DrogeMiester's Top 10 BEST Movies of 2023

An end-of-year list is a snapshot in time. After spending so much effort into watching as many things as I could for the entire calendar year, it feels like a ceremonial way to officially put a bow on the previous year before moving onto the next year.

Some people do this in December. I’ve even seen posts like this in late November. And sure, I get the idea of wanting to put out your list in the most optimal time while the “year in review” idea is on people’s minds. To me, though, I would rather do justice to the year itself by waiting until the year is actually over. Even then, I give myself a few extra weeks to beyond that to catch up on major movies I missed or wait for a few more of the limited release movies to expand far enough for me to actually see them.

But at some point you’ve gotta call it and post the list. You’re never going to see every movie that’s released. And that’s fine. For me that point in time always comes around Oscar nomination time, which was about a week ago. And definitely before February I need to get this submitted, so here we are.

The unique thing about this year, though, is that I finally signed up for a Letterboxd account at the beginning of 2023. In past years, I kept track of everything with Excel charts. When it was time to post the year-end list, I’d fire up my system of organizing the list and I would surprise myself with what I came up with. But with Letterboxd I’ve been keeping track of everything on the app for the whole year and I had a private list of favorite movies of 2023 that I kept up to date with an ongoing ranking of my favorite movies. So there’s no real “surprise” this time around for myself. It was just a matter of some last minute tinkering and cutting it down to 25 movies before making that list public and typing up this blog post. Now I only have 13 followers on Letterboxd, so I don’t exactly use it as a “social media,” per sé, but it’s been a very useful tool for me in tracking exactly what I watch and an easy place for all the lists I enjoy creating.

The other reason I bring the Letterboxd thing up is that, while this particular blog post will be a snapshot in time with how I’ve felt at this moment about the movies I’ve seen in 2023, when I catch up on other movies in 2023 that I missed, whether that be in a day or two, or 10 years down the road, I can instantaneously update my 2023 list if that movie was good enough to make the top 25. I can even adjust the order of the current movies at any time if I decide I feel differently. And I did that for every year-end list from 2010 on this past year and in several cases they ended up quite different than what I had initially posted. Again, this is all mostly for my personal tracking since I’m the one that cares about this the most, but if you do want to be part of the very exclusive club that follows my every movement there, feel free to give me a follow. It’s just my first and last name. But all of that means that I’m less worried about seeing everything I need to because I know I can update things later.

All that said, it’s still fun to do this post, even if it becomes outdated in a week or two. And yes, that was a longer than normal preamble, but it I feel it was an important one to point out. But enough of all that, let’s get to the list proper, as currently constituted!   

10- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

It was a really rough year for Marvel in terms of the public reaction to their projects. And I could go on a long tangent about how silly all of that is and how people are definitely being way too critical towards both Marvel and the superhero genre itself, but that can be a conversation for another time. Suffice it to say, though, I’m still on board. And if enjoying superhero stuff goes back to being a niche thing rather than something that mainstream audiences still gravitate towards, then so be it. Marvel might have to learn how to budget things more responsibly, but I’ll still be showing up. Funny thing about all of that, though, is that in the midst of people trashing everything Marvel and Disney as the worst pieces of trash they saw all year, you remind them about “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, that was good.’ Because it was. After the second movie was a bit of a let down for me, James Gunn in his swan song from Marvel before going off to fix DC provided us with the Guardians sequel that I wanted all along. And yes, for me this is the best of the three movies for me. Even better than the original.

9- Killers of the Flower Moon

A cold, dark crime thriller from Martin Scorsese. Given the subject matter was one I was familiar with, combined with Scorsese returning to the crime drama genre, this was one of my most anticipated movies of the year and it definitely delivered. Scorsese decided to tell the story of the Osage Tribe murders in the early 1900s and the way in which the movie is constructed makes you extremely frustrated. Greedy white men are taking advantage of a rich Native American tribe by marrying into their families and secretly murdering them to inherit their wealth, yet the government is not doing a dang thing about it. If it was just about any other race of people, the FBI would be right on it, but it’s a sad reminder of how poorly the Native Americans have been treated by our country, a trend that honestly hasn’t improved that much. The frustration you feel from this movie means the whole thing is extremely effective at what it sets out to do. The biggest gripe is that I listened to a podcast that told this story very effectively in 40 minutes, while Marty’s movie is a massive 206 minutes. I didn’t need the movie version to be short, but cut out 45 minutes and you have a perfect crime thriller.

8- Anatomy of a Fall

The most recent movie from 2023 that I saw and reviewed, but one that’s been on my radar since it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2023. One that, based on everything I heard about it, is a movie that I knew I would love. It just took forever to get the opportunity to see it. When I finally did, it was exactly what I thought it would be. And in this case, that’s a very good thing. Another movie that can fall into the crime thriller category. If you didn’t know by now, that’s one of my favorite genres. This one was a lot more focused on the courtroom part of it. In a deserted area in France, a woman’s husband winds up dead and in this case, the options of how that happened are very limited. Either the woman killed her husband, he committed suicide, or it was a freak accident where he fell and hit his head the wrong way. The movie doesn’t spell out what happens. Instead, you are basically in the vantage point of the jury themselves, in a movie style similar to “12 Angry Men.” This is a fascinating little French film with a lot more layers and twists to it than you expect when you initially press play or sit down to watch.

7- Oppenheimer 

The movie of the year by many accounts. And could very well pull a sweep at the upcoming Oscars as we finally give Christopher Nolan his due, something we should’ve done a long time ago, in 2008 with “The Dark Knight” or 2010 with “Inception” at the very latest. I mean, ask yourself, is “Slumdog Millionaire” or “The King’s Speech” really better than those two movies, respectively? That’s what I thought. Now I’ve been a tad bit critical of Nolan’s last few projects, which has put me in a bit of hot water with Nolan fans who worship him as their Lord and Savior, but “Oppenheimer” is an excellent return to form. A very impressive feat that Nolan can take a three hour long historical biopic that is very dialogue heavy and courtroom based and turn it into one of the most fascinating and thrilling movies of the year. To go along with that, one of the most impressive acting performances I’ve seen in some time from Cillian Murphy, portraying the very complex J. Robert Oppenheimer. The movie will leave you deep in thought as you ponder on it’s fascinating themes. In the hands of any other filmmaker, this doesn’t even come close to $100 million at the box office. But Nolan somehow got this to close to the $1 billion club worldwide. Give the man all the awards. Obviously not my personal top of the year, but a movie in which I have no problem with seeing it take the gold.

6- Past Lives

Now we’re hitting the range of some movies that hit me in a very personal way, which is why they rose to the top in my personal favorite movies list. And few movies made me as much of an emotional wreck as this little Korean drama that I saw during the Summer. The story of two childhood lovers whose lives went in different directions, reconnecting later in life. And no, this is not a sappy romance movie. Not that there’d be anything wrong with that. But this is a movie that reflects on all the “What Ifs” in life. The girl in this story is married. Happily married. But reconnecting with this guy after being apart for years still brings in a flood of memories for her. And if you’ve ever had a situation in life where you’ve wondered how things would be with a certain person if one or both of you had made different decisions, then this is a movie that’s going to take a dagger right to your heart and cause all of those memories to flood right back to your mind. Not that I want to get too personal here, but… yeah. I’ve had lots of those. And this movie wrecked me. And I love it

5- Nimona

“Kids. Little kids. They grow up believing that they can be a hero if they drive a sword into the heart of anything different. And I’m the monster? I don’t know what’s scarier. The fact that everyone in this kingdom wants to run a sword through my heart… or sometimes, I just wanna let ‘em.”  Holy fire, this fun, silly, quirky little animated film that has you rolling over in laughter the whole film suddenly takes a massive emotional freight train and runs you right over. The metaphor of the movie presents the idea of what if society as a whole has been wrong in the way that it’s looked at and treated certain minorities. However the metaphor applies to you, if you’ve ever felt different in any way and been discriminated against because of it, this is a powerful movie that you’re going to relate to. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I SEE you, Nimona. And you’re not alone.” That there might be one of the most powerful moments in film last year. Because when someone feels like they want to disappear due to how society has been treating them, sometimes all it takes is for one person to truly see them for who they are. You can make a difference in someone’s life if you just open your eyes and look. And to think Disney tossed it in the trash when they got rid of Blue Sky. It would’ve been Blue Sky’s best movie by a long shot. I’m glad that Annupurna and Netflix revived it and put it out because it’s special.

4- Godzilla Minus One

I heard the buzz on this one when it was released and that made me excited to see it. When I immediately did, even though I prepared myself for something really good, I was not ready for what I got. The opening of this movie has to be one of the best openings to any monster movie. For a decent portion of the runtime, the most direct comparisons that I had in my mind is that it reminded me of a monster movie on par with the likes of “Jaws” and “Jurassic Park.” Godzilla in this movie is not a secret protector of the city. He’s a terrifying monster. Set in post World War II Japan, he’s also a metaphor. And not only are the scenes he’s in absolutely incredible, but the scenes that he’s NOT in wind up telling a very moving, emotional story with the human characters in the movie, something that few Godzilla movies have effectively done. You grow to love and care about the characters in the movie, who have beautiful arcs. And when Godzilla enters the picture, threatening to destroy their lives, you shrink in terror, thinking to yourself in your seat, “Oh HECK no. You get away from the humans I care about, you big dumb dumb lizard.” I haven’t seen every Godzilla movies. But I’m a fan of the ones I have seen. And I enjoy the recent American movies for what they are. But this is by far the best Godzilla movie I’ve ever seen. And one of the best monster movies, in general.

3- Barbie

The “Barbenheimer” phenomenon was definitely a wild one that easily defined 2023. People might try to find the next “Barbenheimer,” which is funny because movies come out on the same day all the time, so it’s not like this is anything unique. But the social media reaction to this was the unique element. Instead of people arguing over which one to see, it became a trend to go see both movies on the same day. Which is what I do a lot, anyways. But hey, if people want to follow my way of watching movies, then I’m all for it. If you want to do another double feature, just hit me up! Anyways, it certainly helped boost the phenomenon that both movies were fantastic, which helped the phenomenon last all the way until the combined for 21 Oscar nominations last week. “Oppenheimer” might have the last laugh at the actual awards ceremony, which again I’m fine with, but my personal favorite of the two was actually “Barbie,” an absolute riot of a film that encapsulates the world of “Barbie” in a wonderfully amusing way, that also ends up being so much more. Some people say it tried to do too much, but my take is that I was blown away by how beautifully Greta Gerwig weaved everything together. Her first two movies, “Lady Bird” and “Little Women,” both made my best of the decade list for the 2010s. And now she’s three for three in regards to home run hits for me. Even the best directors have their off films, so I won’t turn against her if that happens, but it’s not happened yet, so I might as well assume everything is going to be a masterpiece. If Narnia is next, let’s do it!

2- John Wick: Chapter 4

Not just another John Wick movie, which I would’ve had no problem with. But this potential final film feels like a whole lot more. After making three very successful films that beautifully built off each other, it feels like Chad Stahelski and Keaunu Reeves set out to make this the most epic final chapter that they could and they definitely outdid themselves  with a movie that I think is one of the most entertaining action flicks I’ve seen. The villain is top notch. The rivalry in the film is the best of the series. The action sequences are bigger and better than before. The cinematography in the movie should’ve been nominated for an Oscar. It doesn’t hurt on a personal level that most of the movie is set in Paris, which just happens to be my dream vacation. The movie is nearly three hours long and it absolutely flies by. The final act in this movie is absolutely thrilling and it leads to a final showdown that is epic. The movie wraps up in a way where I don’t need another John Wick movie. This is the perfect ending for the series and I think maybe Chad Stahelski wants to try something else after spending the last decade making John Wick movies. Although I’m sure Lionsgate looked at the box office numbers and said, ‘Oh no you don’t. You come back and make us a fifth one.’ If that happens and John Wick: Chapter 5 undoes the ending of Chapter 4 and continues the series, that’s not going lessen the impact of Chapter 4 for me. That’ll be all on Chapter 5. There’s already several spin-off in the works, a series that’s already on Peacock and a the first spin-off movie coming out in June. And that’s not even involving the side characters they set up in the fourth movie. I say let’s focus on all of those instead of continuing the main series, but we’ll see what they decide.

1- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse 

It’s hard to even know where to begin with “Across the Spider-Verse.” I really enjoyed “Into the Spider-Verse.” Some called it the best animated movie ever made, so I guess there are a lot of people that liked it a lot more than me. That’s not a critique of the movie, though. It’s still great. I don’t really have anything bad to say about it. But in my opinion, “Across the Spider-Verse” does what all great sequels should do. Take everything that’s good about the first movie and amplify it. I loved that the first movie combined a lot of different animation styles while also being a fun ode to actual comic books. With this second one, they were, like, ‘Yeah, hold my beer.’ What they accomplished in bringing together just about every animation style possible with an almost uncountable number of Spider-Things might be one of the greatest feats in animation. Going along with that, the Multiverse journey is as crazy and bonkers as you expect from a properly done Multiverse story. But at the same time, they don’t let that get in the way of the story they’re telling. And they very cleverly tie in every Spider-Man story to create a very powerful arc for Miles himself. And before we even dive headfirst into the chaos, the movie takes its time to build the emotion and make this a beautiful character piece. Not just for Miles, but also for Gwen Stacey. After finishing “Into the Spider-Verse,” I badly wanted a Spider-Gwen movie. This movie gave that to me, while also not letting that get in the way of Miles’ story. Truly an absolute stunning piece of art in just about every way. The potential “Empire Strikes Back” of the Spider-Verse franchise, cliffhanger and all. If they stick the landing with “Beyond the Spider-Verse,” whenever that ends up coming out, this could be one of the greatest trilogies ever.

Movies of 2024: The Good, the Bad, and the Maybe

A new year is upon us! In fact, we’re almost one month into said new year. But as I mentioned in my previous blog post, we get a bit twisted here on this blog with the three posts to start this year and I feel I do things a tad bit differently each time, depending on what life is like. But we got January previewed in its own post at the beginning of the month. In the meantime, I’ve been spending the month working on a few different things. Next week, the plan is to get my year end list of favorite movies of 2023 out, which will be followed shortly by the February movie preview, but right now it’s time to preview the entire year of 2024!

I’ve managed to put together a long list of movies. Slightly more than average for this list for some reason. I’ll give brief thoughts on each, but I organize this in a way that hopefully you’ll be able to skim through and what you want without being obligated to read the whole post. If you want to read every word I’ve typed, then by all means go for it. But if you simply want to scroll through and just read all the titles, that works for me to.

This upcoming year is a bit of a unique one. The writers and actors strikes last year definitely shook up the schedule. While things didn’t get as crazy as the COVID years. While the strikes were certainly for a good cause, the consequences were such that without any writers or actors for a significant part of the year, deadlines weren’t met and production wasn’t able to go forward on most things. That means things that were scheduled for the end of the year were pushed into 2024 and a lot of stuff that was scheduled for 2024 got pushed back into 2025. The result is… what you will see in this post.

But yes, the release schedule is very subject to change. The movies listed here are in order of release date, separated into three different categories: movies I’m excited about, movies I’m not so excited about, and movies that I’m on the fence about for one reason or another. Given the nature of things, you might see many of these movies on next year’s preview if they don’t make their release date this year for whatever reason. Life happens. And no, believe it or not, this is not an all encompassing list. These are just the highlights. There’s hundreds of movies that come out every year, especially a lot of smaller ones from film festivals that I have no idea about at this point in time. But it’s always fun to prepare myself for the year to come and get excited about what’s ahead of us. I hope you enjoy this, too! And, of course, let me know what movies you are most excited about from this.

The Good

Argylle - February 2

The director of the “Kingsman” movies has what looks to be another zany action film to kick off February. I was actually surprised to see this was PG-13 and not R, so I guess this means it’s a tad bit less intense than “Kingsman.” But that also means a more broad audience can enjoy it? If this ends up being not good, at the very least I can commend it for a well put together trailer that’s been fun to see at the beginning of every movie I’ve been to lately.

Lisa Frankenstein - February 9

I suppose it’s a popular time to release weird Frankenstein-like stories, with “Poor Things” getting tons of Oscar buzz at the moment and now this hitting around Valentine’s Day. With this looking like all sorts of crazy and weird, consider this my most anticipated Valentine’s Day option, which there are several to choose from.

Drive-Away Dolls - February 23

We’re three for three so far in quirky comedies. I’m not exactly sure what to expect from this road trip adventure, but it is from one of the Coen Brothers, which as a film fan that has my attention. I’m curious to know when the next time the brothers do a movie together again will be, but until then we’ll see here what Ethan Coen has up his sleeve. This was slated for a Fall release and a potential awards push, but the strikes pushed this one to 2024 instead.

Dune: Part Two - March 1

Of course this was going to be here. I’d wager a bet that this is towards the top of a lot of people’s most anticipated list. I was a fan of the first one. And Denis Villeneuve doesn’t miss as a director. But as one who has not read the books and is really not very familiar with this world at all, I’m rather excited to see how the second half of the story turns out. The first movie left off in what felt like a very weird spot to me that made me feel I need to see the second movie before I can even fully judge either of them.

Spaceman - March 1 (Netflix)

We briefly veer away from the theatrical schedule to explore a quick Netflix release. I don’t have a ton of Netflix movies on this list, partially because they don’t exactly announce their release dates too far in advance. But if you watched the 2019 TV mini-series “Chernobyl,” this is from the director of that. That’s enough to get my attention. It’s also the rare dramatic role for Adam Sandler as he goes on a space adventure of sorts, as he seemingly has regrets about leaving his family back home.

Kung Fu Panda 4 - March 8 

I saw a trailer for this in theaters a month or two ago without realizing it was a thing. That was a pleasant surprise. I’m not sure I expected DreamWorks to go back to the Kung Fu Panda franchise, but they are three for three so far in that realm. And this new one looks like they could continue that and go four for four.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - March 29

The elephant in the room here is that “Godzilla Minus One” came in at the end of last year and set a surprisingly new high standard on what a Godzilla movie has the potential to be. It’ll be hard not to compare and it’s possible that Toho just stole all the thunder away from Warner Bros. That said, I’ve still enjoyed all of the American Godzilla and Kong movies, so I’m still excited for some more dumb fun. You might just have to keep your expectations tempered.

The Fall Guy - May 3

The Summer movie season in 2024 will NOT begin with a Marvel Superhero movie. “Deadpool 3” did have that slot, but the strikes made Marvel move that to July. Instead the summer begins with a fairly random action movie. David Leitch, director of “Bullet Train,” “Hobbs & Shaw,” “Atomic Blonde” and “Deadpool 2” has an action film for us centered around Ryan Gosling as a stuntman who gets caught in some crazy real-life adventures. Looks like a fun time!

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes - May 10

But the real fun kicks off a week later. The recent Planet of the Apes trilogy in my books goes down as one of the best trilogies to ever be made. Given that said trilogy was a prequel trilogy to the original movie, this fourth movie looks like it’s arrived at the point of the timeline where the original Charlton Heston movie started. Different continuity, of course. But I’m excited to see their take on it. New director on bored, which has me slightly nervous. But the trailers make it seem like the quality is still on par, which quickly made this one of my most anticipated movies this year.

IF - May 17

After directing a par of “A Quiet Place” movies, John Krasinksi has now moved onto what looks like an adorable family film centering around a young girl who begins to see all of the imaginary friends that kids have left behind as they grow up to be adults. The adult star here is Ryan Reynolds and it seems like a good portion of Hollywood has joined in various supporting roles as well.

Furiosa - May 24

May should be a lot of fun with “Planet of the Apes” and “Furiosa,” which were initially both scheduled for Memorial Day weekend before “Apes” choose to move a few weeks ahead. But “Mad Max Fury Road” was one of my favorite movies of last decade and one of my most watched, too. And now George Miller is back to tell the origin story of that movie’s best character? And he’s cast Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa, with Chris Hemsworth looking like he’s having the time of his life in a supporting role? Sign me up!

The Watchers - June 7

A mystery thriller about a girl getting trapped in the forest along three strangers as they get stalked by mysterious creatures each night. Based on a book of the same name. But the draw here is that this is a Shyamalan movie. No, not M. Night. His daughter Ishana Shyamalan in her directorial debut. She worked with her dad a bit on “Servant” and “Old.” And now I’m curious about what the next generation of Shyamalan can do on her own!

Hit Man - June 7 (Netflix)

Back to Netflix real quick, “Hit Man” is an action comedy that I heard a lot of positive things about coming out of the festival circuits last year. Netflix picked it up and they just now sent it to another festival in Sundance this movie before putting it on their service in June. It might not be an awards play, but it’s a Richard Linklater movie starring Glen Powell as a hit man who becomes attracted to a woman who enlists his services.

Inside Out 2 - June 14

Pixar is best at their original films, in my opinion. But when the recent string of original films aren’t hitting with audiences, which is a shame in my opinion, you sometimes have to go back into the franchise realm to make some money. And in this case, I think returning to the world of “Inside Out” kinda makes sense. They are following Riley as a teenager now and that brings in a whole lot more emotions that it seems like they are going to have a lot of fun exploring. A few new voice actors for some of the old emotions, but if the writing is on point, that shouldn’t matter too much.

The Bikeriders - June 21

Another movie effected by the strikes. This was supposed come out in December and the advertising was already in full force. I did hear early word that this wasn’t quite an awards player and may not have caught on in that realm, so instead it was pushed ahead a few months so they can have their cast and crew available to promote it. But it starred Tom Hardy and looked intense and fun. So I was personally up for the ride. Maybe a summer release will end up making more sense, anyways?

A Quiet Place: Day One - June 28

No John Krasinksi directing this one, but he still has writing credit. And if you have to get a different director while Krasinksi decides to go do his family movie “IF,” then the director of the Nicholas Cage movie “Pig” seems like a solid choice. At some point it’s understandable to get nervous about horror franchises milking a good idea a little too much, but I think I’m still on board to explore more in this universe. In this scenario, it looks like we get to learn more of how all this came to be.

Deadpool 3 - July 26

In a funny turn of events, “Deadpool 3” is the only movie in the MCU to come out this year. No, it’s not because of any recent failures, even though that might be the narrative people might choose to go with. It’s due to the strikes causing Disney and Marvel to push everything down the road. As I mentioned above, this was supposed to be a May film, but is instead in July. Marvel will be back in 2025, but until then the adults get to be entertained with Deadpool’s introduction into the MCU. And no, don’t take your kids to this movie. This is for the adults only.

Trap - August 2

Surprise! Not only is M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter on deck to release her first movie, but M. Night himself is back as well! Not much is known here outside the cast, led by Josh Hartnett and Hayley Mills. But that’s how it should be with a Shyamalan movie, right? Shyamalan is very hit and miss. But he has had plenty of hits for me to still be excited for a new movie of his.

Transformers One - September 13

An animated Transformers focusing on the origins of Cyberton, the home of the Autobots and Decepticons. So… a Transformers movie that is set to focus solely on the Transformers? Now there’s an idea!

The Wild Robot - September 20

A new DreamWorks movie! I can’t find a ton of information on this one, but it is based on a series of kids books and I have seen some excited reaction from people about these prospects, even if I myself am not as aware. DreamWorks has been doing some interesting things as of late that I think have been very healthy for the animation genre as a whole, so I’m curious about what they have here.

Wolfs - September 20

Jon, the plural for “wolf” is “wolves.” Not sure what you’re doing here, haha. But fine, maybe he’ll show me up when we learn more about what this actually is. The Jon I mention is Jon Watts, director of the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, taking a break from the Marvel Machine for now to direct this movie that stars Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

Saw XI - September 27

I liked “Saw X.” In fact, I did a whole “Saw” marathon this past Halloween season leading up to “Saw X.” It’s a fun horror franchise wherein the best movies are a lot more psychologically based than their “torture porn” reputation would lead you to believe.  I don’t know what part of the timeline this eleventh movie is going to be. It might be a tad bit confusing to newcomers later on. But I’m on board.

Joker: Folie á Deux - October 4

Todd Phillip’s “Joker” was my favorite movie of 2019. I fully realize that it’s a fairly controversial movie that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, but it connected in all the right ways for me personally. I’m not sure Todd Phillips initially planned on making a sequel, but when you make $1 billion at the box office, sometimes you get pressured to do one, anyways. And in this case, he’s turning his dark psychological thriller into a… musical? That’s a funny choice for a sequel that has me morbidly curious. And hey, if you’re going to do a musical and you need a Harley Quinn that can both sing and act, Lady Gaga is an excellent choice. She’s now been nominated at the Oscars for both singing and acting. So there you go!

Terrifier 3 - October 25

I don’t know much about the Terrifier movies. Just that there’s a new killer clown that has become a bit of a phenomenon. But I will definitely catch myself up before the third one this Halloween.

Wolf Man - October 25

We don’t know a lot about this new Wolf Man movie, just that it’s been in the idea room for a long while, with a lot of potential iterations. Ryan Gosling was on board at one point, which would’ve been fun. But recent news is that he’s been replaced with Christopher Abbott. I’m not 100 percent sure this is actually coming out, but if it does then I’m excited because Leigh Whannell is the director and he did great with his 2020 remake of “The Invisible Man.” So if he has ideas for Wolf Man, then I’m ready to see them. Because if we’re rebooting the Universal Monster movies, I fully believe that Whannell has the correct ideas as to how to do them right, based on what he do with “The Invisible Man.”

Wicked Part 1 - November 27

After years and years of waiting, the movie version of “Wicked” is finally coming! I don’t need to tell any of you what this is all about. It’s one of the most popular Broadway Musicals. What I can contribute here is letting you know that it’s in good hands as the director is Jon M. Chu, who did a great job with “In the Heights” in 2021. Ariana Grande is an interesting choice for Glinda. The girl can definitely sing. We’ll see how she can act. But Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba and that girl can do both. “Defying Gravity” is in great hands, my friends. And if you need proof, go look up the song “Stand Up” from the movie “Harriet” and you’ll be on board. The only thing that makes me nervous is the “Part 1.” I’m not sure why we need to split everything in half these days, but hey Part 2 is scheduled for 2025, so we won’t have to wait too long for the second half of the movie.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim - December 13

More Lord of the Rings. What more do you need? I suppose “Rings of Power” was a tad bit divisive. And those Hobbit movies were mostly pretty bad. So maybe I should say that this is an animated prequel that focuses on the origins of Helm’s Deep, from what I read, taking place 100+ years before the events of the original trilogy.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - December 20

I still love the story of Sonic the Hedgehog, how they literally paused production to redo the movie when they heard the backlash. And it became a huge hit because of it. The second movie was also a lot of fun, doing justice to the old video game franchise. Shadow was teased in the mid-credits scene, so I’m guessing that’s where this third movie is going.

Nosferatu - December 25

If you make me rank all of these movies in order of my most anticipated, I’m not sure exactly what is No. 1, but this version of “Nosferatu” might be close to the top at the very least. It’s Robert Eggers’ “Nosfertu.” Eggers is the guy who directed “The Witch,” “The Lighthouse” and “The Northman.” If you know me, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of all three of those movies. I’ve come to really enjoy Eggers’ style. I’m excited to see what he has in store for this one!

Mickey 17 - TBD 2024

And now we go through a bunch of movies that aren’t yet dated, but seem to be planning on coming out at some point. The strike has a lot to do with that, so maybe a good number of these end up in 2025. We’ll see. But “Mickey 17” was scheduled for March, so I don’t think it’ll be delayed by too much. I don’t know anything about it, outside it being directed by Bong Joon Ho, director of “Parasite,” “Okja” and “Snowpiercer.” And it stars Robert Pattinson. That’s all that I need to know. Just tell me the release date and I’ll be there.

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse - TBD 2024

I don’t actually believe that this is coming out in 2024. From what I’ve heard, they were not close to hitting their initial planned release of March 2024… and that was before the strikes. But Sony still thinks they’re going to make it this year, so I’m listing it just in case. If they stick the landing, this could be one of the best animated trilogies ever.

MaXXXine - TBD 2024

This one I have more optimism that it’ll hit the release, mostly because it’s the third movie in the trilogy of “X” and “Pearl.” And those two came out in the exact same year, that being 2022. It was a risky experiment, but I think it worked out. If you’re a horror fan and you haven’t watched those other two, then do yourself a favor and check them out. Then you can impatiently wait with the rest of us for the release date for this third one.

Kinds of Kindness - TBD 2024

The next movie from Yorgos Lanthimos. The dude is on a roll. “The Favourite” got 10 Oscar nominations and just this week “Poor Things” beat that with 11 Oscar nominations. I’m a bit surprised to see that he’s already got his next movie close to ready, but if it makes it this year, and if “Poor Things” doesn’t win the Oscars this year, I could conceivably see a scenario where the Academy makes it Yorgos year with this next film. We don’t know much about it, but it does star Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe again, with Jesse Plemons and Margaret Qualley also as co-stars.

Maria - TBD 2024

Pablo Larrain’s recent big awards players were “Jackie” in 2016 and “Spencer” in 2021. And now his next single-name movie is “Maria,” which has Angelina Jolie playing Maria Callas, one of the world’s greatest opera singers, in the final days of her life. Oscar time for Angelina?

Woman of the Hour - TBD 2024

The trio of movies before this are mostly here based on director’s name. We’ll get a couple more of those before moving onto our next section. But real quick we have a movie that HAS been seen be real humans at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. And it seems right up my alley as it’s about a serial killer named Rodney Alcala, who went on a killing spree while being on the popular game show “The Dating Game.” I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with movies and shows about serial killers, but here we are. And this seems like my movie. And it got great reviews out of TIFF, so I’m excited. And can you believe after hearing that description that it’s directed by… Anna Kendrick? Her directorial debut?  

Megalopolis - TBD 2024

I feel like I’ve heard about this movie for a long time. The newest film from Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather movies. Wikipedia claims he started writing this one as his passion project way back in the 1980s. Apparently filming wrapped up in March of last year, so whatever this is, if it comes out, I’m at the very least curious to see how it goes.

Knox Goes Away - TBD 2024

Did you know that Michael Keaton directed a movie? It’s his second one, actually. The first being a 2008 movie called “The Merry Gentleman,” which I had never heard of until researching this post. “Knox Goes Away” is a thriller from Keaton starring himself along with Al Pacino and James Marsden, about a contract killer who has dementia who has the opportunity to redeem himself by saving his son’s life. It premiered at TIFF to somewhat mixed reaction, but it has me curious. Sometimes festival audiences aren’t ready for certain genres of movies.

Juror No. 2 - TBD 2024

Clint Eastwood has a movie for us this year. The man has a bit of a hit and miss in his older age, but this movie centers around a Jury trial, which has me curious. It’s described as a man serving as a juror in a high profile murder trial dealing with some sort of moral dilemma that could potentially sway the verdict. I like courtroom dramas and this one also has a solid cast to go along with it’s premise, so maybe this is the one that Eastwood can make a comeback and put together a solid thriller?

Havoc - TBD 2024 (Netflix)

The final movie on this list is one that I also had on last year’s list. And I almost took it off because it appears to be flying somwhere in movie purgatory. But I couldn’t help myself be excited again about the idea of an action thriller directed by Gareth Evans, the director of The Raid movies. If Netflix decides to actually release it this year, that would be nice. Or maybe I’ll just keep putting it on these lists until they do. Tom Hardy, Timothy Olyphant, and Forest Whitaker star.

 

The Bad

Imaginary - March 8

I try not to focus too much on the bad. You’ll see it’s a bit of a shorter list than the good section. But there’s a few things that I have to grumble and complain about. And we start by picking on a few low-budget horror movies. It’s weird that we have two movies about imaginary friends this year, but I’ll take the John Krasinski family movie over this one. This director is responsible for “Fantasy Island” and “Truth or Dare,” two really bad horror films, so this one involving a young kid, their little bear, and supposed imaginary friend does not seem any good.

The First Omen - April 5

Likewise, these constant ripoffs of “The Exorcist” are rarely any good. And this is another one of those hidden in April that looks like a throwaway horror film to make a few bucks.

Rebel Moon - Part 2: The Scargiver - April 19 (Netflix)

No, I haven’t actually seen Part 1 of this. It came out while I was busy trying to catch up on all the real movies out there before the year ended. Normally I’d say that it’s worth giving something a chance before judging, but this is Zack Snyder and I hate most of his movies. Based on everything I’ve heard from the internet and film people I trust, this is not one of the exceptions. The crazy Snyder fans that worship the dude are the only ones singing that movie’s praises. Everyone else has said it’s garbage. If I get bored enough, maybe I’ll watch them both in April. But we’ll see.

Wildfire: The Legend of the Cherokee Ghost Horse - April 19

I feel bad picking on this one. It looks like their heart was in the right place, making a cute family film about a girl and a horse. But when I checked this out after the title caught my attention, everything about it felt like a movie made on a budget of $10  and not in a good way.

Back to Black - May 10

I’m really kinda getting tired of musical biopics that are nothing but cinematic Wikipedia articles about an artist’s life. And while Amy Winehouse certainly has enough complexity regarding her life and death to make a compelling movie, tagging the director of “Fifty Shades of Grey” is not something that inspires confidence for me that they’ll get this one right.  

Horrorscope - May 10

Maybe the studio behind this one can release a trailer that will change my mind, but this is described as a horror comedy about a group of college friends dying after getting their horoscopes read. And it’s from a new directing team that helped write “Moonfall” and “Expend4bles.” Not winning me over there.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 - May 17

Do you remember the cult horror movie “The Strangers” from 2008? Or it’s poorly received sequel in 2018, “The Strangers: Prey at Night”? No? Well, they’re attempting to reboot that franchise with a new sequel trilogy. And there’s a non-zero percent chance that they try to release all three of them this year. Yay?

Garfield - May 24

I don’t hate Chris Pratt. But I need Hollywood to be done with their obsession with him. He doesn’t have a special voice, yet they’re using his name to reboot Mario and now Garfield? When they could, you know, cast a voice actor that SOUNDS like those characters? But whatever. Mario made over $1 billion, so maybe I’m just out of touch with reality. But I still don’t personally have to be excited about Chris Pratt and his generic white dude voice being cast as everyone.

Despicable Me 4 - July 3

I actually liked the first two “Despicable Me” movies. But the third one was bad. And since then we’ve had two Minions movies that both made way too much money and are now movies that certainly exist in the world. But now we’re back to the franchise proper and my confidence in Illumination is currently at an all-time low, so they’re going to have to prove themselves to me before I get excited again.

Twisters - July 19

Bringing back the 90s and expecting people to react like they did in the 90s is certainly a choice. Remember when we did a sequel to “Independence Day”? Yeah, that was miserable. Potential hot take, but I don’t think “Twister” was a very good movie. It was of its time and worked for that time, but doesn’t hold up well in a re-watch. So I don’t have much confidence in this new one. Prove me wrong?

Alien: Romulus - August 16

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me… uh… how many bad Alien sequels have we had now? Seven if you count the Alien vs. Predator movies? “Alien” and “Aliens” are two all-time greats. And the rest are garbage. So excuse me if can’t get myself to be excited for another one of these. It was the boy who cried wolf a long time ago. But hey, speaking of the Predator franchise, I hear the movie “Prey” in that was good, so maybe Alien can be good again, too. Until I see it, though, I’m going to be skeptic.

The Forge - August 16

Get Alex Kendrick and his garbage Christian movies far away from me. He makes the rest of us Christians look bad to those who aren’t of the Christian faith.

Beetlejuice 2 - September 6

I deeply apologize for putting this one in here. That might cause a fight. For the record, I have nothing against “Bettlejuice.” It’s just that long belated sequels that should’ve happened decades ago rarely work out. “Beetlejuice” will be turning 36 years old this year. And we’re just now getting around to a sequel? At least they have Tim Burton on board. But that may or may not be a good thing these days. I hope it’s good, but if it ends up being a disappointment, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Speak No Evil - September 13

A remake of a 2022 horror film. Why? Because it was a foreign horror film. And every good foreign film apparently needs an American remake because we’re too dumb to read subtitles.

Smile 2 - October 18

Hot take. A lot of people liked “Smile.” It did very well at the box office. I was not one of those people who liked it. So I’m not exactly excited for the inevitable 30 sequels that will come our way. I suppose we can take them one at a time. But even when a horror movie is good, the sequel being equally as good is not a thing that happens too often.

Gladiator 2 - November 22

Speaking of long-belated sequels, this falls into that category as well. Although I’m not 100 percent sure “Gladiator,” as great as it is, is a movie that needed a sequel. Can you believe that it’s now been 24 years since “Gladiator”? And that movie came out in the year 2000. I refuse to believe that the year 2000 was 24 years ago. Ridley Scott is on board doing this sequel, but same thing with him. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

Mufasa: The Lion King - December 20

Remember how everyone almost universally hated that 2019 remake of “The Lion King”? Well, Disney listens to their bank account rather than online chatter. And that is one of the highest grossing movies ever at $1.646 billion. So if you wonder why Disney keeps pumping out these remakes, that’s why. People hate them, but they see them anyways. So… sequel. Or in this case, prequel. And I don’t care that Barry Jenkins in the director here. He’s getting his Disney paycheck so he can go make his next real movie. I can’t blame him. But my excitement level for a new Disney thing here couldn’t be lower. And I’m one that’s defended a lot of the recent Disney stuff. But not this one.

Karate Kid - December 26

Look, I’m not morally opposed to a new “Karate Kid” thing. In fact, they released a poster that shows them uniting the worlds of Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan, which is a cool idea. I’m just confused here because we’ve done really good with the “Cobra Kai” show, which should be releasing their sixth and final season at some point this year. And for some reason I’m hearing buzz that this movie is not connected to the show? If things get cleared up as we get closer to December, then maybe I can be excited. But right now I just have no idea what to think about this.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F - TBD 2024 (Netflix)

Copy and past with some of my recent comments. I’m excited to go revist the “Beverly Hills Cop” movies because they’re a bit of a blind spot that I can now have an excuse to fix. The first two are some of the biggest 80s movies in terms of box office gross. But do we need another one? And is a belated sequel going to do well? And is skipping theaters to go straight to Netflix a smart idea when we’ve been in an 80s Renaissance the last many years now?

Lilo & Stitch - TBD 2024 (Disney+) 

Of all the Disney live action remakes, this is one that’s perhaps given me the biggest sigh of annoyance. I don’t know if it’s coming out this year, but they had begun filming before the actor’s strike started, so I’m guessing they’re well into production. They’ve not set a date, but they have announced it as a straight-to-Disney+ thing, which also doesn’t bode well for confidence. You would think that Disney has learned their lesson to not skip theaters and after the awful year of 2023 that they had, maybe they’ll change their mind here. Or maybe they’re just as embarrassed that they’re moving forward with this particular project and would rather hide it.

 

The Maybe

Bob Marley: One Love - February 14

I’m really excited for this movie to finally come out… so that they can STOP showing this trailer. I swear I’ve seen in front of every movie for the last six months. That aside, I menionted that I’m not excited for these musical biopics anymore. But Bob Marley has an interesting enough story that this could work, theoretically. And the talent involved is not terrible. So I don’t want to ignorantly toss it in the trash just because of its genre.

Madame Web - February 14

Most people would be putting this in the bad section. I don’t know if there’s any excitement here, especially after the awful year that superhero movies had in terms of general audience reception. But I’m not most people. I’m still enjoying superhero movies. That caveat is that Sony has had the most rocky journey with their non-Spider-Man Spider-Man movies. But I don’t think this looks Morbius levels of bad. In fact, we have two different versions of Spider-Woman/Madame Web in this with Cassandra Webb and Julia Carpenter, played by Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney, respectively. So I’m more hopeful than most.

Love Lies Bleeding - March 8

Initially when I saw this poster and trailer, it looked like a generic January action movie. Until I realized it was a March action movie. Crazy as it seems, that makes a difference in regards to studio confidence. A female-led action movie from A24 with Kristen Stewart as a part of the cast is enough to intrigue. Stewart is not the buff girl with a gun on the poster, but I’ve enjoyed most of the movies she’s been. And they did release this at Sundance this week and it got decently positive remarks. I still am a little worried about it being a tad bit generic, but I lean much more on the positive side of the fence here.

Arthur the King - March 15

A movie about a dog. And Mark Wahlberg as a dude running a fancy race who finds the dog. That’s much better than this being another King Arthur movie, which I thought it was. But dog movies are often pretty cute.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - March 22

I wasn’t a fan of the recent Ghostbusters reboot in “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.” But the trailers for “Frozen Empire” have actually intrigued me. So maybe I’ll go revisit “Afterlife” to remind myself of my thoughts on that and then compare to “Frozen Empire.” I’m always hopeful that a new Ghostbusters movie will be a fun time at the movies.

Civil War - April 12

I almost put this one in the good section because the idea here is highly amusing to me. No, this is not a comic book thing, nor a historical movie about the Civil War in the 1800s. This is an alternate version of modern America in the not-so-distant future that portrays us in a new Civil War with different factions fighting against each other. Released during Election Year, which very much feels like NOT a coincidence. It’s going to spark outrage, for better or for worse. It is Alex Garland, who I love from directing “Ex Machina” and “Annihilation.” But he also did “Men” in 2022, which I was not a fan of, so he no longer has a clean record for me. I’m curious to see where I will fall and what outrage this will spark and why.

Abigail - April 19

I was about to put this is the bad section. Another April horror film that looks generic and kinda bad. But I am a horror fan. I’m just annoyed that there are so many bad ones out there that make the genre look awful. But yet when I looked at the director here, it’s the directing duo that did the recent two Scream movies, as well as the 2019 movie “Ready or Not,” which was a really fun horror movie that was also a great blend of action and comedy. So that’s a great track record. Maybe this is one of those horror movies that looks bad and generic, but is actually fun and smart. I’m willing to give it a try.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare - April 19

The latest Guy Ritchie movie. He’s been more miss than hit for me recently. But “The Covenant” last year was solid. And this is another war-themed movie with a cast that includes Henry Cavill, Cary Elwes, and Henry Goulding.

Challengers - April 26

The tennis movie Zendaya and two boys that had a lot of traction last year. It was supposed to be released in September. And with it being from the director of “Call Me By Your Name,” it was thought to maybe be an awards contender? But when the actors strike hit, they decided they wanted Zendaya to be around to promote it, so they pushed it to April, which is not a good sign for awards consideration, but it could still be a good movie. I’m worried about it being a little to steamy for my liking, if you know what I mean, but it’s on my radar.

Ballerina - June 7

The first spin-off of the John Wick franchise. Or the first movie spin-off, I should say. They had the Peacock show about the hotel that I haven’t watched because I don’t have Peacock, but I almost immediately put this in the good section because I love John Wick. The potential problem is that it’s not the director of the John Wick movies. Which is fine… except for the new director here is Len Wiseman, who’s mostly known for a lot of bad Underworld movies and the Total Recall remake that no one liked. So that makes me a bit nervous. But if he can capture the style of John Wick, I’m hoping this is at least a fun chapter because an action movie starring Ana de Armas in the John Wick Universe sounds like a winner on paper.

Bad Boys 4 - June 14

They really painted themselves in a pickle by calling the THIRD movie “Bad Boys for Life,” which could’ve been stylized as “Bad Boys 4 Life” if it was the fourth movie. Now they have an actual fourth movie and they have to pick a different creative title. Anyways, the 2020 movie that I did not watch actually got decent reviews, so maybe I’ll catch up on this franchise before this movie comes out.

Horizon: An American Saga Chapters 1 & 2 - June 18 & August 16

An interesting cinematic experiment that I’m hoping will work out. Kevin Costner directed and starred in a Western movie. Which on its own doesn’t seem very risky. That actually seems rather safe and really fun. But the risky part is that he made a really long Western movie that he split into two halves. Common trend these days, I suppose. But both halves come out this summer, Chapter 1 in June and Chapter 2 in August. So that’s a fairly unique experience. I’m curious to see how this works out.

Borderlands - August 9

If you’re a fan of the video game series “Borderlands,” you should let me know if you’re excited about the idea of a movie adaptation, given the history of video game movies. Then tell me if you like the idea of Eli Roth as the director of this movie with Kevin Hart as the star, playing a character named Roland. We also have Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jack Black. But yeah, I’m not much of a gamer, so I don’t know what I’m supposed to be thinking about this.

Flint Strong - August 9

This sounds like an awards film. It tells the story of a boxer who is training to become the first woman in her country’s history to win a gold medal in the sport. It has a solid cast. Written by Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins and directed by Rachel Morrison, who was nominated for a cinematography Oscar for “Black Panther.” But it’s being released in August, which is not quite awards season. August movies sometimes get lost in the shuffle, so I’m not sure what to think.

Kraven the Hunter - August 30

I had this on my list last year… in the bad section. I’m not sure if I believed it existed. But then a trailer came out and it was a very violent and bloody version of this character, meaning Sony was leaning into the Hard R for this comic book film, which is what they should’ve done for “Venom” and “Morbius.” It fits the character and looks like a lot of fun. But then the strike hit and they postponed this almost a whole year, meaning it landed in August. Given the Sony track record, I’m not quite willing to put this in the good section, but the maybe section is a decent step up here.

White Bird - October 4

Another movie that sounds like an awards film. From the author of the book “Wonder,” adapted by Marc Forster, director of the 2022  remake of “A Man Called Otto,” which was really good. He also directed “World War Z” and “Finding Neverland” back in the day, so this is a good director. I don’t know much about the book, but the description talks about how one act of kindness can live on forever. If not an awards film, maybe it’s a simple feel-good movie?

Venom 3 - November 8

I’ve heard rumblings that they might actually make this Venom movie rated R, which they SHOULD’VE done with “Let There Be Carnage.” Normally I say just make a good movie and I don’t care about the rating, but they finally did Carnage, but did not do Carnage justice, which was disappointing because I enjoyed the first Venom movie more than most and I like Tom Hardy as the dual role of Venom and Eddie Brock. But given that we don’t yet know exactly where they’re going with this third movie, I don’t know exactly how excited I can be. Stay tuned, I guess.

Red One - November 15

The bizarre Christmas Santa movie with JK Simmons as Santa Claus, and Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, and Lucy Liu as some sort of characters. This is supposed to be a potential franchise starter for potential re-imagined holiday mythology. I’m not sure what to think about it, but Jake Kasdan is directing and he did both of the new Jumanji movies, so that’s a plus.

The Old Guard 2 - TBD 2024 (Netflix)

We end with a Netflix movie that is not yet decided on a release date. And there is a whole Wikipeida page on upcoming Netflix movies if you want to go through them. I’ve put a few of them here, but you can definitely go down quite the rabbit whole with that. Of all of them to put on here, I do remember that I really enjoyed “The Old Guard.” Sequels to this type of movie could end up being bad, but if we get a second one at some point this year, I would give it a chance admist the very deep and never-ending see of Netflix originals that are around.