2019 Stuff We Looked Forward to...in REVIEW!

Last January I made the bold prediction that "2019 will be the greatest year for movies in the 10,000 history of humanity" You had better believe that I was 100,000% right! That's the deal we make here at Norwegian Morning Wood. 100,000 percent right for 10,000 years. Anyway, most of these films actually turned out to be not that bad. So, let's dive in with what we predicted might not suck in 2019:

Like this face, 2019 was a MYYYYSSSTERY!!!

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - 05/19

Verdict: GREAT! This movie was amazing and I loved every single second of it. This ultimately wasn't all that impactful and it's a miracle they will move forward with Godzilla vs. Kong (2020), but I was at least super into this. Full review here.

Avengers: Endgame - 04/26

Verdict: GREAT! Delivered on just about everything it could have and successfully capped off the first eleven years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Well worth the wait and extremely satisfying. Full review here.

Detective Pikachu - 05/19

Verdict: OKAY! It was still a really bizarre way to introduce live action Pokemon to a mainstream audience and Ryan Reynolds was definitely miscast, but there were plenty of fun moments and nice to see some favorite on the screen.

Spider-Man: Far From Home - 07/05

Verdict: GOOD! I like this a lot, probably more than Homecoming (2017). It grounds itself in characters really well and Tom Holland is incredibly likable as Peter Parker. The weight of Tony Stark weighs a little heavy, to the point where Spider-Man is starting to feel like an Iron Man spin-off and I wish he had his own identity a little more. Still, in the big spectrum of MCU films, this is in the Top Third.

Joker - 10/04

Verdict: OKAY! I didn't end up seeing this and although it has earned an extreme amount of both critical and commercial acclaim it seems like it's dropped at a tough time for its subject matter politically. OR depending on your point of view, an excellent time. I'm reserving judgment on how much it glorifies vs. satirizes its male subject matter, but I'd say it was at least a strong cultural force that ought to have some big waves in blockbuster filmmaking.

Ad Astra - 05/24

Verdict: PROBABLY PRETTY GOOD! I also didn't see this, but heard good things. I would like to because I think it has earned deserved praise, but it also seems to have been forgotten rather quickly.

Six Underground - Sometime

Verdict: BAG OF TRASH! This was probably one of the worst movies of the year. I could have likely seen this coming. For some reason Ryan Reynolds is straight up only good as Deadpool. And in Adventureland (2009) and Just Friends (2005).

Knives Out - 11/27

Verdict: FANTASTIC! One of the best movies of the year, original, encapsulating, fun, mysterious, and a dream cast. Just great. Full review here.

The Lighthouse - Someday

Verdict: GREAT! Okay, I didn't see it. But I want to and it looks great. Reviews have been stellar. It's not going to light the world on fire, but it seems like my jam.

Uncut Gems - Whenever

Verdict: GREAT! I also didn't see this. Yet. I might when it gets a wider release. But by all accounts Sandler is huge, the movie is great, Kevin Garnett for some reason. This seems to have delivered on its January 2019 promise.

I also had a long list of possibly good movies. Let's go through them just as fast:

Rocketman - Okay
Ford vs Ferrari - Pretty good
Boss Level - This did not happen
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood - I didn't like it, but successful
SHAZAM! - Pretty good
Hobbes and Shaw - Okay
Velvet Buzzsaw - This ended up being okay, a little letdown
Brightburn - Not that great
Cold Pursuit - Greatest movie ever
Us - Amazingly fantastic

What did you think about 2019 movies? Did they deliver on your hype?!

2019 Will Be Better!

You heard it here, first, folks! The year 2019 will be the greatest year for movies in the 10,000 history of humanity. You'll be grateful that Norwegian Morning Wood broke this story first! Last year we actually weren't too bad in our looking ahead predictions. Chances are pretty high that this will be the exact End of Year List we go through next December. Let's begin:

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - 05/19



This may seem weird. Godzilla (2014) was kinda shitty for the first 90 minutes but delivered a satisfying ending fight. I didn't even see Kong: Skull Island (2017) but it apparently wasn't total shit. That's something I guess. I'm still a fan of the Big G, though, and a film that promises Rodan, Mothra, and the biggest bastard of them all, King Ghidorah in fully realized glory all directed by Michael Dougherty of Trick R Treat (2007) and Krampus (2015) fame sounds good on paper. Even though Toho knocked anything American Godzilla can do out of the par with Shin Godzilla (2016), this should give us a good dose of monsters, fire breath, and hurricane wing winds. Or it'll just blow all its goodwill like Gareth Edwards' take.

Avengers: Endgame - 04/26



Infinity War was the culmination of a lot of threads building up to the ultimate battle against a Universal threat. Then Thanos won and everybody died. Endgame promises a lot, but will it deliver a lame cop out or some true pathos for these characters? The trailer pretends we're not just going to go back in time via Ant-Man and the Quantum Realm and change everything. Still - THIS, I promise, THIS ONE will be the last one, I swear. At any rate, it's a momentous shift from the past ten years of Marvel Superhero films (totally this one and not another one ten years from now), and we just gotta see how this ends. Again.

Detective Pikachu - 05/19



What the hell is this? How is the first live action Pokemon movie a thoroughly American affair starring Ryan Reynolds? Based on the Detective Pikachu offshoot brand of all things. Where's my Pokemon Snap movie?! The trailer had charm, nostalgia, wit, mystery, and a whole lot of really weird and creepy furry shenanigans to pique my interest. Sure it's based on a previous property, but it looks bold in a way other retreads don't. Could this become the greatest video game movie of all time?

Spider-Man: Far From Home - 07/05



If you know anything about me by now, it's that I like my superhero movies real, real weird. Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio fits that bill and that's a major reason to be excited for this. We got a trailer just under the wire, and we can already deduce a few things - like, are the elemental monsters attacking London all a ruse or do we really get Hydro-Man and Molten Man in the mix? I just hope we can get something like this or this, or hell, even Mysterio created Old Man Logan. Mysterio is the shit and totally bonkers. His powers are so limited - he's just a special effects artist...but generally that's enough leeway to make him the most powerful villain of all time.

Joker - 10/04

This anti-hero movie is in the same slot as Venom (2018) was this year - and although that movie was fairly dumb, it was still a nice little side adventure through brain eating and lethal protection. Joker is good enough to attract Joaquin Phoenix to work for Todd Phillips alongside Robert DeNiro and Zazie Beetz for some reason. This is the age we're at now - where we get the giant bombastic superhero movies, but they're also just our psychotic character dramas and dark comedies now, too. Whatever it takes. Phillips always walks that weird dark edge, and Joaquin is amazing, so hopes are high. This is in addition to the fact that every non-Jared Leto Joker has been instantly iconic.

Ad Astra - 05/24

This is like Interstellar (2014) but with Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones, directed by James Gray, who has given us many long, contemplative films, most recently Lost City of Z (2016), which is totally underrated. We don't know too much more about this other than it has something to do with finding Tommy Lee Jones in space across some long journey. We're down.

Six Underground - Sometime

This is a $150 million Michael Bay Netflix movie starring Ryan Reynolds written by the dudes who made Deadpool (2016). This is the biggest no brainer of all time. Despite spending most of his time churning out Transformers movies that have all gotten worse with time, Bay did gift us with Pain & Gain (2013) which showed that his whip-fast, heavy cut, in-your-face style can actually be extremely effective with the right source material. Plus it's Netflix - total no brainer watch.

Knives Out - 11/27

Moving on from blockbusters, this is some kind of Daniel Craig murder mystery by Rian Johnson. Listen, The Last Jedi (2017) gets better every time I watch it, and I'm excited with what he can do with a smaller story. There's not a ton of info yet about this, and to be honest, a who-dunnit is either contrived or gives itself away too early, but Johnson can dig into these tropes and give us something interesting. I hope.

The Lighthouse - Someday

In 2016 Robert Eggers gave us The Witch, and this is his follow-up - some kind of monster maritime thing starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. We know it's a black and white horror fantasy of some kind, which seems right up Eggers' alley. The Witch is endlessly rewarding and Eggers is an incredible visual filmmaker who is also pretty proud of brutally murdering babies in his first scene. Sea Monsters are in these days.

Uncut Gems - Whenever

Speaking of Rober Pattinson, the Safdie Brothers were last seen behind Good Time (2017) but this time nabbed Adam Sandler, LaKeith Stanfield, and Idina Menzel for some reason. This is a "what the hell" kind of stunt casting, but I was really into their style in Good Time. Sandler has moments of brilliance whenever he's not in an Adam Sandler movie and this is some kind of diamond crime drama movie. Maybe he's a crusty jewel thief? Whatever, we'll see it.

Other Movies That Might Not Suck:

Rocketman - To me, Bohemian Rhapsody didn't go nearly gay enough. Hopefully the Elton John version can correct that.
Ford vs Ferrari - James Mangold does a car rivalry film
Boss Level - the beginning of the long and storied acting career of Rob Gronkowski
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - I don't think Tarantino is totally washed of his Weinstein association, and the Manson connection here seems exploitative, but this movie will probably be very good.
SHAZAM! - DC is finally getting fun and weird
Hobbes and Shaw - the only two great remaining parts of the Fast and Furious franchise
Velvet Buzzsaw - This also just got a trailer and it's weird as hell. I love how Jake Gyllenhaal has gone crazy.
Brightburn - what if Superman was evil. Or more like, what if he just was Superman - we couldn't handle that shit. This should poke holes in all of Man of Steel (2013)'s pretensions.
Cold Pursuit - what the fuck is the tone of this trailer going for? This will always be known as the Liam Neeson snowplow movie.
Us - this looks nuts. Lupita, Peele, and M'Baku are a good combination.

There are some other big films that we've ignored here. If I were to get real, Captain Marvel looks okay in the sense that I'll definitely catch up with it on Netflix in a few months, but I don't see it elevating above Doctor Strange (2016) good but not great levels. We're also getting a ton of Disney live action sequels that I could totally care less about (somehow Dumbo, Aladdin, AND The Lion King). There are also high profile Disney Animated films Toy Story 4 and Frozen 2, that I don't really think can improve on the perfect of their previous installments.

Hmm. These were all Disney movies. The studio is either going to have an amazing year or a terrible one. With Mary Poppins Returns (2018) sinking I wonder if the studio that could do no wrong will turn a corner. Then again, they've had at least as many high profile flops, from John Carter (2012) to Pete's Dragon (2016) to A Wrinkle in Time (2018) over the past few years. We'll see.

What are you hyped for?

Twenty GREATTeen: Other Movie Stuff

Every year that we think of it there are a handful of superlatives to bestow upon the great actors and actresses and a whole bunch of other stuff. These are the people who had a truly great year and we can look back on with fond or in some cases, really awful memories. As we continue to recount and categorize 2018, let's get at it!

Top Actor of the Year

Flame on!

It's weird to say Josh Brolin had a phenomenal year, but there were two months this summer where he appeared in major roles in Deadpool 2, Avengers: Infinity War, and Sicario: Day of the Soldado. While that's good, it just doesn't quite feel like Brolin had a breakthrough year or anything. Donald Glover is a great candidate, but he did most of his best work in TV and music this year. Instead, we give actor of the year to Michael B. Jordan - someone who deserves this every year, but whose villainous turn as Eric Killmonger captured our hearts in Black Panther, standing out as one of Marvel's greatest villains of all time. He followed up the end of the year with Creed II, which maybe wasn't as notable a splash as the first one, but enough that he showed range being both a tremendous hero and villain.

Top Actress of the Year

Faster Pussycat

In any other year this should have been Emily Blunt for turning in both A Quiet Place and Mary Poppins Returns, but the latter seemed to strangely fall off. We had huge cinematic breakthroughs for Cynthia Ervio, Awkwafina, and Lady GaGa of all people, but we gotta give this to the fantastic Tessa Thompson.

Riding off of THOR: Ragnarok (2017), she was the best thing about Annihilation, then Sorry to Bother You, and then joined our Actor of the Year in Creed II. Now, we just dissed Mary Poppins Returns, which will likely end up making more money than all these films combined but no one else seemed to pop up in so much quality shit this year.

Trailer of the Year

There were some really solid trailers this year for both 2018 and 2019 movies. Not all turned into good movies. A real quick rundown and then our winner:

SHAZAM! (2019) - This has not gotten enough attention because it looks fantastic and fun and good for DC.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) - Gareth Edwards did a fine Spielberg impression with Godzilla (2014) that largely whiffed until the final fifteen minutes. I can't wait to dive into Michael Dougherty's world.
Venom - I really dug the Venom trailer when it came out - it sells the madness and fun anti-hero so well.
Bohemian Rhapsody - there's a reason why this movie did so well
Creed II - I didn't even actually see this movie, but it's cropping up here. The trailer and tease of Drago is legit
Halloween - That first tease of Michael Myers in the asylum makes you forget Rob Zombie
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - There's a bit of everything here. Drama, stakes, comedy, heart, and a showcase for how good this animation is.

Okay, #1 Trailer of the year, it should be pretty obvious - Detective Pikachu



I don't know what the hell is going on with this movie. How is this a thing. It's Pokemon, but like, twenty years past the peak of the craze, but also the Detective Pikachu game was just released, but after twenty years, THAT'S what earns a full-length movie? Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu. Furry shenanigans. Will any of this work? The trailer is addictive for finding little Pokemon Worldbuilding nods and follows a great rhythm, jokes, stakes, and seems to know its own insanity. I'm totally in.

Sounds and Songtrack of the Year

This is a tough call between a slew of superhero films. Black Panther is obvious for the Soundtrack, but don't quite count out Deadpool 2. My pick is "Ashes" for not only sounding exactly like a 1990s Celine Dion song, but also being ridiculously thematically relevant to its film and emotionally deployed appropriately.



Other notables include "Sunflower" from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which is another song that the protagonist keeps coming back to (and perfectly sorta doesn't know all the words to). I also want to note Eminem's Venom song which was fucking terrible. Eminem had a terrible year.

I guess also "Shallow" from A Star is Born. This is the Oscar forerunner and is a legit track for sure that yeah, is thematically appropriate for the film it's in. Okay, okay. I still like "Ashes."

Villain of the Year

This was quite a year for villains. Thanos, Killmonger, the Shape - the bench is deep. There are two who rise above the pack, though. The first is Chris Hemsworth in Bad Times at the El Royale, who exudes a fantastic menace. No one scared more shit out of me, tough than Daniel Kaluuya's Jatemme Manning in Widows. He's calm, cool, collected, and kills without a second thought, but always enjoys toying with his prey. This was a great leap forward for Kaluuya, building on his other high profile roles in Get Out (2017) and Black Panther.

Hero of the Year

I debated this a lot. Maybe Natalie Portman in Annihilation or Jason Mamoa in Aquaman, Chief in Isle of Dogs, Cleo from Roma, Uncle Drew in his eponymous movie.  And I've cited it constantly here, and it may just be because I saw it very recently, but I'll give it to Miles Morales in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. He finds his own identity, bravery, and confidence and truly becomes the Spider-Man we all hope to be. It's a struggle based in character and when he exceeds because of his own skills, it's exciting to watch.

Well that's it. That's all we have to talk about. Certainly no Top Ten!!!

Just kidding, we're cranking that out soon!