13. Transformers
Not an Oscar winner by any stretch of the imagination, it did though finally give us some live action Transformers that those of us growing up in the 80s always wanted to see. It also introduced us to super-hot Megan What A Fox. Yes, it only had the voice of Optimus Prime, though Starscream was close. It was a solid base to grow the franchise, and there better be some fucking Dinobots in the next one.
12. Alien vs Predator: Requiem
How did this movie make it on this list, I still don't know. It's wasn't a great movie, it MIGHT have been good, and no one broke the mold acting wise. What it did do was take us a bit old school when it came to the Aliens and the Predator. The fighting between the two is what should have happened in the first one. It was a far better job then the first AVP, so maybe that's why I was so impressed. What I do know is that is succeeded money wise on Christmas and hopefully will allow the Brothers to do what they've wanted to do and take this franchise back out into space.
11. Grindhouse
I may be one of the only people in world that has Grindhouse on his top movies of the year. It was blasted by critics, though I don't understand why. The entire point of this process was for Rodriguez and Tarentino to make two B Movies and put them together, like a Grindhouse. They weren't supposed to be as good as Desperado or Pulp Fiction. I understand what they were intending, I GOT IT. The trailers in between the movies were incredible and I don't know a male soul who doesn't want to see Machete and Werewolf Women of the SS now.
10. Across The Universe
I was never a giant fan of the Beatles, I liked their music, thought they were pretty groovy and that was about it. I do though like Julie Taymor's movies, especially Titus, watch it if you've never seen it, beautifully done. I loved the adaptations of the Beatles songs, and the movie in general. For me my opinion of the movie depends on whether I enjoyed the film, and in this one I did. It was also cool to see them reinvent Janis Joplin and Jimmie Hendrix into the music and story, I really enjoyed that. I also thought there was a nice job of showing how things were beginning to change, and of course Eddie Izzard rocked.
9. 3:10 To Yuma
Now this is a movie that should be getting more award recognition than it really is. Christian Bale is superb in this, but Russell Crowe is amazing. Then again there are many who think Ben Foster, in another one of his thousand faces, completely steals the movie. The bottom line is, this is the type of movie a western should be, and it was nice to see that this was the year that the western returned to true style. Even Peter Fonda went out and did his best in this movie, something he hasn't really done in years.
8. Hot Fuzz
From the team that brought you Shaun of the Dead gave us one of the most underrated comedies of the year. This may have gotten recognition as the best comedy of the year if Knocked Up and Superbad hadn't come out, but sadly many have forgetten about this film. Hell, many feel like this film was released last year and not this one. Simon Pegg and company did a phenomenal job once again, as it is always awesome to see Timothy Dalton get his ass handed to himself.
7. Death At A Funeral
This IS the most underrated comedy that was released in the United States. I don't know if anyone other than CityCat and myself actually saw this movie, and judging by the money it made no one did, but this movie was fucking hilarious. Alan Tudyk was an absolute riot in this movie, and who knew Mr. Darcy could play an excellent straight man for the entire cast. Frank Oz proved once again that he is one of the world foremost underrated directors.
6. Stardust
A true joy to watch, a classical fairy tale of a story that was sadly overlooked by many people. How can you not love Robert DeNiro playing a cross dressing gay air pirate uncle? Claire Danes is radiant as Yvaine, Charlie Cox is able to hold the lead role quite well for a young actor, and Michelle Pfiefer had a resurgence this year after playing evil women. Just an old fashioned enjoyable story will plenty of wit and humor for anyone. Of course the original book wass written by Neil Gaiman so I naturally have some loyalty to the story. I still thought what they did was wonderful, and the changes made the movie more enjoyable on a larger scale.
5. Superbad
Superbad I suppose gets the award for high school comedy of the year, and perhaps raunchiest comedy of the year as well. Some may argue with that, but menstrual blood on a pant leg after dancing is quite raunchy. In my mind they had the perfect cast for that movie and it just gelled so well together, something you don't see that often in Hollywood. Judd Apatow and his crew may have officially taken the spot the Kevin Smith and View Askew used to hold.
4. Live Free or Die Hard
I was a bit worried when I heard of the plot for LFODH, but the movie actually made something so far fetched actually work, even if they used 24's travel abilities for the movie. Bruce Willis kicked as much ass in this movie as he did in Sin City. Justin Long was perfect was his "sidekick" more or less, with a nice cameo type role by Kevin Smith. The villain was nice, and it was good to see them step outside of Hollywood norms as to what race to cast for the good guys and bad guys. Of course it also led to my favorite song of the year, Die Hard.
3. 300
For some reason I continue to find this on other writers' worst of lists and for the life of me I can't understand why. It isn't Ghandi, Amadeus, or On Golden Pond, but this movie was phenomenal. It went the route Frank Miller's other movie, Sin City, did and filmed entirely in front of a screen. This made it for one of the most breathtaking films of the year visually. For me, being a huge fan of the graphic novel, I was quite pleased with this movie and would watch it any time of the day because it is damn entertaining.
2. Sweeney Todd
Movie musicals have really started to make a come back in the last few years, especially since Chicago won all those Academy Awards. The nice part is folks aren't coming up with their own, they either use plays already made (like Todd) or take existing pop music and turn the movie into a musical (Across the Universe). Sweeney Todd was a brilliant film in my opinion. It was different, beautiful, Burtonesque but not to the point where it was where you could tell it was. If you didn't see his name once the only real clues were his choices for the two leads.
1. Knocked Up
I seriously cried from laughing so much a few times the first trip to the theater to see this movie. I have to give whatever movie I went to see more then once the top nod. I think this was the only movie this year that I saw more then once, if not then at least three times. Much like Superbad this movie had excellent casting and everything gelled, even more so then 40 Year Old Virgin. Seth Rogen proved he has what it takes to be a male lead in Hollywood, even without the chiseled abs or CW hair. Katherine Heigel has become to toast of the town and will likely do the Reese Witherspoon job of being in every romantic comedy of any value for the next three years.
6 comments:
Yeh, I cant say I agree with a few of em but you did point out some good ones.
Transformers- We made record time getting to the theater to see this. This movie released my inner-child.
Grindhouse- In my Netflix queve. Heard nothing but good things
Hot Fuzz- Absolutely hilarious. I cant help but laugh when i think about this movie.
Stardust- Was not impressed. I thought Michelle Phifer was great though. Seems most fantasy movies are trying really hard to be like LOTRs.
Live Free or Die Hard- I was skeptical at first but was extremely pleased when I finished watching it. Bruce Willis never skipped a beat as John Mclain. I didnt like how they killed off Timothy Olephant though. He got off to easy
On my list to see for 2007- No Country for Old Men and There Will be Blood.
Uh, how is Stardust trying to be like LOTR? Stardust has nothing similar to LOTR, oh I guess it does have swords and magic...
Not the point I was trying to make.
Transformers makes me list for one reason. The night before the bar exam, around 8pm, I couldn't study for another minute. I chilled out, watched some TV, and then went to see the 9pm showing of Transformers.
I passed the bar exam. 'Nuff said.
Nice. Shane closed down a bar...literally, so we could make this movie in time. Always a fun story.
Not sure why every end of 2007 list of worst movies includes Transformers. It wasnt meant to win awards, it was meant to be a kick ass thrill ride and to exploit the inner child from within. It did both.
I understand why it was a bad movie. I mean, it almost had no plot whatsoever. For me, it was definitely one of those movies that could've had so much more in terms of a story. I understood a little bit about why everyone was fighting, but watching the movie for me was like coming up to a group of friends who are halfway into a conversation: I got what they were saying, but I didn't get all of it. This movie could've kicked serious ass if it would've thrown in some more backstory.
But, then again, the point of the movie was to showcase the visual effects. The director did exactly what he was looking to do.
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