- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Loved every extended minute of this movie. I've seen it so many times now and it holds up. I feel like they did a lot more practical effects in this film than they did in The Hobbit films. I could be wrong. But it's all amazing. I saw an interesting video about the construction of the Orc stronghold and the filming of it. So amazing it was all made by hand. I think it adds so much depth to the film. CGI just can't accomplish yet. There is something beautiful about practical effects I pray we never lose. This cast is so good. I remember watching this when it came out and I don't think it dawned on me till later in life what an amazing story this is. I just got the books on audible and am looking forward to binging them soon. Re-watchablilty is strong with this film and will have a permanent place on my movie wall.The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
I love the story so much. I just finished reading the book for the first time since I attempted but didn’t finish it as a kid. I am one of those people that got drawn back to the books as an adult after seeing the movies. I think they did a fine job adapting The Hobbit to film. I find it interesting that they spread a relatively short book into 3 movies. It’s fun seeing what is coming right from the book and what kind of filler they are using to fill the gaps. I thoroughly enjoy the world and the characters. While the movie doesn’t necessarily make me feel any real deep emotions; it’s a really fun watch tagging along on this ride with Bilbo, Gandalph, and the dwarves. Looking forward to rewatching the next movie and giving it a review. The story is a classic so it’s got a permanent spot on my movie wall.The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
I love everything about the Harry Potter universe. I'll probably give every single movie in this series a 95%. The books are amazing and they did a really great job at adapting them to film. Almost perfect in my eyes. It's been a slow burn for me as I've gotten older my love for this story has only gotten stronger. Who doesn't love wizards and magic. The plot is simple but something we can all relate too. That dream that we are secretly special and it just hasn't been revealed to us yet. It's something we all fantasize about. Each movie in this series has its own character. I think this first one has more down to earth whimsy than some of the others. It's innocent and fun. In my opinion it has some of the best material to work from. The beginning of Harry's story is the best. Him finding out he's a wizard and dipping his toes into the magical world for the first time. So good! Experiencing Diagon Alley and seeing Hogwarts on screen for the first time was awesome. I've watched this over and over again. This movie and the rest of them in the series will never leave my movie wall collection.Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Paul
An artist and a writer from the UK come to America for the first time with the goal of touring alien hotspots. After they meet an actual real life alien shenanigans ensue. You can't get much better than this plot line for a fun time. Especially if your a nerd like me and love all things alien, writing, and art. The cast is great. You can't go wrong with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Janson Bateman, Kristen Wiig, and Bill Hader and more. As well as Seth Rogan voicing the alien. It all comes together so well. It's goofy and the comedy hits for me. I've watched this more times than I can count and it has a solid spot in my movie collection.Paul - The Batman
It's good! I have found myself coming back to this for multiple watches now. The strong points in my opinion are Robert Pattinson does a great job as a younger Batman. While he is nowhere near as jacked as I want to see a young batman (please lets just CGI some more muscles on at this point). With how obsessive Bruce Wayne is you know he would be obsessive over his physique and conditioning. As well as his mastery of martial arts. We want to see that! Pattinson gets the attitude and vibe right. Cat Woman was ok. Gordon was Ok. Alfred, Carmine, and The Riddler were all ok. Penguin was amazing. Those practical effects were crazy. I enjoyed the dark and moody Gotham. I found myself wanting to pause the movie on many scenes because I wanted to take in the background. I also really enjoyed the Batman tech. By that I mean his suit, "weapons", and his lair. Everything was more toned down and a little more realistic for this movie. That is a good thing in my opinion. Makes him and his situation feel more real. That said we still have the very non real things going on which is expected for a Batman. I slightly cringed, but then was impressed, then laughed when he glided off the building just to smack his head on an underpass and eat shit. Walks it off. lol. His car was super cool. It's on my movie wall for now. I hope we keep going in this direction for Batman. I like more dark and gritty. They should lean in to what the audience wants. I don't think we want lame goofy over the top super hero movies anymore. The audience that enjoys this stuff are adults now and we want rated R Batman!The Batman - Edge of Tomorrow
Based off the light novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka; Edge of Tomorrow grabbed my attention and kept me entertained from beginning to end. While I am writing this in 2026 I can't think of a better alien invasion movie that has come out since this one. The story is excellent. The alien design is sweet as hell. I remember seeing this in the theater and immediately wanting to see it again. The ending credits song was an impeccable choice and was the cherry on top. The cast was excellent. It almost had Alien 2 vibes with a crew of military characters that seem perfect for their roles. Tom Cruise kills it in this; literally and figuratively he kills stuff over and over again until he blasts by the 10,000 hour rule and becomes a badass killing machine. The best part is we get Bill Paxton, such a legend. This is such a classic to me. I can watch it about once a year now and still be entertained. Movie Wall candidate 100%.Edge of Tomorrow - The Ninth Gate
If you are in the mood for some mystery, ominous music, and some devil worship this movie is for you. An excellent spooky movie staring Johnny Depp who plays a rare book consultant/detective. He is hired by a wealthy media mogul who wants one of his books verified for authenticity. According to historical documentation this book can invoke the devil. It is apparent that this rich man has tried to do this but has thus far failed in his attempts. Hence his need to get the book verified as he will do anything to acquire the authentic book. This movie has a great story with many twists and turns as we go along on this ride of devil worshipers and rare book collectors. It's fun and a little creepy. It has it's flaws but overall is an excellent watch and has a solid spot on my movie wall.The Ninth Gate - Independence Day
I was 10 years old when this movie came out. It holds a special place in my heart as this is one of the movies that really solidified my love for movies. This one and Terminator 2 that I saw in theatres when I was a wee 5 year old. I remember I would ride my bicycle by myself 5 miles to the theatre with a pocket full of quarters or whatever cash I could steal from my moms purse to go see this movie. I remember going back for multiple viewings I thought it was just the coolest. I'm sure I did this for many other movies but this one I remember the clearest. The story is simple but fun; with characters that are goofy but memorable. It is simple alien action flick that is still very entertaining to watch today. My movie wall wouldn't be complete without this on it.Independence Day - Contagion
I really enjoy apocalypse and pandemic themed movies. This is one of the more enjoyable ones I've seen. You get a great cast of characters from the government do gooders to the slimy journalist trying to take advantage of the situation. As well as the ignorant local government officials worried about their budget. I felt it gave a good potential scenario of what could happen if something of this magnitude happened. You have good people caught in the crossfire with a virus that doesn't care if you are a doctor or a young child it's coming for you unless you. I enjoyed the plot especially the detective like nature of some of the characters as they try and find patient zero. Well worth the watch.Contagion - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Great flic! I have watched this so many times it's one of those movies I can put on in the background while I'm writing or drawing. I love the painterly animation style. The voice acting is excellent. Jackie Chan as master splinter slaps :). Ice Cube does a great job as well as Superfly. The comedy is fun and still makes me snicker when I watch it. Solid spot on The Movie Wall for me!Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem - The Whisper Man
Not too bad. I wasn't amazed by this movie but it was a nice little crime drama movie to watch on a cozy evening. My wife enjoyed it quite a bit. They did a good job with the story. It wasnt super predictable. I liked the cast and the acting was good. Probably not something I'll reach to watch again anytime soon but I'd say its worth checking out if you like this genre.The Whisper Man - Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker
Pretty lame ending to an amazing series of movies. This movie starts off with the weakest of all one liners “Somehow Palpatine returned.” Yea, we got one sentence explaining Sith dark knowledge and cloning blah blah. O and yea Rey is now the granddaughter of Palpatine. We also keep getting the same story lines over and over throughout these movies. It all got old really fast and seems so lazy. I wish they would have taken more time to get this story and plot points right. We start off with Rey on the most anticlimactic Jedi training course I’ve ever seen which somehow prepared her to do a damn bicycle kick over Kylo’s ship and cut off its wing with her lightsaber. I think they should have made that “training” course a little more intense. Rey also figures out on her own how to find Palpatine and they start that mission with the usual cast of crew against Leia’s orders. They go to this planet and run into this Akiyaki festival that seemingly was designed to look cool and not actually be cool. The awkward dancing and interactions Rey has with alien children is weird and feels forced and fake. They then run into Lando for a little hit of nostalgia. Lando points them towards a crash site where they find a blade that will lead them to a wayfinder that will then lead them to Palpatine? Sound complicated? Don’t worry it all works out perfectly of course with little interference or difficulty. The blade has directions written right on it. The blade they find has to be one of the worst props I’ve seen in a star wars film. No offense to whoever made it but it was not film ready. It looks like plastic! Its weathering is nonexistent and it doesn’t look like it could cut through warm butter! As you will see when you watch the film it has the funniest and most illogical way to pinpoint where the wayfinder is built into it. They could have just left the planet now but for some reason unknown Rey decides to face Kylo putting her whole team at risk and getting Chewy taken into custody. This whole plot point was pointless and seemingly done just to have some cool cgi action scenes. Someone wrote the scene so its gotta be done even if it makes no logical sense. And same as in my review of The Last Jedi I could go on and on but what is the point. They killed off every character that made this franchise great for a set of reasons I can’t wrap my head around. A few things I did like. Same as in the previous 2 movies I really like the art direction. The world is really cool. Minus whatever that festival dance scene was. CGI was excellent as well as all of the animatronics and puppetry. Babu Frik is such a cool design. Loved him. The scene where Kylo Ren’s helmet is getting repaired was super cool as well. I hope we see more of that chimp like creature again in the future. Honestly the ending wasn’t horrible. I don’t think Ben should have died. They should have kept Rey, Fin, and Kylo alive to rebuild the Jedi. As it becomes obvious Fin is capable of force manipulation. I enjoyed the final battle scene for the most part especially the line that Rey gives “I am all the Jedi” when she is fighting Palpatine. This was too little too late though. This is not very rewatchable and only has a place on The Movie Wall because of the other great movies in the series.Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker - Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi
Whatever mojo The Force Awakens had was lost in this next movie The Last Jedi. While it wasn’t all bad, I feel like the ball was dropped in this movie. I felt we were either having the story explained to viewers like we are dumb or important points just dropped on us with zero back story or build up. I had so much hope in The Force Awakens. I thought it was well done. The story was pretty engaging and the characters they introduced us to were funny and interesting. The Force Awakens is what really got me more interested in the Star Wars World. Then this came out and really just made me shake my head a lot. I dont like scifi that consistently defies logic or common sense. This movie does that frequently. I had felt star wars fell more under science fiction, but this movie starts leaning towards science fantasy. And on top of that does things with loved characters no fan would ever do. Like turn Luke into a grumpy old man hiding like a hermit scared to face the world. Luke to start off with is now in self imposed exile because he failed to teach his sister’s son Ben to be a Jedi. Ben turns into Kylo Ren and kills a bunch of students. No Jedi especially Luke would run away and quit. He would face his mistakes. They turn Poe into an arrogant flyboy. Fin is still the goofy sidekick even more so than last movie and is often humiliated. Kylo and Rey have this ongoing obsession with each other that rarely makes any sense and just waffles back and forth with Kylo wanting her dead one second then not wanting her dead the next. It feels so blah. Snoke is introduced out of nowhere and is a crap CGI villain that we get zero backstory on (because the back story is deeply flawed). The First Order continuously throughout the movie make mistakes or overlook things that no evil force would overlook ever. Even the way Snoke gets taken out is ridiculous. I admit it was kind of cool. Too ridiculous based on how powerful he’s supposed to be. Powerful and dumb should not go together. So many of these little asinine writing decisions and plot points plague this movie from beginning to end. But what finally did me in personally was the big epic saber fight after Snoke was taken out. Absolute trash in my opinion. I despise this kind of fight choreography where bad guys kindly wait their turn to strike and there is a constant supply of completely unnecessary twirling and spinning that completely takes me out of the movie. This doesn’t look remotely real! It’s just meant to look cool which is DUMB. I could go on and on with many other scenes but why beat a dead horse you get the point. There were a few things I did like about this movie. I thought it was pretty cool that we got the conversation between Yoda and Luke. While I think they wrote Luke as a complete idiot that made no sense. What Yoda said was wise and true in our world today. Again I thought the world building, environmental design, and CGI was top notch. I also like the fight between Kylo and Luke when Luke said “everything you just said was wrong…” that was awesome and probably the one time I was excited in this movie. Rewatchability is very low in this but because I’m a completionist it has a spot on The Movie Wall because it’s Star Wars and I need the whole set.Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi
