March 2021 Review: The Best and Worst Movies I Saw Last Month

For some reason March was an exceptionally difficult month. It was hard to find the motivation to watch movies or write reviews. I’m hopefully coming out of the funk that I am in. The overall quality of movies that I watched is very solid. It seems like there was a nice even split between the great and the bad, which is always nice to see. I also reviewed my first great horror film from 2021 this month, so that is also exciting! I am a little worried that after watching 10 films from the year so far, only 1 is what I can call great, but I’m hopeful some upcoming new releases will push back against that narrative soon. Anyway, I saw 30 horror films last month and here are what I think are the best and the worst. Enjoy!

WORST #3) The Being (1983); Director: Jackie Kong; United States

The Being tells the story of Pottsville, Idaho, a small community located far from the excess of the big city. Strange things begin to happen not long after toxic waste is dumped in the local aquifer. Mysterious disappearances pop up around the town which prompts the police chief and a scientist to get to the bottom of things. Along the way, they discover that a mutant monster is responsible for the deaths of many and it is up to them to stop it from decimating the town’s already dwindling population. I am going to be completely honest with you. When I looked at my end of the month watchlist, I could not remember watching this movie. It is so bland and forgettable that I had to watch the trailer just to job my memory. So-so creature effects, a flimsy script, and limp action make for an altogether uneventful and boring viewing experience. I struggle to give it too low of a score because I do think there is a good movie in here somewhere. There are worse eighties creature features, but there are simply so many better ones that there is no reason to waste time or energy on this muck.

Overall Score? 3.5/10

BEST #3) The Block Island Sound (2020); Director: Kevin McManus, Matthew McManus; United States

Please check out the full review here.

Overall Score? 7/10

WORST #2) The Canyonlands (2021); Director: Brendan Devane; United States

Please check out the full review here.

Overall Score? 3/10

BEST #2) Hannibal (2001); Director: Ridley Scott; United States, United Kingdom, Italy

After the events of The Silence of the Lambs, Dr. Hannibal Lector has reimagined a new life for himself in Italy as a curator for a museum. Clarice Sterling is fresh off the face of a publicly humiliating debacle which involved a shootout in a marketplace where she was forced to kill a woman holding a baby. Meanwhile, one of Dr. Lector’s surviving victims has it out for Dr. Lector and is willing to use and sacrifice Clarice in order to draw him out of hiding. Which he does after he deals with a nosy and greedy policeman in Italy hellbent on capturing Lector and turning him in for the reward money. It seems hard to believe that with so much time in between installments in this series, that it would consistently deliver quality material, but the Hannibal series really does it time and again. Hannibal is filled with fantastic performances by Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, and Julianne Moore, even if her version of Clarice is different than Jodie Foster’s. The action is intense, the story is captivating, and it’s sprinkled with some great dark humor. Dine in with the greatest cannibal who ever lived and watch Hannibal (and the rest of the series) today.

Overall Score? 7.5/10

WORST #1) Human Zoo (2020); Director: John E. Seymore; United States

Please check out the full review here.

Overall Score? 2/10

BEST #1) Hunter Hunter (2020); Director: Shawn Linden; Canada, United States

Please check out the full review here.

Overall Score? 8/10