Class of 2024: The Big Screen
My favorite theatrical movies of 2024
Happy New Year folks!
As we welcome the new year in, I will be wrapping up my Class of 2024 series with a look back at my favorite films of the year.
There were a lot of great films that came out this year. I watch a lot of movies. A lot. I am one of those people that will go see a movie just for the hell of it. It’s just one of those things I do. I have one of those movie subscription things where I pay a set price per month and go see all of the movies that I want. It’s convenient.
Anyway, yeah, there were a lot of good movies that came out this year. And there were also some really crappy ones.
I am keeping this list contained to theatrical releases by the way. There were some really good movies that came out as streaming exclusives as well but for the sake of … I dunno, just for the sake of, my list will only contain movies that were in the theaters.
So…..here are my top 10 favorite theatrical releases of 2024:
The third and possibly final entry into Sony’s Venom franchise, this one was released in October and directed by Kelly Marcel. If you aren’t familiar, it features the Marvel Comics alien character Venom and his host Eddie Brock. They are played by Tom Hardy. Personally, I liked this one way better than the second in the series (Let There Be Carnage) but I’m not sure if I liked it more than the first one in the series. It’s close. I was glad to see this one do so well at the box office. As of this writing, the film is the 10th highest grossing film of the year.
I was not originally planning to see this. It wound up being one of those movies that I went to see just to go to the movies so I went into it with very low expectations. It turned out to be surprisingly good. It is an animated film directed by Josh Cooley that was released in September. Based on the Hasbro toy line characters, it dives into the origins of 2 of its iconic characters: Optimus Prime and Megatron. The voice cast included Chris Hemsworth (as Prime) and Brian Tyree Henry (as Megatron), as well we Scarlett Johansson, Laurence Fishburne, Steve Buscemi, Jon Hamm, among others.
8: Ghostbusters: Frozen Kingdom
The fourth in the series, Frozen Kingdom takes place 3 years after the events of Afterlife. This one was released in March and directed by Gil Kenan. It was a fun movie and a good continuation of the Afterlife characters.
I really like biopics. I especially like musical biopics. I had been waiting on the release of this one for a long time, having seen a trailer for it earlier in the year. This movie is the latest release among my favorite movies of the year, having been released on Xmas Day. It was directed by James Mangold and starred Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan. It is based on a book by Elijah Wald titled Dylan Goes Electric. Besides Chalamet, who did an incredible job as the iconic singer, it also starred Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, among many others. Overall, the acting was terrific. If you aren’t familiar with the music or life of Bob Dylan, this would be a good place to start. It grossed over $23 million in its opening weekend and has been nominated for 3 Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture, best Performance in a Drama (Chalamet), and Best Supporting Performance in a Drama (Norton).
6: Furiosa
I’m a fan of the Mad Max saga. This franchise, created by George Miller (who has directed all of the movies in the franchise), is one of the best post-apocalyptic series out there. Furiosa is the 5th installment in the series and a prequel to the 2015 film Fury Road. It is an origin story for the title character from Fury Road. It was released in May and starred Anya Taylor-Joy as the title character (originally played by Charlize Theron). It also stars Chris Hemsworth as the warlord Dementus. Unfortunately, it did not do well with critics or at the box office. It made back its budget but not by much. That is very disappointing considering how good a movie this was. At least in my humble opinion. I guess you can’t please everyone. I thought it was great.
5: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
This monster film was released in March and directed by Adam Wingard. It is a sequel to Godzilla vs Kong from 2021 and the 5th movie in the Monsterverse franchise (the 2014 Godzilla movie, Kong Skull Island, Godzilla: King of Monsters are also in this franchise). I gotta say that I love this entire franchise and this movie is no exception. In this one, Kong teams up with Godzilla to protect the surface Earth from some other monsters that are trying to invade. It did well at the box office. As of this writing it is the 7th highest grossing film of the year.
4: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Planet of the Apes is another franchise that I absolutely love. I love the originals and I love the reboot ones. Well, most of them. I wasn’t a huge fan of the 2001 film with Mark Wahlberg. It wasn’t horrible per se. I’m just not a fan. The rest of them, though are great. Kingdom is the 4th in the reboot series and takes place several years after War for the Planet of the Apes. They never really say how many years it’s been but is seems like it has been quite a few. It was released in May and directed by Wes Ball. If you are a fan of the series and haven’t seen this one, I highly suggest that you do.
Oh, will you look at that. Another franchise I like. Alien is one of the great science fiction franchises of all time. It was released in August and directed by Fede Alvarez. This one takes us back to the series’ horror roots and it set between the original 1979 film and its 1986 sequel. It tells the story of a group of young explorers that, while trying to scavenge a derelict Weyland-Yutani ship, have an unfortunate encounter with the iconic and horrifying xenomorphs. It has a great cast, especially Cailee Spaeny as Rain and David Jonsson as the android Andy. It also gives us the return of a character from the original movie (no spoilers if you haven’t seen it). Alvarez did a really good job of making this film fit the time period while still giving it a modern feel.
This epic sequel to the 2021 film was so freaking good. This one is was so close to being my absolute favorite of the year. Like its predecessor, it is based on the Frank Herbert series and directed by Denis Villeneuve. It was released in March. Also like its predecessor, it was visually stunning and the score was amazing. Having a great look and a great sound to add to a really great story really helps. Timothée Chalamet reprises his role as Paul Atreides as well as many others. The cast was so great. Some newcomers to the franchise included Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha, Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, and Christopher Walken as Emperor Shaddam IV. Everybody in the film performed brilliantly and Denis’ adaptation of this series is masterful. As of this writing is the the 5th highest grossing film of 2024. To be honest, I’m not quite sure why it is that low on the list because this film is absolutely freaking amazing.
This one barely edges out the previous film on this list as my #1 favorite film of the year but if you’ve seen it, you gotta admit that is quite an amazing and fun ride. It’s the 3rd in the Deadpool franchise. It was directed by Shawn Levy and released in July. Surprisingly, it is NOT the highest grossing film of the year (as of this writing). It is #2. It was beaten out by Inside Out 2 (which was, in its own right a really good and fun movie). It tells the story of the most anticipated team up in Marvel cinematic history and takes us on a ride through the multiverse. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman star as the title characters. I don’t know what else I can really say about this film without spoiling it. If you haven’t seen it yet, why not? I mean really? Why have you not seen this film! It is so great and humorous and fun.
So there’s my top 10 favorite films of the year.
A few films that would have made this list if they were not streaming exclusives (and all, interestingly enough, documentaries) are The Beach Boys, Road Diary and Beatles 64.
A few other movies that I would like to include as honorable mentions (because they were great films but just didn’t make the top 10 cut) are:
That’s it for this year’s Class Of series. I hope you enjoyed it.
Speaking of the Monsterverse, have you watched Monarch: Legacy of Monsters? If not, you should. It's excellent.