Once again it’s time for the pantingly awaited annual Movie list!
Top 13 flicks of 2007.
13. National Treasure: Book of Secrets -My second-most anticipated sequel of the year. Sadly it turned out to suffer from an overabundance of really good ideas. Most movies can’t even muster one good idea.
12. The Host – Sometimes having a yuppie theatre in town comes in handy. Who doesn’t like a good, family themed Korean monster movie? I betcha it’s still better than Cloverfield.
11. Children of Men – I don’t buy the premise. And I can’t recall being overly entertained. But I do remember it was pretty. And I figure a desire to see a film again means I must have liked it.
10. Black Book – Once again, yuppie theatre to the rescue! I think this flick was Danish. Nazis and Resistance leaders and Jews! And nudity! Oh my!
9. Lars and the Real Girl – Weird. Very weird. Very good. I think. Although I am not certain I would want to see it again.
8. Letters from Iwo Jima – Clint tries again. Flags of Our Fathers was flat-out uninteresting, but despite worries that typical leftist sympathy for the enemies of America would turn this into an execrable metaphor for the War in Iraq he managed to turn out a hellaciously good treatment of the common soldier’s experience in the most useless of battles.
7. 300 – You gotta love a movie that single-handedly brings the leather codpiece back into the fashionable mainstream.
6. Stardust – 2007 was a year for queer little films. Gentle, pleasantly mellow, and wonderfully entertaining. Of all the pictures on this list, this is the one I would most advise you to see if you missed it.
5. Volver – Another one of those queer little films. Less disconcerting that Lars, more believable than Stardust. And with 100% more subtitles than any other film on the list.
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End – Man, was this ever a staggeringly beautiful picture. When it was over the director said something about Will’s journey being over but leaving things open for Cap’n Jack. Who the hell was Will anyway? And do I care?
3. Transformers – A big budget, explosion-palooza fueled by 80s nostalgia and toy tie-ins. Who expected this to actually be a good movie? I miss Soundwave and Starscream’s voice. And what the hell was Megatron anyway?
2. Atonement – A tie for the best movie of the year. Not so hard to watch and worth multiple viewings. Wonderful shots of Dunkirk and Blitz London. A good story marvelously acted.
1. No Country for Old Men – Best movie of the year. Damned hard to watch. And I’ll probably never need to see it again – which plays hell with the Coen’s residuals- but I am damned glad I got to see it once. It was almost enough to make me reconsider my own path towards the Dark Side. But nah, I’ll just stick to the lighter side of evil.
I expect this list to change over the next week or so. I always count in this list films released in the given year even if I don’t always see them in the theatre until some time into the new year.
For instance, I just saw Lars and the Real Girl last night and it already won a spot on the list. In the next week or so I have yet to see I’m Not There, Sweeney Todd and Juno. Surely one or all of those deserve a spot on the list.
It turned out to be a tough year for movies. So many really horrible flicks and yet I still ended up with many more than thirteen I felt deserving of special mention.
Update!! 1/24/08 – Atonement was just so good it earned a spot on the list. So, Honorable Mention goes to Hot Fuzz which had to go to make room. Sorry lads, please keep making good films.