One of the rarer awards we give out in the Year End Awards is the Expendables Award for Acting Excellence.  Given to the members of the cast of the Expendables for a role in a movie where they have done more than just cash a paycheck, where they have actually shown some acting chops.

We have only given three of these out so far in the history of the EYG Year End Awards, with none presented last year.  This year, we give out the fourth total and second individual to this cast member.

In 2015, he won a Best Performance by an Expendable as an Actor in a Motion Picture for Star Wars: The Force Awakens and this year he receives his second Expendable award, this time…

Best Performance by an Expendable as a Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his role as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner 2049.  That is right… it is Harrison Ford.

Harrison Ford did more than just go through the motions in Blade Runner 2049.  He was compelling and dramatic and carried a great deal of the story with him in the second half of the movie.  He was the emotional center of the story and he deserves this award for the performance.

Each year, there are moments that stand out in the Geek community.  Here are the ten that jump to the front from 2017.

#10.  It rescues the summer Box Office.  The summer box office was way down.  With a very few exceptions, there were few major successes during the year.  And August was even worse.  Then, early September, a clown arrived and helped out tremendously. Stephen King’s It made over $123 million during its opening weekend and wound up making just short of $700 million worldwide.  That was remarkable for an R rated horror movie.

#9.  Prince Henry and Meghan Markle get engaged.  When was our last royal wedding?  It has been a while.  What makes this one even more shocking though is the fact that Meghan Markle, an American actress, is of mixed-race.  The couple expressed about having a wedding that was not as lavish as some of the previous royal weddings.

#8.  Disney announces streaming service.  In their next step to control the world, Disney announced this year that they would be starting up their own streaming service in 2019.  At that time, the Mouse planned on removing their content from Netflix and making their own streaming service the exclusive location for their movies and shows to land.  A report indicated that the service would be comparable in price to Netflix.

#7.  And the winner is… not La La Land.  An error at this year’s Oscars telecast ended with presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway receiving a envelop with the Best Actress inside.  The problem?  They were presenting Best Picture.  Beatty opened the envelope, looked confused and everyone thought he was doing a bit.  However, he did not know what to do. So he showed it to Dunaway, who saw La La Land listed (beneath the name of Best Actress winner Emma Stone) and announced them as the winner.  Chaos ensued.  Finally it took La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz holding up the card that said “Moonlight” for people to believe what had happened.  It was the most unbelievable Oscar flub of all time.

#6.  Logan is Rated R.  Following in the footsteps of Deadpool from the year before, FOX released a rated R Logan movie this year that allowed the world a chance to see Wolverine in the way we always wanted to see him.  The film was based around the Old Man Logan storyline and was a beloved film, one of the best of 2017.

#5.  Thor makes more money than Justice League.  And by a considerable amount.  Thor: Ragnarok was released in early November and did remarkably well, opening to around $120 million.  Two weeks later, Justice League, a movie with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash and Cyborg in it, only opened to $94 million.  Then worldwide, Thor: Ragnarok has reached $846 million worldwide while the Justice League is slowly coming to an end somewhere around $650 million.  Almost $200 million more?  Justice League severely under-performed for WB.

#4.  Wonder Woman.  The biggest hit among the recent DC Films has been Wonder Woman and she became the first major female led super hero movie in this age of super hero movies.  Wonder Woman crossed cultural classes and became the icon that she always was meant to be.  The arrival of the film in the beginning of July signaled a change in the world, inspiring many young girls that they can be heroic as well.  The film was received extremely well by both fans and critics and it wound up making over $800 million world wide.

#3 1/2.  She is the new Doctor. I actually just thought of this one and I think it needed to be on this list.  There was an announcement this year of the first ever female Doctor from BBC America series Doctor Who.  Jodie Whittaker was named the next Doctor to replace Peter Capaldi.

 
#3.  Net Neutrality repealed.  In a major news event that many people may have missed, the FCC voted 3-2 to repeal a law put in place by the Obama Administration that prohibited broadband providers from blocking websites or charging for higher-quality service or certain content.  FCC’s Republican chairman, Ajit Pai, led the way in the repeal, however, there have been some who have taken opposition to this ruling.  Several states have banded together as a class action lawsuit, and there have been Congressmen who have decided to look closer at the deregulation.  Perhaps we can still have a free and open internet.

#2.  #MeToo.  This was going to be number one until that little thing happened a few weeks ago.  But the #MeToo movement brought to light the problems of sexual abuse/harassment/misconduct of powerful men and brought the victims forward to have their voices heard.  It started with the complaints against Harvey Weinstein of the Weinstein Company and it grew to include Andy Signore of Screen Junkies, Kevin Spacey, Luis C.K., John Lasseter, Jeremy Piven, Matt Lauer among many others.  It even grabbed Senator Al Franken.  This controversy has only just started.

#1.  Disney buys properties of 21st Century FOX.  In a sweeping deal, Disney has purchased several intellectual properties/rights from FOX.  This includes the rights to X-Men, Deadpool, and the Fantastic Four, essentially reuniting the Marvel characters under the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  The Marvel properties are not the only ones snatched by Disney as they also have the rights to the Simpsons, X-Files, the Alien franchise, a share in Hulu among many others.  FOX kept its news, its sports.  The TV and the movies though went to Disney.  Many Hollywood insiders are understandably concerned over the deal (because of jobs lost and having less studios to pitch ideas/scripts to), but the idea of Dr. Doom or the Silver Surfer back in the MCU overshadows those concerns for many fans.

Every year we have movies that just do not live up to the hopes and expectations of the studios, critics or fans.  For whatever reason, there are always movies competing for the John Carter Memorial Award, the flop of the year.

My industry standards, they consider a movie breaking even if it makes 2 and a half times its production budget.  Most of the films competing for the infamous John Carter Memorial Award do not come anywhere near that.

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.

A movie can be considered in this category, and even win this category, and still be a great movie.  John Carter itself was not the worst movie that year.  Inflated budgets and poor marketing can be part of the reason a film flops.  Other reasons could include poor scheduling, bad word of mouth, bad critical reactions, too much competition, limited appeal, too many risks etc.

There are a bunch of runners-up for 2017.  I had almost given this award to Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets because of its massive budget.  But while it did not make money, the film had more oversea income than I thought it did.  That made me happy, because I liked Valerian.  I also liked Justice League but there is no denying that it was not what Warner Brothers had hoped.  It looks as if it will be finishing its original theatrical run making less money than Dr. Strange, and who would have guessed that?  Blade Runner 2049 was another film that was beautiful and well made only to be shunned by movie goers. Hard to make a $175 million dollar sequel to an original movie that also flopped at the box office only to become a cult classic.  There was Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell which was a failure all around.  The Dark Universe collapsed under the weight of the flop that was The Mummy.  Destroying a planned cinematic universe gave this movie some extra points in flop-i-tude.  Geostorm was one of those really stupid movies that you could have fun with by shutting down your brain, but they spent WAY TOO MUCH MONEY on it.  Then there was Just Getting Started, a horrible film starring Tommy Lee Jones and Morgan Freeman that, apparently, nobody knew was coming out.

However, none of these take the John Carter Memorial Award.  When looking at the numbers, this one is the clear “winner” of this award.  It made $148.7 worldwide on a $175 million dollar budget.  OUCH!  It was a terrible movie too.

The 2017 John Cater Memorial Award goes to….

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

Guy Ritchie had considered making this a six-part movie series.  I am guessing that there will not be much chance of seeing that happen.  Charlie Hunnam starred as Arthur.  The rest of this film was terrible and forgettable.  Audiences around the world rejected the bloated, retelling of a tale no one was demanding for.

Every year there are small performances and appearances that are fun for the audience… winks to the crowd… with cameos.  Some cameos are basically Easter eggs.  Some cameos are more intricate to the plot.  All are fun.

So here is the EYG Stan Lee Movie Cameo Award

Previous Winners:  John Cena, Two-Time Winner Stan Lee, Chris Evans, Sigourney Weaver, Hugh Jackman.

Runners-Up:  Elton John (Kingsman 2), Weird Al Yankovic (How to Be a Latin Lover), Gwyneth Paltrow (Spider-man: Homecoming), Matt Damon (Thor: Ragnarok), Bruce Willis (Split), David Hasselhoff (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2), Joe Manganiello (Justice League), Stan Lee (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok)

Winner:

Yoda (Star Wars: The Last Jedi)

There were a ton of great cameos this year.  I thought this award was going to Elton John for his over-the-top appearance in Kingsman.  Bruce Willis showed up and completely changed the perception of Split.

However, then a certain force ghost showed up…

The scene with Yoda and Luke Skywalker is one of the best scenes in The Last Jedi and is based solely in the character.  This was the old Yoda.  Puppet Yoda.  Not the CGI Yoda that we got in the prequels.  Frank Oz returned for the voice and it was wonderful and very funny.

And I guess Force Ghosts really do need to sit down.

Here are the 2017 Gomer and the Spider-man 3 Disappointment of the Year Awards.

There are few things better than going into a movie and being surprised by it, whether it is a movie that you haven’t heard of that turns out great or a movie you went into with low expectations only to see them blown away.  This winner is awarded The Gomer (in honor of the late Jim Nabors).

Previous winners of the Gomer include:  The Gift, Edge of Tomorrow, We’re the Millers, The Campaign, Ouija: Origin of Evil

Runners-Up:  Brigsby Bear, Get Out, Split, How to Be a Latin Lover, Annabelle: Creation, The Man Who Invented Christmas

The Gomer goes to….

Ferdinand

Never thought in a million years that I was going to be as entertained by Ferdinand as I was.  I was sure it was just another time wasting animated film like Nut Job 2 or another Ice Age movie.  I was so wrong.  John Cena was great as the voice of the bull who would rather smell flowers than fight and Kate McKinnon was perfect as the Coach Goat.  Ferdinand caught me completely off-guard, and that was a good thing.

The other end of the spectrum is where the Spider-man 3 Disappointment of the Year resides.  These are movies where you have high hopes for a great film only to see them quashed by reality.

Previous “winners” of the Spider-man 3 Disappointment of the Year: In the Heart of the Sea, Amazing Spider-man 2, After Earth, Dark Knight Rises, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Batman v. Superman

Runners-Up: The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Wonder, Kingsman 2, Batman & Harley Quinn, The Dark Tower

“Winner” of the Spider-man 3 Disappointment of the Year: 

The Snowman

I had high hopes for this one.  I enjoyed the trailers and I always love a good serial killer/mystery murder thriller.  That is what this looked like and it had Michael Fassbender in it as well.  How could it go wrong?  I am still not sure how, but The Snowman is in competition for the number one spot on the worst movies of the year list.  It was predictable.  It was poorly written.  Michael Fassbender’s characters name was Harry Hole (I kid you not).  Now, the character name is from the book series that this is based on, but still… it is not like you couldn’t adjust that name a bit.  Overall, it was one of the worst experiences I have had this year, and that made it a terrible disappointment.

Every year there are some amazing performances by actors who are not yet of age.  Children can really stick out if they are not solid performers.  None of these kids have issues …

Previous winners:  Emjay Anthony, Jacob Tremblay, Millie Bobby Brown

There were a lot of great performances this year among the child actors.

Runners-Up:

#10.  Kelvin Harrison Jr (It Comes at Night)

#9.  Noah Jupe (Suburbicon)

#8.  McKenna Grace (Gifted)

#7.  Ella Anderson (Glass Castles)

#6.  Judah Lewis (The Babysitter)

#5.  Lulu Wilson (Annabelle: Creation)

#4.  Jacob Tremblay (Book of Henry, Wonder)

Two great roles for Jacob, a former winner of this award.  Many hated The Book of Henry, but I loved it.  And you cannot disagree that Jacob was excellent there too. 

#3.  The kids from Stranger Things

The Stranger Things kids, in particular Noah Schnapp, were great in their return to Netflix.  Schnapp has a chance for an Emmy nomination.  If not for a very strong year, this award would have been his.  Millie Bobby Brown won this award last year. 

#2.  The kids from It

It was as great as it was because of the fantastic ensemble performances from these kids. Finn Wolfhard was both here and in the #3 ensemble.  

Winner:

#1.  Dafne Keen (Logan)

Dafne Keen was so amazing in Logan.  It was a role that was vital for the success of that film.  If Laura (X-23) could not carry her own, Logan would have started behind the eight ball.  Laura had to act much of the movie without dialogue, showing her feelings, emotions and thoughts with her face and her body language.  And she kicked some serious butt. She was remarkable. 

Science Fiction is always a tough genre to do well.  The chances of creating something like Independence Day: Resurgence is much more likely than Arrival.  So we need to award those films that can do the genre well.

A couple of rules.  Though a super hero film could be considered science fiction, they will not be counted in this award.  I am also not counting Transformers… just because.

Best Sci-Fi Movie

Runners-Up:  Life, The Girl with All the Gifts, Valerian, Phoenix Forgotten, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Bright

Winner:

Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner 2049 was not very successful as a film.  It did not make much money at the box office against a very high budget.  Yet, what was created by Denis Villeneuve is amazing science fiction and a visual masterpiece.  So while this film is in the running for the John Carter Award, it will receive the Best Sci-Fi Award as well.

WORST SCI-FI MOVIE OF 2017

RUNNERS-Up:  Dark Tower, Alien: Covenant, Geostorm, 

Winner:

Ghost in the Shell

I was so bored in Ghost in the Shell.  It was not that the casting of Scarlett Johansson was bad (though kind of iffy), but the fact that the story just was not adapted well from the source material.  Let’s just get Johansson that Black Widow movie, please.

The Frame Award is presented to the best animated movie of the year.  This year, there were not the number of quality animated movies as there was in past years.  In fact, there are considerably more bad animated films in 2017 than the good one.

Runners-Up:  Lego Batman Movie, Ferdinand, Despicable Me 3

Winner:  Coco

Coco is one of the best Pixar movies of all time.  It is a beautiful story of a boy named Miguel, who wants to be a musician, but his family never allows music in their life.  Miguel ends up in the land of the dead, but still alive.  This movie is about family.  It is about music.  It is about the Mexican culture.  It is an emotionally satisfying film that will have you sobbing.  It is one of the best films of 2017 and easily the best animated film.

Worst animated film

Runners-Up:  Cars 3, Batman & Harley Quinn, Lego Ninjago Movie, Boss Baby, Rock Dog, Captain Underpants, Olaf’s Frozen Adventure.

Worst:  Emoji Movie

Ugh.  This was such a bad movie.  It was the same story as Toy Story but with stupider writing, animation, characters, voice acting etc.  Terrible.

2017 was a strong year in horror movies.  There were a few losers in there as well.  These are the Best and Worst Horror Movies of 2017

Best

#1.  It.  This is the best horror movie of the year.  It will be one of the top movies all around.

#2.  Get Out.  Jordan Peele’s directorial debut was one of the best of the year.  It has a chance to be nominated for an Oscar.

#3.  Annabelle: Creation.  A sequel to a film that was terrible, turned out to be really well done.

#4.  Phoenix Forgotten.  A film that I liked way more than I thought I would.  It deals with the Phoenix lights seen in the sky by multiple people.  This was solid.

#5.  The Belko Experience.  Another film that was better than I thought it would be.  A group of people were trapped together in an office building and you have to determine who is going to die.

Good films, but not really horror:  It Comes at Night, A Ghost Story, Happy Death Day

Worst

#1.  The Bye Bye Man.  This guy shows up not only when you say his name, but when you think about him.  Really?  How does that work?  This one is truly bad and might be in consideration for the worst movie of the year.

#2.  Wish Upon.  A box that can grant wishes, but bad things happen when granted.  And this dumb girl keeps using it.  Ugh.

#3.  Flatliners.  A remake of a cult favorite, but the remake is just stupid.  Badly done.  Cardboard cutout characters.  Boring film.

#4.  Rings.  Another sequel that should have stayed away. This one was delayed several times and you can see why.

#5.  Friend Request.  A loner starts to hang out with a popular girl and then she posts horrible videos. The popular girl deletes her friend and the loner dies and kills everyone.  This made little or no sense.

Here are some categories that cover the whole range of the television world.

Best Return:  Stranger Things 2.  There was certain concern over the return of this series because many believed that they could not match what they had done in season one.  Obviously, those people were wrong.

Show that Fell Flat:  Inhumans, obviously. It was so bad that had it not been only eight episodes, I would have stopped watching it.  This is such a sad state for a classic group of heroes.

Shows that I forgot about, but loved:  Trial and Error.  Looking back over some of the other shows, I noticed this show starring John Lithgow that I really enjoyed, but missed in this review.  I also had forgotten Sherlock and that would have made some of the lists.  Sorry guys.   There is just so much TV to watch.

Best Reality Show:  Not a fan of any of these types of genre TV, so I’ll say America’s Got Talent since it has been pretty successful this season.

Best Podcast:  Top Ten Show.  John Rocha and Matt Knost set a topic each week and list their individual top 10 lists and then combine it into a show’s list.  There is a lot of great movie talk along the way and some really entertaining conversation.

Most Improved Show:  How to Get Away With Murder.  Not as much improved as it is finding itself again.  This past year this show really recovered from a weak second season to be a powerhouse once again.

Best Animated: Rick and Morty.  This one should have been an easy one to guess since Rick and Morty wound number at number one of the Cable shows.  This is just a funny show every time out.

Gone too soon:  TV Talk and TV Fights.  I talked about both already, but I want to state again that both shows really got the bum rush.  Bring them back!

Top 10 Late Night Hosts

#10.  Seth Myers

#9.  Samantha Bee

#8.  James Cordon

#7.  Jimmy Fallon

#6.  Jimmy Kimmell

#5.  Michael Che and Colin Jost

#4.  Trevor Noah

#3.  John Oliver

#2. Bill Maher

#1.  Stephen Colbert 

Best Musical Episode:  Once Upon a Time, “The Song in Your Heart”.  This was so great.  I actually bought the soundtrack for my phone.  Favorite song:  “Revenge is Gonna Be Mine” by Captain Hook.

Best Show that I do not watch: Game of Thrones:  Some day maybe…

Shows that I stopped watching:  There are a bunch.  There are only so many hours in a day and when a show does not meet the minimum standard, it slips to the wayside.  These include:  Flash, Once Upon a Time, Future Man, Mr. Robot, Big Bang Theory.

Worst Return: Once Upon a Time.  After season six, everyone had a happy ending.  Why did you have to bring it back?  And if you were going to bring it back, why bury it on Friday?

Worst decision:  Having an Iron Fist series without going to K’un-Lun.  Going to K’un-Lun seems like a no-brainer.  Except for the NetFlix series Iron Fist.  Instead we get corporate business.

Favorite Online TV Talker:  David Griffin.  I miss David from the TV Talk days.  Sure he liked too much British TV, but he always had solid opinions to share and was calmer than Josh Macuga.

I tried, but…: The Handmaid’s Tale.  I tried to watch this, but I just could not get into it.

If you thought organizing that list of streaming TV shows was difficult, how about going through them to figure out the Best Actors, Actresses, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress?  insanity.  But I got it done.

Best Actor- Streaming Series

#10.  Timothy Olyphant (Santa Clarita Diet)

#9.  Tyler Alvarez (American Vandal)

#8.  Jonathan Groff (Mindhunter)

#7.  Neil Patrick Harris (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

#6.  Ian McShane (American Gods)

#5.  Dylan Minnotte (13 Reasons Why)

#4.  Peter Serofinowicz (The Tick)

#3.  Jon Bernthal (The Punisher)

#1.  TIE :  Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks) and Noah Schnapp (Stranger Things 2)

I couldn’t decide.  I was certain this one was going to Kyle MacLachlan when he was playing basically three completely different characters in Dougie Jones, Mr. C and the one and only Dale Cooper, but then Noah Schanpp blew me away with his tortured performance as Will Byers in Stranger Things 2.  So they will share! 

Best Actress- Streaming Series

#10.  Wynona Ryder (Stranger Things 2)

#9. Robin Wright (House of Cards)

#8.  Betty Gilpin (GLOW)

#7.  Krysten Ritter (The Defenders)

#6.  Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things 2)

#5.  Danielle Brooks (Orange is the New Black)

#4.  Drew Barrymore (Santa Clarita Diet)

#3.  Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black)

#2.  Katherine Layford (13 Reasons Why)

#1.  Alison Brie (GLOW)

GLOW was such an entertaining show, and it was led by Alison Brie.  She took what could have been a singular character and made her multi-faceted.  Brie became the leader of the GLOW women and she made that show super. 

Best Supporting Actor- Streaming Series

#12.  Michael Horse (Twin Peaks)

#11.  Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things 2)

#10.  David Lynch (Twin Peaks)

#9.  Jimmy Tatro (American Vandal)

#8.  Miguel Ferrer (Twin Peaks)

#7. Sean Astin (Stranger Things 2)

#6.  Holt McCallany (Mindhunter)

#5.  Griffin Newman (The Tick)

#4.  Cameron Britton (Mindhunter)

#3.  Jackie Earle Haley (The Tick)

#2.  Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Punisher)

#1.  Marc Meron (GLOW)

Marc Meron is playing a “redeemable asshole” who starts out more concerned about his own career than the woman he has working for him at GLOW.  That changes as the series progresses.  He is a drunk.  He is a smart-mouthed jerk.  But we love him any way. 

Best Supporting Actor- Streaming Series

#12.  Hannah Gross (Mindhunter)

#11.  Karly Rothenberg (American Vandal)

#10.  Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist)

#9.  Lea DeLaria (Orange is the New Black)

#8.  Emily Browning (American Gods)

#7.  Wai Ching Ho (The Defenders)

#6.  Liv Henson (Santa Clarita Diet)

#5.  Taryn Manning (Orange is the New Black)

#4. Catharine Coulson (Twin Peaks: The Return)

#3.  Naomi Watts (Twin Peaks: The Return)

#2.  Laura Dern (Twin Peaks: The Return)…. I am sure Diane would say… “F**k you, EYG”

#1.  Gillian Anderson (American Gods) 

Gillian Anderson appeared as Marilyn Monroe, David Bowie, Lucy Ricardo, Scarlett O’Hara in American Gods.  Her actual character’s name is Media, one of the new world Gods that opposed Odin and the old gods.  Either way, Anderson’s performances as these iconic people are some of the best moments of the series.