FILMS I'VE MISSED: 2021 EDITION

Back before I forget to do it, it's the Orange Box's annual Films I've Missed list. If you don't know what this list is, this is what I do in lieu of a yearly top ten list which other sites and writers usually. 2021 was a fine year overall, got vaccinated, got out more and travelled a bit. Also there was a lot of films released this year wasn't there.

For film in 2021 was an extraordinary year, with many of 2020's film being put on the back burner, 2021 seemed to be a big comeback for major movies. The Marvel Cinematic Universe returned, there films from some of the world's greatest living directors like Edgar Wright, Ridley Scott, Guillermo del Toro, Jane Campion, Hideaki Anno, Antoine Fuqua, Denis Villenueve, Lana Wachowski and many more. I managed to see several different movies, not just on streaming services like Netflix or Shudder, but at the cinema, as you do. This picture below showed all the 2021 films I saw that year.

But just because I watched a lot, doesn't mean a few films can pass my attention, so in alphabetical order are the films I missed last year. Due to the plethora of streaming services nowadays I'm limiting my list to films that either had a theatrical or digital release. There will be no Netflix or Prime original films on this list. So anyway let's get this list going.

CENSOR

Horror was big this year with new instalments in the Candyman, Halloween, Saw and VHS franchises along with some new horror films like Ben Wheatley's pandemic inspired In the Earth, M. Night Shyamalan's Old and foreign films like Gaia, but one horror film on my radar that I missed was Prano Bailey-Bond's Censor.

Set in the 1980's the films' central premise being about England's video nasty scare was intriguing and from the looks of the trailer seemed to head into the more bug nuts side of horror which we don't see a lot of these days. Now there was a showing at my local cinema but it was for one day and I didn't get to see it, that's why I missed out on it.

HALLOWEEN KILLS

The 2018 Halloween legacy sequel was pretty great right. Managed to homage the original, but add a few new things. Jamie Lee Curtis was great but there were some new character. Like that film I didn't get to see Halloween Kills which sees Michael Myers continue his rampage with some returning characters from the original. Looked fun, wanted to see where things are going.

LAST NIGHT IN SOHO

There's a lot of horror movies on this list. Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho looked enticing. A mix of giallo horror and swinging London. With Wright at the helm it probably would have been on my top ten list if I watched it, but it's on this list now. Another reason I wanted to see it is because there are not enough big budget genre movies made in Britain nowadays, which is kind of a shame honestly.

MALIGNANT

Malignant is one of those films that I saw the trailer for and kinda dismissed it, even though it was directed by James Wan. Boy does it feel like I missed out, because according to Twitter this film seemed to be crazy in all the right ways with a new iconic character it seems. Feel bad I missed out on this.

NO SUDDEN MOVE

Steven Soderbergh had a new film out last year. It had a big name cast with Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, Brendan Fraser and David Harbour. Well it got a release on HBO Max in the US and a digital release in the UK, which is my neck of the woods. Yeah, I feel like one of the big problems with streaming services distributing movies is that it makes it harder to find out where and when a film is. Especially if it's on a service exclusive to a country.

NOBODY

John Wick is probably one of the most influential action movies of the current moment. In a lot of mainstream action movies recently they've been lots of assassins and a lot more focus on practical stunt work recently. Another action movie of the past decade Hardcore Henry. An action movie shown from a character's P.O.V. That film exceeds it's gimmick premise and is probably one of the more underrated films of the last decade. Now combine the director of Hardcore Henry and the one of the directors of John Wick, David Leitch and Bob Odenkirk. A film that looks like a pretty good time.

PIG

Nicolas Cage is one of our best living actors currently working today. He always understands the assignment, he knows what type of film he's in and what is needed from his performance. He is also having a resurgence in the last couple of years with appearances in films like Mandy, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Color Out of Space and in 2021 had a trifecta of interesting films, with the fun horror action film Willy's Wonderland and the weird and interesting Prisoners of the Ghostland with Sion Sono. I did not get to see the third film in that trifecta which was PIG, a film where Cage plays a forager whose pet pig gets kidnapped. A lot of people compared it too a culinary John Wick, but I thought in the trailers looked like a melancholy character study.

RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON

There are not a lot animated movies that are straight out action movies. Sure you have your Incredibles and your DTV superheroes, but not in the big screen. Raya and the Last Dragon looked like it could scratch that itch for me but it came out in the early months of 2021 and the United Kingdom had entered it's third lockdown, it was on Disney+ but I don't have so yeah, missed it. Still looks great though.

THE LAST DUEL

Ridley Scott is a great filmmaker, can do several different styles of movies and while sometimes they don't mesh well, it is still interesting. He also had two films out last year. I saw House of Gucci, but I missed The Last Duel. A medieval Rashomon based on the true story of the last duel (hey it's the title) between Sir Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris. Seemed very interest but as it's on this list I didn't see it and also judging by the box office numbers not a lot of people watched this as well.

THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK

The Many Saints of Newark is the prequel film to the Sopranos, detailing the events that led to Christopher Moltisanti's father's death and his relationship to Tony Soprano (played by James Gandolfini's son, Michael). I never got round to watching it because I haven't finished the Sopranos. Yeah, I'm still on season 5 as of the time of writing this. Probably watch it when I finish the series.

And those where the films of 2021 that I missed. I hope to get round to them in the future some day.