Best Supporting Actor

Network

Runners-Up:  Donal Logue (Gotham), Robin Taylor (Gotham), George Newbern (Scandal), Kai Penn (Designated Survivor), Jeff Perry (Scandal)

Winner:  Iain De Caestecker (Agents of SHIELD)

Iain got to play the whole range of emotions during the year.

Streaming

Runners-Up:  Wilson Bethel (Daredevil), Jackie Earle Haley (The Tick), Chris Lowell (GLOW), Nathan Fillion (Santa Clarita Diet), Bill Skarsgard (Castle Rock)

Winner:  Vincent D’Onofrio (Daredevil)

D’Onofrio is one of the best Marvel villains in any film/TV project.

Cable

Runners-Up:  Roy Santiago (Ash vs. Evil Dead), Lee Majors (Ash vs. Evil Dead), Rhenzy Feliz (Runaways), Chandler Riggs (Walking Dead)

Winner:  J.D. Evermore (Cloak & Dagger)

One of the biggest jerks on Cloak & Dagger

Best Supporting Actress

Network

Runners-Up:  Morena Baccaria (Gotham), Elizabeth Henstridge (Agents of SHIELD), Madelaine Petsch (Riverdale)

Winner:  Cicely Tyson (How to Get Away with Murder)

Powerful performance as Viola Davis’s mother.

Streaming

Runners-Up:  Liv Hewson (Santa Clarita Diet), Sissy Spacek (Castle Rock), Kia Stevens (GLOW), Simone Missick (Luke Cage)

Winner:  Alfre Woodard (Luke Cage).

Black Mariah is so bad ass in Luke Cage

Cable

Runners-Up:  Lyrica Okamo (Runaways), Ariela Barer (Runaways)

Winner:  Lucy Lawless (Ash vs. Evil Dead)

Back being bad.

Best Actor

Network

Runners-Up:  Clark Gregg (Agents of Shield), David Duchovny (X-Files), Kiefer Sutherland (Designated Survivor), Cole Sprouse (Riverdale)

Winner:  Nathan Fillion (The Rookie)

Nathan Fillion’s return has been short so far, but his charisma has been welcomed.

Streaming

Runner’s Up:  Mike Colter (Luke Cage), Charlie Cox (Daredevil), Marc Maron (GLOW), Timothy Olyphant (Santa Clarita Diet), Andre Holland (Castle Rock)

Winner:  Peter Serafinowicz (The Tick)

He had big shoes to fill and Peter Serafinowicz fills them admirably.

Cable

Runners-Up:  Andrew Lincoln (The Walking Dead), Aubrey Joseph (Cloak & Dagger), Donald Glover (Atlanta)

Winner:  Bruce Campbell (Ash vs. Evil Dead)

Best Actress

Network

Runners-Up:  Chloe Bennett (Agents of SHIELD), Ming-Na Wen (Agents of SHIELD), Maggie Q (Designated Survivor), Lili Reinhart (Riverdale), Camila Mendes (Riverdale), Kerry Washington (Scandal)

Winner:  Viola Davis (How to Get Away With Murder)

Viola always brings the power.

Streaming

Runners-Up:  Alison Brie (GLOW), Betty Gilpin (GLOW), Robin Wright (House of Cards), Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones)

Winner:  Drew Barrymore (Santa Clarita Diet)

Drew is hilarious as the zombie wife.

Cable

Runners-Up: Olivia Holt (Cloak & Dagger), Melissa McBride (Walking Dead), Lauren Cohen (Walking Dead), Dana DeLorenzo (Ash vs Evil Dead)

Winner:  Danai Gurira (The Walking Dead)

Michonne faced a ton of problems losing Rick and Carl.

Woman power!

In honor of General Hospital’s super spy Anna Devane, this award goes to the toughest, strongest and smartest females in the world of pop culture.  There was a time that this would have been a difficult award to field, but now I can easily fill a top ten list and probably go for even more.

I was in love with Anna Devane when I was young.  She was so strong, she could take anyone down, and that British accent…Oh yeah!

So to honor my GH crush, I named this award after her.

Previous winners:  Rey (Star Wars), Mockingbird (Marvel Comics), Wonder Woman (DCEU)

#10-2

#10.  Spider-Gwen.  She has had a big year and she is appearing in Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse.

#9.  Ms. Marvel (Marvel Comics).  Kamala Khan is on the verge of becoming huge.  In a few years, she may be way up this list.

#8.  Wasp (Ant Man & the Wasp).  Evangeline Lilly kicks some serious butt in the Ant Man & the Wasp film this year and I love her from her days as Kate.

#7.  Joy Behar (The View).  With Donald Trump in the Oval Office and Megan McCain at the table, Joy has to be her strong self to have her opinion heard.

#6.  Emily Blunt from A Quiet Place.  For God’s sake, she gave birth with aliens who respond to noise in her house.  She deserves her place here.  Her character’s name was Evelyn Abbott.

#5.  Tandy Bowen (Dagger).  Tandy in Freeform’s Cloak & Dagger is a great character and she carried herself with amazing dominance.

#4.  Elastigirl (Incredibles 2)  Elastigirl takes front and center in the world of super heroes trying to help bring them from the shadows.

#3. Shuri (Black Panther).  Not really “kick ass” but certainly one of the best female characters of the year.  Perhaps the smartest person in the MCU.

#2.  Okoye (Black Panther).  The head of the Dora Milaje, Danai Gurira was perfect in the Black Panther movie and claims her place in the MCU

And the winners of the Anna Devane Kick Ass Female of the Year is….

#1.  The Shirewolves (Movie Trivia Schmoedown).  “Classy” Clarke Wolfe and Rachel “The Crusher” Cushing, the current Schmoedown Team Champions.  The first female champs of the Schmoedown, Clarke and Rachel are amazing performers and remarkably powerful trivia contestants.

The most shows I watched in 2018 came from the streaming services although,it sure seems as if Netflix has been going on a canceling binge of their own.  Several of this list has been cancelled by Netflix so next year’s list could look considerably different.

Starting off with #13…

#13.  Lost in Space (Netflix).  I know some did not like this.  I saw EW name this the worst show of the year.  I can’t believe that since I enjoyed the show.  I liked the different take on the classic show.  Not sure I liked the ending.but on the whole, I liked this.

#12.  Orange is the New Black (Netflix).  There was just something about this season of episodes that did not catch my attention.  I have not seen the ending of the series yet and I am not sure when I am going to do so.  I know it was announced that the next season will be Orange’s finals one so maybe I need to go back and finish the season.

#11.  Iron Fist (Netflix).  Iron Fist season 2 was considerably better than season one.  Unlike most people, I did not hate season one, but there is no denying that it is not as high of quality as the other Netflix Marvel shows.

#10.  A Series of Unfortunate Events (Netflix).  I enjoyed season two more than season one.  Nathan Fillion made a guest appearance and brought the goods.  Unfortunately, he did not survive the season.  Season three of this series is also the last one so we should see a conclusion to the story of the Baudelaire orphans.

#9.  Luke Cage.  This was a really great series, but I was not sure I liked the way the series ended.  Plus, now that Netflix cancelled this one, that is the end that Luke Cage will have to end with.  Mixed feelings on that for sure.

#8. Castle Rock (Hulu). The first non-Netflix show on the list, the Stephen King mash up int he city of Castle Rock was a really strong show.  Admittedly, it slowed a bit for my tastes in the middle, but it did not take away from the series.

#7.  Santa Clarita Diet (Netflix). This is such a funny show.  Nathan Fillion is here too (or was) as a severed head that is still “living.”  The show takes steps that few comedies do and it pays off in spades.  I love the pairing of Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant.

#6.  Cobra Kai (YouTube Red).  One of the biggest surprises of the year.  This series that continues the story of the Karate Kid via the enemy karate dojo should never have worked but it was so good.  It had no right to be this awesome.

#5.  Jessica Jones (Netflix).  Some did not like season two of Jessica Jones, but I thought it was some of the best work we got.  The character of Jessica Jones is really delved into and we learn and meet her mother.  The arrival of Jessica’s believe to be dead mother really kicked the series into overdrive.  Plus, we got the continued push toward Hellcat in the MCU.

#4.  Glow (Netflix).  I binged Glow season two in a night.  These 10 episode, half hour comedies on Netflix are such an easy binge that they should do more of them.  Glow was amazing this season as we continued with the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling struggling to become a success.  The episode that was basically the wrestling storyline episode “The Good Twin” was off the charts.

#3.  The Tick (Amazon Prime).  The second half of season one came to Amazon and brought with it so much Tick goodness that it reminded me how much I loved that character and the world in which he inhabits.  Peter Serafinowicz has won me over as the big blue bug of justice.

#2.  Daredevil (Netflix) Season three of Daredevil was fantastic and so when it was announced that Netflix had cancelled it, it was a shock to say the least.  This season brought back the Kingpin of Crime to the front burner and included the arrival of Bullseye.  Again, the villains of this series continue to be the best of the Marvel TV Universe.  Hopefully we will be able to see some of these characters again somewhere inside the MCU.

#1.  American Vandal (Netflix) Another cancelled series, American Vandal was absolutely hilarious and I loved it completely.  American Vandal was another one night binge and I really appreciated that.  This season tried to uncover the identity of the Turd Burglar.  The mystery this season is better than season one’s mystery (although I think season one was funnier overall).  There are some characters in this season that are just transcendent.  I am sad that we will not get another season from this consistently funny show.  Hopefully someone will pick up the show for a season three.

There is a great deal of content available on YouTube that is every bit as entertaining, if not more so, than what is being presented on network or cable TV.  Here is the top 10 of the year 2018.

#10.  Movie Bob Reviews.  I enjoy the wit of Movie Bob.  I do not always agree with his assessments of the films he is reviewing, but that is the beauty of film commentary.  Two people can see the same movie in completely different ways.  And I always get a laugh from Movie Bob.

#9.  Josh Macuga plays horror video games.  This is a series of videos from Collider that highlight Josh Maguca, one of their employees, playing VR games.  Nothing to that, you say?  Well, the hook here is that Josh Macuga is one of the most easily scared individuals on the internet and his reactions to the scary imagery in these games is sidesplitting fun.  His screams seem fake, but he assures us, they are not.

#8.  SJU.  Screen Junkies Universe.   They discuss the latest movie news with some of the more engaging critics on the internet.  Dan Murrell, Joe Starr, Roth Cornet, Spencer Gilbert among many others fill the time with witticism and criticism.  This is also the crew behind the successful Honest Trailers.

#7. Honest Trailers.  Speaking of Honest Trailers, here it is.  Three time Emmy nominated, Honest Trailers picks a different movie each week and makes a trailer that pokes fun at it.  However, the best part is the trailer commentaries that they have which, many times, includes the creators of the films themselves.

#6.  Collider Movie Review Talk.  Starring Scott “Movie” Mantz and two revolving critics a week, this show reviews the week’s new releases and gives you recommendations for streaming movies or Blu-ray films.  Scott Mantz’s over-sized personality is the selling point of this show which drops on Collider every Friday.

#5.  Collider Movie Talk.  This is one of the longest running movie talk programs on YouTube.  Mark Ellis is you host of this show that runs Monday through Thursday in the evening hours.  They also have a revolving panel of guests featuring personalities such as John Rocha, Perri Nemiroff, Jeff Snyder, Mark Reilly etc.

#4.  Fatman Beyond.  The new title for Fatman on Batman, a podcast that includes Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin talking to fans about the events happening in pop culture.  The show is now recorded at the Star wars inspired Scum and Villainy Cantina in Los Angeles.  Kevin Smith is a natural story teller and Marc Bernardin is one of the smartest people around.  They are fun together and they have an easy chemistry with each other.

#3.  Collider Live.  At one time, Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis, the Schmoes, had a show that they recorded live every week.  It involved movie discussion along with all kinds of silliness and overall wild behavior.  That show had to go on hold for a while but this year, Harloff brought the concept back to a morning show on Collider. Monday-Wednesday features two hours of talk about all kinds of subjects as well as the trademark silliness.  Roxy Striar is one of my favorite additions to the show.

#2.  Movie Fights.  This show has been readjusted a couple of times since the old days and it seems to be returning to its stride.  #HootHoot #OwlNation  Hosted by comedian Hal Rudnick, the show gets three individuals together to have them debate questions about movies (the sillier the better).  Dan Murrell is here as both the reigning Movie Fights Champion and the fact checker and Danielle Radford looks for dank memes on social media.

#1. The Movie Trivia Schmoedown.  Number one for the second year in a row, the Movie Trivia Schmoedown only continues to get better and better.  A movie trivia show that includes storylines and characters much like WWE, Movie Trivia Schmoedown, at its worst, is extremely entertaining.  At its best, it is a must see competition with unbelievably charismatic men and women who know their movie trivia.  The show has several different “divisions” in the league including singles, teams, Innergeekdom, and Star Wars.  John “The Outlaw” Rocha, leader of the 5 Horsemen, is the current Movie Trivia Schmoedown Champion of the World.  The “Amazing” Mara Knopic is the undefeated Innergeekdom Champion.  The team champions are the Shirewolves (also undefeated) who consists of “Classy” Clark Wolfe and Rachel “The Crusher” Cushing.  Finally the Star Wars Champion is Alex “The Demon” Damon.  The stories may be written but the movie trivia and the emotion and the passion are real.  The show has gotten so big that it has had several live shows in Los Angeles this year and are heading to New York in early 2019.

Cable TV has been hit hard by the streaming services.  Even by moving the HBO, Starz, Showtime to this category, I only have a list of four shows here.

#4.  The Walking Dead (AMC).  This show ruled the roost for several years, but it has seen a steep decline in interest and quality over the last few seasons.  I have heard that the last few episodes of season 9 (which I have not seen yet) are somewhat of a recovery for the show, so maybe I’ll have to pick it up again when it returns from its midseason break.

#3.  The Runaways (Hulu). The second half of season one was just as great as the first half and I loved the fact that the show felt confident enough in its set up and structure that it was able to develop these characters before they felt the need to make them run away, despite the show’s title.  The show returns in December, dropping all of their episodes in one binge-able block.

#2. Cloak & Dagger (Freeform).  The pair of unknown Marvel Comics heroes made for a stellar television program.  This was another show that took its time and the results really paid off.  They used their 10 episode season to near perfection as we really grew to love the characters of Tandy and Tyrone.  They slowly learned what they were able to do with these weird powers, they had a huge connection to the MCU with Roxxon Oil and they had one of the best TV episodes of the year with “Lotus Eaters.”

#1. Ash vs. The Evil Dead (Starz).  When I found out that season three would be the final one for Ash and the crew, I immediately ended my subscription to Starz in protest.  Ash vs. the Evil Dead was the only thing I ever watched on Starz and with it gone, there was no reason to keep it.  Ash was as good of a television program as you were ever going to get and I am sad that it is over.

Television has been in a golden age for the last several years since we have hundreds of locations in which to partake our favorite shows whether it be weekly, monthly or binging in one sitting.

A couple of years ago, I made the decision that with the TV section of the Year in Review, there were just too many shows eligible for the list and that it was impossible to narrow it down.  So I made the executive decision to split the TV category into four sections.  They were Network, Cable, Streaming, and YouTube.

Now I made a couple of adjustments this year.  I moved the networks HBO, Showtime, Starz etc to the cable group instead of streaming.  I did take YouTube Red (or whatever it is called now) and made it the streaming.  I know that seems odd, but I don’t think that putting YouTube Red series against the ones on YouTube proper was fair.

Then, this year, my consumption of television dropped significantly.  There were a ton of TV shows that would have made lists in the past that I just did not follow on even a semi-regular basis.  These shows included The Big Bang Theory, American Horror Story, Preacher, How to Get Away With Murder, House of Cards, 13 Reasons Why, Ghosted, Legion, Mr. Robot among others.  My time is just limited and I cannot watch all of these shows.

So that is the rules for the television section of this Year in Review.  So we shall begin.

This has been a heck of a year for documentaries.  In fact, I have more docs on this list than I have ever had before.  Maybe there has always been great docs that I just did not see, but it appears to me that there was a bunch of awesome ones in 2018.

In fact, the number one on this list will be in the Top 5 movies of the year for me.  That is saying something.

#10-4

#10.  Remastered:  Tricky Dick & the Man in Black.  Netflix story of Richard Nixon inviting Johnny Cash to perform at the White House.  Interesting doc.

#9.  They’ll Love me When I’m Dead.  Another Netflix doc, this time on Orson Welles and his attempt to complete his film The Other Side of the Wind.

#8.  Free Solo.  Just saw this tonight.  Most of the film, I found the main featured man, Alex Honnold, pretentious and selfish, however, the footage of his free solo climb of El Capitan’s 3,000-foot vertical rock face at Yosemite National Park was tense and thrilling.

#7.  Fahrenheit 11/9.  Michael Moore’s latest film focusing on the reason Donald Trump was elected.  Still, there was more here than just that moment.  He talked a great deal about teachers and the water being poisoned in Detroit.

#6.  Shirkers.  Off of a recommendation by Perri Nemeroff from Collider, I enjoyed this mystery story about a young woman trying to accomplish her dream of making a movie (called Shirkers) and the manner in which it is prevented by a certain man.

#5.  Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind.  We see just how brilliant of a man Robin Williams is and how much his life took out of him.  It is still a painful experience thinking about how we lost this genius.

#4.  Andre the Giant.  This on is on HBO and I actually purchased HBO on Hulu specifically for this doc.  There are some great moments in this film on the “Eighth Wonder of the World” and we see just how broken down Andre became by the end.  There might have even been some real emotion shown by Vince McMahon. (Maybe)

TOP 3….

#3.  Three Identical Strangers.  A story so strange and difficult to believe that if this were a fiction story, you would say it was just too far fetched.  Identical triplets separated at birth find their way back to each other… and that is just the start.

#2.  RBG.  I found this unbelievably entertaining for a story about a Supreme Court justice in her upper eighties.  However, I was completely engaged in the story and I will be praying for her health for as long as Donald is in office.

#1.  Won’t You Be My Neighbor.  I have never before cried in the car on the way home from seeing a movie, but I did with this film…and for no real apparent reason.  It is not as if the film was a heart-breaker or that it tarnished the reputation of Fred Rogers.  In fact, it showed us that he was really that great of a human.  Maybe the fact that our world today could really used someone like him was what brought on my water works.  One of the best movies (not just documentaries) of the year.

Each year, there are films that are released in the previous year in limited release to qualify for Oscar consideration, but they do not go wide release many times until January.  That would make them 2017 films that I see in 2018.  Two years ago, I eliminated these films from my list of Top 30 films of the year because they were really films from the previous year.  However, I figured, why not recognize these films anyway.  All it would mean would be they can have a list all to themselves.

I have six 2017 movies that I saw in 2018.

#6.  Call Me By Your Name.  A lot of people loved this, and I thought it was great too, but I was not as much of a fan of this as most.  I enjoyed it.  No doubt that Timothee Chalamet showed himself as not only a star of the future, but a star of right now.

#5.  The Post.  The true story of the Washington Post and their decision to publish the Pentagon Papers, which showed a cover up involving the Vietnam War.  Starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, the film was dramatic and showed the importance of a free press, a lesson we need to keep in mind even today.

#4.  Molly’s Game.  I did not expect to love this movie as much as I did, but there is an amazing performance from Jessica Chastain in a remarkably compelling true story about Molly Bloom and her high stakes poker games that she organized.  Aaron Sorkin wrote the script and the dialogue showed.

#3.  I, Tonya.  The story of Tonya Harding, the US figure skater who reputedly hired someone to club the knee of her biggest competition prior to the Olympics.  After watching this biopic, you may have a better understanding, if not actual empathy, for a figure whom had always had the worst reputation around.  Allison Janney is brilliant as Tonya’s villainous mother.

#2.  Hostiles.  Not too many people saw this western starring Christian Bale, but Hostiles is way better than I thought it would be.  Bale is a US Army captain who is assigned to escort a dying Cheyenne war chief and his family back to their tribal land. There is so much strain and anxiety along the way that the two enemies find that they have more in common than they thought.

#1.  The Shape of Water.  This was a near perfect movie for me.  I loved everything about it (with the exception of the strange dance number in the middle of the film).  Guillermo del Toro directed the heck out of this and really made me pull for this unlikely and downright oddball couple.  Who would have guessed that I loved this movie as much as I did?  Not I.  Yet, I was totally mesmerized by the film when I finally got a chance to see what everyone was raving about.

What movies will everybody be talking about this year when I have to wait until January to see them?  Unfortunately, I’ll just have to wait to find out.

It is December and every year, we at EYG, compile our best and worst lists from the year and review what we have seen in the world of pop culture.  Year in Review will list our top TV shows, movies, comics, wrestling matches, Schmoedown matches etc.

Of course, these lists are only our opinion and everybody else has the right to have their own opinions and to disagree with our choices.  Just because I hated something, does not mean you can’t love it.  That is why this is a safe local on the webs.

Over the next 31 days, we will be adding posts to this section dealing with all of Geek Culture.  Most of the movie lists will come later in the month as I have yet to see Aquaman, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, Mary Poppins Returns, Bumblebee among many other great movies.

I always enjoy making these lists and expressing my thoughts on the past year.  2018 was a year where the Avengers broke 2 million dollars, Black Panther became a cultural significance, where I slowed down on my TV watching, where we lost a legend in Stan Lee among other amazingly talented people and where the Mouse got his gloved hands on FOX.

2018 was the year of the documentary.  One of them may find its way into the Top 5 films of the year (not may, WILL!).  Horror movies were everywhere in 2018 and most were pretty good.

So… with 2018 coming to an end, let’s look back on the year that was….

BY THE WAY FROM THIS POINT ON THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!!!!  BE AWARE

Since the looking backwards is over now, it is time to start looking forward.  And the year 2018 has many films that I am anticipating.

Now, there will be plenty of other movies I will anticipate before 2018 comes to a close.  For example, I hadn’t heard anything about The Disaster Artist until late in 2017.  I could not have anticipated it in December of 2016.  Just remember that.

So, in no particular order, here are the films I am most anticipating at this point for 2018.

Avengers: Infinity Wars.  I said in no order, but that is not completely true.  There is no film am I looking forward to more than Infinity War.  The Marvel Cinematic Universe trots out its big gun and brings the roster of heroes together to face him.  Cannot wait.

Black Panther. This one is just around the corner.  Ryan Coogler has not missed yet, and this looks to be in the same vein of importance as Wonder Woman was.  So, I hope that Black Panther is as great of a movie as Wonder Woman was.

The Incredibles 2.  LONG overdue.  Pixar is finally bringing us the sequel to one of their great movies in their history.  Every body is returning and it should be awesome.

The New Mutants.  This one looks tremendous as a “horror” movie. I am curious to see how the promotion of this goes since Marvel Studios will be taking these characters back at some time in the future, but what I have seen looks cool so far.

Deadpool 2.  Ryan Reynolds hit gold with the first one.  Can he do it again?  This is another one where the franchise’s future is up in the air as Deadpool is heading into the MCU. How this does might be a way to sway Disney into what to do.

Annihilation.  This is a science fiction story that looks to be fascinating.  I do not know what is really going on, but I loved Ex Machina, and the creator of that is doing this.  Toss in Emily Blunt and Oscar Isaacs and what else do you need?

A Wrinkle in Time.  This is a great book so I am anxious to see how it gets adapted into a movie.  Will Oprah be a distraction?

Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse.  Sony’s animated Spider-man tale was not on my radar until I saw that epic trailer.  Plus, it is starring Miles Morales.  And the spider-Verse?  This could be your sleeper of the year.

Solo: A Star Wars Story.  Young Han Solo has not been something I really wanted.  Still, with all the behind the scenes drama and Ron Howard coming into the production, this one is tweaking my interest.

Ant Man & The Wasp.  This one comes AFTER the Infinity War and who knows what the world will be like at that point.  I also really loved Ant Man and Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lily are casting winners for sure.

Wreck It Ralph 2.  The first film was a surprise hit for me, and this is another sequel that took longer than it should have to get to.  It looks like a lot of fun now though.

Here’s hoping that 2018 is a great year in movies!

Here we go.  The list is compiled and the rottenness is combined.  This is the Worst 30 Movies I saw this year.

Again, there are some specifics. First, it had to be movie that I have seen.  There are some stink bombs that I skipped this year (or tried to send the intern to, but couldn’t get that to work out… *wink Chris*)  Anyway, I did not see Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature, Underworld: Blood Wars, Smurfs: Lost Village, The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, Jigsaw, and Tyler Perry’s Boo 2: A Maeda Halloween.  Odds are that these fart knockers might have found their way onto this lost had I gone to them.

Second point, was that the star rating I give to the movies with my typical reviews are thrown out the window here.  They may be used initially to find the films, but then I look back and determine what is worse.

And though there were a lot of great movies this year, there were also a ton of crap as well.  I literally had 7 films that I considered for the #1 spot.  Legitimately, numbers 1-7 could have wound up at number one.  This is also the year where I have had the most films with a star rating under 1 star.  I had nine of them.  That is something else.

Of course, perhaps one of these films is a film that you love or that you really connected with and if that is the case, good for you.  Film is subjective and that is one of the best things about it.  What I hate, someone else might love.  My friend Chris just messaged me that he would have put “It” in his worst five list and I, of course, have it at number 2 of my Best list.  Different opinions are great.

Without further ado… The Top 30 Worst Films of 2017

#30.  A Dog’s Purpose.  I know several people who loved this thing, but I hated it.  It was so manipulative and intentionally attempted to play upon the emotions of the audience.  Yet, we all know from the trailer that the dog will find its way to Dennis Quaid.  Hated the fakeness of the emotion.  Those feelings were not earned by this movie.

#29.  Before I Fall.  Based on a YA Novel, which is a pretty good bet for a film to end up on this list anyway, Before I Fall is like Groundhog’s Day meets Mean Girls.  The list of coincidences for this story to work is ridiculous and just not worth the time.

#28.  Ghost in the Shell.  This is one of those films that I didn’t completely hate at first, but in retrospect, continually slipped the more I thought about it.  Can’t we just get Scarlet Johansson that Black Widow movie and be done with it? I know the fans of these popular properties deserve more than what they have gotten.

#27.  Friend Request.  A horror movie where a stalker chick is befriended on Facebook by a popular girl who felt sorry for her.  Then the stalker began posting horrible stuff to the timeline.  Videos that show violent deaths and such so the popular girl unfriends her.  Stalker kills herself and now it is popular girl’s fault?  Then, stalker girl somehow is haunting her Facebook.  Yeah, I know this sounds stupid.  It is.

#26.  The Shack.  The Shack had potential to be better than what it turned out to be, but it took the wrong turn.  It turned into one of those faith based films that tossed aside a potentially good story for some preaching.

#25.  The Dinner.  Two brothers, one running for governor, meet with their wives for dinner at a fancy restaurant to discuss the problems caused by their children.  It ends with some of the stupidest third act nonsense of the year.

#24.  Inconceivable.  And not the word spoken by Vizzini, either.  Nic Cage is here.  There is a nanny who seems sweet but turns out to want to destroy the family from within.  Nothing new here. And Nic Cage…

#23.  Monster Trucks.  A silly alien movie where said alien winds up inside a monster truck and can use its long tentacles to move that truck really fast.  If you are 12 years old, this one might be for you.  If not, skip it.

#22. Sleepless. Jamie Foxx is a dirty cop.. or is he?  Maybe he is undercover.  Maybe his son gets kidnapped by the villains.  Can you picture what happens?  I’m sure you can.

#21.  Rings.  This one was on the shelf for quite a while.  And Honestly, it should have stayed there.  A sequel to the previous Rings movies, Rings was dull and boring and made people do stupid things.

#20.  Unforgettable.  One of the best comedies of the year.   Problem was… it was not a comedy.  It’s a thriller.  I swear they put this exact movie out every year, just with different actors.  A Fatal Attraction rip off that is good for a laugh.

#19.  King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.  Just a terrible version of the classic legend.  The only parts that seemed to work was the parts director Guy Ritchie included.  Most of this was just rotten as could be.  This could have been so much better.

#18.  Pitch Perfect 3.  At least there is some good music.  Everything in this movie that is not the Bellas or one of the other band in here playing music/singing is completely stupid and forced.  There is a ridiculous action plot in here as well where the Bellas have to jump off an exploding ship.  If that isn’t a metaphor for this movie, then I don;t know what is.

#17.  You Get Me.  A terrible Netflix film starring Bella Thorne.  It is another one of those Fatal Attraction clone films, this time with high school students.  Just terrible.

#16.  Daddy’s Home 2.  The first Daddy’s Home had a third act that I really enjoyed. The first two acts were terrible, but I had hopes that they learned from the mistakes.  The trailers looked good.  Then I saw the movie.  There were no laughs.  There were so many stupid things happening that you could just not stand it.  Not even “Do They Know It’s Christmas Time” can save this turd.

#15.  Flatliners.  This one was DOA.  How do you make a movie about traveling to the other side so damn boring?  This is one of the most unnecessary remakes of the year.  It is not like the original Flatliners was a great movie.  Let’s let this RIP.

#14.  Wish Upon.  This actually had a horror concept that could have worked.  A magical box that grants wishes but each wish has a terrible cost.  Then, they gave this box to a girl who starts making wishes and, despite figuring out that people are dying because she is making these wishes, KEEPS ON MAKING THEM.  She has to be considered one of the most selfish characters of the year.

#13.  The Return of Xander Cage.  I have never seen any of the XXX movies and, after seeing this one, there is no damn way that I want to revisit them.  The worst of Vin Diesel.

#12.  The House.  I am not a Will Farrell fan, but every now and then, he gives me something to enjoy.  This was not one of them.  Parents who cannot afford to send their daughter to the college she wanted to go to, decides to set up an illegal casino in their basement.  Yeah, no problems to be had there.  If only the film was funny.

#11.  Collide.  I did not know this was coming out. I saw it at Cinemark and I had no idea what it was.  Then, after looking I saw that it had Ben Kingsley and Anthony Hopkins in it.  Huh?  Plus, Nicholas Hoult and Felicity Jones. Really?  Why had I not seen one piece of promotional material about this?  I’ll tell you why… it was God awful.

#10.  Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.  God let’s hope so.  Terrible action.  Terrible CGI.  No story.  Here’s hoping that this really is the final chapter.

#9.  Just Getting Started.  It is really sad seeing two great actors, Tommy Lee Jones and Morgan Freeman, just cashing a paycheck and making something like this.  You can tell Tommy Lee Jones doesn’t want to be on the screen.  The story feels like it was written by a middle school student.

#8.  The Emoji Movie.  This is so bad.  Perhaps some kids would like it but adults who take their kids to this should be disgraced because it does nothing but dumb down our children with ridiculous characters, dumb plots and a message that encourages more texting.  As if people need encouragement for that.

#7.  The Bye Bye Man.  we are starting the placement on the list where they could all be interchangeable.  The Bye Bye Man is a horror movie where a creature shows up if you say his name or think his name.  Really?  It was such a laughable plot and it has every horror cliche you could imagine.  I hope we can wish a bye bye to the Bye Bye Man.

#6.  50 Shades Darker.  The sequel to the horrendous 50 Shades of Grey, this one was worse.  There were so many scene of just stupidity, and there was not even that many sexy scenes.  The whole helicopter scene was as anticlimactic as you could possibly get.  I literally was laughing at that.  What do you expect from Twilight Fan Fiction?

#5.  Fist Fight.  I hated this movie so much.  A big reason was that I found it remarkably insulting to the teaching profession.  As a teacher, I kept seeing things that would NEVER happen in any school and we were being asked to accept it as common practice.  This was not only insulting to the teachers, but also to administrators and to the students.  And had it been funny, you might be able to forgive all of that.  Just a complete fail.

#4.  Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul.  Some of the previous Diary films were watchable.  Then they recast everyone (probably an age thing) and this was just a steaming pile of pig poop (if you saw the film, you would know the reference).  I know they are still writing Diary books, but hopefully this will show them that they do not necessarily need to make a movie about each one.  Please.

#3.  Chips.  Here is another one of those insulting films.  This one insults police officers and anyone who may have enjoyed the original Chips TV show.  About as low brow of humor as you could get, Chips just had zero redeeming qualities.

#2. The Snowman.  How could this movie be boring?  It was.  I picked out the killer the second he walked on the screen.  It was so obvious.  Michael Fassbender played a detective named Harry Hole.  No, I am not kidding.  Why?  Even if that was the source material, couldn’t they have changed it to Barry Hole?  Or how about Hank Hole.  Or make Hole Hale instead.  Did they just want to jokes?  The trailer for this implied that this would be a taut, exciting thriller.  It was not.  One of the biggest disappointments of many years.

#1. Transformers: The Last Knight.  With so many possible number ones, how did I decide on the final choice?  I thought back on which movie I had the worst time in the theater watching.  Transformers started and within 30-45 minutes, it felt like 2 hours.  It started with Merlin cracking horrible jokes, where I actually wondered if I was watching a Monty Python skit (except, you know, not a funny one).  Anthony Hopkins was having a good old time because, you know, he couldn’t give to shits about this.  It dragged on and on and on.  I had taken a bathroom break about 1h45 minutes into it and I was hoping it would be wrapping up soon, and then I realized that Optimus Prime was still just floating around in space.  The film completely wasted Unicron.  Ugh.  This was too long, too stupid and too hard to watch.  Half of the dialogue was indistinguishable.  By the end, I felt like a boxer who had been pummeled for 15 rounds.  It was the worst experience I had in the theater this year, and so, in a year where there were so many possible options for number one, this wins out.