Best of 2020 - Movies

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This past year, my wife and I finished going through the original AFI Top 100 list.   Honestly, I find the list a little disappointing, and I couldn't wait to get done with it.  After we finished, that we continued watching the Academy Awards for Best Picture winners, and we will catch up someday soon.  I did also watch several movies by myself, that I thought Courtney would not be interested in.

The best movies I saw for the first time in 2020 were the following:

  1. Spotlight
  2. Lion
  3. Frozen 2
  4. How to Train Your Dragon
  5. Toy Story 4

Movies I saw for the first time in order

  1. Toy Story 4 (2019).  We saw this in the theater.
  2. Roman Holiday (1953). This was on the AFI Top 10 Romantic Comedy List. Watched it by myself.
  3. A Few Good Men (1992).  On AFI Top 10 courtroom drama list.  Watched it by myself.
  4. Frozen 2 (2019). In the theater.  It was my first time seeing it, and second time for my family.
  5. Cat Ballou (1965).  AFI top 10 western.  Watched it by myself.  Started to doubt whether this list was good.
  6. Good Will Hunting (1997).  Watched it with my wife.  This movie was mentioned in a sermon at church, which is why it came up now.
  7. Hoosiers (1986).  AFI Top 10 sports.  Watched it by myself.
  8. An American Tail (1986).  Family movie night.  I couldn't recall if I saw this before.
  9. Where’d You Go Bernadette (2019).  Watched it with my wife, since we both read the book.
  10. The Lorax (2012).  I think I watched this by myself, but don't remember why.
  11. The Graduate (1967).  For being #7 on the AFI Top 100 list, I found it to be disappointing. This actually completed our watching of the AFI Top 100, because the remaining top 6, we had seen before. Watched with my wife.
  12. Spotlight (2015).  Back to watching Best Picture winners with my wife.  This was a good one.
  13. Smokey and the Bandit (1977).  A coworker recommended this around 10 years ago, and I never watched until now.  It was super disappointing.  He had an odd taste in movies, since his other favorite movie was Saturday Night Fever.
  14. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?  (1988).  Watched this with my wife.  Not sure how it ended up on my list of movies to see.
  15. Madagascar (2005).  My older daughter chose this one to watch for family movie night.
  16. March of the Penguins (2005). Watched this documentary by myself.
  17. Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable (2018).  A less popular Hamilton movie, I found this on a list of documentaries.  My older daughter watched it with me.
  18. Matilda (1996).  Family movie night.
  19. The Running Man (1987).  I had always wanted to see this since partially seeing it on TV when I was a kid.  But it was disappointing overall. Watched by myself, naturally.
  20. The Biggest Little Farm (2018).  From the list of documentaries.  Watched with my younger daughter.
  21. Pumping Iron (1977).  This documentary got on my list after watching Running Man. Watched by myself.
  22. How To Train Your Dragon (2010).  Watched with the kids.
  23. Sully (2016).  Watched this in a drive-thru format in North Dakota, with my wife, on one of our state trips
  24. Apollo 11 (2019).  From lists of documentaries.
  25. Onward (2020).  Family movie night
  26. The Martian (2015).  After watching the best pictures, we sometimes watch other movies from that year.  This one was nominated for Best Picture, but did not win. Watched with my wife.
  27. Moonlight (2016).  Best Picture winner, watched with my wife.
  28. Dunkirk (2017).  This was nominated for Best Picture, and I watched it by myself.
  29. Temple Grandin (2010).  I heard about this movie from a book I was reading about autism.
  30. Lion (2016).  This was nominated for Best Picture, and I watched it by myself.  This had special significance for me, because I had listened to the audiobook, which is a true story.










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