5 – Tucker & Dale vs Evil

This is just a fun film, it takes the classic horror tropes and lampoons them or twists them, while still kind of being a horror film. Now, there are plenty of horror film parodies out there, but this one I’d qualify as a horror film satire. Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine are amazing in this film, and if you’re a fan either of theirs this film is worth checking out. I really do think even if you don’t like horror this is a great comedy film first and foremost, so most people will like this one.

4 – John Wick

The Keanu Reeves renaissance was in some ways kicked off by this film. This is such a well done action film that we really haven’t seen anything like it before. Maybe Equilibrium has a little bit of a feel like it, but John Wick takes it to a whole other level with the gun play and just the artistic nature of everything. This movie has a ton of action, and surprising amount of story. It’s one that I can come back to multiple times and enjoy even with knowing the story because of just the beauty in the gun kata (or gun fu) throughout the film. It feels like a dance as much as it feels like a gun fight.

3 – Dr. Strangelove

Apparently I want humor on my list this year, though, Dr Strangelove has always been around my Top 5, probably generally in my Top 10. Dr. Strangelove is an amazing Peter Sellers and Stanley Kubrick film. It makes fun of the super United States rah-rah mindset, but does so in extremely clever ways. This is one of those films where you almost have to study in order to get all of the jokes, but the jokes in there are definitely a good payoff when you get them. But you don’t need to do that, because it blends jokes like those in with other jokes that you almost always have an absurd situation going on that you get. This is a movie that does get better with more viewings as well, I feel.

2 – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

When I have humor on a list, I like it to be satire, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is amazing for that. This film is in it’s own right a buddy cop film along the lines of Lethal Weapon and others, but it is more than that, it makes fun of buddy cop films as well. Robert Downey Jr is amazing in this film, and whole cast is great really. This film is my favorite Christmas film in the way that Die Hard is a Christmas film. I really do like it when a film can take a tried and true genre, such as buddy cop, and not really dumb down the absurd plotlines or dumb down jokes but end up with it being a really good and smart comedy as well.

1 – Avengers: Infinity War

Now, clearly I’m a big Marvel fan, having a Marvel Podcast, 10 Minute Marvel, so I don’t think it’ll be a big surprise that a Marvel movie is my #1. Also, I have ranked the Marvel movies fairly recently, and this was my #1 movie on that list as well. When it comes to the Marvel films, this one just really stands out to me. I think that Endgame is very good, and I like it a ton, but Infinity War just feels like more, the stakes feel higher because I knew how it was going to end, and while I knew things would be fixed in the second one, the moments where characters die are just really well done, and you get a sense that all the heroes might not make it and that anyone is fair game. This film just has what I want, it is a superhero story with a lot of action, but it is also just a good film and a good story overall.

So, to toss out some honorable mentions, films like Avengers: Endgame and Thor: Ranorak just missed the list. I know previous years I’ve had Dog Soldiers on the list as well which is a really good horror film. In terms of the two films that I remember having seen for the first time this year, I think that Sonic The Hedgehog was a more enjoyable film than Crimson Peak and honestly, as good a story. Crimson Peak just has amazing aesthetics, but everything else felt really flat.

What are the best films that you’ve seen this year?

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Will any of those movies make my list, you’ll have to see, but the big movies this year, for me, were primarily Marvel movies, and with #10MinMarvel podcast, I might like Marvel a little bit.

5 – Tucker & Dale vs Evil
What happens when a group of college students go out to a remote cabin to have a fun weekend? Clearly, the locals are going to attack them, but Tucker & Dale vs Evil does a fun twist on that. If you want a horror comedy film with some over the top deaths, this is a great film. Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk do amazing work in this film being the locals in this film, and how everything happens around them is great. I think that even if you don’t love horror, this is a film that it’s so on the edge of everything that you’ll like this film. If you do like horror, you’ll appreciate the tropes that they use throughout the film and how they subvert them often.

4 – Dog Soldier
Probably the least well known movie on my list, but one that I enjoy a lot. This is from Neil Marshall who directed the battle of the wall in Game of Thrones, or at least one of the episodes around that. He also has done The Descent which is really good as well, but Dog Soldier is my favorite. It’s not a big budget film, but it does horror well. What works well in this film is that it creates a limited area for the characters to interact with the world. So they are cut off, but more than that, they are stuck in a small area, and I think when horror films go too big with the world, it makes it less of a horror film, and that’s actually a trope that another film I like picks up on, see the honorable mentions below.

3 – John Wick
This was a new to me movie this year, and it was a lot of fun to binge through the series of movies quickly. But the first one is my favorite of them. The world in this movie and the sequels is cool, but what everyone is there for is the gun fu/gun kata action, and John Wick has some great action. There’s a scene at a club where there is a gun fight that goes across several floors and it works really really well. This film doesn’t have an extremely heavy plot, but it works well enough to get you into the action and Keanu Reeves is a lot of fun in this film. If you are looking for a straight up action film, this is one of the best that has come out recently.

2 – Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
I really enjoy this film in terms of a dumb pulp sort of film. You get a convoluted plot where you have a giant mystery that ties everything together. I really like the performances in this movie. Robert Downey Jr. does a great job especially in this film, and it’s before Iron Man. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is a lot of fun. It isn’t a deep film, but probably my most watched film of all time. I also like that this is a satire of the buddy cop genre of films as well, and done really well that way.

1 – Avengers: Infinity War
Now, as you’ve seen, I don’t have Endgame on the list. I think that the two movies are tied together so closely, that it felt a little bit odd putting them both on there. For me, Infinity War is the slightly better film. Some of it is that it doesn’t have that superhero ending, you end up in a bad place, and that is really interesting, without it being a super dark and depressing again, for a superhero movie. So you get something you’re very familiar with because it has that heroic feel, but at the same time, it subverts expectations. While it might not be the Marvel movie I want to watch the most, but for me, it’s the best Marvel movie.

There are so many good movies, I could easily do my top 5 Marvel movies and it would be pretty close to my top 5 movies of all time. I didn’t want to repeat anything on the list, but that’s what honorable mentions are for.

Honorable Mention:
Cabin in the Woods
Avengers: Endgame
Thor: Ragnorak
Dr. Strangelove
The Fifth Element
The Last Witch Hunter

As you can see, I really love the highly critically acclaimed movies, outside of superhero movies. My taste is really all over the place, but most of the time I just want to sit down an watch a movie that is fun, and not have to think about things too much, so that’s why t hings like The Fifth Element and The Last Witch Hunter make my list.

What are some of your favorite movies? Is there any crossover with my top 5 list?

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5- Cabin the Woods
This one falls into a lots of the categories. The story is fairly surreal, but works well in my opinion, as you get your standard cast of horror heroes, but the world of horror seems like it’s a little bit different than normal. I think this film really shines if you’re a fan of horror, because the easter eggs that are dropped in this film come on thick and the story pulls in many a trope. This film also does have a fair amount of gore, so that’s one of those things to watch out for if that’s the part of horror films that you might not like.

4- Descent
Another scary movie, this one is definitely a horror film in the truest sense and my second favorite Neil Marshall film. Descent puts you in that claustrophobic mindset and then there are things in the dark that you don’t know what they truly are. There is an American ending, because the other one was deemed too scary or sad or something like that, don’t watch the American ending, there is much more depth in the other one. And it really raises the creepy factor. It’s a movie that I need to watch again as I really remember it fondly.

3- Nightmare on Elm Street
Here’s that campy movie that we were looking for. Though, it’s only campy because of the age of the film. Wes Craven’s horror series, Nightmare on Elm Street stands up pretty well, and it’s very much a classic. Freddy Krueger is a very good villain and the concept of how he can get you works really well. And there are plenty more cheesy sequels to watch to this film, if you want. Another one that I should watch again as it’s been a while, and I have the great looking box set.

2- Tucker & Dale vs Evil
Yes, even more campy movies, this is just a straight up spoof of horror films while keeping in basically every horror trope that you’d expect. It would be easy to say that this is more comedy than it is a scary movie, but it definitely fits into that Halloween vibe as you see tropes get played out repeatedly, just with a slight twist on them. This film is probably the best for the non-horror fans on the list because it leans more into comedy, there is some gore again, but that is done for comedy as well.

1- Dog Soldiers
Neil Marshall is back on the list, and for me, this is his best film. It has a great amount of suspense, you don’t have your incompetent group of teens in this film, but it still feels tense the whole time. Like Descent, this film limits where the characters can go, and that just adds to the tension by a long ways. It’s also a werewolf film, and normally I’ve found those to not be that scary and more in the area of camp, but this movie is scary, and it does it while not having a ton of special effects or big names in it. I’d highly recommend this film as one of the better Halloween scary movies out there.

There are so many more movies I could have put on this list, maybe I’ll do a larger horror movie list at some point in time. I watched the “classic” My Name is Bruce recently, there are movies like Repulsion and The Fearless Vampire Killers that are great. And there are many more that I need to check out as well, such as having the original IT on the self and IT Chapter 1 that I could and should watch this Halloween season.

What are some films that really scream Halloween to you? Do you even like scary movies?

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