By SiftPop Managing Editor: Blake Hodges
With April’s run of movies complete, the list has a major shake up from the top to the bottom. We wave goodbye to the following movies that were on the list last month: The Upside, What Men Want, and Isn’t it Romantic. A movie’s “Power Ranking” comes down to how much “juice” they have left in my head space. The score is made up of a combination of how much I want to watch it again combined with how much of a favorite it is for the year. By the end of the year, the list will be more heavily weighted to my favorite movies of the year but as we ride the middle of the wave of 2019, there is nearly as much weight as too wanting to see it again.
10. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
Part of me wants to go back and give this another shot. The original Lego Movie and Lego Batman movies were pure delights. How this one fell down so far in laughter and heart is tragic. But when I scroll through the Redbox considering my options, I can never bring myself to bring this one home. If it doesn’t find its way to my house soon, it’ll fall off the list and off my radar entirely. And once you are off the radar and forgotten, it’s tough to be found again.
9. Long Shot
How crazy is it that this list has five comedies on it right now? This leaves a lot of room for a future shake up but Long Shot takes the #9 spot for now. Rogen finds a way to be a better version of himself with constraint and the laughter and touching moments made me smile throughout. There is a scene where Rogen realizes his own biases that I really like and think might be one of the most underrated moments of film this year.
8. Madea Family Funeral (Down -3)
Madea finds a way to hold on! Give me a bag of Smartfood White Cheddar popcorn, an empty Tuesday night and I’m there for it. She has a direct line to my funny bone and I’m not ashamed to admit it. In fact, I’m tempted to go back and watch the original Madea’s Halloween right now. Just don’t tell Dicer. If he knew I was rewatching a Madea movie rather than catching up on the Alfred Hitchcock movies I haven’t seen he might roast me with dragon fire.
7. Alita Battle Angel (Down -4)
This is the biggest drop of the list. Alita’s tumble is in part to the new movies but its also the nature of the “Origin Story” nature. While I’m still excited to see the sequel and spend more time in this world, I don’t really want to do another lap of this phase. Honestly, I’m going to call it now and predict Alita slips off the list entirely in June and falls down to the clouds just like someone else we know.
6. Shazam (Down -2)
Comedies struggle to maintain re-watchability. Honestly, I only have one comedy that I continuously go back to. (Tangent time, do your parents make you watch It’s a Wonderful Life every Christmas? Me too. I showed them We’re the Millers at Christmas and somehow tricked them into watching that every year instead. Yes, be impressed.) With the comedy fading and the images of the insane looking villians still stuck in my mind, Shazam! takes a couple of steps down in lieu of April’s heavy hitters. However, I would also add this to the Redbox list when it hits your local Kroger.
5. Captain Marvel (Up +1)
Captain Marvel is the first to benefit strongly from the “I want to watch that again” effect. Endgame infused me with a wave of nostalgia and hit my chest like the paddles in hospital dramas. I’m excited to give this a second chance and see if it can redeem its self on a rewatch like Guardians 1 did.
4. Five Feet Apart (Down -2)
Dropping down two spots is still impressive for a teen romance movie. The emotion and character work makes for some strong staying power. The leads are spectacular in making you buy into the stakes. The emotional moments feel heartfelt rather than cheesy. The humor is funny rather than cringeworthy. The romance is touching rather than “roll your eyes” unbelievable. If you didn’t catch it in theaters (And I don’t blame you if you didn’t) this is a high Redbox recommend. I guarantee this will make the best, underrated movies of 2019 and will surprise people for years to come when they stumble upon it.
3. Book Smart
When you see the trailer for this you may be tempted to roll your eyes at what looks like another cliché high school party movie. I don’t blame that reaction. I did the same thing. When I saw AMC had sent me an invite to screen the movie a month ahead of time though, I jumped at the chance. What’s better than a Wednesday evening screener? The next two hours of my life were euphoric. In the first two minutes you will fall in love with the main characters friendship. You’ll also become major fans of theirs individually. At the five-minute mark, you’ll realize the concept is the perfect pivot from a cliché movie template to a clever nightmare for the protagonists. Most comedies show the best jokes in the trailer and leave you lifeless in the theater (cough* Detective Pikachu cough*). Not this movie. The laughs are abundant, the characters are real, and the movie brings the magic. My college debate coach always said, “Make the judge laugh or cry. Or even better, both”. While I didn’t cry, it 100% hit me in the feels. Heck, even the sound track is good. I’m listening to it RIGHT NOW as I write this. Don’t be surprised if this finds a way to overtake Us when I see this a second time. I should probably move onto the next movie least I gush a 1,000 more words on this masterpiece.
2. Us (Down -1)
Us was never going to compete against Endgame. Even worse, I haven’t been able to see this a second time cause my wife really despises horror movies. I suspect I’ll Redbox this when it is released so that will aid in its staying power on the list. I still firmly believe this will be on the top ten of the year by December 31st. I really despise horror movies but I love thrillers. This is a complicated set of preferences when these two genres blend together so often. Jordan Peele comes with an excellent premise that goes so far beyond the typical jump scares of this genre. Us has a horror of the mind that seeps into your consciousness and sits there. Furthermore, the movie starts revving up the engine very early on into the film and doesn’t let off the gas all the way until the credits start to roll. The film is so gripping you won’t be able to stand up for a pee break; I know I didn’t.
1. Avengers: Endgame
The action! The character moments! The stakes! The tension! I could scream through this whole blurb cause that’s all I did as I watched this! There is a tangible electricity that surges throughout the room on Marvel movie’s opening night and you can’t find it anywhere else. Being twenty-six, this has been the franchise that I’ve gotten to watch from start to finish in my lifetime. I never thought when it started that this would overtake Star Wars for me as my favorite franchise but there is a little something extra that comes when you start watching something your freshman year of high school only to see it conclude in your junior year of life. (After you graduate, you realize it has been so easy to remember things in life by what year of school you were in. If you want to extend this helpful process another four years, you can call each year after you graduate your ((insert year here)) of life.) Does anyone think there will be a movie to come along and challenge this? Its hard to imagine anything even getting close. And that’s fine by me. I’ll HAPPILY write another thing I liked about this movie every single month when the article updates.
Little
The biggest winner of this list wasn’t Avengers. The biggest winner is Dumbo for managing to fly out of the “Worst movie of the year” spot. This movie was so bad I might not be able to review it. Why? Well, I went to sleep every ten to fifteen minutes. I would then jolt awake and be devastated that this was still going on. The laughter was zero, the characters were shallow, and the concept was wasted. It did very very little to bring any enjoyment to the screen. In fact, I might say it didn’t do anything at all to merit a smile. When you go to the big shiny movie machine to check out movies you missed, skip this. Skip it hard.