#i need OJ remake now!

[colesabi]

i think about this scene a lot…

[sapphire-weapon]

so about cgi movies and remakes now, I've read somewhere that said how re6 og and damnation/degeneration were meant to connect and continue off from each other which begs the question, now that remakes are offering us a completely new and imo better version do you think they'll basically retcon the old stuff? solely because it's very contradictory to the current way of storytelling but also because games aren't really beholden to these movies in the first place. Like they can make re6r tomorrow and it could very well turn out different than the original which will render every previous movie useless.

but also because i just don't get how people look at re2r and re4r and so confidently say yeahh everything connects perfectly with the movies and all the way to 6. I dunno, i only ask because I've always had this thought that the canon is so messed up and inconsistent and that crappy writing from movies does not help but i guess i also shouldn't hope for too much all things considered

i mean yeah the CGI movies were always intended to be part of the main OG canon storyline. it goes 4 -> degeneration -> infinite darkness -> damnation -> RE6

but i've said this before and

i think the point of the remake series is to consolidate the story and put everything in the story actually into the games. RE4make has already started doing this.

RE4make contains lore that wasn't introduced in OG until damnation -- like, that was the point of damnation, to establish that lore.

now that RE4make's already established it, damnation doesn't need to fucking happen in the remake storyline. i think they did that on purpose.

it's the same reason why RE4make included operation javier into the actual storyline. they're not going to remake darkside chronicles, but they wanted that backstory between leon and krauser. so they consolidated everything and put it directly into RE4make (and now possibly CV).

i really think that, by the time the remake series is done, the entire remake storyline will look like this:

0 -> 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> CVX(+OJ DLC) -> 4 -> 5 -> 6

and that will be the entire storyline. there will be no supplemental canon material for remake at all. no revelations games, no umbrella chronicles, no movies, nothing. it will all be in the mainline titles.

i really, really believe that with my whole heart.

[itsawonderfullifewithz]

The Passing of Pop Culture

The Final Goodbyes

Staying with Z in hospice care was like sailing across a misty lake. You knew your boat would hit land at some point, you just didn’t know when. 

I had signed the DNR forms the following day after our meeting with the Neuro team. They said we’d see a change within 24 hours. Nothing changed. She was still in and out of consciousness. I figured that the 24 hour time frame was a precaution just in case she did expire that quickly. 

Z.’s mom, dad and sister Rizza stayed at the hospital to keep vigil. Xavier and I got a hotel room, about a seven minute drive from the hospital. He was done for the school year so I wanted him close by. Ever since our Florida trip, he’s grown an infatuation for staying in hotel rooms. 

During the days at the hospital, Xavier kept himself occupied with his Ipad and repeated visits to the cafeteria and vending machine. For me, it was a rotation of take-out food, fiddling with my phone, board games with my cousins, and writing on the laptop. 

I did, however, get a chance to read When Breath Becomes Air, a memoir by Paul Kalanithi. Kalanithi--a young, up and coming Neurosurgeon was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in 2013. He died in 2015 at the age of 37. 

This was the 2nd attempt to read it. I tried reading it back in October but I failed to get beyond the first few pages since they were emotionally taxing. Z was still on remission and I didn’t want to open up pandora’s box by reading someone’s cancer memoir. 

Now, since Z was in hospice care and I was already experiencing a wide range of emotions, reading this book came easily. What struck me most about reading his memoir was that not only was he a Neurosurgeon, but also was well versed in classic literature. Since he couldn’t practice Neurosurgery anymore, his back up plan was to write a book. He also wrote it while undergoing chemo. I imagined him struggling and fighting for as much time as he could to get whatever he wanted to express down while his body as his body took the beating. Another story of someone who dedicated their life to saving others, but couldn’t save themselves. 

On the 2nd week of Hospice care, Z. became less and less responsive. Her friends, family and co-workers continued to visit her even though she could no longer acknowledge their presence. 

Many of the faculty wearing the gray t-shirts in honor of Z. I was touched. My wife was being loved by the people closest to her in her room, but also being revered by the people who didn’t know her in the hallway. 

When the sun set on Friday, June 21st, I kissed her goodbye and took Xavier back to the hotel. Trepidation sunk in my gut. I feared that would be the last time I saw her breathing. 

I was restless that night. I kept on waking up, glancing at my phone--worrying that I had missed the phone call that she had just passed. But, by God’s grace, I didn’t. 

I was already awake when Z.’s mom called. It was just before 8:00AM. She said to come early. Xavier sprung up from bed. He grabbed a muffin and an OJ for breakfast and we rushed to the hospital. 

When we got there, the doctor was listening to Z.’s heart rate. He told us maybe a couple more hours. 

Z passed within an hour. 

Seeing the confused look on Xavier’s face, I felt the need to explain to him what had transpired. I took Xavier to a private room down the hallway. No explanation was really needed. He kind of already knew, at least what his five-year old mind understood anyway. 

“It’ll just be me and you?” he asked.

“Yes. Just me and you. Like Kratos and Atreus.” 

And like the boat that Kratos and Atreus sailed, we had hit land. We had crossed the misty lake. 

The Nurses Honor Guard and The Funeral

On the night of the viewing, the all volunteer Nurses Honor Guard came and paid tribute to Z.’s service. Like the Night’s Watch, her watch had ended. 

We buried Z on Thursday, June 27th at Forest Hill Cemetery in Ann Arbor, MI. The sun was out with no dark cloud to be seen, much like the day she died. 

As a final gift to her, I placed her Mulan Funko Pop in the casket, saddened that she won’t be able to see the upcoming Live-Action remake.

The Passing of Pop Culture

I’ve only started the mourning process.  To some extent, I had inured myself to the loss. Z had spent much of the last two months in the hospital that her not being around the house was nothing new to me. 

The busyness of dealing with the funeral arrangements along with her assets had kept me float, only weeping in those quiet moments when I realize she’s no longer in this world. 

For me, 2019 will be remembered when many great things came to an end. Game of Thrones. The end of the MCU Infinity saga. There’s also the ending of the Star Wars Trilogy in December. Even The Walking Dead comic series just ended (issue #193). On a side note, Stan Lee passed on Z.’s last birthday (November 12th).

So I guess in some ways, it’s appropriate that Z. should pass during the end of these pop culture events. 

TV critics Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall ranked the Simpsons as the number one tv show of all time. As consumers of pop culture, we’ve taken that show for granted much like a household utility. Sure, the critics admit the show has overstayed its welcome for at least the last ten years--but those first ten years are unequivocally classic television. 

Maybe, I should look at my marriage in that way--it was like The Simpsons before it started to suck. 

I’m saddened that I won’t be able to share any more pop culture experiences with my wife. I’m sad that we won’t play more board games together with my large extended family. I’m sad that Xavier and I will celebrate Halloween and Christmas without her. I’m sad that the world won’t have a Raziel Dizon Tungol. 

Yet, I’m also heartened that (however brief) our life together was unquestionably and truly wonderful. 

[mysageukinbio]

JHB '81 Episode 24 as a series of incoherent Discord messages

Episode 24

📷Meao :P — Today at 8:12 PM @VelumMortis Can I join the live watch?

📷VelumMortis — Today at 8:12 PM Sure!

[8:13 PM]Narrator decides to narrate for some reason

[8:13 PM]Inhyeon's cocurt maids see Sukjong

[8:13 PM]Sukjong wants to know why Ok Jeong is rying

[8:13 PM]Ok Jeong: I can't tell you

[8:13 PM]Sukjong: I'm losing patiencec here

[8:13 PM]Lady Oh finds out what's going on

[8:14 PM]Ok Jeong: Donn't ask, please

[8:14 PM]Inhyeon finds out

[8:14 PM]Inhyeon blames Lady Oh for ascting reashly to Ok Jeong and Lady Cheon

[8:15 PM]Lady Cheon tells what happened but spins it to make her look like the vitim

[8:15 PM]Sorry, Ok Jeong told hom

📷Meao :P — Today at 8:16 PM (i finally know how it feels like when international viewers ask for subtitles T_T I should really start studying korean)

📷VelumMortis — Today at 8:16 PM Completely leaving out how Ok Jeong's court ladies beat the Queen's ladies first

[8:17 PM]Ok Jeong: The Queen's court lady is still just a court lady, how could she offend me lke this?

[8:18 PM]Sukjong: I know it seems like the Queen instigated this ubt I know her, sh'ed never do that

[8:18 PM]Ok Jeong (passive-aggressive): YEah, it's all my fault right?

[8:19 PM]It's all because I'm the cocncubine and she's the legal wife

[8:19 PM]Sukjong: That's not what I meant

[8:19 PM]Just that you both are good people, so she'd ever be involved in this

[8:20 PM]She doesn't spread rumors about you, but even if she did, you can just give birth to a Price!

[8:20 PM]Ok Jeong: You can't say that so loud

[8:20 PM]Sukjong: Yeah I can - I hope you give birth to a Prine

[8:21 PM]Inhyeon finds out about the entir ocnversation

[8:21 PM]Rumrors in the Palace now have it that Sukjong wants Ok Jeong to give birth before the Queen

[8:21 PM]Lady Oh: This may be Jang Suk Won's scheme, getting me involved

[8:21 PM]Inhyeon: She'd never do that, she's a good person

[8:22 PM]Lady Oh: No, she's not??

[8:22 PM]You're just so good that yo can't imagine how evil she is

[8:22 PM]But it's okay, the King trust you

[8:22 PM]But she's trying to break that trust

[8:23 PM]Inhyeon: I trust Jang Suk Won, she prmosed never to come backc until I bear a Prince

[8:23 PM]I'm the one who pressured her to come backc

[8:23 PM]Inhyeon's sad that she doesn't have a chcild yet

[8:23 PM]LLady Oh: Don't worry, you're only 22

[8:24 PM]Sukjogn and Ok Jeong' sfirst date since she came back

[8:25 PM]Inhyeon: I want to go to the garden

[8:25 PM]Lady Oh: Not a goo didea, The King and Jang Suk Won are there

[8:25 PM]Inhyeon: I know

[8:25 PM]Lady Oh: They're so lovey-dovey

[8:25 PM]Doesn't that make you mad?

[8:25 PM]Inheyon: no

[8:25 PM]Lady Oh: Won't you feel jealouus?

[8:25 PM]Inhyeon: recites rules from Insntructions for Women

[8:26 PM]Lady Oh: let me tell you a story

[8:26 PM]Story's about a woman who made monk robes to warn her husband not to take concubines

[8:27 PM]Lady Oh: In summary, a little jealousy is good, it keep the husband on his feet

[8:27 PM]Jang Suk Won is evil, but she knows these things - you'd better learn from her

[8:28 PM]Lady Cheon hearing from her court maids

[8:28 PM]JAng Suk Won hearing from Lady Cheon

[8:28 PM]It's dinnertime for the King

[8:29 PM]Lady Oh made sure he goes to the Queen's Palace

[8:29 PM]But! JangSuk Won has a stomachache

[8:29 PM]She didn't call a doctor because she wants the King at her side

[8:30 PM]He's gonna eat at her chambesr instead

[8:30 PM]Lady Cheon 1: Lady Oh 0

[8:30 PM]Inhyeon: Why'd you come back alone? What happened?

[8:30 PM]Lady Oh tells Inhyeon what happened

[8:30 PM]Lady Oh: God I hate her so much, she's so evil

[8:31 PM]Inhyeon: She has a stomachache, it's not her fault

[8:31 PM]Lady Oh: Why do you beloeve her over me?

[8:31 PM]"She's getting mor arrogant, if you don't punish her you'll regret it"

[8:32 PM]Inhyeon: I can't punish her yet, or I could lose my dignity as Queen"

[8:32 PM]Sukjong is being cringey

[8:32 PM]"My hands are healing hands~~<3"

[8:32 PM]Ok Jeong: My stomachaches's all gone 📷

📷Meao :P — Today at 8:32 PM <3

📷VelumMortis — Today at 8:33 PM "Please don't levae me~~<3"

[8:33 PM]"I'd rather kill myself than be abandoned~~~"

[8:33 PM]Sukjong: Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere

[8:34 PM]Ok Jeong: I feel guilty, you were supposed to eat with the Queen

[8:34 PM]The Queen must hate me

[8:34 PM]Sukjong: The Queen is a good person, she wouldn't be jeallousy of you

[8:34 PM]Ok Jeong: Now I feel bad

[8:35 PM]Jo Sa Seok is here to see Ok JEng's mom

[8:35 PM]Jo SA Seok: All you have to do is help Ok Jeong give birth

[8:36 PM]"Any good news yet?"

[8:36 PM]OJ's mom; "Not yet"

[8:36 PM]Hee Jae: "We'll get news soon"

[8:36 PM]Jo SA Seko: "Don't lose hope, the Southerners are waiting"

[8:36 PM]A gift

📷Meao :P — Today at 8:37 PM (I'm going to leave the stream now T_T. I hope you have a splendid time finishing this episode. Thank you so much for translating everything, or i really won't know what i am looking at.)

📷VelumMortis — Today at 8:37 PM No problem! Thanks for being here!

[8:37 PM]Prince Dongpyeong and his mother visit Jangryeol

[8:38 PM]Prince Dongpyeong's mother: "You must be so happy to have Jang Suk Won back"

[8:38 PM]Prince Dongpyeong: "But you on't seem happy"

[8:39 PM]Jangryeol: "What are you two doing here"

[8:39 PM]Dongpyeong: We're visiting Jang Suk Won

[8:39 PM]Jangryeol: "You're teaching her how to get pregnant, aren't you?"

[8:39 PM]Dongpyeong: "And teaching her the geomungo"

[8:40 PM]DP's mom: "She wante to learn, can you guess why?"

[8:40 PM]Jangnryeol: idk but she's up to something

[8:41 PM]Lady Oh: The King said he's coming to the Queen's Palace, I've left her alone too long

[8:42 PM]She says he thinks the Queen is so stately, like an apricot in the snow

[8:42 PM]JAngn Suk Won is just an orchid in comprsion

[8:42 PM]Lady Oh: Please punish me

[8:42 PM]"I feel so much better now that she's no longer in favor"

[8:43 PM]"The good always win in the end, what fortune for the nation!"

[8:43 PM]"time to dress up and alert the kitchens, your majesty!"

[8:44 PM]Sukjong: I'm going to the Queen

[8:44 PM]Lady Kim: Good, she's waiting foro you

[8:44 PM]He's left hois Palace and is approaching the Queen

[8:45 PM]But he got detoured by Jang Suk Won's geomungo

[8:45 PM]Lady Oh: I am outraged, Jang Suk Won is a wicked woman!

[8:46 PM]Inhyeon: She learned the geomungo?

[8:46 PM](This is not appropriate for a concubine apparently)

[8:47 PM]Lady Oh: This is the third time she stole the King from you

[8:47 PM]"The more you hold out on punishing her, the more she'll do this"

[8:47 PM]"Remember, the legal wife is allowed to be a little jealous to keep concubicnes in line"

[8:48 PM]Inhyeon: i gues you're right, I'll have to scold her

[8:48 PM]"Playing the geomungo is inappropriate and has nothing to do with serving one's husband"

[8:48 PM]"I'll call her discreetly and admonish her"

[8:48 PM]Lady Oh: No, no, you need to shake her up

[8:49 PM]"She's spiteful! You need to-"

[8:49 PM]Inhyeon: "It's not a legal wife's duty to be jealous"

[8:49 PM]Lady Oh: recites story about a woman in King Munnjong's time who was "the right amount of jealous"

[8:50 PM]Sorry, she was actually too jealoys

[8:50 PM]Lady Oh: That woman wastoo jealous, but you're too not-jealous, you need to learn from her"

[8:51 PM]Lady Oh: The Queen is calling Jang Suk Won

[8:51 PM]Jang Suk Won: Why?

[8:51 PM]Lady Oh: She wants to warn you about playing the geomunngo

[8:51 PM]Jang Suk Won: I'm sick and can't come (she's still playing the geomungo)

[8:52 PM]Inhyeo: What? Send for her again!

[8:52 PM]Lady OH: It's strange that you're sick and playing the geomungo, the Queen asks that you come now

[8:53 PM]Ok Jeong: I really want to, but I'm sick

[8:53 PM]Inhyeon: brnig her here now, whether she wants to ornot!

[8:53 PM]Lady OH: You need to come now, or else you'll be arrested

[8:53 PM]Jang Ok Jeong: I reeally wanna come, but I'm so sick you know?

[8:53 PM]Inhyeon: Arrest her now

[8:54 PM]Sukjong and Jangryeon hear about it

[8:54 PM]Lady Oh: I've brought Jang Suk Won to the Queen's Palace

[8:54 PM]Inhyeon is mad, and ready to act

[8:55 PM]End of episode

[8:55 PM]What will Inhyeon do? You can wait until tomorrow, or just watch Ep 25 of the remake on youtube lol

[8:56 PM](the remake is subbed asdfg)

[8:57 PM]Anyways, until tomorrow!

[gazzhowie]

My Top 25 Movies of 2017.

Yes, it is indeed that time of year again where I blow the annual cobwebs off my Tumblr account to post my Top 25 movies of the year. And yes, I am indeed late by a few weeks in getting this up online... but I was celebrating this being the TENTH anniversary of this makeshift column thing. It started out as a regular on one website, moved to another and now it’s its own Tumblr ‘thing’. So... yay! Happy tenth anniversary. Or something.

Anyway, you frequent visitors know the score by now. I throw down a big long mournful special mention to all the films that I wish I could’ve included but couldn’t make them fit but think they deserve a shout out regardless and then I get stuck in to what I think are the 25 best films of the year.

As always, films listed are based on their UK release date. Without further ado...

In relation to the year’s dramas, I thoroughly enjoyed T2 Trainspotting and in a lot of ways the ‘long wait’ for a sequel we never really needed didn’t seem to hurt it at all. However, unlike the original, this felt like confection in the sense that once it was finished it didn’t really leave any lasting impression. I really liked Bleed For This and whilst familiar with the true story that it was dramatising I felt that for a lot of people they’d STILL find it completely incredulous. It was a well-directed, solidly acted little film that deserved more love. In an age when Jackie Chan films are so wildly all over the shop in terms of quality it was quite the delight to get two legitimately brilliant efforts from the legend. The first was Railroad Tigers which somehow managed to be part history lesson, part caper and part atypical Jackie Chan action extravanza without ever being annoying. Russia’s Panfilov's 28 (turigidly retitled Battle For Moscow here) was a great ‘stacked-odds’ war movie that rewarded the long wait to get itself into gear with some terrific tank-on-solider action set-pieces and high-stakes tension. 

Keeping with dramas, Anne Hathaway successfully rebirthed from having her cinematic abilities ruined by her obnoxious celebrity personality with Colossal, a terrific study of addiction and responsibility – somehow presented through the purview of a Kaiju movie! The Wall, Doug Liman’s second of two movies this year (after the likeable but disposable American Made), was the better one – playing out as one of those high concept ‘one location’ thrillers that keeps you suitably gripped… before sadly fizzling out in the final stretch. James Gray’s The Lost City of Z was a gorgeous-looking, wonderfully directed movie of a fascinating story sadly undone by last minute “that’ll do” casting that saw Charlie Hunnam completely derail a film that had every chance of being an instant classic. Jeff Nichol continued his pathway to becoming my generation’s Spielberg with Loving, the true life story of an American interracial marriage that challenged the law. Scorsese finally made his passion project, Silence, and it was a heavily flawed film that still some how felt like a sumptuous work of art at the same time. Finally, there was The Age of Shadows which was Korea’s attempt at gung-ho action-heavy, cat-and-mouse, double-agent espionage thriller that narrowly missed out on a place in the final Top 25.

In terms of blockbusters, Kong: Skull Island was tremendous fun with some of the best FX designs and action set-pieces you’d find in a Summer blockbuster in 2017. Only third act issues and a terrible Tom Hiddleston performance stopped it from being one of the year’s best. Fast & Furious 8 was a crushing disappointment that absolutely confirmed my worst fears after the death of Paul Walker – namely that this franchise would become utterly unmoored by Vin Diesel’s ego and his belief that HE himself is what the audience for these movies care about most. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was as much of a delight as you were probably hoping it would be and I loved it a great deal, but it completely lost my interest by its climax with its cavalcade of CGI smashing into CGI incoherently. 

Alien Covenant was a vast improvement on Prometheus (soon to be retitled Alien: Prometheus if rumours are to be believed!) but it still leaves you questioning why Ridley Scott is obviously trying to sandwich other sci-fi intentions he has into a pre-existing franchise that doesn’t quite accommodate them. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (I’m not calling it by that bizarre inexplicable UK title!) was… pleasantly surprising in the fact that it was not awful! Wonder Woman was legitimately jaw-dropping in terms of just how great it was (who’d have thunk it?) but, just like with Guardians of the Galaxy 2, the minute it leaned back on clattering CGI and nonsensical reveals it lost me entirely. The two biggest surprises of all though in terms of blockbusters was Life – which was a better Alien movie than Alien: Covenant with a humdinger of an ending that due to poor box office we’ll never see developed as intended – and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle which somehow managed to be the best teen movie of the year and the best video game movie (for a video game that doesn’t exist!) AND one of the best sequels of the year too!

Not a huge amount of horror movies greatly impressed this year but M. Night Shymalan’s Split worked effectively for me and The Autopsy of Jane Doe stood out as one of the year’s best horror movies with some fantastic jump-scares and lead performances that fully commit to selling the concept. However, one that did really impress was Gerald’s Game. Mike Flanagan continued his own pathway to becoming my generation’s maestro of horror with an adaption of Stephen King’s novel that proved to be an engrossing, sickening, improbably excellent adaptation. Carla Cugino’s performance in it is one of the best of the year.

Whilst we’re talking great performances of the year special mention most definitely has to go to Theresa Palmer for her work in the uncompromising, upsetting indie thriller, Berlin Syndrome. 

For comedies, Don't Think Twice was a lovely watch and seemed to work past just how incredibly niche and “inside-y” it was through the hardwork of its thoroughly likeable cast. Goon: Last of the Enforcers was every bit this year’s underrated gem as its predecessor was when it was released years back. Then there was The Big Sick which managed the commendable balancing act of being incredibly lovely, moving, dramatic, hilarious and really rather wonderful all at the same time.

For action B-movies, it was a surprisingly great year in 2017. The team behind The Raid gave us Headshot which kick-for-punch gave us some of the best fight sequences of the year. Sleepless, a totally unrequired remake of the French classic Sleepless Night, ended up being a really fun, gritty ride full of entertaining shoot-outs and improbable fight sequences with Michelle Monaghan committing to the material with more gusto than it probably deserved and the film being all the better for it. The second best of the three cinematic attempts by Mel Gibson to be redeemed by his industry was Blood Father, a down-and-dirty gun-and-run action shoot ‘em up that would have been nothing without Gibson’s throwing-it-all-down performance. John Wick Chapter 2 was extravagant excellence that at times I felt unworthy of being exposed to. Jeremy Rush’s debut, Wheelman, took all the clichés of “the good criminal on a bad job gone wrong” subgenre and - thanks to Frank Grillo’s performance – made a better movie than the similar but one-note and overly acclaimed Baby Driver. 

Shockwave Tunnel was a dependably solid Andy Lau actioner that played like Die Hard meets Daylight – all the overblown, enthralling action you’d expect from a Hong Kong mid-level blockbuster with all the overwrought emotionally manipulative dramatics too! Finally there was Martin Campbell’s The Foreigner, the second of those brilliant Jackie Chan movies in 2017, which was part political revenge movie, part First Blood homage, part commercial for Chan being considered for actual serious acting awards and part ‘Is Pierce Brosnan doing Gerry Adams?’ think-piece.

It was another stellar year for documentaries too with Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press being the biggest jaw-dropper of the lot as Hulk Hogan, backed by a billionaire with nefarious intent, destroyed a website for reporting on his sex tape – and set a dangerous precedent in the process! Bright Lights, the candid documentary on Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, landed on UK shores early in 2017 and proved to be every bit as heartbreaking as you’d expect in light of Fisher’s death. Probably one of the biggest, bizarre curios this year was Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, a candid and unfiltered look behind Jim Carrey’s “process” in making Man on the Moon many years back and which gave way to finally turning many a long-held rumour to fact. Spielberg was an out-and-out delight for any fan of cinema, delivering an enormous amount of access to the master of cinema himself as he and his colleagues took us through his career and his life. Finally there was the magnificent and majestic epic OJ: Made In America which makes these ‘mentions’ as an eight hour documentary in the same way Twin Peaks Season 3 is allowed to be considered as one of “the films of the year” too. It is an accomplished, thorough and engrossing study not just of a miscarriage of justice but of race in America, celebrity and human toxicity.

I did not catch a lot of animation in 2017 but the two standouts worthy of mention were The Lego Batman Movie, which managed to keep the delightful ball bouncing that The Lego Movie itself threw up in the air by way of pacey and inventive plotting/design and a very, very clever and knowing script. Then there was Seoul Station, the animated prequel to last year’s sublime Train to Busan. It deserves a shout-out not because it is particularly stunning as an animated film (it isn’t!) or that it works particularly brilliantly as a prequel (it doesn’t!) but as an animated zombie contagion movie in its own right it is very much entertaining and proves to be quite the thrill-ride with a gut-punch denouement.

And now to the Top 25 movies of the year themselves:

 25. It Comes At Night

Badly mismarketed - according to some - as some sort of zombie/creature feature that saw an immense audience backlash, this is actually a brilliant study in dread and human frailty told on an intimate scale with yet another dependably excellent performance from Joel Edgerton.

24. Spider-Man: Homecoming

I’m as big an MCU ‘junkie’ as most but I went into this cynical and with my arms dismissively folded across my chest. I was burnt out on Spider-Man and the Civil War cameo, whilst ‘fun’, didn’t give me any feeling it would work as another feature. I thought the Sam Raimi trilogy was badly cast and over-rated fare and I actually went against the populous on the Andrew Garfield movies by finding them entertaining clusterfucks that worked in spite of the committee filmmaking approach. I just didn’t want another round – but Homecoming gets Spider-Man entirely right for the first time, for me. It moves like a bullet without an inch of fat on it (a rarity for a lot of MCU movies!), it’s wonderfully cast and, best of all, it manages to be exciting and funny in equal measures like the best MCU movies and no other Spider-Man movie has before!

23. Manchester By The Sea

This is not your recommended Friday or Saturday night ‘easy entertainment’ and for many its quality has been blighted by the revelations about Casey Affleck but this is an uncomfortably honest and heartbreaking mediative study on grief, loss and loneliness. Affleck is superb and Michelle Williams once again shows that she is the greatest actress of my generation by an easy mile.

22. Super Dark Times

I was lauded like the hero I rightfully should be considered as for labelling this movie on Twitter as “Stand by Me meets American Psycho” and the description really works. Go in knowing as little as possible and just let it play out. It’s dark, grimy and captivating and it works as tremendously as it does because it never once feels anything less than completely real. It’s now on Netflix here in the UK.

21. Patriots Day

Mark Wahlberg is one of the worst mainstream actors (and, lest we forget, human beings!) in the movie business today. And here he’s playing (badly) an unnecessarily and inexplicably invented “composite” character in an otherwise authentic dramatic recreation of the Boston Bombing and the hunt for the culprits. When Peter Berg sticks to the facts and procedurally works through the events and the investigation, you’re gifted an exemplary thriller that delivers – with the Watertown shoot-out – one of the year’s best sequences. When you’re put in the hands of Wahlberg, it’s painful. I was able to forcibly separate the former from the latter. Many couldn’t. It’s now on Netflix here in the UK.

20. Hacksaw Ridge

I’m keeping my opinion on Mel Gibson absent for once (everyone knows I’m big on cutting the guy some slack, frankly!) but I was delighted to see this received the way it was. Not everything in it works (Andrew Garfield does his typical “swing for the back” unsubtle performance, its first hour works more as an outright homage to 1950s dramas than it does in its own right!) but, man alive, does it serve to remind us all what an absoloutely outstanding filmmaker Gibson is. He’s delivered one of the greatest war movies of the modern age, telling an outstanding true story in the process and refusing to skimp when it comes to brutality, octane or high drama in the process. It’s now on Netflix here in the UK.

19. La La Land

I really don’t understand the backlash to this movie at all. Not one bit. A talented director has taken two of the best working actors in the industry right now and made an ode to movie musicals of yesteryear with all the aplomb and appeal you’d expect – and it’s delightful. It really is. It’s now on Netflix here in the UK.

18. Atomic Blonde

Someone somewhere thought a tribute to Roger Donaldson’s No Way Out but starring Charlize Theron and made in the style of John Wick should be made and that person should be applauded and carried through the streets on a throne! This is not a perfect movie. Hell, it’s not even a movie that is anywhere near as clever as it thinks it is. But as a piece of action entertainment, it really is terrific fun – stupendously well directed with energy to spare, a cool as hell soundtrack and Theron is excellent! That “one take” hallway/apartment/car fight is absolutely audacious - and brilliant just for watching Eddie Marsan, the modern day Yoda of character actors, try to just... “not get in the way”.

17. Thor: Ragnorak

Everyone had a right to be cautious about this one – on the one hand anyone familiar with Taika Waititi knew that he’d never made a bad movie and was becoming one of the strongest voices in cinematic comedy. But on the other hand Thor was proving to be one of the weakest characters in the MCU and his previous movies had been less than great. So you can chalk this one up as one of the biggest and best surprise blockbusters of 2017. It delivered on the action and spectacle in all the ways you’d expect from a Marvel movie but it was also one of the best comedies of the year too.

16. Blade Runner 2049

Who would have thought for one second that this was going to work let alone work as well as it did? A direct sequel, decades after the fact, to a box office failure that has aged into an inarguable masterpiece? It is almost too bittersweet then that its sequel would be critically adored but also fail at the box office as well. Blade Runner 2049 is not a film for the casual cinema-goer. It’s certainly not for someone who hasn’t seen or truly appreciated Ridley Scott’s original classic. It’s a reward dressed up as a film for people who like beautiful cinema, technical audaciousness, strong performances and intricate, mature plotting all wrapped up into one.

15. The Handmaiden

Park Chan-Wook’s adaptation of the novel ‘Fingersmith’ is a sumptuous cavalcade of deception, erotica, dark obsession, greed and romance. You watch it waiting for one of the cogs to break and for the whole thing to come undone because it’s hard to get your head around how all of these elements are kept in motion so seamlessly and so enthrallingly. The cogs never break. It really is just that excellent.

14. Okja

I went into this as one of the rare few who find Tilda Swinton abrasive, who’d heard terrible things about what Jake Gyllenhaal was doing in this movie and was getting caught up in mixed word-of-mouth about what the film itself was actually about. But when you’ve made Memories of Murder, The Host, Snowpiercer, and Mother you get to buy a lot of good faith from a viewer, frankly. So in Bong Joon-Ho we trust and boy did that trust pay off! This is the only funny, harrowing, thrilling, moving, thought-provoking caper / thriller / drama / “message” movie you’re going to see this year. It is, of course, on Netflix now to view.

13. Detroit

It sort of annoyed me that I was so ignorant to the facts prior to watching Kathryn Bigelow’s searing drama set during the 1967 Detroit riots, in which a group of rogue police officers respond to a complaint with retribution rather than justice on their minds. I felt I should have been better educated on the grave injustice and inhumane horrors of this incident. It’s testament to Bigelow that she manages to educate the unknowledgeable on the context needed, the geography and the peole without ever making you feel like you’re being lectured. The film struggles to stay afloat as we decompress from the horrors of the extended second act set-piece into what is ostensibly the cover-up but it’s testament to all involved that it manages to nonetheless.

12. Brawl in Cell Block 99

Craig Zahler’s follow-up to Bone Tomahawk is an astounding homage to the 70s/early 80s exploitation movies that cluttered up the bottom two shelves of many a local video shop. It’s got that C-grade exploitation movie type plot but what Zahler does is expand it in a way to give it time to breathe in ways an ‘original’ exploitation movie couldn’t. We get to spend time with the characters and get a feel for predicaments and locations so when the “hell” does break loose we are in it alongside them. Vince Vaughn uses this movie as a farewell to every safe, easy, shitty studio romcom his reputation stalled on and reinvents himself as a lanky Charles Bronson type for a modern age. It gets horrifying and grim and then keeps going and does so with a sense of zeal and pride that is really rather admirable.

11. Logan

We know that James Mangold is one of the great American filmmakers very rarely put to use by studios the way he should be (i.e. give him money and get out of his way) but he still manages to insert moments of brilliance in otherwise throwaway films (Identity, Knight & Day and The Wolverine all have moments in them that make them better than you’ve probably heard!). Somehow he managed to convince Fox to let him take one of the most iconic but problematic runs in comic book history and make a third solo Wolverine after two previous fatally bad/uneven attempts – but make it as a futuristic western farewell to the character itself and, oh, he won’t be pandering to any of the inter-universe stuff either... And in the process Mangold essentially made the UNFORGIVEN of the comic book movie genre. Like with that movie, it now feels like the door's been closed on this particular genre of movies (the MCU movies feel like their own unstoppable beast at this point) rather definitively. Everything needing said or done within the genre is right there in LOGAN. This works because it has something to say and an actor with a point to prove - It's not out to stake its claim as the best 'comic book movie' (it is one of them though!) but it is very interested in making sure it is a great movie. Not only does it achieve that, but it sort of lands as its own instant masterpiece of sorts too. Hugh Jackman's doing work here that is utterly terrific and if you'd said last year that some of the best performances you'll find in cinema in 2017 would be in "the third WOLVERINE movie" you'd have been drowned in laughter. Yet here we are. If you were to recalibrate the 'limitations' of the past, present and future of the western genre, then with COPLAND, 3:10 TO YUMA and this James Mangold has made three of the best in modern cinema.

10. The Villainess

This is a movie that is so absolutely chockfull of full on "HOLY SHIT!" moments and action sequences that you’re still sat muttering "How the hell did they do that?!?" days after you’ve experienced it. Its story is muddled in its delivery and it does take a little bit to bed down with what is going on, where they're going and what story they're trying to tell but... maaaan... when it lights up it fires off like a nuclear friggin missile. Controversial as it's going to sound, it's a rarity in that as a homage to a source material (NIKITA in this instance) it surpassed the source in my opinion! You will invariably see stories get better told this year - but you're not going to see a film with better action sequences! Fact!

9. War For The Planet of the Apes 

Enter into this movie with a broad mind and in return you'll be rewarded with an astoundingly good time full of great direction, terrific visual effects, wonderful performances and fantastic set-pieces! I just REALLY hope that this is the closing chapter of a particular trilogy but not necessarily the franchise as a whole - To develop this textured a 'history', pay it off in this manner and NOT take it now into themore pointed direction of the original Charlton Heston movie seems like an awful waste! Any failings WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES has is not in the film itself but in the marketing - There's going to be a boatload of folk expecting to see helicopters and tanks, commanded by Woody Harrelson, panning out over snowy terrain to blast away at an army of apes in what is all pay off to the build-up of the last two movies. This isn't THAT movie! The movie it IS though is a tremendous achievement both on a technical level and as a piece of storytelling. It's a beautifully realised, rich revenge Western dressed up as a prison escape movie - but with apes! And in marketing it the studio really didn't seem to want you to know that Matt Reeves has essentially remade APOCALYPSE NOW and THE GREAT ESCAPE at the same time, in the same movie - but with apes!

8. IT: Chapter One

I was one hundred percent blown away by Andy Muschietti's adaption of IT. I was hoping it would be good but... Jesus... this was actually astounding! Seriously! It's not just a great horror movie. It's a great movie, full stop. And possibly one of the best adaptations of a Stephen King novel ever made. Shit thee not. It absolutely works on every conceivable level. It is legitimately scary (downright terrifying in parts!), completely enthralling and so incredibly well crafted. The key to adapting King has always been in accepting that the man is a wildly uneven and incredibly ill-disciplined author and a great adaption needs to fight against his worst excesses. Which often means being willing to cull away at the source material with brutal confidence. That's why STAND BY ME, THE SHANKSHANK REDEMPTION, MISERY, THE MIST, CARRIE, THE GREEN MILE and especially THE SHINING are tremendous... and why the likes of UNDER THE DOME and every movie Mick Garris touches is flat out awful and barely watchable! The casting is utterly sublime - Finn Wolfhard from STRANGER THINGS is a delight, Jeremy Ray Taylor was so moving he broke my heart and Sophia Lillis is just jaw-droppingly brilliant. She gives such an assured performance for someone so young and, in the process, delivers one of my favourite performances of the year. And Bill Skarsgård? HOLY SHIT!! I can't rave about this movie enough, frankly. By moving it to the 80s it hit my 'nostalgia button' just perfectly and the scares were so expertly executed.

7. Dunkirk

Nolan has proven time and again that he is a master craftsman in the field of modern cinema, whether through populist fare like THE DARK KNIGHT trilogy, playing opulently in the sci-fi sandbox with INTERSTELLAR, gunning for hire on police procedurals with INSOMNIA or delivering his trifecta of inarguable cinematic masterpieces with THE PRESTIGE, MEMENTO and INCEPTION. This moves like a fuckin rocket-ship, just non-stop propulsion from the first frame to the last drawing exhilaration and exhaustion from you at every step. The non-linear format is a masterstroke in that it rather exquisitely uses the agonising wait that comes with time pushed right up against the race against the very same thing. It's so intricately developed. Harry Styles doesn't do enough to make an impression but nor is he given enough to offend. He's just there. Hans Zimmer reinvents himself musically once again. And Nolan clarifies once more that there is still a place for old-school movie majesty in the modern age - the push wherever possible to avoid CGI aerial battles and painted-in boats shows a determination and dedication that deserves kudos. With the stripped back dialogue, the never-ending series of jaw-dropping and nerve-shredding set-pieces and a gorgeous, old-fashioned execution, this is a ready-made masterpiece!

6. Get Out

What's getting lost in all of the critical plaudits for this film is that it is possibly one of the most assured and successful directorial debuts in cinema history! This is an absolute humdinger of a movie, reconfiguring what you think of cinema as social commentary, what makes a horror movie scary and what you think of Allison Williams (no joke!). So much fun and more importantly thought-provoking! KEY & PEELE was some majestic shit – but, between this and KEANU, Jordan Peele has proven worthy of being followed wherever he wants to go with his film ideas!

5. Free Fire

I urge you to believe the hype - FREE FIRE is *that* good! Kinetic, original, hilarious and exhilarating. It's a legitimately great time, doing for the shoot-out in 2017 what MAD MAX: FURY ROAD did for the car chase in 2015. It is quite literally everything that everyone is overstating BABY DRIVER to be - an inventive recalibration of a frequented cinematic form! Everything said and overhyped about Edgar Wright (a director far more interested in his own celebrity than making gimmick-free films) is wholly true of Ben Wheatley who, film by film, seems to repeatedly reinvent himself and has never delivered something less than excellent. FREE FIRE is what would happen if Florent Emilio Siri's NID DE GUEPES made a baby with BOOGIE NIGHTS! It's ridiculous how well Ben Wheatley manages to choreograph this thing... a ninety-odd minute, one location, non-stop shoot-out... with such clean geography where you're always aware of what's going on and where every character is. And, honestly, let's reiterate it again now - In terms of great Oscar injustices, Sharlto Copley not winning in 2018 for his work in this will be one of the all-time travesties!

4. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore

This is a quirky, grim, funny, gripping gem of a movie that I saw early on in 2017 and it stayed with me right the way throughout the year. Macon Blair has went from being the driving force (BLUE RUIN) and supporting foundation (GREEN ROOM) in straight-out-the-gate modern masterpieces to delivering a directorial debut that immediately lands as one of the films of 2017! If only there was some way we could go live in a world where Trump wasn't president and Blair, Elijah Wood, the never less than excellent Jane Levy and the utterly outstanding Melanie Lynskey were taking home ALL the awards for this! Who'd have thunk Lynskey would go from bit-player in an awful sitcom to the best actress of our generation? Maybe The Duplass Brothers’ Togetherness that y’all didn’t watch was the goddamn clue, huh? For me, Melanie Lynskey delivers THE best actress performance of the year. It’s now on Netflix here in the UK.

3. Jawbone

I was absolutely blown away by what is easily one of the best British films made in a long time! And on top of all THAT, in time it'll come to stand as one of the best boxing movies of all time too. It absolutely captures the level of boxing I know of - that whole subculture of what rises up from when Golden Gloves contendership ends but no pro-journey materialises. On top of THAT, it's a tremendously well executed study of the pain that manifests from addiction, grief and loneliness. Seek this out. I urge you. It’s the anti-Rocky and there's not a single false-note in the whole film. It’s now on Netflix here in the UK.

2. Wind River

I jested from the minute the trailer dropped that all involved had inexplicably and unnecessarily remade my beloved Deadly Pursuit. How wrong could I be? For me, in his directorial debut, Taylor Sheridan has absolutely nailed it as a director what he did twice over the previous years as a writer with Sicario and Hell or High Water - delivering a mature, harrowing, enthralling thriller that has something to say. Awards season seems to have forgotten it already but Sheridan's debut direction and Jeremy Renner's performance are more than worthy of consideration.

1. Good Time

Robert Pattinson, an actor I have never been able to stand in anything (and that includes his Cronenberg rebirth period stuff too!), captivates completely in what is the most kinetic, captivating and energetic film of the year. Pattinson plays Connie Nikas, a scumbag low-level criminal who, after a heist goes awry, has to spend one long night trying to free his brother with learning disabilities from custody in the notorious Riker's Island prison. What follows is a relentless foot-chase through the streets, tenements and shitholes of New York City that plays out as a non-stop living nightmare. I heard of Good Time’s directors, Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie, as being announced for the remake of 48hrs before I’d seen this, their debut feature. And I spent a great deal of time whining about how 48hrs doesn’t need touched and who did these Safdie brothers think they were, etc. Now? Having seen this movie and adored it as much as I have, I’m legitimately excited to see what their version of a modern day 48hrs could be! Good Time is now on Netflix here in the UK.