Top 100 of 2007 (51-60)

51. The Valet
An amiable, sweet French comedy about a parking attendant who, through comedic circumstances, ends up in the company of an irresistible supermodel. It's enjoyable, if somewhat forgettable, but I enjoyed myself with it.

52. You Kill Me
Addiction, murder, mafioso, and hitmen. Did I mention that this was a comedy? And it was a nice surprise of a film. Ben Kingsley and Tea Leoni both give some wonderful comedic performances in this one. Worth my time, much more than I expected.


53. Waitress
I don't know if this would have garnered quite the attention it did if it weren't for writer/director/co-star Adrienne Shelley's murder (she's the one on the right), but I thought this was just an enjoyable piece of fluff with a star-making turn from Keri Russell (or maybe star-reviving turn). She really just makes this film incredibly enjoyable.

54. The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford

Like 3:10 To Yuma, this had some significant stumbling blocks in its way - The Western thing again, being nearly 3 hours long, and Casey Affleck, who I don't care for much as an actor. But it was a worthwhile trip. Still not crazy about the younger Affleck brother, but Brad Pitt was quite good, the running time never really got to me too much, and beyond that, I think it's one of those brilliantly shot films of the year.

55. Lars And The Real Girl

To appreciate this film, it requires you to suspend a significant amount of disbelief. I mean, it's about a guy who parades a blowup doll around as his girlfriend. And I was willing to suspend that disbelief, and I enjoyed the film as a result, and I think Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, and Paul Schneider all did fantastic work. By the end, it exceeded the amount of good will I was willing to extend, but I enjoyed getting there.

56. 3:10 To Yuma

Westerns aren't really my kind of movie, and Christian Bale is one of those actors who I rarely enjoy a performance from, and while I like Russell Crowe alright, I don't think he's done much this decade that compares to what he did in the 90's, so I wasn't really jazzed about seeing this one, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's an entertaining enough film and makes a fine rental.

57. Charlie Wilson's War

It's a bit like so many other by-the-numbers films by Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, but they do a fine job with the roles, as does Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The film doesn't ultimately amount to a hill of beans, but I was entertained by it.

58. Michael Clayton

This is a pretty solid genre movie boasting some of George Clooney's finest work to date, and I thought nothing would make me happier than to see Tilda Swinton get nominated for this performance... until she won for it. RICHLY deserved. But, as much as I loved the performances within the film, the film itself is just decent. It teeters on greatness without quite making it there. But I did really enjoy it.

59. Chronicle of an Escape ( no trailer available)

This is the true-life story of a group of Argentinean soccer players who are taken hostage during the 1970's, and obviously, their eventual escape. I don't think it does a tremendous job in distinguishing itself from a multitude of abduction/POW stories but it was watchable and you generally cared about each of the characters by the end.

60. Black Book

Paul Verhoeven plays the damsel in distress way too often, taking every opportunity to degrade and humiliate the main character, which undermines the film a bit. But damn if Carice Van Houten didn't give one of the best female performances this year. She's engaging and dynamic, and remember the name, as I suspect you'll be hearing more from her.

Top 100 of 2007 (61-70)

61. Things We Lost in The Fire
While by no stretch a masterpiece, I think the studio bungled this film's release by attempting to counterprogram against an overstuffed weekend and it backfired. Halle Berry hasn't been this good since Monster's Ball (though, there isn't much to compare it to, considering her career as of late.) Benecio Del Toro, as usual, is excellent in his role. It's a film that treaded a very fine line between human emotion and mawkishness, and for the most part, I think it stayed on the right side of that line.

62. Gone Baby Gone
Juuuuust a little too predictable in this case. The performances are top notch, Story, not so much.

63. Margot At The Wedding

Make no mistake: Margot is an insufferable little twat. But the study of someone so passive aggressively spreading bile made for an interesting character study.

64. In the Shadow of the Moon

Well made in every regard. But I felt like I already knew this story. It might be nice for a kid who hasn't heard all of this or someone who wants to relive it, but for me... eh. But it's exceptionally well done.

65. The Namesake

Good, but there was just something safe and easy about it that kept me from buying it. Kal Penn, Irfhan Khan, Tabu, and the rest are all great. Just wished the script matched.

66. The Mist

As a kid, I grew up reading Stephen King, and this was one of my favorite novellas. And I think it translates well. Not perfect, but Harden is in one of those roles where it's over the top but it works. And the ending is pretty damn shocking.

67. Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman

This is just one of those films that works, but I can't hurl any superlatives in that direction. Acting nice, story solid, etc. But I'm just not enthusiastic. But Timothy Spall was quite incredible.

68. Jindabyne

This was an interesting one that not only covers the Raymond Carver fishing storyline from Short Cuts, but also, the race and class relationships in Australia. Interesting, but not wonderful.

69. Hot Fuzz

Speaking of zombie movies, Shaun of the Dead is a great one. Partially because it combined two genres that you'd never see mixed before. Yet, as enjoyable as this was, it lacked the freshness and the genre crossovers the prior film had.

70. 28 Weeks Later

Now, this is no match for the first one - let's just lay that out there right now. However, as far as horror sequels go, this was actually pretty good. Not great, but better than what we usually get. Kind of curious to see if there is a third one.

Top 100 of 2007 (71-80)

70. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Ok, so I should preface this, but... I just don't like musicals. I don't. I find them shrill, corny, and excruciating to sit through. Now, that having been said, I think this one was a tolerable one. The bursting into song shit annoys me, but here, the story won me over. Not perfect, but as far as musicals go, I could sit through it. If you're more inclined toward musicals, you may like this more than I did.

72. Ghosts of Cite Soleil
A pretty interesting documentary about gang life in the slums of Haiti, and how much of it is influenced by American Gangster rap. I kind of felt, after watching City of God so many years ago, that it lessened this films impact a little.... a little "been there, seen that," but it's still a worthwhile film.

73. Fido
A clever little satire lampooning the Lassie era of the 1950's and its supposed idealism, but through the use of domesticated zombies instead of an adorable Collie. Doesn't always hit the mark, but it was amusing enough.

74. Severance

This seems to be the area of the list chock full of films that don't quite work, but worked enough to where I enjoyed them, and Severance is yet another of those films. A step above the slasher movie genre with some nice wit, but I was entertained. Not much more to say than that.

75. Black Snake Moan

Truth is... I didn't think I'd like this one, but it ended up being substantially better than i thought, and mostly because of Samuel L. Jackson's performance. Can't say the same about Christina Ricci, and especially Justin Timberlake, but it ended up being entertaining enough.

76. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
I was actually a little disappointed with this one, after having read so many strong reviews. It isn't a bad film by any means, but I didn't find it worthy of the praise that it got. I suppose when I'm watching a documentary, I like to laugh with, not at, the subjects. I could relate to Steve and his struggles, but the "villain," Billy, was just almost too cartoonish for me. Sure, he's a dork (you almost half to be to enter into a King Kong tournament). but I just felt like he was playing up to the cameras too much. Sometimes, truth can be stranger than fiction, but if you don't buy a performance in a documentary, something's a little off.

77. Private Fears In Public Places
This was a decent film filled with nice performances, but just ultimately didn't stick with me a great deal. I enjoyed it just fine. But a film that has very little recall for me now.

78. Poison Friends
Like Private Fears In Public Places, I'm at a little bit of a loss in the ability to say something strong about this film. It has sort of faded from memory a bit. I recall thinking the story was good, but could have been better, and the performances were good, but no one quite stood out. So, I guess, all in all, "nice, but unmemorable" would be the best descriptor I could give.

79. The Boss of It All

God, here is another one... can't really tell you much about it of note at this point in the game. Which is certainly odd for Lars Von Trier

80. The Simpsons Movie

This show started when I was a pre-teen, and I'm in my 30s now, so I grew up with the show, and while I've gotten out of the habit of watching it as of late, I think in its heyday, what I loved about this show was not so much the Simpson Family themselves, but all of the supporting characters surrounding them in Springfield. So, it was a bit disappointing to me that the film focused solely on The Simpsons and some randomly introduced villainous characters while relegating the side characters to a line or two at best. It had an occasional moment, but a disappointment to some degree.

Top 100 of 2007 (81-90)

81. Avenue Montaigne
Actually, I saw this film almost a year and a half ago at a film festival, so a lot of the details are sketchy now. But, it was a nice, charming, if somewhat toothless movie. Nothing to necessarily write home about, but enjoyable enough at the time. But Cecile de France is wonderful in the film and it was nice to see her softer side for a change.

82. Superbad
Perhaps it's just that the Judd Apatow-related films are progressively wearing thin for me, but I just wasn't too enthralled with this one. And while most lauded the whole "McLovin'" storyline, I thought it was the least effective and most annoying part of the whole thing. Only when it was Jonah Hill and Michael Cera and about their friendship was I interested. Otherwise, it just sort of seemed like American Pie to me, which seemed like a hundred films that came before it.


83. After The Wedding
It starts out promisingly enough, but unfortunately heads into soap opera territory in the final act. But strong performances, especially from Mads Mikkelson, made it watchable. But no way in hell should this have taken the foreign film nomination from Volver.

84. Bug

It's unfortunate that this one was so mismarketed. Lion's Gate made it out to be a horror film, a la Saw, but it was a black comedy. It was a tough sell, but still. I don't think it was entirely successful in its aims, but I thought Ashley Judd gave a pretty damn fearless performance that has been unfortunately maligned in response to the film in general.

85. The Hunting Party

It has it's moments, and the final montage is pretty damn fantastic. But, as a satire, it worked, but it could have been so much sharper. Just ended up feeling like a bit of a half-baked effort.

86. Breach

Unlike The Hunting Party, this one plays it straight, but my criticisms are somewhat similar. It has some really good things about it (Chris Cooper is, as usual, pretty great), but could have been tighter.

87. Zodiac

I read Graysmith's book in college and was prepared for something fascinating. And at times, this is. But it's way too long and robbed the book of a lot of the intrigue. Robert Downey, Jr. didn't help matters for me.

88. The Kingdom

Entertaining for what it was, if you looked upon it strictly as an action film. But the film seemed, from what I gathered, to try to be political, and that didn't work out too well for it. A little too predictable and heavy handed when it tried to be more than just action.

89. 2 Days In Paris

Sporadically interesting film about a dysfunctional couple on vacation in Paris. There were times when I wanted to punch both of them in the face, but that's a lot of couples I know :) It has enough moments to keep it from being shrill and grating, but it was very close to crossing the line. Dangerously close.

90. 12:08 East of Bucharest (trailer not available)

for me, this was one of those films where the first half lingered and felt aimless while the second half was great. So, it's half a great film. But for the quality of cinema coming out of Romania right now (internationally, I think they have the most exciting film movement going right now), this was sort of a let down.

The Top 100 of 2007 (91 - 100)

91. Reno 911! Miami
I won't lie... this is a low-minded movie, and even with the TV show, for every joke that nails it, there are two that fall flat. But I still enjoy it and laugh my ass off. The film sort of fell in line with that for me. Call it a guilty pleasure I guess.

92. Day Night Day Night
What a profoundly interesting premise, but what a middling execution. Coul have landed in my top 10 had they pulled this off correctly. It's the story of a female suicide bomber heading into NYC. We know nothing about her other than that she's chosen to do this, which is fascinating. I loved the way things turned. Just a complete lack of focus and too much attention to the trivial that mostly sank this one.

93. Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
Some great actors all watsed in a poorly edited film that could've been really good. My rule is that if I notice your editing, it's piss poor editing. And this was one of those "let's try to make your film different through editing" kind of films. Could have been great if they just toned it the fuck down./ But instead, this is sadly going to end up being Lumet's swan song. A shame really.

94. We Own The Night
Some really great sequences surrounded by nothing. Joaquin does a prety good job in it, but I just wasn't impressed. It just seemed rather by-the-numbers on the whole.

95. Starting Out In The Evening
Frank Langella was great, and the supporting performances had their strong points. I wanted to like it more, but nothng quite came together the way I hoped it would. Some beautiful things about it, and some strengths can be found in what you don't see. But ultimately... eh.

96. The Orphanage
Perhaps at a certain age, you outgrow ghost stories. Or maybe just bland movies. But in either case, it just felt tired and done before.

97. Wristcutters: A Love Story
Interesting premise, flawed execution. It's about a flat, dead world that represents the limbo in which the recently deceased via suicide live. Not a bad concept. Just not very interesting when you get down to it.

98. 300
The costumes and effects were wonderful. But the film itself, outside of the special effects was a complete bore. Slice, stab, splatter, big empassioned speech, repeat.

99. Stephanie Daley
So, it's an interesting character study, and Amber Tamblyn and Tilda Swinton are both wonderful. But I was left feeling a little "so what?" about this one.

100. The Host
Standard monster movie fare that seems to be getting lauded for the family angle. Sorry - that isn't unique. That's been done before too. Why do I feel like I'm the only one who wasn't impressed?