2023 WRAP UP!

2023 WRAP UP!

Happy New Year! The gang discusses their favorite stuff from 2023, including their five favorite films of the year!

Also discussed: Saltburn, Rebel Moon, Aquaman 2: The Lost Kingdom

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Oh I'm sorry did I break your concentration somewhere between science and superstition such sites to show you strange aeons slug and strange aeons radio that is Eric up there. Hello. That is Vanessa up there. Hello. Hey guys, happy New Year. Happy New Year all. Yay. You This is this is going to be a fun show because this is our best of show and we are literally recording it on the first day of 2024. We're living in the future already. You guys will not be surprised to know that I had a little to drink last night. This is shocking information. Yeah, so I might be I might be moving a little slow today, but we'll see how it works. Kelly, I'm so excited to drink. So I hope that you enjoyed it enough for both of us. You're not allowed to have anything to drink, Vanessa? I know. So what are we looking at here? A couple of weeks. Two weeks, two weeks in the countdown until I'm supposed to suppose to give birth but they don't you know these things? Yeah, numbers are very squiggly as you get closer. They're like, you know, what was really an estimate. I know, we've been telling you for nine months, that it's definitely this date. But actually, that's like a 5% chance you'll actually go into labor on that day. So good luck. You've been telling us about all the good times you've been having? Oh, yeah. So oh, gosh, you know, and I don't want to get into like TMI territory. I know, a lot of people get really wigged out by this entire process and anything involving a female body part. But it's, it's pretty rough the last couple of weeks. There's a lot that happens physically. That is no, no good. I will say I am currently not able to walk very well. Definitely not very quickly, without shooting pains up the right hand side of my body. So that's fun. And yeah, that's just that's just one, two. That's a tip of the iceberg. There's just so many so many things. That's so lovely. For someone who used to jog constantly. Oh, my God, three miles a day. It's so bad. Oh, Miss It. Yeah. It's, um, can't we not I cannot wait to get back to being able to literally move at the space of at the speed of other human beings around me, that will be really fun. What about you guys do any kind of resolutions or goals or anything for a new year? Not specifically, although I did have a moment a few days ago, where it's like, looking at all the varieties of little projects and working on and all that other shit going on. I am so damn disorganized. This is why I'm getting nothing done. So I've spent the last three days and probably is going to be at least another day, organizing everything into a new productivity system that hopefully will help me accomplish some of these goddamn thanks. We've been working on so long. So that's been fun, actually. Because like, Okay, this is interesting, but I don't think it called resolution. But I think that's awesome. I think I have sort of this similar, no official resolutions, but just the vague hope of spinning my downtime, updating my showreel updating my website, which I started to do a little bit yesterday and just hopefully writing more this year, but I'm not going to put the official I'm not writing it down. I'm not putting it on a little piece of paper to burn next year. I'm just hopefully I'll do it. addley plenty. What about you, Kelly? Well, yeah, I don't I don't buy into the resolution thing because I think it's really easy to to just ignore those about two weeks into the year but last year, I set a bunch of goals that I wrote down, you know, which was, you know, finishing a novel, various other things. And I was able to cross things off and kind of feel a little bit better about my life and my progress. And so this year, I did the same thing and turns out I have a lot of stuff I'm planning on finishing this year. So keep me busy and and unable to think about how the world has gone to shit all around us. Don't Don't think about the world. That's hot tip. Hot Tip number one for 2024 Put head in sand, go deeper. I did manage to see some movies though this week. I do want to actually kind of reach out to the listeners right now too and say, and ask them to chime in on how they feel this remote recording is going and everything. It seems like we're still kind of getting our sea legs on this and I'd like to know if anybody has any advice or other thoughts on on how we can do that. I guess the big one that I saw that we should probably talk about I imagine you guys saw rebel moon. I did not. I didn't. Neither. Well I won't say that. You have to rush it out to see this is what I heard sounded real bad. It's not real bad. It's it is shockingly boring for something that looks so amazing. It's just like, wow, this is a really cool looking movie. It's not nearly as bad as everyone is telling you it is. But it's a it's a snooze fest. Kind of same universe is like the zombie world that he sets things in. Oh, I did not hear that. Okay. Back Scotch it from the record. It's so far, you know, it's set in a universe far far away. I don't know that there was no talk of zombies or anything like that. And the planets, they're all around all have twin sons and twin moons and things like that. So it doesn't feel like it's a it's an earth future at all. So it is fairly derivative of a well known property. I mean, at one point, this fighter pulls out a sword that lights up, you know, laser sword, basically, I guess is what you would call it. I can't think of another name. And I don't know if I really really wanted to like it. I thought that you know, this is this is fun. It's basically what Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven it's basically that story which Star Wars kind of mind or at least Marvel Comics kind of mind with their Star Wars comics way back when they continued to series. So it lends itself well to this kind of idea but it's just a snooze fest I was I was kind of bummed that they're releasing a longer version he says that there's a R rated film version of this it's going to be completely different and I'm like I don't know how the story could be completely different. Anyway anyone who wants to see that excellent Well, I I don't know if you guys had any interest in inclination and or have seen yet Aquaman to the last kingdom no superhero movies over the last year so it's definitely disappeared Yeah, I will say um, I went and saw this yesterday I don't have a lot of ability to do much of anything lately so I was able to get to a another seating spot and sit in it. That was very exciting. It's It's God awful. Wow, it is just truly God. Awful. I mean, I don't I you can tell that there were reshoots, you can tell there were rewrites, you can definitely tell that there was a point in which Amanda hurts character was a much larger role. And then they cut her entirely out. And then they put her sprinkled back in there. There's definitely like weird, weird stuff going on with that character. Sometimes you're not sure if she's like, a main character or not. And Aquaman is not really the main character either. So but if you want to see a lot of Patrick Wilson Behold, I do like me some Patrick Wilson. Patrick Wilson is really fun in this film. It's hard to say why why anyone is they're doing what they're doing and what their motivation is on any level. But that's okay. That's all right. The crab guy shows back up. I was really stoked about that. That was probably my favorite part. Is that the crab King coming back for like three lines. It's like why is the crab cake? Why do you think that this isn't getting all of the vitriol and hate thrown at it that say the marvels was? I don't know. Maybe because people know that. This is a the last dying breath of the Schneider or franchise for DC like What is there to complain about? Like they're not going to? There's big change coming. This is the last Aquaman movie with Jason Momoa. So DC movie is not good. Okay. This is crazy. Crazy. I don't know what it's doing budget wise so I'm not sure there but I am sure it will be an epic failure. It is it is considered a massive flop right now. Excellent. Excellent. Yes. Makes sense tracks. Dean and I diverged into a completely different thing that was a huge giant thing a few years ago, and it's still frigging awesome. Formula One Drive to survive on Netflix. It's a mathematical formula one circuit, and the trauma that is part of the that particular world and it's nice because it's 10 episodes about half an hour to 40 minutes each season is one series of the effects f1 Racing D is enjoying a lot. She's like, well they have one in Vegas. I like Vegas She's really enjoying it too. So it's very it's really good. You guys gonna like become Formula One goers are gonna go to Vegas and participate could be that's one of the reasons he wanted to watch it was because her that's where her immediate supervisor went. Last year was down in Vegas for the formula ones and she said it was just ridiculously fun. Well, I know our buddy Carlos is listening to this. And then saying, you know, hey, by the time he got on the on the train. What else am I going to talk about? I guess I'll talk about it before we get too far away from it. I watched the movie Thanksgiving, Eli Roth's Oh, Eli Roth's or flick. Oh, God was it actually like worth it? Look, I might say it's his best film. That's low praise, but I thought it was very watchable. Very entertaining. Nice. It was exactly what it should be. Very little more, but nothing less. And I started watching going up. Oh, hold off on this one to watch with. Dina when Patrick Dempsey, Nick dreamy from Grey's Anatomy opened the door to lead sheriff says I and she enjoyed it too. So it's it's a fairly it's a standard flashing slasher. Yeah, it's one of those ones that you're like, Well, okay, we're running out of holidays. And we don't have a solid Thanksgiving horror film yet. And so now we do. I guess we needed it. Nice. Well, yeah, I'm gonna have to like check that out. Because I think right now the only Thanksgiving horror film that I have lined up is that one with the like, Turkey that comes alive. Thanks killing things killing one and three. This is better there is no two. I can only I can only hope. So don't believe I've talked to you guys about this. I another movie that I got to check out the boy in the heron. Oh, yeah. I've not heard of this latest. Yeah, it's the latest news. He keeps retiring and then not so they couldn't kind of let him do whatever he wants. And I think that this film is the ultimate evidence of that. It's actually done really well in theaters. It was like the number one for I don't know if his last weekend or the weekend before but for a foreign animated film. It's pretty shocking. I made the choice of seeing it. Subbed and not dubbed and I might have made a mistake, because I know that they have incredible actors who did the American dubbed version, right. So that may have helped. I will say that this film also makes very little sense. Even as a giant metaphor, which I'm sure everyone is gonna be yelling at me right now. It's a metaphor. Yeah, for fucking what? Yo like yeah, okay, I get it. I do I get whatever they have laid out before us but it still doesn't make any dang sense. Like, they're just there's just so many issues throughout. But there I have read A compelling article saying that it's actually an allegory for his career. And that almost makes more sense, but is so much more difficult to penetrate. As far as a viewer who's just watching it. It is beautiful though. It's a beautiful, beautiful film. It's gorgeous. It's just it makes so little sense. But it also I will say it is kind of fun because it's set in that period of time when Japan is just at the end the dying breath of World War Two. So some of that stuff that we heard from horrible history is kind of laced in their nice remind me what that's called again. The boy in the Heron I thought you said the boy in the harem, and very different movie. I'm a little congested, so don't be afraid to ask me to clarify. Well, I did one of the Oscar bait movies. Because there's also on a lot of horror lists. tirely certain why but saltburn? Yeah, is that actually a word? Really. I mean, it's got some disturbing stuff and some really uncomfortable stuff to watch and parts of it. But it's it's it's fairly standard guy with no money. Agenda, it gets next to close to a ridiculously ridiculously wealthy guy and his family and the lies and manipulations that gone with that was well done. It was the acting and the look were astounding. The directing was really good. There are a few scenes that were like holy shit. But in the end, it's kind of like, Yeah, this is a version of a story. I've seen a lot. But this one is done. It's done. Well. Your Great Gatsby is one of your favorites. I see that's on Netflix. Right? I believe. Yeah, I think that is where I watched it. Yeah, because I seem to remember like, I don't have to rent it so I'll just watch it yeah, we're definitely getting into that time of year where it's all Oscar Beatty content and I feel like a suddenly there's 20 films I somehow completely missed seeing like oh god what are these? What do I have to go see what now? Oh. For your consideration Aquaman to Yes. I have seen those for Godzilla a lot. Yeah, I mean, what a what a time to be alive. Yes, it's an excellent movie. Okay, guys, how about we take a little break and then when we come up we're going to be talking about our top five films of the year and other stuff I hope. Classical toaster and we have returned Hey guys, this year is well this episode is like we always do at the end of the year we talked about our favorite movies but also take a take a moment to kind of look through what happened in other media I suppose through the year and I I'll start it I thought it was a pretty good year for television. And I think if if we had television on our top five, we'd probably all have follow the House of Usher on there. Yeah. Yep, definitely. That was my top one until I changed my list not just movies. Yeah, I figured it probably would be. I'll go as far as to say this is his masterpiece. This is certainly the thing I like best that he's done. And by him My son, the guy whose name I can't quite remember Mike Flanagan, Flynn again. Thank you. And the only way I remember is because of the flan averse that will stick with me. But yeah, it's, you know, my second favorite of all the things he's done, but still, it's just so absolutely incredible. There's just no denying it. And I agree with you. I think that I have a lot of really strong picks for TV this year for things that just blew me away. And for film, it was a little bit harder. So it's gonna be interesting to go over this. Well, what else did you see in TV that you liked Vanessa? Oh, man. Well, this was the year that we saw silo as well. Oh, God, that just such incredible science fiction. I'm so glad Eric recommended it because that just enraptured me and I super fell in love with it. Also The Last of Us, for sure. The Last of Us. Yeah. I mean, that's just incredible, incredible TV. And then blue eyes. Samurai, I thought was just stunning and so delicately crafted. I kind of wish it didn't have a season two, because it could have been a little bit better stronger if it just wrapped up but it's just I mean, I feel like streaming television has barged through the doors has burned down the barn has taken over. You know, that space for any middle version of film. That whole landscape I think is now just great streaming television. Yeah, thank you, right. Eric, you have anything television wise that you wanted to talk about? Here's a weird one. Well, television wise, I'll do tell him first i 30 coins. Season Two of coins was just insane. It was absolutely I'm insane. Series. Oh, I just thought it was I thought it was very uneven. But the moments when it was great. It was really really great. There were other things so that just had me scratching my head going Oh, come on, guys. Nobody's gonna act like yeah, Paul Giamatti. What I mean, he's great. He's actually one of the better parts but I was still like, anyone else who speaks English in there. I'm like, you gotta you gotta cast better guys. Come on. Review. I read a bit where IT guy said, Yeah, Paul Giamatti finally got to play as Bond villain. Yeah, that's not far off. But still enjoyed it a lot and loved it. unabashedly dove into Lovecraftian ideas and intertwine them with Christianity and Catholicism. And it's like holbeach Yeah, that was that was fun. I really liked Gen V. I think in a world where we're all suffering superhero fatigue. This one stood out as the way to do it if you're gonna do it. Yeah, I totally agree. One thing we haven't talked a lot about and Vanessa, I need to get your opinion on this. I am finding monarch to be a fucking slog, man it is. Oh my gosh. Oh, am boring. It's painful. It's actually gotten painful. I like every time we go back in time to Russell Wyatt's universe. But anytime we're in present I'm like, I hate these people. They're so crap. I just don't want to live here anymore. And anytime a monster shows up that's fun, but like no, it's gotten pretty rough. Like I get a little sad whenever it comes out. But on the flip side, reacher every time there's a new a richer episode. I'm like, yes. Come on, reach her. I got a couple other ones that I really liked. I really liked bodies. And I liked how it wrapped up. It is my next series to start watching. I'm actually in the middle of blowing samurai watching bodies here very soon. I guess I gotta put that blood samurai on my list you've got I think you'll love it. But yeah, bodies I think I am either at the end or maybe only have an episode or two left and it's been pretty phenomenal was now I have a question was Peacemaker this year, or was that last year? I think that was last year, but time COVID Time it's all blending together. But beef beef was a shock of a serious a 24 just diving into television and it's very stressful but some of the best acting I've seen. Yeah. Yeah, I think I loved that too. I wasn't sure what to expect. But I ended up loving it and and rooting for both of them. Yes, totally. I need to see that one do ya Peacemaker was last year or was 2022. Ah. Okay. Well, too. I think we all liked for the most part. Hijack can't get enough of Idris Elba. Yeah, yeah. Mitch the ending it altered a little obsolete. That was a little strange tack on ending but the rest was really good. Yeah, I feel like Apple TV really owned slash pond this whole year like they just they are making some of the best content out there and even the stuff that's not as strong is still very good. I Changeling even though I do not recommend any pregnant person on planet Earth to watch it. Please don't. Please don't watch Changeling please do not. It it was still really a phenomenal swing into just weird, weird crazy shit. I don't think you've spoken about this at all. I'm not familiar with this. changeling. changeling. Yeah. So it's based on the concepts of the Irish folklore of a baby being changed out for you know, the fairies taking a real baby away. And you're left with this kind of strange demon a creature and it's been used a couple of times in films recently as an allegory for postpartum depression. And this rides that line between Are we in a fantasy world or are we watching? Have this lady go insane, to unspeakable things to this child? Alrighty. So yeah, and it's interesting because you're diving between a few different characters and this potential fantasy universe that exists and you're just not sure what it's really about, because they're not sure what it's really about. It's going to have a second season, I'm pretty sure. And it's, again, great acting visually very powerful. goes weird fucking places. But really tough to watch if you're, if you're harboring a human being inside of your body. All right. I don't know if there's any more television, but I've got one last one. I thought it was the best animated show I saw this year and that was scavengers reign on HBO Max. Oh, yeah, that was that was really good. was really really good. strange story. I mean, like the plotline and stuff, but who cares? That was just so fascinating to watch. Yeah, yeah. Just really solid. worldbuilding literally, yes. Yeah. Any other TV guys? List? Well, I know we do. Well, we are nerds of all sorts. I'm still reading comic books. And I'm still loving dceased Are you guys reading dceased at all, which is the zombie thing? It's really good. I read the first few our first release of it or something like that, then completely forgot about it. I need to go back because yeah, it was really good. It's, I mean, the, the anti life equation has now hit the new gods. And so they're basically fighting these zombie Gods now. And it's, it's great. I'm really, really loving dceased. Um, yeah, I mean, it's been, it's been a pretty fun year for a lot of different comics. For me. I've gotten very absorbed into the world of Tom King. And we saw the illusion this year of human target as well as he started diving into love everlasting, both of which are just really fun, human target, taking a spin on the DC story of human target, but putting it into almost a James Bond style 12 days to live, but this man is going to spend it drinking his martinis and figuring out who done him wrong. Love everlasting is a woman who's trapped in a romance serialization, and keeps waking up halfway through them and being like, Oh my God, why am I here? What's going on? Like, What is this madness? And I would also love to give a shout out to the new Star Trek comic reboot, which has Cisco in the lead and is really good. Like it starts her comics that are good are rare and far and feud between so when a good one comes along like the Mirror Universe, it's like, Yes, this is. This is pretty worthy. So that's cool. Yeah, who's publishing that one? Oh, that one. Gosh, I think it's a weird. Who is it? I can't remember. I'm not entirely sure. Might be IDW I could I could look right back IDW it looks like it's IDW Oh, my my Star Trek shelf. Vanessa, you gave me for my birthday, the the trade edition of human Target and I finally got around to reading it. While I had this week off. And I was like, holy cow. This is not at all what I thought This comic was about. Yeah, I love Yeah. Oh, good. I'm so glad you liked it. I didn't terribly Miss judge your sense of comics. Oh, my years of reading, I think probably Ron will be one of the few people on our listening list. They'll appreciate most of my reading this year, I read a bunch of these books by this guy. All of them, like three or four of them like 600 pages long about, like, the details insane. Like, in this day he went into it's written better than this. But he went to the studio and worked on these songs. And this person joined them on the drums and Honda is but but it's written as a story. It's not written as a list like that. I really enjoyed it. But I'm not going to recommend a whole lot of people go out and read 1800 pages of print stuff. That's my own problem. So that was a large portion of read I read on and off all year long. Yeah, I, as everybody knows, I had one specific novel taking over my entire life this year and it with my iPhone. But I gotta say that Philip for caceis boy in the valley is getting all sorts of accolades. And they are so well to well deserved. It is. It's really scary. And if you haven't read it, it's like a cross between the exorcist and Lord of the Flies. And it is really a great book, boys in the valley by Philip fricassee is definitely something I recommend to anyone who likes scary horror novels. Any other media Vanessa, did you want to talk about some video games or anything that you loved this year? I'm just I'm still painfully struggling my way through boulders gate. I think I am now like 80 hours and maybe 90. I'm still maybe a third of the way through this game. Holy cow. Yeah, I mean, the there. The thing is, there's very few really good two player experiences in gaming that I found there's, there's little things here and there that show up but being able to play with, with a person, couch Co Op style. There's not a lot. So I went ahead and really committed myself to the stupid thing. And there are times that it's been good and there are times that it's been very bad. And there's been a lot of learning how to save and go to previous saves, and make alternative decisions happening because it's a huge world and every conversation you have, you know, could lead to a relationship you can have sex with people that you're about to like go to war with. You have sex with a bear. That's exciting. Yeah, it's It's bonkers, or like, you know, you can end up in a huge fight with pretty much anybody in the entire game. So it's just interesting. It's been an interesting experience. And it's been a good good way to waste some time. So all right. A weird one outside. Outside the norms when we talked about a YouTube has a company that does their plays musically online, but the whole things I'm running are usually a little over two hours. Nerdy prudes must die if it's really freaky guys, this whole weird storyline of a bunch of nerds and they start to interact and their bully is really nasty to him and they say they're gonna kill him. And he comes back and then he starts you know, the whole nerdy proves must die is his thing. Good songs good acting funny, strange. This is a web series, not to YouTube. Got Broadway? Not a Broadway it's Chicago. But stage performance. It's a video, multiple camera video recording of stage performance in front of a live audience. Wow. And it's Yes, most definitely nerdy prudes must die. It used to be by my nephew so he's like, You guys got to watch this I'm coming over we're watching it together like okay. This is the great thing about having family members or people in your life that are alternative ages can introduce you to like the weirdest shit like that is that is the best. Yeah. Well, before we jump into our top five, then do we want to talk about films that didn't make our top five? Sure. Yeah. Although I feel like it's a little bit risky because some of the ones that didn't make mine might have made yours. Oh, actual items. If we have more or less pretty just hold off till we get to that place where we've got them on the list. Okay. Do you want to do you want to throw one out? We'll tell you if you can talk about Vanessa. Um, I'm sure I'll go with something. Well, yeah, one that just barely did not make my list. Pope's exorcist. Oh, I forgot about the Pope's exorcist. I forgot until late last night. And I was just like, this is such a fucking fun film. It really is. It's just so stupidly good for it should not be it should not be watchable. It has like such a terrible title. But it was just so much fun. Now if you asked me what happened in it, I don't know that I could remember enough to tell you. It's very much a popcorn movie. But it I just I enjoyed the shatter that movie. I hate that title so much. Because I went into that thinking. I mean, what do you think when you hear the Pope's exorcist I was like the exorcist is possessed. Or the Pope is possessed, is possessed. Yeah, that's what I meant. Yeah. And so I was a little disappointed by that. But Russell Crowe was having such a good time. I'm like, I can't wait for part two, or three or 99. Cuz how many of them? He has to go and do. One that's a late entry not quite top 10. But again, this is like coming at Ron puts up those recommendations every once in a while. And I've watched a few and there's one bone lodge that is pretty good. So Oh, kind of a home invasion sort of. Just well done. While we're checking out it's one of the rising quantities of Tubi originals. Hmm, well, I think they had to start buying some stuff that would bring people to the platform. I got one I bet is not on anybody's list. sisu the World War Two. I still haven't seen it. I really loved it done by the same people who do who do rare exports. Fantastic gory, violent World War Two. A lot of people put some serious love towards CCU. I also have one that probably isn't on anyone's list, which was one of the films I talked about seeing it Fantastic Fest. falling stars was still really really good. It's also a huge mess. So I couldn't justify having it on my top five but I loved the universe they built where these boys are out there trying to on like a witch night in fall and should be staying home and instead they go to dig up a dead which body and things happen. So I can't wait for this to come to streaming. Yeah, I think you'll really enjoy it is little there are moments where you're like, Could we move into a another room please? Or could somebody stop explaining this thing? Because this is super low budget. So you're spending a lot of time in a car or in a room or in a field but I think what they do with the amount of money they have which is probably like 100 bucks is really good. Another one here Tetris Oh sure. Oh yeah. So good. So surprisingly good. That was an apple plus movie rights right? Yeah, well yeah, I think so. I don't Yeah, they seem to be producing a lot of the best stuff on streaming but nobody seems to watch it or talk about it much. Yeah, very strange sir. It's true and I you know, I the thing is luckily for those of us who are enjoying this the snap crackle and pop out of Apple they I don't think they're gonna stop or go away anytime soon because they are what the number one number two most profitable company on planet earth so they're they're doing fine. If they can, they can throw some money at these shows. But it's yeah, it's it's a real joy and it is hard when I want to talk to somebody else about any of the things watching and I'm like, Oh my God, have you seen this like weird thing that I checked? No. Oh, okay. is also on my list was an I don't think it's made anyone's top five last voyage of the Demeter. It didn't make my top five, but it was a strong film. I think it had a few flyers in there, but very cool. Had a lot of cool shit. They're doing great creature design. And yeah, I remember you not loving the ending that they tacked on to there. Now, it's very stupid. Very, very stupid. But that's okay. I was totally fine with it. You know what, you being a bigger fan of it, that of that whole thing than me? I'm gonna I'm gonna go with your default assessment of it, you win. Even if it didn't work for me, that's okay. Don't always, you know? Sure. I'm not always going to concede that's for sure. Oh, yeah. And I think a lot of the other stuff I have I worry will be on your guys's lists. So I don't know that we just dive into the top 10 or top five. I guess I can certainly do that. Who wants to start this out? And of course, we'll do the thing that we usually do, which is if somebody lists a movie, and it's lower on either somebody else's list, we will wait to talk about it until we get to the lowest number on it. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah. My number five Evil Dead rise. Oh, Eric, let's talk about it. Then directed by Lee Cronin. The fifth film entry in the franchise I think really goes hard. I thought it was very scary. Of all of the never ending franchises from the 80s. I think it's one of the ones that has been consistently putting out stuff that's worth watching film the film far superior than most sequels of those giant franchises. And I think this is a great example of taking it and kind of doing the same sort of story, but putting it in a setting that leads towards more possibilities for the future films. Yeah, I don't think there is a bad Evil Dead movie. You know, I didn't like the remake, but I didn't think it was a bad movie. The 2013 movie. Yeah, there's, there's no, Jason takes Manhattan in the Evil Dead franchise. Yeah, right. Yeah. I mean, I personally, I personally hated this foam. So you guys are definitely on the opposite end of me. But I can also say that for those who like that entire franchise, I can see it's it's a strong film. I entirely accept that. It is my personal tastes that leads to me disliking this film. So I thought. Jeez, I thought that you ended up kind of liking this one, Vanessa. No, I hated it. Okay. I liked I saw the original for the first time and I kind of liked that. So that was really good. Fine, well, what was your number five then Vanessa, because you got to have one handled? Oh, yeah, it's true. Um, mine was Guardians of the Galaxy. Volume three. Wow. Didn't make my list. Oh, okay. Great. Yeah, um, like I said, it's been a little bit of a tough year for me for films for things that really felt like it hit deep or hard. So some of mine are a little bit more middle of the road, populist. And that might be how I stand out from you guys this year. But of course, this is directed by James Gunn. It's the final chapter in the Guardians. The film franchise. I just, it's a mess. There are huge messy swaths within it, but I think when it hits it, right, it hits it. So right. And the way that it handles some of those characters final entries, potentially, like rocket or Gomorrah, I think that it did a very, very good job and just Just a huge, huge fan of kind of how they how they decided to close that out. I'm also very very glad that James Gunn got to come back and and finish it out. So yeah, I love the movie, I guess I almost kind of forgot about it, to be honest. But what a tear jerker till every scene with rocket as a baby raccoon being abused was like, a Hard movie. Oh, it was so rough. And it's, I mean, it's such a strong advocate for animal care and anti animal cruelty. My God, you wouldn't expect that that's what that movie is gonna really focus on. And the villain, you know, they just go all the way. They're like, we're just going to make a super unredeemable character, you're not going to want him to survive, you're not going to want him to, you know, have any success whatsoever. And they just commit to that in a way that I think really worked. It's such a good actor as well. I can't remember the name of that guy. But he's, he did a wonderful job. I had an alternative number five I was going back and forth with but I bet it's going to be higher on your list. So I'll just mention it. Godzilla minus one higher. All right, so what was your number four on my list? But yeah, Kelly's not on your list at all. Vanessa? It was good. It was good. But it wasn't like it didn't emotionally changed me. I didn't change as a person for saying it. Wow. Interesting. what's your what's your next four movies? Are I going to guess nobody's got this on their list. But my number four I really really love this movie. It was dark harvest. Sure. Yeah. I thought about it. Yeah, I thought about it. Yeah, that was good. Yeah, directed by David Slade, and just a wonderfully weird little Halloween flick. It's nice to get a new Halloween flip. And I feel like we got two or three of them this year that you know, kind of circle the holiday. And I just I loved the weird alternate universe feel of this where they the whole town just goes on the hunt of this creature which is just magnificently designed kind of a Pumpkinhead with pants kind of character. And and they you know, they get to win the chance to leave the town even though nobody knows what life outside the town might be like it's it's so weird. And I it really just stuck with me. I was like, Boy, I wish I could write something like this. Well, it's part of the appeals. It's very Stephen King ask a strong Stephen King style of story he might write. Do you think so? I feel like he always he always puts things in the real world. And this definitely did not feel like the real world. To me. This felt very much like a Ray Bradbury story to me. Steaming he does a lot of kids in small towns kind of thing. So I think there's a melding there of both styles. But yeah, Ray Bradbury's much more worked as we learned this last October Yeah, Kelly, I think that that you're, you're right like that the universe building in that film is phenomenal. And it's so strange. And it's so cool. I think the reason it didn't quite hit my top five was there. There were a couple of loosey goosey things in there that I was like, this doesn't. I'm not sure why this is happening. Or I'm not sure. Kind of why we're sitting here with this character when we should be over here and the time the use of time, and it was really confusing ups like wait, do we have two minutes or not? I don't know anymore. Well, under the gunner, we Yes. I mean, it's not a Marvel film universe. No. Yeah, but I can totally see why it'd be in your top five. It's it's really interesting. Yeah. Dark harvest. Okay. Well, I think my number four will not be on your guys's list. But it's also Halloween movie, but it didn't come out of Halloween. We have a ghost. It did not make my list. I it makes me think of something else. But that was a TV show. So what was this one? This. This is a film on Netflix. Starring Dave harbor. It's written and directed by Christopher Landon happy death day. Happy birthday to you And freaky. It's based on a 2017 short story Earnest by Jeff mana, which was published on vice.com Legendary Pictures won an auction for it and the screen writes. I know the budget was 51 million and it's Netflix so I have no idea how it did. But it's a really sweet story. have a family moving into this, you know, large, new haunted house that, of course, you normally get this sort of the family versus the ghost thing that you might see in something like haunted mansion. But in this, the boy is the son in this story has a really rocky relationship with his father. And so he actually kind of creates a father figure out of this ghost who's played by Dave harbor who cannot speak and ends up having an adventure to try and figure out the mystery behind this ghost death. All the while his father is making all sorts of really terrible decisions on how to raise his kids and is really putting social media and his business ahead of his family. So it's, there was just something really sweet and charming and wonderful about it that that stuck to my ribs that I just, I just really liked it. And that was good one. Enjoy that. We have a ghost I still have not seen it. It's next Halloween. I would maybe wait until Halloween time. But yeah. Speaking of Halloween time, my number four was taught to me. Of course, I've got it lower. Cool. All right. What's your number three then? Well, I guess we can talk about this together because Godzilla minus one is my number three. Directed by Takashi Yamazaki. I think that the strength of this movie is not the giant lizard destroying the city but the discussion of, of the way Japan dehumanized the, the human part of its military and treated them just like it treated their equipment, which was, you know, disposable. And I don't know that I'd ever seen anything like that in a Japanese film before. I imagine that they have probably had discussions like this in the Japanese culture. But for them to put that in a monster movie and then send it to the US. I thought it was really, really kind of a stunning move. And the movie is great. On top of that. The scene when he comes back and his neighbor reacts to the fact that he's still alive, because of what he was supposed to do is just like, wow, that's rough. It's really, really rough. I I enjoyed it a lot. I thought it was, like you said so much more than a monster movie. Although I did love some of the things I did with Godzilla with the spine up the back, like he's lowering his weapon, take all the weirdness of Godzilla movies of the past and make it into a good movie. And you know, Godzilla fans lose it. Yeah, yeah, there was definitely some really special interesting things they were doing in there. I love the ideas of like, Oh, we've got to use these crappy wooden fishing boats for this enormous creature because of the way that metal is being interacted with and the how there's some really, really clever, wonderful, wonderful things. And in that film, I definitely enjoyed the crap out of it. But didn't didn't change me as a person. But we have a ghost did. It sure did. Sure. I regret everything. Vanessa, that's you again. Yeah, so my number three I'm gonna guess need is not on your guys's list either. Again, I'm the populist here. Dungeons and Dragons honor among thieves. It did not make my list. I just you know, in the COVID era, I just feel like sometimes you just need something just good. Like well written good storytelling that's not heavy and insanely dramatic. This didn't blow away box office it cost 150 million and brought into under an eight directed by John Francis Daley. We might remember as Lance sweets from bones he was also a kid star and Freaks and Geeks. And he wrote Spider Man homecoming as well as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. So really talented guy. It's, it's just very, very true to the DND universe, which again, I'm not a fantasy person. I don't know what's up with this year. I'm spending so much time during Baldurs Gate. I did like a Magic the Gathering trailer this year. I'm like this is just a weirdly fantasy oriented year for me. But I love how they were just such huge fans of of the franchise and they're using monsters on the game. They're using places from the game. They're even making nods towards the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon series they, that was fun. They took so much care and love with this to the point where Ed Greenwood, who is a, the creator of the Forgotten Realms, section of d&d, even though he wasn't given credit wasn't partaking in this film, said that fans could be proud of it. It was such a faithful adaptation and he went out and saw it multiple times. So I don't know there's something about it. When you take a franchise and you don't do transformers. You actually care about it, and you actually set it in the universe and you actually don't make fun of it. Instead, you're you're making fun within it as those characters I mean, yeah, I just I just had such a good time watching it. I wonder what's up with me that that I completely forgot about this movie also that my also RANS because I really enjoyed this. I was surprised at how good this movie was. Sure, yeah. There's a lot of good movies this year. So I think that's part of the problem. Not a lot of great but a lot of good. Yes, but for me, my number three is dance. The one who's gonna love this one. They clone Tyrone. Oh, sure. Not on my list. So surprisingly, surprisingly good. Yeah, with a drink by jewel Taylor, who's this is technically a second film, but the first one looked like it was very simple. I haven't seen it yet. So could be fantastic. But for a second film, this is ridiculously well done. John Boyega, proving that he should be should have been allowed to do a shitload more in the Star Wars movies. Jamie Foxx. He is so funny in this and so well done. And then Tiana Paris who the trio of them just make this movie work so well. And it's so bizarre sci fi and horror and bad government things and weird people going after people for weird reasons. And it's just a lot of fun. I don't know if I've ever seen a movie that shifted gears so hard. So hard. Yes. Midway and I was like, What film is this? Now? What genre? Yeah, and you're so right about John boy, but, boy, oh, boy. ageia. Boy, yeah. Thank you. Boyega. He, I honestly did not know about him. Until you. You mentioned that on the show. Like I just I had no clue. i He was so different. And so he's a great actor. That was my number three. I gotta put this back on my list. I had it on the list. And then I think a bunch of things got pushed in front of it. And I completely forgotten about this movie to Netflix. One two, I believe, was when I watched it. Right. So I think so. Yeah, I think so too. Okay, Eric, then my number two is talk to me. Nice to talk to me talk to me. directly by philippou. I thought this movie was really really scary. Great setups, great delivery, a solid, a really simple concept. But when you execute it that well, what? Oh, good. Oh my god. 100%. Yeah, this was one of those that just barely didn't quite make my list. And I think it's because it was so good. It upset me. Like when I think about it is I don't know if I can watch it again. At least not like for a year or two because it's so distressing and upsetting. It's just incredible. It's a great movie. And in film school, Eric, I don't know if you remember John Jacobsen telling us that. So I mean, writing an ending for a film as hard writing a good ending, right. And his, his rule was, it should be something that nobody sees coming, but makes absolute sense. I was always like, oh, okay, that sounds easy. But this film has that kind of ending. Yeah, yeah. And I just Yeah. And good on a 24 for finally distributing a good fast pace horror flick. So yeah, so my number two you guys might have it. Or may not I don't know. And Spider Man across the spider verse. did not make my review the ah. Oh my god. I'm so angry with that cliffhanger. I know that that almost knocked it completely out for me too. Because I was also extremely angry, but I was also angry because it was so good and I was having such a good time. So I didn't want to fully discount it. It was beautiful. This is Gosh, a have so many fun facts about this. This was a budget of 100 to 150 million box office of 690 point 5 million. They actually use six different animation styles for each universe that they go between its largest crew of any animated movie ever with Around 1000 people working on it they added 240 characters for this one just beautiful, beautiful movie you it was hard to imagine that they could do better than the first and I think that the first one is maybe a film I I like more just because it was so shocking and exciting at the time. But they did such a good job to continue the pace and the excitement and the style and it doesn't get worse it doesn't he can't be like all the sequels not as good as the original like the sequel they they go they they know what their responsibility is. And they they did their homework so it was an amazing film. No doubt about that. Do we know does it does the third part come out this year? How that is such a good question. I do not know when the next Spider Man across spider verse II situation comes out. Eric You really got to give this movie a watch this one I do be on your list. I really want to see this one. And so anything else going on while she looks at Oh? Not Not anything really. originally slated March 29 2024. That's no longer the case. Possibly summer. Okay, well, sometime this year. Will it be good? I have a feeling like Vanessa's list that Kelly and I are going to intercede again. I'm guessing I might have your number one pick. Would you like to say what your number one pick is just so just so you can? Well, you say it? If you say it then you can? That I will talk with you about it? Because you'll just get to mine? Yes, it is my number one. Not on my list. But I am excited. I'm so glad you have it on yours. This does not surprise me. It's not on your list based on what you were saying. You. You know you wanted on your list this year. Yeah. Yeah, not a not a feel good movie at all. Directed by demyan Ragna. With our kids involved. Right? Yeah. Another surprise moment for the pregnant lady. Thank you. I love it. I don't think anyone surprised that this is my number one pick. It's the only movie I watched twice this year. Oh, wow. And I just I thought, you know, it's that weird thing that I've fallen in love with, which is that alternate universe. It's just like ours, except for one thing that everybody seems to know about. And that is, you know, possessed and demons is a thing and they have set rules on how to deal with it. And of course, these two brothers fuck everything up and start the end of the world. It feels like yeah, I just thought it was suck. I was sucked in hard on this movie. I started off not liking it. Because the the decisions they were making were all so stupid. Then I realized, oh, that's the point. They're supposed to they're they're being a little more human than most people are in movies. They're all covering their own asses. A little more than really trying to solve the problem, which makes the movie so much better. That's great. That is so smart. And the brutality to the dog scene and the walking by the car scene are both like holy shit. I can't believe she's stressed that dog scene is something else. Vanessa, you don't look happy with me? No, I'm so glad you have it. I'm so glad you have it on your list. But I just was replaying the the moment with the mother walking past in my head. Yeah, that was so fun time because you really saw what's going on but you didn't know. I mean, it was kind of a fast thing and afterwards you're gone. Is that oldish? Yeah. So, so good. And I'm really glad that I don't know. I'm so excited. I got introduced to that filmmaker this year and saw both that and clarifies. Thank you terrified. Yeah, both two incredibly fantastic films. Yeah. But were they your number? No, no, no, it's not. Look, okay. I've gone through some stuff, understanding happiness in my life. So, um, I mean, you guys have to know what my number one film is. I know I've kind of Yeah, I'm at a loss. I don't know what your ex I almost made a list of the five worst films I've seen this year, and that would have been at the top. Nope. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Mayhem? Of course. Yeah, I just you know, it was such a fun surprise for me. Ninja Turtles is one of those really risky franchises where people can really, really really fuck it up. Or they can do an unbelievably unbelievably great job. And I think that they took this in a new direction. They made something beautiful. They made something authentic. They made something that teenagers can really really relate to. And they I don't know they were very honoring of a lot of people my age is childhood. They does couple of interesting things I found out about it. They wanted the design of art in it to look like concept arts and things like sketches that kids might make on their school notebooks with this sort of exaggerated looks and exaggerated style. And that's kind of where that came from. They were also really influenced by Chungking Express. Also in China, this film totally bombed. I know I was like, Oh, all right. It did just fine here had a budget of 70 million brought in a box office of 180.5. And its tagline is heroes aren't boring. They're mutated. But I just the story was just so much fun. I think the actors did a great job. I loved the art style in it, and it just it tagged all of my Ninja Turtles heartstrings, so yeah, I just I it was my favorite film this year. I feel like an idiot that I couldn't guess this was done well worry about it. It's been a weird year, like you said. Well, you're so much more emphatic and intense when it's something you can't stand. Yeah, I'm opinionated as fuck. Isn't that why you guys have me on the show? That's absolutely what you got. All right. So I might also guess this one or Kelly might but my number one was Monterey. Taos presupposed to be pronounced from the law. Right. Wow. I, the more I just kept thinking about and it, I will be perfectly honestly admit that this could be a screening intensify. Because the film The screening was so fun. I mean, how many times have you been in a screening with there's three rounds of applause when shit happens in the movie? segments of the movie lead the audience to applaud and laughing like crazy. I don't think it's going to be I think it'll be more like Bubba Hotep than it will be like, what was Eli Ross, Kevin movie. Cabin Fever happened here. Cabin Fever. I saw both of those at CES and theater experiences are phenomenal for both. One was really good later, and one was not so good without the crowd. I think this is going to lead a lot more towards Bubba Hotep. But as far as being theater experience versus the quality of the film, but I just enjoyed the hell out of it just really had a great time. And again, goes back to that where we talked about on a couple of these movies. I didn't expect it to be that good. So that's that's it. It's not available. I don't think it's available yet or it just very recently became available online. But while we're checking out the I'm sorry, I missed that at the festival. I don't think that's available yet. Before we get to the last of our also RANS. Oh, we also have a discovery of the year. Yeah, discovery. The year film is a film that, you know, we loved but it's not from this year. And you know, nobody's going to be surprised that minus history of the occult from 2020. I may watch it and do an episode about it and it's that that same thing you know, where it's an alternate literally a pocket universe in this case. And I'm not gonna not gonna rave too much about it since we did an hour and 20 minutes on it at the beginning of the year, the history of the call. Yes, absolutely phenomenal. And I'm so I left that off of any of the lists I had to talk about because I wanted to make sure he did it and when he didn't do it, so yet so far, I was like, oh my god, he better mentioned this. I can shake him. My discovery bigger this year, is actually super recent, which is I talked about it just a couple of weeks ago, I went to a sort of preview screening at the center Rama, where it was a pic from the sponsors. And I'd never seen this movie before the fall from 2006 made by the guy who did the cell, slash selfless Tarsem Singh. He kind of disappeared from from making films kind of went to directors jail back from when you could go to directors jail for movies, bombing financially, rather than for me to related incidents. So times have changed, but he's still probably not really getting very many projects, if any, I think he's making one film in India right now, but this particular film, The fall is definitely part of that. It cost him 30 million to make and it brought in 3.70. No, yeah, rough. It is phenomenal, though. starring Lee Pace and this totally unknown six year old little girl cut NACA on baru. She is not an actress, she has not gone on to do anything else. She was definitely just a kid they got it has some of the most beautiful cinematography I've ever seen on film. It's it's just it reminds you of early Swedish. I'm forgetting his name now. But that Swedish filmmaker who does incredible black and white work Mr. Bergman Erickson Yes, thank you, Mr. Bergman. It feels in that vein, it feels like Southern steel or Joan of Arc or it's just so sunny stunning to stare at a shot and 28 countries across four years. They just go there. They build things. There's not CGI, it is just real and it feels real and it's kind of a weird story but like it's it's just stuck to me since seeing it. And I'm just it just blew me away. I saw TV or something. And I man what a way to see it. That phenomenal giant screen and that is visually just a beautiful beautiful film. That's really cool. I lucked out. I really really lucked out on it. Well, mine was one I've talked about on the show too called 1966 Those little fire on the way seconds. Okay? Yeah, okay, John Frankenheimer film, and just yeah Frankenheimer. Yeah, John Frankenheimer film and just surreal and weird. And one of rock Hudson's best performances because is not just being the stud good lucky hair. Oh guy he's he's going through some shit available from criteria. Very cool. Yeah, I need to put that on my list. That's good. I keep meaning to buy it every time the sale happens and then I have to buy something else instead of a mattress or whatever so eventually, it's fine to see seconds. So what I was gonna say before the discovery was before we get into the last of our also RANS, how about we go down our list for the listeners who might have missed something. And number five, I had Evil Dead rise number four, dark harvest number three Godzilla minus one. Number two, talk to me. And my number one film was when evil lurks Vanessa Yeah, my number five was Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three, four was we have a ghost. Sorry, yeah. Four Three was Dungeons and Dragons honor among thieves to a Spider Man across the US across spider verse and one Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem. Evil dad had fun I've talked to me before they cloned dyrone when evil lurks and Monterrey for my number one well it turns out that none of my other also random which I only have three was on anybody's list. So I will just mention that I thought the boogeyman was a pretty decent Stephen King adaptation. And there are a bunch of Stephen King adaptations out there most of them are bad I will put this one in the good column. cobweb which I thought was really creepy falls apart under any kind of examination. But while you're watching it, it it works. And then I didn't want to leave out Megan myth Regan Yeah, I thought for PG horror, PG 13 horror. They did it right. I think the the only one that I had on my list that you didn't mention here, John Wick Chapter Four. Oh, yeah. Yeah, something like little fights that stairway fights. So good. So good, great, kind of final chapter in the John Wick series, and maybe not as good as one and two necessarily, but like or 3123. But it still had some really excellent pieces and way to go Kenny Oh, for keeping in shape. Yeah, no kidding. Let's see a couple of mentioned let me call the attachment. This is a these are both shutter films. This is a Jewish demon movie. And nice little creepy film, well acted, well put together a very another film very dark little film called The passenger, which is a story of a guy who is getting picked on and beat up at his job and one of his co workers decides it's over with so he shoots all of the other co workers and basically kidnaps this guy and they go on a little road trip together and spend the whole movie go home. Is he going to kill the other guy? Are they going to work out what's going to happen? If you enjoy the two leads performances you'd like to film? It's got a lot going for it? Well, okay, it's feels weird to do a year end wrap up like that and listen to all this stuff and go oh, yeah, that was a lot of shit going on this year. And we watched a lot of just like every year but it's weird to kind of encapsulate it. It is it is an I think still a COVID it's I know we're post COVID universe we are but Time moves in such a strange way still and it's hard for me to remember what came out this year as well. So right well okay, then that brings us to the part where I thank everybody for participating in the value for value program and donating money liking and sharing posts all the stuff that the listeners do that really helps us get the word out and I see that you know, we've got a few more listeners. That's really cool. And I love the interaction we're getting on the Facebook page, which is Facebook. Let's see strange aeons radio talk, Ryan talk. Guess what I forgot to do? Bring in the pith the note that has the number for the strange aeons radio hotline. But you guys have heard me say it a million times before I'm sure it's on speed dial for everybody. That's right. And I will make sure to bring that in before the next episode. We can include it somewhere on the page too. Well, okay, guys, happy New Year. I can't wait to see what 2024 has in store for us. Anything parting words before we take off? I also just wanted to say thank you I got a Christmas card this year from a listener when Danny Wolford sent me to Vanessa and her husband Williams sent me a really really cool Christmas card so that was really cool and yeah it's just I don't know I love I love the the our little our little family or strange aeons families so makes makes it all feel that much more awesome when we hit up holidays and it's like Yeah, you like us? Hey Mikey. Okay guys, then I'm gonna go and drink about 6000 gallons of water and wait a second. Wait a second. Vanessa, you've got the next subject. I do I do I do and I'm just going to assume that I will be here for it. And that is I'm gonna go with because we're in winter and we haven't really hit any of the winter topics nor I'm in years past we've done like whole Christmas see things and Thanksgiving you things and this has been a little bit Last that way I'm gonna go with snow featuring snow it's gonna have big snow seen whether that's an avalanche whether there's snow storm whether that's snow just it's got to have a lot of snow on it so there there better be snow I like this so much planet like this time sounds like so much better than when you said fog that one time I don't understand how it is different I can't fathom because there's a lot of genre films out there with snow in them so I've got a lot to pick through just a lot of films with fog in it too. Let's not live in the past whatever. I love you guys and I will see you in seven short days where we are talking about snow. 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