My Top 15 Films of 2017

TL;DR – 2017 was a great year in film and here are our favourites
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Countdown

So here we are at the end of the year, the sound of fireworks still ringing in our ears, the excess of Christmas just a faint memory, and the realisation just dawning that you probably won’t get your money’s worth out of that gym membership you bought for your New Year’s resolution. However, it is also a time of reflection, a look into the past and the hope for the future, and while 2017 has been not great internationally, there were some great moments in cinema, and this is what we are celebrating today.

So far in our end of year countdown we have had Part 1Part 2Part 3 and Part 4 of our Key Moments in Cinema in 2017 over the last couple of days, also we have looked at the Bottom 10 Films of 2017, but today it is all good all the time, so let us dive in.

Before we start we are going to take a few moments to clarify our criteria for the entries on this list so you understand why a film may or may not appear here. First, it has to be one of the 84 films we review in 2017 (To see all the films we reviewed this year Click Here). Now this means a couple of things, first you may see some films here that were released in 2016 where you live, but were not released until 2017 here, as well as this, a number of the films in contention for Oscars this year like Lady Bird and Call Me By Your Name have not been released yet here, or not released widely, as such they won’t appear on this list (we will hopefully be reviewing them later in January). Also shout out to Ali’s Wedding, Baby Driver, Detroit, Jasper Jones, Power Rangers, Star Wars: The Last Jedi & The Lego Batman Film who were close to making it onto this list.

Now just a warning we will be discussing these films, and some of them are still in cinemas, so be careful because [SPOILERS] are incoming. So without any further ado let us begin the Top 15 Films for 2017.

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Awards – Key Moments in Cinema in 2017 Part 2

 

TL;DR – This is the end of the year, so let’s take a look back at the year that was by examining twenty categories across cinema, ranging from exquisite to the obscured and all between

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Awards

 

It is the end of the year (well a bit later than that but life happened) and while I will have the traditional Best of 2017 and Worst of 2017 lists, I have found that both of those lists miss some of the important facets that make films work, or not work. To eligible for these awards, they simply had to be a film I reviewed in 2017, and there may be some notable absences simply because we have not got those films here yet. So in Part 2 of 4, we look at five different categories that deal with the cinema of 2017.

  • The films that just didn’t quite work
  • The best line of dialogue in cinema
  • Movie trends that I am really sick of
  • The grossest moments I had to sit through
  • The films I will go to bat for

So let’s dive into TL;DR Movie Review’s Awards of 2017 Part 2

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Awards – Key Moments in Cinema in 2017 Part 1

TL;DR – This is the end of the year, so let’s take a look back at the year that was by examining twenty categories across cinema, ranging from exquisite to the obscured, and all between
Awards Banner

Awards

It is the end of the year (well a bit later than that but life happened) and while I will have the traditional Best of 2017 and Worst of 2017 lists, I have found that both of those lists miss some of the important facets that make films work, or not work. To eligible for these awards, they simply had to be a film I reviewed in 2017, and there may be some notable absences simply because we have not got those films here yet.  So in Part 1 of 4, we look at five different categories that deal with the cinema of 2017.

  • The actions sequences that entertained
  • The films in 2017 that decided that just ok, was good enough for them
  • The films that exploded off the screen with beautiful cinematography
  • Those sneaky cameos they snuck in
  • The fantastic characters in cinema that are not just one person’s performance, a team came together to make it work

So let’s dive into TL;DR Movie Review’s Awards of 2017 Part 1

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Movie Review – John Wick: Chapter 2

TL;DR – John Wick was the gold standard for action films and John Wick Chapter 2 continues this with brutal action, and a deeper insight into this fascinating world.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

John Wick Chapter 2. Image Credit: Lionsgate.

Review

Now it should come as no surprise that I love the first John Wick film, from the action, to the world building, to the sheer commitment of Keanu Reeves put into preparing for the role. Indeed I wrote a whole article on how it sets the gold standard for Worldbuilding and Visual Storytelling. The issue is that when you love the first film it is always a bit difficult to look at a sequel with an objective lens, on the one hand, you may be blinded by rose tinted glasses, or you may judge it harshly because nothing can live up to the expectations the first film made. With this in mind, I approached John Wick 2 cautiously but I am still happy to say while it did not quite live up to the first film it is still an amazing film in its own right. Its action is still as good as the first, we delve deeper into this world they are creating, and we get to see what happens when a movie is perfectly cast.

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