Best movies of 2023?
Number24
NorwayPosts: 21,811MI6 Agent
What movies with a 2023 preemiere did you like the best. Please post.
Here are my entries:
- Napoleon (Ridley Scott)
- Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
- Astroid City (Wes Anderson)
- The banshees of Insherin (Martin MacDonagh) I didn't see it in the cinema until this year, so I'm including it.
- Mission Impossible - Dead Reconing Part 1 (Christopher McQuarrie)
Honourable mention: Barbie , Dungeons & dragons: Honour among thieves ,
Comments
Legit great films:
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
ASTEROID CITY
OPPENHEIMER
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: VOLUME 3
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING part 1
Decent films:
BARBIE
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES
EXTRACTION 2
NO HARD FEELINGS
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY
THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER
A HAUNTING IN VENICE
THE KILLER
Guilty Pleasures:
M3GAN
THE POPE'S EXORCIST
PLANE
TOTALLY KILLER
Passable:
HAUNTED MANSION
THE MARVELS
Garbage:
HYPNOTIC
FAST X
THE FLASH
HEART OF STONE
Honestly, just haven't seen many films this year. My local Odeon doesn't seem to want custom, it's around £20 a time be it matinee or several weeks in to a run, the venue lacks charm. Many a film recommended or reviewed in the main press just doesn't make it to the suburbs, it's all trashy family fare. Tbf the Scorcese picture didn't appeal, nor did the bum-numbing Oppenheimer. Or my namesake, Napoleon.
A Picturehouse was due to open prior to Covid striking - some years on, it's still yet to to open.
I've been to London's Prince Charles cinema more than my local this year. That looks set to continue in the New Year as they're reshowing the Bond movies on the downstairs main screen.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Napoleon didn't like Napoleon? That's just wrong in several levels. 😲
Truthfully I haven't seen a film this year that I was blown away by. I'd probably have to give top spot to Oppenheimer. A good solid 4 out of 5 type of a film: Interesting subject matter, good performances, very nicely shot but I will definitely have to give it another viewing sometime to fully make my mind up about the movie.
Another film which I enjoyed was The Pigeon Tunnel - a documentary by Errol Morris about the life of John Le Carre, largely centred around his father and early life experiences. Again, nicely shot with some interesting stylised cinematography especially in Morris's interviews with Le Carre which make up the narrative, combined with re-enactments of some of the incidents recounted by Le Carre as well as footage from several screen adaptations of Le Carre's books.
I also enjoyed the new Mission Impossible and Indiana Jones films. Barbie was a good film too, but didn't really appeal to me personally. I quite like Napoleon, although I understand the complaints about historical fidelity they didn't bother me too much. I don't mind a bit of cinematic historical-myth, especially when it's done with the sort of aplomb that Ridley Scott is capable of.
I'm still looking forward to seeing the new Scorsese and Fincher films, but I'll only get round to those next year.
Never watched a thing at the cinema this year. No Bond films on, y'see. 😉
Well, self-loathing is part of my make-up... didn't say I didn't like it, I haven't seen it, based on reviews. Someone wrote it's a very long trailer as it misses out a good many plot points lost in the edit, and that the real version will be the director's cut, on when it hits one of the streaming channels - which I'm not familiar with.
I gave a silly review of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny when it came out but in retrospect that was a proper movie, I got my money's worth. It wasn't quite right - the two incidents that stayed with me weren't wit or magic, but rather two grim scenes such that the film might require a trigger warning. If you've had a relative top themselves by hanging, the opening scene won't please you, even if the payoff isn't unhappy, and if you know of someone who's drowned, a later death really is horrible, even if the villain 'deserves' it totally, it is grim stuff. Perhaps I was affected by the recent mini-sub disaster of the time.
But that's the thing - as we know, Indiana Jones was sort of based on Spielberg not doing Bond - or rather, not accepting a pay cut to do Bond as they don't offer a share of the profits - and so in common, many of the deaths have that cartoon quality that makes them unrelatable. Death by spiked shoe? Flying bowler hat? Assassins disguised as blind men? Piranha pool? Harpoon? Unlikely any audience member would know of any instance of such a death in their personal life, it's cartoon stuff. (In fairness, Temple of Doom had some inappropriately nasty stuff too, even if outlandish.) The latest Indiana Jones is at pains to show how nasty and real it can be, there are some brutal slayings by simple gun shot here, it's not quite the same genre, there's nothing Disney about it. That said, the payoff was suitably out there.
I had wanted to take my elderly Dad to see this at the BFI Imax, even if for the World War II opening scene, but that was really too dark.
Overall, the plot didn't have room to breathe or enjoy itself, and I'd have rather have someone other than Toby Jones or even Phoebe Waller-Bridges, the latter has the vibe of the Mitford sisters at times. Not saying she isn't a movie star, I mean where's she been? Put her in a movie ffs, I want to see her, but she lacked an Irish sparkle that might have sold her character.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I understand. It all comes down to your Napoleon complex. 😁
For @Napoleon Plural Napoleon was not dynamite.