Books vs. Movies
In this podcast we set out to answer the age old question: is the book really always better than the movie?
Books vs. Movies
Breaking Down Cinematic Disappointments: Top 10 Least Favorite Films of 2024
Join me, Lluvia, as I navigate the tangled web of movie critiques and reviews, tackling these questions and more in my latest episode of Books vs Movies. I'll share my journey through 2024's theatrical releases, uncovering the top 10 films that left me less than impressed. From the unnecessary continuation of beloved series like "Kung Fu Panda 4" to the pitfalls of sequels over saturating the cinematic landscape, there’s plenty to unpack. I'm also on a quest to find the best platform for tracking my movie experiences, weighing the pros and cons of IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Letterboxd.
This episode isn't just about my least favorite films; it’s a mix of candid observations and personal reflections. Discover my musings on "Problemista," and why Julio Torres’ signature humor struck a different chord than expected. I’ll reveal why "It Ends With Us" surprised me compared to its literary counterpart, and how "Saturday Night" and "Nosferatu" fell short of my expectations. And just when you think we’re done, I’ll share my thoughts on "Gladiator 2". Whether you're a movie buff or a casual viewer, this episode promises an engaging glimpse into the triumphs and tribulations of film watching.
All episodes of the podcast can be found on our website: https://booksvsmovies.buzzsprout.com/share
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Welcome to Books vs Movies, the podcast where I set out to answer the age-old question is the book really always better than the movie? I'm Yuvia, an actress and book lover based out of New York City, and today I will be counting down my top 10 least favorite films of 2024. Now I do want to say that this list and the list that makes up my top 10 best films of 2024 are stuck to just what I saw in theaters. Reason being I mainly use IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes to rate the films that I watch and, as far as I know, they're not like Goodreads in that, you know, on Goodreads or the Storygraph, after you rate and review a book, you can put the date that you read it and you can filter books or filter your profile by year and then see just the books that you read that year. You can't do that on IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes. You just rate it and it goes out into existence. So there were a lot more films that I saw that were not in theaters, but I have to focus on just the ones that are in theaters because I can just go into my AMC app and see everything that I watched in theaters. It's right there and, yeah, unfortunately, like if I were to go to IMDb they do have like a recently searched area, but it's going to list every single thing that I've looked up on that website, whether it be an actor or a director or a writer or a film that I was just looking up because I remembered there was an actor in it but I couldn't remember who they played, whether or not I rated or reviewed it. It's going to be on that list. So that is just too long of a list for me to work my way through. So we are sticking to just films that I saw in theater. So just want to make that very clear.
Speaker 1:I am not sure if I will expand to Letterboxd, I believe through that. So Letterboxd is a social media app similar to Goodreads, except for films. So you rate and review films and you can add your friends to it and your friends can see how you rated and reviewed a certain film. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, through that app you can filter through the year, so I can literally rate and review and just like Goodreads, like if I watched it in 2024, I can put that I watched it in 2024 or in 2025 in this case, and filter it out and I can see everything and make a mass list of everything that I watched in 2024 or in 2025 in this case and filtered out, and I can see everything and make a mass list of everything that I saw, because I watch a lot of films and 2024, I feel like, was the year of the TV show for me. I saw a lot of miniseries and TV shows in general, so that's good, expanding my horizons.
Speaker 1:I've always, always, always, been such a film lover. I've always loved film, so that is like my favorite medium to consume stories and then followed by theater and then I've never been big into television shows, but I'm working on it because I do need to be more familiar with shows. But anyway, just wanted to make that clear. And I'm a little hesitant to get the letterboxd app because, unlike Goodreads, where I have a really nice supportive group of book club friends and just bookish friends in general, I can have a controversial book opinion and because I have such a supportive community like, I am not scared of expressing that opinion, like my bookish friends may disagree with me, but we can have a healthy conversation and discussion on why we disagree with each other. I'm not sure that I'll have that. So like film buffs are just so mean and like conceited and I'm blanking out on the word but just like film snobs, they are just such film snobs on the word, but just like film snobs. They are just such film snobs Like, if you like something that they like, the film community as a whole thinks is awful, you're like a horrible person. Or, if you like or if you dislike something that the film community as a whole says is great, you're also a horrible person for that having that opinion. So I'm just trying to protect myself here. I again, I don't mind having discussions, I don't mind if you disagree with me, but there's a difference between like disagreeing and just being mean about it. And I feel like, unfortunately, like a lot of the film community, hardcore film snobs are like that, like they are just so mean and rude. So anyway, moving on, I'm already scared about one of the films I have on my least favorite list of 2024 because I just I'm already, I already know, I already know that it's gonna be a very controversial pick, especially for how high up I put it. Everything else, I think people are not going to care, but that one, ooh okay.
Speaker 1:So, starting off with number 10, we have Kung Fu Panda 4. So I love the original Kung Fu Panda trilogy. This was obviously just a handoff for Poe, to transition from Poe who was the main character of the Kung Fu 3, well, I guess of this one too, but the main focus of the first three Kung Fu Panda films to hand it off to the new, the character who's going to take over for Poe I don't remember her name off the top of my head, but she's a little fox voiced by Awkwafina. But yeah, I mean, it wasn't a horrible sequel. All things considered, 2024 was the year of the sequels.
Speaker 1:I want to say the majority of the films that were released were a sequel in some shape, way or form. We had very few original films, I feel like. But that's okay. I mean, it's okay, but yeah. So Kung Fu Panda 4 wasn't bad by any means, but just unnecessary, and I wish they had just left it at the original trilogy. I am not as salty about this as I was with Toy Story. Toy Story, just Toy Story, like the fact that Toy Story 3 ended and it was just like the perfect ending and they continue it on. I'm still so angry about that and so pissed off, but I don't feel that way about Kung Fu Panda 4. Maybe it's because I don't know if it was ever said to be a trilogy, like Toy Story 4 was said like this is going to be a trilogy Just kidding Psych. I don't think that like that announcement was ever made about Kung Fu Panda 4, but it felt complete after the third film. So I kind of wish they had just left it at three. But it is what it is. It's but it, like I said, not terrible, but definitely just an obvious handoff to transition from Poe to Poe's replacement Number nine. And this one hurts me that it's on here and that is Moana 2.
Speaker 1:I love, absolutely love the first Moana film. I love Moana. Moana is my favorite princess. I saw the original Moana three times in theaters because I absolutely just loved that movie and I was perfectly, totally fine with it being a standalone film. And it was supposed to be a standalone film, especially because, all things considered, it was considered kind of a box office flop. But turns out that Moana is the most animated, is the most streamed animated film of like the past four years. So I think Disney really wanted to capitalize that on that and released Moana 2. This, or what was the premise of this film? Or this started off as a TV series that was supposed to be made for Disney+, but with the success of the streaming numbers of Moana, they put it together into a film and released it as Moana 2, the sequel. And you can tell, because everything that they did with Moana just unraveled. They just unraveled everything that they built with Moana and it's uh. No, it pains me so much to have Moana 2 on this list because I love her, but she, she had to be on this list. I'm sorry, moana.
Speaker 1:Number eight is Bob Marley One Love Again. Not a terrible film, by all means, it was just. There was a lot of other strong contenders and this one I felt to be just okay in terms of it being. Did I really, as someone who only knows Bob Marley by name and knows like his big, big hits, did I really learn anything new about Bob Marley? Not really, and I think when you're putting out a biopic, I understand that you want to appeal to the fans, but as a non-fan who was interested in learning more about Bob Marley, I didn't really learn anything about him and overall I thought it was just an okay biopic. Definitely better biopics out there and I think I'm just gonna have to read about Bob Marley, which is not a bad thing, but, yeah, not necessarily a great biopic. There's definitely better. Number seven Blink Twice, so this one.
Speaker 1:It follows tech billionaire Slater King, who's played by Channing Tatum. He meets a cocktail waitress named Frida at a fundraising gala. He invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island and as strange things start to happen, frida starts to question her reality. So I was not really too familiar with this with the plot, other than this was originally called Pussy Island and this was the film where Zoe Kravitz this is her directorial debut and this is where she and Channing Tatum ended up falling in love and dating, eventually engaged, and now they they broke off their engagement just last year, but this was the start of that relationship.
Speaker 1:I think it wasn't bad and I appreciate what they were going for. I just don't think it was executed as well as I would have liked to have it be executed, especially considering the message that they were trying to put out. I just think I don't know. I think, like I said, I did appreciate the message, the commentary that it was making or that it was trying to make. I just don't think that commentary came off as strongly as I would have liked, considering the subject matter. I don't want to spoil this one if I can avoid it. But to be fair, the original title, pussy Island, kind of gives you an idea of what it could be about, and before the film started there was a trigger warning.
Speaker 1:I'm still on the fence of trigger warnings. I'm not sure how I know there's some people that are very, very passionate about this and if you say you're against trigger warnings, again you're seen as like this horrible, awful person and like potentially problematic. I am not against trigger warnings, like if someone wants to include them, by all means include them. I've looked. There was another podcast called that I listened to. That kind of went into why they didn't support trigger warnings and I think they're still doing studies. This is from what I've seen. Nothing is conclusive just yet and I don't know if anything has been updated. These studies that I'm familiar with and that the podcast also talked about are about two years old at this point. A lot can happen in two years, so I do need to look into this. But the studies from two years ago were saying that trigger warnings might not be as helpful as people think they are. They might actually be doing more harm than good, and I understand completely why trigger warnings exist, which is why I'm not 100% against them. But I don't know. I also want to help people heal, and if they're doing more, that's a whole other conversation. But that's kind of why I'm on the fence of like trigger warnings.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that this film included the trigger warnings again considering the subject matter. That being said, having that trigger warning before that film kind of gave away a major, major, major plot point. So when the plot twist happened it was like it's not much of a plot twist because he gave us the trigger warning. There have been some theater productions that I've been to recently that have QR codes that you can scan and it'll say like scan here for trigger warnings.
Speaker 1:Trigger warnings can contain spoilers and then you can opt in or out of scanning the trigger warning if you want to. I think that might be a good way to go forward, but then I understand some mediums don't allow for it. There's really no. I mean you can have like a QR code before the start of the film, but you're encouraging people to turn off their phones so you don't really want them. Scanning the QR code, you can have it on the movie poster, but not everyone's going to see it on the movie poster. You can't really have trigger warnings. For things like television I mean you can, but again you might be going into spoiler territory. I'm totally fine with spoilers. You might be going into spoiler territory, I'm totally fine with spoilers. So I don't mind. That plot twist was kind of ruined by the trigger warnings. But I know there's like there are some people who like hate spoilers and if you even breathe the tiniest hint of a spoiler when and you're actually not, but they think you are like they get so pissed off at you. So I think there might be a happy meeting. If we're heading towards a world where we have, where we have, trigger warnings for everything, I think maybe finding a way to include them without spoiling it would be like a nice happy medium. But I, like I said, I do understand that scanning the in in theater you have time to look over the program and you have time to scan before the show starts. You have that technically in theater, like in the movie theater too, if you show up early enough. But, like I said, it's a little bit more tricky right now in film, since you don't have a program. But anyway, just all of that to say. I appreciate the commentary it was trying to make, but I don't think it was as effective as it could have been.
Speaker 1:Number six is Problemista, and Problemista follows a man named Alejandro who is an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador. He's struggling to bring his unusual ideas to New York and as time runs out on his work visa, he gets a job assisting an art world outcast artist person and she becomes his only hope to stay in the country. I absolutely adore Julio Torres. I absolutely love Los Espookys, which was a show that was on Max a few years ago. It got canceled after two seasons but it was hilarious. I love that it was in Spanish.
Speaker 1:And this Julio Torres has a very unique sense of humor and I absolutely adore him. But his humor does not always match my humor. I think I can handle his humor in like small doses and then it kind of becomes old. For me His humor is very like, metaphysical, very, uh like. All I can do is describe it as like metaphysical, think like astrology and like astrophysics and I don't know. It's very metaphysical, that's just the best way to describe it. I really wanted to like this film because I think Julio is a very unique comedy, has a very unique perspective on comedy that we don't have anywhere else. But it is a very, very, very niche brand of comedy and it doesn't always work for me. And it worked for me in Los Spookys, it didn't necessarily work for me in this film.
Speaker 1:Number five is it Ends With Us. Are we really surprised that this is on here? No, I don't think so. But the main issue that I had with the film is I did like it better than the book, but the main issue with the film is just that it was so boring. It was just so, so boring. Number four is Saturday Night, and so this takes place on October 11th 1975, which is when the very first episode of Saturday Night Live, back then just called Saturday Night, premiered, and it follows a group of young comedians and writers that changed television forever. So this follows, follows, or this happens in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live, again at the time just called Saturday Night.
Speaker 1:It just wasn't for me. I know that one of my book club friends really enjoyed it Hi, raven, hope you're listening and I know that one of my other friends really, really enjoyed it as well, but she went to go watch it with her friend. She is a producer and her friend that she went to go watch it with is a stage manager. So they were really, really tense watching this film because they know the stress of time running out. But the show has to go on, but not everything has fallen into place even though you're about to go on, but not everything has fallen into place even though you're about to go on. So they really related to that aspect. It just wasn't for me. It was. It just wasn't my kind of humor. I am not a, I don't watch Saturday Night Live, so I don't know if that was something that had to do with it, like if you would appreciate it a lot more, being a fan of the show. I'm not. I don't hate it, but I don't watch it. I'm not a fan. So it just it just wasn't for me.
Speaker 1:Oh boy, number three, this is the one that I'm worried about and I know I'm going to get a lot of hate for including it on this list and especially for including it as high on this list as I am, and that is Nosferatu. I know I know Everyone is going crazy for this film. Everyone loves the director. He previously directed the Witch, the Lighthouse, the Northmen I think those are like the main ones but people absolutely love his films. I haven't seen it. This is the first film of his that I've seen. Orlando has seen the Witch and the Lighthouse, but people absolutely love him. I'm still willing to give his other films a shot.
Speaker 1:This one was just not for me and I'm already so scared for the reaction I'm going to get for including it. But yeah, it's a very, very, very, very slow burn, which seems to be his MO, like all of his films are kind of slow burns and which is fine. I don't mind slow burns necessarily. I think that they work sometimes and then sometimes they're just a little too slow and for me this was just a little bit too slow and some of the choices I'm not as into vampires as like Orlando is.
Speaker 1:So he was very, very disappointed by this film. He really wanted to like it. He loves the original Nosferatu. He like he was telling me all about like the changes they made to this one that he disagreed with. That he thought didn't add anything to the storyline. Again, he liked the Witch and he liked the Lighthouse and he's aware that this filmmaker is known for like his slow burns and he felt like that slow burn worked for the Witch and the Lighthouse because they're original stories and so you don't really know where the story is going. You're kind of just along on this ride and you're intrigued by what's going on. So as a strong follower of Nosferatu, that came out weird. But as someone who loves Nosferatu, he was a little disappointed by this one and felt like the slow burn actually worked to the detriment of the film instead of aiding it and, especially since this is a well-known story, it just worked in its detriment.
Speaker 1:For me personally, I just found it to be a little bit too slow. It took a while for me to be engaged and there was just aspects of it like the ending just was kind of silly to me. In my opinion. I just I wasn't here for that ending. So I will, and I will also say that this was my last film of 2024. I literally just watched it on New Year's Eve, so it's very, very fresh in my mind.
Speaker 1:So had I had time to sit with this film, would it be number three? Maybe not. Maybe not, but because I think, because it's so fresh in my mind, it's like, yeah, I really didn't like that and I'm going to put it at number three. I will say, as I listen to this later on, after I've had time to sit with Nosferatu, I'm probably going to be like why the heck would I put this film after Saturday night? And it ends with us of all things. But it is what it is, I'm sorry. Like I said, it's fresh in my mind. That's why it's so high up on the list.
Speaker 1:Number two is Gladiator 2. I really did not like this one. I did not like it at all, and the reason I didn't like it was because I really liked the first Gladiator film. It's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember really, really liking it. And as I'm watching Gladiator 2, I'm like it's been a while since I've seen the first Gladiator, but this happened in the first Gladiator and that happened in the first Gladiator. Like I'm watching this and it's like I'm watching Gladiator, like it's like it should be that as the sequel, like if they mentioned something that happened in the first Gladiator and I don't remember. It's like all right, I mean, it's fine. I watched Gladiator a long time ago and it makes sense that I don't remember every single detail of the first Gladiator film. But I shouldn't get flashbacks of like this is this is the first Gladiator, and it was.
Speaker 1:This was literally the first Gladiator film, just with a new Maximus, who's Russell Crowe's character, and some minor changes. There's two emperors instead of one, but they looked and acted just like Joaquin Phoenix did in the first Gladiator film. We have Denzel Washington, who's completely new from the original, like there's nothing. There's no remnant of him from the first Gladiator. So he's about the only original thing. And Pedro Pascal is also about the only original thing, but everything else it's it's Gladiator. It's the first Gladiator. It's literally the first Gladiator, just some, just with Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal. So you can't say that it's the first Gladiator, but it's the first Gladiator. If you're going to watch Gladiator 2, just don't and just watch the first Gladiator. That's what I have to say.
Speaker 1:Wow, I got really heated. All right, and maybe I should have made that my number one, because I feel like I'm not going to get a seated with my number one pick. But objectively, my number one pick is the worst, is my least favorite film of 2024. And that is Godzilla X Kong the New Empire. I am not a fan of these films. I don't, I don't mind. Like the original Godzilla, I don't. I didn't mind the Godzilla with Aaron Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen that came out in like 2012, 2013, around that time but like this new iteration with Vera Farmiga and although she wasn't in this one, but she was in like the first ones. But anyway, yeah, I watched this purely because of Orlando. He absolutely loves these films and I love going to the movies. Absolutely, absolutely loves these films and I love going to the movies. Absolutely love, love, love going to the movies.
Speaker 1:And it had been a really like at this point, I feel like we hadn't been to the movies in about a month or two. So I was like desperate to go to the movies and I was like I don't want to watch that, but I know you want to watch that and I just want to go to the movies. So let's just go to the movies and watch that. And we did, and I kind of wish I hadn't. I kind of wish I had just waited three months until the next movie that I really wanted to watch came out, because this was just so terrible, and so I think I can turn my brain off when something is like so ridiculously over the top, like I can turn my brain off, but there's just so some things that are so silly and dumb that I cannot turn my brain off because I'm just thinking about how dumb that was. So this was one of those films that I was like why, why, why, why, why, why.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing I know Orlando was really excited for this film because Godzilla and King Kong team up to take down the baddie of this, this movie, and that was like what everyone was excited for was like King Kong and Godzilla to take down the baddie of this, this moon, and that that was like what everyone was excited for was like King Kong and Godzilla teaming up and having like this epic battle, and so, like the first half of the film is like spent on building up this baddie, like this baddie is just so powerful that Godzilla has to like go all over the world and defeat some of the other monsters, to like soak up their energy and get as powerful as they can by so as she can by soaking up all this energy, because there's no way she can defeat this baddie without doing this. And then King Kong doesn't need to level up, but he needs to be there to help Godzilla, because Godzilla, even though she's powering up, she cannot defeat this baddie on her own. So, like Kong and Godzilla need to team up because if they don't, this baddie is going to rule the world. And then we get to the other dimension where this baddie is, and it was the most disappointing reveal.
Speaker 1:This is the scrawniest gorilla I've ever seen in my life. You cannot convince me that Kong or Godzilla would have been able to do this Like there's, that they would have been unable to do this on their like one could have. Like Kong could have easily. Like there was no need for Godzilla to like Godzilla could have kept chilling and Kong could have taken this guy out. Like Kong is like 300 pounds of muscle more than this scrawny gorilla.
Speaker 1:Like this is like a human with a human battleship or like just a human fishing ship with a really long and sharp harpoon could have killed this gorilla.
Speaker 1:The only reason they struggled was because this gorilla had uh was like torturing this other monster and he was using that other monster to like fight Godzilla and Kong.
Speaker 1:And it was that other monster that was powerful, because as soon as they got like they got rid of the mind control and this monster was like no longer under the control of this gorilla. Like I said, battle over in two seconds flat, that's not even an exaggeration. They should have just made the baddie the, the mind control monster as opposed to the gorilla. I could have beaten that gorilla and that thing could have stepped on, but you know what I still I I could have like climbed up it never would have sensed me coming and I could have like planted a bomb on it somewhere and killed it Like this is the most pathetic looking baddie I've ever seen in my life. Anyway, that is it for this episode of Books vs Movies. I hope you enjoyed. I hope you enjoyed this episode and tune in next time when I count down my top 10 favorite films of 2024 that I saw in theaters. Bye.