thevoid99's Best of Films 2007 Pt. I
Feb 23 '09
The Bottom Line 2007 was a Good Year for Films Despite its Array of Bloated Blockbusters & Bad Comedies.
(Writer's Note: The following were written back in early 2008 and was completed back in March of 2008 with some new revisions)
Part I: Introduction & Overview of the Year 2007
The year 2006 was considered to be a year that some said was underwhelming. Though the Oscar season that followed proved to be exciting, it wasn't enough to say that 2006 was in some ways. 2006 was a year of disappointment of sorts as filmgoers had hoped that 2007 would be a much better year. Well, was it? To sum it up an answer, not really. In fact, 2007 was much worse despite the fact that there were a lot of good films that came out in 2007. The problem was that it was overwhelmed by a slew of bloated blockbuster films in which a lot of them were sequels not to mention films that catered to the lowest common denominator. In many ways, 2007 was a year where the film-going audience became divided as the portion of audiences who are serious film fanatics, buffs, or even snobs have become baffled by the lack of substance that came out in 2007. If 2007 had another description. It was the year the film buffs got baffled by what mainstream audiences want and what Hollywood choose to deliver.
2007 started off very badly with a slew of low-brow comedies in the form of the spoof film Epic Movie and the Eddie Murphy comedy Norbit. Another film that also came out early that year was the comic-book adaptation of Ghost Rider starring Nicolas Cage. While all three films did well in the box office, the film received negative reviews from critics. Some claimed that Norbit, despite its success in the box office, cost Eddie Murphy his chance to win an Oscar for Dreamgirls. Ghost Rider meanwhile, got a lot of bad reviews from fans of the comic book while some audiences became baffled by Nicolas Cage's film choices that would follow in two more critically-bashed films with Next and National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets in which the latter became a box office hit at the end of 2007. Yet, there was still hope for some audiences in the form of some widely anticipated releases in the summer.
David Fincher's long-delayed Zodiac and Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan were both critical hits but neither of them found an audience while the British comedy Hot Fuzz from the team of Shaun of the Dead proved to be a hit. Yet, two films that were coming out of the spring with high anticipation were set to be released. Zack Snyder's film adaptation of Frank Miller's 300 about the Spartans fighting the Persians in the infamous Battle of Thermopylae was a massive hit with its visual effects and gratuitous violence. Another film that was widely anticipated by critics and film buffs was the Quentin Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez double-billed film Grindhouse. The film featuring Rodriguez's zombie film Planet Terror, Tarantino's car-crash thriller Death Proof plus a slew of faux trailers by Rodriguez, Rob Zombie, Eli Roth, and Edgar Wright was meant to create an experience of a double feature that hadn't been done since the 1970s.
Unfortunately, the film proved to be a huge commercial failure as it was released around the Easter weekend as it was beaten by none other than the widely-panned Ice Cube family comedy Are We Done Yet? as even some of American cinema's premier directors like Kevin Smith were baffled by its failure. The failure of Grindhouse forced its two films to be released on DVD separately and in extended versions while in Europe and all over the world, audiences didn't get to see the two films along with its faux trailers seen. Yet with the summer film season looming, audiences were awaiting the release of the widely-anticipated blockbuster Spider-Man 3. With returning franchise cast members Tobey McGuire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, J.K. Simmons, Rosemary Harris, and director Sam Raimi at the helm once again. The film was given a lot of hype as many hoped it would be better than its predecessors as it also featured Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, and Bryce Dallas Howard.
Though Spider-Man 3 did break box offices records in its opening weekend, the response to the film however proved to be mixed as audiences found themselves to be disappointed. Yet, the response to Spider-Man 3 would prove that the 2007 summer blockbuster season was going to be a long one. With three-quels coming for films like Shrek the 3rd, Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End, Rush Hour 3, and The Bourne Ultimatum. The only film that got both critical acclaim and box office was The Bourne Ultimatum thanks to Matt Damon's star power and director Paul Greengrass who had been riding high the previous year for his work in United 93. Yet, the rest of the three-quels along with sequels for The Fantastic Four, Die Hard, and a fifth film for the Harry Potter franchise proved to be overwhelming.
While Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix was a hit film, it would later be overshadowed by the release of its final book in the series for Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows eight days later. Yet, other summer releases from studios proved to be hit and miss. Miss in the case of young actress Lindsay Lohan as her tabloid-fueled persona and party-girl lifestyle finally got her in trouble as her two films, Georgia Rule and I Know Who Killed Me both died at the box office while also being savaged by critics. Still, films from studios were continuing to put out blockbuster after blockbuster as Michael Bay scored a huge hit with Transformers despite mixed reviews from critics and filmgoers. Yet, as audiences became overwhelmed. There were a few films that did get attention though weren't released in every theater.
Films like the Sundance hit Once proved to have staying power through word-of-mouth as did the comedy Waitress by the late Adrienne Shelly. German auteur Werner Herzog scored a modest hit in Rescue Dawn starring Christian Bale that gave the director his first wide-release film since 1982's Fitzcarraldo. While other art-house films like Kasi Lemmons' Talk to Me, the anthology film Paris, Je T'aime, and Danny Boyle's Sunshine were art-house hits. When the summer season was starting to end, there was high anticipation for films of the fall as it was the season for renowned directors to make their mark as the Oscar season was to begin.
Unfortunately, the fall season proved to be a year that was very mixed with films like David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises and Sean Penn's Into the Wild getting some great attention. Yet, other releases didn't do as well as Julie Taymor's highly-anticipated Beatles musical Across the Universe finally was released following a dispute with Revolution Studios head Joe Roth. Though Taymor finally did release her cut of the film, the response to the film divided critics and audiences with some calling it a visual delight while others called it a mess. Around the same time, films that featured female leads like Jodie Foster in Neil Jordan's The Brave One and Cate Blanchett reprising her role as Queen Elizabeth in Elizabeth: The Golden Age received mixed reviews and disappointing box office receipts. While films made for the Oscars that included Things We Lost in the Fire didn't get a wide audience despite critical acclaim.
One group of films that concerned about Iraq and politics also received a huge hit in the throat from audiences. Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah, Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs, Brian de Palma's Redacted, and Gavin Hood's Rendition were all released in the fall of 2007 but none of them were seen by a wide audience as they were ignored while reviews for all those films ranged from mixed to negative. Some say that timing proved to be its hurting factor as the war in Iraq still ranged on as audiences seemed to be tired of political-driven films. Instead, audiences flocked to more lighter fare that included the hit film Enchanted.
Despite the lack of substance that surrounded the cinema, there were however a few individuals and genres that managed to standout. If 2007 was a great year for someone, that person would be Judd Apatow. Following his 2005 feature-film debut as a director with The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Apatow followed up that film with 2007 surprise hit with Knocked Up. The film was a critical and commercial smash that proved that Apatow can mix raunchy humor with heartfelt stories about adults. The success of Knocked Up that featured a group of his regular actors including wife Leslie Mann, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jason Segal, and Kristen Wiig. The success of Knocked Up spawned another hit from Apatow as he produced Greg Mottola's comedy Superbad that was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg while starring Rogen, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Superbad was another smash as the film was a teen comedy that had more raunchy more and boisterous language that it became another hit.
While Knocked Up and Superbad were both hits, Apatow seemed to do no wrong until December when he and director Jake Kasdan released the music bio-pic spoof Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story failed at the box office despite good reviews and a Golden Globe nomination for its star John C. Reilly. Yet, as comedies continued to aim for cheap laughs and gimmicks. Judd Apatow proved that comedies can be smart while also appealing to a mass audience with raunchy humor that is relevant to adults.
While comedies continue to do well, one genre that started to make an unexpected comeback is the Western. Throughout the Golden Age of Cinema from the 1920s to 1950s, the western was an American institution that moviegoers loved to flock to. When television arrived, the genre hit a dent and by the 1960s, American studios were making less and less. While the genre was reinvented by Italian directors like Sergio Leone, it would achieve a new sense of nihilism in the films of Sam Peckinpah in the late 60s and early 70s. Yet, as American cinema progressed, the genre was losing relevance until 1992's Oscar-winning film Unforgiven by Clint Eastwood was release. Yet, 15 years since that film, there were few films of that genre that stood out. Then in 2006, Australian director John Hillcoat and screenwriter Nick Cave released The Proposition where some claimed the genre was starting to make a comeback.
That proved to be very evident in a slew of films that realized that the Western is never going to go away. In September of 2007, two westerns were released. The first was James Mangold's remake of the 1950s western 3:10 to Yuma that starred Russell Crowe and Christian Bale playing the respective roles that Glenn Ford and Van Heflin played 50 years before. The film proved to be a smash hit with audiences, critics, and fans of the genre. Later that month but on a limited release, Andrew Dominik released The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford starring Brad Pitt as James and Casey Affleck as Ford. While the film wasn't seen by a mass audience, the film was praised for Affleck's laconic performance as well as Roger Deakins' gorgeous cinematography.
Two months later, U.S. audience saw the genre come alive again in the modern world by novelist Cormac McCarthy. The film was No Country for Old Men that was adapted for the screen and directed by Joel & Ethan Coen. After two recent disappointing comedies a few years ago, the Coen Brothers came back with a vengeance at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival with a visceral film about a bounty hunter trying to find lost money stolen by a former Vietnam veteran as a laconic sheriff is investigating the crime. No Country for Old Men was a smash both critically and commercially as audiences were shocked to see a new villain in the form of Anton Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem, as the film was in many ways the western told in the modern world as Tommy Lee Jones' sheriff character becomes baffled by the world he's surrounded by.
Another film that was set in the American west though not part of the western genre was There Will Be Blood that marked the return of director Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, the film was an exploration of greed in the early 20th Century during the early days of the oil industry. The film also drew rave reviews as well as audiences were wowed by Day-Lewis' powerful and engaging performance as well as the imagery of Anderson and cinematographer Robert Elswit as it was accompanied by the intense score of Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. The film marked a departure for Anderson as his work that was known for intertwining storylines with characters connected to another along with themes of existentialism and nostalgia were traded for more harrowing themes of greed and deception.
With one genre in the western that is starting to make a comeback. Another genre has found itself starting to lose ground in some respects which is the bio-pic, notably the music bio-pic. While 2004 saw the success of Taylor Hackford's Ray Charles' bio-pic Ray and a year later, James Mangold's Walk the Line about Johnny Cash. The genre was successful yet had a formula that was starting to become cliched. While films like La Vie En Rose about French singer Edith Piaf and Anton Corbijn's Control about the late Joy Division singer Ian Curtis managed to find a small audience as well as acclaim. The two films were subjects on obscure singers who weren't known to the mainstream. Another music bio-pic that came out in 2007 was El Cantante about the legendary Salsa singer Hector Lavoe played by Marc Anthony. The film however, didn't do well with audiences or critics as many felt the film was trapped into the same formula of music bio-pics while director Leon Ichaso used styles that were done in previous films.
It was clear that the music bio-pic was inevitable for parody that was unveiled in the film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Yet, around the same time, a bio-pic about Bob Dylan was about to be released by director Todd Haynes. When word got out that Haynes used six different actors to play the legendary singer-songwriter, it was clear that it wasn't going to be some regular bio-pic. Instead, Haynes created a film that was the anti bio-pic as he named his Bob Dylan film after a bootleg entitled I'm Not There. Starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw, and Marcus Carl Franklin as seven incarnations of Bob Dylan through different periods of his life. The film was told in an unconventional style that baffled most mainstream audiences yet the film did give the genre what it needed as it was starting to become stale.
Yet with trends coming in and out, another trend that's been taking notice is films about pregnancy. Comedies like Knocked Up and Adrienne Shelly's Waitress both found praise from critics and audiences as each film took a pro-life approach into the idea of raising a child through unexpected pregnancy. While Knocked Up was a raunchier film, Waitress was a light-hearted, sweet film that had a feminist-message of sorts from the late Adrienne Shelly who had been murdered in late 2006. The success of Waitress was a surprise yet it was bittersweet that Shelly never got the chance to enjoy it. Another film that was a surprise, sleeper hit that came out late in 2007 was Jason Reitman's comedy Juno. Juno was a film about a teenage girl who got pregnant and decided to give away the child to a yuppie couple. Written by newcomer Diablo Cody and starring Ellen Page, the film was a smash thanks to a quirky soundtrack and witty dialogue helmed by Page's surprising and funny performance.
While American comedies about pregnancy took a pro-life approach, one film from Romania took the other approach. Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks, & 2 Days about an illegal abortion set in the final days of Communist Romania was a worldwide hit as the film won the Palme D'or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. After being a festival hit in the U.S., the film got a release in late 2007 and early 2008 in the U.S. as it won several foreign-film prizes from critics. Despite its acclaim, the film however did not receive an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign-Language Film. Still, its success international marked some surprise success in films like France's Persepolis and The Diving Bell & the Butterfly as well as Spain's The Orphanage to get seen by American audiences.
While international cinema continued to flourish, on July 30, 2007, the film world in general lost two of Europe's most renowned and influential directors in Italy's Michelangelo Antonioni and Sweden's Ingmar Bergman. The two directors changed the face of cinema in the 1960s as Antonioni explored alienation with films like L'Avventura and L'Eclisse along with Blow-Up. Bergman meanwhile, was more regarded than Antonioni as his films that included The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Cries & Whispers, and Fanny & Alexander explored themes of faith, existentialism, and alienation. The two directors have been influential to the young filmmakers that followed them including Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese. The loss of Antonioni and Bergman proved to be sad to filmmakers all over the world as two masters are now gone.
2007 was a sign that audiences were getting dumber as the world of art house films were struggling to compete with mainstream films. Even mainstream films were starting to lose their touch as more money is spent to create huge spectacles that proved to be empty. Though it wasn't a fantastic year in comparisons to its predecessors but not a bad year either. 2007 still offered some great moments.
Best of Films 2007 Pt. II
Best of Films 2007 Pt. III
Best of Films 2007 Pt. IV
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
thevoid99
|
 - Top 100 |
|
Member: Steven Flores
Location: Smyrna, Georgia
Reviews written: 1552
Trusted by: 439 members
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.