The Most Anticipated Movies of 2017: Part 9 & 10

This article was first published over at dailyoftheday.com, but re-posting here for posterity's sake.

We've made it folks to the final four of each category. Thanks for reading my inane comments on movies and I hope y'all found one movie that you might not have otherwise heard about or been excited about and because of me you either want to stay the hell away from it or would like to see it immediately. So these are the top sequels and remakes that I most want to see. I think once I reached the top 8 for the sequels list, I pretty much will watch this opening weekend regardless of reviews or word of mouth. I don't lead a life of adventure, so this is what I do. Tomorrow night I'll highlight the top 4 on original films coming out.

The Most Anticipated Movies of 2017 - Part 7 & 8

This article was first published over at dailyoftheday.com, but re-posting here for posterity's sake.

Well it looks like I posted these articles a bit prematurely. The Mummy, no. 19, has got a teaser trailer out. Listen, I know what a lot of you're thinking. I'm thinking it as well. What's the difference between this and your distaste for Transformers? I mean, saying it's a personal opinion is a bit of a cop out, right? I mean, this probably looks like hot garbage like I look at that Transformers movie. Granted, that's true - I don't think it's cool to berate other who love something that you dislike. It's just that Transformers is selling lies for the third time with promises of doing something awesome and then the movie is just a letdown. Sure, this Mummy movie may be selling lies, but at least it's vastly different from the Brendan Fraser Mummy movies (RIP). Now, if this one does well and they do a sequel and it looks like more of the same - you know I'm going to trash it. As of now, though? Count me in - I'll see Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible this monster movie any old day.

Oh, and The Circle, no. 20, looks creepy enough. I'm told it looks like an extended version of a Black Mirror episode (whatever that is. I literally have not seen anything on TV in the past 5 or so years that are so-called must-watch. Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, Mr. Robot, Strange Things, Orange is the New Black. I could go on, but I won't. It's precisely because people tell me I must watch these shows that I cannot. It triggers my adolescent attitude of defiance and I get even more steadfast in my refusal to see these shows /rant).

The Most Anticipated Movies of 2017 - Part 5 & 6

This article was first published over at dailyoftheday.com, but re-posting here for posterity's sake.

From here on out, at least in this section of sequels/remakes, half the movies are going to be superhero movies. That's just how I roll. And about half the movie-going public, too. As much digital ink has been spilled over the crushing weight of the 'superhero' genre and that apparently a general malaise has swept over critics and the public. But there's a large amount of evidence that people are still pretty excited about seeing these movies. Deadpool, Captain America and Doctor Strange's collective success offers plenty of evidence that we still haven't reached peak superhero. Hell, even the DC movies BvS and Suicide Squad made a huge chunk of money compared to their previous DC counterparts. So yes, as long as there is compelling and timely stories to tell about these characters, I think there will always be movies like superhero movies. Maybe there won't be as many in ten years, but they'll still be around. Marvel may already see the writing in the wall once they finish their 3rd phase of movies - they've gone on record saying they want to create more 'intimate' stories.

The Most Anticipated Movies of 2017 - Part 3 & 4

This article was first published over at dailyoftheday.com, but re-posting here for posterity's sake.

Welcome back folks! This is the part of my lists where I'm having a hard time sorting things out. Y'all know me, I'm a sucker for science fiction, superheroes and animated films. These next four movies cover that whole range and I had a tough time figuring out where my heart lies. I think I'm cautiously optimistic about these next four than I am just outright, hands-down getting my ticket for Thursday night previews. I think we're kinda seeing American audiences get smart about sequels. Sure, the last Transformers and Pirates movies made a ton of bucks, but it was all overseas. And even though Hollywood is looking more and more to appease those international audiences, I don't think they're necessarily forgetting about their domestic prospects. Studios have gotten a lot smarter - they've hired fan-favorite directors (Star Wars with Gareth Edwards, Rian Johnson and Guardians of the Galaxy with James Gunn) and they've taken a lot of risks with their 'tentpole' titles - like Deadpool and Ghostbusters - to varying degrees of success. I think the problem is that we expect Hollywood to shed its old image of being unfriendly to anyone outside of the white male demographic. And we should be critical of that - but it's going to take time and a worthy amount of conscious effort on the part of studios to change. We'll see, but I think we're starting to see shifting tides with more female and black leads and stories in the next few years. And this may open up the door for Asian Americans and Native Americans to have them represented as well. Hopefully.

The Most Anticipated Movies of 2017 - Part 1 & 2

This article was first published over at dailyoftheday.com, but re-posting here for posterity's sake.

Now that I got all that negative energy released from last week, now I can focus on the (hopefully) good movies coming out next year. Sometimes I really like the anticipation of a film before its release - at this point it's everything you want it to be. Sure those expectations can spiral out of control (Suicide Squad, BvS anyone?) once the crushing reality of a mediocre movie comes out. But that's not what this list is all about, folks.

6 years ago I was trying to find out about movies coming out the following year and there wasn't any in-depth articles about it that I could find. Sure, there were little shorts briefs for like the top 20 movies, but they didn't delve into the production or writing or anything, just HEY check this movie out, it should be cool!-kinda writing. So I've been doing this over at my dumb little blog  and I've always, always done 50 movies along with 10 runner-up films. And last year it got overwhelming - there just wasn't enough good films for me hit 50, but I did it anyway. Unfortunately my lists have ended up having such stunning pieces of shit like London Has Fallen and Ben-Hur.

This year I've cut back to 40. And I've divided them up between 20 "originals" and 20 "sequels/remakes". I think it's fair to say there are a lot of sequels and/or franchise movies that I'm looking forward to but also I'm excited for the original films that are coming out. Yes, it's a lot of movies to put on a list for next year, but honestly, if you love movies as much as I do, this is a pretty low number as far as how many movies someone like me will watch next year. I'll start out with the first 4 sequels on my list that I'm looking forward to next year and then tomorrow the first 4 from the originals list and so on.