Top 10 of 2007 as of the last day in December

There are a couple of write ups that I have to do but I've decided to put that to the side and do what I consider to be the top 10 of 2007 for now. Later on in January or February I plan on doing a top 20 or maybe 30 of the year with some write ups once I am able to catch up with everything that 2007 has given us.

It has been a top notch year and there are still A LOT left for me to get to but here is the top ten as of December 31st, 2007

1. There Will be Blood
2. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
3. Zodiac
4. No Country for Old Men
5. Once
6. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
7. Ratatouille
8. Eastern Promises
9. Atonement
10. The Darjeeling Limited

I'm also going to straight out copy my friend Dan and what he did with his predictions and choose who I thought was the best _____ from the films I've seen.

Best Film - There Will be Blood
runner up - Sweeney Todd

Best Director - The Coen Brothers for No Country for Old Men
runner up - Paul Thomas Anderson for There will be Blood

Best Actor - Daniel Day Lewis for There Will be Blood
runner up - Viggo Mortensen for Eastern Promises

Best Actress - Amy Adams for Enchanted
runner up - Helena Bohnam Carter for Sweeney Todd

Best Supporting Actor - Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men
runner up - Paul Dano for There Will be Blood

Best Supporting Actress - Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There
runner up - Saoirse Ronan for Atonement

Best Screenplay - Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men
runner up - Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will be Blood

Most Underrated film of the year - Breach
runner up - Waitress

Most Underrated performance of the year (as in being overlooked left and right. There are a few in my opinion but I will save the rest of them for my bigger write up later on) - Chris Cooper for Breach

Worst Film of the Year - Redacted (I tried to watch it 3 times and couldnt get through it. Beyond awful.)
runner up - 300

Shoot 'Em Up (2007, Michael Davis)

This film has gotten a lot of comparisons to last year's Crank and I can see why. I feel that this is because both films are aware of how ridiculously awesome and over the top they are and they are just meant to be fun and enjoyable with no attempts at being anything else . The interesting thing is that I had the same experience with both films. I wanted to love them and enjoy the hell out of them but i just couldn't. I could enjoy bits and pieces but most of the time I was cringing.

There is just something that turns me off about a film that is so self consciously tongue in cheek that it's supposed to be clever and hilarious. After about the 5th one liner that Clive Owen or Giamatti say after an action scene I just started to be annoyed by the film. When the film tries so hard to be over the top, ridiculous, and wild, I just got disconnected with the film instead of buying into it and having fun with it. I am all for the type of film it is trying to be but the execution of it all is just so force fed that it just kills any fun at all. Plus, the heavy metal music/hard rock music that plays during every.single.fucking.time. is just too much for me. I get that it's trying to be badass, but c'mon already. This plus the constant one liners, the hundreds of edits, and the forced witty dialogue between the characters just ruined any fun I was having. It just tries way too hard.

I will say that the film does have it's moments. There are certain parts during most of the action scenes that are undeniably cool and fun. It's just everything that surrounds these moments that that ruin these spurts of coolness. The other main thing which sold the film for me was Owen being cool as always and Giamatti having a ton of fun as being a teeth grinding, over the top, evil baddie.

I can see and understand why someone would dig the hell out of Shoot 'Em Up but it was just too forced for me (like Crank). The only thing I felt the film was missing were a couple of negative shots in order for the film to achieve every single thing that annoys me about these films that are trying too hard to be cool,fun,badass,clever, and tongue in cheek, but end up just being annoying and mostly cringe worthy.

- **
Sidenote: While going through the directors credits on IMDB I was very,very,very suprised that he is the genius behind the sci fi original movie - Monster Man. This is a film that I saw a couple of months ago because a friend recommended it to me. It is the definition of "So bad its bad but still hilarious". This film is seriously about a mutant monster that drives a monster truck (which growls by the way) and just chases people around with it. I am surprised that the guy went from that beyond horrible film to making this film with some top notch actors. Anyways...I thought that was interesting.

Blue Water, White Death (1971, Peter Gimbel & James Lipscomb)

I have said it before in older posts but I love,love,love digging for films.

"Digging for films" is a term me and my friend Greg (over at Sex, Drugs, and Cinema) began to use one day and it just stuck. The term means to go to your video store, store, or online rental service and just go through a lot of films until you think you might have found a hidden diamond that time has forgotten and then you simply just check it out and see how good or bad it is.

I try to balance my film watching by watching a popularish/new release, a well known great film, and a film that I found through "digging" at blockbuster online or my video store and taking a chance on it. I try to watch these 3 kind of films during the course of week or two. Out of all of these 3 types of films that I try to watch I find the one that I dug through piles of movies for to be the funnest to watch. There is just something really satisfying to me when I rent a film that I have never heard about before and end up watching a great film. I guess it's the joy of discovering something by yourself and then wanting to share the gold with people. It's just fun and satisfies the geek inside of me.

In all my years of digging though films I consider myself to have found a couple of really great stand out films. Blue Water, White Death is one of those films. It is far from a masterpiece and it contains a couple of flaws but for the most part it is a pretty damn good documentary that contains a certain sense of adventure, awe, and beauty to it all.

I found this one while going through recommendations based off of The Life Aquatic and I rented it just because it sounded cool and because I thought it might turn out awkward hilarious at times (which it did).

Anyways, while trying to find a a decent poster to use for this post I decided to check youtube to see if there was at least a trailer for it. Instead, I found a fantastic video review of it by a site named FILMJUNK and it really captures everything that I wanted to say about it.

I urge you all to check it out.



....and here are some screencaps that I took while watching the film of certain images that I found amusing.The above screencap comes from my favorite part of the film. During this scene one of the divers picks up a shell and puts it on his head for no reason. Then this other diver comes out and just starts hitting the shell on his head with this punching rod that he has (in case of sharks). It might be one of the most awkward, random, and funniest things I have seen.

- ***1/2

Atonement (2007, Joe Wright)

I have to start off my write up by saying that I have never read the novel that the film is based off of. I have heard nothing but amazing things about the novel and it's on my very long list of books that I have to read sooner or later. The reason I have to start off with this notification is because it seems, to me at least, that a lot of the people who have read the novel have a lot of mixed feelings towards the film adaptation. I have no idea about how well of an adaptation this is or what it kept, or didn't keep, from the novel, but what is there I really liked.

One of the constant complaints I have heard about the film from the people who have seen the film but never read the novel is how they disliked how the film had no real and fully fleshed out central love story when the whole film seems to circle around this "love story" . What is interesting to me is that this is the biggest reason why I loved the film. I loved how the film has this love story at the central of the story (along with another plot that I am still iffy about writing on since it will spoil the film a lot) and how this love story between McAvoy's character and Knightley's character never really turns into anything more than a should've/would've/could've kind of affair that is broken apart before any true emotions can be brought to the table. I liked how the 2nd half of the film follows both characters during World War 2 and how they keep on to this sad hope that one day they will be reunited and their love will come to true form.

The other thing that I loved about film was not the just the love story, the stellar performances, the great direction, or the stunning long-take, but how the film is really about a character seeking redemption for an action that she committed when she was too young to know about how big of a repercussion it would entail. I wont go into this and write much more about it because I watched the film without knowing what the film was really about and this whole storyline kept surprising me and took certain twists that I did not see coming and would have seen if I had seen or read much about the film. I think it's best experienced this way and I am pretty shocked that a lot of reviews spoil this aspect of the film.

I once again don't know what else to write about this film. I really loved it and it made me want to read the novel more that way I could see how well of an adaptation of the novel the film really is. As for now, though, it is a very solid film in my book and one of my favorites of the year.

I have to do some backpedaling and see Pride and Prejudice because if this is only Wright's 2nd film as a director...then this guy is going to be one of the best in upcoming years. The amount of confidence in his directing was one of the best surprises that I had while watching the film. And no - I am not just saying that because of all the pretty images and that amazing long-take. Although, they didn't hurt either.

- ****

From Grades to Stars

I have decided to go back to rating films that I watch with the classic 4 star rating system. This is due to two reasons.

The first reason is because in the past couple of days I have had to defend my opinion about certain films and me rating them. I have had a lot of "I thought Juno was alright but I wouldn't give it an A. I would give it like 3 stars and a half" to which I reply with "Yeah, so would I. You see, my A+'s are like your 4 star ratings." to which I get "ohhhh then why do you give it an A" to then which I reply with "because I feel some films are in between 3 stars and a half and 4 stars and I don't think the rating them in stars gives them that credit. I also hate giving 9.7 out 10 reviews or ***3/4 reviews. I feel that the grading system is the easiest when this happens"

I have had that conversation about 3 times in the past month and about 10 times this past year. I have decided to just go back to the basic star system. I wont be doing any of that **2/4 kind of thing and will just stick to the full stars and half stars.

The other reason I decided to go back to this system is because I'm just bored and it will be something new to try.

I just decided to do this post that way I don't have to explain myself a couple of times when people message me and ask why I started to do stars all of a sudden.

That's all.

Gone Baby Gone (2007, Ben Affleck)

In the past couple of days I have had a lot of discussions with fellow film geeks and film buffs about how great of an year 2007 has turned out to be. I still have tons of titles to watch and Gone Baby Gone was one of those titles. It also happens to be further proof of what a damn good year it has been for movies.

Gone Baby Gone is a flawed film. There is no way around that. As great as Affleck's directing may be for a first time director, there are still a couple of awkward steps in terms of direction but it's a bit excusable for the most part since this is his first film and also because he does get a lot of high quality scenes through out the film.

The other main flaw the film is the pointless character of Casey Affleck's girlfriend who goes around town with him playing detective in order to solve a missing child case. I do not get why this character even exists in this film at all. I would like to say that she adds a "fish out of water" element to the film along with Affleck but she doesnt since Affleck seems to be anything but a "fish out of the water" When shes not standing around in the frame doing nothing she does nothing else except repeat lines that Affleck just said or just look dissapointed/sad/scared, Maybe she serves a greater role in the novel but I just didn't find her a necessary character to the film and story. I thought that she was more of a distraction that anything else.

Apart from these 2 big flaws, the film is quite excellent. Ben Affleck is great at directing his actors (im guessing because he happens to be an actor. Shocking, right?) and everyone turns in a very great performance. Casey Affleck in particular turns in a powerhouse and often times intense performance as a baby faced bad ass. Earlier today my friend Dan was telling me about how bad ass he was in the film and he was spot on. Casey is the man in this film. Watching him not backing down to anyone and most of the time talking shit to people are the highlights of the film.

Given the great performances from all of the cast and the mystery/thriller plot to the film - I was intrigued the whole way through. I didn't see most of the twists and turns coming and there was always more than enough interesting things going on in the screen that I felt the time just fly by.

So, Gone Baby Gone is far from a perfect film but it is a very entertaining film made even better by the stand out performance by Affleck and the rest of the cast. Ed Harris especially delivers another solid performance which suits him just perfectly and he really has a lot of fun with his role.

The other thing worth pointing out is Amy Ryan. I have to jump on the bandwagon who are calling her performance an overrated piece of work. She is in the film for a short amount of time and although she is pretty excellent, she just never knocks it out of the park for me and the amount of awards she is getting for this performance just confuses me. I mean, she's good but shes not THAT good.

Thats really all I have to say about the film. I really enjoyed it despite it's flaws. I hope Ben Affleck goes back to writing and directing because this is a very solid debut. I have yet to see Casey in Jesse James but I also hope that he continues to get high quality work because this film really showcases the amount of raw talent he has. Watch the film just to see his performance.

- ***1/2

I am Legend (2007, Francis Lawrence)

I went into this one with low expectations. The mediocre word of mouth mixed in with a lot of negative reviews made me expect something that would live up to the general feeling towards the film. Out of everyone I know, both in real life and the Internet, only one person (my friend Greg at Sex,Drugs, and Cinema) praised the film and during his appraisal of the film told me that it was "one of the best things Hollywood has done in a long time", and you know what? I agree with him 100 percent.

I may get some backlash because I actually really enjoyed the film but I just don't see the oh-so-horrible movie that people have been making it out to be. Maybe it was because I had such low expectations while watching it but I doubt this was it. I chose to look at the film as a genre film and as a genre film it is pretty great.

What the film has that makes it far better than it maybe should be is the stellar performance by Will Smith. He wont be winning any awards for this performance anytime soon but even if the film might not call for a stellar performance, he still gives it his all. He really sells the film and for the hour or so where he is basically just by himself in an abandoned New York with his dog, the film is it as best. I even think that the film is so good with just Smith by himself defending himself against his own sanity and the vampirish mutants that when the film goes into it's last act it loses a lot of its appeal.

The last act is really the only problem I had with the film. Sure, the CGI effects are pretty shitty for a film with such a huge budget but I did not mind the effects at all. I grew up watching schlocky B movies from the 50s and bad effects in movies have never and will never bother me, no matter what the budget is. So, looking past the effects the only problem I have, like I said before, is the last act.

I don't know what exactly it is but I just feel that the last act feels so off compared to the rest of the film. Maybe its because I really love the aspect of being the last man or earth or maybe it's because I like how the film refused to go into CGI heavy action scenes and relied strictly on atmosphere and Smith's performance to create tension. I just don't know but I feel that its because of the later. I just felt that the sudden rush of a 15 minute action film was unneeded in a film that was already perfect without having any explosions and Smith running around with a gun. It was still fun to watch, though.

I am Legend is a fun genre film that is made into a great fun genre film due to the stellar acting by Smith and first 2/3rds of the film. I am surprised that Hollywood let the director make such an intimate film for the most part. I just wish it could have kept on going in the same tone because it then would have become more than just a genre film. Still though, for a genre film it is tons of fun if you are able to buy into it and I did just that and enjoyed myself for an hour and 40 minutes.

In an year that gave us a lot of shitty big budget films, I am Legend is one of the better ones in recent memory.

- ***