2024 Year in review - Movies and TV Reviews

TV and Movies

Netflix lost me as a customer after they started blocking password sharing in February 2023. Since then I mostly pirate movies and TV shows using my Plex server. Two years later and I am still salty about this.

I have not been great at updating my My Letter BoxD profile. I expect that I will update it once a year when making this year end post.

Where did this data come from

• Plex server sorted by date
• Prime video
• Cineplex ticket history

Ranking

• (Great) - I would recommend
• (Good) - Its okay it has issues
• (Meh) - Forgettable, don’t bother
• (Bad) - Horrible do not watch

Movies I watched in the theaters 🍿

• Great - Deadpool & Wolverine - Great movie, move of the year.
• Great - Dune: Part Two
• Good - Heretic - I left the theater not liking this movie but over the week afterwards it grew on me. I didn’t care for the ending, felt rushed.
• Good - Joker: Folie à Deux - I really liked the first one, a mixture of what is real and what is made up in his head. This one didn’t have the magic of the first movie but was still pretty good.
• Good - Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - I liked it, some of the weird actor choices and acting choices brought me out of the theme but otherwise it was fun
• Meh - The Beekeeper - Generic, predictable story. Exactly what you expect from Jason Statham
• Bad - Borderlands - This movie was cut up into slivers of shots and spliced back together. Couldn’t follow the movie at all. Just Terrible

Movies I watched at home 📺

• Great - Saltburn (2023) - I loved it. It was recommended to me by a friend and I went into it without knowing anything about it.
• Great - The Fabelmans (2022) - Beautifully shot, well directed, exactly what I expect from Steven Spielberg
• Great - Nimona (2023) - I wasn’t expecting much coming into this movie but the story was amazing and the animation and jokes were great. Great surprise
• Great - The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part 2 (1974), The Godfather Part 3 (1990) - I watched all three of these movies back to back, extended directors cut versions. Wonderful. The shift in part three was a little jarring but still great.
• Great - Goodfellas (1990) - I watched this and Scarface after watching The Godfather. It was a nice shift in tone. Since this film Joe Pesci basically plays this character in all his subsequent rolls.
• Great - Dream Scenario (2023) - I loved this premise, brilliant. The show in all its parts are exactly what I was looking for. It did feel like the editing could have been better but otherwise great movie.
• Great - Civil War (2024) - Very different then what I was expecting going into this movie. Wonderful, Cinematography was top notch.
• Good - Red One - I was expecting Christmas slop, and it definitely had feelings of that but it was surprisingly good.
• Good - My Old Ass - I watched this because it had Aubrey Plaza in it. It was okay coming to age story. Enjoyable.
• Good - Bee Movie - I am almost two decades late in watching this movie. I like it but nothing really memorable
• Good - Henchmen - Kids movie, but had its moments.
• Good - Landscape with Invisible Hand - Weird and interesting, I liked it.
• Good - Argylle (2024) - Predictable generic spy movie, it had a few moments but mostly forgettable
• Good - Scarface (1983) - I didn’t care for this on rewatch as much as I thought I would. It was the 5th movie in the gangsters series that I had been watching. After the Godfather, and goodfellas this didn’t hit for me
• Good - Rope (1948) - I watched it as a study of a show where it was all shot in a single location with good cuts that made it seem like one single shot. Over all it was a great movie just really dated for me
• Good - The Fall Guy (2024) - Fun love story between Ryan Gosling, and Emily Blunt, with some action. Hard to go wrong
• Good - Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes (2024) - This was always going to be a hard movie to get right with so much back story leading up to it. There was no way that it was going to satisfy everyone. They did an okay job
• Good - Brightburn (2019) - I liked this movie premise a lot, but it could have been executed better. Reminds me a lot of Superman: Red Son that was amazing.
• Good - Leave the World Behind (2023) - Amazing acting with some smart ideas.
• Meh - Blink Twice (2024) - It had some interesting ideas, and Channing Tatum, and Christian Slater did a great job in it. I just hated the main lead though Naomi Ackie very distracting in every scene that she was in.
• Meh - Things Will Be Different (2024) - I would write a 1000 words essay on what was wrong with this movie. Time travel loop story with a twist, interesting plot. It just felt like it was written and directed by someone brand new who hasn’t seen that many movies.
• Meh - Triangle of Sadness (2022) - I forgot I even seen this
• Meh - The Holdovers (2023) - A lot of people loved this movie, I did not. Maybe its just because I don’t care too much for Paul Giamatti
• Meh - Animal World (2018) - I watched this when it first came out and though it was a cleaver movie that had an interesting idea. On rewatch, it was a one trick pony, and didn’t stand up to my memory of it.
• Meh - Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain (2023) - Forgettable
• Bad - Trap (2024) - I put this on because my partner had just seen Taylor swift in concert and thought it might be a good riff on that… It was terrible from start to finish.
• Bad - Robots - Terrible Nothing redeemable about this movie
• Bad - Strays (2023) - Generic talking pets movie with nothing going on. Bad puns, bad jokes
• Bad - Eighth Grade (2018) - I tried to watch this movie because the very talented Bo Burnham wrote and directed it. But I hated it, and I couldn’t get past the first 30 mins. Ended up turning it off.

TV shows 📺

Only including the series that I finished completely.

• Great - Dispatches From Elsewhere (Mini series) - If you watch one thing this year, make it this. It wonderful and query. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Great - Scavengers Reign (Single season) - The most uniquely alien TV show that I have seen in a long time. Highly recommend. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Great - INVINCIBLE (Season 2) - Great TV, wonderful story, good character development. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Great - Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Season 1)
• Great - The Boys (Season 4)
• Great - Euphoria (Season 2) - Wonderful TV
• Great - Fallout (Season 1) - I am a fallout fanboy, they had my attention before the story even started. Its even better that it was well done.
• Great - Hazbin Hotel (Season 1) - Unique and memorable
• Great - Star Trek: Lower Decks (Season 5) - Wonderful, final season, it will be missed but its good to end on a high note.
• Great - Snowpiercer (Season 5) - I was surprised when they pushed it for one more season, but they did a great job in closing out all the lose ends without spoiling everything they worked for in the previous seasons. Good way to end the series.
• Great - Breaking Bad (Season 1-5) - Amazing all the way though. I rewatched this after a series of terrible movies and I needed a pallet cleanser. I am glad I did. It was masterfully done.
• Great - Twilight of the Gods (Season 1) - Wonderful. Leaned into the Mature rating without going overboard.
• Great - Kaos (Season 1) - Great story telling, wonderful sets, pity that they cancelled it but I can imagine how much this costs to make.
• Great - Devs (Season 1)
• Good - Reacher (Season 2)
• Good - Gen V (Season 1) - Fills a hole while waiting on more “The Boys”, but not amazing.
• Good - Malcolm in the Middle (Season 1-6) - After breaking bad I needed more Bryan Cranston and there was a rumor that they were coming back with a 7th season. This was a lot of TV but toughly enjoyable. Reminds me a lot of my childhood of being a delinquent
• Good - Tokyo Vice (Season 1-2) - I was panning on heading to Japan and I was looking for some TV show to watch that would inspire me. This was a well acted, and had a good story line. They lost the plot a few times but recovered.
• Meh - Only.Murders.in.the.Building (Season 1-3) - I was looking for a murder mystery and this filled the hole. The first season was okay, but season 2-3 went down hill quickly.
• Meh - 3 Body Problem (Season 1) - I am a big fan of the books, I knew it was going to be hard to visualize and bring these books to the screen. I don’t think they captured the feels from the books or told a story that is captivating on its own… Too bad.
• Meh - The Legend of Vox Machina (Season 3) - Getting tired, and I am losing interest.

Music

Listened to 9,513 songs in 2024 (decrease of 17% from 2023) across 2,031 artists (decrease of 25% from 2023). An average of 26 songs per day. That’s approximately 26 days, 6 hours of music. The longest streak of listening to music was 26 days in a row.

My music tastes are concentrating on a fewer and fewer artists and I am listing to less music then years past.

These stats come from Last.fm.

Top Artist

Top three places are the same as last year, Janelle Monáe drop down to 5th place and Glass Animals joined the list at 4th place. Daft Punk is more then 25% higher then anyone else on this list. I don’t see them dropping out of first place anytime soon. This is because I listen to Daft Punk - Discovery on repeat while I am working for distraction free background music.

1. Daft Punk
2. Battles
3. NNAMDÏ
4. Glass Animals
5. Janelle Monáe

Top Albums

1. Discovery - Daft Punk
2. Random Access Memories - Daft Punk
3. BRAT - NNAMDÏ
4. Dirty Computer - Janelle Monáe
5. Mirrored - Battles

Top Tracks

The The Shoebody Bop track has been running in my head for months. I find myself humming this simple tune on repeat. Mind worms.

1. The Shoebody Bop - The Minute Hour Archive
2. Lose yourself to Dance - Daft Punk
3. Dumbest Girl Alive - 100 Gecs
4. Feel It Still - Portugal. The Man
5. Happy Idiot - TV on the Radio