I don't actually hate movies. I love movies. I adore movies. But when I got a job that had regular hours and a long commute, it became difficult to dedicate time to watching movies when a lot of what I was seeing was kind of trash.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm not a snob; I like artsy films that make interesting use of the medium, I like films that are moody and alienating and will make you think about them months or years later. But I also like a good popcorn flick or monster movie.

Unfortunately it seems like a lot of those have gone away too and instead we've got films with massive budgets and scripting committees and actors hovering in front of green screens reciting lines they learned that day; it feels like a lot of movies kind of suck now, which is why I kind of stopped watching them. I recently got into an argument with my dad about how film scores are boring now and he responded "well how would you know, you don't even watch movies!" and you know what, fair point pops. It's time for me to catch up.

I'm going to be watching the movies that I missed from 2011 to the present day and documenting my reactions and reviews (in one format or another - I'm not certain yet what that format will be, but it will definitely be linked on this website). I suspect there will be a lot that I find frustrating, but I also suspect that there are some good movies I missed.

Thanks for following along if you're interested! If you want to watch along, I've made a letterboxd list of these movies.

The List

I will not be adding things to this list. I will not be taking recommendations or criticisms on the list. The list is fairly arbitrary, it is not a "top films of X year" list, it is a list of movies I missed. Some of those are the top 10 highest grossing films of a given year (per box office mojo) and some of those are critically acclaimed and well-reviewed films, and some of those are films that ended up on other people's year-end lists and made me go "Oh! That's right! I wanted to see that!"

If I want to find good movies, I am perfectly capable of finding good movies. The purpose of this project is not to find good movies. I do not need movie recommendations.

In fact, before I started this project, I watched kind of a lot of movies. I used to go to the movies two or three times a week (sometimes two or three times a day on a good release week) and I used to watch a ton of movies on the satellite channels when that was a thing. If you absolutely positively must recommend a movie, please make sure that it's not on The List and is not one of the 1400-ish films I've marked as "viewed" on letterboxd.

There are a few movies on the list that are there because they were big films from that year, but that I will not be reviewing because I vetoed them. I just don't want to see some movies, I'm just not interested in seeing more of some franchises (Star Wars has been comprehensively destroyed for me, I don't want to see more Star Wars, I am mad at Star Wars, we are fighting), and I cut myself a little slack to know that there's no chance I was wrong about Wicked, that movie most assuredly sucks. They are on the list for two reasons: to acknowledge that they are films that I missed rather than things I just forgot to put on the list, and to potentially be used as a torment nexus by people following along with the project (it is entirely possible that you could someday force me to watch Top Gun Maverick in spite of my initial veto).

I have also already seen some of the movies on the list - even when I "wasn't watching movies" I was still watching a couple new releases a year, and there were only two years (2022 and 2023) in which I actually didn't see a single new movie. Movies I've watched for the project will be updated with a link to the review when such a review exists.

2011

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Transformers Dark of the Moon
Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn 1
The Hangover 2
Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides
Fast 5
Cars 2
Thor
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Captain America, the First Avenger
A Separation
We Were Here
Nostalgia for the Light
My Perestroika
The Artist
The Muppets
Win Win
Moneyball
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
The Guard
Drive
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
We Need to Talk about Kevin
Tree of Life

2012

Avengers
The Dark Knight Rises
The Hunger Games
Skyfall
Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 2
The Amazing Spider-Man
Brave
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Ted
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
Amour
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Elena
Argo
Moonrise Kingdom
Looper
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
How to Survive a Plague
The Kid with a Bike
This is Not a Film
Silver Linings Playbook
Beasts of the Southern Wild

2013

Iron Man 3
Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Despicable Me 2
Man of Steel
Monster’s University
Frozen
Gravity
Fast & Furious 6
Oz the Great and Powerful
Star Trek into Darkness
12 Years a Slave
Before Midnight
Inside Llewyn Davis
Stories We Tell
Her
Short Term 12
Mud
20 Feet from Stardom
Wadjda
American Hustle
Fruitville Station
Nebraska
Wolf of Wall Street

2014

Guardians of the Galaxy
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Lego Movie
Transformers: Age of Extinction
Maleficent
X-Men Days of Future Past
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Big Hero 6
Amazing Spider-Man 2
Godzilla
Boyhood
Mr. Turner
Leviathan
A Summer’s Tale
Ida
Gloria
The Tale of Princess Kagya
Selma
Starred Up
The Babadook
Two Days One Night
The Lunchbox
Grand Budapest Hotel
Birdman
Gone Girl
Blue Ruin
Life Itself
Foxcatcher
Whiplash
Nightcrawler
Interstellar
Jodorowsky’s Dune

2015

Jurassic World
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Inside Out
Furious 7
American Sniper
Minions
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
The Martian
Cinderella
Carol
45 Years
Spotlight
Timbuktu
The Shawn the Sheep Movie
Truman
Long Way North
Aferim
Mad Max Fury Road
Brooklyn
Mustang
It Follows
Paddington
Room
The Revenant
The Big Short
Backcountry
Ex Machina
Sicario

2016

Finding Dory
Rogue One
Captain America Civil War
The Secret Life of Pets
The Jungle Book
Deadpool
Zootopia
Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice
Suicide Squad
Moonlight
Manchester by the Sea
I am Not your Negro
La La Land
Toni Erdman
Hell or High Water
Love & Friendship
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Kubo and the Two Strings
Arrival
The VVitch
Green Room
The Love Witch
Don’t Breathe
The Lobster
The Shallows
Silence

2017

Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Beauty & The Beast
Wonder Woman
Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Spider Man Homecoming
It
Thor Ragnarok
Despicable Me 3
Logan
Fate of the Furious
Dunkirk
Faces Places
Call Me by Your Name
Lady Bird
The Florida Project
3 Billboards Outside of Ebbing Missouri
Get Out
The Big Sick
Baby Driver
Coco
John Wick 2
Brawl in Cellblock 99
It Comes at Night
Bladerunner 2049
Okja
The Shape of Water

2018

Black Panther
Avengers Infinity War
Incredibles 2
Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom
Deadpool 2
The Grinch
Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle
Mission Impossible Fallout
Ant Man & the Wasp
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Roma
Amazing Grace
Shoplifters
They Shall Not Grow Old
The Favorite
BlacKKKlansman
A Star is Born
Spiderman into the Spiderverse
A Quiet Place
Paddington 2
Mandy
Sorry to Bother You
Annihilation
Won’t You Be My Neighbor
Hereditary

2019

Avengers Endgame
The Lion King
Toy Story 4
Frozen 2
Captain Marvel
Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker
Spider-Man Far from Home
Aladdin
Joker
It Chapter 2
Parasite
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
The Irishman
Marriage Story
Uncut Gems
Us
Knives Out
Little Women
Booksmart
John Wick 3
First Love
The Lighthouse
Ready or Not
Midsommar
Rojo
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

2020

Bad Boys for Life
1917
Sonic the Hedgehog
Jumanji the Next Level
Birds of Prey
Dolittle
The Invisible Man
Call of the Wild
Tenet
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Time
First Cow
Minari
Gunda
Soul
Nomadland
Judas & The Black Messiah
Promising Young Woman
Bill & Ted Face the Music
76 Days
Saint Maud
Color out of Space
Psycho Goreman
The Platform
Sound of Metal

2021

Spider Man No Way Home
Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Venom: Let there be Carnage
Black Widow
F9: Fast Saga
Eternals
No Time to Die
A Quiet Place 2
Ghostbusters Afterlife
Free Guy
Summer of Soul
Petite Maman
Memoria
Flee
Licorice Pizza
The Worst Person in the World
Parallel Mothers
Luzzu
Sabaya
Paper Spiders
Hive
Azor
Boiling Point
7 Prisoners
Don’t Look Up
Pig
Candyman
The Green Knight
Dune
Coda

2022

Top Gun Maverick
Black Panther Wakanda Forever
Dr. Strange & the Multiverse of Madness
Avatar the way of Water
Jurassic World Dominion
Minions: The Rise of Gru
The Batman
Thor: Love & Thunder
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Black Adam
Aftersun
Tár
The Quiet Girl
Three Minutes: A Lengthening
The Banshees of Innsherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
Turning Red
Happening
Fire of Love
Marcel the Shell with the Shoes on
Till
The Woman King
Prey
RRR
Hatching
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Nope
X
Pearl

2023

Barbie
Super Mario Brothers Movie
Spider Man Across the Spiderverse
Guardians of the Galaxy 3
Oppenheimer
The Little Mermaid
Ant Man & The Wasp Quantumania
John Wick Chapter 4
The Sound of Freedom
Taylor Swift Eras Tour
Past Lives
The Zone of Interest
Saint Omer
The Boy and the Heron
All of Us Strangers
Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning pt1
Killers of the Flower Moon
Air, Courting a Legend
Are you there God? It’s me Margaret
TMNT: Mutant Mayhem
M3GAN
Blackberry
Godzilla Minus One
Sisu
American Fiction
Lola
Evil Dead Rise
Poor Things

2024

Inside Out 2
Deadpool & Wolverine
Wicked
Moana 2
Despicable Me 4
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Dune Part 2
Twisters
Godzilla x Kong New Empire
Kung Fu Panda 4
Nickle Boys
Anora
The Brutalist
Sugarcane
Hard Truths
Challengers
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Hit Man
Love Lies Bleeding
The Substance
The Wild Robot
Conclave
Monkey Man
A Real Pain
I Saw the TV Glow
Venom: The Last Dance

Alli Hates Movies

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