2007 Cinema Round-up
I’d been meaning to write some cinema reviews last year but never seemed to get around to it. So here’s a potted overview of my cinema viewing in 2007, roughly in the order I saw them.
1) Apocalypto
I rather enjoyed this but was left with the impression Mel Gibson thought he’d made an important film when in fact all he gave us was an action movie set in the jungle.
2) Pan’s Labyrinth
Beautiful in every respect, an outstanding visual achievement that still packed a powerful emotional punch. One of the best films of the year (although it was really from 2006).
3) Smokin’ Aces
Much maligned but I enjoyed this. Definitely style over substance but that doesn’t make if a bad film, although it was a letdown after Joe Carnahan’s previous film, Narc.
4) The Last King of Scotland
One of my least favorite films of the year. Hollywood has a habit of playing fast and loose with history but trying to pass off a novel as a true story was a step to far, and to top it off I found James McAvoy intensely irritating. Forest Whitaker was exceptional though.
5) The Fountain
Some found this impregnable but to me it was a simple story of the undying nature of love that was as gorgeous to look at, in its own way, as Pan’s Labyrinth. Another of the year’s best.
6) Ghost Rider
I’m a self confessed comic geek and I’ve always liked Ghost Rider but this was just dreadful. Cage has made some crap but his Johnny Blaze as played by Elvis performance is an all-time. low.
7) 300
2007 was a year for beautiful looking films and this is one of them, unfortunately that’s all it really had to offer, well that and Gerard Butler’s performance.
8) Sunshine
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland clearly had aspirations to make a science fiction classic, sort of Alien meets 2001 but ended up with a sub-Event Horizon style horror flick in space. Great cast but none of them do themselves justice.
9) Spider-Man 3
Sam it’s time to move on, when you start giving Peter Parker a dance routine you know it’s time to let someone else have a crack at Spidey. Let’s hope they either recast or kill of Mary Jane, Dunst was always wrong for the part and gets worse with each subsequent film.
10) Straightheads
Preceding the vigilante justice films that would follow a few months later, this is a far more intelligent film that it’s given credit for and certainly a better examination of the desire to right a wrong than either Death Sentence or The Brave One. Worth seeing for Gillian Anderson’s performance alone.
11) 28 Weeks Later
Better than the original this doesn’t try to fool people into thinking it’s not a zombie movie and works much better for embracing it’s heritage. Robert Carlyle gives a terrific performance as the guilty father, particularly in the scene where he gets infected.
12) Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Only really let down by the disappointing climax this improved on the enjoyable original in almost everyway. Here’s hoping it made enough money to get the Silver Surfer film off the ground.
13) Die Hard 4.0
Three words to describe Die Hard 4.0 - Big, Dumb, Fun.
14) Transformers
The film Michael Bay was born to direct. Bigger, Dumber and Funner (yeah, I know that’s not a word) than Die Hard 4.0 with added eye candy (Megan Fox) and rising star (Shia LaBeouf).
15 Shrek the Third
Like Spider-Man 3, this was a sequel too far. On paper this should have been at least as much fun as the first two films, all the cast were back, the animation is better than ever but the script just doesn’t deliver.
16) Black Sheep
Fun horror/comedy from New Zealand that didn’t quite live up to my hopes, being neither as scary nor as funny as I’d anticipated.
17) Black Water
A cracking little killer croc film from Australia, the directors keep the tension high, the actors give believable performances and it doesn’t wimp out at the end.
18) The Sword Bearer
Ludicrous fantasy/love story from Russia, this is a Night Watch wannabe that doesn’t even come close.
19) The Signal
One third solid zombie-style end of the world flick, one third brilliantly written and played black comedy and one third pretension. A schizophrenic film that gets more right than it gets wrong.
20) 1408
Starts off solidly but goes more over the top the longer it goes on. A strong performance from John Cusack helps keep it grounded.
21) All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
Well observed characters and a blackly comic script give the slasher genre a new coat of paint. One of the best films at this years FrightFest.
22) Cold Prey
Some nice scenery and characters you actually care about set this apart from your average slasher flick, but at the end of the day, it adds little to the teens vs. faceless killer movies we’ve seen so often before.
23) Joshua
The creepy kid movie makes a comeback that works thanks to strong performances, with Jacob Kogan as the titular character worthy of special mention.
24) Storm Warning
Some well done set pieces and a plentiful supply of gore just about make this worth watching. A disappointing return to the horror genre for veteran scribe Everett De Roche of Patrick and Long Weekend fame, the latter is currently being remade by Jamie Blanks the director of Storm Warning. Here’s hoping he shows a bit more restraint and subtlety than he displays in this film.
25) Wrong Turn 2
Silly but fun sequel, the highlight of which is Henry Rollins performance, imagine Arnie taking on the Texas Chainsaw family and you’ll have some idea what to expect.
26) Botched
Gory comedy that just wasn’t funny enough.
27) Seed
Shock horror! A good Uwe Boll film! Uncompromising and downright unpleasant, this will leave you feeling like you need, not just a shower, but a visit to one of those biohazard decontamination jobbies that kills everything and removes the top layer of skin. It doesn’t pull any punches and makes the ending to Se7en look like a Disney flick.
28) WAZ
And talking of Se7en here’s a film that plows a similar furrow. The digital video may give the film and ugly look but the performances, in particular those of Stellan SkarsgÃ¥rd and Selma Blair, ensure it deserves to be viewed as far more than just a Se7en clone. One of three films that made me cry this year (Pan’s Labyrinth was another and the final one is coming up).
29) Zombie Diaries
A nice try even if it lacks the budget and acting talent to realize its ambitions. Diary of the Dead showed how it should be done.
30) KM 31
Pretty dull Mexican horror that tried to combine the Crying Woman legend with Japanese style scares to less than thrilling effect.
31) Spiral
A weird love story with a Tales from the Crypt style punchline, this was maybe a little too long but it did show that Hatchet director Adam Green was more than a one trick pony.
32) Day Watch
I loved Night Watch but this just didn’t do it for me. Some nice action sequences couldn’t compensate for the films failings and the tone was much too silly at times.
33) The Orphanage
The film that showed there’s still life in the traditional ghost story. Featuring the year’s best performance, with Belén Rueda utterly heartbreaking as the mother searching for her lost son this was the other film that brought a tear to my eye. It also stayed with me long after I’d left the cinema, surely the sign of a great film, and I can’t wait to see it again.
34) The Bourne Ultimatum
Not the best Bourne film but an excellent end to an brilliant trilogy. Greengrass gives us some excellent set pieces but the film avoids the usual action movie silliness with a well thought out story that takes Jason Bourne full circle.
35) Death Sentence
Tries to hard to be deep, with it’s message that resorting to vigilante justice makes us no better than the people committing the crimes. What James Wan doesn’t seem to realise is that audiences don’t want a deeper meaning to their vigilante movies, they want to see people punished for doing bad things. They want escapism not reality and when Bacon dishes out violent retribution the film works, it’s only when he goes all Travis Bickle at the end that it looses the audience.
36) 3:10 to Yuma
That rare thing - a remake that doesn’t suck. Great action but Bale and Crowe make sure the characters don’t get lost in the hale of bullets. Nice to see that Peter Fonda can still act after his cringe worthy appearance in Ghost Rider.
37) Shoot ‘Em Up
The most fun 90 minutes I spent in the cinema this year. More gunfire and violent acts per minute than any film I can think of and it’s all done in the worst possible taste. I even liked Clive Owen in this and any film that features death by carrot has to be worth a look.
38) The Brave One
Jodie Foster goes all Charles Bronson, dispensing vigilante justice. Better than Death Sentence because we never lose our sympathy for Foster but the attempt at a deeper meaning is redundant.
39) The Kingdom
An intelligent thriller that may simplify the issues but never resorts to Americans good, Arabs bad propaganda. After the opening explosion it saves the action for the climax but when it comes it really delivers.
40) Resident Evil: Extinction
Better than the second film but that’s not saying much as that was one of the worst films I’ve ever seen at the cinema. The action is well handled by Russell Mulcahy but this is little more than a footnote in the annals of zombie cinema.
41) Day of the Dead
One of the best horror films ever made, I caught this at the Day of the Undead festival at Leicester’s Phoenix Arts Centre. Day’s always been my favorite of Romero’s Dead trilogy.
42) 30 Days of Night
Vampires get scary again and David Slade delivers on the promise he showed with Hard Candy. In a year full of good horror this still stood out from the crowd. Even Josh Hartnett was good.
43) Into the Wild
A real surprise this one as I only went to see it on the spur of the moment having picked up a preview screening ticket when I went to see 30 Days of Night and I had little idea what it was about before going in. It’s a wonderful film, deeply moving and, given the ending, strangely life affirming. Hal Holbrook should win Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars or there’s no justice.
44) Diary of the Dead
Romero back on form after Land of the Dead. This was another of the year’s highlights.
45) Planet Terror
Over the top in every way, Robert Rodriguez half of Grindhouse is a fun ride.
46) Savage Streets
The FrightFest allnighter treated us to this real grindhouse movie that was funny for all the wrong reasons.
47) Frontiere(s)
Violent and unrelenting without anyone to really root for this was a disappointment.
48) Inside
Hands down the scariest film of the year. Not for everyone and definitely not a film to watch if you’re pregnant, but if you’ve got the stomach for it this will reward you with sleepless nights and nightmares.
49) Beowulf
Animation takes a step closer to looking real in this breathtaking visual treat. Worth seeing for Ray Winstone’s performance, “I’ve come to kill your monsta” must rank as one of the funniest lines of the year thanks to Winstone’s delivery.
50) I am Legend
One day someone will film Richard Matheson’s book as it should be filmed, instead of turning out overblown travesties like this. CGI monsters just aren’t scary; surely it wouldn’t have been that hard to use real people with old fashioned make-up? On the plus side Will Smith, though painfully miscast, wasn’t as bad as I’d expected. He’s acted off the screen by the dog though.
So that was 2007, hopefully I’ll write things up a bit more regularly in 2008!
