Looking Back: At the Movies (2021)

Mini on Sofa: photo by Cliff Hutson

No so many: 

My cat and I watched 59 movies, via streaming and DVD, in 2021. This was far fewer than the year before. As a trained statistician, I know that one should not construe causation from correlation however I can not help but think that the wearing effect of the pandemic has an impact on the type of media I wish to consume. I seem to have switched from film, which requires some commitment and perhaps thought, to television. More about that at another post.

Movies Watched in 2021

1. Hell or High Water
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
3. Congo
4. The Maltese Falcon
5. Blood Diamond
6. Santa  Fe Trail (1940)
7. They Died With Their Boots On
8. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian 
9. Poseidon Rex
10. Custer of the West
11. Little Big Man
12. One Night in Miami
13. Tremors 
14. Croc
15. The Dinosaur Project
16. Barton Fink
17. King Kong (1976)
18. Groundhog Day
19. Relic
20. The Big Lebowski
21. No Country For Old Men 
22. A Serious Man
23. Indianan Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
24. The Milagro Beanfield War
25. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 
26. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
27. Double Indemnity (1944)
28. Sunset Boulevard 
29. The Apartment
30. Jaws
31. Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears
32. Ten Little Indians (1989)
33. Mad Max
34. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
35. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
36. Lake Placid: The Final Chapter
37. Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954)
38. 2001: A Space Odyssey 
39. Universe 
40. Ghostbusters (2016)
41. Joe Kidd
42. Ghostbusters (1984)
43. The Matrix
44. Frankenfish 
45. Sucker Punch (2011)
46. Dark Alibi
47. Alien
48. Arrival
49. The Legend of Zorro
50. Blade Runner 2049
51. Outlander
52. Painted Desert
53. The Fog
54. Deepstar Six
55. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
56. The Tomorrow War
57. The Marksman 
58. Finch
59. Runaway Train (1985)

The list runs heavily to Westerns, which may be my favorite genre, followed by film noir, and science fiction. 

The Good

There were more than a few good films this year. Among them are classics such as Double Indemnity (1944) and Sunset Boulevard, both noir, which I watched as part of a film group organized by the Skirball Cultural Center which focused on the films of Billy Wilder. The year's best Western was Hell or High Water. The film group also devoted time to science fiction. My favorite among those films was Blade Runner, which seriously borrows from film noir. I feel that I would be remiss if I did not mention the movie Finch. While it seems that many do not like it, I feel that it did what it was intended to do - (spoiler alert) make me cry. And, I enjoyed watching the "personal growth" of the robot, Jeff.

The Bad

Oddly enough, I find it somewhat difficult to pick one from this list that is just merely bad. But, I have to do so in order to keep with my trope. Therefore, I am going to nominate Croc.

The Ugly

The winner (?) in this category is clearly Lake Placid: The Final Chapter.  By the way, I enjoyed the first "Lake Placid" whose cast included the late, great Betty White.

That's a wrap movie wise for 2021. I wonder what the coming year holds for me. Will I see more or less? I have watched just one so far.