Fanboys Anonymous

Welcome to the ninth annual FANBOYS FILM AWARDS!

This will be acting more as a personal list of just the movies that I've seen this year, rather than something that attempts to focus specifically on the superhero film genre as originally conceived.

I invite everyone to join in on the fun by leaving their own lists and thoughts in the comments below to tell us what you watched this year!

35 new releases43 older first-time watches78 films total

Films Watched

2025 releases watched - 35 films

• 28 Years Later
• Ballerina: From the World of John Wick
• Black Bag
• The Black Phone 2
• Bone Lake
• Bring Her Back
• Captain America: Brave New World
• Companion
• The Conjuring: Last Rites
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps
• Final Destination: Bloodlines
• Frankenstein
• Happy Gilmore 2
• Keeper
• The Life of Chuck
• The Long Walk
• M3GAN 2.0
• Mickey 17
• Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
• The Naked Gun
• No Other Choice
• Predator: Badlands
• Presence
• Relay
• The Running Man
• The Secret Agent (O Agente Secreto)
• Shelby Oaks
• Sinners
• Superman
• Thunderbolts*
• Together
• Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
• Weapons
• Wolf Man
• The Woman in Cabin 10

Older films watched for the first time - 43 films

• 12 Rounds
• All the Right Moves
• Bangkok Dangerous
• The Beach
• The Bodyguard
• Can't Buy Me Love
• Career Opportunities
• Cocktail
• Congo
• Days of Thunder
• Dredd
• Executive Decision
• The Fan
• Fifty Shades of Grey
• Fifty Shades Darker
• Fifty Shades Freed
• Fright Night
• Gigli
• Heathers
• Hell Comes to Frogtown
• Hudson Hawk
• Hypnotic
• I Saw the Devil
• I'm Still Here
• Johnny Mnemonic
• Knock Off
• The Last Boy Scout
• License to Drive
• Murder at 1600
• Navy Seals
• Powder
• Risky Business
• Sidekicks
• Snake Eyes
• The Taking of Pelham 123
• The Talented Mr. Ripley
• Taps
• Timecop
• Toy Soldiers
• Volcano
• Weird Science
• xXx: Return of Xander Cage
• xXx: State of the Union

Best and Favorite Movies of the Year

I'm not sure I would call any of the movies this year S-tier in the sense that they'd be absolute top-of-the-line all-time favorites, except maybe one closing in on that range. Even then, you'll see where it eventually goes on my 2020s My Favorite Movies of the Decade list.

STOP PICKS OF THE YEAR

The Life of ChuckThe first time I watched this movie, I cried in the theatre. The second time I watched this movie, I cried at home. I've recommended it to so many people since seeing it. WOW did I need this movie at this specific time in my life. This is going on the all-timer list of "felt like it was a Tony Mango necessity anchor point movie" with things like Stranger Than Fiction, K-Pax, 500 Days of Summer, Garden State, and some others that hit me in the emotional drama feels in a certain way right when they needed to. Even thinking about the movie gets me a little choked up and teary-eyed.

SinnersWow again. This was another that I didn't wait long to rewatch and by mid-2026 had watched it a third time. What a fantastic, fresh movie, that I recommend to everyone all the time.

SupermanWow again! The world absolutely sucks right now politically in a very everyday-is-hopeless type of insanity. This was a top-notch start to James Gunn's new universe, one hell of a Superman film and easily my favorite of that series, a bright spot of hope emotionally, and just damn good!

AGREAT - ROUGHLY 8/10

No Other ChoiceHow this didn't get nominated for more stuff baffles me.

CompanionThis kicked off the year with a great start. It was eventually usurped on the rankings, but by some real strong heavy-hitter types. What a fun little surprise.

Thunderbolts*Not perfect by any means, especially with what happens to Taskmaster, but this was one of the best post-Endgame projects they've produced and I really breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't another dud that I had dragged my wife to and then had to apologize for afterward like some of the others have been lately.

Mission: Impossible - The Final ReckoningA fitting end to this franchise, for sure. It was nice to say goodbye to this franchise in a good send-off instead of the abysmal sequel Star Wars trilogy.

Ballerina: From the World of John WickHell yeah.

The Long WalkSurprisingly so good! I love a one-off like this that reminds me of when you'd just go to a movie on a whim and it would be actually rock solid and thoroughly entertaining like in the 90s.

The Black Phone 2Horror isn't my thing, but at this point, I've seen the first one of these twice and was looking forward to this, and it delivered. I'm down for a third.

M3GAN 2.0Terminator 2 is my favorite movie of all time. This was effectively Terminator 2 in M3GAN style. How could I not dig it? Now learn the lesson from the Terminator franchise and do not make a third one of these, let alone 10 different attempts at a third film that are all garbage.

Predator: BadlandsHell yeah! Also, I saw this at the biggest IMAX in NYC, the AMC Lincoln Square location, which was awesome.

28 Years LaterI had only watched the first two films not too long prior to this, and I think I might like this the best out of them.

FrankensteinThis felt rather definitive. I'd imagine English classes are going to get a lot of use out of this film for many years.

BGOOD - ROUGHLY 7/10

Captain America: Brave New WorldUgh...this only gets a 7 type range because I'm such a Marvel geek.

RelayMy wife and I saw this on a whim on her recommendation, which is rare as she's always more going for horror. I hadn't even heard of the film. We had a fun date night and both enjoyed the movie as a good little escape. I can't complain about that.

CDECENT - ROUGHLY 6/10

The Fantastic Four: First StepsUgh...this only gets a 6 type range because I'm such a Marvel geek. No, for real, I can't even say because I'm a "Fantastic 4 geek" because as much respect as I have for the franchise, those characters have never personally resonated with me. I love the idea of them, I love the characters when they guest star in other things, and I love a lot about their series, but I've never found myself particularly liking the stories themselves. To put it in another way, I'm more of a Star Wars guy than a Star Trek guy, and when the Star Trek movies came out and had a different tone to them than the television series, I loved them, but I had never liked the show. F4 always gave me Star Trek kind of vibes, and while I can appreciate that this was a good "Fantastic 4" movie, and a good "Fantastic 4 movie", I just don't love the Fantastic 4 so I didn't love this movie, if you know what I mean. I'm VERY excited to see them folded into the Avengers, but I'm not excited about a sequel film to this film.

Black BagSolid movie that falls down the rankings, but I wanted to still shout it out.

WeaponsI went through several thought processes about this movie while watching it. I liked it, hated it, thought it was okay, thought it was great, thought it was weird as hell, and I still don't quite know where I land, but it was sure interesting.

TogetherAs far as the horror stuff goes, this was one I could dig.

DMIXED - ROUGHLY 5/10

Shelby OaksIt was more interesting before the credits and then turned into the most generic horror film ever. Just boilerplate. What a shame.

PresenceIt had some interesting parts to it, too, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Beyond that point, all the other movies listed above on my watch list would be E-tier or lower, and there isn't much of a reason to rank them, as they were all disappointing if not horrible.

For anyone curious, out of the movies that didn't come out this year, my favorite that I saw was The Talented Mr. Ripley, to the point that my wife and I then watched the Ripley television series from Netflix as well and enjoyed that. Most, as you could see, were joke movies that we purposely watched because they looked bad, and boy, most of them really were that horrendous.

Worst and Least Favorite Movies of the Year

Mickey 17 — It sounded like such an interesting concept, and Parasite was so good, but WOOF, I hated this movie from start to finish. As much as I appreciate every shot against that disgusting side of politics, I just wasn't entertained by anything in this. Every character felt like something out of a "quirky for the sake of quirky" type of movie, and I don't vibe with those. I was expecting Moon, and I got Wes Anderson.

Bring Her Back — Movies like this do nothing for me. I only saw it because my wife wanted to.

The Tom Cruise marathon — As you can tell, I was on a Tom Cruise kick around the early summer. His early stuff was rough and hilarious to watch. Why are all of his characters douchebags that we're somehow supposed to root for despite being terrible people?

Happy Gilmore 2 — It really took a nosedive for me after starting out kind of decent at the beginning of the movie. I'm just not interested in watching a film that revolves around cameos of golfers and Adam Sandler's friends. That does nothing for me. It isn't even a joke.

The Naked Gun — No. You had a few decent jokes spread out over 90 minutes with MASSIVE stretches in between. The original is in my top five favorite comedies ever and something I still crack up at no matter how many times I've seen it, but this just wasn't hitting.

The Secret Agent — It felt disjointed and lacking in plot.

The Conjuring: Last Rites — I was so bored watching it that I found myself working on my own writing ideas in my head during certain scenes. This was just formulaic "uh oh, spooky vibes building up to a jump scare!" type stuff, and I'll forever say that tropes like "it's supposed to be creepy that a nursery rhyme is being sung by someone smiling" are as bland, uninteresting, and blah as "generic action scene with explosion" and "you should laugh at this comedy because someone was hurt in this scene."

The Woman in Cabin 10 and Wolf Man — They were so boringly generic. I've watched the exact same movie 100 times. They didn't do anything interesting, and everything they did was done better in many other films. I couldn't even tell you the majority of most of the characters' names in either film the next day.

Keeper — But holy shit, then, I watched Keeper. I was annoyed that I couldn't fall asleep in the theater. Five minutes in, I was already not digging it, and it only got worse as time went on. I'm not joking when I say that in a year where I watched the Fifty Shades of Grey movies for a laugh, I was more engaged in that story than what was happening here.

Acting Awards

🎭Best Actor

Winner

Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)

Why he won: I was so set on having this be Jack Quaid for Companion at the beginning of the year, but some other great performances just had to knock him down a peg. Major shout-out to him, though. Michael B. Jordan gets the nod here for playing two parts. Alfie Williams killed it, so that was a very impressive performance. Those would probably make my top three even above Jacob Elordi, and I think Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson are a duo act of sorts for The Long Walk. All great performances, though.

Honorable mentions:

• Alfie Williams (28 Years Later)
• Jack Quaid (Companion)
• Cooper Hoffman (The Long Walk)
• David Jonsson (The Long Walk)
• Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein)
• Lee Byung-hun (No Other Choice)

🎭Best Actress

Co-Winners

Sophie Thatcher (Companion)
Madeleine McGraw (The Black Phone 2)

Why they won: Thatcher's been ragged on a bit this year for her acting, it seems, but I thought she did an awesome job playing a part a lot of people would have messed up. I'm not sure if I can give her the spot over Madeleine McGraw, though, as she stole the show for the second film in a row, and being at her young age, that could make it more impressive overall. Give that girl more roles, for sure. She'll win an Oscar someday.

Honorable mentions:

• Julia Garner (Weapons)
• Son Ye-jin (No Other Choice)

⭐Best Supporting Actor

Winner

Nicholas Hoult (Superman)

Why he won: Best Lex Luthor we've gotten outside of the DCAU Bruce Timm incarnation. I LOOOOVED Hoult's version. Fantastic.

Honorable mentions:

• Austin Abrams (Weapons)
• Ben Wang (The Long Walk)
• Delroy Lindo (Sinners)
• Omar Benson Miller (Sinners)

⭐Best Supporting Actress

Winner

Amy Madigan (Weapons)

Why she won: A little overrated, I would say, but I do feel like she deserves most of the applause.

Honorable mentions:

• Sora Wong (Bring Her Back)
• Sara Sampaio (Superman)
• Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners)

Story and Craft Awards

✍️Best Story

This is an alternative to Best Adapted or Original Screenplay, where the execution of the overall product might not be the equivalent of Best Picture, but the idea was there.

Winner

The Life of Chuck

Why it won: This came about at the right time, given my current depression and where I am in my life age-wise and, well, let's just say I cried in the theater and I cried when I watched this a second time at home.

Honorable mentions:

• Black Bag
• The Black Phone 2
• Companion
• Sinners
• Superman

📚Most Faithful Adaptation

Which movie felt like it was the most honorable to the source material it was trying to represent?

Winner

Superman

Why it won: That's Superman.

Honorable mentions:

• Ballerina: From the World of John Wick
• Captain America: Brave New World
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps
• Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
• Predator: Badlands
• Thunderbolts*
• Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

🎨Best Visuals

This covers special effects, cinematography, production design and even editing.

Winner

Superman

Why it won: Admittedly, some of the shots seem like they're filmed with a weird camera lens, but I am absolutely not someone who should be talking about that, as I do not have any understanding of that other than "that looks weird" or not.

Honorable mentions:

• The Fantastic Four: First Steps
• Frankenstein
• Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
• Predator: Badlands
• Thunderbolts*

💥Best Action Set Pieces

This honors the stunt work as well as the choreography and idea of an action sequence.

Winner

Ballerina: From the World of John Wick

Why it won: This was the fight-sequence film. For it not to win would mean that it failed on its very premise.

Honorable mentions:

• Captain America: Brave New World (really shouldn't by any means)
• M3GAN 2.0
• Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
• Predator: Badlands
• Sinners
• Superman
• Thunderbolts*

🧵Best Character Design

This combines makeup, costumes and the CGI build of characters.

Winner

Superman

Why it won: I could nitpick some stuff, but overall, this felt like the type of world I would want to make a Superman film. A good runner-up would be Thunderbolts*, most likely.

Honorable mentions:

• Captain America: Brave New World (really shouldn't by any means)
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps
• Frankenstein
• Thunderbolts*

🎵Best Music

This category examines both the score and the soundtrack.

Winner

Sinners

Why it won: Score-wise, I would lean more toward Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning or Superman. I really dig the Fantastic Four theme, too. The Life of Chuck has some great music in it. But when you've got a movie like Sinners that in part revolves around the music, and the music is that good, it deserves to take out the others.

Honorable mentions:

• The Life of Chuck
• Frankenstein
• Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps
• Superman (for the score, not the other musical tracks)
• Thunderbolts*

TELL US YOUR LIST IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

Welcome to the eighth annual FANBOYS FILM AWARDS!

This will be acting more as a personal list of just the movies that I've seen this year, rather than something that attempts to focus specifically on the superhero film genre as originally conceived.

I invite everyone to join in on the fun by leaving their own lists and thoughts in the comments below to tell us what you watched this year!

FILMS THAT CAME OUT IN 2024 THAT I WATCHED:

A Quiet Place: Day One
Abigail
Alien: Romulus
Argylle
Beekeeper
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Blink Twice
Carry-On
Challengers
Civil War
Conclave
Cuckoo
Deadpool and Wolverine
Exhuma
The First Omen
The Front Room
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Gladiator II
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Heretic
Humane
Imaginary
Immaculate
The I.S.S.
It's What's Inside
Joker: Folie à Deux
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Parts One, Two and Three)
Kraven the Hunter
Late Night with the Devil
Longlegs
Madame Web
MaXXXine
Monkey Man
My Old Ass
Never Let Go
Nosferatu
Oddity
The Park Maniac
Ricky Stanicky
Road House
Saturday Night
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Speak No Evil
Transformers One
Trap
Twisters
Venom: The Last Dance
Y2K

FILMS THAT CAME OUT BEFORE 2024 THAT I WATCHED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2024:

2 Fast 2 Furious
Adventures in Babysitting
All of Us Strangers
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Beyond the Law
Black Eagle
Blade
Blade II
Blade Trinity
Burlesque
City of God
Countdown
Crank
Crank: High Voltage
Demolition Man
Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
DOA: Dead or Alive
Dream Scenario
Dreamscape
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
The Expendables 2
The Expendables 3
F9: The Fast Saga
Fast & Furious
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
Fast Five
Fast X
The Fast and the Furious
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
The Fate of the Furious
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The Game
Glitter
Hackers
The Handmaiden
The Holdovers
Judge Dredd
Krull
The Lawnmower Man
Lone Wolf McQuade
The Manhattan Project
The Marine
Maximum Overdrive
McBain
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Monolith
Nine Days
The One I Love
Paradise
The Phantom
Point Break
Pokemon 3: The Movie
Rollerball (2002)
Safety Not Guaranteed
Showdown in Little Tokyo
Showgirls
Soldier
Speed
Speed 2: Cruise Control
The Spirit
Steel
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
Streets of Fire
Sudden Death
Tango & Cash
Tall Tale
They Live
Twilight
Twilight: Breaking Dawn Parts 1 and 2
Twilight: Eclipse
Twilight: New Moon
Twin Dragons
What You Wish For
Willow
Wounds
XXX
You'll Never Find Me
The Zone of Interest

BEST / FAVORITE MOVIES OF THE YEAR

No movies this year would cross over into S-tier alignment, sadly. It wasn't a particularly strong year for movies. Even the ones I did enjoy and will watch more than once are not going to be on my "all-time OMFG I love it so much" type of list. But of course, you can see where everything ranks on my 2020s My Favorite Movies of the Decade list as well as this one.

So in regards to S-tier:

• n/a
  

Other A-tier type films (roughly an 8/10) from this year would be:

• Civil War
• Deadpool and Wolverine
• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
• Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
•  Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One & Three
  
• Late Night with the Devil
• Alien: Romulus
• A Quiet Place: Day One
  
• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
• My Old Ass
  
• If we're not limiting it to 2024, then we can throw in The Holdovers for sure (as mentioned in last year's article)
  

B-tier (roughly a 7/10) would be:

• Kraven the Hunter
• Venom: The Last Dance
• Abigail
• Blink Twice
• Challengers
• Humane
  
• Saturday Night
• Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Beyond that point, all the other movies listed above on my watch list would be C-tier or lower, and there isn't much of a reason to rank them, as they were all disappointing and I'll never bother with them again.

WORST / LEAST FAVORITE MOVIES OF THE YEAR

• I was SO disappointed with Argylle. But, to be honest, that's something I saw coming from a mile away, which is why I didn't bother seeing it in theaters.
  
• Madame Web was just atrocious. Sony should be ashamed for themselves. How did this even get released when we're in an age where so many other movies are being shelved and become tax write-offs?
  
• Everyone made such a fuss over Longlegs, and that's all it was? In typical fashion, mostly all of the horror films my wife convinced me to watch are ones that I disliked, as it's not my thing, but that one looked more interesting and had more hype to it and was very disappointing. At least Late Night with the Devil was solid.
  
• How was Joker: Folie à Deux that bad? I only liked ONE scene in the film (the Gary Puddles court room scene). This was such a flop that it feels like they made it bad on purpose.
• Trap felt like it wanted to be 3 movies, and the only one of them that was interesting is the one that ended first.
  

BEST ACTOR

WINNER = David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus)

EXPLANATION = I nearly gave this to Dastmalchian, since he's the true lead, but I can't overlook just how fun David Jonsson was as Andy. He was easily my favorite character of the film and he nailed being an android so well.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = David Dastmalchian (Late Night with the Devil), Gabriel LaBelle (Saturday Night), Michael Keaton (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice)

BEST ACTRESS

WINNER = Maisy Stella (My Old Ass)

EXPLANATION = To be perfectly honest, no female performances in the films I saw that came out in 2024 resonated with me all that much to be worthy of this type of top-billing major shout out. I tend to watch a lot of movies that don't have those parts written particularly well for any gravitas, as superhero films and whatnot aren't going to be where you find those. I could have easily found Maisy Stella's character obnoxious or annoying in My Old Ass, though, and I didn't at all, so I have to give her a shout out.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Cailee Spaeny (Alien: Romulus), Zendaya (Challengers)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

WINNER = Ian Bliss (Late Night with the Devil), Josh Quong Tart (Late Night with the Devil), Cory Michael Smith (Saturday Night)

EXPLANATION = I have to give a tie to these two for being such big standouts in Late Night with the Devil in a way that made me feel like they were JUST the characters, as opposed to actors playing those parts. That helped the reality of the film in and of itself. / If I could just pick an ensemble cast, though, Saturday Night was just chock full of people doing amazing jobs portraying their characters. Actually, on second thought, I'm going to make this a three-way tie and also put Cory Michael Smith on there for his portrayal of Chevy Chase, as he was the best standout among an amazing cast and deserves some bonus credit.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Lamorne Morris (Saturday Night), Matt Wood (Saturday Night), Nicholas Braun (Saturday Night), Nicholas Podany (Saturday Night), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Civil War)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

WINNER = Catherine O'Hara (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice)

EXPLANATION = She stepped back into this role and perfectly fit exactly as she had in the original. Great job for a goofy character.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Alisha Weir (Abigail), Cailee Spaeny (Civil War), Ella Hunt (Saturday Night), Kathryn Hunter (The Front Room),

BEST STORY

This is an alternative to Best Adapted/Original Screenplay where the execution of the overall product might not be the equivalent of Best Picture, but the idea was there.

WINNER = Civil War

EXPLANATION = Good lord, I did not anticipate that by the end of this year, I would be more nervous that this is going to happen, instead of how I was originally thinking "Wow, this is such a good cautionary tale, but I'm sure in November, things are going to go in the right direction and we won't have to worry about this." Ugh. I hate this world. But I thought this movie was the overall best that I saw this year.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Deadpool and Wolverine, My Old Ass

MOST FAITHFUL ADAPTATION

Which movie felt like it was the most honorable to the source material it was trying to represent?

WINNER = Deadpool and Wolverine

EXPLANATION = They knew what people wanted. They gave it to them. As a hardcore geek that this movie was specifically made for, this spoke to me on that level. I did really like a lot of the honorable mentions here, and any one of them could have earned this win in any other year.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = A Quiet Place: Day One, Alien: Romulus, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Sonic the Hedgehog 3

BEST VISUALS

This covers special effects, cinematography, production design and even editing.

WINNER = Uh....

EXPLANATION = By the end of the year, it's actually difficult for me to remember the specifics of these films, so just check the honorable mentions and pick from there. I'd have to go back and compare, but I do know that it would be between these options.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Alien: Romulus, Civil War, Deadpool and Wolverine, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

BEST ACTION SET PIECES

This honors the stunt work as well as the choreography and idea of an action sequence.

WINNER = Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

EXPLANATION = I nearly gave this to Civil War just for standing out among the pack. But at the end of the day, a bunch of silly, stupid monsters went smashy smashy on each other and the scope of that beats out the others.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Alien: Romulus, Civil War, Deadpool and Wolverine, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

BEST CHARACTER DESIGN

This combines makeup, costumes and the CGI build of characters.

WINNER = Deadpool and Wolverine

EXPLANATION = How did Gambit simultaneously look perfect and ridiculous at the same time? We finally got Wolverine in his costume (and multiple others, as well). I geeked out over stuff in this movie, for sure.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Alien: Romulus, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Sonic the Hedgehog 3

BEST MUSIC

This category examines both the score and the soundtrack.

WINNER = Deadpool and Wolverine

EXPLANATION = I would give this to Ghostbusters if we went on score alone, but you can't deny how popular the music from Deadpool was able to capture people's attention. No way in hell was I going to give his to Joker. YEEEEEESH.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

To be perfectly honest, this wasn't a particularly memorable year for any of these facets. While there are movies that I really enjoyed, 2024 is going down as more of an underwhelming list than I had anticipated, which makes me sad. 2024 in general, just in life and everything surrounding it, was extremely rough for me, and this pretty much follows suit, unfortunately.

TELL US YOUR LIST IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

Welcome to the seventh annual FANBOYS FILM AWARDS!

Based on the layout of last year's change to this segment, this will be acting more as a personal list of just the movies that I've seen this year, rather than something that attempts to focus specifically on the superhero film genre as originally conceived.

I invite everyone to join in on the fun by leaving their own lists and thoughts in the comments below to tell us what you watched this year!

FILMS THAT CAME OUT IN 2023 THAT I WATCHED:

65
A Haunting in Venice
The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Barbie
Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham
Blue Beetle
Cobweb
The Creator
Five Nights at Freddy's
The Flash
Godzilla Minus One
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Haunted Mansion
Hidden Strike
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
The Iron Claw
John Wick: Chapter 4
Justice League: Warworld
Knock at the Cabin
Leave the World Behind
M3gan
The Marvels
The Meg 2: The Trench
Merry Little Batman
Missing
Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match
Oppenheimer
The Pale Blue Eye
The Pope's Exorcist
Renfield
Saltburn
Saw X
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Talk to Me
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
They Cloned Tyrone
Vacation Friends 2
When Evil Lurks

FILMS THAT CAME OUT BEFORE 2023 THAT I WATCHED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2023:

28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
A House on the Bayou
Above the Law
Amber Alert
Attachment (2022)
Beverly Hills Cop
Beverly Hills Cop 2
Beverly Hills Cop 3
Big Money Rustlas
Big Trouble in Little China
The Birdcage
Black Rain
Bloodsport
Breaking
Cape Fear
Cobra
Coherence
Con Air
Conan the Destroyer
The Condemned
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
Darkman
Dead Man Walking
Double Impact
Escape from LA
Escape from New York
Fire Down Below
The Fly
The Glimmer Man
The Goonies
Hard Target
Hard to Kill
Highlander
The Humans
Hypnotic
I See You
Insidious: Chapter 3
John Wick
John Wick: Chapter 2
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
Kickboxer
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Lionheart
The Lost Boys
Lost Girls
Marcel the Shell with Shoes on
Marked for Death
Masters of the Universe
The Meg
On Deadly Ground
Out for Justice
Over the Top
The Patriot (1998)
The Princess Bride
The Producers (2005)
Radius
Raw Deal
Red Sonja
Road House
The Shadow
Soft & Quiet
Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie
Under Siege
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
Universal Soldier
Wall Street
Wet Hot American Summer
Whiplash
White Lie

BEST / FAVORITE MOVIES OF THE YEAR

I'm not sure I would call any of the movies this year S-tier in the sense that they'd be absolute top of the line all-time favorites, except maybe one closing in on that range (but even then, you'll see where it eventually goes on my 2020s My Favorite Movies of the Decade list:

• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
  

Other A-tier type films (roughly an 8/10) from this year would be:

• Godzilla Minus One
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
• The Iron Claw
  
• John Wick: Chapter 4
• Knock at the Cabin
• Oppenheimer
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie
• They Cloned Tyrone
  
• If we're not limiting it to 2023, then we can throw in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, the other three John Wick films as well as Marcel the Shell with Shoes on, The Princess Bride and Wet Hot American Summer in my list of movies I most enjoyed watching this year.
• Technically, I watched Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Dream Scenario and The Holdovers after January 1, 2024, but they came out in 2023 and it's so close that I feel like I should shout them out here. Holdovers is fantastic and would be in that A+ tier. Dream and D&D would be in the B-tier.
  

B-tier (roughly a 7/10) would be:

• A Haunting in Venice
• Barbie
• Haunted Mansion
• Renfield
  
• Saltburn

C-tier (roughly a 6/10) would be:

• Leave the World Behind
• M3gan
• Missing
• Talk to Me
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
  

D-tier (roughly a 5/10 and the cutoff of what I mostly enjoyed) would be:

• 65
• Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
• Blue Beetle
• Cobweb
• Five Nights at Freddy's
• The Flash
• The Marvels
• When Evil Lurks
  

Beyond that point, all the other movies listed above on my watch list would be E-tier or lower, and there isn't much of a reason to rank them, as they were all disappointing if not horrible.

WORST / LEAST FAVORITE MOVIES OF THE YEAR

• I watched a lot of horror movies that I never would have seen just because my wife is super into them. The vast majority of those movies were on my worst of the year, easily, like The Pope's Exorcist.
• On my own accord, though, I did watch some awful superhero films like Justice League: Warworld and Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham, which I just didn't dig. In particular, Warworld was atrocious. Easily my least favorite movie of the year from the new releases. Majorly disappointing.
  
• I also watched a lot of really awful 80s action movies for the pure sake of enjoying their cheesy terrible nature. Naturally, all of them were just so, so bad. One of the worst was Steven Seagal's The Patriot. Woof. But across the board, look at how many of those I watched this year, like The Lost Boys and Universal Soldier, as well as how many newer bad action movies I watched for the same reason of laughing at it, like The Meg 2 and Hidden Strike.
  
• The first movie I had watched, during New Year's Eve, was The Shadow, which set the tone for all those bad action flicks, as that was AWFUL, but I knew it would be a mess.
• The Birdcage was painfully unfunny and slow and boring. Very disappointing.
  
• Vacation Friends 2 was also a misfire, particularly after I thought the first one was funnier than I had anticipated.
  

BEST ACTOR

WINNER = Barry Keoghan (Saltburn)

EXPLANATION = I won't spoil the movie. Just watch it.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Dave Bautista (Knock at the Cabin), Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)

BEST ACTRESS

WINNER = Margot Robbie (Barbie)

EXPLANATION = Honestly, I don't know if I'd even go so far as to say this was a top of the line performance, but for what they were trying to do, Margot Robbie pulled it off so well.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = I'm drawing a blank, to be honest. Nobody stood out.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

WINNER = Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)

EXPLANATION = While I can't attest to him doing a great portrayal in terms of historical accuracy, as I'm just not aware of Strauss beyond this, Downey was a standout among a huge cast of great actors. That's saying a lot.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Holt McCallany (The Iron Claw), Mads Mikkelsen (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), Jamie Foxx (They Cloned Tyrone), Ryan Gosling (Barbie)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

WINNER = Rosamund Pike (Saltburn)

EXPLANATION = Once she's introduced, she steals every scene.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Amie Donald (M3GAN), Da'Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers), Michelle Pfeiffer (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), Iman Vellani (The Marvels)

BEST STORY

This is an alternative to Best Adapted/Original Screenplay where the execution of the overall product might not be the equivalent of Best Picture, but the idea was there.

WINNER = Saltburn

EXPLANATION = I almost gave this to Knock at the Cabin, but the other honorable mentions are pretty by the numbers tales. Saltburn is the most out there of the bunch, and overall, the one that I'd have the most fun explaining to someone if they asked for a breakdown. Also, it took me by surprise more than any of the other films.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = The Flash, Godzilla Minus One, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Holdovers, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Knock at the Cabin, Renfield, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

MOST FAITHFUL ADAPTATION

Which movie felt like it was the most honorable to the source material it was trying to represent?

WINNER = Godzilla Minus One

EXPLANATION = Basically, what do you get when you remake the original film, but update it with some more modern approaches and tweak the story to make it way better. Everything about it is an adaptation made with love, though, rather than the vibe of "new and different and better than that crap from the past" like the approach other franchises have taken. They have a similar look to Godzilla, they reincorporated the classic theme song, and even did similar story beats. Awesome job.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Saw X, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Super Mario Bros. Movie

BEST VISUALS

This covers special effects, cinematography, production design and even editing.

WINNER = Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

EXPLANATION = At times, it can be a bit of a mess. Maybe too much. But generally speaking, more artistry and effort was put into this film's little details than most other movies give to their big sequences.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = The Creator, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Godzilla Minus One

BEST ACTION SET PIECES

This honors the stunt work as well as the choreography and idea of an action sequence.

WINNER = Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

EXPLANATION = Again, like the visuals, it can be a bit too much at times, but you're strapped in for a wild ride from start to finish and the depth of the action outclasses everything else going on in the other films.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Godzilla Minus One, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Renfield

BEST CHARACTER DESIGN

This combines makeup, costumes and the CGI build of characters.

WINNER = Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

EXPLANATION = By sheer volume alone, right? Not that the other movies in the honorable mentions don't have a ton of characters, too, but still.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Barbie, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Renfield, The Super Mario Bros. Movie

BEST MUSIC

This category examines both the score and the soundtrack.

WINNER = Oppenheimer

EXPLANATION = So good. I don't know if anything on this soundtrack beats the "Resolution" track from Godzilla Minus One, but as a collective goes, the overall score from Oppenheimer is the best.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Godzilla Minus One, The Super Mario Bros. Movie

TELL US YOUR LIST IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

Welcome to the sixth annual FANBOYS FILM AWARDS!

Based on the layout of last year's change to this segment, this will be acting more as a personal list of just the movies that I've seen this year, rather than something that attempts to focus specifically on the superhero film genre as originally conceived.

I invite everyone to join in on the fun by leaving their own lists and thoughts in the comments below to tell us what you watched this year!

FILMS THAT CAME OUT IN 2022 THAT I WATCHED:

The Adam Project
Amsterdam
The Bad Guys
Barbarian
The Batman
Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons
Black Adam
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
The Black Phone
Bodies Bodies Bodies
Bullet Train
Catwoman: Hunted
Choose or Die
Clerks III
DC League of Super-Pets
Death on the Nile
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Don't Worry Darling
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Fresh
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Green Lantern: Beware My Power
Jackass Forever
Lamb
Lightyear
Men
The Menu
Morbius
Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind
Nope
Pearl
Pinocchio
Prey
Prey for the Devil
Samaritan
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Spiderhead
Thor: Love and Thunder
Top Gun: Maverick
Umma
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Watcher
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
The Whale

FILMS THAT CAME OUT BEFORE 2022 THAT I WATCHED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2022:

After Yang
Awakenings
Encanto 
Interview with a Vampire 
Nightmare Alley
No Man of God
Ouija: Origin of Evil 
Peninsula 
The Babadook 
The Devil All the Time
The Guilty
The Innocents
The Karate Kid
The Karate Kid Part II
The Karate Kid Part III
The Man Who Knew Too Little
The Next Karate Kid
The Prince of Egypt
The Princess and the Frog 
The Wasteland 
Train to Busan
Vivarium

BEST / FAVORITE MOVIES OF THE YEAR

There are no S-tier movies from this year that I'd give a 9 or a 10 out of 10 rating to and instantly went on my list of "top favorite movies ever" or anything of that sort.

Probably my absolute top film from this year would be The Batman. That shouldn't be too surprising, considering that's my favorite character in the entire history of fiction for any type of media. But it was also just a rock solid movie.

Other A-tier type films (roughly an 8/10) from this year would be:

• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
• Bullet Train
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
• Everything Everywhere All At Once
• Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
  

B-tier (roughly a 7/10) would be:

• Interview with a Vampire
• The Karate Kid 1-3 (Note: Pure enjoyment. Not the "quality" of the movies.)
  
• The Menu
• Nope
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2
• Top Gun: Maverick
  
• Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

C-tier (roughly a 6/10) would be:

• The Bad Guys
• Clerks III
  
• DC League of Super-Pets
• Peninsula
• Prey
• Thor: Love and Thunder
  
• Train to Busan
• The Whale
  

D-tier (roughly a 5/10 and the cutoff of what I mostly enjoyed) would be:

• After Yang
• The Adam Project
  
• Amsterdam
  
• Awakenings
• Barbarian
  
• The Black Phone
  
• Death on the Nile
  
• The Devil All the Time
• Encanto
• Jackass Forever
  
• Lightyear
• The Princess and the Frog
• Vivarium
  

Beyond that point, all the other movies listed above on my watch list would be E-tier or lower, and there isn't much of a reason to rank them, as they were all disappointing if not horrible.

WORST / LEAST FAVORITE MOVIES OF THE YEAR

• I watched a lot of horror movies that I never would have seen just because my wife is super into them. The vast majority of those movies were on my worst of the year, easily, like Choose or Die.
• Pinocchio was particularly bad. I was surprised at how bad it is.
• Samaritan was one of the most disappointing. It had a decent premise, but was SO poorly executed that I hated nearly every minute of it.
• Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind and Catwoman: Hunted prove why these movies don't get theatrical releases. They're garbage. I didn't like Green Lantern: Beware My Power or Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons either.
• Speaking of bad comic book films, Black Adam was the drizzling shits. They had all that time to make that movie and THAT is the best they could come up with?
• Morbius gives Black Adam a run for its money, though. Absolutely terrible across the board.
  
• Men might be the movie that pissed me off the most, though. The ending of that film completely ruined it for me and just got me annoyed that I had sat through what seemed like something that could have been interesting or had potential, only to devolved into that drivel.
  
• The Next Karate Kid is such a downgrade from the previous three films and the Cobra Kai television series that it might as well not exist.
  

BEST ACTOR

WINNER = Austin Butler (Elvis) or Brendan Fraser (The Whale)

EXPLANATION = As much as I couldn't care less about Elvis whatsoever, and I only watched this movie because a family member really wanted to see it, this portrayal felt like the real deal. But then on December 29th, I saw The Whale, and Brendan Fraser is giving me pause to not pick Austin Butler necessarily. So screw it. It's a tie.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), Daniel Radcliffe (Weird: The Al Yankovic Story), Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once), Kenneth Branagh (Death on the Nile), Ralph Fiennes (The Menu), Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick), Tom Hanks (Elvis)

BEST ACTRESS

WINNER = Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

EXPLANATION = Multiple versions of the same character while doing all those stunts. Awesome.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Amber Midthunder (Prey), Georgina Campbell (Barbarian), Keke Palmer (Nope), Letitia Wright (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Xochitl Gomez (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

WINNER = Colin Farrell as Penguin in The Batman

EXPLANATION = When he was first announced, I couldn't picture him playing the part. Who would have known he'd dissolve himself so much into the part that I can't picture him playing it because it's so good that it doesn't seem like Colin Farrell?

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Bill Skarsgård (Barbarian), Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick), Justin Long (Barbarian), Paul Dano (The Batman), Walker Scobell (The Adam Project)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

WINNER = Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

EXPLANATION = She killed it.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Janet McTeer (The Menu), Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once), Zoe Kravits (The Batman)

BEST STORY

This is an alternative to Best Adapted/Original Screenplay where the execution of the overall product might not be the equivalent of Best Picture, but the idea was there.

WINNER = Everything Everywhere All At Once

EXPLANATION = I try not to count films from before this year, otherwise I'd potentially give this to Interview with a Vampire. EEAAO was not what I was expecting, but in a good way. It felt very fresh.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = The Bad Guys, The Batman, Bullet Train, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Nope

MOST FAITHFUL ADAPTATION

Which movie felt like it was the most honorable to the source material it was trying to represent?

WINNER = Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

EXPLANATION = The Batman made some changes that I wasn't as big of a fan of (like Bruce's hairstyle) while Wakanda Forever was the best possible story they could have told given the circumstances and fits perfectly in the tone of the MCU as a follow-up to the first film, whereas something like Thor: Love and Thunder was too jokey at the expense of its own movie.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = The Batman, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Jackass Forever, Prey, Sonic the Hedgehog 2

BEST VISUALS

This covers special effects, cinematography, production design and even editing.

WINNER = Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

EXPLANATION = If not for the sheer variety of it.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (underwater sequence in particular), Bullet Train, Top Gun: Maverick

BEST ACTION SET PIECES

This honors the stunt work as well as the choreography and idea of an action sequence.

WINNER = Bullet Train or Everything Everywhere All At Once (tie)

EXPLANATION = Two completely different style movies. Bullet Train is more of "some dude's favorite movie" action. EEAAO is more ambitious to do something different and unique.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Karate Kid series, Peninsula, Prey, Top Gun: Maverick

BEST CHARACTER DESIGN

This combines makeup, costumes and the CGI build of characters.

WINNER = Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

EXPLANATION = Look at how many characters we got, and how many they did right. Quantity can take the edge in something like this.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = The Batman, Prey, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Thor: Love and Thunder, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

BEST MUSIC

This category examines both the score and the soundtrack.

WINNER = Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

EXPLANATION = Ludwig Göransson wins for Con La Brisa alone. The Rihanna song is good, too, though.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Aska Matsumiya for After Yang, Michael Giacchino for The Batman (particularly Catwoman's theme), Harold Faltermeyer for Top Gun: Maverick

TELL US YOUR LIST IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

Welcome to the fifth annual FANBOYS FILM AWARDS!

Last year was a mess with COVID-19 killing off most movie releases, so there wasn't much to talk about. This year, however, saw a bit of a return to normal with more films coming out, even though it was nowhere near the volume it normally would be in 2019 and beforehand.

Therefore, we're combining the way we did things last year and the years prior. This list will be half a general breakdown of the movies I've seen this year and half an actual awards competition.

I invite everyone to join in on the fun by leaving their own lists and thoughts in the comments below to tell us what you watched this year!

FILMS THAT CAME OUT IN 2021 THAT I WATCHED:

A Quiet Place II
Army of the Dead
Batman: Soul of the Dragon
Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One
Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two
Black Widow
Free Guy
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Godzilla vs. Kong
How It Ends
Injustice
Jungle Cruise
Justice Society: World War II
The King's Man
Last Night in Soho
Luca
Marvel's Eternals
The Matrix Resurrections - I haven't actually watched this yet as of publication
Mortal Kombat (2021)
Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms
No Time to Die
Nobody
Old
Red Dot
Red Notice
Ron's Gone Wrong
Rumble
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Space Jam: A New Legacy
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Stowaway
The Suicide Squad
The Tomorrow War
Things Heard & Seen
Vacation Friends
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Zack Snyder's Justice League

FILMS THAT CAME OUT BEFORE 2021 THAT I WATCHED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2021:

Fast Color (watched 12/5/2021)
Into the Wild (watched 11/29/2021)
Look Away (watched 11/27/2021)
Mulan (watched 1/21/2021)
No Holds Barred (watched 6/4/2021)
Run (watched 11/16/2021)
Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders (watched 5/8/2021)
Soul (watched 1/1/2021)
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (watched 7/12/2021)

BEST / FAVORITE MOVIES OF THE YEAR

Overall, I think the movie I'd rank the highest for "best" movie (not "favorite") would be either Shang-Chi, The Suicide Squad or Justice League. None of them are Oscar caliber material for Best Picture, mind you, but I didn't see any dramas that better suit that kind of category.

Spider-Man had to be the movie I had the most overall fun with. However, I really enjoyed Vacation Friends for what it was worth, as one of the biggest surprises.

WORST / LEAST FAVORITE MOVIES OF THE YEAR

Talk about some awful movies. Yeesh. The absolute worst of the worst this year has to go to either How It Ends or Space Jam. Those are just two films I actively hated damn near every minute of.

Batman: Soul of the Dragon was very disappointing, but I had even higher hopes for Eternals and that was the biggest let down. I don't even know how they put out such a bad movie after having such a great track record with the MCU properties (minus the Disney+ shows, that I'm not as fond of; although, Hawkeye's been good).

Things like Jungle Cruise and The Tomorrow War fell flat. I was disappointed in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, but I didn't have high hopes based on the first film. Army of the Dead could have been a lot better.

BEST ACTOR

WINNER = Bob Odenkirk (Nobody)

EXPLANATION = Surprising pick? Shocked I didn't go with Daniel Craig? To be honest, I'm kind of shocked about it, too, but Odenkirk sold me on his character in a lot of ways.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Daniel Craig (No Time to Die), Tom Holland (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Ralph Fiennes (The King's Man)

BEST ACTRESS

WINNER = Millicent Simmonds (A Quiet Place II)

EXPLANATION = At no point was I taken out of her performance.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Mckenna Grace (Ghostbusters: Afterlife), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Thomasin McKenzie (Last Night in Soho)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

WINNER = John Cena (The Suicide Squad)

EXPLANATION = Peacemaker was the best part of the movie and stole the show, to the point that he's getting his own show. Very very very very close second was Rhys Ifans as Rasputin in The King's Man, which was crazy awesome.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Tony Leung Chiu-wai (Shang-Chi), Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home), David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad), David Harbour (Black Widow), Rhys Ifans (Grigori Rasputin)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

WINNER = Florence Pugh (Black Widow)

EXPLANATION = Yelena Belova was the best part of the movie in many ways. I went from being skeptical about a replacement Black Widow to being totally on board with her being our BW going forward in the MCU. Very close #2 to Ana de Armas for stealing the show with Paloma.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Ana de Armas (No Time to Die)

BEST STORY

This is an alternative to Best Adapted/Original Screenplay where the execution of the overall product might not be the equivalent of Best Picture, but the idea was there.

WINNER = Ron's Gone Wrong

EXPLANATION = Ultimately, I think this one resonated the best with me as far as an overall tight story.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Batman: The Long Halloween, Injustice, Shang-Chi, Nobody

MOST FAITHFUL ADAPTATION

Which movie felt like it was the most honorable to the source material it was trying to represent?

WINNER = Batman: The Long Halloween

EXPLANATION = This felt like picking up a comic book.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = The Suicide Squad, Zack Snyder's Justice League

BEST VISUALS

This covers special effects, cinematography, production design and even editing.

WINNER = Spider-Man: No Way Home

EXPLANATION = The Doctor Strange battle alone wins this, right?

HONORABLE MENTIONS = A Quiet Place II, Free Guy, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Godzilla vs. Kong (major shout out), Shang-Chi, Zack Snyder's Justice League (major shout out)

BEST ACTION SET PIECES

This honors the stunt work as well as the choreography and idea of an action sequence.

WINNER = The Suicide Squad

EXPLANATION = While the fight choreography was great in Shang-Chi and there were some grandiose sequences in Justice League, as well as the super fun finale of Spider-Man and the epic fights in Godzilla vs. Kong, I think Suicide Squad had the overall best action for nailing the most scenes.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Godzilla vs. Kong, Injustice, Shang-Chi, Spider-Man, Justice League

BEST CHARACTER DESIGN

This combines makeup, costumes and the CGI build of characters.

WINNER = Spider-Man: No Way Home

EXPLANATION = Quantity. All those CGI characters and de-aging, and all of it looked great. Very close #2 would be The Suicide Squad

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Godzilla vs. Kong, Shang-Chi, Spider-Man, The Suicide Squad, Justice League, Eternals, The King's Man (for Rasputin)

BEST MUSIC

This category examines both the score and the soundtrack.

WINNER = No Time to Die

EXPLANATION = Using the music from On Her Majesty's Secret Service? Come on!! So good! The main theme is awesome. The iconic James Bond theme, of course, has always been amazing. Hans Zimmer even got some of his trademark flair in the end sequence.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Zack Snyder's Justice League, Spider-Man: No Way Home, The King's Man

TELL US YOUR LIST IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

Welcome to the fourth annual FANBOYS FILM AWARDS....of sorts. This year has been an absolute mess with the film industry and it's forced a necessary alteration to this segment.

Normally, this is my attempt to counterbalance the Academy Awards bias when it comes to movies that are often ignored due to their genre. What I typically do for the Fanboys Film Awards is focus on the geek culture genres (superhero films, sci-fi, fantasy, etc) and give them their equivalent Best Picture, Best Actor/Actress and so on.

However, with the COVID-19 pandemic absolutely putting a halt to movies being released, virtually nothing came out this year. There aren't a lot of movies to pick from, so it wouldn't make for an interesting or worthwhile breakdown with the normal setup.

So here's what we're going to do instead. I'll be listing all the films I watched this year period, whether or not they came out in 2020. Then, rather than go through the same list of awards we normally do, it'll just be a discussion to pinpoint several things.

Hopefully, it'll be an interesting recap and insight into my movie-going habits this year and you'll enjoy it nevertheless, with 2021 being a much better year for a more standard Fanboys Film Awards.

Also, I invite everyone to join in on the fun by leaving their own lists and thoughts in the comments below to tell us what you watched this year!

FILMS THAT CAME OUT IN 2020 THAT I WATCHED:

Antebellum
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
Black Box
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons
The Hunt
The Lodge
New Mutants
Nocturne
Onward
Palm Springs
Sonic the Hedgehog
Soul
Superman: Man of Tomorrow
Superman: Red Son
Tenet
Wonder Woman 1984

FILMS THAT CAME OUT BEFORE 2020 THAT I WATCHED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2020:

1917
Alien
Aliens
Amadeus
Back to the Future Part II
Back to the Future Part III
Frozen II
Jacob's Ladder
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot
Jojo Rabbit
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
Parasite
Richard Jewell
Rocketman
Spies in Disguise
Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans
The Rock
This is Spinal Tap
We Need to Talk About Kevin

BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR

This is for the film I think is fundamentally the best, as opposed to the one that I necessarily enjoyed the most. For instance, one of my favorite movies of all time is Robin Hood: Men in Tights, but I'll never make the argument that it's on par with The Shawshank Redemption as far as Best Picture material.

If we're counting movies that weren't released in 2020, I'd have to go with Parasite. I was a big fan of it and really happy it won Best Picture.

Shout out to Richard Jewell, Amadeus, Jojo Rabbit and Alien for those pre-2020 movies that were rather good, too.

As far as legitimate 2020 releases, I don't think any of them were spectacular as far as pure quality of cinematic arts.  

If I had to pick, Superman: Man of Tomorrow would maybe have to be the pick by default. That's not a particularly strong film, though. This just wasn't a good year for film variety/strength out of the ones I saw.

Addendum: I watched Soul on January 1, 2021. Technically speaking, it came out in 2020 and I had planned on watching it before the year switched over, but holiday stuff got in the way. After watching it, I'm fully comfortable saying this was the best movie to come out in 2020 that I saw. Soul was so good! You're going to see that listed elsewhere on this list, too.

FAVORITE MOVIES OF THE YEAR

Sonic the Hedgehog was my favorite out of the new films. It was just a genuinely enjoyable movie to watch and hit me in the nostalgia gut.

Soul gives it a run for its money and possibly exceeds it. I'd imagine time will judge this as not quite the rewatch value as Sonic, but it's a better movie, so it's on the list for favorites, for sure.

Back to the Future Part II might be my favorite of the pre-2020 films.

LEAST FAVORITE MOVIES OF THE YEAR

Antebellum is the only movie on this list that I actually shut off, rather than finishing. That probably takes the cake.

However, New Mutants was awful, Nocturne wasn't good, Birds of Prey was just as bad as I was expecting it to be and I was not AT ALL a fan of Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. I don't even know what Kevin Smith was trying to go for with that one.

MOST PLEASANT SURPRISES OF THE YEAR

Sonic the Hedgehog, as mentioned, took me by surprise. I didn't expect it to work as well as it did and I've seen it a second time this year.

Parasite was also very surprisingly good. I figured it would be some art house nonsense that is stuck up its own ass, but it's great.

This is Spinal Tap was another movie I thought I'd walk away from thinking "Why do people think this is great?" and I laughed quite a bit.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS OF THE YEAR

So many. So, so many.

Antebellum looked great. The concept maybe wasn't even all that bad, but the execution of it was terrible and it made the idea behind it even less interesting once I guessed what the movie was all about from very early on.

Onward was just "meh" and not quite the level of Pixar's best works.

Superman: Red Son was a real let down. I thought that had so much more potential.

Birds of Prey and New Mutants weren't really disappointments after I knew they'd be terrible, but they still lived up to that expectation.

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot was absolutely terrible, and I LOVE Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. That was a real shame.

But above all, I think Tenet might be my biggest disappointment. I had such high hopes for this film. Inception is amazing and I thought this would be even better. It doesn't come close, sadly.

MOVIES I'D RECOMMEND THE MOST

If you're looking for 2020-specific films, go with Soul, Sonic the Hedgehog or Superman: Man of Tomorrow. If I had to narrow that down to one pick, it would be Soul.

Pre-2020, there are more options: Alien, Aliens, Amadeus, Back to the Future 2 and 3 (although 1 is still the best), Jojo Rabbit, Parasite, Richard Jewell and This is Spinal Tap. If I had to pick just one out of that list, it would be Parasite.

TELL US YOUR LIST IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

Welcome to the third annual FANBOYS FILM AWARDS! This is my attempt to counterbalance the Academy Awards bias when it comes to movies that are often ignored due to their genre.

So rather than focus on the Oscar-bait, the Fanboys Film Awards pays tribute and extends gratitude to the movies which are overlooked because they're more along the lines of science fiction, fantasy, action/adventure and so on.

The only qualification for the nominees is that they must fall somewhere into the geek culture spectrum, which means superhero films and similar genres. Everything else is not eligible for any of the categories, so you won't see Ford v Ferrari or Ad Astra on this list. That isn't what this focuses on, even though I enjoyed them.

Also, you may notice that the awards structure isn't the same as the Academy Awards. That's because I feel this is a more efficient way of doing things and an easier list to make, rather than diving into technicalities that I'm not qualified to judge. But by all means, if you want to create your own categories, go ahead in the comments!


— All possible films came out in the time frame of January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019 as far as release dates.

— This is only one person's opinion. You're encouraged to leave your choices for the nominees and winners in the comments below to keep the discussion going!

— Admittedly, I haven't even seen every film that could potentially be nominated. For instance, I skipped Men in Black: International, Alita: Battle Angel, Hellboy, Fast & Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw, The Kitchen, Angry Birds 2, Gemini Man, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Charlie's Angels, and some others. That is obviously going to put a significant bias on this, as I'm not working with a full deck of cards.

BEST PICTURE

WINNER = Avengers: Endgame / Joker (tie)

EXPLANATION = I can't pick. Joker is fundamentally a better solo film, but Endgame is built with the understanding that you've seen everything leading up to that point, and it was just magical.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Glass

BEST ACTOR

WINNER = Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck in Joker

EXPLANATION = I think even in the grand scope of all film from this year, not just the geek culture ones, he has to be at least nominated for Best Actor.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Shout out to Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans from Endgame and Tom Holland in Far From Home.

BEST ACTRESS

WINNER = Florence Pugh as Saraya "Paige" Knight in Fighting with My Family

EXPLANATION = She got Paige down super well.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Man do I wish I could give this to Linda Hamilton for Terminator.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

WINNER = Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman in Shazam!

EXPLANATION = I almost gave this to Jake Gyllenhaal for Mysterio, but the more I thought about it, Shazam wouldn't have worked as a film without Grazer's performance. He is the glue that holds it all together, and that means more.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Outside of Gyllenhaal, shout out to Will Smith for being the best Genie they could have done, as nobody could fill the shoes of Robin Williams.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

WINNER = Zoey Deutch as Madison in Zombieland: Double Tap

EXPLANATION = I loooooooooooved the character of Madison. She was the perfect level of cute, obnoxious, pathetic and lovable, and could have easily been too annoying or something if in the wrong hands.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Kyliegh Curran as Abra Stone in Doctor Sleep

BEST STORY

This is an alternative to Best Adapted/Original Screenplay where the execution of the overall product might not be the equivalent of Best Picture, but the idea was there.

WINNER = Avengers: Endgame / Joker (tie)

EXPLANATION = Same explanation to Best Picture, but I'm leaning more toward the idea of Endgame winning this, if I had to pick. Joker is a little too much of a copy of Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy for me to give it as much credit.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Doctor Sleep

MOST FAITHFUL ADAPTATION

Which felt like it was the most honorable to the source material it was trying to represent?

WINNER = Avengers: Endgame

EXPLANATION = They knew exactly what people wanted and gave it to them. It took 10 years and they still didn't disappoint.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (kind of), Zombieland: Double Tap

BEST VISUALS

This examines special effects, cinematography, production design and even editing.

WINNER = Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Lion King (tie)

EXPLANATION = It's hard to distinguish a winner between these two. The Lion King is the best as far as animation, by far. However, the "acting" of the characters suffered from not having faces that could express things better. Godzilla is the best as far as blending live action with CGI. That Mothra stuff was beautiful.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Captain Marvel for de-aging Samuel L. Jackson. Terminator: Dark Fate for de-aging Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Avengers: Endgame was nuts. Spider-Man: Far From Home for the illusions. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker for pretty much all of it.

BEST ACTION SET PIECE

This honors the stunt work as well as the choreography and idea of an action sequence.

WINNER = Avengers: Endgame (Avengers...assemble climactic battle)

EXPLANATION = COME. ON. Cap wielding Mjolnir? "On your left"? Everyone shows up. That goddamn music. He says the line! SO. MANY. GOOSEBUMPS. I legitimately don't know if I've ever felt as much pure joy and excitement while watching a movie in my life and I cried in this film, which has happened less times than I can count on one hand. Insane.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Spider-Man: Far From Home's illusions from Mysterio is my #2 pick. I also really enjoyed the action in Zombieland: Double Tap.

BEST CHARACTER DESIGN

This combines makeup, costumes and the CGI build of characters.

WINNER = Avengers: Endgame

EXPLANATION = By the sheer number of characters alone.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Shazam! (particularly the rest of the family) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

BEST MUSIC

This category examines both the score and the soundtrack.

WINNER = Joker

EXPLANATION = This was the only one of the bunch that I downloaded some of the soundtrack from.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = It sure as hell wasn't going to be The Lion King with that Spirit song, or Aladdin with that new Jasmine song, even though both of their original films have some of the best music ever in films (A Whole New World, This Land, The Circle of Life, etc). Those two new additions killed them, though. Glass has some great tracks. Avengers: Endgame, naturally, has some great music, but it had already been established, so I don't know if that deserves as much credit. Plus, you've got to love the music from Star Wars.