Now, here are the movies that came in at #30 – #21 on my complete movie list for 2017. Expect to see the return of one of my favorite franchises, another Blumhouse hit and more.
30. Colossal
- The complete tone shift from humorous to dark makes the fact that Jason Sudeikis is the movies antagonist even more unexpected
- Also, I liked the tone shift
- Sudeikis performed well as the psychotic drunk in what I think was his first “evil” role but I truly don’t know. I’m just guessing
- When Seoul is invaded by the monster and robot, why isn’t it evacuated or better secure? Because by this time in the movie, they should have been expecting at least the monster to appear since it showed up there a few times already
- I need a better explanation for why Oscar (Sudeikis) started acting crazy
- Interesting concept that I thought was going to have a better story behind it
- The ending was a cool way to end things, but it didn’t really have an explanation for how everything exactly came together to lead up to that ending
- To Sum it Up: Good movie that I thought would be one of those weird movies to reach great levels but it couldn’t quite get there
29. Life 
- Calvin, the alien, can be described (in my words) as a space spider and then changes into a baby dragon if that makes any sense
- Calvin’s progression was fun to watch as he hunted down the crew members
- Should have been more crew members for Calvin to kill
- I had a feeling Ryan Reynolds would die early in the movie and I was right
- Wish the great Jake Gyllenhaal was given more chances to show his great acting talent
- His character was so blah that it was hard for him to make him standout
- I really liked the decision to go with the predictable dark twist at the end that signaled the end of the world and Miranda (Rebecca Ferguson) dying in space
- It’s a horror movie so things shouldn’t end well
- To Sum it Up: Entertaining space/alien/horror movie thanks to its alien villain and how he went after the mostly star studded crew members in the condemned area in space
28. Jigsaw
- Wasn’t all that violent, unfortunately, but I get what the directors wanted to do with this one
- take it back more to the first one and not give it the “torture porn” label the ones after it helped heap onto the franchise
- Up until the end of the movie, the black guy a.k.a Mitch (Mandela Van Peebles) had the most gruesome death…racism?
- It was also the best trap until the end of the movie came
- Most of the movie didn’t have the genuine feel of a ‘Saw’ movie…
- Until the end when the movie ended in typical ‘Saw’ twist fashion
- Which I enjoyed and made me like the movie more
- Until the end when the movie ended in typical ‘Saw’ twist fashion
- As a whole, the traps were very weak. I know I basically already said that but it needed to be said again
- The acting wasn’t all that good but I didn’t expect anything different
- I immediately predicted who the killer was but it being predictable doesn’t mean I didn’t thoroughly enjoy the ending and how it led up to the reveal
- To Sum it Up: I still feel this sequel shouldn’t have been made but I enjoyed it and understood how it tried to play as a legacy movie for the Jigsaw character. But still, we don’t need anymore and I’m saying that as a humongous ‘Saw’ fan
27. I, Tonya
- Why was Margot Robbie playing Tonya even at the age of 15?
- I liked the talking to the camera/breaking the fourth wall part of the storytelling
- Worked well with the part documentary style the movie went with
- There’s a part where a sheriff tells Tonya that they can’t protect her from a death threat because the venue she is skating in is too big. What?!
- I thought the Nancy Kerrigan incident was more dramatic and not just a quick whack to the knee. I clearly never actually read about what exactly happened
- If Harding’s bodyguard was actually the idiot behind the whole thing, like the movie says, that’s crazy
- I liked the humor in the movie but I feel if I was Kerrigan or anybody in her family, I would feel some portions of how they dealt with the assault was disrespectful
- The way the aftermath of the attack was handled in the movie didn’t make it seem serious or that Harding was that affected by it until the end
- Felt like she was abruptly harshly punished after everything seemed chill for her
- Allison Janney, who I feel was vastly underrated before this years awards season, killed it as did Robbie
- To Sum it Up: Well acted and an interestingly told story. The way the crime was handled felt weird to me though
26. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
- I appreciate that the movie told us how the Jumanji game became a video game but I reallllllyyyyyy don’t like how it happened
- Doesn’t get more lazier than that
- The kids part in the beginning was funny and a solid but generic set up for the characters
- I could have guessed how the whole beginning would go so I’m glad they kept it short
- There’s a funny peeing scene that wasn’t lazy gross humor but worked with a gender swap of one of the characters
- Jack Black gave his best performance in awhile. His character basically called for it so he better have knocked it out the park
- Thought the writers did good with making jokes of and incorporating video game tropes and details
- To Sum it Up: I greatly underestimated this and I’m glad I was so wrong
25. Happy Death Day
- A scene where a white girl runs from the killer and trips. Typical
- I like how the movie made the day/deaths montage funny
- The villain in the movie kicked open a chained door. Does he have some super strength that I don’t know about?
- The way Tree (Jessica Rothe) went about killing Tombs (Rob Mello) was careless and stupid AND how did she not get in trouble for it either because it was super suspicious
- She was just back at her home right after, celebrating
- Danielle (Rachel Matthews) was funny throughout as the “head mean girl in charge”
- The reason for Tree’s actual killer killing her was as dumb and petty as I was hoping it wouldn’t be
- But I did like that the movie led me towards one killer, which made me mad. Then twisted to the real killer
- It’s kind of hard to believe that Tree got of scot free for killing her killer based off how the situation had to have looked to the police
- Funny ‘Groundhog Day’ reference to end the movie
- To Sum it Up: An amusing spin on the, now termed, ‘Groundhog Day’ style movie we’ve seen different times before. Look at Blumhouse trying to liven things up.
24. Battle of the Sexes
- Should have showed more of how society looked at Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) and not just how he is seen as a hustler early on in the movie
- When he went against women, the men seemed to love him but that’s not the vibe that was given off early on
- Why was the Riggs vs. Billie Jean King (the lovely Emma Stone) bigger than the Riggs vs. Margaret Court match, which came first?
- She was ranked higher and it was the first match of its kind
- They were laying it on thick with the chauvinistic stuff but it might have been like that back. I don’t know, I’m not super old and from that time
- …it was still funny though
- The cheating lesbian situation with King seemed like it was handled more cautiously in the movie than the actual situation would call for. Maybe it really happened like that though
- Stone and Carell both gave great performances
- Stone’s performance didn’t have those over-the-top, super emotional, obvious award worthy moments but she played the even kill, emotionally tough on the outside King very well
- Carell did great bringing the jokes and the up beat performance
- To Sum it Up: I enjoyed this history lesson but, at the end of the day, Stone is in it so I was going to like it regardless
23. IT
- If you’ve seen the movie, you should remember that “rock fight” the Losers Club had against the bullies. If you look at that in a real life perspective, those KIDS had a full fledged rock war!
- On top of that, Harry (Nicholas Hamilton) was about to bash Mike (Chosen Jacobs) in the head with a rock
- When the Losers start to realize that some sort of clown has been scaring the crap out of them, some who said they saw they clown actually didn’t see him up until that point…I think.
- The whole Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) realization for them was done in a poor and forced way
- O.G. Bill (Jaeden Lieberher), the leader of the Losers Club, never seemed to be that scared of what was going on. Just wanted to point that out
- Pennywise’s movements just seemed more silly than terrifying at times…then at times they seemed freakishly scary
- That fact that Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor) got his stomach sliced by Harry didn’t seem to worry his friends….hmmm weird
- Skarsgård was great and creepy as the dancing clown but his performance STILL didn’t live up to my sky high (probably unreachable) expectations
- The Losers Club was the focus and were clear standouts as a collective
- Their chemistry with each other just created great moments and humor
- I wanted more violence, Pennywise murders and more terrifying torture methods from the demon clown
- At times, the movie didn’t feel like a horror flick
- The creepy Pennywise could have looked a touch more creepy
- There were times where the movie was so unscary, I could see why the kids didn’t always look terrified
- Entertaining from start to finish even though the final showdown with Pennywise wasn’t as good as I would have liked it to be
- To Sum it Up: An enjoyable, dope looking “scary” movie with great performances from the cast. I just wish it would have went even darker…just a smidge more
22. Ingrid Goes West 
- This plot would have been good for a thriller or a wack horror movie
- Aubrey Plaza acts like her usual self in this one but she adds that psychotic edge to make it a great performance
- O’Shea Jackson Jr. shows he has a good personality for the big screen but he has to get out there more and improve his acting skills when he is not playing his dad
- I like the kind of eerie dark turn the movie took. You can hear the transition in the music
- This type of storyline called for the tone shift or addition or whatever you want to call it
- Thought the whole “Taylor (Elizabeth Olsen) finds out about Ingrid” (Plaza) reveal would be more confrontational and in person
- Wasn’t feeling the ending. I would have gone darker but that’s just me
- There were some little details here and there that could have been tuned some, but I won’t nitpick
- To Sum it Up: Even with the tonal shifts, the movie worked all the way until the very end thanks to an interesting up to the time storyline and great performance by Plaza
21. The Big Sick
- Hilarious 9/11 and brain damage jokes were said
- Feels like a very Judd Apatow-esque movie so his producing fingerprints are felt
- Holly Hunter is the standout performance from a solid cast
- It didn’t have to be two hours
- To Sum it Up: Funny all the way through and the story is touching (I guess) so you get more bang for your buck than you usually get with comedies
My 2017 Complete Movie List: #40 – #31| My 2017 Complete Movie List: #20 – #11
(Photo Credit: Michael Klug – http://horrorfreaknews.com/happy-death-day-2017-review; Glenn Kenny – https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/life-2017; Sheila O’Malley – https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ingrid-goes-west-2017)
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