Hey how's going everyone? It's Dan here and were approaching the end of 2022 so were ending with my Top 5 best movies of 2022!
I know I was suppose to do it yesterday but I got busy yesterday so I'm doing it now. I'll repeat this one more time, this is all subjective and my opinion, we can agree to disagree, okay? good, lets begin!
Number 5 goes to the Bad Guys from Dreamworks (7.5/10)
This movie is based on the children's book and the book itself is quite popular, even at my job we have one of the books for the kids. When I saw the movie trailer, I was an instant fan of the animation style. It's going for that 2D done like 3D style similar to the SpiderVerse movies and that's what makes it unique. I had given my thoughts about it in the review back in April so if ya wanna see that go check it out. The plot itself is the classic never judge a book by its cover as well as everyone can redeem themselves, nothing groundbreaking but I did enjoy the way it was executed in the film. The characters are what really made this movie memorable. My favorite character has to be Mr. Wolf since he's just charismatic and a likeable guy even when he's committing crime you just can't help but love the guy. The character interactions and dynamics are what sell this movie in my eyes. It's on Netflix right now so I'd say give it a watch, I also heard it has more projects in the work so I think it is safe to say that this movie helped bring Dreamworks back in a big way this year (with Puss in Boots: Last Wish following that momentum too).
Number 4 goes to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness from Marvel/Disney (8/10)
Wow! a Marvel/Disney movie I'm not disappointed in! I had given a review for this movie back in May so if ya wanna check it out, go ahead. To summarize that review, I love the VFX, just like the first film the VFX are what carry this movie and each one is like a trip. Now keep in mind this is part of the MCU so there are a lot of films and even some shows to watch so that you can fully understand the plot and the characters motivations for what they do. I gave what films and shows to watch during my review so use that as a base line on where to start for story. Even if ya don't watch any of the movies or shows, the plot itself is still rather decent and the characters are still who they are (besides Scarlet Witch) so it'll still be fun time and plenty of magic going on. I still think Spiderman: No Way Home is a better multiverse movie, but this is a good contender with plenty going for it. Though some VFX look a bit lazy at times, it's forgivable compared to what we get a majority of the time. I also wanna point out that Sam Raimi (the director of the Tobey Spiderman movies) directed this film and gave it some of his personal touches even adding Bruce Campbell in for a cameo so I appreciate that too.
Number 3 goes to The Batman from DC/Warner Bros. (8/10)
This movie is when I knew we were eating good this year when it came to movies. This film much like Morbius was in Limbo due to the Pandemic, Luckily it made it's way to theaters and it was a real banger! This was the first review I did back in march and if ya wanna see it go ahead and check it out. This is definitely one of the better Batman performances I've seen and definitely the better representation of Gotham City. Robert Pattinson gave a phenomenal performance as the Dark Knight and even though I feel his performance as Bruce Wayne could have been better, this is still in the early stages of Batmans crime fighting career so Bruce hasn't quite found that balance and secret identity aspect just yet. He is still figuring out what he needs to be for Gotham City and I do hope that they continue to build on this in the future, I would like to see the character growth and development of Bruce Wayne/Batman. Paul Dano as the Riddler was something I was pleasantly surprised with, this darker take on the Riddler was refreshing to see since traditionally the Riddler is one of the more comical villains in Batman's Rogue Gallery. I felt immersed into the City of Gotham and in the story of Bruce Wayne's family, they did well expanding on his history. The action was gritty and more martial art based (which I love) as well as showing off Batman's detective skills trying to solve the riddles. This film truly kicked off the year and I'd say this is definitely the best superhero film of the year, beating out any movies from Marvel and itself.
Number 2 goes to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 from Sega/Paramount (9/10)
I've said this once, and I will say it again, 2022 has been the Sonic Renaissance and were living it up, baby! This is the sequel to the Sonic the Hedgehog movie that came out in 2020 and while the first film was pretty decent and it was more of a testing waters phase, it still did a great job and was one of the main reasons people started to lose that "Video Games can't be adapted to good movies" stigma. Now the sequel builds upon that success, I had given my review for this movie back in April but all the points I made still hold up and I'll support that with further evidence now. After the positive reception of the first film, Jeff Fowler and his crew went into the next phase and decided to build upon and dive into the lore of Sonic the Hedgehog. I also appreciate them having the humans take a backseat this time around and having the story more centered around Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Dr. Robotnik (aka Eggman). We got to see settings such as Angel Island and Gerald Robotnik's secret lab where Shadow is in suspended animation (post credit shows Shadow for the upcoming third film). We even saw the Master emerald which was made up of the seven chaos emeralds used in this movie and gave us the special appearance of Super Sonic! As I said earlier, this is the year of Sonic, with a successful sequel, a great game in Sonic Frontiers, a great show in Sonic Prime and the upcoming third movie, Sonic is going fast in the right direction. Hopefully, he continues to rise this momentum into 2023 and beyond, I'm a big sonic fan so it's great to see him doing well after a long time.
Before I get into the number one spot, I'm going to give a few honorable mentions
First mention goes to Top Gun: Maverick from Skydance/Paramount (7.5/10)
This was a sequel to the nearly 40 year old movie Top Gun, however unlike other random sequels, this one is actually far superior than the original. The original is definitely a cheesy 80's movie, but the sequel manages to build upon and create a real story here making Maverick a mentor with something left to give to the next generation. It's a fun movie to watch and it has plenty of charm to it. All the actors did a phenomenal job and I was pleasantly surprised that this movie was as good as it was.
Next mention is the Elvis Movie from BazMark/Warner Bros. (7/5/10)
This movie is yet another Biopic of a famous Celebrity/Musician, but what really shoots it up there as one of the better Biopics is the performance of Austin Butler and Tom Hanks. Austin truly did Elvis justice with his performance. His mannerisms, the speech, his moves, I can tell Austin gave it his all and I think we can all appreciate that. Tom Hanks as the Colonel was a true villain and foil to the story. I enjoyed the narration from him which added to the tone of this cautionary tale. I gave a review back in July so if you wanna see more head over there. But this is definitely one of the better biopics.
Last mention I wanna give is the movie Turning Red from Pixar/Disney Plus (7/10)
This is a true coming of age story I can get behind. I gave my review for this back in March so if you wanna see my full thoughts on it, go check it out. This film is unique for so many reasons and I can say I enjoy this film, I watched it twice and I enjoy the animation style and how it takes inspiration from anime as well. The characters are a fun to watch and the mature themes here are done well and respectively. I wish more Disney films were like this but you know them. Luckily Pixar is doing their best to bring us unique stories and great animation trying something new each time. I may not be the targeted audience for this film, but even I can recognize the passion that went into it and I feel it's a film for young teens and even adults to enjoy.
Now for the moment you've all been waiting for, the Number one movie of 2022 goes to....
Number one goes to WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story from Funny or Die/Roku (10/10)
I'm sure no one saw this one coming, you're likely scratching your head and asking "first off..Weird Al has a movie on Roku?! Second...Why is this the best film of the year?!". Well stop asking so many questions and I'll tell ya! This film is technically a biopic just like Elvis or other biopics from other celebrities...but its a parody of that entire biopic genre. As we all know, these biopics tend to exaggerate the truth for the sake of the film being dramatic and entertaining, some things in the film are not quite what actually happened in the real life of that celebrity but rather exaggerated. Weird Al cranks that exaggeration and dramatic antics to the MAX! Unlike those other films, this is not meant to be taken at all serious and you can tell. The first half was already kind of exaggerated but was still telling the truth of how Al got his start in music (to a degree). But once we get to the second half of the film....it just goes hog wild and turns the film into full blown insanity and it is without a doubt hilarious! I got some Bohemian Rhapsody vibes from this movie with how Al starts out good but then gets into hard drinking, gets into a toxic relationship with Madonna, confronts Pablo Escobar to save Madonna only for her to take over the drug cartel....You can see why I said this is not meant to be taken seriously. It's all just a huge parody of celebrity biopics and its meant to be a joke and I love it! Weird Al was heavily involved with making this since he's still alive so I'm sure he would want to have a say in how it should be done and he's the one responsible for getting the boy who lived to portray him. Daniel Radcliffe did a phenomenal job as Weird Al being hilarious, dramatic and both at the same time and Weird Al himself actually has a role in the movie as not himself...but parodying an executive at a record label. This movie is just a fun watch, I was laughing the entire hour and a half. Each of these movies on my top 5 have something special, the Bad Guys are the best animated film, Doctor Strange is best Visuals in a film, Batman the best superhero film, Sonic is the best video game adaptation film, but Weird: the Al Yankovic story is not only the best Parody film, but the Best film of 2022!
Thanks for staying till the end, Hope everyone has a Happy New Year, and I can't wait for the content to come out in 2023!
See ya!