2023 Movie Round-Up!! Part 2 (lol)

Hey friends,

Long ago yet still managing to be late, I announced I would be doing the year-end round-up post a little differently.  Instead of the usual massive round-up post, I planned to write it in three installments:

• Part 1: Overview
  
• Part 2: The Worst Movies
• Part 3: The Best Movies

A hilariously long duration later, I'm BACK to actually finish what I started.  And by finish, I mean write part 2 of 3.

So TONIGHT ONLY (or whatever time of day it is when you're reading this), let's review the worst movies I watched over a year ago.... to whatever extent I remember them at this point!!!

Seriously though I will be making modifications to this usual format by only highlighting the lowest-scored movies that I have retained animus for over a year later AND for which I actually remember the reasons I didn't like them.  Which means I will not remotely be highlighting all of them.

That sad, sad list includes:

For being a bafflingly beloved romcom despite being about 
two people who don't actually seem to even like each other:
Notting Hill (1999)

For still making my heart hurt over how Katharine Hepburn's character
was treated in this movie when her character was truly a badass,
seriously what the hell:
Woman of the Year (1942)

For making me feel icky and confused while watching a Studio Ghibli movie:
From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)

For having no business being so boring given its lovely, inspiring subject:
Audrey (2020)

For not remotely being "The Lego Movie" (2014) despite capitalizing
on millennial nostalgia and featuring Charlie Day:
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

For just being bad (lol),
including but not limited to feeling like the whole movie was just the
first costumed off-book run-through of a bad, bad script:
Best. Christmas. Ever! (2023)

I'm facing a bit of a dilemma here, because some of the movies that still provoke the strongest negative reactions in me are not the lowest-scored movies.  The only movies on the ignominious list above that received a 1 are "Notting Hill" and "Best. Christmas. Ever!", with the remaining films all being scored a 2.  

It admittedly doesn't feel right to name a movie worst movie of the year when others earned lower scores, but the 2-rated movies on this list are there precisely because they had really promising elements that the movies as a whole betrayed.  It shouldn't be possible to make a boring movie about Audrey Hepburn.  No one--least of all Spencer Tracy--should be mean to Katharine Hepburn!  Studio Ghibli should be beautiful, poignant, cosy, and NOT about romantic love between possible half-siblings (??????????). 

Alternatively, I'm not all that surprised that the year's 1-rated movies were bad.  I basically watched "Best. Christmas. Ever!" explicitly because it looked ridiculously bad, so I certainly don't have terribly strong feelings that it delivered.  And am I surprised that a '90's-era romcom was obtuse about relationship dynamics?  Not exactly. 

There's just something I can't look past in those movies that held so much potential and squandered it.

So, as a perhaps weird call, 2023's most maligned movie was:

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

I know this film isn't responsible for my deep, protective love toward Charlie Day and my assumption that it would be comparable to "The Lego Movie", but I feel deeply, nauseatingly betrayed all the same.  Good lord this movie was tedious and uninspired.

Next up: The extra special long overdue Part 3, hopefully before 2026!

Oh and also, the round-up for 2024, and maybe some chats about the movies I've already seen this year.

{Heart}