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2023 Recap: Movies

My goal in 2023 was to watch 30 movies, and near as I can tell, I’ve done it. It’s slightly tricky because I watched one movie twice, and watched a couple of films I’d seen before (marked below with a *), but the year’s not over yet, and I’m calling it a win.

Below is the list of movies I’ve seen this year, very roughly sorted by how much I enjoyed them (least favorite at the top, favorite at the bottom). Commentary included for select movies.

  • Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me The first was fun and fresh, and stood alone. This threw out everything the first movie did and was more reliant on references and gross-out humor.

  • The Darjeeling Limited
  • The Name of the Rose (1986)
  • Banshees of Inisherin
  • Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011)
  • Babylon 5: The Gathering* I’d seen this before, and while I love the worldbuilding, the acting is not excellent!

  • The Old Man and the Gun
  • Rise of the Guardians
  • Clone Wars (2008)
  • The Bourne Ultimatum
  • Muppet Treasure Island
  • Barbie This felt like a (much) better version of the Lego Movie, which I really didn’t like.

  • Venom Similar to Sonic the Hedgehog, I’d heard this movie was terrible and had low expectations. It was remarkably fine, and I enjoyed it more than I expected to!

  • Guardians of the Galaxy 3
  • Black Widow This was another film I’d heard was bad, but really enjoyed. The first two acts were a legitimately exciting spy thriller, and I wish they’d had the guts to make a spy thriller that happened to feature super heroes. Still enjoyable!

  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2
  • The Woman in Black (2012)
  • Jingle all the way
  • Clueless
  • The French Dispatch
  • Kiss Kiss Bang Bang* I used to consider this among my favorite movies, but something about this rewatch didn’t quite click for me as much.

  • Everything Everywhere All At Once I had the opposite of the Sonic problem with this one —— I’d heard from so many people that it was amazing, I had slightly too high of expectations.

  • Tick, Tick… BOOM!
  • The Muppet Christmas Carol*
  • Sonic the Hedgehog I heard this film was bad, and went in expecting a 5/10. It was a solid 7, and I commend that.

  • Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
  • 12 Angry Men (1957)*
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem A fresh take on the ‘turds’ (as my mom insists on calling them), emphasizing how teenage they truly are. My wife isn’t a Turtles fan and she loved this one. I am, and so did I.

  • Double Indemnity
  • Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (x2)
  • Good Will Hunting I was gifted this film on VHS over a decade ago and never watched it. I’m not sure I would have liked it as much then. Watching it now, I cried at least twice. Excellent movie.

  • Bad Times at the El Royale I’d never heard of this, but am a fan of Drew Goddard (Cabin the Woods, Buffy). It was a really fun film!

  • The Grand Budapest Hotel My first Wes Anderson film, and so completely unlike any other movie I’ve ever seen. What a fun ride, start to finish!
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