Squid Ink

So in Part One, I listed everything I caught in the theater last year. And now I’m sure that you’re all eager to know which movies I enjoyed the most…and the least. Once more, I feel that I should remind everyone that I didn’t catch everything I wanted to see (go back to part one for that list), so some may not be on here that would have otherwise.

For my top pics, I will provide a quick comment on each movie, but for the bottom four (no, not five, I actually only have four movies I really disliked this year. I’m shocked as well), I’m just going to list them, again, in release order.

My Top 10 Movies of 2019

Bumblebee: I did not expect to enjoy this flick, I quit watching all the Transformer movies after Bay’s first one. But this flick had heart, a great cast, and I could go for an entire movie of the Cybertron section.

Captain Marvel: Loved this movie. Brie kicked ass, loved seeing a young Nick Fury. Seeing a woman realize her power, then her taking out the Kree ship, followed by the fist-into-palm threat, was just amazing. “I don’t have to prove anything to you.” YES.

Shazam!: Not only was this a moving story, with great laughs and surprising poignancy, it’s nice to see the DC movies getting their crap together. Even if I’m not a fan of what they did to Sivana, this movie still makes the list.

Avengers: Endgame: The capstone to 10 years of a wild movie experiment, creating true serialized storytelling/building a universe in a way that had never really been done before. And they stuck the landing.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters: Best Godzilla movie since Destroy All Monsters. Great Kaiju action, passable human drama, and LOTS OF GODZILLA. If you didn’t see this on the big screen, you missed out.

Spider-Man: Far From Home: Tom Holland continues to be a great Peter Parker and Spider-Man. They nailed Mysterio. We gained Night Monkey. A great capstone to Phase Three of the MCU. Plus: JK is back!

Ready or Not: Biggest surprise of the year, and most fun movie of the year. A delightful black comedy, a cross between Clue and You’re Next, two of my favorite films. More people should have gone out to see this. If you haven’t, fix that!

Doctor Sleep: Atmospheric. Scary. Thoughtful. Solid performances. Fantastic villain. And they managed to thread the needle of honoring both versions of The Shining, the Kubrick movie, and King’s novel. I’m still shocked that this movie didn’t do better.

Knives Out: Just a pure joy. A great cast that is obviously having a ball making the movie, and the plot is a nice, twisty ride. It’s as good as you’ve heard, check it out.

Jojo Rabbit: To be honest, I was apprehensive about this one. The trailers made me think it was going to be too silly/goofy, which is how I felt about Thor: Ragnarok (don’t @ me). Instead, it’s smart, thoughtful, funny, and powerfully moving in places. It’s a near perfect film.

JoJo Rabbit is, hands down, my top movie of 2019.

Yes, really.

Honorable Mentions: Alita: Battle Angel, Happy Death Day 2U, Us, John Wick 3, Crawl

Bottom Four: Hellboy, Dark Phoenix, The Dead Don’t Die, Rambo: Last Blood

Special Call Out: Cats. Oh my god, Cats. This movie is not the worst. It’s not the best. It’s an experience. And I recommend that everyone check it out for themselves. It’s indescribably wild. I still have bits of “Magical Mr. Mistoffelees” rattling around in my head weeks later. I may go see it a second time.

It’s bonkers. It’s gloriously weird. It’s … Cats.

And it got me writing again, so it’s got that going for it.