#mystery fanta 2023 review

[kura-reviews]

Fanta Zero Sugar #whatthefanta Mystery Flavored Soda Fall 2023

What a mouthful. I didn't even see if there was an official name, so this is the best I can do.

This appears to be a zero-sugar-only flavor, there were no other mystery Fanta bottles at the convenience store where I purchased this about a week ago (Holiday Stationstores, iykyk).

There was another mystery Fanta last winter that was a pale blue color, IIRC it was cotton candy-like, my gf got me one to try. That one is no longer available and I didn't love it at the time.

Regardless, this is not the same as that. This is truly an enigma. I drink it and I am puzzled. I even bought multiple bottles and am still trying to work out the flavor. At times it tastes like every Skittle at once. Other times, Jolly Rancher. Again still, SweetTarts candy. Sometimes it tastes a little sour, other times I can't detect a sourness. I want to call it grape because of the color, but it's not simply grape. My gf drank one alongside me, she called out a number of other fruit flavors including pear.

Hand to god, I would say this is a mixed fruit candy flavor of some kind, similar concept to one of the Mountain Dew VooDews of the past.

Do I like it? Hell yes. It tastes great and the carbonation is pretty light. The sourness, when I can detect it, is refreshing. My only gripe is that it's heavily dyed and turns my lips and tongue a sickly greenish purple. It's caffeine free, so I can enjoy it any time of day, too.

10/10. I love that another brand has started to make fun new limited time flavors. Why let Pepsi-Co have all the fun?

[bluepoodle7]

#Fanta #FantaWhatTheFantaHalloween2023BlackMysteryZeroSugar #FlavoredZeroSugarSodaReview

I tried the Fanta What The Fanta? Halloween 2023 Black Mystery Zero Sugar Soda and it was pretty good.

This drink tasted like blackberry or mixed fruit to me.

This soda was fizzy and was pure black when poured into a cup.

This was lightly sweet to me.

The soda fizz was purple in color and I will guess before Halloween is over this soda will get quickly discontinued due to this company using a similar black dye that was in the Halloween whopper incident.

I would drink this again and mix it with other drinks or juices.

Got at Meijer.

[theinquisitxor]

2024 Anticipated Book Releases

I thought I had a lot of anticipated book releases for 2023, but 2024 is also proving to be a year of many books I'm excited about too. These are all the books I'm looking forward to in the first half of the year!

January:

-A Fragile Enchantment by Alison Saft: (Jan 2nd) rom-com fantasy about a dressmaker hired to make the royal wedding dress, but she starts to fall for the prince instead.

-Mislaid in Parts Half-Known Wayward Children 9) by Seanan (Jan 9th) The second to last book in this novella series, this one featuring dinosaurs!

-The Atlas Complex (The Atlas Series #3) by Olive Blake (Jan 9th) the final books to this magical dark academia trilogy, and I've been excited for this one since the ending of book 2.

-Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde 2) by Heather Fawcett (Jan 16th) The second book in this new historical fantasy series, in which Emily and Wendall go on a new adventure in the Austrian Alps. This is one of my most anticipated books of the year.

-City of Stardust by Georgia Summers (Jan 30th) this is a new fantasy debut that sounds similar to The Starless Sea and features a woman descending down into a subterranean world to try and break a generational curse.

-House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City 3) by SJM (Jan 30th) I've been enjoying SJM's crescent city books the most of all her series, and I'm looking forward to this one after how book 2 ended.

February

-The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden (Feb 13th) This is possibly my most anticipated book of the year, and Katherine Arden's newest adult release. A historical fiction (and a little magical realism?) set in Europe during WW1 following a combat nurse trying to find her (presumably) dead brother.

-The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown (Feb 13th) A debut magical realism fantasy set in NYC with books, bookstores, and a mystery book. I've heard many good early reviews of this one.

-What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher (Feb 13th) This is a follow up novella to What Moves the Dead following Alex Easton in a new horror adventure. This one has such a cool cover.

-The Briar Book of the Dead by AG Slatter (Feb 13th) A coven of witches keeps a town and the border between realms safe.

March

-A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft (March 5th) I'm very excited to get two new Allison Saft books in 1 year. This is a dark academia fantasy about two rival scholars trying to figure out who killed their mentor. Sapphic romance too I believe.

-The Prisoner's Throne by Holly Black (March 5th) This is the conclusion to The Stolen Heir, and I'm looking forward to the seeing more of the characters from the original series make an appearance in this one.

-The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo (March 19th) This is a spooky queer horror novella set in 1920s Appalachia. Small town religiosity and something sinister creeping in the woods? This just sounds like a novella I'd enjoy.

-Song of the Huntress by Lucy Holland (March 21st) A new book from Lucy Holland, also set in magical ancient Briton. A warrior queen falls into trouble and teams up with the Wild Hunt to save her kingdom. Sapphic/queer romance.

-The Hedewitch of Fox Hall by Anna Bright (March 24th) a fantasy romance book set in medieval Wales as a hedge witch and prince team up to help prevent magic from fading away. The cover of this book is so beautiful!

April

-The Familiar by Leigh Barduo (April 9th) I don't really know much about this one, other than it is a new adult novel by Leigh Bardugo set in 1400s Spain. Also one of my most anticipated releases of the year.

-Song of Six Realms by Judy Lin (April 23rd) A young adult fantasy about a musician who goes to the Duke of Dreams's realm and must help stop a disaster.

June

-Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland (June 13th) A new high seas fantasy that was directly inspired by OFMD and Terry Pratchett. This is very queer and seems like it's going to be a lot of fun.

-Foul Days by Genovena Dimova (June 25th) A slavic fantasy story about a witch who has to team up with a detective as she is being hunted by her ex, the Tsar of Monsters. I've heard some very good early reviews of this book too.

-Children of Anguish and Anarchy (Children of Blood and Bone 3) by Tomi Adeyemi (June 25th) I honestly don't know if I'm going to read this anytime soon, but I've been waiting for this final book for almost 4 years now, so I just want to see how the series ends.

I think that's it for now! Release dates tend to change, and I'm sure I will be adding or editing this list as the new year starts. I'd love to hear of any new releases you are excited for!

Second half of 2024/To be determined:

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T Kingfisher (August)

The Mercy of Gods by James SA Corey (August)

The Whisper Between Worlds by Amanda Foody (TBD)

Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid (TBD)

[cyarskaren52]

these movies gotten more jeers than cheers

The Worst Movies of 2023

This page contains Metacritic's official list of the worst-reviewed films released in the United States between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023. Films are ranked by Metascore (an average of grades given by top professional critics) prior to rounding, and any titles with fewer than 4 reviews are excluded. 

#15: Five Nights at Freddy's

1 / 15

33

Photo by Universal Pictures

Horror - directed by Emma Tammi

Wildly successful despite its lousy critical reception, the first film adaptation of the 2014 videogame stars Josh Hutcherson as the overnight security guard at a Chuck E. Cheese-like pizza parlor. If you think that's an easy job, well, you haven't noticed that the restaurant's creepy animatronic characters are walking around under their own power. Despite streaming on Peacock the same day it opened in theaters, Freddy's was an unexpected box office hit—grossing nearly $300 million—and will likely be getting a sequel in the near future.

"Unfortunately, this adaptation of the popular 2014 video game fails at delivering scares or cheeky laughs, resulting in a tedious experience that relies heavily on horror's most cliched tropes." —Tim Grierson, Screen Daily

#14: Love Again

2 / 15

32

Photo by Sony Pictures Entertainment

Rom-com/Drama - directed by James C. Strouse

An English-language adaptation of the 2016 German rom-com Text for You (in turn an adaptation of a Sofie Cramer novel), Love Again finds Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan embarking on a new romance after a virtual meet-cute through a wrong-number text message. Céline Dion also stars (as a version of herself), but even her name on the poster failed to generate much box office business. And critics complained that the second half of the rom-com formula (the comedy, that is) was missing. 

"The plot of Love Again is so over-familiar I stopped streaming it not once but thrice to make certain I'd never seen it before." —Roger Moore, Movie Nation

#13: God Is a Bullet

3 / 15

31

Photo by Wayward Entertainment

Action/Horror/Thriller - directed by Nick Cassavetes

It's not the worst film to date for the son of the legendary director John Cassavetes, but it's close. (The answer to your inevitable question: This one scored lower.) In the crime thriller God Is a Bullet (based on Boston Teran's novel), Game of Thronesstar Nikolaj Coster-Waldau plays a police detective who decides to take the law into his own hands after his ex-wife is murdered and their daughter is taken kidnapped by a cult. Critics found it a nihilistic slog.

"The misogyny of the movie's risibly sadistic villains is only one distasteful thread in this sleazy saga of rescue and revenge." —Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times

#12: Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire

4 / 15

31

Photo by Netflix

Sci-fi/Action-adventure – directed by Zack Snyder

Star Wars, it isn't.  Director Zack Snyder's just-released Netflix film is the first half of a big-budget, two-part sci-fi epic (to be followed by Part 2 in April) that finds a peaceful colony at the edge of the galaxy threatened by invading forces. Enter the reluctant hero: A young woman with a mysterious past (Sofia Boutella) heads to nearby planets to recruit warriors to come to her colony's defense. Charlie Hunnam, Anthony Hopkins, Ray Fisher, Michiel Huisman, Djimon Hounsou, Corey Stoll, Cary Elwes, and Jena Malone also star. The story has its origins in a Star Wars feature that Snyder was developing over a decade ago, though the final product is less family friendly than the Lucasfilm franchise—and also, apparently, much worse: It's the lowest-scoring film in Snyder's career to date.

"It's hard to be even morbidly curious, let alone excited, about any future iterations or installments of a franchise so determined to remix a million things you've seen before into one thing you'll wish you'd never seen at all." —David Ehrlich, IndieWire

#11: Pet Sematary: Bloodlines

5 / 15

31

Photo by Paramount+

Fantasy/Horror - directed by Lindsey Beer

One of two Stephen King-inspired films to qualify for this list—and it's definitely not King's fault— streaming-only Bloodlinesserves as a prequel to the 2019 film Pet Sematary, which was in turn based on the 1983 novel by King. The directorial debut for screenwriter Lindsey Anderson Beer failed to impress critics with its original story set (mainly) in the year 1969 and featuring details not found in King's novel. 

"The generic moniker proves accurately foreboding for the run-of-the-mill film, one that desperately latches onto the goodwill of a familiar title but has nothing meaningful to add to its legacy." –Trace Sauveur, Paste

#10: Expend4bles

6 / 15

30

Photo by Lionsgate

Action/Thriller - directed by Scott Waugh

The fourth, final, and expendablest film yet in the over-the-hill action-movie franchise last seen in 2014, Expend4bles was one of the year's biggest box office duds upon its release in September, making back just half of its $100 million production budget. After first opting out, Sylvester Stallone ultimately did return to star alongside Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and Randy Couture one last time, while newcomers included 50 Cent and Megan Fox. Most of them have little interesting to say or do in an instantly forgettable film.

"This is true 21st-century trash: a movie in which the action itself is expendable." —Owen Gleiberman, Variety

#9: Fear the Night

7 / 15

30

Photo by Quiver Distribution

Action/Thriller - directed by Neil LaBute

Since impressing critics with his 1997 indie debut In the Company of Men, writer-director Neil LaBute has experienced the full spectrum of review scores thanks to a filmography that is scattershot at best. But he hit a career low in 2023 with the generic action-horror hybrid Fear the Night, which finds a group of women (led by Maggie Q's Iraq War veteran Tess) at a remote bachelorette party fighting back against a group of attackers. 

"As for LaBute, a once incisive chronicler of male cruelty and ineptitude, his continued dabblings in genre are lamentable. Perhaps the kindest thing to do is pretend this dud never happened." — Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times

#8: Fool's Paradise

8 / 15

27

Photo by Roadside Attractions

Comedy - directed by Charlie Day

The directorial debut from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Charlie Day (who also writes and stars), misfiring Hollywood satire Fool's Paradise wastes a strong ensemble cast that also includes Adrien Brody, Edie Falco, Jason Sudeikis, Jason Bateman, Ken Jeong, Kate Beckinsale, Common, John Malkovich, and the late Ray Liotta. The Bowfinger riff (rip-off?) finds a mute, mentally challenged man enlisted by a down-on-his-luck publicist to stand in for a famous Method actor (with whom he shares a strong resemblance) who refuses to leave his trailer during a film shoot.

"A satire that's neither sharp enough to make its industry skewering sting, nor sweet enough to compensate for its toothlessness." —Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

#7: Assassin Club

9 / 15

27

Photo by Paramount Pictures

Action/Thriller - directed by Camille Delamarre

Another lackluster entry in the filmography of editor-turned-action-movie-director Camille Delamarre (The Transporter Refueled), Assassin Club stars Henry Golding as an elite assassin on a difficult assignment: He must kill seven of his colleagues around the world. The result comes nowhere close to matching the quality of the John Wick films on which it is so clearly modeled.

"Incompetent and mostly just quite boring, Assassin Club doesn't even have the good grace to be so-bad-it's-good. Rough, rough stuff." —John Nugent, Empire

#6: Dear David

10 / 15

25

Photo by Lionsgate

Horror/Thriller - directed by John McPhail

Adapted from a 2017 Twitter thread by BuzzFeed writer Adam Ellis courtesy of Anna and the Apocalypse director John McPhail, Dear David is a supernatural horror film centering on, well, a BuzzFeedwriter in the year 2017. (He's apparently haunted by ghosts, you see.) While the story may have been creepy in its original written form, the translation to film results in something akin to a lesser TV movie, according to reviewers—and one that definitely isn't scary.

"It is a boring paint-by-numbers ghost movie, a jumble of tropes borrowed from movies like 'The Ring,' and a poor facsimile of its influences." —Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times

#5: Freelance

11 / 15

24

Photo by Relativity Media

Action/Comedy - directed by Pierre Morel

The latest action film from the director of Taken is, unlike that movie, also a comedy—and that, more than anything, is why Freelance fails to live up to that previous title's success. Alison Brie and John Cena do their best as a journalist and her bodyguard on assignment in the fictitious, jungle-filled South American country of Paldonia, but anyone expecting a modern-day Romancing the Stone should temper those expectations. Critics complain that Morel is unable to make Freelance's disparate genres mesh (or make any of its characters likeable), and the result is one of 2023's box office bombs. 

"Pierre Morel's uninspired work behind the camera goes hand in hand with the film's nondescript title, dragging viewers through a moodless, toothless action hybrid that, at its best, plays as forgettably inept even with ammunition flying in all directions." —Matt Donato, IGN

#4: Children of the Corn (2023)

12 / 15

22

Photo by RLJE Films

Horror - directed by Kurt Wimmer

Finally released (both in theaters and on the Shudder streaming service) in early 2023 after first screening in 2020, writer-director Kurt Wimmer's reboot is actually the 11th film to be based on Stephen King's 1977 short story about a cult of demon-worshipping Nebraska children (dating back to the 1984 adaptation from Fritz Kiersch), but only the third to receive theatrical distribution. The score speaks for itself: Critics hated it.

"There's something particularly galling about the laziness of this one — its flimsy gestures toward topicality, the piecemeal nature of the whole thing — that makes its failures acutely horrifying." —Clint Worthington, Consequence

#3: After Death

13 / 15

22

Photo by Angel Studios

Documentary - directed by Chris Radtkeand Stephen Gray

First-time feature directors Stephen Gray and Chris Radtke attempt to make the case for the existence of an afterlife with a documentary laced with interviews of survivors of near-death experiences. Despite an attempt to spruce up their stories with sci-fi-like special effects, the filmmakers fail to make a compelling case (or an entertaining movie), according to reviewers.

"A repetitive slog that's only shape or narrative momentum comes from its slow unmasking as religious propaganda." —David Ehrlich, IndieWire

#2: On a Wing and a Prayer

14 / 15

19

Photo by United Artists/MGM Amazon Studios

Drama - directed by Sean McNamara

Boasting relatively big stars (Dennis Quaid, Heather Graham) for a faith-based drama, the latest critical dud from director Sean McNamara (who has yet to receive a green Metascore for a single film) is based on a true story of a private airplane passenger (Quaid) who finds himself taking control of the plane and trying to land it with the help of an air traffic controller after the pilot dies from a heart attack. 

"This is the film: Constantly rendered emotionless by decision-making both numbingly predictable and entirely inexplicable." —Anna McKibbin, Paste

#1: Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey

15 / 15

16

Photo by Fathom Events/ITN Studios

Horror - directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield

Metacritic's Official Worst Movie of 2023

Oh Pooh. Perhaps the sole argument in favor of unlimited copyright protection, Blood and Honey takes the now-public domain characters from A.A. Milne's beloved children's books and puts them in a bloody slasher film. (Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet are now serial killers stalking female college students—a plot twist we don't quite recall from the books.) Shot in less than two weeks for a budget of under $100,000, Pooh was surprisingly successful at the box office, grossing north of $5 million despite (or because of) the negative press surrounding the film.

The filmmakers will get a rare chance at back-to-back #1 titles when a sequel to Blood and Honey arrives in February.

"What could've been a halfway decent dumb idea becomes a full-on nightmare of bad choices and terrible filmmaking." —Ross Bonaime, Collider

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