All Quarantine Movies Ranked: Part 2
This is part 2 of me ranking all 40 quarantine movies. To be clear, when I say quarantine movies, I mean movies I watched for the FIRST time from March 2020-May 2021. Part 1, I was a bit negative talking about a majority of the movies. The top 20 is going to be singing their praise for most of these movies. Let’s get started!
20. Live Free or Die Hard: This is easily the most ridiculous Die Hard movie. They took Die Hard and mixed it with Fast and Furious and Mission Impossible. I love all three of those franchises so I think it works really well in this movie. The action is so bombastic, with a car in an elevator shaft. I really like the new character, Justin Long being a great addition that adds some nice humor in it. He has great chemistry with Bruce Willis. I really enjoy Timothy Olyphant as an actor, and him as the villain was pretty fun to see. I really liked the Kevin Smith sequence, and it had some nice humor in it. So in general, I think this is a very good fourth movie in the Die Hard franchise.
19. First Blood: I’m currently watching all of the Rambo movies, because I plan on ranking them in June after Stallone’s new movie, Samaritan comes out. But I thought this was a great little thriller with a little bit of action thrown into the mix. What stuck out to me the most about this movie, were the characters. The John Rambo character is very interesting with a bunch of layers about him. The Sheriff played by Brian Dennehy was a great antagonist toward Rambo that fits this movie. The action when it does happen is pretty great, the chase in the forest being the stand-out. And the score by Jerry Goldsmith was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. So, I really dug this Rambo movie.
18. Airplane: I watched this movie and thought it was hilarious, I was laughing out loud for pretty much the entire movie. The plot---I don’t even remember the plot, I don’t even think there is a plot to this movie. It’s just hilarious scenario after hilarious scenario, and this is easily one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Some of my favorite lines are “surely you can’t be serious. Yes, and don’t call me Shirley''. It’s classic and funny, if you haven’t seen Airplane I encourage you to go check this movie. When I watched it the movie was on Netflix, not sure if it still is. But this is just a funny comedy from the early 80s, and it’s a movie that has a very good cast.
17. Love Actually: This was the other Hugh Grant movie that I mentioned in the previous blog post. And this is just a great Christmas comedy that really works. It’s funny, quotable, and heartfelt and that is what I want from a Christmas comedy. It tells stories of a bunch of people, and all of their stories kind of come together in the third act of this movie. They got world class actors to be the leads of this movie, and they do great. If I had to pick a favorite, I think Liam Nesson is the one I would go with. It’s nice to see him do a more comedic and heartfelt route. But honestly, there are no bad performances in this movie. And this movie might include my mom’s favorite movie scene of all time with---Hugh Grant’s dancing.
16. The Godfather: Now, I know this is an absolute legendary classic that should be in the top 10, maybe top 5. But I watched this movie (on my birthday actually), and I could respect this movie more than I enjoyed it. This movie is pushing 3 hours long, and I don’t think it needed to be as long as it is. The wedding sequence takes up like 45 minutes of the movie, I think it could have been trimmed down to 25 minutes. And just take away a bunch of scenes, or even shorten some scenes. The performances are great, the direction by Francis Ford Coppola is great. It has a bunch of great things about it, but it just wasn’t a movie for me. It might sound like I’m hating on this movie, but I’m only saying all of my negatives because I know a bunch of people love this and would have it higher on their lists.
15. Jerry Maguire: “Show me the money!” I watched this movie, hearing good things about it, Cuba Gooding Jr. won an Oscar for this movie. I went into this movie besides knowing that famous line, it stars Tom Cruise, and Cuba Gooding Jr. won an Oscar. And I thought this was a great movie, I think Tom Cruise is a great actor in dramatic roles. He’s obviously one of the biggest movie stars in the world, but he can really act, and I think this movie is a great example of that. You gotta talk about Cuba Gooding Jr. who is great, he’s not amazing in this movie but he is very good. Renee Zellweger is also quite good in this movie, and she has great chemistry with Tom Cruise. The movie is 2 hours and 19 minutes long, that seems a bit too long and they could have trimmed up the middle a bit. But still, a great Tom Cruise movie.
14. Godzilla vs Kong: Dad, please don’t get angry with me for putting Godzilla vs Kong over The Godfather. But hear me out, two monster fighting is more my thing than a 3 hour long gangster movie. Which is the better made movie, obviously The Godfather is, but which is more entertaining obviously Godzilla vs Kong. But this is a movie that delivers on what you wanted from this movie which is seeing Godzilla and Kong battle it out. The action is dynamic, you can see everything is happening, and the CGI for this movie is pretty great. I like how they humanized the Kong character and made him more relatable in this movie. There is a nice sense of humor running through-out this movie. The human characters and the laps in logic hold this movie back, but you don’t go to these movies to see great characters and a bunch of logic.
13. Hamilton: This might be the 2020 movie (yes I think it’s a movie), that I’ve re-watched the most. Because my family absolutely adores this movie, and I think it’s a great movie. I didn’t really have too many expectations going into it, historical music didn’t sound interesting to me. But this movie exceeded my expectations. The songs here are fantastic, and the fact that Lin-Manual Miranda wrote all of these songs after only reading the first 2 chapters of the Hamitlon biography. The characters are so great, they are developed, and well acted. The stand-out for me being Aaron Burr, I think Leslie Odom Jr. is great and he’s a greatly written character. The stand-out songs for me are The Room Where it Happens, What’d I Miss?, and all of the King George songs. But this movie I found to be re-watchable, funny, had great characters, and dealt with a lot of themes.
12. The Shawshank Redemption: Like The Godfather, The Shawshank Redemption is a movie that I can respect more than enjoy. It’s a movie that I think has a great duo at the heart of it with Andy and Red, where they just have this odd but charming relationship. Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins have great chemistry with one another. But it’s a movie that for me, it’s hard to exactly pinpoint what makes it a great movie. It does a lot of things well, but I can’t target one thing. There is some nice emotional weight as you move into the third act of the movie, and it comes to a satisfying ending. My introduction to William Sadler and Clancy Brown was on The CW’s The Flash show, so seeing them in this movie felt odd to me in certain ways. But in general, this is a great movie.
11. Die Hard With A Vengeance: For me, this is easily the best Die Hard sequel. And it’s just a very fun movie that doesn’t try to outdo the original movie. One of the things I like about it is that it's about John McClane being a NYC cop, he’s established as a cop in the original movie. But this is the only Die Hard movie where McClane is a cop in NYC. The introduction of Samuel L. Jackson makes everything better, like he always makes everything better. Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson has great chemistry. Jeremy Irons’ as the villain is maybe the best villain of the sequels. Now, I think the last 45 minutes fall flat. I don’t think the final action scene fully lands for me, but in general this is a great sequel.
NOTE: As we move into my top 10, I would give all of these an A to an A+. So keep that in mind, it might be lower than some other movies but I still love these movies.
10. Whiplash: This was the latest movie on this list that my dad showed me. And it is a great movie about competitive jazz drumming, which is my favorite movie genre of all time. But this is a movie that is so interesting and tense. You hear the concept, and you think it’s going to be a bad movie, but Damien Chazelle crafts this tension and edge of your seat movie that works. A big part of that is because of J.K. Simmons fantastic performance as this mean drum teacher, and his rivalry with Miles Teller who is equally as mean and jerky. They just keep on crashing heads with one another. I’m somebody who likes the Supergirl tv show, so seeing Melissa Benoist is cool, and fun to see her doing other things. But if you haven’t seen this movie, go check it out.
9. Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Going into this movie, I didn’t really know what to make of it. I heard good reviews for the movie, but they mostly came up from people that were big Zack Snyder fans. So I watched it the day it came out, and I loved it. It was so much better than I thought it was going to be. And it made me like Batman vs Superman a good bit more, because this is a continuation of where that movie leaves off. You feel the scope of everything that is going on, you feel more emotions at the heart of this movie. The action is bigger and better than the 2017 movie. And this movie sets up two directions for a sequel, and I’d be down for rather one of them. So far, this is my favorite movie of 2021.
8. Fight Club: This might win the award for the weirdest movie that I have ever seen---and I mean that in a good way. Some people might not, (including my mother). But I thought this movie was fantastic, and while this is my least favorite David Fincher movie, it’s still an A for me. The performances by Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are great, and I wish they got Oscar love. I’m a big fan of Brad Pitt, and this might be my favorite performance of his. It also features a young Helena Bonham Carter before she became an A-lister. But you get to the twist of this movie, and it causes you to evaluate everything that came before. Fincher’s directing is on point with this movie, it is so stylized and it works on every level that it is going for. This is one of my favorite films of all time.
7. Goodfellas: This is a fantastic movie, the fact that this movie is at number 7 breaks my heart. Because on most lists, this is a top 3 contender. But I’ve just seen a lot of fantastic movies in quarantine. This might be Martin Scorsese’s best crafted movie, where there is no ounce of fat in this movie. Every single scene in this movie has a point and a purpose and it builds to the final. The performances all around are fantastic, and believable. You believe that these actors are playing gangster. As a kid, I grew-up watching Home Alone, and loved Joe Pesci in that movie. So seeing Pesci in this movie was quite the change of place. Fun fact, the “funny like a clown” scene was improvised by Joe Pesci, and Liotta’s scared reaction was a genuine reaction. This is a movie that is one of the best made movies of all time, and is one my dad’s favorites.
6. A Few Good Men: This might be my favorite Tom Cruise movie of all time. It’s a movie that shows how good of a dramatic actor this guy is. But he can also be super charming in this movie, and have some funny moments. But the rest of the cast is great, Jack Nicholson is fantastic. He just has this stare that he gives the characters and it’s terrifying, but he deserved that Oscar nomination. It works as a courtroom drama, it’s intriguing, and captivating. It’s also a movie that has a nice sense of humor to it, I knew going in that it was a courtroom drama. I thought it was going to be more serious than it actually was. This is one of the great movies of all time, it’s my favorite Tom Cruise movie of all time. And it’s a movie that if you like Tom Cruise, go check out this movie. I promise you, you will not be disappointed.
5. The Departed: As of now, this is my favorite Martin Scorsese movie. But it changes day to day with that or Goodfellas. But I think this movie has a better cast than Goodfellas, and that might be why I put it over that movie. I’m a big fan of Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nichsolson, and Mark Whalberg and when they are in a movie together I wanted to check it out. But it’s a movie that has a great premise and story idea, and Scorsese lives up to that. He builds tension all through-out this movie, and you are constantly on the edge of your seat wondering what is going to happen next. But the cast for this movie is great, I said that I liked all of them outside of this movie. But here, they might give their best performances of their career, and especially with Matt Damon playing a villain. He always plays the hero, so seeing him as the villain was great, and he’s great in this movie.
4. Die Hard: One of the great action movies of all time, and one of the most fun movies of all time. It’s a movie that created its own genre, with so many action movies where a solo guy has to stop terrorists from taking over something. And it’s all compared to this movie, that will never be topped by a straight forward action movie. This was the movie that launched both Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman into the A-list and they are both great. RIP Mr. Rickman, but he is just great as Hans Gruber and he is one of the great movie villains of all time. It’s a movie that is quotable and memorable, you remember all of the little quotes said by characters. It has some great action inside of it, that is dynamic and you can see everything that is going on. Easily, it makes it into the top 5.
3. Se7en: On paper, this movie looks like every other cop movie. With the soon to retire cops teams-up with the rookie cop. But it’s told and done with excellence. It’s a movie that works on every level that it is going for, it builds tension all through-out this movie. But it’s also a movie that John Doe is one of the famous serial killers of all time, but you never actually see him do any of the murders. And it builds this sense of tension and forward momentum. It is all building to a fantastic final scene, that is one of the greatest scenes in a movie. A couple weeks back, I did my 10 favorite final scenes in a movie, this is very high on the list and I stand by that. I have a hard time picturing any police thriller being better than Se7en. This is a fantastic movie.
2. Gone Girl: I honestly went back and forth on this movie and Se7en, which one was going to be 2, which one was going to be 3. But I think as of now, Gone Girl is my favorite Fincher movie. I re-watched this movie with my dad, he hadn’t seen it and still holds up on second viewing. Even though I knew what happened, I was still on the edge of my seat through-out this movie. The performances all around are fantastic. Rosamund Pike might give my favorite female performance of all time. And once you get into the second half of this movie, and you learn what happened it’s just shocking, it makes sense. Ben Affleck is also quite good in this movie, as this broken husband. And it’s a movie that has multiple twists in the movie, and all of them work.
1. The Silence of the Lambs: This is truly a perfect movie, there is not one bad thing about this movie. Everything in this movie is great, the performance, story, twists, and score are great. Anthony Hopkins might give the greatest performance of all time, male or female. He just gets under your skin, and nobody could replace Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, Hopkins is Hannibal Lecter and he always will be Hannibal Lecter. Jodie Foster is also great in this movie, you buy her as this FBI agent sent to investigate Buffalo Bill. The story is intriguing and interesting, and you are on the edge of your seat. The final 10 minutes of this movie are great, and so stressful and you don’t know what’s about to happen. This is a top 5 favorite movie for me, it’s perfect, no remake, sequel, or whatever will top this movie. So with some strong competition, this is my favorite quarantine movie.
That---took---forever. But hey, thanks for reading! What was your favorite movie that you watched in 2020-2021?
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