Ranking the Movies of 2018: Week 19

Deadpool 2 arrived last week and while it was not the revelation that the first Deadpool was, it was still a solid piece of superhero entertainment. Director David Leitch brings a more conventional structure to Deadpool 2 compared to the looser, more comic like style of Tim Miller. Miller was let go from the franchise following reports of friction with star Ryan Reynolds over the direction of the character.

From the evidence of Deadpool 2, Reynolds appears to have wanted to play it safe and play to his strengths as a motor-mouthed, potty-mounted, Bugs Bunny style superhero. There’s nothing wrong with that idea but what it means is we get a Deadpool that is rather toothless and safe. Sure, the result is hilarious but does Deadpool evolve or is the series spinning its wheels as pure R-rated fan service?

The goodness of Deadpool 2, at the very least, made up for the tediousness of the other two new movies in theaters. Book Club is a slog through old ladies having sex gags which features a true nadir in the career of the once and future Murphy Brown, Candace Bergen. In an egregious subplot the activity of her house cat is linked emotionally to her sex life. This is so a trip to a veterinarian can offer the chance for the vet to say ‘you have a lethargic pussy.’

The cringe inducing humor doesn’t stop there but the cat gag is definitely the low point of Book Club, which says something for a movie that takes as its premise women inspired back into sex by reading Fifty Shades of Grey. Somehow, however, Hollywood found a way to go even lower than the cringey antics of Book Club. The supposedly kid-friendly Show Dogs manages to be worse than Book Club in more ways than you’d imagine.

This week the producers of Show Dogs were forced to release a statement in response to allegations that the movie portrays the tactics of child molesters, grooming children. A gag that provides a significant plot point in Show Dogs finds lead dog, Max (voiced by rapper Ludicrous), being unwilling to have his private parts examined as part of his dog show training. He must learn to accept this intrusion in order to win the dog show and save the day.

Parenting bloggers pointed out that teaching Max to just accept what is happening to him, despite his discomfort, is just like grooming children for abuse and that portraying Max learning to accept what happens to him by going to his happy place, is tantamount to his accepting the abuse. They aren’t wrong but the silliness of this controversy surrounding this movie is inescapable. Show Dogs barely has the weight to bare being on a big screen let alone being the subject of serious scrutiny.

Among the older movies I watched this week, I had a rough couple of emotional days and so I did the thing I do when I am unhappy: I watched Legally Blonde. The Reese Witherspoon goes to Harvard comedy is, for me, an absolute blast of joy. The film is just happy and infectious and no matter how I feel, I can’t help but get caught up in the joy and happiness of Legally Blonde.

Legally Blonde also happens to be a genuinely great comedy. From beginning to end director Robert Luketic and star Reese Witherspoon capture tone, pace and performance in pitch perfect fashion. The look of the film is consistently bright and welcoming and the production design and costumes are essential not just to the look of the film but beyond into affecting the characters and how we perceive them. The care that Robert Luketic takes in all aspects of making Legally Blonde is remarkable, this is more than merely a frothy, good time, comedy, he cares about the definitive details of the filmmaking of Legally Blonde.

Other directors probably could have rested on Reese Witherspoon’s performance and simply filled in the frames and fell back on the clever script while adhering to the necessary beats of three act comedy. Luketic doesn’t reinvent the wheel by any stretch but his fingerprints are everywhere, his care for the material beyond just being a simple comedy is evident in the smart way the movie flows from scene to scene and in how the style of the movie informs the characters and performances.

This week’s classic on the Everyone’s a Critic Movie Review Podcast was The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. We chose LOTR because Willow, starring Val Kilmer, turned 30 years old this weekend. With Willow being a fantasy adventure it offered us a reason to look at the start of the trilogy of movies that are considered, arguably the greatest fantasy adventure franchise of all time.

On the show I likely came off as not liking LOTR:FOTR but I do appreciate the movie. I appreciate the hard work and care that Peter Jackson put into bringing J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel to vivid life. I appreciate the remarkable special effects and I appreciate Ian McKellen’s ridiculously great performance as Gandalf. That said, I also find the film to be repetitive, lengthy in a way that you can’t ignore and some of the performances are less compelling than they should be. I think that LOTR:FOTR should be lauded for the its achievement in filmmaking but it’s deeply flawed as a story and as a movie.

Not much to be said about Willow. The Ron Howard directed adventure is safe and boring in the way that Ron Howard is typically safe and a little boring. There is nothing special, nothing deep and not all that much memorable about Willow. I don’t despise the movie but I barely remember it even after revisiting it for the show. Willow just sort of happens and is over and doesn’t remain long in the memory, hence why it’s not remembered on the way people remember other 80’s fantasies like The Princess Bride or Labyrinth.

Next week joining the rankings are Solo and Fahrenheit 451. Solo: A Star Wars Story tells the story of how Han Solo became the beloved rogue we come to know in the Star Wars franchise. Fahrenheit 451 is the latest attempt to capture Ray Bradbury’s dystopian sci-fi future wherein books are public enemy number one and firemen don’t put out fires, they start them. Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon star.

Our classic on the next Everyone’s a Critic Podcast is based solely on us trolling ourselves. With Solo arriving in theaters we thought it would be funny to watch the Italian torture movie Salo: 120 Days of Sodom. Get it? Because it kind of sounds like Solo. Yeah, we should have given this more thought. Salo is one of those movies that you don’t watch but rather endure. Director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film is a two and a half hour taunt to the audience to turn it off. Tune in next week to find out how long I last.

New rankings below and new additions to the list are in bold type…

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Juno
3. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
4. Black Swan
5. Legally Blonde
6. Phantom Thread
7. Black Panther
8. Tully
9. His Girl Friday
10. Best F®iends
11. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
12. Annihilation
13. Kodachrome
14. Unsane
15. Just Charlie
16. Columbus
17. Young Adult
18. The Death of Stalin
19. Hostiles
20. Deadpool 2
21. A Wrinkle in Time
22. Foxy Brown
23. Becks
24. A Quiet Place
25. Captain America Civil War
26. Game Night
27. Are We Not Cats
28. Boogie Nights
29. The Ballad of Lefty Brown
30. 12 Strong
31. Red Sparrow
32. Mean Girls
33. Act & Punishment
34. Life of the Party
35. Los Angeles Overnight
36. Always at the Carlyle
37. Salome & Wilde Salome
38. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
39. Actors of Sound: A Foley Artist Documentary
40. Switching Channels
41. I Feel Pretty
42. Tomb Raider
43. Stormy Monday
44. Ready Player One
45. Insidious: The Last Key
46. Sheik Jackson
47. Gringo
48. Love, Simon
49. Isle of Dogs
50. War Games
51. Samson & Delilah
52. Heat
53. Hell’s House
54. Hurricane Heist
55. The Miracle Season
56. Blockers
57. Avengers Infinity War
58. Early Man
59. Almost Paris
60. Bloodsport
61. The Last Movie Star
62. Play Misty for Me
63. Frantic
64. Willow
65. Reds
66. 7 Days in Entebbe
67. Taffin
68. Beirut
69. Super Troopers
70. Super Troopers 2
71. Samson
72. Friday the 13th
73. Rampage
74. Last House on the Left
75. Burnt Offerings
76. Paddington 2
77. Traffik
78. Pacific Rim Uprising
79. Sherlock Gnomes
80. Chappaquiddick
81. Cloverfield Paradox
82. Breaking In
83. Peter Rabbit
84. Overboard
85. Proud Mary
86. The Mist
87. God’s Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness
88. Den of Thieves
89. Death Wish 1974
90. Death Wish 2018
91. Bad Samaritan
92. Knowing
93. The Commuter
94. Fifty Shades Freed
95. Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built
96. Midnight Sun
97. Forever My Girl
98. Every Day
99. Strangers Prey at Night
100. Book Club
101. Show Dogs
102. 15:17 to Paris
103. Truth or Dare
104. The Greasy Strangler
105. Maze Runner: The Death Cure