100 Movies...

What a milestone. 100 movies watched and reviewed... in 16 months. and 63 of those movies were watched over a span of 2 months. Look, I never claimed to be efficient, or the best at managing my own time, or the best at... anything, really. Nevertheless, thank you for reading my reviews. It means a lot to me that I've been able to do this since having this bats*** crazy idea to watch 31 movies in 31 days and it's just continued to this point.

And to celebrate, I wanted to do something special. I will be giving you my Top 10 and Bottom 10 movies that I've reviewed.

For clarifications sake, these aren't the movies that I rated the highest and lowest overall. There may have been a movie that, objectively, wasn't a perfect 10, but just spoke to me on a personal level. I've had my chance to be objective. Now it's time to be subjective.

Also, I'll be invoking a franchise rule where I can, meaning that no list can have more than one movie from the same series. I'll be making allowances wherever I deem necessary, but for the most part, I'll be adhering to that rule for the sake of variety. Formalities out of the way, here we go.

Top 10

I'm not going to lie, picking these 10 was hard. I had to pick between roughly 15 excellent movies that all deserved to make this list, and then rank the remaining 10 after that? I feel like I've betrayed some of those movies that I genuinely adore. In any case, I've made my decisions. These are my 10 favourite movies I've ever reviewed.

#10- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

This one showed up late in my schedule, and I always knew I'd like it, but I didn't know how much. A great premise, great acting, and excellent cinematography. Something I didn't touch on in my review was how, with a few tweaks, this would make an excellent pure sci-fi film. I'm almost surprised they haven't done that yet. If they have, do let me know. If they haven't, let me know that as well, as I have an idea for a screenplay. But, yeah. Eternal Sunshine. It's pretty great.

#9- Logan (2017)

I'm not sure if this is here purely because it was such a big change of pace at the end of Super-Cember, but I'd like to think I'm not that fickle. Logan was such a unique superhero movie, and movie in general, really, that it would be a shame not to include it. A love letter to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine that really did the character justice after 9 movies to get to know him, Logan is gritty, intense and just badass, much like the character himself.

#8- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

I know some people are going to be upset that a Lord of the Rings movie isn't higher up this list, and others will be annoyed that it's not a different Lord of the Rings film, but I'm a sucker for an ending that pays off after hours upon hours of build-up, and this was just that. Throw in some exciting battles, a true struggle for Frodo and the G.O.A.T. Samwise, and some of the greatest visuals and score you'll find in a movie ever? Yeah, yeah, I like this movie.

#7- Groundhog Day (1993)

A movie that feels like it was written specifically to satisfy my needs and desires, Groundhog Day was a treat to watch. Bill Murray absolutely crushes it in this role, and the balance of comedy to heart has really never been stronger. This movie almost single-handedly inspired an entire genre of other films to come after it. That's a legacy right there.

#6- Sing Street (2016)

This is the one that surprised me more than probably any other movie I've done. As someone who is really only mildly interested in music at best, the fact that this story gripped me as hard as it did is astounding enough, but the music itself is really catchy and memorable, the characters are relatable, the story will speak to basically anyone, and it's funny to boot? Sing Street... what a great movie.

#5- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Guys... I can't help it. I'm a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I think I've made that clear by now, and the fact that a movie as ambitious as this actually worked and was satisfying as hell? I can't not love it. Thanos is one of the best movie villains of our time and will go down in history with the greats like Darth Vader and Voldemort. Not to mention the ending and how it successfully pulled the rug out from over $2 billion of paying viewers. And I was alive to see it happen in 2018. It's gotta make the list.

#4- The Lego Movie (2014)

This is another one that really spoke to me when I first saw it. As someone with little to no nostalgia for Lego, the fact that this movie hit me as hard as it did has to mean something. The visuals are unique, the comedy is unique, the storytelling is unique, it's just such a unique movie, and for one that everyone went into expecting it to be a 2 hour commercial is especially well done. Suffice it to say, I can't wait for the sequel. It has a huge bar to pass.

#3- How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)

I cannot stress enough how much I loved this movie. The How to Train Your Dragon series is one of the best cinematic trilogies of all time and no one will ever be able to change my mind on that. And the fact that this final chapter managed to function well enough as an individual story but also as a satisfying ending? This movie made me cry in the cinema. Like a little baby. I can't emphasise enough how good this movie is. I'm even tearing up just thinking about it right now. Not even joking.

#2- Aliens (1986)

I tend to measure a movie's success by how much I'm thinking about it when I'm not watching it. In the case of Aliens, not only could I not stop thinking about it for about an hour after it finished, but I was repeating to myself over and over again something to the effect of 'That was so good, holy s***, that was such a great movie'. Talk about raising the stakes from the original. This was a personal story for Ripley who remains one of the greatest protagonists in cinema history, and the Xenomorphs are at their most terrifying. It was so good. Holy s***, it was such a great movie.

#1- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

It may not have made me cry, but of all the movies on this list, I think this one is possibly the most movie. It's got heart-pumping action, superb comedy, relatable characters, a gorgeous and unique visual style that's great to watch, and it has so much heart. This is a labour of love to not just Spider-Man fans, but movie fans in general. It knew exactly what it wanted to do and it, just, it just did it. If ever a movie ticked literally every single one of my boxes, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was that movie.


Okay, so there's my Top 10 movies I've reviewed so far. Now, it's time for the fun list.


Bottom 10

This one wasn't nearly as hard to decide. I've reviewed far more perfect movies than I have atrocious ones. And here they are:

#10- Batman & Robin (1997)

Everybody knows how much of a joke this movie has become. You can't establish a gritty, dark, somewhat grounded world like the one in Tim Burton's Batman, then have this movie take place in the same canon. George Clooney tries his best, but it's just not enough. The only thing that saves this movie is how funny it accidentally is at times. I would watch this movie again if I was with a bunch of friends and we wanted to put something on to laugh at and make fun of. Under no other circumstances, though.

#9- Hulk (2003)

I would consider this to be the worst properly bad movie I reviewed. One cool action scene at the end of the second act is just not enough to save you, I'm afraid. A movie that can't even keep it's third act twist a secret beyond the opening montage is just not a well-structured movie. And, boy, is it painful. In that it actually physically hurt my eyes at times. The editing tried to be a send up to the comics, but just ended up being distracting and, again, literally painful. Yeah, this... this sucks.

#8- Jurassic Park III (2001)

As a huge fan of dinosaurs and prehistory in general, this one just upset me. How boring does a movie have to be when a 90 minute movie feels like more of a slog to get through than an almost 3-hour one? Annoying characters, inconsistent physics and rushed character arcs is one thing, but when you actively work against the stories you've set up in your past movies? Oh, boy. This was one of the only movies that my stupid, stupid, child self walked out of halfway through and never touched again. And he was right to do so.

#7- Suicide Squad (2016)

Oh, DCEU, you steaming pile of garbage. Your first true ensemble movie, and it featured characters we didn't have time to get to know, and were just bad characters in general. Will Smith and Margot Robbie are trying their best, but it's just not enough. Jared Leto is pure, unadulterated scum, and no one will be able to change my mind on that. At least Marvel waited 10 films to do their 'ragtag bunch of misfits that no one's heard of coming together' movie. This was their 3rd. Except people actually did know these characters, and they got them all wrong. Terrible movie.

#6- Terminator: Salvation (2009)

The only movie I've ever reviewed that I had to pause, refresh myself and come back to half an hour later. Talk about boring, this was a trial to get through. This movie completely ignores what made the Terminator films unique, turning into a generic action movie with people fighting robots. Incompetent ones. When I say 'incompetent', am I referring to the humans or the robots? Trick question. It's actually both. This film turns Skynet, the computer program that nuked the planet, into a f***ing moron. How bad do you have to be?

#5- Green Lantern (2012)

Oh, my God, Green Lantern. This is the cliched abomination that arthouse movie-goers assume all superhero movies are like. I don't use the term 'cliched' likely, since generally speaking, I like the cliches. But only when they're done right. Unlike in Green Lantern. And this is supposed to be 2012. Computer generated graphics shouldn't be this bad in 2012. I can honestly say that some PlayStation 1 games had better graphics than this movie. That's just sad. And so is this movie.

#4- Alien: Resurrection (1997)

Good God, every time I think about this movie, I wince a little. Talk about your unnecessary sequels. Alien: Resurrection brings back Ripley for her to be absolutely nothing like Ripley, and almost ruin her entire character. The Xenomorphs aren't scary whatsoever. The movie's own internal logic goes against not only what these movies have established is possible, but also physics in general. And I'm not a scientist by any means, but I know enough to know that this movie is f***ing stupid and illogical on almost every level. What the hell happened to this franchise?

#3- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

The first movie I ever gave a hot 0 to, BvS actually made me mad. It shouldn't have been this hard to put Batman and Superman in the same movie. What this movie decides to do is play catchup with the MCU in, effectively, the one movie. The problem is, while the MCU took its time to establish itself and its characters before jumping into the really serious stuff, this film... doesn't. The worst Lex Luthor, an overrated Batman as far as I'm concerned, hypocritical heroes and a titular fight that does not feel justified or satisfied on any level... yeah, I really f***ing hated this piece of s***.

#2- Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

Come on. You all knew this was going to be here. Unlike BvS, nothing here made me that angry, but it came bloody close. Our leads have absolutely no chemistry with each other, the romance is as manufactured as it gets, and the story is... non-existent. The story is the romance. Nothing else happens in this entire movie. Even the S&M stuff isn't interesting, since the movie desperately wants that theatrical release and has to keep it tame. You just have to ask yourself why this movie even exists in the first place. The fact that I actively chose to watch this means that I hate myself more than any masochistic love interest ever could.

#1- The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (2011)

And here we are. The worst movie I've ever reviewed seen in my life. A movie that really didn't need to exist. When your story can be told within half an hour but decides to drag itself out to 2 hours, that's one thing, but to completely butcher an interesting premise on boring characters, phoned-in acting and an untalented writer is another thing. It's completely apparent that the only reason this movie exists is to make money. And it worked. As someone who writes stories and creates worlds and brings characters to life hopefully for a living one day, this movie was a slap in the face with $700 million that I'll never see in my lifetime, and it was one of the biggest insults I've ever been subjected to. And people who defend this movie are not only defending lazy, soulless cash-grabs, but also justifying a movie in which a grown man wants to f*** a baby. I really can't stress this enough. This movie is just abhorrent.


And there it is. Maybe in another 100 movies time, I may revisit this list and update it for the new movies I'll have seen since then. I very much doubt these lists will remain constant in my entire critical career, so we'll see. For now, thanks for tuning in, and here's to many more to come.