I thought I'd send 2020 on its way with a list of the 5 new-to-me movies I most enjoyed last year. Interestingly, these are all new movies. That's rather unusual. I watched a fair amount of classic movies last year, but none grabbed me.
5. Terminator: Dark Fate
I'd wanted to see this one when it came out, but just never had a chance to make it to the theater. I watched it on Amazon Prime and loved it. Yes, its plot is basically Terminator all over again, but that didn't bother me. This movie is a direct sequel to Terminator 2, disregarding all those other movies, and I loved that. It came back to the characters and situations I loved about the first two movies. Having Linda Hamilton back was awesome. She rocked. So did Arnold. But most of all, I have discovered Mackenzie Davis. I adored her! She was wonderful, and she made the movie for me.
4. Frozen 2
One of the very few movies I saw in the theater last year, when it came to the discount theater. No one in my family liked this one but me. They love the first movie. I had the opposite reaction. I like the first one, but don't love it. This is the one that spoke to me and really hit my sweet spot points. I loved the songs more, I loved the characters more, I loved the plot, the scenery, basically everything... This one just works for me. I can't say I was much of an Anna fan before, but here, her arc was amazing, and I was so happy with where she ended up.
3. Onward
This Pixar movie was so much fun, not at all what the previews seemed to make it out to be about. I loved all the characters, really related to the sibling relationship, and cried at the end. This one goes up high on my personal favorites list of Pixar films.
2. 1917
Another of the few movies seen in the theater, and one I saw more than once in the theater. I loved everything about this movie. So well-done, so powerful, so moving, and the score is my favorite score I bought last year.
1. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
This movie is my favorite movie of last year, and I know, that seems absolutely crazy. This is not a movie I suspect anyone who knows me would think I would watch, let alone love so much I've watched it multiple times. It's my most re-watched movie last year. Whenever I needed a pick-me-up, I put this on. There are so many reasons this shouldn't have worked for me. I'm not a Will Ferrell fan. I'm not a modern music fan. I'm not even a Rachel McAdams fan. Nor a Pierce Brosnan fan. But this movie is magic. This movie is gold. Are there a few moments of crude humor I could have done without? Yeah... but they didn't detract enough to matter. I loved Will Ferrell and loved Rachel McAdams. They were perfect and wonderful together, and who thought I'd ever love Will Ferrell in anything? The songs are great, and it was freaking WEEKS before I could get Ja Ja Ding Dong or Double Trouble out of my head. Probably just mentioning them here is going to get them stuck all over again. Biggest earworms of last year. The movie was uplifting in just the way I needed in the middle of 2020, and I will continue revisiting this movie whenever I need something happy to watch.
