Bop’s Best And Worst Of 2018








The year is almost done. It was a good year in the sense that I got a lot of shit done. While I was doing that shit and taking breaks I relaxed from time to time with what was offered.

Now trying to think what was released in 2018 I could hardly come up with anything, so I looked up a release list. I was surprised that I saw way more movies than last year and even more surprised that there were more enjoyable movies from Hollywood since years.




TV Shows


TV shows had  good year this year. It has been a long time since I saw so many good TV shows in a year. When they stop being good I will probably hardly watch anything.


The worst

Supernatural season 13 and 14

There was a time that Supernatural was one of the best shows on TV. I would put up the first 5 seasons against any other TV show. However, since the creator left and left the stuff in hands of other people it went down the toilet soon. Seasons 7 through 10 were utter torture, 11 was good, 12 was so-so. 13 was utter shit and 14 is going on now and fits with season 7 through 10. I always hated alternative realities and that is what they introduced in season 13. Alternative realities have always been a sign of laziness, cop outs and miseducation. I cannot describe in words how much I hate alternative realities and I blame Marvel for that shit. They made it it really really bad and it seems everyone took a page out of Marvel's book of shite.


Ray Donovan season 5

This was probably the worst season of Ray Donovan. Ray’s wife dies and Ray Donovan is in some bullshit emo state. If I wanted to watch some emo shit I would have watched some emo anime, because nobody does it better than emo anime. This show dragged on with Abby (Ray’s wife) flashbacks and just didn’t know when to stop. This resulted in me fast forwarding all those flashbacks. It sure saved me some time.



The good

Glow season 2 (Available on Netflix)

Glow season 1 was a big surprise. I expected some feminism bullshit, but what I got pleasantly surprised me. It was a love letter to pro wrestling and in a way it paid good respect to what the real Glow women did in the 80s. Season 2 was not as good as season 1 but it was still good enough. And still no feminism bullshit which is a plus.



Lucifer

Lucifer is always good. It is fast-food entertainment. Tom Ellis is an excellent Lucifer. Lucifer got axed but Netflix decided to give them one season. It is about time that season appeared.




The Bodyguard (Available on Netflix)

This 6 part limited series show was a surprise. I just wanted to try it and the first 20 minutes of this show is some of the most intense openings you will ever see. The show went a bit off the tracks a few episodes later, but it was enjoyable enough to call it good. And the main character will probably be the new James Bond. Well, if Idris Elba doesn’t get the role, which he should, The Bodyguard guy would be a good second choice.


Ray Donovan Season 6

After the shitty season 5 season 6 is a breath of fresh air. It is suspenseful and you don’t know where it’s leading to yet. The only thing that I always missed in Ray Donovan is that Ray really needs to cut loose big time once. He is always too tame. Will this season finally be the one in which he really cuts loose? Only time will tell. Oh, and I never gave a shit about Susan Sarandon but in Ray Donovan she is a grade-A nasty bitch.

Owner of many headaches



Iron Fist season 2 (Available on Netflix)

I thoroughly enjoyed Iron Fist season 2. It was better than the first and they started using more Brubaker stuff. The cliff-hanger was badass and then it gets cancelled. I blame Disney Marvel for that, since they had Netflix also cancel Luke Cage and Daredevil, yet shit like Jessica Jones will get a third season. Punisher season 2 comes up in January I believe and will be the last season for sure.


The best


Mr Inbetween season 1

This year Mr Inbetween premiered on the FX network. It is an 6 part Aussie show and it got a second season which is awesome. Mr Inbetween is a cross between a sociopath and a psychopath dealing with unintelligent lowlife scum while trying to balance his own life. It is funny, it is sadistic and it has an interesting vibe. Can’t wait for season 2.

Mr Psycho himself



Mayans MC season 1

Kurt Sutter strikes again. I figured it would be hard to live up to the Sons Of Anarchy, but Mayans is carving its own path. It took a bit of time to get used to the characters, but there are many good ones in it. I just don’’t like the cartel boss. The guy is a pussy lotion boy and should not be in Mayans MC. And stop hating on  Sarah Bolger. She might have a peculiar face, but that is no reason to trash her. Can’t wait for season 2. Thank you, Kurt. For a review click this link


Dogs Of Berlin season 1 (Available on Netflix)

Germany used to have a lot of police shows and apart from Der Clown they all SUCKED. Dogs Of Berlin is not one of those suckfests. As you know I am a fan of the city Berlin. I never saw the dark side of Berlin, but I did notice in the past few years that things changed in Berlin. More police force on the street, for example. It didn’t used to be a city like that. There is trouble with immigrants, drugs dealers and Arabian clans.

 Especially Arabian clans that cause a lot of trouble and practically, they seem to own the city. Dogs Of Berlin is a cross between The Shield and Braquo. It deals with corrupt police officers, Arabian clans, the betting Mafia, Nazis and various other scum. The atmosphere of the show is pretty gritty and the Germans did a good job here. When you start the show you just can’t stop. It is intense and suspenseful and you are curious to see where this all leads to. I also wonder how the crime portrayed in this show makes the Germans feel, because what happens doesn’t look like Germany is in a happy place if only 5 percent of it is true. Will Dogs Of Berlin be the Class Of 1984, i.e. a pre-cursor of things that are to come? I sure hope not.



Dix Pour Cent season 2

For all you lazy motherfuckers who don’t want to read subtitles, this French TV show is awesome. It has quirky characters, absurd situations, real French actors and actresses playing themselves and just a really relaxing vibe. Comedy that is not smut is hard to find these days. Good comedy even harder.



Cobra Kai season 1

Now this show blew my mind. It was absolutely the best thing I saw this year. No movie came close and neither did any TV show. To say that this show was made by fans of the movies is an understatement. They treated the show with so much respect and it seems everybody had much fun playing their part. This show had everything. Humor, drama, awesome characters and the eternal rivalry chemistry between Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso. And especially Johnny Lawrence has to be commended.

 The guy totally steals the show. You want to root for him because he was never the bad guy in the first place. But you also want to root for him, because he is badass and because he is taking command of his life. If Cobra Kai ever stops William Zabka should be all over movies. Until then he can kick ass in Cobra Kai. Bring on season 2, damnit. It is shows like this that remind me of why I like to watch TV shows and movies in the first place. And I dare you to say that the Cobra Kai season finale cliff-hanger was not one of the best cliff-hangers you ever saw.



Movies

The worst

Escape Plan 2

What the fuck was this shit? Seriously, what the fuck was this shit? You have Stallone and Batista together in a movie and what do you do? You make them supporting characters in the movie. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THIS SHIT? I wanted to watch this movie because of Stallone and Batista and what I got was a promotion vehicle for some Asian actor I don't even know. And not only that, I still don't know what the fuck the movie was about. I do know that Stallone and Batista were hardly in the movie and that the storyline must have been written by people who were under some really heavy drugs.

 There is no way to explain this piece of shit movie. Stallone and Bastista should have walked out on this shit while filming. I am sure Batista was happy to hear he would be working with Stallone, but he can't be happy with what they did with the movie. Stallone and Batista should have been beating the shit out of punks, scum and similar fare. Instead they were relegated to being a bitch.



Ready Player One

The hype for this shit was insane. I felt like missing out on something if I didn't watch it. When I finally did I thought: "Are the writers of the script the same as the writers of Escape Plan 2?" Nostalgia can be fun, but even that was hyped way to much.  I didn't finish this piece of shit and don't plan to. Overhyped.


Red Sparrow

I really don't give a shit about Jennifer Lawrence. I don't love her Battle Royal shit and the fact that she won an Oscar means she has a lot of material on her cloud and she will be lying if she says she doesn't. What intrigued me about that movie was the fact that it was gonna give us a glimpse into what Russian female spies are supposed to be. At least, that's what I thought. Seldom did I see such pretentious shit as in this movie. I have no clue what this movie was about except for being pretentious. Red Sparrow should have been called Red Herring because that is what it was. And it stunk too.


The First Purge

The Purge 2 was the best Punisher movie ever made. I had high hopes for The Purge 3 but that one disappointed heavily. Of course they had to milk it to the max so they made The First Purge. What a piece of shit this was. I felt the maker of this movie had an agenda of portraying the brother and the sister in a very bad way. Fuck this shit.


Mandy

Take away the synth sounds and the atmosphere and you have an utter shit movie. What the fuck was this movie about? It is definitely better than Escape Plan 2, Ready Player One, Red Sparrow and The First Purge. However, this could have been so much more and a classic for the ages. What dope did the director smoke? I bet a lot of people would love to have that dope.

Mission Impossible Fallout

What the fuck was I thinking watching this 2,5 hour piece of shit? I guess I will never see a De Palma quality Mission Impossible ever again, but still hoped it can be done. After this movie I am not so sure anymore. Cruise wants to be an alpha male so badly, but all the money and the pussy in the world still makes him a gamma male. And even the pussy is debatable. I have no clue what I watched. I didn't know what the fuck was going on. The action was so-so. The whole movie through I was hoping this movie would kick into fifth gear, but instead it stayed at gear one. Why movies like this cost so much to make I don't understand. I do know that after Avengers "Inshitity War" part 2 I am done with 2,5 hour movies. 2,5 hours movies suck. They steal your life away and the entertainment does not make up for it.


Avengers Inshitity War

Well, you read my review on this movie here


Black Panther

Such a missed opportunity to make a great movie. Here is my review.



Equalizer 2

I had high hopes for the movies but the second part of it crushed all hope. Why oh why does the Equalizer get neutered too?


Deadpool 2

I already lost my faith in humanity through the years and the fact that this movie was so popular confirmed my loss once again. The Deadpool character got anally raped. Figuratively and literally. I was always a defender of Ryan Reynolds, but after this movie I am not anymore. I don't need to see movies in which I cannot see if the actor is a male or a female or if the actress is a male or female. I  don't need to see Ryan Reynold's dick. I don't need to see Colussus get some gay innuendos. I don't need to see Deadpool act gay. I don't need to see a whiney fat brat whine all the time. There are enough of them on this planet already. What Deadpool 2 managed to do was show me that no matter how many bad movies I saw in my life, Deadpool 2 is the worst of them all. The era of utter smut has started and Deadpool 2 is the harbinger.


The good

The Accident Man

Scott Adkins is one of my favourite actors. His Boyka character is badass and I can’t wait for more Boyka movies. However, the Accident Man shows the Scott Adkins can do more than just being Boyka. This movie was quite interesting and quite funny and I have to say one the better Scott Adkins movies. I hope that the guy gets big roles sooner or later and that he doesn’t get misused like he was in The Expendables 1 or 2. Scott Adkins deserves a break and if you ask me what his top 5 movies are The Accident Man will be one of them.

The Debt Collector

Just when you thought you saw one of the best Scott Adkins movies here comes The Debt Collector. This movie was even better than The Accident Man. In fact, it was one of the better buddy movies I ever saw. This movie had action and was hilarious lots of times. The perfect movie to relax with.


Rampage

I love the Rampage game so of course they could never do the game justice so I didn’t look at it like a game movie. I was pleasantly surprised by this popcorn movie. And the interaction between the Rock and Gorilla was hilarious. Heck, they should have made a buddy movie between the Rock and the Gorilla. I don’t know what people expected from this movie, but I wasn’t bored with it at all.

Ant-Man 2

Someone please tell me that this is not a Disney Marvel movie. It sure did not look or feel like a Disney Marvel movie. I loved the first Ant-Man and this second Ant-Man was not bad at all. Just like the first movie this second one was quite creative with nice visuals and tricks. And Paul Rudd is just funny. Now still, please someone tell me this is not a Disney Marvel movie. This must have been a movie just being under the Disney banner.


Ocean’s 8

Did this movie get shit on! I don’t understand why. I thoroughly enjoyed this despite all the actresses not being attractive at all. I am a man, so sue me. The movie just had a nice flow and kept me hooked the whole time.


Sicario 2

I disliked the first movie. I like this one. Funny, how sequels can go sometimes. What else can I say?


The Spy Who Dumped Me

I really didn’t even want to watch this, but at one time I had nothing to watch so decided to bite through the sour apple. Well, the apple wasn’t sour at all. Mila Kunis can do comedy and that surprised me because the 70s Show was utter tripe. Kunis stole the show and I hope she gets to do more comedies.


Skyscraper

Why was this movie vilified? Please explain that to me? This was a movie that checked all the characteristics of a popcorn movie. Great entertainment even if The Rock hardly knows how to be in great movies anymore.


Blind-spotting (Available on Netflix)

This down-to-earth movie came out of nowhere. No budget, no big name actors, no pussy lotion boys and no untalented bitches. This movie is what happens when you have an idea, get some good writers on it and just let it flow. Stories are not always necessary in a movie, but when the story is good you will experience it is good. Blind-spotting was one of those good stories. Stories about normal people struggling in their lives.



Den Of Thieves

Loved it. Could have been much better, but that's ok. You can't have it all.


Final Score

This movie should have been called Sudden Death 2, because that is exactly what it was. Batista does a good job here and the movie had some good action scenes.


Peppermint

Garner finally gets something good to do. Read my review here!



The Best

The Night Comes For Us

This movie wins the award for the most violent martial arts action movie I ever saw. Never fuck with Indonesians who wield machetes. That is for sure. I wanted to watch this for the awesome Iko Uwais but he was unfortunately not the main character in the movie. But that was not a problem at all. There were enough other badass characters to make this movie as badass as it can be. Also, people who want to make girl power movies should take a real good look at Julie Estelle and how she got directed. That is girl power right there. It needs to be said she was also the Hammer Girl in second Raid movie so she already has 2 badass roles to her name. Want to see a motherfucking violent movie? The Night Comes For Us is the one.



Jailbreak

Well, imdb says this movie was made in 2017, but it was nowhere in the western half cinemas, so I am cheating here. Personally, The Night Comes For Us was more violent, but Jailbreak was more badass action for me. Some insane action combined with crazy prisoners being the bad guys. And another good example of girl power was Tharoth Sam. She kicked some serious ass in the movie. It needs to be mentioned that this is a Cambodian martial arts movie and I don’t know if they ever made one before. One thing is for sure. If they can keep up the quality like this I will be watching them all. This is good shit. Shit I live for.






Documentaries

The best

The Commodore Story

I only saw one documentary this year and it was the best. The Commodore Story finally managed to do what should have been done years ago: Paint a good picture of the history of the Commodore 64 by interviewing the people who made it great. Rob Hubbard, Ben Dagliesh, Chris Huelsbeck were the artists who made music on the Commodore 64. Music, that is still popular today. Never did you see them in a Commodore documentary so this was awesome. Also, the Commodore Amiga got spotlighted and since I never owned one this was very interesting. I don’t think they will ever make a better Commodore 64 documentary unless I make that documentary. Yes, I experienced the Commodore 64 in a fascinating way and if it weren’t for the Commodore 64 I would not have been making music and having headaches running a home studio. Commodore 64 4 life!



Pro Wrestling

Pro Wrestling had a crazy year. Pro Wrestling will never be as good as it was during the ECW/WCW/WWE times and it will never be as entertaining as it was in the 80s. However, this might have been one of the most special years in wrestling. Shinsuke Nakamura won the Men’s Royal Rumble. Asuka won the Women’s Royal Rumble. The first Women’s Elimination Chamber match was held and Alexa Bliss, Sasha Banks, Bailey, Mandy Rose and Sonya Devilla put on a fantastic match. Especially Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville stepped up in that match.

Lucha Underground delivered Ultima Lucha Tres which was fantastic. Ronda Rousey made her Wrestle Mania debut and despite me not liking her, stole the show at WrestleMania. The NXT Takeover events made the WWE PPV events look like absolute dogshit. Jericho shocked the world in what was the scene of the year, by appearing at All In. All-In was an independently promoted wrestling event that made us fall in love with wrestling again. Pentagon vs Kenny Omega was insane. 

Fabi Apache and Lady Shani delivered the craziest women’’s wrestling match you will probably ever see.. That was at AAA Triplemania 36. TNA got reborn with the Slammiversary show and Pentagon and Sami Callihan had the most vicious match of the year. Then the WWE women upstaged the WWE main roster with the first WWE All Women’s PPV. Becky Lynch became the man and is probably the most popular performer in WWE now. My compatriot Aleister Black continued to be the most interesting character in WWE this year and I hope he gets the breakthrough he deserves. Shortly said, a lot of cool stuff happened and it seems everyone is stepping up. 2019 will be a fantastic year for pro wrestling.


Football

The FIFA World Cup was this year and it was the biggest scam of the year. Never did I see so much bitchy behaviour on the pitch and from the FIFA. Neymar was the worst. He was such a bitch you would just love to slap the paint out of his hear and feed him his own earring. Men do not wear earrings, btw. FIFA always claimed that football has nothing to do with politics, but failed to fine and punish the people who promoted politics during the tournament. A lot of players tried to screw over other players by acting like they were injured. The FIFA manipulated the results because it was better for the commerce if certain teams went to the next round while not being good enough for the next round. If there was ever a blatant display of football matches being fixed FIFA 2018 was it. Rest assured that I won’t watch FIFA 2022. Fuck that shit.

The Copa Libertadores 2018 final was a classic team-up. It was Boca Juniors vs River Plate. It is the best football derby and rivalry in the world and fitting to be a Copa Libertadores final. The first match showed why it was the best football derby in the world. Great atmosphere, rabid fans, fanatical football players. Then the second match was supposed to happened and it all went wrong. The Boca Juniors bus got attacked by River Plate hooligans. Stones were thrown through the windows and the breaking glass resulted in injuring the eye of one player. Tear gas was thrown into the bus. The match got postponed and they decided to postpone the match because of safety issues. Then in the end they moved the match to Spain. River Plate won the final and that was the day football died for me. Fuck football and fuck you FIFA. You keep on promoting that effeminate football and keep on scamming the people. You are charlatans of the highest order.



Bop’s awards


Best male movie character:     Joe Taslim as Ito in The Night Comes For Us

Need I say more? The guy was a super badass in The Night Comes For Us


Best female movie character: Julie Estelle as The Operator in The Night Comes For Us

The Operator does not have love for fingers.


Best male tv character:  William Zabka as Johnny Lawrence in Cobra Kai

Best actor comeback story ever. William Zabka deserves all the best.


Best female tv character: Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing in Iron Fist

Henwick was the perfect companion to Iron Fist. A kind of woman every man needs.


Best male wrestler:                    Pentagon Jr

Pentagon has been killing it for a few years already and he is only getting better.


Best female wrestler:                 Alexa Bliss

Alexa is the best character the WWE has on their main roster.




RIP

We lost great people this year. Carlos Ezquerra, Norm Breyfogle and Ben Dagliesh, for example. Check this article for more about them. 

Other honorable mentions, include:

Eastwoods film squeeze Sondra Locke

American icon Burt Reynolds

Legendary singer Aretha Franklin

Spiderman creator Steve Ditko,

Tragic on the verge of stardom wrestler Matt Cappotelli,

Legendary pro wrestler Big Van Vader,

Lois Lane Margot Kidder,

Mini Me Verne Troyer,

Tragic and the only likeable DJ Avicii,

Pro wrestling super legend Bruno Sammartino.