There were over 600 movies released in 2007 according to box office reports. Of them, I managed to see 60. That’s a far cry from many working critics, but enough that I feel like I have enough insight to say what I liked and what I thought were the best films of 2007. Whether you agree, of course, is completely and entirely up to you. I don’t pretend this is the end-all-be-all of lists. It’s just mine.
The one benefit of not being a full time, major market critic is that my movie viewing habits tend to be that of the general public. I might see a lot more movies than the average Joe, but I see the movies as they are released to theaters, just like anyone else. My memory doesn’t forget ten months worth of movies after being flooded with all the movies the studios want considered for awards in the last two.
Typically I like to take a couple more weeks into the New Year to finish up my favorite films for the previous year, but as far as movies I actually saw in 2007, here’s what I liked best:
Directed By: Craig Brewer Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, John Cothran Jr., Justin Timberlake, S. Epatha Merkerson
I originally didn’t think I’d find much more than a guilty pleasure flick with this film. After all, the plot is about a backwoods blues player who chains a wonton girl to his radiator to keep her under control and teach her the error of her ways. I had no idea that what I would find would be powerful portrayals of characters that weren’t just broken, but almost shattered to pieces. Jackson’s Lazarus’s methods may be questionable, but it turns out the company of Ricci’s Rae is exactly what he needs to solve his broken heart after being left by his wife. The two characters will never be romantically linked, but, if writer/director Craig Brewer’s ambiguous tale shows us nothing else, it’s that they are two pieces of a whole, tossed together through chance. You can’t ask for more from a good story than something like that, but just in case you need more, check out the incredible soundtrack for the movie, featuring Jackson blowing away some awesome blues.
Best Moment: Sammy J. belting out the title song.
CB Quote: "Black Snake Moan is smart and soulful but it’s also red hot. The movie burns with the sweaty heat of the deep, deep south. It’s not afraid of sex, nudity, and smoldering, immorality. " [CB Review]
2. The Lookout
Directed By: Scott Frank Written By: Scott Frank Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Isla Fisher, Alex Borstein, Matthew Goode, Greg Dunham, Carla Gugino
Ever since I heard the early reports of The Lookout, I was intrigued by the concept of the movie. We’ve seen films about characters with mental trauma before, but The Lookout avoids making that a convenient plot device or shtick and just has a character who happens to be suffering from a mental condition in the middle of a rather common heist flick. It’s not the plot that makes The Lookout stand out. Instead, it’s the performances, which are quite brilliant, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt showing how much he’s evolved since Third Rock from the Sun and Jeff Daniels continuing to amaze with the diverse collection of characters he can play - just how he can do something like this and still have pulled off Dumb and Dumber still baffles me. With this as his directorial debut, Scott Frank shows he’s name to keep an eye on in the future.
Best Moment: The hoods (including the psychotic Bone) hiding behind pillars as the clueless local cop comes calling at the bank – a moment so tense you can feel it.
CB Quote: “With deliciously complex characters and an interesting plot that stems from those characters instead of centering around a simple gimmick, The Lookout is a brilliantly told story.” [CB Review]
Directed By: Judd Apatow Written By: Judd Apatow Starring: Katherine Heigl, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Martin Starr
The common trend of my list this year is that it’s made up of movies I didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I did. I wasn’t the world’s biggest fan of The 40-Year-Old Virgin - even though I did enjoy it, I thought the sophomoric attributes left something to be desired. If it’s possible, Knocked Up gets even more sophomoric, but that is just part of the charm, helping create just how immature Seth Rogen’s Ben Stone is prior to his accidentally knocking up Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl). As if Rogen wasn’t awesome enough in his deeply conflicted role, you can’t help but enjoy Paul Rudd as the figure of what Ben could easily become in the future – a responsible parent who just wants to get away from his family and have some manly time for himself. Even though 40-Year-Old Virgin showed how similar Rudd and Rogen could be, here they are the opposite sides of a coin and that contrast helps make the movie fantastic.
Best Moment:: Ben read the book.
CB Quote: "Thanks to Apatow’s delightfully complex characters and hilariously irreverent approach to the subject matter, Knocked Up runs the chance of being one of the most brilliant comedies of the decade. " [CB Review]
Directed By: Michael Moore Starring: Michael Moore
Not only am I typically not a fan of Michael Moore’s work, but for his last couple of pictures I’ve gone out of my way to avoid seeing his so-called documentaries. It doesn’t take long to see how propagandist his prior movies can be, but Moore puts aside many of his tricks and maneuvers for most of his investigation into centralized health care and the advantages and disadvantages of America’s current system. While Moore can’t avoid the opportunity to begin making a political statement by the end of the film, the bulk of the picture feels like a legitimately honest argument for a revised health care system. You’ll laugh a little, cry a lot, and leave the movie thinking – and that’s what these kind of movies should be doing. The true test of Moore’s success will be in the effect it has upon the upcoming elections, if any, but I challenge even the most vocal Moore critics to watch this one without getting drawn in, even just a little.
Best Moment: The embarrassment for the viewer as the citizens of another country reply to one of Moore’s questions with laughter and the response, “We’re not America.”
CB Quote: "Sicko is a desperately important film, one which is less concerned with telling you who to vote for than it is with simply getting you to wake up, see through the bullshit, and step out of line." [CB Review]
Directed By: Brad Bird Written By: Brad Bird Starring: (voices of) Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm, Peter O’Toole, John Ratzenberger
Pixar knocks another one out of the proverbial park with its latest animated feature, showing just how far the company has developed its art since the early days of “Luxo Jr.” The animation in Ratatouille is spellbinding, with some of it looking almost photorealistic to a point that I had to remind myself that what I was watching was entirely rendered in computers. Brad Bird’s movie takes quite a chance, taking a stab at the harshness of critics, but pulls it off without being detrimental to the story – something other filmmakers could learn from (like Lady in the Water’s M. Night Shyamalan). Patton Oswalt has always been someone I’ve enjoyed, and he is fantastic as Remy the rat, but even more fantastic is when Remy moves more into the human world and the animation really gets a chance to shine with the rat only able to communicate through expressions and gestures. Bring on the solitary Wall-E with even less talking. Pixar has proven they can handle it.
Best Moment: Anton Ego’s review – every word of it.
CB Quote: "…a simple, enjoyable dish which brings back to the screen the story ideas that spelled success for Disney’s other animated films." [CB Review]
6. I Am Legend
Directed By: Francis Lawrence Written By: Mark Protosevich, Akiva Goldsman Starring: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Willow Smith, Charlie Tahan
Speaking of solitary adventures, Will Smith reinforced everyone’s belief that the man can be an actor without shouting out, “Aw, hell no!” Legend’s visual effects leave something to be desired – the creatures look too CG and there’s a pristine quality about the film that makes the starkness hard to buy into initially. Smith, on the other hand, is perfection from the start. We get to see his character as both family man and isolated hero, almost mindlessly devoted to saving a world that is all but gone already. It isn’t the repetition and procedure that Robert Neville is stuck in that shows his humanity, but his interaction with store mannequins and his best friend – a dog, that shows just how much the last man on Earth still needs some form of socialization. Instead of the needlessly humorous performances Smith has given in the past, even in the possible extinction of the human race (Independence Day), Smith proves he can still handle the serious side of things as he carries his legendary tale with style and skill.
Best Moment: Will Smith’s performance as Robert Neville is forced to get rid of his only friend.
CB Quote: "The movie takes chances, assuming its audience is up for more than ear-splitting explosions, zombie retreads, and happy, catchphrase laden endings; even if this is an effects heavy, tentpole Holiday pic." [CB Review]
Directed By: Matthew Vaughn Written By: Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn Starring: Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Sienna Miller, Ricky Gervais, Jason Flemyng, Rupert Everett, Peter O’Toole, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro
I’ve enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s writing in the past, but I never thought I would see it brought to life in the way this movie manages to. Stardust captures both his flair for the fantastic and his sense of humor, with a story that plucks at the heartstrings. While the Lord of the Rings trilogy raised the bar for fantasy movies, Stardust brings the setting back in a lighthearted way we haven’t seen since The Princess Bride. Because of that lightheartedness, it’s unlikely you’ll see Stardust on too many year end lists – after all, it’s hard to promote silly things like foppish lightning pirates or aging witches in pursuit of a fallen star when you have serious war movies to digest. I don’t know that any other movie on my list made me smile as much as this picture did however, and that alone makes Stardust worth a slot on any list.
Best Moment: Tristan returns home and shows just how much his travels have changed him.
CB Quote: "Inspired directing from Matthew Vaughn and a wry sense of humor saves the movie’s oh-so-80s story from being an out of time curiosity and makes it a completely unique fantasy film unlike any of the other witches and wizards fare flooding theaters." [CB Review]
Directed By: Billy Ray Written By: Adam Mazer, William Rotko, Billy Ray Starring: Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Laura Linney, Caroline Dhavernas, Gary Cole, Dennis Haysbert, Kathleen Quinlan
There were a lot of dramas this year dealing with America’s war in the East, but none of them interested me very much. Truth be told, I almost passed up this piece of history – a look at the biggest American traitor ever caught, Robert Hanssen, who sold American secrets to the Russina government for years. The movie is not an action piece at all, which separates it from most of the cloak and dagger movies we typically get. Instead the picture is a well-balanced look at Hanssen, who the story doesn’t entirely vilify. In fact, it’s Hanssen’s redeemable traits that make the viewer wonder if they aren’t being screwed with. After all, can a good family man and a devoted Christian really do all the things Hanssen was found guilty of? The response is a fascinating reminder that good and evil aren’t just black and white concepts in the real world, and even one of America’s most vile traitors can still have some good within.
Best Moment: Hanssen’s plea for Eric to pray for him… and Eric’s response that he will.
CB Quote: "It’s a delicious and thought provoking place to end, especially for a story taken from the real world of politics and espionage." [CB Review]
Directed By: Mikael Hafstrom Written By: Scott Alexander, Matt Greenberg, Larry Karazewski Starring: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack
I didn’t get a chance to see the other adaptation of Stephen King’s work in theaters this year, The Mist, so I’ll have to settle for the adaptation I did see, which still was a fantastic story. Much like I Am Legend, the bulk of the movie relies on one person – and he doesn’t even get a dog to interact with. Instead John Cusack’s character gets a voice recorder to chat with, although it’s largely just an excuse to let the character talk to himself. In a time where a lot of horror relies on making audiences cringe through torture and jump at false spooks, 1408 manages to build a creepy atmosphere that keeps the audience involved without faking them out, and even puts a few twists and turns into King’s original story that may be predictable, but are still enjoyable enough to forgive.
Best Moment: Samuel L. Jackson describes 1408: “It’s an evil fucking room.”
CB Quote: "Never has a King size bed had such an air of imminent menace, never has a mint on a pillow seemed so, well, evil." [CB Review]
10. Ocean’s Thirteen
Directed By: Steven Soderbergh Written By: Brian Koppelman, David Levien Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Ellen Barkin, Al Pacino, Bernie Mac, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Elliott Gould, Shaobo Qin, Don Cheadle, Eddie Jemison, Andy Garcia, Carl Reiner
Despite a year of sequels, only one managed to creep its way into my Top Ten, and it isn’t Spider-Man 3 like I would have thought (Spidey 2 topped my list the year it came out). Instead Danny Ocean and his merry band of rogues and con-artists redeem themselves for Oceans Twelve with the sequel we should have gotten the first time around. Europe proved unsuccessful for the characters, so the third chapter returns them to Vegas – a location that is clearly magical for the group and brings back the style and flavor of the first film without it feeling like a copy of Eleven. Al Pacino is an inspired piece of casting, adding his own unique characterization to the crowd that seems oddly appropriate – a hell of a lot more appropriate than Catherine Zeta-Jones, anyway.
Best Moment: The discovery of the magnetron in the computer room.
CB Quote: "It’s short, it’s sharp, and because Soderbergh keeps things so simple, stripped-down, and straight to the point, Ocean’s Thirteen is the best Ocean’s movie so far." [CB Review]
Great films that didn't make the cut:
The Simpsons Movie, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 300, Freedom Writers, August Rush, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Just in case you were wondering:
Captivity was the worst film of 2007, with I Know Who Killed Me a close second. There’s no justification in the world for movies that are just glorified torture sequences with no merit to them at all.
For all of Cinema Blend's Best of 2007 coverage click here!
