‘Phil’s Quick Capsule Review’ (a nod to legendary comedian Bill Hicks who coined the phrase when he reviewed ‘Piece Of Shit’ movie Basic Instinct)… where a perfect 10 is rarer than a rain free British summer!
Written by Phil Hobden – UK based podcaster, writer and former filmmaker. Part of the All Things Film network…
On this episode of the podcast we talk about the upcoming movies for 2020 in our, urm, 2020 Movie Preview! Month by month we look at the big releases then pick our Top 3 films we can’t wait for across the next 12 months. Warning: This podcast contains Top Gun!
Hosted by Award winning filmmaker Ross Boyask and blogger/writer/failed former filmmaker Phil Hobden.
Discussed: Top Gun: Maverick, No Time To Die, Wonder Woman 1984, 1917, Bad Boys For Life, Gretel and Hansel, The Rhythm Section, Bad Boys For Life, Like a Boss, Birds of Prey: The Emancipation of Harley Quinn, Dolittle, Sonic the Hedgehog, Fantasy Island, Brahms: The Boy II, The Call of the Wild, Emma, The Invisible Man, Pixar’s Onward, The Way Back, Bloodshot, The Informer, My Spy, A Quiet Place: Part II, Mulan, The New Mutants, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, No Time To Die, The Secret Garden, Trolls World Tour, Black Widow, Legally Blonde 3, The Organ Donor, Scoob!, Fast & Furious 9, Artemis Fowl, Wonder Woman 1984, Candyman, King of Staten Island, Pixar’s Soul, Top Gun: Maverick, In the Heights, Free Guy, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, The Purge 5, Tenet, Jungle Cruise, Bill & Ted Face the Music, Escape Room 2, Morbius, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, The King’s Man, Monster Hunter, Venom 2, Death on the Nile, Halloween Kills, Snake Eyes, The Eternals, Godzilla vs. Kong, Coming 2 America, Dune, News of the World, The Irishman, The Tomorrow War, Tom and Jerry, Stone Cold, Ip Man 4, Under Siege, The Gentleman
For more on Ross Boyask search @RossBoyask on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Also check out @EvoFilmsUK online.
For more on Phil Hobden check out www.philhobden.co.uk , Twitter (@PhilQuickReview) and Instagram (RossAndPhilTalkMovies
Phil’s Quick look at what’s wetting his whistle for the upcoming year in films…
2019 was a good year all in all, with many smaller movies standing out from the crowded franchised blockbuster arena. That said Marvel killed it again and Star Wars Skywalker saga drew to a close. So here’s the films I’m most looking forward to in 2020. And a few that I’d be happy to miss.
The Must See’s
Most Excited: Top Gun: Maverick The sequel to my second favourite film of all time, with a launch trailer that stuck the landing and an epic cast… okay so it will probably suck but I could not BE any more excited.
2.1917 Following up the dire Spectre with a big budget World War 1 film, Mendes looks to be striking gold on a film that’s already getting Oscar buzz. And teh single take idea really intrigues me.
3.Wonder Woman 1984 With Marvel having a quieter year it’s down to DC to deliver the goods this year and Wonder Woman 1984 may well be the film to do just that. The best thing in all the DC movies to date and with a well regarded film already under her belt, Wonder Woman returns to battle new bad guys. This time without Zack Snider’s influence.
4. The Many Saints of Newark The Sopranos is my favourite TV show of all time. This feature length look at a young Tony Soprano (played by Gandolfini’s own son) could go either way. But, much like Top Gun, nostalgia runs high here.
5. No Time To Die A risky choice for sure but No Time To Die promises lots. A great director, Craig reinvigorated (well that’s what he says) and a different story featuring a retired Bond dragged back into action. Every other Craig film has been good so the odds are in it’s favour.
Bubbling Under: Tenet (Nolan is back, always worth a watch ), Bill & Ted Face The Music (Excellent! ), A Quiet Place 2 (The original was superb ), Last Night In Soho (Edgar Wright. Say no more. ), Halloween Kills (The last Halloween was genuinely good ), Ghostbusters 2020 (a risk but with the original cast returning… maybe. Just maybe), Black Widow (Only a fool would bet against Marvel)
The Must Nots
Stinker Of The Year: The New Mutants Shooting Fish in a barrel this one. So the trailer looked okay, the property it’s based on is solid and the cast & crew impressive… so why am I not keen? Simply this should have come out two years ago, it’s had delays, reshoots and is rumoured to be dumped direct onto Hulu. If it even comes out.
Also Dreading: Birds of Prey (Robbie will be great but the film will not, sadly ), Bad Boys 4 Life (Michael Bay – so will be long and a slog) , Fast & Furious 9(No Rock, No Stath, No Walker. Just Vin ), Godzilla Vs Kong (I think we are done with Godzilla now ), Dolittle(A film we don’t need), Minions 2 (The last DM film was weak and teh Minions film equally a let down), Coming To America 2 (Murphy has had VERY little to offer of late)
Last Year…
So how did I do last year?
This is the time of the year when I look back at my picks of the good, the bad and the ugly from 2019 and see how close I was (or as it often is the case, how far!)…
For best: I tipped Toy Story 4, Captain Marvel, Hobbs & Shaw, Star Wars: Rise Of Skywalker, Once Upon A Time In Hollywoodas my most anticipated of 2019. Toy Story 4 was good but not in my top 5 of the year with Captain Marvel following suit. Hobbs & Shaw was a bust but Once Upon A Time In Hollywood delivered in spades. As for Star Wars: Rise Of Skywalker… it was good but not great but still a great watch!
As for the rest? Avengers Infinity War Part 2 was really good and closed off the saga in spectacular fashion, IT: Chapter Two was better than most gave it credit (but still not on par with Chapter One). Wonder Woman 1984 never came out and has been added to 2020’s list. Glass was good fun but Godzilla: King of the Monsters died on it’s arse.Spider-Man: Far From Home could well be the best Marvel film of 2020 whilst Joker was simply awesome. Jumanji: The Next Level was good fun as expected, even if it as a step down from Welcome to the Jungle, & The Irishman was everything I wanted it to be (other than maybe a few minutes shorter)
As for the Stinkers? Terminator: Dark Fate was actually okay (and certainly not the bomb I expected), The Lion King remake was also pretty good fun, Pet Sematary was weak and Pokemon Detective Pikachu was great fun (think Deadpool for kids). Never watched What Men Want , Aladdin 2019 was solid and X-Men: Dark Phoenix was pretty much what I expected. Rubbish. John Wick: Chapter 3 was a return to form but both Alita: Battle Angel & Men in Black Spin Off both failed as expected.
Phil Hobden is the former Film Editor & Writer for renowned martial arts focused COMBAT MAGAZINE in the UK. He is also a filmmaker in his own right, having produced two cult Independent action films in LEFT FOR DEAD and TEN DEAD MEN. He was the host for the award nominated Filmsploitation podcast for 4 years, currently co-hosts Ross And Phil Talk Movies and is a writer/editor for his own blog Phil’s Quick Capsule Review…
As we approach the end of 2019 I have to say that on the whole it’s been a fairly good year for films. Stars Wars had a great send off with JJ Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker, the Infinity Stones story arc which had been the backbone of the MCU since 2008 ended spectacularly with the outstanding Avengers Endgame, DC finally got their house in order and delivered an absolute humdinger with Joker – which is now the first and only R rated movie to pass the $1 Billion mark at the worldwide box office.
There was utter lunacy to be enjoyed in Hobbs and Shaw which was really great fun, John Wick Chapter 3 delivered some top notch action and proved to be the best entry in the franchise so far, a very funny and rather endearing love story played out in Long Shot and good old Sylvester Stallone returned for the fifth time as Rambo in a film so violent it may well have offended just about every single critic on the planet– not that he cared, it did big bucks at the box office and we film geeks lapped up every brilliant blood drenched minute of it – (the sound of Mexican drug gangs running for the hills in terror can still be heard).
We also witnessed the continued rise of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime -it has to be said though that with the notable exception of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, these still haven’t quite mastered their film output but series wise they can’t be touched – The likes of the Expanse, The Man In The High Castle, The Crown and Jack Ryan were all excellent.
Finally there were some top notch performances from the likes of Adam Driver (Marriage Story and Star Wars) Daniel Craig (Knives Out) Mahershala Ali (Green Book) Brad Pitt (Once Upon a time in Hollywood) Matt Damon (Le Mans 66) and of course Joaquin Phoenix who was astounding in Joker
Naturally and as per bloody usual there were also some serious let-downs and downright dogs, – Alita Battle Angel was staggeringly awful, Godzilla King Of The Monsters was beyond crap, X-Men Dark Phoenix proved to be even worse than we feared, Blinded By The Light was so appallingly bad and badly acted that I almost walked out of the screening, The Lion King remake didn’t work at all and was nothing more than a shot for shot remake of the original , then there was Dumbo which failed to recreate any of the magic that made Disney’s original such a classic, Neil Marshall’s pointless Hellboy reboot showed promise in its design work and story but ultimately turned out to be an utter turd of a film, and whilst it had its good points, the highly anticipated Terminator Dark Fate proved to be nothing more than a complete re-tread of everything we had already seen before in this franchise.
Anyway, enough ranting – here are my 2019 top ten best, top ten worst, top 15 honouree mentions, top 15 best performances and finally the films I’m most excited to see in 2020.
Top Ten Best films:
Avengers: Endgame
Green Book
The Irishman
Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker
Joker
John Wick Chapter 3
Le Mans 66
Knives Out
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
Rambo: The Last Blood (yes I know – I’m on my way to hell for including this one!)
Godzilla King Of The Monsters (definitely left a Michael Bay-alike stench in the nostrils – total crap and badly acted to boot)
Blinded By The Light (the mere thought of this film makes me angry)
The Lion King (cynical audience rip off)
X-Men Dark Phoenix (damp squib – how did they screw this one up?)
The Silence (terrible copy of a Quiet Place)
Shazam (despite everyone really liking this one I absolutely HATED IT!)
The Prodigy (forgettable rubbish)
Glass (garbage sequel to Unbreakable and Split – I’m now beginning to seriously dislike M. Night Shyalaman)
Top fifteen Honouree Mentions:
Long Shot
Hobbs and Shaw
Ad Astra
Hustlers
Angel Has Fallen
The Mule
It Chapter 2
The Man who killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot
Zombieland 2
Last Christmas
Captain Marvel
Bumblebee
Fighting with My Family
Rocketman
Marriage Story
Top 15 best performances:
Joaquin Phoenix – Joker
Adam Driver – Marriage Story and Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker
Scarlett Johansson – Marriage Story
Joe Pesci – The Irishman
Jennifer Lopez – Hustlers
Seth Rogen – Long Shot
Mahershala Ali – Green Book
Viggo Mortensen – Green Book
Robert Downey Jr – Avengers Endgame
Matt Damon – Le Mans 66
Brad Pitt – Once Upon a time in Hollywood
Daisy Ridley – Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker
Sam Elliott – The Man Who Killed Hitler and then the Bigfoot
Daniel Craig – Knives Out
Clint Eastwood -The Mule
Most Anticipated Films of 2020:
Tenet
1917
Top Gun: Maverick
Fast and Furious 9
Black Widow
The Eternals
Bill and Ted Face The Music
Ghostbusters : Afterlife
Army Of The Dead
No Time To Die
Wonder Woman 1984
JoJo Rabbit
Dune
The Gentlemen
Bloodshot
Finally will someone at Warner Bros. please please please please release the Snyder cut of Justice League! You know it exists, we know it exists, Snyder has given us proof it exists, Momoa, Affleck and Gal Gadot have seen it and said its great, you and sodding Joss Whedon short changed us with whatever the hell that version was you released last year – we are pissed off, motivated, and we demand to see it NOW!
Right that’s it for another year, many thanks to all the fans of Phil’s Quick Capsule Reviews for sticking with us (whoever you are) , also a big shout out to my dear friend Phil Hobden, without whom I would have no one to win arguments with about films and who does such a sterling job of keeping this great website going all year round.
I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year
My name is Will Strong and I’ve Been Grosse Pointe Geek – may the Force be with you all.
The Austin Powers to Phil Hobden’s Dr Evil, it’s fair to say Will spends his life trying to convince Phil that Paul WS Anderson ISNT a bad filmmaker, that The Hobbit movies really are THAT good and, for the most part, Phil is wrong about most things. Which he is.
