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.
If I am being honest, I did doze off for a short time at the beginning of the new movie, Lisa Frankenstein. Sadly, I was awake for most of it.
According to IMDB, “After suffering an unspeakable tragedy, Lisa finds herself at a new school her senior year in 1989, struggling to fit in, despite her “sister” Taffy trying to get her to conform to her more typical cheerleader vibe. When a freak accident reanimates a corpse from the abandoned cemetery where she was spending time, she must keep his arrival a secret from her family and classmates, all while deciding how much she wants to help him, and at what cost.”
I really did not like Lisa Frankenstein. I found it unfunny, mean-spirited and filled with characters that I just did not like. Lisa, played very well by Kathryn Newton, was a protagonist that I found so unlikable that I did not know why I was supposed to be cheering for her. Maybe I wasn’t.
I will give the movie some credit in the fact that it did take some big swings and did not fall into the typical steps. I like the idea behind a lot of the film, but I just did not like the execution of these original ideas. I did enjoy the character of Taffy (Liza Soberano). She was a character that we have seen dozens of times and is always portrayed in a certain way, but this film took this character in a completely different direction. That was welcome and she was easily my favorite character in the movie.
Cole Sprouse was fine as the Creature. He did a solid job without any dialogue for most of the movie.
I can say that I did not think that the actors were part of my problem with this movie.
I found it to be cruel, filled with mean scenes toward the people of the film and I just did not appreciate it. I may have chuckled a few times during the movie, but, overall, the writing of it just did not inspire me in any manner.
This was another movie that I was disappointed by since I had been looking forward to seeing it since the trailers. I would say that as of February 10th, this is my least favorite movie of the year (although Madame Web is coming next week).
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.
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: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, My Scientology Movie, Tickled, Finding Neverland, Tiger King, The Beatles: Get Back, Lights & Magic
I have not actually seen a lot of documentaries this year. I usually enjoy seeing documentaries, and there is no real reason why I have not seen very many.
So here are my top four…
#4. Stan Lee. This Disney + film was a nice doc about Stan the Man. Almost too much of a puff piece, but enjoyable for fans of the icon. Best part was a radio confrontation between Stan and Jack Kirby. Wanted more like that.
#3. Taylor Swift: The ERAs Tour. Not really a documentary, but a lot of fun. I have never considered myself a Swiftie, but I enjoyed the concert film.
#2. American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes. This Peacock special was really well done. The WWE always puts together the best docs about their wrestlers. This story of Cody Rhodes’ journey was compelling and gave us some true insight on the American Nightmare.
#1. Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. An Apple TV + film that brought us into the story of Michael J. Fox and his struggle with Parkinson’s Disease, and how his life was affected from it. Michael J. Fox was interviewed extensively for the doc.
I regretted starting this movie on Netflix ten minutes in…maybe sooner.
It is Freaky Friday, but with a whole family.
The cast was pretty good featuring Ed Helms, Jennifer Garner, Emma Myers, Brady Noon as the family members and Rita Moreno appeared as Angelica. Sadly, the cast looked to be struggling through the material of this film.
The story was the same as any of these body swap movies. Nothing original here (with the exception of the baby and the dog switching bodies too- but that is just a few scenes).
Some of the situations were just ridiculous. How about a lactose intolerance fart joke? There are just so many instances of this that I can’t even begin to go into the stupid moments.
It is so predictable and I really wanted it to be over.
We got a new Nic Cage movie released this weekend focusing on celebrity and the potential toxicity that comes along with that. It was called Dream Scenario.
Nic Cage played a college professor named Paul Matthews, a hapless man who is just going through an unremarkable life. Then, one day, he discovered that people were all dreaming about him, people that he did not know. Paul would just walk through the dream like an observer, doing nothing to help the person. It got to the point where real life Paul was feeling guilt over not helping despite the fact that he had zero control over it.
As this phenomenon went viral, Paul started to become well known and in demand. This is, until the dreams he was appearing in began to turn dark and nightmarish. The people who were fascinated by Paul before turned on him quickly, forcing Paul into trying to get through his life.
Nicolas Cage was sensational as Paul, playing completely against his typical character. Paul was frumpy and depressed, unable to understand why things were happening and why people were turning on him considering he had done nothing wrong. You can’t help be feel sorry for Paul considering things were happening that were totally out of his own control.
I really enjoyed this film, but I will say that the ending did not strike as well as I would have liked it. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about that without diving into spoilers. Suffice it to say that I did not love the way the film concluded.
There were some funny scenes of the film, which is listed by A24 as a comedy/horror film. I’m not sure that is an accurate classification, but there are several funny moments. Nicolas Cage does great job bringing this schulb to life, and seeing what happens to him is a warning about the fickleness of pop culture as well as a commentary on cancel culture.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 