2022 has been a good year. Things at the theater started to move back to normal and there were a ton of streaming films. However, it is always a challenge to choose the EYG Star of the Year because I’m looking for someone who dominated the year. The list was short for 2022, but I did finally make the decision.

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, Andrew Garfield

The runners-up were:

Florence Pugh was in several films this year and she is consistently good, no matter how good the film she is in was.

Margot Robbie was another solid performer who does well in everything that she does.

Dwayne Johnson is always a bundle of energy and the limited success of Black Adam is right on his back.

2022 EYG Star of the Year….

Tom Cruise

Top Gun: Maverick was the biggest film of 2022 and Tom Cruise’s star power drove the success of the unlikely sequel. I was not a fan of the original Top Gun but Cruise was very charming and carried this film. The truth was that Tom Cruise was a big reason why this movie was as great as it was.

Could he end up the year with an Oscar nomination for his role in Top Gun: Maverick? It is a possibility which is astounding.

One of the few remaining “Movie Stars” in the world, Tom Cruise has his first EYG Star of the Year Award.

The John Carter Memorial Award goes to the biggest flop of the year. A flop does not necessarily mean that the movie is poor. It just means that the film was not a financial success, whether it lost money or whether it didn’t make as much as they thought it should have.

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, Reminiscence 

In fact, this year is the first time that I am presenting the John Carter Memorial Award to a film that I gave a positive review.

Before we go into that…

Runners-Up: I thought that Morbius was going to win this award. It was a flop twice. Once at the original release and the second time when they thought that the whole meme meant people wanted to see it again. Still, we got a much worse film later. Lightyear did not do well. It was not promoted very well and people were confused. I liked Lightyear though. Fantastic Beasts: Secret of Dumbledore was yet another flop in this series. The Northman was another film that did not quite find the audience that it wanted.

The John Carter Memorial

Award for 2022 goes to…

Strange World

Strange World was a really good movie for me. However, it was not a success monetarily. It is expected to lose upward of $100 million dollars. People did not know what this movie was about. The promotion of Strange World was just terrible, hiding items that they should have been front and center in trailers. They thought that this was an animated Disney flick and that would be enough to attract the audience. It was not. How many people just decided to stay home and wait for it on Disney +?

It only made 12 million in its opening weekend during Thanksgiving and then dropped 60% in week two. There is no two ways around it, Stranger World, even though I enjoyed the film myself, it the John Carter Memorial Award winner of 2022.

Unlike when I was compiling the list for the Gomer Award, when I was looking for the disappointing film of the year, I was having a hard time finding them. I did eventually come up with six possible choices.

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, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins

Runners-Up: The film that ALMOST won this award was Morbius. The only thing about this was I kind of expected it to be bad and that is what eventually happened. The School for Good and Evil was a show on Netflix that I thought was going to be the new generation of Harry Potter. I guess not. Shudder had a film with a character of Edgar Allan Poe called Raven’s Hollow. I love Poe, but this was terrible. Disney’s remake of Pinocchio with Tom Hanks was such a wash. The final runner-up was Jurassic World’s Dominion, which took these dinosaurs, which was across the whole world, and stuck them on an island where our heroes had to try an escape…just like all of them. This could have been an epic conclusion to the series and it just fell flat.

This year’s Spider-Man 3 Disappointment of the Year is…

Halloween Ends

I had gotten excited for this by seeing the trailer. Then, the movie they provided was nothing like the trailer until the last 15 minutes or so. It felt more like a reboot of the series than a finale of the series. The ending with Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie vs. Michael seemed tacked on to another film.

Very disappointing

I started looking at my list of movies for 2022 in search of the Gomer Award winner. The Gomer, named after Gomer Pyle whose catchphrase was ‘Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!’, goes to the film that was the biggest surprise of the year. A film that came out of nowhere… a film that I expected to hate… a film that transcended the viewing experience.

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, Free Guy

As I was going through the films, I realized that my notes were filling up. I wound up with 19 films as possible Gomer winners. That was huge! This was easily one of the most surprising years on record.

There are a ton of awesome movies in this category and it was difficult to narrow it down to a winner.

Honorable Mentions: So the Netflix film Slumberland had such a low Rotten Tomatoes score that I did not expect much and yet I had a good time with it. Both The Menu and Violent Night I approached expecting to enjoy them because of the word of mouth, but they made this list because of how much I loved both of them. They are both in consideration for the top ten films of the year. As is RRR, another film that I had no expectations on liking. I disliked the original Top Gun film so I was surprised with how much I enjoyed Top Gun: Maverick. I have never been much of a fan of Adam Sandler so any film he is in that I enjoy is a surprise. This year it was the basketball film, Hustle. The trailers for the film Dog starring Channing Tatum were so overplayed that I had no interest in the movie and yet, it was really quite good. Hulu’s horror film Fresh was one of the most unexpected films of the year. Another film with no expectations was The Outfit, which was so good. There was no way that I was going to like the Minions: Rise of Gru with how much I hated the last Minions movie. And yet I did, who thought it was possible? Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris was another film that I had heard good things about, but I never thought it would interest me. The historical biopic Till featured a powerful performance and left me with an emotional theater experience. The mockumentary When the Screaming Starts followed a serial killer before he became a serial killer. Really funny and dark at the same time. Superman and Batman: Battle of the Super Sons was a DC animation that really engaged me with a couple of characters (Damien Wayne and Jonathan Kent) that I had never cared for much. How could a sequel of a film from 40 years ago be any good? Well, A Christmas Story Christmas pulled it off. The reboot of the Fletch series was great with Confess, Fletch starring Jon Hamm. Barbarian I went into blind and had a great time. Finally, Beast had no chance to be anything good, and yet it was so great with Idris Elba battling a killer lion.

So with all of that, the Gomer Award for 2022 goes to….

Deadstream

There was no way this was going to be good, but with some of the most clever writing of the year, Deadstream took aim at the YouTube culture of live streaming and the reactors that populate the web. Them Deadstream was legitimately funny and frightening. I loved this film from Shudder and the unexpected pleasure of a film that surprised me from the start.

Every year, I see movies in a year that had been released in the year before. Most of the time this is because a film is trying to become eligible for an Academy Award so it releases in like four theaters in New York or Los Angeles and then releases wide in January or February.

A few years ago, I decided to not take those films into consideration for the Best and Worst lists of the current year even though that was the year in which I saw them. Henceforth, this list of Best and Worst Movies of 2021 in 2022 came into being.

However, this year was different. As a follow up to the DailyView that I completed in April, I did what I called The June Swoon. In the June Swoon, I watched a movie that I did not see from 2021 every day in the month of June. It turned out to be 31 movies as I watched two in one day once that month.

That opened this list up dramatically as, instead of having five or six to choose from, I now had almost forty. This led to a top 10 Best Movie of 2021 in 2022 and a top five Worst Movie of 2021 in 2022 list.

Starting with the worst:

Worst Movies of 2021 in 2022

#5. Censor. I don’t remember anything about this one, but I had rated it a “MEH”.

#4. The Protégé. Predictable and a waste of Samuel L. Jackson.

#3. Red Rocket. I found this to be way overrated and boring.

#2. House of Gucci. another film that I just did not like. I could not get into it even though it was considered an Oscar worthy film. Not for me.

#1. Home Sweet Home Alone. I had been warned that this movie was God awful. Both Jeremy Jahns and Dan Murrell reviewed the movie and hated on it. Jeremy gave it his “dogshit” rating and Dan, if I remember correctly, put it at number one on his worst movies list. I still wanted to check it out for myself on Disney +. They were absolutely right. It was terrible and would have contended for the Worst Movie of 2021 Year End list had I watched it during 2021. Having the Home Alone name in the title is an insult to Home Alone 3. Yeah, that one.

Best Movies of 2021 in 2022

#10. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Denzel doing Shakespeare. Plus, the film had the best set and art design of any film last year.

#9. Flee. An animated documentary of an escape from Afghanistan as a child.

#8. Old Henry. A great Western with an exciting and dramatic twist at the end.

#7. Happily. A weird story about couples and someone punishing them for their bad behavior. I had a lot of funwith this one.

#6. Shiva Baby. An unexpectedly good film about a Jewish girl and her family sitting Shiva.

#5. Annette. Another bizarre film, this time with music. Adam Driver chewing up scenery all over the palce.

#4. Cyrano. A classic story also with music. Peter Dinklage as Cyrano is spot on casting.

#3. Summer of Soul. Documentary from The Roots’ Questlove. A look at some of the great music from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival.

#2. Bo Burnham: Inside. A comedy film that I tried to watch once, but was having trouble getting into it. During the June Swoon though I loved it. Staying inside during the pandemic for the comedian Bo Burnham created so much amazing comedy.

#1. Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar. One of the funniest films of 2021. Another one that I did not find too interesting during 2021 and I was not a fan of the trailer. However, when I watched it for the June Swoon, I loved it.

With the number f comic book movies that come out in a year, a few years ago, this category was added and who was a better person to honor than Christopher Reeve? We then went back to 1989 and awarded winners for every year.

This year, the winner, to me, was clear.

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), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

In 2022, the standout comic book movie…

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Ironically, the first Black Panther movie did not receive the Christopher Reeve Memorial Award. It came out in the same year as Infinity War, which was tough competition. However, that first movie starring Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa was consequential and inspiring for a huge swath of a community. People of color embraced that film and made it one of the most successful films of all time.

Then, in 2020, tragedy struck. Chadwick Boseman died from colon cancer. A cancer that we had no idea he was suffering from. During the filming of Black Panther and Infinity War, he kept that to himself, suffering in silence. The suddenness of the loss took us all by shock.

It caused major problem for the Black Panther sequel, which had been written by writer/director Ryan Coogler already. Everything had now changed. Marvel Studios decided that they would not recast T’Challa and that they would use Wakanda Forever to, not only push the story ahead, but to honor their fallen star.

What Ryan Coogler and the cast of Wakanda Forever accomplished was monumental considering the obstacle that they faced. Wakanda Forever was a triumphant film, filled with real emotion from a cast that loved their ‘king’ but had lost him too young. Wakanda Forever was about grief, but also acceptance.

As the tremendous achievement filled the theaters, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will always have a spot in our hearts moving forward with Shuri (or eventually the young prince T’Challa).

Runners-Up: The Batman, Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love & Thunder, Black Adam, Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons

The second year of the Confirmed… or it it Award is here. The award goes to those things that the Internet/talking heads/pundits discuss and talk about, all but claiming it to be a fact despite having no real evidence supporting it. So many people claimed that Mephisto was behind everything in WandaVision that when the demon did not show up, some were disappointed. It was their own out of control expectations that wrecked their viewing habits for that show.

It is an unfortunate result of so many movie talk shows on YouTube that are trying to get clicks. Even those that had a reasonable idea that Mephisto was coming got themselves too wound up over it.

Although not exclusively, it does feel as if the majority of this happens for Marvel Studios’ projects. A good rule of thumb is that it is only true when you hear Kevin Feige say it (or it is leaked by Tom Holland or Alfred Molina)

Confirmed… or is it? Award

Previous Winner: Mephisto is in WandaVision

This year had, once again, plenty examples of this.

Runners-Up: The Leader was coming to She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, The X-Men/mutants were going to be introduced in (fill in the blank here), Upcoming Disney + shows, Spider-Man 4, Dr. Doom is in Wakanda Forever

However, this year’s winner is something that is yet to happen.

2022 Confirmed… or it it Award goes to:

The casting of Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four.

People have been anxiously and impatiently awaiting the reveal of who the four actors will be portraying Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm. There have been literally dozen of rumors about who may be in this ensemble. When John Krasinski appeared as Reed in Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it only picked up steam. Krasinski, who has been a popular fan casting for years, was brought into that movie to play an alternate universe version of Reed as fan service. Does that mean that Krasinski is not our stretching genius?

Then, speculation ran rampant that Marvel Studios was going to announce their FF cast at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. Fans guessed and waited. There was a ton of info dropped at SDCC this year including the announcement of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, but there was no sign of the Fantastic Four.

Then, everyone was completely sure that Marvel would reveal this cast at D23, Disney’s own conference. It was all but confirmed that we were getting the cast list at D23 and that they would surely walk out on the stage with Kevin Feige. But, once again, we got nothing.

That’s not completely true. They announced the director for Fantastic Four would be Matt Shakman, who directed the WandaVision series for Disney +.

Does Marvel have these roles cast? Who knows? Until the announcements are official, fans will continue to speculate rampantly.

The world of entertainment today can be a harrowing place. The fact that there are people online, on Twitter, on other social media platforms who believe it is okay to rant and rave about specific details of a movie, TV show or piece of pop culture content.

So to “honor” these Trolls, we here at EYG have instituted the Don’t Feed the Trolls: Insane Internet Rage Scandal of the Year Award into our Year In Review Awards.

Previous winners:

The Don’t Feed the Trolls: Insane Internet Rage Scandal of the Year

Previous Winner:  Baby Yoda eats frog’s eggs (2020), Masters of the Universe: Revelations part one (2021)

2022 had one that absolutely jumped to the forefront of the list because there was so much rage about it. It is sad that a lot of the undercurrent of the rage comes from serious issues such as misogamy and the anti-woke crowd, but this was clearly the standout of the crazy this year.

2022 winner: She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

The Disney + Marvel studios series received so much anger about so many things that it was difficult to remember them all. The CGI triggered several people. The fact that is was a female Hulk drove some mad. The lack of any true “big bad” in the season made many angry. Jennifer Walters did not “earn” her Hulk powers. The episodes were too short. She broke the fourth wall. They ruined the Intelligencia. This was the absolute end of Marvel Studios and the Disney + series are just the next step in the M-She-U.

And, of course, the haters couldn’t just not watch. They had to watch, spew their hatred on Twitter and make YouTube clickbait videos about how terrible the show was.

What was even funnier was that the show knew what kind of buttons it would be pushing and made their series’ villain the Trolls, showing made up Tweets that echoed the real life ones that would come after. The Intelligencia literally ran a hate web site about She-Hulk on the show.

Although everyone has the right to dislike whatever they choose, there were plenty of people who decided this was going to be the worst thing ever before it even aired. It’s okay if you watched the show and decided that it was not for you. Maybe you did not like the humor. Maybe the CGI took you out of it. Maybe you wanted a more consistent throughline of a plot. Though are all reasonable, but it seemed as if people kept watching it so they could hate on it more. Every Thursday evening/Friday morning after the newest episode was dropped on the streaming site videos would pop up on YouTube promoting how bad the show was would appear from the same content creators each week.

Then, don’t get me started on Daredevil’s appearance. People was mad that Daredevil wasn’t showing up. Then they were mad that Marvel Studios ruined Daredevil. Then they were mad that he did not appear more. He had a new costume. He fought with She-Hulk. The WALK OF SHAME!!!! How could they ruin Daredevil like that?

I thought She-Hulk: Attorney at Law was a fun series with some great characters and a top notch actor in Tatiana Maslany as its lead. We had guest stars in Wong, Hulk, Daredevil, Abomination among others. I loved the 4th wall breaks and I think the finale was the most original finale of the year with the appearance of K.E.V.I.N. at Marvel Studios.

I look forward to She-Hulk’s future in the MCU knowing that the Trolls will have plenty to eat upon.

2022 continued to have a lot of entertainment on YouTube. From weekly game shows to movie reviews and reactions to talking head shows, YouTube has, once again, featured a ton of hours of content.

The following is the top 20 YouTube shows, which varies from all the different types of shows.

#20, Jamel-AKA-Jamal. Reactions to music, movie trailers, Whose Line is it Anyway etc. I know he spent a chunk of the year struggling with the YouTube rules, but he is tremendously charismatic and fun to watch.

#19. Mr. Lloyd Reacts. Another reaction show. I started watching him because of his Weird Al reactions and I have enjoyed his intelligent and engaging comments.

#18. The Movie Couple. Wendy and Dustin. A married couple who do reviews and reactions. I enjoyed their take on severa of the Marvel Disney + shows as well as Stranger Things 4.

#17. For Whatever Reason. Another reaction channel that I started to watch because of some Weird Al reactions. Aaron had some real excellent work going through Al’s discography and he showed a lot of emotion during it.

#16. Heroes Reforged. Adam, Hector and Agustin react to plenty of my favorite shows as well. Hector brings a ton of knowledge with comics and the three of them are fun to watch.

#15. Late to the Party. Started with Late to the Party as a Schmoedown reaction channel and they have since expanded into another show that I look for after watching my favorite shows. Robert and Vanessa bring their won natural chemistry to the video.

#14. Dan Murrell. Dan has been a personal favorite for years (back as far as Movie Fights) and he brings a well spoken and intelligent opinion on movies and pop culture. I do enjoy checking in with his weekly Charts with Dan show focused on the box office. Dan is one of the best.

#13. FYC. For Your Consideration is Scott Mantz, Perri Nemiroff, and Jeff Sneider debate, discuss and list Academy Award nominations and predictions (and Emmy Awards this year too). Scott, Perri and Jeff have the utmost respect for each other and they show how three people can have disagreements on he internet and still be respectful.

#12. Alex Hefner’s TV & Movie Vault. A newer reaction show that I got involved with deeply as Alex reacted to the MCU movies. I have enjoyed his reactions to other films such as Alien, Back to the Future and John Wick. However, the Marvel Movies Mondays are what got me into Alex’s channel.

#11. Fatman Beyond. This one has slipped a bit from last year, but the schedule of Fatman Beyond has been inconsistent. The fact that Kevin Smith is very busy has been an issue with the show. I also feel bad for Kevin with the amount of internet rage he has received. It felt as if it was getting to him for awhile. Still, Kevin and Marc Bernardin have great chemistry and a re very funny together.

#10. Ashleigh Burton. I have loved Ashleigh’s reactions to the movies that she had never seen. She is funny and so engaged by everything she watches. She has a beautiful cat named Beans too. She has also been going through the movies of the MCU and her energy is infectious.

#9. New Rockstars. Eric Voss and the group at New Rockstars are one of the top breakdown channels around. They look deep into movies, trailers, TV shows and come up with some of the best theories around. And then there was Mephisto…

#8. The Movie Trivia Schmoedown. Last year, this was number one. Unfortunately, this year saw the end of the MTS. There was still some great trivia matchups on the year, especially featuring the final champion Samm Levine. It was a sad end for one of the best internet shows of all time. Sadly, the MTS wing of the EYG Hall of Fame both opened and closed this year.

#7. The John Campea Show. A group of people, including John Campea and Robert Meyer Burnett, sit around and discuss the key movie and TV news. Sometimes I find Campea’s opinions irritating and repetitive, but I can always respect them.

#6. The Geek Buddies. The. Geek. Buddies! AAAAAAAAAAAAA. A show upon John Rocha’s Outlaw Nation channel features John and two of his friends, Michael Vogel and Shannon McClung discuss pop culture and review movies, TV shows and trailers. Vogel and McClung bring a new energy and comedic opinion to Rocha’s ideas. They are friends and they have a lot of fun together.

#5. The Top 10 Show. John Rocha and Matt Knost have been doing the Top 10 for several years. I will say that it has slipped a little for me, but I still enjoy watching the pair debate about what movie is the number one on their lists.

#4. Ups and Downs. What Culture Wrestling’s top show, featured Simon Miller and the ‘finger of power” that gives the good bits an up and the bad bits a down. Simon reviews all the shows of the world of wrestling and it helps make me feel all warm and fuzzy in my tum-tum. Simon is funny and is an extremely Positive Pete.

#3. The Reel Rejects. Welcome to the citizens of the Reject nation. Greg Alba and John Humphreys are the main commenters (though we sometimes get Coy Jandreau too). They react to movies, tv shows, trailers, and even other YouTube videos. Greg and John have a great chemistry and bring a lot of fun and humor while still having very intelligent conversation.

#2. Settle the Score. Host Matt Knost and musical director Andy Merryweather have shot up this list with their movie music show, Settle the Score. Initially, I would watch episodes that contained contestants that I knew, but now I look forward to the new episode every Thursday. Merryweather is amazingly talented musician and Knost is funny and quick witted as the host.

#1. Preview’d. It’s Jay…and Adam…it’s Preview’d. My favorite reactors on the YouTube verse, Jay and Adam are two friends who have amazing chemistry and whose humor and banter, full of puns and jokes, make their reactions entertaining. And when Jay and Adam cry… well, it’s a good day. Jay and Adam are emotional and full of a wonderful energy. I love watching the two of them. Last year, Preview’d was number two… and this year… they take the top spot.

We are coming to the last few weeks of 2022 and it is almost that time once again for EYG to look at our annual Year in Review, this time for the year of 2022. This is our twelfth year of doing the Year In Review

We have a bunch of categories in the world of pop culture where EYG will give our opinions. These choices and opinions are those of Embrace Your Geekness and we do not intend on pushing those opinions on anyone. Feel free to agree or disagree with anything that I put on these lists because that is your right. However, these are my opinions and I have the right to mine. Always remember that you can disagree respectfully because cinema is always subjective.

We will be looking at the best and the worst of TV, Movies, YouTube, WWE wrestling, among other things. We have a record of past winners for our awards such as the John Carter Memorial Award for flop of the year as well as several others. We usually add categories every year and this year we will be including a separate TV category for “Super Hero” shows.

These lists and awards will continue until the end of the month of December when the Top 30 best Films of the Year and the Worst Films of the Year lists come out. I am still watching films that could go onto these lists so this is a very active and potentially fluid list. I can say that, although I have an idea of what films will be at the top of each list, I do not have a runaway #1 for either. I am fascinated to see when I sit down and start compiling the list where these films will end up.

As with any year end list, star ratings I give during the year will not be placed in any sort of order. They are, at best, used to generalize the films. A 4.5 star movie may end up higher than a 4.75 star movie on the list. Movies are always adjusting upon reflection.

So as we move forward, we keep an eye to the past.

2022 year in review.