So far, 2023 has been a decent year for movies. From what I have seen everything has ranged from utter greatness to bland cardboard. A few full reviews have been published here so far, but a few films have slipped through my cracks. Not everything is worth a full review, and that is okay, because sometimes it is not worth thinking about too much.
Today, I come bearing a quick little Review Roundup of a few 2023 films I have not had the chance to fully review. Quite a few films have made their ways into my eyes. So, I will just keep it limited to three good and three bad in no more than a paragraph or two. We can end things on a positive note let’s start with the bad.
Review Roundup of 2023 Films
#3 Bad: Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania
Ant-Man 3 simultaneously had so much potential yet so much that was destined to wreak. For every Ruben Rabasa cameo there was an obnoxious side character. Kang and M.O.D.O.K are the antagonists! Jonathan Majors’ accusations arise making everything uncomfortable, his performance is pretty boring, and M.O.D.O.K sucks. Is there a potential for weird quantum realm science that will look cooler than it makes sense? Sure! It all looks terrible, and this may be the ugliest looking movie of the year. Damn.
No, I will not spend more than necessary hating big Marvel, but I will definitely add they need to relax. There is nothing new for me to add to the pleas to get Marvel to stop stuff like this. I have no idea what I expected from this movie, but I definitely got a headache when all was said and done. Honestly, I would be able to relax a bit on them if these movies were at least fun. But, hey, speaking of fun superhero movies…
#3 Good Review: Shazam! Fury of the Gods
I have yet to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 so unfortunately that will not be anywhere here. However, I did get a chance to check out the sequel to the best DCEU movie, Shazam! Fury of the Gods. This was fun! Was it the most fun ever? No, it dragged out at points and had too much fun with itself at times. Luckily, I thought the tonal balance between fun and for real-sies was kept pretty well. We are in the modern age of cinema so of course there are scenes with too many jokes, but to me it was not notable enough to truly despise.
Fury of the Gods came out around the time of a certain untouchable assassin, so no one really went to see this. I get it, I do. I would have chosen Wick 4 over this as well, but if you get the chance sometime soon, I will say, check this movie out. It is light fun that can kill a few hours of your time and will not hurt you too much.
#2 Bad Review: 65
Call me an optimist, but if I see that Adam Driver is going to fight off dinosaurs, I am so in for the ride no matter how dumb it will be. In order to properly validate this optimism all a concept like that needs to do is entertain me. 65 did not do that at all. Although I think things somehow could have actually been worse, this sucked so much. I do not feel my credibility is affected in any way by giving this movie flowers or hate, but when you somehow make something this boring then I think you deserve my scrutiny.
Adam Driver and Arianna Greenblatt in a boring movie aka 2023’s 65. Image provided courtesy of Sony Pictures.
There is nothing to care about here at all. The action is a caca and wee-whizz type beat that continually slogs on. Driver’s father/protector role over the girl he is stranded with does absolutely nothing at all. All of this would be meaningless stuff to complain about, again, if anything here was fun. It was not and I am angry.
#2 Good Review: Air
Why did this work? I was born in 2000 and love all things Y2K. There is nothing nostalgic in my body for the 1980’s. The amount of yearning for that decade specifically in the current media-sphere is annoying, but for some reason Air hits every note that makes me love it. The performances are pretty good. Much of the soundtrack bangs really hard. Aesthetically, I think there is so much that looks good. There is something about this charming mix of Moneyball, Jerry Maguire and nostalgia bombs that work so well.
I laughed a few times. Everything was interesting and fun to watch along with. This is not the most original sports movie ever made, but these boys made it fun. Ben Affleck is really good when he is on, and I think he is definitely on in this. Matt Damon is a good protagonist to follow. Jason Bateman was great, Viola Davis was great, and Chris Tucker was great. Air works and I definitely recommend it.
#1 Bad Review: M3gan
Now let us get something straight- you should know by now that I like bad movies as much as good ones. Similarly, to 65, I knew there was a low chance I could walk out of this one calling this a “good” movie. As long as I had myself a good laugh, all is correct in this world. Yet again, just like 65, they could not even give me a moment of fun. Side tangent really quickly: there will be a M3gan 2. Fine. I imagine it will be successful enough for a third. Blumhouse already messed up by putting the 3 in M3gan instead of waiting for the third. You have made me angry.
I don’t think a movie has made me as angry as M3gan did. Image provided courtesy of Blumhouse Productions.
Look man, I do not care how ridiculous your sentient doll plot is going to be. I am here for it, and I will tag along with whatever. Everything takes too damn long to get interesting. The dialogue, performances, and logic are all annoying. At least Old had an outlandish enough plot to blind me enough to like it. If you are going to update the sentient robot doll trope, then at least make it good. Please. Oh, and hey, speaking of Old-
#1 Good: Knock at the Cabin
M. Night Shyamalan has been on an incredible tear recently. The king came back swinging and has not let us down since his resurrection with 2015’s The Visit. I do not want to hear it. Mr. Night has been killing it over and over again and I am so happy he is so back. Earlier this year, the goat released an adaptation of Paul G. Tremplay’s novel of the same name, Knock at the Cabin. The film was given an ‘R’ rating, stars notable sweethearts Dave Bautista and Jonathan Groff, and has an intriguing plot.
While Mr. Night’s flavors may be too strong for most normal humans to handle, this movie worked very well for me. You have your typical Shyamalanian silliness with the script and dialogue execution. The plot gets too out of hand at a certain point, but if you can’t hang, then that is on you, broski. You should know exactly what you are in for when Mr. Night’s name is involved.
Nikki Amuka-Bird, Dave Bautista, Abby Quinn, and Rupert Grint in the 2023 film Knock at the Cabin. Image provided courtesy of Universal Studios.
Everyone’s performances were pretty good. Dave Bautista is especially so great, and I would argue he gave the finest performance in a Shyamalan movie in a long time. Place that bar wherever you want, but it proved to me that Big Dave is a reliably good actor. Knock at the Cabin transcends the based/ cringe dichotomy a few times and I have so much respect for it. The end of the movie is still super divisive in my brain, but I do not see this getting bad enough to call it a ‘Bad’ movie.
Give it a watch and come back here to tell me I am right. Mr. Shyamalan, please give me a chance to prove my undying devotion to you and your kino ways. I love Old, Split, Unbreakable, and some of your others of course ha ha.. We can take over all of Philadelphia together- just you and me, baby. Let me know!
Final Thoughts
It is too early to tell what the final verdict in 2023 will be. So far, everything is okay, but despite the few wastes of time sprinkled through, there is a good bit of genuine fun. At the end of the day, that is literally the only thing I want out of movies. Fun is a loose and subjective term, but it can come in many shapes and forms as evident by some of the movie reviews above.
Which of these movies have you seen and what did you think of them? Let me know and be sure to check back here on Respect My Region for more movie reviews!
