Monday, January 7, 2008

2007 Favorites: Movies

So I have two lists: the favorites I saw on DVD (Nitflix+HBO=Godsend) and the favorites I saw in theatres. All in all, since we started the blog in May, corresponding to when I started keeping track of all the movies I saw, I have seen 175 movies. I know, I know, I should go out more. Blah blah blah.

So, if you want, you can peruse the list of movies below. Forgive me for not hyperlinking all of these badboys. There are a HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE of them, so cut me some slack. Another preempt, living alone (mostly) all summer (like, literally, middle of nowhere with your friends six hours away) makes you watch lots of things you wouldn’t watch, like ANYTHING that’s on TV. Hence, the cornerstone of my defense as to why I watched so many romantic comedies – hey, they were on HBO (or the airplane…). They are rated mostly contextually (confusing, I know) – The Protector was leaps and bounds better than Ong Bak, just as I thought Shooter was way better than The Bourne Ultimatum, Hidden Fortress was the most entertaining (first viewing) Kurosawa movie I saw, and so on. Also, keep in mind I’m trying to keep it short and sweet how I feel about the movies – a lot of them have full reviews here at PulpEverything or at SaltyStix and I would have hyperlinked them but my internet is too sluggish. If you’re really curious why I liked Superbad better than Knocked Up, sack up and read my whole review.

Pride and Prejudice (2005) 10, Love Actually 10, Knocked Up 10, Ghost World 10, Amelie 10, Bad Education 10, Juno 10, 12 Angry Men 10, He Got Game 9.5, Sideways 9.5, Imagine Me & You 9.5, Sweet Mud 9, Cold Mountain 9, Million Dollar Baby 9, Serenity 9, North Country 9, Pan's Labyrinth 9, Me, You, And Everyone We Know 9, The Dreamers 9, The Fountain 9, Freedom Writers 9, Human Nature 9, Superbad 9, The Incredibles 9, Dark City 9, 3:10 to Yuma 9, Gone Baby Gone 9, No Country for Old Men 9, Attonement 9 Hollywoodland 8.5, Brick 8.5, Bend it Like Beckham 8.5, Chasing Amy 8.5, Tristan + Isolde 8.5, Elephant 8.5, Shooter 8.5, Hard Boiled 8.5, Badlands 8.5, All About My Mother 8.5, Newspapers and Flowers 8, Little Heroes 8, Jarhead 8, Y tu Mama Tambien 8, Poseidon 8, In Her Shoes 8, Live Free or Die Hard 8, Great Expectations 8, Sicko 8, A Very Long Engagement 8, A Better Tomorrow 8, A Better Tomorrow 3 8, Constantine 8, Red Dragon 8, About Schmidt 8, Hot Fuzz 8, Papillon 8, Thumbsucker 8, Shoot em' Up 8, Mississippi Burning 8, Amarcord 8, La Dolce Vita 8, The Protector 8, Hable Con Ella 8, American Gangster 8, Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 8, Hidden Fortress 8, Ransom 7.5, Point of No Return 7.5, Catch a Fire 7.5, The Tao of Steve 7.5, The Age of Innocence 7.5, The Mark of Zorro (1974) 7.5, The Flower of My Secret 7.5, I Am Legend 7.5, Charlie Wilson's War 7.5, Paper Dolls 7, Spiderman 3 7, La femme nikita 7, Dream Girls 7, Napoleon Dynamite 7, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer 7, The Painted Veil 7, The Constant Gardener 7, Clerks 7, The Bourne Ultimatum 7, Run Lola Run 7, The Mark of Zorro (1940) 7, Swept Away 7, O 7, Breach 7, Akahige/Red Beard 7, La Strada 7, Black Robe 7, Bad Habits 7, I'm Reed Fish 7, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets 7, Young and Innocent 7, The Killing 7, The Great Debaters 7, Casanova 7, Days of Thunder 6.5, Highlander 6.5, The Last King of Scotland 6.5, Hitch 6.5, Kinsey 6.5, sex, lies, and videotape 6.5, Once a Thief 6.5, The Golden Compass 6.5, Janem Janem 6, John Tucker Must Die 6, Ocean's 13 6, Music and Lyrics 6, Stranger than Fiction 6, Monsters, Inc 6, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry 6, The Simpsons Movie 6, Practical Magic 6, Before the Devil Know's You're Dead 6, Rashomon 6, Cellular 5.5, Natural Born Killers 5.5, The Conversation 5.5, Because I Said So 5.5, Eragon 5.5, Clueless 5, The Holiday 5, Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End 5, Bloodrayne 5, Suspect Zero 5, The Pacifier 5, Cecil B. Demented 5, Last Kiss 5, Ghost Rider 5, The Ron Clark Story 5, Teaching Robert Lee 5, Detroit Rock City 5, Raising Arizona 5, Just Friends 5, The Rocky Horror Picture 5, Good Luck Chuck 5, Letters from Iwo Jima 5, Hitman 5, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles 5, The Family Stone 4.5, She's the Man 4.5, For the Love of the Game 4.5, For Love or Money 4, 16 Blocks 4, A Scanner Darkly 4, Bad Girls 4, Sunshine 4, Rumor Has It 4, A Better Tomorrow 2 4, Rising Sun 4, Message in a Bottle 4, Mean Streets 4, The Brother's Grimm 4, The Boys Next Door 4, Heart of Darkness 4, The Perfect Score 4, Luther 4, The Producers 3.5, Robots 3, The Goonies 3, The Chinese Connection 3, Ratatouille 3, My Super Ex-Girlfriend 3, Princess of Thieves 3, Lady Jane 3, The Ultimate Gift 3, American Dreamz 2.5, Bandidas 2, Sexy Beast 2, Evan Almighty 0, Be My Baby 0


Top 10 Favorite Movies (I saw at home) in 2007

10. The Protector
This was a movie that was a pleasant surprise because after Ong Bak, I expected the worst, and instead, got ridiculous original fight scenes and a much better plot.

9. Amelie
This movie was simply too beautiful to not make the list. No, not in that flowery romantic way, but the colors and cinematography…and Audrey Tatou…

8. He Got Game
Probably the grittiest movie on this list, so intense it almost hurts, another movie that is great cinematically as well as for it’s story.

7. Imagine Me & You
Piper Perabo and a pre-300 Lena Heady are great in this movie; it’s a different kind of romantic comedy that keeps you guessing until the end. Beat out Tristan + Isolde on ingenuity alone.

6. The Dreamers
What year goes by without a sexual awakening? This movies do a damn fine job of exploring sexual taboos and edges out Y tu Mama Tambien by having a great ending (or maybe just better than Tambien).

5. Pride and Prejudice
Keira vs Keira! P+P narrowly beats out Love Actually here because I thought P+P was literally a flawless movie, not just a perfect romantic comedy.

4. Ghost World
Thora Birch is simply amazing in a story that should have seemed slow but never was. I liked Thumbsucker here too, a similar movie that took the road more traveled.

3. Serenity
Serenity got a big push because it was another huge surprise: I had seen the previews, and posters, and the movie looked like a cheap imitation. But it brought some serious game, causing me to scramble for the only season of Firefly (I failed). Dark City was close here too.

2. Me, You, And Everyone We Know
Just as Amelie scored points for beauty, this scored points for total originality – not sure I experienced a movie that was so un-Hollywood yet so good.

1. Brick
This movie’s unique take on film noir (a la high school) was extremely powerful, as was Josephy Gordon-Levitt’s performance, which made it an easy choice for my #1 favorite.

Top 6 Films (I saw in theaters) in 2007

6. Knocked Up
This movie heralded the return of the R-rated comedy, launched the careers of Apatow, Heigl, Rogen, and showed comedies can have (serious) plots too.

5. Superbad
The follow up to Knocked Up just did a lot more for me because it was just seemed truer – more real – maybe I can relate to a high school story because I’ve been down that road but not a pregnancy because, I haven’t been down that road.

4. Gone Baby Gone
This movie was a pleasant surprise (I thought both Afflecks would disappoint) but instead turned out to be a more entertaining and suspenseful version of Mystic River (I use “version” very loosely here).

3. No Country for Old Men
This movie is usually in the top two of most of these lists but the weak ending and the convoluted “message” that comes out pushes this movie back behind some stiff competition.

2. Atonement
I expected something drastically different, and like I said in my review, the first hour of this movie was close to the best I have ever seen. Why is it #2? I said the first hour was perfect, but the second half was about average.

1. Juno
This movie was my favorite by far and the only movie of 2007 that I saw twice in theatres. The story, the music, the characters, the…everything…just sort of clicked for me, like I assume it did for a lot of other people.

The movie had a lot of hype – the threequels toward the middle of year and a few other movies that were big disappointments, but the year ended strong, hopefully 2008 will be even better!

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