2019 Media in Review: Movies at home

I don’t really know what I did all year, but I didn’t watch very many movies at home. Only 14, down from 32 in 2018. Five (35 percent) were things I’d already seen. If you’ll bear with me while I get mathy for a moment, the 2010s was the most represented decade with 8 films (57 percent), followed by the 00s with 4 (28 percent). The 1990s and the 1970s had one each, and the most represented year was 2009. I watched the most movies (7) over the summer and no movies in January, February, May or September.

Here are my picks for Top 3 Movies at Home.

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2019 Media in Review: Movies at the Theater

The new year is upon us, and as such it’s time for the rounds of “What did I watch and read last year?” posts.  Let’s start with the 15 movies I saw at the theater in 2019.

Broadly speaking, I had a taste for adventure, with nine movies (60 percent) falling under that umbrella. Six were straight-up superhero films courtesy Marvel, Sony and DC. It just makes sense to me to see big actiony films on big screens. But I also caught a few dramas and one that ostensibly was horror but in fact really was not.

The following with comments (and review links where available but I wrote about shockingly few movies last year) are broken out into my Top 10 and Bottom 5.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

I wasn’t going to write about Rise of Skywalker. I didn’t think I had anything substantive to say that couldn’t be summed up in a tweet, but then I started seeing all the negativity around it. And I mean, on one hand that’s fine. People are allowed to think what they want about a movie, but when I started seeing a lot of “If you really like Star Wars, you hated TRoS” and “Here’s why none of us real fans like the Skywalker saga finale!” And it just irritated me because, I’m not going to start listing out all my Star Wars bona fides — whatever those are — but I’ve been a fan for 25 years and I loved Rise of Skywalker (and so did all the people I’ve talked to face-to-face about it, tyvm, internet). It had everything I wanted, and most importantly, it made me excited about Star Wars again.

So, if you’re feeling a little down about the pervasive online criticism and negativity, this is the post for you! Join me in gushing about this 40+ years in the making conclusion.

Spoilers, obviously.

Terminator: Dark Fate SPOILER TALK

If you ask me, Terminator: Dark Fate had an incredibly strong opening moment and didn’t really back down from there. From the second the first production company logo company started to roll, I was all in.

This is the post that’s chock-full of spoilers. If you’d rather be reading the spoiler free review,  click this nice word cloud made with all the words in that spoiler free review.

Created at wordclouds.com

I’m not here for Terminator: Dark Fate hate

So, I’m just going to say right at the top that I loved Terminator: Dark Fate. Where Genisys was an actual(sadly failed) attempt to do a real reboot, Dark Fate is a true sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It’s just not one you can binge watch. It needs a buffer period to make what it does resonate in a meaningful way. And for a first viewing, 28 years is about right.

It Chapter Two floats a little higher

For how middle-of-the-road I felt about It Chapter One, I was really surprised by how excited I was for Chapter Two in the weeks before I saw it. And for the most part that excitement ended up being warranted. A lot of the issues I had with the younger cast were mostly resolved with the older cast, and even though it was a long movie that felt long, it was long in that sort of way that makes you glad you’ve got more time to spend with these people.

But it kind of failed at being scary.

[Olympus/London/Angel] Has Fallen

Before I even knew what it was, I could tell from the trailer that I wanted to see Angel Has Fallen. And then when it became clear what I was watching, I realized I’d have to reassess my lack of cares for the other Fallen movies.

And for the most part, I’m really glad I did.

Covert Avengers: Robert Downey Jr – The Judge

If the Marvel movies are great at one thing, it’s casting. So much so that sometimes its hard to imagine their actors ever weren’t Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor and the myriad players to take the screen since. Maybe they always were and the universe just didn’t know it yet. So, with Avengers: Endgame a day away, let’s take a look at another work of the Godfather of the MCU himself, Mr. Robert Downey Jr, in 2014’s The Judge.

Covert Avengers: Jeremy Renner – Arrival

If the Marvel movies are great at one thing, it’s casting. So much so that sometimes its hard to imagine their actors ever weren’t Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor and the myriad players to take the screen since. Maybe they always were and the universe just didn’t know it yet. So, with Avengers: Endgame a week away, let’s take a look at some Avengers in other roles. This week, Covert Avengers features Jeremy Renner, in 2016’s Arrival.

Covert Avengers: Chris Evans – Gifted

If the Marvel movies are great at one thing, it’s casting. So much so that sometimes its hard to imagine their actors ever weren’t Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor and the myriad players to take the screen since. Maybe they always were and the universe just didn’t know it yet. So, with Avengers: Endgame mere weeks away and a title suggested by my friend Sean, let’s not do an entire MCU rewatch again, and instead take a look at some Avengers in other roles, starting with Chris Evans in the 2017 drama Gifted.