I have been doing this long enough to have a SECOND Top Ten of a year list??? And a YouTube Channel with more than 10 videos already?? Yay for me!! (look it’s my birthday -Dec 28th- as I write this so let me smile at my own accomplishments). So, for Year 2 of RuViews (BARS), I am stepping my game up to make 3 end of year lists instead of 1. Next are the movies that aren't so great this year. Let's just call them "Not the Best" to be nice.
As always, the provisions to my lists are to be read and understood beforehand before you all come @ me on here, or Twitter, or FB, or Insta (Thanks Tai…) or in person, or whatever:
1) The Movies I have wanted to see this year I just haven’t been able to: Green Book, Ralph Breaks The Internet, Eigth Grade, If Beale Street Could Talk, First Man, Vice, Three Identical Strangers and anything on Netflix
2) The Movies I won’t see that will probably be on every other Top 10 List: A Star is Born, Roma, The Favourite, Annihilation, Hereditary
3) Please remember that my rankings are in the moment of the posts, so VERY big chance that some rankings on my Summer List and past scores don’t match up and
4) Enjoy and comment and let me know what you think (DO NOT MENTION MARY POPPINS! I LIKED IT, I SAW IT, I DIDN’T REVIEW IT, AND I WONT!!! I AM NOT A MUSICAL FAN, SO HUSH)
THE HONORABLE MENTIONED OF THE "NOT THE BEST": THE MOST DISAPPOINTING OF THE YEAR
These movies weren’t necessarily bad. They just didn’t live up to expectations. Do Better Fam.
- Widows was STACKED!!! And then it fell flat. How you make Viola, Liam, Daniel, and Brian uninteresting I still don’t understand
-Ant Man and The Wasp fell in the Guardians of the Galaxy 2 trap. It tried too hard to recapture the fun and humor of the original. Still an acceptable movie, but it’s a step in the wrong direction. You can’t keep Paul down for too long though
-Deadpool 2… see Ant Man and the Wasp, just replace Paul with Ryan
-Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was fairly good to me. But if you aren’t a Potterhead it may not really translate? You are either a part of the cool kids’ club or you feel excluded
-A Wrinkle in Time is a complicated book in the first place. Ava and the crew did an honorable job, but had trouble keeping everything in one coherent piece.
I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed
THESE MOVIES WERE "NOT THE BEST" OF 2018
1.
AQUAMAN
Do I really need to revisit this again? Like Really? Just look at my video and let me get past this please...
Why it's Trash: The Twilight, the Power Rangers, The 50 Shades, It Doesn’t Know WHAT IT IS
Why There's Hope: Jason Mamoa, the amazing world building, and this so called DC “reboot”
YouTube RuView: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0vj47E1ZA&t=2s
2.
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
This is the biggest change of opinion I have had this year about a film. I gave it a 7 at first and now I am thinking "there is a reason that this is the lowest grossing Star Wars movie ever". It just doesn’t live up to the magic that the rest of the films have. Plus, even though I believe Alden did a fine job, most could not get past the fact that he just isn’t Harrison. I mean, That's how Han gets his name? Seriously? This movie could easily fit into the disappointing movies list up there because the farther away I got from it the more I forgot. Except Donald. Donald doesn’t take losses. Nor does Woody. Nor Thandie. Nor the Mother of Dragons. Actually, everyone in the movie played the crap out of their roles. But then the plot and story choices make you immediately forget what they did that was so good.
Why it's Trash: I can’t remember much of anything from this movie
Why There's Hope: Alden didn't try to be Harrison Ford and Donald is a hot damn genius. Plus, Khaleesi.
Written RuView: https://urimoses.wixsite.com/ruviews/single-post/2018/05/27/Solo-A-Star-Wars-Story
3.
DEN OF THIEVES
Fif, Lil Ice Cube, Gerard Butler, and Pornstache from Orange is the New Black. Den of Thieves is still the manliest of man movies to ever throw a grenade filled with AK-47 bullets and protein shakes. I mean, this would go perfect with the Sly & Arnie films of the 80s and 90s. But the lack of depth from the characters, predictable plot, and 30 more minutes than necessary leaves you wanting nothing more than to find your inner sensitivity. Unless you like that sort of thing… being the manliest of manly men that ever manned. Me, I like some semblance of nuance in my movies that “know what they are”.
Why it's Trash: After 2 hours, I had more than enough of my share of sausage fest
Why There's Hope: O'Shea Jr., a certain Bad Boys 2-like scene, and a twist that makes you go “huh… cool”
Written RuView: https://urimoses.wixsite.com/ruviews/single-post/2018/02/10/Den-of-Thieves
4.
PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING
This one is pretty laughably bad, lol. Just look at Charlie Day’s performance and you will understand everything that is not very good about it. It’s over-the-top. It is cheesy. It makes you feel embarrassed. Then you ask “why in all goodness did he just do that”. Uprising has almost no explanation of plot points, and extremely stock characters (how many times can Scott Eastwood play the good guy soldier counterpart to his bad boy partner?). The Jaeger fights would have been really cool to see IF THEY DIDN’T SHOW US EVERY SINGLE FIGHT IN THE TRAILERS!!! So this is the epitome of predictable. But I must repeat. John Boyega. ALL THE JOBS!!!
Why it's Trash: The robot violence is not fun enough to overcome the stupid plot
Why There's Hope: Boyega really reminded me of a young Eddie. Comedy, action, drama, he can do it all
Written RuView: https://urimoses.wixsite.com/ruviews/single-post/2018/03/29/Pacific-Rim-Uprising
5.
JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM
There was a bit of time here where I was cheering and getting more and more pumped in the theater. But then we get finessed harder than Drake telling these girls he loves them. Here is the plot of Fallen Kingdom in a nutshell: Let’s do everything that all the idiots of previous movies have done and repeat the same mistakes and play god and sell to Russian mob bosses and auction off the genetic splices of Velociraptors and T-Rex’s and put my hand in the dinosaur’s mouth and clone things and let these dinosaurs out and…and…and…and. There will be more of these movies and, unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about it. Even more unfortunate. I will be there to see it.
Why it's Trash: I don't think I have laughed more at scenes that weren't supposed to be laughed at
Why There's Hope: The entire first act is what we all want in our Jurassic Park movies
YouTube RuView: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2eErAh5taw&t=5s
Next Up... The Best of 2018