For further background on the year in film, please refer to the Some Other Movies From 2018 entry.
The following things happened in 2018:
- Turkey began a military offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
- Scientists in China cloned monkeys for the first time.
- The Winter Olympics were held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
- Chinese President Xi Jinping became "President for Life" after China's constitution was amended.
- Americans demonstrated against gun violence and mass shootings.
- Movie theaters were opened in Saudi Arabia for the first time since 1983, and women there were allowed to drive.
- Ethiopia and Eritrea officially declared an end to their military conflict.
- Civil unrest spread across France.
Excellent
1. Burning
Two villagers from rural South Korea rediscover one another in Seoul, only to be separated by a mysterious stranger. I like how this movie doesn't try too hard to achieve symmetry, and how it avoids symbolism (or in one character's words "metaphor") whenever possible. Things are what they are, and actions take place against a background of unfolding events. Most American movies probably would have tried to imbue certain people and places in this film with larger meanings, but this movie leans back into its simple plot, realizing that the human elements in the story are enough to carry it forward.
Fun Fact: The references to Faulkner are not accidental. This movie was based in part on his story "Barn Burning."
2. The Favourite
Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone star as two cousins vying for influence within Queen Anne's court. This is director Yorgos Lanthimos' seventh film, following Killing of a Sacred Deer, and with this one I'm officially a fan. The Favourite tells a compelling story of ambition, and despite what might seem less than involving subject matter it never grows boring. I'd also like to think that the people of Queen Anne's time really were that vulgar. It goes a long way to explaining many of the things they did.
Olivia Colman, by the way, won the Oscar for Best Actress for The Favourite..
Fun Fact: Emma Stone is in the midst of filming another movie with the same director, Poor Things, which will be released next year.
Some Good Ones
1. Upgrade
Robocop? Videodrome? The Matrix? Upgrade is somewhere between those three movies. In Upgrade a man allows himself to be "upgraded" after an attempt on his life, and his subsequent quest for revenge proves to be more than he bargained for. It's a solid action movie, even if some of the acting isn't quite on par with movies in the "Excellent" category above. I will say that I admire what they did with what must have been a smaller budget. They obviously weren't dealing with Matrix-level dollars, and some of the fight sequences were inventively filmed.
Fun Fact: Aside from the star, Logan Marshall-Green, and the accents, this movie is about as Australian as they come. It was filmed around Melbourne.
2. Solo: A Star Wars Story
Ah, the Star Wars universe, in which futuristic and antiquated technologies coexist. We can make everything float, but somehow some of the things are still running on tracks. We can travel several times the speed of light, but somehow it takes a while to get anywhere.
If you can put Harrison Ford out of your mind this is a good movie. Ron Howard is in tune with the material, and Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote the script, has the kind of background to make it all work. Alden Ehrenreich is a serviceable Han Solo, and the plot - even though I just watched it and would be at pains to tell you what it's about - progresses at an even pace.
Fun Fact 1: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, perhaps best known for their work on The Lego Movie and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, were the original directors of this film. They left the project citing "creative differences," and their replacement by Howard led to this being one of the most expensive movies ever made. It was, all said and done, a huge bomb at the box office, and the worst-performing live-action Star Wars film ever made.
Fun Fact 2: Look real hard and you'll see Warwick Davis, who started his career playing an Ewok in Return of the Jedi.
3. Hunter Killer
Gerard Butler takes on a load of hot seamen. Alright alright.. calm your homoerotic fantasies! Puns regarding submariners aside, it's definitely not the worst of Butler's movies, though I could only shake my head at both the military strategy and military discipline on display in this movie. Is it Oscar-worthy? Hell no, but there have been worse movies involving sailors, seamen, and combinations thereof.
4. Bumblebee
I'm going to consider this a kid's movie. For this reason I'm not going to be so critical of it. Hailee Steinfeld is good in the lead, it trades on a lot of 80s nostalgia, and the movie progresses much you'd expect it would. It's not Shakespeare, but it's loads better than The Last Knight.
Doubts: I don't think churros were that much of a thing in 1987. "Carjacking" wasn't a term used until the 90s. The song "It Takes Two" wasn't released until 1988. I'm also pretty sure they'd have a more advanced video game console in the house. Atari 2600 at bare minimum, but more likely a NES or SMS.
5. Rampage
A surprisingly enjoyable spectacle. I wouldn't think too hard about any of the plot points, but yeah, very enjoyable. The Rock is suitably engaging, Naomie Harris was a good choice for the love interest, and there's enough monster action to keep fans of the genre interested. Jeffrey Dean Morgan also steals every scene he's in. Critics weren't kind to this movie, but they almost never like monster movies. Those of us who do will probably enjoy the ride.
And I really like this older, evil version of Malin Akerman. I would like to be one of her henchmen; I would like to do her bidding. Your will is my command, Mistress. How may I serve you today?
SOUNDS Lame, but Give it a Chance
1. Tag
Ed Helms and others replay their favorite childhood game on a whole other level. Jeremy Renner is casually great in this movie, though I would have watched it for Hannibal Buress alone. Much funnier than I thought it would be, especially since I was never a big fan of the Hangover franchise.
Bet You Didn't Catch It: Chili's dad in the beginning? That's actor Brian Dennehy.
Some Bad Ones
1. The Meg
China-financed Jason Statham vehicle in which he stares down a giant shark. The Abyss Lite? Jaws 2.0? The Meg is somewhere between those two things, with a dash of China-friendly scriptwriting thrown in for good measure. The Chinese actress playing opposite Statham makes him look like Robert De Niro.
Fun Fact: The best film in director Jon Turtletaub's filmography is probably Cool Runnings, and no, this isn't exactly glowing praise.
2. BlacKkKlansman
I wanted to like it but no, it's just not a very good movie. Did people even use the word "clusterfuck" in the 70s? Did anyone bother to check? And aside from that, none of the characters in this movie make a great deal of sense, and what's more they're never given moments in which to explain themselves. How are we to reconcile Black Power with the Klu Klux Klan? How are we to make sense of police officers investigating an organization that (apparently) hasn't committed any crimes in their area? How are we to reconcile the student leader's obvious intelligence with the fact that she's too stupid to realize that her boyfriend's a cop? To add insult to injury, this movie then attempts to shock us with stories of atrocities unrelated to the people under investigation, and to give us caricatures of Klan leaders, all too stupid to distinguish whether or not the person they've been talking to on the phone is the same person they're talking to in person.
Spike Lee has directed much better movies, and even taken as a comedy (?) this movie fails miserably. In tries very hard to be timely, it seems to hit all the right notes, but in my opinion it only obscures the arguments under discussion, and the film seems to have no "through line" from the character's desire to make the world a better place to the film's conclusion.
I can only assume that a lot of Trump hate fueled this movie's popularity. As a look at race relations it's not especially insightful or, as it happens, truthful. There were many discussions of police brutality and systemic racism around the time of this movie's release, and I think those feeling oppressed (however valid their concerns) were perhaps in too much of a hurry to identify with it. "Non-oppressed peoples," whoever and whatever they may be, might have also been in too much of a hurry to appear as "allies" by endorsing it.
3. Mary Poppins Returns
Emily Blunt stars as Mary Poppins, truly one of Earth's mightiest heroes. Time and space are her playthings; she bends reality to her will. Where was Mary Poppins when The Snap occurred? Where was Mary Poppins when Malekith and his dark elves were rampaging through London? Where was Mary Poppins when Captain America was fighting the Red Skull and his henchmen? Could it be that Mary Poppins is fighting a still larger battle against the forces of evil? Could it be that an even greater endgame awaits?
I can remember seeing the first Mary Poppins on TV when I was a kid. "Spoonful of Sugar" and all that. Is this sequel as good? No, not even close. Unlike the original this one seems to hit all the wrong notes, perhaps in part because Emily Blunt just isn't Julie Andrews. The best I can say about it is that it's fairly brief. Most of the songs fall flat though.
4. Ocean's Eight
On the one hand it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, on the other hand it's not very good. Sandra Bullock leads a group of lady thieves (burglars?) in quest of a historic piece of jewelry. The first half is OK, but the second half just drags. Members of the cast blamed a male-dominated media and sites like Rotten Tomatoes for the lukewarm response this movie received, but in my opinion it's just not very good. It lacks the breezy charm of the movies that came before it.
5. The Nun
Ye olde Conjuring Cinematic Universe. In The Nun an uninteresting priest and an uninteresting novitiate nun journey to an uninteresting convent/castle in an uninteresting part of Romania to investigate a suicide too abrupt to have been interesting. I suppose if I was 13 I'd have found it somewhat spooky. As it is I didn't.
Fun Fact: The novitiate nun is played by Taissa Farmiga, Vera Farmiga's younger sister.
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