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2021 TOP 50
01. ZACK SNYDER'S JUSTICE LEAGUE
score - 75
I thought the theatrical cut was ok, but this smashes it. Yes, runtime is long, but it's pretty well-paced considering that. One of the stronger superhero movies. S: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot D: Zack Snyder
02. WRATH OF MAN
score - 73
More Antoine Fuqua than Guy Ritchie, but still high quality. Classy and stylish for an action movie, with only the last 5 mins being a slight letdown.
S: Jason Statham, Holt McCallany D: Guy Ritchie
03. NOBODY
score - 72
Fun action film. Sets up potential wider universe that could be explored. But it's too brief. Would benefit from a longer runtime and more story.
S: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen D: Ilya Naishuller
04. THE SUICIDE SQUAD
score - 72
Improvement on the slightly underrated 2016 version. An R rating helps a movie like this relying on comic violence and edgy dialogue. Good. A bit overrated. S: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba D: James Gunn
05. BOSS LEVEL
score - 71
Really fun movie. Good cast, FX, pacing. The time loop idea is not that original anymore, making the right tone important, unless you have something special. S: Frank Grillo, Naomi Watts D: Joe Carnahan
06. THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK
score - 70
Entertaining, with enough direct links to the TV series; but not sure it hits the goal of showing what turned a relatively sensible kid, into a mob boss.
S: Alessandro Nivola, Leslie Odum Jr D: Alan Taylor
07. ARMY OF THE DEAD
score - 69
A lot of fun. Heist, action, zombies all in one. I'd probably like a little more zombie-horror in it ideally, but outside of that, it's great. Not sure why all the hate. S: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell D: Zack Snyder
08. MALIGNANT
score - 69
Crazy story, poor dialogue, hammy acting...and deliberate. No spoof, but a self-aware b-grade homage from the modern horror king. Has holes, but works. S: Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson D: James Wan
09. A QUIET PLACE II
score - 69
Not as much clever survival planning here. But the main issue is the story doesn't progress much. Feels like a strong episode of a TV series, not a movie. S: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy D: John Krasinski
10. CHERRY
score - 68
There's a lot going on here. Maybe too much. Crime, romance, war, PTSD, drug movie all in one. A bit too long. More edits would help. But good overall.
S: Tom Holland, Ciara Bravo D: Anthony & Joe Russo
11. RAGING FIRE
score - 68
​​​A lot of story here. May work better as a TV series, as some parts feel rushed. Climax is a blatant 'Heat' rip-off. Still one of the best pure action movies of the year. S: Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse D: Benny Chan
12. GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE
score - 68
The 'elite female assassin making a fool of her male peers' plot has become tired. So a movie needs more than that. Luckily this has more to it. OTT fun.
S: Karen Gillan, Lena Headey D: Navot Papushado
13. LAST NIGHT IN SOHO
score - 68
Clever ideas, shots, and a good story that effectively shifts in tone. But ultimately just an ok ghost movie, with a better journey than destination.
S: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy D: Edgar Wright
14. THE GUILTY
score - 68
Faithful remake of the 2018 film. The changes work, including the acting, until some of the most Hollywood-changes you can imagine to close it out.
S: Jake Gyllenhaal, Riley Keough D: Antoine Fuqua
15. THE LITTLE THINGS
score - 67
Hasn't been a good thriller in a while. So the timing worked. A good opening and strong acting make you buy in. Good quality, not exceptional.
S: Denzel Washington, Rami Malek D: John Lee Hancock
16. THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS
score - 67
Better than reviews imply. Like the meta/self-aware plot, but fight choreograhy below other 'Matrix's. Lots of "force pushing" replacing "kung fu". S: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss D: Lana Wachowski
17. SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME
score - 67
First hour the best Marvel stuff since 'Endgame', tying in old SM characters to the MCU. The second half uses the same characters poorly, other than Garfield's Spidey. S: Tom Holland, Zendaya D: Jon Watts
18. THE MAURITANIAN
score - 67
Had no expectations, and no real drive to see it. But I thought it was pretty entertaining. Certain parts of his torture seemed ok, but overall, pretty rough. S: Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim D: Kevin Macdonald
19. SMALL ENGINE REPAIR
score - 67
A play translates well to a movie here. Gripping viewing mostly. The issue is the ending is a bit simple. In general I expect a bit more from the film medium. S: Jon Bernthal, John Pollono D: John Pollono
20. SYNCHRONIC
score - 67
2 movies in 1. A gritty drug movie morphs into a time-travel rescue flick. Both aspects have issues, but more positives than negatives.
S: Anthony Mackie, Jamie Dornan D: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead
21. THE SADNESS
score - 67
Zombie outbreak movie meets 'The Signal' (2007) or 'Cell' (2016); but 10 times more brutal. Has flaws, but more good than bad. Worth your time, if this is your thing. S: Berant Zhu, Regina Lei D: Rob Jabbaz
22. HALLOWEEN KILLS
score - 67
Interesting sequel. Good links to previous movies in the series. Good use of historic timeline. But flawed as a bridge in a trilogy, cast, and acting.
S: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer D: David Gordon Green​
23. THE HARDER THEY FALL
score - 67
Enjoyable. The fuse of black funk and a western worked better than I thought it would. It's silly, and definitely too long. But good action and well shot.
S: Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz D: Jeymes Samuel
24. COPSHOP
score - 67
Fun, clever, but ultimately forgettable actioner. Had a few different story threads that weren't fully fleshed out; that may have improved the final product. S: Gerard Butler, Frank Grillo D: Joe Carnahan
25. NIGHT IN PARADISE
score - 67
There's barely been a movie that needed more aggressive editing. Not too long, boring, or bad. But could really be something with 20 mins more cut.
S: Tae-Goo Eom, Jeon Yeo-Bin D: Park Hoon-Jung
26. THE TRIP
score - 67
Black comedy like 'Very Bad Things'. Plot seems predictable, but has enough twists so it's not. Non-linear structure also helps the impact of reveals.
S: Noomi Rapace, Aksel Hennie D: Tommy Wirkola
27. SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS
score - 67
Fun and entertaining. Suffers from early scenes being the best, and not matching that later. Didn't add much to the overall MCU, but doesn't need to yet. S: Simu Liu, Awkwafina D: Destin Daniel Cretton
28. BAD TRIP
score - 67
Could've been a real bust. But the comic talent of the 3 leads make it work. Nothing amazing, but the best movie of it's kind outside of the original Borat. S: Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery D: Kitao Sakurai
29. VAL
score - 67
His audition tapes for 'Goodfellas' and 'Full Metal Jacket', and his personal footage from the 'Dr Moreau' set is great. Sad stuff for Val overall.
S: Val Kilmer, Jack Kilmer D: Ting Poo, Leo Scott
30. KATE
score - 66
Here we go again. Another female assassin film. Starts out as one of the best ones. Runs out of steam with predictability and cliché.
S: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Woody Harrelson D: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan​​
31. ETERNALS
score - 66
Marvel's ultra-woke 'Justice League/Watchmen' mix, but not as cool as those 2. Better than I expected, but Marvel's tone works better with 'The Avengers'. S: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden D: Chloe Zhao
32. RIDERS OF JUSTICE
score - 66
Set up to deliver something special, then doesn't. Great blend of action and humour early, with a twist up it's sleeve. But it just fizzes out a bit.
S: Mads Mikklesen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas D: Anders Thomas Jensen
33. DUNE
score - 66
A lot going on here. Too much for one movie, even one this long. So it's split. With that, no satisfying conclusion and still not tight enough.
S: Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson D: Denis Villeneuve
34. DON'T BREATHE 2
score - 66
Couldn't get into it. Tries to make you sympathetic at various times to all characters (like the first), but you just end up getting annoyed with all of them. S: Stephen Lang, Madelyn Grace D: Rodo Sayagues
35. HITMAN'S WIFE'S BODyGUARD
score - 66
Canned due to most people's sequel bias. But in reality, no worse than the first. Ok action, ok laughs, but a bit long. Salma Hayek still looks amazing.
S: Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L Jackson D: Patrick Hughes
36. MORTAL KOMBAT
score - 65
It's not taking itself seriously, so neither should you. Stupid fun, with good action. The climax doesn't match some earlier scenes, which is a letdown.
S: Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee D: Simon McQuoid
37. BLACK WIDOW
score - 65
Above-average entry into the MCU. Was going ok until an over-the-top and silly finale. Small MCU movies don't need to try to match the big ones.
S: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh D: Cate Shortland
38. ARMY OF THIEVES
score - 65
More a shared universe movie than prequel to 'Army Of The Dead', with genre and tone so different. Fun, but needs more edits.
S: Matthias Schweighofer, Nathalie Emmanuel D: Matthias Schweighofer
39. WITHOUT REMORSE
score - 65
Haven't read the book, watched no trailers, but read harsh reviews. This helped. Expected the worse, but was surprised. Good action and pacing.
S: Michael B Jordan, Jodie Turner-Smith D: Stefano Sollima
40. THE PROTEGE
score - 65
Good entry in the female killer genre, but will get lost amongst the others. Solid action. Step up from 'Ava'/'Jolt'. Step down from 'Atomic Blonde'/'Anna'. S: Maggie Q, Samuel L Jackson D: Martin Campbell
41. QUEENPINS
score - 65
Better than expected. Has the crime and comedy balance right. There's not enough to be elite in either, but this balance works.
S: Kristen Bell, Kirby Howell-Baptiste D: Aron Gaudet, Gita Pullapilly
42. SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW
score - 65
Expectations low, so happy it was decent. Still, there's nothing impactful enough to warrant rebooting a tired series. But, I'd probably watch another!
S: Chris Rock, Max Minghella D: Darren Lynn Bousman
43. JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
score - 65
Some great scenes of tension and drama, but contained in an overall piece that is awkwardly paced. Rushed at times and slow at others. A bit overrated. S: Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield D: Shaka King
44. RUN
score - 65
Looked like it was going to be a B-grade 'Misery', and in a lot of ways, it is. But it works, even though you pretty much know what's coming at every turn.
S: Sarah Paulson, Kiera Allen D: Aneesh Chaganty
45. TILL DEATH
score - 64
Surprisingly decent, low-budget thriller. Largely revolves around a novelty idea, but they make it work for the whole movie, rather than just a scene. So that's a win. S: Megan Fox, Eoin Macken D: SK Dale
46. VACATION FRIENDS
score - 64
Probably one of the least original movies you are likely to see this year, but a really easy watch. Well paced, funny enough, and watchable characters. Not bad. S: Lil Rel Howery, John Cena D: Clay Tarver​​
47. OLD
score - 64
​​Interesting plot. Good attempt to cover the many plotholes, though leaps of faith are still needed. Peaks in the middle, with the ending a fizzer.
S: Gael Garcia Bernal, Vicky Krieps D: M Night Shyamalan
48. RED NOTICE
score - 64
It's alright. For a PG movie the story, action, jokes are ok. It looks good, and passes the time. Not overly excited for a re-watch or sequel.
S: Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds D: Rawsom Marshall Thurber
49. THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT
score - 64
After a ripper opening, this falls back to 'Conjuring spin-off' levels, rather than the standard of the first 2 movies. Good, but nothing fresh here.
S: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga D: Michael Chaves
50. THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD
score - 64
Some clever cat-and-mouse scenes, surrounded by mediocre stuff. Surprisingly entertaining. But I'd rather just watch a whole movie about the villains S: Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult D: Taylor Sheridan
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