Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) review

In 2008, DreamWorks Animation released two films. One of these was a sequel to the studio’s 2005 hit Madagascar, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. As for the other, it would be the studio’s original project for that year; a martial arts comedy titled Kung Fu Panda. Starring Jack Black as the titular panda, Po, the film followed this avid kung-fu fanatic who, despite zero training, is chosen to be the ‘Dragon Warrior’, a kung-fu master who’s destined to save his home, the Valley of Peace, from evildoers. The original Kung Fu Panda is very much one of the prime examples of the classic adage ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’. In the months leading up to its release, it’s safe to assume that most people probably saw it as nothing more than a joke, especially with a title as admittedly goofy as Kung Fu Panda. It also didn’t help that, around this time, DreamWorks Animation had garnered something of a reputation for their reliance on pop cultural references, which dominated a lot of their work and arguably had an impact on their overall reception when compared to some of their industry rivals such as Pixar. As such, it’s safe to say that a film and premise like Kung Fu Panda didn’t seem like it was going to change anyone’s mind when it came to what a DreamWorks film could be. But, when the film finally came out, both critics and audiences were genuinely taken by surprise as Kung Fu Panda proved to be an incredibly well-crafted animated film with spectacularly choreographed action sequences, mature storytelling, and above all, an undeniable sense of respect for the Chinese culture that inspired it.

This, as a result, gave DreamWorks its latest hit franchise as the film would go on to spawn several spin-offs. On the big screen, the adventures of Po the Dragon Warrior would continue in 2011’s Kung Fu Panda 2 and 2016’s Kung Fu Panda 3. Both films managed to match the original in terms of both critical and commercial success while also achieving some historical significance for their director, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, who was the original film’s head of story and became the first solo female director of a mainstream animated film with Kung Fu Panda 2. That film would go on to become the highest-grossing animated film solely directed by a woman, and while she did have a co-director in fellow DreamWorks mainstay Alessandro Carloni for Kung Fu Panda 3, it was clear that Jennifer Yuh Nelson was the strongest driving force behind what was quickly becoming another one of DreamWorks’ flagship franchises. After Kung Fu Panda 3, though, that would largely be it for the Dragon Warrior on the big screen as DreamWorks began to focus more on the franchise’s TV spin-offs. But then, in 2022, it was announced that the cinematic adventures of Po and company would continue with Kung Fu Panda 4. This time, directorial duties went to Mike Mitchell, a longtime veteran of DreamWorks who had worked with them as far back as their first film, 1998’s Antz, while also directing the likes of 2016’s Trolls and, ironically, another DreamWorks fourthquel in 2010’s Shrek Forever After. And just like that latter film in many ways, what we ultimately have here is a solidly enjoyable addition to the Kung Fu Panda franchise that may not necessarily reach the exact same wondrous heights as its predecessors but still manages to exude much of the franchise’s charm and appeal.

For Po the Dragon Warrior (voiced by Jack Black), things couldn’t be better for him as the Valley of Peace’s greatest protector, especially after the events of Kung Fu Panda 3 in which the late Master Oogway gave him a powerful staff that can link the mortal world with the Spirit Realm. However, Po is taken by surprise when his mentor, Master Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman), informs him that the time has come for him to find his successor as the Dragon Warrior since he’s now destined to take on the role of the Valley of Peace’s spiritual leader. And if that wasn’t enough, all sorts of disturbances start to occur across the Valley caused by, of all people, Tai Lung (voiced by Ian McShane), Po’s nemesis from his early days as the Dragon Warrior who was seemingly vanquished and sent to the Spirit Realm. Upon further investigation, Po discovers that this is the work of a sinister shape-shifting sorceress known as the Chameleon (voiced by Viola Davis), who seeks to acquire Po’s Staff of Wisdom and use it to collect the kung-fu abilities of all the greatest warriors from the Spirit Realm. Thus, with the aid of a wily bandit named Zhen (voiced by Awkwafina), Po travels to the Chameleon’s headquarters in Juniper City to take on his latest arch-nemesis before she can become the most unstoppable kung-fu master the world has ever seen.

As has always been the case with this series, Kung Fu Panda 4 more than delivers on its spectacularly choreographed and beautifully animated action sequences. While I’m well aware that some were disappointed at this film’s more traditional style of animation compared to some of the more stylized and experimental bits of animation seen in some of DreamWorks’ recent films such as Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Kung Fu Panda 4 is still just as vibrant and colorful as the films that came before it. Much of this helps to alleviate the fact that, admittedly, this film doesn’t have the same kind of strong emotional hooks that dominated the original trilogy. All three of the previous Kung Fu Panda films benefitted immensely from some strong bits of emotional poignancy that helped them narratively stand out compared to a lot of other DreamWorks films at the time, whether it was the first film’s reveal that the main antagonist Tai Lung was once the beloved adopted son of Master Shifu or how the second film revolved around Po learning about his past and the tragic events that led to him being separated from his birth parents. This film, on the other hand, is unfortunately lacking in that regard and it doesn’t help that there are some clearly missed opportunities for it to have those sorts of moments, such as a possible reunion between Tai Lung and Shifu given the former’s prominent role in this story. Instead, the film opts to be more of a straightforward adventure plot for Po and company that ultimately relies more on the franchise’s trademark sense of humor revolving around Po’s unconventional means of being a kung-fu warrior. To be fair, though, this series has never truly faltered with its sense of humor, and because this film thoroughly maintains that streak, it’s not necessarily a bad thing that it’s primarily just a light-hearted comedic romp.

Much of this is thanks to, as always, its entertaining cast of characters, headlined, of course, by everyone’s favorite comedic rockstar Jack Black in what has easily become one of the definitive roles of his career, Po the Dragon Warrior. As he’s always done in this role, Black doesn’t skip a beat maintaining Po’s hilariously bumbling yet wholly endearing persona. Now, as for the franchise’s other recurring characters… well, Kung Fu Panda fans will most likely be disappointed to know that Po’s fellow kung fu masters, the Furious 5, are almost entirely absent from this and, as has been the case with every Kung Fu Panda sequel, Master Shifu is largely uninvolved with the main plot even though this one sees the return of his first protégé Tai Lung. Still, Dustin Hoffman continues to provide plenty of great humorous beats as Po’s perpetually grumpy master while James Hong and Bryan Cranston, returning as Po’s adoptive father Mr. Ping and biological father Li Shan, respectively, also prove to be a major source of the film’s best comedic moments as Po’s two dads are turned into a delightfully wacky odd couple who head out on their own accord to help their son. As for the new additions to the cast (specifically, Po’s new morally grey ally Zhen and the film’s main antagonist, the Chameleon), they are, admittedly, the biggest victims of this film’s more basic narrative approach, with the Chameleon being a far more standard villain than any of her franchise counterparts. But for what it’s worth, Awkwafina has excellent comedic rapport with Jack Black as Zhen (complete with a few moments where she gets to flex her dramatic chops) while Viola Davis’ trademark fierceness shines through as Chameleon, thus resulting in the character still managing to be an effectively sinister villain.

At the end of the day, Kung Fu Panda 4 surprisingly ends up having quite a lot in common with director Mike Mitchell’s other DreamWorks fourthquel, Shrek Forever After. In both instances, we have films that, while far from being their respective franchise’s best installments, are still solidly enjoyable additions to them that don’t do anything that would’ve drastically harmed their legacy in any way. In Kung Fu Panda 4’s case, the only thing that truly keeps it from being just as great as its predecessors is the fact that it lacks the emotional throughline that, back when this franchise was first starting out, proved that DreamWorks films could be more than just pop-cultural dependent kiddie flicks. Without that, this film is more of a straightforward martial arts adventure that doesn’t do much to set up the new additions to its cast even though it simultaneously doesn’t rely as much on the franchise’s well-established ensemble as its predecessors did. But like I said earlier, I don’t necessarily feel that this is all a bad thing. Despite its narrative shortcomings, Kung Fu Panda 4 dutifully maintains a lot of the franchise’s hallmarks, such as its well-crafted action sequences or by consistently preserving Po’s status as one of the most endearing protagonists in all of animation. As such, if you’re just looking to go on another fun adventure with Po, which we haven’t gotten on the big screen in nearly a decade, then this film will give you exactly what you’re looking for. Skadoosh!!   

Rating: 4/5

How to Train Your Dragon - Series Retrospective (DreamWorks Animation Retrospective #4)

Welcome back to another installment of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s series of retrospectives on the numerous animated films produced by DreamWorks Animation. As my way of not having to do a massive singular post covering the 45+ films that the studio has produced since 1998, I’ve been dividing its filmography up into multiple parts, starting with their biggest franchises. And today, we’ve finally come to the DreamWorks franchise that I’ve been anticipating covering the most. Sure, Shrek may have been the franchise that made DreamWorks the household name that it is today, but if you want to talk about the franchise that almost single-handedly reshaped the idea of what a DreamWorks Animation film could be, look no further than the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy. Loosely based on the best-selling book series by author Cressida Cowell, this is a franchise that has yielded some of the most critically acclaimed animated films from the past decade and a half and has widely been cited as the prime example of how DreamWorks has very much come a long way since the days when their filmography was seen by many as being nothing more than a bunch of pop-culture dependent kiddie flicks. And on a personal level, today I finally get to rectify the fact… that I’ve never seen any of these films before. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know; to make a long story short, the first How to Train Your Dragon had the unfortunate distinction of being the first DreamWorks film that I didn’t see in theaters since anything that came out before Shrek, and seeing how it’s only 1% away from having the mythical perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s safe to say that I clearly missed out on something special. But now I’m finally ready to see why this series has become such a beloved staple of the current pop cultural zeitgeist; thus, without further ado, it’s time to take a journey to the magical land of Berk as we look at the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy.

(Disclaimer: *Insert your standard ‘I’m only covering the films’ ground rule here. Please refer to previous DreamWorks Retrospectives for further instructions*)

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2010)

In 2003, author Cressida Cowell published How to Train Your Dragon, a children’s novel that expanded upon the world from Hiccup the Viking Who Was Seasick, a picture book that she wrote in 2000. Set in a world full of Vikings and the mythical dragons that many of them own, it followed the previous book’s titular protagonist Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third as he looked to prove himself to both his father, Stoick the Vast, and their village of Berk along with his dragon companion Toothless. Upon its release, the book would go on to spawn Cowell’s first official franchise of novels as an author, with eleven subsequent novels published up until 2015 that have collectively sold over 7 million copies worldwide. Just one year after the original novel’s release, the series caught the attention of DreamWorks Animation, with animation veteran Bonnie Arnold spearheading the potential film adaptation as its main producer. While the original script for the film was a largely faithful adaptation of its source material, this would change under the direction of the duo of Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, who had made their mark in the industry back in 2002 with the most successful release of Disney Animation’s post-Renaissance era, Lilo and Stitch. Instead of the original premise of Vikings living in harmony with dragons, which Sanders and DeBlois found to be overly whimsical and geared too heavily towards younger audiences, the film reimagines the plot into one where the Vikings have been hunting dragons for years. Thus, instead of just simply looking to prove himself to his doubtful father and peers, Hiccup also finds himself having to undo years of animosity between humans and dragons after befriending the rarest dragon of all, a Night Fury, which he names Toothless.

Upon its release, How to Train Your Dragon quickly became one of DreamWorks’ biggest hits of all time. It earned over $494 million worldwide, with a $217 million domestic haul that made it the highest-grossing DreamWorks film in the U.S. outside of the Shrek series, a record that it still holds today. But perhaps most importantly, the film was a runaway success with critics, securing a near-perfect 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the best score that any DreamWorks film has ever secured on that site. And yet, as I noted in the intro, this was the first DreamWorks film that I had missed out on seeing in theaters in about a decade… and boy, did I miss out! How to Train Your Dragon is very much an animated masterpiece with some of the best animation to ever come out of a DreamWorks film up to that point. Part of this is thanks to the filmmakers utilizing the assistance of legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins as a visual consultant to, as they put it, give the film a uniquely live-action feel, which is certainly on display throughout, especially in the spectacular flying sequences that many have argued are on par with and possibly even better than the flying sequences from what was quickly becoming the biggest film of all-time, Avatar. In previous DreamWorks Retrospectives, I noted that I didn’t see a lot of the studio’s films at this time in 3-D even though many have said that they were amongst the best in the industry to utilize the format at a time when the market was getting oversaturated with films that were both hastily and poorly converted into 3-D. Case in point, How to Train Your Dragon may just be the most prominently lauded of them all when it comes to its use of the 3-D format.

But aside from all its visual splendor, the film is also buoyed by its thoroughly charming underdog story led by an endearing main protagonist in Hiccup, excellently voiced by Jay Baruchel, and his lovable dragon pal Toothless. That said, it is interesting to note that one of the biggest deviations from the book was the portrayal of Toothless since, in the book, Toothless was a more narcissistic and abrasive character rather than the adorably loyal kitty cat-like companion that he is in the films. They’re then joined by a top-notch supporting cast that includes Gerard Butler as Hiccup’s over-demanding father Stoick, America Ferrara as Hiccup’s training rival turned love interest Astrid, and Craig Ferguson as Stoick’s best friend (and dragon-hunting teacher) Gobber, along with the likes of Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Kristen Wiig as Hiccup and Astrid’s fellow dragon-hunting trainees. And so, with all this in mind, it’s easy to see why the first How to Train Your Dragon went on to become one of the most acclaimed films that DreamWorks Animation had ever made up to that point. Rather than the unabashedly irreverent comedic endeavors that they were long known for at the time, this film appropriately goes for a more dramatic narrative approach that, nevertheless, still delivers a bunch of great comedic moments amidst its solid emotional and character beats. In short, even if this was the same year that Pixar’s Toy Story 3 became only the third animated film in history to garner a Best Picture nomination along with its expected Best Animated Feature win, How to Train Your Dragon genuinely gives it a run for its money as one of the best films of 2010.

Rating: 5/5!

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 (2014)

Given the immense success of the original How to Train Your Dragon, it’s no surprise that a sequel was immediately announced just one month after its release. It would ultimately come out in 2014 and retained most of its predecessor’s core cast and crew members; the only major loss in that regard was co-director Chris Sanders due to his commitment to DreamWorks’ 2013 release The Croods. Thankfully, though, he stuck around as an executive producer while his co-director Dean DeBlois officially took over as the franchise’s main director. Set five years after the events of the first film, How to Train Your Dragon 2 sees Hiccup, Toothless, and their friends confronted by their most dangerous adversary yet; Drago Bludvist (voiced by Djimon Hounsou), a vicious dragon-hunting warlord who seeks to assemble a dragon army and take over the world. And if that wasn’t enough, Hiccup also ends up reuniting with his long-lost mother Valka (voiced by Cate Blanchett), who has been protecting dragons from Drago for years. Upon its release, How to Train Your Dragon 2 did even better than its predecessor at the box office, earning over $621 million worldwide, currently standing as the 7^th highest-grossing DreamWorks film of all-time and the franchise’s highest-grossing installment. And while it lost that year’s Oscar for Best Animated Feature to Disney’s Big Hero 6, it gamely followed in its predecessor’s footsteps by maintaining a strong critical reception.

Sure enough, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is exactly the kind of excellent sequel that you’d want to see in the sense that it naturally improves upon its already fantastic predecessor in plenty of ways. Once again utilizing the assistance of Roger Deakins (who, at this point, had also served as a visual consultant on other DreamWorks films such as Puss in Boots and Rise of the Guardians), this film boasts even greater visuals and action sequences than its predecessor, arguably thanks in large part to a brighter color palette that’s used to its fullest effect. And sure, maybe the film’s main antagonist Drago isn’t as strong of a villain as he could’ve been in part due to a limited screentime, but the addition of Hiccup’s mother Valka (and her subsequent reunion with both her son and her husband Stoick) provides a strong emotional hook that carries throughout the entire film. Add in some other strong emotional beats such as the devastating death of one of the main characters and the continued efforts to strengthen the bond between Hiccup and Toothless and it’s easy to see why director Dean DeBlois cited The Empire Strikes Back as a primary source of inspiration for this sequel. Just like that film, How to Train Your Dragon 2 effectively raises the narrative stakes in a thematically darker film (which, admittedly, was a source of contention amongst some audiences) that nevertheless doesn’t lose sight of its family-friendly appeal, its endearing main protagonists, and its penchant for spectacular visuals.

Rating: 5/5!

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD (2019)

Before we conclude today’s retrospective, I’d like to point out an interesting bit of trivia about this series that I ended up coming across while working on this post, and that is the fact that the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy has the unique distinction of having every installment released under a different distributor. The original How to Train Your Dragon, released in 2010, came out near the tail-end of DreamWorks’ almost decade-long distribution deal with Paramount that had started back in 2006. After that, DreamWorks signed a distribution deal with 20^th Century Fox, with 2014’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 being the studio’s most commercially successful release of that era. Finally, the trilogy’s grand finale, 2019’s How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, had the honor of being the first DreamWorks film to be released through their current distributor, Universal. As the title suggests, the film sees Hiccup and company embark on a journey to try and find the mythical ‘Hidden World’, the perfect sanctuary for dragons, when they realize that Berk is no longer safe for their dragon companions due to the increasing number of dragon hunters that have come after them such as their latest foe Grimmel (voiced by F. Murray Abraham), who has singlehandedly killed nearly every Night Fury in the world except for Toothless. And yet, at the same time, Toothless finally comes across one of his own when he meets and falls in love with a female counterpart AKA a ‘Light Fury’.

Like its two predecessors, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World was a bona fide success with both critics and audiences. While it may not have matched How to Train Your Dragon 2’s franchise-best run at the box office, it did achieve the franchise’s second-best worldwide total as it grossed over $525 million worldwide. And even when faced with the inevitably intense expectations of being a threequel given the typically mixed reception that most franchise threequels tend to get (which is something that DreamWorks is quite familiar with), the film was yet another runaway hit with critics. However, even with that said, it seems like this one ended up being a bit more polarizing amongst fans of the franchise specifically because of its ending. Now, for the sake of those who haven’t yet seen these films, I won’t spoil the full details of this ending, but to make a long story short, some felt that it went against a lot of the key themes that the franchise had established over its run and the whole premise of Hiccup and company’s efforts to prove that humans and dragons can peacefully co-exist with each other. And yet, while I do genuinely see where they’re coming from in some cases, the way that this film concludes its saga of humans and dragons is done in a way where, despite the devastating decision that’s made and what it means for both parties, it still presents a positive outlook on the potential of the two of them living in harmony without any sort of threat to the latter.

In other words, from a narrative standpoint, I do believe that The Hidden World is a top-notch conclusion to this phenomenal trilogy… especially since I’d argue that this is one of the rare instances of a trilogy where each subsequent installment is better than the last. First, to get the obvious superlatives out of the way, because of all the technical improvements that have come with each new film (case in point, it has been well-documented that DreamWorks had to update a lot of their animation software to achieve all their visual aspirations for this film), The Hidden World boasts the franchise’s most stunning visuals and epically thrilling action sequences. And whereas the previous film’s antagonist Drago was an admittedly lackluster villain, The Hidden World features the series’ best antagonist in Grimmel, excellently voiced by F. Murray Abraham and an all-around sinister foe who’s properly established as a legitimate threat to our heroes right from the beginning. Finally, given its status as a, well, ‘finale’, it goes without saying that this film delivers the franchise’s best emotional beats, such as whenever it focuses on the blissfully sweet budding romance between Toothless and the Light Fury or, as I noted earlier, its powerful gut-punch of an ending that, like it or not, does feel emotionally justified. In short, what more can I say about this franchise that I haven’t already said here today? While all three films are phenomenal in their own way, The Hidden World ultimately stands out amongst them all as it sends off this beloved franchise on the best note possible, firmly asserting its status as a trilogy that has always matched its grand visual splendor with its wholly heartfelt storytelling.

Rating: 5/5!

And that concludes the latest installment of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s series of DreamWorks Retrospectives. Simply put, it was a lot of fun to finally see what this franchise was all about after years of never getting around to seeing these films despite being fully aware of how beloved they were. And while The Hidden World may have marked the end of the franchise in terms of animated films, that doesn’t mean that this is the end of Hiccup and Toothless’ adventures as a live-action adaptation of the first film is currently in the works for a June 2025 release. Sure, this announcement undoubtedly frustrated those who, just like all the recent live-action remakes of Disney’s animated classics, question the need to make a live-action version of an animated masterpiece, but at the very least, this new film will benefit from the return of series director Dean DeBlois in the director’s chair. As for its casting, Mason Thames, breakout star of Scott Derrickson’s 2022 hit The Black Phone, headlines the film as Hiccup while Nico Parker, fresh off her acclaimed turn as Joel’s daughter Sarah in the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us, will star as Astrid. Edgar Wright regular Nick Frost takes on the role of Gobber while Gerard Butler returns to reprise his role from the animated films as Hiccup’s father Stoick. And if that wasn’t enough, 2025 will be a big year for the franchise in general as it’s set to serve as one of the five lands in Universal Orlando Resort’s upcoming fourth theme park, Epic Universe.

As for our next endeavor in the DreamWorks Retrospective series, this is where things get interesting. As I’ve said before, my goal with this series was to start out by tackling DreamWorks’ biggest franchises; more specifically, any franchise that has elicited, at the very least, a trilogy of films. With that in mind, when I first started this series back in 2022, How to Train Your Dragon was the most recent DreamWorks franchise to achieve this feat; thus, my plan at the time was to then do a quick detour and tackle the studio’s brief foray into traditionally animated features before moving on to the rest of their filmography. However, by the time that this post has been published, another DreamWorks franchise has recently achieved the trilogy mark. And so, for our next DreamWorks Retrospective, we’ll be tackling what has arguably become DreamWorks’ flagship franchise as of late, the Trolls franchise.

Top 15 Favorite Stan Lee Film Cameos

Greetings, true believers! Today’s post doesn’t need much of an introduction, and to be perfectly blunt, it’s going to be a refreshingly short one compared to the massive endeavor that was the Annual End of Summer Fan Poll’s Results Post. In honor of what would’ve been his 101^st birthday, today we’re celebrating one of the biggest icons in the world of comics, Stan Lee. Along with other comic legends such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Lee helped co-create some of the most iconic heroes from the Marvel Comics universe, from everyone’s favorite webslinger Spider-Man to the Children of the Atom AKA the X-Men. But in later years, as he transitioned into being more of the public face of Marvel Comics, Lee also became known for his numerous cameos in the various films and TV shows based on his iconic creations, which were a staple of Marvel’s media productions up until his passing on November 12^th, 2018 and a delight to look out for, both for fans of the man himself and the beloved properties that he helped to create. So today, I decided to make a ranked list of my personal favorite Stan Lee cinematic cameos. For today’s post, we’re going to focus solely on his film cameos, meaning that I won’t be covering the likes of his cameo in Insomniac’s 2018 AAA blockbuster video game Spider-Man and the subsequent in-universe tribute to him in its 2020 sequel Spider-Man: Miles Morales or any of his various cameos in Marvel’s numerous animated shows. And in this instance, I decided that a basic Top 10 list simply wasn’t enough for such a legendary figure. Nope, today we’re going to do a TOP 15 LIST to truly honor the legacy of the one and only Stan ‘The Man’ Lee. Excelsior!!

First up, let’s celebrate a few honorable mentions, which we’ll go through in the chronological order of their respective films’ releases. First up, from the 2005 adaptation of Fantastic Four, we have the first instance where Lee played a character that he created, Willie Lumpkin, the friendly mailman of the titular superhero quartet who greets them when they first enter their new base of operations, the Baxter Building.

Moving onto our first Marvel Cinematic Universe release in today’s post, we have his cameo in the first Thor film, where he and a bunch of residents from the town of Puente Antiguo, New Mexico try to lift the mysterious hammer that has landed in a nearby desert. Lee appears as a truck driver whose attempt to pull it out with his truck results in the truck’s cargo bed getting ripped off, resulting in him poking his head out of the window and asking “Did it work?”

Moving onto the other MCU film of 2011, Captain America: The First Avenger, Lee appears as a U.S. Army General attending an award ceremony for Captain America after his successful rescue of the 107^th Infantry Regiment from HYDRA forces. But when the Star-Spangled Man with a Plan doesn’t show up and the Senator in charge of Cap’s promotional tour is informed of this by one of his associates, Lee’s character confuses the associate for Captain America and notes, “I thought he’d be taller!”.

Cut to 2014 and we’ve got the first Walt Disney Animation Studios production based on a Marvel property, Big Hero 6. While he may not have had a hand in this superhero squad’s creation, it would’ve quite frankly been a shock if Lee hadn’t cameoed in this film, where he plays the father of the team’s resident slacker (with a fire-breathing dragon suit for good measure), Fred. After originally just appearing via a photo cameo in Fred’s family mansion, where he implies that his parents are on vacation, Fred’s father finally appears onscreen in the film’s post-credit scene, in which his son comes across a secret lair full of superhero equipment. Lee would then go on to reprise his role in the first two seasons of the follow-up series Big Hero 6 – The Series, where he was revealed to be an in-universe superhero named Boss Awesome.

Going back to live-action, we have his appearance in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse. While it’s only a non-vocal cameo, in which he observes the sudden launch of all the world’s nukes as orchestrated by the titular antagonist Apocalypse, it’s notable in a heartwarming sense since it’s the only one where he got to star alongside his wife, Joan Lee. It was her first live-action cameo in a Marvel production after previously having voice roles in various Marvel TV productions from the 90’s… and her last on-screen appearance before her passing on July 6^th, 2017.

Speaking of the X-Men universe, there’s his appearance in the 2017 short No Good Deed, a special teaser to 2018’s Deadpool 2 which gave audiences their first look into how the character was being handled under the direction of David Leitch. Lee only appears in the version of the short that was released online rather than the version seen in theaters in front of that year’s Logan, but it’s still an enjoyable cameo nevertheless as Lee praises Deadpool’s suit before the Merc with a Mouth tells him to zip it… and, of course, given Deadpool’s fourth-wall-breaking habits, he directly refers to Stan by name.

 Finally, let’s go over his final two appearances in an Avengers film. In 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, he’s the bus driver for Peter Parker and his classmates who pokes fun at his passengers’ stunned reactions to the appearance of Thanos’ herald Ebony Maw’s ship above the skies of New York (“What’s the matter with you kids? You never seen a spaceship before?”).

 And finally, there’s his final cameo in a Marvel film, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. In this film, Lee appears during the sequence where Iron Man and Captain America travel back in time to 1970 to collect the Tesseract AKA the Space Infinity Stone when their original attempt to do so in 2012 failed. Lee and his female companion (with Lee digitally de-aged to look like he did in 1970 and his companion modeled after his wife Joan) drive by the S.H.I.E.L.D. base at Camp Lehigh, New Jersey, with Lee shouting “Hey man, make love, not war!”. And on his car’s bumper sticker, we see one of his most iconic catchphrases, “Nuff Said!”

15. Chess-Playing New Yorker – The Avengers

As a bunch of news reports cover the Avengers’ successful defeat of Loki and the Chitauri, Lee appears as an interviewee who remarks “Superheroes in New York? Give Me a Break!”. He had a different yet equally delightful cameo that wound up on the cutting room floor where, during a scene where Captain America is at a diner and hit on by a waitress, he tells Cap to “ask for her number, you moron!”.

14. Fed-Ex Delivery Man – Captain America: Civil War

After the intense conflicts of the third Captain America film, and especially after a scene where Tony tries to help his pal Rhodey deal with the spinal injury that he suffered during the Avengers’ airport skirmish, Stan Lee gets to provide some much-needed levity when he appears as a Fed-Ex driver delivering a package to the Avengers’ compound… the only problem is that the name on the label was misspelled, resulting in him asking for a “Tony Stank”. Rhodey promptly and delightfully revels at this hilarious misnomer.

13. Sakaarian Barber – Thor: Ragnarök

We can thank good ol’ Stan for Thor’s new haircut in Thor: Ragnarök as he’s the Sakaarian barber who trims the God of Thunder’s blond locks before he’s sent off to compete in Sakaar’s Contest of Champions. A lot of great banter here between Lee and Chris Hemsworth (which is fitting since Lee has gone on record stating that Hemsworth was always one of his favorites to work with onscreen) as Thor boldly proclaims that the barber will never cut his hair… but then, after Stan turns on his haircutting device, Thor starts to get desperate and pleads with the “nice old man” not to cut his hair.

12. Graduation Guest – The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Peter Parker barely manages to make it to his high school graduation before his name is called. When he first gets there, he nearly goes onstage wearing his Spider-Man mask before he remembers to take that off… but not before Stan ‘The Man’ spots him and proclaims, “I think I know that guy!”. Lee would end up saying the exact same thing to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man as part of a series of commercials advertising ABC’s coverage of the NBA Finals around the time of Spider-Man: Homecoming’s release.

11. Not on the Guest List – Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

A great example of how a Stan Lee cameo could be done in a manner that feels quite relevant in the context of the comics is in the second 2000’s era Fantastic Four film, 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which saw Lee attending the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm… only to get denied entry because he wasn’t on the guest list.

10. San Francisco Resident ­– Ant-Man and the Wasp

During the climax of Ant-Man and the Wasp, a Pym Particle disc hits a car, which causes it to shrink as the owner remarks “Well, the ’60s were fun, but now I’m paying for it!”. A basic cameo, admittedly, but one that is made even more memorable by the numerous alternate takes that can be seen in the film’s outtakes. For all we know, that man probably stole that car… either that, or he’s lucky that it was only a rental. But wait, did he leave his sandwich and/or coupons in there? Well, if anything, at least he was able to find a parking spot in San Francisco…

9. A Stan Lee Cameo in a DC Movie??? – Teen Titans Go to the Movies

Yes, as crazy as it may seem, Stan Lee made a prominent cameo in a film based on a DC Comics property; the film in question being the animated genre spoofer that was Teen Titans Go to the Movies. As the Teen Titans walk through the Warner Bros. studio lot, Lee, first seen sweeping in the background, shifts the focus over to him and proudly announces that he’s here for his “subtle cameo”. But then someone tells him that he’s in a DC film, promptly resulting in him leaving… before he returns during the climactic chase scene involving the Titans and the forces of their enemy Slade where he jumps on their golf cart and proclaims that he doesn’t mind the fact that he’s in a DC production. He just loves making cameos!

8. Mallrat Stan – Captain Marvel

2019’s Captain Marvel was the first MCU film released after Stan Lee’s death, and sure enough, Marvel Studios went all out to pay tribute to the man, the myth, the legend. In fact, it all starts at the very beginning of the film as the traditional character-filled Marvel Studios logo is replaced with photos and clips of the beloved Marvel icon. And at the end of this whole sequence, a simple yet poignant message appears on-screen; “Thank you Stan”. As for his in-film cameo, we have a moment that directly ties into Lee’s career given that the film is set in 1995. As Captain Marvel pursues a Skrull operative on an LA subway train, she takes note of an old man reading from a film script. When she pulls down his script, he flashes his lovably warm smile which she promptly reciprocates. A nice, sweet cameo all-around, but also a fun one for those in the film fan community since the script that Stan is reading from is Kevin Smith’s Mallrats, where he, of course, made one of his first notable cinematic cameos.

7. Drunk War Vet – Avengers: Age of Ultron

Another fan-favorite cameo of Lee’s sees him attending the Avengers’ party in Avengers Tower, where Thor brings out a flask of an ancient Asgardian ale. While he warns the partygoers that it isn’t meant for mortal men, one World War II vet is willing to give it a try. But sure enough, it leaves the old man flat-out drunk as two guys carry him out; as this happens, the veteran woozily utters a single word, “Excelsior!”

6. Smithsonian Security Guard – Captain America: The Winter Soldier

As the climax for Captain America’s second MCU solo film ramps up, the titular hero steals his original World War II-era uniform from the Smithsonian Museum’s Captain America exhibit before he and his allies begin their attack on the HYDRA-compromised S.H.I.E.L.D. We learn about this as a security guard notices its absence and laments “Oh man! I am so fired!”.

5. “You Look Great, Hef!” – Iron Man

Lee’s first cameo in a Marvel Cinematic Universe production is often cited as one of his best, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a simple yet hilarious cameo in which Tony Stark AKA Iron Man attends a charity event and passes by a man who he thinks is Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, only for the man to turn around and reveal himself to be our favorite Marvel icon. This approach for a Stan Lee cameo would be repeated in the sequel, 2010’s Iron Man 2, where he’s referred to as radio host Larry King by Tony’s chauffeur and bodyguard Happy Hogan as he and Tony travel through the crowd at the Stark Expo and converse with the latter’s fans.

4. Watcher Informant – Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

The second cinematic outing for everyone’s favorite band of intergalactic a-holes gives us a definite answer on the nature of Stan Lee’s cameos in the MCU. As it turns out, he’s an informant for the all-knowing group of sentient cosmic beings known as the Watchers. First appearing in a scene where his conversation with them gets interrupted by Rocket, Baby Groot, Yondu, and Kraglin traveling through a bunch of hyperspace jumps to get to Ego’s planet, Lee’s informant then proceeds to talk about the time that he worked for FedEx. In the film’s final post-credit scene, the disinterested Watchers leave without giving their informant a lift home. Sure, this cameo may have instigated a bit of a continuity error since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 is set before the events of Captain America: Civil War, but it still presents a delightful way of explaining Lee’s cameos that isn’t far off from what the common fan theory was at the time that suggested that he’d be revealed to be the most famous Watcher, Uatu.

3. Unaware Librarian – The Amazing Spider-Man

Andrew Garfield’s first outing as Spider-Man resulted in one of Stan Lee’s most hilarious cameos during the sequence where Spidey fights Dr. Connors AKA The Lizard in his high school. At one point, they rampage through the library all while the librarian on duty is just going about his business and listening to classical music on headphones, completely unaware of what’s going on behind him even when a table nearly gets thrown at him, which Spidey thankfully catches.

2. Man in Times Square – Spider-Man 3

Stan Lee’s first two cameos in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy were the very definition of a basic cameo; in both instances, he appeared briefly as a citizen who pulls someone out of the way of falling debris during Spidey’s first fights with the Green Goblin and Doc Ock, respectively. But as revealed in the films’ bonus features, there were some alternate ideas as to how he’d appear in them. In the first Spider-Man from 2002, he almost appeared as a street vendor at the World Unity Fair selling sunglasses that, as he put it, were the kind “they wore in the X-Men”. In Spider-Man 2, he almost appears as an onlooker who remarks that Spider-Man stole a kid’s sneakers. Ultimately, his best Raimi trilogy cameo occurred in the final installment of the trilogy, 2007’s Spider-Man 3. After Spidey rescues Gwen Stacy from an incident with a faulty crane, he learns that he’s set to be honored by the city of New York from one of the news tickers in Times Square. A man standing next to him remarks “You know, I guess one person can make a difference. ‘Nuff Said!”. I think most will agree that this is easily one of Lee’s best cameos; in just a single line, the well-spoken Marvel icon makes a poignant observation about the importance of superheroes. And on that note…

1. Costume Shop Owner – Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

We’ve covered plenty of great Stan Lee cameos today, many of them delightfully wacky comedic moments that perfectly matched Lee’s lovable on and offscreen persona. But for the Number 1 pick, I decided to go with the most poignant cameo of them all; the first proper Stan Lee cameo that was released after his death in the Phil Lord and Chris Miller-produced Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. In the film, Lee plays the owner of a costume shop where new Spider-Man Miles Morales buys a Spider-Man costume in the wake of his universe’s Peter Parker’s death. When he brings the costume up to the register, the owner laments that he’s going to miss Spider-Man and notes that he was friends with the web-slinger. When Miles inquires about the possibility of having to return the costume if it doesn’t fit, the owner notes that “it always fits, eventually”, a seemingly sweet gesture… before the camera pans over to the sign behind him that states his no return policy.

I decided to go with this one because I think it perfectly sums up Lee’s legacy, especially since everyone’s favorite webslinger may quite arguably be his most famous creation. This scene between Lee and the new Spidey, Miles, sees the former have some of the most poignant dialogue that he’s ever delivered in a Marvel film before ending with a classic bit of Stan Lee humor. This touching tribute is then extended to the film’s credits, which pays tribute to both him and Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko, who had passed away that past June. The following quote, “That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it’s the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt a real superhero”, appears over an image of a pair of familiar-looking glasses. Cut to the following statement, “Thank you, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, for telling us we aren’t the only ones”.

And that concludes my list of my Top 15 personal favorite Stan Lee cinematic cameos. Thanks for following along and be sure to sound off in the comments below with your own personal favorites, including all those shows and video games that I didn’t tackle in today’s post.

Favorite Films of the Summer of 2023 - As Voted by You!!!

Well, folks, another year has come and gone for Rhode Island Movie Corner’s Annual End of Summer Fan Poll. As always, I must start off the annual Results Post by stating that I couldn’t be more grateful to everyone who participated in this year’s poll, from all of those who voted to those who shared it online via social media networks. As a freelance film critic who hasn’t been posting as much as I’ve done in the past and someone who admittedly relies mainly on friends and family to spread this annual poll of ours around, it truly means a lot to know that we’ve been able to keep this growing every year, especially after the whole ‘I had to cancel the 2020 edition of this event for blatantly obvious reasons’ ordeal. Case in point, last year’s poll saw us reach record numbers with a 119-vote turnout, which was the first time that we accomplished a turnout of over 100 votes. Well, guess what? This year… we managed to top even that! Yes, folks, this year’s poll saw a new record turnout of 122 votes. And unlike last year, where nearly half of the votes were for that year’s champion, Top Gun: Maverick, this year’s lineup of votes was a lot more spread out across the potential candidates. In other words, this year’s poll matched the record set by the 2017 polling season with a whopping 22 films getting represented by your votes. So, let’s not waste any more time because I know a lot of you are interested in seeing what film won it all this year. Without further ado, Rhode Island Movie Corner is proud to present the most popular films from the summer of 2023… as voted by you, our friendly readers!

ALRIGHT, TO KICK THINGS OFF, WE HAVE 7 FILMS THAT EARNED ONE VOTE EACH…

BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER

In 2018, Bill Holderman, a longtime producer for Robert Redford, made his directorial debut with Book Club, a romantic comedy headlined by the quartet of Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candace Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen. In the film, the four play a group of friends who decide to spice up their personal lives after reading the infamous Fifty Shades of Grey in their monthly book club. Bolstered by an all-star cast that also included the likes of Andy Garcia, Don Johnson, and Craig T. Nelson, just to name a few, the film performed excellently at the box office even when competing against big-name blockbusters like Avengers: Infinity War and Deadpool 2, grossing over $104 million worldwide on its modest $14 million budget. In 2022, a sequel was confirmed with most of the original’s core cast and crew returning but a notable change in studios; instead of Paramount, Book Club: The Next Chapter was released under the Universal banner. In The Next Chapter, the lead quartet of reading enthusiasts embark on a vacation to Italy in celebration of Jane Fonda’s character’s impending engagement. Upon its release, the film fared about as well as the original with critics, who felt that the lead quartet of Keaton, Fonda, Bergen, and Steenburgen worked wonderfully together despite the lackluster material they were given. But unlike the original, Book Club: The Next Chapter surprisingly underperformed at the box office, only grossing $29.1 million against a bigger $20 million budget. Some suggested that this was probably due to the general lack of interest in a sequel, but in its defense, it did just as well in this annual poll of ours as the original, which also scored a vote back in 2018.  

JOY RIDE

Over the past few years, Adele Lim has established herself as one of the most acclaimed screenwriters on the rise in the film industry. After years of working in television on shows like One Tree Hill and Lethal Weapon, Lim made her feature film debut as a screenwriter with 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians. While she would ultimately depart the film’s impending sequels as the result of a pay dispute that would’ve seen her get paid less than co-writer Peter Chiarelli, there’s no denying that she played a huge role in bringing one of 2018’s biggest summer blockbusters to the big screen. She would then follow that up by working on Disney Animation’s first 2021 feature, Raya and the Last Dragon (co-written by Qui Nguyen), which was similarly acclaimed even if it was ultimately overshadowed by the studio’s other 2021 release, Encanto. And in 2023, she made her directorial debut with Joy Ride which, of course, she had a hand in writing alongside Family Guy alums Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsaio. Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu star as a quartet of friends who travel to China in the hopes of finding main protagonist Audrey’s (Park) birth mother so that she can secure a major business deal that will ensure a promotion at work. After debuting at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, the film hit theaters in July to highly positive reviews from critics, who highlighted the strong performances of its leads and its heartfelt moments that managed to shine amidst all its incredibly raunchy humor. In short, much like Adele Lim’s first foray into the world of film, Crazy Rich Asians, Joy Ride was celebrated for its on-screen representation, effectively proving that raunchy humor isn’t just reserved solely for comedies headlined by white men.     

STRAYS

Apart from their work on a certain animated superhero film (more on that later) and the revival of their breakout series Clone High as an exclusive on Max, 2023 also saw the dynamic duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller produce a pair of comedies with two things in common; they both revolved around animals and were both unabashedly R-rated. First, there was the Elizabeth Banks-directed Cocaine Bear which, as a title like that suggests, promptly became a full-on viral sensation when it hit theaters back in February. And then there’s their second summer release, Strays, directed by veteran TV director Josh Greenbaum. This dog-centric comedy stars Will Ferrell as the voice of Reggie, a happy-go-lucky Border Terrier who doesn’t even remotely realize that his owner Doug (Will Forte) doesn’t give a crap about him to the point where he frequently attempts to ditch him. When the latest ditch attempt is the most successful yet, thus officially making Reggie a stray, he meets and befriends three other strays, a Boston Terrier named Bug (Jamie Foxx), an Australian Shepherd named Maggie (Isla Fisher), and a Great Dane named Hunter (Randall Park), who help keep him out of trouble. Together, they decide to get revenge on Doug for all his abuse towards Reggie by robbing him of “the only thing he truly loves” (and no, I’m not going to elaborate on what that thing is because I do try to keep these posts of mine as PG as possible). Upon the film’s release, it proved to be somewhat of a mixed bag with critics; many felt that, while the film had a good heart, it wasn’t exactly the hilariously crude canine romp that it was aiming to be. But to make matters worse, when you come out at a time when none of your stars can actively promote it because of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes… well, that arguably ends up playing a major role in it becoming a box-office bomb as Strays has only managed to gross around $36 million on its $46 million budget.

THE FLASH

In 1940, DC Comics writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert created the character of The Flash, a super-speed-based superhero who has promptly gone on to become one of the most prominent members of the DC Universe and its most famous superhero squad, the Justice League. Several characters have graced the persona of the ‘Scarlet Speedster’ over the years, from the OG Golden Age hero Jay Garrick to forensic scientist Barry Allen, with the latter usually tending to be the most famous of the bunch even though his heroic sacrifice at the end of DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline in the mid-80’s kept him out of comics for more than two decades. Naturally, Flash has appeared in various spin-offs of the comics including, most notably in his case, several TV shows. Outside of the character’s appearances in multiple animated series like the Bruce Timm-backed Justice League and its various spin-offs, the character has also headlined his own live-action shows. There was the short-lived Flash series from the 90s, which starred John Wesley Shipp in the title role, and the long-running Flash series on The CW which starred Grant Gustin in the title role with Wesley Shipp notably appearing as Barry Allen’s father Henry and, on occasion, reprising his role as the 90’s series’ version of Barry while also portraying the new series’ version of Jay Garrick. That series would go on to arguably become the most prominent installment of the CW’s lineup of superhero shows known as the Arrowverse; while technically named after the first of these shows, Arrow, The Flash would end up becoming the longest-running series of the bunch, having only just concluded this past May after nine seasons and long after its fellow Arrowverse shows had already ended their runs.  

As for Flash’s potential on the big screen, that ended up taking quite a while to come to fruition. In the early 2000s, several attempts were made at producing a Flash film, with directors like David S. Goyer and Shawn Levy attached to it over time without any major success. Of course, there was also George Miller’s infamously unrealized adaptation of Justice League, Justice League: Mortal, that would’ve seen Adam Brody (who would later go on to portray the adult Freddie Freeman in the DCEU’s Shazam films) cast as Barry Allen before various factors such as the 2007-08 Writers Strike ultimately led to it being canned. Thus, it wouldn’t be until the development of the DC Extended Universe that we would finally see the first official live-action take on The Flash, with Ezra Miller cast in the role following their breakout turns in films like We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Like fellow Justice League castmates Ray Fisher and Jason Momoa, Miller would make their official franchise debut with a brief cameo in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice before taking on one of the lead roles in the following year’s Justice League. Naturally, with the confirmation of Miller’s casting and the subsequent plans for the DCEU being set up, it was confirmed that there would be a Flash solo film in the works. However, as it turns out, the Flash film would end up becoming one of the most prominent examples in recent memory of a project that spent a considerably long and arduous time stuck in development hell… and believe it or not, this wasn’t just because of all the struggles that the DCEU experienced in general trying to match the success of the MCU.

Just like what happened with all the attempts to make a Flash film before the DCEU, several directors went in and out of the project, from the duo of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein to the likes of Rick Famuyiwa and Robert Zemeckis. As usual, ‘creative differences’ were the main reason for most of these departures and the script itself underwent several changes as well, sometimes due to Ezra Miller’s dissatisfaction with it. Ultimately, Andy Muschietti, fresh off his work on the highly successful two-part film adaptation of Stephen King’s It, signed on to direct, which would finally ensure that the film would get made. And despite all those previously mentioned script changes, it was made clear that, while not a direct adaptation of it, the film would be heavily based on one of Flash’s most notable storylines from the comics, 2011’s Flashpoint. The catalyst behind the launch of DC’s New 52 era, Flashpoint saw Barry Allen go back in time to save his mother Nora from her mysterious death, which resulted in his father Henry being wrongly accused of her murder. But while he does successfully save his mom from her tragic fate, he quickly learns that this has led to the creation of an alternate universe in which many of his superhero peers either don’t exist or are at war with one another. Thus, Barry teams up with an alternate version of Batman (in this instance, Bruce Wayne’s father Thomas as Bruce is established to have been the one who was killed in the fateful theater mugging that has always defined the character’s backstory) in his attempts to set the timeline right.

As for the Flash film, while the same basic premise of Barry going back in time to save his mom and inadvertently altering the events of his universe is still there, several narrative differences keep things in line with the DC Extended Universe’s overall timeline. After Barry successfully saves his mom, he ends up getting stuck in the year 2013, around the time when he first acquired his powers. As a result, he ends up crossing paths with his younger and far more immature self, resulting in him being forced to try and teach the younger Barry how to be a superhero, especially after he loses his powers when he tries to put 2013 Barry through the events that made them the Flash (i.e. getting struck by lightning). And unlike the comics, which were based around an over-arching conflict of a civil war between Wonder Woman and Aquaman, this film’s main conflict revolves around the events of Man of Steel; specifically, General Zod’s invasion of Earth in his efforts to hunt down Superman, who had been living a private life on Earth ever since he was sent there as a baby. Thus, with no other metahumans who can help them, the two Barrys end up teaming up with this universe’s version of Batman; however, instead of Thomas Wayne, it is Bruce… but the Bruce Wayne from 1989’s Batman and 1992’s Batman Returns, with Michael Keaton returning to reprise his role for the first time in more than three decades. Things only get more complicated, however, when, in their efforts to try and find Superman, they learn that the Kryptonian refugee who has been hiding out on Earth for the past several years isn’t Clark… but rather, his cousin Kara Zor-El AKA Supergirl.

Right off the bat, fans of the Flashpoint storyline will most likely be disappointed by the fact that this isn’t a direct adaptation of it. And to be fair, it’s easy to see where they’re coming from in some cases as the overall plot of this film, despite all the buzz about it relaunching the DC Cinematic Universe into its future state under the direction of James Gunn and Peter Safran, feels surprisingly trivial when it comes to its overall stakes. It’s also quite limited in terms of plot and character development, with Flash being the only character in the film to get any sort of major emotional beats; in a way, it sort of makes sense seeing how the other characters are from the alternate timeline that will inevitably cease to exist by the end of it all, but it is noticeable, nevertheless. But just like how Captain America: Civil War did a great job of working around the weaker parts of the comic storyline that it was named after, there are some upsides to all this. Whereas the original Flashpoint involved dozens of characters from the DC Universe, this film keeps it grounded to Flash and his new allies Batman and Supergirl, which does help to keep its plot from getting too overstuffed. And even if there’s not a lot for characters like Batman and Supergirl to work with, the big emotional beats involving the Flash, namely anything revolving around his relationship with his mom, are genuinely phenomenal from the phone conversation that Barry has with his imprisoned father Henry, where we flashback to the fateful moment when Nora died, to the last moment that Barry shares with his mom before he restores the timeline to its rightful state, The Flash does achieve the kind of heartfelt moments that have bolstered many of this genre’s greatest releases. Really, though, that’s arguably to be expected from a director like Andy Muschietti, who had already done this before to great effect on the two It films.

Now, does that mean that this film is perfect? No, far from it. Like I said before, the casual nature of the plot makes this one of the most undemanding superhero films to come out in recent years, and while I’m personally fine with the largely light-hearted and easygoing tone that this film takes on, this also means that it doesn’t quite reach the epic narrative lengths that it could’ve gone to. And while I won’t be making as big of a deal about it as the rest of the internet has… yeah, it goes without saying that this film could’ve benefitted from a few extra trips through the VFX department because some of the CGI in this film is considerably under-polished. But thanks to some fun action set pieces, a strong ensemble cast, and a whole bunch of fun nods to DC’s extensive media history, there’s still a lot to like about this film. For one thing, it follows nicely in the footsteps of non-Snyderverse DCEU films like Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Birds of Prey by taking a character whose initial debut was in a bigger ensemble picture where they didn’t quite get the chance to become a fully fleshed-out character and giving them the proper character development that they deserve. This is something that I’ve always argued to be critical to this genre’s success and, if you ask me, is one of the main reasons why the DCEU tanked so hard early on because it was more focused on its visuals rather than ensuring that we’re able to care about any of the characters who were meant to be headlining the franchise.

But let’s be honest, folks, there’s one elephant in the room that I haven’t mentioned yet that quite arguably takes precedence over everything we’ve talked about, and that is the dark cloud that has surrounded this film for the past several years as the result of the actions of its star, Ezra Miller. While I won’t go into full details on the matter, in the time that it took this film to get made, Miller wound up getting involved in a whole bunch of incidents that ranged from assault charges to being accused of running a cult. This, in turn, led to reports that revealed that Miller’s erratic behavior even affected filming at times; as I mentioned earlier, this included all the instances where they took issue with how the script was turning out. But unlike what happened on films like All the Money in the World, where Ridley Scott replaced Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer just one month before its release, or Army of the Dead, where Zack Snyder had Tig Notaro replace Chris D’Elia via CGI-based reshoots, it’s clear that Miller couldn’t have been easily recast for a film of this size and budget. Nevertheless, it’s undoubtedly clear that a lot of folks weren’t so enthused to see this film given Miller’s involvement, hence why it ended up becoming one of the biggest box-office flops of recent memory. A $270 million+ haul is already enough of a low bar for a franchise like the DCEU, but with a massive budget that may have reached as high as $300 million… well, that’s not great. While I’m aware that some attribute this to some folks feeling like the remaining DCEU films aren’t worth checking out because of the impending reboot, that doesn’t mean that I think that this film deserved to flop like it did.

Now, to be clear, when I say that, don’t interpret that as me defending Ezra Miller in the wake of their various scandals in any way because I’m not. This also extends to me stating that Miller does a good job in this film, balancing their dual roles as the older, emotionally hardened Barry and the younger, fun-loving Barry quite well. In short, I’m just one of those folks who, for the most part, doesn’t like to see a film bomb as hard as this one did, especially since it’s a far better representation of the fantastical world of DC Comics than something like Zack Snyder’s Justice League which, to me, represents the absolute worst of the otherwise wonderful superhero genre. And yet, at the end of the day, I guess you can say that The Flash is one of the DC Extended Universe’s best examples of a film that’s practically a pitch-perfect representation of everything about this truly mixed bag of a franchise. Sure, it had the potential to be just as great as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but with a weak narrative foundation, questionable filmmaking decisions that didn’t fit the well-established characterizations of DC’s most iconic characters, and the most toxic fanbase of all time (which, given all the toxic film-based fanbases we’ve seen these past few years, is saying a lot), its overall success rate was split right down the middle. Thus, I’m sure that I’m not the only one who’s more than ready to embrace everything that’s set to come out over the next few years under the direction of James Gunn and Peter Safran.

ELEMENTAL

Many of Pixar’s greatest films were directly inspired by the lives of those who made them, and that has certainly applied to a lot of their recent masterpieces. For example, Dan Scanlon’s highly underrated fantasy adventure Onward was inspired by the strong relationship that he formed with his brother after they lost their father at a young age. 2021’s Luca was based on all the summers that director Enrico Casarosa spent as a child living on the Italian Riviera. Last year’s Turning Red (AKA this writer’s #1 favorite film of 2022) was influenced by director Domee Shi’s life growing up in Toronto, Canada and the universal struggles of being a teenager. Naturally, this same mentality applies to Pixar’s latest endeavor, Elemental, directed by one of the studio’s longtime mainstays, Peter Sohn. Sohn’s childhood living in New York and his family’s immigrant status helped to create the world of Element City, in which anthropomorphic personifications of the four elements (fire, water, wind, and earth) reside. In this thriving metropolis, a young fire sprite named Ember begins the process of taking over her father Bernie’s convenience store despite being plagued by a fiery temper. When said temper puts her family’s store at risk of being shut down, she tags along with Wade, an overly emotional water guy who’s one of Element City’s city inspectors, to try and undo the damage that she’s done. Along the way, the two begin to bond to the point where, despite the longstanding presumption that water and fire elements cannot mix, they even begin to fall in love with each other.

As you can tell from that plot synopsis, Elemental is, first and foremost, a love story and a beautifully executed one at that. This is mainly thanks to the fact that the lead duo of Ember and Wade are an instantly lovable romantic pair, with excellent voice performances from Leah Lewis as the short-tempered yet wholly sympathetic Ember and Mamoudou Athie as the happy-go-lucky Wade. But amidst all the romance is some timely commentary on the [unfortunately still prevalent] issues of racism and prejudice, which allows characters like Ember’s parents Bernie and Cinder to be properly fleshed out as well. While they are shown to be distrustful towards water elements like Wade, it doesn’t make them outright ‘villainous’ because of some of the similar hardships that they’ve been through such as the circumstances that led them to abandon their homeland and move to Element City and the racism that they faced upon arriving there, which then proceeded to affect Ember after she was born. In short, Elemental is truly a story from the heart as it’s a celebration of love, family, and the beauty of diversity, and with Pixar’s trademark beautiful animation to match its equally beautiful love story, it’s another wonderful addition to the studio’s long line of masterpieces. And yet, perhaps the most beautiful thing about this film… was how it managed to beat the odds and become a bonafide box-office hit, which is something that we haven’t been able to say about a Pixar film for quite some time.

To be perfectly blunt, Pixar films have had a rough run at the box office in recent years, and while I would personally love to pin it all on those right-wing morons who are irrationally mad about Disney-backed projects embracing the film industry’s efforts to be more culturally diverse… in reality, it’s mainly because of everything revolving around the COVID-19 pandemic. It all got started with Onward, which had the unfortunate distinction of being released just a week before the pandemic started to go into effect, meaning that it had no time to make any sort of dent at the box office. As a result, Disney then proceeded to turn the next three Pixar films, Soul, Luca, and Turning Red, into Disney+ exclusive releases with limited theatrical runs in major cities. And while many Pixar staff members were understanding about the decision to move Soul to Disney+, they weren’t so happy about it happening to Luca and Turning Red as well since, by the time they came out, efforts to combat COVID-19 were becoming far more widespread. But at the very least, these three films weren’t entirely hindered by their status as Disney+ releases as they all did quite well for themselves, managing to become some of the most streamed films of their respective release years and scoring all sorts of accolades during awards season. At the same time, though, many have argued that this resulted in audiences becoming more inclined to see Pixar’s new releases on Disney+ rather than in theaters. Thus, when Pixar finally saw their first theatrical release in more than two years with Lightyear… it ended up becoming a flop, and at first, it seemed like Elemental was going to succumb to the same fate.

Upon its initial release, Elemental only managed to do about $29.5 million during its opening weekend, which is the lowest opening weekend for a Pixar film… since the original Toy Story nearly three decades ago. And since it, like many other recent Pixar films, had a hefty budget of $200 million, an opening as low as that made it look like the studio was going to have yet another box-office bomb on their hands that, again, was arguably due to how long it took for Pixar to return to cinemas after COVID. And yet, against all odds… it survived. It had a decent second weekend with only a 38% loss from the previous weekend and, by the end of its run, managed to turn things around to do nearly half a billion worldwide, which is a lovely thing to witness for a film that’s as easy to love as this one. As I’ve said plenty of times over the years, I’m not someone who subscribes to the “If a Pixar film isn’t an outright flawless masterpiece, it’s not worth checking out” mentality that the internet has foolhardily embraced since the studio’s first critical flop, Cars 2, back in 2011. As a result, this has left perfectly great films like Onward and Lightyear to be unfairly seen as ‘inferior’ just because they aren’t as well-regarded as all the other masterpieces that Pixar has made since 1995. And in Elemental’s case, I’m sure that it’s seen as exactly that in some circles given the film’s relatively low yet still very much fresh 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (in part due to a rough early run with critics after its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival), with a consensus that states that it doesn’t “satisfy as fully as the greatest Pixar pictures”. Thus, when I hear about how it defied the odds to become a genuine hit at the box office, I’m left ecstatic because a film like this is a wonderful anti-thesis to all those expectations that the internet has placed upon Pixar to keep being one of the industry’s best.    

GRAN TURISMO

Easily taking the cake as one of the most unique attempts at adapting a popular video game into a film, Gran Turismo translates the PlayStation brand’s definitive racing franchise into a cinematic blockbuster. But I’m sure that there are a bunch of you out there who are thinking the exact same thing that I thought when this film was first announced; how the heck do you adapt a series like Gran Turismo into a film when the source material is, simply put, a straight-forward racing simulator without any sort of narrative to speak of? Well, it turns out that you do so by making it a biopic as this film tells the true story of Jann Mardenborough, a young man from Wales and avid Gran Turismo player who, in 2011, landed a once-in-a-lifetime exclusive professional racing contract with Nissan by partaking in their GT Academy program. Mardenborough’s story is brought to life courtesy of director Neill Blomkamp, with Archie Madekwe starring as Mardenborough, David Harbour as his skeptical trainer, and Orlando Bloom as the Nissan executive who runs the GT Academy program. And against all odds, the film did surprisingly well with critics upon its release. Outside of the controversial decision to reframe Mardenborough’s infamous 2015 crash in a manner that was seen by some as ill-fitting given that the crash resulted in the death of a spectator, critics praised the film for its racing sequences, Blomkamp’s direction, and its feel-good vibes. And with a decent $121+ million showing at the box office, it seems like this has been a nice return to form for Blomkamp who, after his breakout hit District 9 in 2009, went through a considerable rough patch as his subsequent projects like Elysium and Chappie did not score as well with critics as his Oscar-nominated directorial debut and his attempt at making an Alien sequel ultimately went nowhere.

TALK TO ME

Since its inception in 2012, A24 has become one of the most revered independent film distributors in the industry, especially when it comes to its lineup of critically acclaimed horror films that have made filmmakers like Ari Aster and Robert Eggers some of the genre’s most celebrated visionaries. This hot streak of theirs certainly continued this summer with the supernatural horror thriller Talk to Me, which they secured the distribution rights to at this year’s SXSW Film Festival. Directed by brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, best known as the creators of the horror comedy YouTube channel RackaRacka, the film follows a group of teenagers who discover that they can contact spirits with an embalmed severed hand. As to be expected from an A24-backed horror project, the film garnered much critical acclaim upon its release, with praise for its script, strong performances (particularly from Sophie Wilde as the film’s main protagonist Mia and Joe Bird as her best friend Jade’s younger brother Riley), and practical effects owing to the Philippou brothers’ background in visual effects. It also managed to become A24’s highest-grossing horror film at the U.S. box office with a $48.3 million run to complement its $92 million worldwide cume that makes it A24’s second highest-grossing film of all-time behind last year’s Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All at Once. Thus, despite A24’s general reluctance to create franchises, the Philippou brothers are already hard at work at not only a sequel but a prequel as well, and while only time will tell how these two projects will fare by comparison, this first installment was clearly successful enough with its target audience to notably be one of two featured films to come out of our poll’s write-in section.  

NEXT UP, WE HAVE 5 FILMS THAT EARNED TWO VOTES EACH

INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR

In 2011, director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell launched their second major horror franchise after their 2004 breakout hit Saw with Insidious, a supernatural horror flick in which a family’s oldest child becomes linked to a mysterious astral plane full of demonic creatures. Just like the original Saw, this low-budget horror flick (which was also an early producing credit for horror genre mainstay Jason Blum) became a massive hit at the box office, earning over $100 million worldwide on its meager $1.5 million budget. Naturally, this would lead to the creation of a full-blown franchise, with Wan and Whannell returning to direct and write Insidious: Chapter 2, respectively, in 2013. Whannell then proceeded to take over as director with 2015’s Insidious: Chapter 3, which was not only his directorial debut, but a prequel centered on the character of psychic Elise Rainier, played by Lin Shaye. That film would get its own direct follow-up in 2018, Insidious: The Last Key, directed by Adam Robitel, who would then go on to direct the Escape Room duology. And while none of these sequels/prequels managed to be as well-received as the original Insidious (which, admittedly, was a mixed bag amongst critics), they all did excellently at the box office, each managing to earn over $100 million worldwide. But now, in 2023, the series has finally shifted its focus back onto the main protagonists of the first two films, the Lambert family, with Insidious: The Red Door. Set nine years after the events of the first two films, Insidious: The Red Door sees the Lambert family once again haunted by the terrifying demons of ‘The Further’ when their oldest son Dalton heads off to college.

This installment notably served as the directorial debut of series protagonist Josh Lambert himself, Patrick Wilson, with other series mainstays reprising their respective roles as well, from Rose Bryne as Josh’s now ex-wife Renai to Ty Simpkins as their son Dalton. And despite it being more than half a decade since the release of the series’ previous installment, Insidious: The Red Door managed to become the highest-grossing Insidious film to date, defying its initial opening weekend expectations to earn $33 million domestically (the series’ second-best opening weekend overall behind Chapter 2) on route to an impressive $189.1 million worldwide haul. But as for its critical reception, The Red Door ended up being more on par with the previous three Insidious films with mediocre reviews overall as many critics felt that the series had officially run its course. That said, though, no one blamed any of this on Patrick Wilson’s account as they felt that he did a solid job in his directorial debut, and despite all those lackluster reviews, it’s clear that the Insidious franchise isn’t going away anytime soon. A spin-off written and directed by Jeremy Slater (Moon Knight) titled Thread is currently in the works and ever since the release of Insidious: The Last Key in 2018, series producer Jason Blum has been teasing the possibility of a crossover with director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill’s Sinister franchise.

NO HARD FEELINGS

In 2019, Office writing alum Gene Stupnitsky made his directorial debut with Good Boys, a raunchy coming-of-age comedy that centered on a trio of middle-school boys who found themselves going through all sorts of misadventures that weren’t exactly ‘age-appropriate’ for them. Upon its release, the film proved to be a critical and commercial hit and it even managed to become the first R-rated comedy in three years to take the #1 spot at the box office. Well, Stupnitsky is now back with another scandalous raunchy comedy with coming-of-age themes, No Hard Feelings, this time teaming up with Jennifer Lawrence, who stars as a down-on-her-luck woman named Maddie who answers a unique ad to ‘date’ a wealthy couple’s college-bound son Percy in exchange for a new car that will help her keep the house that she inherited from her mother. With a premise like that, it’s safe to say that this film faced some controversy upon its release as some accused its plot of being a case of sexual grooming given the decade-plus age difference between Maddie and Percy. However, others, including those involved in the production, argued that the film wasn’t promoting that and was instead highlighting just how messed up its premise is (which, apparently, was inspired by a real-life ad on Craigslist). Whatever the case, the film did do solidly with critics, who felt that while the film didn’t quite go all the way with its raunch factor, it, like Stupnitsky’s previous film Good Boys, did have its heartfelt moments along with a standout comedic turn from Jennifer Lawrence. 

ASTEROID CITY

There aren’t many filmmakers who have left a considerable impact on pop culture quite like Wes Anderson. Ever since his 1996 feature film debut Bottle Rocket, Anderson has consistently been regarded as one of the most revered directors in the industry, known particularly for his unique and quirky visual style largely defined by his impeccably detailed shot compositions. Naturally, Anderson’s talents are once again on full display with his latest endeavor, Asteroid City. Presented as an in-universe televised production of a legendary playwright’s play about a grieving widower who travels with his children to an astronomy convention in the titular Asteroid City, where some legitimate extraterrestrial activity ends up taking place, the film features almost all of Anderson’s regular collaborators as a part of his trademark stacked ensemble cast. You’ve got Jason Schwartzman, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Tilda Swinton, and Scarlett Johannsson just to name a few… and yet, not Bill Murray since he ended up contracting COVID by the time filming began and was ultimately replaced by Steve Carell. And while it may have ended up being one of Anderson’s lowest-rated directorial efforts amongst critics, it was still generally well-received as your quintessential Wes Anderson flick. It also did quite well for itself financially, grossing over $54 million worldwide on its $25 million budget. In fact, at a time when some big-name blockbusters weren’t doing too hotly at the box office, Asteroid City was seen as one of the summer’s most noteworthy successes, securing the best per-theater average for a limited-release debut ($142,230) since La La Land back in 2016 and Anderson’s best opening ever once it hit a wider release the following week with $9 million.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING PART 1

Nearly three decades since its debut in 1996, the Mission Impossible film franchise continues to be one of the most highly regarded in the industry. Not only has it arguably become the most definitive project of Tom Cruise’s career, but ever since 2011’s Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol, it’s also become one of those rare franchises that critics have argued has only gotten better with each new installment. This argument would become even more relevant once Cruise’s longtime writing collaborator Christopher McQuarrie stepped in to become the series’ director starting with 2015’s Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation, with its 2018 follow-up Mission Impossible – Fallout becoming the series’ most well-received and financially successful installment to date. Naturally, this meant that the hype for this action franchise juggernaut was only going to get stronger once McQuarrie and Cruise began to develop its next two films, which were subsequently confirmed to be presented as a two-part event. And so, after enduring all sorts of delays (largely due to, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic), we finally got the first half of Ethan Hunt’s next epic adventure with Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1, in which he and his team find themselves dealing with a sentient A.I. program known as ‘The Entity’.

As I’m sure you can guess, this long-running franchise continued to thrive upon Dead Reckoning Part 1’s release as it once again garnered critical acclaim from critics who once again praised McQuarrie’s top-notch direction and its spectacular (and practically filmed) action sequences. Plus, given everything that’s been going on regarding the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, this film’s premise of dealing with a rogue A.I. program certainly feels quite timely, don’t you think? However, to the surprise of many, Dead Reckoning Part 1’s critical success wasn’t exactly matched on a financial level as it only managed to gross around $567 million worldwide. Sure, that may not necessarily seem like a bad total for a blockbuster of this nature, but because the budget skyrocketed to $291 million, this technically resulted in a loss for Paramount that reportedly came up to around $100 million. But while there are often multiple reasons as to why some films flopped at the box office, this is one instance where there is a single widely accepted reason as to why this film didn’t do so hot: bad timing. Dead Reckoning Part 1 hit theaters just one week before this summer’s most talked-about pairing of new releases, and to make matters worse, one of those films ended up taking over all the IMAX screens that Dead Reckoning Part 1 was using at the time which, reportedly, was something that Tom Cruise wasn’t too happy about. So, in other words, because this resulted in the ideal way to watch this film getting taken out of the picture, it couldn’t hold on as strongly as its predecessors did at the box office when faced with serious competition. And yet, given that it is still one of the most acclaimed films of the year, it’s clear that this wasn’t some kind of intentional slight against the franchise; as such, we can only hope that this won’t end up being the case again for this legendary franchise when McQuarrie and Cruise close out this two-parter with Dead Reckoning Part 2 next June.

(Hey folks, a quick disclaimer before we continue. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m not someone who usually tends to delve too deeply into the political aspects of films when I discuss them on this site. No, this doesn’t mean that I’m one of those morons who makes a stink about films “being too political nowadays”; I’m just in the mindset that politics, as they do in any situation (not just film discussion), only end up making things ugly. But when it comes to this next film… this is the rare instance where I’m going to have to break this rule of mine because this is one of those films, and spoilers, what I’m about to say is not going to be in this film’s favor. With that in mind, for those who did vote for this film, let me be clear; this isn’t any sort of attack on you. I’m not judging you in any way for liking this film because that’s not what this annual event of ours is about. Everything that I’m about to say is strictly about the film itself and why I’m not exactly that excited to talk about it because of all the toxic repercussions behind its massive success.)

SOUND OF FREEDOM

Well, when it comes to this year’s poll, there wasn’t even remotely any surprise when it comes to what film was going to be the most prominent pick out of our write-in section, Sound of Freedom. This political thriller is inspired by the real-life actions of Tim Ballard, a former CIA and Homeland Security agent who founded the non-profit organization known as Operation Underground Railroad (AKA O.U.R.) to combat the ongoing crime of sex trafficking. Starring Jim Caviezel in the role of Ballard, the film follows Ballard’s efforts to rescue kids who have been kidnapped by Colombian sex traffickers, even going as far as to resign from Homeland Security to ensure his mission’s success. Upon its release, Sound of Freedom defied all expectations to become one of the biggest hits of the summer. On just a $14.5 million budget, the film ended up grossing over $250 million worldwide, easily making it one of the most successful independent films of all time. A large part of its success can be attributed to the ‘pay it forward’ strategy that its distributor, Angel Studios, used to promote the film by encouraging viewers to purchase tickets for those who can’t afford them; this was even used in the film itself, as a QR code linking audiences to Angel Studios’ website appears during a post-credit sequence in which star Jim Caviezel talks about the importance of the film’s message. In fact, this film was so successful that it even managed to outperform some of the summer’s biggest blockbusters such as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1.

And yet, as neat as it may be to see an independent film stand toe to toe with major studio blockbusters in this era of blockbuster-driven fare… I personally wish that a much different film was getting all this attention because this one has ‘super shady AF’ written all over it. For starters, because this is a political thriller that was released by a studio primarily known for religious projects, that means that this has become one of those films wholly championed by right-wing-minded audiences. And yes, in this instance I’m specifically referring to all those racist and sexist morons who I’ve repeatedly criticized these past few years for all their relentless whining about franchises like Star Wars and the MCU having the ‘audacity’ to make greater efforts to embrace diversity. Thus, with a film like this that is clearly more suited to their political sensibilities, it’s not too surprising to see that they have wholeheartedly embraced Sound of Freedom for being, as they’ve undoubtedly put it, ‘a big f*** you’ to their ‘woke adversaries’ like Disney. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that, at one point, this was originally going to be released under the Disney banner since it started out as a 20^th Century Fox production before it was shelved when Disney bought Fox in 2019? Believe me, those jackasses haven’t shied away from mentioning that whenever they talk about this film. It also doesn’t help that star Jim Caviezel and the man that he plays in the film, Tim Ballard, have both openly promoted the BS theories spread around by the QAnon cult that falsely proclaim that, among other things, folks in the Democratic and Hollywood communities are key players involved in a global sex trafficking ring… and yes, they’ve even promoted this s*** during this film’s promotional circuit.

Ironically, though, it turns out that some of the people involved in this film’s production are exactly the kind of folks that guys like Caviezel and Ballard are so vehemently opposed to. A month after the film’s release, one of its funders, Fabian Marta, a man who had been quite vocal on social media about his ‘success in getting the film away from Disney’, faced felony charges for child kidnapping. And while the charges against him were, in fact, recently dropped, he’s also been confirmed to have hosted ‘Sugar Baby/Sugar Daddy’ parties aimed towards all ages (emphasis on ‘all ages’). One of the film’s executive producers, Leo Severino, has also been accused of grooming minors, including his own wife when she was just a teenager; in other words, yikes times infinity. And then… there’s Tim Ballard himself. Not long after the film came out, it was revealed that Ballard had recently parted ways with O.U.R.; at the time, his departure was linked to ‘ethical issues’. But recently, the full extent of those ‘ethical issues’ were revealed as he’s currently being sued by several women on the charges of grooming, sexual harassment and misconduct. Add in the fact that, as it turns out, the main plot of this film was an event that Ballard had absolutely ZERO involvement with… and, well, hopefully, I’ve now given you a crystal-clear idea as to why this isn’t exactly a film that I’m super eager to talk about.

Now, for the record, despite everything that I’ve just talked about, it has been made clear several times over (including from the film’s director, Alejandro Monteverde) that the film itself has nothing to do with QAnon culture. Caviezel and Ballard’s off-screen nonsense is, to be perfectly blunt, the only reason why QAnon has even been linked to it at all. And yet, I’d argue that, nevertheless, QAnon’s relentless toxicity has cast an undeniable shadow over this entire production. For all its talk about its ‘noble’ intentions to stop the crime of underage sex trafficking, the fact that much of its supposed ‘true story’ was blatantly fabricated for dramatic effect and several key players of its production have basically committed the exact same kind of atrocities committed by its main antagonists (including the man who serves as the film’s ‘holier than thou’ protagonist) ultimately results in all this coming off as incredibly disingenuous. And if that wasn’t enough, this has also been one of those films that its fans are so passionate about that anyone who dares to say anything bad about it is deemed ‘part of the problem’ (yet another reason as to why I usually don’t bring up politics on this site). And so, with all that in mind, it goes without saying that the chances of me ever watching this are about as likely as me watching one of those BS ‘documentaries’ from Dinesh D’Souza or anything that Gina Carano has done since she shot her own career in the foot and got kicked off The Mandalorian; zero-to-none.

ALRIGHT, NOW THAT WE GOT ALL THAT NONSENSE OUT OF THE WAY, LET’S MOVE ON TO THE THREE FILMS THAT, FITTINGLY, EARNED THREE VOTES APIECE…

THE BLACKENING

One of the most well-known and widely mocked tropes that is often tied to horror films is the old cliché of having a black character be the first to die. Given all the sociopolitical moments of the past few years that have brought greater awareness to the ongoing fight against racism, it only makes sense for the horror genre to take a more satirical approach to one of its most infamous points of discussion. This is where we get a film like The Blackening, directed by Tim Story (Barbershop and the 2000’s era Fantastic Four films) and based on a 2018 short film of the same name by the Chicago-based comedy group 3Peat, with group member Dewayne Perkins both starring in the film and co-writing the script with Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip). The film follows a group of friends who take a trip to a cabin in the woods to honor the holiday of Juneteenth, where they are soon targeted by a mysterious killer who subjects them to a sadistic game to prove just how black they truly are. As the film’s poster tagline hilariously states, “We Can’t All Die First”, and upon its release, the film did solidly with critics, who felt that it delivered plenty of great jokes thanks in large part to its top-notch cast. And while a $18.6 million run at the box office may not seem like much, it only cost about $5 million to make and became the best-reviewed film of director Tim Story’s career with an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.    

TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS

In 2007, Transformers, one of the most popular media franchises of all time thanks in large part to its best-selling toy line and beloved animated series adaptation in the 80’s, spawned its first live-action adaptation thanks to a big-budget blockbuster from the master of Bayhem himself, Michael Bay. This, of course, paved the way for the franchise to become even more of a staple of the pop cultural zeitgeist as the films have collectively grossed over $5 billion worldwide. However, at the same time, all that success at the box office hasn’t stopped it from being a perennial punching bag amongst critics. While the first Bay-directed Transformers film did relatively fine with critics, all 4 of the Bay-directed sequels (2009’s Revenge of the Fallen, 2011’s Dark of the Moon, 2014’s Age of Extinction, and 2017’s The Last Knight) were downright slaughtered by critics, many of whom viewed them as an affront to cinema with their nonsensical plots, childish (and often stereotypical) sense of humor, and for being a prime showcase of Bay’s notoriously bombastic directorial style. And while this never stopped the series from being a hit with audiences, with both Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction managing to do over a billion worldwide, it did reach a breaking point with The Last Knight, which ended up experiencing franchise lows in both its critical reception and commercial performance, only grossing around $600 million on its massive $200 million+ budget. Thus, as The Last Knight officially ended Bay’s run as the series’ director, it was clear that it was in desperate need of a creative overhaul.

It got just that in 2018 with the series’ first spin-off, Bumblebee, a 1980s set prequel and the first installment not to be directed by Michael Bay (who was still involved as a producer). Upon its release, the film defied all expectations to become a genuine hit with critics, who felt that it was the antithesis of everything that came from Bay’s films and a far better representation of its source material. This, in turn, helped to give the series the kind of revival that it desperately needed, thus paving the way for its next installment, Rise of the Beasts. Directed by Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II), the film shifts its setting from California in the 80s to Brooklyn, New York in the 90’s as a down-on-his-luck former soldier and an undervalued museum intern team up with Optimus Prime and the Autobots to save Earth from being destroyed by the planet-sized Unicron. To do so, they team up with another group of Transformers known as the Maximals, who have animal-based alternate forms and have been protecting a cosmic transportation device known as the Transwarp Key from Unicron and his constituents, the Terrorcons. As the film’s title and premise suggest, its biggest selling point is that it serves as the live-action debut of characters from one of the Transformers franchise’s most popular spin-offs, Beast Wars, which was headlined by a computer-animated series that ran for 3 seasons from 1996 to 1999.

As someone whose experience with this franchise mostly stems from the live-action films, admittedly I can’t say for certain how successful this film’s take on the Beast Wars characters is in the eyes of longtime Transformers fans since, as I noted earlier, the films’ portrayal of the franchise’s most popular characters has often been one of its most criticized aspects. But if anything, Rise of the Beasts does a good job of following the examples set by Bumblebee to give the film franchise a greater sense of character depth than what we got out of Bay’s films. Following in the footsteps of Hailee Steinfeld’s Charlie Watson from Bumblebee, Anthony Ramos’ Noah Diaz and Dominque Fishback’s Elena Wallace are some of the franchise’s most likable human protagonists and they don’t overshadow the Transformers themselves as much as the human characters in other Transformers films have done before. As for the Transformers, the film wisely avoids the pitfalls of films like Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon by keeping its ensemble relatively small rather than overstuffing itself with characters that barely get any screen time. Sure, some characters still don’t get a lot to work with, but for the most part, the film allows just enough time for its most prominent characters to stand out such as Pete Davidson’s Mirage AKA the Bumblebee to Noah’s Sam Witwicky. Director Steven Caple Jr. also does a great job of maintaining the vibes of the film’s 90’s setting, which helps to give this entry of the franchise its own unique cultural identity, especially once the film moves from New York to the majestic landscapes of Peru and the legendary Machu Picchu.

Now, as anyone who’s followed this site for a while may recall, I’m one of those rare folks who, contrary to popular opinion, genuinely enjoy the live-action Transformers films. While I do very much recognize that the 5 films directed by Michael Bay are quite arguably a major case of ‘style over substance’ and all have their own unique shortcomings (e.g. Age of Extinction’s infamously hefty runtime, Revenge of the Fallen’s narratively aimless first half, etc.), I still find them to be largely entertaining popcorn flicks. Like I said before, I don’t have much history with Transformers outside of these films, hence why I don’t get too worked up over how these films have brought the titular ‘Robots in Disguise’ to life on the big screen as much as those who grew up with them in the ’80s. That said, though, while it may not be my ‘personal favorite’ of the bunch, I do recognize why 2018’s Bumblebee was seen by many as the franchise’s best installment, namely by giving it the kind of emotional depth that was, admittedly, quite lacking in the first five films. While I wouldn’t say that Rise of the Beasts is ‘as successful’ in that regard, it still does an excellent job of moving on from the days when this franchise coasted solely on its visuals and action sequences. As such, it’ll be interesting to see where the series goes from here, especially given this film’s unexpected twist ending in which Noah is recruited to join Hasbro’s other big-name multimedia franchise, G.I. Joe.

Okay, one last thing about Sound of Freedom and that’ll be it. Remember how I noted that it was so successful that it managed to overshadow big-name blockbusters like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny? Well, about that…

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY

Indiana Jones is a franchise that needs no introduction. The brainchild of director Steven Spielberg and writer George Lucas, this love letter to the classic film serials that both Spielberg and Lucas grew up on has easily been one of the most revered and influential franchises of all time. It gave Lucas his second major franchise after Star Wars, it further cemented Spielberg’s legendary career as a director, and it gave star Harrison Ford the second Lucas-created definitive role of his career after previously bringing everyone’s favorite space smuggler Han Solo to life in Star Wars. And sure, the second installment, 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, may have attracted enough controversy due to its dark and intense content that it straight-up influenced the creation of the MPAA’s PG-13 rating alongside fellow Spielberg-backed projects Gremlins and Poltergeist, but all in all, the original trilogy of 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is up there with the original Star Wars trilogy as one of the most beloved trilogies ever made. Thus, almost exactly like what happened with Star Wars when Lucas decided to continue the story with the prequel trilogy, things got interesting when, after years of speculation and false starts, Lucas and Spielberg revived the franchise in 2008 with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

While Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was one of the biggest hits of the year at the box office, it incurred the same level of intense polarizing reactions amongst audiences as the Star Wars prequels. Just like those films, expectations clearly got the better of fans, who were thrown off by developments like the scene where Indy survives a nuclear bomb test by hiding in a lead-lined refrigerator or the fact that the whole film ultimately revolves around aliens. And even though others have argued that this isn’t that big of a stretch compared to some of the most outlandish moments in other Indiana Jones films, it still left Crystal Skull being regarded by many as the ‘black sheep’ of the franchise. Nevertheless, even after that film’s release, it seemed like we’d get another sequel; once again, though, it took a little bit for this one to come to fruition, all the way up to Disney purchasing Lucasfilm in 2012 and securing the franchise rights to both Star Wars and Indiana Jones. However, in a shocking turn of events, it was revealed that Steven Spielberg wasn’t going to direct what was shaping up to be the series’ final installment as he wanted to let someone else bring their own vision to the franchise; that someone ended up being James Mangold, fresh off Hugh Jackman’s legendary send-off as the Wolverine, Logan, and 2019’s Grade-A crowd-pleaser Ford v Ferrari. And while Mangold and his crew may have had to endure a few roadblocks during production, ranging from the obvious COVID-enforced delays to injuries sustained by Harrison Ford, the stage was finally set for the last hurrah for our favorite archeologist. In Dial of Destiny, Indy teams up with his goddaughter Helena Shaw to find Archimedes’ Dial, an ancient Antikythera device that is also being sought after by Jurgen Voller, a Nazi astrophysicist currently masquerading as a NASA scientist who looks to use the Dial’s supposed ‘time traveling’ abilities to go back and correct the mistakes of Hitler’s regime.  

First off, despite what folks who feared the worst when Spielberg backed out as director may have thought, the change in director thankfully doesn’t hurt the film in any way as Mangold maintains practically every major narrative and visual vibe from the Spielberg films and does so to great effect. Like all the other films, Dial of Destiny succeeds in being a light-hearted and thrilling action-adventure with plenty of great action set-pieces and visuals, with Mangold opting not to go the route that Crystal Skull did and utilize as many practical effects as possible. Yes, there is the controversial use of de-aging to present a younger Indy during the film’s opening sequence, but apart from that, Harrison Ford’s age is properly acknowledged for the bulk of the plot, which allows for some solid moments of devastating emotional poignancy. By showing some of the rough patches that Indy has been through since the events of Crystal Skull (specifically, the tragic loss of his son Mutt during the Vietnam War and his subsequent separation from Marion) but then resulting in a happy ending where he reconciles with his wife in a nod to a classic romantic scene between them from Raiders, the film does a great job of reflecting its status as the final Indiana Jones film to convey a touching ‘end of an era’ mentality.

Of course, Harrison Ford is great as always in the title role, having never lost a step with Indy’s trademark gruff and snarky yet endearingly imperfect persona while the previously mentioned bits of pathos revolving around Indy’s post-Crystal Skull status help make this one of Ford’s best overall performances in the role. He’s then paired brilliantly with Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Indy’s goddaughter Helena who, contrary to what a certain part of the internet alleged would happen, doesn’t overshadow Ford in a way that would imply that she was being primed to take over the franchise. Instead, she’s simply a natural companion to Indy in line with the franchise’s best leading ladies. Really, any major criticisms that I have towards this film are minor at best; namely, it’s arguably a bit too overlong. Dial of Destiny is the longest Indiana Jones film to date, clocking in at just over two and a half hours, and to be perfectly blunt, this is one of those films where you can feel the brunt of that hefty runtime. To be more specific, there are a few instances here and there where one could arguably condense or combine a few sequences together to help give this film a kind of pacing that’s more in line with the previous four films. But aside from that, Dial of Destiny is a worthy finale to this legendary series; as such, it’s rather disheartening, then, to see that this ended up being one of this summer’s biggest flops at the box office.

Dial of Destiny only managed to gross around $384 million worldwide… its budget was reportedly as high as $300 million. Going off of what I mentioned earlier, all those delays that the film had to endure during its production were arguably the biggest factor behind its expansive budget; nevertheless, I’m still surprised that this didn’t do better than it did because even if Indiana Jones isn’t necessarily as big of a franchise as Lucasfilm’s other major IP, Star Wars, it’s still beloved enough of a franchise that it surely could’ve done well financially. In a lot of ways, it had the adverse effect of what happened with Pixar’s Elemental. Both films debuted at Cannes, AKA what is widely regarded as the toughest festival in the industry for mainstream releases, where they both received mixed to negative reviews from critics, undoubtedly making them seem like they weren’t worth checking out. Thankfully, once both neared their release dates, they managed to get a lot better reviews; but whereas Elemental managed to hold on and become a genuine success story at the box office, the same couldn’t be said for Dial of Destiny. Heck, for all we know, this film probably became a victim of the continuing culture war that right-wing-minded morons have been waging against the likes of Disney and Lucasfilm for their alleged ‘wokeness’. Whatever the case may be, this is very much a prime example of how a film’s performance at the box office shouldn’t be seen as a direct indicator of its overall quality. I’m not saying that Dial of Destiny is the ‘best’ Indiana Jones film, but as a touching send-off to one of the most beloved cinematic heroes of all time, it does exactly what it sets out to do.   

THE FOLLOWING FILM EARNED A WHOPPING FIVE VOTES AND, FOR THE LONGEST TIME, WAS THIS YEAR’S RUNNER-UP TO THE TOP FIVE

FAST X

Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that it’s been more than two decades since audiences were first introduced to Dominic Toretto and his family in 2001’s The Fast and the Furious. At the risk of repeating a statement that has been said numerous times over, what started out as a simple street racing franchise has gone on to become one of the industry’s biggest juggernauts. Ever since 2011’s Fast Five defied all expectations to become the series’ first genuinely well-received installment amongst critics, the Fast and Furious franchise has consistently dominated the box office, with 2015’s Furious 7 and 2017’s Fate of the Furious both managing to do over $1 billion worldwide. That said, though, by the time Fate of the Furious came about, the franchise’s penchant for increasingly over-the-top action sequences that defy all sorts of logic and implausible melodramatic plot twists made it more of a punchline in the eyes of the film fan community. It certainly didn’t help that Fate of the Furious presented some incredibly controversial plot developments such as the decision to turn Furious 7’s main antagonist Deckard Shaw into more of an anti-hero despite his involvement in the death of fan-favorite supporting player Han Lue. Thankfully, the series got some much-needed reinvigoration when director Justin Lin, who had led the series’ revival in the 2010s, returned for the first time since 2013’s Fast and Furious 6 to direct 2021’s F9 which, in the eyes of this long-time Fast and Furious fan, felt more in line with the franchise’s peak era of the early 2010s. As such, when it was announced that Lin would return once again for what was reportedly shaping up to be the series’ grand finale (more on that later), it seemed like the unstoppable force that was Fast and Furious was going to come to the best conclusion that it possibly could’ve achieved.

But that all changed in a shocking turn of events when Lin ended up leaving the production just one week into filming. It was then reported that this was largely due to a series of arguments that Lin got into with star/producer Vin Diesel over the state of the production, including Diesel’s habit of not showing up to set on time, the supposedly finished script going through a bunch of rewrites, and the fact that they hadn’t even managed to cast one of the film’s main antagonists yet. In a lot of ways, this eerily mirrored the infamous feud that Diesel had gotten into with Dwayne Johnson during the production of Fate of the Furious, which led to Johnson opting to bow out of the franchise as well apart from his 2019 spin-off Hobbs and Shaw. One particularly heated argument between Lin and Diesel resulted in the former proclaiming that the film wasn’t “worth his mental health” and officially bowing out of directing it while still being involved as a writer/producer. Thus, the latest installment of Universal’s biggest film franchise suddenly found itself in serious trouble as the film’s budget continued to grow even without a replacement director hired all the way up to over $340 million. Former franchise directors like F. Gary Gray, David Leitch, and James Wan were approached for the job but they all had other commitments. Thankfully, a replacement was eventually found in Louis Leterrier and the film was finally able to be finished. In Fast X, Dom and company find themselves dealing with their most dangerous villain yet, Dante Reyes, the son of Hernan Reyes (the Brazilian drug lord that they had taken down in Fast Five) who is hellbent on destroying Dom’s family for what they did to his.

Right off the bat, it goes without saying that the best part of Fast X is its main antagonist, Dante. Jason Momoa gleefully embraces the character’s downright psychotic behavior to be an undeniable scene-stealer, and while it admittedly isn’t saying much in the context of the entire franchise, Dante is easily the best Fast and Furious villain to date. Not only is he a delightfully over-the-top villain, but he also genuinely succeeds in being a legitimate threat to Dom and company, always managing to be one step ahead of them despite all their best-laid plans. And this, for the most part, helps to alleviate the fact that, at this point in the franchise’s run, it’s very much reached the ‘been there, done that’ point where it’s arguably peaked when it comes to how over the top it gets. Oh, don’t get me wrong, Fast X is still full of the series’ trademark ludicrous stunts and ridiculous plot twists such as the continued process of bringing back characters who were long presumed to be dead, but after F9 finally did what audiences had been speculating for years and have an action sequence set in space, it’s kind of hard to top something like that. And remember what I said before about how this film was originally intended to be the grand finale of the series? Well, by the time shooting began, it was revealed that this would at least warrant a two-part finale… and then, by the time the film came out, Diesel revealed that there was now a full-on trilogy of films planned. With that in mind, it’s arguably not a good thing that we’re at a point now where this series is, at the risk of an obvious pun, starting to run on fumes.

But for what it’s worth, Fast X still has just enough of everything that Fast and Furious fans have come to expect from the franchise to satisfy them. Heck, I’d say the film even deserves a ton of credit for its willingness to end on such a ballsy cliffhanger in which the fates of several key characters are left unclear. As I’ve said countless times before, we’re at a point where you’re either still on board with this series regardless of how silly it gets… or you’re left utterly baffled as to why this series is still going strong no matter how many times it’s jumped the shark. And while I’m still a part of the former camp, I do feel that the loss of Justin Lin as the series’ director is noticeable. Now, to be clear, this is nothing against Louis Leterrier; even with all the well-documented chaos that occurred during this film’s production in mind, Leterrier keeps the ship from sinking to produce a competently made big-budget action blockbuster. But as I noted earlier, I’d argue that Lin’s return to direct F9 was crucial to that film’s success because, given his status as Fast and Furious’ most prominent director, he was able to restore some of the franchise’s soul that had quite arguably been lost because of all the controversial narrative developments in Fate of the Furious. As such, he was the main reason why I was personally still hyped for the Fast and Furious films to follow… and why his departure from Fast X was a disappointing (yet wholly understandable in Lin’s case given everything that he’d been dealing with) development. This is all ultimately reflected in Fast X itself as a largely mid-level entry in the series that’s by no means its worst but also not exactly one of its best, either. Thus, while I’m still up to see how this will all lead to the series’ ‘supposed’ grand finale, I would’ve been a little bit more invested in it if Lin hadn’t been screwed over and was able to finish what he started because, from a directing standpoint, no one does Fast and Furious films better than him.    

THIS YEAR’S RUNNER-UP TO THE TOP FIVE, WITH SIX VOTES…

HAUNTED MANSION

While there have been many iconic attractions to come out of Disney’s extensive lineup of theme parks, there is arguably no attraction that is more beloved than the Haunted Mansion. While he sadly never lived to see it come to fruition, the Haunted Mansion was one of the many potential developments for Disneyland that came to be under the supervision of Walt Disney himself before he died in 1966. First conceived as a walkthrough attraction known as the ‘Museum of the Weird’, the Haunted Mansion would undergo the same transformation as its fellow iconic New Orleans Square attraction Pirates of the Caribbean by becoming a ride-based attraction instead, taking riders on a journey through the realm of the supernatural in their very own ‘Doom Buggies’ to visit the mansion’s 999 happy haunts who are ready to come out and socialize. Immediately becoming a smash hit with guests upon its official debut on August 9^th, 1969, the Haunted Mansion has since gone on to become a staple of Disney Parks, with subsequent versions of the ride added to both Walt Disney World in 1971 and Tokyo Disneyland in 1983 while alternate versions known as Phantom Manor (Disneyland Paris) and Mystic Manor (Hong Kong Disneyland) opened in 1992 and 2013, respectively. At the same time, it quickly became a beloved staple of the pop cultural zeitgeist if based solely on all the fan works that have been made from it utilizing its iconic characters such as the Hatbox Ghost, a character that had originally been cut from the ride when it first opened due to technical issues but has since been properly installed in the ride in recent years. As such, it seemed only natural that the spooky yet ultimately delightful antics of the Mansion could be translated into a cinematic adaptation.

Disney would end up doing just that in 2003 with the first feature film adaptation of The Haunted Mansion, directed by Rob Minkoff (one of the co-directors of Disney Renaissance hit The Lion King) and starring Eddie Murphy as a realtor who, along with his family, ends up trapped in the titular mansion. But despite a pedigree like that behind it, 2003’s Haunted Mansion ended up being a critical dud despite a decent showing at the box office as critics felt that the film didn’t succeed in being either scary or funny. And while it has gone on to amass a cult following amongst those who were kids when the film came out, it seems like most Haunted Mansion fans weren’t too big on it, either, for how it didn’t quite capture the vibe of the Mansion. As such, this is one instance where Haunted Mansion couldn’t compare to Pirates of the Caribbean; whereas that ride’s film adaptation defied all expectations to become a blockbuster franchise for Disney, Haunted Mansion was seen as another one of Eddie Murphy’s notorious early 2000’s flops. Nevertheless, plans were eventually made for another adaptation, and for Mansion fans, their hype for this new version skyrocketed when it was announced who was working on it, the one and only Guillermo Del Toro. Sadly, Del Toro’s version ultimately fell to the wayside not long after he bowed out of directing it in 2013; a few years later, the new adaptation of Haunted Mansion would finally see the light of day under the direction of Justin Simien, director of 2014’s Dear White People. In this new version, a widowed nurse and her son move to an old mansion in New Orleans, where they quickly learn that it’s haunted. Unfortunately, any of their attempts to escape result in a ghost following them home, resulting in them recruiting the aid of a priest, a disillusioned astrophysicist, a psychic, and a professor to try and deal with the sinister spirit known as the Hatbox Ghost that’s responsible for all this chaos.

For fans of this iconic ride, the new film adaptation of Haunted Mansion is one giant love letter to its source material as it’s chock-full of visual references to it from a whole bunch of ride-accurate recreations of some of its most beloved bits of iconography right down to the fact that the two mansions featured in this film are modeled after the two U.S. incarnations of the ride. The main mansion that the characters end up in is, of course, modeled after the original Southern Plantation inspired Disneyland attraction whereas the mansion belonging to Alistair Crump AKA the Hatbox Ghost is based on Walt Disney World’s colonial/gothic-influenced rendition of the ride. As for the film’s overall tone, it does manage to match the ride’s brilliant balance of spooky yet family-friendly haunts and light-hearted moments of levity with a few dashes of dark humor. Now, sure, it does take a little while for the film to get going, but once its star-studded ensemble cast is fully brought together, that’s when it truly starts to shine. Simply put, it’s just fun to watch a bunch of likable main protagonists played by the likes of Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, and Rosario Dawson go through everything from the stretching room to conversing with Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis). Heck, the film even manages to achieve some legitimately effective emotional moments by way of LaKeith Stanfield’s character Ben, the previously mentioned disillusioned astrophysicist who tragically lost his wife several years prior. His efforts to overcome this loss (which are then naturally exploited by the Hatbox Ghost) provide some great bits of emotional poignancy that, at the same time, don’t clash with the film’s overall tone; instead, it feels like a natural way of imbuing some character into this world of happy haunts.

And so, in conclusion, I must admit that it’s hard to say for certain whether this new version of Haunted Mansion managed to satisfy the entirety of the ride’s dedicated fanbase. Like any major property out there, it’s safe to assume that this film clearly must’ve been saddled with intense expectations that it would’ve never been able to fully overcome, and for all we know, there are plenty of folks out there who are still upset by the fact that we never got to see Guillermo Del Toro’s take on it. And yet, at the end of the day, I’d argue that this is ultimately the most ideal cinematic take on its beloved source material that we could’ve gotten. It’s by no means a masterpiece, but at the same time, it’s clear that director Justin Simien and his team had nothing but pure affection for the Haunted Mansion and that’s very much apparent when watching the film. And sure, the film may have fared poorly with critics and ended up flopping at the box office, only grossing around $117 million on its $150 million budget; many attributed this to the fact that the film arguably suffered the exact same fate as Disney’s 1993 cult classic Hocus Pocus by being released in the summer rather than the far more fitting Halloween season. That said, though, consider this; before I added one more day to this year’s event’s polling process, this film had only garnered a single vote… by the end of this year’s event, it pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Summer Fan Poll and managed to finish as the runner-up to this year’s Top 5. With all that in mind, I won’t be surprised if this film manages to become a new cult classic in the years to come. Obviously, I don’t speak for the entire Haunted Mansion fandom, but as for this Haunted Mansion fan, I was ultimately quite satisfied with what we got.          

ALRIGHT, FOLKS, THE TIME HAS FINALLY COME FOR THIS YEAR’S TOP 5! COMING IN AT FIFTH PLACE WITH SEVEN VOTES…

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

2018 proved to be a monumental year for everyone’s favorite web-slinging Marvel superhero Spider-Man. Sure, part of that involved Tom Holland’s endearingly dorky version of the character being snapped out of existence by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, but nevertheless, he was still a vital part of that $2 billion grossing cinematic juggernaut. Later that year, Spider-Man got to revel in the creation of a highly successful video game franchise thanks to Insomniac Games’ AAA blockbuster Spider-Man, which promptly became one of the most acclaimed superhero video games of all time. And finally, that December, Spidey would be blessed with his first theatrically released animated feature, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, developed in large part by the dynamic duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Now, to be clear, unlike their other big hits like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and The LEGO Movie, this wasn’t a film that they directed; still, their filmmaking sensibilities were very much in play with this ambitious animated superhero flick. Focusing on newer Spider-Man Miles Morales, who first debuted in the comics back in 2011 and has since gone on to become a major fan favorite, the film saw the young teenage prodigy begin his journey to become the next web-slinging superhero with the help of fellow Spider-People from alternate dimensions. Upon its release, the film became a massive hit with both critics and audiences, earning that year’s Oscar for Best Animated Feature and being regarded by many as the best Spider-Man film to date. And while a $384 million run at the box office may not seem like much compared to the franchise’s live-action releases, it was clear that its fans were more than ready for a follow-up, which we would finally get in 2023 with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Plus, to make this all even more exciting, it was then revealed that Lord and Miller’s script was big enough to turn the continuing adventures of Miles Morales into the first half of a two-part superhero epic.

Set a little over a year after the events of Into the Spider-Verse, Across the Spider-Verse sees Miles finally taking his own journey across the various dimensions of the Multiverse, where he learns that Miguel O’Hara, an alternate universe Spider-Man from the year 2099, has assembled the Spider Society, a group of the best Spider-People from across the Multiverse who work to protect it from being torn apart. However, Miles soon finds himself clashing with Miguel over the latter’s ways of maintaining multiversal order, especially once he learns that the only thing keeping it from collapsing are ‘Canon Events’ that all Spider-People are allegedly tied to that usually revolve around the death of important figures in their lives such as a loved one or a police captain. And unfortunately, in Miles’ case, this is about to apply to him in both ways given that his dad Jefferson is a police officer who’s about to be promoted to Captain and, thus, is now fated to die at the hands of the Multiverse’s newest threat, the Spot, a former scientist from Miles’ dimension who gained interdimensional powers when he wound up getting caught in the destruction of the Kingpin’s collider. Sure, the character’s backstory is primarily set up in a comedic sense given that part of it involves a call-back to a visual gag from the first film where it's revealed that he was the Alchemax scientist that Miles threw a bagel at, but as the film goes on and the Spot begins to become more powerful, it is made abundantly clear that he’s by no means someone who’s just, as Miles calls him at one point, your average ‘villain of the week’.

Just like Into the Spider-Verse, one of the biggest strengths of Across the Spider-Verse is its writing as Lord, Miller, and co-writer Dave Callaham craft a script that not only raises the stakes from a narrative standpoint as all good sequels do but also thoroughly maintains its predecessor’s deeply layered character-driven nature and penchant for strong emotional beats. By directly tackling the subject of the ‘death of a loved one’ trope that has always defined the Spider-Man mythos, we get some utterly devastating emotional moments in this film as Miles sees just how much this affects his fellow Spider-People as he desperately tries to prove that he can buck the trend and stop his ‘Canon Event’ from happening without it resulting in the destruction of the Multiverse. As a result, he comes to odds with not only his new acquaintances like Miguel O’Hara, this story’s anti-hero whose aggressive actions overshadow his personal tragedies and arguably good intentions, and even his closest friends like Peter B. Parker who, thanks to Miles, turned his life around to the point where he’s now a father, and especially his love interest Gwen Stacy AKA Spider-Woman, who’s very much on equal footing with him as this film’s protagonist; it’s just as much her story as it is his. It opens with her backstory and how she lost her Peter Parker, which then led to her coming into conflict with her father, police captain George Stacy, who blamed Spider-Woman for Peter’s death and has been hunting her ever since. Things only get more complicated when Gwen’s father finally learns about her secret identity, but by the end when she reunites with him and he reveals that he quit the force, she realizes that Miles was right and that a Spider-Person’s ‘Canon Event’ can be reasonably prevented.

This film’s top-notch writing is then thoroughly matched by its spectacular animation which, just like its predecessor, perfectly captures the comic book style in animated form. Plus, given this film’s expanded scope as it travels across the multiverse, we also get an incredible variety of animation styles and color palettes as the film goes through its uniquely styled worlds and characters, with no two ever being fully alike. In short, just like the first film (and fellow Lord/Miller-backed hit The Mitchells vs. The Machines), this is very much one of those films that will require multiple viewings just to catch every single delightful easter egg/visual cue in it. Alongside the great returning players from the first film, we also get a whole bunch of fun new characters such as Karan Soni’s happy-go-lucky Indian Spider-Man Pavitr Prabhakar and Daniel Kaluuya’s British punk rock rebel Spider-Man Hobie Brown. And then, to top it all off, this film ends on one hell of a cliffhanger to set up the next installment, Beyond the Spider-Verse, where Miles seemingly returns to his universe after managing to evade Miguel and the Spider-Society only to quickly discover that he didn’t. Instead, he ended up in the universe where the radioactive spider that gave him his powers came from; one where his dad is the one who died, not his Uncle Aaron. And while Uncle Aaron is still living a criminal lifestyle, he’s not this universe’s Prowler… this universe’s Miles is. Luckily for Miles, Gwen has now established her own squad of Spider-People, consisting of both old and new allies, to do whatever it takes to rescue him.

It goes without saying that upon Across the Spider-Verse’s release, it proved to be just as big of a hit as its predecessor was with both critics and audiences. Not only did it manage to be on par with Into the Spider-Verse from a critical reception standpoint, but thanks to all the positive hype that was built up from the first film, Across the Spider-Verse managed to surpass its predecessor’s box-office haul by grossing nearly $700 million worldwide. Now, as anyone who’s followed this site for a while might recall, I had a bit of a controversial stance towards Into the Spider-Verse back when it first came out in that it wasn’t my #1 favorite animated film of the year. That was nothing against the film, for the record, as I genuinely did love it and it made my Top 10 that year. Instead, it was more a case of what usually happens with me where I don’t get swept up in the film fan community’s habit of overhyping certain films to the point where other films get unfairly dunked on by way of them being compared to the one that everyone’s gushing about. If you need any further examples of this, just look at every summer blockbuster that came out in 2015 that wasn’t Mad Max: Fury Road or wonder why I’m one of the rare people who doesn’t have Captain America: The Winter Soldier as their #1 favorite MCU film. But as for Across the Spider-Verse… it’s right near the top of my list this year. What can I say? It’s a straight-up masterclass in animation, storytelling, and love for the comic book medium.  

IN FOURTH PLACE WITH THIRTEEN VOTES…

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3

It’s hard to believe that there was once a point in time when James Gunn wasn’t going to be directing the third Guardians of the Galaxy film. I won’t delve into this too much since I’ve done so already in the past, but to make a long story short, alt-right morons got mad at Gunn for insulting their beloved President Trump one too many times and thus tried to do something that they claim to hate and cancel him by digging up old, outdated, offensive tweets of his. And while this did result in Gunn being temporarily fired from Guardians 3, this cancellation attempt of theirs ultimately failed in spectacular fashion as Gunn was then picked up by Warner Bros. to helm the DC Extended Universe’s best installment, The Suicide Squad. In fact, Gunn now holds the key to the DC Comics kingdom as he and producer Peter Safran are preparing their much-needed full-on reboot of the franchise. Thankfully, though, before that development was put into motion, Disney reverted their decision to kick Gunn off Guardians 3, thus allowing one of the superhero genre’s best directors to finish what he had started back in 2014 with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, a film that puts our beloved band of intergalactic a-holes through one hell of an emotional wringer. After a run-in with Adam Warlock, the latest artificial creation of their old foes the Sovereign, Rocket Raccoon suffers a potentially fatal injury that his friends are unable to fix by themselves. Thus, the only way they can save Rocket from certain death is to confront the one who created him, the High Evolutionary, a cruel and depraved genetic scientist who has spent many years trying to turn all ‘lesser beings’ into what he deems to be a perfect society.

I’m not even going to mince words here when I say that Guardians 3 is easily the darkest MCU film to date in terms of the narrative content that it tackles. Gunn doesn’t hold anything back when it comes to delving into all the inhumane things that the High Evolutionary did to the likes of Rocket and his fellow creations as a part of his twisted ploy to play God. In doing so, it easily makes the High Evolutionary (brilliantly played by Chukwudi Iwuji in his second major collaboration with Gunn after starring in the Peacemaker TV series) one of the MCU’s best villains to date as he more than succeeds in being an utterly detestable villain with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. And by finally tackling the backstory of who James Gunn has often cited as the true ‘main character’ of the trilogy, Rocket, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 truly comes full circle on an emotional level as it closes the character arcs of not just Rocket but also the other Guardians in beautifully cathartic ways that thankfully never involve killing any of them off. Whether it’s Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord finally returning home to Earth to reunite with his grandfather for the first time since he was taken from Earth in the 80s, Drax embracing a new role as a father figure to the genetically engineered children that they rescued from the High Evolutionary’s ship, or Mantis heading out on her own to find her true calling in life, it’s safe to say that Guardians 3 more than delivers on the franchise’s trademark emotional poignancy.

And yet, even with all the incredibly dark and unsettling moments that occur in this film, James Gunn still gives us all the things that we’ve come to expect from a Guardians of the Galaxy adventure to efficiently balance it all out. As dark as it often gets, there are still plenty of great humorous moments that largely stem from the ensemble cast’s top-notch banter. In a time where MCU films have been facing a lot more scrutiny over the quality of their CGI, the Guardians films have consistently boasted some of the franchise’s best visuals with each new film looking even better than the last. And, of course, this wouldn’t be a true Guardians film without a kick-ass soundtrack, whether it’s having the acoustic version of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ playing over the somber opening credits sequence (a far cry from the more upbeat opening credits sequences from the previous two films but, of course, thematically appropriate in this instance) or the Beastie Boys’ punk rock anthem ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’ playing over an epic long-take fight scene. With all that in mind, I have no qualms in proclaiming that the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise is one of the rare instances of a film trilogy where every subsequent follow-up is better than the last, with the grand finale now proudly taking its place as my favorite non-Avengers MCU film. From this point on, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will forever be my primary example of how to effectively retort the increasingly common stance that many internet types have sworn by in recent years that argues that superhero films ain’t worth s***… because with a masterpiece like this, James Gunn has very much proven that this will never be the case.   

AS WE GET INTO THIS YEAR’S TOP 3, I WANT TO START THINGS OFF BY CELEBRATING THE MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT THAT THESE FILMS HAVE ACHIEVED. HAVING EACH EARNED AT LEAST TWENTY VOTES APIECE, THEY ARE THE BEST-PERFORMING FILMS TO COME OUT OF THIS ANNUAL POLL OF OURS OUTSIDE OF TOP GUN: MAVERICK’S RECORD-SHATTERING TURNOUT FROM LAST YEAR’S EVENT. IN THIRD PLACE WITH TWENTY VOTES…

THE LITTLE MERMAID

Having already produced new live-action adaptations of their biggest 90’s hits such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King (even though that one’s technically still an animated film), it’s only natural that Disney’s recent trend of producing live-action adaptations of their animated classics has finally gotten around to tackling the one that started it all for that era, 1989’s The Little Mermaid. Calling Disney’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale one of the studio’s most important releases would be a massive understatement as it’s widely regarded as the film that saved Disney Animation almost single-handedly. In the 80s, Disney began to experience a string of underperforming releases, culminating in the notorious flop that was 1985’s The Black Cauldron; in fact, things were bad enough that there was a legitimate point where Disney Animation was almost shut down entirely. But upon its release, The Little Mermaid proved to be the studio’s biggest hit in years, securing phenomenal reviews from both critics and audiences and winning two Oscars for its music, courtesy of the legendary duo of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Thus, this success paved the way for one of Disney Animation’s greatest eras, the Disney Renaissance, where the studio would create even more successful cinematic hits such as Beauty and the Beast, the first-ever animated film to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, and The Lion King, which still stands as the highest-grossing traditionally animated film and best-selling home video release of all-time. Meanwhile, the impact of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s award-winning music (this was, after all, the first Disney film to earn an Oscar for Best Original Song since Mary Poppins all the way back in 1964) was pivotal to Disney Animation’s move to revitalize its penchant for animated musicals. While Ashman sadly passed away two years after the film’s release due to AIDS, Alan Menken continues to be a mainstay of the studio to this day, which includes, of course, his work on the modernized soundtracks for the live-action Disney remakes of the films that he worked on.  

Of course, like any of these recent Disney live-action remakes, the new adaptation of The Little Mermaid, directed by recent studio mainstay Rob Marshall (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Mary Poppins Returns) had to deal with the inevitable scrutiny that it would face from those who question the need to remake an indisputable Disney classic. Unfortunately, this scrutiny would also end up delving into, to put it bluntly, racist territory once it was announced that Halle Bailey, actress and rising pop star who first made it big alongside her sister Chloe as part of the group Chloe x Halle, was cast in the lead role of Ariel. Yes, folks, even in the year 2023, the same folks who got mad that a black stormtrooper was going to be one of the main protagonists of the Star Wars sequel trilogy couldn’t fathom the possibility that a black actress would be playing one of the most famous fictional characters of all-time (emphasis on the word ‘fictional’). And unfortunately, this hasn’t been the only instance this year of young Disney actresses incurring the wrath of the most moronic parts of the internet through absolutely no fault of their own. Earlier this year, there were plenty of folks who wouldn’t shut up about actress Yara Shahidi taking on the role of Peter Pan’s trusted sidekick Tinker Bell in David Lowery’s Peter Pan and Wendy. And as it turns out, Halle Bailey wouldn’t be the only live-action Disney princess to get unfairly s*** on by the internet as Rachel Zegler also got hit with this hard when she was cast as Snow White in the upcoming remake of that film. So, in short, you can chalk all this up to yet another instance of the right-wing’s one-sided culture war against Disney due to the latter’s sheer audacity to (*checks notes*) properly reflect the growing diversity of the film industry in both its storytelling and creative talent both in front of and behind the camera.   

Thankfully, Bailey proves all her biggest critics wrong as she’s very much the heart of the film. Flawlessly conveying some amazing onscreen charisma and an innate sweetness that perfectly fits the character of Ariel, Bailey presents a wonderful new spin on one of Disney’s most beloved heroines that stands toe to toe with Jodi Benson’s version of the character from the original animated classic. She’s then backed by an equally terrific supporting cast, with Jonah Hauer-King being a perfect leading co-star to her as Prince Eric as this version of the story efficiently follows in the footsteps of the live-action remake of Cinderella by establishing a legitimate connection between the two outside of the development of their romantic relationship. Meanwhile, Melissa McCarthy is utterly delightful as this film’s version of fan-favorite Disney villainess Ursula while Jacob Tremblay, Daveed Diggs, and Awkwafina are all terrific as the voices of Ariel’s sidekicks Flounder, Sebastian, and Scuttle, respectively. Add in some solid aquatic-based visuals and one of the best overall revamps of any Disney animated classic’s soundtrack to date and you have another successful live-action Disney remake which, as anyone who’s been following this site for a while surely knows, is a collection of films that I unconditionally support in full no matter how much they piss off their biggest critics. As I’ve always said, unless there ever comes a point in time where the original films aren’t readily available in some form (which, in the age of Disney+, seems highly unlikely), these remakes do not harm the legacies of their animated counterparts in any way because they’re not meant to replace them. And while The Little Mermaid may not have reached the billion-dollar heights that the likes of the Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin remakes managed to achieve, the fact that it was nearly the runner-up in this year’s poll implies that, if you ask me, it’ll most likely end up being one of the most well-regarded of all these live-action remakes in the years to come.

THIS YEAR’S RUNNER-UP, WITH TWENTY-ONE VOTES…

BARBIE

When it comes to the biggest names in the toy industry, there aren’t many who can hold a candle to the impact and legacy of arguably the most famous doll of them all, Barbie. First created in 1959 by Ruth Handler as a means of providing her daughter Barbara with a different kind of doll that wasn’t just a representation of an infant to give its owner the ability to play out the role of a parent, the Barbie line has made billions upon billions in revenue for the company that Handler founded with her husband Elliot, Mattel. And while all this success has led to some controversy over the years, usually over the ongoing debate of whether the line promotes an unhealthy and unrealistic body image mentality for its target demographic, there’s no denying that Barbie continues to be a staple of the pop cultural zeitgeist. Of course, a key part of this is the character and franchise being adapted into several mediums outside of the toy industry, including film. However, it is interesting to note that, up until this year, the Barbie franchise has never had a theatrically released film; instead, the 42 Barbie films that have been made since 2002 were all direct-to-video animated features. That said, plans for a live-action Barbie film have gone back as far as 2009, with the likes of Amy Schumer, Anne Hathaway, and Gal Gadot being considered for the title role. Ultimately, that honor would go to Margot Robbie, who also produces the film alongside her husband Tom Ackerley through their production company LuckyChap. Meanwhile, directorial duties would go to Greta Gerwig, fresh off her Oscar-nominated films Lady Bird and Little Women, who co-wrote the script with her husband Noah Baumbach.

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is truly a unique film in terms of its overall execution. The film is primarily advertised as a meta-comedy in which Barbie and her long put-upon ‘boyfriend’ Ken (Ryan Gosling) leave the idyllic world of Barbie Land and travel to the Real World when Barbie finds herself going through a major existential crisis. And on that note, this film is utterly hilarious from beginning to end as it truly delivers on all sorts of wonderfully wacky bits of humor, including plenty of moments where it isn’t afraid to poke fun at some of the Barbie franchise’s most notorious aspects. That said, though, this isn’t a case where the film is trying to be a cynical deconstruction of its source material; instead, it’s clear that Greta Gerwig and company do have a lot of respect for the Barbie franchise, thus resulting in a film that is chock-full of references to the franchise’s extensive history right down to some major deep cuts for those hardcore fans. And then, amidst all the wacky shenanigans that Barbie and Ken get into, the film also delivers some unexpectedly powerful emotional moments. Yes, folks, a film about plastic dolls manages to hit you with some poignant commentary on topics such as the human condition, the struggle to understand one’s place in life, and a condemnation of the toxic patriarchy. And while there are some folks out there who’ve argued that the latter theme was handled in an incredibly heavy-handed manner, it’s impossible to deny the relevancy of it all.

Buoyed by an all-star cast headlined by Margot Robbie, pitch-perfectly cast in the title role, and Ryan Gosling, who’s easily the biggest comedic standout of the film as Ken, a top-notch visual/production design that flawlessly captures the Barbie franchise’s trademark bright and colorful aesthetic, and superb direction from Greta Gerwig, Barbie is nothing short of a Grade-A crowd-pleaser. Simply put, the reason why this film works as well as it does can best be summed up by one of its marketing taglines; “If you love Barbie, this film is for you… if you hate Barbie, this film is for you”. In other words, this film successfully manages to appeal to both Barbie fans and those who aren’t instead of just being geared solely towards the former. For fans of the franchise, this is basically one giant love letter to it full of delightful Easter Eggs that cover practically every single era of Barbie’s extensive history. But if you’re, say, like me and not even remotely a part of this franchise’s target demographic, that doesn’t matter in the slightest because, simply put, this is a very well-made film that works as both a wacky comedy and a heartfelt character drama. As such, it’s very easy to see why this swiftly became the biggest film of 2023, earning over $1.4 billion at the box office, thus giving Greta Gerwig the well-earned distinction of being the first solo female director behind a billion-dollar juggernaut.

TO BE PERFECTLY HONEST, FOLKS, I THOUGHT THAT BARBIE WAS GOING TO BE THIS YEAR’S CHAMPION SEEING HOW IT WAS EASILY THE BIGGEST CINEMATIC HIT OF THE SUMMER… AND YET, THERE WAS ANOTHER FILM THAT DID EVEN BETTER IN THIS YEAR’S POLL. AND WHEN IT COMES TO THE FILM IN QUESTION, YOU NEED NOT LOOK ANY FURTHER… THAN THE OTHER HALF OF THE VIRAL DOUBLE FEATURE THAT BARBIE WAS CONNECTED TO. YES, FOLKS, AFTER PREVIOUSLY WINNING IT ALL BACK IN 2017 WITH DUNKIRK, CHRISTOPHER NOLAN BECOMES THE FIRST TWO-TIME WINNING DIRECTOR IN THIS ANNUAL POLL OF OURS THANKS TO THE TWENTY-FOUR VOTES THAT WERE GIVEN TO…

OPPENHEIMER

Yes, folks, this is now the second time that a Christopher Nolan film has defied the odds to become the champion of our annual poll, and in this instance, I must admit that I was even more taken by surprise by this turn of events than I was when Dunkirk won in 2017 over the presumed fan-favorite that was Wonder Woman. I mean, I figured that, at the very least, Oppenheimer would manage to get some votes given the strong reputation of its director and all the hype surrounding its release because of it being directly paired with Barbie, a double feature affectionately dubbed Barbenheimer… but I didn’t expect it to do as well as it did. And yet, this can all serve as a prime example of how this film has managed to hold its own even though it goes without saying that Barbie, being part of a prominent IP, was always going to end up being the bigger hit at the box office. Sure, Barbie may have grossed over a billion worldwide, but thanks in large part to the Barbenheimer phenomenon, Oppenheimer came this close to doing so as well, grossing over $954 million worldwide. Not only is this an impressive feat for a 3-hour dialogue-driven R-rated biopic not tied to a franchise, but it also became the biggest box-office hit of Nolan’s career outside of The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Heck, this success even translated to the film’s home video release as physical copies of it straight-up sold out barely a few days after it hit the market, undoubtedly buoyed by Nolan’s public comments on the strengths of physical media over streaming services. That was, after all, one of the key factors behind his decision to part ways with Warner Bros and take this film to Universal after the former’s controversial simultaneous theatrical/streaming strategy with their 2021 slate.  Ultimately, though, this can quite arguably be seen as a return to form for Nolan after his previous film, Tenet, had to deal with all the inevitable complications that affected the films that made the risky move of getting released in theaters right at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oppenheimer sees Nolan tackling his first biopic project as it covers the life of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who headed the Manhattan Project AKA the government program that created the atomic bomb. But while there’s plenty of time spent focusing on Oppenheimer’s work at the Los Alamos Laboratory, the film also tackles other major moments in Oppenheimer’s life such as the scandalous government investigation that he was connected to over his alleged ties to the Communist Party as the U.S. transitioned out of World War II into the Cold War. The security hearing that Oppenheimer had to undergo that resulted in his government security clearances being revoked and a subsequent Senate hearing on the matter attended by the man who secretly orchestrated Oppenheimer’s downfall, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss, serve as the framing device for this life story which, in a surprising turn of events, sees Nolan pull back considerably on his trademark penchant for non-linear storytelling. Oh sure, it’s still there in many noticeable ways, but not to the extreme level that Nolan has gone to in some of his other films. And despite what I noted earlier about this being a three-hour behemoth of a film that’s primarily just a bunch of dialogue-based sequences, there’s never a dull moment as Nolan flawlessly captures the essence of the ‘race against time’ mentality that Oppenheimer and his team were dealing with in their efforts to complete their work on the first-ever nuclear weapon before the Nazis could beat them to the punch. In other words, it’s truly saying something that a film like this could pull this impeccable feat off to the point where, by the time it gets to its biggest set-piece, the Trinity Test, there’s still an hour to go.

And yet, another key reason why this film works as well as it does is because of how character-driven it is which, admittedly, hasn’t always been one of Nolan’s strong suits as a filmmaker. But in this instance, it all works perfectly as we truly get to understand everything that J. Robert Oppenheimer went through to, in his own words, “perform this miracle” up to, of course, the utterly terrifying possibilities of what might happen to the world now that nuclear weapons have been made a reality. This all comes together brilliantly in a film that, as to be expected from a Christopher Nolan production, is a full-on technical masterpiece in every conceivable way, such as how it serves as another instance of Nolan’s love of practical effects which led to a legitimate (and, thankfully, non-deadly) recreation of a nuclear explosion. Meanwhile, as for the film’s cast… well, let’s just say that this might be the most stacked ensemble cast in cinematic history. And even if this does mean that some folks in the cast are just there for a scene or two, everyone involved does a fantastic job with standout performances from Cillian Murphy, one of Nolan’s most prominent regular supporting players now promoted to leading man status in the title role, and Robert Downey Jr. as Oppenheimer’s AEC associate turned petty rival, Lewis Strauss.  

In conclusion, as I’ve surely noted in the past, I’ve been a big fan of Christopher Nolan’s work over the years. That said, though, that doesn’t mean that I’m one of those folks who views him as a perfect filmmaker immune to any sort of criticism (in other words, for the uninitiated, Nolan’s biggest fanboys were basically the precursor to the likes of the Snyder Cult back before toxic film fandoms truly became mainstream). Case in point, some of you might recall that I was surprisingly ambivalent towards his previous film Tenet, which is a stance that I’ve never had toward any of his other films. But as for Oppenheimer… this might arguably be the best film that Nolan has made in quite some time. In true Nolan fashion, he elevates your standard cinematic biopic by producing an impeccably crafted cinematic epic that presents a thoroughly engaging recreation of one of the most important moments in American history while also providing a chilling reminder of its potentially catastrophic consequences. And if that wasn’t enough, he does so without fully abiding by his usual filmmaking tendencies while still giving us a film that is unmistakably Nolan-esque. Thus, with all that in mind, it’s easy to see why this is currently being hyped as one of the award season’s most prominent contenders. In retrospect, it’s also quite interesting to speculate how this film would’ve turned out had it not been tied to one of the most talked about double-feature releases in recent years. And yet, regardless of all that, it very much earned its status as the 2023 champion of RIMC’s Annual End of Summer Fan Poll.

And with that, we finally conclude the 2023 edition of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s Annual End of Summer Fan Poll. Once again, I extend nothing but full gratitude to everyone who helped make this our biggest year yet. I apologize for the fact that it took me way longer than it probably should’ve to finish this year’s Results Post, but even with that in mind, I couldn’t be happier with this year’s results. As always, I look forward to seeing how things will turn out during next year’s event, where we’ll celebrate the tenth anniversary of this site’s most prominent tradition. It’ll be a summer where big-time franchises like Mad Max and Planet of the Apes make their triumphant return to the big screen and established icons like Pixar and Deadpool take their next big steps into cinematic glory. Who will be next year’s champion? Stay tuned!