Second Breakfast: December 2023
By Austin Johnson
Welcome to Second Breakfast! I’m gonna change up the formula again by putting the films I watched In December into categories and then share some thoughts on them. Simple shit this time around as I watched 37 films during the last month of the year. Let’s get to it.
Harry Potter Franchise Rewatch
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (2010)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (2011)
I watched Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets at the end of November and then finished off the franchise at the beginning of December. Everyone who is a Potter fan knows that it’s the perfect time of year to revisit the books or films because there’s that indescribable magic in the air. Azkaban has always been my favorite book and film, but my personal rankings of the films always changes when I rewatch them all. After this recent journey through all eight films, here’s my rankings:
Azkaban
Order of the Phoenix
Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Philosopher’s Stone
Goblet of Fire
Deathly Hallows, Part 1
Half Blood Prince
Chamber of Secrets
I enjoy them all, but that’s where I’m at. I have Azkaban, Order, and Hallows, Part 2 at four and a half stars and the rest at four stars.
Christmas Films
Scrooged (1988)
Christmas Vacation (1989)
Home Alone (1990)
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas (1999)
Eight Crazy Nights (2002)
Bad Santa (2003)
Elf (2003)
The Legend of Frosty the Snowman (2005)
This Christmas (2007)
Four Christmases (2008)
Christmas of Yes (2023)
I have a complicated relationship with Christmas. I work at a massive grocery store, so it gets super hectic and brings out the absolute worst in people. I worked Christmas Eve and honestly some of the behavior was genuinely disgusting from people who are actually being competitive to get their shit that will serve one or maybe two days out of the whole year. I don’t get it. Aside from that, I enjoy hanging out with family, I love how excited my daughter gets for the holiday, and of course, I enjoy some Christmas films every year. I watched all kinds of shit from personal favorites like Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, and Scrooged to my one shitty Christmas movie of the year, Christmas of Yes. It’s so bad, but I always try to watch at least one low budget romantic Christmas movie every year for laughs. It provided just that over and over. I also enjoyed some films with my daughter like Elf, The Legend of Frosty the Snowman, and Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. My favorite experience was watching This Christmas on Christmas Eve night with my wife. It’s become a tradition as we have watched it together four years in a row. The cast is fucking stacked and it has great Christmas vibes. I’ll be forever grateful to my wife for showing me that film and sitting with me every year as we root for Regina King to pour all that baby oil on the floor. If you know, you know.
New Shit!
Afire (2023)
Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
Bottoms (2023)
Bye Bye Barry (2023)
Champions (2023)
The Iron Claw (2023)
Joy Ride (2023)
Maestro (2023)
May December (2023)
No Hard Feelings (2023)
Saltburn (2023)
Sisu (2023)
The Stroll (2023)
I don’t get to go to the theater very often these days because of how bloody expensive it is and because my wife and I work opposite work schedules. We did get to check out The Iron Claw at Alamo Drafthouse the day after Christmas, which we both loved, but the rest of these 2023 films were all watched on streaming services. I actually enjoyed all these new releases but the ones that stood out were Afire which is available on Criterion Channel, Anatomy of a Fall which was a rental, May December on Netflix, and Bottoms on Starz. My taste is tough to pinpoint, so this group covers all kinds of genres.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Rewatch
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
On our Filmgazm podcast, my older brothers, Connor, and I released an episode where we drafted characters from the LOTR trilogy. It was an absolute blast and a great way to shoutout Return of the King which hit its 20 year anniversary in December. I watched the entire trilogy in August and again in December. It’s easily my favorite trilogy of all time and to do an episode on the characters that make it so loveable was fucking therapeutic. Go check out that episode if you’re a fellow Middle Earth fan.
The Three Things
The Thing From Another World (1951)
The Thing (1982)
The Thing (2011)
To start out 2024, we released an episode on John Carpenter’s The Thing. It’s undoubtedly one of the greatest horror films of all time. I wasn’t able to join the show, but Connor and Caleb kicked ass on that episode that I highly recommend. We all did some homework by watching The Thing From Another World, The Thing (2011), and of course the best one of the bunch by miles, The Thing (1982). It just may be my favorite horror film of all time. The best part is how caught up you get in the story every time even after countless rewatches.
Harry Potter Franchise Rewatch
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (2010)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (2011)
I watched Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets at the end of November and then finished off the franchise at the beginning of December. Everyone who is a Potter fan knows that it’s the perfect time of year to revisit the books or films because there’s that indescribable magic in the air. Azkaban has always been my favorite book and film, but my personal rankings of the films always changes when I rewatch them all. After this recent journey through all eight films, here’s my rankings:
Azkaban
Order of the Phoenix
Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Philosopher’s Stone
Goblet of Fire
Deathly Hallows, Part 1
Half Blood Prince
Chamber of Secrets
I enjoy them all, but that’s where I’m at. I have Azkaban, Order, and Hallows, Part 2 at four and a half stars and the rest at four stars.
Christmas Films
Scrooged (1988)
Christmas Vacation (1989)
Home Alone (1990)
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas (1999)
Eight Crazy Nights (2002)
Bad Santa (2003)
Elf (2003)
The Legend of Frosty the Snowman (2005)
This Christmas (2007)
Four Christmases (2008)
Christmas of Yes (2023)
I have a complicated relationship with Christmas. I work at a massive grocery store, so it gets super hectic and brings out the absolute worst in people. I worked Christmas Eve and honestly some of the behavior was genuinely disgusting from people who are actually being competitive to get their shit that will serve one or maybe two days out of the whole year. I don’t get it. Aside from that, I enjoy hanging out with family, I love how excited my daughter gets for the holiday, and of course, I enjoy some Christmas films every year. I watched all kinds of shit from personal favorites like Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, and Scrooged to my one shitty Christmas movie of the year, Christmas of Yes. It’s so bad, but I always try to watch at least one low budget romantic Christmas movie every year for laughs. It provided just that over and over. I also enjoyed some films with my daughter like Elf, The Legend of Frosty the Snowman, and Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. My favorite experience was watching This Christmas on Christmas Eve night with my wife. It’s become a tradition as we have watched it together four years in a row. The cast is fucking stacked and it has great Christmas vibes. I’ll be forever grateful to my wife for showing me that film and sitting with me every year as we root for Regina King to pour all that baby oil on the floor. If you know, you know.
New Shit!
Afire (2023)
Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
Bottoms (2023)
Bye Bye Barry (2023)
Champions (2023)
The Iron Claw (2023)
Joy Ride (2023)
Maestro (2023)
May December (2023)
No Hard Feelings (2023)
Saltburn (2023)
Sisu (2023)
The Stroll (2023)
I don’t get to go to the theater very often these days because of how bloody expensive it is and because my wife and I work opposite work schedules. We did get to check out The Iron Claw at Alamo Drafthouse the day after Christmas, which we both loved, but the rest of these 2023 films were all watched on streaming services. I actually enjoyed all these new releases but the ones that stood out were Afire which is available on Criterion Channel, Anatomy of a Fall which was a rental, May December on Netflix, and Bottoms on Starz. My taste is tough to pinpoint, so this group covers all kinds of genres.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Rewatch
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
On our Filmgazm podcast, my older brothers, Connor, and I released an episode where we drafted characters from the LOTR trilogy. It was an absolute blast and a great way to shoutout Return of the King which hit its 20 year anniversary in December. I watched the entire trilogy in August and again in December. It’s easily my favorite trilogy of all time and to do an episode on the characters that make it so loveable was fucking therapeutic. Go check out that episode if you’re a fellow Middle Earth fan.
The Three Things
The Thing From Another World (1951)
The Thing (1982)
The Thing (2011)
To start out 2024, we released an episode on John Carpenter’s The Thing. It’s undoubtedly one of the greatest horror films of all time. I wasn’t able to join the show, but Connor and Caleb kicked ass on that episode that I highly recommend. We all did some homework by watching The Thing From Another World, The Thing (2011), and of course the best one of the bunch by miles, The Thing (1982). It just may be my favorite horror film of all time. The best part is how caught up you get in the story every time even after countless rewatches.