Movie Mike’s Top 10 Favorite Movies of 2023 + Worst 10 Movies of the Year + 10 Honorable Mentions You Should Watch

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's Movie Podcast. I am your host Movie Mike and also welcome to twenty twenty four, the first brand new episode of the year. And you know what that means. I'm gonna share with you my top ten favorite films of twenty twenty three now that the year is over. It's the hardest time I've ever had making a top ten list. And We're also going to break the format of a traditional episode because I'm just gonna give you my top ten everything from this year. I'll give you my top ten worst movies and my top ten honorable mentions that you should also watch from twenty twenty three. So thank you for being subscribed, thank you for being here for another year of the podcast. Thank you for telling a friend shout out to the Monday Morning movie crew. He Now, let's talk movies.

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Speaker 2: In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never before in a movie podcast. A man with so much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking IMTV with glasses from the Nashville Podcast Network.

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Speaker 1: This is Movie Mikes Movie POPA. All right, we're breaking the format. We'll still have our topic, but we won't do a traditional movie review or trailer park because I got three big lists I want to share with you. But let's get into first my favorite films of twenty twenty three and the criteria of which I rank these. A great contribution to why they make my top ten is strictly just entertainment value. How much fun and how much enjoyment did I get by watching these movies in theaters. On top of that, I also have to factor in the impact that these movies had on cinema, because that's important to me, not just a great movie that you go and experience, but also one that's going to live on for the next five ten, maybe even a lifetime of movie watching. And kind of along those same lines is rewatchability. How often will I go back and revisit these films. It's not necessary for every single movie. Sometimes movies are like a roller coaster. You're right at once and then it's like, all right, I enjoyed that, but I don't need to see it again. But from movies that border the line of classic, it has to have that rewatchability. Will also factor in the score that I gave all of these movies, and then we'll get into some box office and budget numbers, and also just how did these movies make me feel like as far as the emotions that it poured out of me. That is probably my biggest factor going into reviewing movies, because I don't always focus on the traditional things that critics do all that, you know, the flashy things, the things that would make me sound like a legit cool film critic. I don't call myself that. I am just a guy who loves movies. So at the end of the day, it's what these movies made me feel and what emotions I think you will get out of them if you choose to watch these. So let's get into the list. At number ten, I have Killers of the Flower Moon, which I give a four out of five. The movie cost two hundred million dollars to make and as of now, has only made one hundred and fifty four million dollars at the box office. It is an Apple original film from legendary director Martin Scorsese, and for that reason alone is why this movie was one of my most anticipated movies of the year. Didn't quite live up to all the expectations I had for it. I honestly thought a Scorsese movie with de Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio would be in my top five. So this movie was great, I don't deny that, but it could have been perfect. I think also the three and a half hour runtime really pushed it down in my rating system because it is hard to recommend a three and a half hour movie it feels like such an investment. But going to see this movie in theaters, I really truly believe that it warranted that runtime. I thought it was gonna be so hard to sit there for that amount of time, But honestly, it went by pretty quick because the storytelling was so compelling. So it was a great movie, but it could have been perfect. That's why I put it at number ten. At number nine is a comedy that I said is one of the best in five years. It is called Bottoms. I give it a four point five out of five. Is from Oreon Studios. The movie cost eleven point three million dollars to make and went on to earn twelve point eight million at the box office, so a little bit of a profit there for a smaller film. The movie is about two unpopular high school students who start a fight club in order to hook up with other people in high school. And the reason I wanted to include this movie on my list and made sure that it made my top ten one because it's the most fun I had at the movies. I watched it in a pack theater where everybody was just there to have a good time, and that is what a great comedy movie does. But also a criticism I see a lot of film right now is that there aren't any original movies that aren't a sequel or associated with some type of property. And this is a completely original movie. So I want to say here it is. It's right here to all those saying that there hasn't been a great comedy since the two thousands or twenty tens. One came out this year, but you look at the box office and it doesn't represent what I think that it should. But obviously with a lower budget, it didn't have the marketing. It also came out during the strike, so I feel even more so it went a little bit unnoticed. So I just want to stream that there are great original movies being made, and not only that, really fun unique stories, and I would put this movie up there with the super Bads, the forty year old versions the Wedding Crashers. We need to be focusing more on movies like this because we're all going to be referencing movies that are twenty plus years old that kids today don't get. So if you haven't seen Bottoms yet, I highly highly recommend it, obviously because it's in my top ten list of the year. So at number nine on my list is Bottoms. Moving on to number eight, I went with Past Lives from Studio A twenty four. I gave it a four out of five rating. The movie costs a mere twelve million dollars to make and is made over twenty one million dollars at the box office. The story is really simple. It's about two childhood friends. One is a male, one is a female, and the female Nora, moves from South Korea where they grew up to the United States and they reconnect decades later and go on to spend a week together. But the entire movie is their journey throughout their friendship, and it's a story that just pulls at your heartstrings almost unexpectedly, like there was a moment in this movie that made me cry, which I'm going to reference every movie on this list that made me cry. So we have the first entry here, and the real reason that this movie made it on my list is because it made me believe in filmmaking again. What you have here is just a great screenplay, perfectly executed with direction and great acting, and also just to look and feel of this movie just feels like a warm hug when you need a friend on a fall day. That is what this movie is. And it also just brings all these emotions out of you when it comes to love and friendship and destiny. And it did it all well in one hour and forty six minutes, So that is a feat within its own. So at number eight, I have past lives. Moving on now to number seven, I have The Iron Claw, one of the latest entries on this list, also coming to us from a twenty four. I give it a four point five out of five rating. The movie cost sixteen million dollars to make and as of now has only made eleven million dollars, but it's only been in theaters for a couple of weeks. And I will admit, as much as I loved wrestling as a kid, I grew up in the Attitude era, which was the late nineties early two thousands, and I learned a lot about history, but it was a lot just rooted in those characters. So the Rock and Stone Cold and Mankind, Triple Age DX, all of those types of wrestlers were my favorite. I went back and learned about Andre the Giant Hogan, early Undertaker. But as much as I loved wrestling, and at one point in my life I even wanted to grow up to be a professional wrestler, I was not that familiar with the von Eric brothers, and even the fact that I grew up in Wakstatchie, Texas, which is so close to where they grew up, and they were based in Dallas, so I was just unfamiliar with their story. But maybe that is why this movie was also so much more impactful, because I didn't know anything going into it. But the movie is about the Vaughan Eric brothers of course, and the relationship with their dad and the family curse where a lot of awful things happened to them, and it all revolves really around wrestling and the strict nature of their dad. The acting in this movie was great. The actual wrestling part of it wasn't even the main focus of it. It was all the behind the scenes stuff, and it's a movie that you don't feel good after watching it, but it made me cry. Well, add another one to the list. This movie made me cry, and it really wasn't until almost the very end where it got me, because even as all of these really sad things are happening, it never really like pick that scab for me. But then once this one line hit, I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm gonna lose it. So I think I want to give this movie a full proper movie review like I do normally because of all the things I want to dive into. But this wouldn't be a complete list if I did not include this movie because I loved it so much. So at number seven I have the Iron Claw. At number six, I'm going with The One and Only Blue Beetle, which I gave a four point five out of five rating. Comes to us from DC slash Warner Brothers. The movie cost one hundred and four million dollars to make and only made about one hundred and thirty million dollars at the box office, So on paper, yeah, yeah, probably call this movie a bit of a flop. Usually could be considered a success. The movie has to make about twice to three times its budget. But just because a movie flops at the box office as far as the numbers does not mean it's a bad movie. And I will scream this movie's praises until my voice is hoarse and there's blood coming out of my mouth because I enjoyed this movie so much and what the movie represented. It's about Haimi Reus, who was chosen by an alien scare up to be the Blue Beetle and he just graduated college. He goes back home and finds his family a little bit in shambles, at the risk of losing their business, at the risk of losing their house, and he feels guilty because he's been over here at college and didn't know what was going on. And then one day he becomes a superhero turns his entire world upside down and he has to take out this big super evil villain powered by this big evil corporation. And they keep telling him that the thing that is making him weak is his love for his family. But it's his love for his family that makes him strong. And it was this big movie that just centered around that theme a family, more so than Fast X, which also came out earlier this year. But I think that is really what I identified with because I am Mexican and the Mexican culture, family is so important and I had not seen that represented in a film like this. So aside from just all the Mexican references and music, it was just that bond with his mom and his dad and his grandma and his brother and his uncle. That was just really what I needed to see on the big screen. But aside from that connection that I felt with his family and the character Heim, I just thought it was a really entertaining movie and just got to the action. And with all the DC movie that came out this year with really subpar visual effects, this one looked really great. The transformation scene where Jima first turns into the Blue Beetle looked fantastic. It almost looked like a horror movie. So I feel like this movie made some advancements in what DC has been putting out. And I'm probably make an excuse here, but it did come out during the strike. They didn't really get to go and do the circuit to promote the movie. And it's also hard to sell a character that is not truly wide known. So I honestly do think that also heard it a bit. And the movie also made me cry, not once, but twice, because I saw this movie twice in theaters because I had to go take my mom to go see it, and she ended up loving it too, and she does not like superhero movies, so I didn't expect it to make me cry that second time. But hey, here I am, so if you haven't seen it yet, give me a chance. It's on Max. And at number six is Blue Beetle. At number five, we're going back earlier in the year, which sometimes it's hard to go back and remember how much of an impact these early movies had on me. But at number five is Air, which I gave a four point five at a five rating. Comes to us from Amazon. It costs about seventy to ninety million dollars to make. I would probably assume it was on the higher end of costing ninety million dollars, and it made ninety million dollars at the box office. But originally this movie wasn't supposed to come out in theaters. It was just gonna be an Amazon Prime original, which to me, it's still weird to say that the same place you get your boxes, the tee and Tube Socks from is also putting out movies. I feel like we should feel weirder about that that Amazon is just in every aspect of our lives. It's on our doorbell cameras, it's in the theater, it's everywhere. So we should be concerned about that. But back to the movie Air. It follows the story of Sonny Vaccaro, who was a sports marketing executive at Nike, and it's a rare movie where it has you rooting for a big corporation because at the time when this happened, Nike wasn't what it was then what it is now. It was a struggling company really just known for their running shoes. But the big dog back at this time was Converse when it came to basketball shoes. So the movie focuses on them trying to court a legend, as they say, and get Michael Jordan to sign with Nike out of college and create what went on to be one of the most iconic shoes of all time, if not the most iconic sneaker ever made. But the reason I love this movie is because you look at it on paper and think, oh, they made a movie about Nike, which sounds like it wouldn't be that great, but it's so compelling, and the writing is so great in this movie, and it really just focuses on Sunny Vaccaro and his determination to make this work and go after one of the greats and change this company. So the movie does drama so well, had this great pacing, but also had these moments of comedy, which I highly attribute to Chris Tucker, whose character was fantastic. But I would say for about two weeks, I was just consumed in this movie after watching it, and I had to go back and watch the Last Dance. I was all into recent searching how accurate the movie was, which it was fairly accurate for the most part. So I love it when movies are able to do that and just completely consume me for an amount of time. That is the sign of a great movie. So at number five, I have Air. At number four, I'm already hearing the comments here this is gonna be controversial, But I have Barbenheimer, which is Barbie and Oppenheimer put together. And you're probably saying, but that's two movies. You're cheating. Well, it's my show. I'm just kidding. But honestly, the reason I decided to group these movies together is because they came out on the same day, and Barbenheimer felt like an event to me, an event that the film industry needed, because you have Christopher Nolan on one side, you have Greta Gerwick on the other side, and two of the most important films of the year probably should have had a different release date, but they didn't shift them. They put them out on the same weekend. And what ended up happening was creating this moment where the two films were Even if you look at them, they don't feel like polar opposites, but when you put them right next to each other, it's like, oh, Barbie is so bright and pink, and it's about her having an existential crisis and has this big message and musical numbers, which we had to return to musicals this year. And then on the other hand, you have a really dark story with a legendary director with an amazing ensemble cast that just by contrast it feels more emo and dark and emotional and more dramatic. And then you put those movies out on the same weekend, and it was the only time this year where I felt electricity in the lobby of the movies and showings were completely sold out, and people went dressed in pink that were going to watch Barbie, so you knew all they're here for Barbie. I went an all black to watch Oppenheimer because it felt like the right thing to do, So for that reason, Barbie and Oppenheimer will always exist in my mind as one weekend, as one event. And I love these movies both separately, and I gave them both a five out of five. And I also think that buzz around them highly contributed to it. Also, I saw Oppenheimer in the highest quality possible in iMac seventy millimeter, which made it look fantastic. And then you also have two of the highest grossing movies of the year. Barbie cost one hundred and forty five million dollars to make and went on to make one point four billion dollars at the box office. Oh my gosh, the highest grossing movie of the year. Oppenheimer cost one hundred million dollars to make and went on to make nine hundred and fifty two million dollars at the box office almost a billion. So two movies that on paper look like competitors both crushed it at the box office. Which proved that it doesn't matter when you put out a movie like this, as long as it's great and people are talking about it, they're gonna go see it. So at number four I have Barbenheimer. At number three, I went with Across the Spider Verse, which comes to us from Sony and Marvel. I gave this movie a four point five. At a five, it cost one hundred million dollars to make, which is surprising for how long they spent making this movie because the animation process takes forever. But the box office numbers show US six hundred and ninety million dollars, which is amazing. And essentially it is the continuation from into the Spider Verse of Miles Morales a little bit more grown up, and in this one he encounters a team of Spider People. They have this new threat called the Spot, and the tension comes from how to deal with this threat, which one side of the Spider People see it one way and Miles Morales sees it a bit differently. And it's one of the most defining moments in any Spider Man movie that has ever been made. And I think that decision and that change in the character is really what stick out to me in this movie and really impacted me. But it was also just the animation style of this movie that it left no thing on the table. It opens up so bright with Gwen and the feeling of it at the start of the movie, and then quickly shifts and then takes you back into the world of Miles Morales. But it also showed what a true multiverse is supposed to be like, and I think animation just really illustrates it so much better because all the different worlds had a different animation style. I think the Lego scene was probably my favorite, and the story behind that of it was just a kid who was posting videos on YouTube of him creating scenes with Spider Man in legos led the filmmakers to finding him and putting his scene into the movie. But even just the character design, it made me fall in love with a new, different version of the Spider Man, like Spider Man twenty ninety nine. And yes, I'm a bit biased because Spider Man is my favorite superhero of all time and you think it probably should have been my number one, but the movie is split into two. But out of any movie on this list, if there was only one that I could go back and have my mind erased and watch it again for the first time. It would be this one. And it's probably also the one I've rewatched the most. I've seen it probably four times now, so it has great rewatchability, which really all Spider Man movies for me are movies I continue to revisit at least once or twice a year. I just spent this whole break rewatching all the Tom Holland Spider Man so it just falls into that category for me. So at number three, I have across the Spider Verse. At number two, I'm going with the end of the trilogy, Guardians of the Galaxy three, which came to us from Marvel's Studios. I'm director James Gunn I gave it at five. At a five, the movie costs two hundred and fifty million dollars to make and went on to crack the box office numbers of eight hundred and forty five million dollars, just missing out on that billion dollar mark for Disney, who did not have a billion dollar movie this year. But the movie centers around the Guardians of the Galaxy trying to save their friend Rocket, and it really is the entire Rocket origin story that I was not expecting to be so emotional, and this movie really has a completely different tone from Part one and Part two, which I feel is one of the best trilogies in sci fi of all time, because this entire trilogy really told a story and you saw so much growth in all of these characters. And Guardian three focuses again so much on Rocket and the transformation he has had from being so ruthless early on and not caring about anyone to being this fully rounded out character that you have this attachment with which is outstanding that I could feel so much for a fictional character that isn't even portrayed on screen by a human. It is just special effects met with the incredible voice acting of Bradley Cooper, who really took it to the next level on this one. And there's a moment in this movie where Rocket screams and you hear this emotion in Bradley Cooper's voice that just gutted me. So add another one to the list of movies that made me cry this year. But it was such a perfect movie and such a perfect movie going experience, and it's a movie like some of the other ones on this list that I thought about for weeks and weeks after watching it, I would say, out of all the movies on this list, this is the one that consumed me the most. That after I watched it, I read every review, listen to other podcasts talking about this movie because I could not get enough of it, and that rarely happens. And not only was it centered around Rocket and his origin story, but also Peter Quill dealing with the loss of Gomorrah and their love story. And visually, this movie just looked amazing. The soundtrack was magnificent, and it really felt like a truly unique Marvel movie that we just don't have anymore. And this year Marvel was criticized so much about, you know, being in its flop era, but I feel like people left this movie out of the conversation, probably because it feels it's so different than everything in the MCU that oh yeah, forgot. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three that was really good. And also, like what I was saying about the Spider Man movies, the Guardians movies are now movies that I have to rewatch at least once a year, because when this one came out, I had to go back watch one and two and I've rewatched part three now for the third time, so it is up there on having some great rewatchability. It also crushed it at the box office, and I think it should and I hope that other directors take a little bit from this trilogy of how to truly tell a story and how to truly take the viewers on a journey with characters. James Gunn nailed it with this trilogy. So at number two I have Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three, and now we have made it to number one. My favorite movie of twenty twenty three is a movie that came out in December. I was not expecting to love this movie as much as I did, and out of every movie on this list, had the most impact on me of just feeling like I am watching something so amazing here that I think everybody needs to see it. The movie is Godzilla minus one, which I gave a five at a five rating. Comes to us from the studio Toho. The movie costs less than ten million dollars to make. Yes, the directors and producers came out saying that, oh that ten million dollars that was reported. It was even less than that, but as of now has made over seventy eight million dollars at the global box office. The movie takes place in a post World War two Japan that the country thought it couldn't reach a lower point after World War Two, and then Godzilla comes around. So that is why it's called Godzilla minus one because they are at ground zero, but now Godzilla takes them a step below that, so it's Godzilla minus one. But this movie had so much emotion, which is truly lacking from the Godzilla films. And I've been enjoying the Monster Verse and you know, Godzilla versus Kong that has really reignited my love for Godzilla. But this one made those movies look so terrible, look like straight hot garbage, because it took the character of Godzilla that has over thirty installments in the franchise and made something so completely fresh and new because it added this human element to it that even if you took away Godzilla added this movie and just told the story of our main character here, that would be a great story on its own. But then you add in Godzilla, who is the best he has ever been in this movie as far as how he looks, how he acts, how he destroys. I think The thing I dislike the most now about the current Monster verse and with you know, the new Godzilla Versus Kong movie, is that they're kind of on the human side, and we've all just been kind of cool with that, like, yeah, Godzilla's helping out the humans too, Like, yeah, he's helping us defeat the monsters. And you'll watch this movie and you're reminded that, no, Godzilla wouldn't do that. Godzilla is there to destroy. He rips cities apart, he breathes fire, he goes nuclear. That is what Godzilla does. He doesn't help people. He wants to destroy people. And I had to be reminded of that. So that's why I love this movie so much. But also the fact that it did it on such a low budget is inspiring to all these movies that I'm gonna get into in the worst films of the year that spent over two hundred sometimes two hundred and fifty million dollars to make things that look like trash. Just shows you that if you just put some effort into it, some heart into it, and truly care about making a great movie, it can be done. It can be done. This is a movie that as of now I can't go rewatch it because it's only still in theaters. It's still not streaming yet. They're not giving any details on when you can stream this movie, so for that I apologize. My only regret is I didn't see it in imax and haven't had a chance to go see it again in theaters because there's been so much to get to in this busy holiday season. But as soon as it's available for me to rent or own, I'm gonna get this movie. But out of all the movies on this list, I think it's the one that should have the most impact and show you can make a movie that has a little bit of something for everybody, a bit of drama, a little bit of action, a little bit of history, a little bit of war. I honestly think out of any movie on this list, you could put this one on and then most people would just straight out enjoy it. The only thing that would straight people away from watching this movie. The hardest sell, which shouldn't be the hardest sell, is the fact that the movie is in Japanese, so you have to watch it with English subtitles. Come on, do I have to go on? The subtitles? Ran again? Don't make me do it, because we're missing out on movies if that's the reason you're not watching them. I completely love this movie. I've been in a Godzilla wormhole for about a month now since I've seen this movie. And even with the success of this movie, they're not chomping at the bit to make another one because that's the American way of filmmaking. Oh, we have a hit on our hands, how soon can we crank out another one? But it's selsa par and then, just you know, that is not the way to make movies. So it just makes me believe in making a great movie for just the sake of making a great movie, which is what it should be about. It shouldn't be about who's in your movie, how much can you make? Like, just make great movies and they will find their audience. So at number one, I have Godzilla minus one as my favorite movie of the year. Come back and let you know all the movies I hated, and then I have a bunch of honorable mentions. All Right, I've heard my favorite films of twenty twenty three. Let's get into the negative and share with you my worst films of the year. And I'm gonna get heated by the end of this, so let's get right into it. At number ten, I have The Flash, which I gave a two point five at a five rating, who cost three hundred million dollars to make and went on too bomb because it only made two hundred and seventy million dollars. This movie was just a complete mess, from the story, to the visual effects, to wasting bringing back the greatest Batman Michael Keaton, and throwing in all of just these things that didn't make sense, trying to make a multiverse. It felt like it wanted to be back to the future with into the Spider Verse, and it was just bad, so so bad in a movie that could have been great. And the thing that was just the worst about this movie, I know people get hung up on the visual effects, which were bad but didn't completely take me out of the movie just on occasion, It was really the story that I felt that Barry didn't really go through anything here, and it just felt like the entire storyline was like, what happened here? Did our character grow or did he just try to do a bunch of like no, and to misuse the use of time travel and bringing in characters from different DC universes and just looked like a hot mess on screen. Felt like this movie had no direction introducing super Girl. There were just so many things that this movie wanted to be and just couldn't live up to. So at number ten, I have The Flash. At number nine, I have Five Nights at Freddy's, which I gave a two point five out of five. Surprising thing here is that the movie was actually a success. It only cost twenty million dollars to make and went on to earn three hundred million dollars at the box office. But this was a movie I went to go see and I thought I was going to enjoy. I was somewhat familiar with the video game, but I wasn't a fan of it. I just horror movies. I thought the acting in this movie was so bad and the actual horror elements were lacking to me that I came on and did a review of this movie and got ripped to shreds because it has such a passionate fan base. And I do give props to this movie because Blumhouse took a risk. Well, I wouldn't even say that they took a risk. They only spend twenty million dollars on it. This is what they do. They spend a little or modest amount on a movie and then cash and big. But I think it's really due to the fan base of this video game, because I stand by the fact that it is not a good movie. I wanted to walk out of this movie because it was so bad and boring and there was nothing there for me to grasp on to aside from the kind of cool look of the animatronic characters. But I just couldn't believe that people enjoyed this movie, and the further I dug into it, most of the people who were enjoying it and so passionate about it were these hardcore fans. And it's probably Jen that was just upset at me of being the old krusty movie reviewer. So may have completely missed a boat on this one, but I stand by it. This movie was terrible and one of the worst movies I saw at number nine. At number eight is Hypnotic, which I gave a one point five out of five. The movie was a major flop because it cost sixty five million dollars to make and only made fifteen point seven million dollars. And it comes to us from Robert Rodriguez, who I like as a director from dust Hill Down is one of my favorite movies. He also did the Spy Kids movies. So for a director of his caliber to put out such a turd of a movie was surprising to me. And it felt like he was trying to do a Christopher Nolan impression. And the movie has a pretty interesting premise that does not deliver whatsoever. And you even have a big movie star, Ben Affleck starring in this movie, which I guess he has been on the return this year. I mean, Air made my top favorite films of the year, but this one made my worst. So that is the range of Ben Affleck, and I honestly feel like he did this movie as a favor to him. It almost felt like Ben Affleck filmed this movie on a weekend that he had free, and he's like, yeah, I'll shoot this movie. Because the movie made no sense. It was a terrible looking movie. It felt like it was just manufactured in some big warehouse and then slapped together with some special effects. But story hero was bad, the characters were bad, and the action was really bad. There was nothing great about this movie, aside from the fact that it had a relatively short run time. So at number eight, I have Hypnotic. At number seven, I have flaman Hot, which doesn't have any production details online because the movie came out on Hulu slash Disney Plus as those two are starting to merge. But it is the story of the guy who allegedly created the Flaming Hot Cheetos. And the biggest problem I had with this movie is, I guess going into it the stories that came out of the authenticity of the story and it not being completely factual, and then director Eva Longoria coming out and saying, well, this is his truth and his story. But inside of the movie, the inventor himself even makes a point to say that, yeah, maybe I would make up big stories and my wife would kind of ground me in reality. So you had an unreliable narrator on top of it that really just made me not believe it. And it's also a story that is meant to represent my culture. There's Mexican culture all throughout this movie, but to me, it just felt like the production of such a low quality straight to TV film, and on top of that, I felt like wasn't a good representation of my culture. Almost felt like a caricature of my family, and I was like, this is what we're putting out to represent us. This is awful, and then you're calling us liars. I just didn't love what this movie did for film. Didn't love what this movie did for my people. So at number seven, I have Flaming Hot, the Flaming Hot Cheetos Story. Oh my gosh, that was bad. At number six, I'm getting more angry as this list goes on because I'm remembering the time I wasted on these movies. But at number six, I have Your Place or Mind The rom com starring America's Sweetheart Reese Witherspoon in America's Guy that used to be popular in the two thousands and it's still around doing movies acting Cutcher and Oh my gosh, this movie almost made me stop believing in my resurgence of loving rom coms. It was so bad because the thing that is important in rom comms is for characters to have chemistry. You gotta have that chemistry to sell the idea of love to people, to sell that fantasy, and Cutcher and Witherspoon had no chemistry whatsoever. But also they gave a very minimal effort in acting it felt like people were writing the lines as they went along and just letting them like, oh, just just here's the general nature of the scene. Do with it what you will. And they also weren't in a lot of scenes together because their two characters are split apart. So it just made me feel like they shot this movie completely out of whack and never got into a rhythm and were just kind of making a movie on top of all their other projects that they had going on at the time. So the movie just doesn't even feel unified whatsoever. A lot of it is just their character speaking into either their phone or a laptop on FaceTime or something like that. There was just no moment where this movie clicked, And the only redeeming quality is that it was on Netflix. Didn't have to pay for it and didn't have to go anywhere to watch it because it was so bad. So at number six, I have your place or mine. But at number five is a movie I actually did go to the theater to see. I almost walked out, but I told myself, I gotta see this one through because I need to be able to properly ripped this movie to shreds for years to come and for the longest time. This held the title of the worst movie of the year, and some others snuck in after it because I wanted this one to be the worst of the year because I hated it so much. The movie is sixty five, starring Adam Driver. I gave it a one out of five. The movie cost forty five million dollars to make and made about sixty million dollars at the box office. The biggest problem I had with this movie is it had such a great premise, and I love sci fi movies. I love movies with dinosaurs. Adam Driver is a great actor, and it's about him being put on this planet and trying to rescue somebody, and then you have all these futuristic things. Sounded like a movie that was right on my alley. But it's a movie that fumbled all of those things so badly. And how do you make a movie with dinosaurs and Adam Driver so completely boring? This movie was a snooze fest and a movie that looked relatively good on screen, it just had nothing going for it. It was like a really attractive person who has nothing to say. That is what this movie was. And I felt angry while watching it that I wanted to leave because, oh my gosh, I was raging in my seat because I was upset that I was excited about this movie and went on to just completely disappoint me. And I think it's one of those movies that even Adam Driver I see was making it, thought Okay, we're actually doing something great here, and then it just got ruined in the editing process because they didn't have a story there. So at number five, I have sixty five. At number four, I have Vacation Friends too, which I gave a one out of five rating. There's no data on this one because it came out on Hulu. I would probably think they spent about fifty million dollars to make this movie, maybe because John Cena is in it. But I surprisingly enjoyed Vacation Friends Part one, which is weird to say because it is a completely dumb and ridiculous movie. But sometimes you just need something dumb and ridiculous, So going into part two, I was looking for something equally dumb and ridiculous, so a case where I knew what I was getting myself into, but was still disappointed because all the things that made the first one fun and enjoyable were not in this one, they added new characters and it just made me feel like a complete idiot while watching this movie to think, Oh, man, like I took a risk in telling people that I enjoyed part one and was interested in seeing part two and thought it was gonna be maybe a little bit funnier. Maybe with the success I put that in quotation success of the first ones, they would have more budget to throw around, kind of like they did with The Hangover two. But man, this movie was really bad and really awful and really ridiculous and felt like a dollar bin DVD movie. So at number four, I have vacation friends too. I was dumb to believe in it. At number three is the most recent addition on this list. It is Aquaman to the Lost Kingdom. I give it a point five out of five. The movie cost two hundred and five million dollars to make, and as of the recording of this podcast, has made one hundred and forty five million dollars. It is the end of the DCEU. This movie was dead on arrival, but I was willing to give it a chance because I found some enjoyment in the first one. I still think it's surprising how successful that movie was being one of the only DCEU movies to make over a billion dollars at the box office. I think that is largely due to the international appeal of Aquaman. But the biggest factor of me hating this movie is it has the worst dialogue of twenty twenty three. I don't even know what the script was here. I couldn't imagine these actors taking these lines seriously because it was so bad. And Jason Momoa in this movie was so much trying to be Robert Downey and have that Tony Stark energy as the lovable jerk guy but has a good heart, and he did a bad impression of it. This movie felt like a parody of a superhero movie. Script was terrible. Visual effects. Oh my gosh, it is hard to do a movie underwater. I get it, you have to animate their hair going wavy. It just looked really bad. I mean, The Little Mermaid this year looked better than this movie. And then they also put this weird underwater effect on their voice, which was awful. And I wish I could say that the above ground scenes looked better, but they didn't. And I guess I was just hoping hoping that the DCEU would go out on a higher note and it wasn't just gonna be people review bombing this movie saying it's bad before even seeing it. But this movie was hard to watch. I'm glad that it was right under two hours, but there was nothing positive I could say about this movie, aside from the villain and some of the support casts that were the only ones giving it some kind of effort. The movie was ridiculously bad. It had the feel of like a bad eighties action movie mixed with early two thousand's late nineties special effects. To that, we say goodbye to the DCEU. Add number two, I Have a rom com by the name of What Happens Later, starring David d'coveney and Meg Ryan, directed by Meg Ryan. I gave also a point five out of five rating. The movie costs only three million dollars to make, which a lot of it was Meg Ryan calling in some favors from her friends. She also directed it herself, so maybe she didn't pay herself anything, but it went on to make three point three million dollars at the box office. The movie has an extremely limited cast of just two people, Meg Ryan, David d'coveny stranded in an airport. It's based on a play and it feels that way. But this this movie had no direction Onceoever, it took the most boring situation that you can experience, being stranded in an airport. Think of that, you get delayed and you're there for hours. It is the worst feeling because there's nothing to do. Why design to make a movie about that. It just had that feeling of me being bored in an airport trying to find things to pass the time. So it is essentially a bottle movie where there are no other set designs. It's just an airport, no other cast aside from the loudspeakers saying and narrating this entire movie, which was so annoying, and just the direction that they went in to tell this story of two people reconnecting and love and oh my gosh, it looks awful. It is awful. There is nothing redeeming about this movie. It's just one that should not have been made. So at number two, I have what happens later, But at number one, the worst movie in the film I hated the most. In twenty twenty three, Istrays, which is a quote unquote comedy adventure about these dogs trying to get revenge on one of the dog's owners. It is part live action, part animated because you have real life humans like Will Forte in the movie. All the dogs look like real dogs, but of course their mouths are animated, and you have actors voicing them like Will Ferrell. But the movie centers around Will Ferrell's character, Reggie, who has an abusive owner who drops him off and gets rid of them, and Reggie is trying to find his way home. He encounters these other stray dogs and then decides he wants to get revenge on his owner after he realizes that he's been mistreating him his entire life. And the movie was really just made as an excuse to get dogs to curse. That is all this movie is. The novelty of it is that it's a rated R movie that looks like a kid's movie. Oh it's these cute dogs. What they're saying the F word and doing vulgar things, which I am above enjoying a type of movie like this. Some of the humor I really enjoy is really immature stuff. But if there's no creativity in the comedy, it just screams terrible, and that is what we have here, to the point that the humor just felt like something you would write in sixth grade with your friends. But you took that script made by six graders and got real life movie stars to voice these characters, and it almost feels like they just got into a recording booth they gave them some lines and said, hey, add in some F words and S words wherever you feel necessary, because that's the only thing this movie has going for it is the fact that it's so vulgar. But it's one of the dumbest movies I've seen in a really long time, and a movie that I hated with every fiber of my being because I was looking forward to watching a raunchy comedy and what I got was a raunchy piece of rubbish. So at number one Word Movie of twenty twenty three, I give two strays. I've given you the best, I've given you the worst. I'll come back and give you my honorable mentions to close out this very special episode. All right, let's get into it now, my honorable mentions of the year. Like I said, I went through about five different versions of my top ten that I feel that any of these movies in the honorable mentions could have made that list, because I think these are all great movies that I would recommend, but not the ones that I would choose to represent twenty twenty three when all was said and done. So at number ten, I have Theater Camp, which is available now on Hulu. The story about a group of kids all going to theater camp and then trying to save the camp, very much in the way that Heavyweights was back in the nineties, So I think because I had that association with it, it made me enjoy this movie more. But also it just had really great comedy. And I know nothing about theater I know nothing about the inside jokes, but I quickly felt a part of this crowd. So you don't have to be in the theater. You could just feel like a misfit and enjoy this movie. Just a really fun time with a lot of really fun characters. So I put that one at number ten. At number nine, I have Dumb Money, which is the real life story of what happened with Game Stop Stock just a couple of years ago, and that whole craze, And it's really a movie about the poor fighting back against those one percenters. You also have Paul Dano, who is one of my favorite actors in another movie where he incited a group of people on the internet two runs above, so I guess he's just really great at doing that. But it's a movie that went a little bit under the radar during the strike, and I feel was a victim of its marketing because if you look at the posters and the trailer, it really painted the movie as a straight on comedy. I guess because of the cast, because of Seth Rogan being in it, it was made to look like it was just gonna be a funny movie, which really wasn't the case. So I feel like with different marketing, this movie could have done a lot better at the box office. It also reminded me of BlackBerry, which came out earlier this year, which was the origin story of the company BlackBerry, and another movie similar to Dumb Money that I feel like was a victim of its marketing. So at number nine, I have Dumb Money. At number eight was a movie that had a moment early on in the year, Megan, which I feel like Megan has quickly cemented herself of being one of the coveted horror icons, which is a really hard thing to do. I really think with one more film, she could be up there with the Chucky's, the Freddy Kruegers, and the Michael Myers, because honestly, those guys have been around so long we need some fresh meat in there. But what I really loved was the marketing behind this movie. That it got people talking. That is what great movies do, and it put horror back on the map in twenty twenty three, along with some of the other movies in my honorable mentions. But at number eight I have Megan. At number seven, I have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem, a movie that made me feel like a kid again. I love the take of the Ninja Turtles in this movie, making them younger and also having actual teenagers to voice them. But above all, the animation style in this one just really shined and looked like a watercolor picture book brought to life. And with a franchise that has been kind of drugged through the mud with the live action attempts that really haven't sit well with fans, I feel like this has brought everybody back to what makes the Ninja Turtles great. I also love the fact that now people who were fans of the original Ninja Turtles back in the eighties in the nineties now have kids to share it and enjoy these movies with I love going to Target and seeing all the new teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys and thinking, ah, there are kids now discovering this for the first time. That is what made me love this movie and what made me put it at number seven. Along those same lines, at number six, I have the Super Mario Brothers movie, which was an incredible success, being one of the highest grossing movies that making one point three million dollars, shutting out its competition of Disney. This movie comes to us from Illumination, which makes all the Minions movies. They also had Migration out this year in twenty twenty three, And it just shows you when making kids movie, you just have to make it fun. Like I know, it's important to work in lessons every now and then so kids can take something away from movies. But at the end of the day, you just have to make something that's enjoyable for kids to watch, and that is what this movie did. It was just a straight on fun movie with the fun journey and characters that we all know and love and along those same lines of people who are fans and Ninja Turtles as kids an now are older, you're also getting to reshare Super Mario with your kids and enjoy the games now. And it really was a love letter to that, the fans of the games showing off all the different versions of Super Mario inside of this movie and just that's a really fun way. And the animation style was exactly what it needed to be. It looked like Mario. And yeah, there was some controversy around Chris Pratt voicing Mario and essentially just doing the voice of Chris Pratt, but at the end of it, I felt like it worked. And the person who went unnecessarily hard in this movie was Jack Black delivering a banger with this Peaches song. So at number six, I have the Super Mario Brothers movie. At number five is a recent addition is Wonka, which I ended up really enjoying and I thought I wasn't going to because Willie Wonka in the Chocolate Factory. The original with Gene Wilder is a top ten film for me, and it's a film I associate with my childhood, even though it came out long before I was Born, but I feel like that movie is perfect, so much so that I hated the Tim Burton version with Johnny Depp, so I was hesitant going into this one. But I love the approach that Timothy Chalomey had with Wonka. Yeah, he was a little bit too extra in some of the scenes and some of his delivery, but overall, I felt like it was Wonka before he got jaded and before he was all like different and weird. It was like him, fresh eyed, bushy tailed. And it also incorporated more music into this one, which the original and the Tim Burton movies are musicals, and I think a lot of people forgot that the songs have always been a big part of Willie Wonka. But yes, this one is more of a straight ahead musical, which for the longest time I've been saying that I don't enjoy musicals, but after seeing this one, after seeing Barbie, I think I love musicals. It just has to be a really great musical. And I found myself after watching this movie for the first time ever, I went and listened to a musical soundtrack because I love these songs so much and they were stuck in my head. So at number five, I have Wonka. At number four is a movie called Talk to Me, which is a fantastic horror movie. Like I was saying about Bottoms being one of the best comedies in the last five years, talk to Me is that for horror. This was the only time I truly felt scared while watching a movie this year, which is a really hard thing to do. It's about this group of friends, mostly teenagers early twenties, who get this embalmed hand that allows them to connect with dead people, and every time they are able to connect with through the power of this hand, they are almost getting put into this state that they become very vulnerable. So it's like a roller coaster ride that you can only hold on to for so long before you get fully sucked into it. But the reason they hold on for so long is because they're doing it for social media, so it becomes a challenge to hold out as long as you can despite of all the horrible things that you are witnessing and the dead people that you are coming in contact with. So maybe not a movie that rewrote how you make a horror movie, but what it was able to accompany did it so well and makes me excited to see a sequel. To this movie, and I rarely get excited for sequels, especially in horror movies. So at number four, I have talked to me. At number three, I have The Holdovers, which is about a cranky history teacher who has to look after some kids at a fancy prep school who don't get to go home for the holidays. The movie stars Apologiamadi, who I am not a fan of, and that is a long standing grudge I have since he put out his movie Sideways and I heard an interview with him where he was really disrespectful to a fan but in a really pompous way. That just made me not like him, and I always felt after that anytime he was in a movie it made me not like the movie. But Kelsey really wanted to see The Holeover, so we went to go see it, and I was wrong. I love this movie and it was one I did not expect to enjoy as much as I did, and had a group of characters that I felt this deep connection with by the end of it that I felt like I went through this entire journey with them and grew as a person with them. So it does take place around Christmas time, so I feel like this will become a movie that we now watch every single Christmas. But if you haven't seen it yet and you think I don't want to watch a Christmas movie, it's not really a full on Christmas movie. It just takes place around Christmas. It is really just a good slice of life movie if you're looking for a new one to check out. I gave it four point five out of five. At number two was a movie from one of my favorite directors, Wes Anderson, Asteroid City, and it's a movie that I wouldn't really recommend unless you're into Wes Anderson and a lot of what makes Wes anderson movies great is a visual aspect because he has this eye for symmetry and colors that just make movies visually appealing, and that is what I crave. And the movie also has a really big ensemble cast who did this movie for relatively no money, so you think, how can you get a movie with so many A listers made for so little amount of money. They basically do it as a face to say they were in a Wes Anderson movie, but they are also very quirky, which is why I believe they're not for everybody. The humor is very dry, and the overall story is oftentimes quite utterly bizarre. But to me, a Wes Anderson movie always feels like an event. And he is somebody who has this filmography that I cherish, and each one of his films has its own unique feel to it, but maintain that visual aspect that really gives him a look unlike any other director, because I could just look at one frame of Wes Anderson movie and know that it was him. So at number two I have Asteroid City, and hey, he even got Tom Hanks in this movie. But at number one, my biggest honorable mention was a movie they came out early in twenty twenty three and one that I feel got overlooked a lot. It was hanging on to my number ten slot for a minute. Just couldn't quite put it in there. But it is John Wick four, which I give a four point five out of five. It is one of the best action movies I've seen in a very long time, probably since well John Wick won two and three. It just does it so well that it wastes no time getting right to knowing what the audience wants. Bullets flying, people getting their limbs broken, and Keanu Reeves saying about fifty five words in this entire movie, and it is a movie that on paper shouldn't be as big of a hit as it is. I feel like John Wick is such an unorthodox main character, but somehow it works together so well. And it's really due to all of the stunt performances in this movie, the cinematography, and just the violent nature of all of these movies that make it work so well. It is a movie I love from beginning to end because it was a non stop good time.

00:57:51
Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: I know they're to a point where they're gonna do spinoffs and maybe do another one, but I honestly hope that john Wick four is the ending of this story and Keanu Reeves goes on to do something else because it closes out the saga on a perfect note. So my number one honorable mention for twenty twenty three almost made my list is john Wick four, and that is gonna do it for another episode here of the podcast. Thank you for allowing me to break the format and giving you my end of the year list. As we start a new year, I think I also want to do a big roundup of all the movies I haven't reviewed yet because I watched so many movies over the holiday break. So if there is a movie that I haven't talked about yet, it's because I'm holding on to it. So I have enough time to give my full thoughts on the movies that I have seen. But before I go, I got to give my listeners shout out of the week, the first one of twenty twenty four, going over to x formerly known as Twitter for this one, and this week's listener shout out of the Week is Nicholas Martinez, who said caught up on the last five episodes of Movie Mike's Movie podcast during a road trip, and I was back on December twenty seventh. So hopefully, Nicholas, you are all caught up to this episode now and you get to hear your shout out. So thank you to Nicholas and anybody else who listened to the episodes over break. This is my first new episode of the year, and it felt good to be back, y'all. I'm charged up and ready to go. So until the next time, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later.