Another year in the books, another crazy amount of movies watched. Just as a refresher, last year’s numbers were 134 movies minus 5 specials and minus 6 repeats for a grand total of 123 distinct new movies in 2017, beating the previous year’s record by one. Spoiler alert, I blow those numbers outta the water this year. Again, a reminder that for me it counts for 2018 if I saw it in 2018, regardless if it was officially released in an earlier year. 2018 movies seen after the calendar flipped count for next year.
But first, the list:
The Post Phantom Thread I, Tonya The Commuter Proud Mary Paddington 2 The Greatest Showman 12 Strong Three Billboards Outside Ebbing MO The Greatest Showman Singalong Molly’s Game The Maze Runner: The Death Cure Winchester Peter Rabbit The 15:17 to Paris Fifty Shades Freed Black Panther Early Man A Fantastic Woman Samson Annhilation Game Night Death Wish Red Sparrow Gringo Thoroughbreds A Wrinkle in Time Ready Player One Love, Simon Tomb Raider Pacific Rim: Uprising Unsane Ready Player One Ready Player One Ready Player One Isle of Dogs Sherlock Gnomes Rampage A Quiet Place Ready Player One Blockers Beirut Chappaquiddick A Quiet Place I Feel Pretty The Death of Stalin You Were Never Really Here Avengers: Infinity War Disobedience Avengers: Infinity War Avengers: Infinity War Tully Overboard Bad Samaritan Terminal Deadpool 2 Solo Deadpool 2 First Reformed Solo Solo Upgrade The Room American Animals Hotel Artemis Won’t You Be My Neighbor Hereditary Ocean’s 8 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom The Incredibles 2 Deany Bean is Dead Tag Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Skyscraper Sicario: Day of the Soldado Uncle Drew Leave No Trace Ant-Man and the Wasp Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot Sorry to Bother You Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation Blindspotting Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again Teen Titans Go To the movies The Equalizer 2 Mission Impossible: Fallout Christopher Robin Blindspotting The Spy Who Dumped Me BlackkKlansman The Meg Eighth Grade Crazy Rich Asians Mile 22 The Miseducation of Cameron Post BlackkKlansman Searching 2001: A Space Odyssey Operation Finale The Happytime Murders Papillon Selena The Little Stranger Peppermint The Nun Three Identical Strangers A Simple Favor Lizzie The Predator White Boy Rick The House with a Clock in Its Walls Assassination Nation Bad Times at the El Royale Night School Maniac A Star is Born Venom The Sisters Brothers Smallfoot The Hate U Give First Man Halloween Mid90s Beautiful Boy Can You Ever Forgive Me Wildlife Suspiria (1977) Bohemian Rhapsody The Nutcracker and the Four Realms Boy Erased Suspiria (2018) Bohemian Rhapsody The Girl in the Spider’s Web The Grinch The Front Runner Overlord Destroyer Bohemian Rhapsody Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Instant Family Green Book Widows Creed II Anna and the Apocalypse The Favourite Ralph Wrecks the Internet Robin Hood Roma Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse Ben is Back Mary Queen of Scots Vox Lux Once Upon a Deadpool The Mule Second Act Mortal Engines Mary Poppins Returns Aquaman Bumblebee Welcome to Marwen Vice Holmes and WatsonNow we crunch numbers. That is a grand total of 162 movies watched minus 6 specials minus 20 repeats, equals 136 distinct new movies in 2018.
Holy [expletive] that’s a lot. I blame running my work movie night for some of those repeats. Plus Ready Player One (we’ll get to that). I also blame MoviePass (and later A List) for some of those exceptionally high numbers.
Moving on to the nerdy stats no one else cares about but me
Star ratings (out of 4):
4- 38
3.5- 24
3- 29
2.5- 13
2- 21
1.5- 9
1- 2
Yep, one could still argue I’m overly generous with my star ratings. Whatever, don’t @ me.
By location:
Alamo Drafthouse Laredo – 2
Hollywood THeaters Laredo – 1
Cinemark Mall Del Norte Laredo – 2
(5 total in Laredo)
AMC Century City – 19
AMC Dine in Marina – 12
AMC Downtown Disney (RIP) – 1
AMC MArina Classic – 15
AMC Universal – 1
(48 total at AMC, expect that to go up next year as I rely solely on A-List)
Arclight Culver City – 3
Arclight Hollywood – 8
Arclight Santa Monica – 1
(12 total at Arclight)
Cinemark Howard Hughes – 12
Cinemark Playa Vista – 6
(18 total at Cinemark in LA (plus 2 in Laredo), numbers that dwindled as MoviePass died)
Director’s Guild of America – 1
Eat See Hear – Autry Museum – 1
Egyptian Theater – 1
ipic Westwood – 1
Laemmle Monica – 3
The Landmark – 30
(It was so nice while MP lasted there)
Pacific Theaters at the Grove – 30
RealD Theater – 3
(Stardust screenings!)
Regent Landmark – 1
TCL Chinese – 3
The Ace Hotel – 1
Walt Disney Concert Hall – 3
157 Total in Los Angeles
Much less travel this year than previous ones.
Movies by month. I had a goal of at least ten a month
Jan – 12
Feb – 10
Mar – 14
Apr – 15
May – 10
Jun – 13
Jul – 12
Aug – 14
Sep – 14
Oct – 14
Nov – 20
Dec – 14
Now on to the fun stuff, the ranks. I seriously considered doing a Top 20 and Bottom 10 (as opposed to the usual 10 and 5) because I really did have that much great (or not great) material to pick from. This was a super solid year, and except for a couple of locks, I was unsure how this list would turn out until the last minute. I ultimately decided to stay with 10 and 5 simply because I was super happy with where things fell. Oh and obligatory reminder that these are favorites, or most enjoyable for me personally. Not gonna be presumtuous enough to declare something “best” or “worst”, and also acknowleding that it’s all subjective anyways. We start at the bottom
Bottom 5 of 2018
5-Sherlock Gnomes – While I’ve been more discerning about which kiddie movies I see, my love of the first drove me to this one and it did not measure up at all. Not even Elton John could save it.
4-Gringo – This was a mess of a movie and a waste of talent. I’d completely forgotten about it until sorting thru my spreadsheet, but I didn’t forget how revulsed I felt after.
3-The Maze Runner: The Death Cure – This has to be the thinnest movie I saw this year. Its simplistic action sequence after simplistic action sequence with minimal story holding it together. It could have been told in 15 minutes and been more satisfying.
2-Holmes and Watson – Entry right at the buzzer that almost took the bottom spot for being almost unwatchably unfunny. That little bit of watchability is what spared it from a worse fate.
1-The Little Stranger – I was more bored watching this than anything else. And I get that it was based on some prestigious work and some praised it’s accomplishments as a gothic horror. That means nothing if I can’t stay awake for it tho.
Dishonorable mentions: Winchester, Equalizer 2, Red Sparrow
Top 10 of 2018
10-Won’t You Be My Neighbor – Wait whoa whoa whoa, there’s a documentary on this list? One big theme of 2018 was changing my perception of docs and this one was so moving and beautiful. I still get emotional thinking about it.
9-Searching – What could have been a cheap gimmick created the most suspenseful movie of the year (and we know I love my thrillers). Plus, I later learned that if you watch for the secondary news storys there’s a whole subplot about some sorta alien invasion. The BluRay is sitting in my pile, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for that when I get to it
8-Anna and the Apocalypse – Zombies + Christmas + Musical = the most “me” movie I saw this year. I love a good genre mashup, esp when it’s an unexpected combination, and watching it was pure joy.
7-BlackkKlansman – If you forced me to pick a “best” movie this year, this might hafta be what I go with. Every element is perfection: the entertaining screenplay with scathing social commentary, the performances across the board, and the masterful direction from Spike Lee.
6-Tag – I’m fully aware this may not make many people’s lists, but I just completely connected with the comedy here. The punchlines were unexpected, which is a key element in making me laugh heartily. And the cast was having so much fun, I just wanted to play with them
5-Upgrade – We know I’m primarily an action movie girl, and this was the best action movie of the year. Plus it had elements of scifi, thriller, even some dark comedy. Those practical fight scenes with their unique physicality are going down in the movie history books
4-A Quiet Place – I’ve always said the best horror movies are about something other than horror, and this story about a family that happened to be scary was something unique and revolutionary.
3-Bohemian Rhapsody – The Live Aid sequence was enough to get it on my list, and the reason I saw it 3 times. So close to bumping it up another spot, but it has a few unfair advantages that I couldn’t do it. I don’t care if it’s a formulaic biopic, it hits all the right notes (figuratively and literally) and was an incredible movie experience
2-Blindspotting – Best screenplay of the year. It was insightful, funny, creative, tense, all at the same time. The penultimate scene blew me away, and I don’t think I’ll ever get over it. This would be so deserving of awards love if it got a bigger push.
1-Ready Player One – I know I knocked off points for unfair advantages elsewhere, and this one has the unfair advantage of me having waited for it for 6 ( I think) years. It lived up to my ridiculously high expectations (all 5 times I saw it–those are LOTR numbers there), and was an incredible piece of cinema
Honorable Mentions: The Hate U Give, Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse, Game Night
Special Honorable Mention: The Greatest Showman. Technically I first saw it at the end of 2017, but it wasn’t until early 2018 that I became obsessed with the soundtrack and saw it two more times in theaters. Had the calendar shifted slightly, it would have easily made my top ten for either year since it took time to grow on me.
Aaaand that’s all folks. Some record setting numbers, without breaking the bank thanks to Movie Pass and A List. Most years, my goal is to beat last year’s numbers. This year also had the monthly 10 movie goal, which I hit. However for 2019, my goal is less movies for a couple reasons. One, the monthly quota drove me nuts. I was getting anxious about release schedules and moving things around if the month changed on a weekend and seeing things I really didn’t want to. Not worth it. Not gonna do it. Also, even with A List being wonderful, there’s no way I can top last year’s numbers without MoviePass being reliable. And I kidna don’t want to. My goal is to only see things because I want to, not out of obligation (unless that obligation is Oscar related, I’m not changing that much). Don’t worry, there’ll still be a crazy amount of movies. And with that, it’s time to move the 2018 spreadsheet to the archive folder. 2019 will mark the ten year anniversary of ExpletiveDleted, so I’m psyched to see what’s in store.
PS – Don’t forget to find me on Stardust for all my reactions on a much quicker timeline!