The lower ranks in our movies of the year list are populated by those ones we were eagerly awaiting for but didn’t match our high expectations: big-budget productions aiming at the Oscar; the newest spoiled kids of the international festival circuit whose works were acclaimed, rather senselessly, as masterpieces and some other feature films elevated by critics or advertisers that, without being terrible, didn’t fulfil their promise.
On the flip side of the cinematic coin, the year wasn’t short of blockbusters, sequels, b-movies and minor comedies that against all initial prejudice and their “déjà vu” scent surprised us for not being bad at all.
After the jump, the ying and the yang of a year in movies.
HIGH HOPES REMAINED UNFULFILLED IN:
1-AMERICAN GANGSTER-Ridley Scott (Trailer above)
Without any shade of doubt the most frustrating movie of the year. Sort of Launched as a black version of “The Godfather”, it had everything in place to become a classic: the true story of one of the most notorious drug barons; the impressive seventies funk “mis-en-scene”; and excellent original soundtrack (as well as the inspiration behind an unofficial one provided by Jay-Z) and an exceptional cast with the back to back fight between two superstars (Crowe versus Washington). Ridley Scott’s much talked-about return to his former top form suffered, though, from a severe case of the Biopic syndrome (a concatenation of events, faithful to the real history, but forgetting to add much depth to its characters: Russell Crowe’s uber honest policeman lacked of credibility and even when Washington’s role fared better, the rest weren’t much more than a bunch of stereotyped, half-baked sketches.)
2-SUNSHINE-Danny Boyle (Trailer)
Danny Boyle carried on taking risks, exploring different genres and having excellent ideas; unfortunately, as it happened with “28 days later”; he also kept on failing on their resolution. In “Sunshine” he entered sci-fi territory with the attractive premise of an extinguishing sun and a scientists’ team, sent with a spaceship containing a nuclear device to provoke an internal explosion as the last resort to reactivate the dying star. Contact with Earth is lost and with it the plot of a story that by moments resembled an “Alien” without the monster. It could have taken off to much higher grounds.
3-A MIGHTY HEART-Michael Winterbottom (Trailer)
Explorer of new paths, also unafraid of taking risks, the normally irreproachable British director offered one of his weakest works to date; based on the book by Mariane Pearl about the death of her husband, a Wall Street Journal correspondent killed in Pakistan on his way to interview a fundamentalist leader. This film, shot in fashionable fake documentary manner, doesn’t clarify its subject’s political compromise, nor his supposed heroism. Instead, it serves well as a vehicle for Angelina Jolie to try and knock on Oscar’s door again.
4-SYNDROMES & A CENTURY-Apitchapong Weerasethakul (Trailer)
One of the last accepted members in the author movie’s exclusive club, Thai director Apitchapong Weerasethakul, shining star of the new wave in Asian cinema and known since “Tropical Malady” for his exotic narratives, merging the contemporary with the spiritual, with a vision often distant from Western mentalities. “Syndromes and a century” came wrapped in awards after completing the international festival circuit. However, an evident ambition to dissect our world’s afflicting evils was somehow blurred by the abstract components of its story, as interesting as flawed. Also symptomatic of Oriental movies reaching saturation point within our audiences.
5-FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION-Christopher Guest (Trailer)
After his latest two hilarious comedies, set in the backgrounds of pedigree dog shows and folk bands respectively, the fact that Christopher Guest and his troupe had decided to dedicate their new project to that annual combination of war strategy and vanity fair better known as the Oscars’ campaign was enough to have half the world anxiously awaiting. The father of the mockumentary and ex-Spinal Tap member repeated the formula without achieving the success of former occasions. This time it just wasn’t that funny.
6-THE SIMPSONS MOVIE-David Silverman (Trailer)
Arguably last summer’s most awaited movie, the one that was going to make America’s (and the world’s) favourite dysfunctional family jump from the small to the big screen, it ended up being nothing more than a lengthier episode of the series. That’s why; even when people liked it, it didn’t leave a particularly memorable taste in our mouth. Box office grosses were substantial, so maybe next time the writers will be granted with a better chance to show their legendary wit off.
7-CLIMATES-Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Trailer)
London’s Time Out first ever six-star rating (they added one more to the traditional five for occasions like this) gave “Climates” the masterpiece treatment, but the follow-up to “Uzak”, despite sharing with that one a dazzling cinematography, wasn’t plausible enough in its depiction of a couple whose relationship is breaking. The winter-like slow pace, trademark of Bilge, and with some acting drowning in a more subtle than deep script, burdened the credibility of its metaphorically emotional side, resulting in a clear induction for the viewer to an abyss of sleep.
8-LA VIE EN ROSE-Olivier Dahan (Trailer)
French cinema, in frank regression despite the perennial critical support it enjoys, pushed the boat out to take the immortal Edith Piaf’s biography to the big screen. They found the perfect actress, Marion Cotillard, for this extraordinary big-budget production; only Julie Christie looks capable to steal the Oscar from her hands. Unfortunately, it felt also victim of the biopic syndrome, whose symptoms were worsened by the abundance of dramatic events during the singer’s life. Thanks to those she ends up looking like a puppet at the mercy of her circumstances, without much passion or talent being convincingly shown.
9- KNOCKED UP-Judd Apatow (Trailer)
Alter the enormous success of “The 40 year-old virgin”, Judd Apatow has been hailed as the new king of comedy. This year he’s been part, one way or another, of three movies of considerable repercussion (“Superbad” and “Walk Hard” being the other two). “Knocked Up” came surrounded by excellent reviews and turned Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy) into cellulloid world’s very own it girl, but the laughter caused by the accidental pregnancy after a first date and the way the odd couple faces it was soon silenced under a layer of typical Yankee morals.
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10-RENDITION-Gavin Hood (Trailer)
Hollywood lifted the ban on the subject of the war against terrorism and the most liberal talent came in flocks to its call, flooding the market with a season of mediocre films, full of good intentions, that has just started. “Rendition” was maybe the best. It benefited from an awesome cast (Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep and Jake Gyllenhaal among them) and meant the Hollywood debut of former Oscar winner for “Tsotsi”, South African director Gavin Hood. Even when its political message criticizing the controversial “special detention” policies remained a little bit dim.
LOW EXPECTATIONS THAT WERE AMPLY EXCEEDED BY:
1-I AM LEGEND-Francis Lawrence (Trailer above)
Another adaptation of the classic science fiction novel written by Richard Mattheson that had already spawned two movies: “The Last Man Standing” with Vince Price and “The Omega Man” with Charlton Heston; made by the director of “Constantine” and with the ever friendly presence of the Prince of Bel Air starring was not exactly raising our hopes. But, besides a general abuse of typical horror movie tricks and a rushed ending on an oddly heroic note, the tension generated by the main character’s struggle, in the middle of an impressively deserted New York, to find a cure against the virus that has nearly destroyed mankind by turning human beings into rabid vampires, managed to kept us stuck to our seats during its more than two hours.
2-BEOWULF-Robert Zemeckis (Trailer)
Zemeckis, who hasn’t given many right steps since the times of “Forrest Gump”, kept himself busy exploiting the lucrative realms of family and animated cinema, recovered his pulse with this fantasy based in a medieval British poem. “Beowulf” didn’t stand out for the quality of its script, but for a dazzling technical innovation, spectacularly conceived to be seen in 3D and with half of Hollywood (Angelina, Anthony Hopkins, etc) eager to be turned into cartoons through a new technique combining real acting with animation.
3-BUG-William Friedkin (Trailer)
The veteran director of “The Exorcist” looked set to come back with a vengeance to his psychological terror field of expertise, counting with Ashley Judd and Harry Connick, Jr. for this theatre play adaptation in which a disturbed war veteran meets a separated woman and discovers a bug infestation in her apartment. The obsession with getting rid of the small invaders will lead to a progressive descent into the depths of madness and schizophrenia. Unfairly relegated to a second class distribution, “Bug” maintained the simplicity of a stage representation, but it was also full of nerve-wrecking scenes, unveiling the hand of a master behind them.
4-PLANET TERROR-Robert Rodríguez (Trailer)
Another one dealing with contagious bugs and gore in a clear tribute to Cronemberg’s beginnings. It was part of the “Grindhouse” double-bill in which Rodríguez and his buddy Quentin Tarantino paid respect to the B movie genre and the way they were commonly exhibited, so influential in their respective bodies of work. The two back to back movies flopped in the States and for Europe they decided to split them, trying to preserve Tarantino’s piece commercial appeal. That idea didn’t work either as a big part of the critics turned their backs on both style exercises, unsubstantially enjoyable, which would have deserved better luck at the box offices.
5-REC-Jaume Balagueró (Trailer)
Thee of the films within this list have been inspired by the idea of a rabies-like virus spreading among the population. In this third one, the new crowned king of the slasher movie in the States, Catalonian Balagueró, took advantage of the fake documentary format in order to add more realism and immediacy to its initial parody of reality TV shows disguised as everyday information. “REC” soon mutates into a zombie flick and even when this formal division prevented it from fully reaching its potential as a comedy or a horror movie, it didn’t lack of laugh-out loud or scary moments.
6-BLACK SHEEP-Jonathan King (Trailer)
Reminiscent of Peter Jackson’s first steps in “Bad Taste”, this tale of mutant sheep attacking the citizens of a small New Zealand village also contained elements of both comedy and horror. Its lack of pretension and tongue-in-cheek humor made it stand out among the many copycat movies the genre regularly spits out.
7-ENCHANTED-Kevin Lima (Trailer)
A truly enchanting Amy Adams ruled in this family feast, a Disney self-parody slightly subverting the studio’s traditional stereotypes. By curse of the evil witch (a wasted Susan Sarandon) Giselle, about to reach happily ever after status by marrying her prince charming, is taken out of the cartoon world to appear, flesh and bones, in the middle of the Big Apple, where many adventures will follow. An irony-ridden script and its efficient jumps between animation and reality provide this work with a remarkable originality that would have benefited enormously from just a bit more wickedness.
8-SPIDERMAN 3-Sam Raimi (Trailer)
We were never counted among the fans of the Spiderman saga, despite Sam Raimi’s always solid direction, a certain prissy air dominated its cast and characters, withdrawing credibility from the whole equation and reducing it to nearly a mere FX festival. That’s why when for this third offering, our hero is invaded by a strange organism submitting his will and unleashing his darker side, the final result improves in rhythm and agility shaping this sequel as the most enjoyable one in the series.
9-LIVE FREE OR DIE HARDER-Len Wiseman (Trailer)
Following 9/11, Jason Bourne and the increasingly sophisticated real-time adventures of Jack Bauer, action movies didn’t seem to offer many chances to revive obsolete glories like “Die Hard”. The idea sounded rather like the last nail in the coffin of Bruce Willis’ career, but a frantic script spiked with the typical tongue-in-cheek touches; enhancing the value of experience in a confusing world where technology and crime have reached levels beyond imagination and the pretty low average quality shared by last summer’s blockbusters conjured to get John McClane back with reasonable dignity to the multiplex theatres around the world. What will be next? The resurrection of “Rambo”?
10-BLADES OF GLORY-Josh Gordon & Will Speck (Trailer)
The thought of Will Ferrell and the lesser known US comedian Jon Heder teaming up to become Ice Skating partners was enough to start laughing (or shaking in fear). Ferrell seized the occasion to display the grossest and nastiest catalogue of jokes he’s offered in ages, while trying to establish himself as a more respected actor. Among the many low range, popcorn American comedies of 2007, this one was the funniest.