Fanboys Anonymous

Now Consuming: TV Shows I'm Watching Right Now | Fanboy Check-In — April 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 22:28:00 +0000

Which television shows am I watching right now? What programs have I been viewing recently?

Welcome back to another edition of NOW CONSUMING, which is a check-in segment to fill you in on what I haven't had a chance to talk about. Since my attention has been diverted elsewhere for far too long, I've neglected talking about so many TV shows over the years that I would have normally done full scale reviews or seasonal breakdowns for.

Unfortunately, I can't remember everything from every show I've watched over the past few years. However, I'd like to get back into the swing of things if possible, so Now Consuming gives you a microdose review as a quick fix for my thoughts.

Previously, I mentioned the theatre performances recap, so now, I wanted to shift my focus to the realm of television.

Previously on...

Admittedly, I've not kept track of the television shows I've been watching for a looooong time. There are entire series that I've seen and you would have no idea because there isn't a blip of a mention on this site. Unfortunately, I don't even remember some of them, and I don't have my handy lists like I do with movies for me to go back and check for comparison. Apologies for the gaps. Something like The Paper, I did write up about, so you can find my thoughts there.

Something like Batman: Caped Crusader, you would think would be the subject of a bunch of articles and podcasts (especially given my Batman Blueprint), but I didn't have anything to say about it until well past the point that it was out of the zeitgeist. For the most part, I wasn't impressed, to be honest. None of the show was what I would want out of it.

Peacemaker season 2 was pretty great. I had a lot of fun with this season and enjoyed it even more than the first. If they don't get a third season, I'll be disappointed.

Keeping up with some of the comic book stuff, X-Men '97 was a blast. I'm SO glad they knocked that out of the park. Since I've been eagerly awaiting the next season and I know that they're shuffling the deck with the creative team, I'm concerned this next round won't be quite as good, but I hope I'm proven wrong.

Harley Quinn is perpetually great, always funny, and I can't get enough of that show. My Adventures with Superman isn't as amazing, but I still liked it. It works better as a binge watch to me.

Did I mention anything about how Penguin was one of the best shows I had seen in a long while and I am so glad it was recognized with some awards?

Gen V and The Boys continue to be fun treats. I'm sad the show is ending, but I'm hoping they will go out with a bang.

More comic book stuff, starting to venture out a bit, The Sandman was a great finale. That season was phenomenal. I wish Dead Boy Detectives and other things in this universe were still around. For that matter, when the hell does Good Omens return?!

Interview with the Vampire is one of my favorite shows going. Talamasca was a fun side story to hold me over, but I didn't like it anywhere near as much. Lestat is going to be great, I'm sure. While I'm bummed that it didn't release yet like it was supposed to already, I hope that's for the better.

Also on the horror side of things, From is a show that my wife and I (who watches about 95% of these shows with me) binged all the seasons of. Awesome. I'm counting down the days until that comes back, too.

It: Welcome to Derry was amazing. I actually liked that better than both the television adaptation (which was meh) and the recent film reboot. Frankly, I enjoyed this maybe more than anything in that universe. I don't know how they're going to do another season, but I trust them to pull it off. On the strengths of that, we watched the first season of Castle Rock as well. Comparing the two, Welcome to Derry was better, but I still liked Castle Rock. It was cool to revisit Shawshank and to play around in that world some more. I've yet to watch season 2, partially because there are just so many other shows going on right now, but I'm sure I'll get around to it eventually.

Alien: Earth was on a similar wavelength, where I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to the next season, even though I'm not as crazy over the franchise like I am with the comic book side of things. Full transparency, I've only ever seen Alien, Aliens, and Alien: Romulus. I've never even seen AVP. It feels like with those three films and this television series, I've watched all the good stuff.

Yellowjackets doesn't have quite the punch it used to, and I think it's good that they're wrapping things up. I still liked the last season, but I'm going to need a refresher for certain parts of it that I'll have forgotten by the next time they're back. Speaking of which, Severance is consistently great, but I do feel like the last season ended in a way that they might be milking this and stretching it out too long for its own good. I don't like having to wait so many years between seasons all the time, and I'm not sure where they go from that end point. Then again, why should I second guess such a great show?

Stranger Things ending isn't something I spoke about on here, but I happened to really like the vast majority of the season. It didn't end exactly as I would have done it, but I was happy with the outcome for the most part and would just nitpick certain things. I never once thought that we were getting more episodes. Conformity Gate was ridiculous.

Squid Game ending the way it did was good, and I was sad to see that show leave, but I was even more sad to see the reality show was so terrible with season 2 that I couldn't make it past the first episode. It's become far too over the top scripted. If you're curious about any other reality shows that I've watched, The Mole is something I wish would return.

On the animated comedy side of things, I've not particularly loved Futurama and South Park as much lately. While I still appreciate them, I just haven't been laughing as much. When it comes to Futurama, it's starting to have that same downturn in quality that The Simpsons and Family Guy eventually fell victim to. Regarding South Park, as much as I want as much criticism of MAGA as possible, because that political ideology is nothing but pure evil, I'm so inundated with that on a daily basis that I want to escape from it. I can't open up TikTok without seeing terrible things those idiots are doing, and I have a hard time laughing about our world turning to shit and a good portion of the population losing their goddamn minds. This past season of South Park is something I've almost entirely skipped, as I just don't have the stomach for it right now.

English Teacher was something I really wish wouldn't have gotten cancelled. It's rare these days for me to get into this type of sitcom anymore (even though I used to love a lot of them), and it's even rarer for my wife to be interested, let alone legitimately like a comedy like this. Thumbs down on how this all ended, as I wanted more seasons.

Sadly, I have to give a thumbs down to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia at the moment. This past season had such a weak opening that I didn't feel any motivation to keep watching. With so many other things taking up my time, I've completely let that sit on the sidelines and I have no itch to check out those episodes I've missed. Maybe I'm skipping out on some gold, but since nobody has told me anything about any of those episodes, I have a feeling it's probably all on the weaker side compared to how brilliant it used to be.

Black Mirror is also not as great as it once was, but I'll keep watching anything they put out there.

Silo, on the other hand, is a show that I struggled with for the first season and got halfway through season 2 before I threw in the towel. I just couldn't connect with any of the characters and I got tired of the visuals and the tone.

The Last of Us was much better in the first season. Season 2 was fine, but I'm not as thrilled about the third season as I was to get into season 2. Also on the video game adaptation side of things, Twisted Metal isn't a GOOD show in the sense that I find it gripping and award-worthy, but it's an entertaining one that I can't help but to check out as a guilty pleasure. It's honestly better than I anticipated from the start, and I liked the most recent season more than the first one. Fallout is something I'm behind on. I haven't started the second season yet. Other things have been more of a priority.

Currently Watching

Had I written this article a week ago, I would still be watching Wonder Man, but I finished that before publishing this. Overall, not my favorite of the Marvel Cinematic Universe television shows so far, but I did like it. I'm only one episode into Daredevil: Born Again's second season and I'm sad to say this feels like a downgrade from the previous season. I hope the second episode and onward turns things around.

Invincible is always rad. Since I'm not as aware of the source material as I am with Marvel and DC things, each new twist is something that wows me. That in and of itself is a refreshing change of pace, and I love how both serious and silly this series can get. I most recently watched the Hell episode, which was weird, but interesting as a side plot.

Scrubs is great. I was so worried they were going to drop the ball with this follow-up series, but it's SO good. Somehow, they were able to capture the magic from the original series without dating it in a way that makes it cringe. They avoided the pitfalls of trying to do something different purely for the sake of it, and thusly alienating the whole reason why anyone would want to reengage with a show they used to love, as well as the trap that many shows fall into where they just carbon copy everything and it feels like a hollow retread. New characters fill in previous roles very well. I like the new cast, and I like how they're progressing as supporting players who will take on bigger spots as the show evolves.

Traitors is a show that has finished, but I haven't finished the season. I'm on the final episode, so I still have that and the finale recap to check out. This cast wasn't my favorite by any means, and very early on, they knocked out some of the people I was rooting for (like Ian) and made it harder for me to get invested in the people I had never heard of and wasn't loving.

I'm behind on Survivor. I haven't finished season 49, let alone started season 50. There's no sense of urgency. I'll get around to it at some point.

School Spirits is also something I'm currently sitting on. We're juggling too many shows at the moment, so some things have had to be on the back burner, like how I mentioned Fallout is still just sitting in my queue. Since they've been renewed for a fourth season, I'm hoping that's a good sign that season 3 is solid, and I've liked the previous two.

I'm also sitting on starting season two of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. I started to watch the first episode, realized I had forgotten where we left off, and I'm waiting to eventually watch a recap on something like New Rockstars before picking this back up.

Something I'm even more excited to start watching is Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat. That's something I feel might work better as a binge watch, so I'm holding off until all the episodes have been released. The same for Love on the Spectrum, which is back today. Those 7 episodes are definitely going to be a quick watch. I perpetually say that show is the most wholesome thing I watch and I just love it.

Next Time, on...

Naturally, I'm looking forward to some of these shows returning. Everything listed above is something I plan on revisiting.

From is back soon, The Boys starts next week, Stranger Things: Tales from '85 is right around the corner, and holy shit, American Gladiators is also coming out this month, finally. Hell yeah.

In May, I know I have Spider-Noir and the Marvel special presentation to look forward to, and my god, how am I going to finish everything on my plate as well as take on the rest of these?!

I've also been interested in eventually (somehow) checking out Sunny, The Studio, Shrinking, The Institute, and Disclaimer, as well as a few other shows I've heard good things about, but unless I figured out how to extend 1 day to 1 week, I don't know if I'll ever get around to them. Plus, who knows what else will randomly pop up on the horizon that will be so tempting to watch that I'll have to add it to the list?

What are you watching right now? Have you seen these shows? Drop a comment below and let me know what television has caught your eye lately!

Now Consuming: Theatre Shows I've Seen Recently | Fanboy Check-In — March 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 03:59:00 +0000

It's been a while, fanboys and fangirls—and even longer when it comes to talking about something in the realm of theatre, which was never a huge part of Fanboys Anonymous even from the start. But first, an apology.

With the way the world has worked the past few years, it's been increasingly more difficult for me to put out virtually any content, let alone the volume that I would want to be doing if I had more time and energy for. My apologies, but my priorities have had to be on other things, making it difficult for me to find the time to write up all the articles I've wanted to do and the podcasts and YouTube videos I wanted to dive into. If you could see the notes of projects started but not finished, you'd be amazed.

One of the things I've been disregarding is reviewing or otherwise commenting on the broadway shows that I've been seeing here and there. Living in New York City has presented itself the opportunity to go to a bunch of these over the years, and though I've mentioned things in passing on various podcasts, I haven't ever actually put my thoughts on them down in any editorial sense.

The same actually applies to plenty video games and television shows as well, which got me thinking about doing a little "microdose" segment here and there where you'd get a "quick fix" shorter review of some things whenever possible. However, that also meant doing a recap of other things.

I'm debuting a new segment here called NOW CONSUMING, which will essentially mean a "catching up" sort of overview. The idea in mind is to put one of these out every once in a while to just post updates on what I'm currently entertaining myself with as of late. To keep up the AA puns, you're essentially "checking in" with me to see what I'm checking out.

Before getting into the video games and the television shows, though, let's start off with the theatre side of things, as of the end of March 2026.

Thoughts on Broadway Shows & Other Theatre Performances Prior to 2026

As I said, I've never really talked about any of the shows I've seen over the past few years, which is a shame, as I would have had a lot to say about most of them—especially if I would have recorded the discussions I had with my wife, who was with me for all of them. Podcast in the future, if anyone is interested? Let me know.

Nevertheless, here is a speed round of thoughts of what I can remember.

The Book of Mormon was the first broadway show I can talk about here (January 30, 2022 to be exact), which was phenomenal. It remains one of my favorite shows I've seen on this entire list. I was in stitches.

Phantom of the Opera was somewhere in the mix, but I don't remember exactly when. What I do remember, though, was that this was also tremendous. I had long loved the music from it, having never watched the play itself, so I already knew that going in. This was such a fantastic show and I'm so glad I got to see it before it went away.

I don't remember when I had seen Beetlejuice, but as a fan of it when I was a kid, I was super disappointed with this. Part of it was the cast, but part of it was also just the overall plot and the execution of the concept. I don't think they pulled it off.

In 2023, at some point, we had seen a performance of Drunk Shakespeare doing Macbeth, which was hilarious. We went back on Halloween the next year (October 31, 2024) for their performance of Drunk Dracula, which was also a great time. If we get the opportunity, I'm sure we'll go see more performances in the future.

Back to 2023, two other off-broadway theatre shows that we checked off were The Grey House (May 27) and Covenant (December 10). To be honest, I don't remember all that much about The Grey House. If I remember correctly, I was disappointed and just thought it was okay. Covenant was a very tiny show, but it was very well acted.

I don't remember when we had seen Aladdin, but I loved that. The Genie and Iago were the best parts who stole the show, for sure. When you do the movie that is tied for my #1 favorite Disney film with music that I love, it's hard not to love it.

I also don't remember when we had seen Moulin Rouge, but that was really good. It doesn't stand up there in my top 5 from this entire list, but it's close. We also saw a Dita Von Teese show somewhere in the mix of 2023 and 2024, which doesn't super appeal to me, but it was something to do and a fun enough date night.

There were three shows we saw in 2025, starting with Hades Town (February 6). I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as my wife, who is still obsessed with some of the songs, but I did like it. I wasn't the biggest fan of the performance of the female lead that night, and I felt like it just overall pales in comparison to some other shows.

Glengarry Glen Ross (April 24) was pretty awesome. I still prefer the movie, easily, but I think this cast was VERY good in their respective roles. In particular, Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, and Bill Burr killed it. This wasn't my wife's thing, but she knew that it wouldn't be going into it, and she still thought the performances were good even though the content itself didn't resonate with her.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow (June 29) was another one of my more favorite experiences, even though I don't think the overall play as a standalone was particularly great. The visuals were stunning and it was fun to dive more into that series before the final season (which I seemed to like more than most people, it seems). I don't know if it would really mean anything to see it now that the show is over.

Death Becomes Her - January 22, 2026

We had heard good things about this and decided on a whim to just give it a shot. Neither of us could remember too much of the movie from when we were younger. I'm not sure if that was a good or a bad thing going into this, as it means I can't really draw any comparisons to the original, but it also meant the story was entirely fresh for me. All I could remember was the poster and VHS tape box art.

This was fun, but it wasn't my favorite. It actually took a little while for me to warm up to it, and there were times where it came across a little too loud, in the sense that it was a lot of shrieking and over-the-top yelling and performances that felt like they were trying to be more grandiose. I'm not a big fan of that performative style of boisterous being necessary, as it usually takes me out of the setting and reminds me I'm watching a play.

Still, I chuckled, and I'm glad we went. I just wouldn't really recommend it over a lot of other things.

The Lion King - January 29, 2026

This was phenomenal. Absolutely stunning, with killer music and some great performances. Everyone is extremely talented and it's no surprise why this is THE show on broadway and has been for so long, while still having every room packed.

This is the other movie tied with Aladdin for my top Disney spot, for anyone curious. Between the two shows, this is better, and I think if you're ever going to NYC for a show, it should arguably be this one above all others.

Oedipus - February 5, 2026

Obviously, this was a big difference in scale compared to The Lion King, but that allowed for more intimacy, which was appreciated in this particular show's atmosphere.

I'm sad to say that I wasn't the biggest fan of this. I get what they were going for, and it's a show that if I thought someone would enjoy, I would recommend, but I wasn't as engaged as I wanted to be.

I feel like most of the characters are just flat and under-written, and while I was impressed by the ticking time and how they pulled off syncing that up so well, I actually found myself at times looking at the clock and hoping it would be over soon. That sounds harsh, but I just wasn't feeling it during certain scenes.

Bug - February 12, 2026

This was an even smaller venue for an even more intimate play that takes place entirely in one room. Carrie Coon was really good, but I couldn't get hooked. I was surprised that this was something that has been around for decades. It didn't resonate with me.

Entirely from Memory: The Shawshank Redemption - March 19, 2026

Back to a small show, the Entirely from Memory improv comedy troupe is something that just got on our radar, and since The Shawshank Redemption is what I consider to be the greatest film ever made (not my favorite movie, mind you, though it's certainly somewhere on that list as well), we had to go to this.

Suffice it to say, we immediately were bummed that we didn't find them sooner and had missed out on their version of Twilight, and that we wouldn't be able to see their upcoming Toy Story performance. I'm sure Twilight was awesome, and I'm sure Toy Story will be hilarious as well.

This was obviously a different type of animal compared to these grandiose broadway spectacles, but I wanted to mention it and other things like the Drunk Shakespeare crew because those are gems in their own rights. Just because they aren't as big doesn't mean they don't have just as much value packed into their tickets, if not more bang for your buck.

Go support them. These comedians were so much fun.

Coming Up

Today, I was supposed to see Dog Day Afternoon. We unfortunately missed the show due to traffic completely botching us for both the train delays for a long while and a taxi going 5 blocks in the span of 25 minutes, so that is why I was waiting to publish this until today. We're going to try to get tickets to see it another time after WrestleMania season is over with, as you know I'll be doing even more work over at Smark Out Moment to occupy too much of my time.

We do have Rocky Horror Picture Show coming up on April 9th, though, and that is something I am not at all looking forward to, if I'm being honest. I've always thought that I would hate it, and it doesn't appeal to me at all, but we'll see if I'm wrong. Hopefully, I end up thinking it is fantastic. We'll see.

In the meantime, if you've seen any of these shows, let me know your thoughts about them in the comments below. Also, if you'd like to see more content like this or in some other format, chime in about that, too!

All Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies Ranked in Order: Best & Worst MCU Films List

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 07:55:00 +0000

Welcome to the Fanboys Anonymous ranked list of all the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe!

This list will be updated after each new film comes out for as long as the foreseeable future, comparing each and every movie the MCU has had to each other and keeping track of the tally from time to time.

Disney+ series will be counted in a way where each season will act as one entry on this list.

Once in a while, there will be adjustments made upon repeated viewings and future films being added into the list.

** RANKINGS AS OF JANUARY 2026 **

[S-TIER MCU]

1. Iron Man (2008)

This and #2 are essentially tied to me, but I have to give the slight edge to the film that started it all, set the tone for everything to follow and did it without anything ahead of time to rest on.

Iron Man is just so goddamn good. All of the characters are engaging, the plot is incredibly tight and sound and has no superfluous elements while also managing to set up SO many factors of what's to come in the future, the humor is there, the action is there....it's just pretty much flawless.

2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

The only reason Captain America: The Winter Soldier is #2 is because it couldn't exist without a handful of movies to set up the elements that pay off, similar to how you can argue Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope is better than Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back for the same reason, or The Godfather Part II relies upon The Godfather to execute half the story's setup.

Other than that, this movie is the one that I think is the most ambitious to change the tone and become something beyond a superhero film. It's a travesty that it wasn't nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay that year at the Academy Awards as I think it's one of the best political spy action films ever made while also setting the benchmark for how Phase 2 doesn't need to be just a repeat of Phase 1.

First impressions movie reviews here and here.

3. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

I know that this is hard to say, because it's the freshest at the time that I'm adding this in there (but, then again, so are the majority of these, as I started this back when Doctor Strange or something came out) but this was just balls to the wall fun the entire time.

It had the benefit of having 10 years to build up to this point and it really felt like the first part of the culmination of that in so many ways, that even though the film itself doesn't 100% come off like a "complete film" on its own, it's not supposed to, and I think that if we judge this based on the merits of what it was trying to accomplish, they knocked it out of the park. I'm SO pumped for the next film to finish off this storyline, and I have a feeling when it happens, I'm going to have to put it here tied with this as one big movie, rather than separate.

First impressions movie review here.

4. Avengers: Endgame (2019)

I don't know if this is as rewatchable as some of the other movies until I watch it for at least a second time, but holy hell, this film took me for a ride.

I feel so sad, but happy-sad, similar to how it feels to go through the series finale of a television show that has been on for a decade, even though we know things will continue for some of the characters.

Sure, I can nitpick some stuff that I didn't love 100%, or that I wish they would have included but didn't (like no Living Tribunal), but there were so many things I actually teared up about. For instance, Cap wielding Mjolnir and saying "Avengers assemble" with a MASSIVE army of characters behind him, to the little emotional moments like Happy Hogan saying "your dad liked cheeseburgers" and....UGH....so good....SO GOOD....

"Awesome" is a word that has lost meaning, because it became a variant of "cool" instead of something wildly impressive beyond conception. As Thor says in Infinity War, this end of an 11 year journey was truly awesome, as I am in awe of how they pulled this off.

First impressions movie review here.

5. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Who would have guessed such a ridiculous movie would be so beloved? I went into this film expecting it to be the first bomb that couldn't possibly work, but it's just such a fun movie from start to finish that it's hard not to rank it up high.

Some movies on this list struggle to give you interesting characters to get attached to, but this movie managed to make every single one of the main cast (save for Ronan) someone you want to see more of, even though one of them is a tree that speaks five words and another is a raccoon.

This is also chock-full of Easter eggs like the Celestials, Howard the Duck and all sorts of things that were blowing my mind when I saw it in theaters. Never did I think we'd get to this point in superhero films where it could get that deep and geeky and it would be accepted as quality entertainment instead of just nerd noise, but they pulled it off.

First impressions movie review here and here.

[A-TIER MCU]

6. Marvel's The Avengers (2012)

There are elements to this movie that don't work as strong as a standalone film, but when you consider it to be Act III of the setup of previous movies where it's predominantly just the fallout action set pieces, it's just so fun.

This film changed the movie industry forever, like it or not. It proved that such a monumental task could be accomplished and that the end result wouldn't be a total mess, but could still be an enjoying ride.

7. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Here's a case where so much of this is just bonkers awesome, but there are a few problems that put it below the other films.

For instance, Baron Zemo sucks. His plan is one of those film-specific things that is dependent upon the plot happening exactly how it does, which makes no sense when you start to analyze it.

But man is this a geek's dream for a lot of reasons. Hinting at a relationship between Vision and Scarlet Witch? Tony and Steve arguing? Steve finally kissing Sharon while his two best buds give him a "dude, nice" head nod? Black Panther being the shit. Spider-Man being Spider-Man again! GIANT-MAN. We get a payoff of Stark's parents being killed by Winter Soldier. We get Crossbones. We get The Raft prison! Thunderbolt Ross is back. Aaaaaaah.

First impressions movie reviews here and here.

8. Black Panther (2018)

This is one of the most all-around GOOD movies in the MCU that I would recommend to people who are a bit iffy on the whole comic book side of things. It's such a strong film, and I say that as a white man who obviously can't even resonate as much with some of the themes as those in the African American community. But even without that factor (which I can still appreciate from the outside), this is just rock solid. The only problem with it is some of the CGI in the final fight, and if that's the one complaint out of every other part of the film (well, that and the "What are those?" meme being old by that point), you know you've knocked it out of the park.

First impressions movie review here.

[B-TIER MCU]

9. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

This movie ranks so high based almost purely on fan service. Fundamentally, as a film, it's not as good as some of the other ones higher up on this list for a standalone piece. But holy shit does it make the nerd in me squeak over combining all the previous Spider-Man films together.

The themes tackled in it are heavy but done in a very sophisticated way to avoid snagging any troubles, and it's just damn good. Upon seeing it, my initial reaction was that I had almost nothing negative to say about it at all, which is just amazing, and I'm so glad to see that the reception it's received has been positive by the vast majority.

I feel like this is a movie that even people who aren't well-versed in the MCU could still enjoy, whereas plenty of other ones on this list require you to have done your research ahead of time.

First impressions movie review here.

10. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

I love nearly every aspect of it. I still find it frustrating that they had Michelle say to call her MJ and why they felt the need to not write Liz Allan to be Liz Allan (and for her to be Vulture's daughter...they just couldn't resist doing that, just like the Terminator series wanted desperately to make John Connor a Terminator...ugh) - but the tone of this movie is perfect for a Spider-Man film.

I feel like this is a movie I'll be revisiting in the future and enjoying just as much, as it seems like it has a lot of rewatch value. I may have to adjust this up or down after a second viewing, but we'll see what happens and cross that barrier when the time comes.

First impressions movie reviews here and here.

11. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Solid movie that has some of the same problems as Homecoming, in that I still don't like how certain characters like MJ and Flash are plotted out, and I don't like throwing away the Nick Fury and Maria Hill characters with the Skrull finish kind of reshapes the whole movie (especially since I don't like how the MCU has "good Skrulls" and all), but I absolutely loved Mysterio's fight sequences with the illusions, I think they did a great job with the character as a whole, the story was interesting enough and I still enjoyed the movie a lot.

First impressions movie review here.

12. Thor (2011)

I get why people can dislike the human characters and feel like the New Mexico stuff feels like everything is on a minimal sound stage, but the Asgard content in this movie and the story itself of Thor becoming a hero is one of the best things the MCU has put out.

Loki's story is amazing. The integration of S.H.I.E.L.D is perfect for what they needed to be going forward. Hawkeye's cameo is a bit meh, but hey, it's Hawkeye! There's tons of funny moments in the movie and this was the first to step outside of the comfort zone of being more grounded in reality, and we all bought into it without thinking twice that aliens could be doing all sorts of crazy stuff.

13. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

On repeated viewings, I've liked this film more and more over the years, but I do find some sections of it to be a bit underwhelming.

In my mind, Red Skull isn't as captivating of a villain as others think. He kind of just has two scenes with Captain America and that's it.

The same goes for the romance between Peggy and Steve, which feels better in retrospect now that we've had Peggy appear in more films and the Agent Carter spinoff. Now, I buy into their love, but in The First Avenger, it felt rushed.

Bucky is good, though, and the world-building was decent. There's interesting little bits and pieces all throughout the movie—whether it's the reference to The Human Torch or it's just how tasty the steak and potatoes look—and it holds up.

14. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

A lot of people shit on this movie and I don't quite understand why. Is it perfect? By no means. Is it awful? Absolutely not.

The biggest problem this film faces is that it has to cram in so much that it loses track of a few elements. For example, what's up with Thor's prophetic water dip? That just felt so strange seeing that for the first time and it seemed more like a necessary means to set something up for the future without serving much of a point in this individual film itself.

Quicksilver's death sucks, but where was the character going to go in the future? Plus, people say Marvel doesn't have the balls to kill a character and keep them dead. Well, have you seen him come back yet? Nope.

Ultron didn't measure up to the severity of an evil villain threat that he normally is, I'll admit that. We got Klaue, so that's cool. Also, we got to see The Avengers acting like The Avengers, along with S.H.I.E.L.D. stepping in for a cool scene at the end where we don't leave Rhodes out of the mix, nor even the one tech who supported Cap in The Winter Soldier. Nice touch.

I love parts of this movie for the references. Is Dr. Cho the mother of Amadeus? Does the healing skin machine come from Extremis technology? Vision as a byproduct of the Mind Stone is awesome. Even better, one of my favorite scenes of anything in the MCU is the characters all standing around, trying to pick up Thor's hammer, with Cap making it budge. That's how it should be!

First impressions movie reviews here and here.

15. Ant-Man (2015)

I feel like an extra 20 minutes or so could have really helped this movie by bulking out some of the thinner elements, like the relationship between Hope and Scott.

It's funny, but the funniest part is Michael Pena. The powers are interesting, but I don't know how they can make a second film without retreading familiar ground. I applaud them for pulling off a Scott Lang film rather than a Hank Pym one, which worried me to no end at first, but I also just think it isn't one of the strongest entries.

Ant-Man works best as a break between the bigger and more standard films just to take a breath of fresh air with something different.

First impressions movie reviews here and here.

16. Daredevil: Born Again (2025)

I'm so surprised that a lot of people hated this. I loved it, for the most part. It isn't perfect by any means, and I wouldn't rank it as high as the other seasons of Daredevil in some ways, which aren't on this list because I wasn't ranking the Netflix stuff at the time, and at this point, I don't remember some pros and cons of something like The Defenders, but for argument's sake, I'm pretty sure I would have ranked Daredevil's 3 seasons at the very top of that whole pantheon of shows. But I thought this was a great continuation.

My main flaws are threefold: I don't think Foggy needed to die just to be edgy and do something fresh for the sake of it (as that feels like a cop out when a writer can't think of something to add some spice and just kills off a character for shock value), I don't think Heather Glenn came off likable, and I wish they would have had more Muse, who felt kind of like an afterthought. Punisher back? Awesome. Bullseye? Fantastic. The White Tiger story? Hell yeah. I loved so much of this, and my wife (who isn't a Marvel fan) also enjoyed it more than any TV show so far, so bonus credit there. D'Onofrio is such a perfect Kingpin.

17. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

If we're looking at these in terms of episodes of a television show, this is one of those entries where it was a lot of fun and enjoyable as well as a big step up from its predecessor (Thor: The Dark World, not Spider-Man: Homecoming) but at the same time, it annoys me that they killed off The Warriors Three and that they didn't give me more information about the impending threat of Thanos, which of course might be things that I change my opinions about once we see future installments and see where this is all heading.

All in all, this is a very fun movie seeing Thor and Hulk team up, and I enjoy some of the additions and some of the tweaks to how things were told in the MCU, but I can't help but also feel like it was a random offshoot rather than something that has the same gravitas as the first Thor or something like The Winter Soldier. The jokier these movies get, the less weight I give them.

First impressions movie review here.

18. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Hm...I don't know if this is too high at 17 from my initial viewing. It might be adjusted down the line. But stepping out of the theater, I enjoyed this as an overall film quite a bit. It lacks the same punch that some other MCU projects have where I feel like they're building to something bigger, but then again, this was the culmination of a trilogy, so it did its job focusing on that.

It has a lot of heart to it, and I appreciate how it wasn't doing what Love and Thunder does, where it acts like every heartfelt moment has to be sandwiched between 3 jokes. James Gunn just lets you feel sad for parts of this, as you should feel.

I'm disappointed we won't get more of High Evolutionary, but I also think he probably already served his purpose, so that's ultimately okay. This ending left me satisfied that if they don't do anything more with these characters again, I'll mostly be okay with that. I still don't quite get why Mantis left like she did, and I think Adam Warlock was done dirty and needs to show up more, but we'll see.

Functionally, this movie doesn't touch Vol 1, but I think it tells an overall better story than Vol 2.

19. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Not as good as the first, but they had a lot of mountains to climb and it still managed to be rock solid while juggling everything, rather than crumbling to pieces. I commend them.

Shuri isn't my favorite character, but she managed to step up and fill more of the gap left behind from T'challa than I would have imagined.

Speaking of characters that aren't my favorite, Namor. "An even shittier Aquaman" is how I always really looked at the character, for the most part. He worked super well here and wasn't something to be laughed at. I enjoyed him well enough that I want to see the character return in future installments for some bit parts here and there, even if I'm not particularly interested in seeing him as the primary antagonist of another film, or as the protagonist of his own feature length movie. A Special Presentation hour? Sure. Totally. But you're not going to hear me pitching that we need Namor vs. Tiger Shark in Phase 5 when we still don't have X-Men.

I loved some bits and pieces here, like the Ancestral Plane scene and how badass Okoye always is. Queen Ramonda leveled up to a whole new tier in the MCU pantheon. She was great. M'Baku is awesome, as always. I liked Riri more than I thought I would, even though I still feel like she's a character I'm not too interested in seeeing a full show about.

Some stuff could have used a punch-up. I was underwhelmed with Lake Bell's part not being something more interesting. Everett Ross ultimately felt like more of a cameo than someone who contributed much to the story.

Clearly, this would have been a much different movie had Chadwick Boseman not passed away. I really wish we could have seen that instead, and I'm curious to know what would have changed. But given the monumental task they had with this, I think they pulled it off.

20. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Season 1 (2022)

Everyone complaining that this wasn't the type of show they were hoping for was probably going into this without having any idea what She-Hulk was like in the comics.

Tone-wise, this was exactly what I wanted. They had fourth-wall breaks, legitimately funny jokes (for my tastes) and they built on established lore and continued moving some things forward, like with the reveal that The Sokovia Accords is over and such.

Some parts didn't land as well as they could have, and there were some missed opportunities, but when you do a comedy like this, I enjoy it much more than when you take a more serious thing and make it overly humorous, like Thor: Love and Thunder.

I'm down for a season 2.

21. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Much better than the previous film (which you'll find rather low on this list). This was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the Illuminati content, the story was quick but not rushed, it went more heavily into the horror stuff, which was great for differentiating it, and it was all around just a thumbs up experience. My only real gripe is that I wish Nightmare had been pulling the strings as puppet-master for Wanda to make her more redeemable and that I wish I was spoiled with even more cameos, as I couldn't have gotten enough of those.

First impressions movie review here.

[C-TIER MCU]

22. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

I was surprised at how good this was. It's not something I'll jump first to in terms of rewatching if I have an itch to see something from the MCU, but it was thoroughly entertaining and checked off pretty much every box.

First impressions movie review here.

23. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Fun, interesting, and entertaining, but while I enjoyed the movie, I don't think it stands alone as being on par with some of the heavyweights above. It was pretty generic in some ways, and I don't think it's as rewatchable as some of the other movies, so I just simply can't rate it all that super high.

First impressions movie review here.

24. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Liv Tyler was a fantastic Betty and I really want them to bring her back. I'm glad this movie acted as a sort of sequel to the original Ang Lee film without making it a TRUE sequel to it, as it didn't need to go over the exact same plot points, but just repackage a few of them in a different way.

Outside of a few decisions here and there in its execution, this is honestly the exact movie I would have made if someone told me to do a Hulk film at that point in time.

You're not wrong in thinking that it's a weaker entry, but I think if you act like it's an atrocious film, you're beating it up too much.

25. Iron Man 2 (2010)

A lot of the flack from Iron Man 2 comes from it not being as good as the first, but really, how could it have been? This movie is hindered by the massive need to build the world for the future and if you step outside of the bubble of judging it as a standalone movie, it ends up being enjoyable.

I can put this on in the background and get a kick out of certain elements to it. Robert Downey Jr. is always good to watch, for instance, and I like how they start to incorporate more elements of S.H.I.E.L.D. and even Captain America in the mix.

Yes, Mickey Rourke is awful, but Sam Rockwell is interesting. Yes, they didn't pull off "Demon in a Bottle" but they did a variation of it.

26. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

I was disappointed that this wasn't better. Basically, it feels like a kind of weak episode of a television series that happens to give us some good character moments, but seems like the story for that edition didn't quite come together.

The main driving force of the plot is that Rocket takes a few batteries? Really? The Sovereign only show up when we need an action sequence here and there, which is also kind of the same for The Ravagers, but I at least enjoyed Yondu's arc along the way.

If it weren't for the fact that these individual characters are so great, the movie wouldn't be as enjoyable, and I have a feeling I might end up moving this down the list upon a second viewing.

First impressions movie reviews here and here.

27. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022)

This was adorable. While the musical parts of it weren't really doing much for me, the idea of Mantis trying to help "save Christmas" for Peter because of the reveal she's technically his sister, and for this to be the backstory of how Yondu got his little dashboard figurine and all, was super cute.

28. Loki Season 2 (2023)

This was better than the first season to me, somehow. Strange, considering it was arguably one sequence playing out over the whole season, with a much smaller scope. But for some reason, it worked better in my mind. Maybe because the focus was entirely on Loki accomplishing a goal, rather than a mystery? I don't know, but I was having a lot of fun with it. Plus, OB is great.

29. Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)

Eight years since the first film, a pandemic, everything after Endgame, and the world falling apart in so many ways has really dated the humor of this franchise, sadly. Maybe I'm just old and bitter at this point, but this didn't resonate with me the same way the first one did. I wish this were higher up.

But don't get me wrong...I still enjoyed this. Obviously, for it to be C-tier, it had more than its fair share of positives that made me smile and jokes that made me chuckle. I actually really liked how much of this was dedicated to just rewarding nerds like me who would geek out over things like Channing Tatum finally playing Gambit. The movie's strengths, in my mind, are when it just tells a multiverse tale within that mindset, rather than actually even trying to be a comedy, and the best jokes were the ones that are proxy of that, like the gag of Chris Evans being in there not as Captain America, but as Johnny Storm.

For a finale for Deadpool, I think it could have been a little better, but I'm thankful we're in a landscape where we can get all these characters doing these crazy things in general, as I remember the days when I would be considered too geeky and asking for too much to say they should have Scorpion in a Spider-Man film. Crazy how times have changed.

30. Thunderbolts (2025)

Take Taskmaster out of this (why kill off the character like that??), and look past how different this is from the Thunderbolts in the comics as far as team dynamics and even the reasoning they're called that, and this was a damn good entry into the series. I like how they tackled Sentry to fit into the MCU, I loved seeing more of a spotlight on Yelena, Red Guardian stole the show, it was nice to see more from Ghost and USAgent, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a lot of fun as always. Definitely one of the better ones in recent times.

31. Hawkeye (2021)

Far and above my favorite of the television shows at this particular moment (as you'll see as this list goes on). This not only was a more compact and tight story that didn't drag on, but actually made me wanting more, I happened to like more of the overall characters. It still has its flaws, like how Eleanor isn't a particularly strong villain or, more particularly, how I'm not at all a fan of Echo, but you've got to love Kingpin and Pizza Dog. I really hope they didn't kill off Kingpin here. Kate Bishop earned her spot in future Avengers projects from this and I think Hawkeye leveled up as a character, too.

[D-TIER MCU]

32. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

On par with Ragnarok in some ways, but with a storyline that I felt less interested in than the destruction of Asgard, in comparison. I'm glad they wrapped up the love story between Thor and Jane and gave Jane a good send-off, but I'm not at all into the idea of Thor as a father as the next phase of his character. That's not a journey I'm particularly hyped to watch unfold.

Many of the jokes land, but there are too many of them that makes it undercut the tension and prevent this from feeling like one of the "better" movies. It's still a lot of fun, though. I was digging Stormbreaker's jealousy. I loooooooooooove that Eternity was incorporated into this. Major thumbs up on not forgetting about Sif. Glad to see Miek was reduced to a short cameo. Zeus was...eh...and I'm not super into Hercules, but we'll see how that pans out.

Overall, the movie's still good in some ways, but it isn't great by any means. Within the MCU itself, it doesn't hold a candle to many of the previous films (hence its placement). But in terms of general movies? Yeah, I've seen a lot of garbage, and I'm much more open to rewatching this. It's still a Thor movie. I would just go into rewatches not at all with the idea in mind of having a dutiful villain. Basically, I would watch scenes of this movie again, but maybe not the whole thing in a full rewatch.

The story could be tighter, the villain could be better and the ending is probably setting me up for a movie that has multiple elements I'm not interested in tracking.

First impressions movie review here.

33. Werewolf By Night (2022)

I'm not super into this genre, so by its very nature, it wasn't going to score up on the highest range. However, I'll say that they still managed to make this an enjoyable little special. I'm definitely down to see more 1-hour focused content if there isn't enough to justify it as a full-length movie without stretching it out to a dull level. This could have fallen into that trap, and if it were a 6 episode television series, it certainly wouldn't have landed as well for me. But as a quick bite, it was rock solid.

34. Moon Knight (2022)

This started off with a bang, but quickly became a bit tiring to watch. I found myself wanting them to cut some of the content and get straight to the next part of the story for an episode or two. While some might have enjoyed the journey to explore the different characters, I think there was too much lingering and not enough actual plot. This, like Wandavision and Falcon & Winter Soldier, are projects I think should have been movies, instead, while Eternals should have been a series.

35. Iron Man 3 (2013)

The way The Mandarin was done in this movie just pisses me off and I have to rank it toward the bottom for that reason alone, at the very least. That was one of the biggest missteps in the entire MCU and it makes me wonder why they ever thought it was a good idea, knowing full well that people had been looking forward to seeing the character built up in the previous two films.

Killian isn't a good villain, nor are the henchmen interesting. Happy Hogan gets put out of action for a good portion of the film to be replaced with a little kid, which starts to give it a vibe of a standard action flick and not something in this series. It's almost like this is the shell of another movie that they slapped Iron Man onto and tweaked a few elements of the script to fit it.

First impressions movie review here.

36. Doctor Strange (2016)

This is controversial, I'm sure, but Doctor Strange is a flat film to me.

None of the characters are interesting or different enough. Strange is just Tony Stark but not charming. Christine Palmer is one of the most under-written female leads in the MCU (and Rachel McAdams deserved better than that). Kaecilius is as generic as most villains. Baron Mordo is on par with Sinestro from Green Lantern where his turn to evil isn't justified enough. I do like Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One, and I do agree that the visuals are interesting, but that isn't enough.

People like to argue that other MCU films are "too similar" but can you really tell me anything other than the visuals for the magic scenes that are different about this film? It's a generic origin story, which in itself isn't bad, but since I don't like any of the characters, I'm not interested in their origins.

First impressions movie reviews here and here.

37. Wonder Man (2026)

As a random side project, this was an interesting enough watch that I can't say I loved, but I did enjoy. Yahya Abdul-Mateen and Ben Kingsley are the reason this was good, as opposed to any of the particular writing or anything that happens in it. Their chemistry was great, and the concept of exploring the acting side of Simon Williams was an interesting take on it. However, I do wish this would have been given another pass of a write to tighten some things up, make some storylines feel more purposeful and not just the idea of something that kind of fizzles out (like how his brother Eric was just some guy who had the same line about 20 times), etc.

As part of the MCU, it's a kind of hollow side dish that has some interesting flavors, but doesn't fill you up. I'd certainly watch a second season, but I do wish this felt a little more like a Marvel thing and less of a random fever dream.

38. The Fantastic 4: First Steps (2025)

Here's the thing. This was a great Fantastic 4 movie, but it wasn't a great movie about the Fantastic 4. I say that in the sense that I think they nailed it as far as the tone, the characters, the aesthetic, and the way that these stories are told in the comics and such.

Effectively, they couldn't have done a better job making a movie about these characters.

But I never really liked those stories. Fantastic 4 has never quite resonated with me as a superhero fan. I respect their importance to the Marvel universe, and I'm SUPER happy that Franklin Richards and Galactus and such are being treated with the proper respect, and I hope that Franklin becomes a major character going forward and so on. The idea that he can be the next Galactus and is almost de facto the "main character" of the Marvel Universe is something I think is super interesting, and if anyone is curious, I like it SO MUCH BETTER when Franklin is not a mutant, yet at the same time, I think it kind of makes sense for the last being in this version of the universe to be a mutant to prove that they were really the next stage of evolution...

...I just ultimately find Fantastic 4 stories boring, hokey, and much like Star Trek in that I could never get into that show as a kid. I'll go a step further to say that Star Wars isn't AT ALL interesting to me because of the spaceships, space travel, and aliens. It's all about the Jedi. That's why it pissed me off so much when the sequels completely botched the whole point of the previous stories and ruined—okay, rant for another time.

If someone asked me "What is the Fantastic 4 like?" I would show them this movie. If they liked this movie, they'll like F4. If they think this movie had weird pacing, they found it boring, they thought most of the characters felt old-timey and weren't charmed by that aesthetic, and so forth? Check out Spider-Man, X-Men, and other characters for sure instead.

39. Captain America: Brave New World (2025)

A far, far cry from The Winter Soldier, despite their attempts to make it a similar film. This movie has a lot of good ideas, but too many of them, and none of them are cohesive enough or executed well enough to pull any of it off. Not only does this suffer from being a group of the now C-tier characters strung together, but it wants to say a lot while also not saying much at all. It's juggling being a sequel to The Incredible Hulk and Captain America & The Winter Soldier and only now just getting back around to "hey, maybe The Avengers should be a thing" (which never made any sense and directly contradicts some other stuff). The MCU post-Endgame has been so poorly mishandled, and it's a shame, because I think a project like this sounds awesome on paper. It could have been so much better without being hacked to pieces with reshoots and editing, too, while still having some shots that look like they could've used more time to blend the backgrounds better. And that post-credit scene was so disappointingly underwhelming. That was the most bland ass "Hey, shit's going to get more interesting, we promise, but we can't even say or do anything so guys, just please wait around for Secret Wars."

40. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

This didn't have the same feel as the previous two movies. Not only did it lack that comedic punch by not being set in the real world, but the Quantum Realm isn't as interesting to me as a universal environment than seeing Ant-Man physics play out on the reality we're used to. Plus, that meant several characters like Luis had to be expelled from the movie, as they didn't have enough time to even give them one scene prior to being trapped in the realm.

This felt more like a generic Star Wars film to me than the third part of the Ant-Man trilogy. And to be perfectly honest, the whole "look at all the aliens and strange environments and spaceships" aspect of Star Wars was never what appealed to me about that series, either (it was the Jedi; hence why I hate the sequels for what they did to that plot).

Cassie isn't as good as she used to be. I preferred the father/daughter dynamics with Paul Rudd and Abby Ryder Fortson. Kathryn Newton was fine in her role, but it almost felt like an entirely different character.

There are some laughs for sure, but nothing that really got a huge belly laugh out of me.

This isn't bad. It is just extremely average, and considering it has such heavy-hitter movies to compare it to these days, and the weight of Kang the Conqueror as its villain going to waste while setting up more of the next big crossover, it does fall a little flat.

I don't think this will be one of the movies I regularly revisit. It was just fine.

First impressions movie review here.

41. Black Widow (2021)

So far, as of the day I saw this on the premiere, this is the most generic spin-off feeling movie of the bunch. It kind of feels phoned in, like it's a paint-by-numbers action flick with exactly the same stereotypical characters and beats that every other film of this genre fits into.

Everything down to Taskmaster being changed to a woman so she can battle the titular heroine more "fairly", the old overseer Ray Winstone plays that has no character other than "evil" (seriously, tell me one thing about the guy other than that he's the bad guy) and even the jokes were things you could see coming a mile away.

It's perfectly fine, but it's not something I'd imagine I'm going to want to revisit often. It'll likely go down as one of my least-watched of this series, because it doesn't do anything good enough to stand out. The music isn't memorable, no action scene is stunning, all the characters are one-note and most likely won't be seen again, and it just felt like filler, ultimately.

I'm extremely glad Black Widow got her own film, though. That was necessary and a long time coming. Frankly, it should have happened prior to Infinity War and I think it would have come off better, too. However, if it were the exact same script (since the story would still be the same), it still wouldn't make it a better movie, fundamentally.

First impressions movie review here.

42. Loki Season 1 (2021)

This was better than WandaVision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier mostly because it didn't feel like it was dragging. However, I don't think these shows are sticking the landing for anything.

43. Ironheart (2025)

Did they know when they were writing this that Natalie would be the star of the show, and then built the whole show around her? I found myself caring FAR more about that plotline than anything else, including anything with Riri. Natalie's great. Natalie FTW. I hope we get to see her more in some other project, and I hope that Lyric Ross gets a lot more work going forward. She could be a star.

Shout out to Regan Aliyah and Anji White, too. I was digging their characters. Sacha Baron Cohen is already cool as Mephisto, so big thumbs up there.

But nearly everything going on with The Hood and his gang, I didn't like. That felt like they were trying too hard to just toss out template characters that didn't get the actual depth to become likable. I know I was supposed to think Clown was cool and interesting, for instance, but she felt like a caricature. The Blood Siblings? I couldn't even remember their names!

Kudos to them for bringing in Ezekiel Stane. That was neat, even if I could've done without the Alanis Morissette "bonding moment" that felt very cliche and forced, as if they felt they didn't have enough humor and reverted back to early 2000s humor.

I don't know if I should rank this just above the F-tier because it was an easy watch, or if it should go a little lower underneath WandaVision. That's a tough call. There have been so many projects at this point that my original tier list has been shattered and the definitions between each distinction are blurring more and more.

Let's sum it up by saying I would watch an Ironheart Season 2, but I think they shouldn't praise themselves too much for their quirks. They more stumbled into 3 or 4 characters I'd like to see again (Natalie, Zelma, Mephisto, and Riri's Mom) while introducing a TON of others who I couldn't care less about (like Xavier, or even really Riri a lot of the time), so their success rate isn't actually super high.

[F-TIER MCU]

44. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

In my point of view, this is one of the hardest ones to rewatch and it has some of the least substance to it. There are really only a few strong points to it, which include: 1) Odin revealing more information about the Infinity Stones, 2) Frigga's death, 3) Loki hinting that he might sacrifice his life for Thor despite all they've been through, 4) the Captain America cameo, 5) um.....hold on, I might be able to think of a fifth.

Everything with the humans is awful. Darcy is as annoying as ever, but she now has a pointless love interest buddy to tag along with. Selvig running around naked isn't funny. Jane just whines and looks confused the whole movie.

Malekith is one of the least interesting villains in the MCU, the action is forgettable, the film doesn't know if it wants to be a buddy team up with Thor and Loki or if it wants to be a story about Jane needing to be cured, the hybrid of medieval elements and spaceships feels jarring and every character that was charming the first time around seems wooden this time.

First impressions movie review here.

45. Captain Marvel (2019)

Before you complain, no, this isn't so far down the list because the protagonist is a woman. I'm not some stupid bigot sexist. Get off your horse. The problem I have with this movie is that I feel like it's incredibly bland and people are going to overlook that. What does it really give the MCU that it didn't already have? Carol Danvers isn't a fully fleshed out and interesting character with traits that separate her from anybody else (Stark is the smart asshole, Cap is the morally perfect perpetual good guy, Black Widow is the spy, Hawkeye's the broken down dad, Thor's the fish out of water, Hulk is the tragic monster, Ant-Man is the goof as are the Guardians of the Galaxy who bring the cosmic side of things to the table...so what is Danvers?)

There was no reason this needed to be set in the 90s and it just creates continuity errors. The supporting characters are pretty bland (like the Kree soldiers). The villain is weak. It's just a very generic movie.

It's not a BAD movie. I enjoyed it. But it's just not anywhere near most of the other movies on this list and I feel like I got more for the MCU out of Iron Man 2 and at least with GOTG 2, the end made me get a little choked up. This didn't make me feel much of anything. It was like being on autopilot.

First impressions movie review here. I will say that in 2023, before the release of The Marvels, I rewatched this, and I enjoyed it more the second time around, leading to it going up a little higher on the list from where it was before. I used to have it below

46. WandaVision (2021)

This felt like it would have been much better as a two-hour movie where they would have had to trim down some of the ideas, flesh out some characters and take a "less is more" approach.

The first two episodes were largely just actual episodes of the types of shows they were parodying. Not much moved the plot along. Basically, what you would have gotten in a movie with that would have been maybe 20 minutes that would have been tighter and tied back into the overall narrative, rather than 60 minutes of "let's just have fun with this for a while." Since I'm not a fan of those types of old timey shows, that was more bothersome than charming.

Agatha Harkness as the villain the whole time was weaker than it should have been. Far worse, though, was the reveal of casting Evan Peters as Quicksilver just for him to be a throwaway random guy as a boner joke. They had to know that that would just upset people.

In fact, that was a theme of this. Everyone kept hyping it up as "OMG, you'll never believe what's going to happen with THIS character" and it turned out to be something underwhelming every time. Paul Bettany's actor he gets to work with and have great chemistry with? Just a joke about working opposite himself. The big reveal of the character Monica teased? Just a skrull. Main villain? The guy who was obviously the main villain from the start, and he's just a generic bureaucrat military guy created for the show rather than any of the dozens, if not hundreds of characters they could have at least pulled from the comics that were one-shot people to expand on, if not generally more interesting people from the start to do more with.

Even the positives aren't all that great. They brought back Darcy Lewis, but she was never a great character, and her exit from the finale is very indicative of COVID screwing over how this show played out, cause she does nothing and leaves. Randall Park is back as Jimmy Woo, which is awesome, but he barely does anything. The ship of Theseus discussion is one of the best parts, along with some parody elements like the take on Modern Family and The Office, but are those really worth saying this is on par with something higher on the list? Not in my mind.

This was absolutely underwhelming.

First impressions review here.

47. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (2021)

Frankly, I was disappointed. This felt like it could have been on par with Captain America and The Winter Soldier, which is one of my favorites, as indicated above. I guess the title was just too deceiving.

Instead, we got a weak villain in Karli Morgenthau, who didn't need to be changed to a teenage girl as that did nothing to help the character. I didn't like the twist that everyone saw coming but it doesn't make too much sense about how Sharon Carter is now the evil Power Broker. The John Walker stuff had some serious potential, but was unfortunately super rushed in order to spend more time talking about Sam's sister and the boat, which just dragged.

They missed out on the madbomb and dropped the ball with this in a lot of ways. I found myself each episode more interested to see if they'd turn it around the next time to make it better than what it had already been, rather than thinking to myself "That was so great and I can't wait for the next episode."

48. The Marvels (2023)

For an episode of a television show (if you approach the MCU in that fashion), this was fine, albeit just blah. The villain is arguably the most forgettable out of any in any movie in this series, which does it no help. The plot is pretty basic and while it works, it doesn't really do anything or put the characters in any new path. It's just a sort of wacky day in the life of the Marvel universe and nothing more.

Couldn't we do without the dance sequence? That was 100% pointless, other than someone thought it would get some laughs. For that matter, all the cat stuff felt forced, too. But I'll admit that I enjoyed Kamala Khan WAY more in this than the television show, and she was a highlight.

49. Marvel Zombies (2025)

This suffered from being a rush of a story. Since characters are introduced and immediately killed, with new characters coming in to just be immediately killed, it felt more like playing a series of video game levels than a true plot. But there was potential. It was definitely more interesting than most of the What If episodes, and while I still don't like the animation all that much, it was a step in a better direction compared to other shows like Eyes of Wakanda. Marvel Zombies had far more potential than what was tapped into here. Far, far more potential. I'd still put this toward the bottom of the list, when it arguably could have been at least in the C-tier if done properly, if not higher.

50. Echo (2024)

I'm glad they trimmed this down to 5 episodes, as I don't even think it needed to be that long. Many elements of this, I just didn't care about. To be honest, one of them was Maya herself. She's not a hero I've ever been interested in, and the show didn't do much to make me think otherwise. Kingpin, though, I enjoyed a lot. He helped save this show from just being a history lesson. And for anyone who thinks that's targeted toward this culture, it's how I view all period piece type projects. I didn't enjoy Captain America: The First Avenger because it was set in the 40s—I enjoyed it because I like Captain America, the character. And I don't feel that way about Maya Lopez. But hey, a rather mundane show about a character I don't love, but it has a suitable enough coherent story, is better than something that's just an outright mess like some of the things below this on the list. Cool opening theme song and intro. Very James Bond.

51. Secret Invasion (2023)

Damn it. I wanted this to be something great. It had a ton of potential. But instead of doing anything remotely close to the comics, they did a rushed, lackluster, low-stakes version of it that they then feel the need to add stakes to, so they just kill Maria Hill because "that'll make it seem like a big deal" and pulled the Rhodey swerve to get people talking, too. That was poorly executed and obvious from a mile away, for the record. This does more damage to the MCU than it does to help. It ruins poignant moments from previous films and it doesn't even set up anything for the future that I'm all that interested in. The Skrulls have been mishandled from the start in Captain Marvel. They never should have been a sympathetic ally, and I don't care whatsoever about G'iah. Thumbs down.

52. Eternals (2021)

To date, this is the only movie in the MCU that I've actually found myself wanting to see it end 1/4 of the way through. By the midway point, I knew there was no hope it would get better. By the end, I told myself "I hope all the characters die so we never have to see them in any other movies." Many other properties in the MCU lately haven't been good, but they've been at least okay or had some redeeming qualities once in a while. This, though, actually sucked. Walking out of the movie, I can't think of one truly decent aspect to it. Every character is bland. I can't even tell you most of their names. The pacing is awful. None of it matters and it takes forever to get to that point. I really hope I like this better on a second viewing, but I don't know if I'll ever actually feel up for watching it again.

Update: On the second viewing, I did like this better...but not enough to bump it up significantly higher on the list. Just a few spots.

53. What If...? (2021)

For a show that had a ton of promise, I didn't actually enjoy almost any of the stories they chose to tell. Even the zombies were botched with a jarring tone. "I'm covered in Sharon"? What? That was your friend. Just because the MCU likes to crack jokes all the time doesn't mean it should fit in any scenario as a baseline. It's about tone. That's why Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man have different feels than The Winter Soldier.

Instead of telling true "What If" scenarios, like "What if Captain America and Iron Man were on the opposite sides of the civil war than the ones they chose?" or "What if Thor had gone for the head in his fight with Thanos?", they chose to do "What if Peggy Carter just did everything Steve Rogers did, until, I don't know, some space octopus attacked?"

I wanted more out of this. Rather than "What If", this is more like "Whiffed".

54. What If...? Season 2 (2023)

I was really hoping there would be a different approach to this season than the last one. Sadly, it seems they doubled down on doing random ideas, for the most part. This must mean they have a completely different idea of what this series should be, and that I can expect going forward that it just won't align with how I would have gone about doing it.

Sometimes, the idea is solid, but the execution doesn't do it for me. I get doing Happy Hogan in Avengers Tower as Die Hard, but I got bored watching that episode. The one about Iron Man against Grandmaster, even though I could see the pitch there, was another that fell flat for my eyes.

But what if Nebula joined the Nova Corps? If I heard that pitch, I'd honestly say "you have to sell me on it." It just feels like some of the ideas came about through a game of mad libs. Why is it that Hela finds the 10 rings? Why not maybe a story exploring what would have happened if Shang-Chi would have gone along with becoming his father's son and been a true villain?

I feel like if there's a third season, we're just as likely to see random ideas like "What if Kamala Khan and Love from Thor 4 became best buds?" and less "What if Doctor Strange refused to erase everyone's memory of Peter Parker?"

I think I would just like to see more of a series that takes alternate routes of what we've seen in the MCU, rather than just having a germ of an idea someone found interesting and then crafting a quick story around it that has to live in its own world.

55. What If...? Season 3 (2024)

Once again, this is a series of episodes where even just the titles alone have me questioning why most of them went into production, let alone were finished and put out as the best possible product. What If had so much potential, and the team responsible for picking and choosing the projects, as well as the execution (with the bad acting/pacing/etc) just fumbled entirely, as I don't think this is what most people wanted from this series. At the very least, it isn't what I wanted. The whole bit of Agatha being in Hollywood feels to me as random as how South Park made fun of Family Guy just randomly picking things.

56. Eyes of Wakanda (2025)

In theory, this makes sense. However, in execution, I didn't like it. Having this be an anthology meant I couldn't get connected to any of the characters enough to the point where most episodes were just "Here is person. This is their mission. Cue action sequence." That could be interesting if the action itself was good (it was generic in my eyes, not bad, but nothing special) and if the art style wasn't horrendous. I haven't liked ANY of the animation Marvel has produced in this new era, and this might be the worst.

57. I Am Groot (2022)

Cute. Not much to it, since it was just five disconnected shorts at a grand total of less than 20 minutes that doesn't factor into the grand scheme of things on a massive scale. But I enjoyed them for what they were. I'd like to see more of these type of projects that explore the MCU in fun ways. I liked the shorts that they had before (that I haven't ranked here yet, but maybe I should). Let's explore that. I can't rank this super high, but that's because the other projects simply have more depth.

58. I Am Groot Season 2 (2023)

Even less meaningful than the first season. I actually hit the fast forward button on the majority of these episodes. They were just "Groot interacts with a small object" for 15 minutes. I did like seeing The Watcher, though.

59. Ms. Marvel (2022)

I can't even finish it. I'm not fond of the tone, characters or the writing in general. It doesn't speak to me, as I'm not the target audience and they didn't do a good enough job bridging that gap to make it more universal.

Stay tuned for updates for all future projects!

What is your ranked order and why?
Tell us in the comments below!

6 Flicks Picks: 2026 Movie Releases Rankings

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 08:27:00 +0000

Welcome to the annual New Year's edition of 6 Flicks Picks to ring in 2026!

This segment started out as a monthly column (and could return to that if there is enough support on Patreon!), but the new year always started with an assessment of the entire year, which is even more difficult in some ways.

The year-in-full edition of 6 Flicks Picks works the same way it always has. Rather than being limited to just six for this list like I would for the monthly editions, I'm going to be breaking down my top six as well as some supplemental groups of six for different tier lists, in a sense, of how much I want to see those movies.

Still, the general question remains: If you could only watch six movies for the entire year, which ones would those be?

Obviously, not every film that will come out this year is currently announced, and I haven't seen trailers for the vast majority of them. That is part of the fun when you can look back and see which movies you enjoyed more and which ones were surprises.

Without further ado, let's take a look at what makes my cut for 2026!

6 FLICKS PICKS FOR 2026

As far as January 1st is concerned, I don't have anywhere remotely close to my top 30 like I've had in previous years. In fact, this is the weakest year of movie releases that I can think of since the pandemic. That is really going to make me question paying for AMC A-List every month if there are stretches where I wouldn't see much value in seeing one film, let alone two to justify the price. How the mighty have fallen. I used to be such a movie hound, and they're just not releasing much anymore that piques my curiosity, even though I'm still going around on the lookout.

Miscellaneous Honorable Mentions:

If they receive good enough reviews, I might check out:

Project Hail Mary
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
Michael
Masters of the Universe
Coyote vs. Acme
Disclosure Day
How to Make a Killing

They're all on the chopping block as far as me not really being too super into watching them, or not being sure if they just had some good trailers, but having at least some minimal interest.

Top Tier Honorable Mentions:

12. [TIE] Scary Movie 6 / Untitled Jumanji Sequel — I tied these, rather than to pick one of them to go into the other category below at #13, because they're about on par with each other until I see a trailer or more information. Scary Movie 1 and 3 are amazing and I absolutely love them. Every other Scary Movie film has been either meh (#2) or just straight-up bad. Considering how much I disliked 2025's Naked Gun compared to how much the original is one of my 5 favorite comedies ever, this doesn't give me a lot of faith Scary Movie 6 will be awesome. The same for Jumanji. The first of this series from The Rock was fun enough for me to see the second, but the second wasn't so great to make me HAVE to see the third.

11. The Mandalorian and Grogu — Speaking of liking something from before and being beaten down. I absolutely loved Star Wars from around the time of the special editions in the 90s up until The Force Awakens just ruined the series. Nearly every single thing that has come out under Disney has been something I either hated or just couldn't get into. Even solid projects like Rogue One, Kenobi, and the original Mandalorian seasons at points, just all lead to the terrible events from the sequel trilogy, and those 3 films ruined the franchise for me so much that it taints EVERYTHING in the series, so much so that I didn't even watch shows like Andor or The Acolyte. Why should I see this? I don't even know if I will. It looks like a slightly longer episode that they just want to try to get box office receipts from and I doubt it will help undo all the damage from the other films. Unless there's a scene in here that says "nothing with The First Order or Snoke or Palpatine or Rey or any of that garbage is canon and we're starting over from Return of the Jedi", I doubt my fandom can truly be saved.

10. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie — The first was fun. I'm a Mario fan, so even though this isn't going in the direction I was hoping and I was pitching for (check out my layout) I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt that this could be a fun kids film to check out.

9. The Odyssey — Christopher Nolan doesn't have a 100% success rate for me, but he's close enough that I have to give him the benefit of the doubt. For every Dunkirk that I don't dig, you've got something amazing like Inception. I've never been fond of The Odyssey story, but it's an epic that will probably be more along the lines of Oppenheimer, which even though it didn't rank as my favorite movie of the year, was certainly one of the *better* films that year.

8. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple — All three of the previous movies were things I enjoyed. There's no reason why I shouldn't go into this expecting it to be as interesting as its predecessor.

7. Toy Story 5 — I have a lot of complains about Toy Story 4, and I think this movie is going to undo some of those while also creating some other problems. But it's Toy Story. Of course it makes the list high up. It's kind of crazy that it isn't in the top 6, but...

What Made the Final Cut:

6. Mortal Kombat II — Look, it's not going to be better than Toy Story 5 or whatever. I get that. It's not like the previous one was a good movie. But it's popcorn nonsense. I had a lot of fun watching that one, and sometimes, you just want to go to the movies and see some stupid action flick from your childhood.

5. Street Fighter — When it comes to my childhood, by the way, I was always more of a Street Fighter fan than a Mortal Kombat fan. That gives it the edge here, as well as how I'm obviously into pro wrestling (Smark Out Moment) and when you've got Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns among the cast for this, I really hope it's a fun watch, because this looks INSANELY ridiculous.

4. Clayface — Batman project? You sold me. Mike Flanagan is involved? Even more so. And it's a serious movie about Clayface? Hell yeah. I loved that same episode of the animated series that Flanagan was so inspired by.

3. Supergirl — I happen to be one of those people who really liked James Gunn's Superman, so even though Kara has never been in my top 10 favorite superhero characters by any means, I still value the property and I'm curious to see a film revolving around her.

2. Spider-Man: Brand New Day — My top two favorite superheroes of all time are Batman #1 and Spider-Man #2. I don't need to explain this.

1. Avengers: Doomsday — Just hook it to my veins. This isn't going to be as great as Infinity War, but it's going to be a mashup of a huge number of characters from my childhood as well as this awesome journey of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU has been in a rough state after Endgame, so I'm hoping this is what turns everything around and makes it all worthwhile.

WHICH MOVIES ARE YOU INTERESTED IN CHECKING OUT?
TELL US IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

Fanboys Film Awards 2025 Movie Recap This Year

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 21:19:00 +0000

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!

FILMS THAT CAME OUT IN 2025 THAT I WATCHED:

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 4: 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

FILMS THAT CAME OUT BEFORE 2025 THAT I WATCHED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2025:

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: The Return of Xander Cage
XXX: State of the Union

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:

The Life of Chuck
Sinners
Superman

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

No Other Choice
Companion
Thunderbolts
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
Ballerina
The Long Walk
The Black Phone 2
M3GAN 2.0
Predator: Badlands
28 Years Later
Frankenstein

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

Captain America: Brave New World
Relay

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

The Fantastic 4: First Steps
Black Bag
Weapons
Together

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

Shelby Oaks was more interesting before the credits and then turned into the most generic horror film ever. Just boilerplate. What a shame.
Presence 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 / LEAST FAVORITE MOVIES OF THE YEAR

Mickey 17 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.
Movies like Bring Her Back do nothing for me. I only saw that because my wife wanted to.
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 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 5 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 felt disjointed and lacking in plot
I was so bored watching The Conjuring: Last Rites 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 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 in either of those films' names the next day.
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 50 Shades of Grey movies for a laugh, I was more engaged in that story than what was happening here.

BEST ACTOR

WINNER = Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)

EXPLANATION = 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. And 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

WINNER = Sophie Thatcher (Companion) or Madeleine McGraw (The Black Phone 2)

EXPLANATION = 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)

EXPLANATION = 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 Madison (Weapons)

EXPLANATION = 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)

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 Life of Chuck

EXPLANATION = 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

EXPLANATION = That's Superman.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Ballerina, Captain America: Brave New World, Fantastic 4, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Predator: Badlands, Thunderbolts, Wake Up Dead Man

BEST VISUALS

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

WINNER = Superman

EXPLANATION = 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 = Fantastic 4, 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

EXPLANATION = This was the fight sequence film. For it to not 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

EXPLANATION = 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), Fantastic 4, Frankenstein, Thunderbolts

BEST MUSIC

This category examines both the score and the soundtrack.

WINNER = Sinners

EXPLANATION = Score-wise, I would lean more toward Mission Impossible or Superman. I really dig the Fantastic 4 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, Fantastic 4, Superman (for the score, not the other musical tracks), Thunderbolts

TELL US YOUR LIST IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

Pokémon Legends: Z-A Pros & Cons Review: A Fine-Enough Disappointing Step Down from PLA & Scarlet/Violet

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 10:45:00 +0000

I'm late to the game with my thoughts on Pokemon Legends: Z-A, but better late than never, right?

Truth to be told, there are three major reasons why this review is coming out so late, if I'm being fully transparent:

1) I was out of the country for the first couple weeks the game was out, so I didn't get around to playing it until the latter end of October anyway. All that initial response juice was already gone.

2) My attention has been away from Fanboys Anonymous for 2025 due to having to prioritize other jobs. This is why there hasn't been much content at all for the site this year. I always want to do more, and I have so many more ideas that just sit on the back burner.

3) I haven't exactly been motivated to write up anything about this after playing it. In fact, most of this list is going to be predominantly complaining.

The TL;DR coming out of that third point is that overall, while this is a fun enough game for something to do, I was finding myself writing far too many cons and not enough pros. I also found myself perfectly okay with putting the game down for days at a time, instead of feeling that itch to hop back on as soon as I could.

Look. Nothing will beat the original Generation 1 experience of playing Pokemon for the first time with Red, Blue, and Yellow for me. Not even the enthusiasm and wonder of Gold and Silver, which was in many ways a better game, can quite capture that magic.

But I had a TON of fun revisiting that region for Let's Go, and I felt my first real rush of the old school childhood whimsy with Pokemon Legends Arceus. While Scarlet and Violet had to match that had their pros and cons all of their own (in some ways, improving on what I liked about PLA, and in other ways, going in a different direction I wasn't fond of) I graded that with a bit of a curve, as it wasn't the true follow-up in Legends fashion. Z-A, on the other hand, wasn't going to get the same grace.

Unfortunately, my general assessment of Z-A is that there are VERY FEW improvements compared to PLA for my personal tastes, and more than its fair share of downgrades.

Biggest Con: Lumiose City is a Claustrophobic & Boring Location / Lack of Free-Roam

Easily my biggest complaint about this game, and the overall reason I've been let down by it, is the environment.

From the very first bits of news I had heard about it being one big city, I instantly thought "I hope that doesn't mean everything looks the same, everything is cramped, and there's no diversity."

Lo and behold, that's exactly what we got.

I hate that this is a city that looks almost exactly the same on every street. They're nearly identical throughout the entire map, and it makes it so I not only have no idea where I am and can't recall anything distinct enough for a location, but that I'm visually bored.

In PLA, I would mark sections of the map to explore another time. Venturing out past where they kind of wanted you to be meant that I would find myself panicking because the Alpha Snorlax or Alpha Rapidash or Alpha Alakazam in the first region was suddenly around me and I was severely under-leveled. The same for Scarlet and Violet, where I glitched myself to that platform I wasn't supposed to reach and could explore anywhere and it felt like I came across unique areas that were memorable.

For instance, when I came across that flying Gyarados in PLA, that was one of those magic moments for me. And it felt like every region was HUGE. I was just exploring and coming across a random creek with a Bibarel or the wooded area with the Scyther and Kleavor. Scarlet and Violet went a little overboard in that enough of the spots looked similar that it was hard to keep track of where I was specifically if I had gotten all the items and whatnot without consulting a guide, but it was still more fun to just explore.

There is no exploring here in ZA. That's partially because they lock everything behind invisible barriers (especially at the start of the game, where it was INCREDIBLY INFURIATING to be stopped in my tracks and told that I arbitrarily couldn't go somewhere because I needed to progress the story)

It's an interesting enough concept to change the landscape as you progress with the game, but adding some more of the bland scaffolding doesn't do the trick. Nor am I happy you got rid of my best spot to farm mega shards once I beat the story.

The rooftops are annoying. Having no means of flying or climbing or anything that makes traversing the environment easier, even after the main missions are over, is just a pain. I don't like having to get to the top of something and looking around for 10 minutes because the only way up is some arbitrary corner of some building 4 streets away that is my only access point ever to that rooftop. It just makes it a hassle and not fun when you have to either remember the differences between buildings that look identical and streets that look identical as well as specific little tiny rooftop mechanics.

Wild zones aren't making up for it. You just plopped a few static Pokemon into a corner of a street. Most of it doesn't make any sense to begin with. Also, fuck those Pyroar.

Con: Stop Trapping Me to Death / Catching Mechanics

Because everything is so cramped, this made the whole "attack the player" health bar element of this game annoying, too.

I enjoyed running around Hisui and feeling like I was in danger from time to time.

Catching Pokemon by sneaking up on them, or throwing some Feather Balls, Wing Balls, or Jet Balls (three things missing from this game that I would've liked to see return, but you can't really have that when this game is so focused on keeping you in tight spots)—that stuff was fun before.

But I liked it better when I could throw a ball or toss out a Pokemon and start a more locked-in battle, particularly in an environment where I can actually move around.

What I don't like in ZA is that the lock-on mechanics are a bit finicky, and when I'm in an alleyway, there's no room for me to do anything but to immediately get spotted by a Pokemon and then take a bunch of damage. Effectively, to catch damn near anything in this game, I had to just barrel through, attack like crazy with some move that did residual damage to everything else that was attacking me as well, and then hope that I didn't mess up locking onto the wrong thing.

But in particular, there is too much going on at any given moment. How am I supposed to take in the entire environment, every Pokemon in an area, the HP bar of all those Pokemon including my own AND myself, the moves being set up, my moves that I need to execute, and somehow be dodging in a way that is a step ahead and in this tight environment to try to move in a way that my Pokemon also moves out of the way of another attack and I don't get caught where MY attacks just don't land because they're too far away or not facing the right direction or whatever? And when your Pokemon decides to just walk to another spot before doing the attack, or has to take 3 seconds to do its cry when you send it out, that is incredibly frustrating.

Battling wasn't fun in this game like it was in PLA, which I'm going to need them to basically go back to. This idea of my movements being in sync with where my Pokemon move as the means to dodge is just not great.

It's a step up in some ways from the auto battle stuff in Scarlet and Violet, but it's a step down from PLA, for sure.

Pro: More Value to Certain Moves Than Ever

For a short while, I found myself saying "Oh wow, I never use something like Growl, ever, but it kind of seems useful to do that before a Pokemon can notice you, and you can immediately get an advantage in the battle."

I say a short while, because I then found myself in scenarios where I needed to just power through anyway, so it became more advantageous to still just have powerful attacking moves for the most part, and that went out the window pretty quickly.

But hey, for the first time in a long time, I was using Leer and Nuzzle and Amnesia, which is kind of neat.

Pro: Fainting Pokemon Can Be Caught

One of the big positives to the catch system this time around, though, is that you can knock something out and still get an opportunity to catch it, instead of it just disappearing immediately.

More often than not, that was my strategy with a lot of Pokemon.

Con: Give Me More Pokemon to Pick from at the Start! / Better Moves

Holy shit, I did not want to use Bunnelby. Why did you give me NO OTHER OPTIONS to use Rock Smash than that stupid thing?

On top of that, I picked Totodile, and that movepool was atrocious for far, far too long.

Con: Character Customization

It was annoying having to go searching through tons of shops and tons of menus to see the different options and to see that most of them weren't something I was super fond of. If I liked something, but didn't have enough money, I also found it very annoying to have to try to remember which of the 20 shops had that pair of shoes or whatever. This could've been made so much more efficient.

For that matter, those are your only options for haircuts? They weren't great, and I think they could've used another 10 options or so. I liked the hair options better in PLA for sure. Scarlet and Violet was terrible with that, so at least in this, I can wear a suit like I try to, instead of the awful orange and purple uniform options from SV.

Con: Cafes are Dumb

Why do all the cafe drinks do the same thing, it seems? What's the purpose? Why should I pay for more expensive ones? And why are there tons of these cafes around if they all just sell the same things and we have a fast travel that makes it so I don't need to only go to a specific one to get a specific thing or that I don't have access to the previous ones?

I've never liked these extra mechanics of taking photos in the games or playing with your Pokemon. I hated the whole sandwich thing in Scarlet and Violet, for instance. Some people love that, but that's not me.

Con: The Story

I think I've gotten to the point where I barely even engage in the story with Pokemon games, to be honest. I liked the overall concept of PLA, but Scarlet and Violet was just too much dialogue and I didn't like the characters. ZA was basically the same situation. I couldn't even tell you the name of the 2 friends outside of Taunie, because I just skipped everything they said after a while. Everyone yaps too much and it isn't even good dialogue to justify it.

I miss Team Rocket and having better villains. Quasartico and whatnot were so meh.

Pro: Saved Pokeballs / Pokemon Centers / Picking Up Items

Whoever decided to put that guy outside the Poke Centers that gives you the balls you dropped, I love you for that. That was a great touch.

Also, I liked how you could easily just slide into one of these centers, kind of like in Scarlet and Violet, and that you could purchase things there, too. Having separate shops and centers is just obsolete.

Somewhat related, I like the mechanics of just walking over the glowing items and not having to press the A button to interact with them. I like the abundance of them, too, which helped a lot with money management.

Con: Night and Day Loading Screens

Yo. Stop pausing my game and giving me the battle zone activated or deactivated notifications all the time. That goes especially true for when you just despawned something I was catching or reset the battlefield and now, I'm caught in the line of fire of some Pokemon that weren't there before.

Con: The Grind

As I'm writing this, I'm at the point in the game that the Infinite Z-A Royale has been unlocked. You mean to tell me I'm going to have to get 50,000 points for EACH MATCH of that?

That's just an artificial way to force me into stretching out the amount of time I play the game by doing mindless battle after battle in the same areas that never change. This is probably going to be something I abandon instead of finishing, as I don't know if I want to put that many hours into just repeat battles that offer me nothing else but another battle and a reset to do it all over again 20+ more times.

Con: Why Can't I Run?

There should not be any moments of this game where I'm forced to walk at a snail's pace, and yet, there are several. How are those beneficial? Having to walk super slowly to follow something or whatever was just infuriating.

Pro: Changing Moves / Box System

This was the most efficient way to just go into a menu and change a Pokemon's moves. I appreciated that so much, and the ability for the TM menu to show me that lineup rather than for me to have to open up a TM individually and see what can learn it and such.

Go with this box system and all going forward. This was the best it's ever been.

Mostly a Pro: Alphas are Back

I like Alpha Pokemon. The idea behind it is pretty great just by itself about how certain Pokemon are just bigger, stronger, meaner, etc. I'm glad they didn't forego that. But with the diversity and location problems, this left much to be wanted.

In the future, Alphas should be in almost any game, I think. Just give me a wider variety of them and in locations that are different and bigger so I can feel like I'm actually going out in the wild and catching things that aren't spawning directly in front of me or just hanging out on a tiny street.

Speed Round

This is already a long and rambly post (apologies for how messy it is, but I'm just not motivated to polish it up better). So let's just toss out some other pros and cons in a quicker fashion bullet point list:

Why did I skip half the letters in the alphabet?
For the most part, I'm not a big fan of mega evolutions. The gimmicks like the Z-Moves and the Dynamax and Terrastalized Form and whatnot just don't really strike me as super interesting. Some of these designs, in particular, are just not good. That's all you could think of for Starmie? What's up with Dragonite? Froslass looks more like a Gigantamax form than a Mega Evolution.
Yes, the graphics could be better. There really isn't any excuse for it. I played this on a Switch 1, but I don't see any real difference with the Switch 2. They should be better than this.

For Anyone Who is Curious...

If you want to know what my core team was for the majority of the game, my Feraligatr held down the fort predominantly with a Lucario. Talonflame was my #3, I would say. Gardevoir was around for most of it, but I found it not doing super well and would replace it from time to time. Krookodile and Venusaur rounded out the team once I got those. Some of my other things I would swap in from time to time were a Dragonite, a Dedene, and a variety of others. I was really disappointed that I didn't get the opportunity to use Hawlucha or Aegislash for the first time in a playthrough, but you gave me access to them at too late of a time for them to be worthwhile. Instead, you wanted me to suffer with that damn Bunnelby forever. I won't forgive you for that.

What do you think are the best and worst parts of Pokemon Legends ZA?Drop your thoughts in the comments below!

THE PAPER Season 1 Review: A Rough Draft Copy of The Office

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 11:30:00 +0000

A few years ago, I binged the entire series of The Office during COVID-19 lockdown quarantine. It gave me an excuse to tap into a show that I had completely missed out on, as I had never watched it when it was airing. I always heard good things, but I've heard that about all sorts of different shows and movies only to be disappointed when I engaged with it, so I assumed The Office would be another one of those. Clearly, I would start watching it and hate it.

On the contrary, I ended up doing what I did with Modern Family: I started watching it, pretty instantly realized that I liked it, and breezed through my binge watching, going episode to episode every day until I swept through the series in no time.

It wasn't perfect. There were certain characters that didn't resonate well with me. The show fell off after Michael Scott was no longer the centerpiece and some other characters came in that were annoying. But overall, I ended the series wishing I had experienced the journey for several years with other people, rather than just watching it all in 2020 long after it had ended.

So when they announced that The Paper was going to be a show, I knew that I had to give it a chance from the onset, instead of waiting.

Here are my thoughts—for better and for worse—on my impressions and review of season 1 of The Paper.

75% Pro: The Tone

Arguably even more than the cast of characters themselves, the real gem of The Office was its tone. For the most part, The Paper gets that right, but not fully on the mark.

There's a certain level of awkwardness that it should have so that it plays off as believable. Things shouldn't feel like the pacing sets up for a laugh track, nothing should look staged, reactions should seem genuine. At times, though, I did find myself thinking that they lost track of this and dipped too much into sitcom tropes.

This doesn't feel as "lived in" as the original. Everyone's clothes feel a little too chosen for them, for example. I do feel like some of the acting can turn into performing rather than being. Sometimes, it feels like they were told to ham it up a bit because it would come off too flat, whereas the flatness is part of what sold The Office. It needs that tension.

This feels like The Office, but it feels like the later seasons and not the core 2-5 I would say that really make up what people love about the original the most. IE, The Simpsons of 2025 has some of the essence of the prime 2-10 seasons, but my milk still tasting like my cereal doesn't mean it literally is more cereal, if you catch my drift.

Mixed Bag Pro & Con: Jim & Pam x2

The dynamic between Jim and Pam was in many ways the main hook of the show for a lot of people. Maybe I'm diluting it a bit, but I feel like most fans could probably say they either watched the show primarily for Michael's antics, Dwight's antics, or the Jim and Pam romance. A big portion of the crowd loves shipping people and love stories, so that becomes their investment.

As such, I fully understand not only why the writers of The Paper would want to revisit that dynamic for themselves, but why they would also feel obligated to do that. If there wasn't a couple to root for to get together, I think a good number of viewers would tune this out and say they can't get into these characters.

But they've decided to double it up and have two of those couples right out of the gate in The Paper, and I don't really love that. It feels like there is another layer to this that could possibly be an excuse. Did they not think they could write one of them well enough, so they have a backup couple in case fans reject one of them? Did they not think they were strong enough on their own and want to double up because quantity over quality? I sure hope it isn't that they wanted two white people and then wanted two non-white people to get together for a quota or demographics thing and they were just running the math behind this. Likewise, I don't wish to find out it was manufactured by the studio as some sort of generic equation of "people liked Jim & Pam, do 2 Jim & Pams and we'll get double the ratings!" Ploys like that don't ever really work out.

Between the couples of Ned Sampson & Mare Pritti and Nicole Lee & Detrick Moore, I do like both of them, but I don't LOVE both of them. Honestly, it didn't feel like I watched 10 episodes of growth between these characters in any fashion to reach a point where I was really hoping they would get together in some fashion. That all felt very rushed, and I think part of what made Jim & Pam so special was the teasing.

I can only assume that season 2 will start with Ned and Mare being awkward with each other because "they shouldn't" while Nicole and Detrick are awkward with each other because Detrick got his heart broken and needs to chill out a bit while Nicole needs to grow a heart herself and get closer to his level. Tada.

Ned and Mare comes off as the slightly better duo in the sense of being equals with the caveat of being a little bland, while I feel like Detrick and Nicole comes off as more interesting characters but the power dynamic kind of makes Detrick "winning" Nicole kind of like a contest rather than a romance blossoming. To be honest, both couples kind of feel like they could almost play the brother and sister vibe better than love interests.

I do like all four characters, overall. Detrick is probably my favorite of the bunch.

Massive Con: Esmeralda Grand & Ken Davies

Holy shit, do I not like Esmeralda. Her character is supposed to be obnoxious, but not in this way for me. This is the same problem I had with Nellie in The Office, where a villain is supposed to be disliked, but I didn't want to see her get her comeuppance, I just wanted to see her not in the episode. In pro wrestling, there's a term called "go away heat", where instead of the villain heel getting boos because they're a bad person and you want to see them lose the match, you're booing the performer and the character's writing and you don't want them to take time away from other performers/characters you genuinely do find entertaining.

Esmeralda is like someone watched Modern Family, said "we gotta have a Gloria" and then told Sabrina Impacciatore to do her best Sofia Vergara impression. I've seen some people defend the character, saying they're interpreting it as Esmeralda as a character is trying to put on a performance for the camera. I don't think that is the case at all, or we would have seen her change her voice and act like a human being during her sad moments manufactured to try to convince me to like the character and sympathize with her. Newsflash, it didn't happen. I would love to see her character written out of the show or coming back in season 2 with a completely different vibe. I don't want to watch the redemption of her villainous character at all.

With Ken Davies, I just feel like the whole bible of the character is just one page that has typed out in big letters "do The Office". He feels the least like an actual character and more like a fever dream of what someone remembers characters from The Office to look and sound like. I don't believe whatsoever that this is an actual person living in this world. What is he, The Great Gazoo from The Flintstones?

I haven't seen Tim Key in anything else (same with Impacciatore), but I assume they're better than this. In 10 episodes, they never got out of coming across to me like people auditioning to be in an Office spoof, rather than actual characters within the show.

Major Pro: Travis

He's not on the same level of the series regulars, for some reason, but Travis stands out to me as the most consistently funny character of the show. Frankly, he's funnier when he's interacting with the others than he is in his own side bits, which I'm already afraid will contribute to his flanderization and turn him into a total dimwit doofus instead of the more subdued character that I like better now. Give me more scenes of him just being a sly scumbag and less of him pulling a Kramer waking up from the melatonin.

The Oscar Situation

Why is Oscar here? Don't get me wrong, I like the character. I liked him a lot in The Office. But the coincidence of him working at the place that the documentary crew is going, and then going from an accountant to a report, just screams to me "we reached out to see how many people would be interested in a sequel series and Oscar Nunez was one of the only ones who said yes, so we had to figure out a way to put him into this new show instead of where he would've fit in with The Office 2.0"

I did enjoy him calling up Stanley. There does remain potential for him to bring other guests onto the show, which could be fun. But I didn't get a chance to see much from him so far in 10 episodes, and it still feels a little forced.

The Others

Is Barry just literally that they took jokes they wrote for Stanley and made a new surly older black man?

Adam has some charm, but he's also a little over the top already. I don't find him as engaging of a character as Ryan was, if he's in a similar position.

Adelola hasn't completely won me over yet, but I like her sass. She just hasn't had as much to do and no real episodes primarily focused on her.

Marv and everyone else either were there just to fill a functional role in a scene or weren't memorable enough for me to even recall their names.

My Expectations Going Forward

I think this is going to end up following the pattern of That 90's Show where as a follow-up, I felt like they were doing a decent job trying to replicate the formula, but they weren't able to capture the magic. I didn't watch season 2 of that show, as I wasn't loving the characters (and some of them I outright disliked and thought were obnoxious). Season 2 of The Paper will get a watch from me, but I'm going to be hoping that it is as much of a level up as The Office had. The first season of that was rough as well, and season 2 was where it really anchored me in. Maybe The Paper will, too. If it doesn't, I could very well see season 2 being the last season I watch. There is still time to find a better rhythm, prevent some stuff from getting too wacky, and further bring depth to some characters that have a lot of potential, but haven't hit their stride yet.

That's me telling my truth on the Toledo Truth-Teller, but what do you think about the series? Drop a comment below!

THE NAKED GUN (2025) Audio Commentary Track – FanTracks #80

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 06:58:00 +0000

Welcome to another edition of the Fanboys Anonymous FanTracks podcast! For this episode, we'll be watching the film The Naked Gun (2025).

For copyright reasons, we cannot provide the movie itself, but after a short introduction, you will be told when to sync your copy of the film so you can following along with us and listen to our thoughts on the movie as we crack some jokes, expose plot holes, and discuss anything else that comes to our minds for commentary.

The Naked Gun (2025)

Release Date: August 1, 2025
Directed by Akira Schaffer
Written by Dan Gregor, Doug Mand and Akiva Schaffer
Starring Liam Neeson (Frank Drebin Jr), Pamela Anderson (Beth Davenport), Paul Walter Hauser (Ed Hocken Jr.), Danny Huston (Richard Crane), CCH Pounder (Chief Davis), Kevin Durand (Sig Gustafson), Liza Koshy (Detective Barnes), Eddie Yu (Detective Park), Michael Beasley (Detective Taylor), Moses Jones (Not Nordberg Jr.), Chase Steven Anderson (Police Squad Technician), Cody Rhodes (Bartender), Busta Rhymes (Bank Robber)

Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr becomes a police officer like his legendary father and must save the police department from shutting down by solving a case.

FanTracks Episode 80 hosted by Tony Mango along with Robert DeFelice

Make sure to subscribe/follow on whatever platform you're listening, leave your comments on the videos or this post, share this with your friends and geek out with us!

WATCH THIS WITH US AND LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

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Happy Gilmore 2 Audio Commentary Track | FanTracks #79

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 11:00:00 +0000

Welcome to another edition of the Fanboys Anonymous FanTracks podcast! For this episode, we'll be watching the film Happy Gilmore 2 on Netflix.

Happy Gilmore 2

Release Date: July 25, 2025
Directed by Kyle Newacheck
Written by Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler
Starring Adam Sandler (Happy Gilmore), Julie Bowen (Virginia), Christopher McDonald (Shooter McGavin), Benny Safdie (Frank Manatee), Ben Stiller (Hal L.), Bad Bunny (Oscar Mejias), John Daly (Himself), Haley Joel Osment (Billy Jenkins), and many more.

Gilmore returns to the sport of golf since his retirement after winning his first Tour Championship, to finance his daughter's ballet classes.

FanTracks Episode 79 hosted by Tony Mango along with Robert DeFelice

Make sure to subscribe/follow on whatever platform you're listening, leave your comments on the videos or this post, share this with your friends and geek out with us!

WATCH THIS WITH US AND LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

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Ultimate Favorite Pokémon Picker

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 20:11:00 +0000

As an impromptu bonus random video, let's use the Ultimate Favorite Pokemon Picker and go down each generation, each type, and other categories to settle on Tony's ultimate favorite of all time!

Make sure to subscribe/follow on whatever platform you're listening, leave your comments on the videos or this post, share this with your friends and geek out with us!

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Pokémon What If WWE Eras Had Gym Leaders, Elite 4 and Champions?

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 20:48:00 +0000

Welcome to a special crossover between Fanboys Anonymous and my professional wrestling website, Smark Out Moment! This is the first edition of POKÉMON: WHAT IF, where I take the rules of the Pokémon franchise and apply it to other characters in other media.

To celebrate Pokémon Day, this time around, the question is "What if there were Pokémon trainers in the world of professional wrestling?" Which WWE Superstars would be the top Pokémon trainers that would be gym leaders, the Elite 4 and the champion of the different WWE eras?

Make sure to subscribe on whatever platform you're listening, leave your comments on the video below or this post, share this edition with your friends, and smark out with us!

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6 Flicks Picks: 2025 Movie Releases Rankings

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:14:00 +0000

Welcome to the annual New Year's edition of 6 Flicks Picks to ring in 2025!

I still wish I had the time and resources to go back to making this a monthly feature. While I cannot promise 2025 will be a return to that, given the state of the world in many different facets (as well as my own personal struggles throughout 2024 and seemingly, how things could get more difficult in 2025), I do want to put it out there that if I can find a way to do this monthly, I will certainly try. It does make it harder to do than in previous years before COVID changed how movie release dates are announced in advance and how theatres often don't stick to their releases, and will change them frequently.

With that being said, the year-in-full edition of 6 Flicks Picks works the same way it always has. Rather than being limited to just six for this list, I'm going to be breaking down my top six as well as some supplemental groups of six for different tier lists, in a sense, of how much I want to see those movies.

Still, the general question remains: If you could only watch six movies for the entire year, which ones would those be?

Without further ado, let's take a look at what makes my cut for 2025!

6 FLICKS PICKS FOR 2025

As far as January 1st is concerned, here are my top 30 picks.

* Update Addendum: I completely overlooked "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery" is coming out this year. As I'm a fan of Knives Out and Glass Onion, I'll certainly be watching this. Insert it maybe at the #11 spot and push everything else down accordingly.

Bottom Tier Honorable Mentions:

30. Novocaine — Just like Love Hurts, this is a movie that I immediately thought I'd want to watch, but as the trailer progressed, the less interested I became. By the end of it, I'm on the fence, as it could just be too...I don't know the word. Not "silly" or "hokey", but the type of Ryan Reynolds kind of meta wink and nod sarcasm humor that I'm frankly getting tired of. The slow motion shot of the knife going into his hand, for instance, didn't make me chuckle, and I'm starting to think this movie won't actually be all that funny. But on paper, it sounds like something I'd like.

29. Paddington in Peru — Can I put this on the list if I haven't even seen the other movies, but I'm just going on the assumption I would like them since they're so highly rated? I really do have to just sit down and watch them this year before this comes out.

28. Trey Parker & Matt Stone live action musical — No name or any information about this, so I have to put it down low. But based on their track record, I think I'll be checking it out. Book of Mormon was so much fun and South Park is just amazing, Team America is underrated, etc.

27. Companion — Stop showing me the trailer before every single movie, as I'm starting to get annoyed with this. It seems interesting not knowing what this is really about. I want to be kept in the dark.

26. Mickey 17 — Based on the premise and how Parasite was so good, they've earned enough good will to get me to see this, even if the trailer didn't wow me.

25. The Accountant 2 — I remember digging the first one enough to warrant watching a sequel, even if I'll have to watch a YouTube video to refresh my memory of what the hell even happened in the first one at this point since it's been nearly a decade.

Low Tier Honorable Mentions:

24. Saw XI — All of these movies are the same, and they're not all that great anymore, but since they're a legacy franchise, I'm sure my wife will want to see this and we might have a fun time in the theatre with people reacting to the traps.

23. Black Bag — Let's see what Michael Fassbender and Regé-Jean Page would have done as James Bond, starring alongside James Bond himself Pierce Brosnan and James Bond's Moneypenny Naomie Harris. This took me by surprise recently, as I hadn't heard anything about it, but after seeing the trailer before Nosferatu, I immediately wrote it down as an option to check out.

22. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 — The first one was pretty dumb, if I'm being honest, but it was a fun time in the theatre. That's worth seeing a second one, so long as it's with a packed house.

21. Zootopia 2 — Solid first film. They've earned the right for me to see the sequel.

20. The Black Phone 2 — As will continue to be echoed, I liked the first one enough that on the strength of that, I'll see a sequel. I'm not sure how they can do a follow-up, though.

19. The Bad Guys 2 — Echo again. The first was pretty fun.

Middle Tier Honorable Mentions:

18. How to Train Your Dragon — Three solid animated films. A live-action version of the first one, which was arguably the strongest of them? Thumbs up.

17. Nobody 2 — Let's keep that echo going. I enjoyed the first one, so I'll watch the second. There isn't much more than that. However, this is definitely going to be one that I watch at home. My wife didn't watch the first, wouldn't like it, so I'll just wait to watch this on demand at home by myself.

16. M3GAN 2.0 — This, on the other hand, will again be a theatre watch to get the fun reactions from the crowd. The first was the right type of silly for me when it comes to comedic horror films.

15. The Running Man — Can they actually take the Arnold Schwarzenegger film that had a good premise, but is mired by that style of schlocky action writing, and turn it into a Minority Report type of project? Maybe. Maybe not. This gets a midway spot until I see a trailer that convinces me to upgrade or downgrade it.

14. Happy Gilmore 2 — I used to like Billy Madison better, but I'm curious what the story is for this sequel. I hope I actually laugh, rather than feel embarrassed about the comedy.

13. Predator: Badlands — This ranks this high strictly based on me hoping they learned their lessons from Prey, which was the best Predator film since the first. I hope this is more like that and less like...well...everything else we've gotten over the years.

Top Tier Honorable Mentions:

12. Jurassic World Rebirth — Ugh. Damn it. You're going to get me in the theatre for this just because I'm a kid that was wowed by the first film.

11. Mortal Kombat 2 — While not a "good movie" by most metrics, the previous Mortal Kombat film was a fun ride and I'm down to see this.

10. 28 Years Later — The amount of times I can just repeat "well, I liked the first one/two, so I'll see this by default" is staggering, but...well...that.

9. Tron: Ares — Man, I wish this had Daft Punk on the soundtrack. I happen to think not only is that score one of the best in film history (yes, for any film, ever), but I think TRON: Legacy is underrated for a movie that massively stepped up the game from the previous film. I don't like the first TRON movie. Legacy rocks. I hope Ares is a worthwhile successor. It's a shame this doesn't seem to be following the events of Legacy in the way that I would have liked.

8. From the World of John Wick: Ballerina — As I wrote last year, when this was supposed to come out in 2024, I binged the John Wick films in early 2023 and was surprised at how much I enjoyed them. Having since also watched The Continental, I'm down for anything this world throws my way.

7. Karate Kid: Legends — In a similar vein to the John Wick series, I binged all the Karate Kid stuff in 2022 and loved it all. Well, not The Next Karate Kid, as that sucks, and I didn't watch the reboot with Jackie Chan yet, but Cobra Kai is amazing and I really hope this is more of that quality. I'm also very curious how this is going to tie into that, or if it doesn't, how they're going to explain why it doesn't.

What Made the Final Cut:

6. The Fantastic Four: First Steps — This is not at all how I want my Fantastic 4 film to be, as I wouldn't have gone with anyone in this cast except Vanessa Kirby, I wouldn't have done the 60s aesthetic, I wouldn't have set this in an alternate universe, I wouldn't have had a Silver Surfer that isn't Norrin Radd, I wouldn't have RDJ as Doctor Doom, and I wouldn't have even bothered to do any of this prior to Secret Wars, as I would have just gone with introducing F4 as the first film AFTER that...but it's Marvel, it's the MCU, and it's an important movie in the franchise, so I'm OBVIOUSLY going to be here on opening night.

5. The Naked Gun — Naked Gun is one of my top 5 favorite comedies of all time; possibly #2, behind Robin Hood: Men in Tights. The other 3 in the running, for anyone who is curious, are Not Another Teen Movie, Dumb & Dumber, and Clerks. Considering 3 of those are spoof films, that says a lot. Normally, I wouldn't be down for this type of reboot, and I'm nervous this is going to be more of a Scary Movie 4 situation rather than a Scary Movie 1 or 3 (two other spoof films I love), but Liam Neeson has great potential to have the sort of delivery that will work for this. Please just make it like the first one and not even the Naked Gun sequels, that I feel are just shit in comparison to how good the first one is. I don't want Epic Movie or Superhero Movie levels of crap. If so, this is going to be my most disappointing movie of 2025.

4. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning — These movies keep killing it. I'm excited and anxious about the grand finale, but I trust them to deliver.

3. Captain America: Brave New World — All these rewrites have me nervous, and I'm not particularly sold on this concept being the best thing going forward, but you had me at MCU.

2. Thunderbolts* — After seeing the trailers for all the MCU movies coming out this year, this one seems the best. If you count Daredevil: Born Again into the mix, though, that one wins. But that's not a film, so it doesn't go on this list. I hope we get a proper Sentry.

1. Superman —LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. They even have a perfect tagline in "Look up". While some of the choices aren't the ones I'd have made, like having the red trunks and putting Guy Gardner and such in this, the trailer was awesome, and I think James Gunn is going to knock this out of the park. I'm so down for optimistic, hopeful, inspiring Superman, especially after the shit fest that was 2024 and the impending doom of 2025 in the real world.

WHICH MOVIES ARE YOU INTERESTED IN CHECKING OUT?
TELL US IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

Fanboys Film Awards 2024 Movie Recap This Year

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 08:34:00 +0000

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!

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three Audio Commentary Track – FanTracks #78

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 14:40:00 +0000

Welcome to another edition of the Fanboys Anonymous FanTracks podcast! For this episode, we'll be watching the DC animated film and the last of the Tomorrowverse series Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three

Release Date: July 16, 2024
Directed by Jeff Wamester
Written by James Krieg (script), created by George Pérez and Marv Wolfman
Starring Jensen Ackles (Bruce Wayne / Batman), Darren Criss (Superman, Earth-2 Superman), Corey Stoll (Lex Luthor), Gideon Adlon (Batgirl), Ike Amadi (Martian Manhunter / J'onn J'onzz), Geoffrey Arend (Psycho Pirate / Charles Halstead), Troy Baker (The Joker, Spider Guild Lantern), Brian Bloom (Adam Strange, Sidewinder), Matt Bomer (The Flash), Ashly Burch (Nightshade, Queen Mera), Zach Callison (Earth-2 Robin, Robin / Damian Wayne), Kevin Conroy (Earth-12 Batman), Alexandra Daddario (Lois Lane), Brett Dalton (Bat Lash, Captain Atom), John DiMaggio (Lobo), Meg Donnelly (Supergirl/Kara), Ato Essandoh (Mister Terrific), Keith Ferguson (Doctor Fate, Two-Face), Will Friedle (Batman Beyond, Kamandi), Jennifer Hale (Hippolyta, Green Lantern Aya), Mark Hamill (Earth-12 The Joker), Aldis Hodge (Green Lantern John Stewart), Jamie Gray Hyder (Hawkgirl, Young Diana), Erika Ishii (Doctor Light / Dr. Hoshi, Huntress), Stana Katic (Wonder Woman), David Kaye (The Question, Cardonian Lantern), Matt Lanter (Blue Beetle), Liam McIntyre (Aquaman), Cynthia Kaye McWilliams (Dr. Beth Chapel, The Cheetah), Lou Diamond Phillips (The Spectre), Elysia Rotaru (Black Canary, Black Canary II), Matt Ryan (Constantine), Katee Sackhoff (Poison Ivy), Keesha Sharp (Vixen), Jimmi Simpson (Green Arrow), Jason Spisak (Blue Lantern Razer, Hayseed), Armen Taylor (The Flash / Jay Garrick, Gas Soldier, Executioner), and Dean Winters (Captain Storm)

The Anti-Monitor attacks the remaining Earths and their inhabitants. Heroes and villains across time and space join the Justice League for a final stand against the epitome of evil.

FanTracks Episode 78 hosted by Tony Mango along with Robert DeFelice

Make sure to subscribe/follow on whatever platform you're listening, leave your comments on the videos or this post, share this with your friends and geek out with us!

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Pokémon 3: Spell of the Unown Audio Commentary Track – FanTracks #78

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 09:44:00 +0000

Welcome to another edition of the Fanboys Anonymous FanTracks podcast!

For this episode, as requested through our Patreon "Pick Your Poison" tier by Guest Five, Fanboys Anonymous is providing you with an audio commentary track watchalong for Pokémon 3: The Movie - Spell of the Unown as well as the short film that precedes it, Pikachu and Pichu.

Pokémon 3: The Movie - Spell of the Unown

Release Date: July 8, 2000 (Japan), April 6, 2001 (North America)
Directed by Kunihiko Yuyama
Written by Takeshi Shudô (screenplay), Hideki Sonoda (screenplay), Satoshi Tajiri (game)
Starring Veronica Taylor (Ash Ketchum, Delia Ketchum), Ikue Otani (Pikachu), Rachael Lillis (Misty, Jessie), Eric Stuart (Brock, James), Ken Gates (Narrator), Satomi Korogi (Togepi), Maddie Blauestein (Meowth), Dan Green (Entei, Spencer Hale), Amy Birnbaum (Molly Hale), Lisa Ortiz (Lisa), Ted Lewis (Schuyler, Tracey Sketchit), Stuart Zagnit (Professor Samuel Oak), Lee Quick (Officer Jenny), and Peter R. Bird (David)

Young Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum and his loyal friends journey to the beautiful mountain town of Greenfield, where they will encounter the Unown, the most mysterious of all Pokémon, in Kids' WB! Presents "Pokémon 3: The Movie." The third big-screen installment in the infinitely popular Pokémon mythology is really two stories in one. The feature-length adventure, "Spell of the Unown," is accompanied by a bonus 22-minute short, "Pikachu and Pichu," starring the much-loved Pikachu.

FanTracks Episode 78 hosted by Tony Mango along with Robert DeFelice

Make sure to subscribe/follow on whatever platform you're listening, leave your comments on the videos or this post, share this with your friends and geek out with us!

WATCH THIS WITH US AND LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

Subscribe to Fanboys Anonymous on:
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and more!

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Two Audio Commentary Track – FanTracks #77

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 10:33:00 +0000

Welcome to another edition of the Fanboys Anonymous FanTracks podcast! For this episode, we'll be watching the latest animated DC film Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Two.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Two

Release Date: April 23, 2024
Directed by Jeff Wamester
Written by James Krieg (screenplay)
Starring Jensen Ackles (Bruce Wayne / Batman), Darren Criss (Superman), Meg Donnelly (Supergirl, Harbinger), Stana Katic (Wonder Woman), Jonatham Adams (Monitor),Gideon Adlon (Batgirl / Kryptonian Voice), Geoffrey Arend (Psycho Pirate / Charles Halstead / Hawkman), Troy Baker (The Joker), Zach Callison (Earth-2 Robin / Robin / Damian Wayne), Darin De Paul (Solovar), Ato Essandoh (Mr. Terrific / Anti-Monitor), Keith Ferguson (Dr. Fate / Atomic Knight), Will Friedle (Batman Beyond / Kamandi), Jennifer Hale (Alura / Hippolyta), Aldis Hodge (John Stewart), Jamie Gray Hyder (Hawkgirl / Amazon Soldier), Erika Ishii (Doctor Light / Dr. Hoshi / Huntress), David Kaye (The Question / Satellite), Matt Lanter (Blue Beetle), Liam McIntyre (Aquaman), Lou Diamond Phillips (The Spectre), Matt Ryan (John Constantine), Keesha Sharp (Vixen), Harry Shum Jr. (Brainiac 5) and Jimmi Simpson (Green Arrow)

An endless army of SHADOW DEMONS bent on the destruction of all reality swarms over our world and all parallel Earths! The only thing opposing them is the mightiest team of metahumans ever assembled. But not even the combined power of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and all their fellow superheroes can slow down the onslaught of this invincible horde. What mysterious force is driving them? And how do the long-buried secrets of the Monitor and Supergirl threaten to crush our last defense?

FanTracks Episode 77 hosted by Tony Mango along with Robert DeFelice

Make sure to subscribe/follow on whatever platform you're listening, leave your comments on the videos or this post, share this with your friends and geek out with us!

WATCH THIS WITH US AND LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

Subscribe to Fanboys Anonymous on:
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and more!

X-Men '97 is the Open Door to a New Age of Uncanny Video Game Experiences

noreply@blogger.com (Robert DeFelice) — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 20:15:00 +0000

Charles Xavier's extremely gifted students recently made a triumphant return to the world of animated television. Now is also the perfect time for gamers to once again be reminded of what the X-Men bring to the table.

Disney+'s X-Men '97 series has reinvigorated the widespread love for Charles Xavier's new-age family of genetically gifted heroes. Crafted as a direct sequel to the beloved 1992 animated series, the 2024 series picks up exactly where the original left off. Presenting new challenges for Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Rogue, Jubilee, Gambit, Storm, and a whole host of mutants both familiar and brand new, X-Men '97's first season has wrapped up and fans are already clamoring for more.

In the '90s, the cartoon's massive success resulted in the X-Men being featured in a host of video games of varying genres. After a long layoff from X-Men-branded video games, the latest series provides the perfect opportunity for new creators to step up to the plate and create the next slate of memorable interactive experiences starring the students of the Xavier Institute. Season 1 of X-Men '97 even includes a fun video game-themed mini-episode starring Jubilee and Sunspot. With the world's most famous mutants being early veterans of the video game medium, the question remains what would be the best style of game to re-introduce their unique brand of characters and storytelling to a new generation of gamers?

Much like Nathan "Cable" Summers would, sometimes it's best to look to the past in an effort to best shape the future.

In that spirit, it may be best to look at the 1992 X-Men Arcade game produced by Konami. A wonderful example of a side-scrolling Beat 'Em Up, this game precedes the 1992 Saban cartoon series, actually being based on a failed 1989 cartoon pilot called "Pryde of the X-Men." Still, in tandem with the success of the 1992 show, the arcade game helped turn the X-Men into one of the most lucrative and recognizable properties of the 1990s.

Beat 'Em Ups have seen a resurgence of sorts in recent years with games such as Streets of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. A game in the vein of capturing the magic of the 1992 arcade product while updating graphics, including the cast of the Disney+ series, and adding in unique story elements or power-ups that can vary depending on the combination of heroes selected by the player would be a strong way to keep the game fresh and allow for replayability.

For example, a team of players who choose Jubilee and Sunspot could receive a boost to the gauge which controls their mutant abilities and give way to special combo finishing moves specifically programmed for certain partnerships. Adversely, pairing such as Cyclops and Wolverine could trigger mini-games where players would compete with one another for the higher score on any given level with the "winner" receiving a boost going into the next stage. Paired with voiceover work from the stars of the actual cartoon, this would go a long way in creating an immersive experience.

Another bonus about creating such a game in today's environment is the opportunity to afford players a quick multiplayer experience that they wouldn't have to stink hundreds of hours into to complete. The modern landscape is filled with many Souls-like experiences that can sometimes take upwards of 50 hours to fully play through. Still, for those who may want a longer experience, downloadable content would allow for an expansion of stories and gameplay while also opening the door for cameo characters seen in X-Men '97, such as Captain America or Spider-Man, to make appearances as well.

It's been 13 years since the last X-Men standalone game release. 2011's X-Men: Destiny had unique ideas with the concept of allowing players to create their own mutant and pick a side in the plight for mutant acceptance but the single-player experience received largely middle-of-the-road reviews.

The drop in quality of the video games and movie releases for everyone's favorite mutants has resulted in there not being as much of a desire to take on the role of X-Men in interactive experiences outside of those tying members into the larger Marvel outings such as Marvel's Midnight Suns and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3. Yes, Insomniac is creating a Wolverine game for the PlayStation 5 but that is a game focusing solely on Logan, as opposed to the team at large.

Hopefully, that will change in the near future, because when X-Men games are done right, they have the ability to produce legendary results.

Truly, there may be no better time than right now for a development team to strike and attempt to create a fresh X-Men experience off the back of the new cartoon with a vibrant aesthetic, pick-up-and-play controls, and an engaging story simple enough for new fans to understand but engaging enough to keep long-time fans coming back for more.

Until such a day comes, gamers can get their fill of superhero action by playing Spider-Man 2 on the PlayStation 5 or the aforementioned Marvel's Midnight Suns on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments about how you would like to see the X-Men return in a new video game dedicated to their unique brand of teamwork as the fight for equality rages on.

Ricky Stanicky Audio Commentary Track – FanTracks #76

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 07:59:00 +0000

Welcome to another edition of the Fanboys Anonymous FanTracks podcast! For this episode, we'll be watching the John Cena film Ricky Stanicky.

Ricky Stanicky

Release Date: March 7, 2024
Directed by Peter Farrelly
Written by Jeffrey Bushell, Brian Jarvis, James Lee Freeman, Peter Farrelly, Pete Jones and Mike Cerrone, based on a story by David Occhino and Jason Decker
Starring Zac Efron (Dean), John Cean (Rod / Ricky Stanicky), Jermaine Fowler (Wes), Andrew Santino (JT), Lex Scott Davis (Erin), Anja Savcic (Susan) and William H. Macy (Ted Summerhayes)

Twenty years after creating the imaginary Ricky Stanicky, three childhood friends still use the nonexistent pal as a handy alibi for their immature behavior. When their spouses and partners get suspicious and demand to finally meet him, the guilty trio decides to hire washed-up actor Rod to bring him to life. However, when Rod takes his role of a lifetime a little too far, they begin to wish they never invented Ricky in the first place.

FanTracks Episode 76 hosted by Tony Mango along with Robert DeFelice

Make sure to subscribe/follow on whatever platform you're listening, leave your comments on the videos or this post, share this with your friends and geek out with us!

WATCH THIS WITH US AND LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

Subscribe to Fanboys Anonymous on:
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and more!

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One Audio Commentary Track – FanTracks #75

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 08:04:00 +0000

Welcome to another edition of the Fanboys Anonymous FanTracks podcast! For this episode, we'll be watching the latest animated DC film Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One

Release Date: January 9, 2024
Directed by Jeff Wamester
Written by James Krieg (screenplay), George Pérez and Marv Wolfman (story)
Starring Matt Bomer (Barry Allen / The Flash), Jensen Ackles (Bruce Wayne / Batman), Darren Criss (Clark Kent / Superman), Meg Donnelly (Supergirl, Harbinger), Stana Katic (Diana Prince / Wonder Woman, Superwoman), Jimmi Simpson (Oliver Queen / Green Arrow), Zachary Quinto (Lex Luthor), Jonatham Adams (Monitor), Alexandra Daddario (Lois Lane), Aldis Hodge (John Stewart / Power Ring), Keesha Sharp (Vixen), Nolan North (Hal Jordan, Amazo, Homeless Man), Lou Diamond Phillips (The Spectre, Owlman) and more

The Anti-Monitor (the Monitor's evil counterpart) is released in the DC Multiverse and begins to destroy the different Earths that compose it. The Monitor attempts to recruit heroes from across the Multiverse, but is murdered.

FanTracks Episode 75 hosted by Tony Mango along with Robert DeFelice

Make sure to subscribe/follow on whatever platform you're listening, leave your comments on the videos or this post, share this with your friends and geek out with us!

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6 Flicks Picks: 2024 Movie Releases Rankings

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 05:30:00 +0000

Welcome to the annual New Year's edition of 6 Flicks Picks to ring in 2024!

I miss the days when this used to be a monthly feature. Not only was that fun to break down, but it allowed me a better understanding of each movie being released each month. However, COVID killed that, and the strikes from 2023 had another huge problem with releases.

These days, not only are movies not being released when they said they would be, but they're not even giving them updated release dates until close to that time frame. Then, they're only saying they're delayed, but not giving new dates.

That makes it far too stressful and difficult to break down like I used to, as I can't keep track of these movies, let alone keep wasting time double checking updates.

Still, the general question remains: If you could only watch six movies for the entire year, which ones would those be?

Without further ado, let's take a look at what makes my cut for 2024!

6 FLICKS PICKS FOR 2024

As far as January 1st is concerned, here are my top 24 picks, as I couldn't quite get to 30.

Note: I'm working under the assumption that Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse isn't going to be released this year. It seems more likely for 2025. However, if that does end up being released in 2024, you might as well put that as the #1 spot.

Bottom Tier Honorable Mentions:

Saw XI, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Bad Boys 4, The Beekeeper, Borderlands, Love Lies Bleeding and Imaginary are on my "eh...idk, maybe" list.

Low Tier Honorable Mentions:

24. Transformers One — I have a feeling this is a movie I'll end up NOT watching, but if it gets any buzz, I'll check it out. Transformers wasn't my favorite franchise, but I did used to like it, and the first Michael Bay film is good. It's a shame everything that came after that was disappointing to awful. With this being an animated prequel, maybe it'll give everyone the "constantly fighting robots" aspect they always want.

23. Inside Out 2 — I'm not as massively in love with the first one as a lot of people are, but it was still good enough for me to see the follow-up.

22. Spaceman — Is this going to be the type of film that makes me interested with the super fast teaser, and then, if I find out more information about it, I'll be less interested? Maybe. So maybe I'll not bother with that and I'll just watch it when it comes out.

21. Mufasa: The Lion King — The Lion King in animated form is one of my 3 favorite Disney/Pixar films. The pseudo-live action version doesn't hold a candle. Still, maybe there's a story to tell with Mufasa's backstory. At least, on a weak year like this, this makes the list.

20. Madame Web — Yikes...this is going to be awful. There's no way this is even a serviceable movie, let alone a good Spider-Man series film.

19. Road House — The original is ridiculous, but it was a fun watch to check out just to laugh. Out of pure curiosity of how they're remaking it, I'd like to see this and compare it.

Middle Tier Honorable Mentions:

18. Kraven the Hunter — I'll copy and paste what I said last year, when this was supposed to be released, and also echo the Madame Web entry. This is the section we call "you've burned me too much in the past, but I'm going to see your shitty film because I'm a fan of the source material." There's no way in hell Sony pumped out a halfway decent movie with Kraven. It's not happening. But I'll sit through 2 hours of this crap nevertheless.

17. IF — I have a feeling this might be a little too much of the same Ryan Reynolds joke style, but I'll be damned if I didn't come out of this trailer thinking there was potential. Even if it's just for a few gags, I think I'll enjoy this.

16. The Fall Guy — If done well, this could be a really fun send-up of various tropes in the action genre, and even the comedy-action genre. If done poorly, it's just going to be a one-note movie that takes forever to end. But I'm banking on Ryan Gosling doing a great job in pulling it off.

15. I.S.S. — COOL IDEA!!! I'm sold.

14. Civil War — Potentially ham-fisted with a message that will beat you over the head. I'm worried about that. But A24 makes some good movies here and there. Maybe this is their rendition of The Purge?

13. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F — Those 3 movies are overrated, but I still watched all 3 of them. Might as well watch the fourth, if not just for the theme song.

Top Tier Honorable Mentions:

12. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga — Fury Road was SURPRISINGLY good. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that this could rock, too. But I can't say it's as high up on the list compared to some other series.

11. A Quiet Place: Day One — For instance, A Quiet Place has 2 really solid movies. This might be the third to round it out. What even is the story? Doesn't matter. It's going to be handled by the same team, so it'd be weird if it was suddenly a bad film.

10. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 — Granted, I'm not as into Shadow as I would have liked this movie taking a different direction, being about Knuckles and not having him in #2. But if they pulled off the previous 2, then I'm down to see #3 by proxy. That's obviously the recurring theme of this list, isn't it?

9. Venom 3 — Speaking of that, the previous two Venom films aren't GREAT, but they do the job enough for me to see Venom 3. Three different Spider-Man spin-off movies this year. Crazy. Venom's always been one of my favorite characters, so he gets a little leeway. Plus, Venom 1 is better than Morbius, for example.

8. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire — Big monsters go smashy smashy. I'd imagine this won't be as good as Godzilla Minus One, but holy shit did that take me by surprise in the first place.

7. Argylle — Kingsman is awesome. Give me more of that. I'm not sold on the cat jokes in this, but the rest of it should be a fun ride.

What Made the Final Cut:

6. Ballerina — I finally watched the John Wick films before #4 came out. Guess what. They rock. After watching The Continental as well, I firmly have to put Ballerina on the top list, as they've got a great track record so far.

5. Untitled Karate Kid Movie — How is this not connected to Cobra Kai? Is that going to be a mistake? I've loved Cobra Kai. Once again, like John Wick, binging all the content in a short time frame allowed me to appreciate the series, so I'm down for anything they send my way now.

4. Beetlejuice 2 — The first film was one of my favorite films as a kid. I'm EXTREMELY hesitant to think this will live up to it. Even if it gets terrible reviews, I'll still see it, as I want to know what story they finally thought was good enough to pull the trigger on this.

3. Joker: Folie a Deux — Oh boy...Lady Gaga is going to be insufferable, isn't she? I'll err on the side of caution, though, and say that since the previous one was so awesome, they might not botch this just because of her.

2. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire — I called it that this would be delayed in 2023. Afterlife was pretty damn good. Not perfect, and not as good as the first film, but I'd say it's on par with the second one. They've earned the right for me to be excited about this, and the trailer looked even cooler. No pun intended.

1. Deadpool 3 — Do I even need to explain this one?

WHICH MOVIES ARE YOU INTERESTED IN CHECKING OUT?

TELL US IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

Fanboys Film Awards 2023 Movie Recap This Year

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 03:22:00 +0000

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

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!

Marvel vs DC Superheroes Clash in WWE Survivor Series Battleworld (Fantasy Fights)

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 20:00:00 +0000

What if the characters of Marvel and DC fought in a WWE Survivor Series style pay-per-view?

Welcome to a special FANTASY FIGHTS podcast here on Fanboys Anonymous along with a Fantasy Booking edition of the Smark Out Moment Smack Talk podcast!

This crossover two-part episode takes the concept of the annual Survivor Series event and replaces the WWE Superstars with the superheroes of DC Comics and Marvel instead of the brand warfare "Raw vs. SmackDown" setup.

The red brand of Marvel and the blue brand of DC are put together on Battleworld with general managers Red Brother and Blue Brother in a two-night pay-per-view hosted by Access. This contest of champions will settle brand supremacy once and for all in Secret Wars!

This event is so big that it had to be broken up over two nights, so if you want to find out what matches were booked, how the card plays out and who comes out on top, be sure to check out these two podcasts below and subscribe on the different platforms that you can find these episodes!

Bonus: If you are on the Darkcast tier on Smark Out Moment's Patreon (or YouTube membership) or the Bonus Features tier on the Fanboys Anonymous Patreon (or YouTube membership), you can check out a special Episode #3 of this, with a different card lineup based on the WWE Survivor Series: WarGames concept instead of the traditional elimination matches!

Smark Out Moment: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, and more.
Fanboys Anonymous: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, and more

PART 1 - SMARK OUT MOMENT

PART 2 - FANBOYS ANONYMOUS

PART 3 - FANBOYS ANONYMOUS (BONUS FEATURES SUBSCRIBERS)

LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

Subscribe to the Smack Talk show on:
YouTube - Google Podcasts - iTunes - Spotify
and more!

Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie Audio Commentary Track – FanTracks #74

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 11:52:00 +0000

Welcome to another edition of the Fanboys Anonymous FanTracks podcast! For this episode, as requested through our Patreon "Pick Your Poison" tier by Guest Five, Fanboys Anonymous is providing you with another edition of the FanTracks podcast, this time for Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie.

Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie

Release Date: March 28, 1997
Directed by Shuki Levy and David Winning
Written by Shuki Levy and Shell Danielson
Starring Jason David Frank (Tommy Oliver / Red Turbo Ranger), Amy Jo Johnson (Kimberly Ann Hart), Austin St. John (Jason Lee Scott), Johnny Yong Bosch (Adam Park / Green Turbo Ranger), Catherine Sutherland (Katherine 'Kat' Hillard / Pink Turbo Ranger), Nakia Burrise (Tanya Sloan / Yellow Turbo Ranger), Steve Cardenas (Rocky DeSantos), Blake Foster (Justin Stewart / Blue Turbo Ranger), Hilary Shepard Turner (Divatox), Jon Simanton (Lerigot), Paul Schrier (Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier), Jason Narvy (Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch), Gregg Bullock (Lt. Jerome Stone), Richard Genelle (Ernie), Donene Kistler (Alpha 5), Winston Richard (Zordon), Ed Neil (Rygog, Lord Zedd), Danny Wayne (Elgar), Scott Fisher (Coach Daniels), Kai Doi (Warrior #1), Greg Collins (Warrior #2), Danny Pate (Yara), Carla Perez (Rita Repulsa), Michael Deak (Maligore), Robert L. Manahan (Zordon voice), Richard Steven Horvitz (Alpha 5 voice), Derek Stephen Prince (Elgar voice), Lex Lang (Lerigot voice, Rygog voice), Barbara Goodson (Rita Repulsa voice), J.B. Levine (Yara, Bethel voice), Brad Orchard (Announcer voice)

The TV heroes return for a sequel, chasing a vicious villainess named Divatox. Can they rescue the kindly wizard Lerigot from her clutches before he's thrown into the volcano?

FanTracks Episode 74 hosted by Tony Mango along with Robert DeFelice

Make sure to subscribe/follow on whatever platform you're listening, leave your comments on the videos or this post, share this with your friends and geek out with us!

WATCH THIS WITH US AND LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

Subscribe to Fanboys Anonymous on:
YouTube - Google Podcasts - iTunes - Spotify
and more!

Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match Audio Commentary Track – FanTracks #73

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 06:56:00 +0000

Welcome to another edition of the Fanboys Anonymous FanTracks podcast! For this episode, we'll be watching the animated film Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match

Release Date: October 17, 2023
Directed by Ethan Spaulding
Written by Jeremy Adams
Starring Joel McHale (Johnny Cage), Jennifer Grey (Sareena), Dusan Brown (Chuck Golden), Grey Griffin (Kia), Robin Atkin Downes (Shinnok), Zehra Fazal (Jataaka), Matthew Yang King (Concierge), Matthew Mercer (Director, Bully), Dave B. Mitchell (Raiden), Armen Taylor (Master Boyd), with Phil LaMarr (Brian Van Jones), Kelly Hu (Ashrah) and Gilbert Gottfried (David Doubldy)

Action superstar Johnny Cage squares off against a sinister secret society that's plotting a nefarious scheme. However, the brutal fight against the bloodthirsty warriors of the Netherrealm is just the beginning.

FanTracks Episode 73 hosted by Tony Mango along with Robert DeFelice

Make sure to subscribe/follow on whatever platform you're listening, leave your comments on the videos or this post, share this with your friends and geek out with us!

WATCH THIS WITH US AND LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

Subscribe to Fanboys Anonymous on:
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and more!

Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns Movie Audio Commentary Track – FanTracks #72 (Extended Workprint Version 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Mango) — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 22:49:00 +0000

As requested through our Patreon "Pick Your Poison" tier by Guest Five, Fanboys Anonymous is providing you with another edition of the FanTracks podcast, this time for Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns. Specifically, this is the "Extended Workprint Version 1" (aka MwtoRtrnsExtWrkpntVers.1) that you can find on the Internet Archive.

For copyright reasons, we cannot provide the source material itself, but after a short introduction, you will be told when to sync your copy of the film so you can following along with us and listen to our thoughts on the movie as we crack some jokes, expose plot holes, and discuss anything else that comes to our minds for commentary.

Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns

Release Date: December 30, 2000 (Japan), December 4, 2001 (USA)
Directed by Masamitsu Hidaka
Written by Takeshi Shudô
Starring Veronica Taylor (Ash Ketchum), Ikue Ōtani (Pikachu), Dan Green (Mewtwo), Rachael Lillis (Misty, Jessie), Eric Stuart (Brock), Ken Gates (Narrator), Eric Stuart (James), Maddie Blaustein (Meowth), Ed Paul (Giovanni), Kerry Williams (Domino), Lee Quick (Officer Jenny), Amy Birnbaum (Luna Carson), Megan Hollingshead (Luka Carson), Scottie Ray (Cullen Calix) and Satomi Kōrogi (Togepi)

Team Rocket's memories of Mewtwo had been erased, but the Team Rocket scientists' logs have not. After uncovering the logs, they track down Mewtwo and build a Base in a Johto. Ash and company meet Mr. Giovanni for the first time.

FanTracks Episode 72 hosted by Tony Mango along with Robert DeFelice

Make sure to subscribe/follow on whatever platform you're listening, leave your comments on the videos or this post, share this with your friends and geek out with us!

WATCH THIS WITH US AND LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

Subscribe to Fanboys Anonymous on:
YouTube - Google Podcasts - iTunes - Spotify
and more!