CODA stands for children of deaf adults. This film has been around all year, originally debuting at 2021 Sundance in January, and it was one that I heard about from the For Your Consideration crew on YouTube. It reminded me of this movie that was being talked about earlier this year on SEN Live.
I went to see where the film was streaming and found it on Apple TV +. I don’t check Apple TV + much so some things may slip past. CODA was one of the films that slipped by, but I am so grateful that I was able to circle back to CODA because it was a tremendous film.
Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones) is a teenager whose mother (Marlee Matlin), father (Troy Kotsur) and older brother (Daniel Durant) were all deaf. Ruby is the only member of her immediate family who could hear. At school, Ruby joined the choir because she loved to sing. She also had to help her father and brother on their fishing boat as the translator.
In the choir, after some initial doubt, Ruby showed her talent and her teacher, Mr. Bernardo Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez) thought she had that special “it” and wanted her to try to apply to Berklee.
The film does a wonderful job creating these characters and presenting their relationships. How important Ruby was for her family and how she was getting overwhelmed by expectations and how it conflicted with what she wanted to do.
The ending of the film was very emotional and real. There was a scene between Ruby and her father sitting on the tailgate of his truck that was just beautiful.
By the way, Eugenio Derbez does a phenomenal job as Bernardo. He was funny, had great dialogue and played off Emilia Jones so well. This was one of my favorite performances from him.
This coming to age movie tells a great story, has great performances with real deaf actors and fills the screen with awesome characters. It is a film that you should seek out. It’s worth it.
I finished the original Matrix trilogy this morning in preparations for The Matrix Resurrections on Dec. 22. After watching and being disappointed by the first sequel from the Wachowskis, I went to HBO Max for the third film in the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions.
Unfortunately, The Matrix Revolutions fails to help reimagine the second film for me and doubles down on the parts that were what led to my disappointment with Reloaded.
It felt very convoluted and spent a good chunk of time with characters that I either did not know or did not care about. The action for most of the movie was overlong and featured too much gunfire. These extended scenes of robots and humans in robot attire firing guns of some sort at each other became dull quickly.
There were large chunks of the film that do not include Neo (Keanu Reeves). There was a section at the very beginning of this movie that found Neo trapped in a space between the Matrix and the real world. This section of the film is utterly unimportant and irrelevant to the overall story. It just felt like it was something to toss into the film to pass time and allow them to leave a cliffhanger at the end of Reloaded.
The CGI is, of course, amazing. The Sentinels are a marvel of movie magic as is everything dealing with the battles with Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). It is clearly a beautiful film that looks special.
Speaking of Agent Smith, I found his inclusion in this movie to be over-the-top and a massive step down from previous movies, in particular the first one. Some of his monologues were sillier than I expected them to be. As one of the top actors in the cast, I just feel that his work in the Matrix Revolutions became all cheese and no substance.
Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) was reduced to a side character among the group of nobodies and unknowns around Zion.
Here is hoping that The Matrix Resurrections avoids the problems that mucked up the two sequels to The Matrix and can create a new and entertaining path to take.
So I have begun a rewatch for the Matrix trilogy before the new Matrix movie comes out next week. I watched The Matrix (aka the Good One) first and then I started into The Matrix Reloaded. As I was watching this, I realized that I had not seen this whole film. I remembered the highway chase scene, but everything else, including the finale of this movie was new to me.
I believe that what happened was that I had rented the DVD of this movie because I did not head to theaters as much during this time. and I did not like the movie and probably either ignored it or shut it off. That means, it qualified for the DailyView. The third Matrix film I have never seen because I never liked the first of the sequels so I did not see the second.
Having watched this now fully on HBO Max, I can say without reservation that The Matrix Reloaded was not as bad as I thought I remembered, but it is nowhere near as great as the original was.
The story is way too complicated, convoluted and makes little sense. While the highway chase scene was pretty decent, it lasted way too long. The film is hampered by the Deus Ex Machina that Neo has become with his super speed and flight, able to come out of nowhere and pluck characters out of their certain deaths.
It also did not help that Harold Perrineau was now in the cast and I kept waiting for him to yell for Walt. I know that is not fair, but I could not help myself. Some of his facial expressions were quite funny though.
Legitimately, the third act is as ridiculous as I have ever seen and I hated the end of the film with super surgeon Neo. Not only is he a Deus Ex Machina, but he is also a natural defibrillator.
All of the action scenes are well done, but over long. The battle with Neo and the army of Agent Smiths started fun but lost a lot as it kept going on.
The whole Architect thing made no sense and feels like it was just setting up an attempt for a story for the third film.
Many of these new characters mean nothing to me and I could barely keep them straight. Outside of Mike (er I mean Link) I had no idea about any of these extra faces on my screen.
I can see why I did not remember finishing this movie. There is just too much dumb here, which is disappointing, especially for how awesome The Matrix was.
I found this to be the toughest year to rank. Fact is, most of the matches were in the same high quality level that you could not necessarily rank them. I decided to drop the match ranking down to ten this year not because of a lack of quality matches, but because of an excess of matches that are in the same level.
Previous Match of the Year winners:
Movie Trivia Schmoedown Match of the Year
Previous Winners: JTE defeats Drew McWeeny in Sudden Death(2017), Mara Knopic defeated Rachel Cushing in Innergeekdom Tournament (2018), Rachel Cushing defeated Mike Kalinowski in Sudden Death to win the Innergeekdom championship (2019), Dan Murrell defeated Ben Bateman in Sudden Death to win the Movie Trivia Schmoedown Championship (2020)
#10. Marisol McKee defeated Edwin Erwin for the Movie Trivia Schmoedown Championship. While the match was not a standout, the historical implications were off the chart.
#9. Griffin Newman defeated William Bibbiani. Tournament match up that went into sudden death. This was a great match up between two titans of trivia.
#8. Mike Kalinowski defeated Robert Parker at the Spectacular. Kalinowski battled Robert Parker, who had been running rampant through the IG tourney, and he was able to knock back his challenge. Kalinowski continued to etch his name in the annals of MTS IG history.
#7. Brendan Hanna defeated Eric Zipper. This match featured the greatest pep talk of Roxy Striar to Hanna, who was all but defeated. Hanna raged back and defeated the excellent Zipper.
#6. Mara Knopic defeated Chandru Dhandapani for the IG Championship. Mara Knopic returned from time off for health reasons to defeat Chandru, who was looking unbeatable.
#5. Dan Murrell defeated Adam Collins for the Singles Championship. Dan Murrell became a five time champion by defeating the man who took the title from him. The GOAT continued to build on his accolades.
#4. Shazam defeated the New Odd Couple for the Team Championships. With Jeanine the Machine taking the place of the retired Marc Andreyko, Shazam won the titles in a classic battle. The new Odd Couple was behind, but nearly came from behind to hold the titles. However, Shazam claimed the belts.
#3. Marisol McKee defeated Jeanine the Machine. This was the match that nearly upended Marisol’s run to the title. Jeanine looked as if she had the match won, but missed her five point question and ended up falling to Lady Justice.
#2. Shazam defeated Korruption. The second 51-50 match of the year. Korruption battled to the final question, but Shazam did not miss a question and that makes it hard to defeat them.
#1. Andrew Dimalanta defeated Alex Damon for the Star Wars Championship. A double perfect game until the final question in sudden death. What many consider the greatest match in Schmoedown history. It was a display of skill unlike anything we had ever seen and was an epic struggle as Dimalanta unseated the undefeatable champion in Alex Damon.
The Movie Trivia Schmoedown dubbed season 8 as War and they had a full season of faction battles unlike any other. The season was filled with great moments, mostly virtual with a few live events mixed in. There were gigantic upsets, comebacks and new stars built. Here are the EYG Year in Review for teh MTS.
Player of the Year: Marisol McKee.
The current singles champion who defended the title twice, joining a small group who also defended twice.
Runners-Up: Griffin Newman, Thomas Harper, Dan Murrell,Mike Kalinowski
Team of the Year: Shazam
Bibs and the Kid are currently on a huge run, ending the season 13-2 overall. They are showing to be dominant and the best team in Schmoedown history.
Runners-Up: Danger Zone, King Arthur, Korruption, Final Exam
Manager of the Year: Tom Dagnino
Finstock had a faction full of rookies, but yet they wound up almost winning the whole thing. It should not have been possible. I am not sure he is the best manager, but the results cannot be argued against.
Runners-Up: Coy Jandreau, Shannon Barney
Rookie of the Year: Griffin Newman
This was the toughest choice to make. Thomas Harper was the other choice, but I decided that since Star Wars is so specialized, that Griffey Newms, who was dominant in teams and singles, and did not lose until Spectacular, tops the undeniably impressive Star Wars Champion.
Runner-Up: Thomas Harper.
Faction of the Year: Korruption.
I almost gave this to The Quirky Mercs, but Korruption had to fight back for the second year in a row and took the faction title. They were very deserving.
Runners-Up: The Quirky Mercs, The Finstock Exchange
Best Tournament of the Year: The Singles Tournament
A massive tournament that had 32 players. Griffin Newman won the whole thing.
Runners-Up: Team tournament, First teams tournament
Face of the Year: Shazam
There is no better face than the team of William Bibbiani and The Kid Brendan Meyer. They are so respectful and just wanting to have fun defending their titles. They are exceptionally good people.
Runners-Up: Dan Murrell, Mara Knopic, Jeanine the Machine
Heel of the Year: Shannon Barney
No one is more of a heel than the manager of Korruption. She can make you just hate hearing what she says while you hate the fact that she is telling the truth.
Runners-Up: Tom Dagnino, Chandru Dhandapani, Ben Bateman
Moment of the Year: Marisol McKee wins the title.
History was made when Marisol defeated Ethan Erwin and became the first ever woman to hold the singles title. Lady Justice deserved this moment.
Shock of the Year: Wildberries reunite.
WILD. BERRIES! After Shannon dumped Elliot Dewberry at the Spectacular, Josh “Wildman” Macuga found his way back to his old partner and the Wildberries returned to the MTS.
Best Promo: Kevin Smets returns at Spectacular.
After a year plus battle with cancer, Kevin Smets returned to shut up Chandru at the end of Spectacular and he was rocking the night. The Smasher dominated the mike.
Runner-Up: John Rocha’s retirement speech.
Best Innergeekdom Player of the Year: Mike Kalinowski
Kalinowski is the greatest IG player of all time and he defended that title three times this year, in a couple of matches that he looked like he was going to lose, but pulled out. That sounded like destiny to me.
Runners-Up: Robert Parker, Mara Knopic, Chandru Dhandapani
Best Star Wars Player of the Year: Thomas Harper
Thomas Harper came into the league with great hype from Dragon Con and he lived up to every bit of it. He was dominant in a division that does not allow mistakes.
Runners-Up: Andrew Dimalanta, Laura Kelly, Nicki Dimalanta, Gold Leader
Exhibition Match of the Year: Dan Murrell vs. John Rocha, One Last Ride
Though the match itself was not down to the last question, the importance of The Outlaw retiring was above all else in the match.
Comeback of the Year: JTE
JTE came rolling back into the MTS after a couple of years and didn’t miss a step. In fact, I think he was even better this year than in his past.
Every year we have some fantastic performances from young actors and actresses who are under 18 years of age. There have been plenty of kids over the years that have been…let’s just say…less than competent in acting. A poor kid actor can derail a project completely.
However, there have been plenty of outstanding performances too over the years and so this award has been given to those exceptional young actors.
Previous winners:
I See Kid Actor Award
Previous Winners: Emjay Anthony (Chef), Jacob Trembley (Room), Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things), Dafne Keen (Logan), Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade), Noah Jupe (Honey Boy), McKenna Grace (Troop Zero)
I have a list of 12 youth actors for 2021.
#12. Lia McHugh (Eternals). McHugh played Sprite in Eternals from Marvel Studios. Sprite was a constant teen for centuries and she resented that. McHugh was on screen with a massively talented ensemble and she carried herself well.
#11. Caleb McLaughlin (Concrete Cowboys). One of the stars of Stranger Things, Caleb branched out into a Netflix film called Concrete Cowboys this year where he played opposite of Idris Elba.
#10. Archie Barnes (The Dig). Another Netflix film, The Dig features the young Archie Barnes, a British actor and he helped make this one of the better Netflix films of the year.
#9. Noah Jupe (Quiet Place 2). A former winner of this award, Noah Jupe is one of the best young actors in Hollywood today. Every time he appears in a film, you can count on a great performance from him.
#8. John Hillard & Jeff Klyne (WandaVision). Wanda Maximoff’s children in the Disney + series WandaVision, Billy and Tommy touched our hearts with their humor and their super powers before disappearing in the finale.
#7. Logan Kim (Ghostbusters: Afterlife). Playing a character called Podcast, Logan Kim provided some solid comedic work opposite the excellent McKenna Grace in the new Ghostbusters movie.
#6. Benjamin Flores Jr (Fear Street). Appearing in all three of the films in the Netflix horror trilogy, Flores Jr. was one of the most constant performers of the series.
#5. McKenna Grace (Ghostbusters: Afterlife). Last year’s winner was the heart of the new Ghostbusters movie. As Egon’s granddaughter, much of the emotional depth of the film went through her character and she is always up to the task.
#4. Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth). As the title character Sweet Tooth, Christian Convery gave an amazing performance as our favorite half-human and half deer boy. He was cuter than heck and carried all of the powerful work on the show.
#3. Luke David Blumm (Son). A surprise horror film where the young boy falls ill and his mother has to try and protect him from his past. Luke David Blumm gives a powerful performance.
#2.Jude Hill (Belfast). This was a tough choice this year and I almost made Jude Hill’s performance in Belfast as the winner. He reminded me very much of Roman Griffin Davis in Jojo Rabbit, which is about as high of praise as I can give.
And the winner this year is
#1. Jeremy T. Thomas (Antlers)
Another horror movie performance, Jeremy T. Thomas was everything in Antlers as he was the center of everything. He was so powerful in every minute of the film and he so deserved this award.
We started honoring the comic book movie of the year last year, but we went years into the past to pick a winner every year since 1989. Of course, the last decade and a half was much more difficult than the years prior. We just get more comic book movies now than we did then.
Here are the previous winners of this award:
The Christopher Reeve Memorial Comic Book Movie of the Year
Previous Winners: Batman (1989), Dick Tracy (1990), The Rocketeer (1991), Batman Returns (1992), Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), The Crow (1994), Batman Forever (1995), The Phantom (1996), Men in Black (1997), Blade (1998), Mystery Men (1999), X-Men (2000), From Hell (2001), Spider-Man (2002), X2:X-Men United (1993), Spider-Man 2 (1994), V for Vendetta (2005), 300 (2006), Superman: Doomsday (2007), The Dark Knight (2008), Watchmen (2009), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Captain America: First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Captain America: Winter Soldier & Guardians of the Galaxy [tie] (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Logan (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Birds of Prey (2020)
2021
There were several solid comic book movies in 2021 and here are the runners-up.
Runners-Up: Black Widow was a great movie that was long overdue. It is sad that it came after Scarlet Johansson’s death in Avengers: Endgame. We see a prequel from the Black Widow and are introduced to her sister Yelena, the ever epic Florence Pugh. Eternals was better than I anticipated despite the critics’ strange complaints about it. The Suicide Squad was a lot of fun from James Gunn, even though I did not think Starro looked as good as I thought it might. For much of the year, I though Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was going to be the winner of this award as it was an amazing debut with great characters and lots of mind blowing action. However, there was another film that took the award.
Winner: Spider-Man: Far From Home
Yes, the brand new Spider-Man: No Way Home is the best comic book movie of the year. It is filled with surprises and amazing character development. Tom Holland gave his best performance ever, in any movie. Willem Dafoe is terrifying as Norman Osborn. There are moment of humor, pain, emotion, family, friendship and loss.
The film, as of the time of this writing, had made $121 million on Friday (which includes $50 million for Thursday night previews) and is on its way to a massive haul of money.
There have been some years where I have struggled to fill out a list of ten women for this “kick-ass” award, named after my all-time favorite General Hospital super spy. This year, I had a long list of possible choices. I cut it down to a Top 12 list.
Here are the honorable mentions that did not make the top 12: Raya (Raya and the Last Dragon)m Harley Quinn (The Suicide Squad), Deena (Fear Street trilogy), Bianca Belair (WWE), Wonder Woman (The Snyder cut), Phoebe (Ghostbusters: Afterlife), Valerie Young (Copshop), Lindy (Jolt), Regan (A Quiet Place 2).
Previous winners:
The Anna Devane Kick Ass Female Award
Previous winners: Rey (Star Wars), Mockingbird (Marvel Comics), Wonder Woman (DCEU), The Shirewolves, Captain Marvel, Kamala Harris
#12. (Tie) Stagecoach Mary & Treacherous Trudy (Harder They Fall).
#11. (Tie) Thena & Makkari (Eternals)
#10. Xialing (Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings)
#9. Agatha Harkness (WandaVision)
#8. (Tie) Evil-Lyn & Teela (Masters of the Universe: Revelations)
#7. Elektra as Daredevil (Daredevil comics)
#6. Sae-byeok (Squid Game)
#5. Kate Bishop (Hawkeye). Hailee Steinfeld is awesome in the Hawkeye series as one of the world’s greatest archers who looks up to Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton.
#4. Black Widow(Black Widow). Natasha Romanoff finally received her own solo film, about 8 years too late. She is also a major feature of the Hawkeye Disney + show, being a huge factor in Clint Barton’s story.
#3. Sylvie (Loki). A Loki variant that has become one of the best new characters of the MCU. She is kind of a combo between The Enchantress and Lady Loki from the comics, but Sylvie became a huge factor in the series that opened up the multiverse and sent Kang upon us.
#2. Yelena (Black Widow & Hawkeye). Florence Pugh is an absolute star. She was the best part of the Black Widow movie and she appeared as a huge guest star in Hawkeye. She is so awesome that she is going to continue to kick ass everywhere.
#1. Wanda Maximoff (WandaVision)– Yes, The Scarlet Witch is the kick ass female of the year. Without a doubt, Wanda created a new reality in Westview, New Jersey and created a perfect life for herself with Vision and two kids. She showed exactly how powerful she is and she has a chance to win this again next year as she joins Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
One of the all-time classic Christmas movies is today’s DailyView. Miracle on 34th Street has one of the most iconic scenes in all of movies and I have, of course, seen that section of the film. I have never seen the entire movie though and that makes this eligible for the DailyView.
Christmas store Santa, Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) claimed to be the real Santa Claus and, because of his belief, winds up being committed at Bellevue. He had been tremendously successful at Macy’s, having the support of the bosses and the woman who hired him, Doris (Maureen O’Hara), and her daughter Susan (Natalie Wood).
John Payne played Fred Gailey, a lawyer who winds up in a relationship with Doris.
Edmund Gwenn is extremely charming in this role. He performs his role as if he were truly Santa Claus. He is easily the best part of the movie as his Academy Award win for Best Actor can attest.
Miracle on 34th Street is a sweet movie with a funny, kindly story of a man who just wants to be Santa Claus, and has been proven to be so by the fancy lawyer tricks of his lawyer.
This was the famous scene during the hearing on Kris Kringle when Fred had bags and bags of letters delivered from the Post Office to Kris at the court house admitted as evidence that the Federal governmental agency the Post office recognized Kris as the real Santa Claus. What I did not know about that scene was that it was dumb luck on Fred’s part as the Post Office sent the letters to the court house as a way of getting rid of them. I guess it wasn’t as much of a fancy lawyer trick as I had always believed it to be.
This is a Christmas classic and is a wonderful story for all people.
Now that winter break is here, I have the opportunity to catch up on a few of the films that I have missed over the year (especially since the year end lists are coming up soon). Today, I went to Disney + for the animated film Ron’s Gone Wrong.
Barney (Jack Dylan Grazer) was a socially awkward middle schooler who was lonely and isolated from his class. Picked on and tormented, Barney was the only person seemingly anywhere who does not have a B-bot, the new walking, talking, digitally-connected device- the best-friend-out-of-the-box. Barney desperately wants one for his birthday so he could possibly become one of the crowd. When he did not get the B-bot, Barney was truly disappointed. His father Graham (Ed Helms) realized his mistake and went to find him one, but it was going to take 3-months back order. He found a damaged one that had fallen off the delivery truck and he bought that for Barney.
Barney realized almost immediately that the B-bot he had was unlike the others. After some chaotic moments, Barney bonds with the B-bot and named him Ron (Zach Galifianakis). All the while, the producers of the B-bot were desperately trying to find Ron and recycle him, through a crusher machine.
This animated film was fun, enjoyable and had a good message of friendship and respect, as well as a message about the online community and how it is a danger to become too hooked into the internet.
The connection between Barney and Ron really work and it feels real. They were more like brothers in the film than they were kid and their toy.
I also enjoyed the simple design of Ron. He reminded me of a smaller version of Baymax from Big Hero 6 and his look absolutely created something that I can believe cares for Barney.
This is a movie that would be good for both adults and kids. It can be found not only on Disney +, but also on Hulu and HBO Max as well.
2021 saw an explosion of reactors/commenters/content providers on YouTube. The list doubled from the past. Everybody has a channel and a Patreon and is reviewing movies or TV Shows or reacting.
Just make sure to like, subscribe and comment… don’t forget to hit that bell for notifications.
YouTube
#20. Action Industries. Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai are notable performers from the Schmoedown and they react and talk about movies, the Schmoedown, TV and their lives. The chemistry and friendship between them is the selling factor for their “Action Army.”
#19. The Movie Couple. Wendy and Dustin, I have enjoyed their reactions to the Marvel Disney + shows in particular. They are so reactive to the shows that it is fun to watch.
#18. Roxy Striar. Live at the Roxy is one of the times we have seen Roxy and her opinions. She is outspoken, opinionated and oh so funny.
#17. Mr. Lboyd Reacts. The most recent discovery on YouTube, Mr. Lboyd’s reactions, especially to Weird Al Yankovic songs, have been enjoyable. He responds to the videos in an original way.
#16. Jamel-AKA-Jamal. Another reactor to music and other things. This channel went through a stretch when I was watching everything from him. I even bought a couple of t-shirts from his store.
#15. Jeremy Jahns. Jeremy reviews movies and he has always been someone who I felt like shared my opinions. Jeremy became more ragged during the pandemic, but he still is one of my favorite personalities on YouTube.
#14. Late to the Party. Robert and Vanessa. Another pair that reacts to pop culture. I have especially enjoy the Marvel Disney + series that they react to.
#13. John Campea. John has a daily show where he makes lists and repeats things over and over. Still, he is knowledgeable and funny. His reactions to Marvel shows and other pop culture are original and straightforward. Bring on the filthy.
#12. Dan Murrell. Dan Murrell was one of my favorite personalities during his Screen Junkies and Schmoedown days. Dan started his own channel and he thrived with movie reviews and discussions of box office results. Dan’s personality is what sells his channel.
#11. SEN Live. This was one of my favorite shows earlier in the year. A comedy show with a rotating cast of commenters, SEN Live was outrageous and funny. Since it moved to Twitch, I have not seen it as much, but some of the first half of the year was spent enjoying this show.
#10. New Rockstars. Erik Voss and his crew that spends his days combing through trailers and shows looking for every Easter egg imaginable and throwing out wild theories that may be possible. Mephisto anyone?
#9. Settle the Score. Matt Knost, from the Top 10 Show, and musical director Andy Merryweather have a music movie trivia show. Do you know what movie a song is from? How about a score? How many notes do you need to identify a score? Settle the Score is a fun show with two great personalities.
#8. The Geek Buddies. The. Geek. Buddies. Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. John Rocha, Michael Vogel and Shannon McClung talk about the geekiest items in the world of pop culture. Their friendship and connection is the biggest attraction to watch them. They have wonderful thoughts and they are very knowledgeable. Their Marvel Disney + reviews have been epic.
#7. The Reel Rejects. Greg Alba and John Humphreys react to all matter of videos and pop culture. I have especially enjoyed their reactions to New Rockstar videos. Greg and John are clearly friends and that comes across the screen.
#6. Ups and Downs. What Culture’s wrestling show with Simon Miller as he reviews the wrestling shows RAW, Smackdown and the PPVs and he gives the good bits an up and the bad bits a down. He spent a chunk of the year counting the “most dangerous move in all of sports entertainment”- the surprise roll up.
#5. Ashleigh Burton. Ashleigh is a millennial who likes to watch classic movies for the first time and rate them… sometimes with the help of her cat, Beans. Ashleigh is funny and quick witted. She has been the biggest surprise on YouTube for me in 2021.
#4. Top 10. Still one of my favorite shows, The Top 10 is John Rocha and Matt Knost giving their lists of certain movie topics every week and then combining them into one list as a show. Their banter is a highlight as is their potential disagreements.
#3. Fatman Beyond. Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin give their opinions on pop culture in a humorous and poignant manner. Filming at the Scum and Villainy Cantina in California (with Bamf Man), Kevin cracks the jokes, Marc brings the news and the charisma between them is perfect.
#2. pReview’d. It’s Jay… and Adam… it’s pReview’d! I discovered these two this year and I love their reactions. They are so funny and they react with such emotions. Watching Adam break down in happiness because of a Masters of the Universe trailer or sob uncontrollably over Squid Game, or seeing Jay in horror over USAgent’s brutal attack in “Winter Falcon” have been highlights. I have watched their material multiple times because their reactions are so pure.
#1. The Movie Trivia Schmoedown. Again this year, the MTS has been a huge hit. The trivia show that is so much more. The brainchild of Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis, the MTS has become a huge league featuring Singles, Teams, Innergeekdom and Star Wars divisions. Some of the trivia is insane but it is more than answers. It is strategies, personalities and entertainment. Season 8 was named WAR. Season 9 will be Reboot. Excited to see where this goes.
This is one of the newer awards we have added at EYG Year in Review because the trend of de-aging is becoming a regular occurrence in some movies and TV shows. It gives the opportunity for flashbacks that are not just putting a wig on an old guy’s head.
Previous winners:
The Kurt Russell EGO De-Aging Award
Previous Winners: Robert DeNiro (The Irishman), Mark Hamill (The Mandalorian)
Runners-Up: Tony Todd (Candyman), Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall (Coming2America), David Harbour (Black Widow)
To be honest, this year’s winner is perhaps the best example of this technology so far. He looked so great in the movie that he appeared in and the CGI on his face just just flawless.
Winner: Alfred Molina as Doc Ock in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
I’m struggling with a review for the new Guillermo Del Toro movie, Nightmare Alley. This is a film that, to me, is as much of a tweener as any movie I have seen recently.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “When charismatic but down-on-his-luck Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) endears himself to clairvoyant Zeena (Toni Collette) and her has-been mentalist husband Pete (David Strathairn) at a traveling carnival, he crafts a golden ticket to success, using this newly acquired knowledge to grift the wealthy elite of 1940s New York society. With the virtuous Molly (Rooney Mara) loyally by his side, Stanton plots to con a dangerous tycoon (Richard Jenkins) with the aid of a mysterious psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) who might be his most formidable opponent yet“
While I found the setting of the traveling carnival to be extremely awesome, I found myself bored for much of the first part of the film. Some of the mentalist tricks and strategies were cool to hear about and see in action, but I feel as if there were too much for the film.
Bradley Cooper is very engaging as Stanton Carlisle, being both someone who you could root for but also someone who is simply a horrible manipulative person. Cooper brought a lot of depth to the role. He has chemistry with most of the characters. There is a deep seeded daddy issues with Stanton that is coloring his choices.
I was more interested in the film later on when they were dealing with Richard Jenkins and the attempt to gaslight him over the death of his love. Watching Bradley Cooper continuing to descend into his pain and his bad behaviors was great.
There is a lot of style to this movie. It had great design and a tremendous look to it. Much like other Guillermo Del Toro films.
I did find myself checking the time within the first hour or so. To me, the second half of the film had a better pace to it.
In the end, this film has a lot of problems for me. It was up and down throughout and it left me uncertain about how I feel about it. It looked good and had some solid performances, but there are problems with pacing and could have been edited down more.
The first of the images on the extended banner was from this movie. The Hounds of the Baskervilles is one of the most famous Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and this was the first of the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes films.
Set during the Victorian time (which was the setting for the original stories), The Hound of the Baskervilles tells the story of a legendary and monstrous dog that haunted the moors of the estate of Baskerville in Devonshire. The legend stated that the hound would kill all family members of the Baskervilles, after it had started with Sir Hugo Baskerville (Ralph Forbes) hundreds of years prior.
However, Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and his friend and sidekick Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) saw more to the legend than just a terrible family curse.
Interestingly enough, 20th Century Fox was uncertain about the selling power of Sherlock Holmes so instead of leading the cast with Basil Rathbone, actor Richard Greene, who played Sir Henry Baskerville received top billing. Fascinating bit of trivia considering Basil Rathbone would lead over a dozen more Sherlock Holmes films in his time.
The film is very atmospheric, with the shots on the moors being very cinematic and the foggy circumstance around the finale really brought a feeling of uncertainty and dread.
Rathbone and Bruce show exactly what they are capable of doing with the roles and they must have eased any doubt the studio had about the property. Rathbone is such an iconic performance of the Baker Street detective that every time we visit him, it is an enjoyable time.
There are several twists to the mystery and it was a fun film to see.
The third Spider-Man MCU “Home” trilogy film from director John Watts was released today after a little bit of hype… and the hype is 100% earned in one of the best, most emotional, exciting and creative Spider-Man live action films ever produced.
No Way Home picked up immediately after the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home when Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) revealed to the world that Spider-Man’s real name was Peter Parker (Tom Holland). The chaos and insanity that followed was being ramped up by J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) and his podcast.
Finding that the reveal of his secret identity was causing real life problems for the people in his life, May (Marisa Tomei), MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) especially, Peter looked to his friends and allies for possible help, namely Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). Peter wondered if Strange could use his magic to help fix the problem. Unfortunately, something went wrong while Strange was casting the spell, bringing trouble from all ends of the multiverse.
For any of those people who complained that the MCU Peter Parker/Spider-Man was just Iron Man Jr. or that he did not understand the character, you can now be quiet because this is the absolutely perfect version of the character, brought to life brilliantly by Tom Holland. I believe that there now can not be any discussion on who is the best live action Spider-Man, because the answer is Tom Holland.
Holland’s Peter Parker has to face the doubts and uncertainties of the character and has to deal with the weight of the responsibility of his choices and the stakes of the story, stakes that were real and palatable. This Spider-Man needed to follow the path of the previous two MCU films in order to become this hero. It was a process and I am glad that the filmmakers and Marvel Studios chose to take this direction.
There were rumors that Marvel Studios wanted the three villains who had been revealed in trailers (and through interviews) to have stayed secret and they wanted to promote the film as Spider-Man vs. Dr. Strange conflict. I do not know how insane I would have gone if I did not know that Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) was going to show up on that bridge. Same with Electro (Jamie Foxx) and Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe). Would the box office be as potentially crazy for this film if they had not revealed these villains? I don’t know, but I know I would have lost my damn mind if they were a surprise.
The relationship between Peter and MJ is at the center of No Way Home. The chemistry with Holland and Zendaya is absolutely off-the-charts and they make one of the great MCU couples. Every minute with the two of them cemented their status as the It couple. Ned Leeds fit right in with the pair as the proverbial third wheel, but one that was welcome and loved. The trio of kids have built this relationship over the previous two films and it really pays off here.
As epic as it is to see Alfred Molina as Doc Ock again, and how much of an improvement this version of Jamie Foxx’s Electro is, Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn steals the show. Dafoe is utterly terrifying and brings a depth to the character that we may not have had in the Sam Raimi films.
The other two villains we see in the trailer was Sandman and Lizard and there is less of these two than Ock, Goblin and Electro, but that is understandable. Both Sandman and Lizard had their individual moments in the film and are welcome.
This is easily the darkest of the Spider-Man films, but it still has the undeniably funny humor involved as well. The first act had a lot of awkwardness and that felt right because it was shadowing how Peter was feeling during the reveal of his secret identity.
I love how people are using the terms “nostalgia” and “fan service” as bad things. This film certainly has its share of both, but it does it expertly and it is usually in service of the story. I would say that Spider-Man: No Way Home is the perfect amount of both.
Benedict Cumberbatch is outstanding as Dr. Strange yet again. He has been presented in the most effective manner outside of his own solo film. His appearance in Avengers: Infinity War and in this Spider-Man movie show Strange as such an effective character. I liked the movie Doctor Strange, but he has flourished in his supporting roles over the last few years.
Two post credit scenes , so stay through to the end. The first scene was at both times funny and ominous. The second one was unexpected and set up what was coming. Both were amazing.
I have seen many people claim that this was a love letter to the character of Spider-Man and I can absolutely get on board with that idea. This is probably the least surprising score of the entire year for me, but Spider-Man: No way Home hit a home run, nailing every aspect that needed to be in a Spider-Man movie.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 