My Top 10 Favourite Movies of 2020

__Well, the year 2020 is about to end, and I'm sure none of us are sorry to see it go! I don't think anyone would deny this has been one of the worst years in recent memory. To perfectly sum it up, all you need is two words: "social distancing". Anyone who was trying to predict the future and what great developments would unfold in the first year of a new decade, there's no way they could have foreseen a highly contagious virus that would almost cripple society altogether! Personally, I'm thankful that neither I nor anyone I know has contracted the virus, but obviously a lot of people weren't so lucky.

__We were all affected in other ways, though. A lot of public places were forced to close, including cinemas. As a result, my movie-watching experience this year was an especially lame one. Not in the sense that there were tons of bad movies, like in some previous years. I said last year that I was retiring my worst-of-the-year list and therefore giving up on actively seeking out bad movies, and I meant it. So an overabundance of bad movies wasn't the problem. It's more that my schedule was starved of anything super exciting. In the absence of any big tentpole releases in cinemas, my main source of information this year was the films page on Letterboxd, which is sorted by popularity by default. That's how I kept track of what were the year's biggest hits, as it were. I didn't see nearly as many movies as in previous years, but on the plus side, there weren't too many stinkers among the ones I did see. I still saw enough that I disliked for a top five of the year's worst, but I stand by what I said before: I'm not going to make that list. I'll still spotlight the most disappointing movie, but before that, let me go over my usual reminder of my year-end list's criteria, my definition of what movies qualify for a particular year.

__The movie simply has to have been released for public consumption by the end of the year – which, in this case, usually meant streaming. So anything that's only been seen at a film festival so far doesn't count. Neither does a movie that was released in another country in a previous year. After all, most of what I saw at the cinema in those first two months was 2019 movies that were only just making it to the British Isles, including The Lighthouse, Jojo Rabbit and Parasite.

__Before I list my ten favourite examples of movies that fit that bill for 2020, let's talk about the single most disappointing one.

First Impressions Review Diary 30-Dec-2020

 __Hello.🙂 I hope you all had a happy and safe holiday season. The new year is just around the corner, and as usual, I'll be posting the list of my favourite movies of the year on New Year's Eve. But before that, it's time for one last "first impressions" post covering all the movies I've seen since my last one a month and a half ago. If this is your first time reading my blog, note that my reviews are very short because they're just copied and pasted from my Twitter feed, because I see so many movies in rapid succession that I find it impossible to write full reviews for all of them (and I have mad respect for those who can).
__This set starts off with a bunch of Robert Rodriguez movies, mainly the bad ones. You see, a while ago, I added all the movies from my favourite directors to my IMDb watchlist, and I wanted to get the bad Robert Rodriguez movies out of the way and off the list as soon as possible. I mean, I didn't like the implication that I was just as eager to see The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl as, say, The Departed or Good Will Hunting! Anyway, after that, I watched a couple of Rodriguez's earliest, reputedly good movies to compensate. Next came a few sequels just for the sake of completing their respective series. Then there were several more movies from 2020, and a couple of Christmas movies that I saw for the first time this year.
__One of the aforementioned completed film series is The Pink Panther. I saw the first three movies a long time ago, then got sidetracked and just never got around to films four and five. Because, to me at least, it doesn't make much sense to only review the latter two, I think it's only appropriate to go over my thoughts on the first three movies before we get started, especially since I watched them all again to refresh my memory. (As I said in my Film Series I've Seen post, I haven't seen any of the three sequels following Revenge of the Pink Panther, nor am I in any rush to do so.)

Films I Rate 1/10

__Welcome to the final part of my series of posts in which I list all the movies I've seen, grouped by rating. We've counted down the scores from ten to two; now we're looking at the bottom rung. If you've seen my Film Series I've Seen post, you'll recall that I replaced 1/10 with the word "turd" so it couldn't be mistaken for 10/10 at a glance. Well, because we're not talking about anything else, now I don't need to make that distinction. This is 1/10, plain and simple. And it feels strangely therapeutic to spit out those words: "One out of ten!" So this is it: the absolute worst, the bottom of the barrel, the movies I hate so much that just thinking about them makes me cringe. Thankfully, this is the rarest rating of all. To date, only 62 movies have been unlucky enough to receive that dreaded score. That's about 2.8% of all the movies on my record.

Alone in the Dark (2005)
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Asterix the Gaul (1967)
Bad Boys (1995)
Bad Boys II (2003)
Batman & Robin (1997)
Battlefield Earth (2000)
BloodRayne (2006)
BloodRayne II: Deliverance (2007)
Boa vs. Python (2004)

Films I Rate 2/10

__Welcome back to my series of posts in which I list all the films I've seen, grouped by rating. This time, we're looking at the ones I've rated 2/10, which in my book means "dire". This is one-star territory; I indisputably hate these movies. There are 105 movies in this group, which is about 4.8% of all the ratings I've dished out. Interestingly, among them, you'll see a clear example of why a number in the title makes no difference to the way I sort them (unless the number indicates a sequel). There are two titles in a row beginning with nine; one spells it with the figure, the other doesn't.

Act of Valour (2012)
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl (2005)
After Earth (2013)
Alexander (2004)
Armageddon (1998)
Artemis Fowl (2020)
Asterix Versus Caesar (1985)
Attack of the Sabretooth (2005)
Auschwitz (2011)
Bad Neighbours [AKA Neighbors] (2014)

Films I Rate 3/10

__Welcome back to my series of posts in which I list all the films I've seen, grouped by rating. This time, we're looking at the ones I've rated 3/10, which is basically the higher end of outright bad. We're still in dislike rather than hatred territory; I can't quite say I hate these movies, but it's close. There are 141 of them, which is about 6.5% of the total 2,186 that I've seen to date.

The Addams Family (2019)
Alligator II: The Mutation (1991)
Anaconda (1997)
Anna (2019)
Asterix in Britain (1986)
Bad Neighbours 2 [AKA Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising] (2016)
Basic Instinct 2 (2006)
Beyond Suspicion [AKA Bent] (2018)
The Black Cauldron (1985)
The Bling Ring (2013)

Films I Rate 4/10

__Welcome back to my series of posts in which I list all the films I've seen, grouped by rating. This time, we're looking at the ones I've rated 4/10, which I define as "not good". I certainly don't like these movies, but I don't hate them either. You could call it mild dislike; the disdain is definitely there, but it's not that intense. There are currently 202 movies in this category, or about 9.2% of the total number.

About Time (2013)
Adam & Paul (2004)
Adventures of the Polar Cubs (1979)
Agent Cody Banks (2003)
The Air Up There (1994)
Alice Through the Looking Glass (1987)
American Animals (2018)
Angel Has Fallen (2019)
The Angry Birds Movie (2016)
Atonement (2007)

Films I Rate 5/10

__Welcome back to my series of posts in which I list all the films I've seen, grouped by rating. This time, we're looking at the ones that I've rated 5/10, which is basically the lower end of "meh". I don't exactly dislike them, but I'd still put them just below the boundary between positive and negative enjoyment. At the moment, there are 280 movies in this group, which is about 12.8% of the total movies I've seen.

Absolutely Anything (2015)
The Accountant (2016)
Adrift (2018)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
All the Money in the World (2017)
American Psycho (2000)
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004)
The Aristocats (1970)
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Atomic Blonde (2017)

Films I Rate 6/10

__Welcome back to my series of posts in which I list all the films I've seen, grouped by rating. This time, we're looking at the ones I've rated 6/10. For me, that means they're not bad – not overly good, but I can't quite say I didn't enjoy them; they're just okay. As I mentioned before, this rating is so numerous that it's almost perfectly tied with 8/10. At the moment, there are 377 films in this category, or about 17.2% of the total. In fact, interestingly, more than half of all the movies I've seen have ended up in the six to eight range. 50.5% of them, in fact!

Abominable (2019)
The Abyss (1989)
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
Ad Astra (2019)
Adrift [AKA Open Water 2: Adrift] (2006)
Airplane! (1980)
Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996)
Alien Resurrection (1997)
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
All-Star Superman (2011)

Films I Rate 7/10

__Welcome back to my series of posts in which I list all the films I've seen, grouped by rating. This time, we're looking at the movies I've rated 7/10, which in my book means "good". Not great, but enjoyable. This is another of my most common ratings, currently consisting of 352 movies, or about 16.1% of the total 2,186.

Absolute Power (1997)
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Alien 3 (1992)
All Is Lost (2013)
Alligator (1980)
Alpha (2018)
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
American Made (2017)

Films I Rate 8/10

__Welcome back to my series of posts in which I list all the films I've seen, grouped by rating. This time, we're looking at the movies I've given a score of 8/10, which means I think they're very good, just not quite great. There was a time when this was by far my most common rating, but 6/10 has caught up with it at an alarming rate lately. In fact, they're pretty much neck and neck, but 6/10 is just barely ahead at the moment. Of all 2,186 films I've rated up to now, the 8/10 ones currently number 376, or about 17.2% of the grand total.

About a Boy (2002)
The Accused (1988)
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad (1949)
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Allied (2016)
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
The Angels' Share (2012)
Ant-Man (2015)
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Films I Rate 9/10

__Welcome back to my series of posts in which I list all the films I've seen, grouped by rating. This time, we're looking at the movies upon which I've bestowed a 9/10 rating, meaning not quite full marks but still great movies in the five-star tier. There are currently 176 in this range, which is about 8.1% of the total amount.

__Before we begin, here's some more general advice for all ten of these posts. The lists are in alphabetical order, obviously. If a title begins with a number, it's arranged as if the number were spelt out in words. So if you're looking for a particular movie in any of these lists, it should be easy enough to find.🙂 But pay attention to the year, because it might not be the version you're thinking of.

American Beauty (1999)
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie (2014)
Anomalisa (2015)
Antz (1998)
Argo (2012)
Arrietty [AKA The Secret World of Arrietty] (2010)
Attack the Block (2011)
Avatar (2009)
Avengers Assemble [AKA The Avengers] (2012)
Baby Driver (2017)

Films I Rate 10/10

__Welcome to a series of posts in which I list every movie I've seen up to now, grouped by rating from one to ten. I already listed all the ones that form part of a series (or just a distinctive banner like, say, the Disney animated features), so if you haven't already, you can check out that post to see how I think each instalment in a series compares with the others. But now it's time to spotlight every standalone movie in between as well. I'm such a nerd that I actually keep a record of every movie I've seen (including short films, documentaries and even two-episode TV miniseries, which can easily be viewed as one movie split in half), and I try to keep my full set of ratings consistent across all movie-related websites.

__For this first entry, I'll be listing the absolute best, the movies I love so much that they've earned full marks. Lately, a full 10/10 is becoming the hardest rating to achieve, because I've seen so many movies, especially mediocre or downright terrible ones, that I'm getting increasingly jaded and harder to please. Of the 2,186 movies that I've seen to date, there are 115 that I've placed on the top tier of my enjoyment scale. That's about 5.3% of the entire library! So these are the elite, the cream of the crop, the ones I absolutely love and will never get tired of.

__And keep in mind that, since I live in the British Isles, they'll be listed alphabetically by their British titles. If the American title is significantly different, I'll be sure to mention it. I did think of making each title a link to the film's IMDb page in case you'd like more information, but considering I'd have to copy more than two thousand links and insert them into the selected text, I decided that'd be a bit too ambitious and time-consuming.

__Right, enough preamble! Here we go.

AC/DC: Live at Donington (1992)
Aladdin (1992)
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
Amadeus (1984)
Apollo 13 (1995)
The Artist (2011)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Back to the Future (1985)
Back to the Future Part II (1989)

Film Series I've Seen

__Welcome to the last month of 2020.🙂 I hope everyone has a good holiday season, and let's keep hoping for much better times all around next year.
__As I said in my last post, I've been using Wordpress instead of this blog for several years now. Obviously, I've seen tons of movies in that time, so I thought, "Why not bring anyone reading this up to speed?"🙂

__I am working on a series of posts in which I list every movie I've placed in each level on the rating scale from one to ten. However, as many of them are sequels that sometimes wind up with a higher rating than their predecessors, I think it'd be best to group them by series or category first. So this is going to be a comprehensive list of every film franchise I've seen to date, along with my rating for each instalment.

__The franchises will all be listed in alphabetical order, followed by a section in which I list a bunch of miscellaneous two-parters, i.e. movies that have only one sequel, or at least only one that I've seen. Then, at the end, I'll list everything I've seen from some of my favourite directors, again listed alphabetically from James Cameron to Edgar Wright, as well as three directors for whom I have… well, let's just say much less respect.

__If you're curious to know how much I like or dislike a movie in particular, especially if it's part of a set, you should easily be able to find it here.🙂 If it's not in the section you expect it to be, try doing a "find on page" search for it. And if you'd like more information on any movie, each title will serve as a link to its IMDb page.

__First, let's do a rundown of what my ratings mean. And keep in mind that they're just gauging my enjoyment of the movie rather than indicating any technical or artistic merit.

10/10 = outstanding
9/10 = great
8/10 = very good
7/10 = good
6/10 = not bad
5/10 = okay
4/10 = not good
3/10 = poor
2/10 = dire
Turd = atrocious

__I say "turd" because 1/10 might be too easy to confuse with 10/10 at first glance.

__I'd love to use something more visual, like five stars to correspond with 10/10, four-and-a-half stars for 9/10 and so on, but apparently there's no Unicode symbol for a half-star. Or rather there is, but not all software can read it.

__For the record, here's how I'd define the five-star scale…

10/10 + 9/10 = five stars (love it)

8/10 + 7/10 = four stars (like it)

6/10 + 5/10 = three stars (it's okay)

4/10 + 3/10 = two stars (don't like it)

2/10 + 1/10 = one star (hate it)

First Impressions Review Diary 14-Nov-2020

__Hello.🙂 I hope everyone's doing well.
__It's been a long, long time since I posted on this blog. For the last few years, I've been using Wordpress instead. However, they've recently revised their writing system to a format I really don't like. The text is divided into blocks, and it no longer seems to be possible to insert "read more" tags or wrap the text around pictures, like I wanted to for this post. Besides, the main reason I stopped using Blogger was because emoticons only showed up in text form, but it appears you can insert them as special characters now, so I may start using Blogger on a more permanent basis once again.
__Before I continue, I should probably explain the format my posts have been following lately. I've seen so many movies by this point that I've lost my motivation to write the full reviews that I used to on this blog, so I usually just copy and paste my comments from Twitter, with each movie's title serving as a link to its IMDb page if you'd like to know more.
__Today's post, however, will follow a layout I haven't used for a long time: the usual series of mini reviews from my Twitter page, followed by a full review of the last game I played. I've been watching a lot of Let's Plays lately, mainly NES classics like Castlevania and Metroid, although I have actually sat down and played a more recent game on top of that, and it turned out I had enough to say to fill a review of almost 250 words, just like I used to.

__But before that, let's go over the last few movies I've been watching. Among them was Weathering with You, the last movie from 2019 that I was really looking forward to seeing; I just had to wait for the DVD. After that, as per tradition on Halloween, I watched several new horror movies, in this case the Shark Attack trilogy (yeah, I was in the mood for some trash this year😀) and some of the Universal classics to offset it.
__There's also Predator 2, the only film in the Predator series that I hadn't seen yet. So, before I comment on that one, it might be appropriate to give my brief thoughts on the first Predator movie, especially since I did watch it again before the sequel anyway.

Predator (1987)
An adept example of pitting macho heroes against an impossibly greater threat. I like how the cinematography conveys the tightness of the jungle. But by far the best part is the climactic cat-and-mouse game between Arnold and the Predator.
My rating: 75%.

__So, with that out of the way, let's get started on the movies I was watching for the first time.
Predator 2 (1990)
It's hard to care about the characters because everything about the acting and overall presentation is so over-the-top that it becomes obnoxious. Ultimately, it just feels like a cheap rehashed sequel that doesn't add anything significant.
My rating: 30%.
Weathering with You (2019)
The animation is outstanding, and the movie points out how the weather affects your mood, so I think it's clearly a metaphor for the romance, especially given Hina's direct connection to it. The only thing I don't like is the ending.
My rating: 75%.
Beetlejuice (1988)
It's a comedy infused with Tim Burton's signature macabre zaniness, but it also has its share of effective dramatic moments, like when the couple first realise they're dead. It's boosted by a fun and inventive take on the spirit world.
My rating: 75%.
Shark Attack (1999)
If you're expecting B-movie trash, you're not quite going to get it. The sharks take a back seat to an involved business plot, and the attacks are often obscured behind a flurry of hectic cuts. It's not spectacularly bad, just kind of dull.
My rating: 40%.
Shark Attack 2 (2000)
This is bursting with the so-bad-it's-good quality that the first movie lacked. The writing is stock, and the effects are so lame it's hysterical. It's a terrible movie, but I laughed so much that I can't quite bring myself to hate it.
My rating: 25%.
Shark Attack 3: Megalodon (2002)
In terms of competence, this truly is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The laughable dialogue and effects can only go so far when they're surrounded by utter stupidity to the point of getting shark species wrong.
My rating: turkey.
Dracula's Daughter (1936)
For the most part, the countess's struggle is an interesting one, seeking to break her vampire curse through psychological means and being told to confront her issues instead of avoiding them. It's all undone in the third act, however.
My rating: 65%.
Son of Dracula (1943)
All the characters are memorable: Alucard in search for new feeding grounds, the detectives on his trail, and his bride who has motives of her own. It's a fun sequel with plenty of satisfying plot developments and a great ending.
My rating: 70%.
House of Frankenstein (1944)
The first movie to include three Universal monsters, all held together by a mad scientist using them in a quest for revenge. Dracula is the first attempt, which fails and forces him to find an alternative. It's good but not amazing.
My rating: 70%.
House of Dracula (1945)
Aside from a couple of good ideas, like what comes of Dracula's blood transfusion, it's definitely one of the Universal monster series' weakest, because it blatantly disregards all continuity. The result is a second-rate retread.
My rating: 55%.
The Mummy (1932)
The original Mummy might still be the best. Right from the opening scene, it's spellbinding. Be it exploring Imhotep's past or his central quest to recover his long-lost love, the overall tone is just as hypnotic as Boris Karloff's stare.
My rating: 85%.

__And now let's end with the more in-depth game review.

Jurassic World Evolution (PC)
__Essentially a remake of Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis. It's the same basic setup: build a park, create dinosaurs by excavating their genetic material from dig sites around the world, and try to keep both the animals and the guests satisfied.
__I'm still trying to decide whether I prefer this to JPOG. On one hand, as strange as it sounds, I prefer when everything's locked down on a grid; it makes space much easier to manage. Here, when trying to place a building close to another, or a path or something, it would often say "building constraints" or "terrain constraints" or just "obstructed", even when it looked like there was plenty of room. On the other hand, I love the freedom you have in JWE, not just in the variety of dinosaur species (especially with the DLCs that include even more), but the fact that you can name individual dinosaurs, buildings and even your ranger teams.
__The only DLC I didn't bother with was Secrets of Dr Wu, because I'm just not interested in the hybrid dinosaurs.
__For me, the hardest part was trying to unlock every entry in the InGen Database (basically what other games might call a codex). In some cases, the conditions are just outrageous, particularly Paul Kirby's character profile! That's the main reason my final play time was over 103 hours.
__Overall, it's a fun and addictive park simulator, and by far the best thing to bear the name Jurassic World.
__My rating: 90%.