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.
One of the most classic Christmas tale is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. It has been adapted into countless variations over the years, both live action and animated. This is one of the Disney animated versions of A Christmas Carol starring Mickey Mouse, Scrooge McDuck and other Disney characters.
Ebenezer Scrooge (McDuck) was a covetous old sinner, more concerned with his gold than people. He spent his days counting his money and tormenting his clerk, Bib Cratchit (Mickey Mouse). On Christmas Eve, he was approached by the ghost of his old deceased business partner Jacob Marley (Goofy), who claimed that, if Scrooge did not change his ways, he would spend eternity hauling around heavy chains, just as Marley has to do. Marley told Scrooge that he would be visited by three spirits and that these spirits were the only way to avoid such a fate.
Each spirit (which included Jiminy Cricket, Willie the Giant and Pete) showed Scrooge scenes from the past, present and future, including scenes from the family of Bob Cratchit and his family, which featured his sickly son, Tiny Tim.
These ghostly visits changed Scrooge, making him a caring, loving individual, who embraced all that Christmas had to offer.
This was a nice adaptation. They covered the story effectively despite having to edit out a lot of the story because of the time. Tis could have benefitted from a little longer run time as the 26 minutes felt a little rushed.
Truthfully, being familiar with the story, it is more apparent with what Mickey’s Christmas Carol left out than what it had. There were some classic lines of dialogue that always appear in the adaptations that had been removed from this version that minimize the impact of the tale.
Still, this would be a nice way to introduce the story to a younger audience (although I think the Muppet Christmas Carol would be even more effective). The music was interesting, especially the opening song.
This was fine, but I think a longer, more involved version would allow for more depth of story and character and less of, look who is playing whom.
There is such a plethora of these National Geographic documentaries on Disney +. I recently enjoyed one on Atlantis and now, I have found one on one of my favorite “mythical” creatures, the Yeti. I have always been fascinated by the story of the Yeti and its North American cousin, the sasquatch, and this doc looked to be intriguing.
The documentary features explorer Gerry Moffatt as he goes on his “hunt” for the yeti. He heads up Mount Everest to search for the evidence of the yeti. They research footprints, hair samples, sightings as well as the famous “yeti scalp” at Khumjung Monastery in Nepal.
Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum appeared in the doc. He is a known bigfoot researcher, with several bigfoot books in his arsenal.
The section of the doc with the Yeti scalp is the most interesting part of the story. Unfortunately, it seemed that the evidence found by Gerry Moffatt was less than convincing.
These docs remind me of the old “In Search Of” series narrated by Leonard Nemoy, which helped spur my own fascination with these unknown creatures. It is where a lot of my own creativity has come from and it is neat to see these docs, even if they do not provide anything too satisfying in the realm of answers.
After weeks of speculation and trepidation, Marvel Studios brought the first character from the Netflix Marvel shows into the MCU, and it was one of the characters/actors that everyone wanted.
Yes, Vincent D’Onofrio is now a member of the MCU playing the one and only Kingpin. Wilson Fisk appeared in a photo, a blurry and out of focus cell phone picture on Kate Bishop’s phone.
Technically, I suppose that could be any actor, but Vincent D’Onofrio’s name was in the end credits so it is 100% confirmed. One of the greatest villain performances of all Marvel projects is D’Onofrio’s Kingpin, and now he is in the MCU.
This was, of course, the conclusion of the episode, but the show had so much more to it than just a Kingpin cameo. We had a flashback to 2018 as Yelena was out trying to free another former Black Widow agent when we saw her get dusted during the Blip. However, we saw the event from Yelena’s perspective and it looked as if she was only gone for a matter of seconds, but it turned into 5 years. When she came back and realized that she had been gone for 5 years, her first thought was of Natasha, and that was heartbreaking considering that she had no idea about Natasha’s sacrifice.
Then in present day, we get a fantastic conversation between Yelena and Kate Bishop. Florence Pugh and Hailee Steinfeld showed just how much charisma and chemistry they had. The discussion between them was as compelling as any action scene that the show gave us. These two women are incredible performers and will be vitally important to the MCU over the years.
Clint, meanwhile, got himself back into the Ronin costume for a confrontation with Echo. During this fight, Clint revealed himself as Ronin to Maya and then told her that her “boss” had an informant send info to Ronin about her father. He told her that the boss wanted her father dead. I have a feeling that we just saw the set up for the Echo Marvel Studios series that is in the works.
We also got to see a cool thing with a monument in NYC honoring the Avenger members for their efforts of the Battle of New York. Clint came here to talk with Natasha.
It is just another example of Marvel’s expert world building. Yelena also mentioned the “improved Statue of Liberty” which was an allusion to Spider-Man: No Way Home, which I will be seeing tomorrow night.
Next week, the Hawkeye series comes to a conclusion and they seem to have a lot of area to cover before it is over. Just looking at a possible list of things that they may need to cover includes:
Kingpin’s plans
Who killed Armond?
What is up with that watch from Avengers Compound? How does it tie with Laura Barton?
Hawkeye and Yelena’s problems
Echo and “Uncle”
Is Elenore the real power? Did she frame Jack or is that part of their plan?
Name the Pizza Dog!
Will Clint make it home for Christmas?
Hawkeye has been a great series so far and I am excited to see the finale next week.
One day after announcing the extension of the DailyView for a second time to encompass a full year (365 days), I kicked it off with a Christmas movie that I found on Disney +.
The Christmas Star felt like a made-for-TV movie from the mid-80s, especially with a cast that included Ed Asner, Fred Gwynne and Rene Auberjonois.
Ed Asner played Horace McNickle, a counterfeiter who was serving his time in prison. With just a few months to go on his sentence, McNickle saw a TV program that showed the hiding place where he and his former partner hid their money. Afraid that he was going to lose it all, McNickle organized an escape, dressed as Santa Claus, to whom he had a resemblance to.
McNickle got help from a couple of kids, Billy (Nicolas Van Burek) and Trudy (Vicki Wauchope), who believed he was the real Santa Claus. McNickle played on the kids’ naivety and tried to get them to do his dirty work for him. However, he began to see the charm of the children and his inspiration for his plan waned.
As I mentioned earlier, this felt like a TV movie and the plot fell right into that corner. It is extremely cheesy, filled with ridiculous plot points and some of the strangest, out-of-nowhere bits I have seen. This movie changed tones multiple times, even including a mysterious ghost train that played a big part in the story as if it were a different movie.
The kids involved were not great actors at the time, but they were not meant to be. They were there for the cuteness factor (although, to be fair, Nicolas Van Burek did continue on with a decent career).
Ed Asner, who passed away this year, is always fantastic and his very inclusion in this movie elevated it from the drek that it should have been. Asner is charming as the bad Santa who learns a Christmas lesson from a Christmas miracle. Fred Gwynne’s put down police detective character has a few minutes of funny too.
As a family film, this could be worse. It is far from a classic, but I did not hate watching it. Judging it on a scale of silly Christmas movies, this was pretty good. It’s nothing that I would put up for an award, but as a family film during the holiday season, you could absolutely do worse. That may not be a rave review, but it is about much as I can give it.
Michael Kovak (Colin O’Donaghue) joined the Seminary to get away from his father and his father’s mortuary business, but he was finding a lack of faith or belief in God holding him back. Instead of letting him resign, Father Matthew (Toby Jones) sent Michael to Rome to take a course on learning to be an exorcist. Michael finds his way to one of the most successful exorcist in the world, Father Lucas Trevant (Anthony Hopkins) who is involved in trying to help a young pregnant girl.
There were some interesting moments in the movie. There was some intriguing possibilities with Michaerl and his father (Rutger Hauer), but the exploration of this relationship was inconsistent and underdeveloped.
Colin O’Donaghue, who becomes a star in the TV show Once Upon a Time as Captain Hook, was too laid back the whole film. He did not show any of the charisma he did as Hook. He had a good look, but I just wanted more from the actor.
Anthony Hopkins is always great. He is an amazing performer and gives his best in every movie he appears in.
However, some of the dialogue being tossed around by the “demon” possessing the characters was laughable and, no matter how great an actor you may be, you cannot make some of these lines anything but ridiculous.
Another problem was the film, which had some moments working for it, really came off the tracks heading into the third act. I think the actors in this film deserved much better than what they were given.
I saw a tweet on Twitter from John Rocha, an online movie reviewer, about a doc on Disney + called The Rescue about the mission to rescue a group of 12 Thai soccer kids and their coach who had been trapped in a flooded cave in Northern Thailand in 2018.
Rocha was absolutely correct. This was riveting.
I must have missed this story when it was happening in 2018, because I knew nothing about the story. Watching this documentary with the people involved in this amazing, daring mission was fulfilling. What the accomplishment of this rescue says about human beings, across several variations of culture and beliefs is just life-affirming.
These cave divers, Rick Stanton, John Volanthen, Richard Harris, along with hundreds of others, accomplished an unbelievable task in the rescue of this group of kids.
With the cameras everywhere at the time and the inclusion of social media, there was all kinds of footage to mix with the personal interviews. It made you feel like you were watching this as it happened. You felt the anguish and the fear. The twists were everywhere from the weather to the loss of oxygen. You could feel the constriction, the claustrophobia.
The ultimate plan they came up with to rescue these kids was insane. Desperation put the insane into possibility.
This National Geographic documentary on Disney + is one that you must see. It is one of the best docs of the year and worth the time investment. It is emotional and wondrous.
I watched one of the classic Westerns today for the DailyView. It was 1953’s Shane. Shane tells the Western trope of a gunslinger trying to stop living the life and start something new only to have someone or something pull him back into the violence. We have seen it in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven right up to the X-Men’s Logan.
Shane was available to watch on Hulu, and so I played it. I have been familiar with the story of Shane, but I have never actually sat down to view it.
Directed by George Stevens, Shane featured Alan Ladd, Jack Palance, Jean Arthur and Van Heflin.
Mysterious gunfighter Shane (Alan Ladd) arrived in a town where a group of people who have claimed their lands legally, but were being pressured by a vicious land baron Ryker (Emile Ryker) to leave their land. Shane met the Starrett family, Joe (Van Heflin), Marian (Jean Arthur) and their son Joey (Brandon De Wilde) and started to work for them. Unfortunately, Ryker was escalating things as time passed that would force the mysterious past of Shane to come back to the present.
The film does a great job of setting up the conflict and it does an admirable job of creating the antagonists as well as the protagonists.. Ryker is the clear villain, but he is anything but a mustache-twirling stereotype. In fact, he is shown as a person who wants to compromise with Joe and Shane. Of course, he is compromising from a position of privilege, and he takes measures that are anything but cooperative.
One of those measures is hiring Jack Wilson (Jack Palance) as a potential hitman, pointing him in the direction of people who would not agree to his terms. Wilson was notorious and extremely quick on the draw.
The ending was tense and exciting. Shane showed many of the tropes of the Western and became an inspiration for many of the Westerns that come after it.
Flop. A flop does not necessarily a bad movie make. There have been good movies that failed at the box office for whatever reason. Just this week, the exceptional West Side Story remake from Steven Spielberg only made around 10 million in its opening weekend.
Still, flops do happen and the John Carter Memorial Award is here to remember these attempts at success one last time.
John Carter Memorial Award
Previous winners: John Carter, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Lone Ranger, A Million Ways to Die in the West, Expendables 3, Jem and the Holograms, Pan, Rock the Casbah, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Robin Hood (2018), Mortal Engines, Playmobil: The Movie, The Rhythm Section
2021 Winner…
Reminiscence
The Hugh Jackman science fiction film made a whole 2 million dollars on its opening weekend and finished 9th for the week. It was the worst opening of all-time by a film playing in over 3,000 theaters. It had an estimated $110 million dollar overall budget. Warner Brothers released the film both in the theaters and on HBO Max, which could have only hurt the box office for the film.
Sometimes a movie does not have an obvious lead actor or actress and, instead, has a group of characters that all serve the story. The group is recognized with this award.
Previous Winners
The Avengers: Endgame Ensemble Cast of the Year Award
Previous Winners: Avengers: Endgame, The Trial of the Chicago 7
Runners-Up: Marvel’s Eternals is a perfect example of the ensemble cast. We meet a whole flock of new characters in Chloé Zhao‘s epic. James Gunn put out another great super hero…well, maybe a super villain… film this year called The Suicide Squad. It was a top notch ensemble too including Margot Robbie, Sylvester Stallone and John Cena, to name a few. West Side Story has a great ensemble for the remake of the 1961 Oscar winner. Fear Street was a three film series released on Netflix for three weeks with a group of actors who played different characters in the different time periods.
Winner: In the Heights
Lin Manuel-Miranda’s stage play made the leap to the big screen in 2021 and the cast was just tremendous. Along with Manuel-Miranda, there was Anthony Ramos, Leslie Grace, Olga Merediz, Jimmy Smits, Corey Hawkins, Melissa Barrera, Dascha Polanco, Ariana Greenblatt, Stephanie Beatriz, Rita Moreno, Marc Anthony, Gregory Diaz IV, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Noah Catala.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 