Quick Reviews: Catwoman Hunted, Through My Window, Bite Me and Book Of Love!

Catwoman’s attempt to steal a priceless jewel puts her squarely in the cross-hairs of a powerful consortium of villains, Interpol and Batwoman.

Catwoman Hunted is pretty solid, the animation is actually quite well done and the characters are pretty fun! The plot really doesn’t have a whole lot going for it, but the movie makes it up with some solid action and the talent involved. Stephanie Beatriz, Lauren Cohan and Elizabeth Gillies all do really strong job in their roles, Black Mask is a really solid villain as well! I do wish the movie expanded upon some of it’s characters and gave them a lot more character development. But for what Catwoman Hunted is the movie is pretty decent and is definitely worth a watch!

Catwoman Hunted is available on all VOD Platforms.

6/10 C+

Raquel has a longtime crush on her hot neighbor, Ares, whom she secretly watches but has never spoken to. Can she make Ares fall in love with her?

Through My Window is another reminder of why you don’t turn Wattpad stories into films, the only reason why I even bothered with this movie was because of curiosity. I didn’t think this could be anywhere near as bad as some people were making it out to be….I was wrong, Through My Window has some of the worst writing so far this year, it sounds exactly like a high school student’s fanfiction that they would be embarrassed if it got out. I truly have no idea what they were thinking here, the acting is horrendous it’s unbelievable that someone actually said “yes that’s perfect!” There’s absolutely no chemistry between the main characters, no strength in the performances absolutely nothing. The pacing is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, it’s atrociously slow making this 1 hour and 56 minute movie feel like 3 hours. I really have nothing else to say here, Through My Window is bottom of the barrel as you can get.

Through My Window is available on Netflix.

Disgrace To Cinema F

After Sarah, a real-life vampire, gets audited by the IRS but finds herself falling for her IRS agent, the hopelessly romantic James, forcing Sarah to confront the idea of falling in love with a mortal man.

Bite Me is if you took the romantic comedy genre and added vampires into it, there’s definitely some good bits such as the cast who definitely looked like they were having so much fun. Outside of the premise itself it doesn’t really do anything brand new, there’s some ideas thrown around in the movie that don’t get fully realized or developed unfortunately. But for what the movie is it’s actually pretty fun at times and there was some genuine love put into it. Plus there were some jokes that I thought were decently done!

Bite Me is available on all VOD Platforms.

5/10 C

Two writers thrown together on a book tour in Mexico.

’ll admit Book Of Love doesn’t have the usual type of humor you would expect from a Buzzfeed Studios movie. However that doesn’t make it a good movie, the major problem with this movie is that it’s very uninteresting and does nothing to drag audiences into it. Sam Claflin is fine enough but he really does not have a whole lot to work with as the script feels like another romantic comedy that’s very cliched. With that said Book Of Love isn’t horrendous, I’ve seen far worse romantic comedies this just happens to be one that is nothing special at all.

Book Of Love is available on Amazon Prime Video.

4/10 D+

The King’s Daughter is a baffling poorly edited disaster.

Hoping to achieve immortality, King Louis XIV (Pierce Brosnan) captures a mermaid and steals her life force, but a discovery by his illegitimate daughter threatens to ruin the king’s plans.

The King’s Daughter was shelved for 7 years but finally released in 2022 and it’s very easy to see why that’s the case. For starters the major part that completely breaks this movie is the editing…now I know I reference the editing from Taken 3 a lot because it really is that bad, not only is it that bad but it feels like it’s edited like as if Stan Twitter edited a film. Except with Stan Twitter they aren’t trying to edit a full length movie they make/edit short fancams and so on of their favorite celebrity and that’s it. It’s honestly just baffling to see how broken a movie can really get because of how horrendous the editing really is, it moves so quickly from plot point to plot point giving the viewer no time at all to breath and analyze what happened, everything else in the movie doesn’t help at all either. The acting is horrendous, the writing feels incredibly rushed and fails to explain why we should care what’s going on or why we should care about the characters. Despite taking place in France there isn’t a single French actor (it happens in other films too it just adds to the trainwreck), the lighting looks fake and gives the movie such an ugly look to it. It’s so clearly green-screened with very shoddy CGI that looks very incomplete, lastly there’s the soundtrack that uses a ton of modern music that doesn’t fit at all to the scenes they are used. It’s incredible to me how bad someone can mess up a adventure fantasy movie, this is honestly quite the accomplishment meanwhile being the biggest embarrassment I’ve seen in quite awhile.

The King’s Daughter is available in theaters.

Disgrace To Cinema F

The Last Thing Mary Saw is a disappointing slow burn.

In the spring of 1840, a family gathers in their old, isolated farm house to mourn the loss of their matriarch. As the mourning proceeds, the circumstances of the matriarch’s death come into question.

There’s definitely a fantastic film somewhere in The Last Thing Mary Saw but unfortunately it’s not appearing. Isabelle Fuhrman gives a fantastic performance and still continues to show how incredible she is as an actress and I do like some of the artistic choices they went with for this film. However it feels no different than any of the other “rebelling against a religious environment” sub-genre, the only difference here is this one is more of a horror rather than a drama (even then there are a lot of horror films in this sub-genre as well.) it’s also one of those slow burns that just doesn’t grab the attention of the viewer, combine that with some dreadfully slow pacing and you have yourself a very frustrating movie that could have easily been very solid. This is definitely the first disappointing movie of 2022.

The Last Thing Mary Saw is available on Shudder

5/10 C

Top 100 Best Films Of 2021 (#49-#31)

Allow me to explain why I’m only going to 31 for this part! Back when I first started reviewing films I always had a Top 60 and I always consider the top 30 the major films, the ones that stuck with me throughout the year plus are my personal favorites! Plus that gives me more time to some final switching around so I’m satisfied with the rest of the list! So we will be doing that here, let’s continue on with the list!

49. No Time To Die directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga

No Time To Die was the perfect send off to Daniel Craig’s James Bond! It’s filled to the brim with classic James Bond elements, fantastic action scenes, some short but very sweet couple of scenes with Ana De Armas and some really well written characters who are a ton of fun. The film itself is massive and the cinematography makes sure to show that in a very detailed way, lastly there’s the Bond theme song of the film “No Time To Die” by Billie Eilish which is quite honestly one of my favorite Bond theme songs, the context of it is fantastic and the opening is absolutely top notch!

48. No Man Of God directed by Amber Sealey

I really wouldn’t blame someone if their first reaction hearing about another Ted Bundy movie being released was “another one?!?” Because quite frankly there has been a lot of them at this point, however Amber Sealey’s No Man Of God manages to be far different from the other films. For one thing the film isn’t only about Ted Bundy it’s also about FBI analyst Bill Hagmaier which is story I feel like completely goes unnoticed at times. The performances here are quite fantastic Luke Kirby does a fantastic job as Ted Bundy, he’s intimidating, acts like him and so on this is definitely one of the best if not the best portrayal of Ted Bundy in recent memory. Elijah Wood plays Hagmaier and he does an incredible job as well, the chemistry between Wood and Kirby is fantastic and feels very real. It’s disturbing but at the same time very fascinating as to what was going on between their discussions, which is where the writing comes in. Which I truly feel is the best part about this film, the writing really shares the thoughts and discussions they shared with one another.

47. Happier Than Ever A Love Letter to Los Angeles directed by Robert Rodriguez and Patrick Osborne

In 2020 we saw a huge number of concert movies due to the pandemic. I was interested to see if the trend would carry over to 2021 and while there definitely weren’t as many. There were still some, like this one which I feel was the most successful. It’s a beautifully put together film of Billie Eilish’s music from her “Happier Than Ever” album, the editing is top notch as well as filming. Both combined truly give it a beautifully hypnotic look to it. Both Robert Rodriguez and Patrick Osborne combine their styles to truly give something quite beautiful, the animated portions are quite gorgeous and give all types of emotions as well.

46. Cusp directed by Isabel Bethencourt and Parker Hill

Cusp isn’t your traditional documentary it’s more of taking a look at the daily lives of a group of teenage girls and intimate look of how they act and feel. Where the film does get into controversial territory is when the girls get harassed, some people are going to look at it as exploitation but I feel it’s quite effective. I feel like the film is pointing out despite what the media is wanting to tell you how feminism is everywhere and is stronger than ever as well as consent there are still some areas in America where feminism and consent haven’t spread which is unfortunate. As far as filmmaking goes it’s quite fantastic, it’s very raw and is focused on the girls and their lives. I’ve said this before but one of my favorite types of filmmaking is seeing the daily life or lives of a certain person or group of people and this is no exception here.

45. Censor directed by Prano Bailey-Bond

I’m honestly baffled of how little Censor was talked about in 2021! The premise for Censor is quite unique it involves the video nasties which are an actual group of films that were viewed as controversial for various different reasons in the UK in the early 1980s! The film then puts the main character on a quest that let’s just say get really bizarre as the film goes on. The beginning of Censor starts out pretty ordinary and does a fantastic job of setting up for what’s about to come next, the acting and writing here are fantastic both really add so much to the film and give it this haunting atmosphere as well. Prano Bailey-Bond did such a fantastic job with this film, she really knows how to create a beautiful but haunting scene that shows a lot of information as well.

44. Malcolm & Marie directed by Sam Levinson

Malcolm & Marie started out pretty high up on the list, this is mostly the result of 2021 being a very crowded year for fantastic films. However I still think it’s quite incredible, I’m keeping this short because I talked about this film quite a lot. But the performances from Zendaya and John David Washington are both fantastic, the film is brutally honest with raw and emotional dialogue. And Same Levinson’s direction is really really strong, I can completely understand not liking this film and how it doesn’t work for some people. But it absolutely works for me!

43. The Killing Of Two Lovers directed by Robert Machoian

The Killing Of Two Lovers right from the beginning captures you in this hypnotic atmosphere, there is truly something unsettling about the atmosphere that really works well for this movie. The plot is simple yet brings so much meaning behind it Clayne Crawford plays David a man who really tries to keep his family of six together during his separation from his wife. Throughout the film David completely loses it and can’t handle his wife’s new relationship, the film keeps things very grounded and makes the characters as realistic as possible. It’s almost like a character study of David we are given this POV of David on what he’s feeling and what he’s going to do. When the film reaches the final act that’s when everything goes down and the film manages to keep things grounded. It’s brutal and actually pretty terrifying due to how realistic and grounded it really gets. The direction from Robert Machoian is flawless and really does a good job of giving the film tons of strength!

42. Benedetta directed by Paul Verhoeven

I reviewed this film not too long ago and have nothing really new to say, so I’ll just post parts of my review here! Benedetta is an absolute fever dream and I truly love it for that. First off the acting is so strong to the point where it’s horrifying in several scenes, the filming is shot in this very raw style that makes it as if you are there in person watching what’s going on. The main theme in the film is sex which the movie does a pretty great job of showing and explaining the several different parts to it, Benedetta really reminds you of those weird B rated horror that were released back in the 80s despite not being a horror film itself. Which I feel like is one of the strongest parts about it and why it’s so successful as a film. Paul Verhoeven just throws whatever he can into this film and usually that backfires in a lot of other movies but not here, In this case it adds to each of the scenes and make them all the more interesting, disturbing and downright insane.

41. Violation directed by Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer

Violation is actually quite disturbing, those of you who have known me for awhile know that I love disturbing cinema. So Violation really impressed me when it went full on disturbing, the acting all around was quite fantastic especially from the main lead Madeleine Sims-Fewer she did such a fantastic job in her role, the writing kept things very grounded and added to the atmosphere as well. In case you haven’t guessed from the summery of the film it’s a revenge film, it feels a lot like one of Shudder’s previous films “Revenge” combined with a very Lars Von Tier too it. Which ultimately makes the film that much stronger, the cinematography combined with the disturbing atmosphere also adds to it. It gives this film a very authentic feel to it which given the subject matter leads to some disturbing and haunting results. A common problem a lot of revenge movies have is going way too over the top, it takes out the sense of realism and instead comes off as trying way too hard to be disturbing. With Violation you do not get that here it keeps things balanced and never goes over the top, which is the type of disturbing everyone will remember. Violation is a very dark film that doesn’t hold back and also has a haunting score to go with it (the score will definitely get stuck in your head for a few days).

40. Spider-Man No Way Home directed by Jon Watts

Spider-Man No Way Home was the best MCU project of 2021, I’m keeping this short because this is already been hammered into your head plenty of times. But the use of characters is what really makes this movie, it’s a huge celebration of all the Spider-Man films and the character as a whole. We get continuations one some other characters, some really strong action scenes and some emotional ones as well! Plus the humor actually works here! Just an overall incredible ride from beginning to end!

39. Judas And The Black Messiah directed by Shaka King

Honestly I feel like I said it best in my review! Daniel Kaluuya captures the spirit of Fred Hampton. How he acts, how he felt, how he thought about certain situations, his relationships with other people. It’s all there and really makes the film that much more powerful, LaKeith Stanfield also does a fantastic job with playing William O’Neil in fact I feel this is one of Stanfield’s best performances so far in his career, like how Daniel Kaluuya captures the spirit of Fred Hampton. Stanfield captures the spirit of William O’Neil incredibly well it’s like you are being thrown back in the past and witnessing events take place all over again. Speaking of which I feel that’s what this film does an incredible job, it feels like a huge time capsule and a truly fantastic one. It captures the moments that will make you angry in the best way possible, mostly due to how incredibly well written this film is, given the events that happened and just how beautifully made this film is. Shaka King should really be proud of himself because this is so far one of the best directed films I’ve seen so far this year, he captures every important moment about Fred Hampton and what made him who he was. Shaka King also captures the relationships that Hampton had and why he is an important figure. The last 20 minutes of the film will make you angry and rightfully so, because of what happened to Fred Hampton. The last 20 minutes are powerful and horrifying they don’t sugarcoat anything at all, the film doesn’t hold back at all which is very important when you talk about films like Judas And The Black Messiah.

38. Euphoria: F*ck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob directed by Sam Levinson

This is the last exception I made for the list and I definitely saved the best for last. From Hunter Schaeffer’s powerful performance and the character study of her character to the gut punching scene that use’s Lorde’s song “Liability” and of course the scene with Billie Eilish and Rosalia’s “Los Vas A Olvidar.” This special episode is a lot to take in and is truly heartbreaking in every single way possible!

37. Flee directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen

Flee is a true story about a refugee’s life with the threat of capture and death, the storytelling is just absolutely fantastic. It’s a fantastic blend of a documentary and animation that really created something very special, there’s very haunting imagery that is also at the same time very beautiful which shows how incredible the storytelling really is! Flee tells the story through the animation which actually makes Amin’s story more impactful and emotional, it’s truly a fantastic showcase of storytelling. It’s at the point where you feel you are with Amin as you are witnessing the trauma and pain he went through. Very powerful storytelling in all categories!

36. Malignant directed by James Wan

James Wan created a film that is just flat out insane and I absolutely respect him for it. What starts out as a film you would probably expect if you read the plot turns into a bizarre unpredictable experience that completely does it’s own thing. Malignant was one of the biggest surprises of 2021 and for very good reason!

35. The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain directed by Will Sharpe

Benedict Cumberbatch has been in quite a few films this year all of which he did a fantastic job in! The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain is another example of how he is currently one of the best actors working today, he captures Wain’s mannerisms really really well and just goes all in with his performance. The film itself is absolutely beautiful with a ton of colors that matches the overall tone of the film. There’s a ton of heartbreaking moments that I definitely cried at while watching, it’s a very interesting biopic that shows how something as simple of drawings and paintings of cats could turn into someone’s career and make a ton of people feel a tremendous amount of joy!

34. The Hand Of God directed by Paolo Sorrentino

The Hand Of God is one of the most meaningful and powerful films of 2021, it’s a film that explores what life is like after so many hurtful experiences. Such as losing loved ones who you deeply cared about, it’s enough to break a person, what gives this film even more power is the acting. The acting from each of the cast members is some of the best acting of the year, there’s tons of emotions, power and a lot of care put into these performances that truly make this film shine. The cinematography compliments all of that with gorgeous shots, engaging shots of the actors interacting with one another and matching the mood of the scene in question. The film shows the journey of someone who’s been through many hurtful experiences and gives us the question which is “how would you cope after being through this?” Each person has a different way of coping through experiences, which the film shows that perfectly it keeps things as realistic as possible. What completely steals the show is the use of the song “Napule é” a beautiful song used for a gorgeous film that really hits you in the gut, the direction from Pablo Sorrentino is fantastic here. He captures the journey of someone who’s been through a lot incredibly well and makes sure to put in as much detail as possible.

33. The Humans directed by Stephen Karam

The Humans is the definition of a film that hits you like a truck when you least expect it, what starts out as a film about just a family coming over Thanksgiving quickly turns into a very psychological nightmare that’s filled with sadness, eeriness and so much more. The characters are what make the film experience, not only is each character given a very realistic personality but they are given their own identity and truly feel like some family members you may have. The filming combined with the one location setting is another key factor to The Humans due to it’s small space you constantly see several characters on screen together at all times, what’s very interesting is each and every scene a character is given something to do. Even if a certain character isn’t the main focus of the scene they will still be interacting with the characters just from a distance or close enough angle. This has been done before in other films but I can’t help but feel that The Humans does this in the best way possible and really fits the story that’s being told. Finally there’s the writing which gives this film it’s own identity, as the film goes on it gets more and more relatable, then comes the final 15-20 minutes. A true gut punch that sums this whole film up, the film itself was already nightmarish enough but adding in the last scene gave the film that much more power.

32. Violet directed by Justine Bateman

Violet is a meaningful film about anxiety and the voice in your head that says “you aren’t good enough” or “nobody likes you” Violet uses this idea in a way that’s very unique and quite clever, it combines some very quick editing with some very striking shots that grab the attention of the viewer. The film itself is incredibly raw and emotional to the point where it punches you in the gut several times, which leads to Olivia Munn’s performance which is easily the best of her whole career. She displays so much talent here and how capable she is as an actress, her character is fully fleshed out and feels like an actual person with so much anxiety. The writing is absolutely perfect as well, once again it captures the natural feel and truly delivers when it comes to making the viewer feel and care for what’s taking place.

31. Saint Maud directed by Rose Glass

To finish off this part we have Saint Maud! The narrative of the film is incredibly powerful it ranges from tacking the idea of belief it shows how much it can damage a person when the people who love you the most don’t respect those beliefs. There’s also a fantasy element or escapism feel to it, showing how Maud attempts to escape the current situation she’s in but ultimately she can’t. There’s tons of grief and powerful scenes that blend so well together, the final act is where you are put in this perspective that Maud must go through what is about to happen. The performances are of course fantastic especially combined with Rose Glass’s direction! It all blends into a haunting nightmare!

That is for part 3! Next time we finish the list with the last 30 films!

Top 100 Worst Movies Of 2021! (#25-#2)

First things first I want to explain why I’ve decided to give number 1 it’s own post. Those of you who know me probably already know what number 1 is going to be. And as I said at the beginning of the list nothing on this list not even the last entrees were even close from beating what’s at number one. Usually it’s close in most other years but not 2021. The main reason I’m giving number one it’s own post is because of how terrible, how ignorant, and down right disgusting plus ableist the movie is (by that you should know what it is) and I don’t think a segment is enough to explain how bad it is. I would be completely slacking off and not addressing a huge issue that still goes on in the film industry if I just slapped it at the end of the list. Plus I want dissect the movie as much as possible to explain how and why it’s one of the worst and most disgusting movies ever made.

With that explained we are at the bottom of the barrel, the movies I consider to be the absolute worst to come out of 2021, I will say that this was the easiest worst list I’ve ever put together. I moved maybe one or two movies around but even then it was a slight change. With that said let’s do this.

25. American Refugee – The third and final Blumhouse and EPIX collaboration of 2021 on the list, I was debating if The Deep House was going to American Refugee spot but I decided against that for one major reason. With The Deep House at least there were some decent shots and idea that could have worked, American Refugee doesn’t even try with it’s own idea and instead plays a very bad horror thriller. Plus the script was quite honestly one of the worst I hard last year.

24. Locked Down – Hey remember when this released? This was the other Doug Liman movie that came out last year, Locked Down is a prime example of how NOT to do a movie about COVID-19. Outside of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Anne Hathaway the rest of the movie is complete and total garbage. The film itself for whatever reason is also really ugly, the style they went for just did not work here at all and the writing feels completely soulless. Halfway through the movie it completely switches genres and becomes a heist movie…it makes little to no sense at all.

23. Injustice – I’m honestly not sure how you mess up an animated adaption of Injustice but here we are I guess. Injustice feels like a clipshow of scenes taken out of context and put together as a movie, which will definitely confuse people who are unfamiliar with Injustice. The tone of the movie switching from being incredibly dark to a Saturday morning cartoon is very awkward and destroys a lot of what would be very tense moments or impactful scenes. It’s just such a huge disappointment, this is something that could have been absolutely incredible but instead ends up being one of the worst movies of 2021.

22. Shook – I love Internet based horror films, but this was just a complete a misfire. It has a very strange fascination with dead dogs which it uses for shock value. I still have no idea what the writers were going for here, I mean yes influencers do get stalked however this movie did a very piss poor job of showing or telling that. Spree did a far better job of showing and telling the problems with Social Media. Shook just felt like a movie that used internet themes but didn’t showcase anything interesting at all, plus it doesn’t help the acting is horrendous.

21. The End Of Us – Another movie about COVID-19 that was made by Buzzfeed Studios….that’s a recipe for disaster and sure it enough the movie is horrible. The humor is pretty much the same type of humor Buzzfeed puts into their videos, the same annoying “look at this It’s relatable” type humor. In fact that’s what the movie tries to push, for the viewer to somehow feel like this movie is relatable. Only that doesn’t work because this movie comes off as very fake, like it just came out of a bubble gum commercial. The writing is beyond awful it’s single handily some of the worst of 2021, I have nothing else on this one.

20. Space Jam: A New Legacy – You know what I’m just going to post my review here, because I said it best there and I really don’t have anything else new or interesting to say except this is one giant product placement. And that this is the type of filmmaking I absolutely despise. Enjoy my review of it I did back when it came out! Look I’m not going to act like the first movie is some sort of masterpiece, in fact I’m not even a fan of the first movie It was one of those movies where I liked it as a kid but now it’s really not good. However the first movie at least tried (Michael Jordan was horrendous however) the same can’t be said for Space Jam: A New Legacy. So to start off if you spent time on Twitter and saw the number of cameos in the movie…it’s just as painful as they look. Each and every single one of them feels forced, the cameos in question is pretty much anything that Warner Bros owns from Rick And Morty, Mad Max Fury Road, Superman, Austin Powers and several others heck during the basketball game you can see numerous characters like The Iron Giant, The Flintstones, Batman villains, the Clockwork Orange crew (yes Alex and his gang are for whatever reason there) and a ton of others. I feel like my friend said it best about this movie “this is the equivalent of a rich kid coming into show and tell and instead of showing one item he or she decides to show like 50 items.” This is the type of filmmaking that I consider not filmmaking, it’s nothing but a million dollar studio looking down at the audience and saying “look how much IPs we own!!” The worst part about it is none of these cameos do anything for the story at all, they are all just there without any rhyme or reason. The only thing I can say I liked in this huge mess was the animation, I thought it was actually well done and gave the characters the energy they usually have. There were one or two jokes that were okay but the rest of the jokes didn’t land at all, I know I say “this movie was not funny” quite often but trust me when I say that a majority of these jokes were horrendous. During the first act of the movie they already use a Big Chungus meme which completely comes out of nowhere, let’s get to the acting, writing and story. The acting is complete garbage LeBron James’s performance was quite awful, it feels like he’s not trying at all, with no energy or effort put into it at all. On the other hand Don Cheadle gives a “it’s so bad it’s hilarious” type performance he truly looks like he’s having a blast which is something refreshing to see, the writing and story are both terrible and a complete total mess. Random plots just happen for no other reason which brings me back to the cameos, you can feel the desperation in the writing when it comes to the cameos to the point where it’s embarrassing. Did I forget to mention that it’s 2 hours long? A huge giant commercial for HBO Max and the rest of Warner Bros IPs, with horrendous pacing that feels like you are sitting through a 4 hour commercial on loop.

19. Red Notice – One of the most soulless and manufactured action movies in recent memory, between the chemistry from Ryan Reynolds, The Rock and Gal Gadot plus the incredibly poor pacing it’s excruciating to sit through. It’s everything you have seen in a action movie done 20x worse. Not much else to say here.

18. Cinderella – The movie that united all sides of Twitter to absolutely destroy this movie and rightfully so. I was considering putting this in the top 10 but it managed to get beaten. The several problems with Cinderella include, James Corden, the CGI Mice looking like a very early PS2 game, the movie feeling very cheaply made, the writing being absolutely horrendous and worst of all the jokes. As I said in my review if I have to hear James Corden joke about how proud he is of his “front tail” ever again I’m going to quit reviewing movies

Finally we are at the movies I gave my lowest rating, the “disgrace to cinema” rating! Which in most other years I gave a lot more movies that rating in a year, in 2021 I only gave 17 movies that rating. Which is both kind of shocking yet amazing probably because 2021 was just a fantastic year for film but we will get to that later this month! Let’s dive in and finish this.

17. The Reckoning – Neil Marshall use to be a director I looked forward to when he was releasing films, unfortunately that all changed when Hellboy (2019) happened and then soon after The Reckoning. The Reckoning is a horrendous movie that often forgets what it’s set out to do, the “burn the witch” genre has been done to death numerous times and here it combines every last cliche in the book, what seals this movie’s fate is the garbage writing. A lot of the writing makes little to no sense and it keeps having to remind the audience about simple plot devices that we are already fully aware of, the acting is just as terrible with little to no direction and every single one of the actors and actresses failing to bring any sort of energy in their roles.

16. Safer At Home – Another movie about COVID-19, this time it tries to be Host (2020) but completely fails at doing that. It takes place on a Zoom call which worked for Host due to fantastic acting and writing, this is not the cast for Safer At Home. Poor acting, poor writing and all the characters feeling like the same really drags this movie down.

15. Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City – I did a review for this one a few weeks ago, so I really don’t have any new thoughts about this one so I’m just going to post my review and move on. Resident Evil and live action movies have never been good friends, the Paul W.S. Anderson Resident Evil movies were trying to go for something completely different rather than follow the video game franchise which I guess is okay except they weren’t good. Then the announcement of a more faithful adaptation to the franchise was said and I got my hopes up, the problem? It’s directed by Johannes Roberts director of the two 47 Meters Down movies, The Other Side Of The Door and The Strangers Prey At Night (which I actually thought was okay.) The movie itself feels like it was made for TV and someone saw a few cutscenes of the first games online and decided to make a movie. The biggest issue with this movie was that it tried to tackled both the first game and the second one, Resident Evil is not the type of franchise where you can just skim through it and hope for the best. There’s so much detail, character growth and important moments that are completely missing because of this. The acting is dreadful and the portrayals of each of the characters are incredibly awful, it’s definitely not the actors fault it’s mainly due to how incredibly lazy and just downright awful the script is. For a movie that’s 1 hour and 47 minutes long this feels like an eternity, it’s not fun, it’s not interesting, the atmosphere is all over the place and doesn’t feel like Resident Evil at the slightest. The movie does show a few big moments from the games, however they aren’t done well at all as I said before it feels like they just watched some cutscenes online and decided to make the movie. It doesn’t explore much context behind the moments or any development, it’s truly one of the laziest ways to go about making an adaption that’s claiming to be more faithful to the franchise.

14. The House Next Door: Meet The Blacks 2 – Yes because there was such a high demand for Meet The Blacks to get a sequel, I don’t even know what to say about this one. At least the first movie knew what it was a parody of, this one just throws anything at a wall while making little to no sense at all. I honestly couldn’t tell you what exactly happens in this movie because the story itself is just very poorly written.

13. The Kissing Booth 3 – The fact the Kissing Booth actually became a trilogy is just absolutely maddening, this movie somehow manages to be even worse than the last one. A lot of this movie comes down to being melodramatic about almost anything that happens in the movie, the writing is absolutely garbage with very little substance at all. The characters aren’t given any proper character development or don’t feel like actual people. The most positive thing I can say is that it’s the last of these movies.

12. Aileen Wuornos: American Boogywoman – Ah Daniel Farrands always making it at so far on these lists, while this movie isn’t as bad as the other movie Farrands came out with in 2021. It’s still horribly acted, written and directed. Peyton List is horribly miscast and the movie has this failed high school film project type feel to it.

11. Ted Bundy: American Boogyman – What I just said about Aileen Wuornos; American Boogywoman can be applied here. They are the exact same movie but the plots are about different serial killers, Farrands directing style is still ugly and continues to prove why he’s one of the worst directors working today.

10. Home Sweet Home Alone – This movie has some of the worst writing I heard in 2021, the movie is an embarrassing attempt to cash in on a popular name. The jokes feel dated as a handful of them are memes, the acting is horrendous and the movie itself feels like a giant waste of time.

9. Diana: The Musical – How is this even real?

8. Behind The Sightings – This is another case of the history of a movie being far more interesting than the movie itself. Making a found footage movie based on the Clown Sightings of 2016 is a really interesting idea that definitely had tons of potential. Unfortunately Behind The Sightings completely falls flat on every single level to deliver, right from the beginning the acting is already at a huge low point it feels like nobody tried. It doesn’t get any better at all either, the writing is a huge mess filled with annoying characters and tries way too hard to be scary by using endless amount of jumpscares that you can see coming miles away. What’s even worse is the pacing, it’s amazing that this is a 81 minute movie but feels like an eternity. It’s dreadfully put together so many scenes that feel unnecessary, the last act of the movie is nothing but screaming that tries way too hard.

7. Separation – Marriage Story if it were a garbage horror movie, William Grant Bell continues to prove how he’s one of the worst and most uninteresting horror directors working today. Separation is a disastrous mess, right from the beginning you feel the cheapness of this movie, it feels like something that should have went straight to DVD but this actually got a theater release. The acting, writing and the direction are all terrible, which is expected at this point from Bell but with this movie I would argue it’s even worse. Everyone involved either sounds bored as hell or isn’t even trying, there are some interesting ideas somewhere in this movie that I definitely thought this movie was going to do something with. But that doesn’t happen unfortunately.

6. Karen – Yeah I got nothing, I truly got nothing. The title of the movie and the plot really speaks for itself, the movie isn’t subtle at the slightest between the music and the garbage writing. It’s nothing more than horrible horrible exploitation of racial discrimination that’s seen on a daily basis.

5. Night Of The Animated Dead – it’s basically a poorly done animated version of Night Of The Living Dead, the only main difference is more blood but that really doesn’t matter here, this is nothing more than to cash in on a popular name. Hoping to sucker people into watching it.

4. He’s All That – I’m very tired of studios or companies trying to insert influencers into movies who clearly can’t act. It’s been proven time and time again that this doesn’t work, Even if you take Addison Rae out of the movie it would still feel like a soulless remake to She’s All That. There’s nothing in this movie that works at the slightest, having Rachel Leigh Cook and Matthew Lillard in the movie was nice but they weren’t anywhere near enough to save this movie.

3. After We Fell – Congratulations the After series this is the first time since the movie series even started that these movies haven’t been the worst film of the year (After being the worst of 2019) and (After We Collided being the worst of 2020) but make no mistake this one is still really bad. This one is basically a bunch of laughably bad sex scenes and arguments and it goes on and on till the movie ends. After We Fell also feels the most like a fanfiction of the 3 movies, oh yeah and the line “sexy popeye” is used…

2. Run Hide Fight – Ah yes the movie Dailywire picked up the rights to, I’m going to post my review here because I have nothing more to say. It’s a horrendous movie that pretty much says “school shootings aren’t that bad!” There are several huge flaws that are just flat out embarrassing, first off the editing is atrocious. It almost feels like it wasn’t made by a human, or you know someone didn’t bother to look over the editing and just called it a day. The editing also makes the pacing very awkward at times, you can go from one scene with two people talking to all of a sudden a shooting with no real build up. The movie portrays school shootings in a very distasteful way, not to mention almost of the scenes in this movie would never happen during a school shooting. It uses a very serious topic that is still going on today in America and tries to play it off as “see school shootings aren’t so bad if you defend yourself!” The acting and writing are both just horrible, I know Isabel May is trying to give it her all. But not even she can really save it, the writing feels like a first draft to a school play. It has absolutely no substance to it at all, it doesn’t try to bring up any other solution other then “throw guns at the problem” plus the characters just feel incredibly unrealistic. There’s this one scene where Isabel May is trying to warn one of the teachers who’s teaching a class through a window that there’s a school shooting. The teacher flat out doesn’t listen and close the blinds…I’m sorry but that would never happen, the fact they try to pass this scene off as realistic is really disgusting to me. If you take out all the clear “let’s make this to dunk on the other side” points it would still fall flat, what your left with is a horrendous Die Hard clone. I truly believe there is better ways of talking about school shootings film, this just isn’t it at all. In fact this is a prime example of what NOT to do.

And that’s all for now! Next time I talk about number one and why in my opinion is one of the worst movies ever made.

The Power Of The Dog is a striking film with several interesting themes!

A domineering rancher responds with mocking cruelty when his brother brings home a new wife and her son, until the unexpected comes to pass.

The Power Of The Dog is another showcase of just incredible Jane Campion as a filmmaker, this is her first film in 12 years and the long wait was most definitely worth it. Benedict Cumberbatch has been in quite a few films this year but his performance in The Power Of The Dog has the most strength to it, he plays a character who has dealt with pain, there’s also agony and a lot of other emotions that help build his character. It’s a very interesting character study of him and he has this journey about his emotions. Kristen Dunst and Kodi Smit-McPhee are both fantastic, they each bring something truly special to the film, Dunst giving a very raw and classic western type feel performance that feels like it’s out of the classic black and white film era. And McPhee giving a performance that follows Cumberbatch’s character that is just as interesting and as powerful. The film itself has a old soul to it, it feels like it’s straight out of the classic film era with some darker twists, the style the film went for which was being violent without being violent was done in such a unique and interesting way. The film shows that violence can come in many different forms, most of it here is done psychologically which fits the film quite well. The cinematography compliments the whole theme as well with beautiful shots and a dark atmosphere that brings a ton suspense and mystery to the film. Jane Campion’s direction is brilliant she really hits it out of the park when it comes to bringing a sense of rawness to the film, she also makes every character as interesting as possible. Giving them a ton of development, with monologues, quiet scenes and heavy hitting moments that really capture the important parts of character development in film. Overall The Power Of The Dog is one of the best films of the year, it’s a slow burn with several haunting elements that gives the film a lot of power. It most definitely won’t be for everyone but if you do watch it be sure to go into the film knowing as little as possible!

The Power Of The Dog is available on Netflix!

10/10 A+

Eternals is a disappointment that feels all over the place.

The saga of the Eternals, a race of immortal beings who lived on Earth and shaped its history and civilizations.

It took me a bit to think how I felt about Eternals mostly due to it feeling like a very weird mishmash of ideas that are either not fully developed, done poorly or done very well. I got excited for this one mostly due to Chloe Zhao being attached to the film as the director, after seeing her films and her previous film Nomadland which went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars. The results for what Chloe Zhao can do with an MCU film is very promising and something I would love to see…sadly we only get a bit of that here. For starters the film itself relies on the characters which is perfectly fine, the problem is a lot of them aren’t that well developed at all. I do want to make it clear that one of the movie’s biggest strengths is the diversity, as a lot of people have pointed out it is very refreshing to see and it’s very commendable. Of the cast that stood out Gemma Chan, Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani (although he sort of gets the short end of the stick towards the end), Barry Keoghan, Lauren Ridloff Brian Tyree Henry and Harish Patel all did a pretty solid job in their roles given what they worked with. Unfortunately just isn’t there to support some of the characters, as much as I liked Angelina Jolie’s character Thena she is given development but for the most part she’s kind of reduced to the “strength of the team” element, Lauren Ridloff’s character Makkari I truly wish was given actual development perhaps maybe in the future MCU films, still she’s a fun character despite given very little development. Brian Tyree Henry’s character Phastos got a ton of development and he’s by far one of the best, there’s a lot to like about his character plus there’s some actual quite emotional moments with his character. Kumail Nanjiani’s character Kingo and Harish Patel I thought were actually some of the strongest parts of the film, the jokes the duo both tell are actually quite amusing as opposed to the other jokes in the movie that really hold the movie back. Barry Keoghan’s character Druig I thought was very interesting, I do wish they did a little bit more with his character but for what they did I thought it was decent. It will be very interesting to see what they do with him going forward. Lastly there’s Gemma Chan’s character Sersi who I really thought was your traditional main hero type character, it wasn’t anything bad just not anything special. Hands down the best part about Eternals is the filming, it’s absolutely gorgeous and is the best MCU film when it comes to filming. What kills Eternals is that it still feels like a product, it’s a shame because I remember a little bit after Nomadland won best picture I remember reading a few articles saying “Chloe Zhao will have creative freedom for Eternals” yet it only feels like she only got a little bit. There were quiet moments for the characters and actual meaningful conversations between them. However the plot being a complete mess, the villains being incredibly dull and a lot of the traditional Marvel humor that they like to shoehorn into the movie doesn’t feel like creative freedom at all. I truly think Eternals would have worked better as a series, it would give each of the characters a lot more time to develop, it’s very unfortunate with the way Eternals turned out. Because somewhere in this movie there is a good movie, it’s just unfortunately crammed in with a lot filler and missed ideas.

Eternals is now available in Theaters!

5/10 C

Finch is a surprisingly thought provoking Sci-Fi Film!

On a post-apocalyptic earth, a robot, built to protect the life of his creator’s beloved dog, learns about life, love, friendship and what it means to be human.

Finch was a film that I wasn’t looking forward to that much, it always came off as one of those movies that the studio had no faith in so they just shove it on to a streaming service of their choice. However after watching Finch I can best describe it as the film that Chappie wanted to be. Finch takes a completely different approach from what Chappie did, for starters there isn’t any action which absolutely works here. Instead we get a slow but meaningful story set in a post apocalyptic world and we follow three characters! Finch Weinberg (played by Tom Hanks) Goodyear the dog and Jeff a humanoid robot voiced by (Caleb Landry Jones) all 3 of these characters each bring something to the film. Tom Hanks delivers such a charming performance despite the film taking place in a post apocalyptic world, Caleb Landry Jones does a fantastic job voicing Jeff it’s quite honestly one of the best robot voice roles I’ve seen in a film in quite awhile! The film itself actually gets pretty meaningful and has a lot to say about many different types of subjects, such as love, friendship and the meaning of human life. The film does quite a fascinating job of comparing and contrasting the three man characters, Finch being a human, Goodyear being a dog and Jeff being a robot. It really shows how each of the characters interact and show their emotions, plus the film has a ton of quiet moments that really make you sink in the several different comparisons the film shows. It’s truly a fascinating film that explains in a meaningful way through very thought provoking writing! Overall Finch is something I would have never thought would end up being on the best films of the year, but I absolutely love surprises and this one most definitely is! Give this one a watch!

Finch is available on AppleTV+!

9/10 A

A Christmas Gift From Bob is a charming movie for the holidays!

A struggling street musician finds himself the target of an animal welfare investigation that threatens to take away his beloved cat at Christmas.

A Christmas Gift From Bob is the sequel to the 2016 film A Street Cat Named Bob which was one of my favorite films from 2016 and was overall one of my favorite films of the 2010s. A Christmas Gift From Bob is a very traditional good defeating evil type Christmas story but what the movie uses to it’s advantage is Luke Treadaway as James Bowen and Bob The Cat himself (who sadly passed away last year) relationship and portraying it very well. A Street Cat Named Bob showed just how much Bob changed James Bowen’s life, while A Christmas Gift From Bob does have a lot of Christmas movie elements, we still get more to the story of James and Bob. How they look out for each other, the acting and writing are both surprisingly well done. There are hiccups during the first act of the movie and it strangely took a bit to get going, but when you get passed the first act the movie is very charming, meaningful and heartwarming. It’s a celebration for James and Bob! While A Christmas Gift From Bob might not be as good as it’s predecessor its still a very charming and heartwarming movie that I do highly recommend.

R.I.P. Bob

A Christmas Gift From Bob is now available on all VOD Platforms!

7/10 B

Titane is a masterful terrifying experience from director Julia Ducournau!

Following a series of unexplained crimes, a father is reunited with the son who has been missing for 10 years.

In 2017 Julia Ducournau released her directional debut film Raw which was a very disturbing film and quite a fantastic one, now this year she released Titane which is also very disturbing but what makes Titane standout from other disturbing films is it ends up being quite sweet and in someways wholesome. First let’s talk about performances Agathe Rousselle and Vincent Lindon easily give some of the best performances of the year, the rawness, power and just overall talent their performances show is quite amazing, they both truly capture the viewer’s attention and bring you into the film. Everyone else in the film does a fantastic job as well, each giving really interesting performances that add to the overall film, the atmosphere is very interesting while it is suspenseful and definitely does keep you wondering what’s going to happen next, it’s the type of atmosphere you wouldn’t think of when you think of the word disturbing. In some parts of the film it’s a wholesome type atmosphere that actually gets you to feel for each of the characters, the writing is masterful it’s filled to brim with interesting dialogue, emotional scenes that actually punch you in the gut and disturbing scenes that will most definitely disturb you. The music is pretty incredible as well, it adds so much to the film and adds to the weirdness as well! Lastly there’s Julia Ducournau’s direction is hands down some of the best direction I’ve seen in a film in quite some time, every scene feels important and adds so much to the story, the themes that get explored such as gender-bending and psychopathic violence are done incredibly well with care to them. There’s a ton of quiet moments between the characters are some of the most powerful, the body horror aspect takes things in a entirely new direction that the subgenre really hasn’t explored yet. It’s truly a masterfully directed film that reminds me of why I love film so much. Titane doesn’t just rely on gore or violence to be disturbing, it has many different themes that it explores wonderfully and throws in some wholesome scenes in it to make it standout from a lot of disturbing films. Titane is truly a fantastic film that I highly recommend going in knowing as little as possible, at the time of writing this Titane is my favorite film of 2021 so far and I’ll be shocked if that changes!

Titane is now in theaters!

10/10 A+