Top Films of 2018

[taylor anne photo 11311]

What has been everyone's top 20 new movies this year?

I love seeing the diversity in lists that come out, especially within a group of people that really enjoy watching bad movies lol.

Mine are as follows:

1. Hearts Beat Loud
2. Hereditary
3. Leave No Trace
4. Sorry to Bother You
5. Won't You Be My Neighbor?
6. Black Panther
7. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
8. A Star Is Born
9. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
10. Roma
11. On the Basis of Sex
12. The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling
13. Avengers: Infinity War
14. A Futile and Stupid Gesture
15. Annihilation
16. Dumplin'
17. Ocean's 8
18. A Quiet Place
19. Irreplaceable You
20. Slice

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

I admittedly didn't watch many actual new films this year, (I usually watch films that are older and am typically a couple years behind on new fimls) but here's some of the tops from my list.  I have kids, which explains a couple entries.

1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
2. Annihilation
3. Black Panther
4. Avengers: Infinity War
5. Bumblebee
6. Incredibles 2
7. Halloween
8. Apostle (Netflix)
9. A Futile and Stupid Gesture
10. The Grinch

For those who haven't seen them, I highly recommend the first two.  The two I want to see most from 2018: Isle of Dogs and Mandy.

[grudlian. 4725]

Top 20 movies of 2018 that I saw (in no particular order):

Eighth Grade

Sorry To Bother You

Crazy Rich Asians

Blindspotting

They Shall Not Grow Old

Widows

Halloween

Black Panther

A Star Is Born

Skate Kitchen

Roma

Private Life

Leave No Trace

We The Animals

Lean On Pete

First Man

Hereditary

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Annihilation

Blackkklansman

[taylor anne photo 11311]

5 hours ago, IRONicmerMAN said:

The Grinch

I'm very curious - did you actually enjoy The Grinch or did you truly only see 10 new movies this year and so it had to make the list by default lol.

[RyanSz 3140]

So I just finished up my list for the DLM challenge with 601 films total (416 new) and unlike my 2016 list, I liked a lot of the new movies I saw this year, although the bad ones I saw were REALLY BAD, giving my overall movie rating 2.82 stars. So not only do I have a top 20, but also a short honorable mention and bottom 15.

Top 20 (no order)

Mom and Dad
Who the Fuck is That Guy?: The Fabulous Journey of Michael Alago
Game Night
Ready Player One
Avengers: Infinity War
Deadpool 2
Hereditary
Andre the Giant
You Were Never Really Here
Mission Impossible: Fallout
Mandy
Bad Times At the El Royale
Halloween
Widows
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Bandersnatch
Slice
You Might Be the Killer
Mayhem
Tragedy Girls
Ralph Breaks the Internet

Honorable Mentions
10 x 10
Hell House LLC 2
Ghost Stories
Strad Style
Sicario: Day of the Soldato

Bottom 15

Josie
Pacific Rim: Uprising
The Happytime Murders
The Square
Goosebumps 2
Tales From the Hood 2
The Toybox
Let's Not Meet
Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind
Tomb Raider
All the Creatures Were Stirring
Skyscraper
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
How It Ends
Tau

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

34 minutes ago, taylorannephoto said:

I'm very curious - did you actually enjoy The Grinch or did you truly only see 10 new movies this year and so it had to make the list by default lol.

I had to add it to the list because I couldn't think of any other 2018 releases that I had seen!  I spent most of the year watching series or older movies (in some cases stuff that I had seen before).

It's not terrible, but it's not good either.  It adds nothing to the original other than Cindy Loo's mom is a single, working mother.  It also has Kenan Thompson doing a pretty good voice.  Otherwise, it's largely forgettable.  

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Just now, IRONicmerMAN said:

I had to add it to the list because I couldn't think of any other 2018 releases that I had seen!  I spent most of the year watching series or older movies (in some cases stuff that I had seen before).

It's not terrible, but it's not good either.  It adds nothing to the original other than Cindy Loo's mom is a single, working mother.  It also has Kenan Thompson doing a pretty good voice.  Otherwise, it's largely forgettable.  

This is what I've heard about it, but when I saw it on your list I was like well either he truly didn't see more 2018 films or having kids changes the how you view some movies lol.

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

Just now, taylorannephoto said:

This is what I've heard about it, but when I saw it on your list I was like well either he truly didn't see more 2018 films or having kids changes the how you view some movies lol.

Having two kids under 10 definitely led to some of the movies on this list.  Probably wouldn't have seen Bumblebee, Incredibles 2 or Grinch otherwise.  I almost didn't add it to my list, but I wanted to get to 10!  If I were to throw another on the list, I guess I could add The Christmas Chronicles (again because of kids).  It would be ahead of The Grinch, mostly because of Kurt Russell being Kurt Russell.

[RyanSz 3140]

I almost had Incredibles 2 on my honorable mention list but it is just a cookie cutter remake of the first with only a few changes here and there. That's not a bad thing but it's like Toy Story 2 in that it looks like they reused shots from the first film with just different characters put in place, and the fact that it took over a decade to get that just irked me a bit.

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

6 minutes ago, RyanSz said:

I almost had Incredibles 2 on my honorable mention list but it is just a cookie cutter remake of the first with only a few changes here and there. That's not a bad thing but it's like Toy Story 2 in that it looks like they reused shots from the first film with just different characters put in place, and the fact that it took over a decade to get that just irked me a bit.

Agreed.  Nothing terribly original, but it was well done.  My biggest gripe is how long the movie felt.  Just a shade under two hours, but it felt like a long haul.

[RyanSz 3140]

What made me maddest was the cast intro before the film where they thanked fans for their patience but said it took so long because the perfect story had to be found and the right people had to be put together. Yet after seeing the film, I was like, it took ten years to do that?! God, Craig T. Nelson coulda died in that period of time with out old he's looking, gotta strike when the iron is hot. I mean the only film I can remember having that kind of space was between Toy Story 2 and 3 but the animation was much more improved and the story was completely different. Hell Wreck it Ralph had a sequel in a shorter period of time and the animation looked completely overhauled from the first film.

[grudlian. 4725]

27 minutes ago, RyanSz said:

I almost had Incredibles 2 on my honorable mention list but it is just a cookie cutter remake of the first with only a few changes here and there. That's not a bad thing but it's like Toy Story 2 in that it looks like they reused shots from the first film with just different characters put in place, and the fact that it took over a decade to get that just irked me a bit.

Except Toy Story 2 is the best in the trilogy and Incredibles 2 is merely pretty good.

[RyanSz 3140]

Toy Story 2 is literally the same film as 1 outside of a few instances. That's not a bad thing but 3 was leaps and bounds better than the first two in the series.

[WatchOutForSnakes 807]

I could probably tinker around with this, but here's my first pass top 20, loosely ordered best first.

1. Sorry to Bother You
2. Blindspotting
3. First Reformed
4. Isle of Dogs
5. Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse
6. Can You Ever Forgive Me
7. A Fantastic Woman
8. The Favourite
9. If Beale Street Could Talk
10. The Miseducation of Cameron Post
11. Widows
12. BlackKklansman
13. Ocean's 8
14. Black Panther
15. Eighth Grade
16. On the Basis of Sex
17. The Death of Stalin
18. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
19. RBG
20. Tully

 

[RyanSz 3140]

Blindspotting was one I really wanted to see this year but never got a chance to and is on my to-watch list for now along with Green Book and Won't You Be My Neighbor.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

Top 20, alphabetical:

Annihilation
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Black Panther
Burning
The Death of Stalin
Eighth Grade
The Favourite
First Man
First Reformed
Game Night
If Beale Street Could Talk
Minding the Gap
Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Paddington 2
Roma
Sorry to Bother You
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
A Star Is Born
Tully
Won't You Be My Neighbor?

[tomspanks 9039]

My list is small.  I have a lot of catch up to do...

Burning
Crazy Rich Asians
Hereditary
Minding the Gap
Mission Impossible: Fallout
Roma

If I could include movies that technically came out in 2017, I would add First Reformed and Death of Stalin.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

1 hour ago, tomspanks said:

If I could include movies that technically came out in 2017, I would add First Reformed and Death of Stalin.

First Reformed's 2017 date is only cause of festival runs, which I never count in my considerations of when a movie is released because that's not usually a general audience available viewing. Death of Stalin did have international openings in 2017 but couldn't be viewed in the US at all until 2018 and so I think that one counts as a 2018 as well.

[grudlian. 4725]

53 minutes ago, taylorannephoto said:

First Reformed's 2017 date is only cause of festival runs, which I never count in my considerations of when a movie is released because that's not usually a general audience available viewing. Death of Stalin did have international openings in 2017 but couldn't be viewed in the US at all until 2018 and so I think that one counts as a 2018 as well.

I've always had mixed feelings about this. I've been a real stickler for the original release date regardless of country or festival releases.

It's strange because critics will vary what counts or doesn't. Sometimes some limited release movie will go on an end of year list and sometimes it doesn't. It really seems to be up to the critic and whether or not they saw it that year.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

2 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

I've always had mixed feelings about this. I've been a real stickler for the original release date regardless of country or festival releases.

It's strange because critics will vary what counts or doesn't. Sometimes some limited release movie will go on an end of year list and sometimes it doesn't. It really seems to be up to the critic and whether or not they saw it that year.

I typically follow Academy regulations. If it gets a true theatrical release in the US in that year (whether it be limited or not) then I count it. Obviously I'm not AS strict as the Academy because I do count internet releases as well, but basically if I can see it then I'll count it. If it's at Sundance in 2017 but doesn't get released till January 2018 then there's no way I would've been able to see it in 2017 and that seems really weird to consider that it's release date. The only exceptions I've ever done are when I used to go to the Dallas International Film Festival a few years in a row. There were movies I got to see that weren't being released until the next year but I didn't want to sit on them as my favorites of the year since I *did* get to see them.

I've gotten into arguments with people at work over this because we are trying to figure out what is considering the ORD (original release date) for a lot of movies in our system. One guy says whatever the first date listed on IMDB is since that's what the site will attribute to it, but I say what the date of theatrical (or internet/tv) release in it's country of origin.

Basically - maybe we'll never truly figure this one out.

[grudlian. 4725]

27 minutes ago, taylorannephoto said:

I typically follow Academy regulations. If it gets a true theatrical release in the US in that year (whether it be limited or not) then I count it. Obviously I'm not AS strict as the Academy because I do count internet releases as well, but basically if I can see it then I'll count it. If it's at Sundance in 2017 but doesn't get released till January 2018 then there's no way I would've been able to see it in 2017 and that seems really weird to consider that it's release date. The only exceptions I've ever done are when I used to go to the Dallas International Film Festival a few years in a row. There were movies I got to see that weren't being released until the next year but I didn't want to sit on them as my favorites of the year since I *did* get to see them.

I've gotten into arguments with people at work over this because we are trying to figure out what is considering the ORD (original release date) for a lot of movies in our system. One guy says whatever the first date listed on IMDB is since that's what the site will attribute to it, but I say what the date of theatrical (or internet/tv) release in it's country of origin.

Basically - maybe we'll never truly figure this one out.

I eventually decided on festival releases not counting and theatrical release anywhere as the release (which typically is the country of origin).

[RyanSz 3140]

IMDB can't be counted really because it usually goes off the date production starts and the expected release, which is screwy with some movies that are in release hell like Cabin In the Woods or All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which come out literally years after they finished production. With my list I basically consider a wide audience release as the release time and also if it's a month or so difference, it's not a huge issue to me to count it as a current year release.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

58 minutes ago, RyanSz said:

IMDB can't be counted really because it usually goes off the date production starts and the expected release, which is screwy with some movies that are in release hell like Cabin In the Woods or All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which come out literally years after they finished production. With my list I basically consider a wide audience release as the release time and also if it's a month or so difference, it's not a huge issue to me to count it as a current year release.

That's not entirely true about IMDB. They state the year for Cabin in the Woods as 2011 because it technically premiered at the Butt-Numb-A-Thon, which has nothing to do with it's production dates at all. Now when things haven't been released and enter release hell, then they do become tricky, but once they are out for the world they get solidified just as everything else. Veronika Decides to Die is the better example of this. It went to Cannes in 2009 but sat in release date hell in the US for 6 years before finally hitting our country in 2015. It was released periodically in different international spots throughout that time, but since US is the country of origin how can we determine what that true release date is?

[RyanSz 3140]

That's sort of why I never go by festival dates either, because Trick R' Treat had a similar thing where it was shown at a small handful of festivals, had a trailer before a few big movies, and then didn't come out for another three years. Or then there's The Poughkeepsie Tapes which had it's trailer before a couple big superhero and horror films, was finished in 2007, pulled from release due to studio restructuring, had a screener leaked online in 2009, and then finally got an official video release in 2017, but it's release year is listed as 2007. Since festivals are a dime a dozen any more I would think at least a limited release for indie and award bait, wide release for everything else, and video release for straight to streaming/VOD. As for Veronika Decides to Die, I think the proper answer is to say its release year is 2029, just to seriously fuck with people's heads.

[WatchOutForSnakes 807]

On 1/2/2019 at 8:47 PM, RyanSz said:

Blindspotting was one I really wanted to see this year but never got a chance to and is on my to-watch list for now along with Green Book and Won't You Be My Neighbor.

Blindspotting and Sorry To Bother You were probably a pair of the best movies I've seen in years.