I just watched the original Road House on Hulu this morning. I wanted to have seen it before watching the remake on Amazon Prime tonight. I did not love the original. I did not hate it because I could see the appeal. The 2024 version of Road House I did not love, but I liked it more than the original.
Jake Gyllenhaal steps into the role of Dalton (who gets a first name in this movie, Elwood), this time a former UFC fighter whose career ended after a tragedy. Dalton’s name was enough to intimidate most people so Frankie (Jessica Williams), who owned a bar named Road House in Florida came to find Dalton and offer him a job to help clean up the bar.
Just like the original, Dalton discovered that the backwoods town had problems with certain individuals who want the Road House gone.
These people bring in Conor McGregor to try and kill Dalton.
I was actually more engaged with the character of Dalton immediately in this movie because of a scene with a train. I found him more interesting than the late Patrick Swayze version.
The villains were every bit as one dimensional as the original. Even McGregor was just the violent killer character.
This was just as violent as the original with Gyllenhaal being quicker to fight than it was with Swayze. The fight scenes were very brutal and displayed Dalton’s skills in mixed martial arts.
There were less involvement with the rest of the bar employees in the new film than the original, but they were there in the scenes.
Gyllenhaal is the star of the film and I thought he did a really solid job. The film is not brilliant, but I was entertained and I did find it better than the Road House I watched this morning.
As I was going to Amazon Prime yesterday, I saw that the new Road House movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal was now available for streaming. With the schedule, I plan on watching that later this afternoon or evening, but I thought I should watch the original 1989 movie starring Patrick Swayze first. I have never seen Road House even though it has a large cult following. I have heard a wide variety of opinions on the film. Everything from it is a favorite movie of all time to it is one of the worst. I found it on Hulu/Max so I watched it this morning.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “The Double Deuce is the meanest, loudest and rowdiest bar south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and Dalton (Patrick Swayze) has been hired to clean it up. He might not look like much, but the Ph.D.-educated bouncer proves he’s more than capable — busting the heads of troublemakers and turning the roadhouse into a jumping hot-spot. But Dalton’s romance with the gorgeous Dr. Clay (Kelly Lynch) puts him on the bad side of cutthroat local big shot Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara).”
Starting off, this is a silly, mostly stupid, film with poor dialogue and simplistic characters. It is not a very good film.
However, it is entertaining. It is one of those film that you need to approach knowing what kind of film it is and not to expect a lot. There is fun to be had in the mindless violence and one-note characters.
This is basically a 1980s-style Western, with two main characters, Dalton and Mason (Sam Elliott), who are the silent, gunslingers, who coming into the town to clean it up. They are Clint Eastwood-like characters coming face-to-face with the mustache-twirling villains. The story fits right into the genre of the Western, right down to the shootout in the finale.
I will say that the longer the film went, the more ridiculous it became. There is no attempt at realism and it felt much more a cartoon than anything else.
It was awesome to see the late Terry Funk in this film. Sure, he was not much of an actor, but he wasn’t supposed to be. As brutal henchman, he was right in his element.
The more I reflect back on this movie, I can see why people enjoy it, but it really is not a movie that I would recommend unless you are bored on a Saturday afternoon and looking for a really dumb film to pass the time.
This was the second film I saw today that I disagreed with the Rotten Tomatoes score. Arthur the King, the new dog movie starring Mark Wahlberg, had a 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I did not find it as enjoyable as that.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “Over the course of ten days and 435 miles, an unbreakable bond is forged between pro adventure racer Michael Light (Mark Wahlberg) and a scrappy street dog companion dubbed Arthur. Based on an incredible true story, ARTHUR THE KING follows Light, desperate for one last chance to win, as he convinces a sponsor to back him and a team of athletes (Simu Liu, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Ali Suliman) for the Adventure Racing World Championship in the Dominican Republic. As the team is pushed to their outer limits of endurance in the race, Arthur redefines what victory, loyalty and friendship truly mean.“
I really felt as if this film was pushing the boundaries of emotion manipulation with the times it put the dog in jeopardy, and the fact that this dog somehow followed this group of people across some brutal environments because Michael gave him some meatballs was just too much to believe. Yes, it is a true story, but I find it difficult to swallow.
There were some dramatic moments in the film, including one stunt with bicycles and a wire that was harrowing. The landscape was beautiful and was shot very well.
I never doubted what was going to happen in the movie. It was very predictable, which is not always a bad thing. Here, it just felt so manipulative that I rolled my eyes more than I should have.
I do love Simu Liu, but his character was really inconsistent throughout the film and it does not do an adequate job of explaining why he is as he is. Some of his scenes are in direct opposition to moments earlier in the film and even Simu’s great charisma could not help these moments.
A major problem I had was not necessarily the direct problem of the movie, but they showed WAY too much in the trailers, including several scenes from the very end of the movie. Any real tension there may have been in the scene was robbed because I knew there were scenes we saw in the trailer that had not yet happened in the movie. Scenes including the end of the race and subsequent after effects. Some films are hurt by their trailers, and, in my opinion, this is one of them.
I think a lot of people will love this movie, but I am not one of them. It was a basic story that we have seen dozens of times with a dog and a manipulative story. Still, it was not an offensive film and families should like it.
Here are the picks from EYG for tonight’s Academy Awards. I am giving the Should Win, Will Win choice for each. These are my picks, the nominees I think are going to win, not necessarily my favorites.
BEST PICTURE
American Fiction Anatomy of a Fall Barbie The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon Maestro Oppenheimer Past Lives Poor Things The Zone of Interest
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST DIRECTOR
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall
SHOULD WIN: Christopher Nolan
WILL WIN: Christopher Nolan
BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening, Nyad Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall Carey Mulligan, Maestro Emma Stone, Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Emma Stone
WILL WIN: Lily Gladstone (I’ve got a feeling on this one. I could see Emma Stone winning easily too)
BEST ACTOR
Bradley Cooper, Maestro Colman Domingo, Rustin Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
SHOULD WIN: Paul Giamatti
WILL WIN: Cillian Murphy
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple America Ferrera, Barbie Jodie Foster, Nyad Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
SHOULD WIN: Da’Vine Joy Randolph
WILL WIN: Da’Vine Joy Randolph (LOCK!)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer Ryan Gosling, Barbie Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Robert Downey Jr.
WILL WIN: Robert Downey Jr. (Almost a LOCK)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall David Hemingson, The Holdovers Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer, Maestro Samy Burch, May December Celine Song, Past Lives
SHOULD WIN: The Holdovers
WILL WIN: Anatomy of a Fall (I have not seen this film, waiting for the June Swoon.)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Cord Jefferson, American Fiction Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie Tony McNamara, Poor Things Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
SHOULD WIN: American Fiction
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
Io Capitano, Italy Perfect Days, Japan Society of the Snow, Spain The Teacher’s Lounge, Germany The Zone of Interest, United Kingdom
SHOULD WIN: Society of the Snow
WILL WIN: The Zone of Interest
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Boy and the Heron Elemental Nimona Robot Dreams Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
SHOULD WIN: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
WILL WIN: I’m uncertain for this. I am tempted to say The Boy and the Heron, but I’ll stick with Spider-Man.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Bobi Wine: The People’s President The Eternal Memory Four Daughters To Kill a Tiger 20 Days in Mariupol
Haven’t seen any of these. I’ll guess 20 Days in Mariupol
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
El Conde Killers of the Flower Moon Maestro Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST EDITING
Anatomy of a Fall The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Poor Things
WILL WIN: Poor Things
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Barbie Killers of the Flower Moon Napoleon Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Barbie
WILL WIN: Poor Things
BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP
Golda Maestro Oppenheimer Poor Things Society of the Snow
SHOULD WIN: Poor Things
WILL WIN: Poor Things
BEST SOUND
The Creator Maestro Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One Oppenheimer The Zone of Interest
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Creator Godzilla Minus One Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One Napoleon
SHOULD WIN: The Creator
WILL WIN: Godzilla Minus One
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Barbie Killers of the Flower Moon Napoleon Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Barbie
WILL WIN: Poor Things
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“What Was I Made For?”, Billie Eilish and Finneas, Barbie “I’m Just Ken,” Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, Barbie “The Fire Inside,” Diane Warren, Flamin’ Hot “It Never Went Away,” Jon Batiste, American Symphony “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People),” Osage Tribal Singers, Killers of the Flower Moon
SHOULD WIN: “I’m Just Ken”
WILL WIN: “What Was I Made For?”
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
American Fiction Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Killers of the Flower Moon Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
The After Invincible Knight of Fortune Red, White and Blue The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
SHOULD WIN: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
WILL WIN: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Letter to a Pig Ninety-Five Senses Our Uniform Pachyderme War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
SHOULD WIN: Letter to a Pig
WILL WIN: War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The ABCs of Book Banning The Barber of Little Rock Island in Between The Last Repair Shop Nai Nai & Wai Po
Again, have not seen any of these. Guess: The Last Repair Shop
2024 must be the year of imaginary friends. The film IF with Ryan Reynolds is out later this year, and this weekend dropped the latest horror movie featuring the idea of the imaginary friend.
According to IMDB, “a woman returns to her childhood home to discover that the imaginary friend she left behind is very real and unhappy that she abandoned him.”
Here is the thing with Imaginary. I was fully engaged in the first 2/3rds if this movie. I was invested, surprisingly so. Then, in the third act of Imaginary, everything absolutely fell off the cliff. The last third of this movie absolutely crushed the enjoyment from the first part of the film and brought this rating way down.
So what went wrong in that third act? Without talking in spoilers, the problems are varied. The movie suddenly falls into exposition. It starts to explain things and doesn’t seem to stop. SO MUCH EXPLAINING!!!! And it was multiple scenes.
Not only are they over explaining things, they are explaining things that we just saw happen, as if we were not smart enough to understand what had just happened. There was one scene in particular where once the action ended, the characters told us what we had just seen. I do not like to think the movie thinks I am too dumb to understand what I am watching. This sure as hell is not Dune 2.
The third act became ridiculous. The story was convoluted and then everything had to be explained. Things happened that did not make sense. The special effects were okay, except for the look of the bear. The monstrous bear known as Chauncey looked like a fraud Bigfoot on a poor video recording.
The acting was, at best, passable, but the writing was extremely weak and the dialogue felt wooden in a lot of times.
They used a bunch of jump scares in the film because they could not really create the type of horror that built on it normally.
I was enjoying the first two acts, despite the fact that it was a little slower. But that third act just drove the film into the ground. I went from being invested to laughing at the scenes. It has been a long time since a movie took this hard of a turn into badness for me.
I watched Spaceman, the third sci-fi movie of the day for me. It is also the one that I am the most conflicted about.
It is very well known that I am not a fan of Adam Sandler. However, he has had some more recent, serious movie roles that I have enjoyed, so seeing this still left me with some hope. After watching it, I am just unsure what exactly I watched.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “Six months into a solitary research mission to the edge of the solar system, an astronaut, Jakub (Adam Sandler), realizes that the marriage he left behind might not be waiting for him when he returns to Earth. Desperate to fix things with his wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), he is helped by a mysterious creature from the beginning of time he finds hiding in the bowels of his ship. Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano) works with Jakub to make sense of what went wrong before it is too late.”
This is most definitely a slow burn sci-fi movie, which I do not mind. I have always enjoyed a good slow burn character piece, and this is definitely a film that embraces the pace.
Adam Sandler does a decent job in this performance, but it does feel strange at times. I have to say, I did not realize that he was supposed to be an astronaut from the Czech Republic until midway into the film. There was not much about Adam Sandler or his performance that screamed Czech.
Then, things go really weird when the creature voiced by Paul Dano arrives and begins a deep, psychological and internal discussion about just about everything in Jakub’s life. I don’t want to spoil the creature, but your acceptance of this creature will depend if you think the film is a decent sci-fi film or a silly facade.
There are things about Paul Dano’s character that I would like to discuss, but I can not go into it without spoiling some specifics so I will not do so. Let me just state that one of the big themes of the film deals with the loneliness and isolation of Jakob and how that might affect his mental state, and I’ll leave it at that.
I went back and forth with Dano’s character, so it is the reason why I am unsure how exactly I feel about Spaceman. This is the central relationship that we focus on and I am mixed on it. I found it more interesting overall than silly, so there is that.
There was an interesting use of flashbacks to tell the story of Jakob and his life. I did enjoy the manner in which the movie displayed the flashbacks and how the story on earth maintained a different visual style than the scenes in the spaceship or from the flashbacks. I thought the direction of these scenes especially, from director Johan Renck, was solid. I am not sure that I got enough out of the scenes to understand some of the decisions made by Jakob, especially in the area of Lenka. Carey Mulligan has some good moments, but not enough of them to really matter.
I do think the film missed some opportunities to really take this into a strong character piece and deal with some heavy ideas and themes. What they did was okay, but I think there is an outline of something that could be truly good.
You should check it out on Netflix. This is one that I think you could hate, but I found enough here to be engaged by it.
I have heard so many glowing reviews about Dune Part Two that I went into this movie with high expectations. I re-watched the first Dune last weekend to review what happened. I still found it to be fine. I did not love the first one.
I did not find the second Dune to be as brilliant as it seems everyone else did, but I did like it more than the first one. It is clearly a beautiful, epic science fiction film with several amazing performances. I would not be honest if I said that I wasn’t confused about some of the things that were happening here.
Denis Villeneuve completed his second film, and the second film feels like a more complete story. One of the criticisms of the first film was that it ended suddenly and did not feel like a complete end. The second film had more completion to it.
The special effects are absolutely astounding and the shots of this world were breath-taking. It is one of the most visually impressive films I have seen in years.
Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya are wonderful together, with amazing chemistry and a powerful connection. This relationship is at the center of the movie and makes the ending of the film even more difficult.
The cast is excellent. Everybody bring their A-game to this film, including Dave Bautista, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, and Stellan Skarsgård. Special shout out to Austin Butler, who played the David Bowie role from the first film. Butler was sinister as Feyd-Rautha and he created an absolutely brilliant antagonist to Chalamet.
The fight choreography of this film was exciting and wonderful. Some of the one on one fights of this movie were dramatic and so beautifully put together. The battle scenes of the war are great and make the energy of the film elevated.
I have never really understood the world of Dune and that has been my biggest struggle of viewing the film. I wonder how much more confused I may have been had I not done the re-watch last weekend?
There are a ton of things about this movie that make it an amazing cinematic exercise, and my issues are not enough to derail this amazing piece of work.
It was just a matter of time before I started in on the Twin Peaks re-watch. Today turned out to be the day!
I loved Twin Peaks. I would even consider myself a Peaks Freak. When I was in college, I went to a fan event at the Iowa City Memorial Union when it returned to ABC. Deputy Andy was there. Ironically, Killer Bob was supposed to be there too, but he was sick with the flu. I was obsessed with the show.
David Lynch was the creative force of the show. Lynch wrote it with Mark Frost. The first season was a short one with only 8 episodes. It became such a massive hit for the network, providing such a series people could talk about over the ‘water-cooler.’
Lynch has said before that he did not want to reveal the killer of Laura Palmer and let the show develop into a show about the town with the eccentric characters and their relationships taking the front. I can’t imagine setting up a series with this major murder mystery and planning on not solving it.
This episode does a fantastic job setting up this mystery. Having Pete Martell find Laura’s body “wrapped in plastic” as he says on the phone to the sheriff, is genius. Pete is a likable guy who you get an idea about with the few seconds we see him on screen. And that line delivery is iconic.
The pilot becomes special when Agent Dale Cooper shows up driving his car, speaking to Diane on a tape recorder, and raving about the beautiful trees (Douglas furs, by the way). Cooper is one of the most original characters that we have seen on television maybe ever. Kyle MacLachlan becomes this character and he is so good in this role. There is a reason why Cooper is as beloved as he was.
We get the beginning of one of the best bromances on TV. Cooper and Sheriff Harry S. Truman are the perfect team up. You can see the friendship forming. Truman starts out doubting Coop a bit, but you see the groundwork being laid.
I remember being a Donna Hayward fan when I watched the show in the 90s, but I found her fairly whiny here. I was much more of a fan of Audrey Horne this time than I was then.
The number of weird characters inhabiting the town including Dr. Jacoby, Log Lady, Nadine, Andy & Lucy, among others. Cooper’s line when he met Jacoby for the first time, “He’s a psychiatrist?” was hilarious.
This is one of the best pilots of all time. It absolutely grabs your attention, does an amazing job setting up the mystery and the setting. I love this show so much and I am excited about doing this re-watch.
And so we have reached the end of the 2024 Genre-ary DailyView: Musicals. After a full month of classical musicals or stage shows shot as a film, we wrap up this year’s Genre-ary with EYG Hall of Famers Monty Python and one of their funniest, if not chaotic films, Monty Python’s Meaning of Life.
Monty Python consisted of six main individuals: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.
This film stitched together a series of sketches featuring the immense talents of these six men. It was shocking at times. At times it was raunchy. At times it was offensive. Above all else, it was, at all times, really funny.
Admittedly, there was a scene including vomit jokes, which I have NEVER been a fan of, but this was about as funny as I will find these scenes.
There are some absolutely brilliant songs involved too including “Every Sperm is Sacred,” “Penis Song (Not The Noël Coward Song),” “Galaxy Song,” “Christmas in Heaven,” and “Meaning of Life.” These are uproariously funny. I love “Every Sperm…” and “Penis Song.”
Some of the skits do not work as well as others, but there are so many outstanding moments that I really was pleased that I scheduled this to conclude the Genre-ary.
It’s late in the day and I needed a film for the Genre-ary DailyView. The scheduled film for the day was Earth Girls are Easy.
According to IMDB, “Three furry (and funny) aliens travel around the universe in a spaceship and receive a broadcast showing human females. They are fascinated by these shapely creatures and discover that the broadcast came from Southern California on Earth. Meanwhile, Valley girl Valerie Gail feels her cold fiancé Dr. Ted Gallagher is slipping away and decides to seduce him. Instead, she catches him cheating on her with a nurse, throws him out, smashes his things and refuses to see him again. The aliens’ spaceship crash lands in Valerie’s swimming pool – putting a decided damper on her future wedding plans in Las Vegas. She brings them into her home; and the aliens prove to be quick learners and absorb American popular culture and language through television“
The movie had a surprisingly great cast including Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, Michael McKeon, Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans, Charles Rocket, Larry Linville, Rick Overton, and Julie Brown.
Julie Brown was introduced to me from the Dr. Demento Show with her classically inappropriate song, “The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun.” Brown co-wrote this movie and performed several of the songs, the title track “Earth Girls are Easy,” “I Like ’em Big and Stupid,” and “Cause I’m A Blonde.”
This film is really simple and pretty stupid. It has some funny moments, but it is so crazy that it has a hard time keeping a consistent tone.
This is harmless, but just really dumb. Jeff Goldblum is always great. Jim Carrey was great here. Otherwise, it is a basic B movie with some funny songs.
A school delay has given me the chance to do the Genre-ary DailyView this morning and the scheduled film today was the 1953 classic Gentlemen Prefer Blondes starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell.
There were not as many songs as I thought there might be, but the most famous one is clearly “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend,” as performed by Monroe.
The pairing of Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell really worked well in this movie, as the entire bit depended on the chemistry between the two of them as unlikely friends. Marilyn Monroe’s character, Lorelei, loves diamonds and Russell’s Dorothy has a sarcastic head on her shoulders. The duo are the backbone of the movie.
There are some funny moments in the film, as they played the situations into fancy.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) is a beautiful showgirl engaged to be married to the wealthy Gus Esmond (Tommy Noonan), much to the disapproval of Gus’ rich father, Esmond Sr., who thinks that Lorelei is just after his money. When Lorelei goes on a cruise accompanied only by her best friend, Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell), Esmond Sr. hires Ernie Malone (Elliott Reid), a private detective, to follow her and report any questionable behavior that would disqualify her from the marriage.“
Director Howard Hawks provides a lavish production that can just barely stand up to the power of its two leading women. Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell are so great together and they are absolutely the reason to see this movie.
Well, it is January. That usually means that we are up for some terrible movies that the studios want to dump. Those January horror movies are typically some of the worst of the year. However, last year, January brought us some actually really great movies including M3GAN, Plane and Missing. Perhaps the month will be turning over a new leaf.
Nice thought, but nope, not with this movie.
Night Swim is a bad horror movie that had too many laughs, unintentional of course, and suffered from some of the worst writing that you’ll see.
A family moves into a new house. Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) was a baseball player who was diagnosed with MS so he and his wife Eve (Kerry Condon) and their two kids Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle) and Elliot (Gavin Warren) look to start over. One of the house’s biggest selling points was the swimming pool. Unfortunately, they did not know the tragedies surrounding the pool and the fact that it was haunted.
Yes, the pool was haunted. We don’t really know why or how. It was just there. And the actors had to do so many stupid things to keep the drama going. I don’t know how many times I just said, “Get out of the pool” during the film. It would have been over.
I will give credit to the four main actors. I think they did the best they could with this stinker. Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon are both talented actors, and both kids were good. Amélie Hoeferle especially had a quality about her. It was just that the script was so dumb it did not give these actors much chance to make the material better.
The problem is that this movie was based on a live short from 2014 and it did not seem as if there was enough of a concept here to stretch it out to a 90-minute movie.
Sadly, 2024 does not start off with a splash. More of a drip.
Here it is. The ultimate list of the Favorite movies for EYG in 2023. This is the culmination of the movie reviews we do around here. We finished the year with 154 movies reviewed in 2023, down quite a bit from 2022.
Some interesting tidbits while compiling this list. Numbers one and two were really close this year. Close enough that I considered doing a tie at number one. This is not unprecedented as it happened in 2014 with Captain America: Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy. I decided not to go that route, but the two films definitely flipped positions several times before I finally made a choice.
Another thing, this was the year where there were the most films that were all around the same level. I would say starting around #15-40, these films were all pretty close to each other. It made placing them in an order a challenging thing to do.
I have some honorable mentions as well this year. They include: Extraction 2, Pale Blue Eyes, Medusa Deluxe, and No One Will Save You. Those last three have fairly high star ratings, but honestly, a lot of these do not stick out in my mind. I also should state that I did not include the four Doctor Who specials or the Netflix Roald Dahl shorts despite my reviewing all of these for the site.
Once again, I should tell you that my star ratings are not the end all for these rankings. In fact, I know there are some five star films that are behind some others on the list. Star reviews can change and reflection can go into consideration. The star reviews are meant to help point me in the direction of a list, not cement films into place. And finally, if you disagree with my list, that is fine. I would expect there to be disagreement. This is my list and I mean no disrespect to anyone who differs from my opinion. You have the right to like or dislike anything you want.
So, let’s get started…
#40. Plane. A fun Gerard Butler action film that centers around, you guessed it, a plane. This one was better than I expected it to be.
#39. Skinamarink. One of the most inventive and creative horror movies of the year. It really defies explanation and is one of the creepiest films of the year.
#38. Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. A documentary on the life of Michael J. Fox and his struggles with Parkinson’s Disease and how it affected his career. Very engaging.
#37. Scream VI. A decent entry in the Scream franchise, the film keeps reinventing itself and keeping the audience on its toes.
#36. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. A solid animated movie with a new look at the Turtles. The art of the film is spectacular. A great job by the young voice actors too.
#35. Joy Ride. A raunchy film that was more than just the dirty jokes. It had heart and a lot of humor to it, deeper than the typical vulgar film.
#34. Dumb Money. An entertaining look at the GameStop Wall Street situation from the recent past. Paul Dano was solid as the lead.
#33. The Creator. A sci-fi film that received more hate than it deserved. It featured a brilliant performance from young Madeleine Yuna Voyles. I found this to be a really good film.
#32. The Equalizer 3. Denzel Washington returned for the third installment of the Equalizer franchise. This was a little different as we see the older Denzel deal with the issues with the dangers and of his age.
#31. Sisu. One of the best revenge films of the year. Sisu is a bad ass and his mostly quiet persona carried him through the film, killing Nazis.
#30. American Symphony. The documentary featuring Jon Batiste at a time in his career when he was about to compose a symphony and his partner had her cancer return. It was an emotional documentary.
#29. Poor Things. Weird movie with remarkable performances from Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Dafoe. Wholly original and creative.
#28. The Little Mermaid. A decent remake of the animated classic. I actually liked the relationship with Ariel and Prince Eric better in this film than the animated one.
#27. Wonka. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this. I was totally entertained by the film. The music was great and I thought Timothée Chalamet was a solid Willy Wonka.
#26. Saltburn. Another wild and weird film with some solid performances anchoring the story. Barry Keoghan gave a tremendous performance.
#25. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. A concert movie following one of the most successful tours of all-time. I am not a fan of Taylor Swift, but the music was excellent and the stage show was next level.
#24. Past Lives. A beautiful story of a pair of childhood friends/loves who find their way to each other later in life when they had moved on.
#23. The Covenant. Guy Ritchie tells the story of a soldier and an interpreter in the hills of Afghanistan, trying to get to safety. Very dramatic.
#22. Tetris. A surprisingly awesome story about the creation of the video game called Tetris and how it spread across the world. Who would have thought this would be as tense as it turned out to be.
#21. Nimona. A Netflix animated movie that really worked well. Nimona was a little girl, or at least it seemed as if she was. In truth, she was a shapeshifter seen as a monster. This had a real emotional core to it.
#20. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Probably the best version of D & D ever put to film. A great cast goes through a fun adventure with heart.
#19. Air. Another product movie that is fabulous. Tells the origin story of Jordan Air shoes and how they became the biggest shoes in the world. Another fine cast, led by Matt Damon.
#18. Nyad. One of the last films I saw this year and it was a great film of overcoming a challenge and never giving up. Amazing performances from Annette Bening and Jodie Foster.
#17. Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This film gets more hate than it deserves. Are there some iffy moments? Sure, but I found it entertaining and a solid Marvel outing. Paul Rudd is always excellent.
#16. The Blackening. A wonderfully funny satire about horror movies and racial stereotypes. A group of young people are trying to avoid being murdered by a slasher.
#15. Blackberry. Another product film, this time about the drama surrounding the production and growth of the first smart phone, as well as the collapse of it. Exceptional work from everyone involved.
#14. The Marvels. Another film that I liked a lot, but received more hate than it deserved. I loved the interaction between the three heroes, particularly Iman Vellani, who as Ms. Marvel was a joy.
#13. Totally Killer. One of the most surprising films of the year. I saw it on Prime and did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. A cool time travel tale mixed with a serial killer mystery. Very funny and engaging.
#12. Missing. A teenage girl tries to find her mother after she disappears. She uses the internet and the world online to figure out what happened to her mother. Very dramatic and a great performance from Storm Reid.
#11. The Holdovers. A wonderful Christmas movie featuring an Oscar-worthy performance from both Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. A very human story of loss and grief and surviving. Beautifully written and constructed.
#10. The Color Purple. Officially the last new film I saw this year. An amazing musical with an emotional story. The music was awesome. The choreography was great and there were several amazing performances, especially from Danielle Brooks, Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson and Colman Domingo.
#9. A Haunting in Venice. The third and possibly best of the Hercule Poirot movies we have gotten so far. A fun horror flick with a mystery that is very engaging.
#8. Barbie. One of the biggest hits of the year. Barbie was much deeper of a movie than you would ever guess. Margot Robbie was perfect in the role and Ryan Gosling stole every scene he had as Ken. A brilliant film from director Greta Gerwig.
#7. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1. Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible franchise roared back with an exciting action packed thriller with a couple of insane stunts. I enjoyed the film completely.
#6. John Wick 4. So much John Wick goodness in this movie. Long and brutal, John Wick 4 brought the franchise to an exceptional end (if it actually is the end).
#5. Oppenheimer. Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece of Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb. The Oscar worthy work of Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Josh Harnett, Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. It is an epic movie.
#4. The Iron Claw. The story of the family of the Von Erichs and the tragedies that engulfed them leads to an amazingly sad story, one that is very difficult to watch. It is heavy and rough. Powerful. You don’t have to be a wrestling fan to embrace this film.
#3. Godzilla Minus One. This is the best Godzilla movie I have ever saw. The main reason is that the time spent on the human characters made me love them. That is uncommon in Godzilla movies. Most of the time, the human characters are just in the way. Not here. Plus, Godzilla is not an anti-hero here. He is a monstrous force of nature.
#2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The brilliant conclusion to the Guardians trilogy from James Gunn. It was truly an emotional tale, focused mostly on Rocket and his background. Everyone got their moments in this finale and there was a great, vicious villain in the High Evolutionary. This almost was the number one movie of the year. It was really close.
#1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Spider-Man is my all-time favorite character and that pushed this one over the finish line. An amazing sequel to an Oscar-winning animated film, Across the Spider-Verse has great story, characters that are full of humor and drama, and an exciting and thrilling tale. Beautifully animated. It was more like art than a movie.
It is that time. The Year in Review has come down to the final two lists. The big two. The Best and the Worst list movies this year.
I know that there are people out there who do not believe in “Worst” lists because of negativity or because of punching down, and I don’t disagree. I just believe that I have the right to state an opinion, and I can do it respectfully, without just making it a hate fest.
Honestly, this year I only have a Top 20 list of Worst Movies (which perhaps it should be listed as my Least Favorite Movies instead) and there was not as much vitriol for a lot of these as some past years. In fact, numbers 7-20 are all not actively horrible. They are just not very good movies.
Final point once again is that the star ratings that I give throughout the year do not factor into the final decisions on movies. Movies can change over time so just because a film gets 1 star doesn’t necessarily mean that it will get a higher spot on the list than a film that got 1.5 stars. Remember, it is all subjective.
And, as I have said before, this is my list. If there is a film on here that you love, I would say good for you. These are my thoughts and opinions. It is not an attack at anyone who may have loved the film. You are welcome to love any film you want.
Okay… here we go…
#20. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. I put this at #20 as a final placement, but I did have it higher at first. I kept thinking, would I rather watch this again or some of the others, and I would choose Aquaman over other movies on this list, so there is that.
#19. It Lives Inside. A horror movie that was pretty boring. This is one of those horror movies that shows us too much of the monster. Imagination can more more scary if you let it.
#18. About My Father. A comedic love story with characters that I just did not like or want to cheer for and one that lacked laughs.
#17. Next Goal Wins. One of the biggest disappointments of the year. I usually love Taika Waititi’s movies, but this one just missed the mark in so many ways.
#16. Ghosted. Chris Evans and Ana de Armas together should be a winner, yes? You would think so, but this movie does not live up to their charisma.
#15. Insidious: The Red Room. A fifth installment in a franchise that felt as if it should have closed the door on several films ago. A waste of Lin Shaye.
#14. The Baker. Despite charismatic lead characters, this film was nothing more than a cliché-ridden revenge film. Nothing new and very repetitive.
#13. Fast X. Stupid action film with lackluster dialogue and a story that truly does not go anywhere. Jason Momoa is the only saving grace and that is just because he was so over-the-top that he brought an energy the film was missing.
#12. Strays. Another unfunny comedy featuring several dogs trying to find their way back to one of their homes so he could bite the dick off his owner who had deserted him. A movie with a lot of mean-spirited scenes.
#11. Marlowe. A dull and plodding film that may have had a strong cast, but they did not seem to want to be involved in the movie at all.
#10. Family Switch. Merry Christmas to you, though not too merry if you had to watch this Freaky Friday rip off. Another comedy without much comedy.
#9. The Nun II. Nonsensical. Maybe better than the original film, but that is not saying much. First half of this film was boring and even a better ending could not save it.
#8. Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Once & Again. It’s Morphin’ Time! What a lackluster return of the original, surviving Power Rangers. What could have been filled with nostalgia and emotion was lacking all of that. Definitely a disappointment.
#7. Paint. I was sure this was a biopic of Bob Ross. Oh, how I was wrong. There was not even a slight connection to the painter outside of Owen Wilson’s ridiculous hairdo.
#6. Retribution. We are starting to get into the really bad films now. Liam Neeson in a car with a bomb. Of course, the real bomb was in the theater with all of us. Stupid film with the most predictable ending imaginable.
#5. Rebel Moon. Zack Snyder’s most recent visit to this list with his sci-fi epic that was not very epic. Even some of the CGI was lacking, which was uncommon for a Snyder film. He claims that a 4-hour director’s cut which will come out someday makes this a whole different story. Why am I watching this then?
#4. R.L. Stein’s Zombietown. This film had Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase in it. Let that sink in a minute. This was a stupid movie that was intended to target younger viewers and introduce them to horror. There are much better ways to do it than this mess.
#3. Meg 2. Not a good sign when I found myself laughing at the movie in scenes that were not intended to be funny. And honestly, in a movie titled Meg 2, there sure wasn’t much with the shark in it. I guess we got to spend enough time with these plastic characters.
#2. Expen4bles. Why? What was the purpose of this film? It was a terrible film with little enjoyment as possible. Gee, you mean Stallone is not dead? Duh.
If you do not know my number one, you have not been paying attention…
#1. Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey. Where to start with this? It is the worst movie I have seen in quite awhile and it solidified this position as soon as I watched it. Sadly, I fell asleep during the film so I had to go back and watch the pieces I slept through again. Punishment? This was dumb. It was laughable. I hated it.
Special mention: Beau is Afraid is the only movie I have ever given a N/A star rating because I just could not wrap my mind around it.
Previous Winners: James McAvoy (Split), Denzel Washington (Fences), Bryan Cranston (Trumbo), Michael Keaton (Birdman), Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips), Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln), Ryan Gosling (Drive), Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody), Joaquin Phoenix (Joker), Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick…Boom), Brendan Fraser (The Whale)
For our final acting award before we head to the Best and Worst Movie Lists, we have the Strangelove, named in honor of EYG Hall of Famer Peter Sellers and his work in the iconic Dr. Strangelove film from the 1960s.
There are a couple of films with great performances that I have not see yet so someone like Jeffrey Wright from American Fiction, Andrew Scott for All of Us Strangers or Colman Domingo for Rustin are not going to be here. Sorry, their films just have not opened in my area yet.
We have the top 13 actors for this award.
#13. Tom Cruise (Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1)
#12. Keanu Reeves (John Wick 4)
#11. Matt Damon (Air)
#10. Nicolas Cage (Dream Scenario)
#9. Michael Fassbender (The Killer)
#8. Denzel Washington (The Equalizer 3)
#7. Kenneth Branagh (A Haunting in Venice)
#6. Jay Baruchel (BlackBerry)
#5. Bradley Cooper (Maestro)
#4. Barry Keoghan (Saltburn)
#3. Zac Efron (The Iron Claw)
#2. Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)
and the winner is….
#1. Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)
This is one of the best performances of Paul Giamatti’s career. His work is both subtle and realistic as a teacher whose connection with his students was frayed and who winds up over Christmas break with a student he has to chaperone. Giamatti brings a lot of suppressed emotion as he deals with his own struggles while trying to do his best.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 