Originally published in 2019.
Last updated on 21 April 2020.
After I stopped writing my yearly “Best Of” articles in 2014, I still wanted to update my friends on what I watched and give some comments and recommendations. First I did so on Google Plus, but those posts are unfortunately lost to the void. Since 2017 I’ve been giving quarterly updates on Facebook. This article is the third in a series gathering those posts by year. I didn’t change the language, nor did I adjust the recommendations with insights I gained after the fact. The only modifications I’ve made are corrections of grammar mistakes, and the additions of some markup and images.
Looking back at the lists, I can’t shake the feeling that in 2019, there were very few movies or series that amazed me. Was it really a bad year for cinema, did I not see the right material, or was it just me?
As always, you can find the entire list of all the movies, series and documentaries I’ve seen here.
2019 Q1
Dawson’s Creek (1998, Season 1)
Fry’s Planet Word (2011)
Green Book (2018)
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
Narcos: Mexico (2018)
Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Super Space Fortress Macross (1984, Chôjikû Yôsai Macross: Ai Oboeteimasuka)
The Expanse (2015, Season 2)
The Punisher (2017, Season 2)
Triple Frontier (2019)
Rewatched:
The Newsroom (2012, Season 1)
Roadies (2016, Season 1)
Dawson’s Creek: I don’t think I ever watched this series’ episodes back-to-back. Much like Felicity last year, I only watched scattered, separate episodes back when it was on TV. I decided to revisit it and there’s some fun stuff (especially the dialogue) but oooh boy, there’s also a lot of cringe-worthy acting and (sub)text that aged badly.
Fry’s Planet Word: Stephen Fry’s presentation and narration is just awesome on any subject, but let him investigate and discuss language and it quickly becomes highly recommended.
Green Book: yeah, it’s an Oscar bait movie and I don’t think it deserves the Oscars it won (Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor) and yet it’s a solid movie with great acting by Viggo “Aragorn” Mortensen and Mahershala Ali.
Narcos: Mexico (2018) on Narcos: Mexico: good spin-off / parallel story to the main Narcos storyline. Can’t quite reach the excellence of the first two seasons, but there’s little that can.
Pitch Perfect 3: the first Pitch Perfect was surprisingly awesome (and remains a guilty pleasure of mine), the sequel was OK-ish but it was clear that there wasn’t enough interesting stuff to be mined in the premise. Unclear why there needed to be a third one, let alone one with so much screen time for Rebel Wilson. She was fun as comic relief, but comic reliefs don’t work as main characters. She overstayed her welcome, much like the franchise itself.
Solo: A Star Wars Story: if this was a brand new movie, unburdened by any history or expectations, this would be a nice, entertaining sci-fi adventure / space opera. However, it’s the latest prequel in the Star Wars brand and I would’ve liked it to be more than that.
Super Space Fortress Macross: I’d only vaguely heard about Macross, but it’s supposed to be an anime classic that, back in the day, set the standards for the medium. As an adaptation of a full season (36 episodes) of a TV series, it’s big, convoluted and it’s absolutely bonkers as only Japanese anime can be. Spoiler: in the year 1999, we’ll fight aliens in massive transforming spacecraft and our ultimate weapon is a J-pop idol that sings sugary songs.
The Expanse: the second season is just as amazing as the first one, shifting focus and allegiances and widening its horizons.
The Punisher: unfortunately, I can’t say the same of The Punisher’s sophomore season. The acting is mediocre to great (especially Jon Bernthal’s performance as the titular character), the themes are interesting, but there is very little cohesion this time around. There are two main storylines and they don’t enhance each other in any way, the villains are lame to actively annoying. It leaves me wondering where it all went wrong.
Triple Frontier: the latest Netflix movie with an A-list cast (Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Pedro Pascal) this is a variation of the Three Kings set-up (bitter ex-military guys do one last job) that you probably saw before, but not with this cast.
I also rewatched the first season of The Newsroom and am rewatching Roadies because I need(ed) some feel-good, easy series with likeable characters. The Newsroom especially delivers that in spades. Yes, it’s preachy and the characters engage in too-smart banter, but I easily forgive its faults because its heart is big and warm and idealistic.
2019 Q2
2036: Nexus Dawn (2017)
2048: Nowhere to Run (2017)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Baywatch (2017)
Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 (2017)
Captain Marvel (2019)
Game of Thrones (2011, Season 8)
Los Bandoleros (2009)
Please Learn the Setlist in 48 Hours (2013)
Rocketman (2019)
Turbo Charged Prelude to 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
Yesterday (2019)
2036: Nexus Dawn, 2048: Nowhere to Run and Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 are all prequels to Blade Runner 2049 and very short vignettes. Black Out 2022 was most to my liking, probably because it’s an anime and brings something new to the franchise. The other two could be deleted scenes in both style and subject matter.
Avengers: Endgame feels like a (deserved) victory lap which celebrates the 22 movies that came before it, ties up the main story lines and lets us once again spend time with the many characters we’ve come to love over the last 10 years. A worthy finale or an overindulgent send-off, depending on whether you like the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Baywatch: mostly harmless and bland popcorn entertainment.
Captain Marvel: a love letter to the ’90s. Its protagonist is a bit boring but Brie Larson sells her. She has great chemistry with the digitally de-aged Samuel Jackson, too.
Game of Thrones, Season 8: Yeah no. So much wasted potential. If you are hoping for the series’ return to excellence after the downturn in quality in Season 5, you will be disappointed.
Turbo Charged Prelude to 2 Fast 2 Furious (jeez, what’s up with these titles) and Los Bandoleros are prequels to the 2nd and 4th The Fast & The Furious movies. As with the Blade Runner short films, they could be scenes for an extended edition and are largely redundant.
Please Learn the Setlist in 48 Hours is a very one-sided documentary about Nightwish and their 2012-2013 period, a time in which they dumped their second vocalist (Anette Olzon) and replaced her with Floor Jansen.
Rocketman is a biopic about Elton John’s meteoric rise to superstardom and his struggle with that. Taron Egerton is amazing as John and the songs are great. Unfortunately the story is one you’ve heard and seen before and there’s precious little tension in it.
Rounding out the trio of music-themed movies is Yesterday, which I can heartily recommend as a nice, light-weight rom-com with great music by the writer of such classics as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually. Just don’t mistake it for a movie about The Beatles or their music: the first are never discussed and the latter plays second fiddle to the rom-com elements.
Rewatch-Watch
I’ve rewatched the entire The Fast & The Furious franchise and I had a great time. It was fun to see its evolution from a Point Break rip-off with cars to a solid action-movie-with-cars franchise, to its current status as an over-the-top version of that. And yes, I’m going to see the spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. For what it’s worth, my favourite instalment is probably Fast Five.
2019 Q3
American Gods (2017, Season 2)
Enter the Anime (2019)
Jessica Jones (2015, Season 3)
La Casa de Papel (2017, Season 1)
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Veronica Mars (2004, Season 4)
American Gods (Season 2): it’s entertaining, the leads are good, but it’s lacking punch.
Enter the Anime: AVOID AT ALL COSTS. I’m usually pretty mellow about bad content, but this is just an advertisement for Netflix’s anime disguised as a documentary. Its narrative is repetitive and bland, the narration cringe-worthy, what little information it dispenses is uninspiring. 0/10, would downvote harder if I could.
Jessica Jones (Season 3): a worthy final season of the Netflix / Marvel cooperation, although the character of Trish Walker and her arc almost manages to tank it.
La Casa de Papel (Season 1): The English name “Money Heist” is very much on the nose. Likeable characters making believable mistakes, nice plot twists — this is very much recommended. Talk about a slow burn, though.
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) on Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood: Tarantino’s ninth and supposedly penultimate movie, this is another slow burner. Much like The Hateful Eight there are long stretches where very little seems to happen, but somehow it’s still entertaining and enthralling. A week later I’m still digesting it.
Pacific Rim: Uprising: not bad as far as action movie sequels go, but it never reaches the heights of the original. The “big twist” was well-executed, though.
Spider-Man: Far from Home: Peter Parker’s entertaining hijinks in high school continue, while also serving double duty as an epilogue to Avengers: Endgame. At this point I’m getting a bit exhausted with the whole MCU’s Phase 3 and I would’ve liked to see more Peter Parker and less MCU.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: while it was hailed by some as “the best Spider-Man movie ever” last year, I’m not quite agreeing with that. I’ve got to admit that it’s a very good Spider-Man story, it doesn’t waste any time and it’s got stunning animation and awesome art direction.
Veronica Mars (Season 4): a perfect “sequel” to the first three seasons and the movie shows that the neo-noir private eye still has it. Up until the last scene where Rob Thomas sucker-punches the entire audience in a mean way.
Rewatch-Watch
I’ve started re-watching Season 1 of The West Wing. Everything I said in 2008 (when I first watched it, see my review) still holds. Unfortunately, the contrast between the series’ idealism and humanism and the current political state of affairs in the USA has only grown starker.
2019 Q4
A Simple Favor (2018)
Explained (2018, Season 2)
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)
Inside the Labyrinth (1986)
Justice League (2017)
Labyrinth (1986)
Last Christmas (2019)
Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
Peaky Blinders (2013, Season 5)
The Dark Crystal (1982)
The Mind, Explained (2019)
X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)
A Simple Favor is an interesting thriller with a good twist. It takes a while to gather steam, though. During the ramp-up you’ll just have to amuse yourself looking at Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively.
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw: apparently they needed to make a spin-off because there’s obvious screen chemistry between Jason Statham and The Rock and you want to cash in on that, but The Rock and Vin Diesel can’t stand each other? Whatever, this is still good action-film fun. Also Vanessa Kirby (Princess Margaret in The Crown) is a capable action actress.
Justice League: anything would be better than Batman v Superman and this surely is, but yeah this “cinematic universe” rightfully died. Too bad that we never got a Batfleck solo movie, though.
Labyrinth (2019) on The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth: Stijn gave his old DVDs away and I realised I never saw these Jim Henson movies. I much prefer the latter, which is livelier, funnier, better paced and has David Bowie.
Also saw Inside the Labyrinth, a short documentary on the making of.
Last Christmas: I really dislike the song, and the movie received scathing reviews, but I wanted to see it anyway because I like romcoms, it’s written by Emma Thompson and the trailer looked fun. Wasn’t disappointed: fun movie with some great laughs. I discovered that Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons) is actually a really funny actress. (I’m told that I’m late to the party and people knew this already.)
Murder on the Orient Express: capable whodunnit. Never read the book or the many other adaptations, so no idea how faithful this one is. Worth it just for the cast. (Don’t worry if you have a dislike of Johnny Depp, his acting is restrained here and he isn’t in many scenes.)
Peaky Blinders: at this point I have no idea whether it’s actually any good (and I certainly dislike several characters) but I just want to see what happens with the Shelby family, OK?
Explained ’s second season and The Mind, Explained: Vox always delivers interesting, splendidly-produced documentaries and these are no exception. It’s amazing how consistently good they are.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix: at this point I know that the movies aren’t any good but I’ll keep watching them, OK? This one is pretty damn bad, though. They should probably stop making X-Men movies for a while now, or come up with a new spin.
Rewatch-Watch
I’ve finished re-watching Season 1 till 3 of The West Wing. The drawback with watching so many episodes in such a short time is that you start seeing the mannerisms and patterns, but on the other hand it’s easier to see character arcs develop. The West Wing is still awesome.
I’ve also started re-watching Code Geass, which is fun but not as mind-blowing as I remembered. Maybe because the protagonist is such a dick?
