Tenth Annual Movie Ratings Recap

By now you know all about my Movie Ratings Recaps, this being the seventh time I have posted such an animal on my blog.  In the last rendition, posted on February 8, 2017, I bemoaned the fact that I only managed to take in nineteen movies during the previous twelve month period, an all-time low.  Unfortunately things did not improve numbers-wise this past year.  As you will see below, I only got to the cinema seventeen times.

What accounts for this wrong way trend?  When I first started blogging in 2011, I figured movie reviews would always make a good fall back position if I could not think of a more timely topic of interest.  New movies come out every week, so there would (should?) always be blog-worthy material.  While that may generally still be the case, my recent sporadic attendance can mostly be attributed to two general factors, separate but related.  First, I have spent more time doing things like babysitting, traveling, walking, reading and watching sports, either in person or on the tube.  Those are all things I enjoy and therefore constitute stiff competition to my movie attendance.  

Secondly, I am simply not into the genres of films which seem to be gaining favor with studios, producers and the movie-going public.  Those genres include action-adventure/Marvel Comics, science fiction/futuristic war stories, animation, and fraternity/jock comedy.  If I see one more add for a movie featuring an armored robo-cop type warrior, I think it will reduce me to tears.  I'm also not a big fan of costume period pieces, a la Downton Abbey, nor have I tried any of the Fifty Shades flicks.  (I will have to count on my daughter, Gina, to fill me in.)  Yet when I see a string of trailers promoting soon-to-arrive films, this is what's being offered.  A quick look at the list of top fifty box office hits for 2017, according to the website the-movie-times.com, shows only three I attended: Dunkirk (# 14),Murder On The Orient Express (# 31) and The Post (# 43).  (Ironically, those were the three films I rated the lowest of the seventeen I saw.)  Also disappointing for me personally is that of the other forty-seven movies in the top fifty, there is only one movie that I had hoped to see but did not: Baby Driver (# 28).

I think what I've written in the immediately preceding paragraph simply comes with the territory of being an old codger.  Movies are being made mostly for the younger generation, a smart business plan especially considering the multi-million dollar investments required for feature film production.  But things tend to go in cycles, so maybe in a few years there will be more movies to which I'm attracted.  One can only hope. 

As always, the movies within each ranking are listed in my order of preference within that group, and the month of my review is indicated after each title.

A:

American Made (November '17)

A-:

Moonlight (March '17)

Maudie (August '17)

Darkest Hour (December '17)

B+:

Wind River (August '17)

The Salesman (March '17)

American Assassin (September '17)

My Cousin Rachel (June '17)

Lady Bird (January '18)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (December "17)

B: 

Lion (April '17)

The Post (January '18)

Good Time (August '17)

The Lost City Of Z (May '17)

Hacksaw Ridge (February '17)

B-:

None

C+:

Murder On The Orient Express (November '17)

C:

Dunkirk (August '17)