The Mosley Review: Worst Films of 2023

So here we are. 2023 has ended and what a year of disappointments it has been. This year we saw alot of franchises return. A few in particular wanted one last chance to redeem themselves and in my opinion should've stayed in the shadows of their past glory. We also saw the end of a cinematic universe and how messy that was handled. Not all was bad though. We got to see a film with a fun concept that went all out on its gory promise and well, actually, it was pretty forgettable. I'm not gonna beat around the bush anymore. Without further ado, I give you my list of the worst films of 2023. As always, if you want a more detailed review of all the films on my list, just click the title of each film. First up......

Cocaine Bear: Talk about a wild story that was sort of true. The thought of a cocaine fueled bear on a rampage in a forest set in the 80's seemed like a ludicrous idea reserved for the back corner of the low budget horror section of Blockbuster. Well it was exactly that and for about 30 minutes, the idea was fun and had the right tone. Somewhere along the many lines of snortables, the film took a wrong turn and had no idea what it was trying to be. The tone was shifting from drug recovery to family comedy to romantic comedy to hardcore monster movie and so much more. It lost its appeal really quickly and failed to stay in the pocket it initially carved out. Such wasted potential.

The Marvels: And so Marvel Studios attempt to give their one overpowered and unlikeable character a second chance to be liked and actually have some form a story and character development. This time she had 2 additional heroes to come with her on this action packed romp and for the most part, it worked. Where the film truly failed is its terribly written plot that could've been summed up in less than 20 minutes and the fact that they made their main hero the villain without any sense of repentance for her actions against an entire civilization. There was an emotional core there that should’ve been fully explored and not drowned out by the needless action scenes and unnecessary musical sequence. The real standout of the film was Iman Vellani as Ms Marvel and I hope for the future that she takes the lead from now on. Everyone else in the film felt like an after thought, but at least the chemistry between the 3 leads saved the film from being a complete disaster. Speaking of disasters, don't get me started on the god awful mid credits scene.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: There was a small chance that this beloved franchise could rise from the ashes of the fourth entry and truly lay Indiana’s fedora to a satisfying rest. You had a great director, Harrison Ford dawning the fedora one last time and all the hopes of us Indi fans. What did we get? A over budgeted, character inflated, time traveling mess of a finale that spits in the face of what made those original 3 films magical. It wasn't about the action set pieces and the over use of CGI, but the fact that it was small, simple and real. There was a goal that had its other worldly properties whether it was the Arc of Covenant or The Holy Grail, but it felt more real than the finale of this film. What was really heartbreaking was the fact that once again our hero become sad, old, broken down loner with everyone in his life leaving him to rot in silence. It happened to Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and now Indiana Jones. This film introduced one of the worst characters in the franchise and one that I hated with a passion as she did everything in her power to try and get Indie killed or try to profit off of his dead friends. And you expect me to believe she all of a sudden cares about Jones in the last 5 minutes of the film?! Piss off! Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had more respect than this piece of trash.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom: Ah yes. The end of an era lands on a sequel to a fun first entry that had stylistic problems, but nevertheless was good. Now, we get this extremely scatter brained and ridiculous excuse for a sequel. I felt that the tone wanted to have an underwater Lord of the Rings type of mythos which if edited and rewritten properly, could've been massive. Alas, we get this hot steaming pile of crap that was boring after the third overly CGI action sequence and weak one noted villain motivation. Jason Mamoa and Patrick Wilson were the only reason to watch this film. Jason was himself most of the time while cosplaying as Aquaman and Patrick Wilson was brilliant and sometimes dumbed down as Orm. The brotherly love and chemistry between them actually saved the last act of the film. Other than that, this film illustrated why the DCEU had to end and I wish it had stuck to their original plan of having one last meet up with Ben Affleck's Batman instead of the stupid mid credit scene we got to a joke that was great once.

Now we've come to the end of the road. There were some truly horrendous films this year, but none of them match the level of disappointment this film did. Ladies and gentlemen, the worst film of 2023 is........

Expendables 4: There was an idea to get all of the best action stars of the 80's, 90's and 2000's together in a pure action film that featured all of them together for the first time. It was The Avengers of action film stars and it worked...... in the first 2 films. The third film saw the horrible decision to make a PG-13 entry to appeal to the younger audiences. They realized that mistake too late and it cost them dearly. Well, now they came back with a hard R rated fourth entry, as it should've been, but with only a fraction of the stars that began this franchise and it was absolute garbage from beginning to end. The relationship between Sylvester Stallone's Barney Ross and Jason Statham's Lee Christmas was at the heart of the franchise and that is stripped away. What we're left with is a piss poorly edited, overly CGI'd mess of wasted time and money. Not even Statham could save this film from mediocrity or the horrible sight of Megan Fox trying to act or look like she could do any sort of fight sequence. You had one of the best action stars in Iko Uwais and you did nothing with him. Seriously, that man would destroy Jason and he barely got one or two worthy hits in. Andy Garcia was the only person that understood what type of film he was in and he truly went for it. John Wick 4 was one of the best action films in years and it showed that the action genre has moved far beyond these fossils.

And that's it everyone! That is my list of the shiniest turds known as the worst films of 2023. If you missed any of these films last year and have any interest in watching them, take this list as an advisory to what you're about to watch. Do you agree with my list? Let me know and tell me what your worst films of 2023 are in the comments below. Thanks for reading!