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More than a little late, but I love end-of-the-year lists. I shall hold off on posting my Best Of until I see Phantom Thread this Thursday. Indeed, I take these way too seriously. In the meantime, might as well get the ball rolling.
Worst:
Alien: Covenant
Dishonorable Mention:
Dave Made A Maze Girls Trip The Meyerowitz Stories
Random films I enjoyed/more or less enjoyed that were not among my favorites:
1922 Baby Driver The Big Sick Good Time Ingrid Goes West Kedi mother! Okja T2 Trainspotting War on Everyone
Biggest Surprise: Super Dark Times
Biggest Disappointment: Gerald's Game (would've made my top 10 if it weren't for the ending)
Did not see:
Lady Bird Star Wars: The Last Jedi War for the Planet of the Apes Most superhero movies
Worst (in random disorder, with my most hated in bold) Transformers (big surprise there!) Rings Resident Evil Final Chapter Snowman The Mummy American Made Baywatch Justice League King Arthur Legend Of The Sword Atomic Blonde
Dishonorable mentions: CHipS XXX Return Of Xander Cage Valarian
Disappointing (meaning not horrible but not great/loss of potential) The Dark Tower Ghost In The Shell Pirates 5
The Best (in no order, best in bold) Blase Runner 2049 Shape Of Water Logan IT Dunkirk Wind River The Big Sick Wonder Woman The Killing of a Sacred Deer The Darkest Hour The Last Jedi
Still need to see Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri The Post Hostiles I Tonya Disaster Artist
This is preliminary since there are about a dozen more I plan to see before Oscar night. Although, I'm actually wondering if this phenomenon is happening to anybody else here. Do you guys find yourselves not interested in watching movies anymore? I just don't have the urge to watch movies anymore, with the exception of for research. I don't get any enjoyment from it and it's actually starting to feel like a chore. Is that happening to anyone else here? Anyway, I'm rambling:
1. Dunkirk 2. Logan 3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 4. Baby Driver 5. Free Fire 6. John Wick: Chapter 2 7. Suburbicon 8. Downsizing 9. The Belko Experiment 10. Detroit 11. It Comes at Night 12. 47 Meters Down 13. The Hitman's Bodyguard 14. A Cure For Wellness 15. Alien: Covenant
Do you guys find yourselves not interested in watching movies anymore? I just don't have the urge to watch movies anymore, with the exception of for research. I don't get any enjoyment from it and it's actually starting to feel like a chore. Is that happening to anyone else here?
Yes, for a variety of reasons. It makes me sad. That said, I still make a concerted effort to watch films, and watching a great film is a special experience. I've always felt if you want to get the most out of a given artform (as a consumer), you need to be a little studious. That can be tough sometimes, and unfortunately, the payoff was a little low for me this year.
That said, my all-time favorite films haven't lost their effectiveness at all. I've revisited a lot of them over the past few years. It's been a good reminder as to why I got into writing in the first place.
I try to watch only good film. I don't jump on everything that comes out and instead, wait a year or more at times before watching something. This helps me keep my enjoyment. I think if I lost my love of stories then I wouldn't be able to write anymore.
As for my best and worst, I really can't remember. For me, stories are devoured and enjoyed for what they are then forgotten about. I'm so bad that a line that often comes from my mouth is, 'what was that great film we watched last night?' ... 'Oh, yeah, now I remember.' Only to then promptly forget about it again. I have a better memory of films I watched in the 80s than I do films I watched last week.
Just thought about how many Liam Neeson contained thrillers they have thrown out in the last years. Those seem one of the safest, indeed, "products" that are pushed constantly. Boring. The other stuff is animation, kids SF adaptations or the whole buddy comedy/cop comedy/mommy comedy trash.
Then there is independent film :-), home.
Perhaps cinema needs another revolution more than ever - possibly the first honest virtual reality movie will set something new. We might be just dinosaurs and the new filmmmakers will have a revolutionary 3D form of telling with the audience in between the story…
I'm not good with lists. Someone needs to mention a movie for it to pop in my head. So, I'll miss out on a ton of movies cause I can't remember them quick enough.
So, I'll take some of the movies you guys listed that I've seen and list them.
Movies I didn't like: - Mother! - Free Fire. - Alien: Covenant. - The Big Sick. - War for Planet of the Apes. - A Cure for Wellness. - Spider-man Homecoming. - Valerian. - Shape of Water. - Baby Driver. - It. - Wonder Woman. - The Belko Experiment. - King Arthur. - Baywatch. - Justice League. - Florida Project. (ahh... it was Okay) - Stronger. - Bright. - Columbus. - Battle of the Sexes. - Logan Lucky. - The Foreigner. - Happy Death Day. - The Mountain Between Us. - Snowman. - American Assassin (absolutely horrible).
Movies that were Okay: - Florida Project. - A Ghost Story. - The Meyerowitz Stories - Disaster Artist. - The Killing of the Sacred Deer. - Logan. - Dunkirk. - Okja. - Ingrid Goes West. - I, Tonya (for the fat guy that was in it, the bodyguard). - 1922. - Lady Bird. - Brigsby Bear.
Movies that were GOOD: - Blade Runner 2049 - Wind River - Good Time. - Three Billboards. - Brawl in Cell Block 99 - Brad's Status.
Out of all these, probably my favorite was Blade Runner (had it ended 7-8 min earlier) and Good Time.
I watched 401 movies from start to finish in 2017 -- an all-time high. Had a lot of research to do. I don't think I could do that again any time soon, but it was fun and interesting.
New movies really are a bit of a chore to watch. Everything below the top tier has started to feel quite boring sometimes. But I thought there was plenty to like in 2017 -- I would happily recommend many more movies than I've listed here. This was also the first year that I put my boycott into place for theatre-going -- no movies that are part of a franchise/series/universe that already has another feature film greenlit. No Marvel, no DC, no Star Wars, no Transformers, etc. etc. I'm a happier man for it.
Profoundly bad:
Flatliners The Mountain Between Us (one of the only movies this year I actually gave up on) The Circle F the Prom Geostorm Home Again A Bad Moms Christmas Baywatch Literally, Right Before Aaron
Enjoyably bad, lesser discussed:
Inconceivable Girls Trip Beyond Skyline The Assignment Mindhorn The Tribes of Palos Verdes (Garner's genuinely good, though) A Bad Idea Gone Wrong Jeepers Creepers 3 Black Butterfly The Carmilla Movie Diamond Cartel (streaming on Netflix now, in Canada anyway -- bafflingly terrible and an absolute trainwreck but weirdly entertaining)
Enjoyably good, lesser discussed:
Don't Kill It (best B movie of the year) Punching Henry The Devil's Candy The Little Hours Fist Fight (a coherent comedy with a clear vision and consistent characters -- seems kinda rare with U.S. comedy now) Beatriz at Dinner Lemon Bright (much maligned, but I thought it was pretty darn good) War on Everyone Raw The Lure A Dark Song American Fable The Lost City of Z It Comes at Night The Bad Batch 68 Kill Ingrid Goes West Paradox/SPL 3 What Happened to Monday?/Seven Sisters Brad's Status Vengeance: A Love Story Happy Hunting The Babysitter Wind River
Best in no particular order:
Call of Heroes Catfight The Beguiled Okja A Ghost Story Lady Macbeth Most Beautiful Island Good Time mother! Brawl in Cell Block 99 The Square
We might be just dinosaurs and the new filmmmakers will have a revolutionary 3D form of telling with the audience in between the story…
I think we'll be around to see this. I've been playing with my kids' VR and it's pretty epic stuff. I can imagine games and movies of the future either having us as flies on the wall or participating ourselves as actual characters.
Also, this was the year of John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads!
It was a major feature of three wide-release movies that I saw: Kingsman 2 (Merlin's big scene), Logan Lucky (the talent show performance) and Alien: Covenant (Shaw singing). Weird. But hey, it's a great song.
This is preliminary since there are about a dozen more I plan to see before Oscar night. Although, I'm actually wondering if this phenomenon is happening to anybody else here. Do you guys find yourselves not interested in watching movies anymore?
Yes.
I don't know if it's because I'm older or that too many times films are just crap. It is certainly a matter of interest.
- I don't like horror. - I like original sci-fi, but 95% of what is done now is retread, the stories suck and are so filled with logic holes they are unwatchable. The only thing that becomes of interest is the special effects. And that's kind of like fireworks - once you've seen them a few times, you lose your excitement. - Bored to death with Superheroes/anything that transforms/fast cars, etc. etc.
So me and the wife pretty much re-watch a lot of older films we loved from the past. That turns out to be a far better experience then watching current releases (other than documentaries - love a good one).
Did see the Big Sick - thought it was solid bu today's standards. Battle of the Sexes - over rated. Just okay Planet of the Apes (really, no one owned an airplane that just could have flown over the fort and bombed the shit out of it, sprayed poison on the apes? ) - hated it with a tip of the hat for special effects. Logan Lucky - should have been an A - instead it was a C-/D.
THe best things I saw this year were on Netflix/HBO.
Planet of the Apes was a huge let down for me. Little better than a filler for the real story to come.
And, Guy Ritchie should be hung, drawn and quartered for what he did to King Arthur. I only stuck with it until the end because I wanted to see what he'd done to Merlin. He should have changed the title to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Dragon Breath Balls... or something. utter, utter, tosser.
I don't know if it's because I'm older or that too many times films are just crap. It is certainly a matter of interest.
- I don't like horror. - I like original sci-fi, but 95% of what is done now is retread, the stories suck and are so filled with logic holes they are unwatchable. The only thing that becomes of interest is the special effects. And that's kind of like fireworks - once you've seen them a few times, you lose your excitement. - Bored to death with Superheroes/anything that transforms/fast cars, etc. etc.
So me and the wife pretty much re-watch a lot of older films we loved from the past. That turns out to be a far better experience then watching current releases (other than documentaries - love a good one).
Did see the Big Sick - thought it was solid bu today's standards. Battle of the Sexes - over rated. Just okay Planet of the Apes (really, no one owned an airplane that just could have flown over the fort and bombed the shit out of it, sprayed poison on the apes? ) - hated it with a tip of the hat for special effects. Logan Lucky - should have been an A - instead it was a C-/D.
THe best things I saw this year were on Netflix/HBO.
I agree with you on everything here, except for the horror part. I do like a good horror.
Many years ago, I used to go see two films every week at the theater. Then over the years, I have just lost interest. Lots of reasons probably. I feel the main reason might be that I feel they try to wow me with the visuals rather than with story.
I have gone to the movies four times in the last four months though. That's more than I've seen in the last five years! None of them were brilliant, but at least I didn't feel let down, like it was a complete waste of time and money, so who knows, I might venture out there again soon.