Fanboys Anonymous

Welcome to the seventh annual FANBOYS FILM AWARDS!

Based on the layout of last year's change to this segment, this will be acting more as a personal list of just the movies that I've seen this year, rather than something that attempts to focus specifically on the superhero film genre as originally conceived.

I invite everyone to join in on the fun by leaving their own lists and thoughts in the comments below to tell us what you watched this year!

FILMS THAT CAME OUT IN 2023 THAT I WATCHED:

65
A Haunting in Venice
The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Barbie
Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham
Blue Beetle
Cobweb
The Creator
Five Nights at Freddy's
The Flash
Godzilla Minus One
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Haunted Mansion
Hidden Strike
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
The Iron Claw
John Wick: Chapter 4
Justice League: Warworld
Knock at the Cabin
Leave the World Behind
M3gan
The Marvels
The Meg 2: The Trench
Merry Little Batman
Missing
Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match
Oppenheimer
The Pale Blue Eye
The Pope's Exorcist
Renfield
Saltburn
Saw X
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Talk to Me
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
They Cloned Tyrone
Vacation Friends 2
When Evil Lurks

FILMS THAT CAME OUT BEFORE 2023 THAT I WATCHED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2023:

28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
A House on the Bayou
Above the Law
Amber Alert
Attachment (2022)
Beverly Hills Cop
Beverly Hills Cop 2
Beverly Hills Cop 3
Big Money Rustlas
Big Trouble in Little China
The Birdcage
Black Rain
Bloodsport
Breaking
Cape Fear
Cobra
Coherence
Con Air
Conan the Destroyer
The Condemned
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
Darkman
Dead Man Walking
Double Impact
Escape from LA
Escape from New York
Fire Down Below
The Fly
The Glimmer Man
The Goonies
Hard Target
Hard to Kill
Highlander
The Humans
Hypnotic
I See You
Insidious: Chapter 3
John Wick
John Wick: Chapter 2
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
Kickboxer
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Lionheart
The Lost Boys
Lost Girls
Marcel the Shell with Shoes on
Marked for Death
Masters of the Universe
The Meg
On Deadly Ground
Out for Justice
Over the Top
The Patriot (1998)
The Princess Bride
The Producers (2005)
Radius
Raw Deal
Red Sonja
Road House
The Shadow
Soft & Quiet
Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie
Under Siege
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
Universal Soldier
Wall Street
Wet Hot American Summer
Whiplash
White Lie

BEST / FAVORITE MOVIES OF THE YEAR

I'm not sure I would call any of the movies this year S-tier in the sense that they'd be absolute top of the line all-time favorites, except maybe one closing in on that range (but even then, you'll see where it eventually goes on my 2020s My Favorite Movies of the Decade list:

• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
  

Other A-tier type films (roughly an 8/10) from this year would be:

• Godzilla Minus One
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
• The Iron Claw
  
• John Wick: Chapter 4
• Knock at the Cabin
• Oppenheimer
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie
• They Cloned Tyrone
  
• If we're not limiting it to 2023, then we can throw in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, the other three John Wick films as well as Marcel the Shell with Shoes on, The Princess Bride and Wet Hot American Summer in my list of movies I most enjoyed watching this year.
• Technically, I watched Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Dream Scenario and The Holdovers after January 1, 2024, but they came out in 2023 and it's so close that I feel like I should shout them out here. Holdovers is fantastic and would be in that A+ tier. Dream and D&D would be in the B-tier.
  

B-tier (roughly a 7/10) would be:

• A Haunting in Venice
• Barbie
• Haunted Mansion
• Renfield
  
• Saltburn

C-tier (roughly a 6/10) would be:

• Leave the World Behind
• M3gan
• Missing
• Talk to Me
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
  

D-tier (roughly a 5/10 and the cutoff of what I mostly enjoyed) would be:

• 65
• Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
• Blue Beetle
• Cobweb
• Five Nights at Freddy's
• The Flash
• The Marvels
• When Evil Lurks
  

Beyond that point, all the other movies listed above on my watch list would be E-tier or lower, and there isn't much of a reason to rank them, as they were all disappointing if not horrible.

WORST / LEAST FAVORITE MOVIES OF THE YEAR

• I watched a lot of horror movies that I never would have seen just because my wife is super into them. The vast majority of those movies were on my worst of the year, easily, like The Pope's Exorcist.
• On my own accord, though, I did watch some awful superhero films like Justice League: Warworld and Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham, which I just didn't dig. In particular, Warworld was atrocious. Easily my least favorite movie of the year from the new releases. Majorly disappointing.
  
• I also watched a lot of really awful 80s action movies for the pure sake of enjoying their cheesy terrible nature. Naturally, all of them were just so, so bad. One of the worst was Steven Seagal's The Patriot. Woof. But across the board, look at how many of those I watched this year, like The Lost Boys and Universal Soldier, as well as how many newer bad action movies I watched for the same reason of laughing at it, like The Meg 2 and Hidden Strike.
  
• The first movie I had watched, during New Year's Eve, was The Shadow, which set the tone for all those bad action flicks, as that was AWFUL, but I knew it would be a mess.
• The Birdcage was painfully unfunny and slow and boring. Very disappointing.
  
• Vacation Friends 2 was also a misfire, particularly after I thought the first one was funnier than I had anticipated.
  

BEST ACTOR

WINNER = Barry Keoghan (Saltburn)

EXPLANATION = I won't spoil the movie. Just watch it.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Dave Bautista (Knock at the Cabin), Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)

BEST ACTRESS

WINNER = Margot Robbie (Barbie)

EXPLANATION = Honestly, I don't know if I'd even go so far as to say this was a top of the line performance, but for what they were trying to do, Margot Robbie pulled it off so well.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = I'm drawing a blank, to be honest. Nobody stood out.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

WINNER = Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)

EXPLANATION = While I can't attest to him doing a great portrayal in terms of historical accuracy, as I'm just not aware of Strauss beyond this, Downey was a standout among a huge cast of great actors. That's saying a lot.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Holt McCallany (The Iron Claw), Mads Mikkelsen (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), Jamie Foxx (They Cloned Tyrone), Ryan Gosling (Barbie)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

WINNER = Rosamund Pike (Saltburn)

EXPLANATION = Once she's introduced, she steals every scene.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Amie Donald (M3GAN), Da'Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers), Michelle Pfeiffer (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), Iman Vellani (The Marvels)

BEST STORY

This is an alternative to Best Adapted/Original Screenplay where the execution of the overall product might not be the equivalent of Best Picture, but the idea was there.

WINNER = Saltburn

EXPLANATION = I almost gave this to Knock at the Cabin, but the other honorable mentions are pretty by the numbers tales. Saltburn is the most out there of the bunch, and overall, the one that I'd have the most fun explaining to someone if they asked for a breakdown. Also, it took me by surprise more than any of the other films.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = The Flash, Godzilla Minus One, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Holdovers, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Knock at the Cabin, Renfield, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

MOST FAITHFUL ADAPTATION

Which movie felt like it was the most honorable to the source material it was trying to represent?

WINNER = Godzilla Minus One

EXPLANATION = Basically, what do you get when you remake the original film, but update it with some more modern approaches and tweak the story to make it way better. Everything about it is an adaptation made with love, though, rather than the vibe of "new and different and better than that crap from the past" like the approach other franchises have taken. They have a similar look to Godzilla, they reincorporated the classic theme song, and even did similar story beats. Awesome job.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Saw X, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Super Mario Bros. Movie

BEST VISUALS

This covers special effects, cinematography, production design and even editing.

WINNER = Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

EXPLANATION = At times, it can be a bit of a mess. Maybe too much. But generally speaking, more artistry and effort was put into this film's little details than most other movies give to their big sequences.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = The Creator, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Godzilla Minus One

BEST ACTION SET PIECES

This honors the stunt work as well as the choreography and idea of an action sequence.

WINNER = Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

EXPLANATION = Again, like the visuals, it can be a bit too much at times, but you're strapped in for a wild ride from start to finish and the depth of the action outclasses everything else going on in the other films.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Godzilla Minus One, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Renfield

BEST CHARACTER DESIGN

This combines makeup, costumes and the CGI build of characters.

WINNER = Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

EXPLANATION = By sheer volume alone, right? Not that the other movies in the honorable mentions don't have a ton of characters, too, but still.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Barbie, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Renfield, The Super Mario Bros. Movie

BEST MUSIC

This category examines both the score and the soundtrack.

WINNER = Oppenheimer

EXPLANATION = So good. I don't know if anything on this soundtrack beats the "Resolution" track from Godzilla Minus One, but as a collective goes, the overall score from Oppenheimer is the best.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Godzilla Minus One, The Super Mario Bros. Movie

TELL US YOUR LIST IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!