The Meh Movies Of The Year

Some perfect whatever films to watch while home for the holidays.

It’s the tail-end of December, so everyone’s posting their Best Movies of the Year rankings. And trust me, I get it. I’m at nearly 5,000 words and have a good deal left to do for my 2024 List. Still, these lists usually leave out maybe the most important type of movie: The mostly family-friendly mediocre movies that you can watch with your parents while on the couch after a big meal while half paying attention, in and out of a nap. I like to call them Meh Movies. Not particularly good, not particularly bad, just there.

Netflix, of course, has become a home for these films, especially with its newest release Carry-On, which has been atop its most-watched movies ranking since it dropped on Dec. 13. The Jaume Collet-Serra thriller starring Taron Egerton and [REDATED] centers on a TSA agent who finds himself in the middle of what might be a terrorist threat. It’s a mess, ridiculously written and decently entertaining. It moves fast and features a lot of attractive people running around. You could do a lot worse.

Despite marketing itself as a crazy thrill ride, there’s little-to-no blood, pretty minimal stakes (despite the HIGHEST of stakes) and a nice, little holiday theme throughout. You can try to watch some of my favorite movies of the year like Anora, Kinds of Kindness, Nickel Boys or Longlegs, but you might lose remote privileges for the foreseeable future.

And so, with all of that said, here are some other Meh Movies to check out while lounging around in your pajamas while your parents scroll through Insta Reels.

The Fall Guy

Some actually seem to really like this movie; those people are insane. Directed by David Leitch who made a Deadpool movie and Bullet Train (derogatory), The Fall Guy feels like a Ryan Reynolds movie that Ryan Gosling said yes to and everyone was shocked. The premise is fun: A stunt guy and his former flame (now a director) have to work together to solve a conspiracy. But the execution is middling at best, pretty shlocky and almost too easy to solve. Gosling and Blunt have chemistry and Leitch knows how to film a big explosion scene, so it’s got that going for it. This could easily be a Netflix film despite its theatrical push to be seen on the biggest screen possible, so it’s perfect for half-watching and then tuning back in when Gosling gets to Gosling for a bit. Also, this one’s on Peacock and VOD.

Twisters

This one’s a little better than The Fall Guy but not by too much. Starring Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones as two good-looking white people, Twisters is the sequel to Twister (of course) and a very fine movie about insane people trying to stop(?) tornadoes. There’s a strong central romance, Powell trying out his best Tom Cruise impersonation and enough cool special effects to make this one worth it. Also on Peacock, this movie is exactly what you think it’s going to be and sometimes that’s more than enough.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Hey. Remember Beetlejuice? What if they made it again without the initial spark and once-in-a-lifetime idea? This perfectly fine sequel to the 1988 classic was somehow a pretty big theatrical hit and is now on Max for your viewing pleasure. A huge step back from the first one, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is at its best when it lets Michael Keaton take off with the character and at its worst when it becomes Stranger Things 2.0. There’s enough in here that’s fun and creative (especially Tim Burton’s ingenious idea to skip over Jeffrey Jones being in the movie), but it’s also half-baked and feels like three or four movies smushed together.

Thelma

Maybe the quintessential airplane movie, Thelma is perfect for (literally) the whole family. This is the premise: “When 93-year-old Thelma Post gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her.” A very sweet (sometimes treacly), dramedy that has an action sequence in an old folks home is just what the doctor ordered for a family watch party. It never lags, features June Squibb having the time of her life and has a nice, tidy message for everyone watching. It’s fittingly on Hulu, one of the older streaming services.

Saturday Night

A sometimes funny, sometimes groan-worthy 109-minute comedy on the first night of Saturday Night Live is perfect while home, especially for the pop-culture family in your life. There are so many “that guys” in this one, actors that’ll have your parents saying “Oh, is that [insert name here] from [insert show/movie here]?” which will keep everyone entertained, at least for the first 30 minutes or so. To be fair, the cast is stacked from Gabriel LaBelle’s Lorne Michaels to Rachel Sennott, Dylan O’Brien, Ella Hunt, Lamorne Morris, J.K. Simmons and Willem Dafoe. The movie itself is … fine. There are some fictional stakes, some decent comedy and a bunch of manufactured nonsense. Sounds like the holidays … amirite?

Wicked

Lol, time to log off.