Lights, Camera, Action

With Netflix, I’ve watched a lot more TV than movies, but in 2021 I still got in an average of just under 2 movies a month, ranging from the absurd to the surprisingly good. Some highlights:

The Muppets – To save the now dilapidated Muppet Theatre, the Muppets must reunite to fundraise via a telethon. Scattered across the world and out of practice, will they be able to put their show together in time? The plot is simple and contrived to showcase classic Muppet songs, but it’s funny in a self-aware way and features some fun celebrity cameos alongside the Muppets. [The sequel Muppets Most Wanted suffers a bit from the sequel syndrome where the plot becomes just a little too wacky, but it still has its moments and it’s where the evil Kermit meme comes from.]

To All the Boys: Always and Forever – The conclusion of the To All the Boys trilogy, this movie is affected the most from the decision to set the movies in Portland, OR instead of Virginia where the books took place. While the first two books/movies mainly featured Lara Jean’s high school and the nursing home where she volunteered, which could plausibly be located in most places in the US, the third installment is about choosing a college, so basically every location in the book had to be changed for the movie. Because of that, large portions of the book were altered, but overall it’s still a nice finish to the trilogy.

Onward – A fairly standard quest movie with lovely animation, a solid soundtrack, fun characters, and a gelatinous cube. With one chance to temporarily see their deceased father again, brothers Barley and Ian must work together to survive a D&D-style adventure. It’s not earthshattering, but after a string of sequels (excepting Coco), it was nice to see something new from Pixar.

Cats – Yes, the 2019 CGI/live action monstrosity or whatever you’d like to call it. Where do I even begin. There’s a great hour-long video that breaks down a lot of the technical and musical issues with this movie, but to sum things up: the star casting was a problem and changes to the script completely undermined the entire point of the original musical. Apparently the actors were told they didn’t need to sing in time at all, which led to Rebel Wilson’s very messy number, Laurie Davidson’s excruciating feature song, and whatever it was that Ian McKellen ended up doing.¹ On the other hand, Steven McRae as Skimbleshanks has to perform his eponymous song in 13/8 (subdivided into 3+3+3+2+2) and so he does it exactly in time and it works, unlike a lot of the rest of the movie.

¹I have no problems with any of these actors, just their extremely questionable performances in Cats.

Little Women – I enjoyed this adaptation (the 2019 movie) of the novel. It captured the feel of the characters and plot well and didn’t overdramatize or overcomplicate things.

Labyrinth – Again, a somewhat straightforward quest plot in which Sarah has to make her way through a labyrinth to save her baby brother Toby from Jareth the Goblin King after wishing Toby gone. The characters and setting are memorable, helping this film to earn its status as a cult classic.

The Nightmare Before Christmas – Jack Skellington, citizen and hero of Halloween Town, is dissatisfied with the same old Halloween routines. Looking for something new, he discovers Christmas and is determined to celebrate it, with Halloween Town’s own spin on it. The soundtrack (instrumentals and songs) is very strong, and the stop-motion animation, done in 1993, still looks great. Only one question remains after watching it: is this a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie?

The Rocky Horror Picture Show – The science fiction musical parody is arguably best viewed live, but this was an interesting introduction to the movie. It’s . . . bizarre.

And very briefly: Hook is good in places and the cast includes Robin Williams and Dante Basco (the voice of Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender). The Mitchells vs. The Machines was overall pretty good but felt like it was trying too hard at times. Raya and the Last Dragon – great animation, good characters, average plot. Frozen II was a pretty solid sequel and I enjoyed “Lost in the Woods.” I have mixed feelings about Toy Story 4; for what it was, it was well done, but in some ways it opened up questions that didn’t need to be asked.

I also finished Star Trek: The Next Generation, wrapped up a final half season of Schitt’s Creek, watched all of Kim’s Convenience, saw the latest season of The Great British Bake Off, caught up with Grey’s Anatomy by watching 9 more seasons of hospital drama, went back to watch Star Trek: The Original Series, watched the She-Ra reboot She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and started Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.