I know what you're thinking. Um, dude, it's like, March of 2019. You're a little late, don't ya think? 😒
Maybe so, but hear me out. I used to be a paid critic that averaged 1-2 movies a week, sometimes more during the summer and during Oscar season, when movie releases are at their height. That's anywhere from 50-100 movies a year. Did YOU watch that many new movie releases last year? (And I'm talking to normal people when I say this, mind you, not fellow critics.) On top of old favorites and all the Peak TV out there? Probably not. Or maybe you did. Who knows?
Well, sad to say, I'm no longer a paid critic anymore. Not so much by choice as by default, having had trouble finding paid work to that end ever since the last website I worked for went toes-up early last year. Being a compulsive writer, I started this very blog to both have an outlet for my past work- some of which was no longer readily available online- and for new reviews, with a concentration on cult classic and horror movies.
As such, I only have a limited amount of time, and quite frankly, desire, to watch new releases anymore. If someone were to start paying me to review new movies again (hint hint), I could be convinced otherwise, but in the meantime, I write what I want when I want, and I like it that way. So, forgive me if it took a hot minute to play catch up on movies released in 2018.
That said, I did indeed watch as many as I could over the holiday season, in between my other stuff here at the website, and I finally amassed enough films under my belt to feel like I could do a decent enough assessment of the best of what 2018 had to offer- IMHO, of course. My list may not line up with yours- that's fine. That's sort of the point, in fact.
Which is to say, I offer up my list, maybe you do the same. Maybe my list inspires you to see movies you wouldn't have otherwise, maybe it doesn't. Maybe it gives you a new perspective on the ones you did see and makes you want to see them again, maybe you completely disagree. That's fine, too. The idea is to start a dialogue and to give you an idea of what I do and don't like.
To that end, I will be doing the standard lists: a list of my top favorites, a list of my least favorites, possibly a genre breakdown at some point- not unlike what I did with music recently. Hopefully, I get some comments on it along the way.
Let's get it started with a list of what I did see. Here's a chronological list of the movies from 2018 I've seen so far, with the ones I've already reviewed highlighted and linked to said reviews:
Insidious: The Last Key, The Commuter, Mom and Dad, Winchester, Black Panther, Game Night, Thoroughbreds, Isle of Dogs, Unsane, Ready Player One, A Quiet Place, Blockers, Truth or Dare, I Feel Pretty, Avengers: Infinity War, Tully, Life of the Party, Terminal, Deadpool 2, First Reformed, In Darkness, Ocean's 8, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Hereditary, Hotel Artemis, Incredibles 2, Leave No Trace, Eight Grade, Unfriended: Dark Web, Mission Impossible: Fallout, The Spy who Dumped Me, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Billionaire Boys Club, BlacKkKlansman, Slender Man, Crazy Rich Asians, Searching, The Nun, A Simple Favor, Mandy, Assassination Nation, Hell Fest, A Star is Born, Bad Times at the El Royale, Halloween, Mid90s, Suspiria, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Girl in the Spider's Web, Cam, The Favourite, Vice and Bird Box.
That's over 50 movies- not too shabby, considering I wasn't paid to see them, and even more so if you consider I watched a lot of those over the last few months. As you might have guessed, barring any movies I might manage to sneak in before I finalize my list- which seems unlikely, given that I plan to write it over the course of next week- my list of best and worst will be indeed drawn from that list.
That said, there are still plenty of movies I still want to see from 2018 moving forward. The following is a list of 2018 movies I haven't yet seen, but plan to, as soon as I can get around to them. Some I already own, in fact, but just haven't gotten around to watching- I'm sure some of you can relate. Here goes (deep breath!):
Freak Show, 12 Strong, Den of Thieves, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Please Stand By, The Cloverfield Paradox, Peter Rabbit, Golden Exits, Annihilation, The Cured, Red Sparrow, Death Wish, The Vanishing of Sidney Hall, A Wrinkle in Time, Gringo, The Death of Stalin, The Strangers: Prey at Night, Tomb Raider, Josie, Flower, Pacific Rim Uprising, Midnight Sun, Gemini, The Last Movie Star, You Were Never Really Here, Chappaquiddick, Beirut, Rampage, Super Troopers 2, Traffik, Disobedience, Overboard, Revenge, Show Dogs, Solo: A Star Wars Story, How to Talk to Girls at Parties, Future World, Adrift, Upgrade, Social Animals, Superfly, Tag, On Chesil Beach, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Woman Walks Ahead, The First Purge, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Sorry to Bother You, Skyscraper, Don't Worry- He Won't Get Far on Foot, Shock and Awe, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, The Equalizer 2, Blindspotting, Bleach, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, Hot Summer Nights, Christopher Robin, The Darkest Minds, Dog Days, The Meg, Mile 22, Down a Dark Hall, The Wife, The Happytime Murders, Papillon, Kin, Juliet, Naked; Peppermint, The Predator, White Boy Rick, Lizzie, The House With a Clock in its Walls, Life Itself, The Sisters Brothers, Colette, Fahrenheit 11/9, Love, Gilda; Night School, The Old Man & The Gun, Venom, The Hate U Give, First Man, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, The Oath, What They Had, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, A Private War, The Front Runner, The Grinch, Overlord, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald, Widows, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Creed 2, Green Book, Roma, Shoplifters, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, The Possession of Hannah Grace, Anna and the Apocalypse, Mary Queen of Scots, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, Mortal Engines, The Mule, If Beale Street Could Talk, Mary Poppins Returns, Aquaman, Bumblebee, Welcome to Marwen, Second Act, On the Basis of Sex and Destroyer.
As you can see, that list positively dwarfs the prior list, but that's sort of my point. No man is an island, and that's a LOT of movies. If I were getting paid, I might have more impetus (and money) to see more of them, but minus that expendable income to urge me on, I'd just as soon watch them from the comfort of my home, quite frankly, and that takes time.
Needless to say, if a movie you loved (or hated, for that matter) was on that list, it won't be on mine, in any shape or form, obviously. Sorry. I did what I could. But I'm guessing there's plenty of stuff on both lists you haven't seen, either. So hopefully, we'll see some of them together as I continue to get caught up, reviewing as I go- or as much as I can, given that I'm doing other stuff on top of all that.
In the meantime, over the next week or so, I'll offer up a list of my favorites of what I did see. Hopefully, you'll enjoy it, even if you disagree. If not, well... you're always free to read something else- that's the great thing about (and sometimes the downfall of) the internet- there's always plenty more opinions out there.
Anyway, thanks for reading, as always. I hope you enjoy my lists, and for those who wish I'd get back to my normal programming- hang in there, it's almost over! 😉
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