The 100 Movie Challenge 2019

If you had asked me at the beginning of December if we were going to complete the 100 Movie Challenge 2019 I would have said nope! We were so far behind where we had been every other year that it seemed impossible that we would manage to catch up, especially with Ben’s 30th birthday celebrations in the middle of the month, then rushing to get on top of it for Christmas! However just like last year, we completed it just in time!

This is our fourth year doing this challenge, I came up with the idea as I felt like Ben always wanted to watch the same films over and over. So I said let’s try and watch 100 different movies each year – they can be films we have seen in previous years, however they only count towards our list once a year.

If you’re interested in reading about our past ones you can find the 2018 100 movie challenge here, 2017 edition of this here and the 2016 edition here!

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Three Standout Films of the Year (For Any Reason)

Rachael’s Picks

One – Bohemian Rhapsody

The moment we watched this film I knew it was going to make my picks of the year. We didn’t manage to see this when it was out in the cinema despite it’s rave reviews and it came onto our movies package on our TV and we watched it the same day. What a film! Remy Malek gave such an incredible performance during this movie it wasn’t hard to see why he won so many awards for this. A must see for any music fan, even if you’re not the biggest fan of Queen!

Two – Avengers End Game

After Infinity War was my biggest disappointment of last year, I ended up with kind of low hopes for for Thanos’ big finale. This film redeemed itself and unlike the film which is my biggest disappointment of the year (more on that in a bit), this was a film that kept taking turns and kept you guessing the whole way through as to how it was going to end. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it, but the characters who ended their journey with this film were given great send offs. We just rewatched this (I needed to confirm it’s worthiness for the top spots) and it was just as good the second time around!

Three – Knives Out

Picking my third pick was actually unexpectedly hard! Any of the ones mentioned in my honorable mentions could have easily been in third place. This one ultimately won out as I loved the styling of this film, it had this modern film noir feel. I love anything crime (but not horror)

Honorable Mentions – Klaus, Fighting with my Family, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil & Vile

Ben’s Picks

One – Avengers End Game

This is now my favourite film, and I still nearly cry when Tony Stark dies (a spoiler yes I know, but you only have yourself to blame now). I did cry a little on first watch as it’s a fantastic scene, and the end of character who inspired my “Back in Black” ringtone in 2008 (I still have it, it’s great in an open plan office).

This film is my generation’s Return of the Jedi (I’ve borrowed that) and brings together so many stories perfectly. There’s great call backs to past films like Captain America finally saying “Assemble” and the cross-field shot of the cast running into battle (which harks back to Ultron).

I’m expecting more than one Oscar.

Two – Spiderman Into the Spiderverse

Fantastically shot, this is Spider-Man as you’ve never seen him, least of all because it’s not Peter Parker (well not the main character!). The artwork is a major part of this film, but the story is just as good and exciting. It’s unsurprising that we can expect a second film in the not too distant future.

Three – Bohemian Rhapsody

An enlightening look at Queen and in particular Freddie Mercury. The film had a fantastic pace and, of course, soundtrack.       

It also goes without saying that Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton and Gwilyn Lee were especially fantastic. It’s a great film if you’re a fan and even if you’re not.

Honorable Mentions – Klaus, Spiderman – Far from Home & Captain Marvel

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Biggest Disappointment

Rachael’s Pick : Star Wars : The Rise of Skywalker
This was nearly a favourite, but after I’d had a week to think about it after we’d watched it the more I was a little disappointed. In every way it was the perfect film – and that’s kind of where my issue is with it! They tied the end of the franchise up a bit too neatly for me and all characters kind of got the ending that could have been guessed – too much of a crowd pleaser. There wasn’t quite enough drama or ruffling of feathers for me. I didn’t hate the film at all, but the more I thought about it the more it felt like they just wrote down the most predictable ending for all the characters and then added some slight embellishments it all. I did enjoy the film and I’m sad to say goodbye to those characters, but it was missing a bit of – “I can’t believe they did that” for me!

Sidenote, the shittest film that we watched in 2019 was Venom, but I knew it was going to be so it didn’t end up being a disappointment!

Ben’s Pick : Dumbo

I had a shortlist of six for this award, which included Wine Country, Oceans Eight, 6 Underground, Venom and Equaliser 2.

A quick word on the last two, Tom Hardy was actually very good in Venom and Equaliser 2 just wasn’t as good as the first film.

The winner (or loser) for me though is Dumbo! Despite the baby elephant being fairly cute, it wasn’t enough to save the script or acting for me.

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What We Watched In Order

1. Avengers Infinity War
2. Ready Player One
3. The Incredibles 2
4. Life Itself
5. A Few Good Men
6. Overboard (2017 Remake)
7. Ratatouille
8. Deathwish
9. Acts of Violence
10. Deadpool 2
11. Split
12. Bandersnatch
13. Glass
14. Mr Bean’s Holiday
15. Clue
16. Love Simon
17. IO
18. Cop Out
19. Ocean’s Eight
20. Isn’t It Romantic
21. Captain Marvel
22. Mauraders
23. Tag
24. Crimes of Grindewald
25. The Spy Who Dumped Me
26. Ant Man and the Wasp
27. Scary Movie
28. Avengers End Game
29. The Festival
30. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil & Vile
31. Wine Country
32. The Equalizer 2
33. Bad Teacher
34. Sex Tape
35. Mission Impossible Fall Out
36. Always Be My Maybe
37. Murder Mystery
38. Venom
39. Someone Like You
40. Hotel Translyvania 3
41. Spiderman Into the Spiderverse
42. Patriot’s Day
43. X Men
44. Mulan
45. First Man
46. Johnny English Strikes Again
47. Pocahantas
48. Two Weeks Notice
49. Spiderman Far From Home
50. Wreck It Ralph 2
51. Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood
52. Bad Times at the El Royale
53. The Red Sea Diving Resort
54. The Darkest Minds
55. A Star Is Born
56. Bohemian Rhapsody
57. Between Two Ferns
58. Aladdin (Live Action)
59. Grand Daddy Day Care
60. Detective Pickachu
61. Aladdin
62. The Greatest Showman
63. Rio
64. The Wolf of Wall Street
65. Fractured
66. The Dark Knight
67. Little Monsters
68. Game Night
69. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
70. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
71. Frozen 2
72. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
73. The Dark Knight Rises
74. Don Jon
75. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
76. Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix
77. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
78. Let It Snow
79. Return of Jafar
80. Pitch Perfect 2
81. Knives Out
82. Pitch Perfect 3
83. 6 Underground
84. Time Freak
85. Holiday in the Wild
86. Die Hard
87. Star Wars the Last Jedi
88. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
89. A Christmas Prince : A Royal Baby
90. The Lego Movie 2
91. Klaus
92. Sleepless in Seattle
93. Hotel Mumbai
94. Start Wars the Rise of Skywalker
95. Grinch 2018
96. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
97. Wonder Park
98. Dumbo
99. Fighting with my Family
100. Snowball Express
101. East is East

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After becoming very committed to movies from November onwards we’ve been catching up on some of the TV that we have been saving up, but we’ll be ready to get started from this week! We always love hearing your recommendations of your favourite films too so we can have a list of great new movies to pick from, so please leave in the comments your favourite movies of the year!

Thanks for reading the The 100 Movie Challenge 2019! Let’s see what great films we discover in 2020!

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