Movies of 2017

1. Dog Eat Dog - Nic Cage in the most Nic Cage-y movie ever. Dafoe too. So bad it's good!
2. The Measure Of A Man - Dignity and principles challenged. The acting is mesmerizing.
3. Real Genius (re-watched) - Silly, possibly bad, but so damn likable. So 80's!
4. Little Sister - Simple, yet complex story about surviving...life. Addison Timlin dazzles.
5. Under The Shadow - Iranian horror blends reality, delusion and metaphors almost perfectly.
6. The Rezort - Jurassic World meets The Walking Dead, written by the folks at Grey's Anatomy.
7. Mea Culpa - French thriller, uses a cliche premise, but makes it work wonderfully. 
8. Carnage Park - Solid first hour, then falters in finale. Wonderful performance by lead Bell.
9. Victim - Short film based on Slenderman story. Felt like a live-action version of online game.
10. Shorts: 3;07AM, JPGs, Fathom, HAM, Snap - Ham was best of bunch, with John C Reilly.
11. Queen of Earth - Elisabeth Moss in award worthy role about woman's descent into depression.
12. Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things - Awful, but somehow it's pure 70's fun.
13. The Monster - Openly metaphoric tale of mother's struggle and its affect on her daughter. A+!
14. Grizzly - 70's animal attack video. Fun, but silly. Jaws with Claws tagline is a hint.
15. POD - Mickey Keating strikes again, Decent idea, but poorly though out with awful ending.
16. Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter - Photography helps, but film fails on too many levels. 
17. Bill Burr: Walk Your Way Out - Strong start, but falters, when audience doesn't respond.
18. Shorts:  Zero - Decent, but silly ending. Puzzle - Fun, but predictable.
19. The Collector - Nice premise ruined by repetitive scenes. Silly throw-ins mean nothing.
20. The Iron Giant - I'm late to this wonderful animated film about friendship and much more.
21. Ataud Blanco (White Coffin) - Argentinian horror. One of the most unsettling films ever made.
22. Stutterer - Oscar winning short. A man trapped within himself. Difficult, sad, beautiful.
23. Shorts: Das Rad - Rocks talking and observing. Edward - Man collects what falls underground.
24. Howl - Silly werewolf tale, that fails to grab and plays into every cliche, with no message.
25. Short: Mr. Hublot - Brilliant film about a recluse with OCD and what makes him break.
26. Sing Street - While not as deep as similar films, it hits every mark it aims for. Pure fun!
27. Voice Without A Shadow - Early Seijun Suzuki. This noir, shows his style and early promise.
28. The Handmaiden - Chan-wook Park's beautifully, bold tale excels. Chemistry is amazing.
29. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Re-watched) - Still one of the greatest of all-time.
30. Sharkansas Women's Prison Massacre - It was that kind of night. Funny, but not that funny!
31. American Experience: Leopold and Loeb - Well done, but nothing new.
32. Jim Norton: Mouthful of Shame - Norton takes taboo subjects and makes them funny.
33. The Warlords - Epic tale starring Jet Li. Starts strong, but becomes repetitive and cliche.
34. Ten - Abbas Kiarostami allows Mania Akbari to define being a woman in modern day Iran. 
35. Train to Busan - Rarely does a horror film surpass the hype. Nothing new, but excels.
36. The Invitation - Interesting premise plays out almost exactly as predicted. Silly "twist."
37. Dave Chappelle Netflix - Two parts, each perfectly crafted and somehow allowably offensive.
38. The Phoenix Tapes '97 - Found footage stays true to footage, but boring, silly finale.
39. Frailty (Re-watched) - A nearly perfect little thriller. Paxton also directed. He is sorely missed.
40. Phantom Of The Theatre - Beautifully to look at, but I lost interest quickly. Just misses mark.
41. Eat - Psychological horror that is pretty gross, but is just witty enough to work.
42. Shorts: In This House - Demonic possession with a twist. Baby Monitor - Silly Scenarios
43. Ghost In The Shell (1995) - The most complex "cartoon" ever made? Amazing in every way.
44. The Eyes Of My Mother - Artsy but, can't hide the torture porn simplicity. Dull and uninspired.
45. Destiny - Fritz Lang's classic, may not be his best, but the impact on the craft is evident.
46. The Third Man - More style than substance, with humor pushing it along. That ending though!
47. The Windmill - Run-of-the-mill (pun intended) horror with some nice little twists.
48. Kubo and The Two Strings - One of the greatest animated films ever made! 
49. Hero (re-watched) - One of the most beautiful movies ever made and a top 10 ending.
50. The Greasy Strangler = Easily one of the strangest, and worst, movies ever made.
51. Short: Escape - Very short anime is beautiful, but rather pointless in its short form.
52. The Childhood Of A Leader - Superb acting and brilliant score overshadows odd, weak ending.
53. Gozu - Takashi Miike channels his inner David Lynch for this one. Weird. Weird. Weird.
54. Midnight In Paris - Woody Allen's most beautiful and charming film. Art lover's homage.
55. Despicable Me - Boring, run of the mill kiddie flick, with nice ending. Minions are annoying.
56. The Jungle Book - Not as much fun or as uplifting as some remakes, but gritty tale.
57. Mifune: The Last Samurai - Average documentary, lifted by subject matter and wonderful clips
58. Over The Garden Wall - Not the best, but fun animated tale with obvious messages. 
59. Cloverfield - One of the worst horror movies ever made and it's found footage. UGH!
60. Home - Animated film about girl love, family and friendship. Jim Parsons' voice is grinding.
61. Delhi Safari - Overly drawn out and unnecessary violence, but a good message,
62. Zombie Dawn - Awful micro budget horror, with hilariously serious narration.
63. Manchester by the Sea - Don't believe the hype. Williams is only bright spot. Awful script.
64. Frozen (again) - Great music, but awful movie with worse message for little girls.
65. Imprint - Seriously low budget. Native American crime thriller is an absolute bore. 
66. Bruges La Morte - Attempt to be artsy is more annoying than anything else. Horrible.
67. Hector - Everything Manchester by the Sea tried to be. Mullan pulls it through it's weaknesses.
68. Tokyo Tribe - Japanese, Hip-Hop, Gangster film. Somehow it not only works, but well!
69. Norm McDonald: Hitler's Dog, Gossip and Trickery - Rather steady, but at times, pure gold! 
70. The Birth of Sake - Documentary tries to romanticize, but there's no history. Odd approach.
71. Denial - Poor writing, directing and editing, but acting is stellar. Could have been great.
72. Kill Ugly TV - I may have completely misread this film, but found it extremely deep.
73. Tag - Insane Japanese film combining over-the-top horror with a strong feminist message.
74. The Similars - Mexican homage to The Twilight Zone. Too drawn out and never really clicks.
75. Hunt For The Wilderpeople - Amazing funny, touching story, with some serious cast chemistry.
76. Jim Gaffigan: Cinco - Not his best, but quite a few laugh out loud moments.
77. The Kid (Re-watched) - Charlie Chaplin's classic comedy still packs an emotional punch
78. Monsters - Gareth Edwards low budget monster film attempts to say a lot. Fails miserably.
79. Sherlock: Season 4 - Possibly the best season in one of the greatest TV series' ever
80. The Girl With All The Gifts - New take on zombies. Lags often, but ends spectacularly. 
81. Citizen X (Re-watched) - One one of the most underrated films ever made. Cast shines!
82. The Blackcoat's Daughter - Atmospheric garbage by Oz Perkins. Oddly, the acting is top notch.
83. Black Belly Of The Tarantula - Giallo. Beauties and young Gianinni. Works, but a bit boring.
84. Sarah Silverman: A Speck Of Dust - Her delivery is like no other and it works magnificently. 
85. Headshot - It's no Raid: Redemption, but unreal action and violence and non-stop energy.
86. The Image (short) - Young David Bowie as painting comes to life, with It Follows vibe. 
87. The Keepers (series) - Strong start, but too much staged dramatization, hurts message.
88. Blondie's New York - Doc about making of Parallel Lines. Very good and personally important.
89. Dead Silence - Horrible James Wan film about dolls, spirits and bad script writing.
90. In The Mouth Of Madness - Solid Carpenter, starting to feel dated. Uneven Sam Neill.
91. I Am Not Your Negro - Powerful! Baldwin's tale is infuriating in that we've not come very far.
92. Carnival Of Souls - The version I saw was colorized and this film needs to be in B&W!
93. The Salvation - Fun, if not silly Western, with marvelous and good looking cast.
94. The Addiction - Abel Ferrara's 90's vampire flick is a metaphor for everything. Lili Taylor A+
95. DePalma - Wonderful doc about the director's life in film, his success and many failures.
96. The Lodger - Silent Hitchcock didn't work for me, other than in it's use of light.
97. Little Dieter Needs To Fly - Herzog doc that became Rescue Dawn. Painfully dull.
98. The Snare - Pretty people lose it. We've seen it before. Tries to be cerebral, but fails.
99. The Void - Homage to Carpenter, Lovecraft and others, suffers from style over substance.
100. Human Lanterns - Shaw Bros do a martial arts horror movie. Beautiful, but boring.
101. The Last Man On Earth - Vincent Price as The Omega Man. Dull, rushed, but effective.
102. Teheran Taxi - Jafar Panahi's Taxi is a beautiful, funny and powerful look at Iran's daily life.
103. Master Of The Flying Guillotine - Rewatched one of my all-time favorite Kung Fu films
104. What the Health - Food Doc. Follow up to Cowspiracy. Much better and scary in many ways.
105. Julie: Old Time Tales of the Blue Ridge - Short film chronicles woman's life. Wonderfully done
106. Caged Bird & Airborne - Shorts on Youtube. Del Toro produces beauty and zombie kangaroos.
107. Antarctica: Ice and Sky - Brutally boring. Sad, because it should be fascinating and important.
108. Once Upon A Time In Anatolia - Beautifully shot. Powerful. What movies should be!
109. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - I wanted to like it, but it was bad in every way.
110. Shame - Being a Bergman classic, I expected more, but Nykvists cinematography is tops.
111. Here Alone - Zombie movie, but so much more. One of the best horror movies in years.
112. Rashomon - Re-watched Kurosawa's masterclass in storytelling. A true game changer.
113. Colours Trilogy: Bleu - Binoche dazzles in visually and musically dazzling Kieslowski film
114. Colours Trilogy: Blanc - Suffers from dull plot, but makes its point. Just didn't click for me.
115. Colours Trilogy: Rouge - The best of the three. The clever duality and Irene Jacob shines.
116. Election - Johnnie To's triad film feels like a weak homage to Goodfellas and alike.
117. The Spirit Of The Beehive - Second viewing and easily the most complex film I've ever seen.
118. The Gospel According To St. Matthew - Biblical tour de force from Pasolini. Beautiful.
119. The Devil's Candy - Solid acting and decent story gives way to horribly silly climax.
120. Lifeboat - Re-watched. In my opinion, Hitchcock's greatest film.
121. Strasek, de Vampir - Ode to Dreyer's Vampyr, it looks good in B&W, but fails miserably.
122. Come and See - Klimov's war film is unlike any other. Viscerally shocking, haunting film.
123. Gojira (Godzilla) - The original still resonate with it's anti-war message. Maybe more today.
124. El Topo - The weirdest movie I've ever watched. Jodorowsky is insane.
125. Ghostbusters (2016) - Exceeded not only expectations, but its predecessor. Yes, I said it!
126. No Estamos Solos aka We Are Not Alone - Well done, but typical and predictable. Nice finale.
127. Le Silence de la Mer - Melville's visuals accentuate the silence of all, but one character.
128. Drunken Angel - It's impossible to believe this was Mifune and Kurosawa's first collaboration.
129. The Autopsy of Jane Doe - Great cast can't save this. Absolutely awful.
130. Kanal - Wajda's film develops so many characters, so quickly. Shot beautifully, despite themes.
131. The Darjeeling Limited - First Wes Anderson film I hated. Truly awful. 
132. Raw - Average throughout, leading towards boring, but excels in its finale.
133. Logan - One of the better superhero/comic movies ever. Great action and stands on its own.
134. Armageddon - Re-watched. So silly, but still a fun movie.
135. Delta Force - Re-Watched. So campy and very little Chuck during the first half.
136. Hounds of Love - Good, but disturbing film about domestic violence and kidnapping. 
137. Don't Breathe - Great idea, fails with lack of tension and ridiculous side story and finale.
138. Top Of The Lake: China Girl - Impossible to top the original series and doesn't come close.
139. Split - Shymalan's vision comes to life thanks to McAvoy, Buckley and Taylor-Joy!
140. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter - More of the same starts to fade, but loved the conclusion.
141. Woman In The Dunes - Beautiful, haunting and erotic. A film that lingers inside you. 
142. Peur(s) Du Noir - B&W Animated vignette. Stories are good, but animation is the draw.
143. Rififi - Sadly, the DVD wouldn't let me finish the movie, but at that point, I stopped caring.
144. A Dark Song - Nicer to look at than to watch. Worth seeing, but nothing special.
145. Cria Cuervos - Wonderful acting, but this anti-Franco allegory didn't work for me.
146. It Comes At Night - Horror fans will hate it, but it's as complex and layered as it gets.
147. The Babysitter - Samara Weaving is beautiful, but this film struggles with what it wants to be.
148. Arrival - Amy Adams not being nominated for an Oscar will go down as an all-time snub.
149. The Steamroller And The Violin - Early Tarkovsky with hints of the classic, The Red Balloon.
150. Alien: Covenant - It's as bad as you've heard. One of the worst scripts of all-time.
151. Stranger Things 2 - Worth the binge watch, but pales in comparison to season 1. Still solid.
152. Letter Never Sent - Surguy Urusevsky's cinematography makes up for dull plot.
153. Samurai I - Inagaki trilogy begins. Mifune is wonderful, but the story drags.
154. Samurai II - Slightly better than original, but mostly due to enhanced cinematography.
155. Samurai III - My favorite of the trilogy. While hardly great, these film's impact is irrefutable.
156. Patton Oswalt: Annihilation - Tight routine, with poignant and hilarious segment about loss.
157. Get Out - Starts strong, but disjointed writing, odd shift in tone and horrible ending fails.
158. War for the Planet of the Apes - The best since the original 1968 film. Sans ending, better.
159. Capture Kill Release - Decent found footage, completely running on lead actress's insanity.
160. I Live In Fear - Not one of Kurosawa's best, but timely, then and now. Mifune is stellar.
161. The Other Side Of The Door - Tension builds and builds...and builds. Ends up being a bore.
162. One Wonderful Sunday - Early Kurosawa, feels like other's great films. Depressing, but bold.
163. The Exorcist III: Legion - Re-watched after 27 years. Still better than the original Exorcist.
164. The Prodigal Son - Martial arts and humor, with more of the latter. A pleasant distraction.
165. Kristy - Formulaic horror, but is better than average due to realism and strong lead.
166. Rosa - Strikingly beautiful animated short. Interesting, but needed more. Want more.
167. Youth of the Beast - Early Seijun Suzuki is more style than substance, but so much style.
168. Atomic Blonde - Easily Theron and McAvoy's worst roles. So absolutely terrible.
169. Annabelle Creation - Absolutely terrible. Shockingly bad acting and not a single scare,
170. Personal Shopper - Assayas almost makes his common mistake, but hands reigns to Stewart!
171. Bluebeard - Breillat's adaptation worked for me. Loved the simplicity and cinematography.
172. Eraserhead - Finally saw Lynch's "cult" classic. I wish I hadn't. Dreadful.
173. Voyage in Time - Documentary with Andrei Tarkovsky and Tonino Guerra. For fans only.
174. The Orphanage - One of the best and horror movies I've ever seen. So carefully crafted.
175. Craig Ferguson: Tickle Fight - Amusing, but hardly vintage Ferguson.
176. The Straight Story - Lynch's simple tale is taken to  unexpected heights, thanks to Farnsworth.
177. Wonder Woman - Gadot is fun, sexy and committed to the role, but it never clicks.
178. Loving - Jeff Nichols, once again proves he's one of the best. Ruth Negga is brilliant.
179. Sisters - Early De Palma stars the stunning Margot Kidder, but comes off as amateurish.
180. Star Wars: A New Hope - Been almost 30 years since the last time I watched it. Still amazing.
181. Los Olvidados - My least favorite Bunuel film to date. Grim, with only one likable character.
182. Bluebeard - Korean psychological thriller that bites off more than it can chew. Rushed ending.
183. Black Christmas - Cult classic stands up thanks to lovely Hussey and Kidder. Great Saxon!
184. The Grandmaster - Wong Kar-Wei's film is aesthetically wonderful, but lacked fluidity. 
185. The Sacrifice - Tarkovsky's finale will leave even his most devout fans, scrambling for words.
186. The Big Doll House - 70's sexploitation has Pam Grier, a bevvy of beauties and young Sid Haig
187. Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky - Documentary about making of The Sacrifice. Fascinating