24. The Witches
22. Love Sarah
21. Emma
20. Yakari
19. The Midnight Sky
The third time's the charm for George Clooney. After two misfires, Solaris and Tomorrowland, the actor/director has finally given us a decent sci-fi movie. Though there are shades of each of those crap-fests (the hallucinations, flashbacks of a past love affair and impending doom for people aboard a spacecraft of Solaris and the genius father-figure/young girl relationship in Tomorrowland) in The Midnight Sky, the Oscar-winner seems to have learned from the mistakes of those films' directors (Steven Soderbergh and Brad Bird, respectively) and cranked the speed up just enough to entertain without going campy during his tenure in the big chair. Did Clooney pick this up from his involvement with Gravity? Did he know that this father/daughter story would probably work because of its similarities to Interstellar? Who knows?
18. Totally Under Control
17. Let Him Go
Named after the dubious claim that Donald Trump used to describe his administration's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Totally Under Control explores the 45th U.S. president's unnecessary ball-fumbling and the hundreds of thousands of American deaths that followed.
17. Let Him Go
After Margaret Blackledge manipulates her husband, George, into accompanying her on a dummy mission to retrieve their only grandson from his mother and her abusive new other half, the couple finds themselves in the crosshairs of the dangerous Weboy family. Weboy matriarch, Blanche, who owns the law in their 1963 Montana town, has no intention of giving the Blackledges the family reunion that they're hoping for.
16. Two Distant Strangers
15. The Stand: How One Gesture Shook the World
14. One Night in Miami
Writer Kemp Powers' 2013 play "One Night in Miami" comes to the screen in spectacular fashion in this new award-bait film adaptation. While Powers made his movie directorial debut in Soul, he settles for screenwriter here while Regina King sat in the big chair on this project. The story, a fictional meeting between Malcolm X, Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali and Sam Cooke at a pivotal time for all four, is a simple one but involves very complex ideas: namely, Black liberation and Black power.
During the unofficial summit, following Cassius Clay's (Ali hadn't yet renounced his slave name) victory over Sonny Liston for the heavyweight boxing title, the various members of the group push one another to further tap into his considerable potential to lead. And it's not all pretty. Low-blows are thrown and egos are checked. But the movie isn't concerned with sanitizing anything. One Night begins with Brown being casually referred to as a "nigger" by a white man who also claims to be a fan and supporter. This slap in the face is soon followed by Cooke being discriminated against by white audience members at a performance. And Malcolm X's impending split with the Nation of Islam and stalking by the FBI are omnipresent specters.
Set in February 25, 1964, the quartet of influential Black voices are called together by the powerful Nation of Islam firebrand at a time when each man is on the verge of cementing his legacy: Cooke's seminal civil rights anthem "A Change Is Gonna Come" would debut soon; Brown would lead his team to an NFL championship 10 months later and retire from the league to focus on acting and activism in two years; Clay would change his name the following month and refuse to be drafted for the Vietnam War two years later; Malcolm X would announce his split from the Nation of Islam the following month and begin his life-changing pilgrimage to Mecca the month after that. The legendary singer would be shot to death within 10 months; the minister in just under a year. Jim Brown is the only surviving subject of the film.
13. Run
Released on November 20, ‘Run’ is now the most-watched original film ever during its opening weekend for Hulu. The movie is writer/director Aneesh Chaganty’s second film following his 2018 breakout, ‘Searching.’
First of all, if you haven't seen the film 'Searching’, definitely put that one on your must-see list. It's original and suspenseful and an exciting film. I'm glad to say that the director has done it again with ‘Run.’ This is the story of what appears to be a fun, loving relationship between and mother and her wheelchair bound daughter. All appears well until clues start coming in that make the daughter question a few things. That's all I can say without giving anything way.
The supporting characters in the film do a good job but it's the chemistry between leads Sarah Paulson and Kiera Allen that really keeps this film and the suspense going.
It's a definitely a nail-biter for sure so if you're looking for something to keep you on the edge of your seat, this is the film for you.
11. The Lovebirds
After the flame dims, a couple decides to end the relationship -- right before being witnessing a homicide and getting caught up in a murder mystery. Suddenly, old arguments seem trivial as Jibran and Leilani realize that they have to put their differences aside and work together in order to survive -- in the most hilarious way possible.
Who says you can't go home again? You probably shouldn't but detectives Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett made it work. Released 22 years after its predecessor, the third Bad Boys movie has become the first box office smash of the decade. Nearly the entire gang is back too: Theresa, Megan, Captain Howard and even Reggie all return.
Following the birth of his first grandchild, Marcus breaks up his long-running and headline-making partnership with Mike by deciding to retire. However, when Lowery is shot right before his eyes Burnett is eventually prompted to return to the streets of Miami with his former partner -- after a long recovery. But only to assist in gathering intel. His domestic bliss, however, is shattered when someone very close to them both is fatally shot by a drug cartel sniper. When the duo teams up with AMMO (Advanced Miami Metro Operations) -- a new unit comprised of younger cops (and led by Mike's old flame) -- Mike's forced to confront his immortality and Marcus is compelled to rescind his newfound commitment to nonviolence.
The bad boys' latest mission involves shootouts in downtown Miami (as usual) and even takes them south of the border to Mexico in order to take the fight to a cartel leader at home. And they both come face-to-face with the mistakes of Mike's past.
You can see some of the onscreen revelations coming from a mile away but they're not predictable in a bad way. It was probably inevitable that Mike, a die-hard ladies' man, would eventually find himself staring down the barrel of an accidental pregnancy. And it was just as likely that his shoot-first-ask-questions-later tendencies would get him shot sooner or later.
Although Martin Lawrence hasn't been onscreen in awhile (aside from a couple of random cameos), he hasn't lost a step and his comedic chemistry with co-star Will Smith is as potent as ever. It makes you wonder what might've been if we hadn't had to wait 22 years between sequels. Every great partnership has to end sometime but imagine if Shaq and Kobe had only played together three times.
Interestingly enough, director Michael Bay, who called the shots on the first two movies, makes an extended cameo but has passed the directing hat on to Belgian duo Adil & Bilall.
By the way, a Fast and the Furious-style mid-credits scene indicates that will definitely be a well-earned fourth installment in the series. Let's just hope that Bad Boys 4, 5, etc. get fast-tracked.
9. The Trial of the Chicago 7
7. Greyhound
Tom Hanks makes a return to WWII for the first time since Saving Private Ryan (in which he starred) and HBO's Band of Brothers (which he produced). This time he pulls double-duty as both writer and star. Greyhound details a US Navy commander's mission to protect merchant ship convoy HX-25 from German submarines during the Battle of the Atlantic in 1942.
Available to stream on Apple TV.
6. The Legend of Baron To'a
5. #Alive
A zombie apocalypse would naturally consist of hotspots throughout the globe. We've already gotten great movies about walking corpses (or in some cases, humans suffering from weaponized rabies) in locations as diverse as Manhattan (I Am Legend), Los Angeles (Quarantine), London, Manchester (28 Days Later), Philadelphia, Jerusalem and Wales (World War Z). Now we have an idea of what an undead outbreak would look like in South Korea.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, movie lovers have compared it to zombie apocalypse fiction, what with the global spread of a lethal virus and mass quarantining. Well, #Alive makes that argument better than any film that's come before. Many zombie films feature worldwide infections and some even focus on the isolation of the survivors but #Alive is the first to so acutely examine the struggles of protagonists voluntarily confined to their respective homes.
During a live stream, other players alert student and avid gamer Oh Joon-woo to troubling news reports of people behaving strangely in Seoul, South Korea. After hearing a commotion, he takes a look outside of his apartment window only to witness what initially appears to be rioting on the street down below. When Joon-woo notices a young girl savagely attack and subsequently eat her own mother, he locks his front door. However, a neighbor tricks him into taking a peek outside, at which time the stranger forces his way in and begs for sanctuary. Realizing that the guy's been bitten by one of the infected and informed of the danger this poses by news reports, Joon-woo wants him out immediately. But before he can carry out the eviction, he witnesses the stranger transform from a rational person to a mindless killing machine right before his eyes.
SPOILER ALERT
After forcing his former neighbor into the hallway, Joon-woo is faced with another challenge: worrying about his family, who'd all left for the day prior to the outbreak. Realizing that he has little-to-no cellphone reception, he inventories what little food is in the apartment (Joon-woo failed to heed his mother's advice to go grocery shopping earlier in the day) and resigns himself to life inside his bubble.
Eventually, and through much effort, Joon-woo learns that his family has been attacked -- and likely killed -- at his father's office. Out of food and mourning his family, a despondent Joon-woo attempts to hang himself. But with his head in the noose he learns that another neighbor has survived. Joon-woo and a young woman directly across from his building, Kim Yoo-bin, instantly bond and share resources. And while Kim calls Joon-woo an idiot for attempting suicide, she fails to disclose that she'd tried to hang herself as well, only surviving because the rope snapped.
Don't worry. It's not all sharing food and walkie-talkie conversations. The action kicks in before you know it when Kim is forced to abandon her apartment and Joon-woo has to charge into the middle of Zombievania in order to save her from certain death.
Though you might expect Joon-woo's considerable experience playing first-person-shooters to be adequate preparation for peeling actual caps when necessary, he balks, then outright refuses to squeeze the trigger when he gets his hands on a revolver. But he's highly resourceful, employing his drone as a delivery system and turning his cell into a radio.
As in most great zombie thrillers, the marauding "creatures", as they're called by Kim Yoo-bin, are never actually referred to as "zombies" during the movie. These particularly dangerous biters are capable of quick movement and also retain minimal rational thought, which allows them to accomplish impressive feats like turning door knobs.
Though 2020 has seen murder hornets, global unrest, the return of the bubonic plague and a viral pandemic, nothing resembling a zombie has been spotted -- yet. And it still may be a good idea to follow Joon-woo's lead: keep an eye on the news and stay home as much as possible.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, movie lovers have compared it to zombie apocalypse fiction, what with the global spread of a lethal virus and mass quarantining. Well, #Alive makes that argument better than any film that's come before. Many zombie films feature worldwide infections and some even focus on the isolation of the survivors but #Alive is the first to so acutely examine the struggles of protagonists voluntarily confined to their respective homes.
During a live stream, other players alert student and avid gamer Oh Joon-woo to troubling news reports of people behaving strangely in Seoul, South Korea. After hearing a commotion, he takes a look outside of his apartment window only to witness what initially appears to be rioting on the street down below. When Joon-woo notices a young girl savagely attack and subsequently eat her own mother, he locks his front door. However, a neighbor tricks him into taking a peek outside, at which time the stranger forces his way in and begs for sanctuary. Realizing that the guy's been bitten by one of the infected and informed of the danger this poses by news reports, Joon-woo wants him out immediately. But before he can carry out the eviction, he witnesses the stranger transform from a rational person to a mindless killing machine right before his eyes.
SPOILER ALERT
After forcing his former neighbor into the hallway, Joon-woo is faced with another challenge: worrying about his family, who'd all left for the day prior to the outbreak. Realizing that he has little-to-no cellphone reception, he inventories what little food is in the apartment (Joon-woo failed to heed his mother's advice to go grocery shopping earlier in the day) and resigns himself to life inside his bubble.
Eventually, and through much effort, Joon-woo learns that his family has been attacked -- and likely killed -- at his father's office. Out of food and mourning his family, a despondent Joon-woo attempts to hang himself. But with his head in the noose he learns that another neighbor has survived. Joon-woo and a young woman directly across from his building, Kim Yoo-bin, instantly bond and share resources. And while Kim calls Joon-woo an idiot for attempting suicide, she fails to disclose that she'd tried to hang herself as well, only surviving because the rope snapped.
Don't worry. It's not all sharing food and walkie-talkie conversations. The action kicks in before you know it when Kim is forced to abandon her apartment and Joon-woo has to charge into the middle of Zombievania in order to save her from certain death.
Though you might expect Joon-woo's considerable experience playing first-person-shooters to be adequate preparation for peeling actual caps when necessary, he balks, then outright refuses to squeeze the trigger when he gets his hands on a revolver. But he's highly resourceful, employing his drone as a delivery system and turning his cell into a radio.
As in most great zombie thrillers, the marauding "creatures", as they're called by Kim Yoo-bin, are never actually referred to as "zombies" during the movie. These particularly dangerous biters are capable of quick movement and also retain minimal rational thought, which allows them to accomplish impressive feats like turning door knobs.
Though 2020 has seen murder hornets, global unrest, the return of the bubonic plague and a viral pandemic, nothing resembling a zombie has been spotted -- yet. And it still may be a good idea to follow Joon-woo's lead: keep an eye on the news and stay home as much as possible.
If you wanna see a South Korean thriller that's even better than last year's Best Picture Oscar-winner Parasite then #Alive is for you. And no fan of zombie flicks should miss it.
Available to stream on Netflix.
4. The New Mutants
Like Deadpool before it, The New Mutants is a monumental improvement on the comic book series on which it's based. These spinoff movie about teen mutants even surpasses the vast majority of the films that feature their older counterparts. And fortunately, like Logan, which also features underaged X-gene holders, TNM mercifully allows the viewer to ignore most of the X-Men movies that preceded it.
But, ironically, The New Mutants brings the X-Men movie series to a close just as Roberta da Costa, Sam Guthrie, Dani Moonstar, Rasputin and Rahne Sinclair carve their own path.
While many debated the merits of Idris Elba taking over as James Bond, John David Washington and writer/director Christopher Nolan have possibly ended the argument by providing moviegoers with a Black intelligence agent capable of challenging 007's claim to the superspy throne. Funny enough, Washington's legendary father, Denzel, brought master assassin Robert McCall to the big screen in a burgeoning franchise that entirely overshadows the spy series (The Equalizer) on which it's based.
This time-bending spy thriller just may leave your brain shaken and stirred.
Chris Hemsworth reteams with the Russo brothers -- without the Endgame fat suit -- for a non-superpowered comic book movie about a merc-with-a-mission to rescue an Indian drug kingpin's son.
Hard-bitten Australian mercenary Tyler Rake runs point on a team hired to liberate an imprisoned Ovi Mahajan's son from goons employed by his equally powerful rival, Amir Asif. Eventually, Rake discovers that he's been double-crossed: Mahajan used him to set Ovi Jr. free and has sent his own ex-Indian Special Forces soldier, Saju Rav, to snatch Junior from his rescuers. After being betrayed again (by an old comrade) and realizing that he's met his match, the Aussie forms an alliance with Rav in order to complete the suicide mission and keep Asif's army of corrupt police officers from recapturing his charge.
Hard-bitten Australian mercenary Tyler Rake runs point on a team hired to liberate an imprisoned Ovi Mahajan's son from goons employed by his equally powerful rival, Amir Asif. Eventually, Rake discovers that he's been double-crossed: Mahajan used him to set Ovi Jr. free and has sent his own ex-Indian Special Forces soldier, Saju Rav, to snatch Junior from his rescuers. After being betrayed again (by an old comrade) and realizing that he's met his match, the Aussie forms an alliance with Rav in order to complete the suicide mission and keep Asif's army of corrupt police officers from recapturing his charge.
Extraction is better than the entire Thor trilogy and is available to stream on Netflix now.
1. Project Power
Because of the global movie theater shutdown spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, two MCU movies, a Spiderverse movie and the final X-Men film have all been postponed -- and only two remain on the release schedule for 2020. Well Project Power has filled the superpower movie void left by those release date shuffles in spectacular fashion.
PP is a neo-noir featuring a mysterious loner and a police officer independently investigating the destructive proliferation of a new street-drug in New Orleans. Instead of providing a momentary high, these $500-a-pop capsules imbue the consumer with a unique superpower -- but only for five minutes. Because the pills react differently based on users' genetics, one dose can be lethal. Some of the users who actually survive the ingestion use their newfound abilities for nefarious purposes and the dealers themselves attract the violence that comes with the sale of most hard drugs.
The story cleverly references real-life medical atrocities and conspiracies that I won't specify here because doing so would amount to giving spoilers. But the superpowers angle is enough to put pressure on some of your favorite comic book adaptations. There's even a teen sidekick named Robin and an appearance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who portrayed Robin to Christian Bale's Batman in The Dark Knight Rises.
Project Power is the first movie involving people with superpowers with a Black lead (Jamie Foxx's Art Reilly) since the phenomenally successful Black Panther. And though Panther has been assured a sequel, it's scheduled release date is two years away and more than two years have passed since the first film's debut. 2016's Suicide Squad has been given a quasi-sequel -- set to hit theaters next year -- but Will Smith's Deadshot won't be in it. Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson's Black Adam will debut at the end of 2021. And by the time the next Blade movie arrives, it will have been two decades since the Wesley Snipes-led Blade trilogy ended. So if a Project Power sequel is greenlit -- and PP is certainly good enough to warrant one -- it'll be a welcome and much-needed addition of color to the ever-growing field of superhero movie series.
Project Power is unquestionably the best movie of the summer and if it becomes an actual franchise, the MCU, the DCEU and the Spiderverse may have some competition on their hands.
Streaming on Netflix now.
Updated 12/25/20
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I have to catch up on many of these films but have to say ‘Bad Boys for Life’ was pretty good, as was ‘Greyhound’, but I have to say that my favorite so far - of those I have seen this year - is ‘#Alive.’ This is one of the best zombie films I have ever seen. The way it starts is excellent and it keeps the moment going the whole time. Great film!
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