Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - Easily the best MCU entry since Endgame, maybe since the first Black Panther. The film asks a lot of Letitia Wright which she totally knocks it out of the park - a nice surprise, since I've never really been a fan.
Lou - They made 1,000 movies like this in the 90s, and we never had it better. None of them starred Allison Janney, though.
Everybody Wants Some!! - It must be so hard to make a movie that feels this natural and looks this effortless. So light, breezy, and just real. Linklater is the master of the hang out picture.
Unstoppable - A super fun light on drama afternoon actioner. Fun cast, terrific sound design. Worth checking out on a lazy Saturday.
The Long Goodbye - Elliot Gould is maybe the coolest PI I've ever seen.
The Bad News Bears - Matthau's demeanor is much more "apathetic Uncle" than the film's reputation would have you believe. It's not particularly cynical, it just has an undercurrent toxic competitiveness that comes with the territory. The kid performances vary pretty greatly with Tatum O'Neal giving it to Matthau ever scene they share, but some of them are just not that good.
Bad News Bears - Far more cynical and acerbic than the original film, it also ends up being a bit too on the nose for a Linklater joint. Probably would have worked better if they let him set it in the 70s.
Ambulance - The most expensive $40 million movie ever made, Michael Bay's Heat.
A Fistful of Dollars - After watching a bunch of Westerns recently its easy to see why this made such a splash when it came out. Phenomenal stuff.
The Menu - Biting and funny with incredible performances. Could easily be my favorite film of the year in a lesser year than 2022.
Hook - Maybe the film that Spielberg made most unambiguously for children, it's easy to see the flaws as an adult, but Spielberg infuses it with such nostalgic magic that those flaws don't come close to sinking it. Dustin Hoffman is incredible, Maggie Smith oozes gravitas, Robin is terrific, Bob Hoskins slays, and it has what is maybe John Wlliams' best score - which is saying a lot.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - This is why bringing Sonic to Earth was a bad idea. Trying to do the whole Chaos Emeralds bit with regular humans doesn't mesh at all. Leans a bit too hard on improving, which I did not think was the case with the first film, but is still pretty funny in places.
Timecop - It's a shame this movie is such a cheap piece of crap because otherwise it's pretty good.
Bones and All - I wish we got to know more about the world in general, and that it were about 10% less about the love story. Not that it was bad, I just found everything else far more compelling. Also, Rylance is absolutely terrifying here.
Knight and Day - This is a ton of fun! Super cliche and has way too many sub-par CGI effects, but Cruise is charming as heck and Mangold pretty much always delivers.
Black Rain - A script that is elevated from the bottom floor by the talents of everyone involved. Terrific vibe, looks and sounds cool as hell, but the dialogue is abysmal, it's a bit racist (though I can't quite tell if it's a supposed to be a flaw of the characters or it's a fault of the screenplay), and the story is pure 80s cheese.
Violent Night - Too long and doesn't lean into the idea that it's the real Santa hard enough, but Harbour is terrific and they actually had the audacity to have a character say "Christmas dies tonight!" which was easily worth an extra half star.
The Purge: Anarchy - Leaps and bounds better than the first. Has pretty much everything I wanted from this bugnuts premise and felt the first was missing. Made in 1986 and released in 2014. Had a blast.
Ava - Wouldn't be half bad if it were competently made. Cheap, mostly bad action, obvious stunt doubles, awful inserts and green screen. Definitely an action movie from the director of The Help.
Pleasantville - Not quite as good as I remembered. Too much focus on the "real world" kids, and not enough on the budding self-awareness of the town and it's characters. There are a ton of interesting ideas here, but it does stumble a bit in the last act with some ham-fisted attempts to address racism. Still absolutely worth watching, though.
Pinocchio (2022) - Not much to say that hasn't been said by so many others at this point. A fresh, beautiful take on a classic story.
Bullet Train - Acid-soaked Agatha Christie by way of John Wick. Just the right amount of stupid.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle - It's fine. The cast is charming, but the script is not that good and lots of subpar effects.
Missing Link - Perfectly servicable animated adventure fare.
Underwater - Hits the ground running and barely lets up across its brisk runtime. Economical no nonsense thrills. The kind of movie Netflix pretends to release 75 of every year.
Avatar - The most impressive 3 star film ever made, which I guess makes it at least a 3.5 star film.
Copshop - Fun cast, decent premise. Totally breezy sick day watch.
A Christmas Prince - Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Christmas movie.
