Despite the success of the 2013 team, there were still holes on the roster that needed to be filled heading into the 2014 season. Shortly into the offseason, postseason legend David Freese was traded to the Angels with relief pitcher Fernando Salas in exchange for outfielders Peter Bourjos and Randal Grichuk. This was a move done to tightened up the outfield defense and leave room for top prospect Kolten Wong to take over for second base while Matt Carpenter would move back to his more comfortable position at third base. A few days later, they signed Jhonny Peralta to a four-year, 53 million dollar deal to take over for shortstop as Pete Kozma was no longer the answer. Although losing Carlos Beltran in free agency was a shame, they still had Allen Craig to take over for right field while Matt Adams would become the everyday first baseman. They also had top prospect Oscar Taveras in the system who management believed would be ready for the big leagues sometime in 2014. Throw in some short term contacts with Mark Ellis to help platoon with the rookie Wong along with Pat Neshek to add depth to the bullpen and the Cards had a complete team ready to go for 2014.
While the 2014 campaign was once again a success with St. Louis winning 90 games and the Central Division for the second straight year, they definitely had more setbacks from the prior year. The offense regressed quite a bit from 2013 with a rough first month from Jhonny Peralta, Allen Craig being a shell of his former clutch self, and rookies Kolten Wong and Oscar Taveras failing to impress with their bats, resulting with frequent benching along with demotions to the minors. However, a July trade was made that sent Allen Craig and Joe Kelly to the Red Sox for veteran pitcher John Lackey, which helped add more stability to the rotation and clear a path for rookie outfielders Taveras and Grichuk to get more consistent playing time. Despite being forced to play catch up all year, the Cards secured the division after a very strong September and set themselves up to face the Dodgers in the playoffs for the second straight season.
In Game 1 of the NLDS, the Cardinals once again had to face off against Clayton Kershaw, who was not only the Cy Young Award winner of that year but also the MVP as well. Things didn’t go so well to start as the Dodgers would tack on six runs off of an unusually shaky Adam Wainwright and led 6-2 late. Kershaw was dominated for the first six innings with his only blemish being two solo home runs prior. However, by the top of the seventh, the Cards were able to figure out Kershaw and rallied to score eight runs that inning, which would eventually lead to a 10-9 victory for game one. While the Dodgers took game two, the Cardinals would take game three at home thanks to a strong start from John Lackey and a late clutch home run from rookie Kolten Wong to give them a 2-1 series advantage. With their season on the line, the Dodgers sent Kershaw for Game 4 on short rest. Once again, he was great for six innings and once again, the Cardinals would get to him in the seventh inning, where they rallied to score three runs, off of a three-run bomb from Matt Adams. The Cardinals were able to secure a 3-2 victory, ending the Dodgers’ season for a second straight year and would head off to the NLCS for the 4th straight year.
Once again, they would face-off against the Giants. The series started off with a split in St. Louis, with Madison Bumgarner’s dominating performance leading the Giants to win Game 1 and a back-and-forth contest concluding with a walk-off homer from Kolten Wong that lead the Cardinals to win Game 2. For the next three games, while every one of those games were as tight as it could’ve been and left plenty room for both sides to achieving victory, it was the Giants that ultimately ended up with the larger benefits. San Francisco took Game 3 on a walk-off wild throw, took Game 4 after trailing earlier in the game, and then concluded the series in Game 5 with a walk-off homer from unlikely hero Travis Ishikawa to send the Giants to the World Series. It’s also worth nothing that the bottom of that 9th inning was when manager Mike Matheny made the bizarre decision to bring in previous NLCS MVP Michael Wacha, who had been dealing with injuries all year and hadn’t pitched in a game for three weeks, to keep the Cardinals season alive when just one mistake would end their season. Once again, the Giants would eliminate the Cardinals in the playoffs and once again went on to win the World Series in a seven-game thriller against the Kansas City Royals, their third title won in five years. While that lost certainly stung for St. Louis, that would unfortunately not be their biggest loss that October.
About one week after the Cardinals were knocked out of the playoffs, top prospect Oscar Taveras, who was also a hero in Game Two with his pinch hit home run to tie that ballgame, died in a car accident along with his girlfriend in his home country. A top prospect that was the highest rated in the Cardinal system since Albert Pujols and was thought to be the next great superstar in the making had unexpectedly passed away at just 22 years of age. A heartbreaking end for what was seeming like a promising uplifting future for the young man. As we are approaching the ten-year anniversary of that horrible passing, I sure hope Oscar is resting well up in heaven as we all speak.
2015
The offseason had a big stormy rain cloud above the team in the wake of Taveras’s passing. To fill that hole in the right field for the time being, the Cardinals made a stunning trade with the Braves where they acquired Jason Heyward and relief pitcher Jordan Walden in exchange for Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins. They would also sign first baseman Mark Reynolds to platoon with Matt Adams, who struggled big time against left-handed pitching. While the Cardinals still had that solid core that helped them reached the playoffs the past four years, they were getting older and would end up showing their age sooner or later.
Surprisingly enough, the Cardinals had their most successful season of the past five years with 100 wins in the regular season, the most in baseball that year and the first 100-win team since the 2011 Philadelphia Phillies. They won their division for a third straight year, beating out the equally fighting Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates. Despite dealing with injuries all year with big players such as Adam Wainwright, Matt Holliday, and Matt Adams, the depth in the farm system was still strong enough to overcome this kind of adversity, with the likes of Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty stepping up for the later two mentioned.
The offense as a whole was nothing to write home about and having little to no pop with the exception of the now power hitting Matt Carpenter but it got the job done enough. However, the main reason for the success of the 2015 team was in large part due to the pitching. It finished the season with a stunning 2.94 ERA with a dominant rotation and bullpen from top to bottom. Even with the absence of Wainwright, John Lackey was able to slight into the role easily as that year’s ace with the likes of Lance Lynn, Michael Wacha, and Carlos Martinez assisting him nicely. The bullpen also was aided greatly by the ridiculous one-two punch that was Kevin Siegrist and Trevor Rosenthal. While the overall regular season record might’ve been a tad misleading and there were plenty of injuries with past players, there was still enough guys here that could make for at least one last deep postseason run with this core.
They have to go up against their longtime rival, the Chicago Cubs, in the division series, the first ever time these two teams would ever face off in the playoffs. The Cubs were coming into the series red hot, winning their last seven games of the regular season and the wild card game against the Pirates. The Cardinals were able to take game one thanks to a stellar performance from John Lackey and homers from key rookies Tommy Pham and Stephen Piscotty. Despite the Cards taking an early lead in game two, the Cubs took control of that game and eventually the whole series in the top of the second inning following a parade of blunders from the Cardinals defense which opened the door for five unanswered runs. Once the series went to Chicago, the electric Cards pitching staff that had carried the team all season long got absolutely OBLITERATED, giving up nine home runs and 14 runs total. Despite the best efforts from Stephen Piscotty and Jason Heyward, the Cardinals surrendered the NLDS to their divisional rivals, basically putting an end to this core of players and the impressive playoff runs they pulled off.
Aftermath
Despite the winning seasons and multiple playoff appearances since this five-year window, the Cardinals really haven’t come close to another World Series title since then. It’s constantly been resulted in either missing the wild card spot in the last week or just making the playoffs on the skin of their teeth only to get knocked out in the first round. The one exception to this was in 2019 where the bested the Braves in the NLDS, including the historic 10-run first inning in Game 5, only to roll over and die to the Nationals in the NLCS in a four-game sweep. Since getting eliminated by the Cubs in 2015, the Cardinals have played in 15 playoff games and lost 11 of them, including losing nine of their last ten. And with how bad 2023 has been, who knows if they will get another shot at the playoffs anytime soon?
As we get further and further away from that era of Cardinals baseball, I can’t help but look back and just constantly thinking of what if? What if they didn’t blow that 3-1 series lead to the Giants in 2012? What if they didn’t pitch to Big Papi at all in the 2013 World Series? What if Matheny didn’t got to Wacha in 2014? What if the key players managed to stay healthy in 2015 and the pitching didn’t regressed hard? As fun as that era was, I can’t help but think of how much more fondly we would be looking at that group and even this dour season if the Cardinals had just one or two more rings during that window they had? If only the could be the ones to win multiple championships instead of the Giants. It’s then they could have been seen as the best dynasty in baseball since the 90s Yankees and even more so than the Astros right now.
Regardless, I will always have fond memories of those early 2010s Cardinal teams. It was during my time in high school and always gave me something to look forward to, even during the troubled times in those four years. I just can’t help but think of how more remembered that group would have been by fans and especially the rest of the baseball world had they just got the job done one or two more times. Maybe then this awful 2023 campaign and the disappointing early playoff exits of prior years would at least be a bit more bearable. If anything, Cardinals fans would then have at least three or four World Series titles won in this century to reminiscence upon instead of two satisfying but fluky ones. As I’ve been saying throughout this entire piece, if only.
The St. Louis Cardinals have been nothing short of a disaster in 2023. For the better part of the entire season, they have massively underperformed their modest expectations headed into the season and what they have been doing for the majority of the 21st century. With less than two months left to go for the regular season and with them being way out of a playoff spot, the Redbirds are set to finish 2023 with their single worst record in several years and possibly even several decades. Instead of them chasing for a postseason appearance like they’ve been doing for just about every year since 2000, they now find themselves chasing a first round draft pick for 2024.
While most knew that the Cardinals were far from a perfect team heading into this season, they were at least expected to be the best team in an otherwise incredibly flawed NL Central division. That has not been the case whatsoever. The faults of the 2023 team can be contributed to just about everybody from top to bottom. The pitching has been absolutely dreadful, the gold glove-caliber defense of prior years have SEVERLY regressed, the hitting has been the definition of feast and famine, there seems to be no leadership or accountability from the veterans of the roster, and the prior inexperience management has completely shown their inexperience in an INCREDIBLY embarrassing matter, right down to stirring controversy in the clubhouse by public calling out their own players just for the sake of shifting the blame of the team’s poor play.
This disappointing season for St. Louis has certainly been a shock to everybody but if you’ve been following this team for the past few years, it honestly felt like this is something that was years in the making. The big flaws that have been on display for the Cardinals this year have been key flaws of most recent years such as the pitch-to-contact pitching staff, heavy reliance on defense, hot or cold offense, and management who have never coached professionally, making baffling decisions night in and night out. And that’s not even going into the big free agents signings that have not fare well whatsoever (Steven Matz, Wilson Contreras) and trading away young talent that seems to improve the moment they are forced out of St. Louis (Adolis Garcia, Randy Arozarena). It has been a non-stop parade of bad decisions and an absolute masterpiece of missteps.
All of these matters and more can be contributed to the front office of the St. Louis Cardinals, most notably President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak and General Manger Mike Girsch. This has been a group that has constantly tried to turn a blind eye to this team’s faults over the years in the hopes that being in a bad division on a yearly basis with enough games to beat up on weak divisional opponents will be enough to keep the team stable and contend for a playoff spot. While that approach might’ve work for the past few years, it’s something that would eventually backfire as the other teams were due to get better eventually. With new rule changes and a more balanced schedule, this team and front office have been exposed butt ass naked throughout the entire 2023 season for everyone else in baseball to witness.
While many Cardinals fans, including myself, are thinking of what possible bleak future for this team lies ahead, I can’t help but constantly go back to a time in recent memory when the team was actually good. I don’t mean good in the sense that they make it over .500 and somehow is able to sneak into a wild card spot at the last second only to get bounced out rather easily in the first round. I’m talking about the era of the Cardinals where they felt like one of the best teams in all of baseball. An era where this team had heart, fight, grit, will, and a refusal to quit. An era where no one wanted to face this team come October because they know St. Louis will give everything they had at them. An era which this team always managed to make the impossible actually possible. While there are other notable eras of Cardinal baseball that fans may refer to such as the teams from 2000 to 2002 or 2004 to 2006, I’m gonna go by the squads from 2011-2015, which to this day was my favorite era of Cardinals baseball in my lifetime.
When talking about MLB teams with a enormous amount of success in the 2010s, the one team that everyone remembers from that era is the dynasty that was the San Francisco Giants, a team that was able to win three World Series titles in the span of just five years. Winning it all in the even early years of that decade in 2010, 2012, and 2014, the Giants were just winners during that time with having a handful of key core contributors to those three championships won. While not quite as successful in the early 2010s, the St. Louis Cardinals could have achieved that amount of success if things could have just gone their way.
To dive deep into this championship window, we need to go over season by season and see just how close St. Louis became to becoming that dynasty that the Giants became the further away we get away from that era.
2011
2011 was the last year that the Cardinals won it all, besting the Texas Rangers in seven games in what is still one of the greatest World Series match-ups of all time. While everyone remembers that World Series in the improbably away that the Cards achieve victory with two of the biggest hits of all time coming from David Freese, many people tend to forget the bizarre path that St. Louis took to even get into the playoffs that year.
With one month ago left to go in the regular season, the Cardinals found themselves over 10.5 games out of a potential playoff spot with the Brewers leading the division by a wide margin and the Braves leading the wild card sport by a country mile. The team’s uneven play of the year could be largely contributed to a very messy bullpen for the first half of the season along with notable key injuries to players such as Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, David Freese, and Adam Wainwright, who would miss that entire year due to Tommy John surgery.
In order to make the postseason, the Cardinals had to get incredibly hot and play their best stretch of baseball of that season while either the Brewers and Braves would have to get incredibly cold and play their worst stretch of baseball of that season. Despite near impossible odds, that’s exactly what happened. The Cardinals were able to secure the wild card spot from the Braves on the last day of regular season, overcoming a 10.5 game deficient by finishing the regular season going 23-9 in the last 32 games. What is often seen as one of the worst collapses in baseball history with the Braves that September was also one of the greatest comebacks in baseball history with the Cardinals that September.
It’s then that St. Louis was able to ride that hot edge they gained in the last month of the season to secure their 11th World Series title in franchise history and the second in the last six years. They bested the World Series favorite Philadelphia Phillies, concluding in a phenomenal pitching duel between the late great Roy Halladay (May he remain resting in peace!) and Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter. They knocked out their divisional rivals in the Milwaukee Brewers, thanks to a stellar offense that series led by NLCS MVP David Freese and strong work from the bullpen, most notably from arms added at the trade deadline such as Marc Rzepczynski and Octavio Dotel. And of course, there were able to defeat the Texas Rangers to win the World Series in what was a very back-and-forth playoff series, most notably from a shocking Game 6 victory which saw big, timely hits from the likes of Lance Berkman and of course, David Freese after the Cards were down to their final strike not once but twice. As much has been made about the heroics of David Freese that series and the entire 2011 playoff run he had, there were also other key contributors that deserve notice.
There was of course that stellar performance that the great Albert Pujols put together in Game 3 where he went 5 for 6 with three home runs in that explosive 16-7 victory. There was Lance Berkman, who hit .423 that series with a .515 OBP, .577 SLG, and 1.093 OPS, along with being responsible for the game-tying run in the bottom of the 10th inning of Game 6 that kept the series going. There was Yadier Molina, who hit .333 that series and drove in nine runs, along with throwing out Texas’s lead off man Ian Kinsler in Games 1 and 7, which help set the tone in Game 1 and kept the Rangers from scoring more runs in the first inning in Game 7. There was Chris Carpenter, the 36-year old ace of the pitching staff who pitched every last inch of energy he had left by going over 270 total innings that year and giving three great starts that series, securing victories in Game 1 and 7. And there was also Allen Craig, the man that found himself in the middle of everything that series. He drove in the game-winning run in Game 1, drove in the go-ahead run (at the time) in Game 2, got the Cards 16-run performance in Game 3 going by scoring the first run of the game with a home run, he help the Cards get back in it in Game 6 with a solo shot when they were down to their last five outs and trailing by two runs late, and drove in the go-ahead run in Game 7 with a blast, along with taking a home run away from Rangers in the sixth inning and securing the last out of the World Series that secured victory for the Redbirds.
Needless to say, this was a squad that was just full of winners. This was a team that was able to overcoming so much adversity even when nearly all possible odds were against them the whole way through. What’s most impressive was that this was a roster that was mostly full of home grown talent that was still young and eager to win along with a handful of notable veteran leaders to help lead the pack. Even if it didn’t seem like it at the time, this core group of players did unlock the potential start of the dynasty with their stellar performances throughout the 2011 season.
2012
Despite heading to the season with a good portion of the 2011 squad still in tact, St. Louis did have some very notable losses for 2012. Just two days after the championship parade, Tony La Russa, arguably the most successful manger in the team’s history, announced his retirement after 16 seasons with the ballclub. Joining alongside him was longtime pitching coach Dave Duncan, who was also with the team for that same amount of team. Jeff Luhnow, the top-tier scout, largely responsible for drafting the 2011 team, left for Houston, which he would eventually be responsible for building the current dynasty in the making that is the Astros. And, of course, the big one, Albert Pujols, arguably the greatest right handed batter in baseball history and the man that has been the face of the franchise for over the past decade, left in free agency and would sign a 10-year, 254 million dollar contract with the Los Angeles Angels. Those notable subtractions certainly lowered the Cardinals expectations of being able to repeat as defending champions for 2012 but they did fill whatever holes they could about as good as they could have.
Brought into replace Tony La Russa and inheriting the championship-caliber squad was Mike Matheny, a longtime catcher and former Cardinal player who, despite having no prior experience as a big lead manger beforehand with only the notable contribution with coaching little league, was noted for having strong leadership skills and believed he would be a great fit with developing younger players due to his experience with coaching young kids. And filling in for Dave Duncan would be prior bullpen coach Derek Lilliquist.
When it comes to the roster itself, management was able to spend some of that money they saved up for a possible extension for Tio in a very wise way. Two weeks after Pujols became a LA Angel, the Cardinals signed veteran and playoff star Carlos Beltran to a two-year deal, a move that was basically seen as a response to Albert’s departure but one that was affordable and provide some more pop to the lineup to fill in a massive hole. There was also the team-friendly extension that St. Louis provided with catcher Yadier Molina, where the future Cardinal hall of famer agreed to a five-year extension that was worth 75 million dollars. There wasn’t much moves made aside from the ones I mentioned but the team’s overall core of contributors remained in tact and made it set for a potential second successful playoff run in a row.
Much like 2011, the 2012 season was quite uneven for a good chunk of it. Despite having a very strong April, the Cardinals found themselves regressing with back-to-back losing months in May and June, hovering around the .500 mark. Once again, injuries took a hit with key players such as Chris Carpenter and Lance Berkman being out for the majority of the year and a bullpen that was very shaky to start off the year. The Cardinals would eventually find their strive with a more consistent second half of the season which despite not being able to take the NL Central crown from the Reds, was good enough to secure the newly added second wild card spot to secure their second straight playoff appearance.
The offense was top notch from top to bottom and would be the main thing that carried the Cardinals throughout the whole season. While they could certainly be streaky, there were plenty of notable bats that deserve a mention. Despite the departure of Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman being down with injuries for the majority of the season, the free agent signing of Carlos Beltran along with the RBI machine Allen Craig was able to help pick up the slack and make their lack of presence feeling unnoticed. Matt Holliday and David Freese were able to stay much healthier this time around and provided great insurance to the lineup, with Holliday fitting comfortably in his new role of being the permanent #3 hitter and Freese following his impressive playoff performance with his first career All-star game. Rookie Matt Carpenter made for a perfect utility/pinch hitter, Jon Jay’s impressive batting average and on base percentage was more than enough to make up for his lacking throwing arm, and MVP candidate Yadier Molina for what was his finest offensive season yet, proving he was more than just a very good defensive catcher. And even with veteran shortstop Rafael Furcal being down by the end of August, the young Pete Kozma was able to fill that role perfectly for the last month, even with his notable lack of success in the minors.
While the pitching staff wasn’t quite as strong as the hitting, it still mostly got the job done once it all came together. Even with the lack of Chris Carpenter, Kyle Lohse was able to fill in the role as the ace of the rotation nicely, providing the best season of his career with 16 wins and a 2.85 ERA. Adam Wainwright, coming fresh off of Tommy John surgery, overcame a shaky first half of the season with a very strong second half, more resembling his prior self from 2009 and 2010 heading into October. All-Star Lance Lynn became a reliable addition, whether that was as a starer or as reliever, with the team leading 18 victories to show for it. The bullpen was messy at the beginning but became more reliable down the stretch with the mix of key members from the prior season’s playoff run such as Jason Motte and Mitchell Boggs, some fresh young blood in Trevor Rosenthal and Joe Kelly, and the addition from the deadline that was Edward Mujica.
Just like with last year’s team, it wasn’t necessarily a juggernaut or a guaranteed championship caliber team on paper, it was a team that could be largely affective and come up in big situations, if given the chance to do that. It had a roster of players that were still young with plenty of years in their prime left along with plenty of proven veterans and leaders that could help guide the team to another title. While they weren’t as successful as the year prior, they certainly did make for another deep playoff run.
The Cardinals play in the very first wild card game at Turner Field against the Atlanta Braves, who did not have an epic September collapse this time around. Thanks to a combination of poor and shockingly out-of-character defensive plays from Atlanta, a lack of clutch hitting from their bats, and of course, the infamous infield fly rule that took place in the bottom of the 8th inning that basically killed all the momentum the Braves might’ve had left, the Cardinals took the wild card game by a score of 6-3, ended the career of the mighty Chipper Jones and once again set themselves up for a date against the best team in baseball that year in the Washington Nationals.
The Washington Nationals had been a young team in a rebuild for some time and were making their first full playoff appearance as the Washington Nationals. It did have one odd circumstance where the team decided to shut down young phenomenon Stephen Strasburg for that series for the means of “protecting” him for the foreseeable future. The series lasted five games with yet another memorable Game 5. Down 6-0 early after the Nats hitters beat up on Adam Wainwright, the Cards were able to come all the way back to win the game 9-7, with the big blow being a miraculously four run top of the 9th inning with clutch hits from unlikely heroes such as Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma. Once again the Cardinals found themselves in an elimination game where they were down to their last strike not once but twice and they once again were able to overcome immense pressure to tie it up and win the game. For the second straight year, the Cardinals knocked out a World Series favorite in the very first round and now had to get through the San Francisco Giants to make it back to the World Series.
Much like the Cards, the Giants were just coming fresh off a stellar comeback against their NLDS opponent in the Cincinnati Reds. After losing the first two games at home, the Giants were able to claw back and win three straight in a row on the road at Cincinnati, something which hadn’t been done with the Reds all year, to force their way to the National League Championship Series. The Cardinals were able to take control for the first five games where they lead the series three games to one and were just one win away from returning to the World Series for a second straight year, having a chance to become the first ball team to repeat as champions since the great Yankee dynasty from the late 1990s. With the amount of comebacks and the ways they’ve won in the playoffs up to this point, this just had to seem like this was St. Louis’s year again, right?! Well, not quite!
Similar to what they did against the Reds in the NLDS, the Giants were able to flip the script dramatically against their opponent for the last three games of the series. Thanks to stellar starting pitching from the likes of journeyman Barry Zito, Ryan Vogelsong, and ace Matt Cain along with poor defensive play from St. Louis, the Giants overcame a 3-1 series deficit by taking Games 5, 6, and 7, outscoring the Cardinals 20-1 in that span and returning to the World Series. The Giants would then go onto to the World Series against the Detroit Tigers and win it all in a sweep, claiming their second championship in the last three years.
As much could be said about this infamous choke job, what I make of that is just that the Cardinals basically ran out in miracles. They had plenty of them that got them through the postseason last year and had some to get through the first two rounds of this own but it simply wasn’t enough this time. They had control of their own destiny in this series and let it slip away by responding poorly to any adversity they had to face in games 5-7. Even with the tough pill that was to swallow to end the season, the 2012 Cardinals did a damn fine job overall defending their title with a still very promising future ahead of them with this core.
2013
While not much was done in the offseason other than handing out team friendly extensions to Adam Wainwright and Allen Craig along with signing the worthless Ty Wigginton, the Cardinals had a very deep farm system with big pieces for just about any position. So any potential injury that St. Louis might have to deal with can easily be patched this time around. And it would be that depth that would carry the Cards immensely throughout the entire 2013 campaign.
When it came to the pitching side, the Cardinals had to navigate around the lost of key players such as Chris Carpenter, Jason Motte, and Jaime Garcia. In response to that, the Cardinals responded heavily with their farm system and exceeded greatly. Young arms such as Shelby Miller, Joe Kelly, Carlos Martinez, Trevor Rosenthal, Kevin Siegrist, Seth Maness, and Michael Wacha, the player the Cards got as a compensation pick after Albert Pujols’s departure, were able to step into their big league roles wonderfully and help keep the Cardinals competitive throughout the whole season. The leader of that staff was no other than Adam Wainwright, who was fully healthy this time around who led the team with 19 wins and a 2.94 ERA in over 240 innings pitched. Even with losses to key players, the pitching depth had never been better and ended up being one of the biggest strengths of the team.
While the offense wasn’t as home-run heavy as years prior, it was still incredibly explosive with plenty of guys contributing big time. The biggest achievement from this group is how they were historically good with hitting with runners in scoring position, hitting over .330, the highest BA with RISP in over 50 years. It had a lineup that consists of the perfect 1-2-3 combo with Matt Carpenter, Carlos Beltran, and Matt Holliday, the perfect clean-up guy with RBI machine Allen Craig, and the perfect fifth hole hitter in Yadier Molina. There was also Matt Adams who provided plenty of pop whenever he got playing time and filled in the first base role nicely once Craig got injured in September. Even when including down offensive years from guys such as Jon Jay, Pete Kozma, and David Freese, this lineup could score runs when it matters the most.
The entire season was a three horse race in the NL Central between the Cardinals, Reds, and Pirates. The Cards were able to take the division crown by winning 97 games and positioned themselves for another deep playoff run. With the way the team was structured and put together, this was far in a way the best Cardinal team since 2004, the juggernaut that won 105 games and won the team’s first pennant in 17 years. Even with notable losses such as Chris Carpenter, Jason Motte, and Allen Craig, there was plenty of depth in the pitching and hitting front that can carry this team to another World Series championship.
The Cardinals were up against the wild-card winning and divisional rival Pirates. They didn’t make things easy on themselves as the Pirates were able to rebound from a Game 1 blowup to win the next two games. Despite being down in the series 2-1, the Cards were able to come back to win the very next two games to head to the NLCS for the third straight year, thanks to clutch homers from the likes of Matt Holliday, David Freese, and Matt Adams along with stellar pitching performances from rookie Michael Wacha and ace Adam Wainwright. The Cards were not set to advance to their third straight NLCS.
They faced the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. While the offense struggled throughout that series until it’s exploded with runs in Game 6, the pitching staff was able to keep the Dodgers bats at bay, most notably Michael Wacha who outdueled Clayton Kershaw twice, providing victories in Games 2 and 6, and went on to win the NLCS MVP, the first ever rookie to achieve that matter. The Cardinals made it back to the World Series for the second time in three years and set themselves up for a rematch of the 2004 World Series with the Boston Red Sox.
Unlike the 2004 World Series, the Cards actually competed this time around against the Red Sox. After a wild ending to Game 3 with the infamous obstruction call at home plate which basically reopened Allen Craig’s foot injury, the Cardinals took a 2-1 series lead with just two victories away from claiming their 12th World Series title. Unfortunately for St. Louis, Boston fought back from that devasting loss quite hard. After a handful of clutch hits from the likes of Johnny Gomes, David Ross, and Shave Victorino along with running into the buzzsaws that was ace Jon Lester and ESPECIALLY David Ortiz, who hit a RIDICLOULOUS .688 with a WHOPPING .790 OBP, 1.188 SLG, and 1.948 OPS that series, the Red Sox came back to win Game 4, 5, and 6, winning their third World Series in ten years. For the second time in the 21st century, the Red Sox broke the Cardinals’ heart in the World Series and took the title away from them. An unfortunate end to what was undeniably a great season overall.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem has finally hit theaters. Because of that, it’s time to look back at all ten TMNT movies that have been released to date and rank them from worst to best.
When it comes to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, I would view myself as more of a casual fan than a hardcore one. I know the basic origins of the characters along with the tropes that the series have grown accustom to but I’ve never been someone that lives or breathes ninja turtles. My earliest memories of it come from some of the earlier cartoons and movies along with the 2007 animated film that I watched for the first time at my cousin’s house. While they have always been relevant to me, I’m certainly far from the biggest die hard fan of it.
I bring this up so that anyone that reads this ranking know that I’m coming through all movies in this franchise through fresh set of eyes with no nostalgic glasses attached to them. I’m just going by which ones I enjoyed watching the most and the ones I dreaded watching the most. I’m also not an expert on the TMNT fanbase as a whole so I’m not quite sure how exactly each movie has been received in the eyes of fans, except for maybe the original. Because of that, there’s a good chance your rankings are not gonna match mine.
Let’s not waste anymore and lets get right down to it!
10.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
Anyone remember when Michael Bay produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? While he might have technically not been the director of this monstrosity, his fingers prints are certainly all over it. These fun and goofy turtles don’t mesh well in a world whatsoever that’s tries it’s damndest to be bleak and grim. The title characters themselves are hideous to look at, the script is poorly written and somehow manages to come across as an even worse version of The Amazing Spider-Man, there’s way too much focus on April O’Neil herself, and just about every single change made to the traditional established lore feels like a complete spit in the face to the turtles themselves. There’s a couple of fun moments here and there (most notably the elevator scene) and (surprisingly) Megan Fox is not that bad as April O’Neil but this was an absolute turd that should have stayed firmly in it’s shell. At least the turtles themselves weren’t actually aliens like they were suppose to be! No, really!
9.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
The infamous part three of the live-action TMNT movies was most certainly the one that jumped the shark big time for the series in live-action. There’s and attempt to add a time travel spin to the mix with an emphasis on a bizarre setting with Japan along with giving the ninja turtles themselves their own separate arcs. Unfortunately, none of it comes together because of how unfunny and boring the whole experience is. The direction is lifeless, the comedy is unbearable, the animatronics are hilariously awful, and nothing interesting is ever done with it’s emphasis on time travel or the turtles themselves in Japan. It was by this point that you can tell everyone involved with these movies have grown tired of the turtles themselves. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III was certainly the moment that the series would (no pun intended) become a shell of it’s former self.
8.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Out of the Shadows was a major improvement over the ill-fated 2014 reboot in just about every way. The turtles themselves were in the forefront, April was pushed more to the wayside but is still her usual resourceful self, it’s much more colorful, and the lighter tone feels much more appropriate for a TMNT movie. Just a shame that it’s mostly the newer elements added that basically bring the whole movie down. Stephen Amell is horribly miscast as Casey Jones (And that’s not just because of his recent comments involving the strike!), Krane is completely wasted and useless, and Bebop and Rocksteady are absolutely UNBEARABLE whenever they appear on screen. While better overall than it’s predecessor, Out of the Shadows proves that this iteration of the ninja turtles was never good enough to be considered worthwhile.
7.) Turtles Forever
What was basically Spider-Man: No Way Home before Spider-Man: No Way Home was even a thing, Turtles Forever sees the turtle of the original animated series team up with the turtles of the 4Kids animated series. Seeing both incarnations of the ninja turtles together was fun to to see, Shredder was among his most threatening out of any of the TMNT movies, and it’s interesting to see how the concept of the multiverse basically started in film here WAY before it would have a big impact on other comic book movie franchises. It’s a shame they couldn’t get the voice actors from the original 1987 series and I don’t know if this will appeal to those outside of TMNT fans. However, for those that were big fans of both cartoon series, I can’t imagine how they wouldn’t be able to get any enjoyment out of this.
6.) Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie
The film adaption of the most recent TMNT series on Nickelodeon is able to successfully translate this version of the ninjas turtles properly to a movie, and is even able to improve on the show’s shortcomings as well. The 2D animation is a refreshing change of pace to all the moderately 3D animation we get nowadays. You also got the ninja turtles that are still as fun and goofy as ever and action scenes that are a blast to sit through. Most of the supporting cast don’t get much to do here and as awesome as Ben Schwartz is as Leonardo, his vocal performance mostly blends with his ones for Dewey and Sonic the Hedgehog. While the show it’s based on is quite polarizing, I do think Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie is worth a watch for TMNT fans or even for those that are looking for a fun watch.
5.) Batman vs the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Who would’ve ever guess that we would ever see a Batman and TMNT crossover on film? Who would’ve also guess that it’s in the top five of the best TMNT films ever made? There’s not much to describe with Batman vs the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles other than it’s title and premise itself. What you see is basically what you get! If the idea of a Batman and TMNT crossover sounds awesome to you, then you will likely find it awesome. If not, then well…….you’re just no fun!
4.) TMNT (2007)
The first ever CGI-animated TMNT flick was able to do a “serious” Ninja Turtles movie much better than the the 2014 live-action film could ever do. If anything, it certainly has a more more balanced tone along with a style and art direction that feels greatly appropriate for TMNT. Despite the film receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews back in 2007, time has been very kind to this one and there’s plenty to enjoy here. Throw in an all-star celebrity voice cast who are all great in their roles, plenty of easter eggs/references for hardcore and causal fans, engaging internal conflicts for the turtles themselves (especially with the fight between Raphel and Leo) and a thoroughly faithful adaption of the material, TMNT (2007) acts as not just one of the best TMNT movies ever made but an absurdly overlook gem of an animated film that deserves more recognition.
3.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze
The sequel to the beloved original does what just about any good sequel does, it dives deeper into the characters themselves, their origins, and their reasons for doing what they do. However, instead of going darker, it goes much more goofier as it dials up the wackiness and silliness up to 11, right down to the Vanilla Ice “Go Ninja Go!” sequence (which absolutely RULES btw, don’t @ me!). Secret of the Ooze is a film that basically allows it’s audience to laugh along the way with it’s characters as we go on the adventure with them this time around while getting to learn more about them. The characters are still engaging, the action is still great, the suits and effects still hold up incredibly well, and it’s just a ton of fun throughout. Some might find it too silly for it’s own good, but for what it’s worth, this is still a worthwhile sequel that acts as a worthy companion to the original, even if it doesn’t surpass it.
2.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
The original 1990 film still remains a classic in the eyes of just about every Ninja Turtles fan out there. This is able hold up very well even over three decades later because of how much love and respect it pays to the source material that it’s based on. It’s able to perfectly blend a dark and gritty tone of the comics with the more campy and light hearted nature of the 80’s cartoon without having either one completely overtake the other. The characterization of the likes of April O’Neil, Casey Jones, and the ninja turtles themselves are incredibly well realized, making them easily the best version of all the live-action films to date. Even if there are some elements that are now quite dated, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) makes for easily the definite live-action TMNT movie thus far with well-done action scenes, solid performances, quotable lines, a rocking soundtrack, and themes surrounding family and heroism that still resonate to this very day. While it’s no longer quite my favorite TMNT movie now, I wouldn’t fault anyone who would still have it as their very favorite because it’s still that damn good.
1.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Of all the films that have we have gotten to date involving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mutant Mayhem is probably the one to get the most things right. The animation is top notch, the characters are all well-utilized and bounce off each other perfectly, the story feels fresh but yet faithful to the turtles lore, the score is absolutely killer, the action is a lot of fun, and it’s able to exist in it’s own sandbox as being the kind of film that can stand proudly on it’s own along with the best of what the Ninja Turtles have offered throughout their entire history. While I won’t go as far to say that it’s a perfect film (especially with it’s likely dated pop culture references), it’s certainly a perfect TMNT film and one that will likely be the one to get a new generation into this successful running franchise. A sequel has just been announced is in the works along with a brand new 2D series. If they manage to be as enjoyable if not more so than Mutant Mayhem, than this new generation of TMNT fans will have plenty to be spoiled by.
Every generation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans has their own show or movie that got them into the franchise! For the 1980s and 90s kids, they had the original animated series or the original live-action film. For the 2000s kids, they had the 4kids show or the 2007 animated film. For the 2010s kids, they had the first Nickelodeon show or the Michael Bay-produced live-action films. And now for the kids currently in the 2020s, the main options for this generations of TMNT fans goes to the second Nickelodeon show in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the film it’s based on, and now, of course, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
A key reason as to why the Ninja Turtles themselves has resonated with so many people throughout many generations is knowing how to “modernize” the series in a way that’s appealing to the current generation it’s catering to along with still maintaining the spirit and heart that the turtles themselves as always have, save for the recent live-action reboot. And I don’t think there has been quite a TMNT flick that has captured that right balance of old and new along with it being the definite one for a new generation to follow than with Mutant Mayhem.
Of all the films that have we have gotten to date involving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mutant Mayhem is probably the one to get the most things right. The animation is top notch, the characters are all well-utilized and bounce off each other perfectly, the story feels fresh but yet faithful to the turtles lore, the score is absolutely killer, and it’s able to exist in it’s own sandbox as being the kind of castle that can stand proudly along with the best of what the Ninja Turtles have offered throughout their history. While I won’t go as far to say that it’s a perfect film, it’s certainly a perfect TMNT film and one that will likely be the one to get a new generation into this successful running franchise.
Plot Synopsis: After years of being shelter from the human world by their master/father Splinter (Jackie Chan), a brother band of turtles named Donatello (Micah Abbey), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), and Raphael (Brady Noon) look to get out of their comfort zone and set out to be accepted as normal teenagers through defining acts of heroism. During this process, they meet and collaborate a human girl who’s smart and has a desire in Journalism named April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri), who also confidently has problems of her own with getting accepted by society after making a bad first impression in front of the camera in the school news.
As the turtles go on the hunt for a mysterious crime, they find themselves up against an army of mutants with Superfly (Ice Cube), Leatherhead (Rose Byrne), Mondo Gecko (Paul Rudd), Genghis Frog (Hannibal Buress), Wingnut (Natasia Demeteriou), Scumbug, (himself**) Ray Fillet (Post Malone), and the always memorable Bebop (Seth Rogen) and Rocksteady (John Cena). With the turtles believing this will be the perfect crime that they can stop to be accepted by humans along with April thinking this will be the perfect story to cover for school to be accepted by the rest of her school, both sides work to stop these army of mutants from accomplish their goals for the fate of themselves and New York City.
On the surface, it would be easy to say that Mutant Mayhem is to TMNT what the Spider-Verse movies is to Spider-Man or The Last Wish is to Puss in Boots but a more favorable comparison would be that of another animated feature, The Mitchells vs the Machines. And that’s not just because this film also happens to have the same writer in Jeff Rowe, whose the main director of this film, but because the animation style helps compliment one another with how rough and gritty it feels around the edges along with getting a feeling of pages in the book being ripped out right before your very eyes. And also tackling thematic elements such as acceptance, relevancy, and coming out of your comfort zone soon also helps too.
Even when compare to the recent surge of animated features that dare to use it’s medium as a brand of telling stories you couldn’t possibly do in any other form, Mutant Mayhem is still able to stand strongly as it’s own unique beast. It’s able to use the coming-of-age tropes and themes involving prejudice and discrimination that has been accustomed to the series while also able to blending it very well with modern times without going so overboard that it will become confusing for young fans and overbearing for adults. The arcs that the main turtles and April O’Neil go through involving trying to be accepted and finding your place in new uncharted territory is very engaging to watch and the parts of the story I can see engaging quite well with audience members.
What is also refreshing is how the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles actually feel like teenagers instead of just overgrown men cosplaying as children. Not just because all the turtle members are all played by teenagers respectively but they legit feel like real teens without ever becoming annoying or obnoxious. This is especially felt in the dialogue where they talk about the hot topics in the entertainment business such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the very best Chris in Hollywood. While it’s certainly there to give the case of the times that these turtles are currently living in, it also helps in the journey where they go from the end of being pubescence kids to the beginning of being young adults. While these might not act as the fully formed ninja turtles from past TMNT media, you do get a good sense by the end that there is still plenty of room for these characters to grow for the future.
Of course, the main talking point when it comes to the turtles themselves is of the kids actors themselves. While there are certainly times you certainly get the impression that these are child actors, they all do a fine job in the roles. Micah Abbey gets the wise and resourceful aspect of Donatello quite well. Shamon Brown Jr. shine as being the most charismatic and hearted of the bunch as Michaelangelo. Nicolas Cantu stands out perfectly as the leader and more honorable/responsible of the bunch as Leonardo. Brady Noon, while sounding a bit too pre-pubescence for my taste, still sounds as brave, strong, and courageous as Raphael.
As for the rest of the cast, it’s about as every bit of celebrity heavy as the animated film from 2007 was but they still seem like they are having a lot of fun playing their characters. Some of the biggest highlights of the cast include Ice Cube as Superfly, Rose Byrne as Leatherhead, Paul Rudd as Mondo, Seth Rogen as Bebop (And this is coming from someone who is normally not a fan!), and John Cena as Rocksteady. Ayo Edebiri is very good as the newer, diverse version of April O’Neil who shows enough sympathy and likability to get you invest in her arc of overcoming pressure and your greatest fear. Arguably the best performance in the entire film is given by Jackie Chan as Splinter. Chan does a great job at playing a wise but flawed father figure of the group who occasionally makes jokes and shows cracks of the armor when raising your kids.
The animation, as you would expect, is genuinely spectacular. Nearly every single shot in the movie could been seen as a page that leaped off a comic book and one that can be an easy pick for a screensaver. While comparisons to other recent animated films that are going for a more “out there” approach with their animations, it’s still able to stand strongly as it’s own thing just like the best of these films do. They masterfully help the action sequences by giving them all their own unique flare and style that compliment one another, with the main standout sequence being the one in the gateway. This is easily the best looking and stylist TMNT film to date and one that I can easily seeing aging well as the years go on.
In terms of everything else, this is quite a solidly put together film giving the 70 to 80 million dollar budget that was spend on it. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is very well done and captures the tone and mood perfectly along with being added by a very well-chosen hip hop soundtrack. It’s very well paced with a refreshing brief 100 minute long runtime, it’s filled to the brim with easter eggs and references that longtime fans will get a kick out off, and it ends on a note that will likely leave fans anxious to see new adventures with this iteration of the ninja turtles.
While Mutant Mayhem plays out as good as a TMNT film can possibly get, there are certainly some imperfections. There are times where the film looks too “dark” for it’s own good, not all the jokes/modern pop culture references land, and you are likely to see certain plot beats/story turns coming from a mile away. And while the looks of the characters themselves did grow on me as the film went on, April O’Neil’s design still feels more resemblance more of a young adult woman rather than a teenage girl.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is an absolute blast and makes for an absolutely proper TMNT movie for this current generation. While certain opinions will vary, this is probably the best and most well down film adaption of the Ninja Turtles thus far. I can see this TMNT flick being the one that gets children into this series the way that prior movies and shows did before it along with being seen as a giant letter to the hardcore fans who are still around to this day. By the time we reach the end, you get the feeling that there’s a lot more to explore with this iteration of the turtles themselves and that a solid foundation has been set in stone. A sequel has just been announced is in the works along with a brand new 2D series. If they manage to be as enjoyable if not more so than Mutant Mayhem, than this new generation of TMNT fans will certainly have a lot to look forward to.
** Yes, really! That is literally what the credits says!
Other comments:
There is a post credit scene btw. Even if I could see the obvious sequel tease coming, I still did get quite excited when I saw it.
I can’t recall the last time I’ve been to a screening which was filled with kids and families that seemed like they were having the time of their lives. Movies are so back!
This movie got the best Chris right!
If you want to play a drinking game, take a sip every time a character mentions someone being “milked”. You will feel quite loopy in just the first thirty minutes of the movie.
I don’t know if it’s just me but there has been quite an amazing run of animated flick as of late! Animation really is the future of cinema!
Last week saw an absolute explosion at the box office with the releases of Barbie and Oppenheimer. The kind of success that Hollywood hasn’t seen in 2023 aside from The Super Mario Bros. Movie. As we speak, Barbie has already made over 472 million dollars worldwide while Oppenheimer is at 231 million dollars. This of course was record breaking for both feature films. For Barbie, it was one of the highest grossing opening weekends in the history for Warner Bros along with the fourth biggest opening week in domestic box office history- just under Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. For Oppenheimer, it was the biggest opening for a Christopher Nolan film outside his Batman films along with the highest opening for an R-rated film since Joker. As much as it must’ve been hard for both studios to stay pat with their decision to released both of these highly anticipated films in the same weekend, it seemed to have paid off big time.
If you’ve been following the film industry and entertainment business right now, you probably know that things are not looking well in Hollywood at all. The strike between the writers and actors is still occurring which doesn’t look like it’s gonna get resolved anytime soon, so much so that films are likely looking to get pushed back because of it. This has also been a summer that despite releasing the most “big” films since 2019, has not fared well for theaters and the box office for Hollywood. Big anticipated blockbusters such as The Flash, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny were not able to make their money back whatsoever. Even the number of films that did make money at the box office such as Fast X and The Little Mermaid was still view as a disappointment due to how much both of those films cost to make. While the jury is still out on the likes of Elemental (which still has legs) and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning- Part 1 (which hopefully will still have legs), they were in desperate need of a guaranteed box office smash this summer that didn’t involve Marvel superheroes. And they finally got it!
To say that last weekend was important for cinema would be a massive understatement. This likely has been the first time that theaters seem to have brought a massive amount of audience to the theaters at once since Top Gun: Maverick. When seeing both of these films, I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a theater so packed with tons of people exciting to see whatever film they were looking forward to seeing. It’s the kind of weekends that I remember with most big summer blockbusters releases before the pandemic hit. It was the kind of weekend that once again reminded everyone the importance of the movie theater going experience.
The big ringing question that I assume everyone has on their minds is that how did this happened? How were both of these films that had an insane amount of hype be able to meet and even surpass expectations at the same time where plenty others flicks this summer had failed? While I’m sure everyone has their own personal solutions, I think the answers is fairly obvious, there was a little bit of movies for everyone this week.
Regardless what your own personal thoughts on both of these films were, they had clear target demographics in mind that was able to appeal to both men and women worldwide. With Barbie, it was able to deliver the big budget flick that multiple generations of kids and those that grew up with the Barbie brand were finally given the chance to see. With Oppenheimer, it was able to deliver the R-rated biopic that adults and fans of Christopher Nolan were dying to see. And while these were far from “original” films, they felt like a refreshing change of pace over a year that been filled with interchangeable superhero flicks and franchises brand that have lost their appeal. These were just too good of flicks to just wait another few months for it become available through digital or streaming services to witness the experience. These had to be seen on the big screen because that was what these films were made for.
Of course, there are other elements you can mention as well, most notably the stellar marketing on both ends. Barbie was able to perfectly spoof all-time classics with the marketing along with showcasing trailers that actually didn’t show the whole movie for once but enough to get people interested. Oppenheimer was able to let people know of it’s existence ahead of time by starting it’s advertising campaign a year in advance and building upon on it until the film’s release, so much so that there was even an account on YouTube that literally had the trailer playing on loop for an eternity until the film actually came out. These were the kind of marketing you don’t get nowadays and was the kind of marketing I imagine most people missed with films. It was the kind of marketing that made you actually want to see the film instead of making you feel like you’ve already seen the film.
Above all, I think the think that sets Barbenheimer up top compare to many of the other big movies post-Covid is that it felt like an event. An event that is more satisfying to watch on the biggest screen possible rather than the comfort of your own homes. Just like with the other billion dollar grossers in the past three years with Spider-Man: No Way Home, Top Gun: Maverick, and The Super Mario Bros Movie, these were simply can’t miss theater experiences. While a big part of that has to do with it being based off of a familiar property or a classic that many people loved, they were all distinct and different enough to where many people thought it was worth spending some hard earned cash to watch in a comfy theater when they released so they can watch it before their very eyes along with everyone else. That is something that most movies in the 2020s have several lacked but when the exceptions have come around, they’ve come around hard and proved their worth.
While no one is gonna suggest the right proper way to go about the success of Barbenheimer is to do one of these events every weekend, I think the lesson to learn here is for Hollywood to know their audience. Know deep down which kinds of movies and franchise installments that folks will actually want to see and not ones that they personally want to see happen. While more fun and competitive opening weekends are intriguing in their own right, this should not be the key for success for every big blockbuster going forward. We don’t need ten more Barbie sequels or five more R-rated biopics, what we need are a variety of films that feel fresh, unique, entertaining, and helps enhance the theater going experience. It’s then that perhaps we might see Barbenheimer as being a turning point for the future of cinema.
With the ways things are going on right now in Hollywood, Barbenheimer simply could not have come out in a better place at a better time. In a time where the strike with the actors, writers, and studios are at war with each other and where the summer movie season has been cooking up bomb after bomb, we needed a event like this to remind ourselves why movie theaters are important and why they are still worth keeping around even with digital and streaming services on the rise. While I highly doubt Hollywood will take the right lesson from this in the future, the fact that something like this was able to happen without it simply coming across as a forced meme is simply a miracle. And I could only hope we see a similar outcome in a few months when Saw X and Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie come out during the same weekend.
This weekend saw the release of Oppenheimer, the newest entry to come from the great mind of Christopher Nolan. Although it unfortunately had to go up against Barbie at the same time as being one half of Barbenheimer (which I got a piece on coming soon), it looks as though it’s set to have a strong opening weekend in spite of it being three hours long and clearly NOT PG-13. As a result, time to rank every film in Christopher Nolan’s filmography thus far and see how it fares from worst to best.
It shouldn’t be unpopular to say that Christopher Nolan is one of the greatest filmmakers working today! He’s one of the few directors out there that everyone is aware of and his name attached to a film alone is enough to get people’s butts in theater seats. And coming at a time where there’s a strike going on in Hollywood and it’s in the middle of summer filled with underperforming/underwhelming big movies, leave it to Nolan to be one of the two directors this weekend helping to turn the tide on the narrative that people don’t go to theaters anymore. I’m sure this isn’t what the Dark Knight himself had in mind when he made it his quest to save theaters back in 2020 with Tenet, but hey, I still think he consider it an absolute win regardless.
Keep in mind that for this list, there’s really only one of these movies that I’m not the biggest fan off. Just about every other one I either like or absolutely LOVE! Heck, over half of the movies on this list were some of my absolute favorite films in the year they came out with some of them being on my list of favorite films every year. That’s why this list was INCREDIBLY hard to make! Regardless, I’m up to the challenge and let’s rank the great work coming from the Nolan mind himself.
12.) Tenet
I don’t know if this is a hot take or not but I have never been on board of the hype train for Tenet. While it’s well acted and looks amazing, this feels more of an intimation of a Christopher Nolan film than an actual Christopher Nolan film. The plot is a convoluted mess, the characters are completely one-note and even nameless, the sound mixing is ungodly atrocious, and while it’s central premise is a very interesting one, the execution of it could not have missed the mark as much as it could. The fact you have a film where the main protagonist name is literally referred to as the protagonist and you are expected to take it all seriously is literally all you need to know about the experience of watching Tenet. At least Nolan would get another chance of “saving” cinema later down the line.
11.) Following
The one that started it all. Christopher Nolan is able to make his first directorial debut with a very low budget and small scale flick about a young writer who follows strangers for a living in the hopes of being able to write something interesting for his novels. For a film that basically involves it’s main character trying to find an identity, Nolan is able to find his quite while here. The low budget is quite obvious and the 70 minute long running time can make certain elements feel rushed but for a film debut, it’s perfectly solid overall.
10.) Dunkirk
Nolan has always been a filmmaker that remained a loyalist on the experience of watching films in a theater. I don’t think there has been a film he has made to date that didn’t put as much emphasis on theater experience than with Dunkirk. A tense, tightly paced war epic about the battle that took place in the beaches of Dunkirk between Germany and France. While this definitely was an event worth seeing on the biggest screen in IMAX in July 2017, it’s lack of compelling characters and a needlessly complicated narrative really hinders the rewatch value and makes it fall short of being an all-time classic. Plenty will argue that this is the intention on the part of Nolan but that still doesn’t make for the most engaging watch for me. If Tenet was an example of a Nolan film that had great ideas but bad execution, then Dunkirk is an example of a Nolan film with bad ideas but ultimately great execution.
9.) Insomnia
The first film Nolan made that was disturbed by Warner Bros might just be his most overlooked feature to date. We have a very well done and engaging thriller about one man’s descent into madness and another man that is driven solely by madness. Al Pacino and Robin Williams turn in great performances and make for a perfect duology of the hero and villain of the picture. The film does a great job of showing the effect that constant daylight has on a character along with the passage of time that is scattered across the film. Tbh, the fact that this film is this low on the list says more about how good Nolan is at making films than the overall quality of Insomnia. Even if it doesn’t reach the ambition or scope has any of his films that came after this one, this still makes for a very good watch.
8.) Interstellar
What might be Nolan’s most ambitious film and largest in scope to date, Interstellar makes for one of the most interesting and intriguing sci-fi films of the 21st century. The film goes into great lengths about mankind’s place in the universe and what we are willing to achieve for the survival of the human race. The effects are a feast for the eyes, it’s superbly acted, the emotional core between Cooper and his daughter is very well done, and the first two acts is able to execute it’s themes to near perfection. It’s only the bumpy as hell ending and the way a certain subplot gets completely handwave by the conclusion that prevents this from being up there with Nolan’s very best. Even if it’s not able to stick the landing as well as it could have, Interstellar makes for one engaging ride that is worth experiencing at least one time.
7.) Batman Begins
Batman Begins was an absolute revolutionary when it came out back in 2005. Not only did it revived the Batman franchise that seemed long dead for eight years, but it help set the foundation that properties surrounding superheroes and comic books can in fact be taken more seriously and still be really good. It gives us an incredibly engaging Bruce Wayne in Christian Bale’s iconic turn as this iconic character along with providing a satisfying origin story that stands as one of the best ever put to screen. While it’s impact didn’t feel all the way felt until around the arrival of it’s sequel The Dark Knight three years later, this film’s importance to the Caped Crusader along with the sub-genre should not go unnoticed. Even before Marvel got their universe with Iron Man, it was this terrific first entry from Christopher Nolan that got the ball rolling with just how good a modern superhero movie can be.
6.) The Dark Knight Rises
Nolan’s final entry in his largely successful Dark Knight trilogy is his most daring movie of the lot. This is the one Batman film that actually dares to question the entire idea around the character of Batman: that perhaps Bruce Wayne becoming Batman was a mistake. Aided by a intimating villain in Tom Hardy’s Bane, a welcome supporting turn in Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman and a ending that brings the full themes of the trilogy together, The Dark Knight Rises made for an ending that is flawed but yet felt perfect at the same time. And especially in a age where superhero and movie franchises that constantly refuse to end, it’s certainly refreshing to have a series that was able to get a proper finale and stuck to it. Even if this film does have it’s detractors, I’m still a believer in The Dark Knight Rises…even if you’re not.
5.) The Prestige
Fresh off a year after reviving the Batman franchise, here we have an absolute mind bender of a film with a strong emotional core, twists and turns that are not just surprising but makes complete sense, and a film that overall doesn’t have a clear protagonist or antagonist. The Prestige offers Nolan’s most packed film in terms of themes, craftsmanship and it’s twisty as hell narrative. With the way everything unfolds through the entire picture, the whole experience plays like a manifesto itself. Making you wonder if one day Christopher Nolan will acts as a professional magician himself once he retires from making films. While not quite his best work, The Prestige is arguably Nolan’s most underrated film to date with how little the film gets talk about when it comes to top-tier Christopher Nolan.
4.) Memento
If you want to see a textbook example of how to make a film within a film, look no further than Memento. This is the kind of mind f**k that very few directors could pull off but Nolan is somehow able to do it. Guy Pearce is at his absolute best here as a man suffering from a rare memory loss that is trying to find the man who raped and killed his wife. The score is great, the mystery is able to build perfectly with each previous scene, and it’s just one of those rare films that will reward you every time you watch it regardless of what way you prefer to watch it. There’s not many films that constantly wants to keep me coming back for more after each viewing but Memento is one of those rare films. This is a film that might give you a headache when first watching it but it’s certainly the best headache you will ever have.
3.) Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer is yet another masterfully made and directed film by the great Christopher Nolan himself. It’s able to tell exactly the kind of sprawling epic story that it aspires to be by acting as a character study first and a biopic second. Every single member of it’s highly recognizable cast is able to completely disappear into their roles and captured their performances perfectly, it does a good job of exploring the man of J. Robert Oppenheimer (played perfectly by Cillian Murphy) as not just “the destroyer of worlds” but as an impactful man himself, the three hour runtime is put to good use, and is able to deliver fully on the theater experience in ways that no other filmmaker can do. While may not quite be my very favorite from Nolan himself,this is certainly one of his most impressive work to date and one that I wouldn’t fault anyone who declares it as their new favorite.
2.) The Dark Knight
I know it’s become cliché to claim that The Dark Knight is one of the best superhero movies ever, but many people said that for a reason, it is just that damn good. It justworks perfectly is at being an unique, distinct story about Batman being challenged mentally, emotionally, physically, thematically, and symbolically. The two other main characters throughout the picture in Joker and Harvey Dent represents both the hero that Batman so desperately wants to be along with the villain that he fears that he will one day come. It’s a Batman movie that perfectly mirrors itself with out it tells this identical tale of crime, corruption, and vengeance in the most complex and fascinating way imaginable. There are definitely Batman movies out there that people have liked/disliked more than others but I don’t think anyone can argue that there hasn’t been a Batman movie that has a much of an impact as The Dark Knight. From the twists and turns to it’s resonate themes to Heath Ledger’s amazing turn as Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight, even 14 years later, still stands strong!
1.) Inception
I always go back and forth on #1 and #2 depending on my mood but for right now, I’m gonna go with Inception. This is easily one of the very best sci films every made and one of the rare films where it’s brilliant ideas is able to be brilliantly executed in every way. The creativity on display is astonishing, the premise involving Inception is put to perfect use, the world building is some of the very best I’ve seen in any film, the action is top notch, the effects are breathtaking, the characters are all compelling and engaging, every actor is perfect in their roles, the score is absolutely mesmerizing, and it has one of the most satisfying endings I’ve seen in any film. This is one of the films where no matter how many times I watch it, I still get a fresh, unique, and intriguing experience out of it. This blew mind when I saw for the first time in 2010 and it still blows my mind now. Inception is the best film by Christopher Nolan to date and is one I can recommend to anyone that is a lover of films.
You ever have that one that you fully expected to be good because of all the talent involved with it yet it still manages to surprise you in the best of ways? In regards to Barbie, I think any film fan was anxious to see how this particular film turned out with Greta Gerwig at the helm, the director behind the marvelous Lady Bird and Little Women along with co-directing the not very well known but still very good Nights and Weekends. You also can’t overlook the big names attached to the cast such as Margot Robbie as Barbie herself, Ryan Gosling as Ken, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Simi Lu, Will Ferrell, and even John Cena (for one scene anyway). With a lesser known or proven director, there’s a chance that expectations would not have been as high. However, with the right people working on this project, it seemed like it can achieve another level of creativity and quality storytelling with a movie centering around a successful toy brand that is on par with The L.E.G.O. Movie. Suffice to say, Barbie is as much of a no-brainer winner as many expected to be.
It’s as every bit of clever, funny, and creative as you would expected but it is still able to subvert your expectations in a very intriguing way with a thought-provoking narrative, relevant themes surrounding feminism, patriarchy, gender roles, and identity, and some completely bold turns it takes with the story. The world-building is as strong as it could possibly with a movie surrounding a toy brand that everyone is aware off, each cast member are clearly having the time of their lives, the soundtrack is one you are likely gonna have stuck in your head as soon as you leave the theater, and it feels so refreshing to see a new summer blockbuster that seems to have to same love and passion it does from both in front and behind the camera. It doesn’t all work 100% and there will certainly be plenty of folks that will take issue with the way it handles it’s themes and messages but for the most part, Greta Gerwig is able to make lightning strike a third time in a row and has made herself a new name to look out for.
Plot Synopsis: Barbie (Margot Robbie) is enjoying the perfect life of a woman with her other variations (Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Mackey, Sharon Rooney, Ana Cuz Kayne, Dua Lipa, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, and Marisa Abela) in Barbieland, a matriarchal society where women are self-confident, self-sufficient, and successful. Ken (Ryan Gosling) is also enjoying his life with his counterparts (Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Scott Evans, Ncuti Gatwa, Rob Brydon, and John Cena) as they spend their days engaging with each other on the beach while the Barbies hold all the important job positions such as doctors, lawyers, and politicians. Ken constantly keeps trying to win over Barbie’s hearts but she keeps turning him down in favor of independence and spending time with their female colleagues. During a dance party one night, Barbie suddenly starts questioning her own mortality and brings up death. The next day, she discovers that she can no longer do her own usual daily routines and no longer has flawless hair or skin. It’s then that Barbie, who is constantly referred to as Stereotypical Barbie, meets with Weird Barbie, a local outcast, who informs her that the only way to cure her mysterious affliction is to travel to the real world and find the child who play with her.
Stereotypical Barbie along with Stereotypical Ken go on an adventure together to find Barbie’s kid. However, as the two enter the real world, they end up exposing themselves to CEO of Mattel (Will Ferrell, the toy company who creates the Barbie dolls, who order their capture. Circumstances get more complicated when Ken learns of the American patriarchal system, where he feels important and accepted for the first time. Returning to Barbieland on his own, he persuades the other Kens to take over and turn what was a previously a matriarchal ran society into a patriarchal ran one.
Barbie must team up with her former owner and Mattel employee named Gloria (America Ferrera) and her bitter daughter named Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) to find her true identity and save Barbieland before it’s too late.
When looking at the film on the surface, it’s easy to see why Barbie seems to work as well as it does. The costumes, set designs, world building, and pure aesthetics that are on display feel like they are ripped straight out the fantasies of any young girl that has ever played a Barbie doll in her life as well as any typical Barbie commercial. However, it’s the top notch script from Greta Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach, who also happens to be Gerwig’s husband as well, that’s able to make Barbie an almost certain instant classic. It’s able to deliver in ways that you want but also in ways that you didn’t think you want.
The film takes very clever and subversive takes on each kind of genre tropes it attempts to tackles. From coming-of-age to fish out of water to finding your place in the world to gender roles to modern feminism to old school patriarchy, there’s not a single stone that Greta Gerwig leaves unturned and is not afraid to deliver her commentary on each and every one of these topics. It’s able to use the IP of Barbie, a property that has always been known for being by in large for delivering the perfect power fantasy for any young girl, and uses it to craft a story that greatly examines the classic gender roles, comparing and contrasting the real world with the “perfect” world, and how life is basically meaningless when you are someone who is flawless.
The film is able to successfully uses it’s IP to say something about the impact that Barbie has had on pop culture, the pros and cons of that impact, and what that impact can mean for everyone going forward. Even if it doesn’t quite examine it in a family-friendly manner the way The L.E.G.O. Movie did, it is able to prove once again how making a movie involving a brand should NOT affect the quality of the motion picture. So much so, that at times, the film acts as a response to the way films of this kind are made. Almost as if Gerwig is stretching the point that there are ways to be more inventive and complex with your work instead of just sticking to the typical stereotypical tropes.
Barbie is able to operate on so many different levels to make it one of most multilayered blockbusters in recent memory. Even if you are someone that doesn’t care for or isn’t comfortable with the themes and messages the movie is openly trying to convey, there is plenty of amusement to be found with the picture with the amount of meta humor, references, and quips the film constantly throws at you. It can be dark humor at times (This is a PG-13 movie btw!) but it’s very clear that Gerwig is inviting the audience to laugh along with her and have fun along the way.
Margot Robbie is about as pitch perfect as Barbie as you would expected and nails the role about as well as she nailed Harley Quinn. Her iteration of Barbie is as multilayered as she is three-dimensional and that’s in large because of how well she is able to deliver every single beat of her character where it counts the most. She handles the comedy greatly and easily sells the emotional and dramatic moments with ease. If this doesn’t prove that she’s more than capable of holding her own feature film and isn’t getting work in Hollywood based strictly on her looks, then I don’t know what will.
The rest of the cast is able to shine very well and it seem like they are enjoying themselves immensely. Ryan Gosling is brilliant as Ken, stealing nearly every scene he’s in. As much as he is funny and can be the butt of many of the jokes, he still does does have humanity and dimension to him that comes full circle towards the end. America Ferrera holds well on her own as being Barbie’s former owner and the adult who still has the heart of the child. Michael Cera and Simi Lu gets some laughs as their own versions of Kin. Kate McKinnon is as enjoyable to watch as she always is. Not to mention, Helen Mirren makes for one perfect narrator! It’s a big credit to Greta Gerwig as a director that she is able to find new ways to make a very familiar and well-known cast stand out well in their own ways.
Production wise, it’s very clear a lot of love, heart, and passion has been put into everything. It’s a very colorful and beautiful film to look at with sets, costumes, backgrounds, and visuals that look right at home of what I imagine most would want a Barbie film to look like. The soundtrack by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt is very well done with song choices that are incredibly inspired and will likely will have folks want to buy the soundtrack whenever they can. Greta Gerwig’s vision is perfectly realized throughout the entire picture and proves through every minute of frame that she was the perfect choice to direct this movie.
There are a few things that hold Barbie back from being a complete masterwork overall. As entertaining as Will Ferrell is when he’s on the screen as the CEO, the film doesn’t really know what to do with his character after the first meeting with Barbie and even completely disappears for at least a good half an hour. Not every joke lands as it should, some relationships between certain characters could have used more development, and has moments with it’s commentary while meaningful and well intended, feels like it would have better off showing instead of telling. Then again, this is suppose to be a mainstream movie and sometimes a little spoon feeding is needed for them.
Barbie is another triumph from Greta Gerwig, who is quickly turning herself into not just perhaps the best female director working today but one of the big names to keep an eye on for the foreseeable future. It’s very entertaining, immensely funny, cleverly subversive, and not afraid to be feminist in the slightest. Margot Robbie is perfect as Barbie and Ryan Gosling steals every scene he is in as Ken.
Between the releases of this and Oppenheimer, it’s proof that Hollywood should considered more events such has Barbieheimer going forward. Perhaps then movies will start to actually feel like events made for the big screen and proves that theaters still have a place for cinema. Although, with the recent announcement of Saw X and Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie releasing the same weekend later this year, this weekend might actually be the start of something special. If that’s the case, then maybe their is hope for films going forward!
At least, until the strike finally ends!
Other Comments:
This might be the most pink screening I’ve ever been too! Barbie might just also be the movie that made pink cool for everybody!
I’m not kidding when I said this movie is clearly PG-13! The words penis and vagina are used at one point!
No spoilers but I do love the way that one person is used in this movie. About as perfect of a reveal as the one near the end of The L.E.G.O. Movie.
Who would’ve imagined that a Barbie movie would likely be a bigger summer hit than Transformers, The Flash and Indiana Jones combined? The power of women I guess!
It’s July 18th on the day that I saw Oppenheimer and starting writing this review. That was the day that The Dark Knight came out back in 2008 and exactly 15 years ago on that day (Can’t believe it’s already been that long!). It was during that weekend which also saw the release of Mamma Mia!, directed by Phyllida Lloyda, a movie that was by design entirely different than that of the dark and gritty Batman movie that would change comic book movies for better and worse (mostly worse) for the next 15 years ago. Yet, here we are again in 2023 where we see another flick made by the Nolanminer himself (I promise that’s the only time I’ll use that term) releasing on the same weekend as another flick made by a female director which by design is suppose to be a much different movie tonally and likely aiming for an entirely different demographic.
I bring all of this up is because it’s always nice whenever you have two big movies opening together that is of high quality, completely different from one another, and is able to appease the kind of audience they are going for. (I haven’t seen Barbie at the time of this writing but if the early stellar reviews are any indication, we’ve hit another jackpot.) It’s weeks such as the upcoming one with the Barbieheimer are ones that are greatly needed for theaters to keep going strong. Just constantly giving mainstream audiences reasons to want to see a movie that is suppose to be seen for the big screen instead of just waiting another two to three months to show on their favorite streaming service. I know studios don’t like to release big movies on the same weekend because of how badly it could affect the box office during the opening weekend but the fact that Universal and Warner Brothers committed to releasing their highly anticipated films in the same weekend is something I greatly admire.
As for Oppenheimer itself, it’s once again another masterfully made and perfectly directed film by the great Christopher Nolan himself. It’s able to tell exactly the kind of sprawling epic story that it aspires to be by acting as a character study first and a biopic second. Every single member of it’s highly recognizable cast is able to completely disappear into their roles and captured their performances perfectly, it does a good job of exploring the man of J. Robert Oppenheimer as not just “the destroyer of worlds” but as an impactful man himself, the three hour runtime is put to good use, and even the sound mixing is actually quite good for once even if it can be a bit too loud. For just about everything that it sets out to do, Oppenheimer succeeds greatly.
Premise: Oppenheimer is a feature documentary based around the man of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy). It explores how one man’s brilliance, hubris and relentless drive changed the nature of war forever, led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and unleashed mass hysteria, and how, subsequently, the same man’s attempts to co.
(I’m not gonna go to deep into the plot since this is an early review and also this is based off of a true story.)
Like with plenty of Nolan’s films, Oppenheimer is one that certainly leaves a lot to unpack. It’s during it’s 180-minute long runtime that it constantly moves along from scene to scenes and throws as much characters and dialogue exchanges at you as possible. With a lesser director at the helm, this could make for a very overwhelming and even unsatisfying experience. Once again, Christopher Nolan is able to work his magic and skills behind the camera to make it all work and have it fire on all possible cylinders.
As I stated near the beginning of the review, the movie feels like a character study first and a biopic second. The documentary aspects are still there and (likely) completely faithful to the true story it’s adapting but it makes sure to make Oppenheimer stand out in a compelling way that feels justified in spending three hours with him. The film does a good job of going into great details of who J. Robert Oppenheimer is, where he came from, why he got to where he was, and how what he accomplishes was able to impact the world and himself mentally. Showing how not only creating the first nuclear weapons in the atomic bombs was able to make Oppenheimer the destroyer of worlds but how it might’ve destroyed himself in the process.
It’s not necessarily in the sense that the film tries to go the whole “good man turn evil” thing like some have claimed but it’s more of how the very desire one has in accomplishing their goals can get the better of them and those connected to him. Whether that person is good or bad, the ambition with what they are trying to can bring the death and destruction of themselves and others. The story of Oppenheimer is always one that met those metrics as one man’s mistakes lead to dire consequences for everyone else. This is always interesting subject matter to tap into and Nolan is able to make the ideas he has with this work in the best ways possible.
Of course, we have to talk about the cast here. This might have the most celebrity-heavy cast I’ve ever seen for a movie that was not directed by Denis Villeneuve or Rian Johnson. There is so much talent in front of the camera that it could easily come across as a distraction. As if the director doesn’t have faith in the film itself and has to bring in as many big names as possible to get people’s interest in it. However, not only is it not a distraction in the slightest, every single notable cast member is able to fit their roles perfectly and feel exactly like the characters they are suppose to play.
The man leading the charge is that of Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer himself. This is easily the best performance Murphy has ever given and is basically the first Christopher Nolan film which he is able to stand out as being among the film’s absolute highlights as oppose to an afterthought. He’s able to capture every single aspect of the man that J. Robert Oppenheimer was and never just feels like some actor playing him. He’s engaging and mesmerizing in about every scene he’s in, perfectly conveying every emotion he has to and will likely have an Oscar nomination come the next time the Academy will actually be able to host the Oscars. Some of the standouts scenes with him include the drama he deals with his personal life, the detonation of the atomic bomb, the aftermath of it, and ESPECIALLY the final sequence of the film. Even if the film didn’t have an all-star supporting cast, Cillian Murphy would be able to carry the whole thing perfectly on his back with no help needed.
However, there is a fact an all-star supporting cast and every single one of them are equally flawless in their roles. To go through every single notable actor or actress would take an eternity but the two main ones that stand out the best is Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss and Emily Blunt as Kitty Oppenheimer. Robert Downey Jr. is extraordinary as Strauss, completely escaping the mindset of just being an elderly Tony Stark and able to fit the role flawlessly as being as the chairman of the AEC. He has great chemistry with Alden Ehrenreich when the two appear on screen, is an absolute delight to watch on screen, and will certainly bein in the running for a well deserved Oscar nomination. Emily Blunt is also able to stand out greatly as Kitty Oppenheimer with at least two scenes that seems solely design to give her an Oscar nomination as well. Florence Pugh is also a great standout early on as Jean Talock, even if she is a part of the scenes that likely gave this film it’s R-rating. The entire cast is brilliant over all and it’s to the true strength of Christopher Nolan as a director that he was able to use their talents to perfection without it ever taking you out of the movie.
From a technical standpoint, this could very well be the very best from Nolan to date. The craftsmanship is on full display without anything going to complete waste and everything feeling completely real no matter how you may spin it. The cinematography is spot-on and is able to capture the era that this move is set in incredibly well. The sound design is effective, especially during the sequences involving the atomic bomb. The editing will likely get plenty of awards as it’s able to beautifully translate from scene to scene without much confusion. And thank goodness for once that I was able to completely hear ever bit of dialogue that the characters were saying without unnecessarily added music getting in the way. Finally, although it is weird to have a Christopher Nolan movie without Han Zimmer’s presence, Ludwig Goransson is still able to provide great work here with his score that is able to capture the tone and the mood of the film perfectly. It’s so refreshing in a summer filled with blockbusters that cost so much money to make yet so little of it is shown on the big screen that we got to see what a true cinema is suppose to look like with a hundred million dollar budget.
When it comes from a cinematic perspective, Oppenheimer is basically perfect at everything it sets out to do. So much so that the only flaws you can poke at it are mostly minor little details that I didn’t even really think about until I had to come up with some negatives. First off, there are times during the scenes involving the atomic bomb or Oppenheimer’s PTSD that it feels too loud. Thankfully, they don’t come during parts of the film where you are suppose to hear what the characters are saying but for those with hearing problems or troubled ears, you might want to bring some earplugs with you. There are also some odd directional choices made, particularly with nearly every scene with Downey Jr.’s Strauss being completely in noir while the rest of the film is in full color. None of those are enough to bring the film down in the slightest but I do feel those things are worth addressing, especially in regards to how loud this film can get.
Oppenheimer is yet another marvelous addition to the filmography of Christopher Nolan. It’s able to tell the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer in an interesting way that will delight those that known the history and possibly even intrigue those that don’t know the history. It’s beautifully made, the entire cast is perfection, the three hour runtime is used very well without any scene being wasted, every single penny of the budget is put to good use, and is able to add the notion of how important the overall theatrical experience is along with why theaters still serve a purpose. I’m not quite sure where I ranked it among Nolan’s other films (I will have a ranking very soon!) but this is certainly one of the very best, most well made and expertly crafted films the man has ever made. As someone who didn’t care for Tenet and was lukewarm at best on Dunkirk, it’s so nice to see Nolan return to stellar form and prove once again why he’s one of the greatest directors working today!
Better watch out Across the Spider-Verse! You might have some competition for best film of 2023!
Other comments:
I was considering having the subtitle of this review: Nolan Drops a Bomb of a Movie but that would honestly be quite a dishonest take on the movie.
Btw, there is no action in this movie to speak of. Despite this being about a man’s actions during the war, there are no actual war scenes in it. There’s only one main sequence with the atomic bomb along with only a few other scenes with it acting as hallucination sequences. This might seem obvious to some but for those unaware, just don’t expect a movie like Dunkirk and be more in for a thriller like Bridge of Spies.
We also need to have a discussion one day of Bridge of Spies being one of Spielberg’s criminally underrated/overlooked films. It’s just great!
It’s cool to not only see Josh Peck in big movies but also that his character is the one that gets to activate the bomb.
I sure can’t wait to hear stories about high school teachers showing their students this film during history class and how it took literally weeks to finish the whole thing!
Because we live in a world where only the worst possible things can happen, another strike in Hollywood has begun. This time, it’s with the SAG-AFTRA, the Screen Actors Guild- American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The strike involved an ongoing labor dispute between the Hollywood actor’s union, the SAG-AFTRA I just mentioned, and the AMPTP, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. This officially started today, July 14th, 2023, after a failure to negotiate a deal with the studios that both sides could agree to.
The main causes for this strike involved mostly two key components. First, lack of agreement on a new contract between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP, mostly involving the amount of pay for the actors. Second, for the intense use of artificial intelligence where it will scan actor’s faces to generate performances digitally which the studios can use to their benefit at anytime with no payment required for the actors. If you read both of these reasons carefully, especially the latter one, you can certainly see why there is a great divide right now between the writers and actors of Hollywood and Hollywood itself.
As a result of this strike and the writer’s one that is now about two and a half months in, Hollywood is basically shut down now for those in the writing or acting department. Scripts for movies and television are not being written and actors cannot show up to set for either a film or show. It’s only director working through post production related stuff and things involving A.I. which work is allowed to continue. Having the writers and actors go on strike at the same time is something that hasn’t happened in Hollywood since 1960, over 60 years ago. Needless to say, there hasn’t been a disconnection between both sides in Hollywood for a very long time.
As I said before, a large reason for both strikes happening at the same time involves studio wanting to push A.I. further than ever before but doing so at the expense of the writers and actors themselves. Firstly, there was the notion of using A.I. to create scripts for said films and shows while the writers would mostly be tasked with simple rewrites and patches to those scripts. Secondly, as recently stated, there’s the proposal to SAG-AFTRA that A.I. will be use to scan a background actor’s likeness for one day’s worth of pay and then be able to use their likeness forever in any form without pay or consent. If there is not a sense of being more technology advance to the point where you are literally trying to replace literal human being in favor of A.I., this is it.
Of course, the reasons for this push with A.I. isn’t simply to be more technology advanced, it more has to do with money. With being able to use A.I. more often with handling scripts and actors in the background, this would likely lead to studios not having to pay the writers and actors as much. After all, if you can just simply use A.I. to get things done, then why bother paying much for other people to do your work for you when you save dollar signs by using more advance technology? Never mind the fact that A.I. will never have the look, feel, heart, or soul of an actual person’s writing, as long as it saves a few extra bucks, it doesn’t matter with the studios. Even if the push for more A.I. involves taking a new step forward with tech, it’s very clear the main objective with it is to save more money for the future, especially if Bob Iger’s comments are anything to go by.
If you basically want a perspective from the studios themselves, look no further than Disney CEO Bob Iger, who recently reprised his role as CEO in November of last year and has just been extended to remain CEO until 2026. As a response to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Iger claims that the actors’ demands with payroll were “not realistic”, with the notion that “they are adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive.” Also, a reminder that according to Huffpost writer Marian Fang, Iger’s annual yearly salary as CEO of Disney is $27 million. I don’t know about you all but that is basically a sign that the studios are basically living in their own reality and are nowhere close to being on the same terms as the writers and actors.
And that’s not even mentioning the fact that neither side has any intention of negotiating for the next several months and the studios are looking to drag this on until the other sides comes crawling back to them. I’m not even joking on that.
The studios and streamers reportedly have no intentions of negotiating with the Writer's Guild for several more months.
“The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” a studio executive tells Deadline. pic.twitter.com/vKXR8lwzYu
To put it all simply, we are in the middle of what will likely go down as the biggest strike in Hollywood history. It’s the kind of the strike that will determine the direction that movies and shows will look like going forward, the payroll that will go into them, how far they will go with A.I., and whether or not this will be the defining moment that makes or breaks Hollywood from here on out. I never like to be Mr. Negative but if recent history is anything to go by, Hollywood tends to always learn the wrong lessons and this will likely lead to them cracking like an egg. I have no idea what that will mean for the future of cinema but no doubt, changes will have to come.
A.I. can be useful and resourceful with anything but it should never be used to replace human beings entirely. That’s the kind of messed up future that the Terminators films have tried to warn us about for decades. It may not be killer robots but investing too much into artificial intelligence can lead to technology taking over humanity in many departments, including writing and filmmaking. It’s ironic how the big movie at the moment in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1 is literally about Tom Cruise facing off against A.I. and the consequences of artificial intelligence if you go too far with it. While it’s all fiction, it’s fascinating how Hollywood has no self awareness whatsoever and it could lead to a bigger collapse than ever before.
In conclusion, the actors have now joined the writers on strike. Because of that, many productions in Hollywood will have to be put on hold due to no scripts being written and no actors being on set to film. Until there is some form of agreement, this will how things being rolling in Hollywood until further notice. To quote a well-known actor who just turn 81 years old, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
Here’s article links involving the studios proposal to the SAG-AFTRA and Bob Iger’s comments:
I can’t recall a blockbuster in recent memory that seems to come out at the absolute perfect timing than Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part 1. Not just because this has been a summer thus far of underperforming popcorn flicks that don’t involve Marvel superheroes and relying on Tom Cruise to work his “Top Gun: Maverick” magic to get butts in theater seats but the subject matter of what is the internal plot of the picture. That subject matter being no other than being the main villain that is known as the Entity. The Entity doesn’t act as an actual person but strictly as artificial intelligence, A.K.A. A.I.
It’s no secret that A.I. is on the rise more than ever. Although not quite theTerminator or cyborg level threat we come to expect, it is something that if not too careful, it could led towards the end of creativity and artistic integrity. That could also be a big reason why a writer’s strike is currently happening, using A.I. to create scripts with real writers giving soft patches to them so it could save the studios some money in the future. While I’m sure that was strictly convenient timing as the movie itself was suppose to come out in 2021, at least two years before serious progression of A.I. or the writer’s strike even happened, but no doubt director/writer Christopher McQuarrie saw some sort of writing on the wall and decided to make at least two Mission: Impossible movies out of it, with Dead Reckoning Part 1 releasing now and Part 2 set to arrive next summer.
Thankfully Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie are able to prove once again that they are up to completing the mission. While we will have to wait and see how this specific story wraps up next year, Dead Reckoning Part 1 is yet another superb entry in the very consistent and reliable Mission Impossible franchise. The action is bigger, crazier, and much wider in scope, the stunts are out of this world, the tone is perfectly controlled throughout, the runtime doesn’t feel intimating, and the social commentary on A.I. is well implemented that surprisingly doesn’t take you out of the movie. It doesn’t quite reach the highs of Fallout but it’s certainly a nice change of pace of a summer filled with mid to low-tier blockbusters that don’t remotely feel like it lived up to it’s 300 million dollar plus budget.
Plot Synopsis: Taking place sometime after Fallout, IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) embarks on a new mission to recover half of a key from his ally Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), whom the IMF puts a bounty on her head. After briefly reuniting with Ilsa and telling her to lay low, Ethan travels back to the US to meet with the Community, led by former IMF director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), who informs him of a new threat in Artificial Intelligence that is known as the Entity. Originally designed to sabotage digital systems, the A.I. itself went rogue and was able to expand itself to infiltrate all the major defense and military systems along with intelligence networks. The power which the Entity possesses is one which plenty are wanting to control and even ally with.
Ethan Hunt and his allies of Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames) and Isla go on a mission to recover the keys that can unlock access to the Entity. However, other folks are looking to recover the key for their own benefits such has a mysterious figure named Grace (Hayley Atwell), the White Widow in Alaana Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby), and a powerful terroist and possible former adversary of Ethan named Gabriel (Esai Morales) along with his side assassin, Paris (Pom Klementieff). There’s also some enforcers for the Community known as Jasper (Shea Whigham) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis) that are tasked with bringing Ethan in for infiltration.
With the power of the Entity becoming deadlier at every minute and the world at great stake, a deadly race around the globe is set. Ethan sets out for what is likely his deadliest mission yet, one that puts himself and those he cares about in greater danger than ever before along with introducing a new potential ally who he may not be able to trust. It’s now that he must come to the realization that the mission matters more than his friends and defeating the Entity might indeed cost him dearly.
When it comes to what one would expect from a Mission Impossible movie, it’s mostly four things: Tom Cruise, Tom Cruise in action, Tom Cruise doing absurdly crazy stunts, and of course, Tom Cruise running like the wind faster than Bullseye. Even after seven movies, the golden Hollywood superstar is able to find new and exciting ways to push beyond his limits in that department and then some. There’s a lot you can say about Tom Cruise as a person and an actor but there’s no denying that the man will doing everything in his power to entertain his audience, even if it involves putting his own life in peril.
As much as this movie involves Ethan Hunt facing off against A.I., it’s also about Tom Cruise trying to save Hollywood from himself. I think it’s safe to say that Ethan Hunt is the character that Tom Cruise has felt the most comfortable playing him. Ethan Hunt represents the kind of figure that allows Cruise to explore his own ego and self awareness along with playing a self insert version of himself that can always saves the world at every turn. Just as much as Ethan has to go through extreme measures to get his mission accomplished, Tom has to go through extreme measures to make sure the movies that he’s in are ones that everyone wants to see on the big screen. It’s a mission that both characters can constantly chose not to accept if they don’t want to but they will always accept it because it’s just who they are. Because of that, we get to see them both fly, jump, run, and go crazier than ever before.
In many ways, Dead Reckoning Part 1 acts as both a love letter and culmination of the entire franchise up to this point, even more so than Fallout. You get homages to the original 1996 film with the return of Kittridge, a more mysterious spy plot, a certain character that has a connection to Ethan’s early days in the IMF, and the consequences to Hunt’s action as had as an agent from that film to now. While the franchise up to Rogue Nation had been relatively self-contained minus a few tie-ins, McQuarrie knows that things must come full circle for what could be Cruise’s final times as being the character that will be most represented in his autobiography and is able to do that very fluently in ways that don’t feel contrived or forced.
Of course, Tom Cruise is not the only one to shine brightly here as he is once again backed up by a tremendous supporting cast from all members old and new to the series. Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg are back and they still as enjoyable now as they always have been as Ethan’s companions/friends of Luther and Benji. Rebecca Ferguson, while not in it as much as I would like, is still marvelous as Ilsa Faust and does get a few moments to shine herself along with Ethan. Vanessa Kirby continues to be electric as the White Widow. And Henry Czerny has not missed a beat as Kittridge and his return feels genuinely worthwhile without feeling like a pointless cameo.
When it comes to the new cast members, they shine even brighter. Esai Morales, while playing a henchman that feels a tad underwritten, makes a genuine impression as Gabriel, the new foe that tries to get under Ethan’s skin. Pom Klementieff steals every action scene that she’s in as the insane and sinister Paris, even if she spends most of her screentime being entirely mute. Shea Whigham and Greg Tarzan Davis are great fun as the agents that are constantly chasing down Hunt and make for a perfect buddy cop duo. The biggest new player her is Hayley Atwell as Grace, a sneaky thief that gets caught in the middle of the action and likely will have a new role played in future movies. She is able to fit into this series like a glove, has perfect chemistry with Cruise, and is just absolute mesmerizing every time she appears on screen. Atwell has always been a great, underrated actress and hopefully her performance here will land her more big roles in the near future.
From just a technical standpoint, this film is pretty much perfect. While the action isn’t quite as impressive as Rogue Nation or Fallout, it is still absolutely superb and every single set piece manages to top the one that came before. The entire Rome chase sequence alone is worth the entire price of admission with how tense and over-the-top it is. You also can’t forget the motorcycle off of the cliff sequence and the tension-filled climax on the train. It’s all excellent stuff and Tom Cruise continues to prove he’s the best madman we have in Hollywood. The pacing off the film is airtight, the runtime doesn’t feel intimating, and the score from Lorne Balfe is another fantastic one and one of my favorites in the entire series. While the 270 million dollar budget might seem overboard like a lot of big movies this summer, this actually feels like every single penny of production was put to good use and makes the trip to the theaters all the more worth it.
It is unfortunate tho is despite how great Dead Reckoning Part 1 is, it does make one story decision that will likely not vibe well with fans, especially those of the last two films. It’s a sequence that comes around the end of the second act where we see the great power that the A.I. possesses and the influence it can have on someone as smart as Ethan. It plays out well and makes the antagonist all the more threatening but the end result of it will likely leave a sour taste in some folks mouth. Without getting too heavily into spoilers, it feels like it falls into the trope of one character getting shafted for the sake of leaving room for another. While it’s a decision that could potentially be backpedaled in Part 2, the way it plays out makes it seem like a pill that fans will have to swallow to properly enjoy the rest of what transpires throughout the series.
There are also times to where the exposition surrounding the Entity and what it does can become too much, especially in the earlier scenes with it. These pieces of dialogue aren’t the best written and are the few moments where it feels like the movie is on A.I.-pilot (See what I did there!). Also, be warned that this is in fact a Part 1, something which the title card clearly states. While the movie does takes a definite stopping point that doesn’t feel abrupted, it does make it clear by the end that only one half of the equation is solved and there is still another half to go.
Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 proves that this series has no signs of slowing down anytime soon despite being seven movies in. It’s able to continue to deliver the goods and thrills that people come to these movies for while also keeping that same tongue-and-cheek feel that makes these movies enjoyable. It’s yet another reminder why the theater experience is important and there should be nothing that should take away from it. In a time where A.I. is becoming more of a thing every day and a strike involving writers and actors is occurring, Dead Reckoning Part 1 is a reminder of why we all love going to the movies and how much of the movies we will miss once the impact of these circumstances will be greatly felt. No matter where you fall on in the state of Hollywood, A.I. or this franchise, make it your mission to see this movie on the big screen! I promise it’s a mission you will not regret accepting!
Other comments:
Don’t let the release of this movie distract from the fact that the strike with the actors and writers is very serious business. Studios need to suck it up and pay them the money they deserve! A.I. will never be able to replicated what real living being can do ever do! I don’t care how good or bad a movie is, A.I. should never be the answer to that! So, just pay them the money they are owed!
Btw, I will write a piece about this matter very soon!
I’m sorry I couldn’t get his review out before the strike was official. I wanted to get it done before then but things got in the way for me. Apologies if the timing of the review comes across as tone deafed.
I think you can all see why the timing of this movie’s release could not be any more confident.
Even so, please go see Dead Reckoning Part 1 in theaters! It deserves your money!
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