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Best/Worst of 2007
I was trying to come out with the BEST movies of the year, so far (that have come out and that I've seen), and I compiled...
CHRONOGRL'S TOP 10 LIST: (in no particular order) Paprika This anime actually came out last year in Japan, but its US release is 2007, so I have to put it on this list... It's beautiful, whimsical, dark, and gothic... Explores the line between dreams and reality in a little different way than we've seen in a while. I was pleasantly surprised. 28 Weeks Later One of the best horror movies that I've seen in a long, long time. It takes not only what 28 Days started, but also what the zombie mythos started oh, so long ago. I thought that the concept of post-apocalyptic quarantined London was fantastic and the scares were great. Across the Universe Not a perfect movie by any means, but it definitely showcases Julie Taymor's directorial expertise at putting together a true period piece of the 60s through a fancifal musical featuring Beatles songs... I was a HUGE fan. Darjeeling Limited I definitely have a soft spot for Wes Anderson, 'tis true, and this is not nearly as good as his Tenenbaum opus, but I thought that he was more focused in this film than he was in Life Aquatic and Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman were just... Incredible. Bill Murray makes an appearance, which was brilliant. The Host Originally released in South Korea in 2006, this film was released in the US in 2007. Definitely THE best giant monster movie in recent history. Great special effects, fantastic writing, and excellent acting. Wonderful balance between comedy, horror, and drama. I was impressed. Grindhouse There's no denying it: Two great directors brought together, combined with beautifully interwoven fake trailers is a mixture for success. Honestly, I enjoyed Planet Terror more than Death Proof, but I would say that the movie experience of the two of them together was simply... Incredible. Hot Fuzz What can I say? I love Simon Peg and Edgar Wright. This was a very well-constructed policemovie spoof with some genuinely good laughs. I was REALLY impressed. Borderland One of the 8 Films to Die For, I thought that this was an overall impressive movie... I've already ranted about it a few times on this forum, so I'll leave it be for now. Crazy Eights Another of the 8 Films to Die For, this was a very clean, very chilling horror movie. Definitely deserves more attention than just being swept under the After Dark rug. Mulberry Street Yet ANOTHER of the 8 Films... Great use of the zombie mythos to create a pretty well-done monster movie. I've already said it, but I definitely recommend. ... Top-10 Best list contenders (but only omitted because I have conflicting reports of whether or not they were 06 or 07): Bug Fido .... As for the WORST, I'm not sure yet... Beowulf was pretty bad. And the other 5 movies of the 8 Films to Die for were pretty abysmal as well: Nightmare Man Lake Dead Tooth and Nail Unearthed Deaths of Ian Stone (brought to this list ONLY because of the terrible TERRIBLE ending) What do you think? And while you're at it, what are YOUR best movies of 2007? Do you agree/disagree with the above? Let's discuss. |
The Best (in no particular order)
Knocked Up Superbad Michael Moore's Sicko Live Free or Die Hard Grindhouse Hot Fuzz Bug The Worst Evan Almighty License to Wed Shrek the Third Ratatouille (that's right, I said it) Epic Movie If I think of any more, I'll post them. |
IN PROGESS...
best of 2007 grindhouse the most fun i've had in a theatre since i can remember. bug i'm really surprised more of you around here didn't like this. i thought it was so incredible. the darjeeling limited i agree with you here, chronogirl. not my favorite of his, but so so good. no country for old men this is my favorite film of the year so far, just blew my mind. ratatouille not sure, something about this just clicked to me. hot fuzz totally did not disappoint. it was everything i wanted it to be. futurama: bender's big score i'm a big fan of the show, but usually cartoon show movies fall way short. this one was everything a movie like that should be. it fit in perfectly with the series, the pacing was great (which is another common problem in cartoon show movies), and it just felt like watching a futurama episode. the simpsons, family guy, etc. could all learn a lesson from this one. eastern promises the best cronenberg film in quite a while. also one of the most bad-ass fighting sequences. but all around, a very solid film. behind the mask: the rise of leslie vernon i didn't think this was 2007, but if it is, then it's on my list as well. just terribly clever, pretty spectacular acting, and overall a wonderful tribute to the genre. honorable mention across the universe fido american gangster movies that i haven't seen yet but feel will make this list there will be blood before the devil knows you're dead sweeny todd worst of 2007 the hills have eyes 2 sorry, chronogirl. i have to agree with everyone else here, too. the invisible for the love of everything that is good and right in this world, i wish i hadn't seen this movie. i can't think of a list of negative adjectives long enough to appropriately describe this piss-job. skinwalkers boring trash. transformers one of the most poorly written movies i've ever seen, probably. as chronogirl said, this should have been an easy movie to make pleasing, but it just wasn't. rob zombie's halloween i had hoped rob zombie would have known better. he didn't. dead silence eye rolls-a plenty. i'll add more later as i think of them. |
Also, I sincerely HOPE that I Am Legend makes this list...
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Ok, so if Bug DOES make the 2007 cut... If that's the case, then I would substitute it in for Mulberry Street... Two excellent indie horror movies, but oh, so little room in a top 10 list. ... Interesting to see Ratatouille Making both a Best and a Worst list so far... I saw it and thought it was mediocre... I was trying to think of more animated films that came out this year, but sadly there is a clear dearth. I have yet to see... No Country for Old Men, but I have heard very, VERY good things about it. My honorable mentions: The Hills Have Eyes 2 I thought that the movie stepped away from the exploitative scenes of the first movie and got more involved in a pure siege film. Also, like the second Alien film, the "victims" here are all army men and women, so I find it more frightening in a way that they are just as helpless as the civilians in the first movie (in the first movie, having civilians that are so clearly supposed to be weak and vulnerable is just like shooting fish - painful). Disturbia Not a perfect movie, but definitely a really good nod to Hitchcock. I thought it was a very well-done teen horror flick. And Shia LaBeouf was definitely convincing. I definitely enjoyed it and thought the direction was fantastic. Stardust I always enjoyed the fantasy films when I was younger: Time Bandits, Princess Bride, Never Ending Story... I always found it difficult to find any that compare in these modern times... I thought that Stardust was incredibly well done and acted. The costumes and make-up were great (and Ricky Gervais has a GREAT cameo) I am actually reading the novel right now (I am a HUGE Neil Gaiman fan), and so far the movie has been true to it... |
The Hills Have Eyes 2 was certainly terrible.
Fido was 2007, if your considering theatrical releases. It came out Spring 2007 up here in Canada, and Fall 2007 in the US, no? It may have hit some festivals in Fall / Winter 2006... but with your notes on Paprika, I see no reason to not consider it. |
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Fido gets an honorable mention (agreed with Fortunado). How about you, Josh? Your picks? |
Ahh...yes...I knew Chronogrl was gonna be a good contributor to this forum.
Although I will disagree on her pick for "The Hills Have Eyes 2"....was very dissapointed in this one. I hated pretty much all the characters and was wishing they would all die......not good in a horror movie.......ya need a sympathetic character to root for. I will agree with fortunano on "Fido"......a very underated movie and a "must" see for zombie fans. |
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Best:
3:10 to Yuma 28 weeks later Eastern Promises American Gangster Rescue Dawn Zodiac P2 Worst: 30 days of night War Skinwalker I know who killed me Dragon wars Haven't seen yet: No country for Old man SAW 4 Death sentence Knocked up The Mist The Darjeeling limited |
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I saw "Zodiac"... A lot of people LOVED it... Honestly, I found it... boring. It was advertised as a horror/thriller, when, really, it was more of a period/ensemble piece. I thought that the movie was incredibly uneven (the beginning being more of an ensemble piece while the latter half being more of a character exploration). HOWEVER... The direction was clean (REALLY good) and the acting was fantastic (I love Robert Downy Jr.)... I wouldn't count it as the Best, but I wouldn't count it as the Worst, either... Wow - 30 Days of Night... That bad? Honestly, I thought it was flawed, but had its merits... Fantastic direction, great makeup for the vamps... I liked how they were more like Monsters than the vamps that we've been seeing the past 20 years or so. Overall, I was disappointed with the movie, though. ... I just thought of ANOTHER of the WORST... SPIDERMAN 3. Honestly, I like comic books. And I like good comic book movies (GOOD comic book movies)... But Spiderman 3 makes Peter Parker out to be the ultimate pussy, and by the end of the movie ALL MALE LEADS ARE CRYING. Seriously. I'm sorry, but I just can't take a villain seriously if they're sobbing. Oh, and the Peter Parker dance scene was just... silly. If there was more Venom and/or more Bruce Campbell, perhaps I wouldn't be so reluctant about forfeiting those 2 hours in the IMAX theater. |
Best
Grindhouse Fido Hot Fuzz No Country For Old Men 3:10 to Yuma Hatchet Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon Honorable Mention Wrong Turn 2 Bug Zodiac 300 Worst Transformers The Hills Have Eyes 2 Hannibal Rising |
You know, I was actually REALLY disappointed with Beyond the Mask... Honestly, I thought that the deconstruction was absolutely intelligent, clever, and well-written (did a better job in this regard than Scream). I thought that Nathan Baesel played an AMAZING Leslie.
HOWEVER, I thought that the movie was really uneven... The beginning was fantastic, but when it got into the "horror," I thought it was predictable (I know that was the POINT but this was the weakness in the film) and really poorly done. Oh, and his mask was silly (again, possibly the point, but to what end?) Pros: AMAZING cameos by Robert Englund and Zelda Rubinstein... I liked the use of the term "Ahab," but that was really it. I just didn't think that the movie did the transition very well. I was disappointed. ... Oh, how could I FORGET Transformers?! WORST of 2007 This was a softball. Should have been an easy movie - Great cast and good special effects... But what a FLOP! For a movie that's supposedly about GIANT ROBOTS... there just wasn't enough... Giant robots. And we needed more Megatron. |
Best of 2007 (so far) -
(Horror and related)
(Non-horror)
Worst of 2007 (Disappointments in horror and overall)
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Top 10
The Living in the Home of the Dead 1408 knocked up death at a funeral no country for old men the mist fido the girl next door hot rod 3:10 to Yuma I;ll do bottom 10 later. |
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... Second time Hatchet was mentioned in the BEST. I'm going to have to check it out. |
1: No Country for Old Men
Probably the Coen brothers' best film- and I love Fargo. Beautiful camera work and cinematography, fantastic acting, and Chigurh. If you've seen the movie, just saying "Chigurh" is enough. If not, then I can't describe how brilliant Chigurh is. 2: The Lookout For a long time this was #1. Marketed like a heist movie, but in reality a fantastic character study. Strong performances all around, especially Jeff Daniels in what will probably be an overlooked Oscar worthy performance. 3: American Gangster Could've been #2, but Crowe's first parts dragged. But I would hold this up as being the antithesis of Scarface, and in 10 years time, if this isn't rap's new favorite movie instead of Al Pacino doing his Cuban Blackface, then I give up on the genre. 4: Zodiac For a movie where arguably nothing happens to the main characters, this one can build some tension. I could see where someone would think it's boring, since the two big payoffs are about what isn't said, and in one of the instances, something that was said like halfway through the movie and never mentioned again. When the staredown IS the big payoff, and it works, then you know you're watching some top-quality filmmaking. 5: Eastern Promises Viggo Mortensen should work with Chronenberg forever. I'd only seen him in GI Jane, the LOTR movies, and parts if Hildago. Then I saw A History of Violence and found out he could act (sorry, but it's hard to tell when the roles you've seen someone in require 0 range). And then I saw this, and my GOD. It's a shame he seems to be persona-non-grata for the Oscars, because Nikolai is all kinds of awesome in this. 6: Rescue Dawn Christian Bale continues to suffer for our entertainment. If going from The Machinist to Batman Begins wasn't enough, he's basically doing the same thing again, only with a Western thrown in. 7: Superbad "I'm gonna give you the best blow-J. With my mouth." The initial viewing had me about falling off the chair, and while subsequent viewings aren't as laugh-out-loud funny, they hold up quite well. 8: 3:10 to Yuma Crowe is better here than he was in AG. And Bale is Bale. But for me, the real story of the movie is fucking Ben Foster. He's another guy who should be getting award attention for his performance but will probably be overlooked. The ending didn't QUITE work for me, but it's all great up until that. 9: Bug Unpleasant, occasionally nauseating, and exhausting. But still, it's a hell of a movie, and again there are great performances. I would love to see the play this was based on, I can't imagine the intensity of seeing it live. 10: Futurama: Bender’s Big Score Here I was thinking it was going to be a lame year for animation. But then Futurama comes and saves it. Everything I loved about the show is present in the movie; emotional moments, catchy musical numbers ("Going to War" is awesome), and a staggeringly wide array of styles of humor. Off the top of my head, I can't think of many other places you'd see math jokes, puns, goofy rhymes, physical humor, and dick jokes blended together. Looking back, this has been one of the best years for acting in a long-ass time. I still have yet to see Juno or There Will Be Blood, and both of those could be top 10 contenders. Worst movie I saw was Shrek the 3rd, but I am pretty selective about what I see in theaters. |
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i just couldn't believe how much that film took me by surprise, especially after the miserable ad campaign it got. |
Did no one see Gone Baby Gone?! Easily my favorite film of the year (though I have not seen No Country for Old Men yet).
Besides that, I liked: American Gangster The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Michael Clayton Grindhouse (Not Planet Terror, not Deathproof...Grindhouse) Zodiac Live Free or Die Hard The Bourne Ultimatum The Mist |
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It's completely irrational, I know. It's a really good film, It just doesn't seem like something I'd want to watch again... Does that make any sense? |
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RE: Michael Clayton
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10 BEST (Updated)
1. The Living in the Home of the Dead 2. 1408 3. knocked up 4. death at a funeral 5. no country for old men 6. the mist 7. fido 8. the girl next door 9. dead silence 10. 3:10 to Yuma 10 WORST 1. Epic Movie 2. Epic Movie again 3. Spider - Man 3 4. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End 5. Ghost Rider 6, Return to House on Haunted Hill 7. The Hills Have Eyes II 8. Saw IV 9. Hannibal Rising 10. Haunted Forrest |
Top 10 Best of 2007 in no specific order:
1. Grindhouse 2. Superbad 3. Hot Fuzz 4. No Country For Old Men 5. Knocked Up 6. American Gangster 7. Zodiac 8. 300 9. Smokin' Aces 10. 28 Weeks Later Honorable Mentions: The Bourne Ultimatum 30 Days of Night Shoot Em' Up Top 10 Worst of 2007 in no specific order: 1. Hannibal Rising 2. Rob Zombie's Halloween 3. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry 4. Epic Movie 5. The Comebacks 6. Hostel: Part II 7. Blood & Chocolate 8. Delta Farce 9. Evan Almighty 10. Norbit |
I'm haveing a hard time with my lists, most movies I have seen this year didn't get realesed this year...
I'll give it a go... Some of the best... Panet Terror Control Mr Beans Holiday Some of the worst Transformers The Reaping I will update this later, It's a difficult list to make up for me... |
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... I just realized today that 2007 - BAD YEAR FOR BLOCKBUSTERS All making my WORST MOVIES OF 2007 LIST: Pirates of the Caribbean Honestly, I thought that the first movie was boring and had WAY too much Orlando Bloom and WAY too little Johnny Depp... The SECOND movie, however, I thought was a lot of fun... The CGI was fantastic and Johnny Depp seriously outdid himself... So when the abysmal third movie came out, I was SO incredibly disappointed... The story was needlessly complicated (who was double-crossing WHOM?! Answer: WHO CARES)... And Chow Yun-Fat was INCREDIBLY underused. Sadly. Spiderman 3 Not enough Venom. Not enough Bruce. ALL MALE LEADS WERE CRYING IN THE LAST 30 MINUTES. And Peter Parker's a pussy. ... Bad writing. Terrible acting, and lame Big Bads. What a disappointment. Beowulf Bad writing. Weird CGI people. Not even a "fun movie." Waste of a perfectly good 3D experience. Transformers It's been brought up once... I've seconded, but I think it should be mentioned again, how AWFUL this film was... With a premise as simple as GIANT ROBOTS ATTACKING EACH OTHER, I find it hard to believe that the Big Bad wasn't introduced until the last 10 minutes... Sure, the special effects were great, but the writing was really terrible. It should NOT have been a coming of age story. I wanted to see robots battle. But I was disappointed. |
I don't agree with all the Pirates bashing.....sure it wasn't the best of the three...but it tied everything up very nicely and I thought it was entertaining.
I don't want to make a list because there are too many movies I haven't seen...i.e. No Country for Old Men, American Gangster,3:10 to Yuma. |
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BEST
Across the Universe Fido Grindhouse Hatchet Hot Fuzz Knocked Up Superbad Zodiac BEST? (YET TO SEE) 3:10 to Yuma American Gangster Eastern Promises No Country for Old Men There Will Be Blood WORST The Hills Have Eyes 2 Skinwalkers Death Sentence I Know Who Killed Me Pathfinder The Reaping |
death sentence was really one of the worst?
im really excited to see that. |
It wasn't terrible. I'd say, watch it once. Rent it, certainly don't buy it. It has some good things going for it, but ultimately, it left me very disappointed. Maybe if they didn't hype a "SAW-like twist ending." It really was a poor excuse for a twist, and so tacked on. So... irrelevant. It's as if they shot the film, then said... hm, it's okay, but let's try and imitate the twist effect from our SAW films! And they did a twist reshoot in 3 hours and edited it in.
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i kinda dislike twists all together now...its done far too many times. but from the trailer it looked friggin great. i love violent revenge flicks.
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i dont see Gone Baby Gone mentioned, did you manage to catch that? |
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BEST -No Country For Old Men -Bug -Gone Baby Gone -Grindhouse -American Gangster -3:10 To Yuma need to see Fido Hatchet Rise Of Leslie Vernon |
So I was about to reply to your previous post saying: "Uh, Death Sentence ISN'T a revenge flick..." and then I realized, wait... I'm not talking about Death Sentence. I'm talking about DEAD SILENCE. My mistake, sorry about that! I actually really want to see Death Sentence as well.
I was just reading the press release for Gone Baby Gone. Looks like a good one, worth checking out. Consider it added to the potentials list. |
RE: Gone Baby Gone
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Ben will get a Director nomination, Casey will get an Actor nomination, the film will get a Picture nomination, and the screenplay will get a writing nomination. |
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well now i'm definitely looking forward to seeing it. |
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