Best Supporting Actresses

Previous Winners:  Dafne Keene (Logan), Tilda Swinton (Dr. Strange), Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), Emma Stone (Birdman), Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle), Sally Field (Lincoln), Jennifer Aniston (Horrible Bosses), Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place), Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit), Margo Martindale (Blow the Man Down)

#15. Marisa Tomei (Spider-Man: No Way Home).

#14. Marlee Matlin (CODA)

#13. Zendaya (Spider-Man: No Way Home)

#12. Regina King (The Harder They Fall)

#11. Maggie Smith (A Boy Called Christmas)

#10. Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place II)

#9. Awkwafina (Swan Song)

#8. Nina Arianda (Being the Ricardos)

#7. Judi Dench (Belfast)

#6. Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)

#5. Caitriana Balfe (Belfast)

#4. Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)

#3. Olga Merediz (In The Heights)

Olga returned to her role from the stage and she was one of the major points of In The Heights. I loved her song and she was an emotional key.

#2. Florence Pugh (Black Widow).

Florence Pugh feels like such a natural. She was one of the best parts of the Black Widow movie. She is going to be a mainstay in the MCU for years to come.

#1. Rita Moreno (West Side Story).

This year’s winner is an iconic legend who won an Oscar for the original West Side Story. Rita Moreno brings so much energy and a powerhouse performance for the new film in a new role. She is an amazing woman.

2021 was supposed to be better than 2020, and, to an extent, it was. Theaters were opening back up, COVID-19 was not as deadly (though it has some variants), and the world was getting back to “normal.”

Some of the biggest stories of 2021 affected all of us, geek or not. The Jan. 6th events are a good example. That was a huge story from 2021, and could work with the Geek brand (I actually heard about it for the first time at my comic shop), but I am leaving it out. Sticking with the pop culture references that stand out.

In no particular order, here are the Top Geek Stories of 2021 from EYG

Disney + Marvel Series create cooler talk. When Disney + first released WandaVision in January, there were plenty of people calling for them to drop the entire series, ala Netflix. However, Disney + used the weekly method and it brought all kinds of buzz to the series. First WandaVision, then Loki, What If…? and finally Hawkeye. It was appointment viewing with people staying up into the night to watch the premiere. With more series in 2022, Disney + should continue its excellence.

Spider-Man: No Way Home Trailer…where is it? The internet lost their minds this year as they waited for the first Spider-Man: No way Home trailer to drop. With the rumored cameos expected in the movie, fandom lost their minds wondering what the studio was going to show us. There were YouTube videos everywhere detailing every little detail. Clickbait articles popped up everywhere.

Shang Chi Labor Day Weekend Dominance. Shang Chi destroyed the record for any movie released over the typically slow Labor Day weekend. It made over 70 million (and 90 million over the five day period). It was another massive success for Marvel Studios.

William Shatner in Space. Yes, Captain Kirk himself found his way into outer space aboard the Bezo’s aerospace company Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-18. The 91 year old actor made it up and back safely.

Squid Game. The show that influenced pop culture the most this year would be on Netflix and it came from South Korea. Squid Game was what everyone was talking about during a stretch of the year. The show was amazing, emotional and played with those emotions expertly.

ScarJo takes on Disney. Scarlett Johansson was unhappy when Disney released Black Widow on Disney + premium as well as in the theaters. She believed that that strategy cost the film millions of dollars and she filed a lawsuit. This created some real tension within the studio, though Marvel Studio head quietly supported Scarlett. They settled the lawsuit a few weeks later and ScarJo announced she was producing a secret project with Marvel. Maybe a story for the future.

Gina Carano Out of the Mandalorian. People still do not realize that they need to be careful with what they post on social media. Gina Carano, who played Rebel Alliance soldier Cara Dune, was released from her contract because of tweets she made comparing being a Republican these days to being a Jewish person in the Holocaust. Some were mad about her being “cancelled” but others thought it was the right thing to do. Watch what you put out on social media.

WWE Releases 80+ wrestlers. Citing money issues, the WWE spent much of 2021 releasing wrestlers from their company. And not just any wrestlers, but huge named stars such as Braun Strowman, “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt, Jeff Hardy, The Iconics, Keith Lee, Karrion Kross, Bronson Reed, John Morrison, Nia Jax, Eva Marie, Ember Moon, Fandango, Aleister Black, Buddy Murphy, Ruby Riott, Andrade, and Mickie James. Some of these performers were in mid storyline. It was a tough year to be a WWE Superstar.

Dave Chappelle and Netflix. The comedian Dave Chappelle had a big Netflix special, but it received a ton of backlash because of the topics that he covered, in particular, his remarks about transgender people. However, the cancellation did not seem to last too long as Chappelle is still scheduled to lead a Netflix comedy festival in 2022.

Spider-Man: No Way Home crosses $1B. After an opening weekend that was the second largest domestically ever at $260 million, Spider-Man: No Way Home became the first film to cross the 1 billion dollar club since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. The film holds a 94% critics response on Rotten Tomatoes as well as a 99% audience rating. The Marvel-Sony hybrid became the most successful film of the year in a week period and created amazing and spectacular word of mouth from audiences who loved the story.

We are up to the Best Director Award given out at EYG. We do not always match what the Oscars do since we focus in on some genre specific film more than the Academy does. Still… here are previous winners:

“All Right, Mr. Deville, I am Ready for my Close Up” Award for Best Director

Previous Winners:  A.G. Inarritu (Birdman), Tim McCarthy (Spotlight), Damien Chazelle (La La Land), Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman), Alfonso Cuarón (Roma), Anthony and Joe Russo (Avengers: Endgame), Spike Lee (Da 5 Bloods)

#12. Guillermo Del Toro, Nightmare Alley. Even though I was split with this movie, the atmosphere and direction cannot be blamed. De Toro did an admirable job.

#11. Wes Anderson, French Dispatch. The four stories told each required a deft hand and Wes Anderson brought his specific quirks to the film. It was a wonderful film.

#10. Sian Heder, CODA. The film on Apple TV + featured a family of deaf people with one daughter who can hear and wants to sing. The shots of the ASL and its use was important to the story.

#9. James Gunn, The Suicide Squad. James Gunn managed his large cast extremely well, although when you just kill a bunch of them off, maybe it is not handling it that much. This is way better than the first Suicide Squad film and much of the credit goes to Gunn.

#8. Kenneth Branagh, Belfast. I did not expect to love this movie as much as I do. Kenneth Branagh has a great touch at the young humor and the powerful images.

#7. Jon M. Chu, In the Heights. With such a massive cast and so many dance routines and songs, a musical of this scope requires a sound director and John Chu made In the Heights a classic.

#6. Chloé Zhao, Eternals. Last year’s Oscar winner, Chloé did a tremendous job with a huge cast of Marvel heroes that nobody really knew. The look of Eternals was not the issue people had with this film.

#5. Denis Villeneuve, Dune. Dune was a passion project for Villeneuve and it showed. One of the largest scale films of the year, it will be interesting to see what Denis does with the scheduled sequel.

#4. Steven Spielberg, West Side Story. Taking a beloved classic film and rebooting it for a new age is tough, but Spielberg is one of the greatest of all time. I actually liked this way more than I did the original.

#3. Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tick, Tick…Boom. As a directorial debut, Lin-Manuel did a fantastic job with the dance numbers and songs of the musical. He placed Andrew Garfield in a position where he had to sing and only found out later that he could. Gutsy.

#2. Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog. A Netflix film with a great cast and a powerhouse story, all mixed into a Western. She has a complex tale with some wonderful characters and a top notch performance from Benedict Cumberbatch.

#1. Jon Watts, Spider-Man: No Way Home. He had to manage so much. Characters from other films. A bunch of story. Aunt May’s death. And he brought out the best performance we have ever seen from Tom Holland, and he brought out the best Spidey performance from Andrew Garfield and he brought out Willem Dafoe’s raw and powerful performance. I can’t wait to see Jon Watts with FF.

Animation was pretty good in 2021. There were several decent films and the worst of the animation was really combination live action/animation.

And with that, we’ll start with the worst of the animated movies.

Worst Animation: America: The Motion Picture.

I heard such good things about this and I thought it was such a horrid, disgusting film, with mean-spirited humor and filled with hatred. More vicious than satire, I will never feel the need to revisit this piece of “history”

Dis-Honorable Mentions: The two live-action/animation mash-ups were Tom and Jerry and Peter Rabbit 2. Both are huge flops and so unfunny. The other animated film that I did not enjoy at all this year was The Addams Family 2. I disliked the first one and the sequel did not improve much. I was disappointed in Encanto, but that is one that I am hoping to revisit on Disney + before school restarts. I have a feeling this will be one that I like more on a second viewing.

Previous winners:

EYG Frame Award- Best Animation

Previous Winners: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, Coco, Moana, Inside Out, Big Hero 6, Flashpoint Paradox, Paranorman, Winnie the Pooh, Klaus, Wolfwalkers

Best Animated Movie: Mitchells vs. the Machines

The biggest surprise in animation this year is Mitchells vs. the Machines from Netflix. Produced by Lord and Miller, this was funny, brilliant animation, full of color and bright imagery and a banging story of family and love and fun.

Honorable Mentions: Luca started the year off with a solid Pixar film, but I just thought it was not quite up to par. Batman Long Halloween came in two parts to the specialty market. Raya & the Last Dragon is another wonderful Disney release. Wish Dragon was another Netflix animation that was fantastic. I just saw Ron’s Gone Wrong on Disney +. It was a very enjoyable story with fun characters. I really enjoyed the music of Sing 2 this past weekend.

Best Animation in Television

We’ve added the TV category once again. Here are the top 4.

#4. Hit Monkey. I am still working on this. It is fun, bloody Marvel fun.

#3. Masters of the Universe: Revelations. I don’t care what the internet said, Kevin Smith’s adaptation was a lot of fun and exciting adventure.

#2. Invincible. Amazon Prime’s comic adaptation was shockingly good and bloody as could be.

#1. What If…?

Marvel Studios’ first animated series looks to be important in the MCU after all. We get great voice work from a bunch of returning MCU actors and The Watcher! Vision as Ultron? T’Challa Star Lord? Captain Carter? Evil Doctor Strange (who looks as if he is going to be in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness in May). What If…? has been renewed for season two and the possibilities are endless.

There have been a ton of horror movies again this year. Horror has had a renaissance over the last few years and there have been some high concept horror that have been great. There have also been several horror films that did not reach the levels you might hope for.

Let’s start with…

The Worst Horror Movie of 2021: The Devil Below

It has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Admittedly only 11 reviews, but still, 0%? The film deals with coal miners and their heading into an underground area in an abandoned place nestled deep in Appalachian country. They find something there that is deadly. Could it be…

Or not. Maybe just some horrible CGI demon of some sort. Either way it was not memorable and not enjoyable.

Dis-Honorable Mentions: There was a new Paranormal Activity movie called Next of Kin which did not feel like a Paranormal Activity movie at all. Unholy featured a hearing impaired girl who was supposed able to heal people after being approached by the Virgin Mary. Or maybe not. Could it be Satan, Again? Don’t Breathe 2 tried to make me cheer and root for the mass murderer/rapist from the first film. Didn’t want to do that. Spiral: From the Book of Saw was a film I saw coming. The Forever Purge lacked the power of some of the franchises previous films. Halloween Kills was such a disappointment and a bad, bad film.

Previous Winners:

Best Horror Movie

Previous Winners:  A Quiet Place, It, Don’t Breathe, It Follows, The Conjuring, As Above So Below, Cabin in the Woods, Doctor Sleep, Black Box

Best Horror Movie(s) of 2021: Fear Street trilogy

This may be cheating, but I am connecting all three films, Fear Street 1994, 1978 and 1666, together as a trilogy. This three week release strategy on Netflix was awesome and the quality of the three films had me looking forward to the next Friday almost immediately.

Honorable Mention: I almost gave this award to PG: Psycho Gorman from Shudder. It was one of the most entertaining films, not just horror films, of the year. Antlers featured a fantastic performance from young Jeremy T. Thomas. Willy’s Wonderland showed Nic Cage in a role where he didn’t speak. A Quiet Place 2 was a solid sequel, though not up to the first one. Last Night in Soho was a supernatural story of two time periods. Just saw Lucky, also on Shudder, and it was a new take on slasher movies with a shock end.

Science fiction has been a staple of geek culture for decades. Some of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time are films that are beloved among this community. So to look at the best and the worst of this genre is a must. Some years there are more than others where as other years there are a lot. 2021 is somewhere in the middle.

As a general rule, although I could include them if I wanted to because they really do fit, I do not allow any super hero/comic book movies in the Sci-Fi category. It just makes it neater.

Let’s start with the worst….

Worst Sci-Fi Movie of the Year: Infinite

This film had a terrible reputation before I saw it, but I still started up a Paramount + account in order to basically see this. It was so bad. It has two huge actors in Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor, which only makes it worse. It deals with some garbage like past lives and hallucinations from past lives and I really do not remember much more about it than that. I know I got a couple months free of Paramount + in a deal and that meant I spent more than I should have for this film.

Other Dis-honorable mentions: Reminiscence with Hugh Jackman wastes what could have been a decent premise for a dull, stupid mystery/romcom. Voyagers was Lord of the Flies in space. It was unlikable and I went to the theater, during a time when I wasn’t doing that much, to see this. Ugh. Awake on Netflix literally put me to sleep in one of the most ironic moments of my movie going experience for 2021. Could we call F9 sci-fi? They do go into space and it was terrible. Video game based fantasy film Monster Hunter is another borderline sci-fi film that was horrendous.

Previous Best Sci-Fi Movie Winners:

Best Sci-Fi Movie

Previous Winners:  Upgrade, Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, The Martian, Ex Machina, Star Trek Into Darkness, Edge of Tomorrow, Freaks, The Invisible Man

Best Science fiction movie of the year: Dune

Of course it is. Dune from director Denis Villeneuve was a huge risk that has paid off with a film that was beautiful to look at, even if it felt like it was not a complete story. Dune did well enough in the box office, despite being released also on HBO Max day and date, to warrant the sequel that Villeneuve had hoped to do. It was a passion project from Denis and it showed. This first film may be even more beloved when the second one comes out.

Honorable mentions: Tom Hanks in the future with a dog and a robot is a can’t miss film and the Apple TV + film Finch was the result. One of the films that snuck under the radar this year is Boss Level, another Groundhog Day type film that does some wonderful things. The Tomorrow War from Amazon Prime starring Chris Pratt was fine, although not the greatest of the year. Swan Song was a film filled with great performances, especially from Mahershala Ali.

I do enjoy a good documentary. I do not see enough of them during a year, but I do try to see the major ones- or, at least, ones that I have an interest in.

The Documentary Award is given to either a movie or a TV documentary. It has gone to single film docs and docuseries. Last year was an example as Tiger King was the winner. Interestingly enough, the second season of Tiger King came out on Netflix this year an I have not watched it and I think most of the world, which was desperately obsessed with it last year, did not watch it either.

Previous Documentary winners:

Best Documentary

Previous Winners:  Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, My Scientology Movie, Tickled, Finding Neverland, Tiger King

Runners-Up: The doc that nearly took the prize was the film on Disney + called The Rescue which was about the rescue of the Thai soccer team that had been trapped below ground in a cave that was filling with water . It was extremely gripping and was an awesome viewing experience and I wanted to make sure I called it out because I knew it would not be winning this year, but it was so good it really deserved it. In many other years, The Rescue would have gotten this award. Another really good doc was Val, which is about Val Kilmer and his life using footage he filmed throughout his life. Another one I loved watching was Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11 which was powerful and talked with people involved in 9/11 just after it happened and then twenty years later. The Reason I Jump was another brilliant doc this year which I loved even more because I use the book it is based on in my class to teach about Autism. There were a couple of decent docs focused on individuals : Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal and Greed and Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road.

Best Documentary Winner: The Beatles: Get Back

Three episode documentary released on Disney + over three consecutive days during Thanksgiving on the Beatles? Yes, please? Organized and produced by Peter Jackson? You had me already, but go on…

This was a phenomenal documentary about the last days of the Beatles, but putting a different face on it. This doc showed how much the Beatles loved each other even if they struggled at times to work with each other. It also is an amazing record of how genius works. Watching Paul McCartney pull Get Back out of the air is one of the greatest moments ever.

Over eight hours of documentary presented on Disney + as an event series, The Beatles: Get Back is wonderful.

There were more movies that I saw this year that were disappointing to me than previous years. While most of the films this year were in the middle, some that wound up in the middle I anticipated being higher.

There may be movies considered for the Spider-Man 3 Disappointment of the Year Award that I didn’t hate. There are some that just were not as good as I hoped.

Previous recipients:

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

Runners-Up: Encanta. I usually love these movies, but I found this one dull, especially at the first act. Maybe I need to revisit it some time. One I do not have to revisit is Halloween Kills, which was just terrible. The Rock and Ryan Reynolds? Sounds great. Unfortunately, Red Notice was not great. The latest Fast and the Furious film, F9, sent them into space. Ugh. I loved the first Don’t Breathe, but Don’t Breathe 2 took the best parts of the first one and ruined it. I could not cheer for Stephen Lang as the protagonist. Mortal Kombat trailers looked great. Wrong. Eddie Murphy’s Coming2America should have never been made. It was such a disappointment. However, there was one that was even more so.

The Spider-Man 3 Disappointment of the Year: Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins.

So many issues. While the actors were decent and well cast the fight scenes were unwatchable. They were so shaky you couldn’t see what was happening. We do not see the Snake Eyes outfit until the last few minutes of the movie. And the worst thing was that Snake Eyes was so unlikable. He was the villain. The film did not mean him to be…but he was. This was supposed to be the restart on the G.I. Joe franchise, but this puts that into question.

Every year there are plenty of movies that I go into with low expectations and I come out really enjoying myself. Not just because I had low expectations, but because it was a pretty good movie.

For the biggest surprise movie for the year, we give out the Gomer, based on Gomer Pyle, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise”

Previous winners:

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

Runners-Up: How about a spin off of a film from the very same year? It happened on Netflix with Army of Thieves, a prequel of the Dave Bautista vehicle, the zombie film Army of the Dead. Army of Thieves surpassed the original easily. Venom: Let There Be Carnage was better than the first film. Although as I reflect on it, I find my thoughts slanting toward the negative, it was a film that I liked when I first saw it and I did not think I would. How about a movie with Nic Cage searching for his kidnapped pig? Pig sounded ridiculous but was excellent. Two films I heard about from the Critically Acclaimed podcast included Werewolves Within and PG: Psycho Goreman, both wonderfully surprising. Bob Odenkirk starred in a surprising revenge film called Nobody. It was different than most revenge films. Then, who would have thought that Clifford the Big Red Dog would appear on this list? In fact, Clifford almost won this award.

The Gomer goes to: Free Guy

Who thought Free Guy might be a good movie, let alone one of the biggest successes of 2021? The film had been delayed and was coming out with little fanfare. A clever promo/trailer with Deadpool and Korg doing a trailer reaction helped get some word of mouth going, although honestly, the buzz was more about Deadpool with the MCU character than anything else. However, Free Guy came out and great word of mouth and became a gigantic success with Ryan Reynolds leading the film. Disney, which inherited this during the FOX acquisition, started working on a sequel.

I have not watched too many TV shows over the last few years because it just got too much. However, with the Disney + Marvel shows, I started to dive back into some selected TV shows. I do not cover it as completely as I used to, but I have enough to cover the year in review.

Favorite TV Shows: WandaVision. This was at the beginning of the year and it still becomes my best show of 2021. Love Elizabeth Olson and Paul Bettany. There was a feeling where I started to look forward to Friday’s show drop early in the week.

Runners-Up (in order) #2. Loki #3. Squid Game #4. Hawkeye #5. The Rookie #6. What If…? #7. Falcon & Winter Soldier #8. Sweet Tooth #9. Whose Line Is It Anyway #10. Superman & Lois.

Best Actor (TV Series): Jeremy Renner. This was a surprise for me, but Renner rocked Hawkeye with his tone and his subtle acting style. Close, but give it to Clint Barton.

Runners-Up: #2. Paul Bettany (WandaVision) #3. Tom Hiddleston (Loki) #4. Lee Jung-Jae (Squid Game) #5. Sebastian Stan (Falcon & Winter Soldier) #6. Anthony Mackie (Falcon & Winter Soldier) #7. Nathan Fillon #8. Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth)

Best Actress (TV Series): Elizabeth Olson. There are other great actresses this year, but for my money, Olson dominated her series like none others. She was so fully wonderful.

Runners-Up: #2. Hailee Steinfeld (Hawkeye) #3. Sophia DiMartino (Loki) #4. Bitsie Tullach (Superman & Lois)

Best Supporting Actor (TV Series): Owen Wilson (Loki). Moebius became an amazing fan favorite and when it looked like he had been killed, it was painful. We all want Moebius on that jet ski.

Runners-Up: #2. Carl Lumbly (Falcon and Winter Soldier) #3. Wyatt Russell #4. Nonso Anozie (Sweet Tooth)

Best Supporting Actress (TV Show): Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision). It was Agatha all along. Kathryn Hanh was so entertaining, so brilliant as Agatha Harkness that she is getting her own spin off series.

Runners-Up: #2. Teyonah Parris (WandaVision) #3. Jung Ho-yeon (Squid Game) 4.Melissa O’Neil (The Rookie)

More Winners!

Top animal: Lokigator (Loki). Absolutely loved the variant Loki who was an alligator. Such a creative idea. Runner-Up: Pizza Dog (Hawkeye)

Biggest Shock: It’s Kingpin! (Hawkeye)

Biggest Betrayal of the Audience: The Old Man (Number 001) is behind the whole thing (Squid Game)

Best Network Show: The Rookie (ABC)

Best Guest Star Performance (1 episode): Jonathan Majors (Loki)

Animated Series: What If…?

Most Violent: Invincible (Amazon Prime)

Best Song: It’s Agatha All Along by Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision)

The EYG Star of the Year is the next award up for the Year in Review and this has always been a tough award to give because it depends on how you are looking at it. Many times, it could be broken into parts. Maybe a star is big during the first few months, but not as big later in the year. Ideally, the Star of the Year carries across the whole calendar.

By the way, there are spoilers below. Proceed with caution.

Previous winners of the EYG Star of the Year:

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

As you can see, the Star of the Year is not always a person, Marvel Studios and Netflix having won before.

Runners-Up. There were plenty of choices to consider in 2021. Lin Manuel Miranda, who could have become the first repeat winner after being involved with Into the Heights and Tick, Tick…Boom. Kevin Feige and his aura of control over the Marvel Studios is the reason that studio is so successful. Disney + came out swinging this year with some great Marvel series. “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson is the biggest movie star in the world. Elizabeth Olson and Paul Bettany were in the amazing WandaVision series early in January of the year. Florence Pugh as Yelena in Black Widow and Hawkeye was fabulous too, showing how she is going to be a huge member of the MCU for years to come.

2021 EYG Star of the Year

Andrew Garfield

Andrew Garfield has had a tremendous year. Not only did he give an unbelievable performance as James Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Not only did he star in tick, tick…Boom! and potentially will receive an Oscar nomination for it. But he was also in the biggest movie of the year, Spider-Man: No Way Home, despite spending the entire year denying that he was in it. I’m sure he was tired of fielding the questions about Spidey, but as it came closer, he got stronger with his denials. So much so that I actually wondered if he was telling the truth. Spoiler alert: he wasn’t.

Andrew Garfield has really shown his flexibility in the movies and how he can take on all sorts of roles…and showed that he can sing too!

I found this to be the toughest year to rank. Fact is, most of the matches were in the same high quality level that you could not necessarily rank them. I decided to drop the match ranking down to ten this year not because of a lack of quality matches, but because of an excess of matches that are in the same level.

Previous Match of the Year winners:

Movie Trivia Schmoedown Match of the Year

Previous Winners: JTE defeats Drew McWeeny in Sudden Death(2017), Mara Knopic defeated Rachel Cushing in Innergeekdom Tournament (2018), Rachel Cushing defeated Mike Kalinowski in Sudden Death to win the Innergeekdom championship (2019), Dan Murrell defeated Ben Bateman in Sudden Death to win the Movie Trivia Schmoedown Championship (2020)

#10. Marisol McKee defeated Edwin Erwin for the Movie Trivia Schmoedown Championship. While the match was not a standout, the historical implications were off the chart.

#9. Griffin Newman defeated William Bibbiani. Tournament match up that went into sudden death. This was a great match up between two titans of trivia.

#8. Mike Kalinowski defeated Robert Parker at the Spectacular. Kalinowski battled Robert Parker, who had been running rampant through the IG tourney, and he was able to knock back his challenge. Kalinowski continued to etch his name in the annals of MTS IG history.

#7. Brendan Hanna defeated Eric Zipper. This match featured the greatest pep talk of Roxy Striar to Hanna, who was all but defeated. Hanna raged back and defeated the excellent Zipper.

#6. Mara Knopic defeated Chandru Dhandapani for the IG Championship. Mara Knopic returned from time off for health reasons to defeat Chandru, who was looking unbeatable.

#5. Dan Murrell defeated Adam Collins for the Singles Championship. Dan Murrell became a five time champion by defeating the man who took the title from him. The GOAT continued to build on his accolades.

#4. Shazam defeated the New Odd Couple for the Team Championships. With Jeanine the Machine taking the place of the retired Marc Andreyko, Shazam won the titles in a classic battle. The new Odd Couple was behind, but nearly came from behind to hold the titles. However, Shazam claimed the belts.

#3. Marisol McKee defeated Jeanine the Machine. This was the match that nearly upended Marisol’s run to the title. Jeanine looked as if she had the match won, but missed her five point question and ended up falling to Lady Justice.

#2. Shazam defeated Korruption. The second 51-50 match of the year. Korruption battled to the final question, but Shazam did not miss a question and that makes it hard to defeat them.

#1. Andrew Dimalanta defeated Alex Damon for the Star Wars Championship. A double perfect game until the final question in sudden death. What many consider the greatest match in Schmoedown history. It was a display of skill unlike anything we had ever seen and was an epic struggle as Dimalanta unseated the undefeatable champion in Alex Damon.

The Movie Trivia Schmoedown dubbed season 8 as War and they had a full season of faction battles unlike any other. The season was filled with great moments, mostly virtual with a few live events mixed in. There were gigantic upsets, comebacks and new stars built. Here are the EYG Year in Review for teh MTS.

Player of the Year: Marisol McKee.

The current singles champion who defended the title twice, joining a small group who also defended twice.

Runners-Up: Griffin Newman, Thomas Harper, Dan Murrell, Mike Kalinowski

Team of the Year: Shazam

Bibs and the Kid are currently on a huge run, ending the season 13-2 overall. They are showing to be dominant and the best team in Schmoedown history.

Runners-Up: Danger Zone, King Arthur, Korruption, Final Exam

Manager of the Year: Tom Dagnino

Finstock had a faction full of rookies, but yet they wound up almost winning the whole thing. It should not have been possible. I am not sure he is the best manager, but the results cannot be argued against.

Runners-Up: Coy Jandreau, Shannon Barney

Rookie of the Year: Griffin Newman

This was the toughest choice to make. Thomas Harper was the other choice, but I decided that since Star Wars is so specialized, that Griffey Newms, who was dominant in teams and singles, and did not lose until Spectacular, tops the undeniably impressive Star Wars Champion.

Runner-Up: Thomas Harper.

Faction of the Year: Korruption.

I almost gave this to The Quirky Mercs, but Korruption had to fight back for the second year in a row and took the faction title. They were very deserving.

Runners-Up: The Quirky Mercs, The Finstock Exchange

Best Tournament of the Year: The Singles Tournament

A massive tournament that had 32 players. Griffin Newman won the whole thing.

Runners-Up: Team tournament, First teams tournament

Face of the Year: Shazam

There is no better face than the team of William Bibbiani and The Kid Brendan Meyer. They are so respectful and just wanting to have fun defending their titles. They are exceptionally good people.

Runners-Up: Dan Murrell, Mara Knopic, Jeanine the Machine

Heel of the Year: Shannon Barney

No one is more of a heel than the manager of Korruption. She can make you just hate hearing what she says while you hate the fact that she is telling the truth.

Runners-Up: Tom Dagnino, Chandru Dhandapani, Ben Bateman

Moment of the Year: Marisol McKee wins the title.

History was made when Marisol defeated Ethan Erwin and became the first ever woman to hold the singles title. Lady Justice deserved this moment.

Shock of the Year: Wildberries reunite.

WILD. BERRIES! After Shannon dumped Elliot Dewberry at the Spectacular, Josh “Wildman” Macuga found his way back to his old partner and the Wildberries returned to the MTS.

Best Promo: Kevin Smets returns at Spectacular.

After a year plus battle with cancer, Kevin Smets returned to shut up Chandru at the end of Spectacular and he was rocking the night. The Smasher dominated the mike.

Runner-Up: John Rocha’s retirement speech.

Best Innergeekdom Player of the Year: Mike Kalinowski

Kalinowski is the greatest IG player of all time and he defended that title three times this year, in a couple of matches that he looked like he was going to lose, but pulled out. That sounded like destiny to me.

Runners-Up: Robert Parker, Mara Knopic, Chandru Dhandapani

Best Star Wars Player of the Year: Thomas Harper

Thomas Harper came into the league with great hype from Dragon Con and he lived up to every bit of it. He was dominant in a division that does not allow mistakes.

Runners-Up: Andrew Dimalanta, Laura Kelly, Nicki Dimalanta, Gold Leader

Exhibition Match of the Year: Dan Murrell vs. John Rocha, One Last Ride

Though the match itself was not down to the last question, the importance of The Outlaw retiring was above all else in the match.

Comeback of the Year: JTE

JTE came rolling back into the MTS after a couple of years and didn’t miss a step. In fact, I think he was even better this year than in his past.

Runners-Up: Mara Knopic, Ethan Erwin

Match of the Year: Still coming….

Every year we have some fantastic performances from young actors and actresses who are under 18 years of age. There have been plenty of kids over the years that have been…let’s just say…less than competent in acting. A poor kid actor can derail a project completely.

However, there have been plenty of outstanding performances too over the years and so this award has been given to those exceptional young actors.

Previous winners:

I See Kid Actor Award 

Previous Winners:  Emjay Anthony (Chef), Jacob Trembley (Room), Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things), Dafne Keen (Logan), Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade), Noah Jupe (Honey Boy), McKenna Grace (Troop Zero)

I have a list of 12 youth actors for 2021.

#12. Lia McHugh (Eternals). McHugh played Sprite in Eternals from Marvel Studios. Sprite was a constant teen for centuries and she resented that. McHugh was on screen with a massively talented ensemble and she carried herself well.

#11. Caleb McLaughlin (Concrete Cowboys). One of the stars of Stranger Things, Caleb branched out into a Netflix film called Concrete Cowboys this year where he played opposite of Idris Elba.

#10. Archie Barnes (The Dig). Another Netflix film, The Dig features the young Archie Barnes, a British actor and he helped make this one of the better Netflix films of the year.

#9. Noah Jupe (Quiet Place 2). A former winner of this award, Noah Jupe is one of the best young actors in Hollywood today. Every time he appears in a film, you can count on a great performance from him.

#8. John Hillard & Jeff Klyne (WandaVision). Wanda Maximoff’s children in the Disney + series WandaVision, Billy and Tommy touched our hearts with their humor and their super powers before disappearing in the finale.

#7. Logan Kim (Ghostbusters: Afterlife). Playing a character called Podcast, Logan Kim provided some solid comedic work opposite the excellent McKenna Grace in the new Ghostbusters movie.

#6. Benjamin Flores Jr (Fear Street). Appearing in all three of the films in the Netflix horror trilogy, Flores Jr. was one of the most constant performers of the series.

#5. McKenna Grace (Ghostbusters: Afterlife). Last year’s winner was the heart of the new Ghostbusters movie. As Egon’s granddaughter, much of the emotional depth of the film went through her character and she is always up to the task.

#4. Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth). As the title character Sweet Tooth, Christian Convery gave an amazing performance as our favorite half-human and half deer boy. He was cuter than heck and carried all of the powerful work on the show.

#3. Luke David Blumm (Son). A surprise horror film where the young boy falls ill and his mother has to try and protect him from his past. Luke David Blumm gives a powerful performance.

#2. Jude Hill (Belfast). This was a tough choice this year and I almost made Jude Hill’s performance in Belfast as the winner. He reminded me very much of Roman Griffin Davis in Jojo Rabbit, which is about as high of praise as I can give.

And the winner this year is

#1. Jeremy T. Thomas (Antlers)

Another horror movie performance, Jeremy T. Thomas was everything in Antlers as he was the center of everything. He was so powerful in every minute of the film and he so deserved this award.

Congrats, Jeremy.

We started honoring the comic book movie of the year last year, but we went years into the past to pick a winner every year since 1989. Of course, the last decade and a half was much more difficult than the years prior. We just get more comic book movies now than we did then.

Here are the previous winners of this award:

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)

2021

There were several solid comic book movies in 2021 and here are the runners-up.

Runners-Up: Black Widow was a great movie that was long overdue. It is sad that it came after Scarlet Johansson’s death in Avengers: Endgame. We see a prequel from the Black Widow and are introduced to her sister Yelena, the ever epic Florence Pugh. Eternals was better than I anticipated despite the critics’ strange complaints about it. The Suicide Squad was a lot of fun from James Gunn, even though I did not think Starro looked as good as I thought it might. For much of the year, I though Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was going to be the winner of this award as it was an amazing debut with great characters and lots of mind blowing action. However, there was another film that took the award.

Winner: Spider-Man: Far From Home

Yes, the brand new Spider-Man: No Way Home is the best comic book movie of the year. It is filled with surprises and amazing character development. Tom Holland gave his best performance ever, in any movie. Willem Dafoe is terrifying as Norman Osborn. There are moment of humor, pain, emotion, family, friendship and loss.

The film, as of the time of this writing, had made $121 million on Friday (which includes $50 million for Thursday night previews) and is on its way to a massive haul of money.