Jeff D Lowe's 2018 Movie Rankings: 071-90 (Bohemian Rhapsody, Ocean's 8 and Wreck-It Ralph 2)

Jeff D Lowe 1/27/2019 10:45 PM

2018 MOVIE RANKINGS LINKS:
Day 1: 191-205 (Bottom 5)
Day 2: 171-190
Day 3: 151-170
Day 4: 131-150
Day 5: 111-130
Day 6: 091-110

Since 2006, I have been rating every movie I see throughout the year on a 0-100 scale. I have a methodology that I have laid out before and can put at the bottom of this post. Starting today, and lasting until January 31st, I will be counting down my 2018 movie rankings from number 205 all the way to the number one top spot! For the next two weeks, I will be doing two sets of movies per day and then finishing with 10 per day. Today’s rankings will cover movies 071 through 090. Enjoy!

071-080: I have to break off this section into two paragraphs, because one of the movies in this group of 10 was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars and won Best Picture, Drama at the Golden Globes. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is by no means a terrible movie whatsoever and Rami Malek turned in a pretty good performance as Freddie Mercury. But holy hell, this movie has no business being recognized as one of the best movies of the year. It says nothing of note and the movie itself did nothing ground-break or memorable. I have written about this a few times in my review of the movie and my post-Golden Globes reaction. Please Academy, do not give this movie any more awards.

We’ve hit the area of the rankings where I like every movie more than I dislike it. These movies (69/100 or higher) are Officially Buttered on the Lights, Camera, Barstool scale, meaning I would recommend giving these a watch at some point. ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ was a good movie at times but a pretty large step down from its predecessor. ‘Adrift’ didn’t do anything groundbreaking, but I always enjoy Shailene Woodley in movies that aren’t from that terrible ‘Divergent’ series she had to be in. ‘Boy Erased’ was well-acted but really failed to drive anything home with any powerful or relatable emotion. I felt ‘Overlord’ was as good as a Nazi-zombie-war movie could be, and had a fun time with it, while ‘Christopher Robin’ supplied enough delight to pass as a pretty good live-action Winnie the Pooh movie (the CGI characters looked amazing). ‘Final Portrait’ was boring in spots, but I quite liked the chemistry between Geoffrey Rush and Armie Hammer. Rosamund Pike’s incredible performance in ‘A Private War’ is a great reason to see the movie and the inspiring real-life story of war correspondent Marie Colvin is another. The dark-comedy drama ‘Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot’ is a movie by Amazon Studios that I am pretty sure not many people saw, but one that I liked a decent amount. I have a pretty large Joaquin Phoenix bias, but I felt overall that the cast, which includes Phoenix, Jonah Hill, Rooney Mara, Jack Black, and Carrie Brownstein, was a great draw.

081-090: Only two movies in this group, ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ and ‘Den of Thieves’, misses the Officially Buttered mark. ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ was supposed to be an Oscars season darling… until it wasn’t. It’s just a very interesting movie story-telling wise, which is such a shame considering the dynamite combo of Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan that leads the movie. Speaking of dynamite, ‘Den of Thieves’ is a heist thriller with many bangs and it appears that I enjoyed it more than most critics and audience members did. It’s a bit silly-serious and clunky, but the action and thrills were good enough where they have me thinking there’s a chance I’d watch it again as a turn-your-brain-off cable TV movie. When it comes to squandering a good cast, ‘Ocean’s Eight’ deserves a tip of the cap. The actresses in the movie turned in great performances considering they were given a pretty basic script and a story that relied far too much on referencing ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ rather than being something completely different. Surprisingly, ‘Instant Family’ was a funny movie at times and didn’t fall victim to the post-2010 comedy movie curse. There is nothing ground-breaking about animated-winter movies ‘Smallfoot’ (James Corden!!! LeBron James???) or ‘The Grinch’, but they both pass as more-than-watchable for both kids and adults. ‘Beautiful Boy’ is very well acted, especially from the likes of Timothee Chalamet, but the story, a story centering around addiction, packs almost no emotional punch or weight. The message and lessons aren’t driven home nearly as much as they are in the more well-received ‘A Star Is Born’.

2018 MOVIE RANKINGS LINKS:
Day 1: 191-205 (Bottom 5)
Day 2: 171-190
Day 3: 151-170
Day 4: 131-150
Day 5: 111-130
Day 6: 091-110

Movie Rating System Explained

First off, you can come to your final 0-100 score any way you’d like. But I figured people would like to see the process we use for the podcast. I hate Rotten Tomatoes’ scoring system. It’s shit, skewed and wrongly affects the way people make judgments on new movies. A 99% doesn’t mean it is an A+ 99/100, it just means 99% of critics thought it was at least slightly more good than it was not good. So, basically, 99% of people viewed it in the 70/100 range. The real rating, which they bury under the percentage, could very well be a 7.0/10 for a movie with a 99% critics score. ‘Lady Bird’ is the best example from recent years, as many people felt the 99% was too high. In reality, the real rating given by critics was 8.7/10. The goal of our 0-100 rating system is to not be misleading, give a definitive score and allow you to differentiate between everything that is out there to see. Okay, end rant, let’s get to my explainer:

1) Rate the movie on a scale of 0-80 for your first number
2) Give either 0 or 1 point for the following categories:
– Acting
– Character
– Cinematography
– Execution
– Music
– Originality
– Pacing
– Script/Screenplay
– Special Effects
– Story
3) Combine your scores from steps 1 and 2
4) The max score in step 3 should be a 90
5) If the movie hits a max of 90, you then move it up and down from 90-100 based on where it’d rank with other tops movies you’ve seen in the past
EX: I liked ‘Wind River’ a lot last year, but didn’t like it as much as ‘Inception’, which I gave a 95. So I slotted ‘Wind River’ in at a 94. This is where the system gets a little more “creative.”

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