Matt reviews 2007 in Movies!

By Matt Holmes / June 27, 2012

It hasn't actually been a bad year for film after all. Infact, it's been a really good year... only marred by the crappy summer blockbusters and sequels which truly disappointed us all. Films like SPIDER-MAN 3, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 3, LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, TRANSFORMERS and THE SIMPSONS MOVIE were awful and perfect examples of movies made for no reason other than a financial opportunity. Take away the big budget tentpoles and you've got a superb year, probably the best year I have seen in film since 1999. I think you can put these movies against any other year in the history of film and they would truly stand-up. Here are the movies that keep me doing what I do, the movies that excite me for the future of film and why I don't actually think the industry has ever been more productive each year. They are in no order what-so-ever and I gave myself no limit. So there's quite a lot of movies here, much more than last year but that's because 2007 was a GREAT year for film...

THERE WILL BE BLOOD

Critics were comparing THERE WILL BE BLOOD with CITIZEN KANE long before I actually got round to seeing Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece and having now seen the film, it's hard not to mention it's similarities.

Both movies are guided by driven and selfish men, those who will use and abuse people to the ends of Earth if it gets them a fragment of what they want in life. Two larger than life characters and performances that you can't take your eyes off for a second.

In THERE WILL BE BLOOD, Daniel Day-Lewis has crafted a truly scary creature... one of the most terrifiying lead characters I think I have ever witnessed in film. More creepy than Travis Bickle or the best of Marlon Brando. This is a despicable human being, one who wants everyone to fail in the world and be the only man who succeeds.

I honestly never thought he would be able to top his performance in GANGS OF NEW YORK but here we are, five years later and hardly a role in between and he has done it again. He will win that Oscar.

A film more epic than most directors would ever dare. Truly incredible.

I AM LEGEND

Ok, so I will admit this is a far from perfect movie but it's still the best adaptation yet of Richard Matheson's classic 1950's novel and is way superior to both the Charlton Heston version and the Vincent Price one. And for the first half, it's just about the best adaptation of this tale you could imagine. Will Smith plays Robert Neville much softer and quieter than his usual starring vehicle. You feel like he has been alone for such a long time, routine and survival instincts keeping him alive. It's no life he is leading right now. But he's too much of a coward to face the alternative. If only Francis Lawrence had shown us why he did things a little more (like spray that stuff on his porch... could he not have shown us it was garlic or something that would keep out the vampires) and the movie is nearly ruined by God awful CGI. I also have a tremendous problem with the ending. But you can read all about that in my ORIGINAL REVIEW. I still say this is a very good film. JUNO A movie I really didn't expect to like one bit and after a shaky start with the "trying to be cool and hip" dialogue, the movie didn't take long to win me over. Ellen Page is a wonder here, she at times looks and acts so much older than her character but then at other points she feels extremely younger. Really enjoyed this one. INTO THE WILD

So inspiring. If there is one movie that I will constantly be yarping on about to people I'm close to, it's this one. Makes you just wanna quit your day job, throw your phone into the sea, leave all these electric gizmo's and other shit that he don't really need into the garbage truck. It's a movie you feel that Sean Penn has been wanting to tell for quite some time. It's been itching away at him and sometimes when you get so close to a project, it doesn't turn out quite as well as you would expect. That certainly isn't the case here. INTO THE WILD is a superb achievement. Penn has taken what many see as a cautious and depressing tale but turned it into a celebration of a man's life. Scratch that... life. BEOWULF I know, I know. I was going on about how crappy BEOWULF looked for months but when I did eventually end up seeing it, WOW. I was amazed by it. The CGI-motion capture technique was actually the ONLY way this classic tale of man vs. monster could have been told on screen and I found myself haunted, moved and excited by this fantasy epic like nothing in the genre since LORD OF THE RINGS. I think what this film has going for it over THE GOLDEN COMPASS and ERAGON, is how it went almost exclusively for the adult audience. This a grown up fantasy movie with very dark themes and the best damn chemistry of the year between a CGI Ray Winstone and CGI Angelina Jolie. It's a shame the trailers weren't great and this movie ended up being a financial blip for Robert Zemeckis, but it's a absolutely terrific movie. Don't miss it when it comes out on DVD. EASTERN PROMISES

I love David Cronenberg's movies and his recent career is absolutely fascinating isn't it? This is the second best directed film of the year and Cronenberg's best film he has ever shot. The way he uses Howard Shore's haunting musical score as an operatic tragedy that just flows into the film when you least expect it and there's just something amazingly fascinating about the way he has made this gangster flick. It's THE GODFATHER with Russian characters and superb sub plots with great performances and convincing accents from Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts. The cinematography, the tone, the faces, the performances and Cronenberg still managing to make us wonder about morality, the image of the body, family loyalty all mixed with his unique way of shooting violence. Even though it's an efficiently cold film that wants you to stay away from these characters, I think I will soon become addicted by this flick. GRINDHOUSE If we are talking about my favourite cinematic time in 2007, then GRINDHOUSE would absolutely be number one. This was easily the best time I had in a darkened room this year, seeing two kick ass movies back to back. The atmosphere of the fake trailers, the scratchy reels, the fake advertisements, etc. This movie will get many plays in the years to come. Read my original review of GRINDHOUSE.Read my review of the extended and international cut of DEATH PROOF. BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD

83 year old Sidney Lumet? I've never seen such a movie full of life from a veteran director who is remarkably still experimenting here with a play on the crime drama and film narrative. It feels like a debut film from a fresh new director, not a veteran who gave us the classic Henry Fonda movie12 ANGRY MEN all the way back in the 50's. This masterpiece is told in a fascinating non-linear narrative where your allegiance changes with every passing scene. It's basically a tale about how wrong a crime can go... and how far our sense or right or wrong can be pushed when your on that downward spiral to the end. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is an acting God who will astonish me with every new performance. Marisa Tomeii, HOT, HOT, HOT! ONCE I have yet to really talk about ONCE. I saw it pretty late in the day, when I got sent the DVD of this movie and I knew very little about it. I did remember reading someone's review somewhere where they mentioned it was an incredible achievement for a movie made for next to nothing but apart from that, I went into it pretty cold. It's not really like any movie I have ever seen before. It is reminiscent I guess of BEFORE SUNRISE but without the dream-like dialogue between two people who accidentally meet on a train that could only take place on film. ONCE is possibly the most inspirational film of the year, an Irish musical about a guy who is a talented musician who can busk on the streets but he hasn't got the balls to record anything in a studio to distribute it. A polish girl goes up to him, and a romantic spark happens but this isn't a romantic film per say... it's more a film about two people with a connection and who both find inspiration from each other to go out and strive for the life they want to lead. HOT FUZZ Tremendous work, a movie for film geeks made by film geeks. In many ways, this is a step-up from their work on SHAUN OF THE DEAD... the script feels tighter, smarter, it doesn't suffer from third act faults and it never fails to make you laugh. AMERICAN GANGSTER AMERICAN GANGSTER covers very little new ground in the gangster genre but it does all the old good bits well and is given to us by a superb director in a slow-building and easy to follow way. It€™s almost like a classic €˜post-modern€™ gangster flick, a movie about a genre€ and the elusive search for happiness and the American dream. What lengths would we go to be happy in life€ and is money, fame, good morals or our family the thing we should strive for? Wonderful movie. Ridley Scott's best movie in fucking years. Denzel deserves an Oscar. Read my original AMERICAN GANGSTER review. ZODIAC

I've become just as obsessed with this movie as the characters in it are obsessed with tracking down the mysterious killer of 1970's San Fransisco who murdered several victims and played with journalists and the cops on the case, before disappearing into obscurity without warning or reason. ZODIAC is David Fincher's quiestest film yet. He's gone from this "cool" visual style that almost started it's own generation in the 90's with ALIEN 3, SE7EN, FIGHT CLUB and then PANIC ROOM has been replaced by a Fincher who has gone for a total colour and tone. ZODIAC doesn't as much feel as if you are in the 70's but it feels as if you are watching a film made in the 70's and that's a terrific complaint to Fincher and his cinematographer. I still have problems with the movie but Fincher's absolute obsession with this tale and the way he has crafted together this little masterpiece should be commended. Read my original review of ZODIAC. KNOCKED UP Very, very good. In my original review I called KNOCKED UP, "the future of the rom-com", I was so praiseful of this movie. I really think it will pave the way for how this genre should go in the future. Rom-com's that don't make light out of important life events, that treat characters like real people rather than caricatures and 3:10 TO YUMA

Not really a surprise is it? I do love my Westerns, and when you have a team-up of two of my favourite actors working today along with the director of the awesome movies COP LAND and WALK THE LINE, blended with the writings of Elmore Leonard... there was no way this was going to fail. 3:10 TO YUMA is the first Western for decades that manages to mix exhilarating action sequences, a chemistry between two acting Gods and a tale that is true to the morality of a Western. Russell Crowe and Christian Bale have terrific chemistry but of course we already knew that, they are two of the best of their generation. And for those who thought that the ending didn't make any sense. You weren't watching it intently enough. Shame on you. This is an incredible film. Read my original review of 3:10 TO YUMA. THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM You know, I never thought all that much of the first two BOURNE movies. The first one was a pretty decent thriller, which came around at the right time (when BOND was struggling) but the second one... despite it's bigger ambition, I couldn't get past the way Greengrass shot it. Too shaky, too sick-inducing. It's reputation got worse in my mind when it was the single film that seemed to begin a trend that would continue through a number of action blockbusters where you just couldn't tell anything that was going on and was meant to be exciting... but it was a little dumb. It's like having a porno where the camera is always moving and you have no focus or point of reference. I've seen some sex scenes (THE JACKET) where at shots you can't even tell if it's a man's body or a woman's body you are looking at. How is that suppose to arose a feeling, and THE BOURNE SUPREMACY was spoilt by this for me. But I tell ya, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM hit me hard and kicked me to the fucking ground. I loved it. A 70's spy thriller movie updated to the modern era, with Matt Damon truly beginning to show his acting chops and putting in the performance of his career right here. Read my original review of THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

Perfect movie. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is the coldest movie of the year but it's the one that will suck you in from Tommy Lee Jones' magnificent opening monologue and won't let go of it's release of you until you've been taken on the most exciting but methodically paced cat-and-mouse movie I think I've ever seen. The Coen Brothers have adapted Cormac McCarthy's novel into a work truly of their own and not since MILLER'S CROSSING all those years ago have I actually been truly satisfied with a work of theirs. Indeed, I'm more than satisfied. I want to go back out and watch this movie on repeat 5 times running. Perfect pacing, writing, script work and you talk about a movie which plays with filmic conventions and morality. Wow. It's rare you find movies that I can't imagine it being even slightly better and this one I simply can't. Other movies I really enjoyed but I didn't quite feel like warranted a place on this list... STARDUST, GONE BABY GONE, MR BROOKS, SUPERBAD, 300 When movies like STARDUST, RATATOUILLE, KNOCKED UP, HOT FUZZ and GONE BABY GONE haven't made the list and I'm happy with what I have but I've still not seen THERE WILL BE BLOOD, SWEENEY TODD, MICHAEL CLAYTON and ACROSS THE UNIVERSE yet, you know it's been a good 12 months. So here it is. My Top Ten movies of 2007, the one's that keep me excited and the reason why I run a movie news site and don't just watch my DVD's of HITCHCOCK, LEONE, FELLINI all day...