nor Johnny Depp singing while slitting throats. A lot of the best material from 2007 was buried by critics and mainstream cinema alike in America. Nonetheless, I offer these refreshing nibbles:20. The Simpsons Movie
(animated)If you like the Simpsons, it's pretty good. It's like one kinda funny long episode. It's the last time I saw The Simpsons and it was actually funny and somewhat original.
19. Blades of Glory
(comedy)Will Farrell on ice. It's really all you need to know other than Ben Stiller joins in. It's everything you want in a movie about cutthroat figure skating.
18. Reign Over Me
(comedy/drama)Wait, Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler trying to do something serious? Yep. It's a lot better than the bury it under you marketing would have you believe. It's basically about 2 friends finding themselves in each other - platonically, that is.
17. The Italian
(foreign drama)I don't know how many kids are this stubborn, but this boy decides that rather than go live with some wealthy Italians in Italy, he'd rather eat gulag and find his birth mother that gave him up.
16. Curse of the Golden Flower
(foreign action)It's kind of like Lord of the Rings meets Oedipus Rex in this mainland Chinese epic. A bit more absurd for my taste, but the acting is pretty good.
15. Beowulf
(animated fantasy)A real treat for all the English teachers out there who love seeing an old classic adapted. Especially so they can lambast it for decades as inaccurate to the original text to their students.
14. Knocked Up
(comedy)It's the classic loser who gets the hot girl story. Well wait, that's the part that's the accident in the first act.
13. Persepolis
(foreign animated drama)Ah those French, making a movie about serious stuff like the Iranian revolution and its effects on a young girl who moves to France.
12. Hot Fuzz
(action comedy)Another great in the line of British action comedies. B-movie action sensibilities and A-movie comedic performances.
11. There Will Be Blood
(drama)Daniel Day Lewis returns to acting once again after time in Italy as a show cobbler and decides to have a milkshake. A semi-fictitious tale of the life of an oil baron.
10. Sicko
(documentary)I half expected the documentary to be about uninsured in America. It's not. It's about how even WITH insurance we're screwed.
9. Charlie Wilson's War
(comedy/drama)Strange that one of the lighter roles Tom Hanks has played in recent years has "war" in the title. This is the American side of what set up the decades of war in Afghanistan.
8. 300
(action)Call it the Greek pride in me, but I really dig the classic story of a few hundred Greeks holding their own against the invading Persian army. It's the original Alamo story, thousands of years before the Alamo.
7. I Am Legend
(science fiction)A rare big name movie on top, starring Will Smith as he fights off futuristic zombies and wanders around a barren NYC. The movie is creepy for no other reason that the visual effect of creating an unpopulated New York City.
6. The Orphanage
(foreign horror)Take Peter Pan and the Lost Boys and move it into an orphanage. Lose the Oliver Twist and add some scare.
5. The Bourne Ultimatum
(action)The third movie in the Bourne trilogy and the first I had seen. I got it right away. Like the recent Bond movies, it exudes intelligence over smarmy characterization.
4. Ratatouille
(animation)Dear Pixar, thanks for making a movie to punish me for watching on an empty stomach. If you're into animation, it's another classic.
3. No Country For Old Men
(drama)There is no greater villain in a movie this year than Javier Bardem's guy. A classic Coen Brother movie in every sense, except incredibly intense.
2. Sunshine
(science fiction)The sci-fi movie of the year that manages to make actual horrors in space the horrors of the movie. It's certainly the best at that since 2001: A Space Odyssey
.1. The King of Kong
(documentary)Have you been craving an 80's movie that you haven't seen recently? How about a newer movie that actually channels 80's movie clichés? Stop here and go no further.
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