Favorite Reviews

Well seeing how I have about 250 posts here, I might as well share with you guys my Top 10 Favorite Movie Reviews of the first three years of blogging:

10. Frozen: Okay obviously everyone talked about this movie when it came out, and I can't really blame them, this was a movie that completely exceeded my expectations and became not only one of my new favorite Disney movies but one of my favorite movies of the 2010s. There was so much to talk about, the animation, characters, songs (obviously), and the way they made new twists to old Disney clichés, all the billions of dollars it earned at the box office was well deserved.
9. Mad Max: Fury Road: Truth be told, when I first heard a new Mad Max movie was being made I rolled my eyes and said "Come on man, we're so late in the game to do this!" But when the reviews came out I started to get really excited and went to go see it in the theater (in 3D I may add!) and it blew my mind, wild action and special effects, surprisingly solid characters, Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron as Max and Furiosa are awesome, it worked as a summer blockbuster and as an Oscar nominated film. And there's the guitar guy, I pretty much had so much to talk about I probably could have made a 3 hour review raving the hell out of it.
8. How to Train Your Dragon 2: The 2014 follow-up to the smash hit DreamWorks film from 2010, How to Train Your Dragon was so well executed I started debating whether or not it's better than the first film. Like its predecessor the animation is gorgeous, the 3D is very effective, and you care about these characters, come to think of it, despite being animated these characters I felt were more real than any of the characters from some of the other movies that came out that summer like Transformers: Age of Extinction and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The plot wasn't a rehash of the first movie, it delivered a good balance between action, comedy, and drama, and it's just a marvelous family film.
7. Star Wars: The Force Awakens: It's Star Wars, why the hell wouldn't I review it? But all seriousness, this was the first true Star Wars movie released in theaters since Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith which came out ten years prior. The film was hyped up like mad and really brought in the moolah in Holiday 2015, and it delivered what everyone wanted, a continuation of George Lucas' Star Wars saga. The movie introduced new characters, brought back fan-favorites, had practical effects as well as CGI, and lots of action, it's a new Star Wars movie in theaters. Personally I thought the prequel trilogy looked like Star Wars but it didn't really feel like Star Wars, THIS felt like Star Wars all the way through and I was so happy to experience a Star Wars movie with Chewbacca, Han Solo, and Leia in the theater, I really did feel like I went back in time to the 1970s or 80s.
6. Deadpool: A movie I was expecting to like but I wasn't expecting to rave about it almost as much as a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. It was very refreshing to see an R-rated Marvel movie again but at the same time capture a lot of what made Marvel comics so enjoyable. The film works as a superhero movie, an R-rated gore-fest, and a raunchy comedy, it's almost like watching 3 movies at the same time. One of the things I really appreciated about this movie when I compared it to the 2010 R-rated superhero comedy, Kick-Ass was all throughout the movie the filmmakers keep it funny. I like the Kick-Ass movies but I'm not gonna lie, they do have their moments of uncomfortable realism with a lot of their violence. Deadpool keeps the gory violence funny and Ryan Reynolds nailed his performance as Wade Wilson/Deadpool and pretty much makes up for his lousy portrayal from X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
5. Fantastic Four: As all of you know I did not like last year's Fantastic Four movie, it was dull and boring for most of the movie and the plot was completely forgettable. But I had a blast ranting about that movie in my review, it was one of my first thoroughly negative movie reviews and I enjoyed talking about how much it doesn't work as an adaptation of the Marvel comic and as a standalone movie. I received numerous comments on my blog and Facebook where people said "I think that's the lowest I've ever seen you rate a movie". Well, so far it's probably the worst movie I've ever reviewed but it's certainly not the worst movie I've ever seen.
4. Guardians of the Galaxy: When I first saw Marvel's The Avengers in May 2012 I thought no comic book movie could top it after seeing Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, and Thor finally in a movie together. Well, one Marvel Cinematic Universe movie came very close, Guardians of the Galaxy. The first Marvel movie in my opinion that balanced half-action and half-comedy perfectly, the characters were very well portrayed, from Chris Pratt's Star-Lord, to Bradley Cooper's amazing portrayal of the voice of Rocket Raccoon, and of course Vin Diesel's Groot voice performance, which was so basic but so perfect he should have had an Oscar nomination for it. Like The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy was a Marvel movie that doesn't take itself seriously and offers a very fun experience.
3. The Interview: Due to the controversy surrounding the Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy, The Interview, that was mainly the reason I made it a priority to review the movie on Christmas 2014. Just because a movie is controversial that doesn't necessarily stop people from seeing it, if anything it makes people want to see the movie even more. So thanks to North Korea's threats The Interview was much more successful than people would have expected. It was a rough time but I was fortunate enough to be nearby a theater showing it and I made it a priority to review the movie for America.
2. Life Itself: Film critic, Roger Ebert was one of many influences for me and being interested in reviewing movies. The movie beautifully represented his life, his career in movie reviewing along with Gene Siskel and Richard Roeper, and his long battle with cancer. It was a movie I highly encourage every film enthusiast to see.
1. Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie: Like Roger Ebert, James Rolfe AKA the Angry Video Game Nerd was another big inspiration for me when it comes to reviewing. Hot off his web series on Cinemassacre.com, the Nerd's movie was in development for a long time and had multiple cliffhangers in some of his reviews (specifically Spielberg Games and Desert Bus). The video game based off Steven Spielberg's 1982 smash, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial had quite a reputation upon release, considered by many to be the Worst Game Ever Made, and one of many to cause the Atari 2600 Video Game Crash. So the Nerd journeys to the site where all the unsold games were buried and review the game everyone has been waiting for. I went to a screening of the film and after seeing it I reviewed it on my blog and emailed it to James. I wasn't expecting a response but he thanked me for the review and posted it on Cinemassacre among other reviews of the film. Something I'll cherish for the rest of my life.
Runner-Ups: Zootopia, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Visit, Midnight Special, The Lego Movie, The Jungle Book, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Kung Fu Panda 3, Inside Out, Finding Dory, A Brony Tale, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Dragonball Z: Battle of Gods, Dragonball Z: Resurrection F, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip