Welcome to the 3rd annual Best and Worst list, I am your hostess, The Vampire Princess.  We have a wallet breaking 48 movies watched in Theatres this year and even more original pictures watched on Netflix. Admittedly nothing from Netflix got a review, which might be something to correct in 2019; as 2018 brought us the above average Bird Box and the near unwatchable Cloverfield Paradox. It would certainly add to the list of reviews, along side the requests that were made back in September.

So here are the rules for this years list:

Rules:

• Must be a First Run, so no re-releases of an older film
• Must be in theatres.
• Boycotted Movies don’t get to make the list – except as a commentary

Best of 2018

1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
   At the beginning of the year I never would pegged this as my top movie of the year. Hell up to the day I watched it I never would have pegged it. Watching this however, it was in short a perfect movie. It has heart, great animation, charisma, great characters, enough design to keep artists discussing for months, and all that put into a single package that had no business working but did.
2. Black Panther
   Before Spider-Man this was the movie. This was THE movie of the year and deservedly so. Both of them give us representation in the hero film genre in a way that we needed, and the box office shows it as one the highest grossing movie of the year and honestly, one of the highest ever. This movie deserves the praise it received and has the most compelling villain Marvel has ever given us, yes including Loki.
3. Bumblebee
   It’s hard to put this one so high up on the list, but after thinking about it, it has no other place. It could be stated that it’s so high up because it’s so good in comparison to the others, but the reality is it is just good.
4. Bohemian Rhapsody
   It was more than the movie I thought I was going to get from the trailers and original stories coming out. It was the emotional roller coaster it promised to be; even if it has a tainted production; which moves it down the list.
5. A Simple Favor
   Really when looking at all the movies this year, this one is one of the top ones to just please me. The characters were compelling, the actors amazing, and I loved watching the evolution of the character arcs to a point I didn’t think Hollywood could give me.
6. Halloween
   While a Quiet Place almost made this list in this spot, this really was the Halloween movie we have needed for a long time. A complete reboot of the franchise, while still respecting the original. It gave me the fan service I wanted in the nods to the original and some of the sequels, but wasn’t beholden to them. This is also one of the few movies I’ve seen twice this year (in theatre) and thus deserved its spot on the list.

Special Mention: Anna and the Apocalypse

It didn’t make the cut, but remained in the top 10 of my list longer than most. It doesn’t quite have the calibre of pedigree of the other films in the list, but I will be damned if I didn’t enjoy it and still do weeks later and really want people to watch this movie. Aside from Spider-Man this is the only movie on the list to truly put me in my happy place coming out of the theatre, a movie that took away all the pain, nightmares, and weight I feel and just let me enjoy life for a few precious minutes. I can’t really explain why, but it does.

Worst of 2018

6. Mortal Engines
   This movie is one of the biggest cinematic bombs of the year barely even making 10% of its production budget back, excluding the marketing budget. This movie was a train wreck from the top down with pretty visuals. The only thing worse than it in that aspect is…
5. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
   Simply put this one is just bad, high concept, high cost, poor execution all around. I don’t hate the movie, I was just disappointed. It’s even worse than Mortal Engines because Engines has some redeeming qualities.
4. Winchester
   The only movie I walked out of this year. Uninspired and boring, yet there are worse. Ones that left me with an emotion a strong one.
3. Pacific Rim: Uprising
   This one I hate. I couldn’t even get a proper review out to talk about how much I despise this movie and everyone involved in its production.
2. Jurassic World – Fallen Kingdom
   Even worse than the wreck that is Pacific Rim is this garbage fire. Pacific Rim is cheap and stupid. This is quite frankly expensive and offensively stupid and that is the worst sin.
1. Death Wish
   While the previous entries on this list were bad for production values, acting, ineffectual storytelling, this movie is bad for all of the above AND is offensive to boot. It was absolutely tone deaf and had no business getting a theatrical release. While Pacific Rim and Jurassic irritated me, this one out and out angered me.

Special Mention: Hereditary

While not one of the worst movies of the year by a long shot, it is possibly one of the most overhyped movies of the year. I’ve had plenty of time to think on this one and the ending that everyone found freaky or horrifying I continue to find near laughable. The only thing keeping it off the list of the worst is there is artistry at play and the acting was top notch and no one in that film deserves to be decried for the effort put in. Hereditary is the difference between a movie where people really care about the art and the project, but don’t quite nail the execution and the other six on the list where I find it hard to believe real care was put in.

So thats the list. What are your best and worst of the year? Agree or disagree with my list? Discuss below or over on our Facebook page!

Tried this last year, seemed to work. Let’s go again – top 6 movies and worst 6 movies. 38 movies reviewed this year 12 make the list.

Rules:

• Now this list is strictly based on movies I have watched as part of a First Run experience in theatres.
• Boycotted Movies don’t get to make the list – so no Kingsman.

Best of 2017

1. 1. Wonder Woman
      This shouldn’t surprise anyone, not only was Wonder Woman one of the most watchable and re-watchable films of the year. It was a landmark movie as the most profitable movie by a female director (Patty Jenkins) ever, best DCEU movie, best Superhero movie of 2017, 5th best Superhero movie ever (behind the two Avengers movies and two Dark Knight movies), bringing in over $412 million domestic for a total of $821 million world wide. DC nailed it with this one and it shows. They beat Marvel to the punch and proved it could work, despite Marvel CEO’s saying it couldn’t. Wonder Woman lived up to her name and truly was a wonder…and the best movie of 2017.
   2. Blade Runner 2049
      This one didn’t fare as well at the box office bringing in only $91 million (domestic) on its $150 million budget. I truly believe they misjudged the market for this one as much as anything. This is an amazingly well crafted, cerebral, and beautifully shot. It makes number two on my list without question.
   3. Logan
      Just watched this again the other night. It holds up so well. It is unlike every other superhero movie that has come before, well used R-rating aside, it is both heartbreaking and visceral at the same time. None of the others have managed to do what Logan did. It has a few flaws in Act II but still just an amazing movie breaking outside its own genre.
   4. It
      Three viewings in and a fourth today this, the highest grossing horror movie ever, is an amazing adaptation of the material. While I will admit some of the horror is lost over the successive viewings, it holds up and I think it will continue to hold up for years to come. I do worry about the sequel though based on some things I have heard…
   5. Atomic Blonde
      This one beats out John Wick 2. The action is amazing and done in camera. Long tracking shots of fights. Charlize Theron doing much of her own work. The music is incredible. I’ve watched this five times now and still enjoy every minute.
   6. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
      Three viewings of this one as well, as promised in the review. It is flawed in a few areas, but is still one of the better films of the year for pure entertainment and structure. It uses its budget well, the actors are all on point.

Special Mention: The Shape of Water – I watched this the other day and did not get a review up. My bad. It would have made the list about this spot, or beat out Star Wars. Yes. It is that good.

Worst of 2017

6. Geostorm
   I was torn between this and Flatliners, but really this was worse. Its harmless, but it is just bad across the board with few if any redeeming qualities to it.
5. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
   I am just copying my TL;DR for this one: It is a kinetic, frenetic, frenzied mess of a film with no sense of itself. It isn’t bad enough to be mocked by MST3K or good enough for me to actually hate it. It just is a disappointing film in which the actors I think try but are hampered by a script held together by bailing wire and day old bubblegum; and direction that leaves me wondering what happened to Guy Ritchie.
4. The Dark Tower
   Originally in my number three spot. I considered this one so bland it left me unfeeling where I felt real anger at Covenant. Its a mess. I might have moved it to number five, but I think King Arthur has some aspects that are ok, but none of this works. None.
3. Alien: Covenant
   A beautifully shot failure. Every aspect of a solid Alien movie is missed here. Every aspect of Good Sci fi is missed here. Nothing works and it left me angry.
2. The Mummy
   This was almost the worst movie of the year for me. Its bad in every single capacity. From the first trailer to its final credits roll, it does nothing right. Nothing good. Nothing interesting. Ok it did cast Sofia Boutella, but misusing her so badly is a crime in itself. It absolutely nuked the Dark Universe that they were planning and for that I am thankful if the rest would end up like this. It could be saved, but not with this as a groundwork.

Special Nomination and Worst Movie

Ghost in the Shell

This was in my rollover text on the review of the 1995 film and deserves to be shown in it’s raw form now: Screw this movie in the face with a rusty chainsaw dipped in blow fish poison wielded by someone who has a personal hatred for that face.

As you know when the first casting came out I was against it due to Scarlett Johansson, who is a good actress, being given the role over someone like say Rinko Kikuchi, or any other of the dozens of Asian actresses who should have gotten the part. I have talked about White Washing before on several reviews. I am going to link to the bowl of raisins story again because it still explains it better.

Mostly white people go “I don’t see the problem”.  It has nothing to do with her acting. I am sure her acting is fine. The problem is the part could and should have gone to any number of Asian actresses. You are going to see counter videos of people going to Japan and speaking with Japanese people what they think. They in the clips shown – don’t seem to have a problem. They of course are not looking for representation of themselves in Western media. They aren’t looking for heroes, icon’s, actors, actresses, stars, and the people we look up to here to go “I can be that”. Representation matters.

Fine. Ignore both sides of the theoretical argument of who could have and should have been cast. The weak excuses about why it was done. The spoiler. They literally white washed the character. Literally.

The character in the movie was a Japanese girl named Motoko, who was kidnapped and had her brain implanted into a Caucasian cybernetic body and had her identity stripped from her. 

What the actual…

How..can anyone justify this? Please tell me.  They literally took an Asian and “improved her” and made her white in the process.  It doesn’t matter that most reviewers I have watched said its great visually, but ok otherwise. Just ok.  They literally and figuratively white washed her and have spent the past year defending it.

This movie needs to be burnt to the ground. This is a problem and folks – you need to help stop it. Please stop supporting movies like this.

So that concludes my list – thoughts? Feelings? What are your best and worst of the year?