone too close so he wouldn't get hurt again... I can relate to that. Speaking for myself and a few characters I'd written over the years. 

The Birds of Prey and the Emancipation of one Harley Quinn- I forgot to put this movie on my Christmas list this year for some reason... but I saw it on HBO and I loved it so much I had to see it again. I've noticed over the last few years that I might have a thing for female ensemble movies like this... I mean, I'm straight so it's not quite like that. But I get an estrogen rush from movies like this. That's probably why I liked SuckerPunch so much and every now and then, I'll bring out The House Bunny to hang out with Emma Stone, Anna Faris and Kat Dennings. 
I don't get like this with Bridesmaids or Mean Girls even though I enjoy those movies a lot too... but certain ones, I just like to kick back and enjoy girls kicking ass and taking names. And maybe it half makes up for the fact I didn't have a lot of female friends. I gravitate more towards the nerdy guys when I make friends cuz I find I have more in common with them. And women are intimidating, especially the strong A personality types.

Anyway, I'll definitely have to do a post on the Harley Quinn movie at some point cuz that was a lot of fun. The only negative I can say is that the constant backtracking in the first half of the movie got really exhausting after a bit. It was as bad as a lot of action movies from this century where chase scenes and battle scenes go for on 20+ minutes and it gets to a point where you forget the whole point of it.

And a few words for Memorium sake... this will be strictly actors... there were 2 losses this year that hit me pretty hard, but they don't fall under this category.

*(just announced today) Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from "Gilligan's Island)

*Jeremy Bulloch (Bobo Fett) and David Prowse (Darth Vadar) from the Star Wars movies

*Kirby Morrow- I just found out about this! He was Miroku in the animé series InuYasha and apparently he has a history of alcohol abuse... wow... he was so good as this character, I never would've known... and reading up on it, he kept a lot of his struggles with depression to himself and didn't want to burden people with the knowledge he was suffering... I'm finally going to see The Final Act series next year (after getting the box set years ago) so that's gonna be in the back of my mind for much of it.

*Sean Connery- the original James Bond who never went out of style

*Chadwick Boseman- I still can't believe this one... Wakanda Forever!

*Carl Reiner- someone else who'd been in the industry a LONG time. I knew him better as Saul in Ocean's Eleven

*Jerry Stiller- a lot of us knew him best as Mr. Costanza... to Ben Stiller, he was simply Dad

*Fred Willard- oh wow, I forgot about this one... he did a lot of comedy movies

*James Lipton- the late great who interviewed many a talent at the great Actor's Studio... he was another great guy... he's not an actor, but he deserves inclusion by this association

*Andrew Jack- he's a dialect coach... I only know of him because he's the guy who helped RDJ perfect his British accent for his roles in Chaplin and Sherlock Holmes

*Kirk Douglas- another of those actors you'd think would be around forever... I've yet to see any of his movies

*Honor Blackman- aka Pussy Galore from James Bond fame

*Naya Rivera- I didn't like Santana on "Glee," but it's still really sad what happened to her... she joined two other stars from that series who died in unfortunate circumstances

*Kelly Preston- I hadn't seen a lot of her movies, but her passing was another of those unexpected moments this year

*Diana Rigg- she's one of those old names. My only point of reference was commercials for "The Great Muppet Caper" where she was one of the stars along with Charles Grodin... I don't remember if I actually saw that movie...

...ugh... so glad this year is almost over