2007 - The Year in Movies

I'm the first to admit to being perhaps a bit OCD. Fortunately, one of my more obsessive traits is a compulsion to make lists. For the third year running, I have kept a list of every NEW movie I watched from January through December - no credits for TV shows like Veronica Mars or Doctor Who that I devoured disk by disk, and none for repeat viewings. I'm kind of frightened by what the list would look like with those added in. Anyway . . .

Total count? 112.

Breakdown by country of origin? As usual, the USA was the big winner here. I think I watched far fewer foreign films this year than in years past. 71 American films, not counting hybrids like the US/India The Namesake or US/UK Children of Men. The UK was the runner-up, with 8. Ouch - that's a pretty big gap. I didn't find myself as interested in films from Asia this year as I have in years past - perhaps I'm a bit burnt out. Two Korean films, a couple of Chinese (Hong Kong actioners, really), and just one or two Japanese films. In the past, these have been pretty big numbers. It's interesting to see how much I'm trending towards America and Europe these days. Of course, since so many films are produced by multiple countries - Japan, France and the US for Marie Antoinette for example - it's getting more difficult to categorize according to national origin.

So, let's move on to favorites and hatreds . . .

I watched some awesome, terrific movies this year. Really, it was hard to keep my favorites list short. So I didn't. Here are some of favorites watched in 2007, in alphabetical order -

The Aura
Bad Education
Beauty and the Beast
Children of Men
Fear and Trembling
The Gleaners and I
The Host
Hot Fuzz
Inland Empire
Juno
Kiss Me Deadly
Los Angeles Plays Itself
No Country for Old Men
Pan's Labyrinth
The Pervert's Guide to Cinema
The Wind that Shakes the Barley

And probably at the top of the list - the trilogy of If . . ./Britannia Hospital/O Lucky Man!

What about least favorites? What did I hate? I'm going to excuse really dumb things like Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland, because that's too easy. I really disliked Funny Ha Ha and thought that the hype about it was absolutely unwarranted. I also didn't like The Departed, though I figure I'm alone in that. The Wicker Man was fucking AWFUL, probably the worst film I saw this year, but it was so damn funny, I have to give it points for unintentional hilarity. How about Smokin' Aces? That movie has absolutely no redeeming qualities, not even Jason Bateman in a bra. All the Pretty Horses and Black Dahlia made me extremely unhappy, but . . . yeah, I think I'm going to have to give it to Smokin' Aces.

Surprises? The Prestige was much better than I'd thought it would be, especially after the disappointing The Illusionist. I finally saw all of Ginger Snaps which was a lot of fun, though the ending was a bit disappointing. Same with I Am Legend. Idiocracy is no Office Space, but I find myself referencing it pretty often.

Disappointments? Lots of these. Both of the third installments of the Spider-Man and Pirates franchises let me down. I was also hoping for really good things from Bender's Big Score, since I'm a Futurama nut. It was funny, but didn't maximize its potential. Lost in America had some great sequences, but wasn't nearly as great as I'd heard. And yes, I was disappointed by a zombie sheep movie. Black Sheep fell pretty flat. Zodiac was by no means a bad movie, but I just didn't think that much of it in the end. But none of these films can touch Southland Tales for sheer squandered potential.

What else? What did you love and hate this year? And what would you like to see filmsnack do in 2008? More reviews of new movies? Hard-to-find and weird stuff? More seasonal previews and opinions on things like awards season? Let me know. And thanks for reading.