(Updated on February 20, 2018) *FINAL UPDATE*
A Cure for Wellness: It contains a wealth of really good elements, but none of them come together to make a satisfying whole. Solid acting all-around. Plenty of visual flair and interesting shots. Impressive set design. 6/10
Atomic Blonde: Great action and plenty of visual flair make this film immensely enjoyable, though it's hard to look past the needlessly confusing plot, which is chock full of double crosses, triple crosses, and false identities. 7/10
Baby Driver: Thrilling, perfectly paced, and backed by a killer soundtrack that's woven smartly into each scene. Edgar Wright continues to prove that he's one of the best directors in the industry. 9/10
Baby Driver: Thrilling, perfectly paced, and backed by a killer soundtrack that's woven smartly into each scene. Edgar Wright continues to prove that he's one of the best directors in the industry. 9/10
Beauty and the Beast (2017): Enjoyable enough, but changes very little from the original and so feels unnecessary at best, redundant at worst. New songs and plot elements add nothing to the film. Poor audio mixing, especially in the musical numbers. 7/10
The Big Sick: Funny, real, and heartfelt every step of the way. A wonderful rom-com with great directing and performances. Themes of culture and ideals clash. Favorite film of 2017. 9.5/10
Blade Runner 2049: Slow, methodical pace may not be for everyone, but it's worth it to experience an engrossing narrative that builds upon the themes of the previous film. Great acting from all involved. Gorgeous visual effects made even better with Roger Deakins's masterful cinematography. Intense musical score. 9/10
The Book of Henry: Tonally confused, 90's-esque family movie with boring characters and an even more worthless story you'll likely forget soon after watching. Passable performances from Naomi Watts and Jacob Tremblay. Writing can sometimes be unintentionally silly. 5/10
The Bye Bye Man: Fails to be scary at any point, and is instead quite stupid, though far from the worst horror film. Perhaps the worst title for any horror film. First scene is laughably bad. 5/10
The Book of Henry: Tonally confused, 90's-esque family movie with boring characters and an even more worthless story you'll likely forget soon after watching. Passable performances from Naomi Watts and Jacob Tremblay. Writing can sometimes be unintentionally silly. 5/10
The Bye Bye Man: Fails to be scary at any point, and is instead quite stupid, though far from the worst horror film. Perhaps the worst title for any horror film. First scene is laughably bad. 5/10
Call Me By Your Name: A solid love story with beautiful scenery and great performances, most especially from Timothee Chalamet, who is a revelation in his first leading role. Admittedly kind of awkward to watch at points, though that's just me. 7.5/10
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie: Nails the style of the books while successfully appealing to all audiences with both juvenile toilet humor and clever meta humor. Great animation. Ed Helms is great as the title character. 8/10
Coco: A beautifully animated adventure with plenty of great visual designs. Solid story about the importance of family and following your heart with some good performances. Came really close to crying. Remember Me is a great song, both in thematic context and just in general. 9/10
The Disaster Artist: A funny, fascinating profile of one of the strangest bad filmmakers of our time, and doubles as a treat for fans of The Room. James Franco is fantastic as Tommy Wiseau. Everybody else does a solid job. 8.5/10
Dunkirk: Outstanding in all areas of its production, direction, and score. Couldn't get attached to the characters, though. Plot structure seems confusing at first glance, though is actually quite simple. 9/10
The Emoji Movie: A soulless product that can't decide if it wants to be a total sellout or be cynical about smartphone culture. Virtually no laughs and is cliched as all get out, without an original bit of code in it's body. 4/10
Fifty Shades Darker: Doubles down on every problem with the first film, including being even more boring, has worse performances, and a worse soundtrack. Now comes with pointless subplots that are ended just as quickly as they are introduced. 4/10
Fifty Shades Darker: Doubles down on every problem with the first film, including being even more boring, has worse performances, and a worse soundtrack. Now comes with pointless subplots that are ended just as quickly as they are introduced. 4/10
Flatliners (2017): Plays like the most bog standard horror film you've ever seen. Like The Lazarus Effect, except with all the interesting ideas and decent chemistry sucked out of it. Forgettable characters and performances. 4/10
The Founder: Michael Keaton is good as Ray Kroc in this biopic about how he swindled the founders of McDonald's. Solid directing and dialogue. 7/10
Geostorm: An idiotic and boring disaster movie whose only purpose is to demonstrate why we stopped making disaster movies in the first place. Still not as bad as Roland Emmerich's 2012, at least. 4.5/10
Get Out: An unsettling Stepford Wives-esque horror film with solid racial and social commentary. Some decent black comedy. Great performances all around. Expertly paced. Score is used well. 8.5/10
Good Time: Feels like a long, strange night, one that's worth experiencing all over again. Interesting directing and great use of visuals. Robert Pattinson's best performance. 9/10
The Greatest Showman: Serviceable songs accompany a story fails to engage or interest on an emotional level. Solid performances all around. Music sounds too modern for the time period, but that's a personal gripe. 6/10
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2: Even if it can't live up to the first movie, it still manages to have plenty of blockbuster fun and action. Family dynamic between Peter Quill and Ego is engaging. 8/10
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2: Even if it can't live up to the first movie, it still manages to have plenty of blockbuster fun and action. Family dynamic between Peter Quill and Ego is engaging. 8/10
The Hero: A familiar story elevated by solid directing and Sam Elliott's great performance. Themes of age and past glories. Slow pace may not be for everyone. 8/10
IT (2017): Incredibly underwhelming, without a single
decent scare. Performances were solid, except Skarsgard as Pennywise,
who ends up being unintentionally funny more often than not. Earns the
Conjuring 2 award for film loved by audiences and critics that I didn't
like. 5.5/10
It
Comes at Night: Tense, dark, and filled with paranoia, dread, and great
performamces. Solid summer horror with an apocalyptic tone. 8/10
John Wick Chapter 2: A sequel that builds upon the great action of the original with some excellent scene choreography and direction. Knows how to pace itself well. Plenty of bloody fun. 9/10
Justice League: Mildly enjoyable, if disposable, superhero team-up film that lacks a consistent tone. Spends more time introducing the new characters than developing them in an interesting manner. Solid performances. Better than Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad. Steppenwulf is a completely lackluster villain. 6/10
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword: An uninteresting and uninspired plot, one of the worst editing efforts in any film from 2017, and the most poorly made action scenes of the year make this one of the worst films of the year. 4.5/10
Kingsman: The Golden Circle: Though the first is better, this is still a fun movie, with better action than some films nowadays. Poppy is a much worse villain than Valentine from the first film. 7.5/10
Kong: Skull Island: A lot like an old-school creature feature with solid CGI. John C. Reilly is fun. Entertaining climax. 7/10
Lady Bird: An outstanding coming-of-age movie with plenty of great performances, especially Laurie Metcalf and a career-best Saoirse Ronan. Fantastic directing debut for Greta Gerwig. Realistic portrayal of adolescence. 9.5/10
The LEGO Batman Movie: A really funny and entertaining family film with great animation and action. Not quite as clever as The LEGO Movie. Great voicework all around. Batman's character arc is solid enough. 8.5/10
Logan: A great final film for the Wolverine character, with Hugh Jackman giving his best performance as the character. Great action. Girl who plays Laura is awesome. Strong themes of growing old and sick, and the passing of the torch. 9/10
The Lost City of Z: An intriguing historical character study that doubles as a solid old-school adventure film. Lots of beautiful cinematography. Charlie Hunnam is great in the lead. 8/10
mother!: A deliberately paced, well-acted treatise on the nature of man and his relationship with religion and nature. Insanely tense climax. Aronofsky builds on themes he explored in Noah. 9/10
The Mummy (2017): Completely forgettable action-adventure movie whose awful effects are matched only by the forced attempts to create a cinematic universe. Tom Cruise is hideously miscast and gives the worst performance in the film, though everyone else is also bad. 5/10
mother!: A deliberately paced, well-acted treatise on the nature of man and his relationship with religion and nature. Insanely tense climax. Aronofsky builds on themes he explored in Noah. 9/10
The Mummy (2017): Completely forgettable action-adventure movie whose awful effects are matched only by the forced attempts to create a cinematic universe. Tom Cruise is hideously miscast and gives the worst performance in the film, though everyone else is also bad. 5/10
My Little Pony: The Movie (2017): Plenty enjoyable with great animation, a decent plot, and fine songs. Performances were great. Tempest Shadow is a throughly underwhelming villain. 7.5/10
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: A standard blockbuster movie that is only mildly enjoyable, though it is far too derivative of the other Pirates films. Salazar is a weak villain. 6.5/10
Saban's Power Rangers: A dumb and silly popcorn thriller that's pretty harmless all things considered but it suffers from an inconsistent tone. Lackluster special effects. 6/10
The Shack: Yet another awful Christian film, with some of the worst apologetics in the whole genre, most especially concerning the Problem of Evil. Passable performances and some solid cinematography. Worst film of 2017. 4/10
The Shape of Water: A stunning-looking film with great performances, especially a mute Sally Hawkins, giving a career best performance. A great musical score accompanies this love story. Weird and fantastical aesthetic. 9/10
The Snowman: A hideously edited, meaningless narrative, and uninteresting characters, make this a worthless film to sit through. Doesn't help that 15% of the screenplay wasn't filmed, which causes plot points to either be dropped or come from nowhere. 5/10
Spider-Man Homecoming: Exciting, entertaining, and Tom Holland is great in the role of Spider-Man. Michael Keaton as The Vulture is also great and is one of the only good villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 8.5/10
Split: A well-paced horror thriller that sees writer-director M. Night Shyamalan finally making a good movie again. James McAvoy is fantastically versatile at playing multiple personalities. Anya Taylor-Joy makes for a solid lead. Flashbacks to main character's childhood don't seem to have much purpose. 8/10
Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Builds on what made Force Awakens work and throws in plenty of surprises to keep you on your toes. Great action and a solid, if repetitive, plot. Interesting themes of passing the torch and past sins. 9/10
Thor Ragnarok: Far better than the other two Thor movies and manages to be just as fun and enjoyable as some of the other Marvel movie, even if it's not as funny as some have said. The interaction between Thor and Hulk was solid. 7.5/10
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: A darkly comic examination of what justice should or should not be. Great performances, especially from Frances McDormand. Solid directing from Martin McDonagh. 9/10
Transformers: The Last Knight: Perhaps the worst of the Transformers films with some of the most amateurish filmmaking from a big-budget movie, right down to never having a consistent aspect ratio and the worst editing of the year. Awful performances everywhere. Action scenes are just plain awful. At least I didn't give Bay my money this time. 4/10
War for the Planet of the Apes: Expert pacing, storytelling, and a great performance from Serkis make this an outstanding conclusion to the trilogy. Further builds on the themes of the past films. Only major complaint is with Steve Zahn as Bad Ape, who feels like forced comic relief. 9.5/10
Wonder Woman: A decent plot, plenty of enjoyable action, and Gal Gadot being great as Wonder Woman make this not only a solid origin film, but also the best film in the DCEU so far, even though it is throughly formulaic. 7.5/10
