My Favorites Movies of 2017

• 2017 I don't think was the greatest year for movies. At least from my perspective. There were a lot of movies I was very excited about that were really disappointing. But we did get some amazing movies as well. But overall, I think 2017 was an okay year for movies. Sadly, I haven't been able to see a lot of drama movies that people have been raving about. So most of these are in these are in the wide audience category. I've seen a couple of movies that would be put in the "Oscar Movies" (hate that term) category like Darkest Hour, The Post, All The Money in the World, The Fate of the Furious (wouldn't that be something). So I haven't seen a lot of the movies that have Oscar potential. And the ones I did see I wasn't impressed with. So most of these are mainstream audience movies.

• So now I'm going to list every movie I saw in 2017. This is so if you're wondering "Why isn't Blade Runner 2049 on this list?" You can look at this list of every movie that I saw and understand that didn't see Blade Runner 2049. So I'll give you that list and then I'll start my favorite list. Here's the list of every movie I saw in 2017: The Space Between Us, The LEGO Batman Movie, Logan, Kong: Skull Island, Beauty and the Beast, Power Rangers, Life, Ghost in the Shell, Gifted, Going in Style, The Boss Baby, The Fate of the Furious, The Circle, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Wonder Woman, Cars 3, Score: A Film Music Documentary, Transformers: The Last Knight, Despicable Me 3, Spider Man: Homecoming, War for the Planet of the Apes, Dunkirk, The Dark Tower, Baby Driver, Logan Lucky, The LEGO Ninjago Movie, Thor: Ragnarok, Murder on the Orient Express, Wonder, Coco, Justice League, The Man Who Invented Christmas, Darkest Hour, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, The Greatest Showman, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Molly’s Game, All the Money in the World, The Post, The Big Sick, Alien: Covenant, The Lost City of Z, Free Fire, John Wick: Chapter 2.

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• Honorable Mentions:

Score: A Film Music Documentary: If you are interested in the process of filmmaking, you should definitely check out this documentary. If you are unaware of an influence music can have on a movie, then you should definitely watch this documentary. It has interviews with people like Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Howard Shore, Junkie XL, Thomas Newman, and some pre-recorded John Willaims interviews. It's a great documentary on the importance of music for film. I think I would have enjoyed it more if they had gone deeper into the composers'' process. That's what I was more interested in because I was already pretty aware of how amazing film scores are. But I still found it very interesting and I think if you find the filmmaking process interesting, you will enjoy it too.

Ghost in the Shell: I know a lot of people will heavily disagree with me on this one. I haven't watched this movie since I first saw in theaters. But as I said in my review, I REALLY liked this movie on my first viewing. And I think that's enough to give it an honorable mention. I thought it was a really interesting sci-fi movie and I think you should give a shot.

Free Fire: This is one of the most fun movies of the year. The premise of this movie is an exchange between two gangs goes wrong and a shootout breaks out. That's it. And the whole movie is driven by the dialogue and the chaos of that situation. All the characters were really entertaining and the acting was great for the most part and it was just a ton of fun. This is a great movie to rent on movie night at home.

The Big Sick: This was one of the best romantic comedies I've seen in a while. It's not all great especially towards the end, but the writing is really entertaining. I found myself laughing out loud at a couple scenes. And all the actors are great. I thought it was a really good and well-written movie for the most part that's worth checking out.

Thor: Ragnarok: This is my second favorite comedy of the year. I said this in my review and I'll say it again - If you can think of this movie as it's own pocket universe, you can have a blast with this movie. I was able to let go of the fact that this movie is a part of the MCU and just have a really fun movie theater experience. That doesn't mean that I'm not really annoyed by some of the things they did in this movie. But Thor: Ragnarok was really funny and just plain fun. The Immigrant Song playing over Thor and Hulk destroying space people is just so much fun. Taikia Watiti made a great movie for what he was going for.

• 09. The Man Who Invented Christmas: I will probably be the only person to put this on their top 10 list. I found this movie very entertaining. I'm a fan of the Christmas Carol story. For some reason I found Charles Dickens trying to write that story really really entertaining. Dan Stevens and Christopher Plummer I thought were both great. I thought this movie was an entertaining and interesting Christmas movie. I'm always fascinated by watching writers write. Remember, this is my favorite movies of the year. This is definitely one that I don't think everyone is going to love as much as I did.

• 08. Wonder Woman: I was really surprised by this movie. I had just not been a fan of the DC universe before seeing this movie. I still think DC is a disaster right now, but the freedom Patty Jenkins was given this movie I think is the only reason this movie worked. Whoever is leading the DC universe has no clue what they're doing. I'm not gonna get into that though. My only flaw with this movie is the same thing everyone else doesn't like about it - the villain and the last act. I honestly think all that was decided before Patty Jenkins came onto the project. I could be wrong but I think that's how it happened. It's just such a stupid villain that's horribly cast. But I think Gal Gadot did a very good job as Wonder Woman. And it felt like a classic uplifting superhero movie. You leave the theater feeling good. And the action scenes were awesome. If you told me last January that this movie would be in my top 10 and Guardians of the Galaxy wouldn't, I would have been shocked.

• 07. The LEGO Batman Movie: This is my favorite comedy of the year. I was AT LEAST giggling throughout this entire movie. I LOVE spoof humor. Anything comedy that's making fun of movies in general, I'm there. And I'm a big fan of Batman as well. I think this is a movie fan's movie. Especially the final battle. Having the spoof humor plus having the finale with the Joker getting Godzilla, Voldemort, King Kong, Gremlins, the raptors from Jurassic Park, it's just everything I want from a spoof movie. I had an amazing time seeing this movie. And that's why it's my favorite comedy of the year.

• 06. Coco: Man when Pixar hits it, they hit it. This was such a fantastic movie about family and having a dream. It's such a fun and emotional journey. I thought the music and the writing and of course the animation are all just fantastic. I deeply connected with this movie and with Miguel. I always love movies about artists going after what they want to be. I always find a connection to that. And if it's Pixar tackling that type of story, of course I'm gonna love. And I loved it. I think it's one of Pixar's best.

• 05. Spider-Man: Homecoming Tom Holland is the man. Ansel Elgort and Tom Holland were both like modern Michael J. Fox's to me this year. This is 100% my favorite Spider-Man movie. It might actually be in my top 3 favorite MCU movies. I connected so deeply with Peter Parker in this movie. I loved seeing Peter Parker being a struggling kid trying to figure it all out. It's such a different way of doing a superhero in a movie to me. I loved seeing this version of Peter Parker. I want Tom Holland to be Spider-Man as long as he lives. And Michael Keaton was awesome as the Vulture. I loved Spider-Man: Homecoming and I will continue to enjoy Tom Holland's Spider-Man.

• 04. Dunkirk Here's the latest film from my favorite director of modern-day - Christopher Nolan. This is one the best war films I've ever seen. I understand the criticism of the character development. I don't think that that's what this movie was about. I think Christopher Nolan set out to make a rollercoaster. And man did he succeed. It was SO LOUD in my theater. Every time a gunshot went off I jumped. And you feel like a soldier on the ground every time one of those planes swoops by. And you feel the adrenaline deep into your core with Hans Zimmers score. It's just everything that filmmaking should be. I think that because it's a thrill ride may be the reason why it's not higher on my list. I don't think it's Christopher Nolan's most memorable movie. I haven't spent very much time thinking about this movie. I just remember it being a lot of fun. And I actually found some of the characters very interesting. Mark Rylance's storyline I found very interesting and had some amazing character moments. And Tom Hardy is fantastic being under a mask once again. I'll talk about Tom Hardy's performance in my Best Performances list. But everything about this movie was just a fantastic thrill ride that I absolutely loved.

• 03. Star Wars: The Last Jedi I struggled with where to put this movie. I think that Dunkirk is a better movie, but The Last Jedi is higher up on my favorites list. I like The Last Jedi more. I have some MAJOR problems with this movie. But I can't forget about some of my favorite Star Wars scenes and moments that this movie gave me. It didn't hit the mark that I wanted it to and I'm glad Rian Johnson isn't doing Episode 9, but I love Star Wars forever. It gets a pass for being an awesome Star Wars movie with some big flaws. But this is my choice and I'm sticking to it. And it was SO HARD making a choice between my next two choices.

• 02. Logan I struggled so much not making this #1. But I've made my choice. It's very likely that I'll think to myself "What is wrong with you?! Logan should be #1" and I'll punch myself for it. But as of right now, it's number 2. This movie deserves a Best Picture nomination without a doubt. There is no way there are movies 9 from this year that are better than Logan. Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, and James Mangold all deserve Oscar nominations. It's an incredibly emotional journey that's earned by the character of Wolverine's history. I can basically just repeat everything I said in my 2000 word review or I can just tell you go to check that out. If you're interested in hearing my thoughts on that movie, you should check that out. It's one the reviews that I'm most proud of.

• 01. Baby Driver Coming out of the theater for the first time after seeing this, I did not think that this was my favorite movie of the year. I thought it was awesome. I gave it an A. But there isn't one movie from this year that has made me think more than Baby Driver. I don't think I did this movie justice in my original review. This movie is a filmmaking masterpiece. I could talk about this movie for hours. I went as Baby for Halloween. I've studied the structure of this movie with the storyclock. I've listened to the soundtrack while riding rides at Disneyland. I've seen it probably 7 times. I've listened to the commentary track. I love this movie more and more everytime I watch it. We all know that music is a great way of motivating or giving something adrenaline. And I am jealous of Edgar Wright because I wish that I had thought of the idea for this story before he did. The idea of having a getaway driver that needs to listen to music to motivate himself and then everything in the movie is edited to the music. All Edgar Wright has to do is follow the music with the action scenes and we are all going to love it. This movie is SO fascinating to me. Edgar Wright's choice of music is so perfect to give us these amazing action scenes. It's the perfect concept for an action movie that I would love to see more of. Which is why I am dying for the potential Baby Driver 2. I want more and I want it now. Baby Driver was a fantastic movie that you should all see and learn about. I'll leave a link in my bio to a podcast with Christopher Nolan interviewing Edgar Wright about Baby Driver.

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• Thanks a lot for reading and supporting my reviews for another year guys. As I said, I thought this year was okay for movies. But we did get some amazing gems like Baby Driver and Logan that I will remember. You can expect at least one more list about last years movies coming soon which is Best Performances of 2017. Once again, thanks for reading.