109 replies to this topic

[Thunderfinger]

sounds good to me

[Harmsway]

I was privileged to watch a preview of THE KITE RUNNER.

It is sensational!

An absolute classic movie - of the-enduring-Shawshank-Redemption-stays-with-you variety.

THE KITE RUNNER was a decent film, but it pales in comparison to some of 2007's other releases.

From my perspective, 2007 produced three true-blue classics of filmmaking that sit among the best of the decade: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET, and THERE WILL BE BLOOD.

[Mr. Blofeld]

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: It is, in my opinion, the OHMSS of the Harry Potter film series, restoring the integrity lost with the previous film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

[Tarl_Cabot]

What a crappy december season for movies. Why can't we have Rambo come out tommorow?

[Double-Oh-Zero]

Film of the Year:

• No Country for Old Men

Loved:

• Pan's Labyrinth
• Zodiac
• Sunshine
• Hot Fuzz
• American Gangster
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Grindhouse

Liked:

• 28 Weeks Later
• Bourne Ultimatum
• Superbad
• 3:10 to Yuma
• Ocean's 13 (At the very least, the plot had the decency to show up this time)
• Mr. Bean's Holiday (Oh, shut up. I grew up watching the show)
• The Kingdom
• I Am Legend (The Dark Knight prologue alone was worth the ticket price)

Underwhelmed:

• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
• Die Hard 4.0

Wished I had Stayed Home and Had a Wank Instead:

• 300

Looking Forward To:

• There Will Be Blood
• The Kite Runner
• The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford
• The King of Kong
• I'm Not There
• Michael Clayton
• We Own the Night
• Cassandra's Dream
• Beowulf
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
• Once
• Gone Baby Gone
• Atonement

My Top Five of the Year:
1. No Country For Old Men
2. Sunshine
3. Zodiac
4. American Gangster
5. Sweeney Todd

[killkenny kid]

A sorry year for me. The only movies I came up with......

1. I am Legand

2. American Gangster

3. No Country for Old Men

4. 3:10 to Yuma

5. Hot Fuzz

6. Michael Clayton

7. Live Free or Die Hard.

8. The Kingdom

[Qwerty]

Likely my last update of the year.

Liked So Far...

• Notes on a Scandal *****
• Hannibal Rising ****
• Zodiac ****1/2
• Breach ***
• Disturbia :***
• Fracture ****
• Hot Fuzz: ***
• Spider-Man 3 **1/2
• Ocean's 13 ****
• 1408 ***1/2
• Live Free or Die Hard ***
• The Bourne Ultimatum *****
• Stardust ****
• The Invasion **1/2
• Michael Clayton *****
• Gone Baby Gone ****
• Superbad ***1/2
• American Gangster ****
• I Am Legend ***1/2

Disliked So Far...

• Night at the Museum **
• Wild Hogs *
• Premonition **

Looking Forward To...

• The Mist
• Sweeney Todd
• There Will Be Blood
• Cassandra's Dream
• The Kite Runner

[Harmsway]

What a crappy december season for movies. Why can't we have Rambo come out tommorow?

Actually, the December season for movies is phenomenal. JUNO (which I saw last night... it was quite good), CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET... lots of good stuff to go see. It's rare that you have that much good stuff out at one time.

[Loomis]

What a crappy december season for movies. Why can't we have Rambo come out tommorow?

Spare a thought for us limey Rambo fans - it doesn't open here till late February, if I'm not mistaken.

On a vaguely related note that with hindsight I think should probably be in the "What movie have you seen today?" thread, I watched a bit of LETHAL WEAPON yesterday (the director's cut, which is quite an improvement on the theatrical version, although it's a shame that Richard Donner didn't reinstate the original beginning and ending, which are pretty dark and interesting). A cracking action thriller with plenty of style and wit, and one of the all-time great screen double acts in the shape of Gibson and Glover, but what seems to be rarely mentioned is how gritty and moving the film is on top of all that - Mel's tearful gun-in-mouth scene, for instance, is truly powerful, while Glover's performance goes beyond what in the sequels is mostly merely catchphrase shtick: here, he really does communicate the fear and sense of loss of a man who suspects he's become too old for this ****. Many actioners attempt to be Character-Driven™, but this one, along with CASINO ROYALE, is one of the few to actually pull it off.

Seems to me that DIE HARD usually gets all the credit for reinventing the action movie and injecting quality into a tacky genre, but wasn't it really LETHAL WEAPON, which came out a year earlier? Now, don't get me wrong: DIE HARD is one of my favourite films, and probably my most-viewed flick of all time, and, yes, I think it's even better than LETHAL WEAPON, but I do wonder why LETHAL WEAPON's reputation isn't a little higher than it appears to be.

[Safari Suit]

Seems to me that DIE HARD usually gets all the credit for reinventing the action movie and injecting quality into a tacky genre, but wasn't it really LETHAL WEAPON, which came out a year earlier? Now, don't get me wrong: DIE HARD is one of my favourite films, and probably my most-viewed flick of all time, and, yes, I think it's even better than LETHAL WEAPON, but I do wonder why LETHAL WEAPON's reputation isn't a little higher than it appears to be.

Possibly because the sequels overshadow it in terms of popularity. Die Hard made less than its sequels too, but not to the same extent. I think LW2 made more than twice what the first made, and the sequels seem to appear on TV a lot.

[Mr. Blofeld]

Seems to me that DIE HARD usually gets all the credit for reinventing the action movie and injecting quality into a tacky genre, but wasn't it really LETHAL WEAPON, which came out a year earlier? Now, don't get me wrong: DIE HARD is one of my favourite films, and probably my most-viewed flick of all time, and, yes, I think it's even better than LETHAL WEAPON, but I do wonder why LETHAL WEAPON's reputation isn't a little higher than it appears to be.

Possibly because the sequels overshadow it in terms of popularity. Die Hard made less than its sequels too, but not to the same extent. I think LW2 made more than twice what the first made, and the sequels seem to appear on TV a lot.

Well, I saw the first one at Christmas one time, so...

[tdalton]

Updated:

Liked So Far:

• Freedom Writers ****
• 300 ***
• Night at the Museum ***
• The Messengers ***
• Disturbia ***
• Vacancy ***
• Mr. Brooks *****
• Payback: Straight Up ***
• Troy: The Director's Cut ****
• Live Free Or Die Hard ***
• Halloween ***
• The Kingdom *****
• 1408 ****

Disliked So Far

• Hannibal Rising
• The Hitcher **
• Primeval **
• Ocean's 13
• We Are Marshall *
• Ghost Rider
• The Bourne Ultimatum *
• Spider-Man 3 **
• Premonition **
• Hostel: Part II **
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End *
• The Reaping **

Looking Forward To:

• Into the Wild
• The Simpsons Movie
• Saw IV
• Rendition
• Eastern Promises

Will update one more time before the end of the year with a Top 5 list for 2007.

[Harmsway]

Harmsway's top 10 or 2007 (with one giant four-way tie between four different masterpieces):

1.-4.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
PAN'S LABYRINTH
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
THERE WILL BE BLOOD

5. JUNO
6. AMERICAN GANGSTER
7. ZODIAC
8. LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
9. CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR
10. RATATOUILLE

Wow. What a phenomenal year for film. Mainstream film might have tanked for the most part, but we've rarely seen a year with so many great additions to the world of cinema.

[Professor Dent]

Movies that I liked:

• Breach
• The Bourne Ultimatum
• Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
• Hitman (yeah, this one surprised me too)
• Hot Fuzz
• I Am Legend
• Live Free or Die Hard
• National Treasure: Book of Secrets
• Ocean's Thirteen
• The Simpsons Movie
• Shooter
• Spider-Man 3
• Superbad
• Transformers

Movies that were OK (middle of the road on them):

• Beowulf
• Grindhouse -- Death Proof
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• The Hitcher
• Rush Hour 3
• Wild Hogs

Disliked (or the ones I would like a refund on):

• 300
• Grindhouse -- Planet Terror
• Pirares of the Caribbean: At World's End

Still looking forward to or movies that are in the Netflix que (or will be when they are released):

• 1408
• 3:10 to Yuma
• Blades of Glory
• Fracture
• The Golden Compass
• The Kingdom
• The Number 23
• Ratatouille
• Reno 911: Miami
• Zodiac

[tdalton]

Now that 2007 is over, I'll update my list with my best and worst 5 films of the year.

Top 5 Films of 2007:
1. The Kingdom: Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, and Jennifer Garner all deliver very good performances in this film. I thought that this film would be nothing more than a solid action/adventure/thriller, but it was that and a lot more, and was, ultimately, one of the very few films that did not disappoint me this year.

2. Mr. Brooks: An absolute masterpiece of a film, IMO. I've never been a huge fan of Kevin Costner's films (although I've always thought of him as a good actor), but this is some of his best work. A very dark and interesting story, with a great cast. Costner is good in this one, but almost has the movie stolen from him by two other actors, William Hurt and Danielle Panabaker, both of whom are absolutely brilliant in this film.

3. Freedom Writers: Hilary Swank should be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance here, but she won't be because of the January release date for this film. Before watching the film, I thought that it was going to be another one of those overly-sentimental inspirational films that had only one goal, and that was to deliver a good message to the audience. It accomplishes this, but it's done remarkably well.

4. 1408: This film features another Oscar-worthy performance that is going to go unnoticed. John Cusak is brilliant in this film, often times carrying the entire film by himself. I've always been amazed by actors who can carry an entire film for long periods of time when they're the only character on screen, and Cusak does this brilliantly in 1408. Actually, some of the best parts of this film are when he's literally talking to either himself or his tape recorder, and it's just an amazing performance within a very entertaining film. This is certainly one of the better Stephen King adaptations to come by in a long, long time.

5. Live Free or Die Hard: Probably not the most well made film of the year, but it is one of the most entertaining film of the year, which is why I felt that it at least deserved a spot on my top 5 list. I could probably come up with a long list of films that are "better" than LFODH, but I was entertained from beginning to finish by this one, and it was great to see a good action film again after many recent disappointments in that genre of film.


I reserve the right to alter this list for Sean Penn's Into the Wild once it finally gets to DVD.

Worst Five Films of 2007:

1. Hannibal Rising: One of the worst films I've ever seen, hands down.

2. Ocean's 13: I wanted so much to like this one. I loved Ocean's Eleven, but Ocean's 12 was just awful, and I was hoping that the series would return to form. It didn't, and this one was even worse than the second one.

3. Ghost Rider: As I said in my review of this film earlier, I was just speechless after this film. Awful.

4. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: I didn't like the second one, and the third one is even worse. The first Pirates film did not need a sequel, and that is proven by the low quality of the two sequels that Disney gave us.

5. The Bourne Ultimatum: It just didn't do very much for me, although it is better than The Bourne Supremacy, which was one of the worst spy films I'd ever seen. I would, however, have to rank The Bourne Ultimatum right up there with Casino Royale as the two most overrated films of the decade.

[Mr. Blofeld]

I have to admit, you have a point there.

[Cruiserweight]

[DamnCoffee]

What did everyone think of Saw IV?

[Safari Suit]

What did everyone think of Saw IV?

I thought it was really poor until about the half way point, and it remains unexceptional throughout. It really panders to the gorehound demographic too, especially in the opening scene. I guess it's worth seeing if you're really interested.

[minder125]

Looking Forward To:
The King of Kong
I'm Not There
Once

Skip I'm Not There it was like being hit over the head with a book of his lyrics at certain points, and I'm a fan of both Dylan and Haynes

The King Of Kong is probably the best documentary of the year with some truly evil villains that would give Blofeld a run for his money. Ok thats a bit of an over statement but there are some truly huge pricks in the film.

Once best music film I've seen in years.

Edited by minder125, 01 January 2008 - 04:19 PM.