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:

1. Avengers: Endgame
2. Green Book
3. The Irishman
4. Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker
5. Joker
6. John Wick Chapter 3
7. Le Mans 66
8. Knives Out
9. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
10. Rambo: The Last Blood (yes I know  – I’m on my way to hell for including this one!)

Top Ten Worst films

1. Alita Battle Angel (pointless, boring, dull, piss poor)
2. Hellboy (awful)
3. Godzilla King Of The Monsters (definitely left a Michael Bay-alike stench in the nostrils – total crap and badly acted to boot)
4. Blinded By The Light (the mere thought of this film makes me angry)
5. The Lion King (cynical audience rip off)
6. X-Men Dark Phoenix (damp squib – how did they screw this one up?)
7. The Silence (terrible copy of a Quiet Place)
8. Shazam (despite everyone really liking this one I absolutely HATED IT!)
9. The Prodigy (forgettable rubbish)
10. Glass (garbage sequel to Unbreakable and Split – I’m now beginning to seriously dislike M. Night Shyalaman)

Top fifteen Honouree Mentions:

1. Long Shot
2. Hobbs and Shaw
3. Ad Astra
4. Hustlers
5. Angel Has Fallen
6. The Mule
7. It Chapter 2
8. The Man who killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot
9. Zombieland 2
10. Last Christmas
11. Captain Marvel
12. Bumblebee
13. Fighting with My Family
14. Rocketman
15. Marriage Story

Top 15 best performances:

1. Joaquin Phoenix  – Joker
2. Adam Driver – Marriage Story and Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker
3. Scarlett Johansson  – Marriage Story
4. Joe Pesci  – The Irishman
5. Jennifer Lopez  – Hustlers
6. Seth Rogen – Long Shot
7. Mahershala Ali – Green Book
8. Viggo Mortensen – Green Book
9. Robert Downey Jr – Avengers Endgame
10. Matt Damon – Le Mans 66
11. Brad Pitt – Once Upon a time in Hollywood
12. Daisy Ridley  – Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker
13. Sam Elliott – The Man Who Killed Hitler and then the Bigfoot
14. Daniel Craig – Knives Out
15. Clint Eastwood  -The Mule

Most Anticipated Films of 2020:

1. Tenet
2. 1917
3. Top Gun: Maverick
4. Fast and Furious 9
5. Black Widow
6. The Eternals
7. Bill and Ted Face The Music
8. Ghostbusters : Afterlife
9. Army Of The Dead
10. No Time To Die
11. Wonder Woman 1984
12. JoJo Rabbit
13. Dune
14. The Gentlemen
15. 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.

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Will Strong

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.