Mar's 2017 Movie Reviews

[Mar]

My inbox has been inundated with letters asking, "When are you going to tell us which movies you enjoy?" and "do you mind if I wear a WWMD t-shirt?" Well wait no more, the answers are NOW and NO WAY!

Every year we make an attempt to watch every single movie released the previous year. A new year is fast approaching and I thought it would be interesting to post reviews of my 2017 movies here. Some of the best movies from 2016 that I saw were Lyon, War Dogs, Sausage Party and La La Land. The absolute worst movie that we watched was Raw. That movie is fuuuuuuuuuucked up.

I'm starting a week early but I've already watched my first one so I'll post that review in a following reply, this initial post is to keep track of what I reviewed, what I enjoyed and the top 10 movies I've seen so far.

TOP TEN 2017
1. Spiderman: Homecoming
2. The Greatest Showman
3. Baywatch
4. IT
5. LBJ
6. Annabelle: Creation
7. I, Tonya
8. Battle Of The Sexes
9. American Made
10. Guardians Of The Galaxy: Volume 2

MOVIES REVIEWED
- Annabelle: Creation
- Bright
- The Shape Of Water
- Thor: Ragnarok
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- Phantom Thread
- LBJ
- Justice League
- Lady Bird
- I, Tonya
- The Greatest Showman
- Get Out
- Darkest Hour
- Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
- I Kill Giants
- Spiderman: Homecoming
- Guardians Of The Galaxy: Volume 2
- Blade Runner 2049
- Baywatch
- IT
- Mother!
- Wonder Woman
- Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle
- Transformers: The Last Knight
- Kingsman: The Golden Circle
- Battle Of The Sexes
- The Snowman
- Baby Driver
- American Made
- You Were Never Really Here
- Wind River

[Mar]

Annabelle: Creation



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KisPhy7T__Q

This movie was produced by one of my favourite producers, James Wan. He's responsible for the Annabelle series, the Conjuring series, the Saw series and also Furious 7. The movie revolves around a possessed doll which was introduced to us in the Conjuring series but has since gotten its own series and been the main focus of the film. This movie is an explanation of the events which took place leading up to the previously released films in the series and, in my opinion, is the weakest of all of them. It's still good and has its moments, I would definitely recommend it for any horror or James Wan fan but I would recommend going back and watching the others instead if you haven't seen them.

Is anyone else as excited as I am that James Wan is doing the new Mortal Kombat film also? So stoked......

[mr2mike]

In because MARRRR!

[Hallowed_point]

Best thread of 2017.

[eglove]

Raw was one of the best movies of the year..better than fucking Annabelle...

[G-ZUS]

waaaw

[firebane]

Anyone who reviews movies and says Sausage Party is great holds no credibility.

[g-m]

Every year we make an attempt to watch every single movie released the previous year.

TOP TEN 2017 (so far)
1. Annabelle: Creation
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

MOVIES REVIEWED
- Annabelle: Creation

I LOLed

[mr2mike]

Guess this movie reviewer doesn't watch movies over the holidays.
Was expecting a few Mar updates by now.:closed:

[rage2]

Anyone who reviews movies and says Sausage Party is great holds no credibility.
I dunno man, Sausage Party was pretty good for me. No doubt that it'd be a top movie last year if you smoked before watching it.

[Hallowed_point]

Guess this movie reviewer doesn't watch movies over the holidays.
Was expecting a few Mar updates by now.:closed:

Agreed. very let down here

[syscal]

Watched Raw after seeing Mar's opinion of it above. It was a good movie. I typically make it a point to watch movies that the masses think are "too much", they are usually the best ones.

I think Mar should update the post to be "The absolute worst movies that are fuuuuuuuuuucked up - Top 10 List"

[Mar]

I went on a snowboarding trip to Panorama for the holidays, drove into a ditch and wasn't even on the proper road anyway. Fun times!

Next review is Bright, we watched it last night. It starred Will Smith who seems to be taking more questionable roles lately and he plays a human police officer in a world where magic exists, with fairies, elves and orcs. Orcs are looked at as criminals and the world's very first orc police officer becomes Smith's character's partner. Smith's character has to deal with issues of trust and the discovery of one of the rarest magical items in the world.....a magic wand.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EZCBSsBxko

I kind of liked it, I would rate it about a 6 out of 10. The acting was a little better than I would expect, and the plot was creative but the execution wasn't amazing. It was interesting to watch and to see the comparisons between the orcs and how we treat minorities in our own society but I just didn't understand the concept of magic as well as I probably should have to watch this. The only thing I know about orcs is from Warcraft and I know nothing about fairies, pixies, elves or anything else in this movie. I'd recommend it if you're running out of better things to watch.

[ExtraSlow]

Dude, you need to start a 2018 thread.

[Mar]

Dude, you need to start a 2018 thread.

Next January.

[Maxx Mazda]

Drove into a ditch on the wrong road? Please tell us the Veloster is ok?! For the love of god let it be ok!!

[Mar]

Drove into a ditch on the wrong road? Please tell us the Veloster is ok?! For the love of god let it be ok!!

Because of the trailer hitch, we were able to hook the winch to it and pull it out. It was only minor, no damage except a broken snow brush I used as a shovel for 45 minutes.

[syscal]

The only thing I know about orcs is from Warcraft and I know nothing about fairies, pixies, elves or anything else in this movie. I'd recommend it if you're running out of better things to watch.

If you haven't seen Lord of the Rings, this movie makes no sense.

[Mar]

If you haven't seen Lord of the Rings, this movie makes no sense.

I tried to watch the first one for half an hour but it was so bad I had to stop. That was over 15 years ago though.

[Mar]

This is definitely going to be one of the weirdest movies I'll watch this year, almost as weird as Raw from last year. This movie is called The Shape Of Water and it's about a mute janitorial woman that falls in love with a secretly held Mer-man prisoner. The makeup is actually quite good and Guillermo del Toro does a pretty good job directing but nothing can save this movie from its travesty of a plot.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFYWazblaUA

I'm not quite sure why he chose this idea to go with, it's not like he has made terrible movies in the past, he's a pretty good director. This movie was certainly interesting and has a moment or two but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Ever. I give it a 3/10.

[Mar]

NO SPOILERS

I also watched Thor: Ragnarok. I was super excited to watch this one, I really enjoy the Marvel universe and Joss Whedon's work with all of the Avengers movies but for some reason this Thor movie wasn't as good as any of the previous ones. I thought the previous movies were great but this one just isn't as good, even though it's still a really good film.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue80QwXMRHg

Just like other Marvel films, they wanted to include another Marvel character so for this one they had The Hulk, as you can see in the trailer. I just wasn't into this Hulk though, it seems like they change him every damn movie. In the original Hulk movie (Ruffalo's first), he was a raging maniac that couldn't be tamed in any way and if you were within arm's reach, you were dead. Then in The Avengers, Black Widow was able to calm him down with a specific series of touches. Now in this movie they sit down and hang out together. I shit you not, Hulk is laughing and plays with a ball, bouncing it at a wall. What happened to the maniac killer? It's bad enough they teased me with Edward Norton, a vastly superior actor, now I got this shit.

Overall still a good movie, I would just say it's the worst in the Marvel set, I even enjoyed Captain America more. I give it a 7/10.

Also not enough Anthony Hopkins, was he too expensive?

[Mar]

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

A woman's daughter is raped and murdered and after years of searching, the local police have found no suspects in the crime. The woman decides to rent 3 consecutive billboards on a road just outside the town and put up messages confronting the police about their efforts.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nefD7UOhLCo

I actually really liked this film, it resembled some Sundance films I've seen, though I don't believe it was an entry. The acting is really good and the directing is great also. Woody Harrelson acts in this but he isn't the lead, that goes to the victim's mother. While it didn't appear to have the budget of a more well known film, it was a really good watch, had some very interesting scenes and an interesting ending. I would recommend this film to someone that enjoys movies and doesn't just need action all the time. I give it a 6.5/10.

[hurrdurr]

I really liked it - 6.5/10 - Mar

:facepalm:

[Mar]

I really liked it - 6.5/10 - Mar

:facepalm:

I very, very rarely give a 10/10 on anything, that means it absolutely could not get any better in any possible way. I'm more realistic about my ratings so a 6.5 is 30% better than an average film. So I liked it.

[ExtraSlow]

giving a film he really liked a 6.5/10 makes more sense than the thread title still.

[Mar]

Phantom Thread



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNsiQMeSvMk

I think I found a movie I liked less than The Shape Of Water. It was nominated for 6 Oscars and 6 Academy Awards so maybe I just don't know good movies but I really didn't like this one. It's about a dress maker that's obsessed with his work and he meets a woman way younger than him. They fall in love and he just seems to continuously be annoyed by her until they end up hating each other but can't be apart. Not only was it fairly boring but it also went on for over 2 hours. Daniel Day-Lewis gave a great performance and the rest of the acting wasn't bad, it was just not interesting. At all. I give it a 2/10 and would not recommend to anyone.

[Brent.ff]

maybe I just don't know good movies

Truer words never been said

[Mar]

LBJ


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrnEp8WLH0g

This movie was fantastic, it stars Woody Harrelson and is directed by Rob Reiner. I had no idea Woody is capable of playing such a role, I could hardly even tell it was him with all the work they did to his face, but the voice is unmistakable. He plays a great role here as LBJ, the president that took office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It's about his fight to pass a bill through Senate, ending discrimination against minorities applying for white jobs and how he dealt with it once in office.

The portrayal of JFK and his brother Robert were great as well, the only negative thing I could say about this movie is I constantly felt like it was made by someone that was trying to convince me that he really was a good person even though I didn't know any different. I felt like they were always trying to make LBJ a hero, despite some secret I don't even know if it existed. My girlfriend says he was portrayed very differently to her in school and in the media but regardless of all that it was still a very entertaining movie and I would highly recommend it to anyone. I'd probably give this a 8/10.

[Buster]

The Shape of Water was great.

[schurchill39]

Hey Mar, you know that its 2018 right? And nobody besides you calls a movie that was released in 2018, but was obviously made in 2017, a 2017 movie. As for the actual reviews they are pretty much on par with what I expect from a Mar thread.

The Three Billboards was a fantastic movie, wayyyy better than a 6.5/10.

[Mar]

Justice League



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9-DM9uBtVI

Wow, what do I even say about this movie? I'm actually surprised this train wreck even got made, it seemed doomed from the beginning with Zack Snyder getting fired and Joss Whedon coming in to finish up many of the scenes. It's like I could tell which scenes were done by Snyder and which were Whedon, the movie seemed to jump around a lot and the computer generated scenes didn't follow the rules of physics properly. I haven't seen a Ben Affleck movie I haven't liked but this one was mediocre at best. Some of the acting was pretty good though and I laughed at a few scenes, the score wasn't too bad and Danny Elfman did the music. Maybe if I had known more about some of these characters prior to this I made may have been more emotionally invested but I give it a 5/10.

[JRSC00LUDE]

I actually don't mind Ben Aflac either. Which puzzles me to no end.

[Mar]

Lady Bird


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNi_HC839Wo

This movie had great acting, great direction and should have gotten at least one Oscar nomination for something but the story was pretty average and it just didn't give me enough reason to get emotionally invested in the characters. It was an entertaining movie but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they were big on independent style movies. It's a solid 5 / 10 for me on this one, nothing really worthwhile to mention about it.

[Mar]

I, Tonya


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXZQ5DfSAAc

This is the true story of Tonya Harding, her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and her bodyguard that organized an assault on Nancy Kerrigan during the early nineties Olympic run. This movie is fantastic, Margot Robbie is incredible as always, the direction is amazing and the story is super interesting. I remember pieces of this story from growing up but I never knew all of the events that took place before and after the event, I actually finished the movie feeling really bad for Tonya.

The movie includes interview footage specifically for this movie with Tonya, Jeff, the bodyguard and Tonya's mother. I give this movie a 7.5 / 10 and would recommend it to anyone that likes documentary style movies.

[rage2]

I, Tonya is not a true story. It’s as true as Fargo which started out with the based on a true story title card. The only thing true about I, Tonya are the reenactments of scenes that we all saw on TV. Even the title refers to I, Claudius which is a fake autobiography.

I’m a figure skating fan and followed the story extensively since the 90s haha.

[03ozwhip]

I, Tonya is not a true story. It’s as true as Fargo which started out with the based on a true story title card. The only thing true about I, Tonya are the reenactments of scenes that we all saw on TV. Even the title refers to I, Claudius which is a fake autobiography.

I’m a figure skating fan and followed the story extensively since the 90s haha.
See this really pisses me off, I would have thought that it's based on an actual person, this should have to be 100% true events.

[Mar]

The Greatest Showman


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr9QtXwC9vc

I have a new favourite movie of the year. This is a musical about the startup of Barnum's Circus and the Ringling Brothers. Zac Efron is as good as ever but Hugh Jackman absolutely steals this show with his performance, the acting is great, the singing and choreography are perfect. I have no idea how closely it follows the true events but it was still a very interesting story and very entertaining, I can imagine it would make a great live theatre show as well. I contemplated giving this one a 9 and still might change my mind if I think about it some more but right now I'm going to give it a 8.5. I enjoyed every minute of this film.

Would I recommend it? I'm quite biased because I would much rather see a theatre play than watch a movie. If you enjoy live performances and musicals then you will love the shit out of this movie, if you're not that into musicals then you probably won't enjoy it.

[Mar]

Get Out


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzfpyUB60YY

This movie was nominated for an Oscar for Best Performance and Picture Of The Year and it won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. I have no idea how this happened, the acting was bad, the story was bad and the direction was bad. The story took an interesting twist about 3/4 in and it was slightly creative but it just didn't make up for the poor character development that had already taken place. I expected it to be a thrilling horror movie and it turned out to be much less than that. It wasn't terrible but don't bother watching this one, it's not that interesting. I give it a 5.5 / 10.

[Buster]

Get Out was one of the best movies of 2017

[rage2]

I dunno what’s wrong with me. I mostly agree with Mar on Get Out. Entertaining movie, but the acting was weak, and direction was weak as well. Only point I would disagree is the story. While not perfect, it’s really solid. There’s a lot of things that you notice watching the movie again after you already know how it ends.

It could’ve been a lot better than it was.

[Buster]

To be honest, I did spend a large portion of the movie imaging the very bad things I would do to Allison Williams.

[Mar]

Darkest Hour


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtJ60u7SUSw

Arguably this was released in 2018 but here goes. This is the story of Winston Churchill in World War II during the fight with Nazi Germany for control over Europe. I have mixed feelings about this movie, it's some of the best acting and directing I've ever seen, however the story, at least to me, just isn't that interesting. Britain loses faith in its parliament and Winston Churchill comes in to save what's left of the British Army in a losing fight against the Germans which sounds like it should be very exciting but the story just seemed slow. A lot of it was due to length character development which was done very well but I found myself thinking about other things during some scenes and then snapping back to reality and realizing I don't even know what that scene was about. I simply couldn't get into it but because of the talent portrayed, I have to give it a higher rating. I'll give it a soft 7 / 10.

[Mar]

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0CbN8sfihY

I probably won't do this justice since I'm not a hardcore Star Wars fan but I'll at least give my opinion of what I thought about it. I just watched all 7 movies 2 or 3 years ago and definitely my favourite 3 were episodes 4-6. This one was good and Mark Hamill was great in it but it seemed like very serious moments of acting were ruined by cheap dialogue. The way of the Jedi has always been to teach your opponent that fighting is not always the answer and that you shouldn't let your anger control your emotions but in this movie it seemed like people were just picking up weapons and clobbering each other without any of that. When Obi Wan fought Anakin in episode III, Obi Wan was constantly talking and trying to reason with Anakin that fighting is not the answer and to fight the feelings of the dark side. That being a Jedi is like being a Samurai and your sword is your last resort. This movie just seemed like everyone wanted to fight and there wasn't any of that honour and leadership.

The worst moment in the film for me was when Ray hands the lightsaber to Luke on the cliff side and the scene gets completely ruined with cheap comedy. Something definitely lacked with this movie and I could definitely tell JJ Abrams produced it with all his stupid lens flares everywhere but I did still enjoy watching it and it was very entertaining. Long but still entertaining. I would give this one a 7.5 / 10.

[Mar]

I Kill Giants


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMutrPkeeHM

This seemed like more of a kid's movie but it was still enjoyable. It had some fantasy elements and reminded me a lot about my own childhood when I used to use my imagination to entertain myself, before I had things that would do the imagining for me. It's basically a movie about a girl in junior high school that lets her imagination get a little wild and believes she can hunt and kill giants. The acting is pretty good, no problems there but I'm not really the target audience for the film. If you want something to watch with your kids I would suggest this one, it's not bad. I give it a 5.5 / 10.

[Mar]

SpiderMan: Homecoming


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0D3AOldjMU

As someone that grew up on Spiderman, I was really worried coming into this film but it was every bit as amazing as I hoped it would be. I like how they had Peter return to the mechanical web shooters instead of the webs coming out of his body like in the Sam Raimi films, I also think this kid is a much better representation of the character than Andrew Garfield was. They skipped the explanation of how he got his powers, they skipped the love story, it was just Spiderman and the villain.......and Tony Stark. The movie was very funny, lots of action, it flowed well and Michael Keaton was fantastic as always. This is highly recommended and I would put it in top 3 of all Marvel films I have seen. It's now at the top of my list so far this year, I give it a 9 / 10.

[Mar]

Guardians Of The Galaxy 2


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW1BIid8Osg

I heard lots of great things about this movie but it felt like the new Thor to me, not as good as the original. I generally don't enjoy movies with 2 villains and some of the action scenes could have been a lot more entertaining. I'm not sure why I'm unsatisfied with so may Marvel movies from last year but I had higher hopes for this one for sure. The acting was pretty good and I always like Kurt Russel but this didn't strike me like previous ones did. There were some pretty funny moments though, Groot and Rocket with the bomb was funny.

[Mar]

Baywatch


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyKOgnaf0BU

I'm not sure why I liked this movie so much but it was really good, I was surprised. Dwayne Johnson played Mitch Buchannon and was hilarious making fun of Zac Efron's character, a hot shot swimmer joining the team for community service. It reminded me a lot of The Guardian with Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher except funny instead of dramatic. Alexandra Daddario is exceptionally smoking hot in this movie as Summer and Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff both make appearances. It's filled with some entertaining action scenes and hilarious comedy, I recommend this movie to anyone that a good, entertaining movie that's almost a family film except for all the cursing.

[Mar]

Blade Runner 2049


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCcx85zbxz4

I watched the original movie 15 years ago. I didn't understand it then and I don't totally understand it now. It was sort of entertaining for what it was, there were a few elements to the movie that took me by surprise but the movie wasn't really able to hold my attention with the scenes it had. The action sequences just weren't interesting, the progression of the movie seemed too slow and I just wasn't interested in seeing the characters make it. It was sort of interesting for the science fiction but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that hasn't seen the original movie. Even though I've heard wonderful things about this movie in other reviews.

[Mar]

IT


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnCdOQsX5kc

This movie was great, I expected it to use a lot of the same scare tactics as other low budget horror films but it really surprised me. Some moments I expected to see a very scary scene but it turned out to be nothing at all. Others I expected to have a cat jump out to scare me and WHAM, a kid gets his arm eaten off! I feel like the use of Pennywise wasn't over the top and some of the scariest moments was just dialogue between him and a kid where you were just imagining what might happen. The actor playing Pennywise did a great job, I think he did a great job living up to the Tim Curry expectation and followed the original movie well enough. I highly recommend seeing this movie, though it is pretty scary.

[Mar]

Mother!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpICoc65uh0

Wow, we have a new winner for weirdest movie I've ever watched. I thought Raw was weird but at least in that movie I knew what was happening. This movie didn't make sense at all, even after it was over. It's hard to write a review about a movie you don't even understand and didn't make any sense at all but the acting was pretty good, at least, and Jennifer Lawrence looked even more amazing than usual. I give it a 3 / 10, do not watch.

[Mar]

Wonder Woman


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8fG0TtVAY

I felt the same about this movie as I did about Thor and Guardians Of The Galaxy 2, it was good but the Avenger movies have given me expectations too high for comic movies now. I liked this movie, I would probably give it a 7.5 / 10 but the score was a little off in places and the actors held onto jokes a little longer than I felt was necessary. It felt like they were pausing for theatrical laughter. The action scenes were good enough, it departed quite a bit from World War I history but I enjoyed it pretty much all of the way through.Gal Gadot and Chris Pine were great, I don't know Wonder Woman well enough to know whom the final villain was. I'd recommend this to anyone that likes comic book movies, sure, it was decent but not great.