Top 10 Best and Worst Movies of 2024 + Movie Review: Babygirl and Seeing Nicole Kidman In Person Talking About It!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I
am your host Movie Mike back with the first brand
new episode of the year, where I will be sharing
my top ten films of twenty twenty four. I wanted
to wait till the year was completely over because a
lot of stuff came out over Christmas break. I wanted
to include those movies, so I have my top ten
favorite films of the year. In the movie review, we'll

(00:21):
be talking about Baby Girl, which is the erotic thriller
starring Nicole Kidman. And instead of doing a trailer park
this week, I want to do my top five worst
films of the last year. I'll save the negativity towards
the end because I don't really like to focus on that.
I'm also trying to be a more fair and balanced
movie reviewer this year. Not that I feel that I

(00:42):
lost the reins on that in the last year, but
as I was putting together my top ten list for
twenty twenty four, I started to have a lot of
conflictions between where I put things based on things I
just passionately love and based on things that did well
and were reviewed well. So I tried to throw that
all out the window and give you my just true
opinion on what I thought were the best ten films

(01:04):
of the year. So, just because I found myself struggling
with that, I wanted to be conscious of that and
not get to like snooty movie reviewer guy, which I
don't think I've ever been, but for the first time,
I kind of felt myself going there, and I had
to kind of think back on why I started this podcast,
the movies that inspired me. Obviously, it was heavily influenced

(01:26):
on superhero movies. Just my if you can call it,
a career of reviewing movies, is based in those big
summer blockbusters, So I consider that while putting together this list,
but I will reserve the hate for the end on
movies that I felt were just a waste of time.
And I really think that's why I get so mad
about some movies. It's because I'm looking out for people
like you who are investing their time, investing their money

(01:49):
going to the theater, where ticket prices get more and
more expensive, concessions get more and more expensive. I just
hate movies that I feel rob you at the box office,
and I feel sometimes in criticizing those people think I'm
bashing these popcorn flicks that are a part of me,
and I can respect. I am that person who will
go see Kung Fu Panda four in theaters, but I'll

(02:11):
also sit down and watch Conclave. So we'll always continue
to strive to be more fair and balanced, because I
think that's something you have to continue and be conscious of,
because I don't want to turn into a crusty old
movie reviewer. So that is what I struggled with going
into this episode. So a lot to get to. Thank
you for being here, thank you for being subscribed, shout
out to the Monday Morning Movie crew. And now let's

(02:33):
talk movies from the Nustville Podcast Network. This is Movie
Mike Movie Podas all right, about to get into my
list of my top ten favorite films of twenty twenty four,
and I will say there were no fives this year,
which I was surprised by. I thought twenty twenty four
was gonna be the best year in movies and it
kind of fell flat. There were some good movies, some

(02:55):
really good movies this year, but there were no movies
that I feel fell into that five category, which I
consider movies that alter my brain chemistry, movies that I
want to rewatch movies that I believe that everybody should see.
There were some really good stuff out there, but nothing
that I thought. Man, this movie changed me. This is
going to be a classic for years to come. Some

(03:16):
movie got really close, which you'll see. I would say
in the top five, those movies got really close. But
at five I will fight for with every fiber of
my being. It is a movie that I could believe
could go on to be Best Picture. I think only
one movie in my top five will be nominated, maybe
doesn't even have the best chance of winning, but that

(03:37):
is where we are this year. The last really great
year movies was twenty nineteen, obviously, with everything that happened
in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one, with movie theaters
really shutting down, not really coming back until twenty twenty two.
And in twenty twenty three, which was on pace at
least in my opinion, to be the best year since
twenty twenty three, you had the writers' strike, and I
feel we still felt it effects in twenty twenty four,

(03:58):
even though we didn't really think about it because we
were so far and removed from that. I think that
is what really hindered that even going into twenty twenty five,
with a lot of great movies on schedule to come
out this year, even some of those have already been
pushed to twenty twenty six. So is it just a
state of movies nowadays. I'll get into that later this
month when I do my top ten most anticipated movies

(04:20):
of the year, but let's kick it off right now
with number ten. Almost could have put this one at eleven.
There were a few that I battled out, and I'll
give some honorable mentions at the end of this list,
but I feel that this was a movie that I
always like to include, one that not a lot of
people saw but I loved, And even though I maybe
can't even convince you to go watch it, I still

(04:42):
believe it was a great movie and one of my
favorites of the year. At number ten, I have sometimes
I think about Dying, which you can't watch on any
streaming service. You do have to rent it. It starts
Daisy Ridley. I'll read the plot synopsis if you haven't
heard me talk about this movie, which I reviewed at
the start of last year, out on January twenty sixth,
twenty twenty four. It is about a woman played by

(05:04):
Daisy Ridley, who is lonely socially awkward. She tries to
make a connection with a coworker and ends up taking
out that coworker on a day And it's really about
somebody struggling with loneliness and just trying to form any
kind of human connection when being so socially awkward and
being depressed. This is from director Rachel Lambert, who is

(05:25):
a native of Nashville. We actually went to a screening
of this movie last year got to hear talk about
the process of making this movie. I also got to
ask her a question about the ending on this movie,
which I had a big theory on. I won't spoil
it because I do think even if you haven't watched
it yet, if you are into indie sad movies, this
is a really great movie. And it's one that just

(05:46):
really hit me on a personal level. And it's really
just a small slice of life movie. Nothing big and
grand happens. There are some a little bit of fantastical
elements to this movie, but it's very small. The movie
to me, even though it's sad, feels very cozy and quaint.
To me. I would say the process of watching this

(06:07):
movie felt to me, like a nice getaway on a
weekend and a cabin. It just had that kind of
feeling to me. And maybe I'm the only person who
still believes in Daisy Ridley's career at this point. I
still feel like she had a great twenty twenty four.
I don't want to see more movies from her, which
I think she will be in some more bigger movies
this year. Don't really know at this point where she

(06:27):
stands on still being in the Star Wars movies. But
this is one of those movies that I will continue
to revisit whenever I just need something comforting, even though,
like I said, it's a sad movie. So that's why
I put sometimes I think about Dying at number ten
at number nine. This was originally much higher on my list,
and I started to think more and more about it

(06:48):
and the fact that I haven't really watched it, so
for that reason, it did fall out of my top
five all the way down to number nine. But the
movie is Long Legs, which I gave a four point
five out of five. It is not available on any
show streaming service at the time of this recording, so
you have to rent it still, which that kind of
feels like a disservice to this movie, because I think

(07:09):
if more people watched it that didn't see it in theaters,
it would be on a lot more people's list. This
movie was really benefited by the marketing, and that sucked
me in because it was in the trailers and all
the promotional materials billed as the scariest movie in years,
and I really bought into that, and they did a

(07:29):
great job with all the teasers. The trailer was fantastic,
the YouTube channel posting all like these little snippets of
really making it feel like a mystery, which the movie
is about. An FBI agent named Lee Harker. She gets
assigned to an unresolved serial killer case and then tries
to peel back more layers of the story, finding out

(07:50):
all this evidence about this cult. She discovers this personal
connection to the killer and tries to stop them before
he strikes again. As the plot synopsis says, we have
our boy Nick ca As long Legs, who I feel
a lot of people criticize the fact that he doesn't
look as scary as some people give him credit for.
And this is a movie that you really have to

(08:11):
let yourself sink into and suspend disbelief in order to
enjoy it, because I think horror movies now, if you
just go into it thinking that, oh, this is gonna
be scary, everybody's saying this is scary, I'm gonna go
into it and not be scared at all. You watch
it with that mentality, and then you just kind of
have like this arms crossed, I'm ready for anything attitude.

(08:33):
You will not think this movie is scary. With that attitude,
you won't think any movie is scary. And that I
feel is kind of a sour attitude and a way
to not enjoy any movie. You could go into a
comedy like that, everybodys saying, oh, this is the most
hilarious movie. Oh, I'll prove them wrong. And this is
a movie that if you just watched it on its
own without any bias, it is a creepy movie compared

(08:55):
to a lot of other horror movies. It did it
really well as far as building tension, as far as
creating this mystery that you want to learn more things
about long legs. And I think the moments that he
does appear on screen are truly terrifying. And I watched
this movie when it came out in theaters, so for me,
it was benefited by being in that environment where it

(09:16):
was pitch black. The sound was to a level ten,
and I allowed myself to fully be not only immersed
in the experience, but also in the story, free from
any distraction of my phone or anything. And to me,
this movie was chilling, had a fantastic score that the
sounds themselves just kind of creeped up and breathed down

(09:37):
my neck, and I really enjoyed it. Director Oz Perkins,
I think is fantastic. The movie did really well at
the box office, which is on par for a horror
movie like this. I think if you look at the
slate of Neon Movies, which is the studio that put
this movie out, they have some really great horror movies
coming out in twenty twenty five. So I think if

(09:59):
there's one studio now rivaling A twenty four in the
horror department, it has to be Neon because they are
coming out with movies like Long Legs that are original,
not sequels, not remakes. They're not really trying to build
a bunch of franchises over there. They just want to
put out really intriguing movies that people are gonna watch
and discuss and sometimes you won't love every single Neon movie,

(10:22):
but you can respect the fact that they continue to
take risks. So at number nine, I Have Long Legs.
At number eight is a movie that almost made me
cry last year. It is coming to Peacock at the
end of this month, and that movie is The Wild Robot.
I gave it a four point five at a five.
It is about a robot. They get shipwrecked on this

(10:43):
deserted island. The island has a bunch of animals living
on it that can all communicate and talk to each other,
and this robot, who is named Roz, tries to learn
to adapt to its surroundings even though it's not supposed
to be there. It is meant to serve a person
or a human, and in this case, it ends up
developing a parental bond with this orphan gossling and you

(11:06):
learn all about its tragic story. It's a movie about
feeling like a misfit, feeling like an outsider, feeling like
you're not a part of the community, and just trying
to find your purpose in the world. And it is
also a movie that will really make you want to
call your mom and I guess I wasn't fully prepared
for that, which is why it made me feel so

(11:27):
emotional watching this movie of how they show what moms
go through and what they will risk, what they will sacrifice,
of showing what moms sacrifice just to make sure that
their kids have a shot in this life, how they
will defend them, fight for them, break their bones for them,
do all these things that puts their own health at risk,

(11:50):
puts their own body on the line, just to see
their kid have a better life than they did. And
that really sunk in with me. And for it being
a family film, which I will say there's a difference
between a family film and a kid's movie. The Wild
Robot is a family film. A lot of Pixar movies
now and most Disney movies are family films where yes,

(12:11):
maybe they are geared and intended for a younger audience,
but the filmmakers know and the studios know for a
family film that not only are the kids gonna go
watch it, but the adults are gonna go watch it
and they need to enjoy it as well. The difference
between a family film and a kid's film, I would
say a kid's film is more something like Pop Patrol,

(12:33):
which is very much geared towards a young, young, young
audience that doesn't really consider the adult anything on the
level of like those kids' educational program movies where it's
a show that happens to have a full length feature
and it's usually just rated G, which is very rare.
Most family films are still PG because some of the
themes can be a little bit subjective, not that they're

(12:56):
showing anything crazy, but The Wild Robot does deal with death,
so you have to consider that just a little bit.
And sometimes it feels like strictly movies that are I
classify as kid films don't really have a whole lot
of substance to it. You're just watching it because you
love those characters and for kids who love the TV
shows that they are based on, or maybe they're even

(13:16):
creating a new franchise that's very just kid friendly. Sometimes
they don't even cast great actors to do the voices
in those, so I would feel like those movies they
don't even consider the adults. But for the most part,
all the animated movies I go watch at this point
in my life, I would consider family films and not
just what people say, are like, oh, just a kid's
movie doesn't need to be that thought out. You don't

(13:38):
really have to think too much about it. Why are
you criticizing it? So that is why, because I still
think that they make those with the intention of everybody
watching those movies. But it's from one of my favorite directors,
Chris Sanders, who also is the creator of Lelo and
Stitch and The Voice of Stitch, which we have that
movie coming out this summer. He also did the animated

(13:59):
How to Train Your Dreams, which we have the live
action movie coming out this year too, did really well
at the box office. It had one of my favorite
musical moments of the year. So at number eight, I
have The Wild Robot at number seven, was a late
entrig into the list. It is a complete unknown which
you can only watch in theaters right now. It should

(14:19):
come to a streaming service probably in the next couple
of months. But it is the Bob Dylan biopic. It
takes place in the early sixties, well at least it
starts out in the early sixties. Bob Dylan is a
nineteen year old He goes to New York with just
his guitar. He's still really talented, but it's very raw talent.
He is at the point of his career where he's

(14:40):
still an unknown. He goes to what he Guthrie, who
is his hero, who is in a hospital suffering a sickness,
and he goes to play him a song, and that
is kind of where the entire story of how he
has discovered takes off. At least according to this movie,
it focuses on his rise to fame, but I feel
like it did it in a really not so quick

(15:02):
rise to action way, which I always feel is what
I dislike about biopics and why I tend to stray
away from them. But when it's somebody so big like
Bob Dylan with Timothy shallow May playing him, it is
one that I couldn't avoid. And this one did a
pretty good job of not just going from here's Bob Dylan,
some nineteen year old nobody to boom he is famous instantly.

(15:24):
It shows you those struggles, and I think for the
most part this movie was pretty fair and balanced throughout.
I didn't really know a whole lot about his story.
I would say I know almost nothing about the Bob
Dylan story. Even some of the other musicians that he
interacts with in this movie. Aside probably from Johnny Cash,
I just weren't really that familiar with their work. So

(15:44):
I learned a lot in this movie, and looking back
on it now, I hope that a lot of what
I learned was factual. I haven't done a full deep
dive on what was true and what wasn't true. The
only thing I thought, just based on what I knew
about him is it doesn't really talk a whole lot
about his drug use or alcohol use, which I'm pretty
sure he struggled with at some point, but that really

(16:06):
wasn't in there. And that's even though that the movie
doesn't paint him out to be a saint or like
a really perfect guy. It does show his imperfections. It
does make him out to be a jerk, which I thought, Oh, hey,
here's a biopic that is actually showing you the dark
side of a person and not just oh they are
this icon who was so right all the time. No,

(16:26):
it shows you why some people hated him. So I
think for that reason, I found myself enjoying it more
because it didn't feel like just this puff piece of like, ah,
here's this great person who did know wrong. Probably my
favorite James Mangold movie since Ford v. Ferrari. I don't
know if it's his best movie of all time, but
it was one that I wasn't expecting to enjoy as
much as I did. I found myself afterwards going back

(16:50):
and listening to a lot of my favorite Bob Dylan songs,
which I probably only have a handful, and the movie
did make me enjoy some of his songs more. And
it's kind of cool in a very cheesy Hollywood way
where he's like working through some really famous songs. I
think you got something there, and it's obviously a massive song,
so it's easy to look back on that now, but
some of those moments did give me chills, and I

(17:12):
will say it is probably my favorite music biopick since
Bohemian Rhapsody. So at number seven, I gave it a
four point five out of five. Is a complete unknown.
At number six, you can watch it on Amazon. I
gave it a four point five out of five. It
is Challenger starring Zendia. It is the tennis movie, the
threesome tennis movie, to put it into simplest terms, which

(17:35):
I think is what everybody associated this movie with because
of that first trailer, which was really the main focus
of that, where it's them sitting on the bed and
then they Kisa, you know this trailer, And I think,
I'm just so invested in the work of Zendea right now.
I feel like she is the reigning queen of Hollywood.
Every movie she puts out is impactful. I mean, just

(17:56):
last year she was in Doune Too and Challengers, and
has a lot more on the way, hopefully another season
in Euphoria if they can get that under control of
actually filming that. But I really feel that this was
just one of those throwbacks to really classic cinema where again,
nothing crazy and grand happens in this movie, but just

(18:18):
the storytelling, the rioting, the fleshing out of these characters,
the opposing forces, where Zindeia's character plays this elite tennis
player who is on the rise to being one of
the best of all time. She has an injury, so
she transforms herself into a coach and then starts coaching
her husband. And I really love that this movie jumps

(18:39):
around in a lot of different timelines from back when
she was in college on the rise, focusing on the
two opposing male forces, which one goes on to be
your husband, goes on to be a pro, and she
is trying to coach him to kind of gain his
confidence back, which he was struggling at the beginning of

(18:59):
this and trying to get back to an elite level
to win a championship. And then you have the other
guy who was also going on course to be one
of the best, but then make some kind of bad
decisions and he's kind of just traveling around in his
car doing these low level tournaments to just have enough
money to get by, and he just has like this

(19:20):
raw tennis talent where yeah, you can just kind of
not train a whole lot, eat a banana, and get
on and win some money. And there's just some really
great cinematic moments Visually. The score was fantastic in this movie,
and it's one where there's not really one character that
you root for the entire time. I found myself wanting
to root for zendais character, but then she reveals a

(19:43):
side of herself that you're like, Oh, I don't know
if I agree with her, maybe I'll root for this guy.
I don't know if I fully agree with this guy. Oh,
then maybe this guy is the hero of the movie. Ah,
the guy's not that good either. So I enjoy movies
where it focuses on characters that aren't entirely reliable in
their story, that aren't perfect characters. You don't really have
a true antagonist and pro antagonist. And I think where

(20:04):
this movie just really shines is showing all their backstories
and then bringing it to a head whenever they face
off in that tennis match, and there's so much tension
in that match, and you feel it as the viewer
because you know all these things. You know everything on
the line, because you've seen everybody's perspective. That was a
true moment in the movies last year that I really

(20:26):
felt like. I said, I gave it a four point
five out of five at number six. I have Challengers
getting into the top five. Now at number five you
can watch it on Disney Plus I have dead Pool
and Wolverine, which I gave a four out of five,
even though it has a lower score than some of
the other films in the bottom ten. I would say

(20:47):
this movie got points for one how much money get
made at the box office, but also how impactful it
was to the entire movie industry, which doesn't necessarily always
have a monetary value. But it was a movie that
everybody knew was coming out. It had the big Super
Bowl trailer premiere. There was so much buzz, and I

(21:09):
would say just it being one of the most talked
about movies of the year was reason to bump it enough.
And you think, well, you got to base it on
your favorites. Yes, sometimes what influence is my favorites is
movies I feel that bring a shot of adrenaline into
the arm of the movie industry that we need, especially Marvel,
where everybody saying Marvel is dead. This was a movie

(21:31):
that everybody saying Marvel is so back, and I think
that impact is important. And even though I had some
hesitations going into it, whenever the first view of Wolverine
Suit came out, I wasn't a big fan of it
because I felt it attached itself more to the look
of Deadpool and match that instead of giving us a

(21:51):
true comic book accurate version of Wolverine free of any influence.
If we didn't have the Deadpool movie and they came
out with a Wolverine comic accurate suit, it wouldn't look
like this. If Deadpool didn't exist in the MCU. The
suit would have looked better, in my opinion, but instead
Deadpole already has this look, and they made his suit

(22:11):
match Deadpool's look so they would look good on screen together.
That is my opinion. That is what I think really happened.
Even though the colors are there, to me, the texture
isn't there, which I feel is more important. And it
is still a really impactful MCU movie, and I think
one that is really going to change the course of
Marvel moving forward where we stand with Wolverine and Deadpoole

(22:33):
and how they fit into this picture, and I love that.
I also love that it gave us Gambit, and I
think that character has now proven to work in this
capacity and has maybe proven to Disney and proven to
Marvel that people want to see more Gambit, which is
a fantastic character that had a really big year in
twenty twenty four, not only with this movie, but also

(22:55):
with the animated series X Men ninety seven. So I
think not only was it a movie I thoroughly enjoyed,
even though I had a lot of just this harsh
criticism probably over criticized this movie, I should have just
shut up and enjoy it as a nerd as a
comic book fan and thought, we're finally getting this, but
it made me more excited of what's to come. And

(23:15):
I still thoroughly enjoyed it despite everything I just said.
But I still believe it is one of the most
important films of last year, made a bunch of money.
I think it's one I will still continue to rewatch
and maybe enjoy more like a year out looking back
on it. So I still put it at number five
and feel good about it and my top five movies
of twenty twenty four at number four. You can watch

(23:38):
it now on Peacock and it is the only movie
we watched twice in theaters last year. I give it
a four point five out of five. It is Twisters,
and this is because I am such a huge fan
of the original movie, and maybe I had a little
bit of rose colored glasses going into it and thinking, oh,
this is gonna be great, just because I love the original.
But I truly believe that this movie on its own

(23:58):
is good. It is a sequel that really has nothing
to do with that first movie. There are some references
to it, and not only have I seen it twice
in theaters, but rewatch it again on Peacock and I
still love it. It is also giving us two really great
future A list actors, and there are a lot of
great moments in this movie. And even though it focuses

(24:20):
more on these two characters with Daisy Edgar Jones and
Glenn Powell than it does the whole team, which I
think the original movie was more about that that camaraderie
them as storm chasers. This focus more on their relationship
and their backstory and their dreams of science and chasing
tornadoes and how those kind of clash and how they've

(24:42):
worked together and butt heads. They were at the forefront
of this movie. And that is just a reflection of
Hollywood right now that has to bank more on stars
and are using more and more star power to really
sell their movie, which is nothing new. That has been
something since the twenty thirties, since the beginning of movie
you gotta tell you a big star, you put them

(25:03):
up on the poster. That is nothing new, but I
feel it's more important now because if you don't have
IP to sell, like you don't have a Batman or
Superman movie to sell, you need to have big A
list stars. That is just the nature of movie studios
not wanting to take as many risks. This was also
a movie I felt did really well at the box office.

(25:24):
It caused some buzz of people wanting to go experience
this movie in theaters, especially in forty X. A lot
of great memes that came out of this movie, so
I like it when a movie does have an impact
on That did influence my raking here a little bit,
so I put it at number four. At number three,
speaking of a movie people talked about a lot and
made a lot of memes of I have Wicked, which

(25:44):
I gave a four point five out of five. It's
still not available to stream yet, but you can't rent
it at home. It is a movie I feel that
people are not only gonna rent, but maybe even purchase.
I think Wicked is a movie that has that type
of appeal where you're gonna want to rewatch this movie
a lot because of the music, because of the songs,
because of those performances, but not only that. We have
the sequel coming out this year, which they did officially

(26:06):
change the title to Wicked for Good. It's coming out
on November twenty first, so pretty much a year after
this one came out. It's gonna give a lot of
people a reason that maybe didn't watch this movie in
theaters to watch it at home, or maybe some people
will wait till they have like the two showing events
where you watch one leading up to number two in theaters.
But I think why I love this movie so much
is because I have such an affinity for the Wizard

(26:28):
of Oz and all the mystery and just kind of
lore that surrounds that movie, with all of the dark
and gritty past of just the filmmaking process, but also
its impact on film. It being a movie I would
say only one a few movies that are almost one
hundred years old that people still watch and still hold

(26:49):
up and still influence film to this day, to this day.
And I rewatched that movie after watching Wicked, and I'm
fully in that world right now and seeing how they're
going to connect the first one to the second one,
and how even though it's not a full on prequel,
hell now, because of its success, it's going to be
so interwoven. So I'm very curious to see how the

(27:10):
second one plays out. And up to this point I
still avoided spoilers, and I think it was also that
I didn't know anything about wike of going into it.
I didn't even know how to say Alphaba's name up
until I did that trailer in the Trailer Park and
I was like, how do you say this name? So
I think not knowing a whole lot about the story
allowed me to enjoy the movie that much more. But

(27:31):
from just the filmmaking standpoint, I love that this movie
brought back real sets and sequences that take place in
real time. A lot of live singing was done for
this movie. It just really felt like the set was alive,
which you don't really have a whole lot anymore. For
the most part, it's just a bunch of green screen
and blue screen and people just acting to nothing. You

(27:54):
can truly feel that in this movie, and I think
is what made it so enjoyable to me that it
still kept that Broadway theater vibe very live and fluid,
which I think is important for all the songs in
this movie, and just having those big, elaborate sets that
remind me of the filmmaking process for that first Widgards

(28:15):
of Oz, where they had no ability to rely on
special effects. They had to do all those themselves. So hopefully,
since they did film both of these movies, at the
same time, we get to see more of that in
the sequel. I'm hype for it. Very rarely am I
this hype for a sequel that I think has the
potential to be better than it's original, because man, there
has to be so much more action in Wicked for Good.

(28:36):
But at number three, I have Wicked. At number two,
I have a movie I gave a four point five
at a five. You can't stream it anyway right now,
you have to rent it. But it is a real pain,
starring Kieran Colchin and Jesse Eisenberg, who also directed the movie.
They play these two mismatched cousins as they call them,

(28:57):
who traveled tough Poland to go on this tour after
their grandma dies, and this is them reconnecting and you
find out all about why they haven't remained as close.
Kieran Colkin's character is very just go by the seat
of his pants, very chill, very laid back. He is
a people person who can form a connection with a
random stranger on the street. And Jesse Eisenberg's character is

(29:20):
very reserved, neurotic, overthinks a lot, but he has a
wife and kid at home, so he has a life
to get back to, and it's how those two personalities
clash when you have kind of an odd couple here.
The movie only costs three million dollars to make, ended
pretty well at the box office, probably through word of mouth,
and like I was saying earlier, I think this is
the only movie that makes the entire top ten list

(29:42):
of mine that has the potential to win Best Picture.
I do hope Kieran Colchin is nominated and wins Best
Supporting Actor because he is fantastic in this film. I
also think Jesse Eisenberg should get a nomination for Best Director.
But this movie kind of just hit me in the
gut way that I wasn't expecting. And these are both
characters that normally I wouldn't have anything that I could

(30:05):
relate to them to. But it's through the storytelling and
the power of all the things that get revealed that
I'm like, Oh, I am like one of these people.
And this was a movie that after I watched it,
I really just reflected on my feelings and on it
hitting a nerve that I've never even talked about and
much less seen represented in a movie that I associated

(30:28):
myself so much with. Jesse Eisenberg's character that I thought, man,
how did he make a movie like this and really
just hit me in the gut. And I think it
was also the fact that they had such great on
screen chemistry, the fact that the movie dealt with a
lot of different emotional layers, one of losing their grandma,
one of their falling out, and maybe I related a

(30:51):
little bit to not being so close with some family
members that I was closer to when I was a
little bit more younger and care free. I think we've
all kind of experienced something like that, when you're a
little bit more wild and just don't care about things
in your twenties. Then you get in your thirties and
you have more responsibility, you get more involved in your career,

(31:12):
and maybe some people aren't at that exact same point
in their life at that same age, and there's some
friction that happens between those types of people when you
hang out. Even though for me personally, it is the
front runner that I want to win Best Picture, the
one I will probably get behind the most, maybe maybe
for my number one, but depending on how that shakes out.

(31:33):
There's nothing I feel is super novel about it that
I think It's a hands down, full on winner, deserves
a five out of five. So not to take away
from the story, to take away from anything I've said here,
it just doesn't feel like anything I haven't seen done before.
But what it does do, it does really well. So
if you haven't seen it yet and you want to

(31:54):
experience that or just see like, why did this movie
make Mike so emotional? I do advise you to check
it out because I do think it's worth it. I
put a real pain at number two at number one,
and then I'll do my honorable mentions. After this, I
have the substance, which I gave a four point five
out of five. You can't stream it anywhere, you do
have to rent it. This movie was so close, the

(32:15):
closest for me of being a five, and I think
if it wasn't for that final act that kind of
just said, ah, we're gonna do whatever we want here
and we don't care, it probably would have been a five.
And maybe I should have expected it a little bit
because the movie is campy at times. It is a
body horror movie about this woman named Elizabeth Sparkle played

(32:36):
by Demi Moore, who just turns fifty and she's been
doing this really renowned aerobic show on TV, and after
her fiftieth birthday, she gets fired because her boss says, hey,
you don't have it anymore. You're not young, you're not
desirable anymore. You're aged out of this position. We're gonna
get somebody newer and younger to fill it. So she decides,

(32:57):
after kind of being turned on to this black market substance,
that she is going to take and create a better
version of herself. She doesn't know what that means. She
gets a call from this really weird person after dialing
this number, who gives her this instructions, gives her this
package with something called the substance. She takes it and

(33:18):
outcomes a different version of herself played by Margaret Quayley.
And the rules here is that one person has to
live for a week and then after that week they
switch bodies and the next person has to live out
the next seven days. If they disrupt this pattern, there
are some consequences, and it gets more and more complicated

(33:40):
as their desires on either side start to change, and
then oh boy, it gets to be a full on madhouse.
And ultimately it was a movie that I could not
stop thinking about I saw it whenever it came out
opening weekend in theaters, and for weeks on end, I
just kept going back of thinking how refreshing this movie

(34:00):
was and how bizarre it was, and I put myself
in that situation what I take the substance, And I
also think that this was a movie that really showed
how great of an actor Demi Moore is a very
vulnerable role for her, not only emotionally but also physically
putting her body on the line and on display in

(34:20):
this movie. And I put it at number one, and
usually my number one is a movie I believe that
everybody can watch and enjoy. I don't think this is
a type of movie like that, because one, you have
to be into horror movies and also you have to
be into an almost monster movie type has a very
almost classic feel to it to enjoy it. But I

(34:40):
also think it has that black mirror vibe, which I
think has opened up people's minds to what horror can be.
Even though traditionally not every single episode I would say
is a horror movie or a horror episode, it does
kind of bring a modern horror feel to people who
maybe wouldn't have considered themselves horror fans before that show,
because if you like that show, I'll break it to

(35:02):
you. You do like a little bit of horror, So I
do feel the substance kind of falls in that category.
If you just like Black Mirror, you could give this
movie a shot. May be a little bit weird for
you at times, but you could give this movie a shot.
So my number one movie of twenty twenty four a
movie that I hope gets nominated for Best Picture. I
could easily see it not though, just because horror movies

(35:24):
often get robbed of that honor they're seen as being
kind of less than him. But if it does get nominated,
this will be the movie that I push for that
I want to win. But I could easily see it
not getting that nomination, and therefore I'd put all my
eggs in a real pain basket. But at number one,
I have the substance who that was a lot of movies,

(35:46):
But I do have some honorable mentions, because like I said,
there were a lot of good movies, not a lot
of great movies in two thousand and four. Movies that
also almost made my list was the horror movie Late
Night with the Devil, which I give a four or
I had a five. Didn't see that one in theaters,
but I did watch that one at home. If you
turn off all the lights and allow yourself to just

(36:06):
feel like you're in a theater, that movie is a
really great horror movie, also done under pretty modest budget.
Also really enjoyed Smile Too. Loved it way more than
Smile one, and was kind of one that went a
little bit under the radar. It was really popular for
like the week it came out, the week after and
then I haven't really seen a whole lot of people
talk about Smile two as being one of their favorites.

(36:27):
So I did want to put that one in my
honorable mentions. Love Lies Bleeding, which I talked about in
my Underrated Movies of the Year. Monkey Man was a
great action movie, especially if you like movies like John Wick.
Young Woman in the Sea was I believe the best
sports biopick of twenty twenty four, also starring Daisy Ridley,
the story of Gertrude Italy, the first woman to ever

(36:47):
cross the English Channel, which I had no idea about,
but I was inspired by that movie Babes, which was
one of the best comedies of twenty twenty four and Conclave,
which you can watch now on Peacock. I think could
be in that running for Best Picture. A movie that
looks like a horror movie but it is a drama.
Loved the score in that movie. That one also could

(37:10):
have made it into my top ten. So those are
my honorable mentions. Come back, give us spoiler free movie
review of Baby Girl, and then on the end, my
top five worst movies of the year. All right, let's
get into it now, a spoiler free review of Baby
Girl with Nicole Kidman. We're also going to talk about
what we learned in the post screening discussion because we

(37:32):
saw this movie at the Bellcourt here in Nashville, which
we are now members of.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
We that was the kick in the butt that we
needed because they were doing a showing with a post
show discussion with Nicole Kineman herself. But it was only
available to members, and we've been talking about becoming members
forever and so we were like, now's the time. And
then tickets went on sale. We were in Texas, we
were in.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
HGB Best grocery store.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
We were like, we gotta buy the tickets, which pulled
off on like the cleaning isle in front of the
tide pods and somehow got tickets. I knew they were
going to go fast, but apparently they went in two minutes.
This is wild, and we somehow got them.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
For those who don't know, Nicole Kidman lives in town
with their husband, Keith Urvan, who was also wildly famous,
and this is her like her hometown movie theater. Yeah,
she did a thing last summer where she like curated
all like her movies and they honoredor so she actually
goes to the Belcourt, which is wild. They're also members,
and this is the theater we talk about if you
ever visit Nashville that we recommend you come see a

(38:30):
movie here because it is independently owned. This year they're
going to be open for one hundred years already, which
is another just crazy thing for a movie theater that's
small to be open for that long. But they show
a lot of indie movies. So now that we're members,
we'll see a lot of the Oscar Contenders there. So
it's a.

Speaker 3 (38:46):
Great theater, great snack selection, very chill there.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
I love just the atmosphere when you walk in there,
and I feel like every movie we've gone to there
has been a memorable one. Yeah, like rarely do we
go there. I'm like, ah, that movie kind of sucked.
You just see good movies there.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
Yeah, I don't think anything I didn't love. I saw
the TV Glow, but.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
I liked it. But we're here to talk about Baby Girl,
which Nicole Kinman plays a CEO. She gets this new
intern who they start having a relationship and it throws
a big wretch to the gear and it's described as
a Eurotic thriller, which pretty erotic, pretty thrill.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
I would agree with that genre.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
So it's essentially a power dynamic of her being in
a position of power and then having this desire to
have this crazy, just straight on sexual relationship with this
younger person. And she is married, has two kids that
are older, which I think is important to the story
as well. They end up playing a bigger part in

(39:48):
how she navigates this entire thing. But it's kind of
a power dynamic switch of the woman is the one
in power, she's the CEO, and the intern is the
young kind of boy toy, which later in the Q
and ation he described as like being a man child,
which I thought was funny. Boy man, that's what I
feel like it's kind of a rise of his type
of actor with like the Timothy Shallow made even though

(40:10):
he's like freaking tall.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
And SI they were talking about Harris Dickinson.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
Yes, Harris Dickinson, who was also in the Iron Claw.
I knew him from Triangle of Sadness.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
I knew him from Scrapper, which was a good one
that I saw at the Bell Court.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
And I think he's kind of still at that level
of you might recognize his face and not know his name,
but he's a good actor.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
He's a great actor.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
And he essentially looks like a male model. That was
his character in Triangle of Sadness. He was this dude
who was a model. There was a funny thing in
the trailer where he did like different expressions of like
this is the style of face you do if you
do H and M man, this is the style if
you do luxury brands. So he looks like that. But
when you really look at his work and look at
his performances, especially in Iron Claw, he's just a really
good actor. And I think this movie was a different

(40:50):
side of him. It was more of a lead role,
even though it was pretty prominent in Iron Claw. I
feel like that was more of Zach Effron's.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
Movie, So that was an ensemble kind of.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
This was seeing like how he can do with one
of the best actors of our generation, Nicole Kidman, who
I don't know what it is right now, but takes
on the most physically demanding and sexual roles. That's kind
of her thing. Yeah, and all the relationships that I
feel that she's portrayed, not only in movies but in TV,
they've been very vulnerable. In this one, she has nude

(41:23):
scenes and she just kind of oozes with authenticity at
this point where it's like you go watch something when
Nicole Kidman and you know that's she's there to play
like she's gonna do an amazing job. And I wonder
how much of a toll like this movie takes on,
like just her well being.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
Yeah, that's a good point because it's.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
So just emotionally draining, I feel like, And also, could
you imagine psyching yourself up knowing like I'm gonna be
naked in a movie today?

Speaker 3 (41:49):
No?

Speaker 1 (41:50):
I just couldn't.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
No, I can I can answer that out No, because.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
We watch it and we just see like, oh, this
is two people just doing this. We just see that
scope of it. If you look behind the camera, there's
so many people there. Yeah, to have that much chemistry
with the person and be naked in certain scenes or
be doing sounds and motions and actions where yes, maybe
in a room who was just you and that other

(42:14):
person would be you could do it. But to be
there with the director showing you, with an intimacy, coordinator, lighting, lighting, camera, people,
all kinds of people around you to still be able
to give a performance that feels authentic. I feel is
something that is just like I don't know where you
go to in your brain, and I don't know if
you immediately leave that set and like, all right, let's

(42:35):
go into my next thing. So what did you think
about the movie? Overall?

Speaker 3 (42:39):
I thought it was great.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
I mean I expected it to be good because a
Nicole Kinman be a twenty four, But it was better
than I anticipated, Like just the acting, the storyline, the soundtrack,
like the cinematography of it all.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
I thought it was phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
I thought it was going to be a little bit more,
for the lack of a better phrase, dumb down than
it ended up being. And I think knowing now that
there's a female director behind it and writer. I feel
that that is why the entire story was shifted the
way that it was, and there was more to it
than just two people hooking up behind somebody's back. There's
a lot of just complexities in that relationship, and I

(43:18):
feel overall a message that this movie was trying to make,
So while the trailer just did kind of lean you
towards Okay, it's going to be them and all these
sexy situations, and with the soundtrack and just the way
that they kind of sold the movie through the marketing,
which I think A twenty four is trying to appeal
to more people that aren't just like the typical A
twenty four indie filmgoers. They're broadening their scope. They did

(43:41):
it last year, They're gonna do it even more in
this coming year in twenty twenty five. I think that
this was a really good direction for them to go in,
and especially when Nicole Cameman behind it. I wish it
kind of would have did better at the box office,
but I feel like this is a little bit more
of a word of mouth movie, and you have a
lot of movies coming out in December where people were
going to see like FASA and Sonic three, it's kind

(44:02):
of hard to sell a Christmas theme neurotic thriller, which
it is kind of a Christmas movie. There's a lot
of Christmas in it happens around Christmas time, a.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
Lot of Christmas trees.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
But it's Yeah, but it's kind of hard to sell
this movie around this time. So I think maybe now
that it's out, once it goes to streaming, it'll do
a little bit better. But I found myself really enjoying
I think just the relationship dynamic and overall what this
movie had to say. What did you learn in the
post Q and A with Nicole Kidman there, which was
kind of cool just to see her in person.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Yeah, First of all, she's gorgeous. She just like radiates authenticity,
like just being able to hear from her. I wanted
to be like, excuse me, miss Kidman, where'd you get
that outfit? Can you link that for me?

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Which we have seen her at the mall before you.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
I have seen her at the All.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
First of all, she talked about like working with and
she said this interviews before female directors, female writers, and
I love that she acknowledged. She was like, I have
some power in the industry and it's like, I love
hearing her say that and like aware because she does,
and like what she's doing with that and doing smaller pictures,
Like she talked about how this one eight twenty four,

(45:07):
you know, isn't big studio backed, it doesn't have a
big budget. She was like, we didn't have a huge timeline,
so we'd film like eight scenes in a day and
you would just kind of do things.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
Back to back.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
And I love hearing that, even at her like a
list level, she's doing these films that aren't like giant bankrollers,
And I love that she talked she was like, I
was just a hired actor on this. She was like,
I wasn't a producer. I didn't see it till it
was done. So I just loved learning that she still
finds challenges in her work and like, really, is that

(45:36):
the level where she only takes projects that she believes in?

Speaker 1 (45:38):
Yeah, I like what she said about that, Like she'
like they would have eight hour days and they would
go film or she said eight hour days are they'd
have to film like eight scenes and eight Scenes's that's
a lot of scenes.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
That does a lot of scenes, a lot of dialogue
to know, and just like, yeah, emotionally draining.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
What I really enjoyed and learned is the fact that
she is such just a fan of film and is
so aware of what is going on right now, which
I think I feel that some actors get to a point,
especially at her level, where they don't even have to
watch other movies. But she was able to talk about
the work of all of her co stars and like
what they were in, who directed it, and knew so

(46:15):
much about not just film in general, but what is
happening right now, which is really important. But when you
start to think about it, of a working actor, even
at her level, it pays to know what is going
on and like what is cool, what is not cool,
what directors are about to pop off. The fact that,
like you were saying, that she is working with a
lot of like new directors, and she has worked with

(46:37):
people before they were major stars, like just on the
directing side. So it's kind of cool to see somebody
at her level be so invested in what people are
going to be and not just trying to work with
all the big names now because she can go do
a movie like this that has a twenty million dollar budget,
and then she can turn around and do another Aquaman
movie where she has a small cameo and makes millions

(46:57):
and millions of dollars that could maybe fun her next project,
which I mean, she's fine her either ben are probably
fine financially, but at that point it's like, Oh, I'll
do this role and then I can take the money
I would make from that and fund it somewhere else.
And then it was also hearing her say that she
likes to keep some aspects of the filmmaking process a secret,
because the person conducting the Q and A was asking
more about some of those scenes and she's like, hey, yeah,

(47:19):
we have an INTERVC coordinator, but I also don't want
to reveal everything because that takes away some of the
magic of filmmaking.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
So it's like, hey, and then she did say one
of her lines for my Amcat.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
Oh yeah, what was it?

Speaker 2 (47:30):
She said, heartbreak feels good here, and then she laughed
at herself, and I was like, we love a self
aware queen.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
And then she think that's for coming to the movies.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
Yeah she did. So I got like thirty minutes of
discussion with her. Yeah, she was so cool.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
And I like having post discussions because they get into
all the spoiler stuff, so some of the stuff they
did talk about would be spoiling it here, but she
went into pretty big analysis on the ending of this
movie and how it even how it like connects to
some of her other movies, and overall, I like being
there knowing that everybody has seen the movie and you're

(48:03):
not ruining anything because you can talk about it and
be like, oh, yeah, I want to know about that.
So yeah, it was really cool to be able to
be in the same room with her and hear talk
about it after the fact. What would you rate Baby.

Speaker 3 (48:14):
Girl four out of five glasses of milk?

Speaker 1 (48:21):
Yeah, I'm right there with you. I give it a
four out of five. I'll say dirty hotel rooms. I
think that's a solid Even with the post discussion. And
as much as I enjoyed it, there were some moments
that felt a little bit where it was kind of ridiculous,
and I think it kind of leaned into that a
little bit. And it was fun though because there was
people in the theater laughing. I just felt like it

(48:42):
took a little bit away from the seriousness of the
story at times and it felt a little bit unbelievable.
But I enjoyed those moments but I think overall the
movie was a little bit more emotional, and then in
some parts of it got a little bit kind of like, ah,
we're just kind of laughing at the whole situation now,
which it kind of felt like a comedy at times,
very slightly. But there were moments where some of their

(49:02):
interactions were a little bit like Okay, let's move on.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Yeah, And I mean they even she talked about how
there were a couple times that they just left the
take in where it was like so outlandish. Yeah, like
there's one take that you'll know when a character laughs or.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
They break a little bit and they're like, yeah, well
leave it.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
In, yeah, which I loved.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Yeah. I think if you make a movie like this,
you have to have a little bit of that lightheartedness,
and especially working with your costar like that of like, oh,
this is gonna be uncomfortable for both of us, let's
just have fun with it. Yea. So those are our
thoughts on Baby Girl, And now for my top five
worst films of twenty twenty four. At number five is

(49:45):
Madam Webb, which I gave a one point five out
of five. I saw it in theaters. Oh, I experienced
the level of cringe while sitting in my theater's seat.
And the Sony Spider verse has now ended with Craven
the Hunter, so we don't have to experienced this anymore.
We don't have to have all this confusion, at least
for the time being, of people saying, this is a

(50:08):
Marvel movie, but it's not really a Marvel movie. It's
the Sony Marvel movie. It's not the Disney Marvel movie.
Hopefully this is all just like yo, we have tried this.
We can't make this work. Venom has been our only
saving grace and all this and even that has been
mediocre at best. Let's give this a rest. I don't

(50:28):
think the coda Johnson knew what she was signing up for.
I truly think she thought she was signing up to
be in the MCU and she probably saw this as well.
Everybody does a superhero movie and people love these, so
let me try it out. And it was awful. The
acting was terrible, the story was not there, and it
felt like a really big waste of time. Oh just

(50:49):
the Rodney. The opening scene makes no sense. This is
a movie that should be an example of how not
to write a movie. They told you everything instead of
showing you straight up just hold you lines the scene
where she just left everybody, I'm like, hey, all you
guys wait here, I'm gonna go follow this other plot line,
goes on this side quest and then comes back and

(51:11):
they're just waiting for is. It's astounding. But I also
think at the level of bad that this movie was,
it's almost so bad that we're gonna look back and
think it's good or at least one that people will
watch just out of like fun, like, hey, let's all
get together and watch them bad. I'm weab but it'll
be hilarious, So at least it has that level of

(51:31):
dare I say, entertainment value, novelty, that level of novelty.
That is why I put it at number five. At
number four, I have a horror movie to me that
felt like a slap in the face from Blumhouse. It
is imaginary. I give it a one point five out
of five. And this movie suckered me in from the trailer.
That's why I put it on this list. Maybe a

(51:52):
lot of people didn't even see this movie, but I
would see it in theaters opening weekend because anytime I
see a kid talking to some kind of dead presence
or something weird and mysterious. I'm all in, And maybe
I should stop being all in on those types of
movies because they all turned out to be the exact same.
But this movie was a kid who forms a relationship

(52:13):
with the imaginary friend supposedly inside this teddy bear, and
the teddy bear starts talking to the kid and making
the kid do weird things. In the trailer you see
that the teddy bearry convinces the kid to put this
nail up into their hand and it smashes to it
and it's supposed to be creepy. And this movie felt
so generic, so paint by the numbers that I had

(52:35):
already seen this movie tens of twenties, of thirties of
times it had been done time and timing in it
took no risks in a movie called imaginary, It had
no imagination. A terrible third act was so predictable, And
sometimes predictability isn't bad, but in this case, I felt
like I wanted to leave the theater by about thirty

(52:57):
minutes in because it did what I hate that horror
movies do, and spend so much time just getting going,
and by the time it does get going. It just
doesn't even matter anymore. So if you see this on
a streaming service, I won't even tell you where it is,
just don't waste your time on Imaginary. Don't do it,
no matter how much the plot synopsis or the AutoPlay. Oh,

(53:17):
I hate the AutoPlay feature. If there's one thing I
could get just rid of forever, is the AutoPlay feature
on I know Netflix does it all the time. I
think Peacock does it as well. Hulu doesn't do it.
I don't think Disney Plus does it. Oh, Amazon probably
does it. But any streaming service that has that AutoPlay
feature drives me crazy. I always have to mute it

(53:39):
before I go over there because I don't want a
trailer to start. No, I just want to browse in peace.
And I know it's probably some algorithm trick or psychological trick,
like if you just start playing thirty show that somebody's
just browning or click on it, stop doing the AutoPlay thing.
Don't want it anymore. So if you see it on
a streaming service and it does that AutoPlay and you think, oh,
this might be kind of good, don't do it. Skip Imaginary.

(54:01):
Number four worst Movie of the Year at number three.
I have argyle saw it in theaters at the beginning
of last year. I thought this movie was gonna be good.
It tricked me from the trailer had a big ensemble cast,
which I should have been tipped off by this movie.
I don't even know what he was trying to be.
It's about this author who has been writing these novels,

(54:23):
and the events in the novels start to happen in
real life and there's some kind of conspiracy behind it
that unravels, like how do you know about these things?
And she gets into some trouble with real life people,
at least in this story based on what she's writing.
It goes back and forth between her writing characters and
real life and a lot of people told me when

(54:45):
I gave this movie a bad review, which I gave
a one out of five, which to me, on my
scale of one through five, a one is really bad.
And it has me thinking why did I even go
see this in theaters? And it's borderline of wanting to
walk out. A lot of people said I didn't understand
this film, that it was supposed to be campy, it

(55:06):
was supposed to be overly exaggerated and fun. I wasn't
having fun. I didn't find it humorous. I found it
so dumb. And the only reason I didn't leave is
because I just wanted to know, how are they going
to end this movie? Like, what are they going to
throw out to make this even make a remote bit
of sense? In staying and watching it till the end

(55:27):
gave me one of the dumbest moments in movies I've
seen in the last year. I still think about this,
and if I put a list of the dumbest moments
in movies of all time, it would have one third
act just completely ridiculous. Maybe I was supposed to buy
into the ridiculousness, but the movie also bombed at the
box office. It was an Apple original, which leads me

(55:49):
to believe that they're gonna stop putting out their movies
in theaters anymore. I think Apple as a whole is
a good service. They have good shows, but just hasn't
really translated into their movies. They bank more on the
stars like they did with Argyle, with having Henry Cavill
just plastered on the poster, and do Alipa and John Cena.
They're very much more right now, like look at all
the stars we can get, and not really focusing on

(56:11):
look at the great stories we can tell in our movie.
So I know they did that thing last weekend, this
past weekend where go on and watch Apple stuff for free.
So I really think they're going to put much more
of an emphasis on what they're putting on their streaming
service and not so much care about what they're putting
in theater. So at number three the worst movies, I
have our Gyle. At number two, we'll go full streaming now.

(56:34):
At number two I have Uglies, which I also gave
a one out of five. This movie had been in
development hell for years. It was supposed to come out
at the time where Hollywood was focusing on dystopian teen novels,
during the height of Twilight, Hunger Games, Elite, all those
types of book adaptation movies. That is when this movie

(56:57):
was supposed to come out. It's about these people we're
living in this dystopian future, and then at a certain
point it just sounds so dope. I'm sure the books
are good, and I'm sure there was a reason that
fans wanted this be a movie, but it just sounds
so dumb because it was executed poorly. I didn't read
the books, wasn't familiar with the story. But they all

(57:19):
want to move on to this kind of like the
capitol in Hunger Games, and they all get turned into
these really pretty people. So they go from being the
uglies that are poor and have no purpose and they
kind of graduate to being beautiful, and they get like
plastic surgery, and they wear whacky makeup and have these
very fancy clothes, and they move to this new city

(57:41):
and then don't talk to the uglies anymore. And it's
all about that desire and that it was just so bad.
And then there's a war, and then there's all these
people fighting, and they're supposed to be a sequel to
this one, and I could really not imagine them doing
it at this point because the level of production on
this movie was awful. The special effects I would say

(58:05):
wouldn't have been passable ten years ago. If you put
this movie out in twenty fourteen, where these movies were
still popular, this type of movie, it would still look bad.
It looks worse than anything maybe twenty years. This is
so rudimentary CGI like back when they were just figuring
it out, like from nineteen ninety nine to two thousand,
like those movies that came out. That was the level

(58:27):
of CGI, and sometimes I can look past it. But
with a movie like this, that requires good CGI because
you're trying to create this really big world and have
yourself be immersed in it and believe that this is
a place that actually exists. It looked terrible, It felt cold.
The acting was ridiculous. It was it felt like they
got all these actors for a very limited time, like,

(58:49):
all right, we gotta make this movie bad, so bad.
I still finished it. That is my requirement for giving
a movie a rating. I have to watch it till
the end. But I was disgusted by Uglies my number
two worst movie of twenty twenty four. At number one,
it's not Joker Too. Joker Too, I gave a two
out of five. It was a bad theater experience, but

(59:10):
still at a two out of five. I still believe
Todd Phillips made the movie he wanted to make, and
I don't think he did it intentionally, but I think
he almost hated what he created with Joker one and
wanted to say, ah, I'm not gonna do that anymore.
I'm gonna do something completely that nobody's expecting because they're
gonna pay me to do it. I did not enjoy it,

(59:31):
but I think it's still the movie he wanted to make,
and I saw that there were still some good visual moments,
but still not my worst theater experience. I also had
honorable mentioned Wolves, which was the Apple movie with Brad
Pitt and George Klooning. That movie just didn't take off
at any point the first thirty almost forty five minutes

(59:53):
of the entire movie. You could have just watched the
two minute trailer and learn everything about it. And they
have now canceled the sequel, Little Wolf, so the director
was like not happy with it either, even though he
got paid, he doesn't want to make another one that
shows you how bad it is. And even with having
two big leads like that, still wasn't a successful movie.
They were originally gonna put out in theaters and then

(01:00:14):
they didn't, so that kind of tells you all you
need to know. And also Rebel Moon Part two I
couldn't put on my list. It probably would have been
my worst. I didn't finish it. I couldn't finish it,
it was so bad. And Part one I did finish
and I didn't enjoy it, but I thought, Okay, maybe
he's moving on to something. Maybe Zack Snyder just needs
a movie. Which how many movies does he need to
flesh out a story? Can you make a two hour movie? Goodness?

(01:00:37):
But yeah, Rebel Moon Part two was so bad I
couldn't finish it. I'm not invested in that. My number
one worst movie of twenty twenty four is also on Netflix, unfrosted.
I gave it a one out of five. It is
the Jerry Seinfeld parody movie. And I think Jerry Seinfeld
just at this point thinks he's a lot funnier than

(01:00:58):
he is. And in a state where I feel like
comedy is kind of dead, and not dead because of
PC culture, not dead because you get canceled for jokes.
I just think that Overaul, when it comes to what
is funny, it's so subjective. And I think that Jerry
Seinfeld trying to make a movie parodying other kind of

(01:01:20):
bio Picks and Company movies where you had a successful
movie like Air, which was about the creation of Air
Jordan and that whole relationship with Nike. It was like, Hey,
let's make a parody of that. But with pop tarts
and then the entire breakfast cereal in Pastry Wars, And
obviously he has the success of being one of the

(01:01:42):
highest grossing touring comedians of all time. Seinfeld is one
of the most watched and renowned sitcoms of not just
our lifetime, but of any lifetime. And I think it's
just still banking off of that. And I haven't really
ever found his comedy to be funny. I just think
I'm not that key demographic. It's very bland and dry,

(01:02:06):
and he just seems like a person that is so
dead set on everything I do is funny. I know
what funny it is. I don't care what race you are.
I'll put you in my movie if you're funny, like
I would also like the funniest people in movies. But
I no longer trust your judgment at your age and
also at your bank account level. I think you're too
rich to be funny, Garry Seinfeld, So I don't trust
your judgment on comedy at this point. And I could

(01:02:29):
see why Netflix would give him the money and the
platform to put that movie out and think it's Jerry seinfo.
He wants to make a comedy. Let's go with it. No,
that movie was not it. It was stupid from beginning
to end. And if it just went over my head
with the level of parody, then so be it. Maybe
I'm just not that smart to get it, or maybe
I need to be dumber. No, I don't think so.

(01:02:51):
I'm just didn't enjoy this movie. I hated it. It
was also on a string of movies where I just
wasn't a fan of what Netflix was put out. They
kind of did redeem themselves towards the end of the
year with having some good original movies, Women of the
Hours really good but Unfrosted and Uglies. We're not only
their two worst, but my two worst of the entire year.

(01:03:13):
So that is my list of the worst movies of
twenty twenty four and that is going to do it
for another episode here of the podcast. We'll be back
next week actually recapping all the movies we watched in
December because we went to the theater like every single
day during break. So we'll get into that, but before
I go, I get to give my listeners shout out
of the week. This week's listener shout out goes to

(01:03:34):
Amanda Morris on Instagram, who commented on my last reel,
which if you listen to the book episode that Kelsey
and I did with her top ten books of twenty
twenty four, we said we were going to go to
the bookstore do the bookstore challenge where she got to
go into the store and had ninety seconds to pick
out as many books as she wanted. We dove into

(01:03:55):
all the rules. Also posted the reel on Instagram, also
on TikTok, so if you have I haven't seen that yet,
go to my socials at Mike Diishiro on Everything. But
Amanda wrote comment on that video and said, I love
so much about this real books check brick and mortar
bookstore check supporting local check. I always enjoy Kelsey's book
reviews on your podcast and thanks to her, have even

(01:04:18):
made a visit to Barnasas when I visited Nashville last summer.
So appreciate that Amanda for listening, for watching and commenting
on Socials. Barnasas is the bookstore that we did the
challenge at. So like we were talking about earlier, we
recommended supporting local theaters like Devell Court here in Nashville
if you ever visit. Also, if you want to come
get a book. Check out Parnass which is a great

(01:04:39):
local bookstore. So thank you Amanda for commenting your this
week's Listener shout out of the week. Thanks to everybody
for coming back in twenty twenty five, Let's go for
another year. Thank you for being here, Thank you always
for being subscribed. And until next time, go out and
watch good movies and I will talk to you later.

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