Year in consumables: 2007 movies

Even though I made a great headstart on this series for 2007 (see music post), I fell off the pace and I am now behind my awful showing last year. So, I figured on this dreary, rainy Saturday night, I would blast this one out and then… go watch a movie.

So, unlike last year, I watched a good amount of Netflix movies too. (Just prior to last year’s post I was inspired to reactivate my long dormant membership.) Now, I have a tough decision to make… do I include those here? Obviously I am going to speak to the movies released in the theaters during the year, but what about those I missed there and caught on Netflix instead? I think I will include those, but of course, only those I have seen so far. I won’t come back here and update as I do so.

Wait… this is supposed to be a top 5 list… argh. Well, here’s what I’ll do… I’ll do the top 5 and if anything breaks in there, I’ll post an update somewhere… as its own post or update here and announce in an aside or something. Yeah… plan is set.

Because I was a lazier blogger this year, I didn’t post “thoughts” on most of the movies this year as I saw them, so I’ll list those that I did take in now. Ten flicks were in the theater and two were Netflixd and have an (N): 300, Spider-Man 3, Knocked Up, Evan Almighty, License to Wed, Transformers, The Simpsons Movie, Superbad, Juno, I Am Legend, The Ex (N), The Bourne Ultimatum (N).

Yeah, I know that list is a little scary… I’m looking at you Evan and License… (both in the theater???) I have no excuse for Evan, but License because I dig Mandy Moore and Jim (John Krasinski)… and The Ex, well everyone knows I have a man-crush on Zach Braff, right?

Anyway, here’s the top five list:

  1. Juno: I actually didn’t catch this until January, but it was great. It won best screenplay at some big awards show that nobody watched, no? Well, any new words the kids are saying these days I already forgot, but it was better than an episode of Gilmore Girls. I say that in the girls say a lot all at once, like Gilmore (or Dawson’s Creek before it), but it sounds way better… not that Gilmore or Dawson were like long, painful George Lucas dialogs… yikes. Anyway, Ellen Page is way cute too. Jason Bateman did the smarmy character that seems to be his norm lately (see The Ex). Thought J.K. Simmons was great as Juno’s dad and Jennifer Garner wasn’t too annoying. Oh where have you gone Sydney Bristow? Only thing that would have made it better was more than one trip to Rainn Wilson’s convenience store. If you haven’t seen it yet, rent it!
  2. Knocked Up: Scary. The top two movies deal with pregnancy? Yikes! Well, at least both aren’t too serious about it… I guess. If I’m not mistaken, the Year of Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen starts here. These two guy’s are all over everything from here until stuff coming out later this year. In fact, it is most of the stuff I want to see that doesn’t fit in the “Gotta see it in the theater” category. Anyway, Katherine Heigl can actually act, Paul Rudd continues to shine as a supporting actor and Rogen is the man.
  3. The Bourne Ultimatum: Okay, I only had to Netflix this one because I didn’t know anyone that had seen the previous two to drag with me. I myself hadn’t checked them out until just before the third’s theatrical release, but I couldn’t go it alone. Not that I haven’t, just didn’t want to spend the money these days… why be annoyed in a theater by yourself when you can rock it at home, plus this one is on the cusp of need-to-see-in-theater-action. Anyway, the talk of a fourth (despite there not being a fourth Bourne book) is warrented. I am sad to think the series is over. What Matt Damon brings to the Bourne character puts him on par with a 007. No doubt and it is clear that the 007 folks brought some influences from the first two Bourne‘s into last year’s Casino Royale (my top pick last year). For a fourth movie, I think they could do a prequel and really flesh out his life before he started to realize it was a lie. Flesh out the (unfortunately) throwaway line that Nikki had about her dealing with him at that time. (It seemed ripe with possibility that wasn’t explored here.) Any excuse to see Julia Stiles is a good one, as long as it is the non-stick-figure variety.
  4. I Am Legend: The last movie I saw last year and Will Smith was great. I might be too old and fragile to see movies like this in the theater though. I was on the edge of, or squirming in, my seat almost the entire time, not to mention almost breaking out in tears twice! I didn’t know anything about the novel upon which it was based, so I didn’t have any preconceptions of what it should have been. Apparently there were some rumblings about it not being true to the novel (or previous movie adaptations), but reading a little in Wikipedia, it seems close enough. Fanboys need to get over it. The same is true for…
  5. Transformers: Okay, so this one gets the nod over 300 and The Simpsons Movie. In fact, it was really hard to pick it over Homer and Spider-Pig, but I had to do it. This was what a Summer Popcorn Flick is all about. Big robots, Megan Fox and… what was I saying? Oh, yeah, well she’s down a bunch of notches for being with Brian Austin-Green… yuck. Anyway, I took the film for what it was and not what it wasn’t. It wasn’t the cartoon. It wasn’t the animated movie (which was probably better). It wasn’t the toys. It wasn’t the comics. It was its own thing and it was good at it. The sequel will rock just as hard I hope.

That’s the list. I might watch Blades of Glory tonight, but it won’t crack it. I’m pretty sure. Dammit.

Oh, and in reading the post from last year, I find it funny that I had Pirates so high, which it deserved to be, but by the time the third one rolled around, I was not nearly as interested in seeing it. If they kept it the original six months apart, I bet I would have seen it, but as of right now, it is number 114 in my Netflix queue without much hope of being bumped up…

See Juno(!) and let me know what your favorite movie(s) were from last year in the comments.