2022 NFL Position Rankings: Top 35 Defensive Tackles

()=2021 ranking

+=Unranked or not eligible in 2021 

35.(+) Armon Watts (Vikings)

34.(+) Christian Barmore (Patriots)

33.(+) Maliek Collins (Texans)

32.(+) Matt Ioannadis (Panthers)

31.(22) Sebastian Joseph-Day (Chargers)

30.(+) DaQuan Jones (Bills)

29.(24) Daron Payne (Commanders)

28.(29) Derrick Brown (Panthers)

27.(+) Greg Gaines (Rams)

26.(16) Lawrence Guy (Patriots)

25.(+) Shy Tuttle (Saints)

24.(+) D.J. Jones (Broncos)

23.(27) Michael Pierce (Ravens)

22.(25) Grover Stewart (Colts)

21.(+) Ed Oliver (Bills)

20.(12) Quinnen Williams (Jets)

19.(+) B.J. Hill (Bengals)

18.(5) Fletcher Cox (Eagles)

17.(+) Dexter Lawrence (Giants)

16.(14) Poona Ford (Seahawks)

15.(13) Javon Hargrave (Eagles)

14.(18) David Onyemata (Saints)

13.(10) Dalvin Tomlinson (Vikings)

12.(3) Grady Jarrett (Falcons)

11.(6) Kenny Clark (Packers)

10.(15) D.J. Reader (Bengals)

9.(+) Christian Wilkins (Dolphins)

8.(+) Jeffrey Simmons (Titans)

7.(7) Vita Vea (Buccaneers)

6.(+) Arik Armstead (49ers)

5.(11) Jonathan Allen (Commanders)

4.(4) DeForest Buckner (Colts)

3.(2) Chris Jones (Chiefs)

2.(+) Cameron Heyward (Steelers)

1.(1) Aaron Donald (Rams)

Jurassic Park/World Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best. On this week's special edition, I rank the Jurassic Park/World franchise. 

5.Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018):

Deciding to revisit and expand upon the "using dinosaurs as military weapons" subplot from Jurassic World sends Fallen Kingdom down an extraordinarily stupid path that results in a project that is equal parts bad ridiculous and fun ridiculous. The major final act reveal involving the Maise Lockwood character (Isabella Sermon) caused what remains one of the hardest laughing fits I've ever had in a movie theater.

Grade: C+

4.Jurassic Park III (2001):

The near consensus pick for the worst Jurassic Park movie is unquestionably bolstered here by the fact that it was the 2nd Jurassic Park movie I'd watched, and I was 9 or 10 when I saw it. The introduction of the Spinosaurus as a new alpha dinosaur was cool as hell, Sam Neill's return as Dr. Alan Grant was welcome and the kid (Trevor Morgan) hanging out in an overturned supply truck and living off of expired candy bars really made the most out of being stranded on a dinosaur-filled island for a few months.   

Grade: B-

3.The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997):

In retrospect, The Lost World's primary contribution to the Jurassic franchise was confirming early on that the original was lightning in a bottle. No attempt at creating more extravagant dinosaur setpieces, effort to bring in a new group of talented actors (Julianne Moore, Vince Vaughn, Peter Stormare, Pete Postlethwaite) or return of a key player from its predecessor (Steven Spielberg, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough) could help The Lost World replicate the blockbuster magic that Jurassic Park so effortlessly and abundantly possessed.  

Grade: B

2.Jurassic World (2015):

Returning to the Jurassic Park well after 15 years away from a world where humans were stupid enough to bring dinosaurs back to life and put them in a theme park was definitely pretty fun. Chris Pratt-who was still riding the new charismatic action hero high he received from Guardians of the Galaxy- gives a really magnetic lead performance as cool guy raptor handler Owen Grady, the tense, energetic dinosaur action is easily the best since the original and the idiotic, melodramatic absurdity that derailed Fallen Kingdom is at a much more palatable level here.   

Grade: B

1.Jurassic Park (1993):

Escapism doesn't really get any purer than Jurassic Park.  Steven Spielberg transports the audience into a world where dinosaurs are living among humans and allows them to feel every ounce of wonder and fear that the characters experience during their 2-hour journey on the grounds. It's one of those timeless works that will continue to introduce people to the uniquely spellbinding power that top-tier blockbuster entertainment has for generations to come, and no amount of not overly impressive sequels will be able to soften its enduring legacy.  

Grade: A 

2022 NFL Position Rankings: Top 35 Defensive Ends

=2021 ranking

+=Unranked or not eligible in 2021

35.(+) Kwity Paye (Colts)

34.(+) Deatrich Wise Jr. (Patriots)

33.(+) Gregory Rousseau (Bills)

32.(+) Dean Lowry (Packers)

31.(+) Chris Wormley (Steelers)

30.(+) Harrison Phillips (Vikings)

29.(+) Charles Harris (Lions)

28.(+) Trevis Gibson (Bears)

27.(20) Carl Lawson (Jets)

26.(+) A'Shawn Robinson (Rams)

25.(+) Shelby Harris (Seahawks)

24.(+) Josh Sweat (Eagles)

23.(+) Sam Hubbard (Bengals)

22.(+) Jonathan Greenard (Texans)

21.(8) Brandon Graham (Eagles)

20.(+) Akiem Hicks (Buccaneers)

19.(14) Jerry Hughes (Texans)

18.(22) Brian Burns (Panthers)

17.(17) Jadeveon Clowney (Browns)

16.(21) Montez Sweat (Commanders)

15.(+) Denico Autry (Titans)

14.(+) John Franklin-Myers (Jets)

13.(35) Marcus Davenport (Saints)

12.(6) J.J. Watt (Cardinals)

11.(13) Chase Young (Commanders)

10.(32) Emmanuel Ogbah (Dolphins)

9.(7) Leonard Williams (Giants)

8.(10) Calias Campbell (Ravens)

7.(+) Robert Quinn (Bears)

6.(5) DeMarcus Lawrence (Cowboys)

5.(29) Trey Hendrickson (Bengals)

4.(+) Von Miller (Bills)

3.(19) Nick Bosa (49ers)

2.(1) Cameron Jordan (Saints)

1.(4) Myles Garrett (Browns)

Quick Movie Reviews: Emergency, Crimes of the Future, Watcher, Fire Island

Emergency: Following the leads of past Sundance breakouts including Damian Chazelle (Whiplash) and James Wan (Saw), director Carey Williams and writer KD Davila hit a home run by adapting their own short film into a feature. Emergency is a damn near perfect coming-of-age tale that organically mines situational comedy, multi-faceted social commentary, suspense and heartfelt odes to the power of true friendship out of a story about three black and Latino college students (Donald Elise Watkins, RJ Cyler, Sebastain Chacon) whose plans for an epic night of partying gets suddenly foiled when they return to their apartment and find an unconscious white girl (Maddie Nichols) passed out in their living room. Davila's clever writing creates a believable, unpredictable balance of silly college movie hijinks and the sobering reality that every choice these three young men make during the night could be the difference between life and death, Williams directs with the poise of a 20-year yet as he gracefully navigates the tricky tonal balance this material presents to create a piece of work that's truly dynamic and the main trio of actors do an incredible job of being goofy, vulnerable and authentic to their individual characters throughout the course of this night that will change their lives and relationships with one another forever. Emergency is an endearing gem of a movie and I hope that it'll be able to overcome Amazon's reliably dismal marketing efforts and find some degree of a meaningful audience on Prime Video in the coming months.         

Grade: A-

Crimes of the Future: David Cronenberg was so excited to return to the body horror genre for the first time in 23 years that he overstuffed and undercooked the hell out of the script. There's so many loose plot threads, secret organizations and mutilated weirdos milling about in the dystopian art world hellscape Cronenberg builds in Crimes of the Future that it's difficult to draw connections as to how they're all intertwined and what exactly each entity/individual is motivated by. As deeply messy as it is, Crimes of the Future makes up for some of its unfocused storytelling sins by filling most of these unexplored narrative rabbit holes with an abundance of intrigue. Cronenberg has created a richly atmospheric world where advances in evolution are rapidly stomped out by the government, an absence of physical pain among the bulk of the population has caused people to become fascinated by, physically attracted to and even envious of the people that do feel it and people have become so obsessed with changing their appearance and desire to feel pain again that various cosmetic surgeries are being performed on every street corner. Even when what's being presented on the screen doesn't make total sense, the images and worldbuilding are never less than fascinating. With more fleshed-out writing and a couple more performances that are as mesmerizingly nutty as Kristen Stewart's supporting turn as a meek government agent who becomes downright smitten with a famous organ-removing performance artist (Viggo Mortensen), this probably would've been a really freaky, darkly comedic sci-fi horror standout.       

Grade: B-

Watcher: Joining Carey Williams on the list of directors to watch from this year's edition of Sundance is Chloe Okuno. Her feature debut Watcher is an expertly made classical psychological thriller about an American woman named Julia (Maika Monroe, adding another notch to her unheralded scream queen belt) that has just moved from New York to Bucharest, Romania for her husband's (Karl Glusman) marketing job who feels she's being watched and followed by a man (Burn Gorman) who lives in the building directly across from their apartment complex. Small decisions like setting the film in a foreign country where Julia doesn't know the language and is unemployed in a place where she doesn't know anyone allows the feelings of isolation, unease and fear plenty of room to gradually build before they hit a nerve-shredding crescendo in the chilling final 15 minutes that validates both Julia's fears and Okuno's slow burn approach to thriller filmmaking. Watcher is just a hell of a way to spend 90 minutes in a movie theater and I can't wait to see what paranoia-inducing nightmare Okuno can come up with next.     

Grade: B+

Fire Island: Although the slightly melancholic subtext of a group of gay friends (Joel Kim Booster, Bowen Yang, Matt Rodgers, Tomas Matos, Torian Miller) in their early 30's coming to the unfortunate realization that the carefree days of their youth and the traditions that are associated with them are about to come to an end loom over the party like an ominous gray cloud on a summer afternoon, Fire Island-which shares a name with the popular New York LGBTQ tourist destination off the coast of Long Island-manages to savor as much light as possible before the storm comes in. There's plenty of time to solemnly reflect on the metaphorical death of one's youth, but until that moment arrives, spending your last hoorah in a vibrant romantic comedy wonderland where you can go from hating a stranger that you drunkenly bumped into at a beach bar to ending up on the receiving end of a creatively sappy "stop your true love before they get on a plane/train/boat and leave your life forever" moment is a pretty idyllic way to cap off a wild child era. "Laugh now, cry later" didn't become an expression for no reason and from the sea of raucous beachside party sequences to the casual orgies to the triumphant placement of Donna Summer's "Last Dance" in the final moments, Fire Island embraces that mantra to the fullest. 

Grade: B

2022 NFL Position Rankings: Top 20 Centers

()=2021 ranking

+=Unranked or not eligible in 2021 

20.(+) Ted Karras (Bengals)

19.(20) Ethan Pocic (Browns)

18.(+) Tyler Biadasz (Cowboys)

17.(+) Bradley Bozeman (Panthers)

16.(+) Matt Hennessy (Falcons)

15.(16) Mitch Morse (Bills)

14.(+) Brian Allen (Rams)

13.(19) Connor McGovern (Jets)

12.(11) Ryan Kelly (Colts)

11.(9) Erik McCoy (Saints)

10.(10) Chase Roullier (Commanders)

9.(14) Ryan Jensen (Buccaneers)

8.(+) Creed Humphrey (Chiefs)

7.(1) Rodney Hudson (Cardinals)

6.(4) Frank Ragnow (Lions)

5.(3) J.C. Tretter (Free Agent)

4.(12) David Andrews (Patriots)

3.(7) Ben Jones (Titans)

2.(5) Jason Kelce (Eagles) 

1.(2) Corey Linsley (Chargers)

Nicole Kidman Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Nicole Kidman.

Nicole Kidman's Filmography Ranked:

21.Lion (D)

20.The Others (D+)

19.The Beguiled (C-)

18.Practical Magic (C-)

17.Secret in Their Eyes (C)

16.The Paperboy (C)

15.Batman Forever (C+)

14.Days of Thunder (B-)

13.Eyes Wide Shut (B-)

12.Stoker (B-)

11.Just Go with It (B)

10.Destroyer (B)

9.The Upside (B)

8.Paddington (B)

7.Bombshell (B+)

6.Rabbit Hole (B+)

5.Being the Ricardos (B+)

4.Aquaman (B+)

3.To Die For (B+)

2.The Northman (B+)

1.The Killing of a Sacred Deer (B+)

Top Dog: The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

Save for all of the great 2022 releases that have been released during this chunk of the calendar, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is the best movie I've seen over the past few months. Aided by a trio of terrific performances from Colin Farrell, Barry Keoghan and Kidman and suitably woozy cinematography from Thinios Bakatakis, Yorgos Lanthimos is able to craft a dread-fueled psychological thriller that disturbs, disorients and delights in equal measure. 

Bottom Feeder: Lion (2016)

Movies like Lion never fail to drive me nuts. Using a pretty remarkable true story about an Australian man who returns to India to find his family 25 years after he was separated from them as the inspiration to make a boring, shamelessly manipulative awards-bait drama is an icky tactic that Hollywood should table forever.  

Most Underrated: To Die For (1995)

While it's not quite as dark, funny or sadistic as Mary Herron's cult classic, To Die For is a great companion piece to American Psycho. Kidman's character is a vein, narcissistic master manipulator who will do anything to become famous, Gus Van Sant does a really great job of mixing the story's blend of dark comedy, drama and thriller elements into something that's tonally cohesive and the hilarious, maniacal lead performance from Kidman makes Suzanna Stone-Moretto an unforgettable villain.       

Most Overrated: The Others (2001)

Maybe it was a different story 21 years ago when it was released, but The Others just doesn't cut it in 2022. It's neither scary nor atmospheric enough to be an effective Gothic-era haunted house movie, the pacing is sluggish and the writing-particularly in the final act where the now widely known final twist takes hold of the story-is pretty weak. About the only good thing it did do was remind me to add Gullermo del Toro's wildly underrated Crimson Peak to my future rewatch list.    

Movie Review: Top Gun: Maverick

It's very easy to argue that Tom Cruise wouldn't have the career he has today without 1986's Top Gun. While some of his early 80's work including Risky Business and The Outsiders earned him critical praise and did solid business at the box office, Top Gun was the project that cemented Cruise as a genuine movie star-which is a status that he's been able to maintain ever since. After 30+ years of moviemaking that included a few infamous clunkers (Cocktail, The Mummy, Knight and Day), becoming the face of Scientology, 3 Oscar nominations and developing a completely different hit franchise for Paramount in Mission: Impossible, Cruise has returned to the DANGER ZONE that is the United States Navy's Top Gun program. 

By definition, Top Gun: Maverick qualifies as a sequel to Top Gun. There are ample references to the original film throughout and the story predominantly deals with how Pete "Maverick" Mitchell's refusal to change his hotshot, authority-challenging ways has hurt his career and Goose's death continues to haunt him. What Top Gun: Maverick's true agenda proves to be is to function as a thinly veiled metaphor for Cruise's legacy as a performer. 

At least once every 10-15 minutes, the film puts Maverick into a situation where he gets to prove that he's a rebel whose refusal to accept the current methods of doing business in the military has made him an equally revered and hated character. His commanding officers (Jon Hamm, Ed Harris) hate that he refuses to obey orders and embrace the new ways of doing things, but they also can't deny that the old man is the best damn pilot they've ever seen. The new group of elite hotshot pilots/WSO's (Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Lewis Pullman, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, several others that don't really factor into the story much) that Maverick is brought into train think he's a washed-up burnout who can't teach them anything, but time and time again Maverick show these whippersnappers that actually don't know shit about combat or flying fighter jets. Every time a program is in danger of being shut down or a mission looks like it can't be pulled off without suffering mass casualties, Maverick comes through and shows that it can be done and that the people that doubted him are either too caught up in bureaucracy or their own fears to understand what it takes to get the job done. Cruise knows damn well that his fearlessness, passion and magnetism makes him the last old-school action star left and using Maverick as an avatar for himself is an unabashedly brazen, egomaniacal move that perfectly reflects the type of performer Cruise is and will continue to be until he retires or dies in the least exciting way imaginable.        

As distracting and quietly hilarious as it is to see Cruise use the sequel to the movie that laid the groundwork for his stardom to openly peacock about his singularity as an actor, his presence on camera and behind the scenes is the driving force behind nearly everything that works in Top Gun: Maverick. Insisting on having the actors fly in real planes in real locations during the flight sequences leads to what has to be the most breathtaking, adrenaline-fueled aerial action ever put on film. His understated acting chops allow Maverick to serve as a guilt-ridden surrogate father to Goose's son Rooster (Teller) that's tortured by the part he played in causing Goose's death and Rooster's resentment towards him because of it, which eventually culminates in some well-earned emotional moments in the final few scenes. His vintage movie star bravado makes Maverick's real-world superhero schtick work like a charm, no matter how fucking silly it gets (and holy shit, does it get really dumb at times). Having a universe that orbits around Cruise means that you're in the hands of somebody that gives a shit about the art of filmmaking and even though every bite isn't anywhere near perfect, that's a recipe that will ultimately churn out that's something worthwhile 100% of the time.              

Grade: B