Beta's Top Ten Favorite Movies of 2023

Today marks fourteen years since my first bog post on Beta is Dead. As has been the custom, I will celebrate by sharing my To Ten Movie list of the past year, in this case 2023.

As usual, take in mind that this is my personal list of favorite movies, not an objective “Top Films of the Year” list, since I didn’t watch every single movie. This is just my personal opinion and, frankly, I’d be interested to hear your favorite movies of the year in the comment section.

Some quick notes about some honorable mentions: I really enjoyed The Marvels and Blue Beetle (especially Blue Beetle) but neither appears on the list because there were just way too many better flicks this year. I still want to make a special note that they were both good and should have done better at the Box Office. Also, Barbie just barely got edged off of the list, and I struggled with this quite a bit. I think it was great, and on any other year it would have made it on here easily. However don’t be surprised if you see the other half of Barbenheimer shortly.

Full Top Ten after the jump.

Adult Siblings Versus...Episode 87: Home Alone 2 - Lost in New York

 Happy New Year. I'm trying to catch up on past episodes of Adult Siblings Versus before it goes completely off-the-rails. For Christmas, we revisited Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and were pleasantly surprised how unique it was.

Just kidding; that shit was trash.

Do the exact same thing as before and you'll make all the money

More details after the jump.

Adult Siblings Versus...Episode 86: Wallace & Gromit

 Another new episode of Adults Siblings Versus...is up. This time we are talking about the very British Wallace & Gromit. We talk about all four shorts. 

Note: we recorded this months before we found out that England is out of clay and Aardman had to make a statement claiming everything is A-Ok, stop worrying about it.

Gromit should just leave Wallace to die and take over the house

More details after the jump.

Adult Siblings Versus...Episode 85: Clips, Letters, & Shakespeare

I'm late again in posting this, but we had an episode of "Adult Siblings Versus..."go up not too long ago that's basically a clips show, but with never before heard clips and extended clips form our first year of podcasting. Also we look at a fan email.

Mail bag day! Mail bag day!

More details after the jump.

Adult Siblings Versus...Episode 84: Weird Al

 Adult Siblings Versus...is bac with a new epsidoe that's a little different than normal. This week we talk about our childhood experience with "Weird Al" Yankovic, speficially four of his albums we owned as kids.

"Alapalooza”, “Bad Hair Day”, “Running with Scissors”, and “Poodle Hat.” But not "Polka Party." Never "Polka Party."

We need to have a serious talk about cultural appropriation, 1990s Weird Al

More details after the jump.

Adult Siblings Versus...Epsiode 83: Trigun

Unfortunately, I'm a little late with this one, but Adult Siblings Versus...recently dropped an episode on the classic anime Trigun, a show so imbedded in my own history as an anime fan that I never dared review it on this blog.

Until now!

Well, kind of. It  snot really here, it's on the podcast. But you can listen to it here!

Classic cartoon or overrated nostalgia bait?
You decide!

More details after the jump.

Beta's Top Ten Favorite Gundams (Part 2)

It took them 43 years to have a female protagonist in the main series

And we’re back. This is Part II of my Top Ten Favorite Gundam list. Before you take a look at today’s blog I highly suggest that you look at the previous entry. If you’re too lazy for that, here’s some important text:

For the purposes of this list, the primary factors taken into consideration when judging Gundam were 1) Functionality, 2) Aesthetics, and 3) Cool Factor. Only Gundams were considered for this list, but not the SD Gundam part of the franchise. The Gundams from the Gundam Build series will be counted even though they are technically plastic models rather than actual giant robots. 

List so Far:

 #10: Gundam Aerial/Gundam Aerial Rebuild

#9: A-Z Gundam

#8: Gundam Heavyarms

#7 Tequila Gundam Daniel Custom

#6: ∀ Gundam

 Okay, we caught up? 

Honorable Mention #2: RX-78-2 Gundam. No Top Ten Gundam list would be complete without the original Gundam. Except this list. It’s not on this list. Look, I appreciate this thing as a classic, but frankly it’s the blueprint that is the basis of all other Gundam, almost all of which could be described as “Gundam + ___ = Cool.” It just feels like even by Zeta Gundam it felt like we had moved on. Sorry if this bugs you.

Part II after the jump.

[WARNING: This page contains unavoidable spoilers for various Gundam anime, in particular Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, so read at your own risk.]

Beta's Top Ten Favorite Gundams (Part 1)

"It's a Gundam!"

As I continue dig back into my blog per the suggestion from my therapist, I find myself leaning towards a post I can been wanting to write for a number of years, and even started at some point, but never got around to posting; a Top Ten list of my favorite Gundams. [Note: Part 2 is Here]

For those of you who may not be aware, Gundam is a metaseries of anime, manga, novels, video games, and tons and tons of plastic model kits that have been a mainstay in Japan since 1979. It’s best to think of it as their answer to Star Trek, a space opera franchise with a variety of different shows, spin-offs, and sequels. While each show has some differences, the basic premise usually centers around giant robots as tools of war (as opposed to superheroes, as they were portrayed in Japan before Gundam), some sort of conflict between the people of Earth and the humans living in space, a specialized giant robot (usually called a “Gundam”) that is significantly more powerful than the standard units, and that war is hell and the realities of it are not heroic but ultimately tragic.

Also it’s a giant commercial to move plastic model kits based on all the robots in the various media. GOTTA SELL THEM TOYS!!!

(Some of) My Gunpla pile of shame

I am a fan of giant robots and Gundam in particular always resonated with me since I was a kid. Like any Gundam fan I have my favorite units across the franchise. When making this list I focused on three aspects:

1)     Functionality: What does the Gundam do, do well, and do better than all other Mobile Suits?

2)     Aesthetics: How interesting or visually appealing is the Gundam?

3)     Cool Factor: A combination of intangibles, personal biases, and the Rule of Cool.

A few guidelines before we start: 

·        To streamline the list, we’re only looking at Gundams, not other mobile suits from various shows. Otherwise machines like the Tallgeese, Qubeley, and The O would dominate the list.

·        I have decided that the Gundams from the Gundam Build side of the franchise will be considered, even though technically they are basically in-universe toys and video games rather than giant robots. For the purposes of this list, they’re close enough.

·        I will NOT be counting anything form the various SD Gundam franchise, as from what I understand those things are proper characters instead of pilotable robots.

Honorable Mention: Barbatos Lupus/Barbatos Lupus Rex. I struggled over this for months (yes, that’s how long I’ve been tinkering with this list). I think the issue is that these two versions of the main Gundam from Iron-Blooded Orphans are just different enough that I feel they don’t count as one suit, but neither one is able to make the list in its own. If I could get a version of this with the look of Lupus and the weaponry and performance of Lupus Rex it would have beaten out #10 or more.

Full list after the jump.