Movies & TV / Columns

Which 2010s Movies Did You Miss Out On?

January 13, 2020 | Posted by Rob Stewart
Keanu Reeves stars as 'John Wick' in JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM. Image Credit: Lionsgate

I’M STILL DOING 2010’s MOVIES LISTS.

Look, it’s just kind of a thing I am going through right now, and I promise we’ll all ride it out together. How long can it last? It will be entirely passé by the end of January, right? Decades are big, though! I was ten years younger than I am now the last time one changed over. That’s nuts!

The thing is, there is a reason for this one; it’s not just listing for list’s sake. When I was putting together my previous lists of Best Horror Movies or Best Comic Book Movies or Best Non-Comic Movies of the decade, I kept coming across things in my research where I would think, “I bet THAT would make a list if I had seen it…”. Over and over. Research leads to regrets.

It turns out, there are far too many flicks from the 2010’s that I either wanted to see and missed, or I ended up hearing great things about after-the-fact. As I’ve gotten older, I have less patience for watching movies in my house, so if I miss it at the theater, it’s unlikely I ever backtrack to it.

It’s time to rectify that! So considering some of these [possibly] fantastic movies weren’t able to sneak onto any lists of films I DID see, I’ll make them my unofficial New Year’s Resolution. How many of these ten movies can I finally catch before 2020 runs out? Hopefully all ten, since I’m sure not losing any weight these days.

Gotta accomplish something.


#10. The Belko Experiment

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This is an extremely close call between The Belko Experiment, Searching…, and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. My usual method for deciding what made the list and what was cut would be to look at all the movies together and think, “If I could watch any of these right now, which would I most or least want to sit down and consume”. When I got to these final three, I just couldn’t decide. It was a “Well, it would depend on my mood” kind of decision.

And the decision went to… the one with the lowest RottenTomatoes score! Ah well.

But still, this is written by James Gunn, so that’s promising. And Dr. Cox is in it! It makes me want to watch Scrubs already. But the premise is a capitalist update on the ol’ Battle Royale idea of peers being thrown together and ordered to massacre each other. For some reason, I think this could be as good of an update to that theme as Happy Death Daywas to the whole Groundhog Day thing. And I loved HDD.

So I’m giving Belko the Happy Death Day rub.


#9. Creed

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I distinctly recall thinking this was just going to be a cheap 80’s nostalgia pop when I first heard of it. Stallone was playing Rocky Balboa AGAIN? But now he had a protégé around which to create a cyclical story? No thanks; I see how this is never going to end.

This flick was well out of theaters by the time I started hearing that it was actually pretty good. And, Fant4stic aside, Michael B. Jordan is a high quality actor who brings gravitas to every role he takes.

I never have gotten around to catching this since I started hearing the good about it, but… hopefully soon.


#8. Booksmart

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I will admit to some hesitancy on this one. From what I understand, it’s something of a female version of Superbad, and I hated Superbad. I might like it if I ever rewatched it with a more updated mindset going in, but when I saw it (in theater), it did not resonate with me at all.

I have heard that Booksmart is a bit more clever and modern than Superbad, so that catches me. And it was made by Olivia Wilde. That’s w– that’s crazy!

I’m not familiar with the stars, which is actually a bonus because I think this movie would benefit from not having any preconceived notions of the characters (something that affected my Superbad viewing). And I’m generally a fan of reimagining popular movies from a refreshed point of view to help me see outside of my own bubble.


#7. Dragon Ball Super: Broly

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I have really struggled with Dragon Ball Super on the whole. I’m glad it exists, and I thought Battle of Gods was a very entertaining flick when it came out, but since then, it has felt a bit ridiculous. DBZ was already at ridiculous proportions when it ended its run, but I feel like Super’s ideas haven’t been that potent. They just seem lazy. I wrote all about this before.

That is why I ended up skipping over the in-canon introduction of Broly through the lens of Super. Broly was always a fun and popular character in Dragon Ball lore, but he’d also been an out-of-continuity one, appearing in just a handful of movies and never in the manga or anime.

Still, even with my very “blah”-ness regarding Super aside… I would watch the hell out of this if I had a chance. It’s still Dragon Ball, and I am curious as to how they handled Broly’s introduction.


#6. The Disaster Artist

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I’ve never seen The Room.

I FEEL like I have because I’ve spent more than an hour online in my life. I’ve seen hundreds of memes and dozens of clips and several break downs of the legendarily bad film and it’s ludicrously mysterious director, Tommy Wiseau. But I’ve never just sat and watched it.

And that’s probably why I never bothered to watch this James Franco-led portrayal of how it got made. I wanted to; the trailers looked great, and from what I understand, The Disaster Artist handles the making of The Room with both the teasing it deserves and some reverence for the whole film-making process. I probably know more than enough about The Room to finally get my hands on this.


#5. The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2

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These are allegedly some of the greatest pure action movies ever made. Just absolutely glorious fight choreography and action sets. Brilliantly crafted brutality.

Allegedly.

I haven’t seen them.

I have heard about how stunning they are. And while I never would turn down a chance to see them, they’ve just never made their way to me. At this point, I am simply curious as to if they are as good as their reputation, because from what I have heard, they have become the new definition of the action genre.


#4. One Cut of the Dead

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EDIT: As I wrote this–and the entry was Jojo Rabbit–I did a quick Google Search and found that Jojo Rabbit was playing literally ONE more time (today is Thursday) at ONE theater near me. So I ended up taking some PTO to see Jojo. The funny thing is, if I hadn’t gone to see it, I was going to go home and watch One Cut.

Still, I may have also watched this by the time you read this entry. Ah well. I’m trying to power through as many items on this list as I can, guys!

So if you know anything about me, you may have picked up on that I LOVE horror comedies. It’s right behind “based on a comic book” as my favorite film genre. Comedies? Great! Horror? Great! Horror-comedies?

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And from what I have heard, One Cut is a horror comedy. And I have heard good things. And it’s on Shudder! Oh yeah, I’m definitely getting to this. Like, this weekend.


#3. John Wick 2 and John Wick 3

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I mentioned in a previous list that I intentionally skipped out on the Wick sequels because when I first heard of them, I assumed they were just going to “Taken up” a good thing. The first John Wick was stylish and captivating, but it seemed to resolve itself. I didn’t think there was a lot of natural story to flow from it. So I hard passed on these.

But then I kept hearing great things. They are worthy successors to the original! They surpass it, even! Over and over, and okay… I get it. I was a little snake bitten by previous movies that churned out soulless cash-grab sequels, and that caused me to miss out on seeing these at the movies where they probably deserve to be seen.


#2. Parasite

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I don’t… I don’t know what this movie is about.

(Why are everyone’s eyes barred out in the ads?!)

But I’ve heard that it’s one of the greatest movies of the decade.

I know it has something to do with a poor family lying to become housekeepers for a wealthier one, but… I think that’s all I know. And that’s probably a good thing; I like to be surprised.

I have recently finally gotten around to watching Train to Busan and intend to see One Cut Of The Dead, so as long as my wife doesn’t get annoyed at me for forcing all these subtitled movies down her throat, I will be getting this in next. I think this actually comes to a theater around us this weekend as part of its U.S. release, too. So it’s possible that by the time you read this, I will already have gotten to it, too. Like I said… I’m flying through these!

Fingers crossed.


#1. What We Do In The Shadows

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I had never even heard of this movie from 2015 until this year, and the first place I heard of it was a friend on Facebook complaining that the TV show was a pale imitation of the movie.

Since then, it’s been everywhere I look! I can’t STOP hearing about this flick, whether it’s on other Best-Of lists or other podcasts making note of it.

So I have no idea how I was completely unaware of its existence for about four years.

But in the past few months, enough sources I respect have rambled on enough about it that, yeah, I probably HAVE to see it soon. And I will. It’s, obviously, near the top of my to-do list.


Pseudo-Honorable Mention: Literally any Mission: Impossible from this decade. Or Millennium.

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I’ve only seen one Mission: Impossible film, and that was M:I 2, which is allegedly the worst one!

They have apparently gotten better since then. I’ll… I’ll have to see what the fuss has been about. I feel like Tom Cruise is killing himself for me, and I’ve been ignoring him. I’m a jerk!


As usual, this list was formulated by researching ALL the movies from the 2010’s that I could find and making an initial cut down list. Which, if you are curious, looked something like this:

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Pardon the fur; I had this propped up against my sleeping cat.

It’s true! I’ve never seen Inception.

Well, it’s quasi-true. I’ve watched the last hour of Inception without sound. We were flying to Seattle, and my wife was watching it with headphones in. I caught a bit of it on her screen while I was playing Pokémon. So I SAW some of Inception, but I didn’t hear any of BWAHHHH noises that I assume are every five minutes.

I don’t know. I’m sure it’s fine, and I already know how it ends. So it was an early cut from the list, but yeah… if I had a free and easy chance to see it someday and I was in the mood, I might!

I don’t… hmm… nothing else on that list should be too big of a “YOU NEVER WATCHED _____?!”. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, maybe? I’m not a huge Tarantino guy, and it was just this year. But these are just the movies I haven’t seen but still want to. My list of “Haven’t/Don’t Want To” flicks might upset people.

We’ll leave those to the secrets.

SO. Tell me yours! What are your biggest Movies Misses of the 2010’s? Any plans to rectify having missed any big ones any time soon? Let us know!

Until next time… take care!