The 2019 Raymo Awards

It's been a year of few real standouts in film evidenced, to me at least, by seeing only 36 movies at the cinema - the first was Mary Poppins Returns and the last being Jumanji: The Next Level and in a log of ways that sums up the year. Unnecessary sequels and/or remakes.

Most of you would be aware by now that a score of 7/10 is seen as the minimum for a pass - now 7 can be a good score as much as it can be a bad one. Interestingly 28 of my 36 received 7 or more but only 10 scored 8 or higher. That tells me the quality was down.

So here's my top 5 of 2019, unsurprisingly dominated by Marvel.

1. Captain Marvel (9/10)
Very much a polarising character if you believe the internet, Captain Marvel was as big a risk as Guardians, Ant-Man or Doctor Strange and I thought they nailed it. Brie Larson and Samuel L Jackson teamed up so well and the 1990s backdrop paved the way for a great soundtrack. It came with plenty riding on it to complete the Avengers Infinity War/Endgame tie in and it's just great fun too.

2. Ford v Ferrari (9/10)
Definitely didn't expect this Matt Damon/Christian Bale story about the 1966 Le Mans battle for supremacy between the two motor companies to be as outstanding as it turned out. Aided by two superb performances, especially Bale, it's much more about the stories of Ken Miles (Bale) and Carroll Shelby (Damon) than it is about car racing itself. Though the scenes of the actual race are awesome. Be surprised if it's not in a lot of people's lists.

3. Spider-Man Far From Home (9/10)
The second Spider-Man film in the MCU was just as fun as the first and it had the job of kicking off the post-Endgame era. They stacked plenty in, from the duplicitous Mysterio to showing Peter's struggle with being a hero and wanting to just be a teenager for a while and the big reveals at the end. Can't wait for number 3.

4. Avengers: Endgame (8.5/10)
Now this is a controversial one. My original score on first viewing was 8.5 but having seen it a few times more it'd be easily my number one but I go with first impression here. Endgame was a massive undertaking and it worked, despite the always risky time travel plot, and it works more each time you see it. And the soundtrack over the 'signs offs' in the credits is perfect. I do fear the MCU might have peaked but we won't really know until 2021.

5. Ben Is Back (8.5/10)
I love a solid dramatic film and 2019 lacked them noticeably. This one, though, was a ripper. Lucas Hedges is Ben, a drug addict who returns home claiming to be sober much to the disdain of his home town. His mother Holly (Julia Roberts) has to walk the line between wanting it to be true and knowing even if it is it won't last and dealing with the consequences. More of this in 2020 please!.

Honourable mentions: Coming in sixth was Green Book (8.5), which I noted was the year's first great film, Joker (8/10) would have gone higher in hindsight. Brilliant. Rocketman, Hotel Mumbai and Stan & Ollie (all 8/10) are worth seeing for different reasons too.

Surprise of the year: Parasite (7/10) - wouldn't have thought I'd find a Korean film so interesting and it could have gone higher had it not been far too long. It's essentially a story about a family living in poverty gradually taking over the lives of a rich family (hence the name).

Flop of the year (note I didn't see Cats): Us (5/10). Not remotely scary, or even gripping, with a twist you can see coming a mile off. Interesting enough premise, and solid lead performance, but in no way did it live up to the hype.

The film I wanted to like more: Knives Out (7.5/10) gained a respectable score and was quite an entertaining whodunnit. But the way it played out ultimately cost it the higher score I was expecting to give. Great cast, some excellent performances but just proved a bit too smart for its own good.

Letdowns: Most of them are remakes or belated sequels like Hobbs & Shaw, Rambo: Last Blood, Terminator: Dark Fate and Men In Black International (though I kinda expected it to be garbage).

What does 2020 hold? I really hope there are some hidden gems out there because the release list is looking very light on quality and high on more of those sequels/reboots. Wonder Woman 1984, Top Gun Maverick and Ghostbusters Afterlife come to mind. Fast & Furious 9 needs to be good too. There's also Black Widow, which I expect to be excellent, and The Eternals will be another risk for Marvel.

Here we go again

For once it isn't me that's going around in circles but I'm pretty sure I don't want to be taken along for the ride again.
It's hard enough to personally try and move forward.
While I still don't know what I want exactly, I do know that there is only so long you can hit your head against the wall before you work out it's doing you damage.
Am I in a position to change anything? Absolutely I am. However, I'm not overly willing to make knee-jerk reactions even though it is something that has been at the forefront of my thinking for a little while now.
Why the hesitation? Once you make changes you can't go back. I know that flies in the face of what I'm guessing I'm commenting on right now but they call it 'comfort' for a reason.
I'm trying hard to change a few things about myself and I'm finding that it isn't as easy in practice as it is in theory. No pain, no gain....that's pretty true. My pain thresh-hold when it comes to some things isn't overly high, though.
I recently watched the classic 1980 film The Blues Brothers (for the first time, I might add) and what struck me was that I really don't allow myself to have much fun.
To keep the movie references going, there's a scene in Six Degrees Of Separation where a two sided Kandinsky painting is held up and described as representing Chaos and Control. I like the illusion of being in control.

Talk hard

Communication isn't as easy for some people as it is for others.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that is the industry I work in, outside of work I find communication to be very difficult.
I don't know whether it is that I think I have nothing to say, or whether I don't know how to express it, or if I'm too concerned about what's going on inside my head to be able to articulate it.
Sometimes talking is just not that simple.
I know people who can just talk to anyone. I don't know if it is an innate confidence thing, a personality thing or what it is. Whatever it is it seems I don't have it. Or at least I'm not willing to see if I have it.
There's a move from 1990 called Pump Up The Volume, it stars Christian Slater as a teenager (who looks well and truly in his 20s) who has moved to a new town and has no friends, finds it hard to connect with people and comes across to his parents and depressed and detached.
He starts broadcasting on short wave radio and his on air persona builds up quite a following.
It's easy to talk when you think nobody is listening.
I think this quote from the movie sums up a lot of us:
''We are all really scared to show who we really are. I am not perfect, I have just been going through the motions of being perfect, and inside I am screaming.''

The problem for me is that I'm not a teenager struggling to fit in.
It's true, though, it is the fact that I'm scared that is holding me back. Scared of all sorts of things that make seemingly simple things that much harder.
Talking is hard, even when I try to explain how I am feeling. Even when I am comfortable with the person I am talking with.
It has occurred to me that it might not be external things that are holding me back, but rather an internal fear that changing something is a bad thing. I don't know exactly.
Talk hard. It's a phrase used in the movie that I think is meant to say that you have to just get it out. Here goes.....

I wondered....

There's a line from what could be considered an obscure movie from 1994 called Threesome, which starred Lara Flynn Boyle, Josh Charles and Stephen Baldwin, that has always stuck with me.
It seems that the older you get the truer it gets.

'I wondered how some people can be such a necessary part of one's life one day, and simply vanish the next. Isn't it supposed to last?'

I always suspected it would be like that with certain people I've come across and that's generally pretty easy to accept. Things change, people change and people move on. We all do that. But some people also stick around.

Preferred customer

Ever seen the Jim Carrey movie 'The Cable Guy'?
Not everyone's cup of tea, I don't know whether its the black comedy, but as a character he was very interesting.
Underneath everything he was just looking for a friend. OK, so his method was a little over the top and forceful but at the heart that was his simple quest.
He had a saying when it came to some of the people he 'hooked up' with free cable - he called them preferred customers. This was his way of saying he considered them special friends, in his own deluded way. He thought he could buy friendship.
Anyway, why the Cable Guy recap?
Lately I get the feeling that I'm not going to be a 'preferred customer'. As much as I try it just doesn't seem to happen.
I have some good friends, I'm not doubting that, but just when I think there's one that's out of the ordinary it hits a wall. I know I have issue with expecting too much at times but I really hadn't thought that was a problem.
It just gets harder.
Being a priority would be nice sometimes, not just being accommodated.
Maybe the Cable Guy character isn't so far fetched after all.

What the Fraggle?

Fraggle Rock the movie is in the planning stages, apparently.
While the show was, and still kinda is, fun do we really need an 'adults only' version of a beloved children's show.
Their definition of 'adults only' is probably not what you're thinking. When they get around to agreeing on how to define what 'edgy' is then that's the definition we should run with.
Seriously, have we run out of ideas?
Is that a question that actually needs to be asked?

My '16 Candles' moment

If you've ever seen the classic 80s film 16 Candles, you'll recall that Molly Ringwald's character Sam's 16th birthday is overlooked by her family.
This leads her to exclaim - 'I don't believe it, they f***ing forgot my birthday!'.
Well it was my birthday earlier this week and my housemate forgot. He was tipped off around the 8.30pm mark by another friend but I couldn't help but recall the 16 Candles moment.
Granted, my milestone was far less significant than a teenage girl's 16th. Still, it was a shade on the disappointing side that someone you've lived with for more than half a decade could be unaware of your birthday.
On one hand, though, it wasn't surprising and a shade amusing in a way.

The 3D rip-off

Being cheap Tuesday I thought I'd head off for a movie after work.
I'd decided on Alice In Wonderland in 3D and when I went to get the ticket I was confronted with 'that's 20 dollars''.
20 bucks! Movies are supposed to be half that price on a Tuesday.
Upon registering my disgust at the ticket price I was told that 3D movies don't come under the cheap Tuesday banner.
Now that might be fair enough if they didn't already charge you extra for seeing a 3D film.
So instead of 10 bucks for the movie and 2 bucks for the 3D glasses (or so I thought) the cost was going to be the usual 17 for the movie, 2 for 3D plus and extra dollar for the glasses.
The only 3D films I've seen have not charged the 3D surcharge and just 2 bucks for glasses.
I decided in protest I wouldn't go today because it's ridiculous that they are already charging extra for the 3D movie so why can't the ticket price come down for cheap Tuesday?

Lights, camera, imagination!

I'm annoyed at the lack of imagination shown by film makers these days.
In reading through the latest Empire magazine I noted rumoured or confirmed reports that there could be a remake of Jaws, Fast and the Furious 5 (I do own all four so far but, come on), a Bourne prequel, Avatar 2, Mission Impossible 4. I could go on.
Seriously, where is the originality?
Now I know the reason we are getting so many sequels and remakes. It's because they are almost guaranteed to make money. And that is really all that matters to the studios.
But how many inane comedies, alleged romantic comedies and send-ups can we stand? How many more times must we watch the same predictable films?
Thankfully, if you look hard enough, there are some gems out there with an actual story to tell.
Over the last few years my top films each year have been the likes of Lars And The Real Girl, Reign Over Me, Brokeback Mountain, Into The Wild and Up In The Air is the front runner in 2010.
Personally, I'd rather be challenged by a well acted drama or laugh along with a deftly scripted comedy than all the trash we're getting.
Sure, I'll eat up the Hollywood blockbusters and I'm into the Twilight series (I'll be there when Eclipse opens in a few months). I am aware of some hypocrisy on my part but at least I'm aware of it. That doesn't mean I can't decry it.
Over the coming weeks I'd like to see movies such as Brothers, A Single Man and The Blind Side and hopefully I will get around to it.

Chaos versus control

There's a scene in the classic film Six Degrees Of Separation where two Kandinsky paintings are featured representing chaos and control.
On one side the painting is geometric and ordered, on the other it is vivid and boundless.
They are meant to be contrasting but in reality the two ideas go together so well.
Chaos, disorder, uncertainty. These can all be exciting or scary situations.
Control, habituality, surety. They aren't all they are cracked up to be.
I should know. I've been trying to control things that are out of my control for a very long time and it gets frustrating.
I don't like the idea of randomness most of the time. Spontaneity doesn't scare me but I've always preferred to be prepared.
Have you ever noticed how people who err on the side of chaos seem to be less easily stressed, worry less and seem to enjoy themselves more readily.
Ever seen the episode of Seinfeld where George decides to do the opposite of everything he normally does? That George is confident and chaotic and gets everything the other George would never have a shot at.
So is it that simple?
I've had a situation at work lately that has bothered me a lot more than I have let on. On the surface it is something that I should just brush aside and forget about but it lingers. I think about it a lot more than I should.
I say I don't care what people think quite readily but, truth be told, I must care a lot more than even I'm aware of. It's part of needing to control things, even if it is subconsciously.
I was faced with a situation today where my phone packed it an and I had the choice of replacing it straight away or sending it away to be repaired. Not knowing if it could be, how long it would take or what it would cost I elected just to replace it. I can't believe that I can't go for a week or two without a mobile phone. Control, see?
I'd love to try chaos as a way of life and see if I can thrive.
Whether the control part of me allows it is another thing.

Careful what you wish for

Tomorrow sees the beginning of what will be a fairly steep learning curve for me at work.
It's a great thing, because it is something I have wanted a crack at for a while, but the last week or so it has occurred to me that I might not be ready.
I have some experience at what I will be doing but, basically, within a month I have to know how to run the show on my own. Big step. A fair bit daunting. Totally achievable, though.
It is exciting, and does show to me that hard work is rewarded sometimes. The circumstances aren't the best, though, and that is making things a bit strange.
The important thing, I think, when I'm learning in the coming weeks is to not expect to know everything straight away. Take it a step or two at a time.
On other topics, I love rainy weekends occasionally. So this weekend was kinda nice. Although both days started with a big tease of a fine day before those hopes were dashed fairly quickly.
Aside from State Of Origin II this week the anticipation for the Transformers sequel is pretty high. It has been caned a bit in the reviews this weekend but I come to expect that from most of the critics I read.
I'm not really expecting a great storyline (hey, they are 80s ex-cartoon robots) and with 150 minutes to get through that is some concern. But if the action is as good as the trailer makes out then it should be a wild ride.
I've otherwise had a fairly good weekend. I finished reading the fourth instalment of Buffy season 8 and it is starting to lose its appeal. They should have stuck with the TV series, but then again it is a comic so I shouldn't be too harsh. I do enjoy finding out what happened next and you don't get that with a lot of TV shows.

New Moon trailer

The second film in the Twilight series, New Moon is a step closer to release with the first trailer now doing the rounds.
From the first look it appears faithful to the book again, which is important, and it gives us the first viewing of the new Jacob (same actor of course), something that was hinted at for those who were listening at the end of Twilight when Edward was escorting Bella into the ball.
Naturally, if you've read the books there are no surprises only anticipation as to how it will all look (the Italy stuff could be pretty cool). Personally, I'm looking forward to a few scenes that should be in Eclipse, the third film, coming out next year.
If you haven't read the books I'd advise it, while it will spoil what is going to happen in some ways it will open up the story more. When I watched Twilight I could easily fill in the gaps that the film had and I think that helped, rather than hindered which can happen with adaptations.

Philadelphia

Earlier this week I was flicking channels and came across the movie

Philadelphia and decided to have a watch.

It's amazing that this film made in 1993 can still have the same impact.

Of course, Tom Hanks plays a lawyer fired because he has AIDS and Denzel Washington is the young lawyer hired to take on his case.

I am a sucker for drama. I love watching interesting, emotional, real, stories with excellent acting performances and this is right up there.

Hanks very much deserved an Oscar for his role.

For me Philadelphia is one of those movies that you can't help but get emotionally tied up in and I admit the eyes got a bit watery towards the end.

It's the soundtrack that really brings it out, I reckon. The music is so poignant.

Back in 1993 when this came out the world was a very different place and someone with AIDS was looked upon as a dirty, usually gay, person who deserved it.

Thankfully we have moved on a bit from there, though that doesn't make right what a lot of innocent people would have had to endure. I thought this came across well in the film.

If you haven't watched it in a while it's worth a look. Certainly made me think.

My own `Sixteen Candles' moment

Anyone who grew up in the 80s would be familiar with the movie Sixteen Candles.
Well, today I had my very own Sixteen Candles moment - my housemate forgot my birthday.
Initially it was disappointing that someone I have shared a house with for as long as we have been could not remember a birthday.
Then when he realised I actually felt a bit bad for him because he was feeling pretty guilty. So much so he pestered me for a while to allow him to take me out for a drink tonight. If nothing else his reaction shows that he cares.
In the movie Molly Ringwald's character turns 16 but her parents forgot because of everything else that was going on. It has that classic line - `I don't believe it. They f***ing forgot my birthday'.
I never thought that would actually happen. For the record I turned 34 today.
Yesterday I spent most of the day out and about so today I chilled out for the most part.
I spent the day at the races then went to a mate's house party on the other side of Sydney. I met a bunch of interesting people and had quite a nice time. So it was a good way to spend a `birthday weekend'.
By the way, happy birthday to Brant whose birthday is the 21st but thanks to being on the other side of the world we share, technically, the same day.

Breaking Dawn

This afternoon I finally finished the fourth book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, all 750-odd pages of it!
I have to say overall it didn't grab me as much as the previous books and I reckon if it had been shorter it would have been much, much better. When I read Twilight I couldn't put it down, it seemed to fly and was simply riveting (to me anyway). Some of Breaking Dawn, particularly early on was a bit of a chore but when you've made it this far in a series you have to hope for the best.
New Moon, the next film being made, took a while to grow on me but once it did I found it similar to the first book.
Eclipse again was a bit slow to kick off. With Breaking Dawn I just thought there was so much build up to the finale, some of which made it border on an anti-climax, it could be ruined as a movie as most of what needs to be focused on happens towards the end.
With the movie version of Twilight I thought they brushed over some important stuff - though if you'd hadn't read the book you probably didn't notice. As I said when I reviewed the movie there were some very interesting scenes at school and in the James pursuit that they really wasted opportunities on.
Similarly with New Moon, there's some pretty boring stuff going on early in the book before things heat up from about a third of the way in. In all three remaining movies of books there are some scenes that I can't wait to see on screen and I hope they are as awesome as the baseball scene in Twilight.
I haven't gone into a movie series as a fan of the books before so it is a vastly different experience for me as I have all these preconceived ideas of what the movies should look like.
I can see scenarios where New Moon is royally stuffed up and hopefully that isn't because they are rushing to get it done for release in about eight months time and will probably work on Eclipse back to back.

Continuity

One of the strange things about me is that I hate it when there is no continuity with things I collect.
For example, today I bought the new CD by The Fray. Now normally I would just grab it and head straight to the counter. I saw the packaging and it wasn't the standard CD pack like the billions of others in the world. It was some kind of thin packaging and I thought twice about buying it.
More than twice actually. I went to four other stores in the shopping centre to see if they had the traditional CD pack. They didn't so I reluctantly bought it. I'm now going to try and cut up the cardboard and fashion it into the normal CD style.
It's the same thing when they released Wall-E on DVD. The packaging was not the usual DVD style so I'd have every other Pixar movie in the traditional style and one that is different. Anyway I found a copy of it in the normal style and quickly nabbed it. So that crisis was averted. A similar thing happened with season 5 or 6 of the Simpsons when they decided to put the DVDs in a character head pack not the standard box. It caused such an uproar on the net that Fox now release both a head pack and a box version when they release a season. So they should.
Don't these companies know that the essence of collecting things is continuity? I know I'm not the only one who has this quirk, and it really gets to me when they do this.

Security blanket

So I finished watching It's A Wonderful Life and, after wiping the eyes, immediately thought how we lose sight of the little things.
I don't know about anyone else, but the scene where people pour into George Bailey's house with money is a really emotional one. He was so busy putting everyone else first that he didn't think he was important at all. He didn't realise the impact he had on the people around him.
Hopefully this Christmas we can all take a step back and realise how fortunate we are.
Getting a gift is nice, and to me it is really the thought that matters. I don't really need anything, I'm far from rich but would be an average middle class person.
If I could have anything for Christmas, I'd love it be peace of mind. That security blanket that we all have but that some of us lose when traumatic things happen. When we're really shaken to the core and lose that aura of invincibility.
Living without that false sense of security is a battle at times and I'd really like it back. A line from the film Into The Wild hits me when I think about that, something like - `I don't think it is important to be strong but to feel strong'.
I'd like to feel strong again. That's my Christmas wish.

Worst movies of 2008

Famous magazine has released its list of the worst movies of 2008 and it is a list I will largely agree with (though I haven't seen all of them).
I have only seen two in fact - You Don't Mess With The Zohan, which was a one joke film that was only funny for a while; and Rambo, which I thought was actually quite good if a bit over the top.
I've given a couple of pretty low scores this year, 3/10, for The Happening and Harold And Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. So I guess they are my worst movies of 2008.

Question of the week...

Later this week the highly anticipated film The Dark Knight opens and I'm seeing it with the biggest Batman Begins fan I know so that will enhance the experience.
I've read a couple of reviews, all spectacular, and they increase the expectation that this will be the film of the year. Heath Ledger's performance will be interesting - I have no doubt he'll be good - and already they are saying move over Jack Nicholson.
So the question is....will it live up to the hype?
Only four days to wait (I could go Wednesday but I'd rather see it with Mr J) and see.

Dumb idea of the month

I was reading one of the papers the other day and read that a live action movie of The Smurfs was being proposed.
I know Transformers worked, but they were robots, how the heck are the going to make foot tall blue creatures plausible and interesting enough to fill 80 or 90 minutes.
The Flintstones didn't work and you'd think they would have learned from that mistake to leave some things alone. Really, who wants playing Smurfette on their list of credits?
Surely there are more original ideas out there.