Best Movies of 2017 – So Far

June is officially over, which means we are halfway through the 2017 cinematic year.  I have seen 93 movies so far this year, just short of my goal of 100 for the first half (my goal is 200 for the whole year).  I’ve seen some great films, and some not so great films, but overall, 2017 is shaping out to be a great year for movies.  Here are my picks for the best movies of 2017 so far as well as my most anticipated movies for the rest of the year.

 

 

 

 

UNDERRATED (Movie people didn’t like but I did) – A CURE FOR WELLNESS 

Runner Up – SNATCHED 

• Snatched was a lot of fun and funnier than I thought.  A Cure for Wellness is an original, ambitious, creepy horror film that will shake you for hours after you see it.

 

 

OVERRATED (Movie people liked that I didn’t) – LOGAN

Runner Up – BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 

• Logan is a good movie, but people are calling it one of the greatest comic book movies ever and think it should garner Oscar buzz.  Not so fast.  Again, while good, the movie feels incomplete and left me with a number of questions.

 

 

UNDERSEEN (Great movie nobody saw) – ALIEN: COVENANT 

Runner Up – THE LOST CITY OF Z 

• I loved Alien: Covenant and can’t understand why more didn’t see this movie.  This is the best Alien movie since Aliens (1986) and left the franchise open for a great conclusion.  Who knows if that will happen now, though.

 

 

OVERSEEN (Bad/Mediocre movie everybody saw) – FIFTY SHADES DARKER 

Runner Up – THE BOSS BABY

• The Boss Baby is in the top ten highest grossing films of the year, which is bizarre and shocking.  Fifty Shades Darker is a steaming pile of hot garbage that made over $100 million at the domestic box office.  WHYYYYYY?!?!?!?!

 

 

BIGGEST SURPRISE – MEGAN LEAVEY 

Runner Up – THE BYE BYE MAN

• The Bye Bye Man was a genuinely cool and creepy movie with an interesting story.  Megan Leavey, however, came out of nowhere to be one of the most moving films of the year.

 

 

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT – ALL EYEZ ON ME 

Runner Up – THE MUMMY 

• All Eyez On Me is a travesty of cinema and disrespects 2-Pac and everything he represented.

 

 

BEST ANIMATED MOVIE – THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE 

Runner Up – CARS 3

• The LEGO Batman Movie is a great Batman movie, LEGO movie, animated movie, and just an overall great movie.

 

 

BEST HORROR MOVIE – IT COMES AT NIGHT

Runner Up – GET OUT

• A movie about the horror’s of humans, It Comes at Night is horrifying from start to finish.

 

 

BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE – WONDER WOMAN 

Runner Up – THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE

• Wonder Woman is a comic book masterpiece that officially puts the DCEU on track.

 

 

BEST ACTION MOVIE – BABY DRIVER

Runner Up – THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS 

• The Fate of the Furious is filled with ridiculous, non-stop action.  Baby Driver is the coolest movie of the year and features exhilarating heists and wild car chases.

 

 

BEST SEQUEL – CARS 3 

Runner Up – JOHN WICK 2

• Tough call between these two.  John Wick showed that this movie was more than just action, where as Cars 3 reinvented the Cars series and gave Pixar another hit.

 

 

BEST COMEDY – THE BIG SICK 

Runner Up – BRIGSBY BEAR

• I absolutely love The Big Sick and believe it is one of the finest romantic comedies of this decade.

 

 

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY – THE LOST CITY OF Z

Runner Up – REBEL IN THE RYE

• James Gray brings us into this wondrous epic about discovery and determination.

 

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY – GET OUT 

Runner Up – SPLIT 

• Two brilliant horror films, but only one could be the best.  Split was a return to form for M. Night Shyamalan, but Get Out ushered in a new cinematic voice with a horror movie unlike anything we’ve seen before.

 

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – BRIDGET EVERETT in PATTI CAKE$

Runner Up – ABBY QUINN in LANDLINE 

• Abby Quinn gives one of the year’s finest debuts as the hard partying, troubled teen in a dysfunctional family.  But Bridget Everett is remarkable as the narrow-minded, soul-singing mother of a wannabe rapper.

 

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – MICHAEL ROOKER in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 

Runner Up – JOHN LITHGOW in BEATRIZ AT DINNER 

• Lithgow gives empathy to a smarmy, vile human, a feat only a great actor could pull off.  But Michael Rooker elevates Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to a new level, giving a deep, emotional performance that is one of the best in any comic book film.

 

 

BEST ACTRESS – SELMA HAYEK in BEATRIZ AT DINNER 

Runner Up – DANIELLE MACDONALD in PATTI CAKE$

• Macdonald gives the breakout performance of the year as the wannabe rapper on the grind.  Hayek gives a layered, masterful performance that should garner her awards attention at the end of the year.

 

 

BEST ACTOR – JAMES MCAVOY in SPLIT 

Runner Up – SAM ELLIOT in THE HERO 

• Once again, Best Actor is loaded with great performances.  Sam Elliot gives the best performance of his career as a regretful film star.  But James McAvoy is truly masterful in Shyamalan’s thriller, carrying the film on his shoulders with every personality he brings out.

 

 

BEST DIRECTOR – DAVID LOWERY for A GHOST STORY 

Runner Up – Taylor Sheridan for WIND RIVER 

• Sheridan gets his first crack in the director’s chair and he does some stellar work.  David Lowery hypnotizes us with this haunting and complex look at life after death.

 

 

BEST PICTURE – WIND RIVER 

Runner Up – WONDER WOMAN

• A lot of great movies that could have been number one, but at the end of the day, it’s Taylor Sheridan’s heart-racing snow-noir.  This is a great film in every way and one everyone needs to see when it gets released nationwide in August.

 

 

 

 

 

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2017 SO FAR 

1 – WIND RIVER (Taylor Sheridan) – A tense, brilliant snow-noir that and the perfect bookend to Sheridan’s New American Frontier Trilogy.

2 – WONDER WOMAN (Patti Jenkins) – The best comic book movie since The Avengers (2012)

3 – THE DISCOVERY (Charlie McDowell) – A twisty sci-fi romance with a mind-blowing ending.

4 – 78/52 (Alexandre O. Phillipe) – This dissection of the ‘Shower Scene’ from Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) is a fascinating, film-lovers dream.

5 – IT COMES AT NIGHT (Trey Edward Shults) – The best horror movie of the year.

6 – THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (Chris McKay) – Smart, funny, and exciting, this is the best Batman movie since The Dark Knight (2008)

7 – A GHOST STORY (David Lowery) – Hypnotic, haunting, spellbinding, this is one of the most unique movies I’ve seen this decade.

8 – THE LOST CITY OF Z (James Gray) – A sprawling journey about discovery, wonder, and obsession.

9 – THE BIG SICK (Michael Showalter) – A smart as it is funny, this is far and away the best comedy of the year and one of the romantic comedies in years.

10 – SPLIT (M. Night Shyamalan) – Shyamalan is back and better than ever in this chilling thriller with an out-of-this-world performance by James McAvoy.

 

 

 

BOTTOM 10 OF 2017 SO FAR (1 being the worst)

1 – FIFTY SHADES DARKER (James Foley) – Not only the worst movie of 2017, but one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

2 – RINGS (F. Javier Gutierrez) – Literally no scares in the unnecessary sequel.

3 – ALL EYEZ ON ME (Benny Boom) – A Lifetime-esque movie with horrible acting that disrespects the man that was Tupac Shakur.

4 – CHiPS (Dax Shepard) – Stupid, low-brow version of 21 Jump Street (2012)

5 – GHOST IN THE SHELL (Rupert Sanders) – The definition of boring.

6 – AXOLOTL OVERKILL (Hellen Hegemann) – A movie where a whole bunch of random stuff happens for no reason.

7 – KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD (Guy Ritchie) – Guy Ritchie gives us the lamest King Arthur movie ever made.

8 – THE KILLING GROUND (Damien Power) – A vile, mean movie that is treacherous to watch.

9 – TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT (Michael Bay) – A movie so dumb, it hurt my brain more than the endless editing, relentless action, and never-ending runtime.

10 – UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS (Anna Foerster) – I can’t believe this series is still alive.  Hopefully this will be the end of this tired franchise.

 

 

 

10 MOST ANTICIPATED MOVIES THE REST OF 2017

1 – STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII – THE LAST JEDI (Rian Johnson, December 15) – I loved The Force Awakens (2015) and I am can’t wait to see where the great Rian Johnson takes the franchise in both story and visually.

2 – PHANTOM THREAD (Paul Thomas Anderson, TBD) – Paul Thomas Anderson films are always an event, but this marks Daniel Day-Lewis’s final onscreen performance.  It will be a special performance from one of the all-time greats.

3 – DUNKIRK (Christopher Nolan, July 21) – Christopher Nolan films are epic events and Dunkirk looks like another hit from one of the best directors working today.

4 – DETROIT (Kathryn Bigelow, August 4) – It’s been five years since Kathryn Bigelow was in the director’s chair.  But she’s back now and looks as good as ever, as Detroit takes a look at a dark historical moment that is also as timely as ever.

5 – THE DISASTER ARTIST (James Franco, December 8) – The Room is a midnight movie classic and seeing as it is being made by James Franco and his crew, this is sure to be amazing.  And with A24 picking this one up and giving it an awards friendly release, I have a feeling we have something special on our hands.

6 – SUBURBICON (George Clooney, November 3) – Clooney is back in the director’s chair in a movie co-written by the Coen Brothers that sounds like a domestic dramedy, tailor-made for great writting and performances.

7 – MOTHER! (Darren Aronofsky, October 13) – After the disappointing Noah (2014), Aronofsky goes back to his darker, smaller roots with this domestic drama that is sure to disturb us to our core.

8 – WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (Matt Reeves, July 14) – The final chapter in the Planet of the Apes prequel trilogy looks like the biggest, darkest, most epic of the three and looks to solidify this trilogy as one of cinema’s finest.

9 – THOR: RAGNAROCK (Taika Waititi, November 3) – I’m not the biggest fan of the Thor films, but with Taika Waititi at the helm and the appearance of Hulk, this could be the first great Thor film.

10 – LOGAN LUCKY (Steven Soderbergh, August 18) – After a brief retirement, the great Steven Soderbergh is back and looks to be at his old ways with an all-star comedy about an elaborate heist from some simple minded people.

 

 

 

 

What are your favorite movies of 2017 so far?  Which ones are you looking forward to?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook by searching Kevflix.