34. When Love Springs
33. To Kill A Tiger
A father faces down ingrained tradition, apathetic law enforcement personnel, community ostracization, hostile neighbors (male and female) and death threats in his rural Indian village during his quest to obtain justice for his daughter, who was gangraped at 13-years-old.
32. Kandahar
Gerard Butler's having a banner year, with two good movies invading cineplexes -- one of which proved to be a surprise hit in Hollywood's January dumping ground. This particular Butler experience takes on the politics of modern-day Afghanistan and illuminates what a clusterf*ck the entire region has become in that regard. The CIA, MI6, Pakistan Intelligence, the Taliban, ISISK and a British media outlet all converge in a complex thrill ride that improves with subsequent viewings.
31. Are You There G*d? It's Me, Margaret.
30. A Winning Team
When pro soccer star Emily is suspended for unsportsmanlike conduct, she spends her mandated downtime with her brother and niece and learns some life -- and love -- lessons along the way.
29. Shooting Stars
The high school years of NBA-legend LeBron James and his closest friends/teammates are highlighted in this biopic that features as much as heart as it does athletic excitement.
28. What Goes Around
27. I Got A Monster
The citywide scandal involving Baltimore's corrupt Gun Trace Task Force is chronicled.
26. The Burial
25. Under the Boardwalk
The Jersey Shore gets its first animated movie in this crab-out-of-water tale about two crustaceans discover that they have more in common than they know.
24. The Holdovers
Although this coming-of-age tale is set a decade and a half prior to The Breakfast Club, it features the diversity that that film pretends to have. When four students at a posh boarding school are stuck on campus during Christmas break -- with each other and the hapless staff members left to supervise them -- hidden sides emerge.
23. Chevalier
Chevalier explores the legend of 18th century Parisian celebrity Joseph Bologne. Thanks to racism, the accomplished Chevalier de Saint Georges' exploits were lost to history for a time. But this peak into the life of the most prominent Black Frenchman of his time goes a long way towards making things right. If only it hadn't veered perilously close to shoving its own subject aside in favor of morphing into a propaganda film for white feminism.
22. Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan chronicles theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer's efforts to beat the Nazis and Russia in an arms race to develop the weapons of mass destruction that would eventually be dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima at the end of WWII.
21. After Everything
The After series began with a solid movie told from the perspective of the female half of a love story and this concluding film beautifully closes things out with the male point-of-view.
20. A Christmas Frequency
Kenzie, producer of the "Breakfast with Brooke" radio show, has to scramble to boost ratings if the program is to survive. Her (best friend's) brilliant idea? Arranging for the brokenhearted star to have blind dates live on air until she finds love. Unfortunately, Brooke and her estranged husband are still very much in love. Worse, Kenzie's fallen for her boss' match, Ben.A Christmas Frequency is unique in that it features three separate couples in the same story without using the vignette format. Frequency's biggest flaw is the fact that, following the standard romcom formula wherein the woman rejects the guy that she loves before their inevitable reunion, Kenzie never apologizes to him. Meanwhile, Brooke makes up for her transgressions with her husband, Todd, and Kenzie!
19. Killers of the Flower Moon
A racist conspiracy involving the theft of a Native American community's land rights and proceeds from the sale of oil is chronicled in this adaptation of a true life event that occurred a century ago.
18. Reggie
Legendary baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer Reggie "Mr. October" Jackson discusses his life and career -- and how both were impacted by racism.
17. Stand
Former NBA great Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf recounts his journey from high school phenom to NCAA superstar to being blackballed from professional basketball in the U.S. and all of his political activism and struggles with Tourette's Syndrome in between. Before Kaepernick knelt, Abdul-Rauf sat.
16. The Covenant
The year's other drama involving a military man fleeing from insurgents with help from a native translator proved to be a welcome departure from director Guy Ritchie's signature style. Though the film's blatant American jingoism is odd considering the whole thing was overseen by a Brit, the story's still worth two hours of your time.
15. White Men Can't Jump
14. The Little Mermaid
While The Little Mermaid was a domestic success, it was DOA overseas. Due to the complaints of online trolls regarding the main character being portrayed by an African-American actress as opposed to a white cartoon, there's widespread speculation that racism is to blame for the movie's collapse. If so, the racists really missed out, since the film's only real problem is the ever-irritating presence of Awkwafina.
13. The Perfect Find
12. Blood & Gold
In this Inglorious Basterds-esque thrill ride (but more entertaining than that revenge tale), a German army deserter teams up with a young woman to take on Nazis on the hunt for gold stolen from Jews in her town.
11. Arranged Love
In this good version of Crazy Rich Asians, runaway bride and orphaned Meera reluctantly flies back to her native India -- with fake husband in tow -- in order to trick her aunt and uncle into believing that she's satisfied the terms for receiving her inheritance. Will she get the funds needed to save her startup? Will a real wedding be in her near-future? Where does her actual boyfriend fit into all of this? Homecoming shenanigans ensue in Crazy Rich South Asians (if you will).
10. Christmas Casanova
With her show on the chopping block, podcast host Elise convinces advertising exec Daniyal to let her chronicle -- and coach -- his attempt to reveal his secret admiration for his lifelong friend, Tanya, before her new boyfriend's imminent arrival so that they can celebrate their first Christmas together. But while Elise leads the buddies (and Tonya's parents) on a festive tour of New York City, the holiday magic begins to work on both Tanya and herself.
9. Sisu
In this WWII tale, a unit of Nazis find out the hard way that there are some people who you f*ck with and some who you don't.
8. Murder Mystery 2
Amateur New York detectives Nick and Audrey are back to solve another murder in an exotic locale in Netflix's best mystery-comedy to date.
7. Plane
After commercial pilot Brodie Torrance is ordered to fly through a storm by an airline executive in order to save fuel, his plane is struck by lightning and loses power, forcing him to land on an unknown island in the Philippines. When a local terrorist group abducts most of the surviving passengers and crew, Torrance must draw on his RAF training in order to assist former GCP French Foreign Legion member Louis Gaspare and a Special Forces rescue team sent to liberate them.
6. The Other Zoey
The Other Zoey is essentially the Scream of romantic-comedies. It paradoxically both embraces and flouts the conventions of its genre. It also features characters who voice said genre's rules.
5. The Creator
In the year 2070, U.S. Army Sergeant Joshua Taylor discovers that the "weapon of mass destruction" created by AI-friendly New Asia in their war with the United States has the body and outlook of a preteen girl. Defying orders, he declines to destroy "Alpha O" in the hopes that it'll lead him to his estranged wife, Maya, the daughter of legendary AI-developer, "Nirmata". His journey instead leads him to revelations that he never could've imagined to be true.
4. Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match
Never mind the plumbers and web-slingers, the best animated movie of the year stars an aspiring Hollywood action icon. Johnny Cage's origin story is 2023's must-see "cartoon" adventure.
In Johnny's previous animated movies, Scorpion's Revenge and Battle of the Realms, he's a comic relief character and Sonja Blade's verbal and physical punching bag. But here, although the film is an action comedy, he's treated with respect by the story and is the primary and intentional hero.
Cage is vain, shallow and obsessed with fame -- but -- far from a clown, he's also presented as hardworking, brave and tenacious -- even when he knows that the odds are against him. Perfectly cast, Joel McHale brings the kickboxer to life by bringing a liberal amount of Jeff Winger's persona along from Community. The lineup is rounded out by voice actor extraordinaire Phil Lamarr, Gilbert Gottfried, Kelly Hu and Jennifer Grey as herself. Forget American Psycho, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Wedding Singer, Cage Match is one of the best 80s period pieces to date -- it's certainly the funniest --with homages galore to the decade's big feature films, from Lethal Weapon and The Karate Kid to Die Hard and Big Trouble in Little China to Dragnet and The Golden Child. Even the music, from the score's synths and saxophone to the pop songs, is 80s-appropriate -- not to mention the Christmas setting. It's also the greatest Mortal Kombat movie, which is admittedly a much lower bar to clear.
3. The Flash
Barry "the Flash" Allen (two of them, acyually) is upstaged by the Snyderverse Kryptonians and Kara Zor-El (the first good live-action Supergirl) in his first solo feature film that, in spite of some goofiness, multiple plot-holes and shoddy visuals, still manages to rise above several other DC (not to mention, MCU) movie offerings. Nevertheless, The Flash's box-office failure is immensely satisfying if for no other reason than the fact that actor Ray Fisher was unceremoniously written out of it.
The film's also refreshingly self-aware of how grating the title character's personality has been/is. Unfortunately, the filmmakers seemed to lack a similar level of insight regarding the Burton-era Batman's age as it relates to his inexplicable physical prowess.
2. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3
Aside from Groot -- who's adult again and boring now -- and Rocket -- whose critical condition robs him of his comedy chops -- the Guardians' trilogy-closer improves on its predecessor -- and the series' abominable holiday special -- in nearly every other way. Of particular note is the fact that the team finally faces a compelling villain, the High Evolutionary, after battling two wet blankets (Ronan the Accuser and Ego the Living Planet) in as many films.
1. Extraction 2
Tyler Rake's second cinematic mission proves to be just as exhilarating as his first -- and well worth the three-year wait for its streaming debut. What's concerning is the tell-tale ending -- complete with headliner Chris Hemsworth's MCU castmate, Idris Elba -- that suggests that this particular series is cueing up to expand into its own universe. And the movie's biggest flaw is the incongruous insertion of humor in one of their scenes together, which is neither wanted or needed in this saga about mercenaries and the brutal lives that they lead.
Sequels often invite comparisons to the film(s) that preceded them. But the Extraction movies are so intrinsically linked and similar (in narrative, tone and personnel) that ranking them seems inappropriate. Extraction 1 and 2 are simply two halves of a single story.
