Fanboys Anonymous

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 2020

1. Sonic the Hedgehog
2. A Quiet Place Part II
3. Superman: Man of Tomorrow
4. Peninsula
5. Nine Days
   
6. Soul
7. Justice League Dark: Apokolips War
8. Wonder Woman 1984
9. Palm Springs
10. Tenet
11. The Devil All the Time
    

The only movie I really took away from this year loving for the most part was Sonic the Hedgehog. Then again, this was the year of a full-blown shutdown with movies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost nothing came out.

That's why you'll see something like Tenet here, which I didn't even really like. But holy shit did I still overall appreciate it more than Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) which just actively pissed me off, or The New Mutants, which was about as terrible of a pilot episode of a CW reject show as you could get.

Blind Spot Movies = Guns Akimbo, Mulan, Project Power and more.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 2021

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home
2. Zack Snyder's Justice League
3. The Suicide Squad
4. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 
5. Ghostbusters: Afterlife
6. No Time to Die
7. Black Widow
8. Nobody
9. Godzilla vs. Kong
10. Free Guy
11. Venom: Let There Be Carnage
12. The King's Man
    
13. Batman: The Long Halloween (Part One and Part Two)
14. Red Notice
    

With more movies coming back into theaters this year, you can see the big difference. This year actually had some heavy hitters and some genuinely fun movies I'll be watching for years to come.

No Way Home was a wild ride. Zack Snyder's Justice League is certainly way better than the Joss Whedon cut. The Suicide Squad follows that format in being a massive improvement. And Shang-Chi was one of the best parts of this phase of the MCU.

I really enjoyed some of what Ghostbusters: Afterlife had to offer, even though it is a shell of the first movie and falls short of the second by a mile, too.

Black Widow was disappointing, as was Free Guy and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and even The King's Man, but I still enjoyed them.

If we're talking disappointments, though, No Time to Die......but it is still a James Bond film, so it gets some priority placement.

Shout out to some movies like Ron's Gone Wrong and Mass and Encanto that don't make the cut, and a surprise in Vacation Friends that I enjoyed more than I thought I would.

Blind Spot Movies = National Champions, The Protege and more.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 2022

1. The Batman
2. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
3. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
4. Bullet Train
5. Everything Everywhere All At Once
6. The Menu
7. Nope
8. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
9. Top Gun: Maverick
10. Prey
11. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
12. Thor: Love and Thunder
    
13. Clerks III
    
14. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
15. The Black Phone
    
16. The Bad Guys
    
17. DC League of Super-Pets
18. Jackass Forever
19. Amsterdam
20. Jurassic World Dominion
21. The Adam Project
    
22. Lightyear
23. Death on the Nile
    

Great stuff in the top three, with Bullet Train just narrowly behind. That was a blast to sit through. As was Everything Everywhere All at Once even though I think that won't be the type of movie I want to sit down and watch here and there on a whim.

I really enjoyed The Menu and Nope, and was surprisingly thumbs up on Top Gun: Maverick, as well as Prey. Obviously. These movies were rock solid. And Sonic 2 was good, but I think the first was better. The same goes for Glass Onion. And for how Thor: Love and Thunder went WAY too far into the ridiculous aspects that I still think were a little overbearing in Ragnarok, even.

I was disappointed in Clerks III. I was surprised by how fun Weird: The Al Yankovic Story was. Also, The Black Phone did its job. But a movie like that isn't going to be a favorite of mine, nor will Amsterdam or the others in gray. So while I appreciate a movie for having a great performance like The Whale, I'm not going to rewatch it.

Boy did Black Adam and Morbius suck. Yikes.

Blind Spot Movies = The 355, Ambulance, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Outfit, Turning Red and more.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 2023

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
2. Godzilla Minus One
3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
4. The Holdovers
5. The Iron Claw
6. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
7. The Super Mario Bros. Movie
8. They Cloned Tyrone
9. Knock at the Cabin
10. John Wick: Chapter 4
11. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
    
12. The Flash
13. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
14. Oppenheimer
15. Saltburn
16. Barbie
17. Dream Scenario
18. Leave the World Behind
19. Renfield
20. A Haunting in Venice
21. The Marvels
22. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
23. M3gan
24. Missing
25. Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
26. Haunted Mansion
27. Blue Beetle
28. The Zone of Interest
29. What You Wish For
    
30. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
    
31. Merry Little Batman
32. The Creator
33. Shazam! Fury of the Gods
34. Talk to Me
35. 65
36. Saw X
37. When Evil Lurks
38. Paradise
39. All of Us Strangers
    
40. Cobweb
41. Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match
42. The Meg 2: The Trench
43. Five Nights at Freddy's
44. Vacation Friends 2
45. The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
46. The Pale Blue Eye
47. Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham
48. The Pope's Exorcist
49. Hidden Strike
50. Justice League: Warworld

Considering how many comic book films were underwhelming this year, and how a few other movies were surprisingly higher up than I anticipated, this is not at all the list that I was expecting heading into 2023, that's for sure!

Across the Spider-Verse was naturally awesome. Godzilla was SO good, which blew my mind. GOTG wasn't as good as the first, but I think there are elements that are better than the second, and it was a good way to finish the trilogy. I don't have an attachment to Indiana Jones in the same way some others do when they saw the first three as kids, but I did enjoy Dial of Destiny quite a bit, even if it feels a bit unnecessary in the grand scheme.

Holdovers and Oppenheimer are the two "best" movies of the year in terms of Oscar caliber Best Picture nominations, with Saltburn just behind them. I enjoyed Barbie while watching it, but the more I think about it after the fact, the less staying power it has. I can't imagine watching it a second time.

Knock at the Cabin was a very early "wow" for me that eventually was just overtaken by other movies, but for a while, sat at the top of the list.

When you tap into my childhood and you do a pretty good job at pulling it off, I have to give a thumbs up to Super Mario and TMNT, although while Mario far exceeds its 90s movie precursor, Mutant Mayhem is a shell of the 1990 Ninja Turtles film, which remains one of my favorites of all time.

The Marvels, The Flash, Shazam, Quantumania, Blue Beetle...what are we doing? Woof. The general idea was that all of these movies had some good ideas and some potential, but just weren't good. The execution was just not what it could have been. Frankly, I'm being kinder to some of them than I would be if they were the exact same films, but of a different genre. They're lucky I love superhero flicks. Unless it was Justice League: Warworld, which was just beyond dissatisfying.

Renfield was fun, as was Haunted Mansion and M3GAN, for random examples. I even enjoyed Talk to Me more than most horror films. The Creator was a bust, though. Very disappointing.

Blind Spot Movies = Beau is Afraid, Eileen, Rebel Moon and more.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 2024

1. Civil War
2. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
3. Deadpool and Wolverine
4. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
5. My Old Ass
   
6. Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One
7. Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three
   
8. A Quiet Place: Day One
9. Late Night with the Devil
10. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
11. Alien: Romulus
12. Blink Twice
    
13. Saturday Night
    
14. Kraven the Hunter
15. Venom: The Last Dance
16. Abigail
    
17. Challengers
18. Conclave
19. Humane
20. Monkey Man
    
21. Never Let Go
    
22. It's What's Inside
    
23. Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Two
    
24. Cuckoo
25. Speak No Evil
26. Carry-On
    
27. Heretic
28. Exhuma
    
29. Transformers One
    
30. Twisters
31. Y2K
32. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
    
33. Gladiator II
34. Nosferatu
35. Maxxine
36. The Park Maniac (Maníaco do Parque)
37. Ricky Stanicky
    
38. Joker: Folie à Deux
39.  Beekeeper
40. Argylle
41. Road House 
42. Trap
    
43. Immaculate
44. The I.S.S.
45. Longlegs
    
46. Imaginary
47. Oddity
    
48. The Front Room
    
49. The First Omen
50. Madame Web
    

Overall, I was quite disappointed with this year. A film like Civil War (which I'm disappointed to see was more prophetic than I expected in real life...) isn't something I'll ever want to watch again, but it's the one film I would suggest for Best Picture that I've seen. Even something like Saturday Night was fun for its impressions, but the film itself isn't something I can praise to the heavens. For Challengers to be one of the stronger films of the year is not putting this on par with 1994 or whatever.

As a comic book type movie fan geek, we had some solid things like Deadpool and Wolverine, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Ghostbusters, Godzilla x Kong, but those are the best ones, and even those aren't SUPER high up on my list for a lot of reasons. For instance, Deadpool ranks #28 right now on my all-time MCU ranking, rather than something monumental like a top 10. That's in part because we had less MCU projects and instead, THREE different Sony films. That means when Kraven is the best between Venom: The Last Dance and the atrocious Madame Web, but we ALSO had the extremely disappointing Joker: Folie a Deux...yikes. At least Alien: Romulus  was solid, but I'm not the biggest fan of that franchise enough for that to measure up as much to me as Marvel and DC projects and other things from my childhood like Beetlejuice and Ghostbusters and Godzilla would.

Twisters and Gladiator II and Transformers One and so on were nostalgic-esque, but again, didn't hit super well. I always thought the first Gladiator was overrated and I was never particularly gaga over Twister back in the day. Transformers One had the most horrendous exposition-based dialogue in a film I think I've ever seen.

Most of this year's list of new films felt very generic. Ricky Stanicky is just John Cena doing the same character he's done in Vacation Friends and we've seen in plenty other films. It's an attempt at doing early 2000s comedies. Y2K felt like it would've been better off coming out 10+ years ago, too. Beekeeper is a generic Jason Statham thing. Every single horror film my wife wanted me to see felt like it was just a modern indie flick with that pompous air about itself, or it was just as generic as the redo of the action films. I've seen how many movies exactly like Immaculate now? Even the semi-decent ones like Cuckoo and Never Let Go just didn't wow me as much as even Knock at the Cabin did last year. I did dig some aspects of Late Night with the Devil, though, and Abigail was fun to watch with people and chuckle about.

Conclave was by the numbers and I wanted something more out of it. I did dig My Old Ass way more than I thought I would. But holy shit was Argylle a disappointment, and Trap really did trap me into thinking it could be good, only to be 1/3 interesting, 2/3 other shitty movie. Some movies like Blink Twice and Humane made for interesting watches, but I do hope that we see these 2024 movies fall significantly down the Top of the 2020s decade list because it means 2025 has so much more to offer.

Blind Spot Movies = The Fall Guy, IF, Inside Out 2, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Megalopolis, Moana 2, Mufasa: The Lion King, Paddington in Peru, Red One, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, The Substance, The Watchers and more.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS OF 2025

This year is obviously ongoing, so my list will be adjusted here and there as I see more movies.

1. Companion
2. Presence
   

Here's hoping this is a great year for movies that makes it tough to just pick only 10!

TOP 10+ FAVORITE FILMS OF 2020s DECADE (so far)
BONUS ROUND

1. Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
2. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
3. The Batman (2022)
4. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
   
5. The Suicide Squad (2021)
6. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
7. Civil War (2024)
   
8. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
   
9. Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
10. Godzilla Minus One (2023)
    
11. The Holdovers (2023)
12. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings  (2021)
13. Bullet Train (2022)
14. Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
15. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
16. Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)
17. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
18. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
19. Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
20. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
21. Batman: The Long Halloween (Part One and Part Two) (2021)
22. Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020)
23. The Menu (2022)
24. Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020)
25. No Time to Die (2021)
26. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) 
27. Companion (2025)
    
28. They Cloned Tyrone (2023)
29. Nope (2022)
30. Prey (2022) 
31. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
32. Knock at the Cabin (2023)
33. John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
34. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
    
35. The Flash (2023) 
36. The Iron Claw (2023) 
37. My Old Ass (2024)
    
38. Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
39. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
    
40. Saltburn (2023)
41. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
42. Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One (2024)
43. Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three (2024)
44. Nine Days (2020)
    
45. Nobody (2021)
46. A Quiet Place Part II (2020)
47. Renfield (2023)
48. Soul (2020)
49. Oppenheimer (2023)
50. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)
    
51. Dream Scenario (2023)
52. Barbie (2023)
53. A Haunting in Venice (2023)
54. Death on the Nile (2022)
55. Black Widow (2021)
56. The Marvels (2023)
57. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
58. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
59. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)
60. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)
61. M3gan (2023)
62. Free Guy (2021)
63. Clerks III (2022)
64. Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
65. Peninsula (2020)
66. The Black Phone (2022)
67. Palm Springs (2020)
68. Blink Twice (2024)
    
69. The Bad Guys (2022)
70. Leave the World Behind (2023)
71. Missing (2023)
72. Alien: Romulus (2024)
73. Saturday Night (2024)
    
74. Kraven the Hunter (2024)
    
75. Venom: The Last Dance (2024)
76. Talk to Me (2023)
    
77. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
78. Haunted Mansion (2023)
79. The King's Man (2021)
80. A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
81. DC League of Super-Pets (2022)
82. Jackass Forever (2022)
83. Amsterdam (2022)
84. Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
85. Abigail (2024)
    
86. Red Notice (2021)
87. Late Night with the Devil (2024)
    
88. Challengers (2024)
89. The Adam Project (2022)
90. Blue Beetle (2023)
91. The Zone of Interest (2023)
92. What You Wish For (2023)
    
93. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)
    
94. Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
95. Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Two (2024)
96. Tenet (2020)
    
97. Vacation Friends (2021)
98. 65 (2023)
99. Conclave (2024)
100. Presence (2025)
     
101. Humane (2024)
     
102. Monkey Man (2024)
     
103. Never Let Go (2024) 
104. It's What's Inside (2024)
     
105. Cuckoo (2024) 
106. Speak No Evil (2024)
107. Heretic (2024)
108. Carry-On (2024)
109. Exhuma (2024)
     
110. Transformers One (2024)
     
111. Twisters (2024)
112. Y2K (2024)
     
113. Ricky Stanicky (2024)
     
114. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
115. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
     
116. The Park Maniac (Maníaco do Parque) (2024)
     
117. Gladiator II (2024)
118. Nosferatu (2024)
119. Maxxine (2024)
     
120.  Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)
     
121. Lightyear (2022)
122. Merry Little Batman (2023)
     
123. Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match (2023)
     
124. Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)
125. Trap (2024)
     
126. Immaculate (2024)
127. Saw X (2023)
128. Beekeeper (2024)
     
129. Argylle (2024)
130. Road House (2024)
131. The I.S.S. (2024)
132. Cobweb (2023)
133. Longlegs (2024)
     
134. Imaginary (2024)
135. Oddity (2024)
     
136. The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023)
137. When Evil Lurks (2023)
138. The Creator (2023)
139. The Meg 2: The Trench (2023)
140. Vacation Friends 2 (2023)
141. The Front Room (2024)
     
142. The First Omen (2024)
     
143. Madame Web (2024)
     
144. The Pale Blue Eye (2023)
145. The Pope's Exorcist (2023)
146. Hidden Strike (2023)
147. Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (2023)
148.  Justice League: Warworld (2023)
149. **** Pending additions, removals and adjustments upon future extra viewings
     

Obviously, this decade list is a work in progress. I'll be updating it every few months or so, any time I remember to put in a new film that I've liked enough to put somewhere on the list.

What are your favorite movies from every year?
Drop your thoughts in the comments below!