Last year I split the In Memoriam into two parts because of the large number of people who were gone. I liked how that turned out so now we will have two In Memoriam every year to allow the pictures to not have to be as small as they were prior.
Rest In Peace 2021
I’m sure I have missed some. Respect to all of those who have passed on in the last year.
Added a third In Memoriam …
Hope that is all for 2021.
Unfortunately, that was not enough for 2021. RIP Betty White.
There was some great animation this year, especially on the TV and streaming services. That means that there were several fantastic voice acting work.
Now remember, a voice over may not necessarily just be an animated film. This includes live action with motion capture or an animation/live action combination.
Previous Winners: Auli’i Cravalho (Moana), Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Robin Williams (Aladdin- honorary), Josh Brolin (Avengers: Infinity War), Ryan Reynolds (Detective Pikachu), Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian)
2021 Runners-Up: The first runner-up is Mark Hamill who voiced Skeletor for Kevin Smith’s Masters of the Universe: Revelations. Hamill may have won this had there been a little fewer terrible puns/jokes made in the script. Benedict Cumberbatch was exceptional in What If as the “evil” Doctor Strange. His episode four of that series was one of the best episodes of TV all year. Sylvester Stallone was a riot as King Shark in The Suicide Squad. Awkwafina stood out as the Last Dragon in Raya and the Last Dragon. Jason Sudeikis has been a massive star the last few years and him voicing Bryce in Hit Monkey is a big deal. Caleb Landry Jones brought some emotion to a newly constructed robot with Tom Hanks in Finch. Lake Bell stepped in as Natasha Romanoff in the What If series.
2021 Winner of the “I Am Groot” Voice Acting Award
TIE
Jeffrey Wright (The Watcher)- What If…?
and
Chadwick Boseman (T’Challa as Star-Lord) – What If…?
Could not make a decision. Mainly because it was so awesome to hear the voice of the late Chadwick Boseman in the role that he totally embodied in the last few years of his life. But Jeffrey Wright was one of the driving forces of What If…? and if the Watcher did not work, then the series would have suffered.
The cast of the Expendables has been remarkably successful over the years. So how better to honor them than with some of their own specific awards you’ll only find on EYG.
Okay, perhaps “excellence” is an exaggeration…
The Best Expendable Actor Whose Director’s Cut removed a beloved robot: Sylvester Stallone. Sly released a director’s cut of the classic Rocky IV in 2021 entitled Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago, and in the cut, he removed all signs of the robot that had been given to Paulie. Course, he removed a bunch more too. In the end, the dirctor’s cut was considerably different than the original.
Best Supporting Actor in a Terrible Sequel: Wesley Snipes (Coming 2 America). Snipes is easily the best part of this heartless sequel. He played General Izzi, the military leader of Nexdoria, Zamunda’s neighboring country.
Best Expendables Actor as an Over-the-Top Villain: Antonio Banderas (The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard). Banderas was also one of the best parts of this stinker in 2021, another sequel that was not necessary. However, this one was better than the first, to an extent. Perhaps because of the scene chewing Banderas.
Best Expendable Actor TV Host: Terry Crews (America’s Got Talent). Terry Crews has been hosting the talent show for several years now and he does a solid job of it. He has good chemistry with the judges and shows some emotions with the contestants.
Expendable Actor with the Most Films of the Year on IMDB: Bruce Willis (7). Although he still has two in post production scheduled for 2021. Willis, who never met a paycheck he did not cash, has had seven movies released and head straight to VOD in 2021 and he has a handful on the way in 2022 too. All winners too… *wink*
Best Expendable Voice Over of a Shark: Sylvester Stallone (The Suicide Squad). Stallone is a standout voice of the wonderful King Shark in The Suicide Squad. The James Gunn super villain movie just did not receive enough praise as it deserved.
This is a brand new award for the year 2021.
It goes to the show or movie that the audience is certain that something is going to happen… to the point of totally not worrying about anything else. They may twist clips or unimportant details from the show/movie that seem to slightly support their theory. They do so in order to claim that the arrival is “confirmed.” Except that it was never going to happen.
The first winner of this award became such a gigantic event that people turned it into a meme. It came from the Marvel Disney + series WandaVision, which actually had several of these in the show. People did not understand what a Marvel TV show was going to be like and their obsession with the comics that these shows are based upon cause trouble. Which of the moments in WandaVision wins this award? It could be the arrival of “Quicksilver” and how that meant that the X-Men were coming to the MCU. It could have been the speculation that Monica Rambeau’s engineer friend was Reed Richards (or a bunch of other Marvel characters). But neither of these could touch the one major speculation that consumed this show right up to the post credit of the finale.
Mephisto.
Yes, everyone had confirmed Mephisto after every mention of “the devil” or the large fly on the wall. Every one was Mephisto… from Agatha’s mysterious hubby Ralph to Evan Peters to Emma Caulfield’s Dottie. Yet, the demon never showed up.
I did believe that Mephisto was behind the trapping of Westview inside the dome, that he helped Wanda with her power levels. There were hints in the comics about Mephisto’s role in Wanda’s kids’ lives. but WandaVision wisely kept this closer to the vest, more personal for Wanda. Looking back now, Mephisto would not have worked in that series. We would not have had the same pay off a we got.
People have not yet learned their lesson either because there are plenty of people who believe that Dr. Strange in the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer is acting odd because he was Mephisto. Mephisto was rumored to be in Loki early on too.
Now, everyone make a joke about Mephisto: Confirmed…. and so he is the perfect recipient of the inaugural Confirmed… or is it? Award.
Of course, if Andrew and Toby are not in Spider-Man: No Way Home, I may just have to reconsider the winner of this award.
This year’s internet rage was directed at one of the creators who the internet once loved. However, when the internet perceives that you are messing with a childhood favorite, or being too “woke” and focus on female characters… well, all the love is off.
Kevin Smith’s Masters of the Universe: Revelations was split into two parts and part one seemingly made the internet lose its mind. They hurled all sort of insults at Kevin Smith for daring to make this series about Teela and for killing off He-Man. The rage was building even before the show was released. Nothing gets the trolls trolling more than some unconfirmed rumors about things they do not like.
Poor Kevin Smith, who was just trying to keep some of the secrets secret, was called a liar and all kinds of terrible names. You could tell that, even if Kevin denied it, he was bothered by the hatred. These were his people who were turning on him, despite the first part of this series containing some excellent character work and some exceptional story telling.
Thankfully, this hatred seems to have dissipated as the second part was released on Netflix and it had all kinds of He-Man goodness.
Still, the MotU rage is the Don’t Feed the Trolls winner for 2021.
Previous winners:
Previous Winner: Baby Yoda eats frog’s eggs
Every year, there are movies that are initially released in the prior year that I only see in the current one. Usually it has to do with releasing a film for Academy Award consideration. However, in 2021, things got complicated. They pushed the Oscar presentation back a few months and changed the release date to make a movie eligible.
That messed with my usual plan here, but I still considered movies that were eligible for Oscars last year to be movie for 2020 in this situation.
Another tweak here was that I did the DailyView and there were 2020 movies that I had not watched before included. These movies also fall into this category.
I am doing the top 5 of movies released in 2020 that I watched in 2021.
#5. My Octopus Teacher. A doc that I watched on Netflix in the DailyView. It was a lot of fun.
#4. The Father. An amazing performance from Sir Anthony Hopkins, one that earned him an Academy Award win.
#3. Minari. Featuring Steven Yeun, one of the top foreign language films of the past year.
#2. Nomadland. Chloé Zhao’s Oscar winning effort that included an exceptional performance from Frances McDormand.
#1. One Night in Miami. The story of what happened one night when Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and Malcom X met in a hotel room in Miami.
Other 2020 films that I considered for this list included: Most Rarely Sometimes Always, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Judas and the Black Messiah and the White Tiger.
It is that time of the year once again!
It is time to start the EYG Year in Review for the year 2021. Lots of amazing things happened as well as a few that were not that great. We will be looking at the whole year, including giving out our typical yearly awards.
As we start taking a few steps towards the return of some semblance of normal after the insanity of 2020, a look back can help us understand where we are heading.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 