It was a weird year for movies as some of the best thinghs I watched was NOT in the theatre. Throughout the year I have grown quite accustomed to these big budget movies at home on day one. The timers I did go to a theatre the distractions of people drinks, popcorn and candy bag crinkles made it very hard to enjoy compared to the comfort of my own home.

THE BEST MOVIE OF 2023

EVIL DEAD RISE

OH MY GOD this movie was so good. Not gonna lie, expectations for this one were a little low. Coming from a director who's movies I've never heard of, an entirely new cast for the 3rd time in the series, and not having Bruce Campbell or the cabin in the woods. What seemingly could have been a cash grab with a budget friendly horror movie ended up being a transformation of what this series can really be. I did not even know I needed this fresh new take on the series. All the horror, brutality and gore that Evil Dead is known for remains intact here as some new ideas are shown off in this new setting in the city. The "cheese grater" scene is one I heard talked about on the internet and it doesn't disappoint. Even the weird quarky comedy of Sam Raimi shows up here as an eyeball flies through the air to be swallowed and kill someone. The scene is just dumb enough to know it is a nod to the Evil Dead of old. By the end you can tell where the low budget kicks in as the clump of human spider monster is shown very little and in extreme darkness. I prefer this as the opposite could have been to show to much and how CGI can easily ruin the immersion, bravo! This movie easily gets into the years watch in October for a movie watching horror fest.

THE MOST DISAPPOINTING MOVIE OF 2023

TMNT: MUTANT MAYHEM

This was stacking up to be a great movie. I enjoy Seth Rogen content. Like most people that watch comedies, Super Bad was a special movie, and many others that features Rogen have been funny. The visuals that seem to be inspired by Spiderman: Across the Universe was A-OK as it is an awesome style that beats the typical CGI look that we have become accustomed to.

THEN I WATCHED THE MOVIE.

This movie sucks. I UNDERSTAND it is a kids movie, made for kids. But I don't know what kid would walk out of this movie thinking it was funny. As far as I can tell it seems as though this movie had no script. I would be shocked with there was as everything the turtles say is so incredibly "current" in todays lingo that I believe the entire movie was adlibbed in the studio. This doesn't work well in this case as most of the jokes fall so flat and the story progression is, well, boring. This raises another problem as time goes on and the phrases they use in this movie go away, this movie will become weirder and weirder as the meanings and funniness of the sayings will go away. Over time, this movie will only be more annoying. TMNT doesn't seem to want to be made for older people to enjoy, which is to bad because I am the one that is able to pay to go see it!

THE TOYS

This is the real star of Ninja Turtles. The toy line for this movie really blew me away with how sweet they are. I had reverse sticker shock when I saw that everything was labeled at $9.99. Compared to the other toy line I collect, the Star Wars Black Series starts at $28.99 and only goes up from there. So I did what any SANE person woulod do at that price point and bought EVERYTHINGGGGGGGGGGG. I now have an entire closest stuffed with TMNT toys nicely arranged on shelves for me to look at and say, "awww yissss". My favorite is Rocksteady as his figure is way bulkier than the other toys but remains the same price and same exact packaging as all the others. To fit him in the box they removed his arm and tucked it underneath his feat which is a funny thing to see when you open a toy and think you got a dud.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Here are some movies that were really good and honestly had a hard time with a few in deciding if they were my number one.
• RENFIELD - Nicolas Cage is my BOY and this movie rocked. The only thing I wished was better was the CGI blood in the movie. Had it looked more real this would have felt more like a gore fest but instead felt a little tacky.
• BEAU IS AFRAID - Hereditary was my favorite movie of 2018. I thought Midsommar was boring. So my excitement for Beau Is Afraid was mixed, especially hearing that the director said that he couldn't believe producers let him make this strange movie idea of his. But it turns out this movie is a big hit with me. A strange look into the mind of a mentally ill guy with some really strange artsy pizzaz is right up my alley when done right. For being such a long movie I was really captivated in this guys life.
• THEY CLONED TYRONE - This is the movie I really struggled with being number one. I won't spoil even one little bit of this movie or what it is. The worst part about this movie is the name, They Cloned tyrone sounds like a bad comedy movie, which this is not! That is not much of a complaint though as the movie is a 10/10.

That's all I got for 2023, until next year!