Now, here are the movies that came in at #20 – #11 on my complete movie list for 2017. Expect to see a Jake Gyllenhaal joint, a movie based on the making of the best worst movie of all-time and more.
20. Stronger
- As usually Gyllenhaal killed it
- I never watched video of the man at the focus of the movie, Jeff Bauman (portrayed by Gyllenhaal) but some of the mannerisms Gyllenhaal used seemed specific so I’m going to assume he nailed down how Jeff acts. Yes, I’m getting my Stan on a little
- The rest of the cast did a great job not getting out shadowed by Gyllenhaal, especially Miranda Richardson as Jeff’s mom
- I like how the movie didn’t get distracted on focusing too much on the Boston Bombing especially because we’ve recently saw that with ‘Patriots Day’
- The emotional car scene with Jeff and Erin (Tatiana Maslany) where a yelling match leads into Jeff crawling outside towards the apartment door was unintentionally funny (yeah I said. I know I’m evil and childish and blah blah blah) BUT also highlighted Gyllenhaal’s talent. It also gave you a visual insight into what Jeff was going through
- To Sum it Up: Intriguing movie because of the way it showed how a real life “hero” dealt with the tragedy that was bestowed upon him
19. Wonder Woman 
- Diana’s (Gal Gadot) entrance into London brought some wise humor.
- It wasn’t forced, and it made sense for the scenario
- It looks like Zack Snyder directed the big, “epic” Wonder Woman vs. Ares battle
- The CGI was getting out of control during this scene. It didn’t fit the look and vibe of the rest of the movie that came before it
- The twist of who the villain is was wack which then made him a worse villain than what he was going to be
- I’d rather it have been who we were led to believe it was throughout the whole movie
- Good superhero character study that gave a story that made sense at almost every turn for someone like Wonder Woman
- Some nice action moments but that end could have been stripped down and the money used for that scene could have been spread throughout the rest of the movie
- DC’s best attempt at replicating the style of superhero movies Marvel has perfected….until the end
- Gadot proved the doubters of her casting wrong by doing Wonder Woman justice with the right mix of vulnerability to this world she entered and believability when it comes to her looking like she can actually take part in all those action scenes
- To Sum it Up: A step in the right direction for DC but I don’t find it as great as people are trying to make it seem
18. Kingsman: The Golden Circle
- Entertaining opening with the cab fight scene
- The CGI was used as a mass amount and was way too noticeable
- Whisky (Pedro Pascal) was good as the main Statesman who was involved in movies action but I’d prefer that had been Channing Tatum’s Tequila
- Whisky did have some of the better action moments in the movie so I can’t be too mad at it
- More should have been made of Harry’s (Colin Firth) mind troubles and how it was impacting him towards the climatic portions of the movie
- Elton John had more of a role than I expected
- He was funny though
- It’s funny how the President in the movie (Bruce Greenwood) was a funny and villainous savage like the one we have now in real life…hmmm….
- Whisky’s betrayal reason made sense and wasn’t him just secretly working for the Golden Circle
- The Battle at Poppy Land was better than the final battle in ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’
- Was also the best action scene in the movie
- To Sum it Up: Not better than it’s refreshing predecessor but director Matthew Vaughn again showed why he is one of my favorite filmmakers
17. Girls Trip
- I didn’t expect Regina Hall’s Ryan to be the main focus of the movie
- Hilarious thanks in large part to a breakout performance from Tiffany Haddish playing her ridiculous, over-the-top character
- I would have laughed more if it wasn’t for me being annoyed by the LOUD women in my theater
- The core four ladies had good comedic chemistry
- Story wasn’t ground breaking, but it didn’t get in the way of the main focus and that was the laughs
- To Sum it Up: Surprisingly funnier than I expected it to be and that lead to it being a good time at the movies
16. Brigsby Bear
- Funny but not hilarious
- Even though there was nothing new about Kyle Mooney’s performance, in terms of him playing that type of character before, it was still great because it’s exactly what the character needed
- I like weird movies, so its weirdness worked for me, but it also wasn’t overly weird. It balanced that with the good, heartfelt nature it was going for
- So much so that the end moved me as if I was in that theater, during the final scene, applauding along with everyone else
- I like how it approached the topic of people who have to reacclimate themselves to the real world and how they might react
- To Sum it Up: Great and unique. We always need these type of movies
15. The Disaster Artist
- Wish they would have showed the making of more scenes from ‘The Room’. Not much more; Just a few more classic moments
- Took longer than I expected to get to the making of the movie
- But the positive was you got to see the buildup of the friendship between Tommy (James Franco) and Eric (Dave Franco)
- Funny from start to finish
- Even scenes the movie probably wanted to be serious, I laughed at because of Franco’s portrayal of the very…um…”interesting” Tommy Wiseau a.k.a. a guy who will always be accidentally hilarious every time he opens his mouth
- The end did a good job turning Wiseau’s oddball self into a sympathetic figure even when he probably shouldn’t be
- But everyone has a dream and he kind of made his dream come true no matter how awful his product was
- James Franco killed it as Tommy even though his voice couldn’t get as high as the actual Tommy’s
- I’m going to keep saying it but he was robbed of at least Oscar nomination for his performance smh
- I like seeing behind-the-scenes of movies and this movie did that but with humor that was either already there or was implemented
- To Sum it Up: This made me want to rush back and watch ‘The Room’ again
14. Baby Driver
- With one movie, Ansel Elgort turned himself from a stupid spaz to a respectable actor. Good job
- Cool opening chase/getaway car scene
- Edgar Wright should direct a ‘Fast &Furious’ movie because this movie had some impressive chase/car scenes
- Great acting from the entire cast but Jamie Foxx and Kevin Spacey were the standouts to me
- Wasn’t expecting Jon Hamm to be the villain in the end
- Great use of music. There might have been more music than words in the movie
- Baby (Elgort) was against the violence until the end of the movie when he was pushed too far but his willingness to go over to the dark side was rather quick
- To Sum it Up: Quite simply, just a great movie by a great filmmaker
13. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
- So Leia’s (Carrie Fisher) Force powers give her the ability to fly through space huh?
- Old Bill Cosby impersonations remind me of Yoda (Frank Oz) in this
- The dialogue in regards to humor is much different
- Rian Johnson put his stamp on it
- The humor occurred less and less as the movie went on
- Wasn’t a fan on the entire casino scene
- From the side, Snoke (Andy Serkis) looks like a mix of Freddy Krueger and Ebenezer Scrooge
- Two of the best moments were:
- Light speed through the destroyer
- Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Rey (Daisy Ridley) vs. the Praetorian Guards
- I honestly don’t think either Snoke or Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) are dead
- Phasma was once again poorly and barely used
- Would have liked to see an actual lightsaber battle between Luke (Mark Hamill) and Kylo Ren before Lukes death since there is so much history and tension in their relationship
- On top of the fact that Kylo Ren killed his father a.k.a. Lukes buddy
- Like some of the dark nature that made it different than ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’
- To Sum it Up: Great installment in the franchise but I don’t think it holds a candle to the all around great time ‘The Force Awakens’ was
12. The Fate of the Furious 
- Dope opening race with Dom (Vin Diesel) that deals with a car on fire going backwards.
- Finally, the fakeness the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise in the race aspect of the series
- Great, action-packed prison escape scene that showed Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is inhuman or something unstoppable
- Apparently Dom is 40 in this movie….seriously Vin?
- Elena (Elsa Pataky) having Dom’s baby and that being the reason he turned to the dark side is all good beside the fact that the timeline of her having his baby doesn’t seem to line up at all to me
- Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) and Hobbs had some funny back and forths
- If their spin-off actually gets made, they showed chemistry here that would make for an entertaining feature
- The Berlin scene on the ice in the third act was another action-packed part of the movie that was also very fake
- A lot of fire was around but wasn’t melting the ice…hmm…
- Johnson and Diesel must have really been beefing during the shooting of this movie because they weren’t face to face in any scene
- I never want to see our beloved main team of “good guys” operate without Diesel or Paul Walker
- I was expecting more evil deeds from evil Dom
- The fighting scenes appeared to occur less often than I would have liked so that was disappointing
- To Sum it Up: Another entertaining installment but is no ‘Furious 7’
11. Blade Runner 2049
- The relationship with technology part of the movie reminded me of ‘Her’
- The visuals were AMAZING and the sound was its own character and I LOVED IT!
- The way the sound was rocking my fancy movie theater seat and the way it was coming out the speakers makes it seem like the movie was made to be played in that very specific theater
- Ryan Gosling didn’t do anything out of the ordinary but he carried this long movie by being his great Gosling self
- Took Harrison Ford between like an hour and an hour and a half to finally appear.
- The tense, environment sprawling buildup was amazing
- Was expecting Dave Bautista to survive until, at least, to the middle of the movie but that didn’t happen
- Jared Leto’s villain, Niander Wallace, was barely in the movie and wasn’t even the best villain we got
- His henchwoman, Luv (Sylvia Hoeks) was
- This is Leto second straight underwhelming villain role
- Would have liked more action but the visual spectacle made up for it
- The action scene we did get weren’t explosive and over-the-top but I liked the grounded, raw fights I saw
- To me, this sequel is better than ‘Blade Runner’ by several miles
- The story was somewhat hard to follow at times for someone slow like me but I still enjoyed!
- The movie lets some elements around the story be up in the air and it played so well
- To Sum it Up: Denis Villeneuve shows once again that he is one of, if not, the best director out. Kudos to him for handling the task of bringing a sequel to a beloved movie all these years later with such genuis
My 2017 Complete Movie List: #30 – #21| My 2017 Complete Movie List: Top 10!
(Photo Credit: A24 / Everett; Business Insider; Matt Kennedy—Universal Pictures/AP)
I See Movies 