Well, the Oscars are done.  But who cares about most of those, anyway? My wife and I usually make a feeble attempt at trying to see the Best Picture nominees, but only end up catching one or two.  This year is no exception.  So this is not a definitive list of great movies last year, just a list of the movies I actually saw and why I thought they were awesome.  So without further ado, here’s the ten best movies I saw from 2018…

10.  Incredibles 2 – Let’s face if, even if it’s a sequel, those Pixar people know how to make a movie. The fight seen between Jack Jack and the racoon alone make this movie worth your time.

9.  Deadpool 2 – Not as good as the original, but that was gonna be tough to beat. But again, there is one scene in this movie that makes it totally worth watching, and that’s the X Force parachute scene.  Completely epic.

8.  A Star is Born – Obviously I’m a big music fan, and music movies are a tough sell. Getting Gaga to do this movie and made it work.  The movie was a bit predictable, but still had a lot of great moments, and a couple great performances.  Also, Sam Elliot is the man.

7.  Hold the Dark – This was a Netflix movie and I have no idea if anyone saw this. I thought it was creepy as hell, and well acted on all fronts. There’s a scene in the movie reminiscent of the gun fight in Heat.  Man, I was sweating during that thing.

6.  Solo – Yep, that’s right, I liked the Solo movie! Eat it, haters! First, Ron Howard doesn’t make bad movies; only good ones.  Alden Ehrenreich actually did a good job filling shoes that were impossible to fill. Enfys Nest was a freaking cool character.  Woody Harrelson rules.  Chewbacca got tons of screen time.  There was a great droid in L3.  Donald Glover as Lando was dope.  And SPOILER ALERT, freaking Darth Maul showed up.  They better make the freaking sequel!

5.  Black Panther – Great movie and I’m extremely excited they gave it an Oscar nomination. One reason the Marvel movies do so well is the villains they establish, and Michael B. Jordan’s Erik Killmonger was no exception.  A visually stunning movie with great action throughout.

4.  Avengers Infinity War – I freaking loved this movie right up until the end, which I kinda figured was gonna happen. SPOILER ALERT – my biggest problem with killing off characters and bringing them back to life via time travel or magic really lessens the stakes.  That said, this movie was so much fun and so well put together, it’s hard to knock an Empire style ending with a bad guy winning a round.  Can’t wait for Endgame.

3.  A Quiet Place – Holy crap was this movie intense! I seriously can’t remember the last movie I saw where I was that on edge.  Emily Blunt is freaking brilliant in this movie.  Don’t stay away if you don’t like the horror genre.  See this movie!

2.  Green Book – Great, great movie. I thought this was going to be much more serious and that it was going to be difficult to watch.  And it is a serious movie and parts are difficult.  But man, is this a fun, heart-warming, and hilarious movie.  Truly great performances by Viggo Mortensen and Marhasha Ali.  I had a smile on my face for almost the entire movie.

1.  Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse – This thing blew me away.  Yes, it’s a cartoon.  But I’m a kid at heart and as a kid I was a comic book junkie.  This is what a comic book movie is supposed to look like!  The artwork and animation are groundbreaking.  It’s smart, funny, and does a spectacular job at playing homage to the previous Spiderman movies, cartoons, and comics.  As previously noted, nobody does villains like Marvel.  And the villains in Spiderverse are larger than life.  Quite literally in the case of Kingpin, who is a hulking menace.  But the heroes are better.  The alternate universe Spidermen (and women) make the movie, and the futuristic Peter Parker is fantastic.  Beaten down by a lifetime of saving the city that led to a crumbled life and marriage, it was funny and enthralling to see what Spiderman could become.  And then there’s Miles Morales, the new version of Spiderman in the form of a black kid from Harlem.  I normally get annoyed with a movie that takes so long in building a backstory and gives us less time with our hero as the true superhero, but this movie handled it to perfection.  They tell us that anyone can wear the mask, but this Morales version isn’t just anyone, he’s a real deal Spiderman.  Bring on many more of these!