There were more movies that I saw this year that were disappointing to me than previous years. While most of the films this year were in the middle, some that wound up in the middle I anticipated being higher.
There may be movies considered for the Spider-Man 3 Disappointment of the Year Award that I didn’t hate. There are some that just were not as good as I hoped.
Previous recipients:
The Spider-Man 3 Disappointment of the Year
Previous Winners: In the Heart of the Sea, The Snowman, Amazing Spider-Man 2, After Earth, Dark Knight Rises, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Batman v. Superman, Christopher Robin, IT: Chapter Two, Tenet
Runners-Up: Encanta. I usually love these movies, but I found this one dull, especially at the first act. Maybe I need to revisit it some time. One I do not have to revisit is Halloween Kills, which was just terrible. The Rock and Ryan Reynolds? Sounds great. Unfortunately, Red Notice was not great. The latest Fast and the Furious film, F9, sent them into space. Ugh. I loved the first Don’t Breathe, but Don’t Breathe 2 took the best parts of the first one and ruined it. I could not cheer for Stephen Lang as the protagonist. Mortal Kombat trailers looked great. Wrong. Eddie Murphy’s Coming2America should have never been made. It was such a disappointment. However, there was one that was even more so.
The Spider-Man 3 Disappointment of the Year: Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins.
So many issues. While the actors were decent and well cast the fight scenes were unwatchable. They were so shaky you couldn’t see what was happening. We do not see the Snake Eyes outfit until the last few minutes of the movie. And the worst thing was that Snake Eyes was so unlikable. He was the villain. The film did not mean him to be…but he was. This was supposed to be the restart on the G.I. Joe franchise, but this puts that into question.
As I am working on the year in review section at EYG, I am compiling the list of Best Actresses, which will be given The Liz Award. The Liz has a picture on it that comes from the epic film that I watched today for the DailyView, the 1963 Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor.
This is not a film that you just sit down and watch, though. It is four hours plus in runtime. It is a film that had to be scheduled, planned. Again, because it is over four hours long.
This historical epic followed the rise and eventual death of Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor), through her relationship with Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison), her love with Mark Antony (Richard Burton) and the eventual end at the hands of Octavian (Roddy McDowell).
There were some great moments throughout the long film. My personal favorite moment was showing how Cleopatra came to Rome the first time with this gigantic procession like she was Prince Ali coming into Agrabah in Aladdin. This was a lot of fun.
A lot of tragic events happen and Elizabeth Taylor does an excellent job in the film. She is in control even when she is not. She showed the power of the character and how manipulative she was.
Rex Harrison was fantastic as Julius Caesar. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the role. The whole Ides of March attack is well done and was filled with intensity and fear.
Every year there are plenty of movies that I go into with low expectations and I come out really enjoying myself. Not just because I had low expectations, but because it was a pretty good movie.
For the biggest surprise movie for the year, we give out the Gomer, based on Gomer Pyle, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise”
Previous winners:
The Gomer for the Biggest Surprise
Previous Gomer Award Winners: The Gift, Ferdinand, Edge of Tomorrow, We’re the Millers, The Campaign, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Bumblebee, Crawl, Greenland
Runners-Up: How about a spin off of a film from the very same year? It happened on Netflix with Army of Thieves, a prequel of the Dave Bautista vehicle, the zombie film Army of the Dead. Army of Thieves surpassed the original easily. Venom: Let There Be Carnage was better than the first film. Although as I reflect on it, I find my thoughts slanting toward the negative, it was a film that I liked when I first saw it and I did not think I would. How about a movie with Nic Cage searching for his kidnapped pig? Pig sounded ridiculous but was excellent. Two films I heard about from the Critically Acclaimed podcast included Werewolves Within and PG: Psycho Goreman, both wonderfully surprising. Bob Odenkirkstarred in a surprising revenge film called Nobody. It was different than most revenge films. Then, who would have thought that Clifford the Big Red Dog would appear on this list? In fact, Clifford almost won this award.
The Gomer goes to: Free Guy
Who thought Free Guy might be a good movie, let alone one of the biggest successes of 2021? The film had been delayed and was coming out with little fanfare. A clever promo/trailer with Deadpool and Korg doing a trailer reaction helped get some word of mouth going, although honestly, the buzz was more about Deadpool with the MCU character than anything else. However, Free Guy came out and great word of mouth and became a gigantic success with Ryan Reynolds leading the film. Disney, which inherited this during the FOX acquisition, started working on a sequel.
I have not watched too many TV shows over the last few years because it just got too much. However, with the Disney + Marvel shows, I started to dive back into some selected TV shows. I do not cover it as completely as I used to, but I have enough to cover the year in review.
Favorite TV Shows: WandaVision. This was at the beginning of the year and it still becomes my best show of 2021. Love Elizabeth Olson and Paul Bettany. There was a feeling where I started to look forward to Friday’s show drop early in the week.
Runners-Up (in order) #2. Loki #3. Squid Game #4. Hawkeye #5. The Rookie #6. What If…? #7. Falcon & Winter Soldier #8. Sweet Tooth #9. Whose Line Is It Anyway #10. Superman & Lois.
Best Actor (TV Series): Jeremy Renner. This was a surprise for me, but Renner rocked Hawkeye with his tone and his subtle acting style. Close, but give it to Clint Barton.
Runners-Up: #2. Paul Bettany (WandaVision) #3. Tom Hiddleston (Loki) #4. Lee Jung-Jae (Squid Game) #5. Sebastian Stan (Falcon & Winter Soldier) #6. Anthony Mackie (Falcon & Winter Soldier) #7. Nathan Fillon #8. Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth)
Best Actress (TV Series): Elizabeth Olson. There are other great actresses this year, but for my money, Olson dominated her series like none others. She was so fully wonderful.
Best Supporting Actor (TV Series): Owen Wilson (Loki). Moebius became an amazing fan favorite and when it looked like he had been killed, it was painful. We all want Moebius on that jet ski.
Runners-Up: #2. Carl Lumbly (Falcon and Winter Soldier) #3. Wyatt Russell #4. Nonso Anozie (Sweet Tooth)
Best Supporting Actress (TV Show): Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision). It was Agatha all along. Kathryn Hanh was so entertaining, so brilliant as Agatha Harkness that she is getting her own spin off series.
The EYG Star of the Year is the next award up for the Year in Review and this has always been a tough award to give because it depends on how you are looking at it. Many times, it could be broken into parts. Maybe a star is big during the first few months, but not as big later in the year. Ideally, the Star of the Year carries across the whole calendar.
By the way, there are spoilers below. Proceed with caution.
Previous winners of the EYG Star of the Year:
EYG Star of the Year
Previous Winners: Gal Gadot, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jennifer Lawrence, Marvel Studios, J.J. Abrams, Josh Brolin, Damon Lindelof & Regina King, Netflix
As you can see, the Star of the Year is not always a person, Marvel Studios and Netflix having won before.
Runners-Up. There were plenty of choices to consider in 2021. Lin Manuel Miranda, who could have become the first repeat winner after being involved with Into the Heights and Tick, Tick…Boom. Kevin Feige and his aura of control over the Marvel Studios is the reason that studio is so successful. Disney + came out swinging this year with some great Marvel series. “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson is the biggest movie star in the world. Elizabeth Olson and Paul Bettany were in the amazing WandaVision series early in January of the year. Florence Pugh as Yelena in Black Widow and Hawkeye was fabulous too, showing how she is going to be a huge member of the MCU for years to come.
2021 EYG Star of the Year
Andrew Garfield
Andrew Garfield has had a tremendous year. Not only did he give an unbelievable performance as James Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Not only did he star in tick, tick…Boom! and potentially will receive an Oscar nomination for it. But he was also in the biggest movie of the year, Spider-Man: No Way Home, despite spending the entire year denying that he was in it. I’m sure he was tired of fielding the questions about Spidey, but as it came closer, he got stronger with his denials. So much so that I actually wondered if he was telling the truth. Spoiler alert: he wasn’t.
Andrew Garfield has really shown his flexibility in the movies and how he can take on all sorts of roles…and showed that he can sing too!
Wes Anderson is one of the most original, quirky film makers working today. His style is unlike any director in the movie industry and that oddball flavor is in full display in The French Dispatch, Anderson’s latest film.
According to Anderson, The French Dispatch is a “love letter to journalists” as the film follows three separate stories of three journalists preparing their stories for the fictional Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun newspaper as they create its final issue. The three sections of the movie are “Concrete Masterpiece”, “Revisions of a Manifesto” and “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner.” Each section have its humor and eccentricities that fill the approximately balanced screen time.
I laughed a lot during The French Dispatch because there were so many things that were so silly that it was humorous. So much was presented with a sly, deadpan delivery that no one involved believe it to be funny or even strange. This, of course, made the situation all the funnier.
There is a massive ensemble cast. Wes Anderson has many of his reoccurring troupe of actors in the film, but there were others present that we have not seen in Anderson movies prior. The cast included Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Jeffrey Wright, Benicio Del Toro, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Henry Winkler, Bob Balaban, Owen Wilson, Timothée Chalamet, Léa Seydoux, Lyna Khoudri, Adrien Brody, Christoph Waltz, Liev Schreiber, Stephen Park, Elisabeth Moss, Jason Schwartzman, Fisher Stevens, Willem Dafoe, Mathieu Amalric, Saoirse Ronan, Winston Ait Hellal, Tony Revolori, and Griffin Dunne.
The first and third sections of the film were my favorites. There is an animated bit in the third story that was just hilarious. It is so clear that the whole cast was just having a ball with their bizarre characters that it came across in their performances.
The colors are perfectly mixed with stylish black and white that enhances the storytelling of each act. The writing is witty and verbose. The dialogue is rich and intricate and helps to infuse each individual character with something original and special.
If you are a fan of Wes Anderson’s work, this film is for you. If you enjoy eccentric characters and some ridiculous situations, you’ll like The French Dispatch. Yes, it is a little disjointed but it fits together sufficiently enough, I guess. It is an experience for sure.
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.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 