(UPDATED) Top 10 of 2019

We came to the end of another year, in fact another decade. So it's time to do another top 10 personal favorite movies of 2019. I will also do a top favorites of the decade, I think it will be my top 30 of the decade, but I am still thinking about that, but I will post that within a week at the latest.

Please note, I have not seen all the movies this year, there are plenty that are being haled as the greatest movies ever, but I haven't seen them, I may at some point, but this reflects my favorites of the year. Anyway, without further adieu, here are my top 10 favorites of the year:

10. Yesterday - What if you woke up one day and one of the biggest things in the world was forgotten and was gone. The world goes through a weird power out and the music of The Beatles disappeared and only one remembers who The Beatles were, this had such a unique concept that it grabbed my attention. Just FYI, if this happened, I wouldn't be able to bring back the forgotten music into the world.

9. Peanut Butter Falcon - One of those movies I wasn't planning to see, but everyone kept talking about it that I decided to check it out. It had a very good story, for those that don't know what it is, it is about a man with Down syndrome who lives in a senior home and escapes so he can meet his idol, a wrestling pro back in the day on TV. He accompanies a man played by Shia Lebeouf who is running from the law. It's got great cinematography, and a good soundtrack. This was one of those very pleasant movies that I just enjoyed taking the adventure.

8. Apollo 11 - Taken from footage shot during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, Todd Douglas Miller took the footage and put it all together to tell a story of the mission. It was such a cool experience, I saw First Man last year that dealt with one man's emotional journey to space, this dealt with the mission as a whole, and just seeing the footage from this perspective was just awesome, plus the film was in excellent condition, especially being 50 years old.

7. Klaus - So this was a movie I discovered on Netflix, but I believe it did have a very limited theatrical release so I would consider this one worth putting on the list. This is another story of the legend of Santa Claus and how Santa came to be, and it's told from the perspective of a mailman. This movie brought back a ton of nostalgia from animated movies back in the 90s, mainly from Disney, and no this isn't a musical. And this has a great story about a town that is transformed because the good deeds that were done. This is one I will be watching each Christmas.

6. Ad Astra - I remember hearing about this when I was trying to figure out my anticipated list for the year, but I chose not to include it since I didn't know anything about it except it had Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones and it took place in space. This was a visually gorgeous movie and had a great score, I saw it on IMAX and it was so worth it. For me, there was more to it that stood out, I listened to Brad Pitt as he was on his journey to confront his father and all that going through him made me think about those that I personally struggle with and how would I react to those that you aren't sure how it all will turn out. This is a movie I could see evolving over time as well.

5. JoJo Rabbit - What if I told you this movie was about a boy in Nazi Germany that has Hitler as an imaginary friend and it's somewhat of a comedy, would you go see it? That premise is very bizarre that I think the premise alone would not progress the movie to be completed. I don't know how Taika Waititi did it, but this was a very brilliant movie, and the premise is the beginning of the movie, but the boy soon finds a young girl living in his attic who is a Jew and he comes to know the girl and that changes his perception on the world. Without giving too much more away, let's say that the movie evolves as it progresses and there is more emotion than you would anticipate. This one is totally worth seeing.

4. How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World - Cool part, this trilogy began with the beginning of the decade, and it concludes with the end of the decade. Did they stick the landing, yes I really thought they did. We saw Hiccup and the rest of the characters grow with each new entry, and see Hiccup become a man here. This is a beautifully animated movie, the scenery is just gorgeous, and once again I wish I had a dragon. I also really like how they handle the love story between Toothless and the Light Fury, those moments where they communicate without dialogue is just charming and so well done. Also, I have to say John Powell did an excellent job with the score, the first is still the best, but this is such a wonderful entry and I am thankful we have such a wonderful trilogy of movies.

3. Knives Out - This was first announced late in 2018 and was surprised to hear this would come out this year, all I knew is that it was directed by Rian Johnson and starred Daniel Craig, This was a brilliant movie. It is a murder mystery movie that also has plenty of humor. I think of the movie Clue when I first watched it, but there is so much more to it. I don't know how to explain the movie without giving too much away, but lets say with the death in the family, some of the true colors of some of the family slowly come out. It kept me on the edge of my seat during my first viewing, the second viewing helped me catch what I missed, but even the third viewing I caught more I didn't notice before. I feel I should do a post about this movie and talk about aspects of the movie that really stood out because it's hard to talk about this movie without spoiling too much. See it if you haven't seen it yet.

2. Ford V Ferrari - I am not much of a sports person, but I can admit that one of the sports I enjoy watching is racing, like car racing and bike racing. So that was an aspect that grabbed my attention for this movie and why I really wanted to see it. Plus the cast and a great director, I was excited for it. This was an excellent movie, it had a good story about the small people overcoming the odds of a corporate company. Plus the race sequences were awesome, they were shot in a way that I really felt part of the action, I also watched this in a big theater with Dolby Atmos which enhanced my experience of watching the movie. Both Matt Damon and Christian Bale did an excellent job in their roles, and it was cool to see them work to build a race car to compete against Ferrari and seeing them looking at all aspects of the car to get it to the point it could compete. It was hard when I got out of the movie late at night to not drive my car like a race car. This is so worth seeing.

1. Avengers Endgame - When Iron Man came out in 2008, I never thought we would end up here, I knew shortly after the movie came out they were working on a team up movie, but I figured The Avengers would be the biggest they would go, wow was I wrong. After the ending of Avengers Infinity War, this was on my most anticipated list, and that anticipation only grew as it got closer to release. I saw the trailers and I heard the good reception, but that was all I knew regarding the movie, and this movie blew me away in so many ways. This was a movie for the fans and it all paid off in glorious ways. I remember the concerns coming up with the movie being three hours (I wasn't worried since the Lord of the Rings movies were 3 hours), but this was a movie that did not feel 3 hours at all, and the last 40 minutes of the movie was mind blowing. I don't know what to saw that hasn't already been said, this was a rewarding experience for me. And for those that still haven't seen it (I would be surprised if you haven't seen it yet), please do yourself a favor and see it. This was a wonderful time at the movies this year that I got very involved in, and this was my top personal favorite of the year.

So that does it for 2019, there were a lot of great movies this year. There were plenty of great movies this decade, I will do that list as soon as possible. I will also do a list of my top 20 movies I am looking forward to in 2020.