My Worst Movies from 2019
No top ten this week. I don’t go out of my way to watch bad movies. I’d rather avoid them. But, sometimes, they find me. Other times (like with J.J. Abrams‘s The Force Awakens) I fear the worst but hope for the best. So this is just six movies that I stumbled upon from 2019. What makes them among my worst? There are obvious symptoms: poor plotting, terrible story, one-dimensional characters, etc. But there’s also another symptom – a symptom I experience: feeling physically ill. Some might consider that an exaggeration. It’s not. When I sit down to watch a movie or television show, I come into it totally open.…
Respecting Property
Two of my favourite recent movies placed in long-running franchises are Logan (2017) and Joker (2019). Logan tells the story of an older Wolverine, now struggling with health, and trying to take care of Professor Xavier, who’s suffering from dementia. Joker is a possible origin story for arguably the most recognisable comic-book villain there is. Both stories sit in well-defined, well-populated franchises. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine has appeared in six X-Men movies, cameoed in one other, and appeared in three Wolverine-only movies. Although X-Men has been (softly) rebooted, the universe largely remains the same: same characters (just with younger actors), same feel, and the same type of adventures. Writer/director James Mangold…