2019 roundup: The best and worst of Hollywood

Another year has come to an end and as usual Hollywood has listed great and horrible movies. Here are DH picks on both sides of the spectrum:

The greats:

Ford v Ferrari

James Mangold's retelling of the legendary 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, powered by a solid cast in Matt Damon and Christian Bale, was an experience to remember. Filled with both high-octane racing thrill and quiet character moments, it was a rare treat for racing and racing history fans.

Knives Out

Rian Johnson's whodunit had a great advantage in having no source material to adapt to or any fan backlash to worry about. The film went about its merry way, putting every character through a maze as the mystery of this death unravelled in quite the amusing manner.

Doctor Sleep

One of the greatest of rare feats in franchise properties is a sequel that lives up to its predecessor. Thankfully, Mike Flanagan more than delivered in this sequel to The Shining, giving fans of the books a slight twist on the tale with a side of some really twisty cinematography and a truly vicious villain.

Joker

Todd Phillips is a weird man. His interpretation of the Joker is probably the only thing weirder than him. He took the Clown Prince of Crime, a sadistic, savage, vicious, broken man and made him almost close to human, but never ever justified his actions - presenting them as the actions of a madman that they were.

John Wick 3: Parabellum

No-nonsense revenge films are a rare breed these days in a Disney-dominated Hollywood, but John Wick 3 did what it could do best: Paint a pretty picture full of blood, violence and chopped fingers. It also happens to be one of the few franchises where the third film did not completely drop the ball.

The worst

X-Men: Dark Phoneix

"Why?" was the only question in many fans' minds when they walked out of this film. This "why" is likely to have been "Why did I even go through this?" rather than "Why would anyone pay to make this movie?", a question not helped by the fact that it went through several reshoots, had bland characters and once again failed on properly adapting the Dark Phoenix.

Gemini Man

Is Will Smith really out of the peak of his career or is he just getting bad scripts? The question remained unanswered as Gemini Man brought in a mix of both with a cheap plot way behind its time and left a ton of potential on the table through its mediocre acting.

The Curse of the Weeping Woman

The next time you smell a dead rat while watching a horror film, it's probably not a rat. The Curse of the Weeping Woman was a tedious exercise in how to bore its viewers with a recycled cliche plot, bland acting and characters flatter than the sprites of 80s 2D video games.