Listings here make no entailment on date of original viewing.
Ratings Guide
A rough metric for the meaning of the numbers below:
- 10: An excellent movie. Meets at least two out of super original, extremely well done, or specifically targeted for Joe Kopena. The crucial factor: It not just holds up to, but demands repeated play.
- 9: Very good, holds up to repeated play. Stops just short of being pitch perfect.
- 8: Definitely a good movie, but maybe not quite engaging enough or a little flat.
- 7: An ok movie; watchable, entertaining, not something to really come back to.
- 6: Maybe watchable, not noteworthy in any way, just short of entertaining.
- 5: Terrible; not worth watching without compelling reason to do so.
- <= 4: Wow! Don't put this in your DVD player unless you have a warranty on it.
Note that films and shows are definitely judged with some view to their genre and medium (e.g., TV), and certainly within my likes, as opposed to some objective quality scheme. Titles in bold are a definite general recommendation.
[ 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |
2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010--2006 ]
2018/12
- Wonder Woman. 9/10
- Hail, Caesar! 8/10.
- Free Solo. 10/10.
- District 9. 9/10.
- Birdman. 8/10.
- Bridge of Spies. 8/10.
- Lord of War. 9/10.
- Michael Clayton. 10/10.
2018/11
- The Informant! 8/10.
- Solo. 10/10.
- Solo. 10/10.
- Solo. 9/10.
- Solo. 9/10.
- Solo. 9/10.
- Bodyguard. Season 1. 7/10.
- Eraser. 6/10.
- National Treasure. 7/10.
2018/10
- The Kingdom. 7/10. Unrealistic pseudo-action-movie, but much better than I expected. Several interesting characters. Unsubtle but surprising moral at the end.
- Patriot Games. 7/10. Easy, entertaining Jack Ryan romp.
- Gran Torino. 8/10.
- Get Shorty. 9/10.
- Jack Ryan. 7/10. Several tech scenes are very cringe-worthy. But the characters are good and compelling. Only major problem is that a lot of sympathy is built for Suleiman, the main bad guy, which is great, but then he becomes much less sympathetic extremely quickly.
2018/09
- Thor: Ragnarok. 7/10.
- Black Panther. 7/10.
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 7/10.
- Robocop 2. 6/10.
- Robocop. 7/10.
2018/08
- GI Joe: Rise of Cobra. 5/10.
- Children of Men. 10/10.
- Watchmen. 9/10.
- Mad Max. 10/10.
2018/07
- Mission: Impossible---Fallout. 9/10.
- The Natural. 10/10.
- Won't You Be My Neighbor. 8/10.
- Jaws. 10/10.
- Stargate. 9/10.
2018/06
- Kung Fu Panda. 7/10.
- Heat. 8/10.
2018/05
- Black Lightning. Season 1. 8/10.
- Babylon Berlin. Season 1. 9/10.
- Hackers. 10/10.
- The Karate Kid. 8/10.
- Anon. 7/10.
2018/04
- Collateral. 7/10.
- Frankenstein Chronicles. Season 1. 7/10.
- Hap and Leonard. Season 2. 7/10.
2018/03
- War for Planet of the Apes. 8/10.
- The Expanse. Season 2. 8/10.
- The Men Who Stare At Goats. 7/10.
- Blade Runner 2049. 10/10.
2018/02
- 3:10 to Yuma. 8/10.
- Altered Carbon. Season 1. 7/10.
2018/01
- TURN. Season 1 partial. 6/10. Could have been really good, but never quite engages enough.
- John Wick. 8/10.
- Sicario. 9/10. Very good drug busting tale, though pretty grim. Definitely not excited for yet another movie about law enforcement or military breaking the rules in order to fight "the bad guys." But there's no denying this is an excellently made movie.
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi. 6/10. Very conflicted. Really like the storylines, scenes, and acting around Kylo Ren, Luke Skywalker, and the codebreaker. Didn't like much else. Tons of things that just don't make sense internally, totally separate from actually making sense or not. No real stakes to the whole thing, First Order and Resistance may as well be fighting in a small closet for all we see of the galactic stakes. Much of The Force Awakens jettisoned, which I'm not necessarily opposed to, but it's not dumped for anything better. First Order just becomes an Empire Redux. Snoke wholly unexplained, no background for where the First Order comes from or anything. Long story short, the more I recap here the angrier and more disappointed I'm getting. But it did have a bunch of really good elements. So I don't know what to say.