The Best Movies of 2024 means the best of Genredom.  For more than a decade we’ve stressed what that means here: The content that leans into one or more genres over basic dramas.  There are thousands of other places that cover plain vanilla dramas and the rest of the film world, but here we’re looking for movies we want to watch and watch again–not what the multi-million dollar marketing arms of studios and other review sites (most paid by or tied to studios and networks) want you to watch.  For us, great storytelling–writing–continues to be what separates good from bad.  Note: Movies eligible were streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Vudu, Disney, Paramount, Peacock, HBO Max, BritBox, Apple TV, Hulu, after January 1, 2024, and prior to December 13, 2024.

Come back tomorrow for our Best Books picks and later this month our annual borg Hall of Fame inductees.  And if you missed it, check out the Kick-Ass Genre Heroines of 2024 here and Best TV of 2024 here.  Wait no further, here are the Best Movies of 2024:

Best Film, Best Director (Antoine Fuqua), Best Cinematography (Robert Richardson), Best Action Movie, Best Writing, Runner-up for Best Musical Score (Marcelo Zarvos) – The Equalizer 3 (Columbia Pictures/Netflix).  We called it “the best James Bond movie since Casino Royale.”  A stylish, brilliant mash-up of genres, it is the final installment of the best action trilogy this century.  Runner-up for Best Film: Salem’s Lot (New Line Cinema/Max).  Runners-up for Best Action Movie: Deadpool and Wolverine (Marvel Studios/Disney+), Alien: Romulus (20th Century Studios/Hulu).  Honorable mention for Best Action Movie: Rebel Ridge (Netflix).

Best Sci-Fi Movie, Best Musical Score (Benjamin Wallfisch) – Alien: Romulus (20th Century Studios/Hulu).  The outer space scenes and the use of sound are as good as you’d see in any sci-fi classic, with a noteworthy, riveting sci-fi score.  The finale and final monster scene notwithstanding, this was an exciting film, and the pacing and suspense in the second half of the movie is worth a re-watch or three.

Best Fantasy Movie, Best Movie Makeup (Joel Harlow) – Red One (Amazon MGM Studios).  A better fantasy than holiday classic, it tapped into yule tales of centuries past, and director Jake Kasdan unveiled a cool new Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority filled with all kinds of mythical creations.  Joel Harlow’s makeup for Krampus was perfection.  Runner-up for Best Fantasy Movie: Godzilla: Minus One (Toho Studios/Netflix).

Best Superhero Movie, Best Comedy, Best Costumes – Deadpool and Wolverine (Marvel Studios/Disney+).  Another movie that surpassed so much of the previous MCU films.  A one-two punch of laugh-out-loud humor, the very best superhero tropes revisited and made fresh, great actors, and superb surprises and throwbacks.  Truly the audience-pleasing blockbuster of the year.  Runners-up for Best Superhero Movie: The Equalizer 3 (Columbia Pictures/Netflix),  Ultraman: Rising (Netflix Animation), The Marvels (Marvel Studios/Disney+).  Honorable mention for Best Comedy: Beverly Hills Cop – Axel F (Netflix).

Best Retro Fix, Best Mystery Movie – Salem’s Lot (New Line Cinema/Max).  The kind of Halloween horror hit we loved with The Fog, Silver Bullet, and The Black Phone.  It was a solid reproduction of the 1970s felt like it was made in the 1970s.  The mystery mood resulted in the best Stephen King adaptation in decades.  Runner-up for Best Retro Fix: Late Night with the Devil (Image Nation/IFC Films/Hulu), Lisa Frankenstein (Focus Features).

Best Animated Film – Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (Aardman Animations/Netflix).  Top-notch writing and direction behind a hybrid stop-motion/digital approach to animation.  The story had stakes not ordinarily in an animated movie and was full of heart. Runners-up for Best Animated Movie: Ultraman: Rising (Netflix Animation) and Garfield the Movie (Columbia Pictures/Netflix).

Best Horror Movie – Late Night with the Devil (Image Nation/IFC Films/Hulu).  A surprisingly good scare, straight out of the darkest corner of The Twilight Zone.  Tense, creepy, evocative of a real place and time with a foreboding, menacing twist.  Full of chills, pristinely timed for best effects.  Runner-up: Abigail (Universal Pictures/Peacock).

Best Suspense/Thriller – Trap (Warner Bros./Max).  A powerful M. Night Shyamalan mind-bender where you could never predict what was coming next.  A tense nail-biter and Hitchcockian thriller delivered with a carefully used ticking clock device.  Plus, the director delivered a completely believable rock star character who wasn’t merely a tangent component with his daughter Saleka as co-star.  Runner-up: Salem’s Lot (New Line Cinema/Max).  Honorable mention: Alien: Romulus (20th Century Studios/Hulu).

Best Borg Movie, Best Borg – Alien: Romulus (20th Century Studios/Hulu).  David Jonsson played a great new cyborg/OMAC character Andy the Synthetic, who was center to the plot, along with a not-as-well-conceived CGI-resurrected Ian Holm’s Ash from the original movie.  Andy gave us new insight into life as a borg, while Ash represented the cautionary tale downfalls sci-fi has warned us about so many times.  Runner-up: Deadpool and Wolverine (Marvel Studios/Disney+), Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Dafne Keen as X-23.

Best Actress – Billie Piper – Scoop (Netflix).  She only received an “and” credit for this film, but Piper’s TV “set-up-for-fail” producer was the actual star, a high-energy businesswoman determined and effective at accomplishing an impossible task.  

Best Supporting Actress – Alfre Woodard – Salem’s Lot (New Line Cinema/Max).  Woodard gave audiences her latest smart, cool character from a long line of great performances.  She brought the street cred to this moody flick, and her ingenuity moved the vampire mystery forward.

Best Actor – Denzel Washington (The Equalizer 3).  Washington’s Robert McCall and his almost superhuman reflexes and strategic planning to single-handedly eliminate any threat–no matter how many opponents come against him, is practically without equal.  He has a special subtlety that doesn’t require guns a’blazin’ or extraordinary, costly special effects. How does he keep doing it?  It’s all Denzel magic.  Runners-up: Hugh Jackman (Deadpool and Wolverine), David Dastmalchian (Late Night with the Devil).  Honorable mention: Lewis Pullman (Salem’s Lot).

Best Supporting Actor – Jordan Preston Carter (Salem’s Lot).  How often does a young actor steal every scene?  Not only was his character well written, but Carter lit up the screen, bringing him to life as believable and intelligent, and held viewers on the edge of their seats.

Best Movie Villain – Gryla (Red One).  Kiernan Shipka has become synonymous with a new era of scream queens.  Here her blend of shape-shifted, well-intended naughty list enforcer and the true horrorific persona of the ex- of Krampus was a welcome mix of mythology, fantasy, and horror.  Honorable mention: Cassandra Nova (Deadpool and Wolverine).

Best Cameo – Chris Evans returns as Johnny Storm (Deadpool and Wolverine).  We could include all the surprise characters from Marvel’s past in this summer’s big blockbuster, all twisted into new parallel superheroes for the sake of the story, but it all unveiled the potential of these films to be doing so much more.  Evans was a great choice and this character one of the best fans have known him for early in his career.  His appearance was kept under wraps, giving audience the best of surprises.  Runner-up: Ben Stiller appears as Satan (Dear Santa).

Come back tomorrow as we reveal more of the borg Best of 2024!  And don’t forget to check out the Kick-Ass Genre Heroines of 2024 here and Best TV of 2024 here.

C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg