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2024 Year in Review: The Top 30 Best Movies of the Year

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And here it is. The Top 30 Best Films of 2024 according to EYG. Again, as I said with the Worst Movies list, this is my opinion and if I have left off a film you love or you hate one of my choices, that is okay. You have the right to your own opinion. Make your own list.

I do think that this year has had a lot of films that have been in the middle. A bunch of movies that I was excited about turned out to be fine, just not great. I did have thirty films on this list and I did have to cut a few to get to that number.

Once again, the star ratings are not the end all in this list. I use the star ratings to get a general idea, but film opinions can change over time and this is my list as of now. For an example of how things could change, two years ago Wakanda Forever was my #1 film of the year, but now I wish I had made Matilda the Musical my #1 instead. It ended at #2, but if I were to do that list again, Matilda would be on top.

Anyway… here is the Top 30

EYG’s Top 30 Best Movies of 2024

#30. Nightbitch. I saw this movie last night. I had no idea that it was available and I spotted it on Disney +. It was legit a surprise to see it there and it kicked out Skincare from this list. I thought I was finished with 2024 movies, and here it made the Top 30.

#29. Rebel Ridge. A Netflix film featured a thinking-man’s Rambo like character played by Aaron Pierre taking on the crooked sheriff played by Don Johnson. I liked this approach to an action film.

#28. Emilia Perez. The first musical on the list and a film featuring a ton of great performances from Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofía Gascón. Another one available on Netflix.

#27. Kill. A violent, Indian Hindi-language film set on a train. It was brutal. It was vicious. It was exciting and filled with action. Worth every minute.

#26. Society of the Snow. Another version of the story of a rugby team that had crashed in the Andes and had to go to great lengths to survive the cold and brutal environment of the mountains. There is an avalanche that was astonishing.

#25. Civil War. Almost too realistic, this movie was difficult to watch at times. There was some real excitement involved here too as the cast does a solid job of showing the uncertainty of the world around them.

#24. Woman of the Hour. This is the true story of a serial killer who went on the Dating Game. Anna Kendrick excels as the woman who had to pick between the available bachelors unknowing that one of them is a real killer.

#23. We Live in Time. Emotional story told through amazing chemistry of Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh. This is a tragedy and a love story all wrapped into one. Two powerful performances carry this through.

#22. A Quiet Place: Day One. The prequel to the successful franchise was one of those that succeeded when it should not have. Lupita Nyong’o took the place as the film’s protagonist and does a great job detailing the first arrival of the aliens.

#21. A Real Pain. Jesse Eisenberg wrote, directed and starred in this passion project seeing cousins Jesse and Kieron Culkin go on a Holocaust tour after their beloved grandmother died. A very emotional movie.

#20. Fly Me to the Moon. Channing Tatum and Scarlet Johansson star in a romantic comedy featuring the potential moon landing and how the government wanted to fake the landing to beat the Russians. I liked how this movie blended the reality and the conspiracy theory into a narrative that worked.

#19. Didi. Izaac Wang starred as Didi in this coming of age story. Zhang Li Hua, who played Didi’s grandmother stole every scene she was in. The film shows how social media can cause troubles for youth. This film is filled with angst and emotion and was a great showcase for the young actor.

#18. Strange Darling. One of the most original movies of the year. I actually loved how this movie told its narrative in an unorganized fashion, jumping around through chapters of the story. It allowed the filmmakers to create a different mind about what was going on. It shows you what you can do with story structure.

#17. Conclave. The process of choosing a new Pope is shrouded in secrecy, so why not make a mystery out of it? This has a bunch of sensational performances from Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rossellini and Carlos Diehz.

#16. Saturday Night. Live from New York… it’s Saturday Night! I had no idea how close it came to having those iconic words never uttered on TV. This movie is all about the first ever SNL show and the series of crises that nearly kept it off the air. Great performances.

#15. Anora. Just when you think you know how this film is going to go, the movie takes a swerve and you do not see it coming. Brilliant work from Mikey Madison as Anora and Mark Eydelshteyn as Vanya.

#14. The Fall Guy. One of the films this year that did not do well at the box office, but was extremely entertaining. Ryan Gosling was exceptional as the stunt man who gets injured and loses the girl and his confidence. Based on the early ’80s TV show, this was a lot of fun with sensational stunts (of course).

#13. The Last Stop in Yuma County. A small time film that surprised me with how fantastic it was. Brutal and violent, this movie saw some great interactions between actors and a truly shocking conclusion.

#12. Heretic. Another awesome film with an actor playing against type. I never would have seen Hugh Grant in this lead role, but he carries it off beautifully. Some of the best dialogue written in a horror/thriller this year.

#11. Dune: Part Two. I really thought this would wind up in the top ten, but it came just short. It had sensational special effects and some great performances in the continuation of the Dune story. One of two great performances of the year for Timothée Chalamet.

#10. Abigail. This was one that I thought would be higher on the list, which speaks well of the movies ahead of it. I loved this action/horror film and I just wish that they had been able to keep the secret that Abigail was a vampire secret. I understand why they thought they couldn’t but I can’t imagine what the moment would have been if I hadn’t known Alisha Weir was the antagonist. Oh well, still loved it.

#9. A Complete Unknown. The second Timothée Chalamet movie that featured a great performance. Chalamet played the icon Bob Dylan and he lost himself inside the singer/songwriter. Chalamet also did his own singing and guitar playing. This was a great movie.

#8. Late Night with the Devil. This film was on the top of this list early in the year and it stayed in the top ten. Another way to use the found footage subgenre for an original film. David Dastmalchian is great as a late night host that was having some surprising supernatural events.

#7. Alien: Romulus. I found this highly entertaining and filled with suspense and tension. The Alien franchise had not had a great movie in awhile. This is easily the best Alien movie since Aliens at least.

#6. The Wild Robot. Animation had a great year too as this original film was filled with emotion as the robot Roz finds and help raise a baby goose. The movie is beautiful and provides a sensational message.

#5. Transformers One. I never would have guessed that this movie would be number five on my Top 30 list, but it was so great. I did not think making Optimus and Megatron friends when they were younger was needed, yet it turned out to be just about perfect. This was full of action and goosebump moments. Excellent film.

#4. Inside Out 2. This is the third of the run of animated movies and I loved it. It may be a better overall story than the first one with a better use of characters. There is no villain in this movie. It is just emotions that may not take you in the right way. It was also the highest grossing film of 2024 at almost $1.7 billion.

#3. Wicked. This took a big risk and it paid off handsomely. Wicked Part One was engaging, hugely entertaining and filled with great music and amazing performances. The Some people doubted that they could adapt the Broadway musical into a successful movie, but those people had to eat their words.

#2. Nosferatu. Dark, brooding and violent. Nosferatu placed the character of Count Orlok into the basic story of Count Dracula and it created some of the best mood of the year. Robert Eggers gave us one of the best horror movies of the year.

#1. Deadpool and Wolverine. This was probably destined to be on the top of this list. Seeing Deadpool and Wolverine in an MCU movie together was awesome, as was the list of cameos that came along with them. This was a love letter to the FOX Marvel movies. One of the funniest movies of the year with amazing Deadpool action and emotional Logan moments. This reached every expectation I ever had.

So there it is. The Top 30 films of 2024. Happy New Year to everyone.

2024 Year in Review: Top 20 Worst Films of the Year

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We are up to the big year-end movie lists, and we start off with the Top 20 Worst Films of the Year. Of course, it would be a little more accurate for me to call this My Least Favorite Films because that is what it is. Film is subjective and what I think is the worst movie, you may love. That’s fine. You have the right to your opinion.

I have all the respect in the world for the movie makers but everybody has their failures. Even the films that I hate have my respect for their efforts. Some times effort just is not enough.

I should specify as well that the star ratings that I give when I review the movies through the year are basically used as a guide. This is not place in direct order via the star ratings. Plus, movie opinions can change over time.

This was the oddest Worst Film list of all time because literally, I was considering seven movies as the #1 Worst Film of 2024. I have never had that many films in real consideration.

2024 EYG Top 20 Worst Films of the Year

#20. Venom: The Last Dance. The final of the Venom trilogy is not a very good movie. It has a lot of silliness and a waste of Knull as a villain.

#19. Monster Summer. An eighties type of monster film with Mel Gibson that is just not very good. Mel Gibson really did not fit with this movie.

#18. Afraid. AI taking over one house at a time. Killer Alexa? This is a stupid movie and John Cho has been in much better movies that are similar to this one.

#17. Trap. M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film is so full of dumb plots as a serial killer takes his daughter to a concert. The cops set up a sting operation at the concert. There are so many things that make no sense in this movie that it stretches credibility.

#16. Joker: Folie a Deux. What a step down from the first Joker. And I did not love that first film. This “musical” was such a waste of potential. This sequel seems to take a crap on the first movie too, throwing away most everything that was done well in the first one.

#15. Imaginary. There have been a ton of bad horror movies this year. This is one of them. Chauncy the Teddy Bear is causing trouble for the little kid. Terrible and not memorable.

#14. Immaculate. Sydney Sweeney did not have a good year in my opinion. She was a nun here going into an Italian convent. I did not like this one at all and it was not easy to watch, but not in the good way.

#13. The Exorcism. Russell Crowe also did not have the best year. Here, he is an actor playing a priest, dealing with an exorcism on set of a horror movie. I found this to be repetitive and boring.

#12. The Watchers. Another failed horror film. A bizarre situation that makes little sense and these characters are so unlikable that I want them to be gotten. M. Night’s daughter directed this mess.

#11. Lisa Frankenstein. I was looking forward to this comedy, but it was not funny, mean-spirited and had characters that I disliked. Cruel writing and a lack of humor does not make this worth seeing. It was quite a disappointment.

#10. The Strangers Ch. 1. Why did we need this movie? The original Strangers was a decent movie. This was just a wasted prequel with stupid characters and jump scares. And that ending…

#9. Night Swim. Here is the first film I watched in 2024. It was such a stupid movie about a haunted pool. A haunted pool? Yup. That’s what I said.

#8. The Crow. Another movie that has no reason to exist. This is such a bad idea and, what was even worse was, it was boring. The Crow did not need a reboot. This was a horrendous choice.

#7. Tarot. We are starting off with the seven films in competition for the worst film of the year. Tarot obviously deals with the deck of tarot and terrible characters that I couldn’t care less about. Completely forgettable.

#6. Kraven the Hunter. The most recent of the Sony Spider-Man without Spider-Man movies include a great cast in a terrible movie. Kraven is one of the greatest Spidey villains, but this is one of the worst super hero movies in years (although there may be a worse one upcoming).

#5. Borderline. I would have thought this was going to end up much higher than five, which tells you about the films ahead of it. Another great cast, including Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis, but no story, horrible dialogue and such a flop of an adaptation. Eli Roth directed this mess.

#4. Kinds of Kindness. I had a guy on X call me names because I hated this movie. I’m sorry dude, but at least it is not my least favorite movie of the year. I found the three basic stories that made up the film to be pretentious, obnoxious and misogynistic. I hated this film.

#3. Rebel Moon Part 2: The Scargiver. I hated the first film of this series from Zack Snyder even more than Part One and I did not think that was possible. It was dull, boring and filled with characters whom I disliked. And I do not want to wait for the Director’s cut.

#2. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2. Last year’s worst movie was this film’s first in the franchise. There was some chatter that this one was supposed to be better. Spoiler alert…it wasn’t. Although this is only the second worst film of the year, so I guess it could be considered a little better.

#1. Madame Web. Here it is… the film that survived the gauntlet of the horrible movies. This one took a C-level (more likely D level) Spider-Man character and put her in a film with horrible writing, horrible special effects, horrible villain, horrible ADR.. I could go on. Madame Web was a ridiculous film and even film star Dakota Johnson was putting it down before it had been released. Madame Web is the worst movie of this year.

Nightbitch

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I thought I was done with new movies in 2024. I was working on the year in review stuff, organizing the best and worst lists when I decided to go to Disney + and see if anything was there. I couldn’t believe what I saw as the movie Nightbitch starring Amy Adams was available to stream. I did not expect Nightbitch on Disney + (it was through the Hulu subscription) so I decided I could watch another movie in 2024.

I am glad I did because I enjoyed the movie very much. It was a weird, unlikely story using dogs as a metaphor for motherhood and the struggles that it brings.

I saw Amy Adams with six nipples.

So that happened.

According to IMDB, Nightbitch is the story of “A woman (Amy Adams), thrown into the stay-at-home routine of raising a toddler in the suburbs, slowly embraces the feral power deeply rooted in motherhood, as she becomes increasingly aware of the bizarre and undeniable signs that she may be turning into a dog.“

Scoot McNairy played Adams’ unobservant husband and their relationship was at the center of the existential crisis Adams was going through. She was finding that she was losing herself in her attempt to be the wife and mother, including sacrificing her art to stay at home. The burden of motherhood weighed on her and her life became more and more out of control. Adams could only find release by transforming into a dog and running around the neighborhood.

Amy Adams does a great job in the lead role. I had no idea that the title of the film was intended to be literal. Although I believe that the whole dog stuff is really just in Adams’s head and that she was just doing these things. How much of this was actually happening and how much was an unreliable narrator in Adams’s character telling us what is happening?

I liked this movie a lot. I was surprised to see it at 59% on Rotten Tomatoes and even lower with the audience score. It does have a female lead and a message of struggles that the woman goes through so maybe it is one of those films that has been dropped down because of the anti-woke crowd who can’t stand a movie from the POV of a woman. I don’t know, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

4 stars

2024 Year in Review: The Strangelove

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The Strangelove (Best Actor in Movie)

Previous Winners:  James McAvoy (Split), Denzel Washington (Fences), Bryan Cranston (Trumbo), Michael Keaton (Birdman), Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips), Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln), Ryan Gosling (Drive), Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody), Joaquin Phoenix (Joker), Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick…Boom), Brendan Fraser (The Whale), Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)

We are up to Best Actor, which in EYG land means we are giving out The Strangelove, in honor, of course, of EYG Hall of Famer, Peter Sellers.

Honorable Mentions: Jesse Eisenberg (A Real Pain), Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice), John David Washington (Piano Lessons), Glen Powell (Hit Man), Justice Smith (I Saw the TV Glow), Kyle Gallner (Strange Darling), Channing Tatum (Fly Me to the Moon)

#10. Gabriel LaBelle (Saturday Night)

#9. Bill Skarsgård (Nosferatu)

#8. Sebastian Stan (A Different Man)

#7. Nicholas Hoult (Nosferatu)

#6. Andrew Garfield (We Live in Time)

#5. David Dastmalchian (Late Night with the Devil)

#4. Ray Fiennes (Conclave)

#3. Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool & Wolverine)

#2. Hugh Grant (Heretic)

#1. Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown)

Timothée Chalamet was masterful as Bob Dylan, with his voice and his singing. He also played the guitar. An overall amazing performance. Hugh Grant played opposite his type in the awesome horror flick Heretic. Ryan Reynolds is now in the MCU with his brazen performance as Deadpool. Ray Fiennes is always awesome and Conclave is no exception. David Dastmalchian is perfect in his found footage horror film Late Night with the Devil. Andrew Garfield is a former winner of this award and is back with Florence Pugh in We Live in Time. Nicholas Hoult and Bill Skarsgård came out of Nosferatu. Sebastian Stan made this list and in honorable mention. Gabriel LaBelle played Lorne Michaels on Saturday Night!

2024 Year in Review: The Joker/Hannibal Lecter/Mister Miyagi Award for Best Supporting Actor

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The Joker/Hannibal Lecter/Mister Miyagi Award for Best  Supporting Actor

Previous Winners:  Patrick Stewart (Logan), Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals), Sylvester Stallone (Creed), Edward Norton (Birdman), Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained), Andy Serkis (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Richard Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Robert Downey Jr (Avengers: Endgame), Sasha Baron Cohen (Trial of the Chicago 7), Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Ke Huy Quen (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)

I have a much larger list of supporting actors than I did for the actresses, but I am sticking with a list of Top Ten. I will add a Honorable Mention for this category.

Honorable Mention: Samuel L. Jackson (Piano Lessons), Jeff Goldblum (Wicked), Paul Bettany (Here), and Richard Roundtree (Thelma).

#10. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nosferatu)

#9. JK Simmons (Saturday Night)

#8. Stanley Tucci (Conclave)

#7. Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown)

#6. Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain)

#5. Cory Michael Smith (Saturday Night)

#4. Boyd Holbrook (A Complete Unknown)

#3. Chris Hemsworth (Furiosa)

#2. Hugh Jackman (Deadpool & Wolverine)

#1. Mark Eydelshteyn (Anora)

Mark Eydelshteyn does a remarkable job in Anora. The first half of the movie, you love him, root for him and relate with him. The second half of the movie, you hate him. He completely turns away any goodwill you had for him, and he doesn’t really change his character. It is a great performance. Hugh Jackman does not get award respect but he is excellent as Logan in Deadpool & Wolverine. He has some emotional scenes that give you specifics on the character that only Jackman can deliver. Saturday Night has a couple of actors here, including Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase and JK Simmons as Milton Berle. A Complete Unknown as a couple of real life characters too with Johnny Cash, as brought to life by Boyd Holbrook and Edward Norton’s Pete Seeger. Aaron Taylor-Johnson does not get anything for Kraven the Hunter, but he showed what a great actor he is in Nosferatu. Kieran Culkin has been excellent for a long time, and his role in A Real Pain is one of his most complex yet. Stanley Tucci brings some great work in Conclave too.

2024 Year in Review: “All Right, Mr. Deville, I am Ready for my Close Up” Award for Best Director

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“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), Jon Watt (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Ryan Coogler (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)

The role of the director is a vital one in any movie. I have chosen the top ten directors of 2024 to present here. Some of these will be considered for Oscars, others on my list will have to settle for recognition from EYG as I will look at the genre films with a fairer view than Academy voters.

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

#10. Francis Galluppi, The Last Stop in Yuma County. This was an outstanding independent film that I found on Vudu and was completely enthralled by. This was Galluppi’s first feature film.

#9. Coraline Fargeat, The Substance. What a tremendous job done by Fargeat on The Substance, the shocking, body-horror film that brought Demi Moore back into conversation for Oscar.

#8. Jess Eisenberg, A Real Pain. Eisenberg wrote and directed this film about two cousins on a Holocaust tour. Jesse is the only director on this list who also starred in the film which has to make this even more challenging.

#7. Fede Alvarez, Alien: Romulus. Alvarez brought the Alien franchise back to its roots with this outstanding film. It was tense and frightening and beautifully shot.

#6. Sean Baker, Anora. The way this film was shot really highlighted the strengths of each of the characters and switched paths about half way through. Baker is exceptional.

#5. Denis Villeneuve, Dune: Part Two. A gigantic sci-fi epic is not going to be easy to direct and Villeneuve does it spotlessly. His work with the CGI is some of the best you will ever see.

#4. James Mangold, A Complete Unknown. This Bob Dylan biopic was such a great film, with the use of music being front and center, Mangold has had a career of cranking out some excellent movies and this was one more.

#3. Shawn Levy, Deadpool and Wolverine. Shawn Levy has a real bond with Ryan Reynolds and you have to be able to manage that to give us one of the biggest hits of the year. He deserves more credit than he receives for this movie.

#2. Jon M. Chu, Wicked. Another epic film, this time an adaptation of the iconic stage musical. It was a rousing success and Chu’s handiwork is one of the main reasons why.

And the #1 Director and winner of the “All Right, Mr. Deville, I am Ready for my Close Up” Award…

Robert Eggers, Nosferatu

One of the great young directors in the horror genre released his most recent film Nosferatu at Christmas this year and it is completely stylish and gorgeously shot. He is able to get amazing performances from his cast and his visual storytelling is on par with the bests around. Nosferatu is a stunning movie and he deserves this award.

2024 Year in Review: Best Documentary

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I do enjoy a good documentary. I am going to have a list of top ten documentaries for the year. Nine of them are movie format and one is a weekly series. There were a lot of weekly series that intrigued me, but it is harder to fit those into the schedule than straight movies.

I am also going to officially announce here that in January, for the annual Genre-ary DailyView, where I watch a movie that I have not seen in a certain genre every day for the whole month. This is the third year for the Genre-ary (we have had sci-fi and musicals) and in 2025, the topic for Genre-ary is Documentaries. This starts on Wednesday, January 1st.

Best Documentary

Previous Winners:  Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, My Scientology Movie, Tickled, Finding Neverland, Tiger King, The Beatles: Get Back, Lights & Magic, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

Here are the top 10 docs of 2024.

#10. Elton John: Never Too Late. A look at Elton John’s life and his music. Found on Disney +.

#9. Blink. An emotional story of a family who had 3 out of 4 of their children who had a genetic disorder that would eventual lead them to lose their sight. Their family went on a trip across the planet to give the kids experiences they could always remember.

#8. Brats. I saw this on Hulu this year and it was all about the group of young actors from the 1980s called the Brat Pack and how that nomenclature affected their careers.

#7. Music by John Williams. Another Disney + doc on a famous figure, looking at the life of the iconic composer John Williams and all his amazing movie music.

#6. Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal. The WWE documentary on Bray Wyatt, who just passed away. The emotional doc spoke to his friends and his family, including brother Bo Dallas.

#5. Beatles ’64. Another Disney + doc, this time looking at the Beatles from 1964, the year they arrived in the United States.

#4. The Greatest Night in Pop. A Netflix doc that details the events of the night where the song “We Are the World” was recorded. Amazing footage from the actual night.

#3. The Jinx: Part Two. The one series on this list, and one that I considered to make the winner. I enjoyed this weekly series on MAX that followed the rest of the story of killer Robert Durst.

#2. Jim Henson Idea Man. This is the fifth doc from Disney + on this list. Ron Howard directed this documentary on the Muppet creator Jim Henson. Very emotional and a great look on one of the most creative men in entertainment.

#1. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. The doc on Christopher Reeve is powerful, emotional, and shows us what a hero Chris Reeve was, before and after he played Superman.

2024 Year in Review: EYG Frame Award- Best and Worst Animation

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Animation has had a big year. However, it seems as if I did not see as many animated movies as I should have. I was starting to look at the list of films from 2024 that would be in the June Swoon in 2025 and there were several animated movies that I had not seen.

Still, I have five animated films for the best and three for the worst. We’ll do this one as a list.

Best Animated Movies of 2024

#5. Kung Fu Panda 4. This one was nowhere near as good as the other films in this franchise, but was still an enjoyable watch. Jack Black is always fun as Po.

#4. Robot Dreams. Watched this during the 4F and it was decent. It received Oscar award nomination last year, but I counted it this year.

#3. Transformers One. A film that I really loved and a film that I almost skipped because of a trailer. This worked so much better than I thought it would.

#2. The Wild Robot. A beautiful story of a robot and a baby goose. Many believe this is the current favorite to win an Oscar this year. Could be, and it would be well deserving.

#1.

Inside Out 2

Pixar’s huge hit this year, Inside Out 2 may be just a step behind the original, but it was every bit as great of a story. Great CGI. Greta emotional storytelling. Great characterization. Inside Out 2 was the highest grossing movie of 2024. It is a massive success and I loved this movie.

Worst Animated Movie of 2024

#3. Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 3. Such a classic comic event turned into a dull and flat animated movie. Part 2 was just about as bad.

#2. Despicable Me 4. Minions and their adventures. Boring. This one is not for adults in any way.

#1.

The Garfield Movie

This movie went ahead and took the character of Garfield and made him an action star. Forget about the choice of having Chris Pratt voicing Garfield, this film did not have any idea of what the character of Garfield was and that is the biggest sin you could have.

2024 Year in Review: Best and Worst Horror Movies of 2024

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Unlike sci-fi, there has been a ton of horror movies. There are plenty to choose from for the best and worst this year.

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, Fear Street trilogy, The Menu, A Haunting in Venice

Best Horror Movie of 2024

Runners-Up: There are some great horror movies and several of these are going to wind up in the top 10 of the Best Movies list coming soon. I was hoping to give this award to a couple of these along the way. Such as Abigail, which when I first saw it, I figured this was the winner of this award. Heck, for awhile, this had a shot to be at #1 overall on the year (Spoiler alert: It will not be). I had loved Late Night with the Devil with David Dastmalchian. I found that to be completely original and reengaged the old found footage subgenre. I placed Alien: Romulus in this category instead of Sci-Fi and it was one of my favorites of the year. Another surprise film was Heretic with Hugh Grant. That movie was another huge hit and one that I loved.

However, I just recently saw the film that needed to win this award. It will be somewhere in the top 5 of the year on the final list.

Nosferatu

This vampire movie was such an amazing feat. It was basically the story of Count Dracula, but with Count Orlok in his place. And it was beautifully shot, acted and presented. It was creepy and scary as could be. A master class of visual storytelling as well as creation of a mood.

Worst Horror Movie of 2024

Runners-Up: There were an excess of poor horror films this year. The year kicked off with one of the worst with Night Swim. Imaginary I saw plenty of trailers for, but it was terrible. Dumb bear. Tarot is in contention for one of the worst films of the year, not just horror-wise. The Strangers Ch. 1 was a unnecessary reboot that ruined the franchise immediately. The Watchers… honestly I do not remember anything about that one. The Exorcism was one more bad movie starring Russell Crowe. Not his best year ever. Immaculate was another flopper among these horror flicks.

The worst horror movie of 2024 is from the same franchise that had the worst horror movie of 2023… a sequel!

Winner: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2

This one fooled me. I went in thinking this would be better. I had seen a couple of positive reviews and I thought it would be good campy fun. Nope. Just the same horrendous acting, violence for no reason and just lackluster storytelling. The worst horror film back to back years… has to be a record!

Getting Lost

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What a treat.

I think I had a knowledge in the back of my mind that there was a documentary in the works for LOST, but I had not gone looking for it. Then, I was on social media (I do not remember if I was on X or Facebook or Bluesky to be honest) and I found someone talking about the documentary being available on Prime for rental. I rushed over to Prime immediately to see if I could find it. And there it was.

I have to explain this. I have never been as connected to a TV program as I was with LOST. It was at the very heart of my being. When it ended, I felt like I had a hole in my heart that I just could not fill. It was a physical gap that had an emptiness about it. All these years later, I still think back on the show with so much love.

I was excited to watch this documentary and it immediately grabbed my attention. It had interviews with nearly everyone in the cast, producers, writers, fans and they were talking about all of the major aspects about LOST, from the cultural significance to the influential impact on TV to the importance of the show on people’s lives.

They talked about the pilot and how they were making the pilot without any expectation that it would ever be picked up. They talked about the Tailies, “The Constant,” Not Penny’s Boat, Charlie’s Death, “We have to go back,” Walt, the finale etc.

The documentary did not shy away from controversy either. They addressed how the finale is a divisive episode that split the community apart. They talked about the report a few years ago stating that the LOST writer’s room was filled with bullying, racism and sexism (which I had not heard about before this) and they asked Damon Lindelof about it. Matthew Fox did not appear via an interview for the doc and there was an ending moment where J.J. Abrams asked if they did not get an interview with anybody and the voice off camera said Matthew Fox. Abrams said, “Seriously? You never got Foxy? Come on, really?” and then said “That’s too bad. His loss.” I wonder if there was something contentious going on there. Dominic Monaghan apparently also declined an invitation to talk.

Filmmaker Taylor Morden included some specific details about the LOST fan community, including the podcasts that sprung up and also some of the charitable work done by the LOST community, especially dealing with cancer. There were some famous fans that were interviewed such as Samm Levine and Bobby Moynihan.

I loved this documentary. I may not be the most unbiased when it comes to my thoughts on it, but I do think that they went out of their way to include everything about the series, even the bad things.

AND IT WAS NOT PURGATORY! THEY WERE NOT DEAD ALL THE TIME!

Um.. sorry about that.

I Saw the TV Glow

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The other film I rented off Fandango at Home/Vudu was entitled I Saw the TV Glow, and Zi had heard plenty of buzz about this, in both positive and negative ways. I thought this would be a good film to give a try.

I have to say that this was very surreal, dream-like and metaphoric. It was a difficult movie to follow and so much of it was shot intentionally to create that feeling of confusion or interpretive.

According to IMDB, “Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”

One of the film’s main themes deal with reality and identity… who they were on the inside. I do believe that this was a metaphor showing the way some people can deny whom they are, pretending that they are something else. I have a feeling that this movie will reverberate with some people considerably more because of that theme.

I also believe that there are several ways that this movie could be interpreted and that no one way is exact. Since this narrative is not one with straight-forward situations and answers, the audience member brings a lot of what they infer with them centered around their own personal knowledge and background. That makes this material quite rich.

The film was trippy and psychedelic in the best ways. Some people are going to look upon this movie with disdain for any number of reasons, but I was fascinated with it and I was intrigued with what was happening with these characters. I’m not sure how many times I would watch this movie on rewatches, but the first time experience was worthwhile of my time.

3.6 stars

2024 Year in Review: The Avengers: Endgame Ensemble Cast of the Year Award

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In honor of those movies that feature large casts without a clear protagonist, it is time for the Avengers: Endgame Ensemble Cast of the Year Award. This has been around since 2019 and has had a strong list of movies win, as seen below.

The Avengers: Endgame Ensemble Cast of the Year Award

Previous Winners:  Avengers: Endgame (2019), The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), In the Heights (2021), Mass (2021), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022), Oppenheimer (2023)

Runners-Up: I considered giving this award to the movie I saw today, A Complete Unknown, but I decided that there is too much of a lead character in Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, despite the fact that the cast surrounding him was excellent. Another Chalamet film this year was Dune: Part Two that could have been a winner in this category. Another potential Oscar film was in consideration for this category with Conclave, the story of choosing a new pope. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever had a great cast, especially of young actors that deserve recognition in this category. I loved Wicked, but again, that film is more of a two person lead and may not be right for the ensemble award. Alien: Romulus was a fantastic movie with an ensemble that wound up as fodder for the Xenomorphs. Civil War was a strong film earlier in the year and its cast had a tough story to delve into. Emilia Perez had a strong ensemble as did The Piano Lesson, both on Netflix.

Winner of the Avengers: Endgame Ensemble Cast of the Year is…

Saturday Night

The film focuses on the opening night for SNL, as a group of performers running around unsure if they were actually going to get on the air. There are some great performances among the cast and the roles are beautifully cast. There may be some weaknesses in the script, but the cast itself is impeccable.

A Complete Unknown

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I do like Bob Dylan, but I would not say that I love him. I enjoy some of his music and I got to enjoy him more when he became part of the Traveling Wilburys in the late 1980s. Even so, I was looking forward to this biopic A Complete Unknown from director James Mangold and starring Timothée Chalamet.

I had an undeniably good time with this movie as I was completely entertained.

This film takes a look at Dylan’s life and career spanning from 1961 until 1964. The first part of the film is the typical musical biopic with many of the same beats that you see in all of these, but, in the second part of the film, the story becomes less about Bob Dylan and his genius at writing and creating music, and more about his change from the basic folk music style into something more electric, which caused a great deal of anxiety among the folk community and the fans of the world.

If you excuse the pun, Timothée Chalamet is electric with his performance of the enigmatic musician. He absolutely becomes Bob Dylan and he does an amazing job here, as Chalamet not only acts, but he plays the guitar and sings the songs. And he does all of this with a wonderful proficiency that never breaks the illusion that he is building as Bob Dylan. It is an Oscar-worthy performance in my opinion.

The cast around Chalamet is sensational too. Edward Norton as Pete Seeger does a fantastic job as Dylan’s mentor before he pulls away when Dylan added electric guitar to his repertoire. Boyd Holbrook has a precious few scenes that he completely dominates as Johnny Cash. Scoot McNairy played a sick and unable to talk Woody Guthrie, an idol to Dylan and someone who inspired Dylan to push on. Monica Barbaro played folk singer Joan Baez, who carried on an affair with Dylan but struggled with some of his choices and Elle Fanning played Dylan’s girlfriend Sylvie, whose performance was fine, but whose character did not make a lot of sense and so was the weakest part of an amazing film.

The music of Bob Dylan (and a few others) was used brilliantly to keep the energy of the film flying through most of the two hour and twenty minute runtime. I could not stop tapping my toes or singing under my breath with the music as we got all of Bob Dylan’s classics from the time period (one of my favorites- Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door came out in 1973).

Admittedly, we do not go into too much depth of the characters in the film. We do not learn anything about Bob Dylan that wasn’t common knowledge, but I do not think that was a negative necessarily. There is an aura around Bob Dylan and this movie definitely creates that aura around Timothée Chalamet.

I loved this movie and I think it has a chance to make the top 10 of the year in a few days when I make the list. It is certainly going to find its way on the top 30 list for sure. I found this thoroughly entertaining and engrossing and I loved hearing this music. I was impressed with the performances, with Chalamet standing out as a major success.

4.85 stars

A Different Man

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As the year is coming to an end, I went to Fandango At Home to see if I could find several films that I missed during 2024. I picked up a few rentals to watch over the next couple of days. The first one I watched was A Different Man, an A24 film starring Sebastian Stan and directed by Aaron Schimberg.

According to IMDB, “Aspiring actor Edward (Sebastian Stan) undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance, but his new dream face quickly turns into a nightmare as he loses out on the role he was born to play and becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was lost.“

There are many A24 films that are like this one, though different. There are wild, bizarre situations that seem to be taken in a normal, typical way. In this case, there is a sci-fi technique that led to Edward, who had Neurofibromatosis- a genetic condition that sees tumors grow on the body, to fixing his face, and it just was a way to change his appearance in the film.

Stan was excellent as the twitchy, malformed Edward. His change of facial appearance did not truly change him at all. It just opened some areas up to Edward, but he was just as uncertain and shaky as he ever was.

Adam Pearson played Oswald, another misshapen man, who brought himself into the play Edward was working in and kind of took over the stage. Pearson was amazing in the role and he had a complex character who seemed to be trying to take over the play while still being extremely likable.

Renate Reinsve played Ingrid, the playwright who had lived next door to Edward, gave a fantastic performance. She was very compelling with her relationship with Edward and Oswald.

I thought this was a very interesting film that was difficult to watch at times. The scenes where the tumors were being peeled off Edward’s face was horrific. Still, it is interesting that the film clearly is saying that the looks were not going to make everything better and that Edward regretted his decision in the end. Sebastian Stan did a great job in this role.

3.75 stars

2024 Year in Review: The Gomers for the Biggest Surprise

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2024 had plenty of films that fell into the middle of the range between good and bad. Honestly, however, it had a bunch of films that were surprises too. Thus, we have this year’s Gomer Award being quite a challenge to present. There are so many potential choices.

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, Deadstream, Totally Killer

Here are the runners-up:

First off, Late Night with the Devil from David Dastmalchian was a huge surprise because it just was something that I had not heard much from. I did hear Kevin Smith mention it on an episode of Fatman Beyond, but still. for it to be one of the best of the year, who saw that coming? Then, since I disliked the original film, who would have guessed that a new version of Roadhouse starring Jake Gyllenhaal that went immediately to streaming would be any good. It was and I couldn’t believe it. Another one that was a reboot of sort from a movie that I did not like was Twisters. No way that was a film I was going to enjoy and yet I did. Abigail was a surprise until I realized that Alishia Weir was the star. I knew it was going great after that. Hit Man was another I saw on streaming that had no right to be as good as it was. It’s the second film on the list from Glen Powell. Sharks in Paris? No way that was anything other than a member of the worst movies of the year list, right? Wrong. Under Paris was a lot of fun and way better than it should have been. Longlegs provided one of those shocking moments in the theater when you discover that Nicolas Cage was going to go over the top and still be awesome. I spoke about how much I was surprised that I enjoyed The Best Christmas Pageant Ever as I was trying to find an award for Best X-Mas Movie. Skincare? Another one that had no appeal to me that turned out to be fully entertaining. Strange Darling was weird, but really wonderfully constructed and engaging.

Yet after all of this, one film was the biggest surprise of the year. Spoiler for an upcoming Batman and Robin Award for Rottenness winner, this film one of the worst trailers of all time and nearly caused me to skip the film. Little did I know that this is probably a top 10 film of the year (certainly in consideration, at least).

Transformers One

This was an amazing movie and was one of the best animated films of the year. I never thought making Optimus and Megatron friends when they were younger would work. They weren’t Charles Xavier and Magneto, and yet this was done so well that everything made perfect sense. After so many years of utterly hating Transformers films, loving this one, especially after that horrendous trailer, was totally unexpected… and thus a Gomer winner.

PS: Interestingly enough, this is the second Transformers movie to win this award, with Bumblebee being the other. The original Transformers movies brought the bar so far down that I have trouble seeing them as a positive thing.