Tom's Year In Movies, 2007
Critics are hailing 2007 as one of the best years for movies ever. But you wouldn't know it from some of the crap I saw.
As in 2006, I don't feel like I can attempt to craft a Top Ten list, since, by my count, I watched less than two dozen movies released during 2007. If I make a list, then I'm going to be forced to say that Epic Movie was my 23rd favorite movie of the year, which is way, way too high a ranking, even out of a pool of 23.
My year in movies is actually more defined by the movies that I wanted to see, but didn't. So following my rundown of the movies I did see this year is a rundown of the best movies I didn't see. I hope to catch most or all of them on DVD (or, for the few still out there, at the Alamo Drafthouse), but for now, I can only sigh and shake my head and say, "I really need to get out more."
Enough preface! It's time for a look back at Tom's year in movies!
Best Movie Of The Year, Even Taking Into Consideration All The Great Movies I Have Yet To See
No Country for Old Men
Not even close. This brilliant, beautiful, brutal and bloody, twistedly funny, relentlessly gripping thriller may very well be the best film yet from the Coen brothers, and for a pairing that has created Fargo, Miller's Crossing, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Raising Arizona, among other classics, that's saying a whole awful lot. I find myself reflecting back on this movie again and again, and still failing to find fault. Anton Chigurh is the most disturbing and genuinely menacing movie monster since Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, and like Anthony Hopkins before him, I expect Javier Bardem to take home the Oscar for his magnificently unsettling performance.
Probably The Best One-Two Comedy Punch In A Single Year Since Mel Brooks in 1974
Judd Apatow, for Knocked Up and Superbad
Apatow produced both, and wrote and directed the former, and that's pretty damn impressive, considering they're perhaps the two best comedies of the year. And I haven't even seen Walk Hard yet (which he wrote and produced)! Some critics, mostly touchy broads, have accused one or the other of these films of sexist cruelty. And you know what? They've got a point. When Seth Rogen runs out of the house during the earthquake in Knocked Up, leaving the mother of his unborn child behind, it's pretty hard to disagree that we're dealing with a total douchebag. Even I was upset by that. But in my eyes, the comedy wins out in the end. And I'd say Superbad, though perhaps even raunchier and more sex-obsessed, and thus open to similar accusations, is actually far sweeter (and a bit funnier) than Knocked Up.
Funniest Film Of The Year Which Had Nothing To Do With Judd Apatow
Hot Fuzz
Strangely, I think I'd say that both Knocked Up and Superbad are funnier on first encounter than Hot Fuzz, but I'd far rather rewatch Fuzz (and have, often). Another meticulously scripted action comedy from the Shaun of the Dead team, packed with sublime references to classic (or, as with Point Break, "classic") action films, and with a plot and dialogue that echo and fold back on one another in layer after layer, making each viewing more rewarding. I wish these guys would make new films more often!
Best Performance From A Filthy Rodent
Remy in Ratatouille
Narrowly edging out Mickey Rourke. HA! After a drop-off in quality with their previous (but still very enjoyable) film, Cars, Pixar comes roaring back with another dose of pure animation magic. Best film of the year to watch over and over again with your four-year-old niece. Is Mickey Rourke too dated a reference? Should I have gone with Kevin Federline?
The Other Great Animated Movie This Year
The Simpsons Movie
Sorry, I didn't see Persepolis. (And honestly, I probably never will.) So even though I had a lot of problems with the recycled plot points in this film, it was consistently hilarious enough to easily serve as runner-up to Ratatouille. Let's hope the next Simpsons flick doesn't take another 18 years.
Best Acting Performance Not In No Country For Old Men
Chris Cooper in Breach
Funny thing is, you can totally see Cooper in No Country, can't you? No matter: Cooper knocks it out of the park in this film. By turns piercingly intelligent, terrifying, paranoid, craven, needy, and twisted, it's a brilliant performance in a sharp and gripping thriller.
The Best In Horror
28 Weeks Later
Grindhouse
Halloween
Grindhouse was the best of the lot, creating a movie-going experience greater than the sum of its parts (and I've previously bitched about the flaws in one of those parts, namely Death Proof). 28 Weeks Later overcame my serious questions as to the necessity of a zombie sequel following the recent zombie glut by proving to be as smart, scary, and epic as the original. And Halloween was another success from director Rob Zombie, dark, dirty, and disturbing.
The Best Of The Rest
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: I honestly don't remember much about this one -- did it have the dragon? Or the hot French chick? -- but I remember liking it, and I can't be bothered refreshing my memory any more than that.
Shoot 'Em Up: Totally ridiculous, hilarious, awesome action from beginning to end. It begins to wear you down after a while, but Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti never cease to entertain.
Reno 911!: Miami: Funny stuff. Patton Oswalt's second best performance of the year. The Rock's best performance ever.
300: The more I think about it, the more it kind of loses its luster, but I was certainly wowed by the visually creative and brutal action at the time I saw it.
Meet the Robinsons: I guess this is the first Disney computer animated film following their split with Pixar, and it's a worthy effort, fun and visually exciting.
A Couple Of Disappointing Sequels That I Still Kind Of Liked
Spider-Man 3
Hostel: Part II
Spider-Man is the real shame here, since I loved the first two films so much. Everything they got right, this one got wrong. From villain overload like the later Batman movies, to Peter Parker's laughably emo dark side, to the rushed feel of the entire project, this could've and should've been a much better film, if they had only taken a few more months to fine tune it. As for Hostel: Part II, it was nowhere near the awfulness of director Eli Roth's Cabin Fever, but it was certainly a letdown after the superior Hostel.
Movie I Didn't Even Bother To Finish
Evan Almighty
I had heard it was bad, but still, I though I might as well check out my buddy's copy. It took ten minutes to decide I had better things to do with my life.
The Really Bad
Cashback: You wouldn't think a film with so much gratuitous nudity could be this boring.
Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer: I actually liked the first movie, kind of, but this childish mess was a chore.
Transformers: Even with a pitcher of beer (I saw it at the Alamo Drafthouse), this was wretched, more awful, soulless excess from Michael Bay.
Hot Rod: The worst film from an SNL castmember in a long time, which is really saying something.
The Worst Film Of The Year
Epic Movie
I found myself watching this brainless, insultingly unfunny garbage all the way to the end out of sheer disbelief -- jaw slack, head shaking, wondering how on earth a 90 minute "comedy" packed with such genuinely funny people as Kal Penn, Kevin McDonald, Jennifer Coolidge, and
And now, a list, presented without comment, of the great films, and the perhaps not-so-great films (but I still really want to see them), that I managed to miss this year. There are 29 of them, a half dozen more than the total of all the films I did see in 2007; there was quality out there, but I mostly avoided it like the plague.
Waitress
Once
Fay Grim
Sicko
Rescue Dawn
The Bourne Ultimatum
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
3:10 to Yuma
Enchanted
I'm Not There
Juno
Atonement
I Am Legend
Charlie Wilson's War
Sweeney Todd
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Persepolis
There Will Be Blood
Black Snake Moan
Zodiac
Eastern Promises
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Into the Wild
The Darjeeling Limited
Michael Clayton
Lars and the Real Girl
Gone Baby Gone
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Sad, isn't it?
Okay, people, your turn: tell me which were your favorite flicks of the year, and especially tell me which of the stuff I missed I absolutely must see immediately. I'll be back soon, I hope, with my 2007 TV round-up!
posted by Tom the Dog @ 12:41 PM
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