Tag Archives: movies

Blue Eye Samurai S1 E5, E6, E7, E8

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Spoilers

“The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride”

“All Evil Dreams and Angry Words”

“Nothing Broken”

“The Great Fire of 1657”

I finished season one of Blue Eye Samurai today with the final four episodes. This is such a great show, with amazing animation, perfectly executed fight choreography, and some of the best character work around. It is absolutely a high bar for the next season to reach.

Specifically, episode five was an amazing format, with the story being told with a narrated puppet theater. It was one of the most imaginative style choices that seemed to fit perfectly with the tone and style of the show.

Everything led to a huge confrontation between Mizu and Fowler as the city burnt down around them. I am not sure if I loved the way the cliffhanger unfurled, but I am willing to let season two play out to see what happens. I think I would have preferred for Mizu to have killed Fowler instead of trying to use him.

Plus, with Mizu and Fowler on a boat to London, does that mean that our cast of supporting characters Ringo, Taigen, and Akemi are going to be sidelined in season two?

It was a sad end for George Takei’s character Seki, shot to death retreating from the fire. His was a character that showed his true allegiances through the year… and it was to Akemi.

This was such a joy to watch and I am very glad that I took the suggestion from a couple of the YouTube content makers, saying that this was one of the best shows of 2023. It certainly was epic.

What If…? S2 E7

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“What if…Hela Found the Ten Rings”

Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is voicing a character in an animated TV show.

That is an amazing thing. It speaks to the MCU that there are so many of the actors who are willing to come back and provide lines for this project. Idris Elba was also back for just a few lines in this episode. It was really cool.

Of course, they did not get everybody back for their characters. Odin was in this episode and it was not Sir Anthony Hopkins, and Wenwu was not voiced by Tony Leung. Oh well.

Blending Hela and Wenwu (from the Shang Chi movies) was an interesting trick. Taking the whole Thor-banished-to-earth-until-worthy bit and making it work for Hela was a neat addition to the story. The set-up was strong and the execution was really solid too.

I found Hela’s character arc to be a very done one, reminding me of the Loki arc, and, of course, you give a strong character arc to one of the best actors working today, you get some great storytelling. Plus, Cate Blanchett has experience in the voice over world, which does have its benefits in performances.

It sounds like a skipping record, but I’ll say it again. The animation of this season of What If…? has been stellar. I love the parallels drawn between scenes from the MCU movies and what we see animated in What If..?.  For example, the scene where Hela cannot budge the crown was very similar to the scene when Thor could not move Mjolnir in the first Thor movie. These echoes are throughout the series and show the cleverness of the writers and creative personnel working on What If…?.

There are only two more episodes to go on this daily release of season two. I have loved watching these episodes in this manner and I hope there will be other opportunities to follow this in future times.

Up to Date Running Order:

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E5  ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”

E6  ”What If…Kahhori Reshaped the World?”

E7  ”What If…Hela Found the Ten Rings?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

E4  ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”

2023 Batman & Robin Awards for Rottenness

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So…everything can’t be great all the time, right?

We can celebrate the badness too. It does not have to be completely negative. 

Still, here are the Batman & Robin Awards.

Worst Actor: Nikolai Leon (Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey)

Worst Actress: Amber Heard (Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom)

Worst Director: Rhys-Frake Waterfield (Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey)

Worst Sequel: Meg 2

Worst CGI: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

Favorite “Rotten” Movie: Ant Man & the Wasp: Quantumania (46% Rotten Tomatoes)

Worst Movie I Did Not See: Black Noise (0% on Rotten Tomatoes, both Critics and Audience)

Cashing a Paycheck: Liam Neeson (Retribution)

Worst Reboot/Remake: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

Most Successful Bad Movie: Fast X (made a lot of $ worldwide, not so much domestic)

Worst Movie Based on TV Show: Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Once & Always

Worst Superhero: Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Once & Again

Worst Trailer: Madame Web

WTF: Beau is Afraid

Best Performance/Worst Show: Olivia Colman (Secret Invasion)

Slo-Mo King: Zack Snyder for Rebel Moon.

Book was Better: R.L. Stein’s Zombietown (I did not read the book. It HAS to be better)

The He’s NOT Bob Ross Award: Paint (though he really should have been)

We Can’t Spell Award: Expen4bles

Why Can’t You Still be Captain America?: Ghosted

Why, Taika, Why?: Next Goal Wins

Worst Animated TV: Velma

Fargo S5 E6

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“The Tender Trap”

Episode six of the new season of Fargo was missing something important.

Dorothy.

I do like a lot of these other characters, but the fact is that this whole season really revolves around Dorothy. With her hidden, other characters had to step up. We get some more rottenness from John Hamm’s Sheriff Roy Tillman. We see much more from Indira, including a pretty awesome interaction between her and Lorraine Lyon, as played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. An interaction that led Lorraine to offer Indira a job away from the police. I assume that she was impressed by the bad ass attitude that Indira arrived with.

Indira also dropped Dorothy’s file on Lorraine’s desk, a file we see later contained some horrible images of abuse that she suffered at the hands of Roy.

Lorraine came with a ton of vengeance when she discovered that Roy halted the bank sale she had been working on. She planned on “stealing an election” and she crushed Vivian Dugger’s life, leaving him penniless and even affecting his children.

As I said, things are ramping up for the next several episodes before the finale.

2023 Movie Musicals

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In honor of the upcoming Genre-ary DailyView starting on New Year’s Day 2024, I added a New Year in Review category: Movie Musicals.

I have always enjoyed a good musical, and there feels as if the genre has taken a turn back up over the last few years so this seems to be a good time to introduce this new award.

What is a musical? Well, I find this to be a little iffy of a definition that maybe everyone would not agree with, and that is okay. This is my site. To me, there is a difference between a movie that is a musical and a movie that features music. To me, a musical should have songs that just happen during scenes. This is Spinal Tap has a lot of music, but I do not consider that a musical. It is a movie with music. 

Having said that, a film like This is Spinal Tap could conceivably get this award, but I would consider any of the ‘pure’ musicals first. It is possible that there may be some years where there are no great musicals and I have to acquiesce to a movie with music instead. There are some examples below…

As a celebration of the musical genre, I have retrofitted the last ten years with honorary award winners (much like I did for the Christopher Reeve Comic Book Movie Award). These retro musical award winners are here:

Movie Musicals

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Whiplash (2014), Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), La La Land (2016), The Greatest Showman (2017), Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Rocketman (2019), Hamilton (2020), Tick, Tick… Boom! (2021), Matilda the Musical (2022)

To be fair, a few of these retro-winners would not necessarily fall into the “Movie Musical” category such as Whiplash, Inside Llewyn Davis and Pitch Perfect 2, but there were no standout musicals in those years that I could fine. Then, Mary Poppins Returns probably was selected because it was a more traditional musical over some much better Movies with music from that year. 

Anyway, for 2023:

Runners-Up: I had intended on giving this award to Wonka, but it got dethroned. It was a lot of surprising fun. Disney has a couple of entries here with Wish and The Little Mermaid, both solid musicals. Trolls back Together falls into the category and Leo was one I just watched and was surprised how much I enjoyed the music in that.

And that brings us to the winner, a film I saw TODAY…

Winner: The Color Purple

I loved this movie. It was so well done, with amazing acting across the board and some vey engaging music that had me bobbing my head and tapping my foot throughout. It came up to the final moment of my movie viewing for 2023 and ran away with this new award.

The Color Purple (2023)

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I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about The Color Purple. I do like musicals, but I had never seen the original Color Purple (I intended to watch the 1985 film, but did not get around to it) so it was a crapshoot.

I loved this.

The performances of the actors in this movie was utterly amazing across the board. Fantasia Barrino is heartbreaking and powerful as Celie. Colman Domingo as Mister, the cruel husband of Celie, made me hate him. Taraji P. Henson as Shug Avery, the singer who got away and returned. 

But the standout of all was Danielle Brooks as Sofia. Every minute she was on screen, you could not take your eyes off of her. Her character saw every level of emotion and you could see the moments that weighed on her. Some of the things that happened to Sofia in this movie were devastating to me, as I gasped a few times. I see no way that Danielle Brooks does not receive an Academy Award nomination for this performance.

The music was very engaging and entertaining. Admittedly, I do not think there are many of the songs that are hits to listen to, but as a group of songs in a musical, they are outstanding. I was nodding my head and tapping my feet throughout the film. There may be a couple of times when the song felt like it was out of place from the emotional beat that was happening on the screen, but there were not enough of those moments to cause a problem for me.

I will admit that there were some times when I was not sure what was happening or who certain people were. For me, the transitions were not handled the best in this movie. I wondered about the passage of time because we got years listed on the screen, but the characters did not seem to have the years showing on their faces. 

However, there were so many emotional beats to the story that it had me in tears a couple of times. I was engaged with the characters and what was happening to them and I was rooting so hard for them to get what they deserved after so much tumult.

Director Blitz Bazawule brought a great eye to the shots across the runtime of the movie. Between both the dramatic sections and the musical routines, everything flowed beautifully. There was one moment of editing that the film went from black and white into color so seamlessly that it was an epic edit.

I did enjoy this musical version of The Color Purple, and I am actually pleased that I did not watch the 1985 movie prior to this because I was unsure what was coming and it made the experience all the more thrilling.

4.75 stars

Top Geek Stories 2023

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Top 12 Geek Stories of 2023

#12. Shohei Ohtani signs with Dodgers for $700 million. One of the best baseball players on the planet signed a record breaking contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, 12-years, $700 million. However, Ohtani deferred payment on all but $20 million until after the life of the contract so the Dodgers would have financial flexibility.

#11. Fantastic Four, Superman: Legacy casting. The news of the casting of these two iconic movies are one of the biggest things people can talk about. While there has been no confirmed casting for Fantastic Four, there have been a lot of rumors. As for Superman: Legacy, David Corenswet is Clark Kent and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane. Nicholas Hoult was cast as Lex Luthor.

#10. Disney vs. Desantis. Florida Governor Ron Desantis planned to take away Disney’s tax free status. Disney played the game and made it so the new people in charge had no power. Desantis took it as an act of war. Unfortunately for him, Disney made him look fairly foolish.

#9. Box Office Struggles. The box office was filled with low totals and major flops. There were only a couple of huge hits this summer and films from Disney, WB and Sony struggle to make back their money. Part of the trouble is film budgets are out of control. Another reason is streaming makes it too easy to see films at home. 

#8. UAP Hearing. UAPs or unidentified aerial phenomena became news this year. Formerly known as UFOs, the House of Representatives held hearing about the mysterious phenomenon. What does the government really know? Will we ever know?

#7. Jonathan Majors Case. Jonathan Majors, actor who played Kang the Conqueror in the MCU, was arrested on several charges of domestic abuse. Majors was found guilty on two of the lesser charges, but it has still cost him his role as Kang.

#6. WWE Sold. The WWE was sold to Endeavor, the company that co-owned the UFC. Vince McMahon had forced his way back into the WWE, but, after the sale, he was removed from creative completely and Triple H was given total control.

#5. Twitter sold. Twitter, the social media platform, was sold to Elon Musk and the name was changed to X. Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter only to send the social media platform into the red. 

#4. Marvel Studio Struggles. Marvel Studios has had a difficult year. The public view is that the studio is in chaos. Variety published an article that made this very claim. The internet is filled with negative pieces about the MCU, because they have their own prejudices and need for clicks on their articles. Kevin Feige is making plans to right the course.

#3. Taylor Swift Tour. The Taylor Swift Eras Tour was a massive success, making over $900 million, estimated by Billboard. It is on track to becoming the highest grossing tour ever. A movie was also made out of the tour and it made millions at the box office.

#2. Barbenheimer. Two major movies opened on the same day, Barbie and Oppenheimer. There was a promotion combining the idea of both movies and seeing them both as a double feature. The promotion was incredibly success as both Barbie and Oppenheimer over performed in a summer of flops. Barbie wound up making over 1.3 billion and Oppenheimer was around $900 million. Many people (including myself) dressed up for the double feature in pink or with hats. It was a major success for theaters that could have used one.

#1. Writer and Actors Strikes. Hollywood was froze in place once again as two union strikes happened in the summer. First, the writers went on strike and then, not too long later, the actors followed suit. Thankfully, both strikes were settles before the end of the year, but did run for many months.

2023 Best and Worst Animation

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EYG Frame Award- Best Animation

Previous Winners: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, Coco, Moana, Inside Out, Big Hero 6, Flashpoint Paradox, Paranorman, Winnie the Pooh, Klaus, Wolfwalkers, Mitchells vs. the Machines, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

There was another good year in animation. There is a considerably longer list on the best side than there is on the worst side. It is possible that some of the worst animated films this year I did not see. 

I only have two films on the worst list so I will give them both here. They were Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken and Legion of Superheroes. I saw one in the theater (Ruby) and one online (Legion). Neither were very good. I might say that Legion is a step better for me because I have a connection to those characters, but Ruby looked much better. 

Having done the worst, here are the runners-up.

Runners-Up: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was very artistic and had a great voice cast, especially those young actors who did the turtle voices. Super Mario Bros. was another fun film that made a bunch of money at the box office. A film that did not make as much at the box office was Disney’s Wish, which was decent, but not awesome. Another Disney film that did not do as well as they were used to was Elemental. At the beginning of that movie I did not like it, but it won me over as it progressed. Trolls Band Together was fun and had some good music to it. We had a new film from EYG Hall of Famer Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli called The Boy and the Heron. It was the typically high quality from that studio. Merry Little Batman approached its topic with a flair and if you could get past the characterization of Damian Wayne, you should have enjoyed this. Migration was okay, another film that ended better than it started. Then today I watched the Netflix films Nimora and Leo, both were very enjoyable.

After seeing the runners-up, it should not be a surprise which animated film receives the Frame Award this year…

Winner: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

This was a no-brainer for me. Spider-Man is my favorite character and this movie was such a beautiful film, the art design was spectacular and the animation was as creative as any film you will ever see, 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a masterpiece.

Leo

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When I started the animated film Leo on Netflix, I did not know it was an Adam Sandler vehicle. Sandler is not one of my favorite actors, to be honest. It seems as if most of his films are the same stupid, immature jokes and he plays the same basic character in all of them. Still, he has had some moments of excellence such as Rare Gems. It wasn’t too long into Leo that I recognized his voice work.

In this movie, Sandler gives his voice to the lizard named Leo. Turned out that all of the animals could speak. Leo, along with Squirtle (Bill Barr), were classroom pets in a 5th grade class. When Leo starts being taken home with the students, he starts talking to them, telling each that he could only speak to them and that they were special.

There are some funny moments. The film does a good job of avoiding the immature humor that I associate with Sandler. There are some heart-warming moments through as well. 

I was surprised that it turned out to be a musical. Most of the songs were catchy and some were clever lyrically. There was nothing very serious, but fun matching the film.

As I said, this was fun and enjoyable. It certainly could have been much worse. There were some childish moments, but nothing that made me cringe as an adult. 

3.75 stars

Nyad

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I don’t know why it took me this long to watch this movie.

Nyad is a biopic of Diana Nyad, the marathon swimmer who wanted to become the first person ever to swim from Cuba to Florida. She had attempted the swim when she was 28 years old, only to fail. She then tried again, starting when she was 60 years old.

Nyad was portrayed in the film by Annette Bening, who did a remarkable job in the physical role. Nyad was accompanied by her long time friend Bonnie Stoll, played here by Jodie Foster. The film was not just a film of staying the course and never giving up, but it was also one of friendship and the trials between friends.

Bening and Foster were amazing in their roles. The whole cast did a great job, but Bening and Foster were on screen all the time and brought so much energy and ferociousness to their work, you could believe that they both were fighting for that last chance to reach their dreams.

Rhys Ifans deserves recognition too for his role as John Bartlett, the chief navigator for the mission. 

The story was one of amazing dogged determination, a woman who did not want to give up and how that determination affected, often negatively, those people around her. The stretch of the film where Nyad’s crew were dropping out on her because they were afraid she was going to die doing this was exceptional. 

Bening was not afraid to show the warts of Diana Nyad and to make her look selfish and paint her in a negative way. She felt like a real person and not just the ‘force of nature’ that they described her as several times.

I am very pleased that I finally got a chance to watch this on Netflix and I would recommend anyone who likes the reaching for the stars type of sport movie watch it as well. Either way, there are two performances that should be considered come Oscar nomination time.

4.3 stars

Rebel Moon: Part One-A Child of Fire

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Zack Snyder is bad in just about the most Zack Snyder-like Star Wars wannabe movie on Netflix today. You should read that last line in slow motion to celebrate this movie because there is a TON of slo-mo in Rebel Moon.

According to IMDB, “When a peaceful settlement on the edge of a distant moon finds itself threatened by the armies of a tyrannical ruling force, Kora (Sofia Boutella), a mysterious stranger living among the villagers, becomes their best hope for survival. Tasked with finding trained fighters who will unite with her in making an impossible stand against the Mother World, Kora assembles a small band of warriors – outsiders, insurgents, peasants and orphans of war from different worlds who share a common need for redemption and revenge. As the shadow of an entire Realm bears down on the unlikeliest of moons, a battle over the fate of a galaxy is waged, and in the process, a new army of heroes is formed.“

This film was surprisingly boring for much of the run time. And then there was some slo-mo. Kora went out to recruit a band of characters to help protect the village in a very Seven Samurai inspiration. One problem? None of these new characters were very interesting or more than a one-dimensional archetype.

The dialogue was poorly written, and there was so much exposition when dealing with these characters. It makes this so much more dull than it needed to be. 

Typically A Zack Snyder movie looks great. This one looks great at times. It also looks badly. It is such a mishmash of special effects that you do not expect from such as visual of a director as Zack Snyder. 

The villains of this movie are basically Nazis in space. There is no nuance to any of these villains. 

There is some interesting world building in the film, but the execution of presenting it was really weak. 

This was not a good film. I am not sure if the next part of the movie will be better or just a lot of the same.

1 star

What If…? S2 E2

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“What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.”

Episode two is a bit of a step back from the excellent first episode of season two. 

Peter Quill gets taken by Yondu and given to Ego. They go about on the Expanse and Peter comes back to earth, leading Peggy Carter to bring together the best heroes the earth could muster at the time.

It was sort of a different style Avengers formation, including Bill Foster, King T’Chaka, The Winter Soldier, Hank Pym, and Dr. Wendy Lawson (Mar-Vell). Things picked up when Thor arrived too.

As with all of the What If…? episodes, one of the cool things is that the most actors who played these characters in the MCU films reprise their roles on the animated show. That led to an astounding cast for an animated show including Chris Hemsworth, Michael Douglas, Laurence Fishburne, Kurt Russell, John Slattery, Sebastian Stan and Hayley Atwell all on the call list for episode two. 

There were some good things that happened in the episode. It is not as if I hated this one. It just felt too rushed in some places. I did not love some of the character choices and a lot of what could have made the episode stronger was left out.

The animation continues to be a highlight of the show so far. Everything looked awesome and feels like a step up from season one. 

Running Order:

Definitely…

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

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The DCEU comes to a close. 

The long delayed Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom finally came out as the final installment before James Gunn’s films start coming out in 2025.

I had the bar set really low for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and, unfortunately, it seems as if the film stumbled over it.

There was nothing obnoxiously unwatchable about the movie. It just wasn’t very good and there were plenty of times where it was actively stupid. I found much of the first act or so boring. The third act was the typical DC CGI fest and it was really predictable. 

Jason Momoa still does a decent job as Arthur Curry, but I am not sure that a lot of the humor worked well. Momoa and Patrick Wilson’s chemistry was okay, but it did feel like a poor-man’s version of Thor and Loki. Amber Heard’s presence felt awkward because of her outside situations. 

CGI was a mishmash. Some moments it was pretty good. I’d say the background with the settings were always beautiful. However, some of the action and the evil villain from the past was not good. When that green Groot-like looking thing showed up, I got real Paralax from Green Lantern vibes. I almost laughed at the character the first time he appeared.

There were several things that did not make sense, but I can’t go into these without spoiling. One thing from the third act involving Randall Park that I just could not get past.

I also spent a lot of time watching their hair flitter in the water but nothing else happened. No bubbles from the mouth. No other things floating. I was distracted by Momoa’s hair every time he was supposed to be underwater.

This was just not very good and it sent the DCEU sputtering off into the night. Bring on James Gunn’s new DCU.

2.2 stars

2023 Expendables Awards for Acting Excellence

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It is time once again for the Expendables Awards for Acting Excellence. The awards given out to members of the massive cast for their best and worst appearances. And this year we had a new Expendable movie so we’ll see how things go.

Best movie w/Expendable: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Harrison Ford is here and, while the movie is at best fine, it is one of the best of the group of films with these actors in it. 

Best Expendable Actor: Harrison Ford for Shrinking. The Apple TV show that saw Ford as a psychiatrist. His work was really great in this series.

Worst movie with Expendables: Expend4bles. Ironic that the worst of the films this year featuring this group of actors is Expend4bles, which is easily one of the worst movies of this entire year. Even in my review of the film, I said that it would be the worst movie of the year if it had not been for Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. This was truly a terrible movie. 

The Bruce Willis Quantity Over Quality Expendables Award for Most Movies Made: Jason Statham. This year, Statham made four movies and, they were all just terrible. Expend4bles and The Meg 2 are among those four and they have a chance to be in the top 5 worst films of the year.

Best Expendable Cameo: Antonio Banderas (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny). Banderas was one of the highlights of The Dial of Destiny and I really wish he had stayed around for more in the film. Banderas has actually won Expendable Awards every year for awhile.

Best Expendable with a Giant Shark: Jason Statham. This is an award that was given out the year of The Meg, and now it has returned for this time. 

Best Expendable in Blue Makeup (or CGI face): Kelsey Grammar (The Marvels). The cool cameo in The Marvels post credit scene of Beast from the X-Men FOX universe was mind blowing and hinted at some major mutant fun. 

2023 The Avengers: Endgame Ensemble Cast of the Year

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The Avengers: Endgame Ensemble Cast of the Year Award

Previous Winners:  Avengers: Endgame (2019), The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), In the Heights (2021), Mass (2021), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

This year had a few solid ensemble casts. I generally consider an ensemble cast here as a cast without a main lead, although some of the previous winners did have lead performances too.

Runners-Up: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. A great finale for this franchise within the MCU. Everybody got their awesome final moments. Dungeons & Dragons was a surprise hit of the year, at least critically. Their group of actors worked so well together. Air was another film that did great earlier in the year. The third Poirot film with Kenneth Branagh was the best of the three, A Haunting in Venice. Saltburn had a leading performance, but the ensemble around him was part of the weird film’s strength. 

Winner: Oppenheimer

Sure, you could make an argument that Cillian Murphy is the lead of the film. I mean, it is named after his character. However, there are so many rich and complex characters populating this film that you could argue that this might be one of the best ensemble casts of all time. Oppenheimer was a huge hit and should be heard from again come Oscar time.