Movies from 2023 I've seen

2023 will be the year that I just gave up on watching and reviewing Movies. As of right now, there are no movie reviews on my #isawthatmovie blog for 2023. I decided that forcing myself to watch movies I had no enthusiasm to watch, or having that added pressure to come up with some documented impressions of my experience when I literally had nothing worthwhile to share, was just not what I wanted to spend time on anymore. This is especially when there really aren’t a lot of people looking at my reviews. 2023 is “the year I skipped,” but will 2024 continue that trend? Maybe.

I do want to go back to putting “some” content on that blog, even if it’s just a one sentence reaction to a movie I’ve seen. I do miss having a document of what I have seen throughout the year, which is something that is so very relevant right now as I type this up, as I try to continue my annual tradition of sharing a list of all the movies I’ve seen in the year. I’m literally having to go through my Google Calendar or my digital movie ticket stubs to remind me of what I’ve seen, let alone what I thought of them.

As I ruminate what I’m going to do for my movie going experience in 2024, here below is a list of what I have seen in 2023. At least I’m hoping it’s the complete list and I didn’t forget something I have seen. Going with my theme of 2023, there are a lot more movies that I have not watched yet, or did not want to watch, so there are “holes” in this list for sure.

Overall, 2023 was a mixed bag in terms of quality and releases for movies, due to some obvious factors like the Hollywood strikes, the purposely delayed films, and the method on how they were offered to audiences via movie theaters or streaming services. However, like any year, there are some absolute stand-outs, disappointments, and generally forgettable entrees.

Below is my list of the Movies from 2023 that I have seen. 103 movies at the time this post is published…

  1. Past Lives

  2. Anatomy of a Fall 

  3. Spider-Man Across the Spider-verse 

  4. Godzilla Minus One 

  5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 

  6. Poor Things 

  7. When Evil Lurks

  8. Talk To Me 

  9. American Fiction 

  10. Saltburn 

  11. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves 

  12. Missing 

  13. Super Mario Bros: The Movie 

  14. John Wick: Chapter 4 

  15. No One Will Save You 

  16. Totally Killer 

  17. Wonka

  18. Elemental 

  19. Scream VI 

  20. The Marvels 

  21. Polite Society 

  22. Barbie 

  23. TMNT: Mutant Mayhem 

  24. Renfield 

  25. Cocaine Bear 

  26. Evil Dead Rise 

  27. Sisu 

  28. The Blackening 

  29. Asteroid City 

  30. Oppenheimer 

  31. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning 

  32. Strays 

  33. Dream Scenario 

  34. The World Left Behind 

  35. Killers of the Flowers Moon 

  36. The Boy and The Heron

  37. Bottoms 

  38. Joy Ride 

  39. The Machine 

  40. Blue Beetle 

  41. M3GAN 

  42. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 

  43. At Midnight 

  44. No Hard Feelings 

  45. Beau Is Afraid 

  46. Air 

  47. Sick 

  48. A Haunting In Venice 

  49. Tetris 

  50. Dumb Money 

  51. Transformers Rise of the Beasts 

  52. Quiz Lady 

  53. The Holdovers 

  54. Merry Little Batman

  55. Landscape With Invisible Hand 

  56. Last Voyage of The Demeter 

  57. Shin Kamen Rider 

  58. May December 

  59. The Flash 

  60. Five Nights at Freddy’s 

  61. The Creator 

  62. Shazam! Fury of the Gods 

  63. Creed III 

  64. Boston Strangler 

  65. Shortcomings 

  66. The Boys In The Boat 

  67. Knights of the Zodiac 

  68. Freelance 

  69. Wish

  70. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes 

  71. Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story 

  72. Chang Can Dunk 

  73. Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania 

  74. The Little Mermaid 

  75. Ferrari 

  76. Napoleon 

  77. The Royal Hotel

  78. Eileen 

  79. Priscilla 

  80. Flora and Son 

  81. Opération Fortune: Ruse de Guerre 

  82. Infinity Pool 

  83. The Boogeyman 

  84. Ghosted 

  85. The Nun 2 

  86. Plane 

  87. Jung_E 

  88. Knock at the Cabin 

  89. 65 

  90. Fast X 

  91. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom 

  92. The Exorcist Believer

  93. Silent Night 

  94. Rebel Moon 

  95. The Expand4bles 

  96. The Retirement Plan 

  97. Retribution 

  98. The Equalizer 3 

  99. Meg 2: The Trench

  100. Insidious - The Red Door 

  101. Lupin the 3rd vs Cat’s Eye 

  102. Murder Mystery 2 

  103. Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey

Movies from 2022 I've seen

By the end of 2021, I told myself that I was going to make a harder effort to watch less movies in 2022. I did promise that same strategy for 2021, and that didn’t happen as I saw 187 films anyway. You know what though? I pulled it off for 2022! I “only” saw 143 new movies this past year! That’s lower than the 175 I saw in 2020, and the 145 I saw in 2019… Congratulations to me? Let’s see if I can get a lower number in 2023. 

As for the movies in 2022, I grew to greatly appreciate films with a lot of heart, empathy, cleverness, fun, and just those that embraced putting movie magic on screen, more so than I probably ever did before. There were still a lot of movies trying to be incredibly serious or grim dark, but it looks like I didn’t appreciate them as much, and it showed with where they landed on my list. 

Another type of movie in 2022 that surprisingly didn’t land super high on my list are Superhero comic book movies! None of them made my top 20! It’s not that they were bad, but I guess I’ve gotten so used to what they have to offer that they don’t impress me as much anymore. Is it superhero movie fatigue? I don’t think so, as I still enjoy watching them quite a bit. They just need to do more to wow me now I suppose. 

With the studios and movie theaters still scrambling on what to do with the industry, the amount of films being released has narrowed a bit. The streaming services are an available venue to release films now, but many are realizing that the bubble is about to pop and they can’t keep throwing money into them with wanton abandon. While in some cases like Netflix, seemed to have found a solid reason now as to why theaters need to partner with them more, as proven with the release of Glass Onion. We’ll see how this all plays out in 2023 and 2024, to see if they all can finally find a proper balance.  

As for my list below, it is once again a Top 50 from the year. They all land in my “LOVED IT” and most of the “ENJOYED IT” grades. The numbering is a bit flexible as to where the films land, but this gets the general idea on how much more I liked a movie over another. It is of course an incomplete sampling of movies as I once again only focused on films that were easily accessible to me, as I prefer writing reviews for movies that my readers are actually able to check out for themselves. Some of them I just didn’t have time for. 

  1. Everything Everywhere All At Once 

  2. RRR

  3. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

  4. Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

  5. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On 

  6. Top Gun: Maverick 

  7. The Banshees of Inisherin

  8. Decision To Leave

  9. Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical

  10. Turning Red

  11. Puss In Boots: The Last Wish

  12. The Menu

  13. The Whale

  14. The Tinder Swindler

  15. Barbarian 

  16. WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story

  17. Vengeance

  18. Terrifier 2

  19. Avatar: The Way of Water

  20. Triangle Of Sadness

  21. Clerks III

  22. Fast & Feel Love

  23. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

  24. Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio

  25. NOPE

  26. The Sea Beast 

  27. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

  28. Enola Holmes 2

  29. the Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

  30. The Fabelmans

  31. Emily The Criminal

  32. Tár

  33. Smile

  34. Lumpia with a Vengeance

  35. The Bad Guys

  36. Rosaline

  37. Till

  38. Significant Other

  39. Prey

  40. The Northman 

  41. Fire Island

  42. Soft & Quiet

  43. Ticket to Paradise

  44. Bros

  45. Alienoid

  46. Lightyear

  47. The Sky Is Everywhere

  48. After Yang

  49. Do Revenge

  50. Fresh

For the other 93 movies that I saw in 2022, feel free to browse through the #isawthatmovie Archives…

the 2022 released films that I might still check out in 2023 are… 

Women Talking, All Quiet on the Western Front, Aftersun, Living, Bardo, Emergency, Empire of Light, Corsage, Causeway, Good Luck To You Leo Grande, Cha Cha Real Smooth, The Inspection, A Man Called Otto, Broker, Emancipation, and I'm sure there's more...

P.S. I’m changing things up once again with the #isawthatmovie blog for 2023. I want it to be even simpler for me to write up a movie review. You’ll see…

Movies from 2021 I've seen

How is it that during the Year I decided I was going to watch LESS movies was the year I’ve actually seen the most movies in one year? Out of all the movies that premiered in 2021, I was able to see 187 of them. Around 60 of them were at a movie theater while the rest were from the many streaming services I subscribe to.

First off, I want to give thanks to HBO Max / Warner Bros for providing the day and date releases of their movies. I know I took advantage of that convenience. Appreciate it.

Secondly, I don’t think I’ll ever see a movie theater screening sold out ever again. Spider-Man No Way Home made all the money in the world, and the opening night screening I went to wasn’t even sold out. Compare that to the MCU releases pre-pandemic and it’s got to make you wonder.

Thirdly, due to the delays and the pandemic, the variety of movies released in 2021 was a smorgasbord of a lot of non-blockbuster films. That meant that I ended up seeing more genres and stories that you don’t normally see in theaters. That’s not necessarily an automatic win.

Due to the smaller non-blockbuster budgets, there seemed to be a similar quality among those movies. I feel like I’ve seen the most “B” quality grade films in 2021 than in any other years. In my grading scale, that’s either an “ENJOYED IT” or a “LIKED IT.”

Studios are playing it safer, hence the similar grade in quality? Maybe. Either that, or I need to be more specific with my grades. I know this was the hardest list I’ve ever had to sort through, and I’m still not completely comfortable with where the movies are ordered on this list.

Speaking of which, here’s the list below that shows my top favorite 50 movies out of the 187 movies I’ve seen released in 2021. There are still a lot of films I haven’t seen yet, so this is an incomplete sampling.

  1. Spider-Man: No Way Home  

  2. Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar  

  3. NOBODY 

  4. The Paper Tigers  

  5. The Mitchells vs. The Machines 

  6. CODA  

  7. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 

  8. Belfast 

  9. Seaspiracy 

  10. Luca

  11. The French Dispatch  

  12. Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself  

  13. Finding 'Ohana 

  14. The Map of Tiny Perfect Things  

  15. Boss Level 

  16. To All The Boys: Always and Forever  

  17. Happy Cleaners 

  18. The Suicide Squad  

  19. Raya and the Last Dragon  

  20. Ghostbusters : Afterlife 

  21. Eternals  

  22. Godzilla vs. Kong 

  23. Happily 

  24. 8-Bit Christmas  

  25. Cruella 

  26. Black Widow  

  27. tick, tick... BOOM!  

  28. Red Rocket  

  29. Last Night in Soho  

  30. The Harder They Fall  

  31. King Richard  

  32. Psycho Goreman  

  33. Zola 

  34. Free Guy  

  35. I Care A Lot 

  36. Untitled Horror Movie  

  37. Encanto  

  38. Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time  

  39. The Matrix Resurrections  

  40. No Time To Die  

  41. The Green Knight  

  42. Fear Street part three: 1666 

  43. Titane 

  44. Army of Thieves  

  45. Willy’s Wonderland  

  46. In The Heights 

  47. PLAN B  

  48. Ron's Gone Wrong 

  49. Pig 

  50. Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning

CCSE

Without a huge presence by Movies/TV studios, the big Comic Book publishers, and a lot less outside interactive events, was Comic-Con Special Edition just not as good as it usually is? Yes.

Was Comic-Con Special Edition still a good geeky time in San Diego? Yes.

Do we want Comic-Con Special Edition instead of the regular version? No.

Can both versions of Comic-Con exist? Sure, but that depends on CCI.

The truth of the matter is that while Comic-Con Special Edition was a nice relaxing throwback to the simpler days of Comic-Con, and was still able to offer some familiar entertainment that would be found at the regular summer show, the truth of the matter is that this was just us accepting that CCSE had to be the way it is because we’re still in a pandemic.

For those who prefer the larger event, give them a break.
For those who prefer this smaller event, hope you enjoyed it, because that’s not going to be a normal thing outside of the pandemic. WonderCon also says hi.

Check out my instagram posts from the event linked below…

https://www.instagram.com/p/CW6QS7LPQo_/ 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWyWMLyvMGw/ 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWzuCP4r-tb/ 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CW0xXqRpRcH/ 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CW2TqUirBdx/ 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CW3vXh6PnYq/

Brazilian Food Ranking Challenge

It’s not often you’ll see me in a video, and it’s because I much prefer to be a behind the camera kind of guy. I’m not exactly photogenic enough for video, which is why I do an audio podcast! However, our friends from the Grand Geek Gathering invited me to participate in one of their “Most Exquisite Ranking Challenge” on Brazilian food, and I’m not one to turn down free food. So check it out y’all!

TBT

If you follow my instagram, I’m going to start being a little more active with “ThrowBack Thursday.” Primarily because I have all these photos from past events that never made it onto my instagram, until around 2012-ish. They were usually found via my old xanga blog and photobucket, and those are all done with. So follow along by looking at my past.

Life is a balancing act, like this towering stack of rocks
Life is a balancing act, like this towering stack of rocks
Multiple studies show that dogs help alleviate stress and anxiety. Even just petting a familiar dog lowers blood pressure, heart rate, slows breathing, and relaxes muscle tension. I ♥️ my big puppy! #nationaldogday #oespuppy #oldenglishshe
Multiple studies show that dogs help alleviate stress and anxiety. Even just petting a familiar dog lowers blood pressure, heart rate, slows breathing, and relaxes muscle tension. I ♥️ my big puppy! #nationaldogday #oespuppy #oldenglishsheepdog #oes #dogsofinstagram #dog #pet #petsofinstagram #oesofinstagram
While it's not quite the same detailed quality as a traditional professional camera, it still impresses me that we have phones that can take these kinds of shots now. #moon #shotonpixel #teampixel #pixel6pro @googlepixel
While it's not quite the same detailed quality as a traditional professional camera, it still impresses me that we have phones that can take these kinds of shots now. #moon #shotonpixel #teampixel #pixel6pro @googlepixel
In the heat of August, remember to stay cool, like this cactus
In the heat of August, remember to stay cool, like this cactus
Throwback to us July Babies with @onemyke @anavoltage at Disneyland super spreader resort #tbt #throwbackthursday #throwback
Throwback to us July Babies with @onemyke @anavoltage at Disneyland super spreader resort #tbt #throwbackthursday #throwback
A #throwbackthursday of @comic_con 2022 already?! #tbt I didn't want my annual summer vacation destination to end! #sdcc #comiccon #sdcc2022
A #throwbackthursday of @comic_con 2022 already?! #tbt I didn't want my annual summer vacation destination to end! #sdcc #comiccon #sdcc2022
from Day 4 of @comic_con 2022. Final day to walk around this event. Pix of some cosplayers. FUNKO panel and free POP swag. Some time inside the exhibit hall. Plus more! #sdcc #comiccon #sdcc2022
from Day 4 of @comic_con 2022. Final day to walk around this event. Pix of some cosplayers. FUNKO panel and free POP swag. Some time inside the exhibit hall. Plus more! #sdcc #comiccon #sdcc2022
from Day 3 of @comic_con 2022. Ended up being "panels day" for me. No, I wasn't at that big Marvel Studios panel, but I also wasn't willing to wait THAT long in line for it either. #sdcc #comiccon #sdcc2022
from Day 3 of @comic_con 2022. Ended up being "panels day" for me. No, I wasn't at that big Marvel Studios panel, but I also wasn't willing to wait THAT long in line for it either. #sdcc #comiccon #sdcc2022
Life is a balancing act, like this towering stack of rocks Multiple studies show that dogs help alleviate stress and anxiety. Even just petting a familiar dog lowers blood pressure, heart rate, slows breathing, and relaxes muscle tension. I ♥️ my big puppy! #nationaldogday #oespuppy #oldenglishshe While it's not quite the same detailed quality as a traditional professional camera, it still impresses me that we have phones that can take these kinds of shots now. #moon #shotonpixel #teampixel #pixel6pro @googlepixel In the heat of August, remember to stay cool, like this cactus Throwback to us July Babies with @onemyke @anavoltage at Disneyland super spreader resort #tbt #throwbackthursday #throwback A #throwbackthursday of @comic_con 2022 already?! #tbt I didn't want my annual summer vacation destination to end! #sdcc #comiccon #sdcc2022 from Day 4 of @comic_con 2022. Final day to walk around this event. Pix of some cosplayers. FUNKO panel and free POP swag. Some time inside the exhibit hall. Plus more! #sdcc #comiccon #sdcc2022 from Day 3 of @comic_con 2022. Ended up being "panels day" for me. No, I wasn't at that big Marvel Studios panel, but I also wasn't willing to wait THAT long in line for it either. #sdcc #comiccon #sdcc2022