My Top Ten 2019 Movie Releases

Welcome to Day 5 of my 2019 top ten lists that I’ll be posting all week.

I found 2019 cinema releases to be disappointing overall. I went to a hell of a lot (thanks, Unlimited card!) and, though I very much enjoyed all 30 I’ve listed below, there were just far too many “average” movies released in 2019. Last year gave me nothing that will become an all-time favorite, which is unfortunate as a lot of recent years have given me at least 1 movie that I really loved. Speaking of which, I’ll be posting my top ten movies of the decade tomorrow. Again, I’ll cheat and make it a top 30 (like yesterday’s Top Ten Movies Watched At Home In 2019, which does contain some new favorites). I haven’t fully decided on the decade list – my top four below have potential to squeeze into the 30.

I’m not saying those below are at all bad, though. In fact, it’s a very strong 30. I’d especially recommend any in the top 20 & loved that things like Fighting With My Family & Hustlers were very pleasant surprises as I didn’t expect to enjoy them nearly as much as I did. Hell, even Child’s Play was far better than I was expecting! So 2019 was a year of some very good films, TONS of “average” films, but not too many dreadful films (or perhaps I managed to avoid those. I’ve not seen Cats!).

Here are My Top Thirty 2019 Movie Releases (by UK release date):

Top Thirty:

30. Ma – 7/10
29. Spider-Man: Far From Home – 7/10
28. Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil – 7/10
27. Frozen 2 – 7/10
26. Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark – 7/10
25. Ready Or Not – 7/10
24. Child’s Play – 7/10
23. Five Feet Apart – 7.5/10
22. Us – 7.5/10
21. Green Book – 7.5/10

Top Twenty:

20. Toy Story 4 – 7.5/10
19. Midsommar – 7/10
18. Captain Marvel – 7.5/10
17. The Farewell – 7.5/10
16. Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood – 7.5/10
15. Avengers: Endgame – 7.5/10
14. Knives Out – 7.5/10
13. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum – 7.5/10
12. Rocketman – 7.5/10
11. Le Mans ’66 (Ford v Ferrari) – 7.5/10

Top Ten:

10. Jumanji: The Next Level – 7.5/10

9. Joker – 7.5/10

8. Hustlers – 7.5/10

7. Judy – 7.5/10

6. It Chapter Two – 7.5/10

5. Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker – 7.5/10

4. Yesterday – 7.5/10

3. Fighting With My Family – 7.5/10

2. Alita: Battle Angel – 7.5/10

1. Doctor Sleep – 8/10

These are the Top Ten lists I’ve posted & will be posting this week:

My Top Ten Books Read In 2019
My Top Anime Movies Watched In 2019
My IMDb Top 250 Movies Watched In 2019
My 2019 Blind Spot Movies: Ranked
My Top Ten Movies Watched At Home In 2019
My Top Ten 2019 Movie Releases
My Top Ten Movies Of The Decade (2010-2019)

Sesame Street To Again Be Shown In The UK!

YES!!! Starting today, Cartoonito will be airing Sesame Street in the UK. This is a big deal to me! I grew up on this show & the characters will always be very dear to me. And I met Gordon when I was 4 or 5 (I have a picture of the two of us – it’s awesome).

It’s always felt weird no longer having some American staples like Sesame Street & Saturday Night Live on TV. Even though I didn’t always watch them, I’ve missed them no longer being around since moving to the UK. Oh, and The Young And The Restless. But don’t tell anyone that I used to watch a soap… (What’s up with Victor & the Abbott gang these days?)

Read more about Sesame Street’s comeback here: Sky News. Unfortunately, it sounds like Sesame Street has undergone a lot of changes. I know they got rid of some of the longstanding human cast members a few years ago, which is a horrible shame. I’ll still be checking it out, though. It’ll never be as good as it was in the classic, pre-Elmo days but it’s a show I’ll always support.

Pharrell Williams and Gwen Stefani will be guest starring in today’s comeback episode so that’s a promising start, at least. Too bad my daughter is now too old for the show but, with such big name guest stars (she’s a fan of both Williams & Stefani), I have a feeling she might not leave the room when I start watching it. 😉

Let’s end this with the classic Alligator King clip…

My Top Ten Chocolate Bars

With October and then Halloween just around the corner, I thought it would be fun to rank my favorite chocolate bars. Yeah! Why the hell not?

I have both UK & US chocolate on this list but my heart still mostly belongs to American junk food. It’s what I grew up with! But I know most people prefer British chocolate. I also have a few things on the list that aren’t exactly chocolate “bars”. Number three is iffy. Oh well – Close enough. Oh, and this will actually be a Top 20. Yeah! Why the hell not?

So here are My Top Ten (Twenty) Chocolate Bars, counting down to my favorite. (But in all honesty, I prefer chips. Or crisps as they’re known in the UK…) 😉

Honorable Mentions:

20. Whatchamacallit
19. US Mars Bar (The UK Mars Bar is closer to a US Milky Way)
18. US Milky Way (The UK Milky Way is closer to a US 3 Musketeers but not as good)
17. TIE: Munchies & Rolo
16. Minstrels
15. Walnut Whip
14. Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups
13. Hershey Bar With Almonds
12. Cow Tales (do they still do these in the US? Not sure they qualify as chocolate, though)
11. Twix

Top Ten:

10. Maltesers (like US Whoppers)

9. Cadbury Dairy Milk (And I also like the current variant with the popping candy & jelly beans in it)

8. Cadbury Creme Egg (UK or US – the yummy gunk in the center tastes the same)

7. Nestlé Crunch

6. Snickers

5. Kit Kat (In the UK, I prefer the Dark Chocolate Kit Kat)

4. Tootsie Roll

3. Flipz Chocolate Covered Pretzels

2. M&M’s (Plain over Peanut)

1. 3 Musketeers

**I was going to make this into a poll but there are just too many types of chocolate bars. So tell me in the comments what your favorites are! 🙂 And I’ll actually catch up on replying to your comments this weekend. Sorry to those who have been commenting – I’ve fallen weeks behind on my blog!

Someone Take Me To Banksy’s Dismaland Bemusement Park!

Banksy has put together this “dystopian tourist attraction” featuring art from a long list of famous artists (including his, of course). I love Banky’s work (you can read my review of Exit Through The Gift Shop HERE). I did a “Banksy tour” of London years ago to see some of his most famous street art and I WANT TO GO TO DISMALAND!!!!

There’s a very good article about the whole thing at This Is Colossal so take a look at that link if you’re at all interested & live anywhere near Weston-Super-Mare. There’s loads of info, a video & lots of photos.

It’s very likely that reading that article will be your only way of experiencing Dismaland. So far, demand is very high and there are long queues to get in as the official website is experiencing problems and people have been unable to buy tickets. Ha! Rumor has it that even that is all part of the Dismaland experience. How very Banksy! I love it! So I’m extremely unlikely to experience Dismaland first-hand as I live nowhere near there (plus I can’t imagine Disney letting this stay open for long!!!) but just knowing of its existence puts a smile on my face. Which is kind of missing the point. Or is it?! Who knows. Gotta love art! 🙂

Ten Things I Like About England

I’m American but I’ve lived in England a long time now. I complain about it too often (just ask my hubby!). But the truth is that the only thing about England that REALLY gets me down is the weather (too bad I didn’t know before moving here that I suffer massively from SAD)! So as the sun was occasionally shining through the clouds today and the sky was mostly blue and it’s a new month and I’m trying to be a more positive person and yada yada yada, I’ve decided to list “Ten Things I Like About England”. So here you go! 🙂

1. The Music

Probably almost 90% of my favorites are from the UK. The Beatles, Iron Maiden, Radiohead, David Bowie, John Lydon/Sex Pistols, Black Sabbath, The Chemical Brothers, Peter Gabriel, The Clash, The Cure, The Smiths, Ian Brown/The Stone Roses, UNKLE, Massive Attack… I’ll stop there or I’ll be listing these all day…

2. London. It’s just really cool.

3. Stonehenge. It’s just really cool. Spinal Tap agree.

4. WAY more days off work than in America. Hooray for bank holiday Mondays! (Like today).

5. Guns. Not many.

Won’t discuss this. Just listing it is the closest I’ll EVER get to being political about ANYTHING. I only discuss movies and light fluffy things. 😉

6. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

7. Monty Python

8. Pubs & pub quizzes

9. Michael Caine. I’ve decided he’s cool.

10. The word “Wanker”

My England Haiku:

Not much sunshine but
Look on the bright side of life
And bring umbrella