Top 10 Films Of 2018

2018 is coming to an end and it has been a great year with three films making over a billion (Black Panther, Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom, The Incredibles 2) and one hit over two billion (Avengers: Infinity War) at the worldwide box office with Disney dominating as three of those four films coming from the Mouse House.

The biggest surprised was Venom from Sony Pictures making $854.5 million and as we’re at the end of the year Aquaman has currently made $556.8 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo) and will be growing when we go into 2019.

As for some notable mentions, I do think 2018 was a great year for Marvel Studios with Black Panther, a movie I gave five stars but missed out, and Avengers: Infinity Wars (Ant-Man and The Wasp was just utter crap).

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Elsewhere, WB has a great year with Tomb Raider, a better film then people give it, Rampage, a stupid fun blockbuster with Jeffrey Dean Morgan delivering the best line in movie history, and Tag is one of the best comedies of the year.

Meanwhile, Margot Robbie gave her best performance in I, Tonya.

Let’s focus on The Shaun Wren Blog’s Top 10 Movies of 2018.

10. Sorry To Bother You (Universal)

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I was lucky enough to see this film at the London Film Festival this year and was pleasantly surprised by what Boots Riley brought to the screen and I’d advise anyone who wants to watch it (and you should) to go in with a little info as possible.

Lakeith Stanfield is a star and will be one to watch in 2019 as he’ll be in line for major studio movies and franchises and Tessa Thompson is always great.

You can read my full LFF review here.

9. Blockers (Universal)

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Blockers was the best comedy of 2018 and a great beginning for the first-time director Kay Cannon, who will be going to be doing bigger and better projects and we’ll hopefully hear about them in 2019.

I personally think she’d ideal to give the reigns to handle a rebooted live action Scooby Doo.

As for the film itself, it was fantastically funny throughout and it was refreshing to see a high school sex comedy directed and lead by women and will be this generation American Pie and Superbad.

Read my full review here.

8. Aquaman (Warner Bros)

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My second favourite superhero film of the year and what a blockbuster epic it is too, I’ve seen this film twice and think James Wan has created something groundbreaking in terms of visual effects and deserves the Oscar.

In terms of the DCEU, Wan has built the bridge between the old and new moving forward under DC Films chief Walter Hamada.

Read my full review here.

7. The Wife (Picturehouse Entertainment)

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The reason the film is this high is that of the award-nominated and deserved winning performance from Glenn Close who completely demands the screen in every scene.

Check out the full review here.

6. Outlaw King (Netflix)

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This was another film I was lucky enough to see at the London Film Festival and I’m glad I did because see this epic on the IMAX screen was the perfect way.

As a fan of director David MacKenzie’s Hell or High Water, Outlaw King showed what he can do with a blockbuster and in the Netflix film, Chris Pine gave his best performance I’ve seen him give.

Read my full review from LFF here.

5. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures)

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Not only is it the best Spider-Man movie since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, but it’s also the best CBM of 2018 and the most excited I’ve been about a cinematic universe since the Man of Steel kick-started the DCEU.

The animation is incredible to the point it’ll win the Best Animation Oscar being the first superhero film to win a major Oscar and hopefully this film will show other studios that big budget animated superhero film.

Take a look at my review here.

4. Crazy Rich Asians (Warner Bros)

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I haven’t loved a rom-com more since 2003’s Love Actually and Crazy Rich Asians isn’t just a fantastic rom-com it’s a great film.

The fact director John Chu made Singapore a fantasy world in the real world it was gorgeous to look at. As for the stellar cast, Henry Golding will be the one to watch as he’s already co-starring in Paul Feig’s rom-com Last Christmas, which is out next year.

He’ll also star in Guy Ritchie’s Toff Guys and finally, Golding will be my top choice to become the next James Bond.

Read the full review here.

3. Darkest Hour (Universal)

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This film came out in January but Gary Oldman’s performance is utterly superb and showed why Winston Churchill is our greatest Prime Minister.

Click here to see my full review.

2. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Paramount)

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The best blockbuster and action movie of 2018 and my favourite MI film.

Henry Cavill is a brilliant villain and showed what the English actor will be able to do post-Superman. Obviously, Tom Cruise is still the best action hero in Hollywood even though he’s 56-years-old.

The full review is here.

1. You Were Never Really Here (StudioCanal)

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This is an utter masterpiece and Lynne Ramsey deserves all the awards recognition. It’s tense, dark, eerie with an incredible performance from Joaquin Phoenix about a hitman with PTSD makes me even more excited about Joker.

Check out the full review here.