Movies I watched in 2021

A woman deemed unsuitable marries the heir of the Gucci fashion house. Before turning against her (then ex) husband she unleashes business spirits that the family is not ready for. At the end, the husband gets killed, she is in prison, and nobody named Gucci remains with the company. It's wonderful entertainment -much more about the business and family dynamics than about fashion- but the variety of Italian accents the actors manage is sometimes cringeworthy.

Having his passport revoked after a coup in his country, a traveler is not allowed to enter the USA, nor can he fly back. So he befriends people, takes a construction job in the terminal, and tries to get past security, all the wile Customs & Borders Patrol does their best to prevent him from entering while at the same time trying to get rid of him. An entertaining battle of stamina ensues.

The perfect fare when you're not feeling real well and need some distraction - intellectually not taxing, but lots of action and humor.

More of a courtroom drama than an action movie, even though Edward Norton's role reminds me of his role in Fight Club. But that's as much as can be said without spoiling anything; definitely worth watching.

Set in Harlem in the 1920s, it's the story of two colored women friends, one of whom passes as white, the other as black. The questions raised are about the lives and stories we construct for ourselves, how those fit in with other people's views of us, and what might happen when the stories collapse. (on NetFlix)

Not one progressive story arc, but several in the shape of a newspaper edition. For me, it doesn't come together quite as well as, say, The Grand Budapest Hotel, but then, the delight of Wes Anderson movies is discovering all the well-known actors throughout in sometime rather small roles, and the decidedly unrealistic world they inhabit, and on those counts the film doesn't disappoint.

Alterspubertät (puberty for the middle aged) is what late-onset midlife crisis is called these days, and is dealt here with much situational humor, and less then edifying behavior all around. Never before seen: Christoph Maria Herbst with a full head of hair, which takes some getting used to.

The shrinking world of an aging man is portrayed as perceived by his decaying mind. The viewer can never be sure what exactly is happening, and what is filtered by the functioning and no-longer-functioning parts of his mind while he is trying to make sense of it. A well-done look at how dementia looks from within and from without, and another opportunity for Anthony Hopkins to shine.

Throwing real people into a situation where they have to act as if part of a video game to survive sounds like a weird proposition, but it works to funny effect in this case. While a few things are predictable, and some a bit sappy, enough surprises happen to keep the viewer engaged and amused.

More action and comedy than horror, even though death comes via the undead (or rather, the reawakened dead) and flesh-eating bugs. It's a bit predictable who gets it, but still fun to wait and see how so, and how the others get away. Good summer fare.

It's a funny movie, although a bit predictable in places. I had expected Dundee to create much more havoc in New York than he did. Linda Kozlowski's role seems mostly to glaze admiringly at Dundee, although it remains a bit of a mystery how they end up together (Dundee is a big step up from her shit fiancee, though). The second part takes the fight to Australia, where Dundee naturally has the advantage (and help from Aborigines). Still fun, and still nothing much to do for Linda Kozlowski but to look pretty.

The trailers had caused me to avoid this one when it came out, but it's actually quite enjoyable. While it's a bit disconcerting to see story arcs (Holmes drawing conclusions from examining a watch) and figures (Irene Adler) from various Sherlock Holmes stories mixed freely into something new (and I think no one ever pictured Watson as a fighting man), the result is still good entertainment.

Mr. Bean goes America could sum up this movie. He's guest at a family that expects a smart person, and accepts an excentric one, and he delivers the same general mayhem as in the series, extrapolated over 90 minutes. If you liked the series, you'll like the movie.

The main fish suffers from short term memory loss, and thus has trouble remembering where in her quest to find her parents she is. While there are curiously few predators around, a nicely grumpy octopus has lots of tricks up his sleeve to get her back on track. Funny.

Wes Anderson movies are a bit hit-and-miss, and this one is more miss than hit. While it's got the obligatory great cast modeling an extended dysfunctional family, except for Gene Hackman they don't get an opportunity to shine - Bill Murray especially seems wasted here. Time to watch Grand Budapest Hotel again.

More funny exploits of a superhero family, but this time supermom has got to go to work, while superdad has to deal with the kids and other family matters. Of course they need to pull together at the end, only to discover that superbaby's secret power is about more than making diapers superdirty.

This one came out the same summer as Antz, and lost out to it back then. Seeing it now, it's geared more towards kids, meaning there's less stuff for adults to "get" than in Antz. It nonetheless has its funny moments, and it's kind of surprising in a movie for kids that the bad guy (a grasshopper) is fed to the young birds at the end. I liked that, of course :-)

Continuing to catch up with Pixar movies, the Incredibles are a superhero family, each with their own strengths, living in a time where superheros are not supposed to exist any more after cleaning up their occasional mishaps has cost the city too much money. But they're still around, and eventually a villain worthy of their talents shows up.

Not quite as inspired as Monsters, Inc., but which sequel ever measures up 100% to the first part? Still, fun goings-on in monsterland, although, of course, you can guess that the little guy wins at the end.

Stranded with a broken-down plane on a remote island infested with animals and visited by pirates, that's the premise. But it's no match for Harrison Ford and Anne Heche, who ingenuously manage to survive and get home, improbably falling in love somewhere along the line.

An animated version of WikiPedia:The_Mansions_of_the_Gods, I had avoided this one when it came out, but was now pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the graphics. The plot differs in some aspects from the comic, but the basics are all there.

Like the first part, this is my kind of dark humor. Raul Julia and Christopher Lloyd shine especially.

A Kung Fu fighting Panda - what else is there to say? Suspending my usual aversion to martial arts movies, this one is quite funny. Animated films provide good distraction from the pandemic.