The Best Movies of 2018

I waited until today to do my top 5 movies of 2018 because I went to the movies today and I thought the one I was seeing would be on the list. By the way, it made it. My movies are fairly mainstream this year. As I’ve said before, it’s harder for my wife and I to go to the movies. Sometimes it’s even harder to watch them at home because we are so tired. But, I still see enough movies to make this list. I still go to the movies by myself, or bring my dad to some of the odder movies I see. I see more kids movies because I have 2 of my own that enjoy them. So my list is odd, with 3 big time movies on it this year. Maybe this will make RD stop calling me Pierre. We shall see.

At number 5 I have “Teen Titans Go! To The Movies”. I took my kids to see this because my son loves the show. I’ve watched a few episodes with him, found them kind of funny and agreed to take him. I had super low expectations, and this movie far surpassed them. This movie is great. It’s fast, funny, well written, animated like the show and has several good stories. I love the joke of how many super hero movies there are now. There’s far too many. Hell, counting “TTGTTM”, I technically have 3 on my list. But how they make a joke about it is great. The underlying stories of friendship, camaraderie, stardom and teamwork make this movie even better. Add the fact that is basically a musical makes it that much more fun. I had a blast watching this movie. And since seeing it this summer in the theater, I’ve enjoyed the 2-3 dozen more times I’ve watched it. I can also sing every lyric to every song. “Teen Titans Go! To The Movies” was one of the best times I’ve ever had in a theater.

At number 4 is the movie I saw this afternoon, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse”. This is one of the coolest looking movies I’ve ever seen. The way it was filmed is like a comic book. It’s like “Sin City” for kids. This movie was simply incredible. The way the story is told was masterful. Seeing young Miles Morales go through his journey with all the different versions of Spider heroes was remarkable. The bad guys were bad too. I loved Doc Ock as a woman. She was evil. Kingpin was just as bad as any bad guy in a gangster movie. And the heroes were awesome. The second Peter Parker, who has B as his middle initial was hilarious. Spider Gwen was a total badass. Penni Parker, Spider Noir and Spider Ham all had their own personal charm, which I liked. The story was tremendous. The lessons were amazing. This is the type of movie that pulls me back into the super hero and comic book genre. It’s a work of art. I’m still totally blown away at how cool that movie looked. It’s awesome.

At number 3 I am getting away from hero movies and dipping into horror/suspense with “A Quiet Place”. This movie had me at the edge of my seat the whole run time. I kept apologizing to my wife for squeezing her hand so much throughout the movie. This movie made me not want to eat my movie snacks because it needed to be silent in the theater. What John Krasinki and crew did with this movie was usher in a new era of suspense. They made it hip to make a new age silent movie. And with this being, technically a silent movie, I was never, ever bored. As I said I was on razors edge. And Emily Blunt was phenomenal in this movie. Watch it alone for the birth scene. You may get anxiety after seeing it, if you don’t already suffer from it. “A Quiet Place” has renewed my love for the horror/suspense genre. I’m very excited/curious to see what they do with the sequel. But for the time being, this movie is right up there with “Get Out”, at least for me. 

At number 2 I have “Black Panther”. This is the best super hero movie ever. Nothing will top it. As good as some of the early Marvel stuff was, they all pale in comparison to “Black Panther”. This is the type of movie that has it all. A tremendous villain, maybe the best one yet. Strong, powerful female leads. African Americans as the stars. A great story about family and how important home is. Doing what’s best for the people you love. Great fight scenes. Funny moments. Touching moments. All of this in a comic book movie. “Black Panther” was overdue for its spotlight. But when it got it, they smacked it out of the park. Also, the soundtrack is amazing. The movie has it all, and it has zero flaws. “Black Panther” is the perfect movie. But there was one better, at least for me.

My number one movie of 2018 is “Sorry to Bother You”. There is no other movie like “STBY”. It’s an original, one of a kind. It’s science fiction with a story about race and culture and selling out and what all that means to multiple groups of people. I was blown away by this movie. I have watched it a dozen times since I saw it on its opening weekend, and with each new viewing I find something I missed or something new I like. And the performances, my goodness are they wonderful. This movie will make LaKeith Stanfield a star. Tessa Thompson is remarkable. Stanfield’s buddy, the guy from “Superior Donuts”, is hilarious. Steven Yeun is perfect. Even bigger actors, like Terry Crews and Danny Glover, shine in their minimal screen time. We need more movies like this. I’m done with remakes and sequels. Please give me new and fresh stuff. And nothing is newer or fresher or more I treating or cooler or crazier than “Sorry to Bother You”. I will watch this movie for the rest of my life. It’s a remarkable achievement. And it’s so unique. I love this movie. There was no question this movie was going to be number one the moment I left the theater. It’s amazing.

That’s it fit today. Come back tomorrow for my top 5 podcast moments of 2018.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He may not go to as many independent films like he did as a younger man, but the Head Editor will always call him Pierre. Old habits die hard.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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Ty Watches "A Quiet Place"

This past weekend my wife and I had a date night and we decided to go to dinner and a movie. The movie we chose was “A Quiet Place”. We both like John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. My wife loves horror movies. I like horror movies as long as they’re well made. I’m not a fan of jump scare, cheap scares and loud music scares. But, give me a movie like “Get Out”, “The Shining” or now, “A Quiet Place”, and I will gladly take the scary stuff that comes along with the movie. I was also intrigued because I have only seen John Krasinski in dramadey’s, comedies or on “The Office”, the most recognizable of all his roles. I wanted to see how he did with a different genre. And no, I don’t consider that stupid ass Michael Bay soldier movie he did as branching out. Michael Bay is a lousy movie maker.

As I said, I was intrigued that he was in a straight up horror movie, and that he directed it himself. I also adore Emily Blunt. She won me over in “ Edge of Tomorrow”, and I’ve been a fan of hers ever since. Add the fact that they’re real life husband and wife, and I was fully on board for this movie. I’m going to try to be as spoiler free with my review as possible because I really feel like people need to see this movie, and they should see it in a theater if you can.

The movie opens on a card that says “Day 87”. There has clearly been some kind of disaster that has brought earth to some kind of apocalypse. We see a family in a run down drug store searching for medicine. The first thing I noticed was all the silence. One of the daughters is deaf, so I just assumed that the family chose to use sign language as opposed to talking. But, we get to see some newspaper clippings that say stuff like, “they hunt by sound”, or, “hide underground”. So, we are led to believe that there is some kind of monster/alien that hunts by sound. Again, this is not a spoiler, it is in the trailers. We then see the family living in a country house, and they do use sign language, but it is used for safety. Krasinski is the husband, Blunt is the wife, and they have 3 kids.

Now, for the one spoiler, while in the drug store, the youngest boy wants a toy rocket, but his dad tells him no, that it is too loud. But, behind her parent’s backs, the deaf daughter gives her brother the toy. He grabs the batteries, and as they are walking home, he turns on the toy. He is eaten by one of the monster/aliens before he can be saved. We then jump to about a year later, and the family is still living in silence. The daughter thinks her dad doesn’t love her and blames her, the other son is terrified to go outside and the wife is pregnant again. We get 2 more days for the rest of the movie.

Now, I do not want to spoil anything else, so I’m going to abandon the plot from here. Instead, I want to talk about why I thought this movie was so great. The use of silence and sound is amazing. The way they use the sound for the characters who can hear, they cut to the deaf daughter and we hear nothing is brilliant. The scares are real and terrifying. I was holding my wife’s hand, she was holding mine too, and we both would squeeze hard when we got scared. The alien/monsters looked creepy,  it also cool as hell. I totally bought that something like this could be real. The story,  much like the alien/monster, was believable. Something like this could happen in the future. I fully believe that. Not only was the movie scary, it was sad too, especially for parents. My wife cried multiple times and I teared up a few times myself. The setting was perfect. The very few lines of dialogue were perfectly placed. The relationships were very real, especially Blunt and Krasinski. It was just a wonderful, well made movie. I cannot recommend this movie enough.

“A Quiet Place” is a movie everyone should see. Even if you don’t like scary/thriller movies, you will like this movie. It is unique. It is original. It is so well made. I find it bizarre that very few critics have it a bad review. Thus movie is amazing. Go see it. I saw it 2 days ago, and I still think about it at least 3-4 times a day. That’s the sign of a well thought out, and well made movie. “A Quiet Place” is a must see movie. I’m glad I saw it, and I hope I’ve convinced some of you to see it too. What a tremendous movie. It was great.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. The last time he saw an alien that was plausible was the time he caught a few moments of "Family Matters". That Steve Urkel is not of our world.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.