Summer 2023 Movies Ranked

Summer 2023 Movies Ranked

The summer movie season has ended, which means it’s time to stop and rank all of the movies I saw in the summer 2023 movie season. Let’s get started!

16. The Out-Laws: A Netflix original movie starring the likes Pierce Brosnan and several other familiar faces and the final product…not very good. It has a fun concept about it with a man meeting with future in-laws only to discover they’re out-laws on paper that should be a fun concept. But in execution it’s not very good and not very funny in my mind. And when a comedy isn’t funny, that’s not a good sign and it doesn’t make for a good movie. There’s a running gag through-out the film where whenever somebody touches Adam Devine’s butt he screams, that’s the type of humor in the film. And when that’s the most memorable bit of the film, you know your movie doesn’t work. Beyond that, you don’t really care about any of the characters. None of them are given these character arcs, they’re just the same people at the end that they were at the beginning. So it’s a movie that I wasn’t expecting to be at the top of the list, but I wanted a good enough comedy and it wasn’t that. 

15. Meg 2: The Trench: This is a movie that on a story level is pretty bad and not very coherent, but on a dumb shark level it’s pretty fun. Now this movie doesn’t follow the laws of physics or gravity whatsoever the logic here is pretty scattershot. The way Jason Staham defeats the shark in the finale is pretty ridiculous and if you stop and think about it, it would kill him. But that’s the kind of movie you’re watching, it would be wrong to nitpick every single aspect of the film. But on an actual story level it doesn’t make any sense, where each act is about a different thing. The first act is about this new laboratory designed to helping sharks, the second act is about corporate espionage, and the final is the dumb shark action the trailers promised. And you don’t really care about anything going on in the first two acts, you’re just waiting for the shark action in the finale. The characters aren’t very interesting, so it’s a fun movie that is very good at what it’s trying to be. But on story and plot level, pretty bad. 

14. Haunted Mansion: This is one that I wish could have been ranked several spots higher on the list. Because I was excited to see a live action remake of the classic Disney ride. I liked the cast and tone the trailers promised. At the end of the day, this is a watchable slickly produced Disney blockbuster that is totally forgettable once you leave the theater. And it tries to be a comedy, a family friendly horror movie, be a blockbuster, and have a heartfelt tone in it…but doesn’t work as well as it should. The movie has a fun cast with Owen Wilson, Danny Devito, and several other people but none of them are as good and charming as they should be. The movie isn’t as spooky as maybe it should be and that’s so frustrating to me. The movie had all of the elements to be a really good entry level horror movie for kids, but it’s also not as spooky as it could have been. It’s a movie that Disney poured $150 million into and created a fairly generic film that doesn’t have anything distinct about it. 

13. Indiana Jones and the of Destiny: Now I’m a fairly new fan of the franchise, I watched the previous four films leading up to this movie. And even as somebody who isn’t a lifelong fan, I was disappointed and thought it could have been so much better. Now it’s great to see Harrison Ford in the fedora with the whip one more time, he’s just as good as ever. And with the arc they gave Indiana Jones in the film, it allows Harrison Ford to emote and act more than he did in the previous film. When the John Williams music kicks in you feel all of the right emotions and reminds you of the classic era of Indiana Jones movies. So there’s things about this movie that I thought worked and really enjoyed. But I think the fundamental flaw with the film is the magic of Indiana Jones is lost when you have an 80 year old actor to play a 70 year old actor. Part of the charm of the character is you have Indiana Jones, the guy every guy wants to be and the guy every girl wants to be with. And when you have a grandpa doing all of these crazy stunts, the magic , the escapism of the franchise is gone for me. Also, the film could have been cut by 10-15 minutes. It's a bit too long and the pacing can be a bit off at points. 

NOTE: From here on up I think all of these movies are solid B’s and above. So this is where the list starts to get tricky to to rank, because I really like all of these movies. 

12. The Little Mermaid: The latest live action remake from Disney and I thought this was a solid one. It’s one of the better live action remakes that Disney has put out in my opinion. Does this movie feel a bit unnecessary? Yes it does, I’m not sure if doing a live action remake of any Disney movie is necessary, but I had fun with this one. I think the lead actress, Halle Bailey, was great in the lead. She can be really fun and charming when she needs to be, she can sing and when she isn’t talking she can emote a lot just through her eyes. And I hope that after this movie she gets a lot more work because I think she could have a really solid future in Hollywood. And the source material has a lot of iconic moments and songs and seeing those brought to life is cool and they do some cool things with it. But the biggest issue with the movie is it’s WAY too long, they added about 40-50 minutes in the film that didn’t feel necessary. I think adding some stuff to a remake is good and don’t do a shot for shot remake of the animated film, but they added way too much with the film. Also, I think Javier Bardem was horribly miscast as the king. He's a great actor, but the vibe and energy he gives off I don’t think fits Ariel’s dad all that well. 

11. The Flash: Of all of the movies to come out in 2023, this is probably the most disappointing for me. I still liked the movie, I thought it was good but I wanted to love it. Now there’s a lot of fun to be had here with all of the multiverse aspects of the movie and you get some great fan service there. It’s of course great to see Michael Keaton dawn the cape and cowl one more time and I think they do some interesting things with him and he gets some great moments in here. Ezra Miller for all of the weird stuff aside is pretty fun in the movie. I like his version of Barry Allen and think it’s nice we get to understand him a bit more with the story they’re telling with the film. Now this is a movie that I don’t think is quite as bad as some people want to make it out to be, but it’s certainly a flawed movie. First up, I felt like the movie went too far with the humor at points in time. Especially when 2023 Barry meets up with 2013 Barry, the stuff in there could have been cut and would have made the movie less goofy and better for me. I was cringing at many points in the film then I should have been. And I thought all of the fanservice side of things, like Michael Keaton’s Batman, Supergirl, General Zoe, or the cameos in the finale felt pointless to the actual story. If the movie focused more on Barry Allen as The Flash and not all of the CGI and cameos, I think the movie could have worked much better. 

10. Fast X: The 10th movie in the main part of the Fast and Furious franchise and I thought this was a solid entry. It’s not one of the best, nor is it one of the worst. It’s safely right there in the middle as an entertaining film that delivered the experience that I wanted from the film. You get all of these crazy, over the top action sequences that don’t really make any sense but you enjoy watching them nonetheless. One of the issues with F9 is I felt like you remember the crazy stunt of the film more so then the actual plot. I feel like this one has a more personal and clearer plot inside of it, it’s much easier to follow what’s going on. With it being a revenge story we know what our villain wants and what vendetta he has against our heroes. Jason Momoa plays one of the best villains of the franchise and in some ways maybe the best villain of the franchise. It feels like they gave Momoa a case of RedBull and told him to go wild and crazy with his performance and they do so. Now the more I’ve thought about it, I wish the cliffhanger didn’t happen or it ended somewhere else. I felt like they picked a very strange time to end the movie and that means the movie isn’t super satisfying once the movie ends. 

9. Elemental: This was a total surprise to me, I haven’t been super impressed with Pixar really since Onward. I thought this was a really solid addition to the Pixar cannon with a lot of fun and charm about it. This is basically Pixar’s version of a rom com, we’ve had no shortages of rom coms over the years. But with doing it animated and mixing the four elements I think it adds something extra to the film. And the character arcs here aren’t super original, but they do things just differently enough to make it stand out amongst ALL of the other Pixar films. As it is a Pixar movie you have to talk about the animation style and they do some very cool things here, with the way they animate the fire or water characters it looks cool and interesting. It’s also a great family film, my audience was laughing out loud through-out the film. They had a lot of fun watching the movie. I was even laughing out loud at multiple times in the films. This isn't a top tier Pixar movie for me, it’s not a fantastic movie but for what the movie is trying to do I think it does a solid job of being that. 

8. Blue Beetle: The penultimate film in the DCEU but also maybe part of the DCU, I’m not sure what this movie is. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and thought it was really really good. For me, this is easily the best DC movie of the year so far with the most to offer. What’s nice about this movie is it isn’t trying to be the biggest or the best comic book movie of the year, it’s just trying to deliver a fun time at the movies with characters you care about. So with a genre that has turned into trying to be the biggest and the best of all time, it’s nice when you get movies that aren’t trying to be that. And with putting such a focus on family, it adds something new and different to the mix without feeling just another generic superhero movie. In some elements of the plot, it’s certainly familiar Susan Sarandon’s villain does have a pretty generic villain plot. But there’s just enough in this movie, just enough elements in here that made it unique in the genre for me. I thought the cast was fun and charming, Xolo Malendra and George Lopez would be the two stand-outs for me. I really liked the energy they brought to the movie. Like I said, this isn’t one of the best comic book movies of all time. But it’s a solid film that I had a lot of fun with. 

7. Talk to Me: So this is a movie that I didn’t have too high of expectations going into it, I didn’t see a trailer for the movie and A24 isn’t a film studio that I’ve invested a lot of time into. But the reviews for the film were non-stop positive. I checked it out the other day and I thought it was really really good and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I was going to. And the big thing to talk about with this movie is you. It's very creepy and disturbing. You feel this sense of dread, fear, and tension from the beginning to the end of the movie. And since the movie was only made for $4.5 million, everything had to be practical which adds an extra layer on top of it all. Whenever they do too much CGI in horror movies, it’s not as terrifying or creepy because you know it’s just CGI. More so than most horror films, the film has a great set of characters with some great performances. I hope we see a lot more of all of these actors in future projects, all of them deliver solid performances. This is one of the biggest surprises of the year and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

6. Barbie: The BIGGEST movie of the summer with the BIGGEST opening of the year and is most likely going to be the highest grossing film of 2023. And I really wasn’t sure what to expect going into this movie, but having seen the film I really dug and thought it worked on almost every level. First up, the movie can be really really funny with its humor and gags. I think the movie has some cleverness to the way it does jokes. I love the joke about Margot Robbie about 60%-65% of the way through the movie, that is the best joke of the movie for me. I also really appreciate that it feels like one vision for the film, WB let Gretta Gerwig tell the movie she wanted to make. Some modern day blockbusters feel like they were directed by a committee rather then a singular vision, this feels like a singular vision for the movie. Our two leads here with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are pretty fantastic in here, both of them capture the right energy and vibe they need to. Ryan Gosling being the stand out for me, he has a lot of very memorable bits in the film that will put a smile on your face. This movie was really good, but it did a couple of things that hold it back. I think the movie can get really preachy in the last 40% of the film where I don’t think it needed to, it felt a bit heavy handed at points in time. 

5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: I’ve NEVER been a big TMNT fan, I’ve seen the 1990 film several times and then the 2007 animated one once. But TMNT was not the fandom I grew up with, so I didn’t have crazy expectations going into the film. Now having seen it, I thought it was really really good and the best TMNT we’ve gotten. They really put the teenager into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles unlike any other film has done before. So while they’re these mutant turtles that know ninja moves, they feel relatable in another sense because they’re dealing with a lot of the same things that real teenagers deal with. They find ways to give our turtles plus Splinter character arcs that come to a very satisfying conclusion by the end of the film. Again, they do something very fun and clever with the animation style that fits with the story they’re trying to tell. And they do stuff in this movie that they couldn't do in live action or with another animation style. So this is a TMNT film that has great characters, funny jokes, lots of heart, and some cool villains. So this is what I want for a TMNT film and this movie delivers a great version of that. This is one of the biggest surprises of the year for me so far. 

4. Oppenheimer: The second part of the Barbenhimer worldwide phenomena and this was a great movie that I thought worked on all of the different levels it was going for. Right off the bat, Christopher Nolan's direction in this film is pretty spectacular where he directed some of the best scenes of the year so far. The trinity test sequence is probably the best scene of the year so far, where you felt like you were in an explosion in the environment with the characters. But the way it sounds where you see the explosion and then seconds later you hear the boom, that was handled so well. But all through-out the film you get these scenes that are super immersive with both the direction and the music that puts you on the edge of your seat. As it is a Christopher Nolan film it’s an all star cast front top to bottom. What’s so crazy is they get Oscar winning actors to be in one or two scenes of the film, that’s when you know Christopher Nolan is a legend when this much talent is attracted to him. But the two ones to talk about are Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. I think both of them have a really good chance of getting Oscar nominations this award season. I wouldn’t be mad if either of them won the Oscar. This is a movie that I think from top to bottom is fantastic and doesn’t have many flaws. 

3. Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse: A sequel that I think is actually an improvement over the original film and has a few more things to offer. Like the first film I think it has a fantastic animation style, I love what they were able to do here. Where it’s not cool looking designs for the characters or world, but the colors of the scene start to change with the emotions of the scenes. So they’re doing stuff with animation that hasn’t been done before so it’s so fresh and exciting and looks like a work of art. And what’s impressive is they had better animation than Elemental, but Elemental cost double what this film cost. That’s what is so impressive about the movie: the animation style feels like a character in itself. This is the true MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS where they open to the door to the Spiderverse and we just explore all of the new characters and worlds and all of them have a different animation style about them and that is what makes these movies so fun to watch, just seeing all of the different Easter eggs and character that show up in this movie. The film’s story I think is much better than Into the Spiderverse’s story, I think it has more emotion and layers to it. And in general, I was invested in this movie a lot more than I was with Into the Spiderverse. 

2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: EASILY one of the MCU’s best in the post Avengers Endgame era of the MCU. And I think this movie only puts James Gunn even more into the conversation of being one of the best comic book movie directors of all time. James Gunn was able to create a movie that is satisfying and emotional without having to kill somebody. Everybody went into this movie expecting somebody to die and I’m glad nobody did. Because the end points for the characters in the movie feel like the logical end point for where the characters were at the beginning of the journey. If Across the Spiderverse was able to stand out in the genre with this great animation style, this movie is able to do so with making it very emotional and personal. Of the MCU this is easily one of the most emotional and personal ones we’ve gotten, we dive deep into Rocket’s backstory; it makes him more relatable once we know what his early years were like. And phases 4 and 5 of the MCU were pretty rocky in my mind, quite a few bottom tier MCU in there. And this movie reminded me why I love these characters and the MCU. This is a fantastic addition to the genre and franchise. 

1. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1: Tom Cruise has done it again where he delivered the best movie of the summer 2 years in a row. It would be awesome if he was able to do a 3rd year with Dead Reckoning Part 2. This was my most anticipated movie going into the year and this movie lived up the hype. It delivered the experience I wanted it to deliver with thrilling action, lots of laughs, great characters, and some emotion thrown in there. This movie might have the best action of the franchise for me where it’s the most thrilling and exciting where they take simple ideas of a car chase and add extra layers of tension. So instead of getting a car chase in Rome you get a car chase where Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell are handcuffed to one another, that’s something that hasn’t been done before. Even the big stunt of Tom Cruise driving a motorcycle off a mountain isn’t just a cool stunt, it’s part of the plot and adds this extra layer of conflict to everything. I’ve heard people say this and I think this is true because it combines the best aspects of the franchise. Where it has the world building of Rogue Nation and Fallout but the fun vibe of Ghost Protocol. Three of the best entries in the franchise, so combining all three of them makes for a great and exciting movie. As of now, this is my favorite movie of the year and I have a HARD time imagining any movie topping this one