Year In Review: 2007

By Loc

Yes, it’s a little late, but at least it’s here. A 2007 Year In Review arriving well into the 2008 calendar year is worth it when you see exactly what transpired in the last 12 months. Are you ready? Here we go.

Let’s break it down by the numbers first. In 2007, the BMF gang made a serious, concerted effort to be with the people. We wanted to reinforce our goal in being the People’s Movie Reviewer, and that meant seeing the movies that we all had to see.

Thus, in the greatest top ten showing to date, BMF sat along with you in 9 out of the top 10 grossing movies. These included Spider-Man 3, Harry Potter 5, Transformers and The Bourne Ultimatum. In fact, BMF saw the top 9 grossing movies and only missed out on the number 10 flick, Wild Hogs, which probably isn’t missing out at all.

The percentage drops when we look at the top 20 flicks. BMF caught a total of 14 flicks, meaning we skipped out the likes of Bee Movie, Rush Hour 3, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Again, probably not missing out at all and able to maintain some semblance of sanity by avoiding crap.

Overall, the BMF took in a total of 29 movies last year. That’s 2.41 movies a month, or one every other week for the entire year! Hell, even that’s impressive for BMF. Granted this was the year of the 2007 Summer Blockbuster Movie Contest, where BMF inhaled around 18 flicks in the span of 12 weeks. Nonetheless, that’s a huge number and nearly 61% over last year’s total of 18. Hope you all enjoyed it.

Now, on to the awards!

Stop the Threequel For The Love of Goodness
It’s hard to pick a winner because really, there are no winners in this game of losers. Shrek the Third was a boring, one-note flick. Then there was the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, which was a complete mess. I still consider the original flick one of the best, most entertaining films of the decade. Yet, much like the Matrix trilogy, Pirates descended into utter crapness extremely quickly. However, the winner of this loser-fest is Spider-man 3. Yes, even the genius of Sam Raimi could not overcome studio meddling, and the introduction of twenty-million characters did the movie no favors. Yet, it was the emo-Peter Parker, complete with idiotic dance-scene that did this movie in. I like my comic flicks, but only when they don’t pander and descend into stupidity. Sorry Spidey, you lose.

Stunning Abs Award
Nic Cage had the 8 minute abs on display in Ghost Rider. The best part was it was gratuitous in a manner that you would expect. Shirtless after a shower, yes. But only for a couple of seconds. It was like Nic wanted to say, “Look at my abs, I’m over 40 years old dammit!” But then he didn’t want it to be too blatant, so it was only for a couple seconds. No matter what, it was as surprising as seeing Hank Azaria ripped to all HGH-hell in Along Came Polly.

Funniest Movie
Does it go to Knocked Up? Um, hell no. Maybe if the award was for most annoying leads in a flick, that thing would win. How about Superbad? Nope, it was funny, but not the best. And enough with the Judd Apatow, damn. Nope, the dead-on funniest flick was Hot Fuzz, from the guys behind Shaun of the Dead. Hot Fuzz with the British send-up on action-flick clichés, from every Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer flick you can imagine. Yet, it poked fun without resorting to full-blown parody like the stupid Scary Movie/Epic Movie crap we’ve been served up. If you haven’t seen it, rent it and wait for that beautiful climax in the miniature model town. You’ve got Timothy Dalton in the funniest mouth impalement ever and the best in-movie reference ever.

Overrated So Much That It’s Annoying
That would be Juno. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a decent flick. The writing is actually very clever, for the first 10 minutes. But when you have Ellen Page acting like a smart-aleck kid through her entire pregnancy, you feel like shaking the snot out of her. Please, shut it! SHUT IT! It’s a decent flick, but my good god, stop touting it as the greatest reflection of our teenage society. Stop it! STOP IT!

Overrated Honorable Mention
Enchanted anyone? This flick is literally rated higher than The Shawshank Redemption and almost as good as Lord of the Rings. Um, no. Not even close. It’s not even that original. A cartoon-like character stuck in our reality? Wow, so cutting-edge. And no offense to Amy Adams, but um, huh? What was the big deal exactly? Again, this is so overrated its mind-boggling as opposed to annoying.

Worst Movie
Always a fan-favorite category. The simple answer would be something like Transformers. Sure, a billion people saw that flick, but it was one of those movies that make you dumber from watching it. Moving on, something like Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer took its cue from Transformers and raised the bet. Sure, it makes you dumber, but it also pisses you off at the same time. That’s like a two-fer! One of the bright spots in the first film was Johnny Storm’s adolescent humor, which became adolescent assholeness in this one. And when the big villain is a giant cloud, um, dumb movie. However, the award goes to The Golden Compass. It was boring, annoying, and stupid all at once. The controversy with the church, completely removed. The stupidity in the characters, kept intact fully from the novel. And when the best part is listening to a polar bear say he gets drunk regularly, that’s a bad sign. Avoid this flick, well I guess most people did, so, good job society. You chose wisely on this one.

OK, on to the Top Three movies of the year. Ready, here we go:

Number 3: Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street. A musical? Really? Yes, really. For others, this may have been aight, OK, eh. Yet, I was taken by the moody Tim Burton setting in a way that has escaped all his other films. Johnny Depp, seemingly climbing into the pantheon of acting godliness, is excellent as the disturbed Sweeney. And the singing, while never great, actually adds very nicely to the entire flick. If Tim Burton were to have a magnum opus, I might consider this it. He effectively crosses genres and makes paints the musical with his own signature Burtonisms, but does it at a depth and quality that normally escapes him.

Number 2: This is actually a tie between 300 and Hot Fuzz. Fittingly, these flicks came out on DVD on the same day, and I purchased both, the first DVDs I’ve bought in like a year. Both of these flicks fill the much needed entertaining-as-hell category. 300, with its over-the-top testosterone-fest is just a kick in the pants. Not much dialogue or story to get in the way of the chest-thumping. But lots of kick-ass ass-kicking. And Hot Fuzz, funny action at its best. See above for a recap of the hilarity, but check it out it out for yourself as soon as you can.

Number 1: I love Pixar, even if that means I have to forget the Cars exists. And Ratatouille was a great film, no doubt about it. But, even watching The Incredibles this morning reminded me of how awesome Pixar films can be, and Ratatouille didn’t quite make it there.

Nope, it was The Bourne Ultimatum that was the number one flick for BMF this year. In a summer filled with vacuous sequels, threequels, fourquels, and even Harry Potter’s fivequel, this threequel was a super kick in the pants. The first two flicks were always good, but this one presents a more coherent, straight-forward plot. And the spy-vs-spy train station scene is golden. And the shower fight is golden, too. I mean, it’s not a golden shower, I mean, nevermind. This was a fun summer film that gave a very good showing as hard-nosed action. This was the best big-summer ticket of the season and the action continues to set the standard for today’s films. See Casino Royale for reference, as a spy movie trying to be more like the Bourne series. Matt Damon, Jason Bourne, good good stuff.