Movies I watched in 2023
Jan. 5th, 2024 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneThe list:
12/28 Aquaman 2: The Lost Kingdom
11/24 The Marvels
11/4 Chariots of Fire (streaming rental)
9/9 Oppenheimer
The French Dispatch (DVD)
08/26 Barbie
07/25 Clerks 3 (DVD)
6/20 History of the World Part 1 (DVD)
6/17 Guardians of the Galaxy 3
5/28 Super Mario Bros Movie
2/23 The Amazing Maurice
I'm sure I watched more movies via streaming or in the theater, but this is all I logged. So this is all that I'll talk about. Movies are sorted by inverse order of when I saw them with the most recent on top.
Commentary under the count:
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023). I probably would have liked this more if we'd watched the first Aquaman movie before seeing it. I broadly remembered key people from the first movie, but there were so many specifics that I'd forgotten, like the brother. Regardless, A2TLK continued the tradition of DCU movies that just aren't living up to the potential. They have the money for the effects, but they don't have the scripts. They're just not good enough. If you'd taken this movie, and done a good enough job of cutting it up into 50 minute episodes for TV, you'd say 'Fine! It was good.' But when you're spending $40+ for two people to see it in a theater (including concessions), you want more than good, you want great. And this was not great. But you're not going to get Jason Momoa for a TV movie
The Marvels (2023). Another Marvel Cinematic Universe film that did very poorly at the box office. Various reasons have been put forth for this, amongst which was the Writers and SAG strikes prevented the actors from doing publicity work before release. Another was Disney tying a character into a Disney+ streaming show that not everyone had seen, leading to a lot of head-scratching. But one big reason was boobs. There are lots of comic geeks who can't handle women in strong leading roles. And they're missing out on good movies. Yet another reason was they could have done a better job on the script, it felt kind of three-quarters baked. Better than half-baked, but not as good as it could have been. Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) returns to save all sorts of things, she had a previous movie that was a lot of fun. She's joined by the daughter of her wing(wo)man who somehow now has superpowers and can now do odd things. Strangeness happens and a girl from a Disney+ streaming show who also has powers and majorly geeks on Carol Danvers becomes 'quantumly entangled) with the other two, leading to hijinks. Bad space aliens want to do bad things, resulting in genocide, which The Marvels must stop. Overall, it was a good movie. It's just a shame that events and decisions were made/happened to make for such a poor box office performance. Captain Marvel should be a success, but this outing makes it unlikely that she'll get another stand-alone movie. There's no doubt she'll be back appearing in Avengers movies, but that may be it. We shall see.
Chariots of Fire (1981, streaming rental). There's a heck of a story behind me watching this, and it all goes back to me “performing” music in Lord of the Rings Online. I was performing with some old friends, and one of them started playing the Theme to Blade Runner by Vangelis. And I don't know why, my brain started composing lyrics to the song. A song that has no words. My brain is a strange place. I decided that if I'm going to perform that song, with the lyrics, in the game that I ought to redo my song. And if I'm going to redo that song, I should also redo the Them to Chariots of Fire. And my brain started writing lyrics to that. ANYWAY, I had never seen CoF! So I broke down and dropped $5 to rent it. I absolutely loved this film! If you haven't seen it, it's about a group of runners (mainly) in England and Scotland competing to represent the UK in the Paris Olympic games in the 1920s, I don't remember the exact year. There's both interpersonal rivalry to get onto the team and then the international competition, particularly between the English and French, but also everyone against the upstart Americans! Wonderful film! But I would like to see the UK release which opens with a cricket match to introduce the characters rather than the train sequence that the American version starts with. Very enjoyable film, on my list to buy when I can find a good used copy, preferably with the alternate opening sequence.
Oppenheimer (2023). Another amazing film this year. Russet and I caught it in the theater, I think the last week it was here. The thing about the story of the atom bomb is we live an hour or so from the Trinity Site: I've visited it three times. I've been to the Atomic Bomb museum in Albuquerque, the Atomic Energy museum in Las Vegas, and you don't want to know how many aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons – including the B-24 that dropped the bomb that I have seen in museums and photographed. This is a story that we are well-versed in. Christopher Nolan took the story above and beyond the mere history of the development of the atomic bomb by interwieving the story of how Oppenheimer lost his nuclear security clearance through tangling with the wrong politician, masterfully played by Robert Downey Jr. The book that was the source of the movie is one that I should add to my list.
The French Dispatch (2021, DVD). In October I took Russet to Best Buy in Las Cruces to buy her a new backpack for her laptop for work. Yeah, ain't I just the biggest romantic?! There was no way that I was going to buy one for her, because guaranteed she wouldn't like what I chose. Anyway, while she was looking over minutia between two or three finalists, I went over to the DVD section to see what new stuff was out, I realized that I really needed to get copies of The French Dispatch and Asteroid City. And they had one, but not the other. And they also didn't have another movie that I was looking for which was a fairly recent release! Sigh. For some reason I was getting really frustrated, and said screw it: if they don't have most of what I'm looking for, I'm not buying any. I'll order 'em online. And I did. The French Dispatch is about Bill Murray running a little newspaper in a small town in France that has pretensions of being the next New Yorker. The film is chapter-driven, with each chapter being a story in one printing of the paper tied together in the life of the news room. I thought the film was a lot of fun, but I also recognize that it's not a film for everyone. It's a thinkie movie by Wes Anderson, and if you're not a fan of his work, then there's not much to think that this film might make you a fan, though there's always that chance. If you don't know what Anderson's work is like, you might enjoy it. He has very interesting talent for making films, and he truly made it: written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson. He has a distinct visual style that you could walk in on one of his movies not knowing what you're walking in on, watch ten minutes, and think 'Is this a Wes Anderson film?' He has a stable of actors that he regularly calls on, this film includes: Benicio Del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Timothee Chalamet, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Henry Winkler and Christoph Waltz, amond many, MANY others. It was a lot of fun.
Barbie (2023). Barbie Barbie Barbie. Did you know that there is actually a woman named Barbie Oppenheimer?! No joke! She's had a bit of fun since the two movies were released last year. Anyway, originally I had no intention of seeing this film. But the more and more PO'd “conservatives” got at this film's mere existence, the more I had to go see it and increase its already massively growing box office revenues by another ten bucks. And I am so glad that I did! I laughed so hard throughout this film! Thoroughly enjoyed it. I haven't picked up the DVD yet, but will. I thought Best Buy was charging too much for it and passed. I absolutely LOVED the 'beach moonlight serenade' scene, that had me rolling! I have got to get Russet to sit down and watch this film.
Clerks 3 (2022, DVD). I am and probably always shall be a Kevin Smith fan. When I attended San Diego ComicCon, I ALWAYS attended his panels! And he never disappointed. Somehow I failed to see this movie in the theater, I suspect it never showed here. I snagged the DVD some time ago and finally got around to watching it. In some ways, it's bittersweet, especially if you know what the original ending of the first Clerks movie was planned to be! It has a heavy dose of mortality and growing older, and has the return of much of the cast of the first movie. Jay and Silent Bob are there, of course. As fans will know, it's normal for Silent Bob to speak once in a film, and his spot in this film is BRILLIANT! Still, as I said, the film turns bittersweet but I'm still glad that I've seen it and I will watch it again. At some point, when I have an open day, I may watch all three films as a marathon. And I would like to watch the Jay and Silent Bob films again.
History of the World Part 1 (1981, DVD). grins I was feeling in the need for some Mel, IIRC I had been listening to an interview with someone who's one of the lead writers for History of the World Part 2, which I still haven't seen, and really felt a need to see it. Now, personally, HotW1 I do not consider the best of Mel's work, but that's like saying 'It's not the best of Rembrandt's work'. It's still damn good and a lot of fun.
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 (2023) . Marvel/Disney hasn't been having a lot of success with the MCU of late, but GotG3 was certainly a bright spot. While it was touted as the finale of the Guardians, I think it's sort of like the end of the Avengers: not gonna happen. They're not going to actually kill off a cash cow. There will ultimately be a Guardians 4, albeit with a slightly different cast. I'm not going to talk about the plot, because let's face it, we go to Guardians movies for the antics and interpersonal banter. The plot was perfectly serviceable and fun, stuff gets blown up, people get saved, baddies get their comeuppance.
Super Mario Bros Movie (2023). Lots of game franchises are getting turned into films, it's an easy leap that this Nintendo blockbuster would make the leap. And, in my ever so humble opinion, did a fantastic job! Very entertaining, lots of laughs. Now, in my defense, I'm lousy at console games, what I call thumb-twitchers, because my right thumb doesn't work well. But I still recognize all the major tropes and had a lot of fun. There was a lot of grief dished out over the selection of Chris Pratt voicing Mario and not doing an Italian accent. I won't get into the justification for it, but I thought it was perfectly justified within the context and very funny.
The Amazing Maurice (2022). This is an animated film based off of the Terry Pratcett book that is part of the Disc World universe in that DEATH makes an appearance. Sort of a Pied Piper story, and lots of fun. Recommended.
12/28 Aquaman 2: The Lost Kingdom
11/24 The Marvels
11/4 Chariots of Fire (streaming rental)
9/9 Oppenheimer
The French Dispatch (DVD)
08/26 Barbie
07/25 Clerks 3 (DVD)
6/20 History of the World Part 1 (DVD)
6/17 Guardians of the Galaxy 3
5/28 Super Mario Bros Movie
2/23 The Amazing Maurice
I'm sure I watched more movies via streaming or in the theater, but this is all I logged. So this is all that I'll talk about. Movies are sorted by inverse order of when I saw them with the most recent on top.
Commentary under the count:
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023). I probably would have liked this more if we'd watched the first Aquaman movie before seeing it. I broadly remembered key people from the first movie, but there were so many specifics that I'd forgotten, like the brother. Regardless, A2TLK continued the tradition of DCU movies that just aren't living up to the potential. They have the money for the effects, but they don't have the scripts. They're just not good enough. If you'd taken this movie, and done a good enough job of cutting it up into 50 minute episodes for TV, you'd say 'Fine! It was good.' But when you're spending $40+ for two people to see it in a theater (including concessions), you want more than good, you want great. And this was not great. But you're not going to get Jason Momoa for a TV movie
The Marvels (2023). Another Marvel Cinematic Universe film that did very poorly at the box office. Various reasons have been put forth for this, amongst which was the Writers and SAG strikes prevented the actors from doing publicity work before release. Another was Disney tying a character into a Disney+ streaming show that not everyone had seen, leading to a lot of head-scratching. But one big reason was boobs. There are lots of comic geeks who can't handle women in strong leading roles. And they're missing out on good movies. Yet another reason was they could have done a better job on the script, it felt kind of three-quarters baked. Better than half-baked, but not as good as it could have been. Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) returns to save all sorts of things, she had a previous movie that was a lot of fun. She's joined by the daughter of her wing(wo)man who somehow now has superpowers and can now do odd things. Strangeness happens and a girl from a Disney+ streaming show who also has powers and majorly geeks on Carol Danvers becomes 'quantumly entangled) with the other two, leading to hijinks. Bad space aliens want to do bad things, resulting in genocide, which The Marvels must stop. Overall, it was a good movie. It's just a shame that events and decisions were made/happened to make for such a poor box office performance. Captain Marvel should be a success, but this outing makes it unlikely that she'll get another stand-alone movie. There's no doubt she'll be back appearing in Avengers movies, but that may be it. We shall see.
Chariots of Fire (1981, streaming rental). There's a heck of a story behind me watching this, and it all goes back to me “performing” music in Lord of the Rings Online. I was performing with some old friends, and one of them started playing the Theme to Blade Runner by Vangelis. And I don't know why, my brain started composing lyrics to the song. A song that has no words. My brain is a strange place. I decided that if I'm going to perform that song, with the lyrics, in the game that I ought to redo my song. And if I'm going to redo that song, I should also redo the Them to Chariots of Fire. And my brain started writing lyrics to that. ANYWAY, I had never seen CoF! So I broke down and dropped $5 to rent it. I absolutely loved this film! If you haven't seen it, it's about a group of runners (mainly) in England and Scotland competing to represent the UK in the Paris Olympic games in the 1920s, I don't remember the exact year. There's both interpersonal rivalry to get onto the team and then the international competition, particularly between the English and French, but also everyone against the upstart Americans! Wonderful film! But I would like to see the UK release which opens with a cricket match to introduce the characters rather than the train sequence that the American version starts with. Very enjoyable film, on my list to buy when I can find a good used copy, preferably with the alternate opening sequence.
Oppenheimer (2023). Another amazing film this year. Russet and I caught it in the theater, I think the last week it was here. The thing about the story of the atom bomb is we live an hour or so from the Trinity Site: I've visited it three times. I've been to the Atomic Bomb museum in Albuquerque, the Atomic Energy museum in Las Vegas, and you don't want to know how many aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons – including the B-24 that dropped the bomb that I have seen in museums and photographed. This is a story that we are well-versed in. Christopher Nolan took the story above and beyond the mere history of the development of the atomic bomb by interwieving the story of how Oppenheimer lost his nuclear security clearance through tangling with the wrong politician, masterfully played by Robert Downey Jr. The book that was the source of the movie is one that I should add to my list.
The French Dispatch (2021, DVD). In October I took Russet to Best Buy in Las Cruces to buy her a new backpack for her laptop for work. Yeah, ain't I just the biggest romantic?! There was no way that I was going to buy one for her, because guaranteed she wouldn't like what I chose. Anyway, while she was looking over minutia between two or three finalists, I went over to the DVD section to see what new stuff was out, I realized that I really needed to get copies of The French Dispatch and Asteroid City. And they had one, but not the other. And they also didn't have another movie that I was looking for which was a fairly recent release! Sigh. For some reason I was getting really frustrated, and said screw it: if they don't have most of what I'm looking for, I'm not buying any. I'll order 'em online. And I did. The French Dispatch is about Bill Murray running a little newspaper in a small town in France that has pretensions of being the next New Yorker. The film is chapter-driven, with each chapter being a story in one printing of the paper tied together in the life of the news room. I thought the film was a lot of fun, but I also recognize that it's not a film for everyone. It's a thinkie movie by Wes Anderson, and if you're not a fan of his work, then there's not much to think that this film might make you a fan, though there's always that chance. If you don't know what Anderson's work is like, you might enjoy it. He has very interesting talent for making films, and he truly made it: written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson. He has a distinct visual style that you could walk in on one of his movies not knowing what you're walking in on, watch ten minutes, and think 'Is this a Wes Anderson film?' He has a stable of actors that he regularly calls on, this film includes: Benicio Del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Timothee Chalamet, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Henry Winkler and Christoph Waltz, amond many, MANY others. It was a lot of fun.
Barbie (2023). Barbie Barbie Barbie. Did you know that there is actually a woman named Barbie Oppenheimer?! No joke! She's had a bit of fun since the two movies were released last year. Anyway, originally I had no intention of seeing this film. But the more and more PO'd “conservatives” got at this film's mere existence, the more I had to go see it and increase its already massively growing box office revenues by another ten bucks. And I am so glad that I did! I laughed so hard throughout this film! Thoroughly enjoyed it. I haven't picked up the DVD yet, but will. I thought Best Buy was charging too much for it and passed. I absolutely LOVED the 'beach moonlight serenade' scene, that had me rolling! I have got to get Russet to sit down and watch this film.
Clerks 3 (2022, DVD). I am and probably always shall be a Kevin Smith fan. When I attended San Diego ComicCon, I ALWAYS attended his panels! And he never disappointed. Somehow I failed to see this movie in the theater, I suspect it never showed here. I snagged the DVD some time ago and finally got around to watching it. In some ways, it's bittersweet, especially if you know what the original ending of the first Clerks movie was planned to be! It has a heavy dose of mortality and growing older, and has the return of much of the cast of the first movie. Jay and Silent Bob are there, of course. As fans will know, it's normal for Silent Bob to speak once in a film, and his spot in this film is BRILLIANT! Still, as I said, the film turns bittersweet but I'm still glad that I've seen it and I will watch it again. At some point, when I have an open day, I may watch all three films as a marathon. And I would like to watch the Jay and Silent Bob films again.
History of the World Part 1 (1981, DVD). grins I was feeling in the need for some Mel, IIRC I had been listening to an interview with someone who's one of the lead writers for History of the World Part 2, which I still haven't seen, and really felt a need to see it. Now, personally, HotW1 I do not consider the best of Mel's work, but that's like saying 'It's not the best of Rembrandt's work'. It's still damn good and a lot of fun.
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 (2023) . Marvel/Disney hasn't been having a lot of success with the MCU of late, but GotG3 was certainly a bright spot. While it was touted as the finale of the Guardians, I think it's sort of like the end of the Avengers: not gonna happen. They're not going to actually kill off a cash cow. There will ultimately be a Guardians 4, albeit with a slightly different cast. I'm not going to talk about the plot, because let's face it, we go to Guardians movies for the antics and interpersonal banter. The plot was perfectly serviceable and fun, stuff gets blown up, people get saved, baddies get their comeuppance.
Super Mario Bros Movie (2023). Lots of game franchises are getting turned into films, it's an easy leap that this Nintendo blockbuster would make the leap. And, in my ever so humble opinion, did a fantastic job! Very entertaining, lots of laughs. Now, in my defense, I'm lousy at console games, what I call thumb-twitchers, because my right thumb doesn't work well. But I still recognize all the major tropes and had a lot of fun. There was a lot of grief dished out over the selection of Chris Pratt voicing Mario and not doing an Italian accent. I won't get into the justification for it, but I thought it was perfectly justified within the context and very funny.
The Amazing Maurice (2022). This is an animated film based off of the Terry Pratcett book that is part of the Disc World universe in that DEATH makes an appearance. Sort of a Pied Piper story, and lots of fun. Recommended.
