Top 10 Films of 2017

I don't want to talk in hyperbole here, but I honestly believe that 2017 has been the strongest year of cinema in which I've been alive from what I can remember. It helps that I've managed to more or less see every release I've wanted to see this year, with the exception of The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, The Greatest Showman and a few more. This is also based on UK release dates, so a lot of films that are technically this year that aren't released till 2018 in the UK will count as next years list (The Shape of Water, Phantom Thread, Coco etc). I also saw Three Billboards in 2017, but I'm counting that for next years due to the release date being at the end of January. Let's get started anyway. Links to my full reviews will be on each film.

10. Dunkirk 

Christopher Nolan's war epic had a lot going against it: A 12A rating, a strangely short run-time and the odd casting of Harry Styles, yet it all worked so well. An intense survival story that is more concerned with intensity than cliche and sentimentally than most war films suffer from. Harry Styles also managed to be an inspired piece of casting. 

9. mother!

While hated and ignored by the mainstream due to its strangeness and uncompromising vision, I adored Darren Aronofsky's hardcore and terrifying horror film that just unfolds and unfolds until the last act explodes with some of the most insane content I've seen in a cinema ever. It's been a few months now, but everything I saw from this is still very fresh in my head.

8. War for the Planet of the Apes

No one expected the reboot to the Planet of the Apes series to be this good, but we're finally at the end of Caesar's story and it went out in the most heartbreaking and poignant way possible. A blockbuster that was far more focused on character and story than it was mindless action and spectacle. Not to say the action wasn't spectacular, as it was, thanks to the insane CGI used to create Caesar that is still raising questions as to whether Andy Serkis can bag an Oscar in a motion capture suit (He should).

7. The Florida Project

I have yet to see Sean Baker's previous film Tangerine, but after being blown way by this I really need to. A desperately sad, but touching and sweet look at the outskirts of Disneyland Florida. An indie-comedy drama most people won't see, but I really recommend you dig this out and give it a go.

6. La La Land

There was a time where I thought La La Land would be my film of the year, but it somehow managed to not land the top spot. A gorgeous and endlessly watchable musical drama with some of the best energy I've seen for a while. And this is coming from someone who hates musicals.

5. The Disaster Artist

Somehow a film about the making of the worst film ever made managed to be one of the best films of the year. A touching look at trying to achieve your dreams as an actor in Los Angeles while everyone is against your vision. Also, by far the best comedy of the year thanks to James Franco's career high best as the always fascinating Tommy Wiseau.

4. Baby Driver

Once you look past the silly title (Which does make sense), Baby Driver is one of the best films of the year. An electric musical action comedy with the best soundtrack of the year filled with classic rock and a variety of everything. Edgar Wright can do no wrong at this point.

3. T2 Trainspotting

Trainspotting has always had a special place in my heart, I've seen it several times and while seeing these characters again sounded appealing, the 20 year gap and general lack of success with belated sequels had me worried (That awful title too), Danny Boyle managed to surprise me and deliver a film that adds a lot to the first one while taking the characters in new directions. I'd really like to see these characters return in the future too.

2. Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner 2049 is one of those rare sequels that not only improves on the original, but completely blows it out the water. Denis Villeneuve has made a gorgeous and fully realised film that takes its time and delivers one of the most emotional experiences of the year. It's also nice to see Harrison Ford not phone it in for the first time in a while. Fuck Jared Leto though.

1. Logan

It wasn't going to be anything else. Huge Jacked Man's 17 year run as The Wolverine came to a beautiful and powerful end in a film that was a more a quiet western than it was anything close to a superhero film. A brutal, bleak and depressing drama and the best thing to happen to superhero films since The Dark Knight. The fact Logan won't even get nominated for any Oscars at all is an embarrassment. 

Well, that's my top 10, but here is some honourable mentions:

1. Raw

2. John Wick: Chapter 2

3. Good Time

4. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2

5. Get Out

6. Battle of the Sexes

7. Atomic Blonde

8. Brawl in Cell Block 99

9. Moonlight

10. Detroit

11. American Made

12. 20th Century Women

13. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

14. Silence

15. Wind River

16. Kingsman: The Golden Circle

17. IT

18. The Handmaiden

19. Song to Song

20. Fences

Thanks for reading and here's to a hopefully excellent year of films. Also look out for my bottom 10 films of the year soon.

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Taken 3 (2014) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written October 11th, 2015*

"Tak3n the piss"

I saw the Baby-blu steelbook in HMV for £8, so I just couldn't resist. There was a tiny part of my head just hoping, hoping that the "Extended Harder Cut" might be a bit better, but sadly and obviously that wasn't the case. I saw it for the first time in cinema back in January hungover after a less than great night out, so maybe I wasn't in the best condition to judge.

Anyway, onto the actual review of 'Taken 3', after rewatching Mad Max: Fury Road, a truly masterful piece of art, it only made me hate this piece of shit even more. A badly filmed, written and acted lazy piece of shit that concludes (hopefully) this series that never should have stepped beyond the first film. While the second film felt like a borderline spoof of the first one at times, this completely blows that out of the water.

Taken 3 is a complete mess through and through, it really is laughable. Liam Neeson returns as the ex CIA agent Bryan Mills and fuck me does he look bored, you can tell he's here for the paycheck. Maggie Grace is back as the daughter Kim now too, still in her 30's playing a 20 year old college girl.

This time it pits Bryan Mills against the Russian Mob and the police after he is framed for the murder of his wife. So yeah, it's a pretty much just a shit version of The Fugitive. The ONLY merit I give this film is that it didn't recycle the story of the first 2 films, it at least tries to do something different.

The biggest mistake Taken 3 makes is bringing back the biggest hack of a director that Hollywood has to offer... Olivier Megaton, apart from having a name that sounds like a Transformer, there is nothing cool about this guy. He cannot film action for shit, I've seen student projects with better fluidity and editing than this shit. It is an horrific mess, there must be about 5 cuts a second with every action scene, leaving nothing to linger apart from the viewers thoughts about what the fuck just happened.

Forrest Whitaker pops up here in a completely forgettable role as the officer in charge of bringing Mills in. The conclusion he comes into at the end is one the most insane and demented things I have ever seen on film, I still couldn't believe it. I'll give you one hint.... bagels.

Taken 3 is littered with insanely demented moments that just prove that no one gave a shit when making this garbage. While evading the police to prove his "innocence", he causes more death and destruction than I thought possible from a character who is meant to be the "Hero". Seriously, watch the high-way scene, do not tell me that no cops or civilians were no killed in that scene. There was also another strange scene where he sneaks laxatives into his pregnant daughter's drink so he could meet her in her college bathroom. Weird, demented and creepy. In the final battle Bryan fights the main bad guy while he's in his underwear, how on Earth was anyone meant to take that seriously? What the hell were the creative minds behind this film thinking?

Oh, the "Extended Harder Cut" doesn't make things any better. There's 12 more minutes added here, none of which I knew what was new. There was at least some extra blood splatter in the kills that definitely weren't there before, which would have been cool if the action wasn't so goddamn poorly filmed. Some uses of "fuck" are thrown in here and there too, which really had no impact.

I could go on about this abortion for even longer, but I don't wanna talk about it anymore. I've watched it, reviewed it and shelved it in my collection, hopefully never to be watched again.


So yeah, Taken 3 is one of the worst action films of recent years thanks to its boring acting, disgustingly filmed action, poor script and just general laziness that is a far cry from the blast the first film was. Please Jesus, never let there be a Taken 4.

2/10 Dans

Taken 3 is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:

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