Mike breaks the traditional episode format to give you all of his favorite movies for 2023. He delivers his definitive list of the movies that brought him the most joy, had the biggest impact on cinema and will be rewatched in the years to follow. He follows that up by sharing the movies he thinks were the worst and why he hated them the most. Plus, 10 honorable mentions of great movies that didn’t quite make the top of his list but still recommends.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's Movie Podcast. I
am your host Movie Mike and also welcome to twenty
twenty four, the first brand new episode of the year.
And you know what that means. I'm gonna share with
you my top ten favorite films of twenty twenty three
now that the year is over. It's the hardest time
I've ever had making a top ten list. And We're
also going to break the format of a traditional episode
because I'm just gonna give you my top ten everything
(00:22):
from this year. I'll give you my top ten worst
movies and my top ten honorable mentions that you should
also watch from twenty twenty three. So thank you for
being subscribed, thank you for being here for another year
of the podcast. Thank you for telling a friend shout
out to the Monday Morning movie crew. He Now, let's
talk movies.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast,
one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like
never before in a movie podcast. A man with so
much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking IMTV with
glasses from the Nashville Podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
This is Movie Mikes Movie POPA. All right, we're breaking
the format. We'll still have our topic, but we won't
do a traditional movie review or trailer park because I
got three big lists I want to share with you.
But let's get into first my favorite films of twenty
twenty three and the criteria of which I rank these.
A great contribution to why they make my top ten
(01:21):
is strictly just entertainment value. How much fun and how
much enjoyment did I get by watching these movies in theaters.
On top of that, I also have to factor in
the impact that these movies had on cinema, because that's
important to me, not just a great movie that you
go and experience, but also one that's going to live
on for the next five ten, maybe even a lifetime
(01:42):
of movie watching. And kind of along those same lines
is rewatchability. How often will I go back and revisit
these films. It's not necessary for every single movie. Sometimes
movies are like a roller coaster. You're right at once
and then it's like, all right, I enjoyed that, but
I don't need to see it again. But from movies
that border the line of classic, it has to have
that rewatchability. Will also factor in the score that I
(02:05):
gave all of these movies, and then we'll get into
some box office and budget numbers, and also just how
did these movies make me feel like as far as
the emotions that it poured out of me. That is
probably my biggest factor going into reviewing movies, because I
don't always focus on the traditional things that critics do
all that, you know, the flashy things, the things that
(02:27):
would make me sound like a legit cool film critic.
I don't call myself that. I am just a guy
who loves movies. So at the end of the day,
it's what these movies made me feel and what emotions
I think you will get out of them if you
choose to watch these. So let's get into the list.
At number ten, I have Killers of the Flower Moon,
which I give a four out of five. The movie
(02:48):
cost two hundred million dollars to make and as of now,
has only made one hundred and fifty four million dollars
at the box office. It is an Apple original film
from legendary director Martin Scorsese, and for that reason alone
is why this movie was one of my most anticipated
movies of the year. Didn't quite live up to all
the expectations I had for it. I honestly thought a
(03:10):
Scorsese movie with de Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio would be
in my top five. So this movie was great, I
don't deny that, but it could have been perfect. I
think also the three and a half hour runtime really
pushed it down in my rating system because it is
hard to recommend a three and a half hour movie
it feels like such an investment. But going to see
(03:32):
this movie in theaters, I really truly believe that it
warranted that runtime. I thought it was gonna be so
hard to sit there for that amount of time, But honestly,
it went by pretty quick because the storytelling was so compelling.
So it was a great movie, but it could have
been perfect. That's why I put it at number ten.
At number nine is a comedy that I said is
(03:54):
one of the best in five years. It is called Bottoms.
I give it a four point five out of five.
Is from Oreon Studios. The movie cost eleven point three
million dollars to make and went on to earn twelve
point eight million at the box office, so a little
bit of a profit there for a smaller film. The
movie is about two unpopular high school students who start
(04:16):
a fight club in order to hook up with other
people in high school. And the reason I wanted to
include this movie on my list and made sure that
it made my top ten one because it's the most
fun I had at the movies. I watched it in
a pack theater where everybody was just there to have
a good time, and that is what a great comedy
movie does. But also a criticism I see a lot
(04:38):
of film right now is that there aren't any original
movies that aren't a sequel or associated with some type
of property. And this is a completely original movie. So
I want to say here it is. It's right here
to all those saying that there hasn't been a great
comedy since the two thousands or twenty tens. One came
out this year, but you look at the box office
(05:00):
and it doesn't represent what I think that it should.
But obviously with a lower budget, it didn't have the marketing.
It also came out during the strike, so I feel
even more so it went a little bit unnoticed. So
I just want to stream that there are great original
movies being made, and not only that, really fun unique stories,
and I would put this movie up there with the
(05:21):
super Bads, the forty year old versions the Wedding Crashers.
We need to be focusing more on movies like this
because we're all going to be referencing movies that are
twenty plus years old that kids today don't get. So
if you haven't seen Bottoms yet, I highly highly recommend it,
obviously because it's in my top ten list of the year.
So at number nine on my list is Bottoms. Moving
(05:44):
on to number eight, I went with Past Lives from
Studio A twenty four. I gave it a four out
of five rating. The movie costs a mere twelve million
dollars to make and is made over twenty one million
dollars at the box office. The story is really simple.
It's about two childhood friends. One is a male, one
is a female, and the female Nora, moves from South
(06:07):
Korea where they grew up to the United States and
they reconnect decades later and go on to spend a
week together. But the entire movie is their journey throughout
their friendship, and it's a story that just pulls at
your heartstrings almost unexpectedly, like there was a moment in
this movie that made me cry, which I'm going to
reference every movie on this list that made me cry.
(06:28):
So we have the first entry here, and the real
reason that this movie made it on my list is
because it made me believe in filmmaking again. What you
have here is just a great screenplay, perfectly executed with
direction and great acting, and also just to look and
feel of this movie just feels like a warm hug
when you need a friend on a fall day. That
(06:50):
is what this movie is. And it also just brings
all these emotions out of you when it comes to
love and friendship and destiny. And it did it all
well in one hour and forty six minutes, So that
is a feat within its own. So at number eight,
I have past lives. Moving on now to number seven,
(07:10):
I have The Iron Claw, one of the latest entries
on this list, also coming to us from a twenty four.
I give it a four point five out of five rating.
The movie cost sixteen million dollars to make and as
of now has only made eleven million dollars, but it's
only been in theaters for a couple of weeks. And
I will admit, as much as I loved wrestling as
a kid, I grew up in the Attitude era, which
(07:33):
was the late nineties early two thousands, and I learned
a lot about history, but it was a lot just
rooted in those characters. So the Rock and Stone Cold
and Mankind, Triple Age DX, all of those types of
wrestlers were my favorite. I went back and learned about
Andre the Giant Hogan, early Undertaker. But as much as
(07:56):
I loved wrestling, and at one point in my life
I even wanted to grow up to be a professional wrestler,
I was not that familiar with the von Eric brothers,
and even the fact that I grew up in Wakstatchie, Texas,
which is so close to where they grew up, and
they were based in Dallas, so I was just unfamiliar
with their story. But maybe that is why this movie
(08:18):
was also so much more impactful, because I didn't know
anything going into it. But the movie is about the
Vaughan Eric brothers of course, and the relationship with their
dad and the family curse where a lot of awful
things happened to them, and it all revolves really around
wrestling and the strict nature of their dad. The acting
(08:39):
in this movie was great. The actual wrestling part of
it wasn't even the main focus of it. It was
all the behind the scenes stuff, and it's a movie
that you don't feel good after watching it, but it
made me cry. Well, add another one to the list.
This movie made me cry, and it really wasn't until
almost the very end where it got me, because even
(09:00):
as all of these really sad things are happening, it
never really like pick that scab for me. But then
once this one line hit, I was like, Oh my gosh,
I'm gonna lose it. So I think I want to
give this movie a full proper movie review like I
do normally because of all the things I want to
dive into. But this wouldn't be a complete list if
(09:22):
I did not include this movie because I loved it
so much. So at number seven I have the Iron Claw.
At number six, I'm going with The One and Only
Blue Beetle, which I gave a four point five out
of five rating. Comes to us from DC slash Warner Brothers.
The movie cost one hundred and four million dollars to
make and only made about one hundred and thirty million
(09:43):
dollars at the box office, So on paper, yeah, yeah,
probably call this movie a bit of a flop. Usually
could be considered a success. The movie has to make
about twice to three times its budget. But just because
a movie flops at the box office as far as
the numbers does not mean it's a bad movie. And
I will scream this movie's praises until my voice is
(10:06):
hoarse and there's blood coming out of my mouth because
I enjoyed this movie so much and what the movie represented.
It's about Haimi Reus, who was chosen by an alien
scare up to be the Blue Beetle and he just
graduated college. He goes back home and finds his family
a little bit in shambles, at the risk of losing
(10:26):
their business, at the risk of losing their house, and
he feels guilty because he's been over here at college
and didn't know what was going on. And then one
day he becomes a superhero turns his entire world upside
down and he has to take out this big super
evil villain powered by this big evil corporation. And they
keep telling him that the thing that is making him
(10:48):
weak is his love for his family. But it's his
love for his family that makes him strong. And it
was this big movie that just centered around that theme
a family, more so than Fast X, which also came
out earlier this year. But I think that is really
what I identified with because I am Mexican and the
Mexican culture, family is so important and I had not
(11:10):
seen that represented in a film like this. So aside
from just all the Mexican references and music, it was
just that bond with his mom and his dad and
his grandma and his brother and his uncle. That was
just really what I needed to see on the big screen.
But aside from that connection that I felt with his
(11:31):
family and the character Heim, I just thought it was
a really entertaining movie and just got to the action.
And with all the DC movie that came out this
year with really subpar visual effects, this one looked really great.
The transformation scene where Jima first turns into the Blue
Beetle looked fantastic. It almost looked like a horror movie.
(11:53):
So I feel like this movie made some advancements in
what DC has been putting out. And I'm probably make
an excuse here, but it did come out during the strike.
They didn't really get to go and do the circuit
to promote the movie. And it's also hard to sell
a character that is not truly wide known. So I
honestly do think that also heard it a bit. And
(12:15):
the movie also made me cry, not once, but twice,
because I saw this movie twice in theaters because I
had to go take my mom to go see it,
and she ended up loving it too, and she does
not like superhero movies, so I didn't expect it to
make me cry that second time. But hey, here I am,
so if you haven't seen it yet, give me a chance.
It's on Max. And at number six is Blue Beetle.
At number five, we're going back earlier in the year,
(12:39):
which sometimes it's hard to go back and remember how
much of an impact these early movies had on me.
But at number five is Air, which I gave a
four point five at a five rating. Comes to us
from Amazon. It costs about seventy to ninety million dollars
to make. I would probably assume it was on the
higher end of costing ninety million dollars, and it made
(13:01):
ninety million dollars at the box office. But originally this
movie wasn't supposed to come out in theaters. It was
just gonna be an Amazon Prime original, which to me,
it's still weird to say that the same place you
get your boxes, the tee and Tube Socks from is
also putting out movies. I feel like we should feel
weirder about that that Amazon is just in every aspect
(13:23):
of our lives. It's on our doorbell cameras, it's in
the theater, it's everywhere. So we should be concerned about that.
But back to the movie Air. It follows the story
of Sonny Vaccaro, who was a sports marketing executive at Nike,
and it's a rare movie where it has you rooting
for a big corporation because at the time when this happened,
(13:43):
Nike wasn't what it was then what it is now.
It was a struggling company really just known for their
running shoes. But the big dog back at this time
was Converse when it came to basketball shoes. So the
movie focuses on them trying to court a legend, as
they say, and get Michael Jordan to sign with Nike
(14:05):
out of college and create what went on to be
one of the most iconic shoes of all time, if
not the most iconic sneaker ever made. But the reason
I love this movie is because you look at it
on paper and think, oh, they made a movie about Nike,
which sounds like it wouldn't be that great, but it's
so compelling, and the writing is so great in this movie,
(14:28):
and it really just focuses on Sunny Vaccaro and his
determination to make this work and go after one of
the greats and change this company. So the movie does
drama so well, had this great pacing, but also had
these moments of comedy, which I highly attribute to Chris Tucker,
whose character was fantastic. But I would say for about
(14:52):
two weeks, I was just consumed in this movie after
watching it, and I had to go back and watch
the Last Dance. I was all into recent searching how
accurate the movie was, which it was fairly accurate for
the most part. So I love it when movies are
able to do that and just completely consume me for
an amount of time. That is the sign of a
(15:13):
great movie. So at number five, I have Air. At
number four, I'm already hearing the comments here this is
gonna be controversial, But I have Barbenheimer, which is Barbie
and Oppenheimer put together. And you're probably saying, but that's
two movies. You're cheating. Well, it's my show. I'm just kidding.
But honestly, the reason I decided to group these movies
together is because they came out on the same day,
(15:35):
and Barbenheimer felt like an event to me, an event
that the film industry needed, because you have Christopher Nolan
on one side, you have Greta Gerwick on the other side,
and two of the most important films of the year
probably should have had a different release date, but they
didn't shift them. They put them out on the same weekend.
(15:56):
And what ended up happening was creating this moment where
the two films were Even if you look at them,
they don't feel like polar opposites, but when you put
them right next to each other, it's like, oh, Barbie
is so bright and pink, and it's about her having
an existential crisis and has this big message and musical numbers,
which we had to return to musicals this year. And
then on the other hand, you have a really dark
(16:19):
story with a legendary director with an amazing ensemble cast
that just by contrast it feels more emo and dark
and emotional and more dramatic. And then you put those
movies out on the same weekend, and it was the
only time this year where I felt electricity in the
(16:41):
lobby of the movies and showings were completely sold out,
and people went dressed in pink that were going to
watch Barbie, so you knew all they're here for Barbie.
I went an all black to watch Oppenheimer because it
felt like the right thing to do, So for that reason,
Barbie and Oppenheimer will always exist in my mind as
one weekend, as one event. And I love these movies
(17:02):
both separately, and I gave them both a five out
of five. And I also think that buzz around them
highly contributed to it. Also, I saw Oppenheimer in the
highest quality possible in iMac seventy millimeter, which made it
look fantastic. And then you also have two of the
highest grossing movies of the year. Barbie cost one hundred
and forty five million dollars to make and went on
to make one point four billion dollars at the box office.
(17:25):
Oh my gosh, the highest grossing movie of the year.
Oppenheimer cost one hundred million dollars to make and went
on to make nine hundred and fifty two million dollars
at the box office almost a billion. So two movies
that on paper look like competitors both crushed it at
the box office. Which proved that it doesn't matter when
(17:46):
you put out a movie like this, as long as
it's great and people are talking about it, they're gonna
go see it. So at number four I have Barbenheimer.
At number three, I went with Across the Spider Verse,
which comes to us from Sony and Marvel. I gave
this movie a four point five. At a five, it
cost one hundred million dollars to make, which is surprising
(18:08):
for how long they spent making this movie because the
animation process takes forever. But the box office numbers show
US six hundred and ninety million dollars, which is amazing.
And essentially it is the continuation from into the Spider
Verse of Miles Morales a little bit more grown up,
and in this one he encounters a team of Spider People.
(18:30):
They have this new threat called the Spot, and the
tension comes from how to deal with this threat, which
one side of the Spider People see it one way
and Miles Morales sees it a bit differently. And it's
one of the most defining moments in any Spider Man
movie that has ever been made. And I think that
decision and that change in the character is really what
(18:52):
stick out to me in this movie and really impacted me.
But it was also just the animation style of this
movie that it left no thing on the table. It
opens up so bright with Gwen and the feeling of
it at the start of the movie, and then quickly
shifts and then takes you back into the world of
Miles Morales. But it also showed what a true multiverse
(19:13):
is supposed to be like, and I think animation just
really illustrates it so much better because all the different
worlds had a different animation style. I think the Lego
scene was probably my favorite, and the story behind that
of it was just a kid who was posting videos
on YouTube of him creating scenes with Spider Man in
legos led the filmmakers to finding him and putting his
(19:35):
scene into the movie. But even just the character design,
it made me fall in love with a new, different
version of the Spider Man, like Spider Man twenty ninety nine.
And yes, I'm a bit biased because Spider Man is
my favorite superhero of all time and you think it
probably should have been my number one, but the movie
is split into two. But out of any movie on
(19:55):
this list, if there was only one that I could
go back and have my mind erased and watch it
again for the first time. It would be this one.
And it's probably also the one I've rewatched the most.
I've seen it probably four times now, so it has
great rewatchability, which really all Spider Man movies for me
are movies I continue to revisit at least once or
twice a year. I just spent this whole break rewatching
(20:17):
all the Tom Holland Spider Man so it just falls
into that category for me. So at number three, I
have across the Spider Verse. At number two, I'm going
with the end of the trilogy, Guardians of the Galaxy three,
which came to us from Marvel's Studios. I'm director James
Gunn I gave it at five. At a five, the
movie costs two hundred and fifty million dollars to make
(20:39):
and went on to crack the box office numbers of
eight hundred and forty five million dollars, just missing out
on that billion dollar mark for Disney, who did not
have a billion dollar movie this year. But the movie
centers around the Guardians of the Galaxy trying to save
their friend Rocket, and it really is the entire Rocket
origin story that I was not expecting to be so emotional,
(21:03):
and this movie really has a completely different tone from
Part one and Part two, which I feel is one
of the best trilogies in sci fi of all time,
because this entire trilogy really told a story and you
saw so much growth in all of these characters. And
Guardian three focuses again so much on Rocket and the
(21:24):
transformation he has had from being so ruthless early on
and not caring about anyone to being this fully rounded
out character that you have this attachment with which is
outstanding that I could feel so much for a fictional
character that isn't even portrayed on screen by a human.
(21:44):
It is just special effects met with the incredible voice
acting of Bradley Cooper, who really took it to the
next level on this one. And there's a moment in
this movie where Rocket screams and you hear this emotion
in Bradley Cooper's voice that just gutted me. So add
another one to the list of movies that made me
cry this year. But it was such a perfect movie
(22:06):
and such a perfect movie going experience, and it's a
movie like some of the other ones on this list
that I thought about for weeks and weeks after watching it,
I would say, out of all the movies on this list,
this is the one that consumed me the most. That
after I watched it, I read every review, listen to
other podcasts talking about this movie because I could not
(22:27):
get enough of it, and that rarely happens. And not
only was it centered around Rocket and his origin story,
but also Peter Quill dealing with the loss of Gomorrah
and their love story. And visually, this movie just looked amazing.
The soundtrack was magnificent, and it really felt like a
truly unique Marvel movie that we just don't have anymore.
(22:50):
And this year Marvel was criticized so much about, you know,
being in its flop era, but I feel like people
left this movie out of the conversation, probably because it
feels it's so different than everything in the MCU that
oh yeah, forgot. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three that
was really good. And also, like what I was saying
about the Spider Man movies, the Guardians movies are now
(23:11):
movies that I have to rewatch at least once a year,
because when this one came out, I had to go
back watch one and two and I've rewatched part three
now for the third time, so it is up there
on having some great rewatchability. It also crushed it at
the box office, and I think it should and I
hope that other directors take a little bit from this
(23:33):
trilogy of how to truly tell a story and how
to truly take the viewers on a journey with characters.
James Gunn nailed it with this trilogy. So at number
two I have Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three, and
now we have made it to number one. My favorite
movie of twenty twenty three is a movie that came
(23:55):
out in December. I was not expecting to love this
movie as much as I did, and out of every
movie on this list, had the most impact on me
of just feeling like I am watching something so amazing
here that I think everybody needs to see it. The
movie is Godzilla minus one, which I gave a five
(24:17):
at a five rating. Comes to us from the studio Toho.
The movie costs less than ten million dollars to make. Yes,
the directors and producers came out saying that, oh that
ten million dollars that was reported. It was even less
than that, but as of now has made over seventy
eight million dollars at the global box office. The movie
(24:37):
takes place in a post World War two Japan that
the country thought it couldn't reach a lower point after
World War Two, and then Godzilla comes around. So that
is why it's called Godzilla minus one because they are
at ground zero, but now Godzilla takes them a step
below that, so it's Godzilla minus one. But this movie
(24:58):
had so much emotion, which is truly lacking from the
Godzilla films. And I've been enjoying the Monster Verse and
you know, Godzilla versus Kong that has really reignited my
love for Godzilla. But this one made those movies look
so terrible, look like straight hot garbage, because it took
(25:20):
the character of Godzilla that has over thirty installments in
the franchise and made something so completely fresh and new
because it added this human element to it that even
if you took away Godzilla added this movie and just
told the story of our main character here, that would
be a great story on its own. But then you
(25:42):
add in Godzilla, who is the best he has ever
been in this movie as far as how he looks,
how he acts, how he destroys. I think The thing
I dislike the most now about the current Monster verse
and with you know, the new Godzilla Versus Kong movie,
is that they're kind of on the human side, and
we've all just been kind of cool with that, like, yeah,
(26:02):
Godzilla's helping out the humans too, Like, yeah, he's helping
us defeat the monsters. And you'll watch this movie and
you're reminded that, no, Godzilla wouldn't do that. Godzilla is
there to destroy. He rips cities apart, he breathes fire,
he goes nuclear. That is what Godzilla does. He doesn't
(26:23):
help people. He wants to destroy people. And I had
to be reminded of that. So that's why I love
this movie so much. But also the fact that it
did it on such a low budget is inspiring to
all these movies that I'm gonna get into in the
worst films of the year that spent over two hundred
sometimes two hundred and fifty million dollars to make things
(26:45):
that look like trash. Just shows you that if you
just put some effort into it, some heart into it,
and truly care about making a great movie, it can
be done. It can be done. This is a movie
that as of now I can't go rewatch it because
it's only still in theaters. It's still not streaming yet.
(27:05):
They're not giving any details on when you can stream
this movie, so for that I apologize. My only regret
is I didn't see it in imax and haven't had
a chance to go see it again in theaters because
there's been so much to get to in this busy
holiday season. But as soon as it's available for me
to rent or own, I'm gonna get this movie. But
out of all the movies on this list, I think
(27:26):
it's the one that should have the most impact and
show you can make a movie that has a little
bit of something for everybody, a bit of drama, a
little bit of action, a little bit of history, a
little bit of war. I honestly think out of any
movie on this list, you could put this one on
and then most people would just straight out enjoy it.
The only thing that would straight people away from watching
(27:47):
this movie. The hardest sell, which shouldn't be the hardest sell,
is the fact that the movie is in Japanese, so
you have to watch it with English subtitles. Come on,
do I have to go on? The subtitles? Ran again?
Don't make me do it, because we're missing out on
movies if that's the reason you're not watching them. I
completely love this movie. I've been in a Godzilla wormhole
for about a month now since I've seen this movie.
(28:09):
And even with the success of this movie, they're not
chomping at the bit to make another one because that's
the American way of filmmaking. Oh, we have a hit
on our hands, how soon can we crank out another one?
But it's selsa par and then, just you know, that
is not the way to make movies. So it just
makes me believe in making a great movie for just
the sake of making a great movie, which is what
(28:33):
it should be about. It shouldn't be about who's in
your movie, how much can you make? Like, just make
great movies and they will find their audience. So at
number one, I have Godzilla minus one as my favorite
movie of the year. Come back and let you know
all the movies I hated, and then I have a
bunch of honorable mentions. All Right, I've heard my favorite
(29:01):
films of twenty twenty three. Let's get into the negative
and share with you my worst films of the year.
And I'm gonna get heated by the end of this,
so let's get right into it. At number ten, I
have The Flash, which I gave a two point five
at a five rating, who cost three hundred million dollars
to make and went on too bomb because it only
made two hundred and seventy million dollars. This movie was
(29:22):
just a complete mess, from the story, to the visual effects,
to wasting bringing back the greatest Batman Michael Keaton, and
throwing in all of just these things that didn't make sense,
trying to make a multiverse. It felt like it wanted
to be back to the future with into the Spider Verse,
(29:43):
and it was just bad, so so bad in a
movie that could have been great. And the thing that
was just the worst about this movie, I know people
get hung up on the visual effects, which were bad
but didn't completely take me out of the movie just
on occasion, It was really the story that I felt
that Barry didn't really go through anything here, and it
(30:07):
just felt like the entire storyline was like, what happened here?
Did our character grow or did he just try to
do a bunch of like no, and to misuse the
use of time travel and bringing in characters from different
DC universes and just looked like a hot mess on screen.
Felt like this movie had no direction introducing super Girl.
(30:31):
There were just so many things that this movie wanted
to be and just couldn't live up to. So at
number ten, I have The Flash. At number nine, I
have Five Nights at Freddy's, which I gave a two
point five out of five. Surprising thing here is that
the movie was actually a success. It only cost twenty
million dollars to make and went on to earn three
hundred million dollars at the box office. But this was
(30:52):
a movie I went to go see and I thought
I was going to enjoy. I was somewhat familiar with
the video game, but I wasn't a fan of it.
I just horror movies. I thought the acting in this
movie was so bad and the actual horror elements were
lacking to me that I came on and did a
review of this movie and got ripped to shreds because
(31:12):
it has such a passionate fan base. And I do
give props to this movie because Blumhouse took a risk. Well,
I wouldn't even say that they took a risk. They
only spend twenty million dollars on it. This is what
they do. They spend a little or modest amount on
a movie and then cash and big. But I think
it's really due to the fan base of this video game,
(31:34):
because I stand by the fact that it is not
a good movie. I wanted to walk out of this
movie because it was so bad and boring and there
was nothing there for me to grasp on to aside
from the kind of cool look of the animatronic characters.
But I just couldn't believe that people enjoyed this movie,
and the further I dug into it, most of the
(31:55):
people who were enjoying it and so passionate about it
were these hardcore fans. And it's probably Jen that was
just upset at me of being the old krusty movie reviewer.
So may have completely missed a boat on this one,
but I stand by it. This movie was terrible and
one of the worst movies I saw at number nine.
At number eight is Hypnotic, which I gave a one
point five out of five. The movie was a major
(32:17):
flop because it cost sixty five million dollars to make
and only made fifteen point seven million dollars. And it
comes to us from Robert Rodriguez, who I like as
a director from dust Hill Down is one of my
favorite movies. He also did the Spy Kids movies. So
for a director of his caliber to put out such
a turd of a movie was surprising to me. And
(32:40):
it felt like he was trying to do a Christopher
Nolan impression. And the movie has a pretty interesting premise
that does not deliver whatsoever. And you even have a
big movie star, Ben Affleck starring in this movie, which
I guess he has been on the return this year.
I mean, Air made my top favorite films of the year,
but this one made my worst. So that is the
(33:01):
range of Ben Affleck, and I honestly feel like he
did this movie as a favor to him. It almost
felt like Ben Affleck filmed this movie on a weekend
that he had free, and he's like, yeah, I'll shoot
this movie. Because the movie made no sense. It was
a terrible looking movie. It felt like it was just
manufactured in some big warehouse and then slapped together with
(33:23):
some special effects. But story hero was bad, the characters
were bad, and the action was really bad. There was
nothing great about this movie, aside from the fact that
it had a relatively short run time. So at number eight,
I have Hypnotic. At number seven, I have flaman Hot,
which doesn't have any production details online because the movie
came out on Hulu slash Disney Plus as those two
(33:46):
are starting to merge. But it is the story of
the guy who allegedly created the Flaming Hot Cheetos. And
the biggest problem I had with this movie is, I
guess going into it the stories that came out of
the authenticity of the story and it not being completely factual,
(34:06):
and then director Eva Longoria coming out and saying, well,
this is his truth and his story. But inside of
the movie, the inventor himself even makes a point to
say that, yeah, maybe I would make up big stories
and my wife would kind of ground me in reality.
So you had an unreliable narrator on top of it
(34:26):
that really just made me not believe it. And it's
also a story that is meant to represent my culture.
There's Mexican culture all throughout this movie, but to me,
it just felt like the production of such a low
quality straight to TV film, and on top of that,
I felt like wasn't a good representation of my culture.
Almost felt like a caricature of my family, and I
(34:48):
was like, this is what we're putting out to represent us.
This is awful, and then you're calling us liars. I
just didn't love what this movie did for film. Didn't
love what this movie did for my people. So at
number seven, I have Flaming Hot, the Flaming Hot Cheetos Story.
Oh my gosh, that was bad. At number six, I'm
getting more angry as this list goes on because I'm
(35:09):
remembering the time I wasted on these movies. But at
number six, I have Your Place or Mind The rom
com starring America's Sweetheart Reese Witherspoon in America's Guy that
used to be popular in the two thousands and it's
still around doing movies acting Cutcher and Oh my gosh,
(35:29):
this movie almost made me stop believing in my resurgence
of loving rom coms. It was so bad because the
thing that is important in rom comms is for characters
to have chemistry. You gotta have that chemistry to sell
the idea of love to people, to sell that fantasy,
(35:50):
and Cutcher and Witherspoon had no chemistry whatsoever. But also
they gave a very minimal effort in acting it felt
like people were writing the lines as they went along
and just letting them like, oh, just just here's the
general nature of the scene. Do with it what you will.
And they also weren't in a lot of scenes together
(36:10):
because their two characters are split apart. So it just
made me feel like they shot this movie completely out
of whack and never got into a rhythm and were
just kind of making a movie on top of all
their other projects that they had going on at the time.
So the movie just doesn't even feel unified whatsoever. A
lot of it is just their character speaking into either
(36:32):
their phone or a laptop on FaceTime or something like that.
There was just no moment where this movie clicked, And
the only redeeming quality is that it was on Netflix.
Didn't have to pay for it and didn't have to
go anywhere to watch it because it was so bad.
So at number six, I have your place or mine.
But at number five is a movie I actually did
(36:53):
go to the theater to see. I almost walked out,
but I told myself, I gotta see this one through
because I need to be able to properly ripped this
movie to shreds for years to come and for the
longest time. This held the title of the worst movie
of the year, and some others snuck in after it
because I wanted this one to be the worst of
the year because I hated it so much. The movie
(37:13):
is sixty five, starring Adam Driver. I gave it a
one out of five. The movie cost forty five million
dollars to make and made about sixty million dollars at
the box office. The biggest problem I had with this
movie is it had such a great premise, and I
love sci fi movies. I love movies with dinosaurs. Adam
Driver is a great actor, and it's about him being
put on this planet and trying to rescue somebody, and
(37:37):
then you have all these futuristic things. Sounded like a
movie that was right on my alley. But it's a
movie that fumbled all of those things so badly. And
how do you make a movie with dinosaurs and Adam
Driver so completely boring? This movie was a snooze fest
and a movie that looked relatively good on screen, it
(37:59):
just had nothing going for it. It was like a
really attractive person who has nothing to say. That is
what this movie was. And I felt angry while watching
it that I wanted to leave because, oh my gosh,
I was raging in my seat because I was upset
that I was excited about this movie and went on
to just completely disappoint me. And I think it's one
(38:20):
of those movies that even Adam Driver I see was
making it, thought Okay, we're actually doing something great here,
and then it just got ruined in the editing process
because they didn't have a story there. So at number five,
I have sixty five. At number four, I have Vacation
Friends too, which I gave a one out of five rating.
There's no data on this one because it came out
(38:42):
on Hulu. I would probably think they spent about fifty
million dollars to make this movie, maybe because John Cena
is in it. But I surprisingly enjoyed Vacation Friends Part one,
which is weird to say because it is a completely
dumb and ridiculous movie. But sometimes you just need something
(39:02):
dumb and ridiculous, So going into part two, I was
looking for something equally dumb and ridiculous, so a case
where I knew what I was getting myself into, but
was still disappointed because all the things that made the
first one fun and enjoyable were not in this one,
they added new characters and it just made me feel
(39:26):
like a complete idiot while watching this movie to think, Oh, man,
like I took a risk in telling people that I
enjoyed part one and was interested in seeing part two
and thought it was gonna be maybe a little bit funnier.
Maybe with the success I put that in quotation success
of the first ones, they would have more budget to
throw around, kind of like they did with The Hangover two.
(39:47):
But man, this movie was really bad and really awful
and really ridiculous and felt like a dollar bin DVD movie.
So at number four, I have vacation friends too. I
was dumb to believe in it. At number three is
the most recent addition on this list. It is Aquaman
to the Lost Kingdom. I give it a point five
out of five. The movie cost two hundred and five
(40:10):
million dollars to make, and as of the recording of
this podcast, has made one hundred and forty five million dollars.
It is the end of the DCEU. This movie was
dead on arrival, but I was willing to give it
a chance because I found some enjoyment in the first one.
I still think it's surprising how successful that movie was
being one of the only DCEU movies to make over
(40:32):
a billion dollars at the box office. I think that
is largely due to the international appeal of Aquaman. But
the biggest factor of me hating this movie is it
has the worst dialogue of twenty twenty three. I don't
even know what the script was here. I couldn't imagine
these actors taking these lines seriously because it was so bad.
(40:55):
And Jason Momoa in this movie was so much trying
to be Robert Downey and have that Tony Stark energy
as the lovable jerk guy but has a good heart,
and he did a bad impression of it. This movie
felt like a parody of a superhero movie. Script was terrible.
Visual effects. Oh my gosh, it is hard to do
(41:17):
a movie underwater. I get it, you have to animate
their hair going wavy. It just looked really bad. I mean,
The Little Mermaid this year looked better than this movie.
And then they also put this weird underwater effect on
their voice, which was awful. And I wish I could
say that the above ground scenes looked better, but they didn't.
And I guess I was just hoping hoping that the
(41:39):
DCEU would go out on a higher note and it
wasn't just gonna be people review bombing this movie saying
it's bad before even seeing it. But this movie was
hard to watch. I'm glad that it was right under
two hours, but there was nothing positive I could say
about this movie, aside from the villain and some of
(41:59):
the support casts that were the only ones giving it
some kind of effort. The movie was ridiculously bad. It
had the feel of like a bad eighties action movie
mixed with early two thousand's late nineties special effects. To that,
we say goodbye to the DCEU. Add number two, I
(42:23):
Have a rom com by the name of What Happens Later,
starring David d'coveney and Meg Ryan, directed by Meg Ryan.
I gave also a point five out of five rating.
The movie costs only three million dollars to make, which
a lot of it was Meg Ryan calling in some
favors from her friends. She also directed it herself, so
maybe she didn't pay herself anything, but it went on
(42:45):
to make three point three million dollars at the box office.
The movie has an extremely limited cast of just two people,
Meg Ryan, David d'coveny stranded in an airport. It's based
on a play and it feels that way. But this
this movie had no direction Onceoever, it took the most
boring situation that you can experience, being stranded in an airport.
(43:07):
Think of that, you get delayed and you're there for hours.
It is the worst feeling because there's nothing to do.
Why design to make a movie about that. It just
had that feeling of me being bored in an airport
trying to find things to pass the time. So it
is essentially a bottle movie where there are no other
set designs. It's just an airport, no other cast aside
(43:30):
from the loudspeakers saying and narrating this entire movie, which
was so annoying, and just the direction that they went
in to tell this story of two people reconnecting and
love and oh my gosh, it looks awful. It is awful.
There is nothing redeeming about this movie. It's just one
(43:52):
that should not have been made. So at number two,
I have what happens later, But at number one, the
worst movie in the film I hated the most. In
twenty twenty three, Istrays, which is a quote unquote comedy
adventure about these dogs trying to get revenge on one
of the dog's owners. It is part live action, part
(44:13):
animated because you have real life humans like Will Forte
in the movie. All the dogs look like real dogs,
but of course their mouths are animated, and you have
actors voicing them like Will Ferrell. But the movie centers
around Will Ferrell's character, Reggie, who has an abusive owner
who drops him off and gets rid of them, and
Reggie is trying to find his way home. He encounters
(44:35):
these other stray dogs and then decides he wants to
get revenge on his owner after he realizes that he's
been mistreating him his entire life. And the movie was
really just made as an excuse to get dogs to curse.
That is all this movie is. The novelty of it
is that it's a rated R movie that looks like
a kid's movie. Oh it's these cute dogs. What they're
(44:56):
saying the F word and doing vulgar things, which I
am above enjoying a type of movie like this. Some
of the humor I really enjoy is really immature stuff.
But if there's no creativity in the comedy, it just
screams terrible, and that is what we have here, to
the point that the humor just felt like something you
(45:17):
would write in sixth grade with your friends. But you
took that script made by six graders and got real
life movie stars to voice these characters, and it almost
feels like they just got into a recording booth they
gave them some lines and said, hey, add in some
F words and S words wherever you feel necessary, because
(45:38):
that's the only thing this movie has going for it
is the fact that it's so vulgar. But it's one
of the dumbest movies I've seen in a really long time,
and a movie that I hated with every fiber of
my being because I was looking forward to watching a
raunchy comedy and what I got was a raunchy piece
of rubbish. So at number one Word Movie of twenty
(46:01):
twenty three, I give two strays. I've given you the best,
I've given you the worst. I'll come back and give
you my honorable mentions to close out this very special episode.
All right, let's get into it now, my honorable mentions
of the year. Like I said, I went through about
(46:21):
five different versions of my top ten that I feel
that any of these movies in the honorable mentions could
have made that list, because I think these are all
great movies that I would recommend, but not the ones
that I would choose to represent twenty twenty three when
all was said and done. So at number ten, I
have Theater Camp, which is available now on Hulu. The
story about a group of kids all going to theater
(46:45):
camp and then trying to save the camp, very much
in the way that Heavyweights was back in the nineties,
So I think because I had that association with it,
it made me enjoy this movie more. But also it
just had really great comedy. And I know nothing about
theater I know nothing about the inside jokes, but I
quickly felt a part of this crowd. So you don't
(47:05):
have to be in the theater. You could just feel
like a misfit and enjoy this movie. Just a really
fun time with a lot of really fun characters. So
I put that one at number ten. At number nine,
I have Dumb Money, which is the real life story
of what happened with Game Stop Stock just a couple
of years ago, and that whole craze, And it's really
a movie about the poor fighting back against those one percenters.
(47:29):
You also have Paul Dano, who is one of my
favorite actors in another movie where he incited a group
of people on the internet two runs above, so I
guess he's just really great at doing that. But it's
a movie that went a little bit under the radar
during the strike, and I feel was a victim of
its marketing because if you look at the posters and
the trailer, it really painted the movie as a straight
(47:51):
on comedy. I guess because of the cast, because of
Seth Rogan being in it, it was made to look
like it was just gonna be a funny movie, which
really wasn't the case. So I feel like with different marketing,
this movie could have done a lot better at the
box office. It also reminded me of BlackBerry, which came
out earlier this year, which was the origin story of
(48:12):
the company BlackBerry, and another movie similar to Dumb Money
that I feel like was a victim of its marketing.
So at number nine, I have Dumb Money. At number
eight was a movie that had a moment early on
in the year, Megan, which I feel like Megan has
quickly cemented herself of being one of the coveted horror icons,
which is a really hard thing to do. I really
(48:34):
think with one more film, she could be up there
with the Chucky's, the Freddy Kruegers, and the Michael Myers,
because honestly, those guys have been around so long we
need some fresh meat in there. But what I really
loved was the marketing behind this movie. That it got
people talking. That is what great movies do, and it
put horror back on the map in twenty twenty three,
along with some of the other movies in my honorable mentions.
But at number eight I have Megan. At number seven,
(48:57):
I have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem, a movie
that made me feel like a kid again. I love
the take of the Ninja Turtles in this movie, making
them younger and also having actual teenagers to voice them.
But above all, the animation style in this one just
really shined and looked like a watercolor picture book brought
to life. And with a franchise that has been kind
(49:20):
of drugged through the mud with the live action attempts
that really haven't sit well with fans, I feel like
this has brought everybody back to what makes the Ninja
Turtles great. I also love the fact that now people
who were fans of the original Ninja Turtles back in
the eighties in the nineties now have kids to share
it and enjoy these movies with I love going to
(49:41):
Target and seeing all the new teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
toys and thinking, ah, there are kids now discovering this
for the first time. That is what made me love
this movie and what made me put it at number seven.
Along those same lines, at number six, I have the
Super Mario Brothers movie, which was an incredible success, being
one of the highest grossing movies that making one point
(50:01):
three million dollars, shutting out its competition of Disney. This
movie comes to us from Illumination, which makes all the
Minions movies. They also had Migration out this year in
twenty twenty three, And it just shows you when making
kids movie, you just have to make it fun. Like
I know, it's important to work in lessons every now
(50:21):
and then so kids can take something away from movies.
But at the end of the day, you just have
to make something that's enjoyable for kids to watch, and
that is what this movie did. It was just a
straight on fun movie with the fun journey and characters
that we all know and love and along those same
lines of people who are fans and Ninja Turtles as
(50:43):
kids an now are older, you're also getting to reshare
Super Mario with your kids and enjoy the games now.
And it really was a love letter to that, the
fans of the games showing off all the different versions
of Super Mario inside of this movie and just that's
a really fun way. And the animation style was exactly
what it needed to be. It looked like Mario. And yeah,
(51:06):
there was some controversy around Chris Pratt voicing Mario and
essentially just doing the voice of Chris Pratt, but at
the end of it, I felt like it worked. And
the person who went unnecessarily hard in this movie was
Jack Black delivering a banger with this Peaches song. So
at number six, I have the Super Mario Brothers movie.
At number five is a recent addition is Wonka, which
(51:29):
I ended up really enjoying and I thought I wasn't
going to because Willie Wonka in the Chocolate Factory. The
original with Gene Wilder is a top ten film for me,
and it's a film I associate with my childhood, even
though it came out long before I was Born, but
I feel like that movie is perfect, so much so
that I hated the Tim Burton version with Johnny Depp,
(51:52):
so I was hesitant going into this one. But I
love the approach that Timothy Chalomey had with Wonka. Yeah,
he was a little bit too extra in some of
the scenes and some of his delivery, but overall, I
felt like it was Wonka before he got jaded and
before he was all like different and weird. It was
(52:13):
like him, fresh eyed, bushy tailed. And it also incorporated
more music into this one, which the original and the
Tim Burton movies are musicals, and I think a lot
of people forgot that the songs have always been a
big part of Willie Wonka. But yes, this one is
more of a straight ahead musical, which for the longest
time I've been saying that I don't enjoy musicals, but
(52:35):
after seeing this one, after seeing Barbie, I think I
love musicals. It just has to be a really great musical.
And I found myself after watching this movie for the
first time ever, I went and listened to a musical
soundtrack because I love these songs so much and they
were stuck in my head. So at number five, I
have Wonka. At number four is a movie called Talk
(52:57):
to Me, which is a fantastic horror movie. Like I
was saying about Bottoms being one of the best comedies
in the last five years, talk to Me is that
for horror. This was the only time I truly felt
scared while watching a movie this year, which is a
really hard thing to do. It's about this group of friends,
mostly teenagers early twenties, who get this embalmed hand that
(53:21):
allows them to connect with dead people, and every time
they are able to connect with through the power of
this hand, they are almost getting put into this state
that they become very vulnerable. So it's like a roller
coaster ride that you can only hold on to for
so long before you get fully sucked into it. But
the reason they hold on for so long is because
(53:42):
they're doing it for social media, so it becomes a
challenge to hold out as long as you can despite
of all the horrible things that you are witnessing and
the dead people that you are coming in contact with.
So maybe not a movie that rewrote how you make
a horror movie, but what it was able to accompany
did it so well and makes me excited to see
(54:03):
a sequel. To this movie, and I rarely get excited
for sequels, especially in horror movies. So at number four,
I have talked to me. At number three, I have
The Holdovers, which is about a cranky history teacher who
has to look after some kids at a fancy prep
school who don't get to go home for the holidays.
The movie stars Apologiamadi, who I am not a fan of,
and that is a long standing grudge I have since
(54:27):
he put out his movie Sideways and I heard an
interview with him where he was really disrespectful to a
fan but in a really pompous way. That just made
me not like him, and I always felt after that
anytime he was in a movie it made me not
like the movie. But Kelsey really wanted to see The Holeover,
so we went to go see it, and I was wrong.
I love this movie and it was one I did
not expect to enjoy as much as I did, and
(54:48):
had a group of characters that I felt this deep
connection with by the end of it that I felt
like I went through this entire journey with them and
grew as a person with them. So it does take
place around Christmas time, so I feel like this will
become a movie that we now watch every single Christmas.
But if you haven't seen it yet and you think
(55:10):
I don't want to watch a Christmas movie, it's not
really a full on Christmas movie. It just takes place
around Christmas. It is really just a good slice of
life movie if you're looking for a new one to
check out. I gave it four point five out of five.
At number two was a movie from one of my
favorite directors, Wes Anderson, Asteroid City, and it's a movie
that I wouldn't really recommend unless you're into Wes Anderson
(55:34):
and a lot of what makes Wes anderson movies great
is a visual aspect because he has this eye for
symmetry and colors that just make movies visually appealing, and
that is what I crave. And the movie also has
a really big ensemble cast who did this movie for
relatively no money, so you think, how can you get
a movie with so many A listers made for so
(55:57):
little amount of money. They basically do it as a
face to say they were in a Wes Anderson movie,
but they are also very quirky, which is why I
believe they're not for everybody. The humor is very dry,
and the overall story is oftentimes quite utterly bizarre. But
to me, a Wes Anderson movie always feels like an event.
(56:17):
And he is somebody who has this filmography that I cherish,
and each one of his films has its own unique
feel to it, but maintain that visual aspect that really
gives him a look unlike any other director, because I
could just look at one frame of Wes Anderson movie
and know that it was him. So at number two
I have Asteroid City, and hey, he even got Tom
(56:40):
Hanks in this movie. But at number one, my biggest
honorable mention was a movie they came out early in
twenty twenty three and one that I feel got overlooked
a lot. It was hanging on to my number ten
slot for a minute. Just couldn't quite put it in there.
But it is John Wick four, which I give a
four point five out of five. It is one of
the best action movies I've seen in a very long time,
(57:03):
probably since well John Wick won two and three. It
just does it so well that it wastes no time
getting right to knowing what the audience wants. Bullets flying,
people getting their limbs broken, and Keanu Reeves saying about
fifty five words in this entire movie, and it is
a movie that on paper shouldn't be as big of
(57:24):
a hit as it is. I feel like John Wick
is such an unorthodox main character, but somehow it works
together so well. And it's really due to all of
the stunt performances in this movie, the cinematography, and just
the violent nature of all of these movies that make
it work so well. It is a movie I love
(57:46):
from beginning to end because it was a non stop
good time.
Speaker 2 (57:51):
Now.
Speaker 1 (57:51):
I know they're to a point where they're gonna do
spinoffs and maybe do another one, but I honestly hope
that john Wick four is the ending of this story
and Keanu Reeves goes on to do something else because
it closes out the saga on a perfect note. So
my number one honorable mention for twenty twenty three almost
made my list is john Wick four, and that is
(58:12):
gonna do it for another episode here of the podcast.
Thank you for allowing me to break the format and
giving you my end of the year list. As we
start a new year, I think I also want to
do a big roundup of all the movies I haven't
reviewed yet because I watched so many movies over the
holiday break. So if there is a movie that I
haven't talked about yet, it's because I'm holding on to it.
(58:34):
So I have enough time to give my full thoughts
on the movies that I have seen. But before I go,
I got to give my listeners shout out of the week,
the first one of twenty twenty four, going over to
x formerly known as Twitter for this one, and this
week's listener shout out of the Week is Nicholas Martinez,
who said caught up on the last five episodes of
Movie Mike's Movie podcast during a road trip, and I
(58:57):
was back on December twenty seventh. So hopefully, Nicholas, you
are all caught up to this episode now and you
get to hear your shout out. So thank you to
Nicholas and anybody else who listened to the episodes over break.
This is my first new episode of the year, and
it felt good to be back, y'all. I'm charged up
and ready to go. So until the next time, go
out and watch good movies and I will talk to
(59:18):
you later.
Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's Movie Podcast. I
am your host Movie Mike and also welcome to twenty
twenty four, the first brand new episode of the year.
And you know what that means. I'm gonna share with
you my top ten favorite films of twenty twenty three
now that the year is over. It's the hardest time
I've ever had making a top ten list. And We're
also going to break the format of a traditional episode
because I'm just gonna give you my top ten everything
(00:22):
from this year. I'll give you my top ten worst
movies and my top ten honorable mentions that you should
also watch from twenty twenty three. So thank you for
being subscribed, thank you for being here for another year
of the podcast. Thank you for telling a friend shout
out to the Monday Morning movie crew. He Now, let's
talk movies.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast,
one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like
never before in a movie podcast. A man with so
much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking IMTV with
glasses from the Nashville Podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
This is Movie Mikes Movie POPA. All right, we're breaking
the format. We'll still have our topic, but we won't
do a traditional movie review or trailer park because I
got three big lists I want to share with you.
But let's get into first my favorite films of twenty
twenty three and the criteria of which I rank these.
A great contribution to why they make my top ten
(01:21):
is strictly just entertainment value. How much fun and how
much enjoyment did I get by watching these movies in theaters.
On top of that, I also have to factor in
the impact that these movies had on cinema, because that's
important to me, not just a great movie that you
go and experience, but also one that's going to live
on for the next five ten, maybe even a lifetime
(01:42):
of movie watching. And kind of along those same lines
is rewatchability. How often will I go back and revisit
these films. It's not necessary for every single movie. Sometimes
movies are like a roller coaster. You're right at once
and then it's like, all right, I enjoyed that, but
I don't need to see it again. But from movies
that border the line of classic, it has to have
that rewatchability. Will also factor in the score that I
(02:05):
gave all of these movies, and then we'll get into
some box office and budget numbers, and also just how
did these movies make me feel like as far as
the emotions that it poured out of me. That is
probably my biggest factor going into reviewing movies, because I
don't always focus on the traditional things that critics do
all that, you know, the flashy things, the things that
(02:27):
would make me sound like a legit cool film critic.
I don't call myself that. I am just a guy
who loves movies. So at the end of the day,
it's what these movies made me feel and what emotions
I think you will get out of them if you
choose to watch these. So let's get into the list.
At number ten, I have Killers of the Flower Moon,
which I give a four out of five. The movie
(02:48):
cost two hundred million dollars to make and as of now,
has only made one hundred and fifty four million dollars
at the box office. It is an Apple original film
from legendary director Martin Scorsese, and for that reason alone
is why this movie was one of my most anticipated
movies of the year. Didn't quite live up to all
the expectations I had for it. I honestly thought a
(03:10):
Scorsese movie with de Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio would be
in my top five. So this movie was great, I
don't deny that, but it could have been perfect. I
think also the three and a half hour runtime really
pushed it down in my rating system because it is
hard to recommend a three and a half hour movie
it feels like such an investment. But going to see
(03:32):
this movie in theaters, I really truly believe that it
warranted that runtime. I thought it was gonna be so
hard to sit there for that amount of time, But honestly,
it went by pretty quick because the storytelling was so compelling.
So it was a great movie, but it could have
been perfect. That's why I put it at number ten.
At number nine is a comedy that I said is
(03:54):
one of the best in five years. It is called Bottoms.
I give it a four point five out of five.
Is from Oreon Studios. The movie cost eleven point three
million dollars to make and went on to earn twelve
point eight million at the box office, so a little
bit of a profit there for a smaller film. The
movie is about two unpopular high school students who start
(04:16):
a fight club in order to hook up with other
people in high school. And the reason I wanted to
include this movie on my list and made sure that
it made my top ten one because it's the most
fun I had at the movies. I watched it in
a pack theater where everybody was just there to have
a good time, and that is what a great comedy
movie does. But also a criticism I see a lot
(04:38):
of film right now is that there aren't any original
movies that aren't a sequel or associated with some type
of property. And this is a completely original movie. So
I want to say here it is. It's right here
to all those saying that there hasn't been a great
comedy since the two thousands or twenty tens. One came
out this year, but you look at the box office
(05:00):
and it doesn't represent what I think that it should.
But obviously with a lower budget, it didn't have the marketing.
It also came out during the strike, so I feel
even more so it went a little bit unnoticed. So
I just want to stream that there are great original
movies being made, and not only that, really fun unique stories,
and I would put this movie up there with the
(05:21):
super Bads, the forty year old versions the Wedding Crashers.
We need to be focusing more on movies like this
because we're all going to be referencing movies that are
twenty plus years old that kids today don't get. So
if you haven't seen Bottoms yet, I highly highly recommend it,
obviously because it's in my top ten list of the year.
So at number nine on my list is Bottoms. Moving
(05:44):
on to number eight, I went with Past Lives from
Studio A twenty four. I gave it a four out
of five rating. The movie costs a mere twelve million
dollars to make and is made over twenty one million
dollars at the box office. The story is really simple.
It's about two childhood friends. One is a male, one
is a female, and the female Nora, moves from South
(06:07):
Korea where they grew up to the United States and
they reconnect decades later and go on to spend a
week together. But the entire movie is their journey throughout
their friendship, and it's a story that just pulls at
your heartstrings almost unexpectedly, like there was a moment in
this movie that made me cry, which I'm going to
reference every movie on this list that made me cry.
(06:28):
So we have the first entry here, and the real
reason that this movie made it on my list is
because it made me believe in filmmaking again. What you
have here is just a great screenplay, perfectly executed with
direction and great acting, and also just to look and
feel of this movie just feels like a warm hug
when you need a friend on a fall day. That
(06:50):
is what this movie is. And it also just brings
all these emotions out of you when it comes to
love and friendship and destiny. And it did it all
well in one hour and forty six minutes, So that
is a feat within its own. So at number eight,
I have past lives. Moving on now to number seven,
(07:10):
I have The Iron Claw, one of the latest entries
on this list, also coming to us from a twenty four.
I give it a four point five out of five rating.
The movie cost sixteen million dollars to make and as
of now has only made eleven million dollars, but it's
only been in theaters for a couple of weeks. And
I will admit, as much as I loved wrestling as
a kid, I grew up in the Attitude era, which
(07:33):
was the late nineties early two thousands, and I learned
a lot about history, but it was a lot just
rooted in those characters. So the Rock and Stone Cold
and Mankind, Triple Age DX, all of those types of
wrestlers were my favorite. I went back and learned about
Andre the Giant Hogan, early Undertaker. But as much as
(07:56):
I loved wrestling, and at one point in my life
I even wanted to grow up to be a professional wrestler,
I was not that familiar with the von Eric brothers,
and even the fact that I grew up in Wakstatchie, Texas,
which is so close to where they grew up, and
they were based in Dallas, so I was just unfamiliar
with their story. But maybe that is why this movie
(08:18):
was also so much more impactful, because I didn't know
anything going into it. But the movie is about the
Vaughan Eric brothers of course, and the relationship with their
dad and the family curse where a lot of awful
things happened to them, and it all revolves really around
wrestling and the strict nature of their dad. The acting
(08:39):
in this movie was great. The actual wrestling part of
it wasn't even the main focus of it. It was
all the behind the scenes stuff, and it's a movie
that you don't feel good after watching it, but it
made me cry. Well, add another one to the list.
This movie made me cry, and it really wasn't until
almost the very end where it got me, because even
(09:00):
as all of these really sad things are happening, it
never really like pick that scab for me. But then
once this one line hit, I was like, Oh my gosh,
I'm gonna lose it. So I think I want to
give this movie a full proper movie review like I
do normally because of all the things I want to
dive into. But this wouldn't be a complete list if
(09:22):
I did not include this movie because I loved it
so much. So at number seven I have the Iron Claw.
At number six, I'm going with The One and Only
Blue Beetle, which I gave a four point five out
of five rating. Comes to us from DC slash Warner Brothers.
The movie cost one hundred and four million dollars to
make and only made about one hundred and thirty million
(09:43):
dollars at the box office, So on paper, yeah, yeah,
probably call this movie a bit of a flop. Usually
could be considered a success. The movie has to make
about twice to three times its budget. But just because
a movie flops at the box office as far as
the numbers does not mean it's a bad movie. And
I will scream this movie's praises until my voice is
(10:06):
hoarse and there's blood coming out of my mouth because
I enjoyed this movie so much and what the movie represented.
It's about Haimi Reus, who was chosen by an alien
scare up to be the Blue Beetle and he just
graduated college. He goes back home and finds his family
a little bit in shambles, at the risk of losing
(10:26):
their business, at the risk of losing their house, and
he feels guilty because he's been over here at college
and didn't know what was going on. And then one
day he becomes a superhero turns his entire world upside
down and he has to take out this big super
evil villain powered by this big evil corporation. And they
keep telling him that the thing that is making him
(10:48):
weak is his love for his family. But it's his
love for his family that makes him strong. And it
was this big movie that just centered around that theme
a family, more so than Fast X, which also came
out earlier this year. But I think that is really
what I identified with because I am Mexican and the
Mexican culture, family is so important and I had not
(11:10):
seen that represented in a film like this. So aside
from just all the Mexican references and music, it was
just that bond with his mom and his dad and
his grandma and his brother and his uncle. That was
just really what I needed to see on the big screen.
But aside from that connection that I felt with his
(11:31):
family and the character Heim, I just thought it was
a really entertaining movie and just got to the action.
And with all the DC movie that came out this
year with really subpar visual effects, this one looked really great.
The transformation scene where Jima first turns into the Blue
Beetle looked fantastic. It almost looked like a horror movie.
(11:53):
So I feel like this movie made some advancements in
what DC has been putting out. And I'm probably make
an excuse here, but it did come out during the strike.
They didn't really get to go and do the circuit
to promote the movie. And it's also hard to sell
a character that is not truly wide known. So I
honestly do think that also heard it a bit. And
(12:15):
the movie also made me cry, not once, but twice,
because I saw this movie twice in theaters because I
had to go take my mom to go see it,
and she ended up loving it too, and she does
not like superhero movies, so I didn't expect it to
make me cry that second time. But hey, here I am,
so if you haven't seen it yet, give me a chance.
It's on Max. And at number six is Blue Beetle.
At number five, we're going back earlier in the year,
(12:39):
which sometimes it's hard to go back and remember how
much of an impact these early movies had on me.
But at number five is Air, which I gave a
four point five at a five rating. Comes to us
from Amazon. It costs about seventy to ninety million dollars
to make. I would probably assume it was on the
higher end of costing ninety million dollars, and it made
(13:01):
ninety million dollars at the box office. But originally this
movie wasn't supposed to come out in theaters. It was
just gonna be an Amazon Prime original, which to me,
it's still weird to say that the same place you
get your boxes, the tee and Tube Socks from is
also putting out movies. I feel like we should feel
weirder about that that Amazon is just in every aspect
(13:23):
of our lives. It's on our doorbell cameras, it's in
the theater, it's everywhere. So we should be concerned about that.
But back to the movie Air. It follows the story
of Sonny Vaccaro, who was a sports marketing executive at Nike,
and it's a rare movie where it has you rooting
for a big corporation because at the time when this happened,
(13:43):
Nike wasn't what it was then what it is now.
It was a struggling company really just known for their
running shoes. But the big dog back at this time
was Converse when it came to basketball shoes. So the
movie focuses on them trying to court a legend, as
they say, and get Michael Jordan to sign with Nike
(14:05):
out of college and create what went on to be
one of the most iconic shoes of all time, if
not the most iconic sneaker ever made. But the reason
I love this movie is because you look at it
on paper and think, oh, they made a movie about Nike,
which sounds like it wouldn't be that great, but it's
so compelling, and the writing is so great in this movie,
(14:28):
and it really just focuses on Sunny Vaccaro and his
determination to make this work and go after one of
the greats and change this company. So the movie does
drama so well, had this great pacing, but also had
these moments of comedy, which I highly attribute to Chris Tucker,
whose character was fantastic. But I would say for about
(14:52):
two weeks, I was just consumed in this movie after
watching it, and I had to go back and watch
the Last Dance. I was all into recent searching how
accurate the movie was, which it was fairly accurate for
the most part. So I love it when movies are
able to do that and just completely consume me for
an amount of time. That is the sign of a
(15:13):
great movie. So at number five, I have Air. At
number four, I'm already hearing the comments here this is
gonna be controversial, But I have Barbenheimer, which is Barbie
and Oppenheimer put together. And you're probably saying, but that's
two movies. You're cheating. Well, it's my show. I'm just kidding.
But honestly, the reason I decided to group these movies
together is because they came out on the same day,
(15:35):
and Barbenheimer felt like an event to me, an event
that the film industry needed, because you have Christopher Nolan
on one side, you have Greta Gerwick on the other side,
and two of the most important films of the year
probably should have had a different release date, but they
didn't shift them. They put them out on the same weekend.
(15:56):
And what ended up happening was creating this moment where
the two films were Even if you look at them,
they don't feel like polar opposites, but when you put
them right next to each other, it's like, oh, Barbie
is so bright and pink, and it's about her having
an existential crisis and has this big message and musical numbers,
which we had to return to musicals this year. And
then on the other hand, you have a really dark
(16:19):
story with a legendary director with an amazing ensemble cast
that just by contrast it feels more emo and dark
and emotional and more dramatic. And then you put those
movies out on the same weekend, and it was the
only time this year where I felt electricity in the
(16:41):
lobby of the movies and showings were completely sold out,
and people went dressed in pink that were going to
watch Barbie, so you knew all they're here for Barbie.
I went an all black to watch Oppenheimer because it
felt like the right thing to do, So for that reason,
Barbie and Oppenheimer will always exist in my mind as
one weekend, as one event. And I love these movies
(17:02):
both separately, and I gave them both a five out
of five. And I also think that buzz around them
highly contributed to it. Also, I saw Oppenheimer in the
highest quality possible in iMac seventy millimeter, which made it
look fantastic. And then you also have two of the
highest grossing movies of the year. Barbie cost one hundred
and forty five million dollars to make and went on
to make one point four billion dollars at the box office.
(17:25):
Oh my gosh, the highest grossing movie of the year.
Oppenheimer cost one hundred million dollars to make and went
on to make nine hundred and fifty two million dollars
at the box office almost a billion. So two movies
that on paper look like competitors both crushed it at
the box office. Which proved that it doesn't matter when
(17:46):
you put out a movie like this, as long as
it's great and people are talking about it, they're gonna
go see it. So at number four I have Barbenheimer.
At number three, I went with Across the Spider Verse,
which comes to us from Sony and Marvel. I gave
this movie a four point five. At a five, it
cost one hundred million dollars to make, which is surprising
(18:08):
for how long they spent making this movie because the
animation process takes forever. But the box office numbers show
US six hundred and ninety million dollars, which is amazing.
And essentially it is the continuation from into the Spider
Verse of Miles Morales a little bit more grown up,
and in this one he encounters a team of Spider People.
(18:30):
They have this new threat called the Spot, and the
tension comes from how to deal with this threat, which
one side of the Spider People see it one way
and Miles Morales sees it a bit differently. And it's
one of the most defining moments in any Spider Man
movie that has ever been made. And I think that
decision and that change in the character is really what
(18:52):
stick out to me in this movie and really impacted me.
But it was also just the animation style of this
movie that it left no thing on the table. It
opens up so bright with Gwen and the feeling of
it at the start of the movie, and then quickly
shifts and then takes you back into the world of
Miles Morales. But it also showed what a true multiverse
(19:13):
is supposed to be like, and I think animation just
really illustrates it so much better because all the different
worlds had a different animation style. I think the Lego
scene was probably my favorite, and the story behind that
of it was just a kid who was posting videos
on YouTube of him creating scenes with Spider Man in
legos led the filmmakers to finding him and putting his
(19:35):
scene into the movie. But even just the character design,
it made me fall in love with a new, different
version of the Spider Man, like Spider Man twenty ninety nine.
And yes, I'm a bit biased because Spider Man is
my favorite superhero of all time and you think it
probably should have been my number one, but the movie
is split into two. But out of any movie on
(19:55):
this list, if there was only one that I could
go back and have my mind erased and watch it
again for the first time. It would be this one.
And it's probably also the one I've rewatched the most.
I've seen it probably four times now, so it has
great rewatchability, which really all Spider Man movies for me
are movies I continue to revisit at least once or
twice a year. I just spent this whole break rewatching
(20:17):
all the Tom Holland Spider Man so it just falls
into that category for me. So at number three, I
have across the Spider Verse. At number two, I'm going
with the end of the trilogy, Guardians of the Galaxy three,
which came to us from Marvel's Studios. I'm director James
Gunn I gave it at five. At a five, the
movie costs two hundred and fifty million dollars to make
(20:39):
and went on to crack the box office numbers of
eight hundred and forty five million dollars, just missing out
on that billion dollar mark for Disney, who did not
have a billion dollar movie this year. But the movie
centers around the Guardians of the Galaxy trying to save
their friend Rocket, and it really is the entire Rocket
origin story that I was not expecting to be so emotional,
(21:03):
and this movie really has a completely different tone from
Part one and Part two, which I feel is one
of the best trilogies in sci fi of all time,
because this entire trilogy really told a story and you
saw so much growth in all of these characters. And
Guardian three focuses again so much on Rocket and the
(21:24):
transformation he has had from being so ruthless early on
and not caring about anyone to being this fully rounded
out character that you have this attachment with which is
outstanding that I could feel so much for a fictional
character that isn't even portrayed on screen by a human.
(21:44):
It is just special effects met with the incredible voice
acting of Bradley Cooper, who really took it to the
next level on this one. And there's a moment in
this movie where Rocket screams and you hear this emotion
in Bradley Cooper's voice that just gutted me. So add
another one to the list of movies that made me
cry this year. But it was such a perfect movie
(22:06):
and such a perfect movie going experience, and it's a
movie like some of the other ones on this list
that I thought about for weeks and weeks after watching it,
I would say, out of all the movies on this list,
this is the one that consumed me the most. That
after I watched it, I read every review, listen to
other podcasts talking about this movie because I could not
(22:27):
get enough of it, and that rarely happens. And not
only was it centered around Rocket and his origin story,
but also Peter Quill dealing with the loss of Gomorrah
and their love story. And visually, this movie just looked amazing.
The soundtrack was magnificent, and it really felt like a
truly unique Marvel movie that we just don't have anymore.
(22:50):
And this year Marvel was criticized so much about, you know,
being in its flop era, but I feel like people
left this movie out of the conversation, probably because it
feels it's so different than everything in the MCU that
oh yeah, forgot. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three that
was really good. And also, like what I was saying
about the Spider Man movies, the Guardians movies are now
(23:11):
movies that I have to rewatch at least once a year,
because when this one came out, I had to go
back watch one and two and I've rewatched part three
now for the third time, so it is up there
on having some great rewatchability. It also crushed it at
the box office, and I think it should and I
hope that other directors take a little bit from this
(23:33):
trilogy of how to truly tell a story and how
to truly take the viewers on a journey with characters.
James Gunn nailed it with this trilogy. So at number
two I have Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three, and
now we have made it to number one. My favorite
movie of twenty twenty three is a movie that came
(23:55):
out in December. I was not expecting to love this
movie as much as I did, and out of every
movie on this list, had the most impact on me
of just feeling like I am watching something so amazing
here that I think everybody needs to see it. The
movie is Godzilla minus one, which I gave a five
(24:17):
at a five rating. Comes to us from the studio Toho.
The movie costs less than ten million dollars to make. Yes,
the directors and producers came out saying that, oh that
ten million dollars that was reported. It was even less
than that, but as of now has made over seventy
eight million dollars at the global box office. The movie
(24:37):
takes place in a post World War two Japan that
the country thought it couldn't reach a lower point after
World War Two, and then Godzilla comes around. So that
is why it's called Godzilla minus one because they are
at ground zero, but now Godzilla takes them a step
below that, so it's Godzilla minus one. But this movie
(24:58):
had so much emotion, which is truly lacking from the
Godzilla films. And I've been enjoying the Monster Verse and
you know, Godzilla versus Kong that has really reignited my
love for Godzilla. But this one made those movies look
so terrible, look like straight hot garbage, because it took
(25:20):
the character of Godzilla that has over thirty installments in
the franchise and made something so completely fresh and new
because it added this human element to it that even
if you took away Godzilla added this movie and just
told the story of our main character here, that would
be a great story on its own. But then you
(25:42):
add in Godzilla, who is the best he has ever
been in this movie as far as how he looks,
how he acts, how he destroys. I think The thing
I dislike the most now about the current Monster verse
and with you know, the new Godzilla Versus Kong movie,
is that they're kind of on the human side, and
we've all just been kind of cool with that, like, yeah,
(26:02):
Godzilla's helping out the humans too, Like, yeah, he's helping
us defeat the monsters. And you'll watch this movie and
you're reminded that, no, Godzilla wouldn't do that. Godzilla is
there to destroy. He rips cities apart, he breathes fire,
he goes nuclear. That is what Godzilla does. He doesn't
(26:23):
help people. He wants to destroy people. And I had
to be reminded of that. So that's why I love
this movie so much. But also the fact that it
did it on such a low budget is inspiring to
all these movies that I'm gonna get into in the
worst films of the year that spent over two hundred
sometimes two hundred and fifty million dollars to make things
(26:45):
that look like trash. Just shows you that if you
just put some effort into it, some heart into it,
and truly care about making a great movie, it can
be done. It can be done. This is a movie
that as of now I can't go rewatch it because
it's only still in theaters. It's still not streaming yet.
(27:05):
They're not giving any details on when you can stream
this movie, so for that I apologize. My only regret
is I didn't see it in imax and haven't had
a chance to go see it again in theaters because
there's been so much to get to in this busy
holiday season. But as soon as it's available for me
to rent or own, I'm gonna get this movie. But
out of all the movies on this list, I think
(27:26):
it's the one that should have the most impact and
show you can make a movie that has a little
bit of something for everybody, a bit of drama, a
little bit of action, a little bit of history, a
little bit of war. I honestly think out of any
movie on this list, you could put this one on
and then most people would just straight out enjoy it.
The only thing that would straight people away from watching
(27:47):
this movie. The hardest sell, which shouldn't be the hardest sell,
is the fact that the movie is in Japanese, so
you have to watch it with English subtitles. Come on,
do I have to go on? The subtitles? Ran again?
Don't make me do it, because we're missing out on
movies if that's the reason you're not watching them. I
completely love this movie. I've been in a Godzilla wormhole
for about a month now since I've seen this movie.
(28:09):
And even with the success of this movie, they're not
chomping at the bit to make another one because that's
the American way of filmmaking. Oh, we have a hit
on our hands, how soon can we crank out another one?
But it's selsa par and then, just you know, that
is not the way to make movies. So it just
makes me believe in making a great movie for just
the sake of making a great movie, which is what
(28:33):
it should be about. It shouldn't be about who's in
your movie, how much can you make? Like, just make
great movies and they will find their audience. So at
number one, I have Godzilla minus one as my favorite
movie of the year. Come back and let you know
all the movies I hated, and then I have a
bunch of honorable mentions. All Right, I've heard my favorite
(29:01):
films of twenty twenty three. Let's get into the negative
and share with you my worst films of the year.
And I'm gonna get heated by the end of this,
so let's get right into it. At number ten, I
have The Flash, which I gave a two point five
at a five rating, who cost three hundred million dollars
to make and went on too bomb because it only
made two hundred and seventy million dollars. This movie was
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just a complete mess, from the story, to the visual effects,
to wasting bringing back the greatest Batman Michael Keaton, and
throwing in all of just these things that didn't make sense,
trying to make a multiverse. It felt like it wanted
to be back to the future with into the Spider Verse,
(29:43):
and it was just bad, so so bad in a
movie that could have been great. And the thing that
was just the worst about this movie, I know people
get hung up on the visual effects, which were bad
but didn't completely take me out of the movie just
on occasion, It was really the story that I felt
that Barry didn't really go through anything here, and it
(30:07):
just felt like the entire storyline was like, what happened here?
Did our character grow or did he just try to
do a bunch of like no, and to misuse the
use of time travel and bringing in characters from different
DC universes and just looked like a hot mess on screen.
Felt like this movie had no direction introducing super Girl.
(30:31):
There were just so many things that this movie wanted
to be and just couldn't live up to. So at
number ten, I have The Flash. At number nine, I
have Five Nights at Freddy's, which I gave a two
point five out of five. Surprising thing here is that
the movie was actually a success. It only cost twenty
million dollars to make and went on to earn three
hundred million dollars at the box office. But this was
(30:52):
a movie I went to go see and I thought
I was going to enjoy. I was somewhat familiar with
the video game, but I wasn't a fan of it.
I just horror movies. I thought the acting in this
movie was so bad and the actual horror elements were
lacking to me that I came on and did a
review of this movie and got ripped to shreds because
(31:12):
it has such a passionate fan base. And I do
give props to this movie because Blumhouse took a risk. Well,
I wouldn't even say that they took a risk. They
only spend twenty million dollars on it. This is what
they do. They spend a little or modest amount on
a movie and then cash and big. But I think
it's really due to the fan base of this video game,
(31:34):
because I stand by the fact that it is not
a good movie. I wanted to walk out of this
movie because it was so bad and boring and there
was nothing there for me to grasp on to aside
from the kind of cool look of the animatronic characters.
But I just couldn't believe that people enjoyed this movie,
and the further I dug into it, most of the
(31:55):
people who were enjoying it and so passionate about it
were these hardcore fans. And it's probably Jen that was
just upset at me of being the old krusty movie reviewer.
So may have completely missed a boat on this one,
but I stand by it. This movie was terrible and
one of the worst movies I saw at number nine.
At number eight is Hypnotic, which I gave a one
point five out of five. The movie was a major
(32:17):
flop because it cost sixty five million dollars to make
and only made fifteen point seven million dollars. And it
comes to us from Robert Rodriguez, who I like as
a director from dust Hill Down is one of my
favorite movies. He also did the Spy Kids movies. So
for a director of his caliber to put out such
a turd of a movie was surprising to me. And
(32:40):
it felt like he was trying to do a Christopher
Nolan impression. And the movie has a pretty interesting premise
that does not deliver whatsoever. And you even have a
big movie star, Ben Affleck starring in this movie, which
I guess he has been on the return this year.
I mean, Air made my top favorite films of the year,
but this one made my worst. So that is the
(33:01):
range of Ben Affleck, and I honestly feel like he
did this movie as a favor to him. It almost
felt like Ben Affleck filmed this movie on a weekend
that he had free, and he's like, yeah, I'll shoot
this movie. Because the movie made no sense. It was
a terrible looking movie. It felt like it was just
manufactured in some big warehouse and then slapped together with
(33:23):
some special effects. But story hero was bad, the characters
were bad, and the action was really bad. There was
nothing great about this movie, aside from the fact that
it had a relatively short run time. So at number eight,
I have Hypnotic. At number seven, I have flaman Hot,
which doesn't have any production details online because the movie
came out on Hulu slash Disney Plus as those two
(33:46):
are starting to merge. But it is the story of
the guy who allegedly created the Flaming Hot Cheetos. And
the biggest problem I had with this movie is, I
guess going into it the stories that came out of
the authenticity of the story and it not being completely factual,
(34:06):
and then director Eva Longoria coming out and saying, well,
this is his truth and his story. But inside of
the movie, the inventor himself even makes a point to
say that, yeah, maybe I would make up big stories
and my wife would kind of ground me in reality.
So you had an unreliable narrator on top of it
(34:26):
that really just made me not believe it. And it's
also a story that is meant to represent my culture.
There's Mexican culture all throughout this movie, but to me,
it just felt like the production of such a low
quality straight to TV film, and on top of that,
I felt like wasn't a good representation of my culture.
Almost felt like a caricature of my family, and I
(34:48):
was like, this is what we're putting out to represent us.
This is awful, and then you're calling us liars. I
just didn't love what this movie did for film. Didn't
love what this movie did for my people. So at
number seven, I have Flaming Hot, the Flaming Hot Cheetos Story.
Oh my gosh, that was bad. At number six, I'm
getting more angry as this list goes on because I'm
(35:09):
remembering the time I wasted on these movies. But at
number six, I have Your Place or Mind The rom
com starring America's Sweetheart Reese Witherspoon in America's Guy that
used to be popular in the two thousands and it's
still around doing movies acting Cutcher and Oh my gosh,
(35:29):
this movie almost made me stop believing in my resurgence
of loving rom coms. It was so bad because the
thing that is important in rom comms is for characters
to have chemistry. You gotta have that chemistry to sell
the idea of love to people, to sell that fantasy,
(35:50):
and Cutcher and Witherspoon had no chemistry whatsoever. But also
they gave a very minimal effort in acting it felt
like people were writing the lines as they went along
and just letting them like, oh, just just here's the
general nature of the scene. Do with it what you will.
And they also weren't in a lot of scenes together
(36:10):
because their two characters are split apart. So it just
made me feel like they shot this movie completely out
of whack and never got into a rhythm and were
just kind of making a movie on top of all
their other projects that they had going on at the time.
So the movie just doesn't even feel unified whatsoever. A
lot of it is just their character speaking into either
(36:32):
their phone or a laptop on FaceTime or something like that.
There was just no moment where this movie clicked, And
the only redeeming quality is that it was on Netflix.
Didn't have to pay for it and didn't have to
go anywhere to watch it because it was so bad.
So at number six, I have your place or mine.
But at number five is a movie I actually did
(36:53):
go to the theater to see. I almost walked out,
but I told myself, I gotta see this one through
because I need to be able to properly ripped this
movie to shreds for years to come and for the
longest time. This held the title of the worst movie
of the year, and some others snuck in after it
because I wanted this one to be the worst of
the year because I hated it so much. The movie
(37:13):
is sixty five, starring Adam Driver. I gave it a
one out of five. The movie cost forty five million
dollars to make and made about sixty million dollars at
the box office. The biggest problem I had with this
movie is it had such a great premise, and I
love sci fi movies. I love movies with dinosaurs. Adam
Driver is a great actor, and it's about him being
put on this planet and trying to rescue somebody, and
(37:37):
then you have all these futuristic things. Sounded like a
movie that was right on my alley. But it's a
movie that fumbled all of those things so badly. And
how do you make a movie with dinosaurs and Adam
Driver so completely boring? This movie was a snooze fest
and a movie that looked relatively good on screen, it
(37:59):
just had nothing going for it. It was like a
really attractive person who has nothing to say. That is
what this movie was. And I felt angry while watching
it that I wanted to leave because, oh my gosh,
I was raging in my seat because I was upset
that I was excited about this movie and went on
to just completely disappoint me. And I think it's one
(38:20):
of those movies that even Adam Driver I see was
making it, thought Okay, we're actually doing something great here,
and then it just got ruined in the editing process
because they didn't have a story there. So at number five,
I have sixty five. At number four, I have Vacation
Friends too, which I gave a one out of five rating.
There's no data on this one because it came out
(38:42):
on Hulu. I would probably think they spent about fifty
million dollars to make this movie, maybe because John Cena
is in it. But I surprisingly enjoyed Vacation Friends Part one,
which is weird to say because it is a completely
dumb and ridiculous movie. But sometimes you just need something
(39:02):
dumb and ridiculous, So going into part two, I was
looking for something equally dumb and ridiculous, so a case
where I knew what I was getting myself into, but
was still disappointed because all the things that made the
first one fun and enjoyable were not in this one,
they added new characters and it just made me feel
(39:26):
like a complete idiot while watching this movie to think, Oh, man,
like I took a risk in telling people that I
enjoyed part one and was interested in seeing part two
and thought it was gonna be maybe a little bit funnier.
Maybe with the success I put that in quotation success
of the first ones, they would have more budget to
throw around, kind of like they did with The Hangover two.
(39:47):
But man, this movie was really bad and really awful
and really ridiculous and felt like a dollar bin DVD movie.
So at number four, I have vacation friends too. I
was dumb to believe in it. At number three is
the most recent addition on this list. It is Aquaman
to the Lost Kingdom. I give it a point five
out of five. The movie cost two hundred and five
(40:10):
million dollars to make, and as of the recording of
this podcast, has made one hundred and forty five million dollars.
It is the end of the DCEU. This movie was
dead on arrival, but I was willing to give it
a chance because I found some enjoyment in the first one.
I still think it's surprising how successful that movie was
being one of the only DCEU movies to make over
(40:32):
a billion dollars at the box office. I think that
is largely due to the international appeal of Aquaman. But
the biggest factor of me hating this movie is it
has the worst dialogue of twenty twenty three. I don't
even know what the script was here. I couldn't imagine
these actors taking these lines seriously because it was so bad.
(40:55):
And Jason Momoa in this movie was so much trying
to be Robert Downey and have that Tony Stark energy
as the lovable jerk guy but has a good heart,
and he did a bad impression of it. This movie
felt like a parody of a superhero movie. Script was terrible.
Visual effects. Oh my gosh, it is hard to do
(41:17):
a movie underwater. I get it, you have to animate
their hair going wavy. It just looked really bad. I mean,
The Little Mermaid this year looked better than this movie.
And then they also put this weird underwater effect on
their voice, which was awful. And I wish I could
say that the above ground scenes looked better, but they didn't.
And I guess I was just hoping hoping that the
(41:39):
DCEU would go out on a higher note and it
wasn't just gonna be people review bombing this movie saying
it's bad before even seeing it. But this movie was
hard to watch. I'm glad that it was right under
two hours, but there was nothing positive I could say
about this movie, aside from the villain and some of
(41:59):
the support casts that were the only ones giving it
some kind of effort. The movie was ridiculously bad. It
had the feel of like a bad eighties action movie
mixed with early two thousand's late nineties special effects. To that,
we say goodbye to the DCEU. Add number two, I
(42:23):
Have a rom com by the name of What Happens Later,
starring David d'coveney and Meg Ryan, directed by Meg Ryan.
I gave also a point five out of five rating.
The movie costs only three million dollars to make, which
a lot of it was Meg Ryan calling in some
favors from her friends. She also directed it herself, so
maybe she didn't pay herself anything, but it went on
(42:45):
to make three point three million dollars at the box office.
The movie has an extremely limited cast of just two people,
Meg Ryan, David d'coveny stranded in an airport. It's based
on a play and it feels that way. But this
this movie had no direction Onceoever, it took the most
boring situation that you can experience, being stranded in an airport.
(43:07):
Think of that, you get delayed and you're there for hours.
It is the worst feeling because there's nothing to do.
Why design to make a movie about that. It just
had that feeling of me being bored in an airport
trying to find things to pass the time. So it
is essentially a bottle movie where there are no other
set designs. It's just an airport, no other cast aside
(43:30):
from the loudspeakers saying and narrating this entire movie, which
was so annoying, and just the direction that they went
in to tell this story of two people reconnecting and
love and oh my gosh, it looks awful. It is awful.
There is nothing redeeming about this movie. It's just one
(43:52):
that should not have been made. So at number two,
I have what happens later, But at number one, the
worst movie in the film I hated the most. In
twenty twenty three, Istrays, which is a quote unquote comedy
adventure about these dogs trying to get revenge on one
of the dog's owners. It is part live action, part
(44:13):
animated because you have real life humans like Will Forte
in the movie. All the dogs look like real dogs,
but of course their mouths are animated, and you have
actors voicing them like Will Ferrell. But the movie centers
around Will Ferrell's character, Reggie, who has an abusive owner
who drops him off and gets rid of them, and
Reggie is trying to find his way home. He encounters
(44:35):
these other stray dogs and then decides he wants to
get revenge on his owner after he realizes that he's
been mistreating him his entire life. And the movie was
really just made as an excuse to get dogs to curse.
That is all this movie is. The novelty of it
is that it's a rated R movie that looks like
a kid's movie. Oh it's these cute dogs. What they're
(44:56):
saying the F word and doing vulgar things, which I
am above enjoying a type of movie like this. Some
of the humor I really enjoy is really immature stuff.
But if there's no creativity in the comedy, it just
screams terrible, and that is what we have here, to
the point that the humor just felt like something you
(45:17):
would write in sixth grade with your friends. But you
took that script made by six graders and got real
life movie stars to voice these characters, and it almost
feels like they just got into a recording booth they
gave them some lines and said, hey, add in some
F words and S words wherever you feel necessary, because
(45:38):
that's the only thing this movie has going for it
is the fact that it's so vulgar. But it's one
of the dumbest movies I've seen in a really long time,
and a movie that I hated with every fiber of
my being because I was looking forward to watching a
raunchy comedy and what I got was a raunchy piece
of rubbish. So at number one Word Movie of twenty
(46:01):
twenty three, I give two strays. I've given you the best,
I've given you the worst. I'll come back and give
you my honorable mentions to close out this very special episode.
All right, let's get into it now, my honorable mentions
of the year. Like I said, I went through about
(46:21):
five different versions of my top ten that I feel
that any of these movies in the honorable mentions could
have made that list, because I think these are all
great movies that I would recommend, but not the ones
that I would choose to represent twenty twenty three when
all was said and done. So at number ten, I
have Theater Camp, which is available now on Hulu. The
story about a group of kids all going to theater
(46:45):
camp and then trying to save the camp, very much
in the way that Heavyweights was back in the nineties,
So I think because I had that association with it,
it made me enjoy this movie more. But also it
just had really great comedy. And I know nothing about
theater I know nothing about the inside jokes, but I
quickly felt a part of this crowd. So you don't
(47:05):
have to be in the theater. You could just feel
like a misfit and enjoy this movie. Just a really
fun time with a lot of really fun characters. So
I put that one at number ten. At number nine,
I have Dumb Money, which is the real life story
of what happened with Game Stop Stock just a couple
of years ago, and that whole craze, And it's really
a movie about the poor fighting back against those one percenters.
(47:29):
You also have Paul Dano, who is one of my
favorite actors in another movie where he incited a group
of people on the internet two runs above, so I
guess he's just really great at doing that. But it's
a movie that went a little bit under the radar
during the strike, and I feel was a victim of
its marketing because if you look at the posters and
the trailer, it really painted the movie as a straight
(47:51):
on comedy. I guess because of the cast, because of
Seth Rogan being in it, it was made to look
like it was just gonna be a funny movie, which
really wasn't the case. So I feel like with different marketing,
this movie could have done a lot better at the
box office. It also reminded me of BlackBerry, which came
out earlier this year, which was the origin story of
(48:12):
the company BlackBerry, and another movie similar to Dumb Money
that I feel like was a victim of its marketing.
So at number nine, I have Dumb Money. At number
eight was a movie that had a moment early on
in the year, Megan, which I feel like Megan has
quickly cemented herself of being one of the coveted horror icons,
which is a really hard thing to do. I really
(48:34):
think with one more film, she could be up there
with the Chucky's, the Freddy Kruegers, and the Michael Myers,
because honestly, those guys have been around so long we
need some fresh meat in there. But what I really
loved was the marketing behind this movie. That it got
people talking. That is what great movies do, and it
put horror back on the map in twenty twenty three,
along with some of the other movies in my honorable mentions.
But at number eight I have Megan. At number seven,
(48:57):
I have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem, a movie
that made me feel like a kid again. I love
the take of the Ninja Turtles in this movie, making
them younger and also having actual teenagers to voice them.
But above all, the animation style in this one just
really shined and looked like a watercolor picture book brought
to life. And with a franchise that has been kind
(49:20):
of drugged through the mud with the live action attempts
that really haven't sit well with fans, I feel like
this has brought everybody back to what makes the Ninja
Turtles great. I also love the fact that now people
who were fans of the original Ninja Turtles back in
the eighties in the nineties now have kids to share
it and enjoy these movies with I love going to
(49:41):
Target and seeing all the new teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
toys and thinking, ah, there are kids now discovering this
for the first time. That is what made me love
this movie and what made me put it at number seven.
Along those same lines, at number six, I have the
Super Mario Brothers movie, which was an incredible success, being
one of the highest grossing movies that making one point
(50:01):
three million dollars, shutting out its competition of Disney. This
movie comes to us from Illumination, which makes all the
Minions movies. They also had Migration out this year in
twenty twenty three, And it just shows you when making
kids movie, you just have to make it fun. Like
I know, it's important to work in lessons every now
(50:21):
and then so kids can take something away from movies.
But at the end of the day, you just have
to make something that's enjoyable for kids to watch, and
that is what this movie did. It was just a
straight on fun movie with the fun journey and characters
that we all know and love and along those same
lines of people who are fans and Ninja Turtles as
(50:43):
kids an now are older, you're also getting to reshare
Super Mario with your kids and enjoy the games now.
And it really was a love letter to that, the
fans of the games showing off all the different versions
of Super Mario inside of this movie and just that's
a really fun way. And the animation style was exactly
what it needed to be. It looked like Mario. And yeah,
(51:06):
there was some controversy around Chris Pratt voicing Mario and
essentially just doing the voice of Chris Pratt, but at
the end of it, I felt like it worked. And
the person who went unnecessarily hard in this movie was
Jack Black delivering a banger with this Peaches song. So
at number six, I have the Super Mario Brothers movie.
At number five is a recent addition is Wonka, which
(51:29):
I ended up really enjoying and I thought I wasn't
going to because Willie Wonka in the Chocolate Factory. The
original with Gene Wilder is a top ten film for me,
and it's a film I associate with my childhood, even
though it came out long before I was Born, but
I feel like that movie is perfect, so much so
that I hated the Tim Burton version with Johnny Depp,
(51:52):
so I was hesitant going into this one. But I
love the approach that Timothy Chalomey had with Wonka. Yeah,
he was a little bit too extra in some of
the scenes and some of his delivery, but overall, I
felt like it was Wonka before he got jaded and
before he was all like different and weird. It was
(52:13):
like him, fresh eyed, bushy tailed. And it also incorporated
more music into this one, which the original and the
Tim Burton movies are musicals, and I think a lot
of people forgot that the songs have always been a
big part of Willie Wonka. But yes, this one is
more of a straight ahead musical, which for the longest
time I've been saying that I don't enjoy musicals, but
(52:35):
after seeing this one, after seeing Barbie, I think I
love musicals. It just has to be a really great musical.
And I found myself after watching this movie for the
first time ever, I went and listened to a musical
soundtrack because I love these songs so much and they
were stuck in my head. So at number five, I
have Wonka. At number four is a movie called Talk
(52:57):
to Me, which is a fantastic horror movie. Like I
was saying about Bottoms being one of the best comedies
in the last five years, talk to Me is that
for horror. This was the only time I truly felt
scared while watching a movie this year, which is a
really hard thing to do. It's about this group of friends,
mostly teenagers early twenties, who get this embalmed hand that
(53:21):
allows them to connect with dead people, and every time
they are able to connect with through the power of
this hand, they are almost getting put into this state
that they become very vulnerable. So it's like a roller
coaster ride that you can only hold on to for
so long before you get fully sucked into it. But
the reason they hold on for so long is because
(53:42):
they're doing it for social media, so it becomes a
challenge to hold out as long as you can despite
of all the horrible things that you are witnessing and
the dead people that you are coming in contact with.
So maybe not a movie that rewrote how you make
a horror movie, but what it was able to accompany
did it so well and makes me excited to see
(54:03):
a sequel. To this movie, and I rarely get excited
for sequels, especially in horror movies. So at number four,
I have talked to me. At number three, I have
The Holdovers, which is about a cranky history teacher who
has to look after some kids at a fancy prep
school who don't get to go home for the holidays.
The movie stars Apologiamadi, who I am not a fan of,
and that is a long standing grudge I have since
(54:27):
he put out his movie Sideways and I heard an
interview with him where he was really disrespectful to a
fan but in a really pompous way. That just made
me not like him, and I always felt after that
anytime he was in a movie it made me not
like the movie. But Kelsey really wanted to see The Holeover,
so we went to go see it, and I was wrong.
I love this movie and it was one I did
not expect to enjoy as much as I did, and
(54:48):
had a group of characters that I felt this deep
connection with by the end of it that I felt
like I went through this entire journey with them and
grew as a person with them. So it does take
place around Christmas time, so I feel like this will
become a movie that we now watch every single Christmas.
But if you haven't seen it yet and you think
(55:10):
I don't want to watch a Christmas movie, it's not
really a full on Christmas movie. It just takes place
around Christmas. It is really just a good slice of
life movie if you're looking for a new one to
check out. I gave it four point five out of five.
At number two was a movie from one of my
favorite directors, Wes Anderson, Asteroid City, and it's a movie
that I wouldn't really recommend unless you're into Wes Anderson
(55:34):
and a lot of what makes Wes anderson movies great
is a visual aspect because he has this eye for
symmetry and colors that just make movies visually appealing, and
that is what I crave. And the movie also has
a really big ensemble cast who did this movie for
relatively no money, so you think, how can you get
a movie with so many A listers made for so
(55:57):
little amount of money. They basically do it as a
face to say they were in a Wes Anderson movie,
but they are also very quirky, which is why I
believe they're not for everybody. The humor is very dry,
and the overall story is oftentimes quite utterly bizarre. But
to me, a Wes Anderson movie always feels like an event.
(56:17):
And he is somebody who has this filmography that I cherish,
and each one of his films has its own unique
feel to it, but maintain that visual aspect that really
gives him a look unlike any other director, because I
could just look at one frame of Wes Anderson movie
and know that it was him. So at number two
I have Asteroid City, and hey, he even got Tom
(56:40):
Hanks in this movie. But at number one, my biggest
honorable mention was a movie they came out early in
twenty twenty three and one that I feel got overlooked
a lot. It was hanging on to my number ten
slot for a minute. Just couldn't quite put it in there.
But it is John Wick four, which I give a
four point five out of five. It is one of
the best action movies I've seen in a very long time,
(57:03):
probably since well John Wick won two and three. It
just does it so well that it wastes no time
getting right to knowing what the audience wants. Bullets flying,
people getting their limbs broken, and Keanu Reeves saying about
fifty five words in this entire movie, and it is
a movie that on paper shouldn't be as big of
(57:24):
a hit as it is. I feel like John Wick
is such an unorthodox main character, but somehow it works
together so well. And it's really due to all of
the stunt performances in this movie, the cinematography, and just
the violent nature of all of these movies that make
it work so well. It is a movie I love
(57:46):
from beginning to end because it was a non stop
good time.
Speaker 2 (57:51):
Now.
Speaker 1 (57:51):
I know they're to a point where they're gonna do
spinoffs and maybe do another one, but I honestly hope
that john Wick four is the ending of this story
and Keanu Reeves goes on to do something else because
it closes out the saga on a perfect note. So
my number one honorable mention for twenty twenty three almost
made my list is john Wick four, and that is
(58:12):
gonna do it for another episode here of the podcast.
Thank you for allowing me to break the format and
giving you my end of the year list. As we
start a new year, I think I also want to
do a big roundup of all the movies I haven't
reviewed yet because I watched so many movies over the
holiday break. So if there is a movie that I
haven't talked about yet, it's because I'm holding on to it.
(58:34):
So I have enough time to give my full thoughts
on the movies that I have seen. But before I go,
I got to give my listeners shout out of the week,
the first one of twenty twenty four, going over to
x formerly known as Twitter for this one, and this
week's listener shout out of the Week is Nicholas Martinez,
who said caught up on the last five episodes of
Movie Mike's Movie podcast during a road trip, and I
(58:57):
was back on December twenty seventh. So hopefully, Nicholas, you
are all caught up to this episode now and you
get to hear your shout out. So thank you to
Nicholas and anybody else who listened to the episodes over break.
This is my first new episode of the year, and
it felt good to be back, y'all. I'm charged up
and ready to go. So until the next time, go
out and watch good movies and I will talk to
(59:18):
you later.
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