Top 5 Films of 2018

Well the sun is about to set on another year at the movies. Hollywood had another record-breaking year thanks to blockbusters like Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Incredibles 2.

As usual I did my part, catching a couple dozen in the theater and on video, although I didn't see everything I wanted to (If Beale Street Could Talk, Roma, Stan & Ollie and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse). But I was able to piece together some semblance of a Best Of list for the year. Below you'll find my Top 5 films of 2018 (the ones I saw anyway).

1. A Quiet Place: This nearly wordless little thriller from John Krasinski was not only the sleeper hit of 2018 but easily the most enjoyable piece of cinema this year. Just 90 minutes of jolts, gasps and pure delight.

2. Bohemian Rhapsody: Great music, a revealing story and Rami Malek hitting one out of the park as Freddie Mercury kept a smile on my face from start to finish.

3. Isle of Dogs: Wes Anderson's latest was the talented auteur's most ambitious and wildly conceived film to date, with more characters you could wiggle a chew toy at and scratching me right where I itched.

4. A Star is Born: Caught this one after the hype had worn down and you know what: it was actually pretty darn good. Nice performances by Bradley Cooper & Gaga, good music, sad ending. The things Oscar dreams are made of.

5. Juliet, Naked: This adaptation of Nick Hornby's 2009 novel concerning an English couple and their relationship/obsession with an erstwhile American folk singer was an absolute joy to watch unfold onscreen, featuring fine performances by Ethan Hawke, Rose Byrne and even Chris O'Dowd (finally something I liked the guy in).

Rounding Out the Top 10: 6. Black Panther/Avengers: Infinity War 7. Christopher Robin 8. The Favourite 9. Puzzle 10. Leave No Trace

Happy New Year!

Still Believing A Man Can Fly: 40 Years of Superman: The Movie

Ah, Christmastime 1978. I had just turned eight, was a few months into second grade. Star Wars was more than a year and half old but its presence was still everywhere that holiday season, especially in the toy aisles where all those glorious action figures, vehicles and playsets had been trickling in throughout the year. The original Battlestar Galactica was just rounding the corner on its third month of must-watch Sunday-night TV and after months of being told "You Will Believe A Man Can Fly," Superman: The Movie was finally set to soar into theaters worldwide.

Like most kids my age, I'd spent the last few years reading Superman comics (Supes vs. Muhammad Ali, anyone?) and enjoying both the Super Friends on Saturday mornings and old '50s episodes of the Adventures of Superman after school, so the prospect of a big-budget Man of Steel movie, complete with Star Wars-like effects and music, was more than enough to get me to a theater opening weekend.

My mom and I caught it that first Saturday as a matinee at one of the larger, Dolby-equipped theaters in the area and as soon as that goosebump-inducing John Williams score began to play over that thundering opening-credit sequence I was hooked on the last son of Krypton's journey to Earth to fight for truth, justice and the American way.

For the next two and half hours I gleefully watched as Superman rescued Lois Lane from a dangling helicopter, saved a lighting-disabled Air Force One, tussled with a pair of nuclear missiles and reversed the rotation of the earth to cancel out a devastating earthquake. Oh, I believed a man could fly and spent the rest of the weekend proving it around the house, begging my mom for a red cape.

Superman: The Movie opened on December 15, 1978 and nabbed nearly $44 million in its first 18 days of release, a then-record, finishing with a worldwide theatrical take over $300 million, becoming the sixth highest-grossing film of all time. The film garnered three Oscar nominations, winning a Special Achievement Academy Award for Visual Effects.

Its success spawned three sequels in nine years and made a household name of actor Christopher Reeve, a six-foot-four, Julliard-trained talent who would go on to star in dozens of films over the next 15-plus years but would always be remembered as the one, true Man of Steel.

40 years later Superman: The Movie remains the gold standard for superhero films, a glowing testament to the humanity, humor and heart infused by director Richard Donner, stars Reeve, Marot Kidder, Gene Hackman and composer Williams.

I screen it every couple of years and regularly spin the soundtrack on quiet Saturday afternoons. It always takes me back to those magical years of the late '70s/early '80s when anything seemed possible: a galaxy, far, far away, an abandoned alien hiding in your backyard or believing a man can fly.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Five Autumn Films Worth Falling For

Did you have a good summer? Well Hollywood sure did, as rising temperatures and a bevy of sequels drove folks to the movies over the last four months, allowing the industry a healthy 14 percent increase over 2017, the worst May-August period in over a decade.

As usual, I caught a few of them and as usual nothing really stayed with me, although I did enjoy Christopher Robin. Now comes the time for more character-driven, thought-provoking fare, the films that will ultimately carry us to awards season come January. In other words, the flicks for boring old fogies like me.

In all, the studios will trot out more than 100 films between now and Christmas. Below are my five fall flicks worth leaving the house for.

The Sisters Brothers: An arthouse Western with John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix as Gold Rush contract killers? Even the wife is willing to try this one in the theater. (Today)

First Man: Damien Chazelle's follow-up to La La Land tells the story of Neil Armstrong and the Apollo moon landing. This one looks like The Right Stuff for a new generation, just as long as lead Ryan Gosling doesn't break into "City of Stars" after that "giant leap for mankind." (Oct. 12)

Bohemian Rhapsody: Although director Bryan Singer was fired before production was completed, you only need see the trailer for this Freddie Mercury/Queen biopic to know that we're in for one hell of a ride and that star Rami Malick will have a reserved seat at the Oscars come February. (Nov. 2)

Widows: It's been five years since 12 Years a Slave and director Steve McQueen returns with a Chicago-set, politically charged heist film concerning a fallen crew and the wives who pick up where they left off. Works for me. (November 16)

Welcome to Marwen: Robert Zemeckis' tale of a victimized artist (Steve Carell) who creates a miniature land and introduces it to the world through photographs may sound like a bit of a snoozer, but I innately know a film from the director of Back to the Future and Forrest Gump will prove to be anything but. (Dec. 21)

Five More That Should Be On Your Radar: A Star is Born (Oct. 5); Galveston (Oct. 19); Halloween (Oct. 19); Outlaw King (Nov. 9); Creed II (Nov. 21)

Remembering Burt Reynolds

As a child of the 1970s, I never knew a world without Burt Reynolds....until yesterday.

I'm pretty sure the first time I ever saw the charismatic, mustached leading man was as bootlegger Bo Darville in 1977's Smokey and the Bandit.

I was six and as usual on Saturday afternoons my mom and I caught a movie after our weekly errands. She loved both Burt (said he reminded her of my dad) and Sally Field (they were born in the same year) so I really didn't have a choice on what flick we were catching that opening weekend. But the preview promised plenty of car chases and laughs so I was game and by the end of the film I became a life-long fan of the smooth-talking smart aleck with the devilish grin and one-of-a-kind laugh.

The next year came Hooper, then Smokey and the Bandit II and the Cannonball Run films. They were fun, often silly, usually politically incorrect and I loved each and every one of them. Still do.

Not every Burt film carried a PG rating when I was a kid but I usually found a way to catch gritty adult titles like Sharky's Machine (an ON-TV staple a buddy and I watched incessantly after school) and Stick (a New Year's Eve VHS rental my mom was more than willing to sanction).

By the late '80s Burt's star had begun to fade, but I was always interested in what he was doing. Whether he was playing an aging safecracker in the character-driven Breaking In, Wood Newton in the CBS series Evening Shade, Jack Horner in Boogie Nights or Vic Edwards in this year's The Last Movie Star, I kept tabs on Burt Reynolds and was always glad to see him staying relevant, still making people smile.

Burt Reynolds was one of a kind, not just an actor, but a personality. Someone who indelibly weaves themselves into the fabric of society and our lives. And when we lose them, it's like losing a piece of ourselves. But at least we still have his films to help us fill that void. The Last Movie Star, indeed.

Quick Flick Review: Mission: Impossible: Fallout

Mission: Impossible: Fallout contains all the thrilling prerequisite stunt pieces we've come to expect over the franchise's 22-year run. But when it comes to filling the space between the action, it's just another been-there-done-that, highly convoluted storyline we won't remember a thing about in three months time.

No, it seems pretty apparent that the only reason to keep crawling back into the trenches with Ethan Hunt is to see how 56-year-old star-turned-stuntman Tom Cruise will risk his life next for our amusement. Grade: B-

Quick Blu Review: Isle of Dogs

Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs is the talented auteur's 's most ambitious and wildly conceived creation to date, a film brimming with ideas and more characters you can wiggle a chew toy at.

Like Anderson's marvelous 2009 endeavor The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Dogs was shot using stop-motion animation and unfolds in a near-future Japan where dogs have been banished to an island of refuse by the totalitarian mayor of Megasaki City after an outbreak of canine flu.

Most of the furry friends move in packs and the one driving this story consists of Chief (Bryan Cranston), Rex (Edward Norton), King (Bob Balaban), Boss (Bill Murray) and Duke (Jeff Goldblum).

When the mayor's young ward Atari Kobayashi crash lands on the island in search of his lost canine bodyguard Spots, the rag-tag group of mutts agree to help the boy in his quest and get caught up in a revolt to reclaim their man's-best-friend status.

Newly released on home video by 20th Century Fox, Dogs looks great on Blu. Presented in its native 2.35:1 aspect ratio, interiors and cityscapes are vibrant and crisp, with the island locales menacing and gritty.

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 Audio track sounds great and both dialog and Alexandre Desplat's score are clear and robust at minimum levels.

Extras include a still gallery, theatrical trailer and six short promotional features, the best of which is Isle of Dogs Cast where the stars talk about their characters in the form of the dogs they play. Very funny.

Isle of Dogs is classic Wes Anderson, packed with all the sumptuous visuals and irreverent wit we've come to love over the filmmaker's 20-year career. While there are a lot of characters and ideas to wade through at times, Anderson continues to put a smile on our faces with every unique story only he can tell. Grade: B+

Oscar Predictions

Below are my picks in the major categories for Sunday's 90th Annual Academy Awards. Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water leads the field with 13 nominations and seems to be the consensus pick to duke it out with Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri for Best Picture. But I have a feeling Get Out may just prove to be this year's Moonlight. We shall see. Enjoy the show.

Picture: Get Out
Director: Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
Actor: Gary Oldman, The Darkest Hour
Actress: Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Supporting Actress: Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Original Screenplay: Jordan Peele, Get Out
Adapted Screenplay: James Ivory, Call Me by Your Name