Well, I hit 90 movies for 2007, so I decided to start my countdown now. As some of you know from the past two years, I post 10 movies at a time, starting with the worst and working my way toward the best. While 90 is a lot of movies, there are obviously many more that I didn't see. Ten not on this list (but that I will be seeing) are "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," "Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "The Savages," "I'm Not There," "Persepolis," "Control," "Lars and the Real Girl," "Starting Out in the Evening," Ten Canoes" and "This is England." So with no further ado ...
90. "300": Let's set aside the rather disturbing political and social subtext for a moment. This film is still bad. The dialogue is clunky and giggle inducing. The action sequences appear designed by someone most at home in front of a video game, given how each wave of the battle they face an increasingly tougher foe, occasionally with a "big bad" built in. The sloganeering is stupid. The emotional depth is naught. Most disturbing is the involvement of Dominic West as the mustache-twirling Spartan traitor. He's Jimmy freakin' McNulty for crying out loud. Yes, the film does look cool, but that's about the only good thing I can say for it.
89. "Evan Almighty": Maybe its heart is in the right place, but it still isn't the least bit funny. It takes work to make Steve Carell and Lauren Graham, two genuine comedic talents, this unfunny. Did I mention I didn't laugh?
88. "Smiley Face": While I was rather lukewarm on Gregg Araki's "Mysterious Skin," at least that film seemed to have a point (and helped show people Joseph Gordon Levitt is a legitimate acting talent). Araki's latest outing is the anti-"Harold and Kumar": a stoner comedy with plenty of pot but very few legitimate laughs. Anna Faris gives it her all, but other than the occasional amusing scene, there's not much here. Often simply annoying.
87. "Reno 911": The show can be guilty-pleasure funny at times. The problem is, the film packed roughly the same number of laughs as a 22-minute episode into a feature-length film. Yes, some parts are laugh-out-loud funny (including a scene with a chicken), but too many of the jokes simply bomb ... badly.
86. "Beowulf": CGI Angelina Jolie notwithstanding, this film is not nearly the visual achievement that "300" is and its first half is, if anything, even more eye-rollingly over-the-top. So why is this movie at least a little better than its similarly animated counterpart? Remember that subtext I briefly mentioned with "300"? Well, in its second half, "Beowulf" seems to acknowledge that the glory-seeking machismo trumpeted throughout "300" and the first half of this movie is a dangerous load of crap.
85. "Nancy Drew": This was not going to be one of my favorite movies anyway, but it might have been significantly more bearable if not for Josh Flitter. Given the fact that he's only 13, I'll refrain from getting meaner.
84. "Shrek 3": Is this probably a few places lower than it deserves? Yah, probably. But still, remember the typewriter in the "Atonement" soundtrack? They might as well have scored this thing with a cash register. Seemingly cynically soulless and crassly commercial, this film just left a bad taste in my mouth. At least when Disney plunders their classics they have the decency to release the result direct to video.
83. "Blades of Glory": I enjoyed "Napoleon Dynamite." I really did. But am I awful for suggesting that maybe it's time for Jon Heder to go away? At the very least, put him in movies better-suited to his particular comedic energy. What laughs there are here come mostly from supporting players Amy Poehler, Will Arnett and Jenna Fischer of "The Office." If you're looking for a funny Will Ferrell film, watch "Talladega Nights" ... or "Elf" ... or heck, even "Anchorman."
82. "Margot at the Wedding": Bitter and depressing does not always equal deep and thoughtful. Sometimes it's just bitter and depressing. Only Jennifer Jason Leigh resonates as even remotely human. It's not interesting, not moving and not the least bit enjoyable (three things that couldn't be said for "Margot" director Noah Baumbach's previous film "The Squid and the Whale." And will Nicole Kidman ever make another movie that I legitimately like. It's going on seven years since "The Others" came out (I don't count "Cold Mountain," because it was Jude Law's half that made the movie.
81. "28 Weeks Later": One of a series of disappointing sequels, this one is made even more so by the fact that the beginning is absolutely brilliant. Once the actual horror movie section starts, however, the movie goes downhill fast. You think it's going to develop thematically. It doesn't. You think it might recapture some of the ensemble magic that helped lift "28 Days Later" far above most of its horror brethren. Not even close. When one zombie starts acting in ways that seem to violate everything you saw in the previous movie, you know you've got some desperation going on. Rent the original instead.
Next up is 80-71, including several big-budget mediocrities and a few big disappointments.
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1 comment:
I only watched 10 minutes of "Smiley Face." If you made it through the whole thing, that's quite an achievement.
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