Tag Archives: film

2025 EYG Year in Review: 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), Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown).

We come to the BEST ACTOR award that we have named in honor of EYG Hall of Famer Peter Sellers and his multiple roles in the movie Dr. Strangelove. Again, no actor has won this award more than once. We do have one possible two-timer on the list and we will see if he can reach the top of the list.

#20. Austin Baker (Caught Stealing)

#19. George Clooney (Jay Kelly)

#18. Paul Mescal (Hamnet)

#17. Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value)

#16. Cooper Hoffman (The Long Walk)

Our first five on the list all have nice performances. Cooper Hoffman was the biggest surprise of these five as his work on The Long Walk was exceptional.

#15. Brad Pitt (F1: The Movie)

#14. Daniel Craig (Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery)

#13. Jeremy Allen White (Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere)

#12. Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams)

#11. Pedro Pascal (Fantastic Four: First Steps)

Big names in this part of the list. Pedro Pascal I expected to be higher until I stated to compile the list. I loved his portray of Reed Richards. Jeremy Allen White did a great job as Springsteen. Daniel Craig was down further than I thought too. His performance as Benoit Blanc is always sensational. Some are saying Joel Edgerton has a chance to be nominated for an Oscar. I am not sure I would go that far, but he was good in Train Dreams.

#10. Channing Tatum (Roofman)

#9. David Jonsson (The Long Walk)

#8. Russell Crowe (Nuremberg)

#7. Matthew McConaughey (The Lost Bus)

#6. Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another)

Some think Leonardo is going to win the Oscar this year. I have already said that I was not a fan of One Battle After Another. He was fine there. Heck, he was better than fine as I have him at #6. David Jonsson in The Long Walk was exceptional and extremely moving. Russell Crowe playing Herman Goering is hard to give a lot of affirmations. He was great as the Nazi.

#5. Josh O’Connor (Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery)

#4. Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme)

#3. Hugh Jackman (Song Sung Blue)

#2. Dwayne Johnson (The Smashing Machine)

Timothee Chalamet won this award last year when he played Bob Dylan, so no two-time winner this year. The Rock gave his best performance of his career. It is a shame it is being overshadowed by the failure at the box office of Smashing Machine. Hugh Jackman is brilliant in Song Sung Blue, a film I just saw yesterday. Josh O’Connor did the impossible… stole the Knives Out movie from Benoit Blanc.

And #1…Strangelove winner for 2025

Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)

Michael B. Jordan played twins in Sinners and he did such a great job, there were times that I wondered if it was actually him playing both roles. Both characters, Smoke and Stack Moore, were individual people and had their own traits and personalities. It was a tour de force performance from a man who has only been getting better every movie.

2025 EYG Year in Review: The Hermione Granger/Furiosa/Rita Moreno Award for Best Supporting Actress

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The Hermione Granger/Furiosa/Rita Moreno Award for Best  Supporting Actress

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), Rita Moreno (West Side Story), Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers), Ariana Grande (Wicked)

With Best Supporting Actress, we have two past winners who are up for the award this year. It happened in the Best Director category… could we have the first time 2-Time winner of The Hermione Granger/Furiosa/Rita Moreno Award for Best  Supporting Actress?

Let’s find out…

#12. Erin Kellyman (Eleanor the Great)

#11. Jennifer Lopez (Kiss of the Spider-Woman)

#10. Chase Infiniti (One battle After Another)

So the first three are all roles that were not winning this, but were solid performances. Chase Infiniti has a chance to be nominated for an Oscar, but I think her days are still ahead of her.

#9. America Ferrera (The Lost Bus)

#8. Elle Fanning (Sentimental Value)

#7. Laura Dern (Jay Kelly)

#6. Rebecca Ferguson (A House of Dynamite)

Four solid women in this stretch of the list. Rebecca Ferguson, America Ferrera both did underrated work in their movies this year. Elle Fanning stood out in Sentimental Value.

#5. Hailee Seinfeld (Sinners)

#4. Emily Blunt (Smashing Machine)

#3. Ariana Grande (Wicked: For Good)

#2. Glenn Close (Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery)

So no double winners in the supporting actress category this year. Emily Blunt had won previously for A Quiet Place and Ariana Grande won last year for Wicked. We have a new winner this year. Glenn Close nearly snuck up and snatched this away with her amazing performance in Wake Up Dead Man.

And #1…

Amy Madigan (Weapons)

Amy Madigan was thrilling and cruel as the witch who needed to kidnap a group of kids to save herself. She was creepy and eerie. She had the strangest, yet most deserving ending to any villain this year. Her performance made this movie work. It gave us all someone to hate.

2025 EYG 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), Robert Eggers (Nosferatu)

We have some top of the line directors up for this award this year. We have never had a repeat winner in this award before, but we definitely have some possible 2nd time winners among our list.

Honorable Mention: Scarlett Johansson (Eleanor the Great), Jafar Pasnahi (It Was Just an Accident), Rob Reiner (Spinal Tap II: The End Continues), Francis Lawrence (The Long Walk), Joseph Kosinski (F1: The Movie).

#15. Kathryn Bigelow (A House of Dynamite)

#14. Mike Flanagan (Life of Chuck)

#13. Yorgus Lanthimos (Bugonia)

#12. Jon M. Chu (Wicked: For Good)

#11. Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)

Discussion: Many Oscar pundits have PTA leading the pack for Best Director, but I did not love One Battle After Another. There is no argument that he did a great job as the director. Jon Chu and Mike Flanagan had dance and musical numbers to deal with. Kathryn Bigelow had to show multiple POVs in her film and Yorgus had to direct one of the most crazy scenes of the year.

#10. Chloe Zhao (Hamnet)

#9. James Gunn (Superman)

#8. Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme)

#7. Jake Schreier (Thunderbolts*)

#6. Matt Shakman (Fantastic Four: Final Steps)

I thought Matt Shakman, fresh off WandaVision, created a great tone in FF: First Steps. Thunderbolts was a great ensemble and Schreier managed the group extremely well. James Gunn had a lot of pressure choosing to direct the first DCU film himself and he did a great job. Josh Safdie won the battle of the Safdie brothers this year. Hamnet had a remarkable ending, but the first half was too slow.

#5. Paul Greengrass (The Lost Bus)

#4. Zach Cregger (Weapons)

#3. Guillermo Del Toro (Frankenstein)

#2. Rian Johnson (Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery)

With this group of directors, Rian Johnson’s brilliant story was presented in a perfect manner. Del Toro brought a stylish version of Frankenstein to Netflix. Zach Cregger’s work on Weapons was great, again with a style of differing POVs. The directing job done by Paul Greengrass with the fire and the stunts in The Lost Bus should not be overlooked, although it does feel as if it has been.

#1…

Ryan Coogler (Sinners)

Here is our first two-time “All Right, Mr. Deville, I am Ready for my Close Up” Award for Best Director winner. Coogler won a few years ago for his great work on Wakanda Forever and he absolutely took the next step with Sinners. This movie was such an epic that you can’t help but be impressed by his amazing work. Vampires. Music. Dance routines. Bloody standoffs. Sinners has everything.

2025 EYG Year in Review: Frame Award-Animation

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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, Mitchells vs. the Machines, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Inside Out 2

We had a really great year for animation this year. In fact, I usually connect this with the Worst Animation movie too, but I could not find one that I hadn’t given a fresh review to so I am just giving the Frame Award out. All positives here and that is great.

(Of course, I did not see Smurfs, which probably would have been that place.)

2025 Animated Movies: There are a couple of films that I would not put on the list which would be Elio and Stitch Head. Both are acceptable films. Elio might be considered weak if you used the Pixar metric to judge it, but other wise, it was decent.

Top 9 animated films of 2025.

#9. Dog Man. I did not like the trailers for this, but the film itself was decent.

#8. Ne Zha 2. This made almost 2 billions worldwide, but almost nothing in the US. Fun flick though.

#7. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Loony Tunes Movie. This was fun, but I would have rather had Bugs Bunny than Daffy and Porky. Still, it was Loony Tunes goodness.

#6. In Your Dreams. A good film on Netflix that deals with family issues (specifically divorce).

#5. The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants. One of the most recent animated films that surprised me with how funny I found it. Mark Hamill always helps.

#4. Bad Guys 2. A sequel that was just about as good as the original with some fun characters in wild situations.

#3. Predator: Killer of Killers. The Hulu animated film in the Predator franchise. It really was a solid film and led into the badlands films brilliantly.

#2. K-Pop Demon Hunters. A film that should not have been this high on my list, but it had exciting story, great music and beautiful animation.

and #1….

Zootopia 2

This is possibly the highest grossing film of the year (we will see how Avatar ends up), but Zootopia has broken the billion dollar club and is just a really awesome story as well. The voice acting is tremendous and it is a really solid film in the Disney studios.

2025 Year in Review: Documentaries

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It’s been a good year for documentaries, but there has not been one that really jumped out as the best of the year. In past years, there have been some apparent choices.

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, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

Many of these were so obvious that you could just pencil it in and plan the rest. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? was as good as it got. The Michael J. Fox and Christopher Reeve movies brought so many feels to my tum-tum that they were clear choices.

This year, I have a bunch of good ones, but none that really demands to be the winner.

Runners-Up: I have not seen the John Candy doc, which I think will be pushed to the June Swoon at this point. I watched the Wick is Pain doc this year prior to Ballerina, and it was an enjoyable time. Being Eddie was funny, but not incredibly deep. Unknown Number: The High School Catfish was an improbable story, and those always make an enjoyable doc. Peacock had the Wrestlemania IX: Becoming a Spectacle, which had a lot of background info on one of the worst Wrestlemanias of all time. A doc on the artist behind Maus, Art Spiegelman, was a nice doc. Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse goes into detail of the iconic cartoonist. My most recent doc was The Secrets We Bury on HBO Max, about a man who found his father’s bones buried beneath his house. I just finished Billy Joel: And So It Goes as part of the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. Becoming Led Zeppelin was a rocking good time. The Perfect Neighbor was another story of a Karen-gone-wrong and almost got this win. The actual second place doc this year went to Titan: The Oceangate Disaster.

Documentary of the Year

WWE Unreal

I know there were a lot of people trashing this as being set up, that the backstage stuff was scripted more than it professed. I don’t care. I found this to be utterly fascinating and engaging. When the agent Chris Park was upset because the Punk-Rollins match was going too long and he kept apologizing to Bruce Pritchard, who sure seemed to be one big jerk about it. Park was consoled by William Regal. That scene was absolutely not scripted and it showed the amount of pressure the backstage agents can feel.

This was four episodes on Netflix and is leading to a second season in January.

2025 EYG Year in Review: More TV

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We have given the best shows in each of the categories (Drama, Comedy, Genre, Animation). Now let’s get a little more specific.

Best Actor Drama: Sterling K. Brown (Paradise). Runners-Up: Stephen Graham (Adolescence), Noah Wylie (The Pitt), Michael C. Hall (Dexter: Resurrection), Jeremy Allen White (The Bear), Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game 3), Josh Holloway (Duster)

Best Actress Drama: Rhea Seehorn (Pluribus). Runners-Up: Melanie Lynskey (Yellowjackets), Christina Ricci (Yellowjackets), Julianne Nicholson (Paradise)

Best Supporting Actor Drama: Owen Cooper (Adolescence). Runners-Up: Gerran Howell (The Pitt), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear), Elijah Wood (Yellowjackets), Peter Dinklage (Dexter: Resurrection), Jason Isaacs (The White Lotus).

Best Supporting Actress Drama: Uma Thurman (Dexter: Resurrection). Runners-Up: Tracy Ifeacho (The Pitt), Katherine LaNasa (The Pitt), Erin Doherty (Adolescence), Jamie Lee Curtis (The Bear), Parker Posey (The White Lotus).

Best Actor Comedy: Seth Rogen (The Studio). Runners-Up: Steve Martin (Only Murders in the Building), Martin Short (Only Murders in the Building), Owen Wilson (Stick).

Best Actress Comedy: Selena Gomez (Only Murders in the Building). Runners-Up: Natasha Lyonne (Poker Face).

Best Supporting Actor Comedy: Marc Meron (Stick). Runners-Up: Christoph Waltz (Only Murders in the Building), Ike Barinholtz (The Studio), Bryan Cranston (The Studio), Teddy Coluca (Only Murders in the Building), Peter Dager (Stick).

Best Supporting Actress Comedy: Meryl Streep (Only Murders in the Building). Runners-Up: Kathryn Hahn (The Studio), Patti Harrison (Poker Face), Renee Zellweger (Only Murders in the Building), Zoe Kravitz (The Studio).

Best Actor Genre: Gabriel Luna (Andor). Runners-Up: Charlie Cox (Daredevil: Born Again), John Cena (Peacemaker), Ncuti Gatwa (Doctor Who), Alexander Skarsgård (Murderbot), Vincent D’Onofrio (Daredevil: Born Again).

Best Actress Genre: Jenna Ortega (Wednesday). Runners-Up: Rebecca Ferguson (Silo), Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us), Dominique Thorne (Ironheart), Jennifer Holland (Peacemaker), Jaz Sinclair (Gen V), Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things 5).

Best Supporting Actor Genre: Bill Skarsgård (IT: Welcome to Derry). Runners-Up: David Harbour (Stranger Things 5), Tim Robbins (Silo), Stellan Skarsgård (Andor), Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us), David Dastmalchian (Murderbot), Anthony Ramos (Ironheart), Steve Agee (Peacemaker), Arian S. Cartaya (IT: Welcome to Derry).

Best Supporting Actress Genre: Danielle Brooks (Peacemaker). Runners-Up: Sadie Sink (Stranger Things 5), Matilda Lawler (IT: Welcome to Derry), Genevieve O’Reilly (Andor), Isabela Merced (The Last of Us), Lyric Ross (Ironheart).

Best New Theme: IT: Welcome to Derry.

Best Makeup: Stranger Things 5. Runners-Up: Fallout, IT: Welcome to Derry, Gen V, Alien: Earth, Wednesday.

Best Animated Show: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

Best Animated Show Voice Actor: Christian Borle (Hazbin Hotel). Runners-Up: Erika Henningsen (Hazbin Hotel), Colman Domingo (Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man), Jeremy Jordan (Hazbin Hotel), Will Forte (Win or Lose), Hudson Thames (Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man)

Best TV Show Cameo: Sacha Baron Cohan (Ironheart). Runners-Up: Nicholas Hoult (Peacemaker), Rob Reiner (The Bear), Olivia Colman (The Bear), Keegan-Michael Key (Only Murders in the Building), Simon Helberg (Poker Face), John Cena (Pluribus), Martin Scorsese (The Studio), Ron Howard (The Studio), Ice Cube (The Studio).

Best Season Finale: IT: Welcome to Derry.

Christy

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Christy is a biopic of female boxer Christy Martin’s rise in the world of women boxing and her subsequent abusive relationship with her coach/husband James Martin. This is a film that I rented off Fandango at Home. It was one of the biggest flops of the year at the box office, which is truly a shame because the movie is tremendous.

I thought both Sydney Sweeney, who played Christy, and Ben Foster, who played James, did spectacular jobs. Sydney Sweeney was practically unrecognizable and, had I not known this was her in the lead role, I never would have guessed it.

Christy followed its titular character through her discovery when she won a tough person contest. She was brought into a gym and she showed off her skills at punching to James Martin. He began training her and prepared her to lead the way in the world of female boxing.

Christy had a relationship with another woman, which was frowned upon by her mother Joyce (Merritt Wever). The family sent Christy away to train with James and to control her. James immediately began to show his attempts to control Christy through manipulation. He pushed himself into a relationship with her and was able to get her to agree to marry him.

That was a major mistake. He showed himself to be not only controlling, but also abusive, as he hit her and strangled her during their marriage. While this was going on, he was skimming from the money earned by Christy from her fights. He even went as far as to say that if she ever left him, he would kill her.

It is a fascinating tale as a female boxer, who was one of the first and most dominate female boxers in the sport, would have troubles with an abusive husband. From the outside, you would think that she could take care of herself, but her boxing was not able to prevent his violence.

The third act events were shocking and brutal. I came into it without any knowledge of the life of Christy Martin and, if you can, I would recommend you do the same thing. It was a tough story.

This is a movie that should have done better at the box office. It did not deserve the audiences to desert it as they did. Hopefully, this will find an audience on streaming because this is an important story for people to see.

4 stars

2025 EYG Year in Review: The EYG Stan Lee Movie Cameo Award

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The EYG Stan Lee Movie Cameo Award

Previous winners:  Stan Lee (Big Hero 6*, Deadpool, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse* ), John Cena (Daddy’s Home), Chris Evans (Thor: The Dark World, Free Guy, Deadpool & Wolverine), Sigourney Weaver (Cabin in the Woods), Hugh Jackman (X-Men: First Class), Yoda (Star Wars: The Last Jedi), J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man: Far From Home), Harrison Ford (Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker), Rudy Giuliani (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm), Val Kilmer (Top Gun: Maverick), Rhea Perlman (Barbie)

SPOILERS

I am adding a spoiler tag to this award because the winner of The EYG Stan Lee Movie Cameo of the Year Award came from a movie that I just saw and has not been out for a long time. So if you are wanting to see this certain movie and you do not want this cameo spoiled, please skip this award for the moment.

Stan Lee was the master of the cameo. He is a three time winner of this award and, of course, had it named after him. A cameo can be a great thing. It can be a sudden surprise, something that you couldn’t believe. It could be something that made the scene perfect. It could be an amazing Easter egg. It could be an inside joke that only some of the audience may get. Or it could be the appearance of a celeb or a character that shows how much respect or love they have for the content in which they are appearing.

I actually was not anxious to do this award, despite it being one of my favorites and one of the oldest we had. The reason is I do not have a great deal of cameos in movies this year. There are actually several big ones in TV (which we’ll give out with the More TV Awards later this weekend), but the movies were light for me.

Naked Gun had a couple of good ones. Dave Bautista appeared in a fun joke, replacing Liam Neeson for a bit of the film. Weird Al was in that film too. I considered giving it to Al because he has been in so many of the Naked Gun films over the year. Bradley Cooper appeared in Superman as Jor-El, which was unexpected. John Cena’s Peacemaker was also in Superman. Sarah Michelle Geller appeared in the reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer, but that film was such a mess that I wouldn’t want to give this award for that. Then there was William Zabka at the very end of the Karate Kid Legends, which was a fun shout out to Cobra Kai.

None of these were very impactful overall. I take nothing away from any of them, but I am not sure these were going to deserve this award, in the name of Stan Lee.

Then I saw Anaconda today.

Again, SPOILERS ahead. If you do not want to be spoiled by this… I’ll give you a countdown.

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

The EYG Stan Lee Cameo Award goes to…

Ice Cube as himself (Anaconda)

Star of the 1997 film Anaconda, Ice Cube makes a shocking return to the screen in 2025’s Anaconda. In the film, Jack Black and Paul Rudd are filming a reimaging of the film Anaconda, and they make plenty of references to the original film. Ice Cube pulls a Deus ex machina near the end of the film to show up and save the guys from certain death. Ice Cube strolls in as bad ass as they come. J-Lo makes an appearance later in a post credit scene, but Ice Cube gets this nod for being indispensable to the story itself.

I am very pleased for Ice Cube here after the disaster that was War of the Worlds.

The Housemaid

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When I first saw a trailer for this movie, I thought to myself, “This is like the Hand that Rocked the Cradle.” I said this to a friend of mine and she said that it was not anything like that. She mentioned that it was originally in a novel by Freida McFadden, which I did not know. I decided that I would give this a chance. My friend was right, this was not in that subgenre of horror film where the babysitter tries to do crazy things for reasons.

According to IMDB, “A struggling young woman is relieved by the chance for a fresh start as a maid for a wealthy couple. Soon, she discovers that the family’s secrets are far more dangerous than her own.”

This one has its ups and downs for me. I am not sure how I feel about it. I think the three main cast members, Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar, do a fantastic job with what the story asks of them. They have great chemistry with each other and are very believable in everything that they do.

One of my problems though is I hate it when people do stupid things in a thriller. There are several things that Sweeney’s character Millie does that makes me want to yell at the screen. Couldn’t she see this coming? Maybe at first, but as the film moved on, why are you not recognizing what is going on? I hate it when the characters do really stupid things.

The end of the movie was fun, but I did see it coming. There was something that, when mentioned in the beginning of the film, I knew was going to come back around as a major piece later in the film, and sure enough, I was right.

There was also a section near the beginning of the third act of the film where suddenly we were doing a ton of exposition, explaining what had gone down. I thought this was a weak point of the movie.

The Housemaid feels like Hollywood camp, but in a glorious way. It feels as if everyone involved understands the assignment in this story and are ready to give it their all. There are weaknesses in the film, but I think I came out of it more positive than negative.

3 stars

Anaconda

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Back in 1997, a horror film about a giant snake appeared. Anaconda, starring Ice Cube, J-Lo, and Jon Voight, was a terrible movie, but it survived the years and became an iconic cult classic film. In 2025, we now got a meta-sequel to the film starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd which debuted this weekend.

According to IMDB, “Four childhood friends are going through a midlife crisis so they decide to remake their favorite horror movie from the 1990s in the Amazon Forest When a real giant anaconda shows up, they get more than what they bargain for and their comically chaotic movie making turns into a life-or-death situation. The movie that they’re dying to remake? It might just kill them, literally.“

I heard some negative things about the new film before I went into it, which made me nervous because I had thought the trailers looked good and I was excited to see it. The negative comments made me feel much more tentative about the movie.

I can understand why some people might not have been a fan of this, but I enjoyed it a lot. I found this funny, the characters likable and entertaining, and the meta qualities of the film worked so well.

I thought there was a lot of clever writing involved in this movie. The humor is solid. There were a couple of jokes that I usually do not like, but, for me, even those worked well.

No spoiler here, but there was a great cameo in the film too.

There are some negatives to the film too though. I do think it started fairly slowly and the film really took off when the characters get on their boat. I do think that I wish the trailer hadn’t spoiled some of the best laughs in the film because I think it would have been so much better.

I am happy that I liked this movie more than what some were saying. I found it funny and engaging. I do enjoy a film with as many meta jokes and Anaconda falls right into that.

3.8 stars

2025 EYG Year in Review: Best and Worst Horror Movies

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This was another great year in horror. Not perfect, of course. There is a nice balance between good films and bad ones.

Again, we have not been keeping track of the “Worst” film, but the “Best” is in the records:

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, Nosferatu

Runners-Up: Final Destination: Bloodlines was a surprise for me. At this point, I had never seen any of the Final Destination movies (I saw the first one in the October 13), and I loved this new one. The new Conjuring movie, Conjuring: Last Rites, put that franchise to bed (or so we are told). Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein is a stylish, engaging new version on Netflix. A film I did not expect to like was Dangerous Animals, but it was extremely awesome. It was a shark movie that did not make the shark the villain. So it came down to two choices… and the one that did not make it was Weapons. I loved that movie, but I think it was a little less of a horror movie than the one that turned out to be the winner.

Best Horror Movie

Sinners

Michael B. Jordan starred in this Ryan Coogler directed film. Coogler wanted to do his vampire film and what he did was Sinners. This was a fantastic film and it was something we hadn’t seen before. Jordan played dual roles and he did it so well.

Worst Horror

Runners-Up: Until Dawn was such a bad movie. It was a disappointment as it had a decent premise. Lots of people loved Together, but I hated it. I hated it so much. Fear Street: Prom Queen was such a downgrade from the awesome trilogy from a few years ago.

“Winner”:

That film is not from Jordan Peele, no matter how much the movie wanted it to be true. This football film is truly one of the worst MOVIES of the year… not just horror.

Marty Supreme

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Happy Christmas Eve to everyone. With the year coming to a close soon, there are a few more in theater movies to watch. The first of the few remaining theater films today was Timothée Chalamet’s new film, Marty Supreme.

I was really surprised with this movie. It was not what I was expecting. Apparently, this is slightly based on a real person, but in a fictional story with fictional things happening. The main character of this movie, Marty Mauser, is based on Marty Reisman, an American table tennis player, and it is directed by Josh Safdie.

What surprised me about this movie was how unlikable the character of Marty Mauser was. He was such a jerk to everyone. Selfish. Rotten. Mean-spirited. Obnoxious. Marty is a con man who will do some rotten things to try an accomplish what he wanted to do. During the first half of the film, I was thinking about how Marty was so rotten, yet how I found myself rooting for him. That, surprisingly, did not stay as I was rooting for the other guy in the final act.

Timothée Chalamet was excellent in the role of Marty. He disappeared into the role and I never was thinking about him as the actor that he was. It was a great performance and will probably earn him an Academy Award nomination.

It is a risk having a protagonist as unlikable as Marty Mauser because you take the chance of alienating the audience. However, there is such great writing involved and Marty is such a complex character that you can understand why he is doing the terrible things that he is doing.

The film is a little long, and there was a spot where I thought the movie might be ending (and I feel as if maybe it should have). I can’t go into details without spoiling it.

I expected Marty Supreme to be a good time, feel good story. It is not that. It is challenging and dark. It is a great film.

4.4 stars

2025 Year in Review: The Batman and Robin Award for Rottenness

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The Batman and Robins are the awards we give out every year for the worst of the worst. The awards for rottenness are given out to stuff that just did not work.

Worst Movie: To be revealed at the Least Favorite Movies list.

Worst Actor: Ice Cube (War of the Worlds). Ice Cube is a talented performer who gave a horrible performance in a horrible movie.

Worst Actress: Gal Gadot (Disney’s Snow White). She was miscast as the Evil Queen and nothing that happened in Snow White showed that she could not elevate the material.

Worst Director: Justin Tipping (HIM). One of the worst films of the year. It’s so bad that they needed to pretend that Jordan Peele had something to do with it.

Worst Sequel: Fear Street: Prom Queen. The first Fear Street trilogy was so good and a lot of fun. This was the antithesis of that.

Worst CGI: Star Trek: Section 31. Not much was good about this one.

Favorite Rotten Movie: Captain America: Brave New World. There is a lot of hate for this movie, but I enjoyed it a lot. It could have been better, but it does not deserve as much hatred as it got.

Worst Movie That I Did Not See: The Smurfs

Cashing a Paycheck: Richard Dreyfuss (Into the Deep). Dreyfuss was one of the reasons why I watched this shark movie. That was a mistake.

Worst Reboot/Remake: I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Most Successful Bad Movie: A Minecraft Movie

Worst Movie Based on TV/Video Game: Smurfs

Worst Superhero Movie: Old Guard 2

Worst Trailer: A Minecraft Movie. This trailer showed me how terrible this was going to be

WTF: 2073. It was from HBO Max, but it was a bizarre mixture of doc and horrific film.

Worst Performance by Oscar Winner: Michelle Yeoh (Stra Trek: Section 31)

Worst TV Show I Watched: Alien: Earth. Started great, but fell off quickly. Too boring for an alien show.

Worst Product Placement: Amazon Prime in War of the Worlds. It played more like an advertisement for Amazon Prime.

2025 EYG Year in Review: The Spider-Man 3 Disappointment of the Year

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The flip side of the Gomer, The Spider-Man 3 Disappointment of the Year is the film that I had expected big things from, but it came up short. I might have liked a film that gets this award (this year is an example), but I found more problems than I expected.

The Spider-Man 3 Disappointment of the Year 

Previous Winners:  In the Heart of the Sea, The Snowman, Amazing Spider-Man 2, After Earth, Dark Knight Rises, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Batman v. Superman, Christopher Robin, IT: Chapter Two, Tenet, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, Halloween Ends, Next Goal Wins, Gladiator II

This year’s runners-up: There was a film from Netflix this year that starred Chris Pratt called Electric State. It was a sci-fi movie that should have been fantastic, but it was far from it. A film that had Jordan Peele’s name on the advertising was called HIM. This had no right to be as bad as it was. M3GAN, the original, was a Gomer runner up, but the sequel to it, M3GAN 2.0 was just dumb and took the worst parts of the original and expended on it. Many people think this will win the Oscar this year for Best Picture, but I was disappointed with One Battle After Another. It was fine. I just expected more than what I saw. I love Ke Huy Quan, but Love Hurts hurt when I had to watch it. Another two movies that I heard positives about, but hated was Friendship and Together. Both big on Rotten Tomatoes, but not at EYG.

And this year’s Spider-Man 3 Disappointment of the Year was…

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

I did like this movie. I gave it a fresh rating. It got like 3.5 stars from me.

And yet, it is getting the Spider-Man 3 Disappointment of the Year.

The final film in the Mission Impossible franchise should have been one of the best films of the year. The first hour or so of this movie was just too dull and repetitive. The ending was great, but I just did not like getting there. The film was too long and could not be totally saved by the great last hour. Then the final shot of the film was disappointing too.

This is a good movie that should have been mind-blowing.

Disappointing.

It Was Just An Accident

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It Was Just An Accident was an international film which was a co-production between Iran, France, and Luxembourg. I had heard positives about the film on FYC and I had a chance to rent it off Fandango at Home.

According to IMDB, “An unassuming mechanic is reminded of his time in an Iranian prison when he encounters a man he suspects to be his sadistic jailhouse captor. Panicked, he rounds up a few of his fellow ex-prisoners to confirm the man’s identity.”

Powerful storytelling as we follow this group of people who had had their lives touched by this tormenter from an Iranian prison. Each person had to reassess their own choices and moral line as they attempt to confirm that this man is who they believe him to be.

There are enough doubts tossed around by the script that you as viewer are never quite sure which way the story will go. Is this the cruel torturer or is it a man who had a similar injury? The tormentor had a prosthetic leg and was dubbed the nickname “Peg Leg.” The man had the same prosthetic, but since the victims were always blindfolded, they could not specifically identify him, and the man had a seemingly cohesive story to cover the possible truth. I will admit that I was never 100% sure during the movie is he was Peg Leg or not.

Without spoilers, I loved the ending of the film. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I really found it to be refreshing.

The performances from the actors were top line. Vahid Mobasseri played Vahid, the mechanic who first discovered the possible Peg Leg, played by Ebrahim Azizi. Mariam Afshari was Shiva, a photographer who Vahid tried to get confirmation from. Other cast members included Majid Panahi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohammad Ali Elyasmehr, Delnaz Najafi and Georges Hashemzadeh.

I really enjoyed this international film. It was extremely well written with some exceptional performances.

4.4 stars