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.
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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)
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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
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Barbie This felt like a (much) better version of the Lego Movie, which I really didn’t like.
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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
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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
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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.
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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*
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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)*
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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)
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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.
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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!