Top Ten (and Bottom Five) of 2007

First, some quick reviews:

"Dreamscape" is a movie that has been on my must-see list for the longest time. It seemed as if it would be in that same fun 80s sci-fi vein as "Innerspace" (a great movie), starring Dennis Quaid. The poster makes it look like the awesome lovechild between "Indiana Jones" and "The Neverending Story." And it has Max von Sydow and Christopher Plummer in supporting roles. It seemed like a surefire lost sci-fi classic. Unfortunately, while the movie has a good premise (scientists can travel into, change, and fight in people's dreams and nightmares), it is otherwise uninspired and bland. Skip it, and go see Innerspace again.

"Juno" has been getting rave reviews, so I went in with perhaps too high expectations. Jason Reitman's last movie "Thank You For Smoking" I was not the hugest fan of, mainly because it lacked a solid ending. "Juno" is a better film, but I still didn't fall head-over-heels in love with it. The first half-hour of the movie are slow and predictable, but things get interesting once we are introduced to Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner's character. Jennifer Garner is sort of one-note as the overly worried mother, but at least that's a DIFFERENT note than she has played in the past. And the scenes with Jason Bateman are the best in the movie. Michael Cera is also very good, although sadly he never has any scenes with Bateman (for us "Arrested" fans to geek out about).
My real problem with the film is that I found it hard to LIKE Juno (the character) all that much. Critics have been all over Ellen Page's performance, but I never bought her as playing a teenager. To me she always seemed like an adult acting like one. Jonah Hill, for example, was well past his teen years when he played Seth in "Superbad," but never for a second did I not believe him. The other issue with "Juno" (the movie) is that it has a musical soundtrack by some indie band that was distracting at best, and took away from some scenes that would have worked great on their own without any music. As a whole the movie is worth seeing, as long as you go in not believing it is as good as the reviews say it is.

"Away From Her" is a very solid, simple movie directed by one of my favorite character actresses, Sarah Polley. This is Sarah's directing debut, and she has a very soft, gentle, subtle touch to her directing style that I liked a lot. I would like to see more of what she can do. The movie is about Alzheimer's disease, which means that while it is well-made, it is depressing as FUCK. My grandma had Alzheimer's, as did/do a couple other relatives of mine. It is probably the most depressing disease in the world. Unlike cancer, which just kills you slowly, Alzheimer's makes you forget who you are and all those you love and who love you. You literally die while still being alive. The movie "Away From Her" is about a husband who has to deal with his wife forgetting who he is, so as you can imagine, it's pretty sad. Even sadder, since the wife is Julie Christie, who is still bangin' at age 67. I think having one's wife forget who you are entirely, after being married for a long, long time, is perhaps the saddest thing for anyone to ever have to go through (much worse even than it would be for a son or daughter). It's a good movie; just be prepared...especially if you've ever had to deal with a similar situation before.

"Rescue Dawn" is a movie I knew I was going to love, since it is directed by Werner Herzog, it involves man vs. nature shit, it's a war film, and it stars my favorite acting actively working in Hollywood these days, Christian Bale. And of course, I did love it. The movie really contains about four acts (at least). It starts out as a war film, but then transforms into a POW film. Later it becomes a man vs. nature film (as all Herzog films are on some level), and finally it ends with the rescue and recovery. Bale is great as usual, but the real surprise is Steve Zahn. In the past I've known Zahn to be the sort of actor that shows up in that REALLY crappy stupid comedy, but it funny enough to just barely make it watchable. Yet here, as an addled, nervous, but willful convict he pulls out a great performance. I'm betting/hoping we're going to see Zahn in a lot more of these dramatic, bit parts more often. While this movie doesn't entirely qualify as a Vietnam film, I think it's simpler and better than many other so-called Vietnam classics as such "Apocalypse Now," "Full Metal Jacket," and "Platoon" (and yes, I know this is film-kid blasphemy, but I don't care).

"The Lady Vanishes" is an early Hitchcock film that is quite good, with some interesting twists and surprises that, sixty years later, still work. The guy's a genius for a reason! I think parts of this movie were stolen and reworked into "Flightplan," that Jodie Foster movie that came out this year. Too bad nobody original as Hitchcock seems to exist these days.

OK...so now that the year is over, without further adieu, here is my list of my favorite movies of 2007, and the ones I considered the worst that I saw. As a caveat, "The Bourne Ultimatum," "The Savages," "Sicko," "Once," "Eastern Promises," "American Gangster," "Atonement," "There Will Be Blood," "Persepolis," and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" are all movies that came out this year that I plan to see, but have not seen yet. So here goes...

0. "Blade Runner--The Final Edit" This movie gets diplomatic immunity in the zero spot, since the movie was sort of only re-released this year. Still, seeing in on the big screen was one of the most rewarding filmgoing experiences of my life, and combined with the fact that later I got to MEET most of the Blade Runner cast, makes this the movie standout of 2007 for me.
1. "Superbad" By far the most fun I've had at the movies in a long time. This is going to be a teen movie classic. Thanks, Apatow crew!
2. "Zodiac" I labored forever whether or not this deserved a spot above or below "Ratatouille." Ultimately I put it ahead, but it's a tough call. A great movie all around...I hope it isn't forgotten come Oscar time.
3. "Ratatouille" Another great one for Pixar. Keep 'em coming!
4. "Michael Clayton" George Clooney and especially Tom Wilkinson do their best work of all time in this movie, which is very sharp all the way through (and it's a first-time director...wow!).
5. "Rescue Dawn" Herzog, Bale, the jungle, and war=awesome!!!
6. "Enchanted" If not for Amy Adams, this probably wouldn't be on the list. But because of her, this homage of Disney movies was one of my favorites of the year.
7. "Hairspray" A wonderful old-fashioned musical that is gearing me up for Casper's class next semester. James Marsden should also give himself a pat on the back for being in two of the movies that made it onto my list this year (the other being "Enchanted").
8. "3:10 to Yuma" I know that there are issues with this movie's ending, but I love westerns, and I REALLY like westerns with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.
9. "Sweeney Todd" Once you get past the first boring part of the movie and Sweeney starts killing people, this movie gets pretty awesome. In retrospect, I think my fondness of this movie could be tainted by some happy memories associated with it. I saw it with a good friend of mine before she went back to London herself...hopefully SHE won't wind up in a meat pie once she gets there.
10. "Shoot 'Em Up" I can think of a million reasons why this movie DOESN'T deserve to be here, but the response to all those reasons can be refuted by "bangbangbangsexwithMonicaBelluccibangbangbang!!!"

And finally, the five WORST movies I saw this year, with #5 being the absolute worst.

1. "Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer" I actually liked this movie quite a lot, but it was pretty generic in comparison to most of the other movies I saw this year.
2. "The Host" The movie blew its wad on the awesome opening sequence, and for much of the rest of the movie I never really knew what was going on...oh well.
3. "Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End" More incomprehensible than the second movie. That's fine, but then WHY have so much exposition in a pirate movie??? Where was all the fighting??? Oh...yes...at the end...but only after 2 and a half hours have gone by!!!
4. "Spider-Man 3" Perhaps the biggest movie disappointment of my life. My heart breaks a little bit more every time I think about this movie.
5. "Hot Fuzz" This movie was not entirely stupid or worthless. But it was really, really WEIRD in all the wrong ways. My least favorite of the year.

So there you are. 2007 was a pretty good year for movies, actually. There were more than a few that killed me not to include in my Top Ten. Also, note this is a "favorites" list, not a "best" list. Looking forward to next year!