Welcome back to the EYG Top 10 list. This is the movie list that gives the choices for EYG for the list presented each week by John Rocha and Matt Knost on The Top 10 podcast.  It really is an excellent podcast that you should be listening to… and it does not have to be just for movie lovers.  Matt and John are extremely funny and have great chemistry together and are always worth the listen.

This week’s Top 10 show was the Top 10 Zombie Movies in honor of the upcoming film, The Dead Don’t Die, starring Bill Murray and Adam Driver.  It was an interesting topic that gave them a chance to talk about some different movies.

#10.  Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.  This is the guilty pleasure on the list.  Many times, that number 10 slot is saved for a movie that might not be the best one out there, but that I enjoyed.  Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse was a film I went into without expecting anything and I just enjoyed thoroughly.  Tye Sheridan, Logan Miller and Joey Morgan are your Boy Scouts that are at the center of the zombie breakout and they are great.  It is funny and outlandish and I loved it.

#9.  Maggie.  This is a quiet little movie that few people have seen, but it did star Arnold Schwarzenegger as the father of a girl who had been infected with the virus that was turning people into zombies.  Arnold would do anything he could to protect her from the  world.  This was not your typical zombie movie, but it showed how you could take the concept and still do something original with it.  And it is one of Arnold’s best and most nuanced performances, especially since he returned to acting. Abigail Bresnan played his daughter.

#8.  World War Z.  This really should have been a horrid train wreck.  This movie had so many troubles and problems behind the scenes and there were a ton of rewrites and reshoots.  The movie was attempting to adapt a popular novel and that is never easy for the hard core fans.  And yet, World War Z turned out not only better than expected, but downright entertaining.  Brad Pitt stars in the film and it was tense and nerve-wrecking.  Much better than it had the right to be.

#7.  Overlord.  I might have this movie higher on this list, except, as Matt Knost pointed out when it appeared on Rocha’s list, the film takes its own sweet time getting to the zombies and so it may not necessarily be a full out zombie movie.  That was a fair point, but I really enjoyed Overlord and I did not expect to do so. World War II movie combined with zombies…what else could you ask for?

#6.  Warm Bodies.  This is another one that surprised me how much I loved it.  It is such a stupid concept that I never thought that I would enjoy it, but I did.  A zombie rom-com?  A zombie who falls in love with a human and winds up having love bring him back to life.  Sure, Warm Bodies is not subtle in its metaphor, but the great and funny performance from Nicholas Hoult goes a long way to helping make this more than what it sounds like on paper.

#5.  I Am Legend.  Will Smith is top notch in this movie, featuring him as a scientist who is now alone in New York after the zombies virus spreads across the country.  Will Smith is desperately trying to find a cure for the virus while trying to survive.  There is a sadness in I Am Legend that Will Smith plays beautifully.  The only friend he has left is his dog.  He goes about his work and his life with the understanding that anything that he does is most likely a waste of time.  There is an isolationism feel to the film that comes through well.

#4.  Night of the Living Dead.  The George Romero classic.  This is basically where the movie idea for zombies came from…. despite the fact that the word “zombie” is never once mentioned in the movie.  Honestly, Romero takes the situation and makes the movie actually be about racism and the separation of the races.  Then, there was an ending that was very controversial and anything but the feelgood ending you might expect.  It truly is a classic.

#3.  Paranorman.  I hadn’t thought about this one until Matt and John had it on their lists, but I loved the Paranorman animated movie.  From Laika, Paranorman tells the story of a young boy named Norman who could speak with the dead and that ability means he needs to be at the center of the town’s curse that is seeing the rise of zombies from out of the graves.  Paranorman is a dark animated comedy and is full of wonderfully beautiful images.

#2.  Shaun of the Dead.  I just recently saw this for the first time and I really loved it.  The Nick Frost and Simon Pegg comedy directed by Edgar Wright takes the zombie uprising and makes it very funny.  The film is more than just running around fighting zombies and cracking jokes though.  It is a movie that deals with relationships between these characters and it does it in a wonderful, charming and still funny way.  There are some poignant moments in this film that you do not expect and that catch you off guard as the action/comedy continues.

#1. Zombieland.  I remember seeing this movie in the theater for the first time and being blown away with how much I enjoyed it.  It was creative and funny, was filled with great characters, had one of the best cameos of all time, and made me love Woody Harrelson for the first time since Cheers.  Jesse Eisenberg was better in this movie than almost any other he has made.  The use of the rules to survive Zombieland was genius, as they appear on the screen.  “Double Tap” being one of the most important in this type of genre film.  Zombieland plays with the zombie movie structure and mines it for both laughs and creative story telling.

Honorable Mention:  I actually rewatched 28 Days Later for this list, but the film just falls outside of the top 10 for me.  28 Weeks Later is much the same way.  The classic Dawn of the Dead is one that I have not seen for years and so I could not include it on my list.  The Girl With All the Gifts made Matt’s list and nearly made mine as well.  I remembered it as soon as he started talking about it, with the inclusion of Glenn Close.  I enjoyed that film very much.  I eliminated some possible films, such as the Evil Dead series and Cabin in the Woods because, while they may have zombies in them, they did not feel like zombie movies.  Slither is another one I considered, but I do not remember much about the James Gunn film.  Pride & Prejudice & Zombies was better than I thought it would be.

Looks like it is time to rip some crap up.

This week’s Top 10 show focuses on the worst superhero movies made in honor of this weekend’s Dark Phoenix, which has some bad word of mouth.

And the new show features the return of the awesome Marc Andreyko who was with the guys when they did their best superhero movie list.  So it was a nice counter balance.

#10.  Amazing Spider-man 2.  I had a complete denial in this movie.  I came out of it pretending that I liked it, but I had that pain in the gut that told me I knew it was horrible.  Jamie Foxx made me think of Jim Carrey’s Riddler.  They try to cram everything into this movie because Sony wanted to get to their Sinister Six movie.  So a movie where Electro was meant to be the main villain, ended up with the Green Goblin in the third act.

#9.  Blade II.  Many people claim that Blade III is the worst film in the series, but I cannot speak to that because I never saw it.  The reason I never saw Blade III was because I hated Blade II so much.  I had enjoyed Blade a great deal so I was looking forward to the sequel and it was so terrible.  It felt like I was watching a video game.  Literally I was at some friends house prior to going to Blade II watching them play Mortal Combat, and I had the same feeling watching Blade II.

#8.  Batman v. Superman.  Martha!  WHY’D DID SAY THAT NAME?  How do you fail when you are bringing two of the greatest heroes together of all time on screen for the first time?  There are so many stupid moments in this film, but that Martha moment is the standout. This may have made a good deal of money, but it did not make near the amount it should have and the stench of this film was a big reason, in my mind, for the eventual failure of The Justice League.  Maybe the extended version is better, but I find that difficult to believe.

#7.  X-Men: The Last Stand.  The first failure of the Dark Phoenix story.  How can one of the greatest comic book storylines of all time (an EYG Hall of Fame comic) be turned into this total mess?  Why would Magneto find his hideout in the woods?  The Juggernaut?  Juggernaut is an amazing character, but Vinnie Jones just rips this apart.  “I’m Juggernaut, bitch!”  The upcoming Dark Phoenix film has bad shoes to fill.

#6.  Green Lantern.  I knew in the first scenes that this was going to be a horrid failure.  The CGI on Paralax in the first few minutes was downright laughable and the film never recovered for me.  Ryan Reynolds was wrong as Hal Jordan.  It is so bad that Ryan Reynolds makes Green Lantern jokes in his Deadpool movies.  This film set back the DC movies for years.

#5.  Fan4stic.  This is the Josh Trank version of the Fantastic Four that was completely messed up by the studio.  A few days before the film came out, you had Josh Trank say to the press that this was not his version of the movie.  He tried to take the FF in a different direction and, instead, the studio came in and destroyed what he hoped to accomplish.

#4.  Catwoman.  At least Halle Berry looks great in the cat suit.  That was where the positives of this movie ended.  I remember watching this movie alone in the theater, which also helped the movie.  This was not Selina Kyle.  That would not be a problem if the film had been done well.  It was not.  There was just nothing redeeming about Catwoman.

#3.  Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.  The first Ghost Rider was bad, but at least there was the Elvis version of Johnny Blaze played by Nic Cage to laugh at.  Spirits of vengeance took the little positive parts of Ghost Rider and crapped all over it.  Another film where the CGI looked like a giant video game and the story was nonsensical.  Not even the cheesy goodness of Nic Cage could save this steaming pile of monstrosity.

#2.  X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  I mean… what else needs to be said about this travesty?  This movie was well on its way to being a horrible comic book movie when it suddenly decided to go down in infamy with the treatment of Deadpool.  The Merc with the Mouth having his mouth sewed shut in the final act and then being turned into some kind of character that was Deadpool in name only.  Ryan Reynolds never gave up on the character thankfully, but this movie did everything it could to ruin it.  Then… adamantium bullet to the head?  Can I get one of those please so I can forget I ever sat through this wreck?

#1. Batman & Robin.  This was my least favorite movie of all time for many years until Movie 43 came along to unseat it.  Still Batman & Robin just devastated the Batman franchise and superhero movies in general.  George Clooney and his rubber bat-nipples was ridiculous.  Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mister Freeze was miscast and he spouted out just the most ridiculous one-liners and puns imaginable.  Bane and Poison Ivy were just wastes of time.  The color scheme was too psychedelic.  It was as if they wanted to take the franchise back to the 1960s.  However, they still needed the McDonald’s sponsorship as the product placement was obnoxious.  The whole Alfred is dying side arc was insulting and obscene.  Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl?  This was such a train wreck that I keep going forever.  Still my second worst movie out of all movies, not just comic book movies.

Honorable mention:  I hated the Ang Lee Hulk.  I am with Matt Knost who had it in his list.  Hulk dogs.  Nick Nolte is the Absorbing Man?  Ugh.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows -produced by Michael Bay is all you need to say.  Spider-man 3 had some moments but the dance scene and the Sandman and a shoehorned Venom.  Garbage.  Superman III and IV are films that I am not sure I have seen.  If I did, it has been literal decades.  Elektra is another one that I have not seen fully, but I know it was bad.

The next list I would have done had I had internet access.  This list was found on the Top 10 Patreon as the second show from the live show the Top 10 did in Chicago.  It was a wild show with John Rocha starting some controversial discussions from his list.  Plus, lots of alcohol.  The show was funny as can be and, if you are a Patreon, you can listen to the show too.

It was Star Wars Celebration in Chicago the week they recorded this so they did the Topp 10 Star Wars villains.

#10.  Qi’ra (Solo: A Star Wars Story).  We found out that she was working with Darth Maul as a double agent for the entire film and her betrayal was a major piece of the film.  Solo was not the best Star Wars film, but it wasn’t the worst either.  Qi’ra was played by Emilia Clarke and was a beautiful figure in the film.

#9.  Supreme Leader Snoke.  In the end, Snoke turned out to be lesser than it appeared he was going to be.  Everybody wondered who he was.  Everyone thought he was someone special.  He looked cool.  However, the promises of The Force Awakens was cut in half in The Last Jedi, literally.  Is he fully gone or is there more to see of Snoke?  I guess we will just have to wait and see.

#8.  Count Dooku.  Played by the legendary Christopher Lee, Count Dooku may not have reached the levels that he deserved.  A Sith Lord, Dooku was at once a Jedi trained by Yoda himself.  His Padawan was Qui-Gon Jinn, and Dooku fell to the Dark Side when Jinn died.  In the end, Anakin Skywalker killed Dooku in Revenge of the Sith.

#7.  Grand Moff Tarkin.  Tarkin became a favorite of Palpatine and became the person in charge of building the Death Star.  Played by the late Peter Cushing, Grand Moff Tarkin was the man who ordered the destruction of Princess Leia’s home planet of Alderaan.  In the end though, Tarkin refused to believe that the Death Star had any weaknesses and he wound up killed when the Death Star was destroyed by Luke.

#6.  Boba Fett.  There has not been much about Boba Fett in the actual movies.  Honestly, he has only appeared a couple of times and there is little knowledge about him from the original trilogy.  We know he died by falling into the Sarlaac pitt in Return of the Jedi.  There was just something about the aura of Boba Fett that made us all love him.  As Han Solo said… “Boba Fett?  Boba Fett?  Where?”

#5.  Jabba the Hutt.  One of my favorite villains of the series.  Jabba was the crime lord of the Hutts and was after Han Solo for the entire original trilogy.  The opening scenes with Jabba from Return of the Jedi are some of the best scenes of the trilogy.  There is so much more that we could find out about Jabba and I think he is one of the most fascinating characters in the series.

#4.  Kylo Ren.  Ah, poor Ben Solo.  He fell to the Dark Side and then killed his father, Han Solo.  There are many who will never forgive Kylo for that action.  Is the Rise of Skywalker about the redemption of Kylo?  Who knows.  In the end, Kylo has become more dangerous and more powerful as the new trilogy continues.  It seemed as if he may have been coming to Rey’s side when he cut Snoke in two in one of the best fight scenes of the Last Jedi.  As it turned out, it was not to be as Kylo wound up facing off with (or so he thought) with Luke.

#3.  Palpatine.  The horrible monster that was behind the entire Empire and, apparently, died in Return of the Jedi.  However, we hear his distinct laugh in the new trailer of Star Wars Episode 9.  Could he still be alive?  Is he still pulling all the strings?  He was known as Darth Sidious and was the most powerful of all the Sith Lords.  He was behind the destruction of the Jedi and the return of the Sith.  He created Darth Vader.  He was total evil.

#2.  Darth Maul.  The new Sith Lord that appeared in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.  Darth Maul is one of the coolest designs of a character that we have ever had in the Star Wars universe.  The biggest error that happened in the trilogy was killing him off in his first movie.  Darth Maul could have been a major force throughout the prequels.  However, it is now in the movies that Darth Maul did not die in that film. The secret appearance of Darth maul in Solo was one of the highlights of the film and brought him back to the film universe.  Ray Park played the great Sith Lord.

#1.  Darth Vader (DUH).  Of course the best villain in the Star Wars films is Darth Vader.  Darth Vader makes the list of the greatest movie villains of all time, and might be at the top of that list too.  Voiced by the legend James Earl Jones, Darth Vader became the iconic force of the Dark Side when he told Luke Skywalker, the hero of Episode IV and V, that Darth was Luke’s father.  That shocking revelation blew the minds of movie goers everywhere.  Originally Anakin Skywalker (and for the argument, I did not place them in different spots as John Rocha did.  I see them as the same character), Vader became the right hand man of the Emperor and the main protagonist in the original trilogy.  He killed Obi Wan Kenobi, he chopped off Luke’s hand, and he tried to lure his son to the Dark Side.  However, Darth Vader was redeemed of his horrendous actions when he saved Luke from the evil of Palpatine.  This was the easiest number one on any list in a long time.

Honorable mentions:  Greedo, General Grievous, The Sarlaac, Jango Fett.

Hey, back online!!!!  It has been a week since my internet went down so it has been a struggle to try and get some of this web content written over the last week.  I used my ipad to do the reviews, but it is not an easy tool to use.  So I skipped over the Top 10 lists last week.  I want to get caught up now that I am back on the internet.

I will start with the Top 10 Will Smith movies.  I enjoy Will Smith, even though some of the films he has been in have been pretty poor. I actually came up with exactly ten films, and there are a couple that I stretched a bit for.

#10.  Seven Pounds.  This is one that I stretched.  I saw it once and I remember feeling the sadness from the film, and it did seem a bit cheesy.  Still, the emotions were good and Will Smith and Rosario Dawson are great together.  I probably will never watch this movie again, but I do remember it.

#9.  Men in Black 3.  The third edition of the Men in Black franchise improved from the second one.  The time travel was pretty decent and the best part of the movie is easily Josh Brolin’s young Tommy Lee Jones imitation.  The ending of the film was a bit off because, you know, time travel.  Still, it was a somewhat fun movie.

#8.  Aladdin (2019).  This was the reason this week’s list had been Will Smith movies.  Since I did not have internet, I was able to see Aladdin before I make this list so it became eligible for my top 10.  I was very anxious about this film because I loved the Robin Williams version, but the new film was better than I had thought.  Will Smith started a little shaky for me, but made the role his own as the film progressed.

#7.  Pursuit of Happyness.  This is another emotional film showcasing the relationship between a father and his son when he was trying to find a job.  He and his son were homeless and trying to get by.  Will Smith plays the father and his own son, Jaden Smith, plays the son.  This was probably the best Jaden Smith has ever been.

#6.  Concussion.  Will Smith plays Dr. Bennet Omalu, discovered neurological deterioration that is similar to Alzheimer’s disease during an autopsy of a former NFL player who had died under mysterious circumstances.  And from this, he started looking to take on the NFL on the dangers inherent in the sport.  This real life story really shows the power of the NFL and how important Dr. Omalu’s work was in making everyone understand the dangers of brain injuries.

#5.  Independence Day.  One of the great summer blockbusters of the 1990s.  Will Smith is among a fantastic ensemble cast in the movie that is big, dumb and lots of fun.  Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum made a wonderful pairing as the two heroes who flew into the spaceship to plant the virus.  You can light up the cigar now.

#4.  Hancock.  This is a fun super hero movie with a down and depressed super heroic Will Smith who is extremely rough around the edges.  Jason Bateman appears in the movie and gives a strong performance here as the guy trying to get Hancock back to being the super hero.

#3.  I Am Legend.  Some people hate this movie, but I found it to be excellent.  Even with the emotional tugs with the death of the dog, this movie is a great zombie/end of the world film with Will Smith doing a great job.  There are some different endings and I like one better than the other. I found this version of the zombies very scary.  And there was the amazing Batman/Superman ad that was somehow telling the future.

#2.  Men in Black.  This was the Top 10’s number one and my number two.  I love Men in Black.  Based on a comic book, Will Smith matched up with Tommy Lee Jones in the agency that is in the shadows and investigates the aliens living on earth.  Will Smith is Agent J and Tommy Lee is a legendary Agent K.  The pair of them and their chemistry is one of the key successes of Men in Black.  Will Smith shows that he is a star here and the film is an awesome mix of humor and adventure.

#1.  Enemy of the State.  I love this movie.  Gene Hackman is a hermit-like former spy who winds up with lawyer Will Smith, who is being chased by a government agency.  The spy games going on here are scary when you think about it.  What exactly does the intelligent agencies know about us?  Are they listening when we talk on the phone.  Is there a bug in our house?  Who knows what?  This is really one of the first films where Will Smith showed that he was capable of leading a film.  He fit perfectly in the role and even looked like he matched up with Gene Hackman.  This is a great movie.