My Star Wars Saga Rankings (best to worst):

The Last Jedi

The Empire Strikes Back

Return of the Jedi

A New Hope

The Force Awakens

The Rise of Skywalker

The Phantom Menace

Attack of the Clones

Revenge of the Sith

Why the New Aladdin Has a Reason to Exist

While I agree that there should have been people of color behind the camera I still think on screen representation matters. The original 1992 movie features not some but ALL white actors. The villains also perform with an accent and have darker tones than the heroes. At no point in the long process of making that animated movie did they consider this casting being a problem. People seem to forget that it was a film made solely to make money and not some pure artistic endeavor. Hell they even tried to screw Robin Williams with a deceptive contract. I think nostalgia, especially in fandom (also see Star Wars), can be a blinding and toxic thing. I’m so disappointed in some of the reactions and comparisons to the original. I personally love the new cast. Most of these actors have played terrorists or criminals in shows including 24, Homeland and Jack Ryan. You can find interviews where they discuss how it’s been hard to find good non-stereotypical roles. I was so happy to see them get to play these parts and in a big fun studio movie. Kids all over can now watch a movie where they will see brown faces they will admire and which can help normalize someone you usually see playing a criminal. There is only one white actor in the film and he’s just a brief comedic aside. We don't have many other examples of American movies like this. There was also casting criticism despite Agrabah being a fictional place inspired by many different cultures, much like Marvel’s Wakanda. Like Black Panther I think the casting should reflect that and not decree only a specific group of brown people should be represented. If the origins of the story draw (or you could say exploit) from various cultures shouldn’t actors from various cultures be allowed to participate? It’s especially baffling when people criticize this casting while praising the original. Disney has a long history of lacking diversity in their storytelling and of flat out racism. The problems of these older films shouldn’t be ignored because of nostalgia. I love The Simpsons for example but The Problem with Apu documentary shed new light on an issue I didn’t give a second thought when I was younger. This new non-white Aladdin absolutely should exist and I hope a new generation of kids embrace it. The stage version already course corrected the diversity problems of the original Lion King and regardless of how you feel about the CG animation, that upcoming remake too has a reason to exist.

My Top 10 Movies of 2018

(in no particular order)

Black Panther

Annihilation

Blindspotting

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Eighth Grade

Mandy

Sorry to Bother You

If Beale Street Could Talk

Roma

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

This was one of the hardest years to narrow down, these are my honorable mentions:

Paddington 2

Oh Lucy!

Hereditary

Game Night

Please Stand By

Isle of Dogs

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Deadpool 2

Crazy Rich Asians

Minding the Gap

Avengers: Infinity War

mid90s

Skate Kitchen

Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Hearts Beat Loud

Leave No Trace

The Long Dumb Road

Teen Titans Go! to the Movies

Summer of 84

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Support the Girls

Anna and the Apocalypse

Widows

A Star is Born

Private Life

Bumblebee

The Favourite

Apostle

Year of the Sequels (that didn't suck)

2018 has been a great year for sequels! I think all of these movies matched or surpassed their previous installments:

Paddington 2

Avengers: Infinity War

Deadpool 2

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Halloween

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Creed II

My top 10 albums of 2018

(in no particular order)

Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer

Leon Bridges - Good Thing

SOB X RBE - Gangin

Lucy Dacus - Historian

Various Artists - Black Panther: The Album

Mac Miller - Swimming

Eminem - Kamikaze

Lil Wayne - Tha Carter V

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Logic - YSIV

Pearl Harbor (‘Dunkirk’ Cut)

The action scenes in Pearl Harbor are great, everything else not so much. So this cut is not character driven and a more visceral film in the vein of Dunkirk (which is also scored by Hans Zimmer). It’s also now a lean 86 minutes (instead of a bloated 3 hours). Check it out HERE.                                                                                                             

*This re-edit is intended for critical and educational purposes only and involves no commercial interest.

Death Sentence (Grindhouse Cut)

               

James Wan’s 2007 feature (best known for an amazing car sequence that he would later do a bigger version of in Furious 7) is a great bloody revenge movie that’s unfortunately intercut with family melodrama and emo songs. I made this cut to streamline the action and it comes in at a brisk 75 minutes. Now with 100% less Kevin Bacon crying in the shower! Check it out HERE.

*This re-edit is intended for critical and educational purposes only and involves no commercial interest.