Previous Rankings
#191-209
#171-190
#151-170
Given the seemingly out-of-nowhere release and the minimal promotion, I had basement-level expectations for A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN. That probably played a part in my actually liking it a decent amount. But it hits some classic emotional beats and has strong performances from Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adams in the lead roles. RED NOTICE is your typical spy action thriller. If that works for you, it should be a fun enough time. Though your mileage will likely depend on how much you enjoy Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne Johnson and their respective schticks. Also, I think I’m finally on board the “Is Gal Gadot maybe a bad actress?” train. We’ll see how Death on the Nile goes, but based on the previews, my hopes aren’t high for her.
KATE offers up some solid action, if not a super compelling story. SNAKEHEAD is uneven, but I really bought into the story, along with Shuya Chang in the lead role. Plus, any movie with Sung Kang gets an automatic boost. PLAN B gets by on the great chemistry between the two leads, but it feels too similar to some other, better recent movies (namely 2020’s Unpregnant). That may be unfair to Plan B, but them’s the breaks I guess.
THE TOMORROW WAR started off pretty strong, but falters with a pretty brutal final act. THE WATER MAN is pretty by the numbers, but is a fun adventure film that would make a good choice for a family movie night. SNAKE EYES is pretty bland but Henry Golding gives it a good try, and there’s some decent enough action.
THE BETA TEST’S unsatisfying conclusion undoes what had been a pretty entertaining movie up to that point. Does a good job of satirizing the current state of Hollywood, effectively eliciting both laughter and definite feelings of being uncomfortable. Ben Affleck absolutely ate this year in supporting roles. And while we’ll get to his better performance later on, his role in THE TENDER BAR is what’s generating all the award buzz. And he easily is the best part of the movie, which is otherwise a standard coming-of-age story. It’s a nice, simple movie, charming enough. But it’s nothing you haven’t seen before from the genre.
CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG is another example of a movie exceeding my low, low expectations. Maybe I’m a little high on it, but it’s still a fun family comedy. REMINISCENCE has a lot of cool and intriguing components, but they do not fit together as a full movie. I had an absolute blast with THE ESTATE. It’s wild and ridiculous, and Eliza Coupe and Chris Baker fully commit to their over-the-top characters. I don’t know how it would hold up on a rewatch, so I’ll just hang onto that feeling from the first viewing.
Is VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE a good movie? Kind of. Is it a fun movie that knows exactly what it is and leans into that from minute one? 100%, and that’s why it works. Some might find it a little short, but I say more movies need to embrace the shorter runtimes. Too many movies end up with too much fat. Not the case at all here. I love a good heist movie, so any movie in that genre already starts with a leg up (unless it’s straight up garbage like Locked Down). And THE VAULT rides that bonus for all it’s worth, as it’s not particularly thrilling considering the jobs the crew is taking on.
Tom Holland and Ciara Bravo give committed performances in CHERRY, which helps hide some of its obvious – and numerous – flaws. The Russo brothers seem to have favored style over substance in their directing style for this one. If they had toned it down even just a touch, it could have helped significantly. MORTAL KOMBAT is fun because it’s Mortal Kombat, but a few cool fight scenes and some decent laughs can only do so much. THE MARKSMAN is another standard Liam Neeson vehicle, just a different setting. It looks and feels like most other Neeson projects, but it’s got a little more heart than most, which helps push it just a little higher than you might expect.
THE UNITED STATES VS BILLIE HOLIDAY (unless I missed one, the first big movie that technically fell into the 2020 designation, but is really a 2021 movie) is one absolutely incredible, stunning performance from Andra Day and not much else. Like its predecessor, ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS is formulaic and predictable, but doesn’t try to be more than it is. And it lucked out getting Taylor Russell, one of the best young actors out there.
