mrashtastic89

How coincidental that I watched and am reviewing this in Quincy Jones' 91st birthday, iconic composer of my favorite musical of all time, The Wiz, an immediate mention within the first 15 minutes really let me know I was in for a treat, and my prediction was proven right. Ray is a biopic showcasing the life of one of the most famous jazz musicians of all time, in a period in history with many terrific ones, Ray Charles. I was skeptical going in because of the Aretha Franklin movie, but my skepticism was quickly proven wrong.

Making a biopic, especially of a musician, is difficult, you have to be careful about what is in the movie and what main area of their life the focus is, Respect and Elvis weren't great at that, even though those were widely enjoyed by mainstream audiences, and having this movie released the same year Ray Charles died definitely helped with its greatness.

From the very first moment you're captured into the world that Charles lived in, a segregated US in the 50's and 60's, flashbacks play a big role in the underlying subtext and reason for his common traumatic hallucinations, even in the first scene you see blindness play a part in whether or not Charles gets offered a seat on the bus or not, absolutely genius.

Despite the 2 and a half hour runtime, which can feel a little long for a biopic, my attention was captured the entire time, I wish I was alive in 2004 so that I could've seen this in theaters honestly, Jamie Foxx doesn't even sound like himself here, every single song is shown and sounds exactly like the original recordings, some of the most impressive biopic music work I've seen in a long time.

Jamie Foxx really steals the show here, he has just enough charisma to seem likeable until we start to realize that his character isn't the most likeable person sometimes, and then he's able to make us hate him, this was done beautifully and seamlessly.

There's so much more I could say, maybe after a rewatch or two. Ray might just be my favorite musical biopic of all time, and it gets an A+

Some people would absolutely cringe at the thought of watching a 3 hour movie, and some would cringe even more at the thought of watching a 3 hour musical, but in my opinion, those 2 words scream "entertaining!". I've been a lifelong fan of musicals, and when I watched this with my 4th grade music class I was very impressed, but for some reason didn't revisit it at all since then. Having revisited it 6 years later, I am now much more of a fan than I was before, the 3 horsemen of old musicals, Mary Poppins, Singin in the Rain, and The Sound of Music.

Julie Andrews is perfect, having played both Maria and Marry Poppins, released back to back, she surely has solidified herself in the hall of 60's/50's musical stars, her voice and mannerisms are absolutely stunning.

Every single technical aspect of this movie is a 10/10, visual, production, music, dancing, and likeable characters, the way it's shot and directed are truly outstanding, every shot and scene are filled with beautiful visuals and marvelous colors, and the soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal, I have quite a few replaying in my head infinite times over, Edelweiss, So Long, Farewell, Do-Re-Mi, and so many others, chefs kiss.

And all of the children actors are memorable and adorable, the suspense during the final hiding scene was masterfully done and had me holding my breath.

The Sound of Music is a near perfect musical, and it gets an A.

The original 2004 comedy Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters and starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams, is one of my favorite movies of all time. I've seen it too many times to count in many different fashions, so needless to say I was extremely nervous to view this version, because what if it was ruined? And need I say, it was pretty awful. I mean come on, a cringey modernized musical version that nobody asked for? Why?

This version took everything that was original and fresh about the original and puts it to shame, instead of being funny it was focused on cramming every social media platform ever, TikTok? Check, Instagram? Check, etc. And frankly it was not fun seeing these iconic characters burst into song at the most random moments ever, 2 songs from the Broadway version weren't even in the thing 💀.

Renee Rapp hard carried, but if it weren't for her this would be a 1-star.

D-

Before my favorite movie if 2023, the color purple, was released. Barbie was my favorite of that year, having seen it twice in theaters and once on rewatch. I thought nothing was going to surpass it, after another rewatch it is still in my top 3, only being surpassed by the color purple and Oppenheimer. Featuring one of my favorite actors, Margot Robbie, I knew I was in for a treat.

Barbie has one of the most powerful storylines of the year, instead of focusing on cancel culture and toxicity (like a certain Black Christmas remake) Barbie focuses on actually empowering women to the fullest, with tons of heartfelt messages about acceptance, self-love, and insecurity.

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are both brilliant here, every scene is beautifully shot and directed. And it has one of the most powerful ones with the old woman on the bench, along with one of the best song and dance sequences I've ever seen in my life.

Barbie gives a new definition to pretty in pink, A+

Night Swim was the first movie I saw in 2024, funny how that's been the same for the past 2 years. And January horror movies have a bad rap, and I can't blame them, they're usually not great. Such as Me3an, which I saw last year, I wasn't a fan of that one at all, Night Swim is the 2024 equivalent, which I was quite excited for, but also nervous clearly. However, it really wasn't half bad.

Classic horror movie, nuclear family with a sick relative moves into a haunted house with a tragic backstory, and while this one had a fair amount of cliches (new town, research, talking to previous owner). Night Swim managed to put an interesting spin on it.

I felt the palpable tension, every time the pool was featured I was getting ready for a jumpscare, and this film pulled each one off fairly well, I was definitely cowering at times.

While the acting isn't great, some of the characters are incredibly flat. Night Swim managed to be a not bad January horror film, it wasn't half bad.

C+

The Conjuring is one of my favorite horror franchises of all time, (although it can be argued whether or not it's all historically accurate), however both Nun movies are just embarrassments to the franchise. Which is saying something since Annabelle Comes Home does exist, but honestly I only got halfway through this movie before turning it off, and I have no regrets.

Yk there's a certain cardinal thing that can determine whether a horror film is good or not, whether or not it's scary, and frankly, I wasn't scared a bit during this movie's entire duration, and the rest was filled with cheap characters, bad cgi, and bad acting.

D+

One great friend of mine used to speak of Moulin Rouge as some unforgettable musical experience, that combined with the numerous other great things I heard about this finally got me convinced to give a shot, and yes, Moulin Rouge absolutely was that experience, I've been a musical theater kid since I first watched The Wiz at 4 years old, and I think with a couple more rewatches this one will make its way onto my top 10 list.

With a stacked cast featuring grade A names such as John Leguizamo (violent night + ice age) and Ewan McGregor (star wars), from the very first minute this movie captured my attention, Baz Luhrmann is very notorious for a flashy in your face style, very well seen in Elvis and Romeo and Juliet. Neither of which I was a fan of. But the style absolutely shone here, to be quite honest, I never really had an idea what was going on at all, and the lovely performances combined with the flashy style made this a brilliant experience.

Combined with some of the greatest songs of all time (your song, lady marmalade) moulin rouge is an absolute must watch for any theater fan.

It gets an A.

Before I go into my actual thoughts, I'm just gonna say John should've been played by Ryan Reynolds 🤷‍♀️. He would've suited the role much better

I'd like to preface this by saying I am in no way a big Mark Wahlberg fan, (he always talks like he's out of breath) and I just find him more obnoxious than funny most of the time, besides Instant Family, a true gem, and while I didn't go into this expecting the utmost greatness, I was still sadly disappointed.

A movie about a talking teddy bear that is a man's best friend, while that just sounds weird in general, I found Ted to be creepy and pretty off-putting most of the time.

It's basically 2 hours of sex jokes and swear words (and quite a few slurs), and while that sometimes can work (South Park, Family Guy) most of the time it was just hit or miss here, strip that away and you have a pretty empty film devoid of any heartfelt moments or seriousness.

Ted gets a C-

One thing about me, I'm not big about Christmas at all, I used to be super excited for it as a kid (as most kids are) but nowadays it's just an average holiday for me, and I don't like a lot of Christmas movies or Christmas music at all, however this one was a pleasant exception and surprise, being released last year starring David Harbour of Stranger Things fame, I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a worthwhile 2 hours.

This film takes an exceptionally interesting approach to the idea of a "Scrooge", or a character such as The Grinch, who will do anything he can to get rid of Christmas, John Leguizamo gives an incredible performance as this villain, who just wants Christmas to be abolished.

It's filled with great humor and brilliant action scenes, extremely self-aware and reminiscent of "Home Alone" which it even references itself, and Santa fighting people was not what I expected, but it delivered in the best possible ways.

Violent Night was a great, fun movie for this time of year, and it gets an A-

My parents and I have a yearly tradition of seeing an annual Christmas movie, 2021 was West Side Story, 2018 was Spider-Verse, and I can't remember 2019. But this year was the true standout, forget what I said about Barbie and Oppenheimer, The Color Purple is my favorite movie of 2023, coming in clutch the 4th quarter of it, truly beautiful and heartfelt.

Having not read the book or seen the original movie, I went in not knowing anything about this story, which honestly kind of made the experience better, it was absolutely rousing to see in theaters, filled with beautiful cinematography, smooth transitions, and a whole lot of outstanding directed scenes and frames.

And being a musical, I anticipated each song with wonderful excitement, the story is depressing, draining, and empowering and uplifting at the same time, filled with outstanding black female characters, which we really don't see in movies in 2023 basically at all.

Danielle Brooks and Fantasia Barrino both give truly outstanding performances here, and it has one of the most beautiful endings and messages of this entire year.

I'm gonna give The Color Purple an A+

While the flash is nowhere near the dumpster fire people were saying it was, it isn't anywhere near the masterpiece that names like Tom Cruise and James Gunn got paid to praise it as, seriously, I have no idea how someone could watch this and genuinely say it's the best comic book film of all time, it's not even in the DC top 10 lol, but it was a good way to finish out the universe.

The main point of negativity for this, is the blatant lack of originality, Flash goes back in time and causes trouble, wow, I've never seen that before (flashpoint paradox) but the problem is, this movie thought all it needed to have was every single Batman and Superman to ever exist, filled to the brim with mediocre acting performances, and obviously the major controversy around Miller didn't help at all.

And I'm not even gonna put this aside, this movie has some of the worst CGI I've ever seen in in my life, now I know some of you will read that and get mad, but you did the exact same thing with She-Hulk, so don't even try.

B-

As a Native Minnesotan myself, being born and raised in the urban parts of North Minneapolis, it was pretty fun watching an excellent thriller set right in my home town, I now know what to blame for the deep rooted stereotypes about how we sound and how much snow we get, (usually more than depicted, but whatever).

Bearing quite a few similarities to No Country for Old Men, which I gave an 8/10, Fargo is an excellently directed thriller that bears plenty similarities to what I mentioned, no country for old men, which is another terrific thriller.

Steve Buscemi stole a lot of the scenes for me, bringing an exceptional charisma, the Coen brothers also directed it brilliantly, showing the cold interior of Minnesota during the winter season, Frances MacDonald and William H. Macy are also truly brilliant.

I'm gonna give Fargo an A.

Queen is, without a doubt, one of the most iconic rock bands of all time. Right up there with Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Nirvana, and Pink Floyd, Queen paved the way for the British rock industry in the late 1970's, telling the story of one of the most iconic entertainments of all time, Freddie Mercury, this movie had an extremely difficult task at hand, be accurate.

And somehow, Bohemian Rhapsody quickly became one of my favorite biopics of all time, right up there with The Social Network and The Imitation Game.

This movie is somehow entertaining, riveting, and depressing all at the same time, Rami Malek did an incredible job portraying Freddie Mercury, through his own personal struggles and the struggles the whole band had, like with his sexuality and his illness, just like Austin Butler, he gave his all to this role and it showed.

The music is as always iconic but hearing it live on TV was just such a great experience, they did their best making it sound exactly alike.

Bohemian Rhapsody gets an A.

I'm a huge horror fan, and a big fan of Jennifer Lawrence, for roles such as Mystique and Katniss Everdeen, so even after hearing how terrible this movie was, I still decided to randomly throw it on, typing this as I watch Bohemian Rhapsody. But house at the end of the street might just be one of the worst horror movies of the 2010's, and there are some true stinkers out there.

Featuring a young Jennifer Lawrence and a cast I literally couldn't name to save my life, house at the end of the street brings absolutely nothing new to the table and just recycles old stereotypes that we've seen a hundred times before, the acting is truly ridiculous, and I couldn't care less about these characters if you paid me $100.

I barely even remember what this is about, House at the End of the Street gets an F.

As I add yet another Wes Anderson film to my catalog, I view the Grand Budapest Hotel, which I've heard spoken quite highly of, and I must say, I agree with all the praise, the grand Budapest hotel is a hell of a ride, and also a movie I had to take a night to process, which I usually don't do.

Featuring a star studded cast with some of my favorite actors of all time, such as Willem Dafoe and Woody Harrelson, The Grand Budapest Hotel never stops being entertaining and intriguing, directed beautifully by Wes Anderson, with some truly outstanding cinematography and an incredible look at interesting character development.

I might have to give this a rewatch since there are plenty of things I didn't grasp at first viewing, The Grand Budapest Hotel gets an A.

A24 is one of my favorite modern movie studios of all time, having plenty of bangers under their belt such as Midsommar, Hereditary, Everything Everywhere, Uncut Gems, and their newest hit Talk To Me, while they do have lesser flicks such as Green Room and X, I feel like Mid90's really showcases just how great and unique of a studio they are, and I absolutely can't wait to see what they do in the future.

Following a young boy figuring himself out during his teenage years, Mid90's is probably one of the best coming of age movies I've seen in a long time, also one of my all time favorite movie genres.

Jonah Hill brings something special to the table here, while this is the first movie I've seen of his, he shoots and directs in such a way where you truly feel like you're in the mid-90's with these characters, and he also does such a great job highlighting serious issues, such as abuse and drunk driving, along with some other quite powerful messages and wonderful acting performances.

Mid90's gets an A.

For my introduction to Martin Scorsese, The King of Comedy was certainly an interesting pick, having a very similar premise to one of my favorite movies, Todd Phillips' Joker, about a man who just wants to be a successful comedian, that he goes to insane lengths to achieve that, however, I just don't find this movie really moving me nearly as much as as Joker did.

Robert De Niro is terrific here, arguably one of his better performances, a truly legendary actor that we're lucky to have, however, the plot to this film felt extremely disjointed and I just didn't find myself really getting into this at all, with minimal character development for everyone besides the main guy.

I really don't have much to say about this film, it was just fine.

B.

The Imitation Game might just be the best biopic I've ever seen in my life, in vain of films like The Social Network, Zodiac, and 127 Hours, while I adore those films, I just can't bring myself to put them anywhere higher than The Imitation Game, I'm actually writing this review while I'm about to cry bc of how good this movie was.

Telling the story of Alan Turing, the genius mathematician who probably had one of the biggest modern day impacts to the world of computer engineering and science, this movie excels in almost every category, I feel both the need and want to study this brilliant man that the heartbreaking tale this movie is based off of, and that's not a usual occurrence.

Benedict Cumberbatch is absolutely exceptional in this role, accompanied brilliantly by Keira Knightley, this movie masterfully retells the modern day scenes, 95% of the film, and it completely enthralled me from the first frame to the last.

And it's also got one of the most heartbreaking movie scenes I've seen in a long time, when Alan Turing reveals his secret, and learning what he did after he finished his work.

The Imitation Game is the best biopic I've ever seen, and I'm gonna give it an A+

Over the past few years, M. Night has had kind of a downfall in the quality of his films, although he's always been one of my favs, with movies such as The Sixth Sense and Signs, we can't deny with movies like The Last Airbender, Glass, and Old, that his films have kinda dipped in quality, however, I feel like Knock at the Cabin is the perfect example for why he can still make a comeback.

Featuring what is probably a career-best performance from Dave Bautista and some truly shocking scenes, Knock at the Cabin takes a grounded and serious look at what would truly happen if the world came to an end, unlike M. Night's other film like this, The Happening, this movie is both well directed with some truly excellent scenes of suspense.

While there were a few drawbacks, namely the lack of characterization, not too much backstory for the representation of life theme, and no actual explanation of the apocalypse, I still found Knock at the Cabin to be a very worthy thriller that you should definitely check out.

A-

As I'm continuing my binge this iconic action franchise for the first time, I fall on The Last Crusade, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom are both incredible action films, but The Last Crusade just might be my favorite entry in the Indiana Jones trilogy, if only it was actually The Last Crusade.

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade sets itself apart from the first 2 movies by having more heart, genuine characterization for Indiana Jones, brilliantly adding in lore and a heartfelt backstory, since Temple of Doom wasn't as well received as Raiders, The Last Crusade does a brilliant move, going back to basics.

Harrison Ford possibly gives the best performance of all the movies in his role, and his father is also played brilliantly by Sean Connery, accompanied by probably the best opening scene and finale of the whole trilogy.

I'm gonna give Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade an A+

Wes Anderson is not a director I'm well-versed in, in fact the only other one of his movies I've seen besides this are Fantastic Mr. Fox, one of my personal animated favorites, and as I continue to cross more titles off my 2023 watchlist, Asteroid City comes along, a movie I heard was pretty terrible, however, idk what all those people were on about, Asteroid City is a great and as I said, brainy film.

Taking one of the most stacked casts of this year, I'm not kidding, this cast rivals that of Oppenheimer with household names such as Steve Carell, Willem Dafoe, Jason Schwartzmann, and Scarlett Johansson, Asteroid City does a great job applying an extremely smart screenplay over 1 hour and 45 minutes, really begging the questions and themes of life beyond earth.

And it's full of rich and great performances, most notably from Schwartzmann, Norton, Johansson, and Dafoe, all getting their moments to shine, along with a bit of Bryan Cranston, Mr. Walter White himself.

A-

When I first watched Insidious for the first time in 2021, I was expecting a generically cringe horror flick relying on the overuse of jumpscares, however, I received a well crafted, actually scary horror film, scientifically proven to be one of the scariest horror movies of all time, for good reason, however, I can't really say the same about this one.

Insidious: Chapter Two is a literally direct continuation of the first one, however it just seems to do everything worse, bringing in a whole bunch of new characters I couldn't care less about and not having a single actually scary moment in the whole thing.

Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson are both great as always, highlights of the series, but overall this is probably one of the most lackluster horror sequels of the 2010's

C+

Forget what I said about Barbie, for now, Oppenheimer is the best movie of 2023, beating out such masterpieces such as Barbie and Across the Spider-Verse, Christopher Nolan is one of the best working directors of our time, with classics like Memento, The Dark Knight, Interstellar, and Inception.

But in my opinion, the only movie that I just named that Oppenheimer doesn't beat for me is Memento, one of my all time personal favorites.

For the first Nolan film I've seen in the theater, it was a completely transportive experience, showcasing the life and work of the man who made the single most powerful weapon of all time, the atomic bomb.

Christopher Nolan directed this film masterfully, beautifully diving deep into the psychological layers this movie has to offer, it's a character study through and through, from the first frame to the last frame I was completely engaged and locked in.

And it's also got some of the best acting performances I've seen this year, Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, RDJ, and so many others are all at the top of their game here, so perfectly playing all the central characters in Oppenheimer's life, with an exceptional musical score and an insane final 10 minutes.

Oppenheimer gets an A+

A24 is one of my favorite movie studios of all time, and one that's still going strong even during the writers/actors strike, making such great films such as Midsommar, Hereditary, Uncut Gems, and many, many more, including the new hit Talk To Me, which I still have yet to see.

However, I just can't say the same about Green Room, while they've definitely made worse (X, Last Bird), Green Room just happened to miss the mark for me, while it definitely wasn't bad, it falls on the lower rungs of the A24 ladder for me.

While it was beautifully directed and filled with excellent suspense, I just found the general story kind of far-fetched and there really wasn't any characterization to actually resonate with, not to mention these characters make some of the dumbest decisions known to man, common in horror films.

Patrick Stewart delivers a can't miss performance, and the cinematography and some of the other performances were all great, but overall Green Room missed the mark for me.

C+

While I'm not a MASSIVE fan of the original 90's Lion King, there is no denying that it's a classic animated movie and probably a staple must-watch for the animation genre, and while Disney live action remakes have a reputation for being well, not good, I went into this with a still open mind, and while it isn't the absolute dumpster fire everyone was saying it was back in 2019, it still wasn't great.

Most of this film's faults came from a true lack of originality, if you take a look at the original compared to this version, it's basically just a frame for frame redo without any new ideas or any groundbreaking original storylines.

The hyenas and Zazu are exceptionally annoying, and while Scar is still one of the best Disney villains of all time and the cinematography and action were both great, I just can't bring myself to have any desire to rewatch this film and it was really only made to satisfy Disney's money hungry needs.