Welcome to the ELEVENTH Annual Skinny! (a tad late, I know)
Hello to all 3 of my readers!
It is time to take a look at 2021, henceforth known as “The Year That shall not be named: Part Two”!
The purpose of this blog is to review the films I see in the theater. I cover some TV stuff as well. I do this in list format. As is standard for this site, I give “Skinnys”, short blurbs, on each subject. If available, I will provide a link to my original review.
Before we get started, I have provided links to all 527 films I have seen in theaters up to this point. I will repeat; these links are the list of EVERY MOVIE I have seen in a theater. As a film lover, that means a lot to me. The act of sitting in a darkened theater is almost religious. It is a sacred space where artists transport us to different worlds, hopefully free of distraction. It took quite a while to compile this list. It represents 33 years of film-going, and I am honored to share it with you.
- Part 1 (1987-1997)
- Part 2 (1998-1999)
- Part 3 (2000-2004)
- Part 4 (2005-2009)
- Part 5 (2010-2014)
- Part 6 (2015-2019)
- Part 7 (2020-2024)
Disclaimer: This is the place where I mention that I have not seen everything. I am not a professional reviewer and am only able to see a very small fraction of the major releases, never mind every indie movie that is the darling of film festivals, when those still existed. This is also not a list of the BEST films of the year. This is a subjective list of my personal favorites. My biases will influence my choices. Judge me accordingly.
2021 was another asshole of a year. The bad juju of 2020 carried over the new year for 12 more months of bullshit. The good news is that I got to see a few more movies than the two of 2020.
I’m honestly not watching that many tv shows anymore. What little I do watch is overwhelmingly from Disney +.
MCU -Marvel gave us 5 TV shows in 2021 and I enjoyed them all. Wandavision was a hell of a risk, especially that first episode, but it paid off. Falcon & Winter Soldier gave us the new Captain America. Loki gave us the Multiverse. What If? expanded it. Hawkeye was my favorite of the bunch, great performances. Marvel continues to prove that they are the biggest pop culture monster out there.
Star Wars – Lucasfilm gave us Bad Batch, the continuation of Clone Wars, and The Book of Boba Fett. Both were good, and I enjoyed Boba despite some criticisms of the pacing. This show was obviously not intended to be its own series. It was Mandalorian Season 3, but rebranded at a later date. I maintain that Mando S1&2 were “Book One”. This was to be its own “book” as well.
Cobra Kai Seasons 3 & 4 – Hands down my favorite TV of 2021. On New Year’s Day I watched all of Season 3. On New Year’s Eve they gave us season 4. Perfect bookends. Bring on season V!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, As in 2020, I will be including new 2021 streaming films in the list. Let’s break down what I saw.
I was questioning whether this was a “film” or a mini-series. In the end, I decided to give it an honorable mention. That said, this was easily the better of the 2 versions. This is what we should have gotten in 2017.
These weren’t bad, but weren’t my favorites. They were OK.
- F9 (review)
- Black Widow (review)
- Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (review)
- Venom 2: Let there be Carnage (review)
- Mortal Kombat
- Stowaway
- The Water Man
- Bingo Hell
- Black as Night
- Shadow in the Cloud
- Coming 2 America
5: Willy’s Wonderland -Legit one of Nicolas Cage’s best films. Lots of fun.
4: Godzilla versus Kong – Fantastic. My first post-Covid film. It gave me everything I wanted from such a film, and then it threw in Mechagodzilla. (review)
3: No Time to Die – The final outing for Daniel Craig and a step up from Spectre. It took some balls to kill off Bond, but they did it well. (review)
2: Spider-Man: No Way Home – Sony’s answer to Endgame. This was a cinematic event that drew LOTS of people back to the cinema. A great film. (review)
NOTHING. For the first time in my history of blogging, there was NO worst film. Every I saw was pretty solid! That said, the worst movie I watched in 2021 was from 1989…
Things – I cannot overstate how bad this is. I watched it during Joe Bob Brigg’s Last Drive-In. They even awarded me a certificate for sitting through it!
1: Dune: Part One – 100% my favorite of 2021. The best SciFi director working today makes my favorite novel with a stellar cast. Easy top of 2021. (Review)
Well, that is all for this year. Let’s hope that 2022 goes a bit smoother! (note: I am writing this in late June 2022. Things are not going better. lol)
The Skinny from the Fatty 