12-28-2007, 06:42 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Eponymous
Location: Central Central Florida
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The Movies of 2007
I still haven't seen a few, i.e. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (I'm skeered!) or Once that I'd still like to see, but have seen a fair amount of the the films mentioned. What do you think of her list?
Quote:
Posted on Fri, Dec. 28, 2007 Miami Herald.com
Movies 2007: Picks and pans
BY RENE RODRIGUEZ
Here is one final, somewhat irreverent look back at the movies of 2007:
Best opening sequence: In Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a man wakes from a three-week coma in a hospital room. For the next wonderful, horrible 15 minutes, we see everything through his eyes, complete with eyeblinks, as he starts to realize what has happened to him.
Best comic-book movie:Spider-Man 3. Yeah, I know, I know. You're wrong.
Worst comic-book movie:Ghost Rider.
Best fight sequence: In Eastern Promises, Viggo Mortensen, wearing nothing but his tattoos, takes on two knife-wielding assassins in a bathhouse.
Best debut of an actor turned director: Three-way tie: Ben Affleck (Gone Baby Gone), Sarah Polley (Away From Her) and the late Adrienne Shelley (Waitress).
Worst timing: Dreamgirls' Eddie Murphy went home empty-handed after Academy Award voters denied him the Best Supporting Actor award he was originally favored to win, in part for releasing the lowbrow Norbit mere weeks before the big Oscar ceremonies.
Best musical: Once, full of music you've never heard before, sung by people you've never seen before. Yet once seen, this film is never forgotten.
Best dance number: In the final scene of Hairspray, John Travolta justifies his previously distracting presence in the movie by finally cutting loose (and paying homage to Tina Turner's shimmying dance stylings).
Most misunderstood ending: The final scene of No Country for Old Men.
Best example of a director learning from his mistakes: Steven Soderbergh correcting the self-indulgence of Ocean's Twelve with the rollicking, ridiculously entertaining Ocean's Thirteen.
Breakthrough performance of the year: Ellen Page (Hard Candy,X-Men: The Last Stand) as a pregnant teenage girl in Juno; to see the movie was to fall in love with her.
Best movie practically everyone ignored: The late-summer fantasy Stardust, a Princess Bride for a new generation.
Best adaptation of a respected book:Atonement.
Most disappointing adaptation of a respected book:Love in the Time of Cholera.
Most annoyingly earnest adaptation of a respected book: The Kite Runner.
Most unnecessary Christ allegory: Into the Wild. OK, OK, we get it.
Best stage-to-screen adaptation:Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, in which Tim Burton went for the jugular and came up with a demonic work of art.
Scariest movie:28 Weeks Later.
Most exciting car chase: The Bourne Ultimatum. How much damage can a stolen police cruiser take?
Most rallying battle cry: ''Spartans! Prepare for glory!'' -- King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) to his outnumbered, doomed troops in 300.
Most supremely satisfying ending that consists of nothing but talking: The final meeting between legal fixers George Clooney and Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton. ``I am Shiva, god of death!''
Most supremely satisfying ending that consists of nothing but butt-kicking: The murderous Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) comes face to face with the three women he has been stalking in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof.
Most tender romance: A painfully shy man (Ryan Gosling) and his plastic blow-up doll in Lars and the Real Girl.
Most tender romantic moment: At the end of Juno, Ellen Page and Michael Cera sing a quiet song together: Anyone Else But You.
Best Bob Dylan impersonation: In a movie filled with them, I'm Not There's Cate Blanchett trumped her male counterparts (including Christian Bale, Richard Gere and Heath Ledger).
Best Beatles cover: In a movie that consisted of nothing but, Bono's take on I Am the Walrus was the most musically exuberant moment in Julie Taymor's bold Across the Universe.
Worst movie concept: In The Number 23, Jim Carrey sees 23s everywhere.
Funniest -- yet still perceptive -- depiction of marital discord: The increasingly vicious fights between a supposedly happily married couple (Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann) in Knocked Up.
Worst third act twist: In Sunshine, a one-way flight to the sun to save Earth from extinction is derailed by the sudden appearance of a serial killer from outer space.
Performance of the year: Daniel Day-Lewis as the obsessive oil prospector in There Will Be Blood: ``An ocean of oil under our feet.''
Best Yoda moment: Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) finally picks up his wand to do battle with the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Most convincing argument that a popular movie franchise has run its course:Shrek the Third. In the eternal words of Roberto Duran: ``No mas.''
Most convincing argument a once-popular movie franchise still has some life left in it: The surprisingly enjoyable Live Free or Die Hard, PG-13 rating and all.
Best example of a movie no one wanted to see: Walt Disney's live-action/computer-animated hybrid Underdog.
Best proof that graphic sex scenes can be used effectively in movies: Ang Lee's NC-17 rated Lust, Caution.
Sexiest performance by an actress not normally thought of as sexy: Christina Ricci, channeling Bridget Bardot in Black Snake Moan.
Actor of the year: Philip Seymour Hoffman in three drastically different performances in three drastically different movies (The Savages, Charlie Wilson's War and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead), each one as brilliant as the next.
Most unnerving moment: ''Before I kill you, I'm going to throw your baby out the window.'' -- the Zodiac killer to the stranded motorist (Ione Skye) riding in his car with her child on her lap in David Fincher's Zodiac.
Best movie that will be even better in the inevitable ''Director's Cut'' DVD version: Ridley Scott's American Gangster, which left you craving more of the climactic conversations between Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.
Funniest moment in an animated film: In Ratatouille, an unexpected visit by a health inspector to a restaurant kitchen staffed entirely by rats.
Best opening credits: The dancing silhouettes of Superbad.
Best example of a previously goofy actor revealing serious acting chops: Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Gone Baby Gone).
Best instance of a serious actor channeling Charles Bronson: ''Who's the bitch now?'' -- Jodie Foster, plugging four bullets into the back of the thug who had previously assaulted her in The Brave One.
Most contrived plot that still worked exactly as it was intended: In Reservation Road, a grieving father (Joaquin Phoenix) hires a lawyer (Mark Ruffalo) to help him find the hit-and-run driver who killed his son, unaware the lawyer is the culprit.
Best TV-to-movie transplant:The Simpsons Movie; Not great, but good enough. Spider-Pig!
Worst TV-to-movie transplant: Jerry Seinfeld, whose disappointingly dull Bee Movie displayed little of his usual wit.
Most touching line of dialogue: ''It's for me.'' -- a German secret service police agent in The Lives of Others, played by the late Ulrich Mühe, who passed away this summer at age 54 from stomach cancer.
Best example of an actor holding his own against impossible odds: Shia LaBeouf, acquitting himself admirably against the memory of James Stewart in the unofficial Rear Window remake Disturbia, then outshining his giant robot co-stars in Transformers.
Film trend that wore out its welcome in 2007: The fantasy movie with child protagonists (The Last Mimzy, The Golden Compass, Bridge to Terabithia, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep). Enough already.
Best action sequence: The last 30 minutes of The Kingdom. Whoa.
Most unfairly maligned crowd-pleaser: The late-summer entry The Nanny Diaries. Why all the bile?
Most inexplicably successful crowd-pleaser:Wild Hogs, which grossed $252 million worldwide. Meanwhile, the beast slouching toward Bethlehem lumbered ever closer.
Best example of belaboring the point: In Sicko, Michael Moore made a perfectly convincing argument for health care reform -- until he took his cameras to Cuba in the film's final segment to show viewers how much better things are there.
Best trailer: A party in a New York City apartment is interrupted by loud explosions coming from the street in the frightening teaser to the giant-monster movie Cloverfield.
Best trailer for a movie that doesn't exist: In Grindhouse, longtime character actor Danny Trejo finally getting a starring role as the relentless avenger Machete. Will someone please make this movie?
Best bit of silent acting: In 3:10 To Yuma, an outlaw (Russell Crowe) realizes he's been tricked by a gimpy rancher (Christian Bale) and gives him a look that conveys surprise, admiration, betrayal -- and the promise of payback.
Latest example of why real-life married couples should never play married couples onscreen: Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony in El Cantante.
Best examples of Oscar-winning actresses trying to convince the Academy to rescind their awards: Hilary Swank (The Reaping) and Halle Berry (Perfect Stranger).
Best example of at least one of them repenting: Berry's performance in Things We Lost in the Fire, a grade-A melodrama.
Best use of special effects: The eerily believable, post-apocalyptic New York City in I Am Legend.
Coolest special effect: Pretty much any scene in Michael Bay's hugely entertaining Transformers.
Most ridiculous special effect: Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) zipping around the sky on a surfboard in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Biggest bomb by a famous director: Brian De Palma's Iraq war drama Redacted, with a total U.S. gross of $65,388. That's right: $65 thousand.
Most confusing blockbuster:Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Does anyone know what the hell this movie was about?
Most superfluous remake: Rob Zombie's Halloween.
Most convincing argument since Psycho never to spend a night in a hotel again: Vacancy, 1408.
Most convincing argument never to ask the barber for a shave again: The opening scene of Eastern Promises; pretty much the entire running time of Sweeney Todd.
Most enjoyable performance trapped in a sterile film: Nicole Kidman, radiating fairy-tale evil in the otherwise uninvolving The Golden Compass.
Best depiction of adolescent angst: Jonah Hill, a curly-haired, bug-eyed, hilariously profane ball of short-fused temper in Superbad.
Best example ofl'amour fu: In the documentary Crazy Love passion becomes obsession -- then in a horrifying twist, becomes something infinitely darker.
Bravest finale: The unexpectedly grim twist ending of Frank Darabont's adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist. You're bringing me down, man!
Funniest comedy: With apologies to Knocked Up and Superbad, nothing made me laugh harder this year than the last 30 minutes of Hot Fuzz.
Worst comedy: I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Are Adam Sandler's movies actually getting worse?
Best closing line of dialogue: ''I'm finished.'' -- There Will Be Blood.
2008 movie I'm looking forward to the most: Larry and Andy Wachowski's Speed Racer.
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Best Comic Book Movie: That had to be Batman Begins. That was this year, right?
Best Beatles cover: Although I love Bono and his rendition of I Am The Walrus was good, I did find other tracks more "exuberant".
Those are the only points I disagree with strongly. I won't even post her top 10 for 2007 since she's just wrong on half of them. 
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We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain
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