Favorite Movies of 2023

I hope nobody partied too hard last night, because those hangovers are a bitch.  While I should’ve done this a couple of days ago when it was still 2023, now’s a good as time as any to go over my favorite movies of 2023.  Usually, I would do a best and worst list for the year, but 2023 was just really weird.  We had all these big-budget blockbusters that fell on their faces, and some controversial movies that ended up being more successful than I would’ve thought.  Between the high-profile failures and the strikes, 2023 was a year that felt like it was just…drunk.  Because of how 2023 ended up, I’ve decided I’m just going to go over my favorite movies of the year.  Some of them aren’t the most widely received movies and some are widely accepted, but this is my list, so not everybody is going to agree with it.  Let’s get right into it, shall we?

The Last Voyage of the Demeter – Universal Studios

This is a movie that should’ve done better than it did, but thanks to Universal Studios and their awful marketing, The Last Voyage of the Demeter never stood a chance.  It bombed at the box office, but this is an outstanding thriller.  Yeah, it deals with Dracula, but what makes this movie special is that it takes place on the open ocean where the sailors are completely isolated.  It has a very Alien-ish vibe throughout.  If you’ve read Bram Stoker’s novel or seen any of the other adaptations, you know what happens here.  Still, it was handled quite well, and it was just a lot of fun.  I absolutely recommend it.

Barbie – Warner Bros.

If I’m being honest, I had no real expectations for this movie.  Whatsoever.  Yet, I found myself enjoying this movie immensely.  It’s funny, it’s visually interesting, and the writing is really sharp, even if it is heavy-handed.  But the performances from Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling just elevate the movie to a whole different level.  It’s a surprisingly heart-felt movie that never fails to entertain.  Unfortunately, Mattel seemed to take the wrong lesson from this movie and want to create a cinematic universe.  Did they not pay attention to how they were skewered in the move for having those kinds of thoughts?  Still, it’s one of the funniest and earnest movies I’ve seen in the last 5 years.  It’s absolutely a must-see.  This is one half of a unique trend that happened last year.  The second half of this is:

Oppenheimer – Universal Studios

Barbenheimer was the most unexpected thing to happen last year.  July 21, 2023 saw the release of BOTH Barbie and Oppenheimer.  One movie should’ve failed outright in the shadow of the other, but they didn’t.  The success of Barbie actually helped Oppenheimer to succeed.  While Barbie was a comedy, Oppenheimer was a dark biopic about the father of the atomic bomb: J. Robert Oppenheimer.  Played to perfection by Cillian Murphy, the film follows Oppenheimer as tackles perhaps the most important job of the 20th century.  Supported by an outstanding cast that includes Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, Robert Downey, Jr., and Josh Hartnett, Oppenheimer is a powerful, yet thrilling look into the life of the famous physicist and the aftermath of the invention of the bomb.

Godzilla: Minus One – Toho Entertainment

I’ve been a Godzilla fan since I was a kid.  I loved all the 60s and 70s Godzilla movies, even if they were really goofy.  I finally got around to seeing the original 1954 film a couple of years back, and I was shocked at how serious the film was and how little Godzilla was in it.  It was a movie about people coming to grips with the consequences of nuclear power, and the monster was the physical embodiment of that power.  Minus One also takes a serious approach.  G-man is not the hero or anti-hero.  He’s the main problem.  The movie is set a year and a half after the end of World War II, so Japan was already picking up the pieces when Godzilla strikes.  While there’s awesome action in this movie, it’s more about the people of Japan coming together to fight a common problem, and they do it without the assistance of a government that is broken and uncaring.  The acting is great and the visuals are amazing.  For a movie that was made for less than 15 million dollars, it looks a hell of a lot better than most of the crap that was released by the west last year.  If you are a fan of Godzilla, you owe it yourself to see this movie if you can find it.  It’ll hit home video in the next couple of months for sure, but it’s best on the big screen.

Evil Dead Rise – Warner Bros./New Line Cinema

The Evil Dead franchise holds a special place in my heart.  It’s one of those franchises that always delivers.  Maybe not in the video game arena, but in terms of film and TV.  I’ve never thought that there was a bad movie in the franchise at all.  The weakest one, Army of Darkness, is probably the silliest and most quotable of the bunch.  The original is a masterclass in guerilla-style film-making, while Evil Dead II is an amazing sequel.  The 2013 remake is one of the best remakes I’ve ever seen.  Evil Dead Rise isn’t the greatest of the bunch, but it’s still a really good chiller.  It’s gory, insane, and absolutely worthy of the Evil Dead name.  It takes the action out of the woods and sets in a soon-to-be-demolished high-rise apartment building.  It’s wild.  I just wish the home video release had special features(apparently the 4K release has a commentary, but that’s it).

Dungeons And Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Trying to make a movie based on a famed IP such as Dungeons and Dragons has always resulted in movies that mostly suck.  I fully admit, I enjoy the original 2000 film with Jeremy Irons.  It’s bad, but it’s hilariously so.  The DTV sequels?  Oy vey.  So, when it was announced that a new movie was coming in 2023, nobody was excited, despite the great cast.  Because of the earlier films, Honor Among Thieves tanked at the box office.  It’s a shame, really, because this is a really good fantasy film.  You don’t even need to know what the IP is to enjoy it.  If you know, it’s better, but it doesn’t leave people in the dust about what the world is all about.  It’s fun, funny, and exciting with a really good story.  Chris Pine is great, and so is Michelle Rodriguez and Hugh Grant.  This was a movie that should’ve done better.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie – Illumination

The general rule of thumb when it comes to movies based on video game properties is that they generally suck.  It’s been that way since the 1993 Mario movie.  But every once in a while, something comes along that ain’t too shabby.  Mortal Kombat was one…and that’s really about it.  Well, Illumination’s new Mario movie is Nintendo’s second foray into the business and its fantastic.  Instead of live-action, we got an animated film courtesy of Illumination, and it really does stick to the spirit of the original games while throwing in a lot of fan service.  You don’t need to be a hardcore fan of the franchise to appreciate the movie, but you get more out of it if you’ve played the games, and I have.  The voice acting’s pretty good overall, even from Seth Rogan, who plays Donkey Kong, and Anya Taylor-Joy who voices Princess Peach.  But it’s Jack Black as Bowser that steals the show entirely.  I’m not a fan of Jack Black, but he absolutely nails it here, especially when he starts singing about Princess Peach.  It’s so much fun.

The Pope’s Exorcist – Sony Pictures

There was another movie about exorcism that was release last year: The Exorcist: Believer.  While I fully admit that I enjoyed that movie to certain extent, it failed to live up to the impact that the original film had 50 years ago.  The OTHER exorcist movie last year was The Pope’s Exorcist and this was by far the more entertaining with Russell Crowe playing Father Amorth, an actual priest that was the main exorcist in the Catholic church for decades.  Crowe’s clearly having a blast with this movie, and it’s a very spirited film(see what I did there?).  It’s intense, it has a sense of humor, and it has more in common with William Friedkin’s film from 1973 than the new Exorcist film.  Who would’ve thought?

The Creator – 2oth Century Studios

Good science fiction is surprisingly hard to come by these days, especially if you want something truly original.  While The Creator clearly borrows from other movies, the way it’s been put together is incredibly original.  John David Washington puts in an amazing performance, but it’s the kid that steals the show.  Not bad for a first movie.  But from a visual standpoint, this movie is stunning.  It looks like Gareth Edwards spent 158 million on the movie, but it only cost about 85 million.  Granted, it still didn’t do well, because people didn’t go see it.  Let this be a lesson for people who claim they want original, but refuse to see originality.  You can’t have it both ways.  This is one of the more compelling movies of the year, and while it isn’t perfect, it definitely swings for the fences.  It’s really good.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part 1

I’m a huge fan of the Mission Impossible movies.  The last few movies in the franchise have been absolutely bonkers, but that’s because Tom Cruise loves doing his own stunts.  He ups the ante with each movie.  Story-wise, this one tackles AI, but not in the same way that The Creator does.  Also, this is one movie that I forgot to put on my Recent Blu-Ray Hauls last year.  Ultimately, it’s the characters that make this work.  I’ll be honest, it’s generally not Tom Cruise’s character that I find interesting anymore.  It’s the side characters played by Haley Atwell, Esai Morales, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Vanessa Kirby, and Henry Czerny.  This is one of the most action-packed movies of the year, and it doesn’t slow down.

I know that a lot of folks would’ve put movies like John Wick Chapter 4 on the list, but I’ll be truthful, it’s too much.  It’s almost three hours of straight action.  Great action, mind you, but it doesn’t leave the audience time to breathe before amping it up.  It’s too long.  Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was also too long.  Again, I enjoyed, but it could’ve benefited from a few more cuts here and there.  Scream VI was also pretty good, but the controversy surrounding the main actresses and now the director that ended up leaving the project, I don’t see a path forward for the franchise outside of a reboot, which is what they have in mind.  Also, Sound of Freedom is a movie that while I enjoyed, is another controversial film for a huge number of reason that I won’t go into again.  I’ve made several posts about it, so you can read those.  Just click on the News and Opinions tab.  There’s still stuff that I haven’t seen like Napoleon.  I’ll probably ended up checking that one out on streaming when it hits.

2023 had its moments, but the overall year has been disappointing.  Movies that I wanted to see like Dune: Part II get pushed until 2024 while others have been canned outright.  It hasn’t been a great year for movies in my opinion, aside from the movies that I just mentioned in my list here.  2024’s got some real bangers coming our way, so I can’t wait.  Hopefully, it’ll be a better year.