The Bye Bye Man: It wasn't the worst thing I saw last year- see here for that- but it was pretty bad and filled with every horror cliche in the book. However, it WAS watchable, at least, so there's that. As a horror fan, one learns to inherently lower their standards, especially these days, but this was nothing special. Points for featuring horror stalwart Doug Jones (he's the creature in pretty much every Guillermo Del Toro movie), Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) and, of all people, Faye Dunaway (Bonnie & Clyde), though.
Rings: I love the Ring series, so I wanted to like this, and I basically did, but once again, it was nothing that special. As with The Bye Bye Man, the cast was pretty solid, including Vincent D'Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket), Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory) and Aimee Teegarden (Scream 4).
The Space Between Us: Typical Y/A fare- okay, but nothing earth-shattering. Kind of like a lesser version of The Midnight Special- but why watch the lesser version of something when you can watch a better one? I, as ever, remain a big fan of cutie Britt Robertson, who can't seem to catch a break on the big or small screen. (A short list: Swingtown, Life Unexpected, The Secret Circle, Under the Dome (a moderate success- but she was killed off early on!), Cake, Tomorrowland, Mother's Day (not either of the good ones- the rom-com one) The Longest Ride and Girlboss.) Maybe she'll fare better with her plum leading role in wunderkind Shonda Rimes' latest, For the People.
Don't Knock Twice: Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galatica) is compelling as always, but this was just a meh paranormal-oriented horror flick. Points for the dark ending, though, and Sing Street star Lucy Boynton remains one to watch, with some decent credits under her belt.
The Lego Batman Movie/ The Lego Ninjago Movie: Just as entertaining as The Lego Movie, which is saying something, but not quite Best of the Year material. Well-worth seeing, though, if you like your pop culture references fast, furious and funny. The casts are a delight in both, especially Will Arnett, Justin Theroux and Zach Woods.
Fist Fight: Silly, semi-predictable flick- the only thing unpredictable is that Ice Cube doesn't immediately win the fight against the shrieking Charlie Day in record time- but so worth it for the scene in which Day's on-screen daughter raps in spectacularly filthy fashion at her school talent show. You can see that on YouTube, though. Otherwise, just okay.
Beauty & The Beast: Latest live-action adaption of a Disney classic is eminently watchable for fans, and probably better than the revisionist Maleficent, which tries too hard to make its villain "likable," but it's no Jungle Book. Still, I adore Emma Watson, who I'm convinced could make anything watchable at this point, and Luke Evans and Josh Gad make a delightful Gaston and Le Fou, respectively. The "gay" stuff was much ado about nothing, but the real homoerotic chemistry was to be found in LeFou's palpable man-crush on Gaston. Ultimately only for Disney fanboys and fangirls, though.
Kong: Skull Island: Surprisingly effective follow-up to Peter Jackson's bloated, way-too-long remake of King Kong that tightens up the running time to a relatively stealthy two hours, and adds more beasties to the mix to excellent effect, and does a much better job of tying things into an existing franchise than The Mummy. ( I won't spoil it for those who haven't yet seen it.) It very nearly made me consider expanding my list to 20 just to include it, but I couldn't quite justify four more others- maybe if I'd seen some of the above flicks, it would have been enough. As it stands, a lot of fun, with a rock-solid cast for this sort of thing and superlative effects.
Before I Fall: Kind of like Groundhog's Day, but with angsty-teens, this Y/A adaptation isn't bad, if a bit of a downer at times, and occasionally heavy-handed in its sense of "doing the right thing for the greater good." Still, the cast is really solid, especially up-and-coming Zoey Deutch, arguably my first bona fide second-gen crush: her mom is none other than OG MILF and erstwhile duck-lover Lea Thompson, of Back to the Future and Howard the Duck infamy. Nothing to jump up and down about, but if your taste in teen drama runs in the 13 Reasons Why direction, you'll probably like this.
Table 19: Slight-but-watchable tale of a table-full of sad sacks at a wedding reception who bond over their mutually-shared loser-dom. As ever, Anna Kendrick is a delight, and easily continues to fill the role of America's attainable GF- with apologies to J-Law, who is approachable, but maybe not so attainable, when all is said and done. I will unabashedly watch Kendrick in anything, and even went so far as to read her book, which was also delightful. This movie, though, is not among her best, sadly.
The Last Word: I adore Anna Kendrick, but Amanda Seyfried remains my main Achilles' Heel, when it comes to watching someone in literally anything. There's just something about her that gets me- she's gorgeous but also exquisitely weird, kind of her generation's Christina Ricci- a fairy tale princess come to life. This Shirley MacLaine vehicle is nothing special, really, but both she and Seyfried are rock-solid, and the film has its moments, both funny and touching. You can see the ending coming a mile away, but this will hit the spot for certain older viewers reflecting back on their lives at a certain age.
Personal Shopper: I've got to hand it to Kristen Stewart- I fucking HATED the Twilight series and had to review every one during my time at UAB, but damned if she hasn't used her fame wisely, consistently picking out edgy, intriguing projects that have gone a long way towards showing she can act, after all. After deftly picking out a series of solid supporting roles in a variety of indie flicks- notably Still Alice, American Ultra, Equals and the criminally-underrated Clouds of Sils Maria- she's front-and-center in pretty much every frame of this moody paranormal tale from the same director as Maria.
Like that film, it's not for everyone and will be unbearably poky for some, but for those who get into it, it's an interesting slow-burn of a movie that avoids most ghost story clichés like the plague, albeit sometimes to its own detriment. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a horror movie, but it's horror-adjacent certainly, with some undeniably creepy moments- watch out for those text messages!
The Belko Experiment: One day, out of nowhere, an isolated office building in Columbia that employs a large amount of American employees for some reason, shuts down, after tellingly ferreting out all the Colombians beforehand. Next thing they know, a voice announces that they need to kill two co-workers each, or they themselves will be killed en masse, via a tracking device implanted in their heads, ostensibly so that the company can find them if they are kidnapped by drug lords or the like. Most think it's a joke- until bodies start to drop.
Things go from there, in predictably gory fashion. Newsroom vet John Gallagher, Jr. and new employee Melonie Diaz (Fruitvale Station), who picked a hell of a day to start work- band together to try and get out of there alive, as others go native and start killing each other left and right. The end result isn't anything you haven't seen before, if you're a horror fan, but it's moderately entertaining. I hear Mayhem is a better variation on the same theme.
Ghost in the Shell: Not as bad as some will have you believe, and contrary to all the complaints of white-washing, there actually is a decent reason why the character Scarlett Johansson plays is white, though some will still balk, I suppose, in this PC-charged climate. As a moderate fan of the anime this was based on, I enjoyed it, but it's ultimately nothing that will blow anyone away, fans or not of the source material, save some eye-popping visuals. Lucy was better, but Scar Jo undeniably deserves that Black Widow movie, despite the spotty box office for this one. If anything, it should have happened a long time ago. Hopefully, the success of Wonder Woman will help make that happen.
Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2: Not as delightful and unexpected as the first film- how could it be, without the element of surprise that one had going for it? - but a solid enough follow-up, nonetheless, bolstered by the presence of the always engaging Kurt Russell as the father of "Star-Lord" (Chris Pratt). The soundtrack is great, as per usual- gotta love that opening title sequence set to ELO's classic "Mr. Blue Sky"- and the anti-chemistry between Zoe Saldana and Kate Gillan is fun, as is anything involving Michael "I'm Mary Poppins, ya'll!" Rooker. It drags in places, but the FX is oft-impressive (check out that remarkable opening bit with a "young" Kurt Russell) and overall, it's a decent ride, if slightly less effective than its predecessor.
Free Fire: Ben Wheatley, of Kill List and High-Rise pseudo-fame, continues his run of esoteric, oddball offerings, with this shoot-'em-up that mostly takes place in one location. His game cast, which includes newly-minted Oscar winner Brie Larson, Armie Hammer (The Social Network) and Cillian Murphy (the Dark Knight trilogy), is rock-solid, the action is plentiful, and if it's no Tarantino, it comes within spitting distance of a high-end knock-off. Sure to become a cult item, just like Wheatley's previous efforts, which are well-worth checking out, even if they can be a bit taxing sometimes.
The Circle: Aka the movie in which Tom Hanks turns to the Dark Side. Alas, it's nowhere near as fun as that sounds, but it's watchable, thanks to yet another winning lead performance from Emma Watson. Speaking of Star Wars, one of that film's stars, John Boyega, turns in a solid supporting performance here, as do Karen Gillan, Patton Oswalt, and the late, great Bill Paxton, in this tale of social media gone horribly wrong. Hanks does his best evil Bill Gates/Steve Jobs-type, but the film is oddly inert and isn't near as much fun as it could have been if he'd hammed it up a bit more.
Alien: Covenant: Most agreed this was a step-up from director Ridley Scott's previous Alien entry, Prometheus, and it is less out-there and much more focused, and goes a long way towards replicating the vibe of the original film in a way that none of the sequels have to date, but it's not quite a classic in the way the first two installments were. It is, however, probably the best one since Cameron's Aliens, though I liked Prometheus more than some.
However, a tour de force performance by the always-solid Michael Fassbender makes this one well-worth a watch. Oh, and if you hate James Franco, he bites it in the first scene, so there's that! Beyond that, a solid cast, great FX and a suitably claustrophobic atmosphere make this one a decent enough flick, especially for fans of the franchise.
Snatched: Great seeing Goldie Hawn in a comedy again, I just wish it was a better one. She and co-star Amy Schumer have undeniable chemistry, but a weak script and some iffy humor ensure this is no Trainwreck- though some people hated that, too. I suppose a lot depends on your tolerance for Schumer's type of humor. I thought this had its funny moments, but not enough to recommend it as anything but a time-killing, nothing-better-to-watch one-time viewing, really. Solid supporting cast, though.
Rough Night: Beyond her amusing turn on SNL, which also bagged her a new BF, this was a bit of a rough year for Scar-Jo in general, between Ghost in the Shell and this semi-misfire, which, from what I hear, is no Girls Trip, but does qualify as a sort of lesser, girl-heavy take on the still-underrated Very Bad Things. The supporting cast is aces- too bad they didn't have better material to work with.
Still, worth-seeing if you like any of the cast, which also includes SNL star Kate McKinnon, 22 Jump Street's Jillian Bell and delightful Broad City star Alana Glazer, worth her weight in comedy gold when she's let loose. There's also Demi Moore and Ty Burrell (Modern Family) as swingers, which is almost as funny as it sounds. Almost.
47 Meters Down: This year's version of The Shallows, but nowhere near as good as that. Mandy Moore (This is Us) and Claire Holt (The Originals) make for solid sisters, and are just engaging enough to carry the film to its purposefully semi-confusing conclusion, but it's nothing spectacular. For shark attack movie completists only.
War for the Planet of the Apes: One that very nearly made my Best Of The Year list, this was a worthy follow-up to the previous two installments that, if it proves to be the last, would be a fitting coda, for sure. However, it did quite well at the box office, so don't count on the filmmakers stopping there. Andy Serkis remains a one-man advertisement for the awards-worthiness of motion capture performances- this guy truly deserves at least an honorary Oscar for all he's done for the medium- and he's at the height of his powers here, as Caesar finally reaches his breaking point in dealing with humans.
In particular earning his ire is a military man with an axe to grind, played by Woody Harrelson, who had a banner year recently capped off with a well-deserved Oscar nod. He's great, though an excellent speech scene was sadly cut out of the film that really deserved to make the cut. (You can find it on the Deleted Scenes on the DVD/Blu-Ray.)
However, the real find here is newcomer Amiah Miller, giving the best child performance of its kind since the little girl that played Newt in Aliens. She says more with no words than a lot of child actors do before they hit puberty and their careers go sideways. Hopefully, she'll have a better one than good old Newt, who disappeared without a trace.
I know some hated this because of all the time spent with the apes, and how little of the film was actually compromised of war, but that, for me, was what made the movie for me, personally. With the possible exception of the superlative Jungle Book live-action remake, few movies have spent this much time with CGI-generated characters that felt this real. I even got teary-eyed a few times, especially at the end. This is Hollywood Blockbuster film-making at its finest, IMHO.
The Beguiled: This one almost made my Best Of list, but alas, the pacing is too slow to really recommend it that highly. Granted, this is par for the course for filmmaker Sofia Coppola, so her fans will like it just fine, as well fans of the impressive, female-heavy cast, which includes Coppola all-stars Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning, plus solid turns by comeback kids Nicole Kidman (who killed it in TV's Big Little Lies) and Colin Farrell (ditto in The Lobster), who also play husband and wife in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which I haven't seen yet, but own. A decent enough remake of the Clint Eastwood semi-classic, and a laudable entry in this Year of the Woman sweepstakes, but not quite classic Coppola.
Annabelle - Creation: I wasn't a huge fan of the first film- too much cult/occult stuff, not enough doll-centric creepiness for me- but this, much like Ouija: Origin of Evil, vastly improves on its predecessor, while likewise deftly tying the material into the preceding film in a clever way. (It also ties it further into the Conjuring-verse in a cool way, though technically it was already a part of it.)
Great female-heavy cast- this truly was the Year of the Woman- and some genuinely scary moments, plus an approach that forgoes a lot of typical "jump-scare" shenanigans in favor of genuine dread-filled atmosphere. Director David F. Sandberg, who also did the decent Lights Out, parlayed this into a plum gig directing the Marvel movie Shazam!, so good on him.
The Glass Castle: Another film that just missed making my Best Of list, this excellent indie flick features great performances from its three main leads: Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts that might well have been award-worthy had the film received slightly better reviews. I'll allow that the pacing can be a bit sluggish in places, and that some of the shifts in tone are a bit jarring- which are precisely why it didn't make my list- but there's enough good stuff here to make it worthwhile for indie drama fans, to be sure.
To say nothing of the fact that it's all true, which is just remarkable. Larson plays writer Jeannette Walls, who was shocked to see her parents scrounging for food on the streets of New York City, clearly homeless, and squatting in abandoned buildings wherever they could. As the film progresses, we see Walls' upbringing, in which her parents determined to live a Bohemian lifestyle, come what may despite her father's propensity for blowing all his money on booze and the like.
In addition to the strong performances by the three leads, we also get some excellent turns from the kids playing younger versions of Walls and her siblings, particularly the ones playing Jeannette at different ages. The film is admittedly imperfect, and glosses over some of the harsher material, but is still worth a look for anyone who likes true-life dramas and coming-of-age stories. Highly recommended, in spite of its faults.
Battle of the Sexes: I wanted to like this more, and the two main leads, Emma Stone and Steve Carrell are both great, and totally believable in their given real-life-based roles as tennis greats Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, but it undeniably drags in places and is nowhere near as uplifting and engaging as it should have been. Still, worth a look to see how far women have come and how piggish men were back then- not that they can't still be, mind you- but boy, have we come a long way, baby.
It does, however, nail the 70's vibe and features some great supporting role work by an endearing Sarah Silverman, who's really become a solid dramatic actress in recent years, and Andrea Riseborough, who's quietly been doing chameleonic work in everything from Birdman to Oblivion for years. Like Naomi Watts, another actress that made it later in life, she deserves her Oscar-worthy moment- but this isn't it.
IT: Another one I wanted to like more than I did. If any Stephen King property was screaming for a remake, save maybe The Stand, it was this one, and the decision to split it into two movies was a solid one. Alas, the film suffered a great blow when it lost True Detective mastermind Cary Fukunaga (see also TD Season 2, which likewise suffered in his absence), when the studio balked at his ambitious vision for the film.
Enter Andy Muschietti, of Mama fame, who sadly made the decision to go off-book in several key places, none of which work as well as how the original material portrayed them. As a child of the 80's myself, I didn't so much mind the recasting of the time period it was set in- I know more about the 80's than the 50's, for obvious reasons- but that element is perfunctory at best, only really affecting the soundtrack and a few glimpses of movie posters and video-games and the like.
Beyond that, when the movie sticks to the book, it works like gangbusters, and after the overrated, soft-pedaled original TV-miniseries, which isn't as good as some would have you believe (I'll chalk that up to nostalgia and the fact that most haven't seen it since they were kids), this IT delivers the gory goods and scares in places, but not enough of them, alas. It also relies too heavily on CGI, botching what could have been even more memorable moments, and fumbles the ball on certain characters, notably the bullies, one of who's demise doesn't bode well for the sequel.
I'm hoping the filmmakers take the criticisms to heart and hew closer to the source material next time around, but given the enormous box office success, I doubt they will, and will likely instead adopt the "if IT ain't broke, don't fix IT" approach. Still, a lot will rest on the new cast, so we'll see. As IT stands, it was worth seeing and a vast improvement on the original miniseries, but still a bit of a swing-and-a-miss as a King fan. Better this than The Dark Tower, though, to be sure.
The Snowman: Another one I wanted to like more than I did, this one has a plot right in my wheelhouse of serial killer thrillers, a la Silence of the Lambs and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but it fumbles the ball with deathly-slow pacing and a sometimes confusing plot- I'm still not sure what that opening bit was all about. Maybe you needed to read the book first. Still, another solid performance from Michael Fassbender, and I really liked Rebecca Ferguson, who I wasn't that familiar with, save from the Mission Impossible films. The rest of the cast is fine, too, and there are some indelible set-pieces, but it's never as great as you hope it will be, which is too bad.
Suburbicon: Even second-tier Coen Brothers isn't half-bad, and this is no exception. Writer/director and erstwhile actor George Clooney took an unused Coens' script from around the time of their debut feature Blood Simple (it shows) and combined it with the true-life based tale of a black family's ugly experiences living in an all-white suburb, written by Clooney and partner Grant Heslov for what is a decidedly uneven but watchable final result.
At first, the film is completely disjointed and hard to follow, but it becomes clear soon enough that this was a gambit to try and fake out the audience as to what was really going on with the Matt Damon/Julianne Moore portion of the film. I can't say I was fooled- I've seen one too many Film Noir flicks for that- but the film features just enough interesting goings-on to keep one watching, even if the end result is a bit on the muddled side.
The Disaster Artist: This one should have been a slam-dunk, especially for fans of the so-bad-it's-just-bad (but in an entertaining way), not-ready-for-Skinemax opus The Room, but unfortunately, it's never as good as you want it to be, despite a great revolving door of excellent comedians and character actors.
Also, it's just not as fun to watch a bad movie being made as it is to just simply watch a bad movie itself, preferably with friends (or at least MST3000) making wise(au)-cracks and beer or the like flowing freely, save maybe the Ed Wood movie, which this clearly wants to be, but just misses the mark by being way too slow, and not getting to the "action" soon enough.
James Franco admittedly nails the quirky Tommy Wiseau, but much like he c-blocked the man himself at the Globes, so did life do the same when the specter of Franco's past indiscretions came back to haunt him, hanging like a pallor over the film and unfortunately making it a bit of a slog. (See also A Ghost Story, I would imagine.)
As with more than a few movies on this list, I wanted to like this more than I did- maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind. Or maybe it's that it's simply more fun to re-watch The Room instead, given that it doesn't have to work nearly as hard as this does for laughs- even if it is of the unintentional variety.
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Well, that about does it for the also-rans. If you didn't see a particular movie on either of these lists, then congrats: you probably deduced most of my Top 15!
All that's left now is the official ranking, which we'll get to in the next installment. See you then, and be sure and let me know in the comments section which of the films I haven't seen that you have and what you thought of them, as well as what you thought of my assessments of the ones I did see. Thanks for reading!
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