The Films of 2007

Hello friends! 

I'm back with this years installment of "The Films of 2007"

Not an easy thing to do by any means. 

Listed: Not Ranked.

Atonement  -  Okay, so I'm kind into that skinny girl, Keira. Okay, really into. Yes, she's probably anorexic and no I do not care. There is I think a fire to her performance that her twin Natalie doesn't have. Natalie always kind of looks like a nice girl inside that is pretending to be bad or full of attitude, Keira can pull of the 'tude and the fire and it's awesome. Joe Wright, the director of this film and Pride and Prejudice knows how to wring that out of her, which isn't that hard because she still had some fire in Pirates 3 and that movie well, it has a good ending. Anyway this movie is fantastic all the way down it's credit line. No weak spots. Only great spots. It's a shorty and it's not really self important and people don't really know James McAvoy yet, but they will. I like Love stories and this one had the goods, and it hurts but with atonement.

Sweeney Todd - Great Musical. Great Songs. Great Performances. Solid everything, unlike Enchanted that had a few spotty things in it. Too bad it's no fun, but it was still great and bloody! And who doesn't like Alan Rickman, pining over a young girl he raised. Gross! And yet ultimately heart breaking.

Knocked Up  - To begin this section you must know some back story. I work in DVDs and in the past had to watch every behind the scene video tape of certain films or shows, and I have been familiar with the cast and crew behind this movie for years. Especially, Seth Rogen, the star. And when I first started watching his stuff in Undeclared, I thought he was funny and one of the best parts. Then I had to watch almost 200 hundred hours of Seth and others make The 40 Year Old Virgin. I was Sethed out. I was Judd Apatow out. I was everything related to anybody that had anything to do with it - out. It was sad and I was mad, and you didn't even have to see what I saw. Let's just say all the Not Funny Stuff cut from the movie I watched, all of it and that wasn't.... anyway.

Knocked Up is a great movie. It's not terribly realistic in story or plot, but it gets the characters right and it gets the emotions. And more then anything Apatow gets that and Seth was his ultimate weapon. Again, a male fantasy film. But it was damn funny. And Katherine Heigl is damn hot, even pregnant. Funny how girls sometimes get hotter when pregnant. Whatever. This movie was the funniest movie I'd seen since Wedding Crashers. Awesome. I'm back to trusting Rogen & Apatow again.

Juno - Part of me wanted to take this movie off because every damn character had to be witty or filled with sass or say something unbelievable every time they opened their mouth, and that got occasionally annoying, especially since this film felt like it took place in the real world. Oh, and yes, many of the characters are unbelievably negative. But you know what, I still like it a lot. It's inventive. It's really well performed. It's funny as it should be, and it's sad when it needs to be. And way to go Bateman, twisting up your image a little bit. Oh and did I mention the songs in the movie are phenomenally perfect for the film. It was like a Wes Anderson movie set in the real world.

The Bourne Ultimatum  - Is there really any guy in our generation that would not want to be Jason Bourne, er Matt Damon playing Jason Bourne. Yes, it has the same plot as the first 2 movies, the thing is, it's better then the first 2 movies, especially the first, which after watching the last 2 seems down right quaint and kind of cute. But Ultimatum is brutal and emotional and the Bourne Journey is over for now and I feel satisfied. Way to nail the actin movie trilogy of this decade. Damn U Matrix! Oh and this movie finally explains why the hell Julia Stiles has been slumming it in there for all these years.

Live Free or Die Hard - John McClane. John McClane. He was like a childhood idol for me, and I do not feel bad about that. This was a guy who could get things done. Yeah, he bitched about it, but fuck it. He did the job and at the end of the day felt pretty fucking satisfied. So I went back and rewatched all the Die Hards before this came out. And guess what. I only really liked the first one. The Second One now feels mailed in and the Third One has an ending so atrocious, well whatever. I know like 2 Die Hards. No I know this movie was completely ridiculous, but John McClane was not ridiculous. He was exactly who I remembered, just older, still terrible with the life stuff but awesome with the cop stuff. The Tunnel Scene rivals the Tangier's Bourne scene for awesomeness. Seriously. Justin Long isn't amazing, but he ain't bad either. And I don't care if it was edited. It still felt right. Rock on Dude who made those Underworld films and is married to Kate Beckinsdale.

Ratatouille - Based on sole rewatchability  this movie would make the list. Not the Best Pixar Movie or at least my favorite (Incredibles) but damn this movie goes down like a Caramel Ice Blended on a hot sunny day. It's smooth. It's fun and it has some great messages (okay yeah I said it). The animation is SICK! And. it's. just. so. sweet.

The Host - Speaking of messages, this one was a doozy. It came out really early last year. And it was subtitled. But it was the Asian Little Miss Sunshine. (When I say that, ultimately I mean that it's really fucked up. Now I don't know about you, but can any of you remember seeing an Asian movie that wasn't either really fucked up (75% of them) or really boring (25%). I can't say that I've seen them all, but this is my movie watching experience after all.) So it was about this really messed up family on a quest to help a Little Girl and hopefully they will fix themselves along the way. Now throw in the MONSTER. Brilliant. It was funny, scary and touching. Ridiculously well made movie.

Hot Fuzz - This film singlehandedly resurrected Point Break. Point Break! It also threw in a ton of Action Film references and an Ode to Male Love. (What's with that? It's really all over the place. Are men writers so disconnected from women that all the romance they can muster are Male Romances and these films are called Comedy, but when a woman writes a romance where some Unrealistic Male falls for a Woman it's called a Chick Flick. I don't know, something stinks in our universe. Oh and I just wanted to say to all my guys on in VA and LA. I LOVE YA!) Anyway, this movie is awesome. Great rewatchability factor, always something new. Yeah, it might be a little long, but it's so much fun hanging out with these 2 guys that I'll take it.

Beowulf -  How do I even begin to describe the experience? It may be a better action movie then Die Hard4, maybe... Seeing things like that in 3d is so awe inspiring. And seeing it with Dragons is even better. And the animation, well lets just say sometimes I felt like I was watching humans and sometimes I didn't, but I never really cared because the 3d always made it feel real. It was one of the best movie going experiences last year. And the performances were great, especially Anthony Hopkins haunted King and Ray Winstone as the essentially stupid Beowulf.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Disturbia - The Rental Champ (Who knew? that this movie would be so good. I didn't. I knew it made a ton of money, but I just wasn't sold. But I watched it and it rocked. Shia brings all the goods to acting. WAY BETTER THAN TRANSFORMERS...)

Enchanted - The Musical Champ (or should I say the Magical Champ. No film was as delightful as this movie (and I don't even like Patrick Dempsey, I mean this was the Pizza Boy, the Loser who couldn't buy love and now I'm just supposed to accept him as the Stud? Fuck that. Girls the delightful loser doesn't grow up to be a handsome hero in real life... wait... uh... maybe... fuck it.) No but seriously, this was the best Disney Cartoon that Disney could make and it was ridiculously fun and overtop)

Stardust - The Fantasy Champ (It was the film that recaptured the magic of the 1st Pirates movie, but no one went to see it because it had Claire Danes in it. Cursed I tell you)

Zodiac - Best David Fincher film of the year (The Dude made a movie. That means something to me.)

No Country For Old Men - Best Made Film (It was I think, but it's ending left me cold, out in the cold old, feeling old, like Tommy Lee Jones' Forehead old and I just couldn't put it on the list. And maybe that was the point, but I didn't like it anyway.

* A Few Stragglers like There Will be Blood, Eastern Promises, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, have not been seen yet, but they may show up depending on viewing experience.

Wow if you made it this far congratulations. Maybe all the movies will suck this year and I'll write a whole lot less next year. Until then...

Hasta!