Well, ladies and gentlemen, it’s getting to that time of year. The holidays are in full swing(or will be shortly), and 2021 is coming to a close. It’s hard to believe it’s almost 2022 already. The irony is, is that 2020 felt so damn long because of the pandemic and social distancing. Well, things are getting back to normal as far as movie-going is concerned. Almost. For the most part, though, 2021 is a hell of a lot better than 2020. While theaters started to open back up in the fall of 2020, most theaters that survived the pandemic here in the states are starting to see some kind of normalcy, although, some changes in the way movies have been distributed haven’t necessarily been for the better(I’m looking at YOU, Warner Bros.). I do have to say that actually going back to the movies on a regular basis has been fantastic. For the most part, the movies that I did end up seeing in theaters were mostly pretty good. Some were great, others not so much. As I have done every year, I like to go over some of the best and worst movies that have been released in 2021. Now, I did put up a Best/Worst Movies of 2021 So Far post about 5 or so months ago, so I won’t include those movies here. As always, these are MY opinions, and don’t reflect anything but my opinions. One final note: I realize that there are still some movies that are going to be released this month, which includes Spider-Man: No Way Home and West Side Story. Those movies are close enough to 2022, that I’ll include them on THAT list, if I like them enough. I like to give movies enough room and time to breathe. Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?
The Best: Dune
As someone who grew up and loves David Lynch’s Dune from 1984, this comes a no-brainer. I love science fiction. More importantly, I love high-concept science fiction. You know, the kind of science fiction that speaks to us about what it means to be human. It’s no secret that the 1984 film was a hot mess. Universal tried to turn an incredibly dense science fiction story into a two-and-a-half hour movie, and it didn’t really work. There was a LOT of stuff that the 1984 film glossed over or left out entirely. Denis Villeneuve and Warner Bros. made the smart decision to split Dune into two movies. There’s SO much going on, that doing it in one movie is impossible. To me, Denis Villeneuve, as a director, is one of the best in the business today, and Dune cements that. This is one of the most grand-scale epic science fiction movies that I’ve seen in years. The cast is outstanding, especially Timothy Chalamet as Paul Atreides. From a visual standpoint, this movie is off the charts. It’s incredibly stunning. What makes it even better, is that Mr. Villeneuve made the film accessible to people who haven’t read the books, like me. With everything that’s going on with the story, it was surprisingly easy to follow and get connected with the characters. That’s not an easy feat to make with these kinds of movies. I haven’t seen anything this year that comes close to what Dune has done. That’s why it pisses me off that Warner Bros. released the film on HBO Max the same day they released it to theaters in the US. That was INCREDIBLY stupid and short-sighted. Thankfully, the decision was made well before the film’s release that they would be doing part 2, which is scheduled to be released in October of 2023. If they could sell tickets to part 2 RIGHT NOW, I would already have mine.
The Worst: Karen
As someone who loves movies, I always try to find the good things in not-so-great movies. Why? Because sometimes movies don’t always go according to plan. So, it is incredibly rare for me to truly hate a movie with every fiber of my being. That brings me to Karen. When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I couldn’t believe that it was real. Like everybody else who saw it, it looked like a joke. Well, the joke’s on the audience, I guess, because this is a movie that exists. I wasn’t initially going to watch it, but curiosity always gets the better of me, for one reason or another. While Dune is one of the best movies I’ve seen in years, Karen is the worst pile of dogshit that I’ve seen in as many years. It wasn’t so much that the film-makers decided to make a movie out of an Internet meme, it was that they took it so seriously. This is the kind of thing that would work in a comedy, but Karen isn’t a comedy, at least not intentionally. Oh, no: It’s a thriller about a racist Karen making life miserable for a young black couple. You couldn’t get any more on the nose if you dropped a mountain on it. It’s poorly directed, horrendously acted, and incredibly ill-conceived. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy bad movies, but Karen is the worst kind of bad movie.
The Best: Raya and The Last Dragon
Raya and The Last Dragon was such a pleasant surprise this year. It was a lot better than I was hoping it to be. It looked fantastic in terms of art direction, but the story is really solid and heartfelt, and the characters are incredibly charming. The real stand-out here is Awkwafina as Sisu the dragon. She is hilarious as the dragon, and I think that they literally modeled the dragon on Awkwafina’s personality. This is a film that anybody can watch. It’s got action, humor, drama, and a really good morality tale about trust. If you’ve got kids, they’ll enjoy the colors and great animation, and the grown-ups can enjoy the characters and writing. Easily recommended.
The Worst: Snake Eyes
Disappointing doesn’t even come close to describing this movie’s failure. Let’s ignore the fact that GI Joe hasn’t been popular as a franchise in YEARS. Let’s also somewhat ignore the fact that the action in Snake Eyes is hobbled by shaky-cam. The worst aspect about this movie is that the title character isn’t particularly likable. In a movie that features one of the most well-known team members from GI Joe as the lead character, turning him into a selfish, back-stabbing dirt-bag was a really stupid move. I’m not blaming Henry Golding for that. He did the best job he could with what he was given, but he was given an abysmal script. The writing is awful. When you sympathize more with a character that would go on to become of the most notorious villains for GI Joe, you did something wrong. There are elements about the movie that I like. The acting is pretty good. Specifically, Henry Golding and Andrew Koji. The action that we can see is also really good. But some bad cinematography and highly questionable writing tanks a movie that never really would have been successful anyway, considering the last GI Joe movies failed to ignite the box office.
The Best: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Shang-Chi was the first movie that I saw in theaters this year, and I have to say, that I was NOT disappointed. In fact, I was actually surprised at how good this movie is. Not only does this movie combine the Kung-Fu and superhero genres, it’s also got some of the most memorable characters that I’ve seen in the MCU in years. Simu Liu is outstanding as Shang-Chi. He’s got great charisma and a sense of humor, but he definitely steps up to the plate when it comes to the action. The bus sequence alone may end up being one of the most iconic moments in the MCU. It’s that good. The fight choreography is excellent. One of the biggest problems that the MCU has usually had was its villains. Most of them tend to be pretty one-dimensional. There were some exceptions with Loki, Thanos, and Killmonger, but the rest of them were pretty forgettable. Well, Shang-Chi gives us Tony Leung’s Wenwu. Even though Wenwu is the villain, you sympathize with him and his goals, even if they may end up destroying the world, but the film-makers and Tony Leung give him a very human portrayal, so he’s not a cardboard cut-out supervillain. Awkwafina shows up here as Shang-Chi’s best friend, Katy. While she is the comic relief of the film, she also some really good dramatic moments. The writing in this movie is outstanding with great visual effects and awesome fight scenes.
The Worst: Venom: Let There Be Carnage
There’s a group of film fans out there who felt that the Venom films should’ve been rated R. Part of me agrees, but at the same time, I understand Sony wanting to reach as many people as possible, so an R-rating wasn’t really in the cards. Let’s be honest here, there have been PG-13 movies that have gotten away with a lot of stuff that would normally earn them that R-rating. Here’s the thing, though: An R-rating can’t save a movie from bad writing. THAT’S where my problem with Venom 2 lies. I enjoyed this movie, almost as much as I did the first one with Tom Hardy. He’s the real selling point of these movies, playing both Eddie Brock AND Venom. Let There Be Carnage lets Woody Harrelson in on the action as Cletus Kassidy, who becomes Carnage. Those two are really the only reasons why this movie is worth watching, but the writing is god-awful. Some scenes are so cringe-inducing that I almost checked out entirely. The breakfast scene comes to mind. If you’ve seen this film, you know what I’m talking about. The action is fine, with the final battle being one of the most outstanding sequences of the movie. But the problem is, is that the actors are saddles with a script that really doesn’t take advantage of it’s potential. The film’s rating really has nothing to do with it. Again, I did enjoy this movie, but I think it’s almost as bad as Black Widow.
The Best: Ghostbusters: Afterlife
After the disaster that was the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, I don’t think anybody had any real expectation that the franchise was going to move forward. At least, not in any meaningful way. Enter Jason Reitman, the son of the great Ivan Reitman, who directed the original Ghostbusters movie. Afterlife wisely sidesteps the events of Ghostbusters II AND the reboot, acting as a direct sequel, but also as a reboot in itself. Now, a lot of people have this movie flack for relying on nostalgia. I can see how some people might come to that conclusion, but the way Afterlife handles nostalgia is very different from the way that the reboot did. Afterlife treats nostalgia as kind of a warm blanket to wrap yourself up in, if you’re old enough to remember the original. The reboot relied on nostalgia just to sell tickets and a gimmick. Afterlife doesn’t strive to be anything groundbreaking. It wants to tell a story about the next generation of Ghostbusters, and I think it succeeds. In a lot of movies, making kids the focus of a movie generally isn’t a good idea, but it really works here, considering the kids’ connections to the original crew. Mckenna Grace pretty much carries the entire movie on her 15 year old shoulders, and she’s fantastic. Paul Rudd is likable enough. The last couple of years have given us some pretty dark and gritty movies, so it’s really a nice change of pace to have a movie that takes us back to a time when it was fun to go the movies.
The Worst: Kate
It seems to be that every couple of months, a movie comes that tries to do what John Wick has done: Give an assassin a reason for revenge. John Wick certainly wasn’t the first movie to do that, but it was certainly one of the best. Ever since then, the only movies to outdo John Wick were its sequels. Nobody else has come close, with the exception of Atomic Blonde. That’s pretty much it. Kate is just another in a long line of copycats like The Protege or Ana. There’s very little here to make the film standout from anything else. Honestly, the only good thing that Kate has going for it is Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She’s phenomenal. Aside from her, the characters in this movie are cardboard cutout villains, and you can see the twist coming a mile away. The action is pretty decent, but again, there’s nothing here that says, “Remember me!” But then, Netflix’s action movies have mostly been garbage. Kate doesn’t change my mind on that.
The Best: Raging Fire
Raging Fire’s director, Benny Chan, passed away from cancer back in August of 2020, making Raging Fire his last movie. But what a final movie to go out on. Raging Fire is not only one of the best action movies this year, but it’s one of the best action movies to come out of Hong Kong in years. While I’m familiar with Benny Chan’s work in the past, Raging Fire is probably his best effort. Donnie Yen, who co-ordinates the action in the film, is also the lead playing a hardline detective who goes up against a group of former cops-turned-criminals. It’s a surprisingly hard-hitting action thriller that doesn’t treat its villains like they’re disposable. The main villain, Ngo, is played by Nicholas Tse, who previously starred with Yen in Dragon Tiger Gate. Considering that Donnie Yen himself is 58, he’s still going really strong, and his performance in this movie is great. I have to say that the last 20 minutes of the movie are insane. If you’re a fan of Donnie Yen, this is a must-see.
I saw a lot of movies this year, but there’s simply not enough time in the day for me to see everything. These are the ones that really stood out for me. As I said before, there’s still some movies that are being released later this month including Spider-Man, The Matrix Resurrections, and The Tragedy of Macbeth, which I really want to see.