While The Sea Chase is an interesting viewpoint for WWII following the German side, it was utterly distracting seeing someone like John Wayne trying to pass himself off as a German captain, not even bothering with a fake German accent.
I can’t stress at how much I loathed Song to Song. I’ve seen plenty of bad movies, but none of them have had me in so much pain to sit through since, well, Malick’s To the Wonder, with only a few very minor redeeming values with the performances by a talented cast.
Slither is a wild and fun creature-horror that has plenty of that James Gunn humor that has worked so well in his Guardians films. The cast headlined by Nathan Fillion, the beautiful Elizabeth Banks and inscrutable Michael Rooker are fantastic and although I don’t think it’s some classic, this is one I’ll check out again.
Where the Boys Are, on the surface looks like another 1960s-era beach party films but is a excellent coming-of-age drama/comedy and features some wonderful and even heartfelt performances from Dolores Hart, George Hamilton and Paula Prentiss.
S.W.A.T.: Under Siege is better than what I thought this would and while I might be rating on a scale considering expectations and budget, there are far worse ways to spend 90-minutes.
The Circle had plenty of potential but it’s for naught with not-so-subtle lines of dialogue combined with an uneven/unfocused story, with unintentionally funny scenes, that never worked and probably would’ve been better served as dark satire.
Black Butterfly had so much potential but it was nearly all squandered away with a lame-ass secondary twist that even old M. Night would think was awful. But ignoring that aspect, and if I were to turn the movie off beforehand, it’s still a finely acted little thriller.
Deep inside covered by a bunch of fake blood, there’s a serious topic on high school bullying in Devil’s Domain but all that is masked by a poor screenplay (mainly bad dialogue) and so-so performances
State Fair is a fun little musical romp from the 1960s with many of that era’s idyllic romance and music. I’m not terribly familiar with the source material or other versions, but this one is entertaining.
Unforgettable is an ironic name since the film is anything but; however beyond the title, this is just not a good movie, even on a so good it’s bad kind of way. I can’t say either Rosario Dawson or Katherine Heigl gave particularly poor performances considering the script was awful.
The Warlock movies are silly and at least in the case of the first two, they embrace their silliness and although the sequel isn’t as good, there’s some entertainment value, but the first is easily the best while the third is, well, better than expected, not that that’s saying much.
Stormy Monday is a decent little, and probably little-known, 1980s British crime-drama marking writer/director Mike Figgis’ debut. It features a quad of fine performances headlined by Sting, Sean Bean and Melanie Griffith and a well paced plot.
I’d say Ghost in the Shell was one of the bigger disappointments of 2017 but considering what I had been seeing before its release, including the director, expectations were vastly lowered and it was pretty much matched. No, it’s not horrible but in trying to satisfy fans and the general audience, the studio failed at both.
The Stendhal Syndrome may not be perfect, but with Dario Argento’s amazing direction and unsettling atmosphere, in conjunction with hauntingly creepy performances by his daughter, Asia Argento, and Thomas Kretschmann, it does make for an effective horror-thriller, some aspects truly disturbing.
Kong: Skull Island isn’t perfect but still fun and entertaining enough with director Vogt-Roberts intermixing monster movie with a Vietnam-era war picture and even the human characters weren’t bad, if not thinly written at times while Kong himself does show a bit of personality and his CGI was pretty good.