Episode 49; 2023: SISU

A brutal, bloody treat this week, as I look at an unexpected blast of vengeance and violence from Finland, 'SISU', which came out of nowhere to blow every other movie of 2023 out of their jackboots and leaving nothing but a smouldering pile of cinematic bodies in it's wake!

Transcript

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Hello, welcome back once again. This is Milestone Movies. My name is Dave. This is episode number 49, which is looking at 2023. If you've only just got on board at this stage, you know, it's nearly over, but they're all available to listen to. But this is essentially the podcast where I celebrate turning 50 by looking at each of the years of my life in order. And well, I say looking at the year, we're just looking at the movies of those years. Me coming up with my list of the best and most notable and my favourite films of each year. So we have made it all the way to 2023. We are plummeting towards the end of the podcast. But do stay with me for the next couple of episodes when we uh bring everything right up to date. So this year, 2023, uh the film I'm going to be talking about is one that hopefully a lot of you will have seen, but it was probably a relatively low-key film, which is Sisu, which is a um Finnish action film, believe it or not. But uh you know, stick with me. We're not talking uh, you know, art house avant-garde film, we're talking absolute blockbuster and balls out action all the way. So uh we will talk about that in a little bit more detail in a moment, but as is my want, I will first go through the uh biggest films of the year, um, and in terms of the top five of uh global box office, so you will remember no doubt, it was only two and a half years ago, that uh this was the year of Barbenheimer as it became known. So two big but very, very different films released on the same day, uh one of which is the biggest film of the year, and the other one is the third biggest film of the year. So these two films were uh Barbie, which was uh Greta Gerwig's obviously movie about the notoriously famous plastic girls doll uh and Ken, uh boyfriend husband, whatever, don't really know the lore of Barbie. Um and this was basically just given a almost like a Lego movie style sort of upgrade into a meta comedy uh with Margot Robbie as uh Barbie herself and um the little uh baby goose, what's his name? Uh Ryan Gosling as uh Ken. Yeah. So I I you may guess from the from what I'm saying, I've not seen the film, uh, but obviously it was very very, very successful. So that was the the sort of Victor. Um but the it was the movie company themselves, I think, or possibly you know, just the internet that had created this sort of rivalry against which was going to be the biggest film they were both released on this day. Um, you know, it's the sort of thing we're gonna probably see as we go forward all the time. Movies like very diverse films that are released on the same day as if there's some sort of big battle going on. But yeah, obviously um Oppenheimer, which was I'm jumping down the list a little bit because this is the third biggest film of the year. So this was a Christopher Nolan film about the creation of the atomic bomb. Um, a story that has been told before, Fat Man Little Boy, which is uh one that jumps to mind from about 88, I think it was. Um but yeah, this was obviously very high profile. You've got you know um Killian Murphy, because it's a you know Christopher Nolan film, he's obviously there. Matt Damon, um you've got Robert Downey Jr. who was very good in it as well. Um so yeah, it's it's good, it's a very interesting film. Florence Pugh Um kind of a bit of a sort of non-character, isn't it really? She's just a kind of uh you know, the the hanger-on woman sort of thing on there. Um but yeah, it was quite a worthy film, it was quite well done, but you know, obviously very long, very quite you know, quite a difficult watch in places, I suppose, but you know, it was it's a story worth telling, I suppose. Um but yeah, obviously not quite as uh as mainstream and as uh commercial as Barbie, so that obviously uh pipped him at the post a little bit. In between those two was the first of the Super Mario Brothers uh animated films. Obviously there was a live action uh kind of misfire with Bob Hoskins back in the uh early 90s, uh which is still, you know, a lot of people really like it. But um this was you know going for a again we I kind of the you know the Lord and Miller sort of Lego movie sort of aesthetic and sort of sense of humour to it. Again, Chris Pratt in there as well doing the voice, who does the voice of uh most animated films these days. Um but yeah, that was good fun. Obviously, um Jack Black in there as well, which uh Bowser, and yeah, it did uh brilliant business, obviously, second biggest film of the year. Uh the sequel is currently out in the cinema, it's a Super Mario Galaxy movie, which I keep asking my kids if they want to see because they really like the first one, but they're not fussed, so I'll catch up with that sequel eventually. And the fourth biggest film, so the biggest m MCU film of the year was Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3. So obviously I've talked a little bit before about how James Gunn, the director of the Guardians films, was sort of sacked by Marvel over comments he'd made years before on Twitter or whatever. Um he went off and made uh the Suicide Squad at DC, obviously got his feet under the table there a little bit, um, was eventually coaxed back um by Marvel sort of grovelling to bring back the Guardians and finish that off because all the cast of the Guardians said they wouldn't do it without James Gunn. So he came back and actually not only did Guardians 3 but did the uh Guardians holiday special for Disney Plus as well, which was sort of you know hearkening back a little bit to the misfire of uh Star Wars holiday special many many years before. This is a much better film, um mini film I should say, uh set on earth with uh Kevin Bacon. Um and yeah, some really really good stuff that does actually link between Guardians 2 and Guardians 3, so that's really good. Um but yeah, Guardians 3 would it has kind of wrapped up the story for the Guardian, so obviously, as well as their own two films, they got involved in um Avengers Infinity War and Endgame, so you know all of that sort of ties in together and um finishes off in Guardians 3. The focus of this one really is Rocket, Rocket Raccoon, um, and his sort of origin and his kind of tragic backstory and the other sort of animals that were caught up in the same sort of experiments as he was, and um yeah, so that's uh kind of a little bit darker. Um and it also brings um Peter Quill, so Star Lord, back to sort of Earth and his family and all that sort of thing as well at the end, and you know, he's grieving and trying to get over Gamora, who technically died, but he was brought back in a way from the snap and all that sort of stuff as well. Um so yeah, it's all kind of a little bit um uh darker, but it's no no worse off for it, certainly. It's a it's a good film, definitely, and um yeah, it's uh it says at the end that Peter Quill will return, so we assume he's coming back for uh Doomsday, we shall see. Uh whether we see any more of the other Guardians remains to be seen. Um so the fifth biggest film of the year was Fast X, which is obviously the tenth Fast and Furious main film, as well as uh Hobbs and Shaw, which we've mentioned before. Um so yeah, Fast and Furious. I've sort of talked about each of those as we've gone through the years. You know, they're they're films that I really like, have a lot of time for, but I wouldn't ever really say that um any of them were my best film of the year. Maybe Fast Five, which is an absolutely brilliant action film. Um did I do a did I do an episode on Fast Five? I can't even remember. I've been doing this thing for a year now, I can't even remember which of the episodes I've done. Um I need to listen back to some, really. It's been giving it a bit of distance, but uh yeah, obviously they're all there for you uh to listen to whenever you like. Um but yeah, FastX. I mean, you by this point we know what we're getting with them, you know, kind of over-the-top ridiculousness. Um and I do remember it ending on a cliffhanger where basically Dominic was about to be crushed by a you know dam destroyed or something, and he was holding some sort of child, probably his own. I can't really remember the details. Um but yeah, there was essentially there's gonna be another one. We haven't seen the date of it coming out, I don't think, yet, or any details, but uh at some point they will tie up the story, I'm sure. So, yeah, um I mean the next rundown is is really the sort of MCU ones. I always like to sort of talk about those because I do really, really enjoy them. They're all sort of fighting for the top in my uh estimation of the film of the year, but uh sort of time in together. So obviously we had uh Guardians 3, which was in the top five anyway. You've also got Ant-Man and Wasp Quantum Mania, which was the third Ant-Man film, um, and some people don't really go that much on this one. It's very different in that it's all set it pretty much in the quantum realm. Uh so it's all a lot of you know aliens and gooey sort of creatures, and there's not a lot of that sort of uh human in interplay that we had in the first, particularly the first Ant-Man with you know, Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lilly, and you've obviously got Michelle Pfeiffer in the in the mix now as well, but there's so many other sort of weird characters and weird aliens, it's kind of a very, very different film, but uh yeah, the you know the the actors are all really good in it. Um his daughter, Ant-Man's daughter, has now grown up, obviously reunited with her during Endgame. Um so she now becomes a sort of hero in her own right as well. Uh Catherine Newton, she's played by, um, and she's really good, she's a really good addition to it as well. So I think she's intended to be a part of the Young Avengers if that ever happens. Um the uh what's her name? The actress who plays um Kamala Khan in Miss Marvel um said an interview this week actually, she said that by the time they actually get around to making this uh Young Avengers film that they've been teasing for about ten years, they're all gonna be too old to be the Young Avengers anymore. So uh obviously the intention is it's gonna be uh Kate Bishop from Hawkeye and um yeah, Miss Marvel and all these sort of ones sort of tying in together to to be the younger sort of version of the Avengers, it'd be good to see, definitely. But yeah, they need to get on with it really. Um from that. So yeah, the other Marvel one we had was the Marvel, so uh that was again a four-mentioned Kamala Khan, and uh this obviously ties in to uh Brie Larson's Miss Marvel, um, and yeah, it's good, it's uh some fun stuff in there. Um again the villain isn't really up to too much, it's um the girl from Fresh Meat whose name's escaping me at the moment. British actress who's you know really quite good on TV, but not necessarily a filmic villain uh so much, but uh yeah, it's it's good. It's all all of it's advanced in the sort of MCU in a in a really good way. So I really like that. Um and the fact that they tie it in so tightly to the uh TV series of uh Miss Marvel, I think it's really good. I think it's one of their highlights actually from the Disney Plus series, so that's been good that they've done that. Um and yeah, I mean we talk about the Marvel films, I've kind of got to mention the DC films again. We're you know in that area before James Gunners, you know, when once he'd finished the Guardians films, he then decamps entirely to uh to DC and he's now sort of overrunning their film section um and he's just doing what he wants to, and he's not really sort of acknowledging any of the ones that have gone before and chucking out what he wants. So um the three that you had this year uh was Blue Beetle, uh which were bad actually. It was um uh guy uh I think he's I want to call it Xylo something who's from Cobra Kai, who's one of the standout kids from Cobra Kai. Uh he plays Blue Beetle, so actually a comic character I'm pretty familiar with from um from the 52 and uh Final Crisis and all that sort of stuff. Um and they don't do a bad job of it, really. It's not too bad. It's uh you know, he's a kid who's sort of possessed by this uh well not possessed by but gets superpowers from this scarab, from this mystical scarab that he discovers and uh sort of latches onto him and he sort of reluctantly becomes a a hero. Um and it's quite good, it's quite um what's the word I'm looking for? Um racially diverse, I suppose it's one of those sort of ones that they're trying to sort of integrate, you know, this sort of South American, you know, Brazilian sort of culture into the sort of superhero thing as well. Uh probably a bit more than you know you would get from the comics as well, but uh not too bad. Uh you also had Aquaman 2, which is Jason Momoa back for uh more as Arthur Curry, but again, don't think he's great cast for that. Um probably more suited to Lobo, which he's playing in the upcoming Supergirl film, which I'm not really interested in seeing apart from for him. Um, and probably one of the worst of the DC films to date. I mean, bearing in mind you've got things like Catwoman in the history as well, um, is Flash, which is Ezra Miller. Uh and I just I've seen it and I don't know what the hell was going on. I just immediately, I mean, during the like the opening credit sequence, it's he's like falling at speed, and there's all these like zany things going on as he goes down the building. I was just like, Jesus, really, is this what they're going for? Um, and it just he's not a likable guy, that is really, you know, he's he's a weird-looking guy, he isn't funny, he is all he's not a hero of any sort. I mean Barry Allen's supposed to be kind of gawky, but you know, for me it's just it just doesn't work. And then you actually for a big sections of the film, there's actually two of them. He's you know, the alternate flash and him as well, and they're sort of there's two of them all the time, and it's just like it was really annoying. I mean, they a big selling point to this one is that they bring back uh Michael Keaton as Batman, as his sort of you know, old embittered Bruce Wayne, so I guess they're kind of going for the Batman Beyond sort of thing, but he's completely wasted in it. They've actually chucked his character, you know, down a toilet essentially. Really isn't work. There's even they they they do this sort of CGI thing with all these sort of multiversal versions of the characters and try and tie into all this different stuff, even like Nicolas Cage from the aborted Superman Lives and stuff like that. Um, and there's even a little cameo from George Clooney at the end as an alternate Bruce Wayne, and it's just it's just a mess. It just doesn't work at any any level, really. Um, and I think I think that's why I'll get them a little bit confused, but I think at the end there's even a little cameo from the characters from the Peacemaker series, which is obviously James Gunn's spin-off of The Suicide Squab, which isn't directly related to any of the new DC films, but they're using some of the characters in there, but they're not relating to the Flash. It just the whole thing's a mess. It's just like a load of film spaghetti that they've chucked together and they keep pulling on certain threads and leaving others behind, and it's just you know, all best forgotten, really. But yeah, Flash, definitely a low point in those films. Right, I've got that off my chest. Hopefully, that's the last time I have to talk about those. Oh no, it won't be, because the Superman film will be coming out at some point on the uh pod. Um, what else have we got then? Let's try and bring it back the one I do like. Let's have a look. Uh so we've got oh Equalizer 3, very good sequel, Antoine Foucault and uh Denzel Washington. So bizarrely, you know, this was a remake of an old 80s TV series with Edward Woodward as a um as a sort of special forces guy, I guess he was, sort of, you know, retired but still, you know, doing the business, and you know, they decided to make it as a as a um a Denzel Washington film. And I was like, really? How did that work? But you know, the first sequeliser was great, the second equaliser was great, and the third one I think is really, really good because he's um he's trying to, you know, retire and take it easy and he's just living a life in sort of southern Italy, which, you know, uh one of my favourite places in the world as well, which I really, really like. And um, yeah, he's just in this sleepy little, you know, kind of like I'd r like to retire in a little sleepy Italian village trying to do his own thing. And he gets caught up with these villains again and comes back, you know, really reluctantly, you know, kicks ass, but he's really, really good in it. I don't know if there's going to be any more, but there's a great little um trilogy um of action stuff and Denzel Washington, you know, one of the only times he sort of returned to a character, I think. He's not really a sequel person, but um, you know, there's something about this character that keeps bringing him back, which is very cool. Um talking of action sequels, expendables. Well, it's not really called Expendables 4. When you see it written down, it's expend four balls. Four f for the four instead of an A, which doesn't really work on many levels at all. You can't you can't say it, but it's Expendables 4. Uh it sidelines Sylvester Stallone quite a bit, so it's basically a Jason Statham film. Uh it's a bit of a sort of comeback attempt for Megan Fox as well, who's kind of the sort of second lead in it, and she's actually not bad. Um, but yeah, again, you at this point you kind of know what you're looking for. You look, you know, you're gonna get with any with the uh Expendables films. So um if you like the originals, you'll probably like this one. And the big twist at the end won't be any surprise to anybody, I'm sure. Um Talking of Statham, Meg 2, so as he had his um Meg, which was a sort of you know a Jaws deep blue sea kind of style rip-off of this huge Megalodon shark that's been dormant under the surface of the um the seabed, I guess. Yeah. Um this is obviously more of the same. The weird thing about this one is it's directed by Ben Wheatley, who's a British director who's done, you know, relatively low budget stuff up to now, high rise, free fire, this sort of stuff, um, field in England, and all of a sudden, you know, this was his sort of big budget Hollywood action film, and it really works actually. He does a very good job of it. Um, you know, this is exactly as cheesy as you'd expect with the you know with the Statham film, you know, an action battling a massive shark, but uh it's really good fun actually, not too bad at all. Uh what else we got? Five Nights at Freddy's. So this was a a game, a video game, uh which had become you know quite well known in popular culture. Uh I'd see you know the toys for it in Forbidden Planet when I went in there, but I never really knew what it was, whether it was a cartoon or a movie or whatever. Um but it turned out, yeah, it was a computer game and it was a sort of an internet you know phenomenon. Um and my daughters really got into it. You know, they were watching clips of people playing the games and this sort of thing. I don't think they'd really played them themselves, but my daughter who was, I mean, she would have been eleven, twelve at this point, you know, when the movie was coming out. I was like, yeah, it's only a 15, but you're not gonna see it. It's gonna be violent. She was telling me about stuff, you know. The only stuff I knew about Five Nights of Freddy's was stuff she was telling me, and you know, some of the little toys that she had and whatnot, some Funkos and what that things like that. But um so I decided I would go and see the film to sort of vet it for her, if you like. Um I'd actually got it, it's quite good. You know, I'm not a horror person, as I've said many a time, but you know, if it's sort of character-based and you know, you've got this sort of somewhat to latch onto, like a Freddie Krueger or a Chucky or whatever, it's probably probably more of a child's play sort of um thing with the you know the toys come to life sort of thing. Um and yeah, it's it it was okay. I didn't think it was appropriate for her to watch it, so to my knowledge, she's not seen it. Although, you know, when she goes on sleepovers with her friends, they're probably watching it on Netflix or something, I don't know. Um but I don't think it's too bad, but you know, I do abide I've someone you know I've talked about before, I've you know got a history in working in video shops and cinemas and stuff like that, so I do actually, you know, go with ratings. I actually do believe that if it's rated 15 it shouldn't be watched by a 12-year-old, and you know, with with a few exceptions, you know, if you've sort of vegged it yourself and you think, well, actually it's not gonna harm them too much. But generally speaking, I do stick to the rating system. Um, so yeah, I would probably wait a few years before showing my daughters this, but they're quite good fun. Um, you know, I think the second one I went to see the Freddy for Friday Nights Freddy's 2 uh this year or um late last year, probably Halloween last year. Uh and again, it was you know more of the same, it was quite creepy. Uh they've got the character called Marionette in that. Um and you know, that's quite scary, I guess. But yeah, it's okay for a grown-up. But uh yeah, don't don't let your kids see them. But they're okay, not too bad. Uh slightly more appropriate for a kid's is uh Wish, which was a Disney film. Um and it it was basically it was the film that they celebrated the Hundred Years of Disney. So there was a year-long sort of celebration going on. There's a very good thing on Disney Plus, actually. Um can't remember the name of it off the top of my head, which is basically like a little short cartoon where they're in the studios after dark and all the sort of characters from every sort of Disney film from all through the years is sort of coming back and uh all sort of being on screen together for the first time, which is very cool to see. Uh I can't remember what the name of that one was, but yeah, um Wish was like the big cinematic release of that time, um, and it kind of ties into all of what you think of as classic Disney, so you when you wish upon a star and you've got princesses and you've got you know dead parents and all that sort of stuff, all the all the classic Disney tropes, um, and it does it pretty well, to be honest. Um, you know, good villain in there, Chris Pine is a villain in it, um, some nice little songs and all that sort of stuff. And yeah, my kids were briefly into it, but as I've mentioned before, kids appear to be quite fickle when it comes to what they like. If you wanted to put that on now, they wouldn't be interested, you know. Just a few years on, they've sort of done their Disney princess thing and moved on, really. But um yeah, it's worth a watch. And it's quite good. The uh end credits is uh I think they're like um star constellations, but you can kind of make out all the characters from over the years of Disney, and it's quite good fun to watch. I remember doing that in the cinema, it was good. Um something that they have stuck with a little bit more, which was a um Netflix film, is Nimona, which is based on a graphic novel by um Andy Stevenson. Who went on to be well, she did this graphic novel and then she became the showrunner on the relaunch of She-Ra, uh, which again kids are well into. I prefer the original myself, but uh this is it's a really cool um sort of set in oldy times but quite modern, so it's sort of about knights and um monsters and stuff like that. Riz Ahmed, who's a great actor anyway, voices the sort of British knight on there. Uh Chloe Grace Moretz is this Nimona character who's seems to be just a you know kind of bad girl sort of thief sort of thing, but turns out she's actually got these sort of shapeshifting powers as well, and yeah, so he's ends up trying to protect her from the authorities and stuff, but it's really good, it's really funny. Uh the animation's fantastic in it, um, and that's well, well worth a watch, definitely. Um yeah, it's good, it's a good film. Gives some really good lines in it as well, really, really funny stuff in there. Um, another really good animation actually was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem. So yet another relaunch for Ninja Turtles. You know, I've you know I'm a fan and I've lost count of how many times they've relaunched this franchise now. Um, and this was uh Seth Rogan um and his producing partners who've sort of tried to relaunch sort of Halloween and things like that, and they've uh done things like I think uh Sam Man from the Neil Gaiman books as well. So they they've sort of got their fingers in a lot of pies. They're currently trying to relaunch Muppets, actually, they did a special on Disney uh recently. Uh, but this was uh their stab at Ninja Turtles, and again it very uses the kind of look and the feel with the things like the Spider-Verse, which we're gonna mention again in a moment. Um, so the animation's very different, and there's all sorts of little things pop in, and you know, it almost looks hand-drawn and sometimes look painted, and you know, visually it's one of the best sort of versions of Ninja Turtles, I think, but um it's also quite notable for it's the first time that the characters have been voiced by actual teenagers, so they actually cast kids as these um as the characters, and they've sort of moved on and they've done two seasons of a animated show on which well you can say it on Paramount Pass, but I think it's a Nickelodeon show, um, which is Tales of the Teenage Moon Ninja Tales, which based on a uh the title of an old comic from years ago. Um but yeah, so that's using the same voice cast except Jackie Chan, who did Splinter in the movie. Um but yeah, worth a watch, and I believe there's still a sequel due out for that one in the next year or so as well. Uh we mentioned briefly last week the um Kenneth Branagh um Hercules Prairie films, uh and I did briefly mention in Haunting in Venice, which is a sort of supernaturally twisted sort of one, uh, which is in this year as well. Uh not my favourite of the series, but uh still pretty good. Um one series that has been going for a long while at this stage uh is Mission Impossible, and uh the seventh one, Dead Reckoning Part 1, came out in 2023. Um and I really, really like it. It's uh Haley Atwell was uh introduced into the cast as well, um, and there's a couple of fantastic sequences with um her and Tom Cruise. One is in a little tiny car going through the streets of uh I think it's Italy, um, and the other one is uh on this sort of train hanging over a cliff. Really, really good sequences, really set up for what you thought was gonna be, you know, a fantastic part two. Uh actually ended up getting delayed a few years, and when it did come out, they changed the name to the Final Reckoning. They're not sure it's gonna be the final one. Um and uh to me it wasn't quite as good. I think it kind of peaked with uh Dead Reckon in part one. Um probably my second favourite of the Mission Impossibles after Mission Impossible three. Um but yeah, I mean as a whole, yeah, those series of films are absolutely fantastic. You know, no one does big stunt spectacle set pieces like um Tom Cruise and uh McHugh. It's absolutely brilliant, you know, really, really good things. And yeah, this is definitely a high point in Dead Reckoning part one. Oh, what else we've got? Oh, the Transformers Rise of the Beasts, which is sort of the start of a new sequence of films after the original one. So Michael Bay no longer directing but producing. This is kind of a follow-up to Bumblebee, which was a prequel. So this one's sort of set in the mid-90s, following up from Bumble from Bumblebee, but before the the bulk of the Transformers films as well, um, and obviously based on the the Beast Wars, I think it's called the sort of series of cartoons and toys and whatnot. Uh what else we got? We've got Pixar Elemental, which was um, you know, probably again sort of style over substance in that one. You've got two characters, one of who's made of fire, one of who's made of water, and become friends, and possibly more, but they're you know forbidden from being in each other's companies, as you can imagine. Um what else we got? Oh, I mentioned those um DC films actually I didn't like, but the one I do like was Shazam Fury of the Gods, which is the second um Zachary Levi um Shazam film. Uh really good. Uh apart from a very obviously not filmed at the same time cameo from Galgado as uh Last Gasp as Wonder Woman in there. Um it's great. There's a really, really good line in there, which I won't spoil if you haven't seen it, uh, which is basically to do with Skittles. Um but some really fun sequences in that one. Um what else? Uh we've got Scream 6, which was uh a quick follow-up to Scream 5, um, as you might imagine. Um that was good. Uh John Wick, chapter 4. So this is also obviously uh Keanu Reeves in his uh revenge uh story continues. Uh we've got Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves, which I thought was um that's why I went so eye there, uh was was an underrated film. I thought it was a very good action film, very fun. I would I'm not, you know, uh steeped in Dungeons and Dragons lore. I've never played the game. My my eldest daughter actually now plays it, she's got a club after school that she goes to. Um so she's sort of getting into it, but you know, my depth of my knowledge pretty much comes from Stranger Things, really, and the old TV cartoon from uh back in the 80s. Um and this actually sort of touches on you know a lot of those sort of touch points with a really good cast. Got Michelle Rodriguez, Chris Pine, um Justice Smith, I think his name is, who's in the Pokemon film for a couple of years before. Um and yeah, Hugh Grant is a very good as the villain in there as well. It's just a lot of fun, and it just felt like it could have easily sort of you know gone on and become a you know a series and a franchise, but doesn't seem to have sort of performed well enough for for that to happen, which is a shame. Uh Evil Dead Rise, which was again another sort of relaunch, but again carrying on the the same story of the Book of the Dead, um, but not really involving Ash or anything like that at all. Um I think he's got a tiny voice cameo in this one, but very creepy, very horrific film, you know. There's not many horrors I go to see, but I do like the Evil Dead films, and there's a new one, I believe, this year coming out as well. Um what else we got? Well, Chicken Run Dawn Dawn of the Nugget. So I obviously did a podcast with the children about uh Chicken Run many many moons back, um, and we mentioned the sequel in that, and you know, perhaps not up to the heights of the original, but you know, as with any album, you know, the the effort that goes into it, the artistry of those films has just got to be admired, and I think it's really, really good. I think it probably suffers from having a different cast, you know, no Mel Gibson, no Julia Sawala in this one, but um, you know, introducing a few new characters, but good fun, good fun at all. So, yeah, uh what else we've got? Oh, anyone but you. So this was really uh mentioned Glenn Powell, who'd sort of um broken through in Top Gun Maverick, um, you know, by the time this film came out, so it's him partnered up with Sidney Sweeney, who's also like you know the latest Hollywood darling. Um, and it's a really good um sort of not even an old-fashioned rom com, it's quite a modern rom com. You know, it starts off with the two characters meeting and sleeping together, and uh it's basically it should have carried on from there, but due to a misunderstanding, they both think the other's not interested and they go their separate ways and eventually end up getting sort of thrown back together at the uh a family wedding or a friend's wedding. Um and it's basically the whole film them sort of trying not to get together, but uh yeah, inevitably again it you know you know where it's going, but it's a good journey to get there, and yeah, those two you know, it's the leads just absolutely just light up the screen, really, really, really good. Um and yeah, it was just a film that was a sleeper hit and it was released at the end of the previous year, but ran and ran around, become one of the biggest films of of 2023, was re-released again for a big sort of push on Valentine's Day, I think. Um and yeah, it was it's a good film, it's not too bad at all. It's um well worth a watch. Um and yeah, uh what else we got? Air, which was Ben Affleck's film uh about the creation of the Nike Air Jordans, which is better than it sounds. It's basically how Nike were you know a fledgling sort of trainer company and they were trying to uh get Michael Jordan to uh endorse the shoe and name it after him now basically became massive. Uh and there's all the sort of behind-the-scenes battles of the sort of business world of that as well, but it is a lot more interesting than I'm making it sound, certainly. So, yeah, in terms of my own sort of uh top five from from this year, um I would definitely count Mission Impossible in there at Dead Reckonings, very, very good. Um, across the Spider-Verse, so I won't bore you with all my details about the Spider-Verse because we've done a Spider-Man episode and we've mentioned it several times on there, but yeah, the second of the Spider-Ver animated films, very, very good indeed. Um I would also mention uh a couple of sequels, which was Creed 3, which was, you know, I love the first Creed. Obviously, I love Rocky, and I've done a whole episode about Rocky right at the beginning. Um First Creed was great. Second Creed, not quite as effective, I didn't think, but still well watchable. This one absolutely returned to form. Michael B. Jordan now, as well as being the star, actually write a directorate as well. Write a directorate, right, wrote it and directed it as well, um, with Ryan Kugler, um, who directed the others. And yeah, a big part of the success of this one is the villain, uh, which is um oh my god, I've forgotten his name already. He's the guy who was gonna be Kang or was Kang in the MCU, and then obviously had some uh behind the scenes Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Edwards, that's his name. Um, you know, some out-of-work sort of uh cancellation issues, and uh yeah, uh uh he was I believe convicted of uh some wrongdoing, which meant Marvel actually dropped him, even though they'd already obviously teased him in Atman Wasp Quantumania earlier this year, uh earlier the 2023. Uh he'd also done um the Loki series 2 at that point. He was like the main uh villain and well not the villain in that, but they're obviously setting him up as Kang for the villains. I'm gonna sneeze that um I can try and edit that out, hopefully. Um so yeah, it's um he's a fantastic, horrible, scary guy in the in Creed 3, and he's the villain that he's basically a childhood friend of um of Creed, and he's been away in prison for a crime that you know perhaps Creed had actually committed and fitted him up for. Well not deliberately, but you know, obviously um uh Jonathan isn't Edward's not uh Jonathan Majors. Is his name Jonathan Majors? What's his name? Anyway, he's fantastic in it. I should find his name. Hang on, I'm gonna find his name and I'll get back to you. Uh yeah, yeah, Jonathan Majors, sorry. Um and yeah, he was saying being set up for be one of the you know big, big things in the MCU, he's gonna be the big bad, the big villain. And obviously they've sort of chucked him out and had to change direction with that. But in the meantime, Creed 3 came out, you know, right on the cusp of this, and he he does seem you know like a really nasty guy in that film. Um, and it's just so much better for it because he's just you know, if the villain's good, then the hero is even better. Do you know what I mean? Um and yeah, great. I th I think there's still a Creed 4 coming, but yeah, Creed 3, very, very good film. Um and another long-waited sequel is definitely the you know, we've had a couple of years of these sort of sequels coming back after a long, long time, uh, which controversially I really really like, and that's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. So it's the fifth Indiana Jones film, and again, right back to you know, when we did an early episode on Indiana Jones, I went into these in great detail, so feel free to go back there. But yeah, uh, you know, the the lead story is I really really like it. Um it he ages, you know, gracefully, he still can completely be Indiana Jones, even though Harrison Ford's obviously put on a few years, as we all have since those days. Um but yeah, it goes very you have to stick with it, you have to put on your suspenders of disbelief and really go with it towards the end because it goes completely out there beyond what any of the other Indiana Jones films have done. Um, you know, there've always been an element of supernatural and mystical, and obviously with the um Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, they sort of brought in aliens as well, and the idea of that. This one just goes completely out there, and you either you know don't go with it, or you do go with it, and if you do go with it, I think you really, really enjoy it, and it's a great little ending. Um, and yeah, really, really fantastic actually. So very, very good. Uh so yeah, that was mine. But my ultimate film for the year, my film of the year, I should say, is Sisu, which is a Finnish and American sort of co-production. Um, but it's basically about a guy who at the end of sort of the Second World War is set in what's part of the Lapland War, which is between Finland and Nazi Germany at the end of World War II. Um, there's a guy who's been a you know highly decorated soldier and he's a kind of almost like a lone warrior, essentially. Uh, he's you know, he's left the army, he's essentially just making his own existence, and he discovers gold, you know, he's panning for gold, admittedly, but he discovers a real cash of it. He's got you know tons of gold, and he needs to get that across the country to to bank it, uh, to sort of stake his fortune. Um, but he's interrupted on the way by a sort of rogue Nazi platoon who uh will do anything, obviously, to get this gold as they're sort of clearing out of the country. And uh, yeah, so it's basically one man against the Nazis, and my god, this man is not someone you want to mess with. He is absolutely I mean, anything he's got to hand, you know, whether it's his you know pickaxe that he's carrying because he's been mining, or whether it's you know improvised explosives, whether it's you know vehicles that he gets into, he's just a one-man killing machine, and it's like you know, and you're completely on his side because it's you know, A, it's against the Nazis, and B, you know, he was just trying to do his own thing and he's an honest guy, and you know, you completely root for him, and then and it's um the the star of it, uh it's gonna be a lot of names I sort of don't pronounce properly here, so apologies in advance. But um Jorma Tomila is the uh is the actor who I'm not even sure he was a sort of professional actor before or he'd done a lot before, but he's virtually silent in it, but he's just you know such a presence, he's so watchable, he's just ferocious, he's yeah, he's just unkillable, uh, and he's really good, and he's just a relentless sort of, you know, they come at him, he sees him off in ever more, you know, ridiculous ways, but really you're just rooting for him. You know, it's a very it's kind of John Wick, it's kind of a you know, a jerry action sort of film in that sense, but it's got that sort of world cinema sort of um feel to it as well. It doesn't feel like an American film, um, yeah, apart from maybe the fact that you know the Nazis speak English and stuff like that, but it's um you know, it's a really odd sort of cast. Like one of the one of the main Nazi guys is uh Tyler from Green Green Grass, the Only Fools and Horses spin-off. And yet he's in this as a you know weird Nazi uh soldier guy. But um, you know, it completely works. Uh everyone's really, really good in it, even though most people are sort of killed very violently and very horribly. Um but yeah, so good. If you like action films and you've not seen this one, you definitely need to check it out because it is absolutely fantastic. He is just, like I say, a relentless killer machine, you're just rooting for him every step of the way, and his final line is absolutely brilliant. I think it's virtually the only sort of speaking he does in a film, is that the end. He's a bit of a sort of silent bob character, sort of thing, but yeah, he's great. He's completely justified in every killing that he does, and they are all spectacular. Uh there was a sequel that came out in uh 2025, which is CSU Road to Revenge. Um, same director, uh Jalmari Halenda. I'm reading that as you can probably gather, and I've probably uh pronounced it wrong. Um, and the same star, Geormanton Miller. Um, very, very good as well. Uh you know, even more sort of far-fetched in a way, but his um mission this time is he's been allowed back over the border to get his stuff from his house to uh get it back onto this, you know, uh no man's land, out of no man's land and into um you know where he can settle. And what he actually does is he takes his house apart, you know, plank by plank, puts it on a trailer, and uh is attempting to get that back across uh across the border. Um and again, he's sort of thwarted by these uh villains, and uh yeah, it's how he does that is unbelievable. You know, he actually uses the the house itself as one of the weapons and you know ends up well, I can't tell you how it ends up because you you need to watch it, but it's great. But yeah, they're a fantastic pair of films. Don't know again if there's going to be more, um, but yeah, it was uh a very unexpected sort of sleeper hit. Um it wasn't one I sort of saw coming, but reading great things about it, and um, you know, particularly in the film magazine and stuff like that, they were saying you need to go and see it, and they weren't wrong. It's brilliant. If you've not seen it, do check out Cisu from 2023. So here we are. Next week, we will be talking about 2024, which means that is our penultimate episode. We're obviously going to wrap it up with 2025 the following week. So thank you for sticking with me. Um, apologies actually for last week's episode there was a bit of a problem with the sound. Um, it wasn't picking up when I was recording from the proper microphone. I think it was just the computer itself, so it sounds quite echoey, um, and I had to set it kind of loud for it to sort of come through as well. So apologies about that. Um, but hopefully you were able to sort of uh adjust it yourself and stick with it. Um but hopefully things uh uh business as usual today. You will be the judge, you're hearing it now. Um but yeah, so just uh two more episodes to go after this one. So the end is nigh, but uh I do appreciate everybody sticking with me all the way through this podcast. Um I do hope you will stick with me till the end as well, and possibly beyond, who knows? We'll talk about that as we get to the end. Um but in the meantime, thanks ever so much for listening tonight. And please go and watch more movies, and we'll see you back here this time next week for 2024. Take care, bye bye.