| Name | Rating | Review |
|---|---|---|
| The Bikeriders | 4.5 | Pretty good. Butlers not really bringing much to this beyond the aesthetic but Hardy and Jodie Comer where great. |
| Snack Shack | 4.5 | That’s good stuff. Hits perfectly. |
| Monkey Man | 4 | Great movie. |
| A Complete Unknown | 4 | Pretty good. Seemed factual and they didn’t try to span too long of a time period. |
| Conclave | 4 | Lovely stuff. |
| Heretic | 4 | “The walls and ceiling have metal in them” |
| The Fantastic 4: First Steps | 4 | Likes the retro futuristic aesthetic. And a genuinely good story, all round a good movie. Probably the best Marvel film. |
| Death of a Unicorn | 4 | Nailed it. |
| The Roses | 4 | Very good, but Kate Mcinnons character was a little too much. |
| Coup! | 3.5 | Pretty good |
| My Cousin Vinny | 3.5 | Fun. |
| Lee | 3.5 | . |
| Escape from Pretoria | 3.5 | Pretty good. |
| Mickey 17 | 3.5 | Pretty good. |
| F1 | 3.5 | It’s a 2:30 advert for F1 and has more product placement than I’ve ever seen in a movie. But it’s a fun easy watch, story is very predictable but the race scenes look great. |
| Better Man | 3.5 | As bio pics go it was pretty unique. A little self serving and likely pretty one sided at times but enjoyable. |
| Thunderbolts* | 3.5 | It’s a bit like a really high budget pilot for a TV series. But in comparison to the majority of the Marvel movies in recent history it was great. |
| Eenie Meanie | 3.5 | Better than I expected. |
| Sing Street | 3.5 | Good. |
| Superman | 3.5 | Entertaining. |
| The Holdovers | 3 | Nice. |
| Turtles All the Way Down | 3 | A little muddled at times on what it’s actually about. Not sure the rich kid bit works. And she’s supposed to have this turning point after the accident but doesn’t seem to be concerned about her friend who was also in the accident that she caused. |
| Blink Twice | 3 | Not bad. |
| The Gorge | 3 | Could have ended better. But not bad. |
| A Real Pain | 3 | I liked the scoring. I’m always torn with Kieran Culkin if he’s a good action or just playing himself all the time. |
| Deep Cover | 3 | Not bad, amusing. They should make British comedies like this more often. Nick Mohammed nails his standard role and Orlando Bloom is a great comic actor. |
| The Amateur | 3 | Not bad. |
| Summer of 69 | 3 | Odd, had its moments. |
| The Thursday Murder Club | 3 | Enjoyable. |
| Eden | 3 | Pretty wild. |
| John Candy: I Like Me | 3 | Not a great doc but you enjoy the nostalgia and the films of his you loved. |
| The Apprentice | 3 | Not bad. |
| Jay Kelly | 3 | A little odd. |
| The Crow | 2.5 | “The plot of the film requires the protagonist to be dead and yet they take 40 minutes to get to that point. And in that 40 minutes the focus is on cementing why he would be so annoyed they killed Shelly. They could go there quicker with a lot more exposition than they did which was basically nothing. However, after that point it does become an enjoyable movie.” |
| Hit Man | 2.5 | Not awful. |
| Small Things Like These | 2.5 | “I wanted to like this. I thought it would focus more on the Magdalene laundries and how it was this massive abuse of power by religious leaders on vulnerable women all because of some messed up societal views and ultimately religion trying to impose control over the population. But it mostly focused on a very depressed man struggling with the death of his mother and conflicted with what was happening in the laundry albeit as a secondary concern. It had nuance and for that I can see why it’s critically acclaimed but it’s just not the story it could have been.” |
| The Lost Bus | 2.5 | Not bad. |
| Highest 2 Lowest | 2.5 | Some interesting acting. Kept trying to see the deeper meaning but ultimately it was pretty surface level. |
| The Perks of Being a Wallflower | 2.5 | Could have been better with some different cast choices. |
| Dream Scenario | 2.5 | Odd. |
| Nonnas | 2.5 | Chef meets the bear. |
| Carry-On | 2 | Watchable. |
| Anyone But You | 2 | Sanguine. |
| Crash | 2 | Bizarre. |
| Fight or Flight | 2 | Bit annoying. |
| The Electric State | 2 | Meh. |
| Captain America: Brave New World | 2 | Meh, I didn’t expect much and still disappointed. |
| Happy Gilmore 2 | 2 | Swing and a miss. Had some moments but the cameos got excessive and all the in-jokes. |
| The Accountant² | 2 | Watchable. |
| Frankenstein | 2 | Meh. |
| Jingle Bell Heist | 2 | It was the appropriate length for a film. |
| Larry Crowne | 2 | No shade on Hanks but this was just bland. |
| Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris | 2 | Sickly sweet. |
| A Quiet Place: Day One | 1.5 | Boring. Not anywhere near as good as the main films. |
| George of the Jungle | 1.5 | Not as bad as I was expecting. |
| Fountain of Youth | 1.5 | Basic tropes, boring and unoriginal. |
| Army of One | 1 | Odd. |
| Mufasa: The Lion King | 1 | Awful. |
| Bad Boys: Ride or Die | 0.5 | Truly awful. Why was Marcus so weirdly subservient? And the overly dramatic near-death sequence was really tacky. There should never have been any sequels let alone three. And seeing Mike marry someone 20 years younger just looks creepy now. |
| You’re Cordially Invited | 0.5 | Irritating. Had to switch it off a few times and nearly abandoned it altogether. |
| Gunner | 0.5 | So bad it’s funny. All the budget must have gone on having Morgan Freeman for about 10 minutes. The effects look like a cheap 90s movie, the music is just wrong it’s like they just play a random bit of music that has no connection to the scene and for some reason they added subtitles just for the guy with a Chinese accent who you can clearly understand. |
| War of the Worlds | 0.5 | Cloverfield meets missing but awful. Also how is Amazon making a film about not collecting masses of data! |
| Flight Risk | 0.5 | Awful. |
Category: Films
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Films of 2025
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Films of 2023
A breakdown of all the films I watched in 2023 that I hadn’t seen previously regardless of when they where released.
Rank Film Name Comments Source Month 1 Oppenheimer Perfect. Curious how it would be watching it at home but in a cinema with the bass rumbling it really worked. You don’t notice the lengh of the film at all. Everyman August 2 The Banshees of Inisherin Watch this film, I’m sure a lot of nuance was lost on me but it’s fantastic. Disney+ January 3 Licorice Pizza Bit of a journey, you change your opinion of the characters constantly and almost feels like it doesn’t need to end. It just had to eventually. It’s coming of age but not heartwarming Prime January 4 Air Not sure about Ben Affleck as Phil knight but good film. Prime May 5 Don’t worry darling Harry Styles is so minor the double billing on this is insane. This film stars Florence Pugh and just Florence Pugh. Billed as a drama and to be honest I assumed it centred on a Styles and Pugh relationship, but this is a sci-fi thriller and a good one. Now June 6 Boogie Nights Pulp fiction with porn stars. Fantastic movie, morally concerning at times but a great storey with great actors. Plex June 7 Worth Very interesting, seems impossible for them to have taken an individual view on that many cases. But a good movie. Netflix July 8 Get out Amazing, thought this was a lot of hype but I loved it. Obviously late to the party with this one should have watched it sooner. Netflix January 9 A quiet place Not one for horror but that had a lot going for it. Definitely knew how to play the less is more aspect and build suspense. Prime March 10 The Deepest Breath Captivating to the end. Interesting, sad but great. Netflix August 11 Brooklyn Really pulled you in had ups and downs it was perfect. Now June 12 Maverick True to the original, can’t fault it. Paramount+ January 13 Thirteen Lives Gripping. Prime March 14 Tenant Very good top 10. I liked the plot, felt it didn’t make things complicated for the sake of it and held up well. Prime February 15 Under the skin Scarlet Johansen with an English accent. Vastly different from the book not as gruesome. Still pretty disturbing. You don’t get the character development or wider context you get from the book but visually it’s eerie and very unique. Plex March 16 Rise Love an uplifting sports movie. True story told well. No faked drama just solid story. Disney+ February 17 Operation Mince Meat Contains basically all the British actors. Good film, interesting and well told. Now January 18 Promising young woman Bleak. But great. Now June 19 Mulholland Drive Compelling but what the fuck. Plex January 20 Moonlight Kevin is kind of a dick. Sure he’s as lost as Chiron but he uses him. A great story. BBC iPlayer September 21 Blackberry Not bad. Interesting. Plex June 22 A Good Person Nice to see another dig at Purdue pharma. Ultimately a depressing film but told well. Pugh does a good job and Freeman smashes it. Now June 23 Knock At The Cabin Good. Now November 24 Wakanda Forever Pretty good, enjoyed that. Disney+ February 25 Glass Onion Fun, easy watch. Netflix January 26 Brian and Charles Odd, it grew on me. Now May 27 Vengeance Surprisingly good. Is Kutcher going to pull a McConaughey? BJ Novak’s makes a strong start. Now May 28 The Whale So many themes in one movie! It was good. But ultimately his quest for redemption was selfish, he’d cut off his daughter and slowly killed himself and with the last few days/weeks of his life he makes his daughters inevitable grief much worse by gaining some redemption for the poor choices he’d made at the very end when it can’t possibly make any difference and fix the damage. Prime May 29 Driven That was good. If true, then pretty interesting. Prime May 30 Fire of love It was visually stunning they had done some amazing work restoring the old film. The narrator became a little annoying after a while. Disney+ February 31 Clean Adrien Brody’s version of old boy? Now May 32 Eyes wide shut I was vaguely aware of this movie but never actually watched it. However, after accidentally watching it dubbed to Spanish in the background I decided to watch it properly. I was looking for the deeper meaning but I’m not sure it was there. Plex May 33 Midsommar Not sure what just happened…… Netflix June 34 Bad Education Pretty good. Now June 35 The Lost King Interesting at times. Now June 36 The Black Phone Disturbing subtext. Now July 37 A Time to Kill Good, some plot holes. Now July 38 Guardians of the galaxy vol 3 Enjoyable. Notably more watchable than any other marvel or DC film this year. Not that that was a particularly high bar. Disney+ August 39 Awakening Nice but then ultimately depressing. Netflix August 40 The Fablemens Well balanced, enjoyable. Now October 41 The Killer Pretty good. Netflix November 42 The Menu Started well, meandered a bit. But overall good. Disney+ January 43 Pig It was ok. Prime May 44 Babylon More like Babylong amirite. It was ok, not sure it needed to be that long I don’t think it added to the story. Plex June 45 A million miles away Nice. Prime September 46 The Creator A good standalone sci-fi. Everyman October 47 Confess, Fletch Whitty a fun watch. Now November 48 Still Interesting. AppleTV+ December 49 A quiet place 2 They got back with the ending of the first. It was good, felt like they could kill anyone off and added to story. Now March 50 Dungeons and Dragons Could have been worse. Plex June 51 DC League of Superpets Watchable. Now August 52 A man called Otto The book was better they changed too much, it didn’t need to be set in America and it really should have been a Saab. Prime August 53 M3gan I thought this was going to be creepy and sinister. Instead it was essentially a dark comedy sci-fi horror, maybe a tad slapstick. Now September 54 John Wick Chapter 4 What you would expect. Prime October 55 Champions Bit corny, but not bad. Now October 56 Cocaine Bear Watchable Now October 57 Cars 3 Kinda liked it much better than cars 2. Disney+ October 58 Pain Hustlers It was ok. Netflix October 59 Maggie Moore(s) It was ok. Now November 60 Cash Back Bernard’s Watch with a lot of nudity. A great British rom com. Although arguably a bit creepy if you think about it. Plex April 61 Reptile It was ok Netflix November 62 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Not as bad I as I was expecting. But my expectations where very low. Disney+ December 63 Robots After seeing some awful attempts at movies Jack Whitehall has made this was surprisingly good. I think in part because he didn’t bother trying to do an American accent. Prime July 64 Boyhood I didn’t hate it. The effort to pull this together is impressive. Sometimes bleak but I get what the point was, just not sure it was compelling way to say it. Plex January 65 Father stu It was ok. Wahlberg really trying for an Oscar, unlikely. Now February 66 Marmaduke Fun movie. Netflix March 67 Where the crawdads sing Yeah it was alright. Now March 68 Scream 2022 Amusingly meta. A fun watch but they over used guns in the end which spoiled it. Now March 69 Empire of Light Bit too dramatic. I enjoyed some parts but I felt like it lost the thread at times. Disney+ March 70 Luther Felt like it ripped off Sherlock a bit. Netflix March 71 A Good Woman It was ok. Disney+ August 72 65 Disappointing, my main driver (pun intended) for seeing this was because it was a sci-fi fantasy without being linked to some massive franchise. And that’s pretty rare now. Unfortunately it just lacked in substance Driver did a good job and th effects were ok. But the story line was pretty light not much to get invested in. For a movie about dinosaurs there really weren’t many dinosaurs. It’s main redeeming factor, it was a tidy 90 minutes. Everyman March 73 Elvis It felt like most of the film was a cut scene. Lots of sections of the plot where played out just with music over the top as it spanned decades. Now March 74 Black Bear That escalated quickly. At first it kind of worked wasn’t good but made its point. Freevee April 75 The Thief Collector A bit muddled, it was unclear at times what the story was it veered off a few times and wasn’t that interesting when it really could have been if it was told better. Prime May 76 Divorcing Jack Bit crazy, enjoyed it. Freevee June 77 World’s greatest Dad I wanted a dark comedy, this was listed highly and had Robin Williams so I was in. But this got DARK. Kinda a weird tone given what happened I’m not sure it hit right. Freevee June 78 Blonde It was ok. Netflix July 79 I wanna dance with somebody It was ok. Now August 80 Don Jon Interesting. Plex August 81 Chupa Not the worst film I’ve seen. Pretty forgettable though. Netflix April 82 Emily the criminal Meh. Now April 83 Nope It just wasn’t very good. Now April 84 Portable Door Fake Harry Potter but with adults. Now April 85 Uncharted Not unwatchable, action was fun. Story was weak. Acting was cheesy. Now June 86 The Babysitters How was this made into a film…… So many things where fundamentally wrong here. Firstly the whole concept is fucked up. Then the main character sends her friend to be sexually assaulted. Then the attempted murder…… Tone was so off, they made it like a coming of age but it was dark. It could have easily been edited to be what it really was. Plex June 87 Clerks III I forgot the plot of Clerks II. Except the LOTR scene. This is laboured, I know Kevin Smith wanted it to be the movie he’d be proud to die after making following his heart attack but this can’t his legacy. It’s just a weird homage to clerks. Just watch clerks. Prime June 88 The Flash It was ok. Nice to see Keaton. Everyman July 89 The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker Vaguely remember this happening but not to this detail. Not the worst Netflix documentary but nothing you couldn’t have gleamed from reading Wikipedia. Netflix January 90 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi Could have been good if it wasn’t made by Michael Bay. Very heavy on ‘diplomacy and intelligence are stupid’ ‘big man with gun good’. Basically 2 hours of ‘Merica!’ Occasionally they would make reference to the many innocent people caught up in the fighting. Oli would like it. Prime February 91 Beast So they took a few scenes from Jurassic Park only with a lion instead then threw in some forced drama. Also come on, even Idris is not winning in a fight against a lion. Now July 92 Fast X Family x 27. They said family 27 times. Plex June 93 Bank of Dave This is the most factually inaccurate bio pic I’ve ever seen. They shoved in a made up love story changed the name of the FCA claimed there hadn’t been a new bank in 150 years which isn’t true. Also, he never opened a bank he couldn’t get that approved, it was a building society with limited deposits. Which was still impressive and helped a lot of people so worth telling the story but why not make it factually true. Netflix January 94 Jurassic World Dominion These movies need to stop, lost world was a mistake in the first place. This was awful. Now February 95 Creed III I know nothing about boxing. But this seemed unrealistic. And not in a you can get caught up in the story unrealistic. This was pure forced story creation, had nothing going for it. Anyone who says otherwise has clearly been paid off, this was garbage. And Jonathan Majors is overated. Prime June 96 Man from earth Holocene I loved the first film, it didn’t need a sequel and the guy that wrote the screenplay had died so it was never going to be as intriguing. It was awful truly awful like a bad 90s TV movie. The plot was crap it added nothing to his story and the characters where weird. Plex April 97 Shazam Fury of the Gods Odd having it in the DCEU it’s basically a kids intro superhero film. Plex July 98 Barbie Absurdly overrated. Empire August 99 The Little Mermaid Visually impressive at times, but boring and not very fun for a kids movie. Disney+ September 100 Magic Mike’s Last Dance Very slow. Now November 101 Bullet train Not great. Now February 102 The Northman Bit much, weird cut scenes. Now March 103 Set it up Usual rehashed crap. Netflix April 104 Ticket to Paradise Not great. Now May 105 Operation Fortune Awful. Not sure why Aubrey Plaza did it. Prime June 106 Renfield That sucked…… Plex June 107 Bodies Bodies Bodies Not remotely compelling. Now June 108 Venom: Let there be carnage This was unwatchable at times. Why was Tom Hardy doing that weird voice and what was with all the slapstick comedy. Now June 109 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania That was unfortunate. Disney+ May 110 Finding Michael Spencer Matthews thing. Not sure it even counts but technically it was a documentary. Disney+ March -
Films of 2022
A breakdown of all the films I watched in 2022 that I hadn’t seen previously regardless of when they where released.
Movie Comments Rank Cinema Dune (2021) Great movie, the start of an epic sci fi saga. 1 No
The CourierGreat movie. 2 No Father Needs to watched at the right time but very good. 3 No Uncut Gems Tense, so very tense. Good film, perhaps Sandler’s best? 4 No Everything everywhere all at once Bit nuts, maybe a little too avant-garde at times but overall a great movie. 5 No The Batman Enjoyable, good action. Stands alone well enough. 6 Yes Don’t Look Up Bit on the nose maybe. 7 No Encanto Fun, catchy songs. 8 No Spencer Not bad, quite surprised this wasn’t awful. 9 No Last Night in Soho Multi genre, great movie. 10 No King Richard Not bad. Top 20 No Home Team Better than I expected. Top 20 No Hustle Not bad. Top 20 No Many Saints of Newark Not bad. Top 20 No Dog Not bad. Top 20 No Fresh Not bad. Top 20 No Avatar the way of water Long. Plot felt a bit forced. Woudl have worked better as a mini series. Top 20 Yes Secrets of Dumbledore Quite enjoyed it. (Top 10 contender) Top 20 No Basic Instinct Might have seen this before but I’ve included it as I wasen’t sure I’d seen it all. Fucking nuts movie soft core porn noir. Top 20 No The Unbearable weight of massive talent Very meta but kinda fun if you’ve seen Cage’s movies. Top 20 No Strange World Entertaining, think it was trying to make a point about the use of fossil fuels that was likely lost on children….. Top 30 No Ghostbusters Afterlife Could have been worse. Top 30 No Greed Middling. Top 30 No Moonfall Not bad. Top 30 No Marry Me More watchable then I expected but essentially a rehash of other rom cons. Top 30 No House of Gucci Ok Top 30 No The Wedding Guest Ok Top 30 No Thor Love and Thunder Tried to be a comedy. Didn’t work. Top 30 No Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness Ok Top 30 No Spider-Man No Way Home Ok Top 30 No Polar Express Tom Hanks can do no wrong (maybe cloud atlas) but this was a bit meh and the animation hasn’t aged well. Indifference No An American Pickle Odd, not as funny as I was expecting. Indifference No Queen Pins Ok Indifference No
How to Lose Friends & Alienate PeopleOk Indifference No Do Revenge Ok Indifference No Luckiest girl alive Ok Indifference No I used to be famous It passed the time. Indifference No Rouge Agent Ok Indifference No Enola Holms 2 Ok Indifference No Black Adam Not great, it was like the rock was trying to channel terminator Arnie but failing. The whole plot was dragged out and just not that interesting. Pierce Brosnan was probably the best part, but they killed him off. Bin Yes Wrath of man Shit Bin No Clifford The Big Red Dog Shit Bin No The Adam Project Shit Bin No The Contractor Shit Bin No Grey Man Shit Bin No Senior Year Shit Bin No The Good Liar Shit Bin No Memory Already forgotten it. Bin No The Mummy (Remake/Reboot) Weird cast choices. Tried too hard. Had potential. Bin No Ambulance A ridiculous waste of time. Basic Michael Bay. Weird score kept creeping in on the scenes. Made the whole thing feel like an intro scene. Didn’t like the drone camera work. Oli would probably like it. Basically half the movie was filmed with a drone swooping past things. Plot made no sense too. Bin No Morbius Truly awful, felt like they made 30 trailers then smashed them all together and called it a film. Plot doesn’t flow and parts of it just trail off without explanation. Burn it and bin it. Yes Dune (1984) Unwatchable, I switched off. Burn it and bin it. No The Man From Toronto Unwatchable, I switched off. Burn it and bin it. No About 6 made for streaming Christmas movies not worth mentioning. These have got worse, Netflix need to stop churning this shit out. Unrated No
The Films of Phill 