Written by Tyrone Bruinsma DISHONORABLE MENTIONS -Artemis Fowl [Dir. Kenneth Branagh] -Bloodshot [Dir. Dave S. F. Wilson] -Breach [Dir. Edward John Drake] -Dreamkatcher [Dir. Kerry Harris] -The Hunt [Dir. Craig Zobel] -The Old Guard [Dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood] -Hearts are Trump [Dir. Donald James Parker] -An Imperfect Murder [Dir. James Toback] -Last Moment of Clarity [Dir. Colin Krisel and James Krisel] -Legacy of Lies [Dir. Adrian Bol] -The Lost Husband [Dir. Vicky Wight] -The New Mutants [Dir. Josh Boone] -Rebecca [Dir. Ben Wheatley] -Rev [Dir. Ant Horasanli] -Skylines [Dir. Liam O'Donnell] -Songbird [Dir. Adam Mason] -Sonic the Hedgehog [Dir. Jeff Fowler] -Stardust [Dir. Gabriel Range] -The Tax Collector [Dir. David Ayer] -From the Depths [Dir. Jose Montesinos] -The Vanished [Dir. Peter Facinelli] -What Lies Below [Dir. Braden R. Duemmler] -You Should Have Left [Dir. David Koepp] 10. Monster Hunter [Dir. Paul W.S. Anderson]With his Resident Evil film series wrapped up, it’s become clear that Paul W.S. Anderson uses license films to make family projects with his wife Milla Jovovich. I’ve never played a Monster Hunter game, but I can tell that the film is very inaccurate as it feels like a random b-movie about military soldiers going into a generic fantasy realm. I will say the VFX can sometimes be impressive and the action scenes can be satisfying. But there’s next to no story in the film, with a lot of exposition at the beginning of act 3 explaining nothing. Some scenes just have me thinking “Yes Paul, I’ve also seen Mad Max Fury Road and Aliens”, with only the ending spectacle of a dragon fighting the military being remotely cool. It’s not offensively bad unless you’re a Monster Hunter fan, for me it’s a below average mid-budget B movie. 9. Black Water Abyss [Dir. Andrew Traucki]The original Black Water from 2007 was a genuinely good killer crocodile movie in its own right. Since then, director Andrew Traucki made the excellent The Reef in 2010 and the pretty bad The Jungle in 2013. Black Water Abyss is a bad sequel and a bad horror film-clearly copying the bad 47 Meters Down: Uncaged. After the standard cold opening kills, we follow a group of cave explorers with a generic drama you don’t care about entering a cave. A flash flood traps them in the cave with crocodiles and now they have to survive. The film is mostly boring and feels like every other killer animal film of the past few years. While there is one decent sequence, most of the film has cliché moments, failed character growth and a lazy attempt at a climactic ending. If you wanna see people hunted by monsters in a cave: The Descent and The Cave from 2005 are superior. 8. Mulan [Dir. Niki Caro]Disney’s track record of Live Action remakes in the current age are very mixed. I think the only good ones are Maleficent and The Jungle Book, but most of them are mediocre to bad. Mulan is easily one of the worst both in its ambitions and what it lacks from the original. I was willing to go with a historically accurate wuxia action film with no songs…and I got a bad version of that. The acting from everyone, but especially Liu Yifei who plays the titular character is lacking. She plays Mulan with a very bland and boring expression most of the film and it comes off as a strange choice. One comedic scene got a laugh out of me, the visuals are often nice, the female villain played by Gong Li is far better than the boring male villain and I like the cameo given to Ming-Na Wen. But the action is bad, largely due to western filmmakers failing to capture the cinematography, choreography and editing style of Wuxia films. The story turns the original's feminist message of self empowerment into a superhero/destiny story by having Mulan been born with a mystical power she repressed, losing much of its human element. And in general, it’s just a bad blockbuster attempt by Disney to appease the Chinese market…who hated the movie. There’s also several controversies tied to the film. They removed Shang for some imagined backlash, with Disney failing to recognize he’d be adopted by the LGBTQIA+ community as a bi-icon. There was also the incident where Mulan’s actress tweeted against the Hong Kong protesters in 2019, Disney doing no damage control to appease the Chinese censors. And most egregiously, Disney filmed some of Mulan near Xinjiang (Which Disney thanked in the credits), despite that region being notorious as a region where Muslims are forced into concentration camps to follow Chinese Communist doctrine. When companies like Disney, Blizzard and the NBA turn a blind eye to these for profit-it’s disrespectful to the people hurt by China’s government. 7. Brahms: The Boy 2 [Dir. William Brent Bell]The Boy from 2016 wasn’t a great film, but a solid horror film and easily the best by its director. This sequel 4 years later is however his worst film by failing to be a satisfying or logical sequel to the first. While the original subverted the then cliché supernatural horror genre, this one indulges those clichés ad nauseam. After a promising (if unexplained opening), the film has a generic family move to the house from the first film, find the creepy doll and generic haunting shenanigans ensue. Despite having the same director and writer as the first, it feels like it might as well be from people who’d never seen the original. There’s one kind of cool scene involving a child’s injury, but other than that-it’s just bad. 6. Fantasy Island [Dir. Jeff Wadlow]This horror adaptation of the fantasy TV series is ultimately a failure to grasp both horror and the series. The series essentially gave characters a moral listen on what they wished for, while this horror adaptation by Blumhouse adds in an absurd plot that should’ve been its own thing. For a while I thought the location was going to be Hell or Purgatory, but nope-needlessly contrived yet simple supernatural forces are at play. There’s also a really dumb twist that comes in later that further confuses the film and it’s just bad. The performances are lacking, there’s no real horror and what else would you expect from the filmmakers behind 2018’s Truth or Dare? 5. The Postcard Killings [Dir. Danis Tanović]This boring retread of every post-Silence of the Lambs/Se7en murder mystery feels so toothless. It neither has the in-depth procedural investigative process to be interesting, nor the slick pulpy genre leanings to make it enjoyable trash. Jeffrey Dean Morgan gives 100% commitment to playing an openly mourning and angry father, leaving him as the only bright spot the film has. No genuine thrills, no exciting sequences, villain motivations that end up feeling like a joke and a film where nothing happens outside of an early (yet obvious) subversion. Boring at its best, insulting at its worst-don’t bother watching. 4. Dolittle [Dir. Stephen Gaghan]This is easily one of the worst big budget films released by a major studio of the current era. I genuinely do not know who thought it was a good idea to get the writer behind Traffic, Syriana and Call of Duty: Ghosts to make a family adventure Dolittle film. The production problems involving reshoots and rewrites from two other filmmakers shows that no one really knew what they were making. Robert Downey Jnr gives easily his worst performance since The Shaggy Dog as an annoyingly confused Dr Dolittle character, with none of the supporting cast helping at all. The CGI doesn’t look very good, the story feels short despite its bloated run time and only one action sequence brings a modicum of entertainment. The humor is atrocious with the final gag being an extended fart joke. And despite being a box office bomb, it still managed to make over $250 Million and be the 7th highest grossing film of 2020. It’s truly bad. 3. Follow Me/No Escape [Dir. Will Wernick]Here’s probably the closest example of a so-bad-it’s-good horror film from the year. This laughable attempt to mix Escape Room, Hostel and The Game into one film is an objective failure. The social media brats are fully unlikeable, the plot feels so obvious if you’ve seen any thriller and much of the acting is poor. I will say the film weirdly fetishizes the suffering of the female characters most of all and that just feels gross. Though I must say the ending made it a joy to be in an empty theater and laugh at how bad it was. 2. Force of Nature [Dir. Michael Polish]Here’s a film that feels like a slightly more expensive version of something Steven Segal would be attached to. This terrible action movie follows cops trying to evacuate an apartment building during a brutal storm as thieves also commence a robbery. What basically amounts to a rip-off of the already bad The Hurricane Heist from 2018 is yet another wasted potential of a heist film in a disaster. But it’s a truly abysmal action film with very little going on and most of the cast doing the bare minimum. I have a feeling if they didn’t cast Mel Gibson, they could’ve used that money to make a better film. The movie doesn’t even have a proper climax and just feels like a lazy cash grab. Michael Polish has made interesting films in the past like The Astronaut Farmer and Northfork…but also made bad ones like Stay Cool and 90 Minutes in Heaven so this isn’t too shocking. 1. Hillbilly Elegy [Dir. Ron Howard]Hillbilly Elegy is the prime example of Hollywood trying and failing to play both sides of the aisle in American politics. It's cliche, needlessly sappy, and just really boring. It's based on the book/life of right-wing lunatic J.D Vance in a weird attempt to showcase Vance as likeable (when he's not) or that his background justifies Trump supporters (Which it does not). As a non-American, even I can spot every middle-America cliche the 90s had worn thin after Stand By Me. Hillbilly Elegy falls into the same category as Gods and Generals as a sect of Americans trying to frame their problematic heritage as just "simple Southern lives" while avoiding all the obvious garbage that came along with it. It's just strange that this comes from gifted filmmaker Ron Howard (finally making a worse film than The Dilemma) and features Glenn Close and Amy Adams in cloying Oscarbait roles, with both doing a poor job aside from broad caricatures. So even if I could excuse the politics inherent to its biopic lead and their beliefs, it'd still be a boring and garbage cliche film undeserving of your time.
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Written by Tyrone Bruinsma HONORABLE MENTIONS: -Blood Bite [Dir. Yue Ang Wang] -Capone [Dir. Josh Trank] -Da 5 Bloods [Dir. Spike Lee] -Dirt Music [Dir. Gregor Jordan] -The Dry [Dir. Robert Connolly] -Extraction [Dir. Sam Hargrave] -The Father [Dir. Florian Zeller] -Freaky [Dir. Christopher Landon] -Gretel and Hansel [Dir. Oz Perkins] -The Grudge [Dir. Nicolas Pesce] -Hope Gap [Dir. William Nicholson] -In Search of a Flat Earth [Dir. Dan Olson] -Kindred [Dir. Joe Marcantonio] -Land Shark [Dir. Cheng Si-Yu] -Love and Monsters [Dir. Michael Matthews] -Mank [Dir. David Fincher] -Minari [Dir. Lee Isaac Chung] -Monsters of Man [Dir. Mark Toia] -Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge [Dir. Ethan Spaulding] -The Nest [Dir. Sean Durkin] -The Night House [Dir. David Bruckner] -Onward [Dir. Dan Scanlon] -Palm Springs [Dir. Max Barbakow] -The Personal History of David Copperfield [Dir. Armando Iannucci] -Psycho Goreman [Dir. Steven Kostanski] -The Rental [Dir. Dave Franco] -Savage [Dir. Sam Kelly] -The Secrets We Keep [Dir. Yuval Adler] -7500 [Dir. Patrick Vollrath] -Six Minutes to Midnight [Dir. Andy Goddard] -Soul [Dir. Pete Docter] -Sound of Metal [Dir. Darius Marder] -The Superdeep [Dir. Arseny Syuhin] -Superman: Red Son [Dir. Sam Liu] -Synchronic [Dir. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead] -Unhinged [Dir. Derrick Borte] -Vanguard [Dir. Stanley Tong] -The Vast of Night [Dir. Andrew Patterson] -A Whisker Away [Dir. Junichi Sato and Tomotaka Shibayama] -The Witches [Dir. Robert Zemeckis] 20. Rogue [Dir. M. J. Bassett]From the director of Deathwatch, Solomon Kane and Silent Hill: Revelations comes a half action film, half creature that's 100% entertainment. Whether you're seeking fun banter, engaging gnarly shootouts, a killer lion or barely subtle feminine commentary-Rogue delivers. It manages to work as a solid B-movie thriller with the right level of talent, surprise, action and production values we used to get more consistently from films. Also, if you love Megan Fox-she's a badass lead here. 19. The Vigil [Dir. Keith Thomas]This is one of the scariest films I’ve seen in a long time. Watching this movie in an empty theater was a horrifying, yet gratifying experience. Director Keith Thomas shows his skill with a mostly single location thriller, religious themes and a small cast. It’s an emotionally engaging film, but will end up ripping your heart out as badly as Hereditary did. Any lover of horror needs to seek this film out immediately. 18. Swallow [Dir. Carlo Mirabella-Davis]Something this film reminds us is that body horror need not be explicit to be effective. This story about a controlled and oppressed woman rebelling with her body by consuming objects she shouldn't is a masterclass. Embodying the Cronenbergian philosophy in how the human body is both our most political and psychological element to ourselves, Swallow will expose you to its ideas as much as disturbing ideas. Between this, The Equalizer, The Magnificent Seven and Cyrano-Haley Bennet has proven herself an extremely powerful actress and you should seek this out. 17. Peninsula [Dir. Yeon Sang-ho]Is this spin-off as good as Train to Busan? No, but it's still an extremely zombie action horror follow up to the original. Expanding the world and themes from the first film, Peninsula delivers engaging characters, create action, news ways of delivering zombie thrills and has a Mad Max inspired conclusion. There are minor flaws like an overdrawn conclusion or spotty CGI-but South Korea still creates some of the best films around. 16. Color Out of Space [Dir. Richar Stanley]After abandoning Hollywood for some time following the disastrous Island of Doctor Moreau, South African talent Richard Stanley returns in full force with this Lovecraftian adaptation. The film following a family sinking into madness while experiencing otherworldly body horrors is an improvement on its source material in every possible way. While I love the entire cast, Nicolas Cage gives the most magnetic performance in a film that gives him a lot of range. The horrors are terrifying, the visuals and effects are great, and it really is one of the best direct adaptations of H.P Lovecraft. 15. Nomadland [Dir. Chloe Zhao]Blending the line between a Terrence Mallick art film, the laid back non-concept approach of a Jim Jarmusch movie and a documentary-Nomadland is a depressingly beautiful masterwork. Following Frances McDormand as a widowed “nomad” shifting between seasonal jobs in the economically disenfranchised US, the film feels real in a gripping and honest way. Some characters are played by their real selves, blurring the line between reality and fiction in an honest way. The filmmaking is gorgeous, McDormand and her supporting cast are excellent in capturing the financial situations many elderly persons have to live through in the 21st Century. Between Nomadland and Eternals, Chloe Zhao really has set herself as a new artistic powerhouse in cinema. 14. The Outpost [Dir. Rod Luire]Joining the pantheon of great Post-Cold War true story combat military films alongside Black Hawk Down, Lone Survivor and 13 Hours-The Outpost is a genuinely excellent little film. Made on a budget of only $5 Million under film critic turned filmmaker Rod Lurie, the film follows the events of a real outpost in 2006’s War in Afghanistan. The film expertly characterizes our military protagonists, helps us understand their situation and shows us the geography for the eventual climatic battle. The direction/cinematography is great, the combat scenes are nail biting and the performances all around are fantastic. Special mention goes to actor Scott Eastwood for giving one of his best roles and surprising us again with his gift as a performer. 13. Saint Maud [Dir. Rose Glass]One of the most thoughtful examinations of faith through a horror film, Saint Maud is a film you won't forget. Following a home care nurse who has become religiously devout, the film explores matters of faith as they relate to personal trauma, self-destruction and misunderstanding. It's not a particularly frightening or energetic film-but it has a lot of care put into the acting, production values and storytelling. The ending especially encapsulates the film very well-seriously the last shot is nuts. 12. Wonder Woman 1984 [Dir. Patty Jenkins]While I understand a lot of people dislike this film, to me it was the accurate bonkers representation of a classic Wonder Woman story. The opening of young Diana was great, all the action scenes popped, the visuals were more unique than the already great looking first film, I loved Pedro Pascal's DC parody of Donald Trump and could not get enough of Kristen Wiig as Cheetah. And yes, I still love Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Was the story weird and bonkers? Yes. Was it a ton of fun to watch play out and gave me goosebumps? Absolutely. 11. The Gentlemen [Dir. Guy Ritchie]Guy Ritchie returns to the British crime film genre he helped define and easily makes one of his best films. The semi-confusing, semi-basic crime story is easily one of the best he’s created since Snatch and results in a lot of fun. The film sports a brilliant cast including Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Colin Farrell and the hilarious Hugh Grant. It’s got Ritchie’s un-PC humor with some self-awareness, fun action beats and just a well told story. 10. Promising Young Woman [Dir. Emerald Fennell]This dark thriller is not one to be skipped over. The story of a woman feigning inebriation to shame (and possibly harm) predatory men due to events from her past that comes full circle is easily one of the best screenplays in recent memory. Carey Mulligan shines as the lead performer, while the rest of the supporting cast is excellent too. I know many were unhappy with the conclusion, but I think its ending makes it truly such an impactful and impressive story. A true “Must Watch” experience. 9. Butt Boy [Dir. Tyler Cornack]This is a very weird film to watch and explain. Butt Boy is a satirical horror/neo noir film, but not in the spoof/parody sense. It’s a film that takes the ridiculous plot of a psychotic man who shoves things and eventually people into his rectum, very seriously. It’s a low-key hilarious ride, while still having two brilliant performances in the form of Tyler Rice as the stereotypical grizzled detective who has a character and writer/director Tyler Cornack as the titular Butt Boy. It’s a strange film and not something you see much, but it’s utterly worth seeking out. 8. The Invisible Man [Dir. Leigh Whannell]Proving himself as a nightmarishly talented director with 2018’s Upgrade, Leigh Whannell helped restart Universal’s Classic Monster Universe with this brilliant horror. A true modernized update of the H.G Wells story, the film follows Elizabeth Moss as she’s seemingly stalked by her abusive ex after he kills himself, through use of invisibility. The result is a direct allegory for abusive relationships with outstanding direction, great effects, a committed cast and Whannell’s amazing writing. 7. Antebellum [Dir. Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz]Don’t ruin the surprise on this movie, just go watch it. If you like Get Out, Us or horror thrillers that focus on a black cast and themes of racism-this will be right up your alley. The filmmaking is electric, the narrative explosive and the cast is amazing with Janelle Monáe appearing as a revolutionary actress. Go see this as soon as possible. 6. Sputnik [Dir. Egor Abramenko]This Russian film is for all those who love Ridley Scott’s Alien. Set during the Cold War, the film follows military and scientists dealing with an astronaut who encountered an extraterrestrial being. Claustrophobic, terrifying and incredibly well made-it’s a must watch for anyone who craves sci-fi horror. And if you’re in the mood for another Russian Alien-like horror film from 2020, I also recommend The Superdeep on Shudder. 5. Possessor [Dir. Brandon Cronenberg]Son of legendary body horror filmmaker David Cronenberg, Brandon Cronenberg has taken his father’s torch and sprinted like Usian Bolt. Possessor is a sci-fi body horror that surpasses films like Scanners and Videodrome with flying colors. It’s a gripping, nightmarish and brutal film about assassin’s taking over the bodies of strangers to take down their targets. Through its world, it explores themes of technology, sociopathy, body dysmorphia and the age-old question of “What does it mean to be human?”. 4. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) [Dir. Cathy Yan]After debuting in Suicide Squad, Harley Quinn as portrayed by the amazing Margot Robbie deserved her own movie. This crime film following Quinn in a Guy Ritchie style plot with a Takashi Miike execution is funny, violent, chaotic, colorful and an absolute blast. The new characters it introduces to this world and cinema are great, the story never drags, the action is incredibly fun and Ewan McGregor as Black Mask is a riot. I hope Margot gets to do a dozen films as Harley Quinn because she was born to play this role on screen. 3. The Empty Man [Dir. David Prior]Initially dismissed by critics and audiences upon release, this film was quickly re-examining and praised by lovers of off-beat yet amazing movies. This seemingly basic supernatural horror film has more to offer, showing this by having an extended prologue to set up both the story and nigh perfect direction. This movie has scares of every measure to terrify audiences, a game cast who sell this world and a story that blooms into one of the best horror films of the year. You absolutely need to check The Empty Man out. 2. Underwater [Dir. William Eubank]Underwater looked like a well made Alien-style horror film set under the sea, but turned out to be my favorite horror film of the year. Kristen Stewart sold her skills as an Ellen Ripley badass, with the rest of the cast doing solid work. The production values and pacing are excellent, the horror/monster stuff is absolutely top-notch and the eventual Lovecraftian tier horror we’ve been unknowingly experiencing is one of my favorite film moments from 2020. I cannot recommend this enough, especially if you love films like The Abyss, Leviathan or Deepstar Six from 1989. 1. Tenet [Dir. Christopher Nolan]Unsurprisingly, the best film of the year was the ambitious spy thriller from one of cinema’s best directors working today. Christopher Nolan’s winding spy story combines old-school practical filmmaking, modern production values and creates one of the best cinema experiences of the 21st century. The multiple amazing action set pieces, the narrative revolving around time inversion and our fully engrossed cast all make it work so well. Special mention goes to the leads played by John David Washington and Robert Pattinson stealing the absolute show. Seriously, Tenet surpassed my expectations, became my new favorite Nolan film and gave me continued faith in big budget studio spectacle filmmaking-solidifying it as my favorite film of 2020.
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Tyrone BruinsmaThis is the Official Blog/Magazine for filmmaker, writer and content producer Tyrone Bruinsma Categories
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