From Cocaine Bear and Barbie – starring Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie – to The Little Mermaid and Oppenheimer, and the latest installments of Dune, Indiana Jones, and Mission: Impossible, our critics pick the best releases slated for 2023.
1. Cocaine Bear
The title of the movie, Cocaine Bear, is so short that snakes on a Plane make no sense. It is "inspired" by the true story of a black bear that consumed a drug dealer's stock of cocaine. The bear passed away very instantly, which is a terrible reality. Later, he was named "Pablo Escobar" and stuffed and displayed in the Kentucky Recreation Center. In contrast, the bear protagonist in this raucous horror comedy, which was directed by Elizabeth Banks (Pitch Perfect 2, Charlie's Angels), prowls a forest while committing crimes against gangsters and campers. Alden Ehrenreich, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Keri Russell, and Alden Ehrenreich are the actors. Former actor Ray Liotta. If the viral trailer is any indication, Cocaine Bear would be fantastic, but it probably won't win many Oscars. (Nicholas Barber)
Released on 24 February
2. 65
With Jurassic World Dominion, the Jurassic Park / World franchise may have become extinct, but there are still plenty of dinosaurs to be seen on the big screen in 65. Adam Driver plays Commander Mills, a spacecraft pilot "on a long-range exploratory mission" who crashes and lands on a savage planet. Only one of his passengers, a young woman played by Ariana Greenblatt, seemed to have lived. However, they are not alone. The trick, as implied by the title, is that they are actually on Earth 65 million years ago. Does that indicate that Mills has gone back in time? Or does he resemble a human but be an alien? As co-writers of A Quiet Place, the movie's writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods are well-versed in lean, mean, survival thrillers involving showdowns between humans and hungry monsters. (NB)
Released on 9 March
3. John Wick, Chapter 4
Assassin-turned-hero John Wick, played by Keanu Reeves, is back and scowling, kicking, and killing his way across countries. As if Bond were a hit guy rather than a spy, he travels around Paris, Berlin, Osaka, and other James Bond-like destinations. This time, it appears that Wick is being pursued by the whole criminal community, including the High Table figures that run all the criminal enterprises. Due to his disloyalty? Due to his excessive dog love? In this enormously popular, brutally fast-paced action franchise, the stories rarely matter. Laurence Fishburne and Ian McShane, two Wick mainstays, are also back. (Cary James)
Released on 24 March
4. Redfield,
The loyal servant of the undead Earl in Bram Stoker's Dracula is Enfield, a fly-eating madman who plots to escape the asylum. But Chris McKay, director of The Lego Batman Movie, has given it a facelift in this horror comedy. Nicholas Holt (The Great, The Favorite) takes on the lead role. Redfield chooses to hang out with a traffic cop played by acquaint even though he's still bidding on his employer in contemporary New Orleans because, as McKay put it, Dracula is the "boss of hell" in more than one title. Holt has shown he can handle monster romantic comedies in Warm Bodies, in which he plays an amorous zombie, but Nicolas Cage as Count Dracula in a red vest is a compelling choice. File under "The Role He Was Born to Play". (NB)
Released on 14 April
5. The Little Mermaid
Disney's live-action adaptation of the 1989 animated hit is as realistic as a tale about a princess who is half human and half fish can be. Halle Bailey plays Ariel, who yearns to gain legs, so she might meet her prince on land. Halle Bailey performs alongside her sister as the duo Chloe x Halle. Ariel's father, King Triton, is portrayed by Javier Bardem; Melissa McCarthy plays Ursula the sea witch; and David Digs plays Sebastian the Crab (you can practically hear him singing Under the Sea already). There are four new songs written by Alan Mencken and Lin-Manuel Miranda, in addition to the original ones by Mencken and the late Howard Ashman. As the director of the films Into the Woods and Snow White and the Huntsman, Rob Marshall is familiar with fairy tales. (CJ)
Released on 26 May
6. Spider-Man: Across the Spidering
In 2018, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse combined a variety of animation idioms to create a captivating pop-art masterpiece. Additionally, it combined a variety of Spider-People. A rookie Spider-Man named Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a well-known Spider-Man named Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), and a Spider-Woman named Gwen Stacy (Hailed Steinfeld) were among the wall-crawlers from numerous alternate realities. But that was only the start. Six parallel universes will be covered by the sequel, which will also have 240 characters, many of whom are connected to Spider-Man. For instance, the voice of Spider-Man from the year 2099 is provided by Oscar Isaac. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Everything Everywhere All at Once's various realities might soon appear straightforward in comparison. (NB)
Released on 2 June
7. Asteroid Cities
Wes Anderson's latest distorted view of the world is set in 1955 in a fictional American desert town where children and parents attend the Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention. The official description just says that a cataclysmic event will disrupt everything, so I'll take a chance and assume the asteroid in the title has something to do with it. What we do know for sure is that Anderson's films - The Grand Budapest Hotel and The French Dispatch among his best - are illogical and bizarre to the best of imagination, and the cast is even better. More spectacular, including Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Tilda Swindon, Jason Schwartzman, Steve Carell, Margot Robbie, and Willem Dafoe. (CJ)
Released on 16 June
8. Elemental
The latest animated film from Pixar takes place in Element City, a metropolis whose residents are composed of one of the four traditional elements: earth, water, air, or fire. However, what transpires when a devoted man (played by Mamoudzou At hie) falls for a fiery woman (Leah Lewis)? Can it get hot and heavy? However, Elemental director Peter John claims that his stunning romance is truly about growing up as the son of Korean immigrants in a diverse Bronx neighborhood. The brilliant anthropomorphic premise is typical of the company that produced Inside Out. This is a positive development. Pixar is currently at its best when directors are let to bring their legacies to the screen, as Luca and Turning Red have shown. (NB)
Released on 16 June
9. Barbie
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling rollerblade in '80s nostalgic bubble gum pink as Barbie and Ken. The internet boomed and Barbie became one of the most anticipated movies of the year. Greta, whose Little Women (2019) is both faithful to the book and refreshed with 21st-century sensibility, is directing a film that's both promising and satirical - another photo shows Robbie in a car Barbie little pink convertible — and meta, with Will Ferrell's as an executive at toy maker Mattel. 2001 parody trailer:
A space adventure, with the classic pony tailed blonde Barbie dominating the crowd of little girls as if she were the epitome of this movie. It's been fun so far. (CJ)
Released on 21 July,
released on 30 June
10. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Has starred in the biggest movie of 2022, Top Gun:
Maverick, Tom Cruise, skips straight to what should have been one of the best movies of 2023. It certainly has one of the biggest titles. Delayed by two years because of the pandemic, the sequel will be called simply "Mission:
Impossible 7" reunites Cruise with his familiar co-stars, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Rebecca Ferguson, and the series' frequent writer and director, Christopher Macquarie. The spy plot remains a top secret. But the important thing, it's the action sequences, and the stunts are done by Cruise himself. What is important this time is "the most dangerous thing we've ever done," he promises:
ride a motorbike along a narrow ramp and over a cliff, then parachute to the ground safely. God knows what he has in store for the Mission:
Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two in 2024. (NB)
Released on 14 July
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