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To be honest, that’s most of Tim Burton for me. But when he hits (Ed Wood, Big Fish, the new Dumbo trailer), he hits.

Thanks! The silver lining at least is I found Letterboxd and I much prefer that to Flixster. And I’m only missing 100 ratings from what I had before so that’s not too much of a difference. One day I’ll go through Letterboxd and find those missing films.

Paddington 2 Game Night The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling Avengers: Infinity War Incredibles 2 Ant-Man and the Wasp Black Panther Blockers Chappaquiddick Deadpool 2 Isle of Dogs Life of the Party A Quiet Place Thoroughbreds Beirut The Commuter A Futile and Stupid Gesture Ocean’s Eight Ready Player One Tag Tully Gringo Rampage Solo: A Star Wars Story Uncle Drew Annihilation Early Man Hotel Artemis Overboard Sicario: Day of the Soldado Pacific Rim Uprising Red Sparrow Super Troopers 2 I Feel Pretty Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom The 15:17 to Paris Movies: 36

I’ve only liked two of his films - Man of Steel and Dawn of the Dead. I’d give both around four stars out of five. Justice League would be third but I don’t really consider it his film. That is a Frankenstein movie, but it was enjoyable enough (two and a half stars). The rest are not good (Watchmen), not good and overrated (300), bad (BvS), or shit (Sucker Punch). Haven’t seen the owl movie. I’m glad he’s out of the DC universe.

Last year I saw “only” 43 films in theaters. I should be near or at that number by the end of the month. The difference? Moviepass! January 1. 1.27.18 - Phantom Thread (2017) - ***** (A+) 2. 1.28.18 - The Shape of Water (2017) - **** (A-) 3. 1.29.18 - The Post (2017) - **** (A-) February 4. 2.5.18 - Lady Bird (2017) - *** (B) 5. 2.11.18 - Paddington 2 - ***** (A+) 6. 2.16.18 - Black Panther - ***½ (B+) 7. 2.17.18 - The 15:17 to Paris - ½* (D-) 8. 2.24.17 - Game Night - ****½ (A) 9. 2.28.17 - Annihilation - ** (C) March 10. 3.2.18 - Darkest Hour (2017) - ***½ (B+) 11. 3.2.18 - Early Man - ** (C) 12. 3.5.18 - Red Sparrow - *½ (C-) 13. 3.10.18 - Thoroughbreds - ***½ (B+) 14. 3.14.18 - Gringo - **½ (C+) April 15. 4.6.18 - Blockers - ***½ (B+) 16. 4.7.18 - Ready Player One - *** (B) 17. 4.8.18 - Chappaquiddick - ***½ (B+) 18. 4.12.18 - Isle of Dogs - ***½ (B+) 19. 4.14.18 - Rampage - **½ (C+) 20. 4.15.18 - A Quiet Place - ***½ (B+) 21. 4.15.18 - Pacific Rim: Uprising - *½ (C-) 22. 4.19.18 - Beirut - *** (B) 23. 4.20.18 - Super Troopers 2 - *½ (D+) 24. 4.21.18 - I Feel Pretty - * (D) 25. 4.28.18 - Avengers: Infinity War - **** (A-) May 26. 5.5.18 - Overboard - ** (C) 27. 5.6.18 - Tully - *** (B) 28. 5.19.18 - Deadpool 2 - ***½ (B+) 29. 5.28.18 - Solo: A Star Wars Story - **½ (C+) June 30. 6.8.18 - Hotel Artemis - ** (C) 31. 6.9.18 - Life of the Party - ***½ (B+) 32. 6.16.18 - Tag - *** (B) 33. 6.24.18 - Incredibles 2 - **** (A-) 34. 6.24.18 - Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - * (D) 35. 6.30.18 - Ocean’s Eight - *** (B) July 36. 7.4.18 - Uncle Drew - **½ (C+) 37. 7.4.18 - Sicario: Day of the Soldado - ** (C) 38. 7.7.18 - Ant-Man and the Wasp - ***½ (B+)

Not bad for a film made by Pepsi. As a movie, does it completely work? Not really. The movie’s called Uncle Drew yet the story is barely about him. A quick “30 for 30” segment that opens the film gives us the tiniest bit of backstory, but you’ll be distracted by all of the former NBA player cameos to pay any attention to it. Where has he been for 50 years? Shouldn’t the redemption story be about him? The redemption story we actually get is just fine because Lil Rel Howery is great to put a constant smile on your face, but if a tiny bit of thought had been put into the story outside of a Blues Brothers getting the band back together rip, this could’ve been something pretty good. I’m also slightly annoyed that we don’t get enough of an underdog feeling. The old geezers are great (somehow...must be the Pepsi) but we all get the gag. They should be putting on a clinic against the early teams in the tournament. Outside of a couple of awesome moves, they’re mostly just playing normal basketball. I didn’t pay Moviepass $9.99 so I could see this movie and watch a bunch of former players (and Kyrie Irving) play normal basketball. But gosh darn it. The movie is charming. If you don’t have a smile on your face throughout this thing, you might not have cheeks. Nick Kroll is amazing and you can’t really think too hard about the plot when you’ve got Reggie Miller in goggles missing every 3-pointer in sight. And we all know Shaq had the ability to act even if the movies let him down, but so can Reggie Miller. Their skill wasn’t the only reason they became superstars. It was also their charisma, and it’s on full display here. And while I hope Kyrie Irving never leaves the Celtics (unless it leads to making the team better) he could have some sort of acting career if he wanted. While I wouldn’t call him great, he’s effective enough. Kind of like the movie itself. Charisma goes a long way. *Sidenote - As a Celtics fan the opening infuriated me (not really). They showed clips from Michael Jordan’s 63-point breakout game against the Celtics back in 1986. They made it seem like that not only the Bulls won but that the Celtics fans stood and adored him. The Bulls lost that game and the Celtics fans sure as hell didn’t give him a standing ovation. Nice try movie! C+

Paddington 2 Game Night The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling Avengers: Infinity War Incredibles 2 Black Panther Blockers Chappaquiddick Deadpool 2 Isle of Dogs Life of the Party A Quiet Place Thoroughbreds Beirut The Commuter A Futile and Stupid Gesture Ocean’s Eight Ready Player One Tag Tully Gringo Rampage Solo: A Star Wars Story Annihilation Early Man Hotel Artemis Overboard Pacific Rim Uprising Red Sparrow Super Troopers 2 I Feel Pretty Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom The 15:17 to Paris Movies: 33

Since it’s so early, instead of just posting the list, I’ll breakdown the chances of the films that are currently in my top ten of staying in the top ten by the end of the year (most likely Oscar season). Guaranteed - A+ 1. Paddington 2 The only question is whether or not it’ll stay in the top spot. The original did in 2015. I had three A+ movies last year. 90-95% - A 2. The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling 3. Game Night The only way these two don’t make the final cut is if all the Oscar-bait films are amazing. I only had one these last year. Last Jedi was the lone one to make the cut. 50-75% - A- 4. Incredibles 2 5. Avengers: Infinity War I had a bunch of four-star/A- films on my list last year so these are up in the air. Incredibles 2 will probably make it as I’d put in the upper-tier of this column. Avengers, while quite good, probably won’t unless a lot of films in the fall disappoint. <25% - B+ 6. A Quiet Place 7. Deadpool 2 8. Chappaquiddick 9. Life of the Party 10. Blockers If these movies make it...

I used to keep track of them through the Flixster app. Way back when you could rate movies on Facebook using a quick rate option and that’s how I got probably half of my ratings. Then that optioned disappeared and I began using the app. Last fall the app turned to shit and erased all of my ratings, though I think they’re still up on the Rotten Tomatoes desktop site (which I never used). By that point I was close to 3,200. Now I keep track on Letterboxd. I wasn’t able to remember everything but got close to 3,000. After a few months of use (and I’m never leaving) I’m up to 3,113. My really number is probably closer to 3,500. There are some movies that I’ve seen that I just leave blank because I don’t remember them (anything from childhood that didn’t leave any sort of impression on me or that I haven’t seen in 20+ years).

All style, no substance. It worked until I realized I didn’t give two shits about any of the characters. Jodie Foster remains a national treasure though. I hope she starts acting again a little more regularly. C

It’s really funny and that’s all I could ask for from a movie called Tag, but the ending is completely unnecessary and ends the film on a somewhat sour note for no reason. It’s like the filmmakers never had an ending and decided to go maudlin to try and give the film some gravitas. It doesn’t work and feels like a cheat. Helms’s tumor is never mentioned until the last ten minutes. If they wanted that to land with any sort of meaning, the very first scene of the movie should’ve been of him and his wife finding out and then having the game become his sole mission in life. Then it could’ve worked. B

The worst blockbuster since Independence Day: Resurgence (maybe just stay home Jeff?). Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom makes Jurassic Park III seem like Jurassic Park. I cant remember the last time I was this bored by a blockbuster (seeing it immediately after Incredibles 2 didn’t help). I don’t think any of the set-pieces work aside from the opening. The stuff on the island is boring and they’re only there briefly. And anything that happens later at the mention is the worst this series has had to offer (why can’t the ultra-smart raptor smash through a dumbwaiter?). And the setup is incredibly dumb. In that reality, who in their right mind would be in favor of saving the dinosaurs? What are those protesters thinking? Pratt’s charm is wasted. Howard has cleavage. I wanted Smith to be eaten as soon as he stepped onto the island. Could’ve used more of the girl in the glasses. And the villains are too cartoony even for this series. And fuck the idea of clone girl right in the face. Let’s see. We need some sort of excuse to let the dinos live at the end so we can set up a Planet of the Apes sequel. No, we can’t have our leads set them free because they’re not absolute morons even though 3/5th’s of the group initially wanted to save them at the beginning of the film (which means Howard’s character is even dumber because she survived the last film). Oh, I know. Let’s create a backstory where we introduce five films in a partner that Hammond had (who has never been mentioned) who lost a daughter and was in so much grief that he took the genetic cloning technology used to create the dinos and created a replica of his daughter (does she age?). That way when it comes down to decide whether or not to let the dinosaurs die (except the one that was released at the beginning of the film) we can have her do it because she feels simpatico with them even though she’s still some sort of human and has probably fucked over the human race. Then again, we deserve it. Right Ian Malcolm? Inept, boring and stupid is no way to make a blockbuster J.A. Bayonne, though I think most of the blame should fall to screenwriters Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly for writing a dumb and cynical script, and whatever asshole at Universal decided to greenlight said script. D