Favorites of 2007 so far?

Are you as surprised as I am that there is only about a month and half left to go in 2007? And I have yet to find a real knockout Oscar-contender of a film. Of course, studios traditionally release their Academy Award stuff late in the year to impress the voters, but I thought I'd reflect on a few of the films I've seen so far that I have at least liked.

"Stardust" was a pleasant surprise--charming, witty, romantic, adventurous, exciting, funny, a fairy-tale for adults as well as children. "Ratatouille" was another terrific Pixar CGI concoction, gorgeous to look at, fun and touching in its story and characters. "Michael Clayton" provided George Clooney an opportunity to show his acting chops in an old-fashioned conspiracy-theory flick. "Once" was a musical romance of the sort we don't see very often, and "Hairspray" was blithely cheerful and music-filled. Then Bruce Willis was back after a long absence in "Live Free or Die Hard," one of only two sequels I enjoyed very much, the other being "The Bourne Ultimatum."

Edit: I forgot "American Gangster," which I just saw yesterday and wrote about in another thread. Liked it a lot.

I have a screener for "Waitress" sitting on my desk, and I've heard good things about it. And I didn't get to see "Into the Wild" and probably won't before next year, but several friends rave about it.

Unfortunately, there were disappointments, too, big and mild, most of them involving a numeral after the title: "Spider-Man 3," "Pirates of the Caribbean 3," "Harry Potter 5." At least "Transformers" turned out better than I expected. That's not saying a lot, but when I went in thinking it might be really dumb and I was at least mildly entertained, hey, you take 'em where you can find 'em.

John

[Post edited by John J. Puccio on Nov 10, 2007]

I have to agree with your last paragraph. As far as favorites of 2007 I have to say I enjoed American Gangster. I've talked to some people who thought it was so so but I liked it a lot.

All the others like you mentioned I thought were mediocre or disappointing.

EDIT: I haven't seen Stardust so I can't comment on that but you got me curious about it so I'll check it out at some point.

[Post edited by Falcon01 on Nov 10, 2007]

Only counting movies with a 2007 American Theatrical Release, the best I've seen so far are, in no particular order:

Manufactured Landscapes
Black Book
The Boss of it All
Once
Michael Clayton
Angel-A
Sicko
Eastern Promises
Hairspray

Oh, and, yes, I just saw "American Gangster," so add that to my list of favorites. And, Chris, I wanted to see "Eastern Promises," but after watching the trailer maybe half a dozen times in the months leading up to its premiere, I didn't think I'd be in the mood for so much violence. Was I wrong?

John

[Post edited by John J. Puccio on Nov 10, 2007]

Of the summer bunch I loved "Ratatouille" and "The Bourne Ultimatum." I very much enjoyed "3:10 to Yuma" and would like to see Christian Bale pick up a nod for best actor for "Rescue Dawn". I thought his performance was as poignant as he was in "Empire of the Sun". I'm looking forward to "No Country for Old Men".

Funny. I saw "3:10 to Yuma" and enjoyed it, but looking back on it, I can't remember much about it beyond the performances that was memorable.

John

Agreed. It did feel a bit of a morsel, but performances were solid and I'm all for quality genre pictures.

John, off the subject a bit, and I've asked this elsewhere, and after this I won't again. Promise. It's just this progressive/interlaced thing is kinda confusing, especially since I'm not really even dealing with a true h-def format yet.

I have a 50" 1080i, Panasonic plasma and an upconverter that goes up to 1080i. Will my SD movies look better in 720p or 1080i? BTW, I have an HDMI cable connected from TV to my cable box and one connected from TV to my upconverter. My viewing distance is about 91/2'

What's your take?

John,

Eastern Promises doesn't have a whole lot of violence in it, but the violence it has is very memorable, which is pretty characteristic of Cronenberg. How can you pass upthe chance to see a buck naked Viggo Mortense (w/ all equipment on view) fighting two Chechen assassins in a Turkish steambath?


OH, and I forgot that "Offside" had a 2007 Amer Theatrical Release. That is, by far, the best '07 release thus far, and one of the best films of the current decade, IMHO.

"I have a 50" 1080i, Panasonic plasma and an upconverter that goes up to 1080i. Will my SD movies look better in 720p or 1080i?" --JSWELL

Theoretically, the upconverter should be set to the 1080i of your TV, but only your own eyes can be the judge of that. Invite other people in to watch a few minutes of something transferred in 480 that looks really good to begin with, and ask them which (720p or 1080i) upconversion they prefer. My own TV goes up to 1080i (Sony XBR960), and I keep the upconverting on the Toshiba player set at 1080i, but it probably differs from set to set and player to player.

Chris,

Thanks for the heads up. I think Sony distributed "Offside" in the U.S., so I hope they send reviwers an end-of-the-year screener for it. Otherwise, I'll look for the regular DVD release.

John

[Post edited by John J. Puccio on Nov 10, 2007]

You know, usually I can join in on a topic like this, but this time around I have to stand by and just read. After a dismal early summer onslaught, I just stopped going to the movies, anymore. I still have yet to see "Stardust", "Bourne Ultimatum", "Siko", "3:10 to Yuma", "Eastern Promises", "Ratatouille" & "Michael Clayton". After seeing so many disappointing films earlier in the year, I just gave up. I barely even rent movies as much as I used to. I guess I'm just turned off with Hollywood anymore. It just seems like the same old mundane story's equipped with timeless clichés that can never be escaped. And the lack of originality, as I've said many times before, has become so stale that I just can't find a good reason to blow the $10 at the movie theatre. There have been a few films I enjoyed this year, but they are few and far between... well, at least the ones I did catch.

Have my tastes in movies changed? Possibly, or perhaps I'm just more demanding in my expectations. Do I think it's one of the worst years for films? Quite possibly, yes. However, I do feel it's been degrading for a several years. If anything I can say, we definitely are not in any kind of golden age of cinema, nor do I feel we will look back on the past ten-years and think some of the greatest films ever came from this decade. There have been some very good ones and a few that will probably be considered classics, but overall it has been nothing like decades past. Unfortunately, if Hollywood stays with the cash-cow formula of branding movies I'm afraid it will only get worse. Some of our greatest films are when Hollywood would take a huge risk in favor for something original or controversial. Now all we seem to have these days are assembly line films that are guaranteed to draw in the dollars based on how much eye-candy there is. If this is the kind of formula that we will continue to see, then I can truly say our hopes for really great classics are diminishing every year.