Fanboys Anonymous

Welcome to another edition of 6 Flicks Picks, wherein I list all of the upcoming films that are scheduled to be released in the United States for the month which is about to begin and break down which ones I'll be watching in theaters, which ones I'll wait to rent at home, and which ones I'll be skipping out on entirely. After going through the list, I'll choose which six films stand out to me as the ones I want to see the most, even if there are more or less than six that interest me.

Note: The list below is based primarily off the expanded nationwide USA release dates on IMDB as well as some other random outlets if possible, so some information may be different. If I am missing some of the limited releases or the dates conflict in some fashion, please let me know in the comments below and any adjustments and corrections will be made!

Without further ado, another new month means another new set of films, so what's coming soon to theaters in February 2018?

Winchester

Synopsis: Eccentric firearm heiress believes she is haunted by the souls of people killed by the Winchester repeating rifle.

Will I watch? = Maybe

A Fantastic Woman

Synopsis: Marina, a waitress who moonlights as a nightclub singer, is bowled over by the death of her older boyfriend.

Will I watch? = No

The Cage Fighter

Synopsis: A blue-collar family man breaks the promise he'd made to never fight again. Now forty years old, with a wife and four children who need him, Joe Carman risks everything to go back into the fighting cage and come to terms with his past.

Will I watch? = No

Bilal: A New Breed of Hero

Synopsis: A thousand years ago, one boy with a dream of becoming a great warrior is abducted with his sister and taken to a land far away from home. Thrown into a world where greed and injustice rule all, Bilal finds the courage to raise his voice and make a change. Inspired by true events, this is a story of a real hero who earned his remembrance in time and history.

Will I watch? = No

A Ciambra

Synopsis: In A CIAMBRA, a small Romani community in Calabria, Pio Amato is desperate to grow up fast. At 14, he drinks, smokes and is one of the few to easily slide between the region's factions - the local Italians, the African refugees and his fellow Romani. Pio follows his older brother Cosimo everywhere, learning the necessary skills for life on the streets of their hometown. When Cosimo disappears and things start to go wrong, Pio sets out to prove he's ready to step into his big brother's shoes but soon finds himself faced with an impossible decision that will show if he is truly ready to become a man.

Will I watch? = No


Fifty Shades Freed

Synopsis: The third installment of the 'Fifty Shades of Grey' trilogy.

Will I watch? = No

The 15:17 to Paris

Synopsis: American soldiers discover a terrorist plot on a Paris-bound train.

Will I watch? = Maybe

Peter Rabbit

Synopsis: Feature adaptation of Beatrix Potter's classic tale of a rebellious rabbit trying to sneak into a farmer's vegetable garden.

Will I watch? = No

Aiyaary

Synopsis: Witness the story of two Indian Army officers, a mentor and his protégé on this Republic Day.

Will I watch? = No

Before We Vanish

Synopsis: Three aliens travel to Earth in preparation for a mass invasion, taking possession of human bodies.

Will I watch? = Maybe


Black Panther

Synopsis: T'Challa, after the death of his father, the King of Wakanda, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation to succeed to the throne and take his rightful place as king.

Will I watch? = Yes

Early Man

Synopsis: Set at the dawn of time, when prehistoric creatures and woolly mammoths roamed the earth, Early Man tells the story of Dug, along with sidekick Hognob as they unite his tribe against a mighty enemy Lord Nooth and his Bronze Age City to save their home.

Will I watch? = No

Samson

Synopsis: After losing the love of his life to a cruel Philistine prince, a young Hebrew with Supernatural strength defends his people, sacrificing everything to avenge his love, his people, and his God.

Will I watch? = No

The Party

Synopsis: Janet hosts a party to celebrate her new promotion, but once the guests arrive it becomes clear that not everything is going to go down as smoothly as the red wine.

Will I watch? = No

Loveless

Synopsis: A couple going through a divorce must team up to find their son who has disappeared during one of their bitter arguments.

Will I watch? = No

Nostalgia

Synopsis: A mosaic of stories about love and loss, 'Nostalgia' explores our relationships to the objects, artifacts, and memories that shape our lives.

Will I watch? = No

Oh Lucy!

Synopsis: A lonely woman living in Tokyo decides to take an English class where she discovers her alter ego, Lucy.

Will I watch? = No

Double Lover

Synopsis: Chloé, a fragile young woman, falls in love with her psychoanalyst, Paul. A few months later she moves in with him, but soon discovers that her lover is concealing a part of his identity.

Will I watch? = No

Tehran Taboo

Synopsis: In their desperate search for freedom and happiness, four young people from Tehran, Iran are forced to break the taboos of a restrictive, islamic society.

Will I watch? = No


Annihilation

Synopsis: A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition where the laws of nature don't apply.

Will I watch? = Yes

Game Night

Synopsis: A group of friends who meet regularly for game nights find themselves trying to solve a murder mystery.

Will I watch? = Maybe

Hannah

Synopsis: Intimate portrait of a woman drifting between reality and denial when she is left alone to grapple with the consequences of her husband's imprisonment.

Will I watch? = No

The Lodgers

Synopsis: 1920, rural Ireland. Anglo Irish twins Rachel and Edward share a strange existence in their crumbling family estate. Each night, the property becomes the domain of a sinister presence (The Lodgers) which enforces three rules upon the twins: they must be in bed by midnight; they may not permit an outsider past the threshold; if one attempts to escape, the life of the other is placed in jeopardy. When troubled war veteran Sean returns to the nearby village, he is immediately drawn to the mysterious Rachel, who in turn begins to break the rules set out by The Lodgers. The consequences pull Rachel into a deadly confrontation with her brother - and with the curse that haunts them.

Will I watch? = No

Beast of Burden

Synopsis: Sean Haggerty only has an hour to deliver his illegal cargo. An hour to reassure a drug cartel, a hitman, and the DEA that nothing is wrong. An hour to make sure his wife survives. And he must do it all from the cockpit of his Cessna.

Will I watch? = No


Which films make the cut?

6. Before We Vanish — Um...what?

5. The 15:17 to Paris / Nostalgia — It's a bit of a cheat, but I can't really decide. I'm allowing this tie because truthfully, I don't want to see either of these, so it isn't as though I'm trying to sneak in more than six films, but more so that I just can't decide on anything but the top two. With Nostalgia, it could be heartwarming in a depressing way. With 15:17, I'm just curious how the people can portray themselves when they weren't actors.

4. Winchester — The story of the house is interesting and my girlfriend wants to see it, so this wins a spot for sure.

3. Game Night — This is totally a Valentine's Day film and there's a chance it's funny, as the trailer got me to hope that those weren't the funniest parts but showed enough of potential.

2. Annihilation — I'm purposely trying not to learn too much about this movie, as it could be another Arrival where I'm pleasantly surprised. It looks interesting, though, and seems like it could skirt the line between being sci-fi neat without being sci-fi overbearing.

1. Black Panther — This is the true standout and the only thing I've actually already purchased tickets for, well in advance. 10 tickets as always. Black Panther was one of my favorite parts of Captain America: Civil War and this movie looks awesome.

The nominees for the 90th Academy Awards have been announced, so it's time for us to talk about some of the surprises, snubs and our predictions of which movies will take home an Oscar in 2018.

A FEW NOTES BEFORE WE START:

Before we even get into anything, let me preface things by saying that this is one of those years like the 84th Academy Awards where I just don't find damn near anything to be interesting, and I not only haven't seen almost any of these movies, but I really can't see myself sitting through them because I know I won't like them.

This is because there seems to be two motivating factors behind the nominations this year: it's either a boring historical drama (like always), or it's some kind of political statement where the movie probably is being revered for its subject material rather than the film's execution itself.

Example, I hear outcries that Wonder Woman should have been nominated for Best Picture. If you replace the lead protagonist with a male, you'd all come to the realization that the movie isn't really all that good. I agree 100% that the film is important because it helps break barriers as far as having a female director and being a female-led superhero film, but that doesn't mean it matches up to The Shawshank Redemption. Please.

If a movie looks good enough to me, with or without an agenda, I'll see it. I really enjoyed Hidden Figures and Fences last year. I didn't, in retrospect, enjoy Moonlight as much and didn't want it to win Best Picture. A combination of these from this year is Battle of the Sexes, which I thought looked kind of interesting and it's not only a historical piece, but it's also about female empowerment. I didn't see it yet, but then again, I haven't seen Blade Runner 2049 or Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle either, and I wanted to see those, so...

I look at the list of nominees from this year and outside of a few examples, they all look to me like they were nominated because someone read the synopsis and said "I like the message that's going for" or "that seems like it would be an Oscar thing" rather than "I like this movie as a whole better than every other movie this year in comparison."

Get Out was fun as hell, and I enjoyed The Shape of Water and I liked I, Tonya more than I thought I would (but I'm glad it wasn't nominated for Best Picture). I'll probably try to watch some of these movies, even if I have to shut them off midway through.

Lastly, I just want to point out that when it comes to any "artsy fartsy" movie, as some would describe them—particularly those that fall under the Oscar-bait categories I'm talking about here—they don't stand the test of time. Nobody is talking about Brooklyn. Nobody ever brings up The King's Speech as the best movie ever. Have you heard anyone say a damn thing about The Artist or Moonrise Kingdom?

No. You didn't. Unless you're part of the film community that turns its nose to anything "mainstream" and revels in the idea that you're so much more sophisticated and classy.

Spotlight is a movie I didn't enjoy and I never need to watch again and wish I had that time back. Les Misérables was surprisingly delightful. Shit happens.

CHECKLIST OF MOVIES BELOW:

* = I've seen the film
(#) = number of total nominations

* The Shape of Water (13)
* Dunkirk (8)
* Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (7)
Darkest Hour (6)
Phantom Thread (6)
Blade Runner 2049 (5)
Lady Bird (5)
Call Me by Your Name (4)
* Get Out (4)
Mudbound (4)
* Star Wars: The Last Jedi (4)
Baby Driver (3)
* I, Tonya (3)
Beauty and the Beast (2)
Coco (2)
The Post (2)
Victoria & Abdul (2)
All the Money in the World (1)
Coco (1)
Ferdinand (1)
* Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (1)
* Kong: Skull Island (1)
* Logan (1)
Loving Vincent (1)
Marshall (1)
Molly's Game (1)
Roman J. Israel, Esq. (1)
The Big Sick (1)
The Boss Baby (1)
The Breadwinner (1)
* The Disaster Artist (1)
The Florida Project (1)
The Greatest Showman (1)
War for the Planet of the Apes (1)
Wonder (1)

THOUGHTS AND PREDICTIONS:

Now, onto my predictions, which I'll be updating as time goes on and I potentially watch any of these movies.

BEST PICTURE

THOUGHTS: I think Get Out can be ruled out. I enjoyed it, but it's not Best Picture. The Shape of Water stands a chance, but I can see a couple other things taking it out of the competition. I don't think Dunkirk deserves it, or is really even in the discussion, as the same movie without the context of it being a war film which also happens to be directed by Christopher Nolan would probably get zero attention in comparison to what it got. Having not seen Darkest Hour or The Post or Call Me by Your Name or Phantom Thread or Lady Bird, but not seeing much of a point to really watch them as they probably stand not chance, I definitely put Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as the favorite, for sure.

PREDICTION: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST ACTOR

THOUGHTS: We can probably rule out Denzel Washington, who I think gets a nomination for basically being just always rock solid. Daniel Day-Lewis might be more of an honorary thing. Daniel Kaluuya was a total shock for me, and he won't win. This is really between Chalamet and Oldman, and I think it's a matter of whether the voters want to go with the story of the young kid with the positive message or if they want to go with pure acknowledgment. No nomination for James Franco for The Disaster Artist, though, which is surprising considering his Golden Globe win. Nothing for Tom Hanks for The Post, either.

PREDICTION: Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour

BEST ACTRESS

THOUGHTS: This is going to Frances McDormand. C'mon. Sally Hawkins is a nomination for recognition. Margot Robbie is a motivator of "we know you're killing it, keep up the good work" and the same applies to Saoirse Ronan. Meryl Streep is just Meryl Streep so she always has her name on this list. This is a one woman race, though.

PREDICTION: Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

THOUGHTS: The fact that two men are nominated for the same movie makes me think one of them will win, if not just by pure statistics, and between the two, Sam Rockwell is in the film longer and has a more dynamic character, overall. I don't think Richard Jenkins has it, even though I liked his character a lot in The Shape of Water. I'm also not sure if the Christopher Plummer nomination was because he's going to win it or because they just want to acknowledge how he stepped into a production so late and rushed a performance and somehow pulled it off. Personally, I think someone who was skipped over was Paul Walter Hauser for I, Tonya. He stole that movie to me and nailed his character to a ridiculous level.

PREDICTION: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

THOUGHTS: Frankly, I don't see why Octavia Spencer was nominated. I don't think Lesley Manville has this for the same reason as Mary J. Blige—I haven't heard anything about their performances, so either I'm totally out of the loop on those two, or they must not be that great. To me, this is probably between Allison Janney and Laurie Metcalf, and honestly, I don't know which one stands out more (mostly because I didn't see Metcalf's performance)...but because of her Golden Globe win, I'll go with Allison Janney.

PREDICTION: Allison Janney for I, Tonya

BEST DIRECTOR

THOUGHTS: This is an extremely hard one to call. Don't count out Jordan Peele. I don't think it will be Christopher Nolan or Paul Thomas Anderson, but they aren't out of the running by any means. If I had to pick, I'd go with Guillermo del Toro, but with the whole political climate going on right now, Greta Gerwig might win just because she's a woman and that could give her some extra votes from people who could have seen the exact same movie and if it were directed by a man, wouldn't vote for it. Then again, there still might be people who vote AGAINST her purely because she's a woman, so maybe that will balance itself out in the most ridiculous way because neither political vote judges the film itself.

PREDICTION: Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

THOUGHTS: These are some of the hardest to predict, as they can go one way or the other. Either they go to the exact same movies that win everything else like Best Picture, or they go to the runner-up as a consolation prize. Did The Big Sick get the nomination and that's good enough? I can see the same thing happening with Get Out, but in the past, when I've been hesitant to trust the oddball choice, I've been proven wrong, so maybe I need to give some credit where it is due that it might happen, especially since it won for the Writers Guild of America Awards.

PREDICTION: Get Out

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

THOUGHTS: Copy and paste what I said about Original Screenplay and the whole consolation prize idea, but since only one of these films is nominated for Best Picture, I think that narrows it down quite a bit. If that happens and it's a statement, they could go with something other than Call Me By Your Name, but that's the one I think stands out. It's nice to see Logan get some love as the first comic book movie to get a serious nomination in a long time. I still don't get how Captain America: The Winter Soldier didn't earn this category nomination a few years ago and I'm bummed about that.

PREDICTION: Call Me By Your Name

BEST FILM EDITING

THOUGHTS: Good lord, I have no idea. I'm going to assume that if something was nominated for this and not much else, it must stand out, which means Baby Driver could get the win, even though that might just mean they liked it enough to nominate it. I don't think it will be I, Tonya or Three Billboards and I think I can even rule out The Shape of Water. I think this goes to Dunkirk even though I wasn't a fan of it having a split narrative and confusing timeline.

PREDICTION: Dunkirk

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

THOUGHTS: Not only am I surprised Kong: Skull Island got on this list, I'm also shocked Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets didn't get nominated as I've heard that that is gorgeous. Maybe I'm bitter about the story told in Star Wars: The Last Jedi but I don't even want it to win this award and I'll argue that Leia floating through space was enough of a reason to ignore it even if the rest of the movie looked pretty great and just fell flat in other ways. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 should be skipped, I think, since it all feels a bit too fake. I haven't seen War for the Planet of the Apes, and I can imagine a world where they give this award to that in honor of all the CGI work they've done with the apes over the course of the three films, but I'm definitely leaning toward Blade Runner 2049 being the most obvious pick here.

PREDICTION: Blade Runner 2049

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

THOUGHTS: Cinematography isn't the same animal as Visual Effects, but they do have some parallels and it isn't crazy to think Blade Runner 2049 could win both. It's interesting, though, that that's the only one to get nominated for both awards, which helps its chances. Dunkirk wouldn't be too too shocking, nor would The Shape of Water.

PREDICTION: Blade Runner 2049

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

THOUGHTS: Blade Runner 2049 and The Shape of Water seem like bigger feats to me than Dunkirk as we've seen a million war films already. Beauty and the Beast...well, they had the animated film for reference. Darkest Hour isn't something that has as much work to need done on it than the first two I mentioned, so I think it's between them.

PREDICTION: The Shape of Water

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

THOUGHTS: I never seem to get this one right, so don't bet any money on me being correct. My gut instinct is to say Beauty and the Beast because they love their dresses, but they also love their period pieces and that's just going to screw with my mind and make me second guess myself. Victoria & Abdul seems like it would strike a lot of chords. Phantom Thread is literally about clothes, though...

PREDICTION: Phantom Thread

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

THOUGHTS: Um....I have no idea what Victoria & Abdul is. Wonder doesn't strike me as the thing that would beat out Darkest Hour considering the buzz Gary Oldman has. If the makeup didn't work, he wouldn't be in such high contention for Best Actor.

PREDICTION: Darkest Hour

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

THOUGHTS: Hans Zimmer tends to always do great work, but nothing stood out to me from Dunkirk, John Williams used to be amazing but is kind of phoning it in lately in my opinion, and I don't remember any of the score for Three Billboards even though I just got done watching it a few minutes before writing this. The Shape of Water didn't have anything astounding to me, but I do remember it resonating more than the rest.

PREDICTION: Alexandre Desplat for The Shape of Water

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

THOUGHTS: The only two that I've heard any buzz about are "Remember Me" from Coco and "This is Me" from The Greatest Showman. In the past, that's been a good indicator of which has the advantage going into the voting, but I've been surprised before. Given the choices, I think "This is Me" might win since that film isn't nominated for anything else, so that must stand out a bit. Plus, it is a musical after all, so it better do its job right. But, hell, I'm really tossing a coin here and I don't feel confident at all that it isn't just going to Coco.

PREDICTION: "This is Me" from The Greatest Showman

BEST SOUND EDITING

THOUGHTS: There's no difference whatsoever in the nominees. It's the same playing field of five films, and so often, whatever wins ends up taking both. At this point, I don't know why they don't just combine these categories into a Best Sound Design category, but someone who is more knowledgeable can explain that to me. Keep in mind that while I know there is a distinction to the job, I don't understand how Best Visual Effects can be combined instead of differentiating Best Practical Effects and Best CGI since those blend together, while Editing/Mixing is a blend. Anyway, Baby Driver, Blade Runner 2049 and Dunkirk to me have better chances than The Shape of Water and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Since it's a war film and from what I've heard, the emphasis is on the battles and not on any story, I'm going to lean towards Dunkirk.

PREDICTION: Dunkirk

BEST SOUND MIXING

THOUGHTS: Look up.

PREDICTION: Dunkirk

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

THOUGHTS: Really? The Lego Batman Movie doesn't get a nomination??? Come on! The Boss Baby and Ferdinand look so stupid to me, I've literally never heard of The Breadwinner or Loving Vincent and that means Coco wins by default.

PREDICTION: Coco

THE REST OF THE CATEGORIES

Including:
Best Animated Short Film
Best Documentary Feature
Best Documentary Short Subject
Best Foreign Language Film
Best Live Action Short Film

THOUGHTS: These are the categories that I never know anything about. Everything listed is a completely foreign entity to me, so I typically go into the ceremony not having seen a single still image of the films. It's always a total shot in the dark as I basically either decide not to try to predict them at all, or I pick one at random. I have no idea which movies should have been nominated but weren't, which films should not have been nominated but were, or anything else like that. Essentially, I could put all of them up on a dart board and whatever I hit, those are my picks, and I'd probably do just as well as if I tried to guess blindly on my own merits. If you know anything about any of those films, feel free to enlighten me in the comments section so I can try to check them out if I can get access to any of them before the ceremony takes place.


Last year, we saw a distinct response to the #OscarsSoWhite situation and with this year's primary focus seemingly shifting to the LGBT community and women empowerment, I don't know how that's going to factor in on a grander scope. I assume that will be the focal point of the speeches, but as far as the awards themselves, I don't know if it will translate to wins and losses. If we see Lady Bird killing it, then we know it did, because holy shit, I shut that movie off at the 3:12 mark and didn't want to see a single second more as I felt like it would be wasting my time with pointless angst that I've already seen before. If we see Get Out sweeping, we know #OscarsSoWhite is still prevalent. Then again, maybe this is going to be one of those years where everything is so random because there aren't standout obvious choices for anything, so the people like myself who are trying to guess what other people are thinking have no ability to jump into their brains and guess correctly. I'm just glad Star Wars: The Last Jedi wasn't nominated for Best Picture as I clearly had my problems with it.

The 90th Academy Awards will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and take place on March 4, 2018 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, broadcast by ABC.

Here are the following nominees announced. Tell us your predictions for the winners in the comments below!

BEST PICTURE

Call Me By Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST ACTOR

Timothee Chalamet for Call Me By Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis for Phantom Thread
Daniel Kaluuya for Get Out
Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington for Roman J. Israel, Esq.

BEST ACTRESS

Sally Hawkins for The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margot Robbie for I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan for Lady Bird
Meryl Streep for The Post

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Willem Dafoe for The Florida Project
Woody Harrelson for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Richard Jenkins for The Shape of Water
Christopher Plummer for All the Money in the World
Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Mary J. Blige for Mudbound
Allison Janney for I, Tonya
Lesley Manville for Phantom Thread
Laurie Metcalf for Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer for The Shape of Water

BEST DIRECTOR

Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk
Jordan Peele for Get Out
Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird
Paul Thomas Anderson for Phantom Thread
Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

The Big Sick
Get Out
Lady Bird
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Call Me By Your Name
The Disaster Artist
Logan
Molly's Game
Mudbound

BEST FILM EDITING

Baby Driver
Dunkirk
I, Tonya
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Blade Runner 2049
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Kong: Skull Island
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi
War for the Planet of the Apes

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Mudbound
The Shape of Water

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Beauty and the Beast
Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Beauty and the Beast
Darkest Hour
Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water
Victoria & Abdul

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Darkest Hour
Victoria & Abdul 
Wonder

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Hans Zimmer for Dunkirk
Jonny Greenwood for Phantom Thread
Alexandre Desplat for The Shape of Water
John Williams for Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Carter Burwell for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

"Mighty River" from Mudbound
"Mystery of Love" from Call Me By Your Name
"Remember Me" from Coco
"Stand Up for Something" from Marshall
"This is Me" from The Greatest Showman

BEST SOUND EDITING

Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi

BEST SOUND MIXING

Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

The Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

Dear Basketball
Garden Party
Lou
Negative Space
Revolting Rhymes

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Faces Places
Icarus
Last Men in Aleppo
Strong Island

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

Edith+Eddie
Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405
Heroin(e)
Knife Skills
Traffic Stop

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

A Fantastic Woman (Chile)
The Insult (Lebanon)
Loveless (Russia)
On Body and Soul (Hungary)
The Square (Sweden)

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

DeKalb Elementary
The Eleven O'Clock
My Nephew Emmet
The Silent Child
Watu Wote / All of Us

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight is the latest in the line of animated DC direct-to-video films. Is it worth the watch or it is something that should be skipped?

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight
Directed by Sam Liu
Written by James Krieg

STARRING:
Bruce Greenwood (Bruce Wayne / Batman), Jennifer Carpenter (Selina Kyle), Tara Strong (Marelene Mahoney), Kari Wuhrer (Barbara Gordon), Scott Patterson (James Gordon), Grey DeLisle (Sister Leslie), John DiMaggio (Chief Bullock), Anthony Head (Alfred Pennyworth), Yuri Lowenthal (Harvey Dent), Lincoln Melcher (Dickie), Bruce Timm (Arkham Radio Man), William Salyers (Hugo Strange), Chris Cox (Father Callahan), Bob Joles (Mayor Tolliver) and David Forseth (Cyrus Gold)

Here are some specific thoughts that ran through my mind during the course of the film as a stream of consciousness:

• Poison Ivy as a stripper gimmick? Nice touch. Writer-wise, not actual touch. I'll shut up now.
• The Robins as street hoods? Another nice touch, especially with Jason being the more violent of the three.
• That Ferris wheel is going to be the final act, right?
• Well if this isn't the most low-rent Batmobile ever....
• Mrs. Cooper? Harriet Cooper? Deep cut!
• This better not be a super long musical scene like in the last film.
• Get it, Bruce. Selina's a babe.
• I really hope this doesn't turn into a story where Bruce is a suspect.
• Sherlock Holmes, eh?
• I was going to guess Blockbuster, not Cyrus Gold, but that works. I'm also hoping one of the Blackgate guards is Lock-Up.
• Really? Gordon? I didn't see that coming.
• Oh...that was an abrupt ending. Why not tie things up and explain how Bruce can clear his name, or at least show that they build an orphanage? Nah, just end credits. Strange.

This was better overall than the Batman and Harley Quinn movie, but it wasn't anything super amazing. I liked the change of style if not just for something different, and I naturally dig all the references. The animation style wasn't bad, but far from my favorite of these films. I doubt this is going to be one of them that I watch again, but if you're looking for an hour to kill, go ahead.

Awards season is in full swing, but while the Golden Globes and Academy Awards celebrate the best of the year, the Golden Raspberry Awards poke fun at the worst movies to have come out over the past 12 months. The 38th annual ceremony will take place March 3, 2018 Here is the list of the nominees for the 2018 Razzies Awards.

WORST PICTURE

Baywatch
The Emoji Movie
Fifty Shades Darker
The Mummy
Transformers: The Last Knight

WORST ACTOR

Tom Cruise in The Mummy as Nick Morton
Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales as Captain Jack Sparrow
Jamie Dornan in Fifty Shades Darker as Christian Grey
Zac Efron in Baywatch as Matt Brody
Mark Wahlberg in Daddy's Home 2 and Transformers: The Last Knight as Dusty Mayron and Cade Yeager

WORST ACTRESS

Katherine Heigl in Unforgettable as Tessa Connover
Dakota Johnson in Fifty Shades Darker as Anastasia 'Ana' Steele
Jennifer Lawrence in Mother! as Mother
Tyler Perry in Boo 2! A Madea Halloween as Madea
Emma Watson in The Circle as Mae Holland

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Javier Bardem for Mother! and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales as Him and Captain Armando Salazar
Russell Crowe for The Mummy as Dr. Henry Jekyll
Josh Duhamel for Transformers: The Last Knight as Col. William Lennox
Mel Gibson for Daddy's Home 2 as Kurt Mayron
Anthony Hopkins for Collide and Transformers: The Last Knight as Hagen Kahl and Sir Edmund Burton

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Kim Basinger for Fifty Shades Darker as Elena Lincoln
Sofia Boutella for The Mummy as Ahmanet
Laura Haddock for Transformers: The Last Knight as Viviane Wembly
Goldie Hawn for Snatched as Linda Middleton
Susan Sarandon for A Bad Moms Christmas as Isis Dunkler

WORST DIRECTOR

Darren Aronofsky for Mother!
Michael Bay for Transformers: The Last Knight
James Foley for Fifty Shades Darker
Alex Kurtzman for The Mummy
Tony Leondis for The Emoji Movie

WORST SCREENPLAY

Baywatch - Damian Shannon, Mark Swift, Jay Scherick, David Ronn, Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant; based on Baywatch by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz and Gregory J. Bonann
The Emoji Movie - Tony Leondis, Eric Siegel and Mike White
Fifty Shades Darker - Niall Leonard; based from the novel by E. L. James
The Mummy - David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie, Dylan Kussman, Jon Spaihts, Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet; based on The Mummy franchise
Transformers: The Last Knight - Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, Ken Nolan and Akiva Goldsman; based on Hasbro's Transformers action figures

WORST REMAKE OR SEQUEL

Baywatch
Boo 2! A Madea Halloween
Fifty Shades Darker
The Mummy
Transformers: The Last Knight

WORST SCREEN COMBO

Any combination of two characters, two sex toys or two sexual positions in Fifty Shades Darker
Any combination of two humans, two robots or two explosions in Transformers: The Last Knight
Any two obnoxious emojis in The Emoji Movie
Johnny Depp & his worn-out drunk routine in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Tyler Perry & either the ratty old dress or worn-out wig in Boo 2! A Madea Halloween

RAZZIES REDEEMER AWARD

TBD

The 75th annual Golden Globe Awards are scheduled for this evening, Sunday, January 7, 2018 at the Beverly Hilton on NBC, hosted by Seth Meyers. This post will be updated with the full list of winners from all the categories. Tell us your thoughts on the results in the comments below!

Best Supporting Performance by an Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film
Laura Dern, Big Little Lies
Ann Dowd, The Handmaid's Tale
Chrissy Metz, This is Us
Michelle Pfeiffer, The Wizard of Lies
Shailene Woodley, Big Little Lies

WINNER = Laura Dern as Renata Klein in Big Little Lies

Best Supporting Performance by an Actor in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film
David Harbour, Stranger Things
Alfred Molina, Feud: Bette and Joan
Christian Slater, Mr. Robot
Alexander Skarsgard, Big Little Lies
David Thewlis, Fargo

WINNER = Alexander Skarsgard as Perry Wright in Big Little Lies

Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film
Jessica Biel, The Sinner
Nicole Kidman, Big Little Lies
Jessica Lange, Feud: Bette and Joan
Susan Sarandon, Feud: Bette and Joan
Reese Witherspoon, Big Little Lies

WINNER = Nicole Kidman as Celeste Wright in Big Little Lies

Best Performance by an Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film
Robert De Niro, The Wizard of Lies
Jude Law, The Young Pope
Kyle MacLachlan, Twin Peaks
Ewan McGregor, Fargo
Geoffrey Rush, Genius

WINNER = Ewan McGregor as Emmit and Raymond "Ray" Stussy in Fargo

Best Miniseries or Television Film
Big Little Lies
Fargo
Feud: Bette and Joan
The Sinner
Top of the Lake: China Girl

WINNER = Big Little Lies

Best Performance By an Actress in a Television Series (Comedy or Musical)
Pamela Adlon, Better Things
Alison Brie, Glow
Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Issa Rae, Insecure
Frankie Shaw, SMILF

WINNER = Rachel Brosnahan as Miriam "Midge" Maisel in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Best Performance By an Actor in a Television Series (Comedy or Musical)
Anthony Anderson, Black-ish
Aziz Ansari, Master of None
Kevin Bacon, I Love Dick
William H. Macy, Shameless
Eric McCormack, Will and Grace

WINNER = Aziz Ansari as Dev Shah in Master of None

Best Performance By an Actress in a Television Series (Drama)
Caitriona Balfe, Outlander
Claire Foy, The Crown
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Deuce
Katherine Langford, 13 Reasons Why
Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid's Tale

WINNER = Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne/Offred in The Handmaid's Tale

Best Performance By an Actor in a Television Series (Drama)
Jason Bateman, Ozark
Sterling K. Brown, This is Us
Freddie Highmore, The Good Doctor
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan

WINNER = Sterling K. Brown as Randall Pearson in This is Us

Best Television Series (Comedy)
Black-ish
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Master of None
SMILF
Will & Grace

WINNER = The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Best Television Series (Drama)
The Crown
Game of Thrones
The Handmaid's Tale
Stranger Things
This is Us

WINNER = The Handmaid's Tale


Best Original Score
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Shape of Water
Phantom Thread
The Post
Dunkirk

WINNER = Alexandre Desplate for The Shape of Water

Best Original Song
"Home", Ferdinand
"Mighty River", Mudbound
"Remember Me", Coco
"The Star", The Star
"This Is Me", The Greatest Showman

WINNER = "This is Me" by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul from The Greatest Showman

Best Supporting Performance by Actress in a Motion Picture
Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
Hong Chau, Downsizing
Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water

WINNER = Allison Janney as LaVona Golden in I, Tonya

Best Supporting Performance By an Actor in a Motion Picture
Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Armie Hammer, Call Me by Your Name
Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water
Christopher Plummer, All The Money in the World
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

WINNER = Sam Rockwell as Officer Jason Dixon in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Performance By an Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical)
Judi Dench, Victoria & Abdul
Helen Mirren, The Leisure Seeker
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Emma Stone, Battle of the Sexes

WINNER = Saoirse Ronan as Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson in Lady Bird

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical)
Steve Carell, Battle of the Sexes
Ansel Elgort, Baby Driver
James Franco, The Disaster Artist
Hugh Jackman, The Greatest Showman
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out

WINNER = James Franco as Tommy Wiseau in The Disaster Artist

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama)
Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
Tom Hanks, The Post
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

WINNER = Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour

Best Performance By an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama)
Jessica Chastain, Molly's Game
Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Meryl Streep, The Post
Michelle Williams, All The Money in the World

WINNER = Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Motion Picture (Foreign Language)
A Fantastic Woman
First They Killed My Father
In the Fade
Loveless
The Square

WINNER = In the Fade

Best Motion Picture (Animated)
The Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent

WINNER = Coco

Best Director - Motion Picture
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Ridley Scott, All The Money in the World
Steven Spielberg, The Post

WINNER = Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture
Guillermo Del Toro, Vanessa Taylor, The Shape of Water
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Liz Hannah, Josh Singer, The Post
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Aaron Sorkin, Molly's Game

WINNER = Martin McDonagh for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical)
The Disaster Artist
Get Out
The Greatest Showman
I, Tonya
Lady Bird

WINNER = Lady Bird

Best Motion Picture (Drama)
Call Me by Your Name
Dunkirk
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

WINNER = Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Welcome to another edition of 6 Flicks Picks, wherein I list all of the upcoming films that are scheduled to be released in the United States for the month which is about to begin and break down which ones I'll be watching in theaters, which ones I'll wait to rent at home, and which ones I'll be skipping out on entirely. After going through the list, I'll choose which six films stand out to me as the ones I want to see the most, even if there are more or less than six that interest me.

Note: The list below is based primarily off the expanded nationwide USA release dates on IMDB as well as some other random outlets if possible, so some information may be different. If I am missing some of the limited releases or the dates conflict in some fashion, please let me know in the comments below and any adjustments and corrections will be made!

Without further ado, another new month means another new set of films, so what's coming soon to theaters in January 2018?

Insidious: The Last Key

Synopsis: Parapsychologist Dr. Elise Rainier faces her most fearsome and personal haunting yet - in her own family home.

Will I watch? = No


The Commuter

Synopsis: A businessman is caught up in a criminal conspiracy during his daily commute home.

Will I watch? = No

Paddington 2

Synopsis: Paddington, now happily settled with the Brown family and a popular member of the local community, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy's 100th birthday, only for the gift to be stolen.

Will I watch? = No

Proud Mary

Synopsis: Taraji P. Henson is Mary, a hitwoman working for an organized crime family in Boston. Mary's life is completely turned around when she meets a young boy whose path she crosses when a professional hit goes awry.

Will I watch? = No

Condorito: The Movie

Synopsis: Condorito embarks in a hilarious adventure to save the planet and his loved ones from an evil alien.

Will I watch? = No


12 Strong

Synopsis: 12 Strong tells the story of the first Special Forces team deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11; under the leadership of a new captain, the team must work with an Afghan warlord to take down the Taliban.

Will I watch? = No

Den of Thieves

Synopsis: A gritty crime saga which follows the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff's Dept. and the state's most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank.

Will I watch? = No

The Leisure Seeker

Synopsis: A runaway couple go on an unforgettable journey in the faithful old RV they call The Leisure Seeker.

Will I watch? = No

The Final Year

Synopsis: THE FINAL YEAR is a unique insiders' account of President Barack Obama's foreign policy team during their last year in office. Featuring unprecedented access inside the White House and State Department, THE FINAL YEAR offers an uncompromising view of the inner workings of the Obama Administration as they prepare to leave power after eight years.

Will I watch? = No



Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Synopsis: Young hero Thomas embarks on a mission to find a cure for a deadly disease known as the "Flare".

Will I watch? = Yes

White Boy Rick

Synopsis: The story of teenager Richard Wershe Jr., who became an undercover informant for the FBI during the 1980s and was ultimately arrested for drug-trafficking and sentenced to life in prison.

Will I watch? = No

Forever My Girl

Synopsis: After being gone for a decade a country star returns home to the love he left behind.

Will I watch? = No


Which films make the cut? Well, this is a horrible month, so I'm really stretching, more than ever before with this segment. I really have nothing positive to say, so keep that in mind, because I'm not actually going to see any of these even at home, except for one of them...

6. 12 Strong — Maybe there's a good shootout action scene?

5. Den of Thieves — Maybe there's a good shootout action scene?

4. White Boy Rick — This seems like an attempt at Oscar bait, but McConaughey is normally good and maybe it'll at least be as interesting as Black Mass was.

3. Proud Mary — I have no idea. I'm grasping at straws. Taraji P. Henson as a hitwoman edges out the others because meh, why not?

2. The Commuter — Maybe there's a good shootout action scene?

1. Maze Runner: The Death Cure — This is the only one I actually have any interest in seeing, having watched its two predecessors.

Welcome to a special edition of 6 Flicks Picks to jump-start the year 2018!

Naturally, this breakdown won't be listing the releases of every single movie that will be coming out in the year—partially because that's too daunting of a task and partially because even the studios don't know all of those yet—but it will still follow the same format as far as the picks go. This will be much harder, as there are hundreds of films that will be coming out, but it still boils down to the same concept: if I had to pick only six movies that I could watch, which ones would they be?

Without further ado, let's take a look at what makes my cut for 2018!

What is so difficult about this type of thing is that I have to go by the general breakdown of the big releases, as there can definitely be movies that pop up that I'm completely unaware of that are smaller in scale. A major summer blockbuster is already in promotion now, but what about the little indie flick?

Those end up being ignored in this generic year scope, but on the monthly basis, they'll get much more attention, so keep that in mind.

This year, I had a list of about 20 movies that I was already writing down that I wanted to see to varying degrees, with about 12 of them being definites to see in theaters. Of course, that's twice as many as what I'm allowed to pick, which makes it hard, and when I got down to the final 8 or so, it became nearly impossible to pick which film got that final spot.

What Didn't Make the List: One of the easy ones for me to eliminate from the top was Ready Player One, which looks interesting, but I know virtually nothing about. The same goes for God Particle being an idea I'm into, yet have seen nothing. I've enjoyed the previous two films enough to want to see Maze Runner: The Death Cure, but it's not a priority. Right now, with such little information to go by, I have to cast off the animated Spider-Man film, too. Shout out to The Purge: The Island because the first film was meh, but I quite enjoyed the second and third, so I'm in for this fourth one.

Sadly, after being disappointed with Justice League, I can't give a final spot to Aquaman. After all, he's Aquaman, and while I currently like the character more than ever, that doesn't mean I love it.

It's also strange for me to not put two out of the three X-Men films on my list, but at this point, the franchise has proven itself to be very hit/miss and I don't like this horror angle The New Mutants is taking, nor do I think X-Men: Dark Phoenix will pan out to be very well.

Creed 2? Cool. Not a top 6. Incredibles 2? Well, this might seem like blasphemy, but I didn't enjoy the first one anywhere near as much as most people, so I might even skip that.

Here's where it got difficult. I had 8 films left on my list and 2 of them needed to go.

In the end, those two became Venom and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom...by a narrow, and I mean NARROW margin...until Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom made a big stink about its trailer coming out and the trailer, well, stunk. The more separated from Jurassic World I am, the more I think of it as just a retread and a copy of Jurassic Park, so I'm a bit worried this might end up being a retread of The Lost World.

My philosophy with Venom was that Sony has screwed up plenty of Spider-Man properties before and I have no faith in them delivering with Venom, even if the character is one of my favorites.

I'm still very much looking forward to those listed above, but only six movies could make the cut, so let's see which ones got the honors...

6. Mission: Impossible 6 — What saved this from being cut with the final two above is how every film in the franchise has pretty much gotten better than its predecessor, so by that rationale, this might end up being the very best. I've always been a James Bond guy and nothing will ever change that, but Ethan Hunt's series has kicked so much ass as far as overall generic quality and I have no reason to believe that this won't follow suit. Plus, it's different from everything else on the list.

5. Ant-Man and the Wasp — I bitched and moaned for a long time about how Ant-Man was going to be Marvel's first flop after I was wrong when saying the same thing about Guardians of the Galaxy, and I ended up thinking it was very charming. Now, I'm in. Give me the romantic comedy vibe that we're hearing about. You don't need to sell me. I'll buy my ticket for opening night without a single trailer.

4. Deadpool 2 — I do think the first film gets a little more praise than it should as far as overall film quality, but I can't deny that Deadpool was a huge achievement in a lot of different realms of the movie making process and entertaining as all hell. The character is hilarious and a follow-up can either capitalize on that and make things even funnier, or it can potentially fall short of expectations, but I know I'll be there opening night to see for myself.

3. Solo: A Star Wars Story — You'd think this would be #1 or at least #2, right? Well, so did I. Then, The Last Jedi came out and really, and I mean REALLY soured me on the Star Wars franchise. I don't find it as fun anymore. It sapped a ton of my energy for it and I'm not excited about anything they put forward anymore, like the last half of Star Wars Rebels and this movie and Episode 9. Plus, the problems plaguing this movie have me nervous it'll be a clusterfuck, as Rogue One didn't even have this many problems and it still struggled. However, it's a movie about Han Solo and it has Donald Glover as Lando, so I haven't fully given up.

2. Black Panther — As a Caucasian guy, I can't even pretend to understand the significance of this movie as far as diversity goes, but I'm also not going to pretend that I necessarily even care about that. It's a great thing and I'm all for it, but that's not why I'm interested in this movie. I'm interested in it because it just flat out looks awesome. Black Panther was one of my favorite parts of Captain America: Civil War and the fact that this is the last movie before Infinity War means I'll be so pumped for anything they bring my way. The cast is phenomenal and it's a Marvel film, so you've already got my money.

1. Avengers: Infinity War — It took 20 films and 10 years to get to this point. I would pay $100 to see this in theaters if I had to. It's goddamn Thanos with the fucking Infinity Gauntlet!!!! What the hell, man?!! Remember when we were excited that Ra's al Ghul could be in a Batman film because we thought that was too strange for modern audiences?!! Now we've got this going on!!!!!!

Every year, one of the criticisms of the awards ceremonies is that there is a disconnect between what the average moviegoer appreciates and what the more artistic voters for these academies choose to represent the best of that particular year. Very rarely is any attention or adoration given to anything in the genres of comedy, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, action/adventure and so forth as opposed to what is commonly referred to as "Oscar-bait" material.

Thus, here at Fanboys Anonymous, we want to extend our gratitude to those movies which are overlooked with the first-ever FANBOYS FILM AWARDS!

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 Dunkirk on this list, but you still might see The Great Wall. However...I haven't actually seen either of those movies, so no, those aren't on this list.

NOTE: All nominees were from the time frame of January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017 as far as release dates. Plus, this is only one person's opinion and I admittedly haven't even seen every film that could potentially be nominated, so that's going to put a significant bias on this. You're encouraged to leave your choices for the nominees and winners in the comments below to keep the discussion going!

BEST PICTURE

WINNER = Logan

EXPLANATION = Man, did I really want The Last Jedi to be in this spot, but it just pissed me off too much. Logan, on the other hand, held up to its expectations. It's not perfect, but it gave me the sendoff for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine in a way that I felt very pleased by the end of it.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = The Lego Batman Movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok

BEST ACTOR

WINNER = Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine in Logan

EXPLANATION = This is Wolverine, down pat. He's always killed this role and this time in particular, he put some extra effort into knocking it out of the park.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = James McAvoy as Kevin Wendell Crumb in Split 

BEST ACTRESS

WINNER = Dafne Keen as Laura Kinney in Logan

EXPLANATION = Nobody else stood a chance, half because there weren't any powerful performances in these types of films (and no, I don't think Gal Gadot was amazing) and half because Keen was just pretty damn good in her part outright.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = n/a from what I've seen

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

WINNER = Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds in Spider-Man: Homecoming

EXPLANATION = TBD

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier in Logan, Michael Rooker as Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes in Spider-Man: Homecoming

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

WINNER = Cate Blanchett as Hela in Thor: Ragnarok

EXPLANATION = Is she hammy? Sure, but that's the style of movie she was in. Plus, she didn't have much competition.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = n/a from what I've seen

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 = The Lego Batman Movie

EXPLANATION = Exploring the pseudo love story between Batman and The Joker, while also diving into Batman's family issues? How did such a funny kids movie end up doing more to inform people of some of Batman's psychology than some of the movies that preceded it? This was so surprisingly rich.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Logan, Spider-Man: Homecoming

MOST FAITHFUL ADAPTATION

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

WINNER = Wonder Woman

EXPLANATION = While not the most compelling movie in the world, I did feel like I saw the best overall representation of Diana Prince that I've ever seen and I doubt even if the movie itself would have been better, that it would have heightened its own self-awareness of the character.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Logan, Power Rangers, Spider-Man: Homecoming (but your MJ and Liz stuff docked you points)

BEST VISUALS

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

WINNER = Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

EXPLANATION = As much as the movie itself annoys me with its story choices, it was a spectacle to watch in terms of its visual meal.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Ghost in the Shell, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Thor: Ragnarok (very close #2)

BEST ACTION SET PIECE

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

WINNER = Kylo Ren and Rey vs. Praetorian Guards in Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

EXPLANATION = I would probably find things from Transformers: The Last Knight much cooler if I could tell what the hell was going on, which at least The Last Jedi is able to accomplish in this fight, that gave us some of the best "death by lightsaber" moments we've ever seen in the series.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = several scenes in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, opening Surtur fight in Thor: Ragnarok

BEST CHARACTER DESIGN

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

WINNER = Thor: Ragnarok

EXPLANATION = Definitely a shame Justice League couldn't hold its own or that Wonder Woman had the awful looking Ares spoiling it. Thor had tons of different characters and they all popped.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Spider-Man: Homecoming, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (puppet Yoda takes it off the list)

BEST MUSIC

This category examines both the score and the soundtrack.

WINNER = Power Rangers

EXPLANATION = Star Wars doesn't get credit for recycling old themes and this was the only film of the entire year that I actively got the soundtrack for more than one or two songs. Even Guardians was a let down to me compared to the first film.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Kong: Skull Island

I was so thoroughly disappointed with Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi that I couldn't just do a normal Reviewpoint of it, as it wasn't an issue of a handful of positives and negatives.

There are so many core problems with this movie and how it has ruined the franchise and killed my hopes for the future of the series that I needed to write down my thoughts, balance them out into a more structured form (as my brain was just chattering away with "and another thing!" moments) and present them in a much more coherent fashion.

I basically feel like this film irreparably hurt everything that came before it and proves that I and many others who will agree with me shouldn't be anticipating anything positive coming out of future installments of the series.

Let's just dive into what caused me to feel so bummed out and deeply saddened as the end credits came up...

Taking risks vs. playing it safe

Let's just address the argumentative elephant in the room. People seem to be thinking that if you dislike this movie, you dislike it because it took risks, and they try to argue that you can't complain about that while also complaining that The Force Awakens played it safe.

In my mind, if your whole opinion on a movie's value is based on whether or not you could predict it, you're looking at it from the wrong perspective.

Movies aren't meant to surprise you, they're meant to tell you a story. Yes, it can be fun when you didn't see a twist coming, but that is a bonus, not the core purpose of this form of entertainment.

Subverting expectations is good only when the result that comes out of it is good. If it's just a surprise for the sake of a surprise and the end result is shit, then you're left with shit. You go into a Batman film expecting Batman to overcome the villain, right? Would it suddenly be an awesome movie if Batman was killed in the first 5 minutes just to surprise the audience and the rest of the film was spent watching Crazy Quilt rob banks?

If you're going to hate a movie because it's predictable and love it because it isn't, then just go see a magic act, because all you care about is the wow factor that will fade away in two seconds.

Movies that are written with the purpose of surprising an audience are no better than jump scares in horror films, which aren't actually scary, but just a momentary adrenaline rush.

The Last Jedi plays it safe in the sense that it copies elements of previous, better told stories as its backbone while taking risks with the few things it shouldn't play around with, and ruins them. Basically, out of fear of your child ruining their $5 toys, you handed your kid a priceless vase that can crack as soon as its dropped. Then, your kid dropped it, and if you would have just had them play with something cheaper and that got ruined, it wouldn't be as big of a deal.

This film could have taken risks with everything other than the Skywalker story, but that's the one thing they chose to fuck with, and they ruined it in the process.

Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to.

That is the theme of the movie, but it's ironic that it is hypocritical in how the story group approached writing this movie to begin with.

There's an overwhelming feeling of "kill off the original trilogy elements in order to make way for our new Disney-era Star Wars films" that I get with this, and that they're willing to hurt the franchise if they have to make way for their storytelling elements that they want to.

That in itself is a horrible way to go about things. It's the equivalent of saying that you need to total your car because the headlight was broken and you want to rebuild the whole thing. Mind you, you're running the risk of that car not being rebuilt in a better way, but much worse, and you could have just patched up the headlight and kept going.

Disney needed to correct the mistakes of the prequels that people didn't like, not burn the whole thing down to start new.

But even if we ignore that for a minute, we can see that it is hypocritical to have this kind of message and still make the types of films The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi are, because they both rely so heavily on repeating things from the original films that it proves this crop of writers can't write their own Star Wars movies, they can only rehash what has come before them.

"This movie isn't going to be like The Empire Strikes Back" is what they said. However, Empire is about the Rebel Alliance being on the run from an attack by The Empire. This movie is literally one single "running from an attack by The First Order" plot!

In Empire, two heroes (Han and Leia) that are romantically involved go to a city (Cloud City) that runs a business (mining) and they meet a scoundrel (Lando) who turns on them. In The Last Jedi, two heroes (Finn and Rose) that are romantically involved go to a city (Canto Bight) that runs a business (gambling) and they meet a scoundrel (DJ) who turns on them.

TESB starts off with a rebel base on a white planet being attacked until the heroes flee, while TLJ ends with a former rebel base on a white planet being attacked until the heroes flee.

Those Praetorian Guards? They're just the same red royal guards that we've seen before, with slightly altered costumes and weapons. I mean hell, they couldn't even color them differently? Why couldn't they have just been The Knights of Ren while we're at it?

Remember how in TESB, Luke goes into a weird cave and sees a vision of himself? Rey does the same here.

Clearly, with TFA and TLJ, the writers felt like they needed to have a Palpatine-esque guy, so they came up with Supreme Leader Snoke. If you replace Supreme Leader with Emperor and Snoke with Palpatine, what are the differences? One of them is the old, pale, scarred leader of the Empire who uses the dark side and sits on a throne before being killed by his apprentice, Darth Vader — the other is an old, pale, scarred leader of the First Order who uses the dark side and sits on a throne before being killed by his apprentice who looks just like Darth Vader and is his grandson. Jesus, they even both die with the protagonist in the room while they overlook the imminent destruction of the heroes!

The Force Awakens mostly rehashed A New Hope while this one took from The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Real original.

Supreme Loser Snoke

One of the best characters to exhibit the flaw of this new regime is Supreme Leader Snoke—an absolutely atrociously written character who could have been interesting if better writers had put any effort into him at all...and I mean, any effort at all.

We covered above how he is just a copycat Palpatine, but it's even worse that he has absolutely no backstory or anything we can care about at all.

His character was nothing but a tool, and an unnecessary one at that. He has no purpose at all.

This is what we know of Snoke:

He turned Ben Solo to the dark side. — How? We don't get to see any of this or have any of it explained, so it's an element we don't need in the story. Ben could have just turned to the dark side any other way, including being born with an inherent bad attitude.

He was the leader of the Empire, I mean, First Order — How? Did he just pop up one day and announce himself the leader in front of a committee that I'm unaware of? Why is he evil? Why does he want to rule the galaxy? Why does he also want to continue with Stormtroopers and stuff instead of making his own mark?

He died. — That's the end of it.

Everything else, we're either not told at all because it happened off-screen, or it doesn't matter.

In The Force Awakens, we're told, not shown, that he at some point interacted with Luke and Leia and Han and turned Ben evil and rose the ranks to become Supreme Leader and that he also somehow knows what happened with Vader and Palpatine, which we were given absolutely no information about in this movie, either.

The Skywalkers are failures and none of this struggle mattered at all

The story of Episode 1 to Episode 6, including Rogue One, is about how The Force is out of balance, so The Force creates Anakin Skywalker to fix that problem. He stumbles along the way, burning down the bureaucracy and causing horror, but he is ultimately redeemed through his children. His son, Luke, convinces him to eliminate the great evil. Luke, possessing the knowledge of how to create a better Jedi Order of peacekeepers, will pass on the right teachings to the future, while Leia will be instrumental in rebuilding society in a much better way than The Republic which preceded it. All is well.

The Force Awakens comes along and says "but what if instead of peace, The Empire just continued and killed everyone and we had to start all over again?" and The Last Jedi follows it up with "and this time, we prove to you that the Skywalkers can't do anything right."

Anakin was The Chosen One. He burned down an entire galaxy to kill one guy, and then his kids spent their lives trying to achieve peace, only to accomplish the complete opposite by raising Ben to decimate the galaxy again.

But don't worry, it's cool. We've got this random chick named Rey who can fix all our problems.

Is she the new Chosen One, born out of The Force? Is she a Skywalker, offsetting the evil of Kylo Ren?

Nope, she's just some girl. We literally even tell the audience that she is a nobody. It's important for them to follow the story of a nobody who has had no training and is not only more powerful than the bloodline of our Jesus metaphor, but also has a better sense of morality than the heroes that multiple generations of people grew up on.

With the way this movie ends, we're exactly the way we left off at the end of Revenge of the Sith, only this time, meaning the events of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and everything that followed it until Ben's turn to the dark side was all meaningless.

Now, we have to hope that this nobody can save the galaxy and pass on the teachings, cause that dumbass Luke sure couldn't do it. What a failure, that guy was, and what a failure his sister Leia was, too. The galaxy would have been better off if they both died in Return of the Jedi so they couldn't have spawned the evil of Kylo Ren. Maybe Admiral Ackbar and Mon Mothma would have kept The Republic alive, then.

Unless, of course, Kylo Ren turns good again, which means they just rehashed the Anakin Skywalker storyline again because they couldn't figure out anything else to write. Basically, you either copy and paste something that was done better the first time, or you say "fuck it, Rey's the chosen one because she's our creation and we prefer our own fan fiction to the lore that this whole series was built on."

Lucas is probably sick to his stomach that they just shat all over his story.

It reminds me of how X-Men: The Last Stand had a completely wrong message, where instead of Rogue choosing not to take the cure, she chose to take it. Instead of telling the audience "it's okay to be yourself", the message of that movie became "you really do need to change, you fucking weirdo."

Star Wars used to be about how love conquers all. Now, it's about how in the end, you're still going to fail.

If The Force knew that Anakin and Luke and Leia would ultimately not accomplish a single goddamn thing other than perpetual mass genocide, The Force should go back to the events 9 years before The Phantom Menace and just figure out a different plan.

You're just mad that it's a woman who is saving the galaxy

No, I'm mad that it isn't a Skywalker. If you told me at the end of this movie that Rey's parents were Luke and some unknown woman, or Han and Leia, then I would be much more okay with this, because there would still be a chance that the Skywalker lineage wouldn't be total failures.

Oh shut up and stop being melodramatic. It's just a movie.

I'm not tying a noose to end my life here, it's just sad to know that something you got a lot of enjoyment out of is no longer going to do that anymore.

This was one of my favorite franchises and now, I have no faith in the direction the storytellers are going, so I won't get that excitement and satisfaction out of future movies, and this one actively goes out of its way to hurt the prestige of the movies that I did love.

It's a bummer in the same way it would be a bummer to find out that your favorite television series was cancelled or that the restaurant that you love eating at changed its recipes.

Everything is "just" something. Yes, it's "just a movie" but movies are the biggest aspect of fun and entertainment in my life, and in one fell swoop, this film just did a number on damaging one of my favorite series and I'm not sure it'll ever get repaired, so I'm sad about that in the same way I would be sad if someone ruined my wedding, because in the end, isn't that just a party to celebrate my wife and I signing some papers?

But aren't you excited about how Episode 9 can fix these problems?

It won't. I'm not even going to be optimistic about it. If it does, then yeah, I'll be happier about it, but I'm not going to be hopeful.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is my favorite movie of all time. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ruined the franchise. Since then, Terminator Salvation was a slight step up, but didn't fix the problems of T3. Then, Terminator Genisys was meant to be the savior to the franchise, but did even more damage than T3.

No. I have no faith Episode 9 will end in a way that I'll be happy with the choices they made here. But please, please prove me wrong.

I get it. You have a political agenda.

You want to complain about the prequels being too focused on preaching, but this is okay? This feels like the only goal of the movie was to make a propaganda piece about how the establishment is awful.

Mind you, I agree with this message! I absolutely hate how the rich and greedy can be powerful and how corporations can run governments and stuff. I like that message, but I don't need that to be the purpose of my Star Wars movie.

For instance, the whole Canto Bight thing was an unnecessary side mission. If I wanted to see a movie about how jockeys hurt horses, I'd watch Seabiscuit or whatever. This felt like an episode of Star Wars Rebels that I wouldn't have enjoyed, rather than a main theme of one of the core movies.

Canto Bight was lame, too. There was almost nothing making it feel like it was a Star Wars universe concept. They had carbon copies of the same games we have, with no otherworldly instruments. Those slot machines look like slot machines anybody could make at any casino. The craps table? Come on. They even looked like they were drinking standard Earth alcohol from standard Earth liquor glasses.

What about Leia?

This one, admittedly, isn't technically their fault, but how are they going to close out her story now? Does she just get written off in a stupid death off-screen? Do they not even bother to finish her arc and just act like she isn't around for the hell of it?

They should have just taken advantage of the extra few months they had and crafted a few changes to the script, done some reshoots, and killed her character off.

Miscellaneous other problems and nitpicking

• Still no Lando? Okay, now, at this point, you need to kill him off before The Force Awakens in a side novel or show.
• "Oh shit, people are complaining that Poe and Rey never met. Let's have them in a scene where they say hey."
• "Oh shit, people are complaining that Captain Phasma should have been the one to fight Finn instead of that other random Stormtrooper. We'd better bring Phasma back to life and have the two of them fight in similar fashion and kill Phasma off again."
• Leia floating was ridiculous. Not the idea behind it, because she should be powerful, but the execution of it. She looked like Mary Poppins.
• Chewbacca should have died in The Force Awakens. He clearly has no purpose in this story anymore.
• Yoda's CGI was horrible.
• So Luke wants to burn down the Jedi text until Yoda stops him. Then, Yoda burns it and Luke is upset. Then, I guess Rey already has the books?
• Nobody said "I have a bad feeling about this" at all to my recollection. This is like having a James Bond film where he doesn't say "Bond, James Bond" or "shaken, not stirred" or that it doesn't have the opening gun barrel. Yeah, those Daniel Craig films that neglected those pissed me off, too.

What I did like about the movie...

• Porgs are adorable. I want one.
• Some utterly minor details like how Leia told Threepio to wipe that look off his face, or how Luke said Artoo playing the hologram message was a cheap move.
• Seeing Yoda again was great, even though the CGI was awful and his purpose was flawed.
• The battering ram was cool.
• Holdo going lightspeed through Snoke's ship was sweet.
• My biggest positive takeaway I had from the entire film was the absolutely beautiful imagery of Luke becoming one with The Force. That almost made me cry.

Really, I just don't know how to process all this except to feel disappointed and to wish that I could go back in time to before I saw the film, because at least then, I had some hope that it wouldn't make the mistakes this movie did.

I would say that the best I can do is hope for Episode IX to come along and make me feel better, but, well, when 2019 comes along, you're not going to see me as excited anymore, that's for sure.

On the latest edition of the Fanboys Anonymous Reviewpoint podcast, host Tony Mango breaks down the hits and misses of Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi.

What were the positives and negatives of Star Wars: The Last Jedi? Did it live up to the hype or was it a disappointment?

Check out the podcast below on YouTube, iTunes, and Stitcher. Make sure to subscribe and tell us your thoughts on The Last Jedi in the comments below!

Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker, who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, the Resistance prepares to do battle with the First Order.