January 2021 Review: The Best Movies I Saw Last Month
Originally published February 7th, 2021
New year, same old me! I’m excited to continue this series where I recount what I watched last month. This year I am challenging myself to scale back a bit. My goal is to watch less than 40 films in a month which I put in place after I found myself getting burnt out at the tail end of last year. I think this is a realistic and reasonable goal for myself.
This January went much better than last year’s January. I had the pleasure of watching some pretty fun films with the typical stinkers. I’m making it a goal to mix up some decades more, so hopefully there will be even more hidden gems from before 2010 moving forward. I’m sad to report that there are very few 2021 films being released in the first few months of the year. It is going to be hard to get a gage on expectations. I only saw one this month and it was pretty bad. I’m hopeful February will yield some better results! After all is said and done, I watched a total of 34 films split across six decades.
Without any more fanfare, here are the best and worst films I saw last month!
BEST #3) The Call (2020); Director: Chung-Hyun Lee; South Korea
I really enjoyed this film, please check out my full review here.
Overall Score? 7/10
BEST #2) Zombi 2 (1979); Director: Lucio Fulci; Italy
A boat wanders into the New York harbor seemingly without a captain or anyone on board. While everything seems quiet upon investigation until authorities are attacked by a deranged man lurking in the shadows. After quickly neutralizing the threat, the boat is traced back to a missing person and his daughter is notified of the discovery. Sensing something is off she joins forces with a reporter to track down her father. They are led to a tropical island controlled by a doctor seeking the cure for a strange disease inflicting the locals. Once there, they discover the dead are coming back to life and that they must leave before they succumb to the mass’s appetite for human flesh. Zombi 2 is an absolute cult classic that is still just as fun of a first time watch in 2021 as I’m sure it was in 1979. Lucio Fulci is known for some pretty wacky things in horror and he does not disappoint in this Italian riff on the Of the Dead series. I don’t want to say too much but I guarantee that you will not find a better movie to feature a zombie versus shark action sequence filmed with real animals. And that’s a fact! More than a typical braindead film with masterclass effects, Zombi 2 will delight you in all its carnage and carnivorism.
Overall Score? 7/10
BEST #1) Gremlins (1984); Director: Joe Dante; United States
I’m being dead serious that it took me 25 years of my life to finally see Gremlins. Don’t judge me; I am human! A father gives his son a mysterious pet as a Christmas present which sets off a chain of events in his small town that will leave it changed forever. After ignoring the essential rules to taking care of his newfound responsibility, it’s up to this twenty-year-old to save his family, his girlfriend, and his town from ruin. Gremlins is such a blast of a film and it still holds up today. The practical effects are great. Even though the effects obviously aren’t as advanced as they are today, everything still looks reasonably realistic. The humor is timeless, the situation is wacky enough please almost anyone, and the action is just wholesome enough for the entire family to enjoy. Gremlins easily straddles the tropes of typical Christmas films (greedy rich people, keeping the family together, etc) while launching itself firmly into campy horror-comedy territory. It’s well-written in that we are introduced to the core cast of characters we care for while even giving personality to the monsters themselves. I’m so glad that I finally gave it a watch and I look forward to it gracing my holiday lineup for years to come.
Overall Score? 8/10
