Ted's Movie Reviews - Top 10 by Year
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- Oppenheimer, A, strong performances, story, and characters
- Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse, A-, another great take, but can it hold up?
- Poor Things, A-, bizarre, dirty, dark, funny, but interesting
- The Flash, A-, genuinely funny and amazing DC superhero movie
- Ferrari, A-, good movie and performances, but weak lead
- Wonka, A-, good fun family movie, almost too light
- American Fiction, A-, clever setup doesn't fully pay off
- Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1, A-, overly long and busy part one, but exciting
- Polite Society, A-, not everything works, but a great, fun effort
- Dream Scenario, A-, great concept kind of unravels at the end
- Top Gun: Maverick, A-, satisfying sequel, but overly focused on Maverick
- She Said, A-, strong newspaper story, but so-so execution
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, A-, strong characters, fun plot, some weak villains
- Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, A-, neat concept and character loses a little steam
- Everything Everywhere All at Once, B+, inventive and entertaining, but sometimes sloppy
- Wakanda Forever, B+, good action movie, but weak on characters
- The Fabelmans, B+, personal story of a pretty average family
- Lightyear, B+, some interesting themes, but still formulaic
- Glass Onion, B+, fun movie and cast, but too much exposition
- Death on the Nile, B+, enjoyable mystery, still not that engaging
- West Side Story, A, a new and improved version of a classic musical
- Raya and the Last Dragon, A, good adventure story with strong themes
- The French Dispatch, A, a nice trip to Wes Anderson's version of Europe
- Cruella, A, fun caper movie with a more complex Cruella
- Summer of Soul, A, great time capsule of history, music, and culture
- Dune, A-, very impressive beginning with a strong cast
- CODA, A-, nice coming of age movie with solid performances
- The Sparks Brothers, A-, interesting look at a very creative cult band
- Belfast, B+, heartfelt portrait of a rough period, needs plot
- Free Guy, B+, fun, funny action movie about a video game
- Hamilton, A, amazing music, performances, and story
- One Night in Miami, A, well made political and historic events movie
- Nomadland, A-, very slow-moving character study about people
- The Outpost, A-, intense story of an ill-fated base in Afghanistan
- Mulan, A-, live action works better for this strong character
- Superman: Man of Tomorrow, A-, surprisingly solid DC animated feature
- The Trial of the Chicago Seven, A-, entertaining story, but without much impact
- Soul, B+, fun, imaginative movie and characters, weak ending
- Tenet, B+, very confusing, maybe nonsense, but exciting
- American Utopia, B+, fun concert movie, but kind of weird and sparse
- Toy Story 4, A, great movie with a message about midlife
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, A, satisfying ending to an uneven trilogy
- How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, A-, a fitting conclusion for a strong series
- Knives Out, A-, fun whodunnit with a fine cast and story
- Avengers: Endgame, A-, a strong finish for a very long series
- A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, A-, nice, but fictionalized, story about Mr. Rogers
- Yesterday, A-, great concept, funny, and good performances
- Ad Astra, A-, weird and interesting, looks cool
- Apollo 11, A-, highlights of the moon mission without narration
- 1917, A-, good war movie from a soldier's perspective
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, A, six beautiful, well-crafted short stories
- Free Solo, A, fascinating story about an amazing feat
- Black Panther, A, pays off in ways most superhero movies can't
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, A, cool animation, complex characters and story, fun
- Paddington 2, A-, fun movie for kids and adults, good lessons
- The Favourite, A-, classic royal intrigue with a dollop of sex
- Smallfoot, A-, makes some winning choices in telling its story
- Roma, A-, classic art film is a little slow but rewarding
- Mission: Impossible - Fallout, A-, well made action movie with all the usual stuff
- The Biggest Little Farm, A-, neat documentary about trying to farm sustainably
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, A, great acting, story, and character development
- Marshall, A, strong performances, courtroom drama, and history
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, A-, little plot, but great characters and humor
- The Shape of Water, A-, offbeat, but original, with high production values
- Wind River, A-, well made procedural in a bleak setting
- Thor: Ragnarok, A-, surprisingly funny and entertaining action movie
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, A-, great concept and cast make for a fun movie
- Phantom Thread, A-, beautifully made movie, but kind of odd
- Lady Bird, B+, great characters and acting, conventional story
- Get Out, B+, a lot more going on than just a horror movie
- Rogue One, A, another great chapter of Star Wars
- Zootopia, A, great neo-noir story, characters, and setup
- Kubo and the Two Strings, A, a masterpiece of animation, story, and characters
- Hidden Figures, A, a lot of ingredients come together for a fun movie
- Manchester by the Sea, A-, slow moving but well made character study
- Moana, A-, simple plot, but well made and entertaining
- Queen of Katwe, A-, well made, well acted, and genuine underdog movie
- Jackie, A-, well-made small story about a very big story
- The Jungle Book, A-, surprisingly good as an action movie
- My Life as a Zucchini, A-, well crafted movie about foster kids
- Spotlight, A, great acting and an excellent story told well
- Inside Out, A, fun, inventive movie about a kid's brain
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens, A, very good reboot to a new series
- Steve Jobs, A, great acting and writing
- Ex Machina, A-, cool looking sci-fi robot flick
- Sicario, A-, good characters, story, and action
- Avengers: Age of Ultron, A-, another Avengers blockbuster, with a better plot
- Bridge of Spies, A-, great performances in this quiet Cold War story
- Mad Max: Fury Road, B+, a big chase scene, true to original series
- Brooklyn, B+, well done romance, if a little too simple
- The Grand Budapest Hotel, A, a grand visual experience, with a fine cast
- Selma, A, well made movie about a pivotal piece of history
- Whiplash, A, very good story and characters with great acting
- Interstellar, A, great visuals, neat science, and a complex story
- All This Mayhem, A, well made documentary about skateboarding brothers
- Gone Girl, A-, very good story and acting
- Guardians of the Galaxy, A-, fun and entertaining sci fi flick
- Into the Woods, A-, great cast and characters get new music and story
- The Imitation Game, A-, good characters, great acting, interesting story
- The Theory of Everything, A-, a great personal story of a science celebrity
- Gravity, A, well done space disaster movie
- Side Effects, A, well written movie with a good cast
- Mud, A-, nicely written indie movie with a great cast
- Her, A-, great concept and performances, kinda creepy
- Iron Man 3, A-, series improves by leaving baggage behind
- Bad Words, A-, Jason Bateman shines as an offensive jerk
- Star Trek Into Darkness, A-, a lot of action, great characters and story
- Upstream Color, B+, trippy, indie psychological thriller
- The Way, Way Back, B+, good characters drive a sweet and funny teen movie
- The Heat, B+, fun and funny cop movie
- Argo, A, entertaining yarn about a daring rescue
- Zero Dark Thirty, A-, great story, not as exciting as you'd think
- The Avengers, A-, characters and action rescue average plot
- Moonrise Kingdom, A-, offbeat, sweet, weird, Wes Anderson
- Frankenweenie, A-, inventive, fun, macabre Tim Burton movie
- Lincoln, A-, good political story and cast make a strong film
- The Pirates! Band of Misfits, A-, quirky and rich animated comedy
- A Late Quartet, A-, well acted drama about a string quartet
- Hitchcock, A-, fun movie about the making of Psycho
- Silver Linings Playbook, A-, lightweight movie with heavyweight performances
- The Artist, A, gimmicky premise fulfilled by characters and story
- Moneyball, A, well-written and acted atypical baseball movie
- Too Big To Fail, A, great cast tells the story of the 2008 meltdown
- Midnight in Paris, A-, nice mystical romance
- The Descendants, A-, George Clooney does a nice job with a sharp script
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, A-, slow paced spy movie with a great cast
- Bridesmaids, A-, very funny, obscene movie with great characters
- Contagion, A-, prophetic movie about a global pandemic
- The Adventures of Tintin, A-, an underappreciated fast-paced action movie
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2, A-, flawed series has a satisfying end
- Inception, A-, complex but explained well with lots of action
- The King's Speech, A-, period piece with strong characters and writing
- Tron: Legacy, A-, stunning visuals and music make for a better Tron
- How to Train Your Dragon, A-, strong story, characters, and animation
- The Town, A-, well made modern bank robber story
- Tangled, B, good Disney movie, but all too familiar
- Red, A-, great cast and action, not too serious
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, A-, fun mashup of genres and styles from Edgar Wright
- Date Night, A-, Steve Carrell and Tina Fey don't disappoint
- Winter's Bone, A-, bleak and slow, but rewarding white trash tale
- The Hurt Locker, A, non-stop tension and excitement
- Up, A, rich characters, good story, a little manipulative
- 500 Days of Summer, A-, well-written break-up movie with jumbled timeline
- Inglorious Basterds, A-, great cast of characters as Tarantino shines
- Avatar, A-, fun and exciting in 3-D despite flat characters
- Moon, A-, neat sci-fi concepts, but drags a little
- State of Play, A-, fun, fast-paced newspaper investigation
- Coraline, A-, well written and beautifully made animation
- The Hangover, A-, bachelor party in Vegas with good writing
- The Princess and the Frog, B+, conventional, but well-made Disney animated movie
- Doubt, A, well-written showcase for great acting
- Madagascar 2, A, consistently funny with strong characters
- Young at Heart, A, fun, bittersweet movie about octogenarian rockers
- Iron Man, A-, superhero flick features solid acting and writing
- Ghost Town, A-, cute, funny, romantic; this is a nice movie
- Bolt, A-, good movie about a lost dog and his sidekicks
- The Crimson Wing, A-, beautiful footage and music of pink flamingos
- The Dark Knight, A-, big action movie runs a little long; great joker
- Wall-E, B+, Buster Keaton and Metropolis meet Pixar
- Hancock, B+, a movie about a failing superhero has a twist
- Charlie Wilson's War, A, surprisingly funny and smart
- Michael Clayton, A, well-made movie, strong story, good acting
- Ratatouille, A, less action and more focus on story and characters
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, A, well-realized movie version better than the book
- Lars and the Real Girl, A-, much better than typical guy-dates-mannequin films
- Juno, A-, good writing and strong characters, cute movie
- Gone Baby Gone, A-, solid kidnapping story delivers on all levels
- No Country for Old Men, A-, intensely compelling with a bad ending
- Persepolis, A-, simple animation tells a complex story
- Meet the Robinsons, A-, surprisingly good animated movie
- An Inconvenient Truth, A, important message, but told incredibly well
- The Lives of Others, A, well made German movie about the Stasi
- Inside Man, A-, great caper movie is a pleasure to watch unfold
- United 93, A-, detailed retelling of 9/11 makes great drama
- Stranger Than Fiction, A-,
- V for Vendetta, A-, Batman meets Orwell in a classic face off
- Letters From Iwo Jima, A-, well-made movie, but speculative
- The Illusionist, A-, great-looking short story brought to life
- Akeelah and the Bee, A-, simple, but very nice movie about spelling bees
- Thank You For Smoking, B+, funny take on spin control
- Crash, A, nice story of strangers running into each other
- Munich, A, simple story of vengence gets complicated fast
- Walk the Line, A, great story with outstanding performances
- Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, A, the dark side of business
- Broken Flowers, A, minimalist Murray triumphs, with great support
- Lord of War, A-, arms dealing movie works on many levels
- Revenge of the Sith, A, this is why they did the 2 prequels
- Just Like Heaven, A, sweet, funny romance
- Serenity, A-, rewarding, but only for those who watched Firefly
- Madagascar, A-, fast moving, funny, with great characters
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, A, weird, fun, sweet, and scary
- Riding Giants, A, surfing movie combines adrenaline and education
- Troy, A, surprisingly good but largely overlooked movie
- Garden State, A, warm, sweet, and eccentric with great characters
- Proof, A-, nice mix of family, math, romance, and dementia
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, A-, the best of the series so far
- Sideways, A-, enjoyable but not terribly complex road trip movie
- The Incredibles, A-, somewhere between Toy Story and Monsters, Inc.
- Finding Neverland, A-, sweet and sentimental without being syrupy
- Collateral, B+, good writing, good performances, cool look
- Return of the King, A, a fitting finish for this epic series
- Finding Nemo, A, warm, funny, exciting, and fun
- The Italian Job, A, well executed caper movie
- Mystic River, A-, good story, strong performances
- Big Fish, A-, enjoyable group of stories that tell a bigger one
- American Splendor, A-, unusual, entertaining look at a comic book writer
- Love Actually, A, cruder than some Hugh Grant movies but it delivers
- Freaky Friday, A-, well-made remake updates the story for the 00's
- Seabiscuit, A-, at times hammy, but a triumphant story nonetheless
- Holes, A-, good for kids with outsized villains and legends
- Chicago, A, fun entertaining movie delivers on everything
- We Were Soldiers, A, Vietnam gets the Blackhawk Down treatment
- The Quiet American, A, solid acting does justice to a great book
- Antwone Fisher, A, nice story about a guy figuring things out
- Spider-Man, A, great action movie, great hero, great villain
- Solaris, A-, beautiful, mysterious, brooding movie
- 24 Hour Party People, A-,
- Catch Me If You Can, A-, well-crafted story and fun to watch
- Dogtown and Z-Boys, A-, solid story of and by 70's L.A. skateboarders
- Spellbound, A-, very good story of kids in national spelling bee
- Black Hawk Down, A, absorbing and intense action movie
- Fellowship of the Ring, A, impressive start
- Gosford Park, A, well crafted
- Moulin Rouge, A-, succeeds in spite of itself
- Ocean's Eleven, A-, well executed caper film
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, A-, entertaining, but loyal to the book to a fault
- Vanilla Sky, B+, like doing a jigsaw puzzle without seeing the box
- Kate and Leopold, B+, nice romantic comedy
- Monster's Ball, B+, very slow but powerful
- The Others, B+, a very solid scary movie
- Almost Famous, A, really fun and well-balanced
- Gladiator, A, very strong movie with a weak ending
- The Patriot, A, similar to Gladiator, very solid
- The Family Man, A, well-done alternative reality movie
- Traffic, A-, a hard look at many sides of illegal drugs
- You Can Count on Me, A-, a neat portrait of some realistic people
- Erin Brockovich, B+, solid lawyer movie, arbitration ending fizzles
- The Emperor's New Groove, B+, funny and light-hearted Disney buddy movie
- Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, B+, some good concepts at work in this DC animation
- Bounce, B+, good performances but not a lot of chemistry
- Being John Malkovich, A-, lots of neat ideas, great puppet sequences
- The Sixth Sense, A, well done and effective without being gory
- IMAX: Elephants of Africa, A, best IMAX movie I've seen; and it has a plot
- The Matrix, B+, very cool
- Toy Story 2, B+, just as good as the first one and maybe better
- The Winslow Boy, B+, well crafted and effective if a little subdued
- South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, B+, obscene, but still very funny
- Tarzan, B+, animation is key to telling Tarzan in a new way
- The Iron Giant, B+, good story, always entertaining
- Fantasia 2000, B+, eclectic animation anthology is worth watching
- Out of Sight, A-, great chemistry and dialogue
- The Spanish Prisoner, B+, fun and intriguing, but the ending fizzles
- American History X, A-, very strong material, maybe a little preachy
- The Truman Show, B+, interesting idea, good performances
- Gattaca, B+, great story and fine side performances
- Zero Effect, B, offbeat but fun take on Sherlock Holmes
- Babe: Pig in the City, B+, great acting performances by animals
- Pleasantville, B-, not subtle, but fun to watch
- Mulan, B, good story and animation, but lacks zip
- Saving Private Ryan, B, not sure what they are trying to say