A 2-hour delay for school today opened up an opportunity to complete the Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView right away this morning. I am heading to see Megan tonight so I had scheduled a short to watch and, thanks to HBO Max, I was able to watch the original sci-fi short, Georges Méliès’s groundbreaking film, A Trip to the Moon.
This is the oldest movie on the site, being listed at 1902. A Trip to the Moon is an influential film by the French filmmaker and is widely considered the first science fiction movie. The version I saw on HBO Max had some color added to it. I do not know if that color was added recently or if it was from the original. According to Wikipedia, color prints “were produced for a small percent of Méliès’s films and advertised alongside the black-and-white versions at a higher price.” This make me suspect that this version on HBO Max could be one of these.
The film is an amazing achievement by Georges Méliès as the 14-minute film included a narrative structure, despite not having any dialogue or any word screens as many silent films would use. Some of the effects were very creative for the time and Méliès effectively used several camera techniques to create the illusion of what he wanted to happen. I can only imagine the stir that this film and its originality and its subject matter caused.
Inspired by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells among others, Georges Méliès brought the idea of science fiction to the movie world. He included a score over the film and, apparently, there were times when a narrator spoke over the film, explaining what was happening. Georges Méliès starred in the film as Professor Barbenfouillis, the president of the Astronomy Club and your main character.
The imagery of the cannon-powered rocket ship embedded in the “face” of the moon is an iconic image that has been used many times. My first memory of the image and reference to this film came from Martin Scorsese’s 2011 film Hugo. A Trip to the Moon brought a sensation to the film industry, which was just starting out, proving that you could tell a story and involve the audience in a piece of entertainment. The film helped show that anything was possible and the only limitations was the imagination.
The fourth film in the Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView is the 2011 British film, Attack the Block.
I started off this movie disliking what the film was giving me. We met the street gang led by Moses (John Boyega) as they were mugging an innocent woman, Sam (Jodie Whittaker). The five kids seemed to be nothing more than a group of punks and I found myself wondering if these characters are meant to the protagonists. Moses seemed to be a horrendously cruel punk who was not easy to like.
Then Moses killed an alien and things went off the charts. The death of the alien drew an invading force of larger, meaner creatures that appeared to be on a path of vengeance.
Suddenly, the character of Moses took a turn and started to realize how much of what is happening was his fault and, when he had to come into connection with Sam once again after mugging her, Moses is taken on a definite journey as a character. By the end, I had a much better mindset about Moses, even liking the character.
I especially enjoyed the gang member Pest (Alex Esmail), who felt like the audience’s voice as the film moved along. He was funny and quite witty. I also enjoyed the dialogue from Pest and the other kids because half of the British slang that was used was nearly undeterminable. I did not know what he was saying a lot of the time. It was funny.
I was surprised that this sci-fi/comedy/horror film’s biggest draw for me was how well the characters developed and interacted with one another. The action was good and the creature design was solid, using what was clearly mostly practical effects. In a film that I initially thought that I was going to dislike because I did not like the characters, I ended up liking this a lot.
Today’s entry in the Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView is the classic Anime animated film, Akira from 1988. This animated movie was adapted from a manga of the same title.
Right off the bat, I want to say that I watched the English dubbed version of this. Usually in live action, I try to watch the English subtitled version instead of the dubbed, but I did not think that the animated film would matter much. However, I was wrong. The dialogue and the voice acting of the English dub was poor and it took a lot of my concentration to focus in on the film with the distractions. If I had it to do it again, I would go with the Japanese voice/English subtitles version.
But I did not choose that one and so my opinion on the film is tainted a touch.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “In 1988 the Japanese government drops an atomic bomb on Tokyo after ESP experiments on children go awry. In 2019, 31 years after nuking the city, Kaneda, a bike gang leader, tries to save his friend Tetsuo from a secret government project. He battles against anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists and a powerful military leader until Tetsuo’s supernatural power suddenly manifest.”
The animation was amazingly cool for the year. It may not be up to the quality of animation today, but there was a special quality to it that made it work very well with this story. It definitely had that Anime feel to it and you can tell how this inspired all kinds of Anime films that followed it.
I had a little trouble getting into the story at first, but as the story progressed, I became more interested in what the movie was trying to show. There were some high concepts in the story and some impressive science fiction themes.
I enjoyed this movie, but I would be lying if I said that the dialogue and the English voice acting did not affect my overall feelings of this version. I still like this, but I would have liked to have seen the film the way it was meant to be seen.
The second day of the Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView is underway with a cool sci-fi flick that I had never seen before, starring some big named actors. It was a neo noir film called Dark City and it featured Kiefer Sutherland and William Hurt.
However, the lead star was an actor named Rufus Sewell, who I did not know very well. Checking out his filmography at IMDB, I saw that he had been in several films that I had seen (as well as several TV shows that I had not), but none of them stood out as the “Oh yeah, I saw him in that” memory.
Dark City has a complicated story that grabbed me right away. I was engaged with the central mystery of what was happening and wanted to know the answers. Directed by Alex Proyas (which is a follow up to The Crow), the film is extremely stylish and truly surprising.
According to IMDB, “John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens alone in a strange hotel to find that he has lost his memory and is wanted for a series of brutal and bizarre murders. While trying to piece together his past, he stumbles upon a fiendish underworld controlled by a group of beings known as The Strangers who possess the ability to put people to sleep and alter the city and its inhabitants. Now Murdoch must find a way to stop them before they take control of his mind and destroy him“
The film gave me some The Matrix feeling about it, and then I realized that this film came out in 1998 whereas The Matrix came out in 1999. So perhaps The Matrix gave me some Dark City vibes instead.
Kiefer Sutherland gave an interesting performance as Dr. Daniel Schreber. He gave the character several intriguing traits, such as a breathy way of speaking and physical limps that you do not normally see from a Kiefer Sutherland role. Where he falls in the story is one of the key mysteries of the film.
I believe there was too much use of exposition, especially at the very beginning of the film which feels unnecessary. I understand the need for an explanation as you go, but some of the information they presented in the film was shown rather sufficiently using the imagery.
I will say that when the big revel came around, I was surprised. I was impressed by the reveal and, even more so, since the film had been dropping hints throughout about what was going on. I am sure that upon a second watch, you could pick up plenty of clues that would make more sense with the knowledge of what was happening.
Dark City was a well design science fiction tale with some fascinating ideas. The Strangers were creepy and menacing. The film’s look was exceptional with some definite dark tones and creative images. I am not sure how I feel about the third act confrontation (which I will not spoil), but everything else was so strong that I am happy to put aside any minor gripes.
As I was compiling my list for the Genre-ary DailyView, I came across a film called Nine Days. However, as I read the synopsis, I did not think it fit in with the Sci-Fi genre. It was more of a fantasy film so, instead of using it as a Genre-ary film, I decided to watch it today.
Will (Winston Duke) is someone who judges souls and decides which one deserves to have a chance to be born. He goes through a series of interviews with the individual souls about what they would do in certain situations. Will is able to view the lives of the people who he sends to the world.
When a new opening on earth comes available, a new group of souls come for the interviews that take place over the stretch of nine days. Will was caught off guard by one of the unconventional souls, Emma (Zazie Beetz) and she shook his personage to the core.
This was one of the most creative and original films I have seen in a while. The story, which could have been corny, really worked well and was tightly organized. The premise was solid and something I have never seen before.
Then, Winston Duke gave us a performance for the ages. Duke was exceptional in the film and he had amazing chemistry with Zazie Beetz. He was also great with co-star Benedict Wong, who played Will’s assistant who was there to make sure Will did everything right. Benedict Wong and Zazie Beetz were outstanding
There were other excellent actors involved in the film too such as Tony Hale, Bill Skarsgård, David Rysdahl, Arianna Ortiz and Lisa Starrett. The ensemble of the film brought their best work and they were very emotional as they faced possible oblivion.
Great performances and an original premise make an enjoyable film to watch.
2023 starts off with the first of the Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView which was a film I heard about from Robert Meyer Burnett’s films of the year from 2022. It was a sci-fi film called Vesper, a film that I had never heard about before. I went to Vudu and was able to rent it and I kicked off the Genre-ary with it this morning.
Directed by Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper, Vesper is a post-apocalyptic film where engineered viruses escaped into the world and wiped out a large portion of life. Enclosed cities, known as citadels, were where the well-off went to thrive while others struggled to survive in search of food.
Vesper (Raffiella Chapman) is a 13-year old who is taking care of her father Darius (Richard Brake) who is paralyzed and can only communicate with Vesper through a flying drone. Vesper’s uncle Jonas (Eddie Marsan) runs an orphanage where he would harvest blood from the children that he sells to the citadels. Jonas was not motivated by a family bond.
One day, Vesper discovered a young woman named Camellia (Rosy McEwen) who had crashed, along with her father, in one of the citadel’s ships. Vesper took Camellia back and helped heal her, but there is more to her than what we see.
The movie was well shot and required specific attention because there were some really creative and intriguing ideas being used in the movie. Some of the concepts really worked well and created the feeling of hope among the desperation that enveloped the world.
Speaking of the world, this film did a fantastic job of world building. Creating a futuristic society with rules and dangers can be a difficult thing that, at times, weighs down a film. It many times leads to an excess of exposition, but Vesper handled the introduction of the ideas extremely well and the film worked it in to the story smoothly. In fact, several of the details that the film brings up are never expanded upon and feels as if there is significant story yet to tell. It is a setting where I would welcome further exploration.
The visuals were done vey well, helping to build the feeling of a world that felt dirty, grimy, but it never feels hopeless. You believe that Vesper is going to overcome with her intelligence and heart.
I was looking for an interesting documentary to fill the afternoon hours here on New Year’s Eve before I started by Avengers binge, and I found a fil on Hulu (by way of HBO Max) that I started to watch. I immediately realized that this was not the kind of doc that was in the celebratory range.
Boy Interrupted was the story of 15-year old Evan Perry, who had a short life suffering from depression and bipolar disorder and ended up committing suicide by jumping out of his window. The doc recounted the story of his life through his family members and close friends.
It was desperately sad watching his mom and dad telling the details that led to the eventual suicide as a 15-year old. It was clear that the wounds were not healed by any stretch and you could see the pain etched on their faces when talking about everything.
I can’t imagine the pain that goes along with a child who you love taking his own life. I know that the few students that I have had who have committed suicide was always painful, but I have no idea what it is like for a parent. I can only imagine it is the worst nightmare someone could live through.
It stirred up a lot of memories in myself watching this developing tragedy. Everyone can relate to this in some manner even if you can not fully grasp the anguish facing and guilt the parents and family members.
It is a tough doc to watch, but it is important to understand the signs that are being shown by kids, signs that you do not want to ignore.
I was watching an episode of The Top 10 Show with John Rocha and Matt Knost and they were doing a list based on Sci-Fi movies. I realized as I watched that my knowledge of Sci-Fi movies was limited to the basic films that everyone has seen. So I came up with the idea to do a limited DailyView (much like the June Swoon from last year) by doing a different unseen Sci-Fi movie every day of January.
Then, I came up with my favorite pun of the year… Genre-ary (you know like January). I was really pleased with that. If this goes well, perhaps we can do this every January, but next time maybe we do comedy or Rom Coms or Horror or Westerns etc.
However, starting with Sci-Fi, I will be keeping the list of the films on this post.
2023 Genre-ary Sci-fi DailyView
January 1, 2023: Vesper (2022)
January 2, 2023: Dark City (1998)
January 3, 2023: Akira (1988)
January 4, 2023: Attack the Block (2011)
January 5, 2023: A Trip to the Moon (1902)
January 6, 2023: Them!(1954)
January 7, 2023: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
January 8, 2023: The Prestige (2006)
January 9, 2023: Explorers (1985)
January 10, 2023: Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001)
January 11, 2023: Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)
January 12, 2023: Stargate (1994)
January 13, 2023: The Stuff (1985)
January 14, 2023: I Think We’re Alone Now (2018)
January 15, 2023: Cloud Atlas (2012)
January 16, 2023: The Andromeda Strain (1971)
January 17, 2023: Barbarella (1968)
January 18, 2023: Prospect (2018)
January 19, 2023: Batteries Not Included (1987)
January 20, 2023: The Hidden (1987)
January 21, 2023: Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
Starting last year, each month is highlighted in pictures for what was coming up. I enjoyed making the pics and I liked the aesthetic it brought to the home page, so I plan on continuing it into 2023.
Then, Pele, the great soccer legend died. I wasn’t sure what to do about that and I was thinking about how to honor him when Barbara Walters died.
I knew that meant we needed a fifth In Memoriam for 2022.
I combed through the year looking for others that had not made the previous In Memoriam pics. There are actually a ton of people who could have been included. There were a couple I included on this one that I intentionally left off the others.
Here they are…
My friend Todd suggested that I have names on these posts, and so I decided that as we move forward, I would honor these people not just in picture form, but also with their names. Rest in Peace.
Barbara Walters
Pelé
Don West
Monica Vitt
Kenneth Starr
Sen. Orrin Hatch
Dame Vivienne Westwood
Mike Hagerty
Kailia Posey
Hilaree Nelson
Jean-Luc Godard
Shinzo Abe
Tony Siragusa
Bob Lanier
Michael Lang
C.W. McCall
Marsha Hunt
Big Scarr
David Birney
Lamont Dozier
Pharoah Sanders
Hilary Mantel
Pope Benedict XVI
Edit: I can’t believe this. Literally minutes after I finished the In Memoriam Part 5, I found out that Pope Benedict XVI had died as well. So I went back and fixed the picture to add Pope Benedict XVI. I hope that this is done now for 2022.
I had watched YouTube critic Dan Murrell’s Top 10 movies of the year and he had listed White Noise as one of them. I had never heard of it, so I added it to the list for a potential June Swoon after five months. However, as I opened up Netflix this morning, I saw that White Noise was now available to watch, and I decided not to wait until June and to watch it today.
White Noise was adapted and directed by Noah Baumbach. It was adapted from a novel of the same name by author Don DeLillo. It was one of the stranger films that I have seen this year.
The plot synopsis is a bit challenging, because it felt a little all over the place. According to IMDB, White Noise “Dramatizes a contemporary American family’s attempts to deal with the mundane conflicts of everyday life while grappling with the universal mysteries of love, death, and the possibility of happiness in an uncertain world.”
That synopsis boiled the film down to its basic concept. How it gets there is quite the trip. It included a weird family, a mysterious drug, and an airborne toxic event that led to a city-wide evacuation. Jack (Adam Driver) is a professor of Hitler studies. His fourth wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig) is secretly taking an unknown medication. There is also another professor, Prof. Murray Siskind (Don Cheadle) who wants to develop an “Elvis” studies. Cheadle is not essential to the film, but he adds a lot of strange humor.
The dialogue of this movie was the best part and it was delivered so entertainingly by Driver, Gerwig and the entire group of kids from their family. They were all very intriguing characters with their own quirks and odd behaviors. The characters were certainly written as intelligent people, but they may not have a ton of social skills for the outside world.
Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig were great as the lead couple. Their grounding of their relationship and the relationship with their kids is what kept the movie from losing its way, which was absolutely a danger with all of the strangeness that was going on in the story. Without Driver and Gerwig’s work, the seemingly randomness of the plot points would never have worked.
Don Cheadle was hilarious with his apparent obsession with Elvis and his attempts to get the Hitler professor to help him out. The kids all were very solid acting wise as well.
There were some who believed that the White Noise novel was unadaptable for the screen, and, while I have not read the novel, the film held my attention and entertained me throughout. I was never quite sure where it was heading and I liked that.
Now that we have concluded looking back, it is time to switch gears and start to look to the future. There are several films and TV shows that I am excited to see.
Movies
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 is my most anticipated film. I am afraid that Guardians Vol 3 is going to rip our hearts out. Someone from the Guardians is going to die. I think that is clear. Before that comes along, Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniaintroduces us to Kang the Conqueror, the next big bad in the MCU. Jonathan Majors was awesome when we saw him first on Loki as a Kang variant. Things should get crazy. Marvel Studios also has The Marvels and I can’t wait to continue the story of Ms. Marvel as she joins Captain Marvel and Monica Rambeau. Sony will be releasing Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse Part 1, the follow up to the Oscar winning animated movie.
DC will hopefully finally release Shazam: Fury of the Gods. I mean Helen Mirren as the villain? Hot damn. Blue Beetle is getting a theatrical release and I’ve always enjoyed this character. Outside of superhero films, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny looks absolutely awesome. I just hope this is better than the last Indy movie. With James Mangold I’m sure it will be excellent. John Wick 4 is always an exciting film franchise. We get a new Scream movie too, Scream VI, one year after the fifth installment. Then… there is what has to be a film unlike anything we have ever seen… Cocaine Bear.
TV
The TV show I am most excited about is Secret Invasion with Nick Fury and the Skrulls. The few scenes I’ve seen is absolutely thrilling and I cannot wait to see where the show goes. I hope that Secret Invasion gives us that spy action such as Winter Soldier.
Marvel has a ton of series coming in 2023 including Loki Season 2, Echo, Agatha: Coven of Chaos and Ironheart. Disney + will be on fire. There is also the Mandalorian Season 3 and Ahsoka from the Star Wars universe. Hopefully these will be more like Andor instead of Obi-Wan Kenobi or Book of Boba Fett. The animated series of Velma on HBO Max looks cool, especially with the voice of Weird Al Yankovic in th show.
2022 has been an outstanding year for movies as you can tell from the fact that this list, which is normally 30 films long, is now at 40 films. I decided to expand the list instead of having ten honorable mentions on the normal length list.
Not only were there a bunch of movies on this list, they were extremely difficult to rank. I was flip-flopping these movies multiple times, with some dropping down and others going higher on the list. In fact, I can’t promise that the list that I type up will be exactly the same as what I have written down on the paper. I had more trouble organizing this list than any that I can remember in the past.
As usual, I did not include an documentaries on this list. It is not like that is a hard and fast rule, but the doc would need to be something truly special to make this list. Fire of Love was on the original possibilities list but it got dropped early in the process. Another film that I did not consider much was the DC Animation Battle of the Super Sons. I loved that film, but it got dropped because of the lack of release. I also did not include the Marvel Studios Special Presentations (Werewolf By Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special) in the Top 40. Honestly, both of those would have made it had I not decided to cut them off.
Finally, as I stated with the Worst Movies List, my normal star ranking does not go into effect with this listing. I have a 5 star film currently sitting at #13. The star ratings help organize the possible films to make the list and then I look at my current thoughts on the film. Sometimes they are different than immediately after seeing a film.
So, off we go…
#40. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. Charming and fun, they were able to take an animated short film and make it a feature length movie without any trouble. Marcel was such an awesome character, it’s a shame more people did not see this.
#39. Strange World. The Disney animated film this year was simply not promoted properly. It was a great generational film looking at father and son relationships. Great animation too. Yes, it has some issues, but it deserved better. Everyone should go watch it on Disney + .
#38. Emily the Criminal. Aubrey Plaza gave an amazing performance as a woman who turned to credit card scamming to egt by in her life. Plaza is a star in the making.
#37. All Quiet on the Western Front. The German remake of the classic was a powerful and beautiful film that was very difficult to watch. It should be a leading candidate for Best International Film at the Oscars.
#36. She Said. An investigative journalist film dealing with the controversial Hollywood figure, producer Harvey Weinstein. A great cast and a strong story helped She Said.
#35. Scream. The new film in the Scream franchise came out early in 2022 and did a great job of setting up a new direction for the franchise while still paying homage to what had come before.
#34. When the Screaming Starts. A mockumentary focusing on a serial killer who had yet to actually kill anyone. A serial killer wannabe. And this was hilarious.
#33. Pearl. The prequel to X (which also came out this year), this included a star-making performance from Mia Goth, as a brutal serial killer and her origins.
#32. Confess, Fletch. Jon Hamm took over the role of Fletch and they made a film that was smart, funny and full of surprises. This was another movie whose promotional material did not do it any favors. I want more Fletch, and I am not that much of a fan of the originals with Chevy Chase.
#31. Beast. Idris Elba is in this movie about a killer lion that was way better than I ever thought it would be. It was a lot of dramatic fun and frightful moments.
#30. The Lost City. Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum worked well together in this Romancing the Stone-like action film. Brad Pitt gave a scene stealing performance in a short role.
#29. The Woman King. An epic film dealing with a race of warrior women from Africa, led by Viola Davis. There were excellent fights and battles too.
#28. Smile. A great year for horror included this, one of the scariest films of the year and certainly also one of the creepiest with all of those crazy smiles.
#27. The Outfit. Mark Rylance played a tailor whose ties to the mob come back to haunt him.
#26. The Banshees of Inisherin. Reuniting Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, this Irish film was thoroughly entertaining and momentously shocking. One of the Academy Award favorites.
#25. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. I waited for the price on this to drop before renting it this year. It absolutely would have been worth paying full price. Full of charm and fun performances.
#24. Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers. A Disney + exclusive that was so much fun and filled with nostalgia and cameos galore. Ugly Sonic was a standout for sure. Clever and well written.
#23. Spirited. Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell give their spin on a version of A Christmas Carol from a new perspective. It had some great music and some fun dance scenes as well.
#22. Till. A tough film to watch because of the painful topic, but a movie with so many great performances, led by Danielle Deadwyler, our The Liz Award winner this year. Give it a watch.
#21. Elvis. Baz Lurhmann’s new film detailing the life of Elvis Presley. Austin Butler does an outstanding job as Elvis and Tom Hanks is underrated as Col. Tom Parker.
#20. Enola Holmes 2. This Netflix film starred Millie Bobby Brown as the sister of Sherlock Holmes, returning in a sequel that exceeded the original. Brown is an absolute star and she has a bright career past Stranger Things.
#19. Top Gun: Maverick. One of the most successful films of the year, Top Gun Maverick looked amazing and brought a great deal of nostalgia to a simple story. Very thrilling.
#18. Black Phone. A clever horror film with Ethan Hawke as a child kidnapper and a mysterious black phone that keeps ringing though it is not connected to anything.
#17. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. A wonderful addition to the Shrek franchise, Puss in Boots was funny, creative and full of an energy missing form many animated films these days.
#16. Turning Red. A brilliant film from Pixar that tackles the theme of young girls growing up and uses a metaphor to tell the tale. Amazing graphics as most Pixar films have.
#15. The Batman. Robert Pattinson made a solid Batman as he battled a psychotic version of the Riddler and an imressive Penguin, who was an unrecognizable Colin Farrell. May have been a touch too long.
#14. Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Sam Raimi succeeded in making a Marvel movie feel like a Sam Raimi movie. There were some haters of this online, but I think this movie wa a victim more of over-expectations than anything else.
#13. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. This is the film that has bounced around the most, having been as high as six on this list. Nic Cage playing a satirical version of himself in this movie was amazing and it was a lot of fun.
#12. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. One of the most beautifully animated movies of the year and easily the best Pinocchio movie of 2022. The film was dark, funny, full of great music and some messages among the themes. A special film.
#11. Thor: Love and Thunder. Another film that found a lot of hate this year, but I loved. Yes, I thought the film had too much goofy humor in the first part, but I found myself engrossed in the second part. Then, on the second watch, the jokes did not bother me as much as they did in the first viewing. It was an excellent ending too.
#10. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. We, once again, join in the world of Benoit Blanc, and the great detective finds himself deeply involved in another murder. Glass Onion has a stellar cast and is very clever and creative.
#9. Prey. A Hulu film that reinvigorated the Predator franchise by taking it back into the past. Dialogue was limited but the storytelling was not. This should have had a theatrical release.
#8. Violent Night. A film that surprised me with how much it dove into characterization. I thought it would be just a bad ass Santa, but it was much deeper than that. Loved the performance of David Harbour as the three dimensional Santa Claus and his sledgehammer.
#7. Deadstream. A wonderful take off of YouTube streaming culture in a great found footage horror film. One of the best horror films of the year that I found on Shudder.
#6. Everything Everywhere All at Once. It was the best multiverse movie of the year. Clever, creative, fun, and filled with amazing performances, EEAAO showed that a little film can be successful.
#5. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Putting the Roku Channel on the map, Weird was the funniest movie of the year. As one would expect, Weird took the genre of biopics and parodied them, just like Weird Al parodied the songs. Some of this biopic is true… though not much.
#4. RRR. One of the most energetic films of the year. RRR was filled with kinetic dances, over-the-top action and some of the best characters around. It is long, but every second is a treat.
#3. The Menu. My favorite horror/thriller of the year, The Menu has everything. Ralph Fiennes leads a sensational cast in one of the most tense films you are going to find. It is also a satire of chefs and their manner in preparing meals. The Menu was an amazing tasty treat.
#2. Matilda the Musical. This almost made number one. I love this musical with the wonderful Alishia Weir as Matilda and the unbelievably transformed Emma Thompson. On re-watch, I had tears in my eyes during the Revolting Children song/dance from just pure joy. It is on Netflix right now…go watch it!
#1. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Marvel Studios and director Ryan Coogler faced such a series of problems with Wakanda Forever, namely they lost their main character (T’Challa) played by their star Chadwick Boseman to cancer. What came from that was a film that was a beautiful tribute to Chadwick Boseman while also moving Wakanda forward in the MCU. Emotional and full of grief, but also hope.
It is time for the Worst Movies of 2022 list. This year the list is at 25, though there are also a few dishonorable mentions. Every year there are people who refute the writing of Worst lists because they claim that it is too negative. While I agree that it is difficult to make movies, in my opinion, criticizing the work does not disrespect the people involved. At lest, I do not mean to. With the Batman and Robin Awards, I talked about “celebrating” the bad movies. That is what I want to do.
And as always, the individual star ranking for each movie does not necessarily mean that they are in that order. A movie could have 1 star and be ranked blow a film that had 2 stars because it depends on how I feel about the film, the reflection of it, and compared with others. I say that because the one film that I gave zero stars to this year did not end up at number one.
Dishonorable mentions: Four films did not reach the top 25. They were Bones and All, which a lot of people loved and I did not, Crimes of the Future, a sci-fi film that just did not do anything for me, She Will, another film that failed to grab my attention, and The Independent, which I saw on Peacock and had John Cena but I had never heard of it before.
Here we go…
#25. Don’t Worry Darling. A film that people thought would be a huge Oscar contender, but flopped in poor storytelling and chaos behind the scenes.
#24. Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank. Just a dumb, childish animated film filled with fart and poop jokes. Brings the level down to the kids instead of the other way around.
#23. Halloween Ends. Not what the trailers promoted. I was excited for this after seeing the trailers, but the “final battle” with Michael and Laurie felt tacked on to the end of a film that was not about Michael.
#22. Ambulance. Michael Bay’s new film about two thieves pulling a bank heist and ending up inside an ambulance. Dumb.
#21. Hotel Transylvania: Transformations. Hopefully the last of this franchise. This is a franchise truly losing steam as it moves along.
#20. The Lost Patient. This is one of the films that I do not remember much about. Looking back on it, there is some really dumb twists that was so obvious that it ruins the film.
#19. Memory. One of Liam Neeson’s films. You see some and you’ve seen them all. Liam is forgetting things and looking to retire. Yawn.
#18. My Best Friend’s Exorcism. I had hoped this would be cheesy, campy fun. It was everything…except the fun part.
#17. Falling for Christmas. I don’t usually watch these cheesy Christmas films, but with Lindsey Lohan, I gave it a chance. Bad choice.
#16. The Invitation. Just watched this recently after avoiding it for so long. It was free on Netflix and that was the only way I could justify it. Terrible vampire movie.
#15. Disney’s Pinocchio. Who would have guessed that you have Disney, Pinocchio and Tom Hanks and this would be one of the worst films of the year? It just had no reason to exist and lacked any real purpose.
#14. The School of Good & Evil. I had hoped that this could be the next big Harry Potter-like franchise. No thnak you.
#13. R.I.P.D 2: The Rise of the Damned. Who wanted this? A prequel with no stars from the original and just a terrible story and CGI. It felt like an early 90s action film, but not as good.
#12. Firestarter. Another failed attempt to adapt this Stephen King book. Almost made her a super hero.
#11. Choose or Die. Asa Butterfield could have bene Spider-Man. Boy we dodged a bullet there.
#10. The Requin. A killer shark movie. Or at least, that is what I thought. Shark wasn’t here for much. Silly and not fun.
#9. Moonfall. If only the moon would have crashed into the earth sooner.
#8. Morbius. It’s Morbin’ Time! A film so bad it flopped twice. This could have been so great. I love the character of Morbius, but this was such a poor rendition that it became a joke meme instead of a hit movie. Plus, one of the worst post credit scenes ever.
#7. Senior Year. Oh, my goodness. Rebel Wilson as a girl who wound up in a coma as a high school student and awoke years later, still with her same mindset. It was painful to watch this seriously unfunny comedy.
#6. The Man from Toronto. Speaking of unfunny, I was shocked this film was as bad as it was with Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson.
#5. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022). The remake of a horror classic was anything but a classic. What a horrendous waste of a IP.
#4. Studio 666. The Foo Fighters fighting foo. That would have been more interesting, I think. Horrible Satanic, demonic tale of a rock band. They did not die quickly enough.
#3. Babylon. This could be one of the firsts Worst Film List films to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination. I hope the voters come to their senses. It has been a long time since I came out of a theater angry at what I watched. This was the latest time. I hated this movie.
#2. Jackass Forever. I gave this movie 0 stars because I did not find anything funny. It felt cruel and mean-spirited and featured way too many penises.
#1. The Munsters. Rob Zombie was apparently a huge fan of the TV show, but you would be hard pressed to find any evidence of that. You knew when you saw that trailer that many people thought was a joke or a misdirect, that this movie was going to be a stinker. There was potential here, but it was totally unreached. The Munsters became the worst movie of 2022.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 