Last year I didn’t start writing posts about my monthly movie themes until April so I didn’t get to talk about Science Fiction Month. Science Fiction is one of my favorite genres of film. Since I didn’t get to talk about my 2022 selections, I will cover those first and then cover my 2023 selections.
Category: Movies Page 7 of 24
The Menu 
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult
Director: Mark Mylod
Release Date: November 18, 2022
My Rating:
As some of you may know, I am not into horror/slasher-type movies so it may seem strange that I picked this movie to watch. The thing is, Ralph Fiennes is an extraordinary actor and Nicholas Hoult isn’t too bad either (check out the series The Great on Hulu). Also, personally, I would instead categorize this movie as more of a thriller than a horror movie. With that said, let’s get on with the movie review for The Menu.
The synopsis is Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) has purchased a once-in-a-lifetime dinner prepared by renowned Chef Slowik (Fiennes). He, and 11 other guests, soon discover that this is no ordinary meal. In fact, it may be their last meal.
Happy New Year! This list is going to be slightly different because I actually began watching Christmas movies in November. The day after Thanksgiving, while visiting family, we put on a couple of Christmas movies, including one I hadn’t seen yet.
Actually, I watched three movies between Thanksgiving and December 1st. I’m including them in this list because from (the day after) Thanksgiving to December 26th is the Christmas season.
Instead of picking another genre theme for the month of November, I decided to make it kind of a “catch-all”. Therefore November’s movie theme is Random. This could mean a random genre not represented in the other months—perhaps more minor or niche genres. Examples are sports movies, musicals, crime, biopics, etc. I may also make it themed based on a particular actor or franchise. For example, James Bond, which is the theme for this month (if you couldn’t tell from the title 🙂 ).
A Christmas Story Christmas
Starring: Peter Billingsley, Erinn Hayes
Director: Clay Kaytis
My Rating:
Christmas movie month is December but the Christmas season starts the day after Thanksgiving. This is when we decided to watch the sequel to “A Christmas Story”. The usual comments ensued when this movie was announced. “Hollywood is out of ideas!” “Why ruin a classic?”. Yadda yadda yadda. I’ll admit that I was skeptical. I’m not one of those people that can continuously watch this movie during its 24-hour marathon on Christmas Day. However, I’m also not one of those people that despise it either. Once is good enough for me.
The question then is, how well does this movie live up to the original?
I quite enjoyed it! As far as Christmas movies go, this is definitely in the top 20 must-watch Christmas movies! I would still recommend watching this one even if you are not a fan of the original movie. In fact, I might even go so far as to say this is better than the original! I may even watch it a second time this year!
Spoilers Ahead!!!
October is Halloween Month. This should be no surprise. Therefore the theme is essentially scary/thriller movies. My approach this month is a little different. Usually, I have a predefined list of movies I plan to watch for each themed month. However, during Halloween Month there are at least 2-3 movies we/I watch every year; The Nightmare Before Christmas, It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Hocus Pocus.
Oddly enough The Nightmare Before Christmas is the only one that we did watch. Perhaps the month went by so quickly that we didn’t get around to the other two. Below are the other movies that I also watched this month.