Come on! By now you people know me so don’t expect some of the biggest hits of 2007 to be included in this list. I’m not talking about the mega blockbusters and all the tentpoles. I’m speaking of the cultural, social, and “Wow that was really spiritual” films that critics usually see but ninety-five percent of the rest of the world has never heard of. Now don’t get me wrong because I am waiting impatiently for the DVD releases of Juno, Into The Wild, Right At Your Door, and Michael Clayton. I also never got the chance to check out 3:10 To Yuma and Sunshine which are tops on my “must-have” list of DVDs as soon as they are released.
You know my list is going to be much different then everyone else here at Popcorn Junkies because I am your resident horror freak. I’ve seen almost every single one of them and reviewed probably just as many. It amazes me how many crappy horror titles get sent my way, but I keep trucking through them because deep in my heart…I love those too. There were some thrillers, comedies, dramas, and other such things viewed by mine eyes throughout 2007, but there just wasn’t too much that really made me sit up and take notice. Hell, even most of the blockbusters left a lot to be desired.
Take into account that you probably won’t agree with me on my choice of films that topped the lists as the best of this year. I’m willing to bet that there will be a verbal martyring in my e-mail from those of you that disagree with my biggest disappointment from the past year. Yet these are my picks and I chose them as to what seemed not only befitting of me but simply what my brain said. There fore ladies and gentlemen, I give you…
There are a few different categories coming up so try to keep pace ok? The Top Ten are certainly going to be saved for last since those are the whole enchilada while the rest of it is simply the filler on the plate you ask for at the buffet. It is time.
Rescue Dawn
Christian Bale has really become one of my favorite actors in the past few years as American Psycho and Batman Begins graced my television. He can play any role that is laid in front of him to perfection and that of Dieter Dengler is no exception. Bale takes a war film that doesn’t throw us into the throngs of battle like so many have before. It goes past the lines and shows a hero trying to make his way back home after being captured. You can just see the amount of weight he lost during filming which shows how much he got into the role. He’s cocky, arrogant, extremely brilliant, and possesses great compassion and leadership ability. Sounds like five people doesn’t it? Yet it was only one, and Bale pulled it off flawlessly.
Blades Of Glory
You may have to forgive me here because I’m not even one hundred percent certain I’ve seen the entire thing. The first time it landed in the DVD player, well I was asleep in twenty minutes. And I have insomnia. What does that tell you? It took me at least four more attempts to get through it all and it still isn’t a given that I started it up at the same point it ended on last. The over the top comedy bit? Will Ferrell is done, just plain done. He is no longer funny in that respect and should stick to films like Stranger Then Fiction that allow him to be humorous but also serious. Jon Heder is someone I truly enjoyed in Napoleon Dynamite but has failed to go anywhere since with the likes of this piece of crap and Benchwarmers.
There is nothing funny about Blades Of Glory whatsoever to even merit a slight snicker from me. Trust me, I have seen and enjoyed some horrible and crappy films in my time, but this one just was too much for even me to handle.
Bug
I had first seen the trailer for Bug sometime in late 2006 and was blown away by it. It seemed incredibly frightening, terrifying, and just downright insane. These people were trapped in a room and being tortured by bugs and hallucinations. Then it clicked, maybe the bugs are hallucinations. Brilliant. Then the release date got pushed back making me anticipate it even more and finally it came out and I got to see the long-awaited film and…I wanted to rip my eyes out twenty minutes into it. What’s even worse is that the film gets ten times more awful if you see it a second time around which I had the privilege of doing with someone that wanted to watch it.
My warning wasn’t taken seriously. Bug could have done so much for the horror genre and just “thinking” films alone, but it failed. It didn’t just fail, it bombed. The film ended up laughable more then anything and made me look at Ashley Judd as someone that was no longer a versatile actress but someone struggling to find a good role. Damn super mother bug.
Grindhouse
The build-up was huge and as I walked up to the theatre, it occurred to me that my arrival had been too late. The double feature special was already out of theatres and due for the land of DVDs in separate installments. Death Proof was the first and it intrigued me and entertained me. Then it quickly turned me off. The film dragged and the ending was just awful. As for Planet Terror, it was a little better but still didn’t wet my whistle nearly the way the trailer I’ve seen for Machete did. Now there is a flick they should have made. This was supposed to be a great thing happening here as the “double feature” genre was going to be rekindled in Grindhouse fashion. It seems for once that the box office numbers were actually right.
There are those films from 2007 that I really enjoyed but didn’t quite make it into my Top Ten. They weren’t bad or disappointing, but they just couldn’t crack the upper stratosphere. Still, they deserve to be mentioned since it is always difficult to limit what my favorites were to merely ten. These are in no particular order.
Saw IV
It wasn’t my favorite Saw film from the franchise so far, but it still was quite enjoyable. Considering that Jigsaw was killed at the end of the third one; I was wondering what direction they would go in to keep him involved. It was done in a great fashion with some awesome new traps and just an overall great sense that Saw was still going strong. Can’t wait for it to be Halloween again so it can also be Saw.
Hot Fuzz
Don’t get me wrong here, I thought Hot Fuzz was by far one of the absolute best films in a long time, but it just didn’t quite do it for me the way that Shaun Of The Dead did. It didn’t seem as if there as many laughs this time around and maybe it’s just because I have a soft spot more for horror then action. Go figure.
Spider-Man 3
I love the web-swinger but battling three enemies at once is just too much. They got it right in the first two films with the Green Goblin and Doc Ock hanging around but now there was Greeny, Sandman, and Venom? Overkill and as good as the film still was, that hurt it. Shame too because I was looking forward to seeing Venom more then any villain out there. As cool as he was, he still couldn’t make this film the blockbuster it wanted to be.
Superbad
Ok, no trailer made me want to see a film more then this one. If a two minute trailer could have me cracking up hysterically then I could only imagine what an uncensored full length feature would do to my ribs. Well, it didn’t quite do it. I enjoyed it a lot and thought it was quite funny, but nearly as much as it turned out to be. It also wasn’t one of those films that used up all the good parts in the trailer, but they came close. Can’t quite place my finger on it, but it was missing something throughout. After repeated viewings, I still can’t figure it out.
Transformers
Ahhh one of my longtime favorite childhood memories was finally going to get the big screen treatment in a way that wasn’t animated. Yet I shuddered when I found out Michael Bay would be at the helm. Still, he didn’t do a damn bad job and it turned out to be incredibly enjoyable. My biggest problem, which left it out of the Top Ten, is that Bay wanted things to seem more realistic. He took away Megatron’s iconic gun transformation because he said it wasn’t realistic for a giant robot to turn into a hand-sized gun. Realism? They’re giant robots for Christ’s sake! Then there was the entire Bumblebee fiasco of not letting him be a bug but making him a camaro really bothered me too. His name is Bumblebee. Don’t you think the whole “bug” thing was done on purpose? Still, the film rocked.
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End
Maybe it was just a bad year for the endings of trilogies or something, but POTC3 just didn’t quite sit right with me. The first film is far and away so awesome that mere words can’t describe it. The second was fantastic, but a slight touch off of the first as is what usually happens with sequels. Then there was At World’s End which seemed to find all the missing pages of dialogue from the first two films and included them here. It suffers from the same fate that Gladiator did and that’s just too much talking. While it had some great action, beautiful scenes, and an awesome story…it just dragged on way too much in spots.
10.) Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
The boy wizard was really busy this year as the last volume in his storied life had been released by author J.K. Rowling and the fifth film also got its release. The films are truly becoming darker and more ominous as the children of Hogwarts get older but they are also getting increasingly better. Daniel Radcliffe along with the rest of the cast is now settled into their roles and plays them to complete perfection. Sure everyone is doing a great job but I can tell you that if it wasn’t for Alan Rickman as Severus Snape then I’m not sure this franchise would be nearly as good but it is. As a fan of the books then one can’t help but be disappointed when certain aspects are left out or changed, but you really can’t expect everything to be included from over eight hundred page novels now can you? Of course not, but I still applaud them for making some really good films.
9.) Halloween
Many people don’t like Rob Zombie’s directing talents. I do. Many people are not fond of remakes. I’m on the fence about that one, but it doesn’t really matter here. This is not a remake of John Carpenter’s horror classic, but a re-imagining. That can’t be stressed enough to those who have not yet seen it. When you watch it, then you’ll truly understand it. Zombie took the concept of Michael Myers and his entire career and gave it a much deeper history. It took some of the things that are well known to horror fans and included them with brand new visions that had never been seen before. It is bloody, foul, disgusting, and just completely disturbing but it really does the job.
8.) Ratatouille
Pixar and Disney have done it again, but this time with more of a story then with humor. Look at the Toy Storys, A Bug’s Life, and Finding Nemo and you’ll see some deep-rooted stories that have a lot of humor to them. Ratatouille seems to have gone the route of being a much deeper story and limiting the humor somewhat. Don’t get me wrong here because there are some incredibly hilarious moments in the film, but I loved how much there truly was to the story. If you really look at it, there are actually two stories that come together and roll into one big one. Remy is a rat with a taste for the finer things in life. Linguini is a young fellow that needs a spark in his life to make it interesting and more worthwhile. Together they find what was missing and use it to make something whole. Let’s throw on top of that how beautiful the visuals are along with great music and it adds up to almost sheer perfection.
7.) Hatchet
My review says it all but I just can’t help but rave about this film because it truly made me feel like I was a kid again watching Friday The 13th or A Nightmare On Elm Street for the first time. There were some truly funny moments, some insane amounts of violence, awesome kill scenes, and immense amounts of blood. It was like someone took the outline for an eighties slasher and actually followed it this time around. They didn’t try to make an eighties slasher with their own personal twists to it or some cute surprise at the ending like most do today. Hatchet just went by the books and gave me a little bit of hope for the horror genre in years to come.
6.) Vacancy
Vacancy is one of those films that looks really good in the trailer and then lives up to the hype. That is quite rare in this day and age you know? Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, Ethan Embry, and Frank Whaley deliver awesome performances in a film that has honestly made me too scared to ever even think of staying at a hotel that is anywhere but in a main city or is a chain of one. It was just really intense seeing some of the things on the tapes left in the hotel rooms that were right out of the sickest snuff films a person could find. They were disturbing, insane, and just downright sickening. I was impressed. Vacancy actually would have found itself much higher on this list if not for one little detail that bothered me. For a while there I was incredibly impressed by something the writers had done, but then they went and flushed it totally down the toilet. Don’t expect me to spoil it for you, but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about if you’ve seen the film.
5.) Disturbia
Perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the year is the young Shia LaBeouf and his talent bursting out all over the cinematic scene. Transformers was a mega hit this summer and a few months before that, he starred in Disturbia which was a much better film then I think anyone ever expected it to be. It has some great comedic relief from both LaBeouf and Aaron Yoo, intense drama, thrilling tension, and an incredibly frightening villain in David Morse. It just delivers a complete story from start to finish and ended up being one of the films that jumped out of nowhere to really make some waves and put LaBeouf on the map before the big robots did.
4.) 1408
Stephen King delivers again as one of his stories hits the big screen and becomes a great hit. 1408 lasted a lot longer at theatres then anyone expected it to. This is especially noticeable considering it came out in late June right in the middle of all the summer blockbusters making their huge waves. But how could this film possibly miss? It has an intriguing and scary plot that is now being presented by the awesome Samuel L. Jackson and the fantastic John Cusack. There aren’t many actors out there that could spend an entire film in one room and still make you stay on the edge of your seat watching just to see where he may turn next. That is the sign of some great acting, direction, and storytelling.
3.) The Mist
Oh look, Stephen King has made it back again and this time even better. His short story was turned into a feature length film that had me simply staring at the screen in complete awe for over two hours. And the most extreme amount of awe came in the final ten minutes when I saw that Stephen King’s short story now had an ending. It is an ending that will forever be burned into my memory and one that will go down as one of my most favorite endings to a film ever. So many people have said how much the film sucked because the ending was horrible. You happy go lucky people that want the world to be all sunshine and roses can go watch Care Bears for a while and suck your thumbs. The Mist is an excellent film with an ending that took a lot of balls to try and I’m happy to say that director Frank Darabont gets a lot of credit and support from me for it.
2.) I Am Legend
Recently I reviewed the DVD of the Vincent Price starrer The Last Man On Earth. Currently my book of choice is “I Am Legend” by Richard Matheson. The film was incredibly good and so far the book is really enjoyable. It seemed only appropriate to go and check out Will Smith’s role in I Am Legend, which I did on Christmas day. Boy is that ever a decision I’m happy about. My review said that Vincent Price is one of the few actors in history that could star in a film that was ninety percent him and still make it an enjoyable experience. My assumption was that Will Smith is one of the small handful of other actors that could probably do the same. Let’s just say that my assumption was correct. Smith delivers a striking performance with a little bit of his traditional humor and extreme heartfelt feeling that makes you really care about him not as a character, but as a person. As someone you know. As a friend that is going through the worst possible experience a person could ever go through. Bravo Will Smith for you have truly come a long way and become one of Hollywood’s elite.
1.) Zodiac
There is just no question about it. I know what a lot of you are going to say and that’s “Hey Danny, but you never saw Juno.” or “Hey Danny, you’re out of your mind. Superbad is awesome!” I made the quote in our forums right after seeing Zodiac that it was the best film so far this year and easily will be better then any film yet to come out the rest of the year. I’m still going to stand by that because it is truly just an excellent flick. Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr. deliver performances that will never get the credit they deserve for them. One would even think that Zodiac suffers from the Gladiator and POTC3 curse of having way too much dialogue and not enough action. Not true. This is a story being told here and it needed to be told so that everyone could understand it thoroughly. There are facts out there that are still not known and may never ever be uncovered about murders that still go unsolved to this day. Right there is a story that should pique anyone’s interest. Throw in a group of fine actors, intense drama, and just an overall thrilling film that blew away all competition this year.
Ok, I’m out of here. That is my Top Ten and then some for 2007, and I’m sure you’ll see me again at this time with my favorites and most hated for 2008. But don’t worry everyone because all you have to do is check out Popcorn Junkies, the DVD Lounge, Tailgate Crashers, Moodspins, the forums, and many other places around Inside Pulse to get more of me. I know you want some. Do me a favor though and get out to the movies. Please? Or simply pick up some DVDs and enjoy a night in with friends, family, or that special someone. It truly is one of the greatest ways to kill a few hours and really enjoy doing it. Movies are getting better all the time and the only way they’ll continue to do so is by everyone supporting them and enjoying them to their fullest.
If you’re not so sure though what to check out, we’re always here to check them out first and let you know the winners and the pieces of crap that are worth your time. Have a Happy New Year everyone and see you throughout all of 2008.
