1- UNTITLED PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON FILM: While this got good reviews, it was unfortunately titled Licorice Pizza, one of, if not the, worst titles in movie history. While I "get" why they called the movie that, it's just awful. And while this film did, in fact, come out in 2021, I haven't seen it yet.
2- UNTITLED SPIDER-MAN SEQUEL: I haven't seen this movie yet, either, even though it did come out in 2021 and is already the 6th highest grossing movie of all time. And since I'm harking about bad titles, what's the deal with the title of this movie being so fucking close to the last one? The last one was Spider-Man: Far From Home and this one is Spider-Man: No Way Home. I mean...this is the 8th Spider-Man movie in the last 20 years so creativity isn't exactly a part of this niche.
3- MONA LISA AND THE BLOOD MOON: This movie played at the Venice Film Festival in September and got great reviews but then disappeared completely. I wonder if the director ever started that all-female Cliffhanger re-boot we were promised as well.
4- THE SUICIDE SQUAD: Wow, the first film on this list that I actually saw. It probably helped that thanks to the pandemic and HBO starting their own streaming service to rival Netflix, this movie went straight to TV in August. While this film is entertaining, it's not as good as James Gunn's two Guardians of the Galaxy films. It's also inferior to the Peacemaker TV show that just came out on HBO Max that Gunn wrote and directed and which spins out of this film. The one huge problem I had with this film is some of the violent shooting sequences that are played for joy and entertainment and laughs. And people wonder where mass shootings come from. **1/2 (out of ****)
5- THE MATRIX 4: This also went straight to HBO Max. It's also terrible, an unwatchable, uncreative mess. I was never even a big fan of the original Matrix film, but that looks like The Wizard of Oz compared to this sad sack excuse of a film. 1/2*
6- NIGHTMARE ALLEY: This I didn't see, though I did watch the original which, shockingly, isn't a very good film. Usually when you remake a movie it's because the original was, like, actually good. Baffling, really. I suppose it's not a surprise then that this was one of the year's biggest box office duds.
7- THE NORTHMAN: I just watched the trailer for this and it looks amazing. Unfortunately it's not coming out until March 2022.
8- DECISION TO LEAVE: This never came out. It was made but the release date is up in the air.
9- THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH: This came out on Apple+ a few weeks after being released in theaters. It's a total bore. It probably doesn't help that it's in black and white with spare sets and mostly green screen backdrops. Kenneth Branagh knew that Shakespeare on film needed lavish sets and colorful costumes and huge backdrops. Frances McDormand is good in this but Denzel Washington is not. I suppose Ethan Coen was the genius of the two. *
10- MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7: This never came out, which is kind of shocking considering they were filming this in the summer of 2020.
.jpg)
.jpg){kind=link}