When someone sets out to make a list of the movies that you, the movie enthusiast, will probably “really like”, the compiler of the list starts out with a significant disadvantage. The person creating the list doesn’t have any idea what kind of movies you, specifically, really like. So the list, almost by definition, has to be made up of movies that have mass appeal. Mass appeal isn’t enough though. Justice League was the 10th highest grossing movie at the box office last year but it doesn’t belong on this list. It wasn’t a very good movie. My criteria is simple. An Objective Top Twenty-worthy movie has been seen by a lot of movie viewers, earned critical acclaim, and those who have seen the movie have “really liked” it. I think there were 26 movies in 2017 that met that simple criteria. But, a top twenty can only have twenty movies.
Here’s my 2017 Objective Top Twenty:
2017 Objective Top Twenty | ||||||
As Of March 29, 2018 | ||||||
2017 Released Movies | Academy Award Points | # of IMDB Votes | Rotten Tomatoes % Fresh | Cinema Score | Metacritic | Objective “Really Like” Probability |
Star Wars: The Last Jedi | 4.0 | 344,932 | 91% | A | 85 | 75.65% |
Dunkirk | 8.3 | 370,530 | 93% | A- | 94 | 75.49% |
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 | 1.0 | 354,476 | 83% | A | 67 | 75.33% |
Get Out | 4.1 | 284,533 | 99% | A- | 84 | 75.13% |
Baby Driver | 3.0 | 282,234 | 93% | A- | 86 | 75.13% |
Fate of the Furious, The | – | 156,915 | 66% | A | 56 | 74.76% |
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri | 7.2 | 194,450 | 92% | NR | 88 | 74.72% |
Blade Runner 2049 | 5.2 | 269,568 | 87% | A- | 81 | 74.24% |
Wind River | – | 111,829 | 87% | NR | 73 | 73.76% |
Kong: Skull Island | 1.0 | 198,846 | 75% | B+ | 62 | 73.65% |
Wonder Woman | – | 391,299 | 92% | A | 76 | 73.53% |
Thor: Ragnarok | – | 280,784 | 92% | A | 74 | 73.53% |
Spider-Man: Homecoming | – | 295,065 | 92% | A | 73 | 73.53% |
Logan | 1.0 | 463,842 | 93% | A- | 77 | 73.38% |
Alien: Covenant | – | 191,925 | 67% | B | 65 | 73.04% |
War for the Planet of the Apes | 1.0 | 162,154 | 93% | A- | 82 | 72.88% |
John Wick: Chapter 2 | – | 220,753 | 89% | A- | 75 | 71.93% |
It | – | 259,121 | 85% | B+ | 69 | 71.93% |
Split | – | 256,100 | 75% | B+ | 62 | 71.93% |
Beauty and the Beast | 2.0 | 202,321 | 71% | A | 65 | 71.92% |
Movies with Female IMDB Rating at least .2 points > Male Rating are in Bold |
Movies with Male IMDB Rating at least .2 points > Female Rating are Underlined |
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the movie that I can say with the greatest confidence that you, no matter who “you” is, will “really like”. Even with that, there are about 24% of you who probably won’t “really like” this movie. It’s up to you to figure out where you probably fit.
I’m sure that you’re reaction to the list is similar to my reaction to the list. Some of the movies on the list I’ve seen, or I’m interested in seeing, and others I have no interest in seeing. That’s okay. My hope is that you will use the list to identify those movies you’ve been thinking of seeing and feel confident that there’s a high probability that you will “really like” the movie experience. I’ve personally seen nine of the twenty movies and “really liked” all of them. There’s a handful of the remaining movies on the list that I plan on seeing. There’s another handful that I probably won’t see anytime soon.
Also, the list is dynamic. Because it’s data-based, it can change over time. Movies rise and fall as they get exposed to a broader audience. Two of my favorite movies of 2017, Lady Bird and The Big Sick aren’t in the top twenty. Academy Award Best Picture winner The Shape of Water didn’t make the cut. Those three movies have the data to support inclusion from a quality standpoint but haven’t been seen enough yet. A year from now that could change. For now, the data is what the data is.
Enjoy the list. Use it as just another data point in your quest to select movies that you will “really like”.