This is it - A Gendo 2023 movie watching thread

[Raxivace]

I mean even in the book his prison time really does break him down a lot to even get him on that path to revenge to begin with, but after getting out and finding the treasure he could have just chilled out somewhere (Perhaps accepting the treasure as some kind of divine compensation through his religious worldview), or traveled around the world helping people (Beyond just the people that were loyal to him this whole time), or gone against those dudes through different but less violent means etc. He had a choice and means to do differently.

[Gendo]

50. Dolittle (2020) - About as bad as I expected. Mostly just boring; with various unfunny jokes. I thought the CG animals looked decent enough.

R17. Braveheart (1995) - Man I love this movie. The cinematography is beautiful, but probably the best part is James Horner. I know I've said this before about other movies, but this might be his best work. Gibson's acting isn't his best work, but other actors make up for it. Especially Angus Macfadyen... apparently it was his first movie, and he absolutely nails it. I just now found out that he reprised the role recently in Robert the Bruce (I knew about that show, but didn't know they got the same actor from Braveheart for it).

51. Snowden (2016) - Great! I don't generally go for spy thrillers, but I do go for Oliver Stone. JGL is great as always, and the story was just constantly engaging. Also, Tom Wilkinson instantly makes everything better.

[Gendo]

52. A Little Princess (1986) - Maybe my favorite of the 3 versions I've now seen. At least the most in-depth. Of course, it's a miniseries so that's to be expected. The film quality was terrible; but the actual production values were quite good. The story was much darker than either of the other versions (this is more true to the book; at least in that her father actually dies. That's quite a change the other movies made; to reveal him to be alive at the end). There was a lot more about class struggles here; while it seems in retrospect as an obvious point of the story, it isn't really hammered home in the other films. This one is all about that.

53. The Music Man (1962) - Good. Robert Preston especially was really entertaining — a great mix between funny and devious.There were a few songs I knew, that I never knew where they were from (especially "Shipoopi", which I legitimately thought was created by Family Guy lol).

[Gendo]

54. Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940) - Excellent dancing, cute story, and some funny moments. I hadn't seen Eleanor Powell in anything before, I don't think. Fred Astaire is always a joy to watch.

R18. It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - Always great. Pretty much never gets old; deserves to be the classic that it is.

55. Holiday Affair (1996) - Pretty much the same thing as the original, which means it was good. I kind of wish they had changed more, just to make it more worthy of having 2 versions. Somehow certain elements of the plot just seem to make more sense as something being in the 1940s instead of the 1990s; just something seems to fit more with how I think of people being acting and living in those different societies.

[Raxivace]

When I first revisited It's a Wonderful Life as an adult I was really surprised to think it was not only as good as a I remembered it being, it was better tbh and probably the culmination of Capra's classical style. He really mines out of Stewart too the same kind of darkness that people like Hitchock and Anthony Mann exploited too, like in the scene where he snaps at his kids. Just a really great movie all around.

[Gendo]

Yeah he really has this perfect "just barely holding it all together" thing throughout.

56. Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001) - Wow. This was so amazingly bad in the best way. It has this huge star-studded cast of all fairly prominent British actors (Simon Callow, Kate Winslet, Michael Gambon, Rhys Ifans)... and then somehow Nicolas Cage is in there as Marely. The animation mostly looked like something from the 70s, but then it had various CG that I would say looked like the early days of CG, but this was 5 years after Toy Story. The plot/script itself was where it really got weird, though. It has this whole subplot about Belle trying to get back in touch with Scrooge because she needs his help. Then just lots of other weird minor changes to both dialog and story. My favorite bit is probably when Fred and company are playing the guessing game, and the wife just immediately guesses Scrooge with no clues or context whatsoever.

[Gendo]

57. John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) - It was ok I guess. I mean, it was very well made. Beautiful to look at; great shots and impressive long takes. But the overall plot and characters was just a bit too much a mix of ridiculous and boring. The action is great, but we've seen it all before. And while it's never been believable/realistic, the required suspension of disbelief here is just a bit too high. Like it's fine to have a blind guy that's great at martial arts when it's a movie like Blind Fury or a comic book like Daredevil. But we're supposed to believe that in a world of elite assassins who have constantly failed to take on John Wick, a blind guy is going to be the big threat? And Scott Adkins as Killa was fantastic and a lot of fun; but also a very cartoony villain that felt out of place in the franchise. Also, definitely at least 30 minutes too long. But at least it had Clancy Brown; he makes everything better. And RIP Lance Reddick. Overall, definitely the weakest of the 4 films.

[Gendo]

58. Evil Dead Rise (2023) - It was good! I wasn't sure at first; started to get a little bored partway through. But things really ramped up in the final act, and it just became a lot of fun. The triple-merged person thingy was really creative. I wouldn't say it was very scary, but the franchise has never been about being truly scary. I do wish it had more camp in it; that part seemed heavily lacking for an Evil Dead film. Overall, the creativity of the monsters and gore made it good.

[Gendo]

59. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) - Pretty good. The best part really was just the many references to the games spread throughout. Jack Black was especially good. There was really nothing to the story, but that's probably ok. Not anything amazing or groundbreaking, but pretty good.

R19. Super Mario Bros. (1993) - I want to like this, but it's just so bad. I think I liked it as a kid. The many production issues they had actually making the movie shine through; especially in the performances. I do give it points for trying a lot of really weird and interesting stuff at least.

60. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) - Pretty similar to the first one, though perhaps with better highs and worse lows. Tom Hardy once again does great, and the dynamic between Brock and Venom is interesting, though perhaps played up just a bit too much. Carnage was quite disappointing, and both he and Kasady are quite lacking in any character development. The tone was also just all over the place, like it really couldn't decide what type of movie it wanted to be.

[Gendo]

61. Big Night (1996) - Mixed feelings on this. It had been one of my white wales for my DVD collection for a while now, because someone with selective tastes in movies had recommended it, and it was hard to find. So that hyped it up more than it should have been. The performances were great; definitely what stood out the most. But it was weirdly hard to follow for a film with almost no plot. I didn't always understand what was causing the brothers to argue/fight. The ending was nice; I kind of like films that just end suddenly in an unresolved state sometimes. As a whole, it was an indie film and very much felt like it.

[Gendo]

62. Fall (2022) - Surprisingly good. I was expecting an average cheap thriller, but it did a great job at building tension and suspense. Especially the climbing up scene; the whole part was great. The weird drama bit in the middle was unnecessary and easily the worst part. The bird stuff was a bit over-the-top but also pretty cool with how it all ended. As a whole, a very enjoyable thriller.

R20. Jingle All the Way (1996) - I don't think I've seen this since high school. It was definitely weirder and dumber than I remembered, but not necessarily in a bad way. The gang of Santas part was especially fun, as it just got weirder and weirder as it went on. The last act with the actual real-life iron-man suit was pretty bad; it just felt so out of place, and also had terrible effects. As a whole, not at all a holiday classic to rewatch all the time; but it's fine.

R21. The Firm (1993) - I've seen this a whole bunch; good movie to just put on in the background. Great performances from everyone. I always love Gene Hackman; it didn't occur to me until looking it up yesterday that he hasn't acted at all since 2004.

[Raxivace]

Yeah Hackman's film career went out on Welcome to Mooseport of all things.

[Gendo]

63. Moana (2016) - Not bad. An enjoyable story and some pretty animation. Some songs were good; but not all. I thought the ocean being literally on her side was a bit much; like it simply made her too powerful with not enough adversity to overcome.

64. The Cocoanuts (1929) - This was just kind of weird. Probably the weakest Marx Brothers film I've seen. The musical numbers just felt out of place, and the story was just confusing. There were still several bits that made me laugh, though.

R22. Dead End (2003) - Excellent. I had forgotten this was a Christmas movie, and when I was reminded of that, I knew I needed to rewatch it this year. It really holds up. Somewhat scary, and silly in all the right ways. The twist and then the little twist on the twist are great. And the music is really good as well.

65. Superbad (2007) - I've avoided watching this for a long time because I knew it was a genre I simply don't like. But everyone kept talking about it. It was about as stupid as I assumed it would be; but it still had a lot of good stuff. The dialogue felt very natural, and the last act had a lot of good heart to it, both with the relationship between the friends and the relationships between the men and the women. And there were plenty of funny bits.

[Gendo]

66. The Music Man (2003) - If this were the only version; it would be just fine. But everything's a little worse than the 1962 version. Broderick was fine, but Preston was perfect.

67. Deep Blue Sea (1999) - Pretty bad. The effects were in the so bad it's good territory; I greatly that at least. But the rest of it was just regular bad. However, Samuel L. Jackson's big speech and the way it ends was really amazing and just good filmmaking. I already knew going into it what was going to happen, but it was still great. I imaging it would have been even better if I didn't know.

68. VeggieTales: The Star of Christmas (2002) - Like the other VeggieTales stuff I've seen; pretty good. I mean it's not one of those kids movies that I would enjoy independently of having a kid, but it had some good music, some funny dialogue, and a great message.

R23. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) - It's Christmas Eve, so I watched this. I don't see that ever changing.

[Gendo]

Gonna try to get through as much stuff as I can before the end of the year, but first, a re-watch because it's Christmas day and I don't down any Christmas movies that I haven't seen yet.

R24. Tokyo Godfathers (2003) - So beautiful; so good. While not nearly as trippy as Perfect Blue or Paprika, it tells such a wonderful story. All 3 main characters are beautifully written, and their relationship with each other is just pure love.

[Raxivace]

Trippiness like that wouldn't have fit for Tokyo Godfathers anyways. It's Kon's Straight Story, the earnestness and direct sentimentality is why its so good.

[Gendo]

Oh for sure; I can see that my sentence could have been read as the lack of trippiness being a complaint; but it was meant just as an interesting note because he's generally known for a different genre.

69. Take Shelter (2011) - Great movie; even if mostly just because it did something different, and because of Michael Shannon. The music was great, and overall it just did a good job of giving a sense of uneasiness throughout. I really didn't know what to expect, and was really invested in finding out what was truth vs what was just mental illness. Turns out it's one of those movies that's not about getting those sorts of answers. It reminded me of a Coen Brothers or Aronofsky film in that way; it's much more theme-driven than plot-driven.

70. Deja Vu (2006) - Really good in some parts; but I feel like they kind of ruined it with the third act. I didn't know much about this going into it other than it had something to do with time travel in some way. The viewing the past stuff was really cool; especially as it was used in the car "chase" scene; that was just a really neat idea. I wish there had been more of that. All the conversation about whether or not they could change the past was good, though nothing new at all. But then they basically throw all that away and suddenly he's just time-traveling and changing the past. It felt like a major plot hold that all these scientists who invented this technology would be convinced that nothing other than viewing could go into the past... and then ok, fine, maybe we can try sending a note. And then, suddenly, we're just going to send a person! It makes no sense at all. I get that they said it was a technology they didn't fully understand so they were afraid to try and mess with it too much, but we're really expected to believe that they never tried putting anything in this time portal; and just assumed that they had proven that it would be physically impossible?

[Gendo]

71. Murder on the Orient Express (1974) - Pretty good. Albert Finney was quite entertaining; and the ending twist to the mystery was quite brilliant and not something I'd have ever seen coming.

72. The Green Knight (2021) - Absolutely stunning visuals. Every bit of cinematography was great, and the overall scenery was beautiful. Great performances from everyone. As with Take Shelter, it's a movie with a somewhat ambiguous plot that's all about the theme. There's a lot of stuff I didn't get when watching it, but reading up on it afterwards increased my overall appreciation of the film.

73. Murder on the Orient Express (2017) - Also pretty good. Kenneth Branagh seemed to play a completely different character from Finney; can't say which I liked better. There was a lot of impressive cinematography here as well; nice long tracking shots and such. While I don't know which version was closer to the book; the places where the story diverged from the older version each felt like the older one was better.

74. Mother! (2017) - Not since Upstream Color have I more instantly felt like I wanted to rewatch a film. This was so disturbing in all it's imagery, and the violation of mother and her home registered pretty strongly. But the main thing is, I completely didn't get the movie until after. I don't know whether Aronofsky intended the audience to get it right away or not, but as I re-read the plot summary afterwards, I felt like a complete idiot for not getting what was happening at each stage. I mean, for all the possible movie twists that I could have predicted, the husband was actually God simply wasn't one of them. But it wasn't just that, it was every plot point. I didn't get that the fighting brothers were Cain and Abel. I didn't get that the room the guests were told to not go in was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. At least I did kind of get who the baby was; at least as soon as Bardem said his character's name. Anyway, it was good.

[Faustus5]

72. The Green Knight (2021) - Absolutely stunning visuals. Every bit of cinematography was great, and the overall scenery was beautiful. Great performances from everyone. As with Take Shelter, it's a movie with a somewhat ambiguous plot that's all about the theme. There's a lot of stuff I didn't get when watching it, but reading up on it afterwards increased my overall appreciation of the film.

There was a kind of forlorn, spooky vibe in common between this film, Excalibur, and even portions of Monty Python and the Holy Grail that I wonder is somehow in the Arthur legend source materials. Seems a bit much to think it was a coincidence.

[Raxivace]

There was a kind of forlorn, spooky vibe in common between this film, Excalibur, and even portions of Monty Python and the Holy Grail that I wonder is somehow in the Arthur legend source materials. Seems a bit much to think it was a coincidence.

Yeah there is a lot of that in the original stories. Some of that is because some of the existing stories we have are literally unfinished (Chretien De Troyes story of Perceval and the Fisher King being prime example here), but outside of that the stories themselves are honestly still pretty weird.

That being said I didn't like The Green Knight film very much. Or at least not much beyond being a fairly mindless adventure story. Visually very strong and great performance from Dev Patel, but I wasn't a big fan of how they changed the story of the original poem (Which frankly strikes me as far more subversive than the movie. The poem is about how chivalric code itself is inherently contradictory, while the movie is about how uh, Gawain just needs to stop being afraid of dying and move out of his mom's house lol.) or how they just kinda forced the Last Temptation of Christ ending onto it.

[Gendo]

75. He Got Game (1998) - Excellent. Spike Lee's dialogue is always so sharp and layered with deeper meanings. Both Denzel and Ray Allen give terrific performances, and the score comprised of Aaron Copeland pieces was great. And you know I'm always a sucker for a good father-son story.

[Gendo]

76. Jason Bourne (2016) - Not bad. Seemed to focus more on the spy thriller stuff than the action stuff, and the spy thriller stuff was pretty good. The action wasn't very interesting, and nor were the characters.

77. Sunshine Cleaning (2008) - Meh... it was fine, but just not all that interesting. Good performances by Blunt and Adams, but I just didn't really care for it.

[Gendo]

78. Lightyear (2022) - My final film for the year. Timed for streamers popping out of the ship at midnight. Better than I expected from what I heard. The action scenes were fun, and there were several hilarious jokes, mostly involving the cat. And a surprisingly deep story as a whole. But the biggest flaw was a complete lack of originality… pretty much everything was stuff we’ve seen many times before. Some stuff lifted directly from Star Trek; and it didn’t feel like it was done as an homage to it or anything. So it was good and overall well done, but not going to stand up to the all-time great Pixar stuff.

Yearly wrap-up to come soon.

[Gendo]

As expected, Tears of the Kingdom took of a large portion of my free time this year, leading to fewer movies than usual. I watched a total of 102 films; 78 for the first time. Of the ones I saw for the first time; my favorite 10 in the order I watched them:

John Wick 1-4 (2014-2023) - I know it's kind of cheat to put 4 films in 1 slot, but they do all go together as 1 long story. I would rank them 3>1>2>4.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
About Time (2013)
Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
Unknown (2011)
Bells Are Ringing (1960)
Snowden (2016)
Fall (2022)
Mother! (2017)
He Got Game (1998)

Honorable mentions:
Take Shelter (2011)
The Green Knight (2021)
Knock at the Cabin (2023)