I seem to recall that I read once where Hollywood pats themselves on the back if they get more than 14% of the history correct in their movies. 
I was shocked at the time, but it served to recalibrate my expectations of anything thatās not a documentary. 
Summer of 84. A tidy little āteenagers investigate neighbourā film, which ticks all the necessary boxes and does next to nothing new until late on. Not bad, just unremarkable.
Low Tide. A gang of teenage burglars strikes upon a big score. Finely acted, including a great turn from Shea Wigham, and a good role for Alex Neustaedter, who you may recognise from Colony. A very enjoyable film, with the sort of edge that teenage life really has even if you allow yourself to forget it.
Captain Marvel. A slightly better than average Marvel film. The slightly older setting was a nice touch.
Every āBased on a True Storyā Movie Ever
Quarantine. A remake from the I-Canāt-Be-Bothered-To-Read-Subtitles school of film making, this poor manās Rec is lacking everything that made the original good, amps up every flaw, and yet at the same time, is almost a shot-for-shot recreation. A miserable experience, doubly pointless for being the same but worse. Someone makes a good meal, a second person eats it and shits onto your plate and expects you to enjoy it. Dire.
How It Ends. I havenāt seen a film in a long while that respected my time less. There is half a film here, not including an ending, and I am actually angry that such a vague mess was ever considered finished, beyond the point of the last day of shooting and everyone involved being embarrassed. Why is Forest Whitaker in this. Why. What bill could possibly be so large and urgent as to compel wasting your time in something like this. Profoundly unworthy of existence.
I have no idea what that movie entails, but I appreciate the laugh.
Also, I think we should have a grading scale for movies - 10 to Mary Poppins Returns?
Come to Daddy. A slightly odd tale of father/son reuniting, Elijah Wood plays his usual role of the little weedy chap, and Michael Smiley the delightfully weird villain. A little bit funny, a little bit strange, not bad, but not as good as I Donāt Feel At Home In This World Anymore either. Quirky only gets you so far.
Interview With the Vampire. I didnāt see it when it first came out, so Iām going to be charitable and assume the Bad Fairy of Suck has waved her magic wand at this one in the last quarter-century. So very bad. Appallingly overacted, dreadful script, woeful pacing, unintentionally funny, but also not funny when it tries to be. Also - donāt judge me - since then weāve had the Vampire Diaries and the Originals tv series. They might just be derivative spins on exactly the same tropes but they just did it so much better.
Extreme Job. What happens when a bunch of inept detectives buy a fried chicken restaurant as an undercover gambit? The funniest film Iāve seen this year.
Interview was hard to take when it came out unless you were pretty hardcore into vampires and/or Anne Rice. And even then, there was a lot of backlash about it because it was so poorly cast with regards to what fans had always imagined the main characters to look like. Sting was who everyone assumed would play Lestat.
All of the bad things you pointed out (and more) were true then and only seem so magnified now because so many other better vampire things have come along since. I mean, IMO, once you see Only Lovers Left Alive, youāre all done with ever having to watch anything vampire ever again.
I saw this tonight and really enjoyed being in his world for however long it was, 3 hours nearly? Didnāt notice the time one bit. āWell-craftedā is spot-on, though itās not nearly as overt as Iād been led to expect. Great meandering fun.
What We Do in the Shadows is the best vampire film Iāve ever seen. Gets the lore right (so I hear) and freewheels itself down chuckle-out-loud alley. Doesnāt need Tom Cruise anywhere near it!
First Love. Takashi Miike is unable to make what youād consider a normal film, and here puts together another messy, chaotic chase and crime caper, with triads and yakuza, double-crosses, and a boxer and a prostitute on the run. Heās been making films like this for more than twenty years now, so competent is not the word. Whatever it is that makes him come back to films like this, when heās made some excellent and very different films (Zatoichi, Ace Attorney, Audition, Happiness of the Katajuris, Yokai War), itās perhaps a bit repetitive in the long term, but itās difficult to accuse him of being unoriginal when heās made so many, varied, films.
Like a Dragon and Ace Attorney are my favorites but I am very biased here because they both are based on some of my favorite gaming franchises. Like a Dragon especially. I didnāt realize it back then when I went to the screening of the movie that is was based on the first Yakuza gameā¦would I have been more adept in using my remaining couple brain cells I would have noticed that the Movie title āLike a dragonā is a literal translation of āRyÅ« ga Gotokuā which is the name the Yakuza games are called in their native languageā¦boy was I surprised 30 minutes into the film when I finally realized what I was REALLY in forā¦man that movie has a special place in my heart.
His movies are a special kind of crazy but every single one of them is worth it.
Having dusted off the joystick and fired up IL-2 Sturmovik this week, I was tooling around in the A-20B Havoc twin-engine attack bomber. Got to thinking about the next announced expansion, Battle of Normandy, bringing with it the eagerly anticipated Mosquito F.B. Mk.VI.
Dug out 633 Squadron to watch a good old fashioned Brit war film with Mosquito fighter-bombers (my copy is a DVD war movie 3-pack with Bridge at Remagen & Devilās Brigade). Aviation enthusiasts love the Mosquito footage, for good reason. Just canāt make 'em like that any more, like they could when there were still enough flyable aircraft to film together.
Recommended for aviation enthusiasts. 
Shout out to my drunken, half-asleep viewing of 633 Squadron years ago, which led me to believe it had a bizarre incest subplot.
Vice. Probably the best film Iāve seen this year. Genuinely messy in structure, this doesnāt really detract from the mocking depiction, because it is accurate, of one of the quietest villains of modern politics, a man cartoonishly bent on achieving power. Flamboyantly ambitious, not afraid to break the fourth wall, itās a rare thing to have a genuinely sharp political satire.
Back to the Future.
Despite the fact that I could probably recite the entire script, I havenāt watched it in possibly a decade. I am not sure if my wife has ever seen it. I made her watch it tonight and while her review was āit was ok,ā I still think it is just about a perfect movie. Brilliant and hilarious.
Carriers. Iām sure everyone has had a fun time watching Contagion, and if not do so, but thereās also this little number from the long-gone year of 2009. Four people in a car, in a world devastated by a pandemic. Adhering to simple rules to stay alive, they scavenge for supplies and try to avoid getting infected. Not a cheery film at all, and featuring savagery and cold-heartedness galore.