2007 in Film (a.k.a. Filmography: BamBi Edition)

Telf did this a while ago, and I've been meaning to do an equivalent post since I read his. Essentially I'll try to sum up my thoughts on every film I saw that was released in 2007, trying to keep it under twenty five words for each. I'll also give a score out of ten in the same way Telf did.

Spider-Man 3
Generally enjoyable, and I didn't dislike the comic style of dark Peter Parker as much as others seem to have. 7/10

Blades Of Glory
Some very funny parts. Heder steals the show, Ferrell is funny but going through the motions. 6/10

300
Visually mind-blowing, strong performances and story-telling, and the script is less distractingly cheesy the second time round. Excellent. 9/10

Zodiac
An excellent film with fine performances from Gyllenhaal and Downey Jr. Gripping storyline with staunch realism. A little overlong, and occasionally muddled however. 8/10

Blood Diamond
A great mix of action and drama, with some international politics thrown in. The cast are great, and the film kept me gripped throughout. 8/10

Hostel: Part II
Not as good as the first film, and a few of the extreme scenes feel unnecessary. Still a good story and a well made film however. 7/10

Ocean's Thirteen
Just as enjoyable, slick and humorous as the first film. The returning cast are all excellent, and Pacino is of course superb. 8/10

Die Hard 4.0 (Live Free Or Die Hard)
Standard action fare, with Willis back doing what he does so very well. Well made, great fun. 7/10

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
Having now read all the books, this comes across as too chopped up and watered down. Okay, but not great. 5/10

The Simpsons Movie
Not as good as the "classic" Simpsons episodes, but so much better than the tripe they churn out now. Very funny. 8/10

Transformers
The action sequences were too few and came across as muddled. A wasted opportunity, especially when doing slapstick with expensive CGI robots. 4/10

Knocked Up
An enjoyable and well made comedy. Paul Rudd steals the show in his scenes. Consistently funny, occasionally a little over-sentimental. 7/10

Notes On A Scandal
Judi Dench shows how brilliant she is. A chilling and gripping story. An excellent film. 8/10

Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End
Depp reprises his role well, but on the whole the film feels too long, confusing and uninteresting. 5/10

Hot Fuzz
Brilliant parody, character comedy, observational humour and action film. Excellent. 8/10

The Illusionist
A good film, but one that I was hoping would be a lot better, so a little disappointing. Enjoyable however. Norton is great, Giamatti superb. 7/10

28 Weeks Later
A different type of film to the first, but still very good, only occasionally becoming a little cliched in its devices. 7/10

Superbad
Enjoyable, but not great. Some parts are hilarious, others feel largely pointless. Very hit-and-miss. 6/10

Run, Fat Boy, Run
Overwhelmingly average and safe throughout, with a couple of fairly funny parts. Painfully disappointing from Pegg. 5/10

Day Watch (Dnevnoi Dozor)
Just as enjoyable as Night Watch. Very stylish and well written. Excellent. 8/10

The All Together
Confused and amateurish throughout. Freeman and Dyer go through the motions. Startlingly dark in places, but overall not good. 4/10

Ratatouille
The animation can't be faulted, as it gets better in each Pixar film. The story lacked focus, the characters depth. The ending seemed rushed. Fairly enjoyable however. 6/10

American Gangster
Solid throughout with some fabulous scenes and characters. Washington and Crowe are both excellent. A great film. 8/10

Beowulf
A gripping and unique take on the story. Great throughout, with amazing CGI and a wealth of excellent performances. 8/10

Daft Punk's Electroma
Occasionally a little slow and self-indulgent, but some beautiful cinematography and a captivating yet simple story make this a great film. 8/10

We Own The Night
Some great performances throughout and an excellent story for the first half. The film loses its way in the second half however, with a couple of decidedly dodgy plot turns. 6/10

I Am Legend
The first three quarters are excellent. Then it becomes your basic Hollywood action film which is a shame. Will Smith gives a great performance throughout. 7/10

I've not mentioned any of the films I saw for the first time this year, but weren't released this year. I may do that in another entry, but we shall see.

Goodbye 2007

I want to do some kind of record of the stuff I've seen/done this year, but can't really think of a good way of doing it, so I'm just going to stick a load of things down as 'favourites' in various categories. Feel free to suggest other categories, or do your own, or whatever, either way, I reserve the right to add to/alter this over the next few days/weeks:

Best film I saw at the cinema in 2007:
Michael Clayton
(runners up: 300, The Bourne Ultimatum, This is England)

300 and the third Bourne film were both hugely entertaining films, exciting and adrenaline-fueled throughout, but I enjoyed the twisting storyline of Michael Clayton even more. George Clooney impresses me more and more with his willingness to produce and act in some really interesting and complex films.

Best film I saw (for the first time) on DVD in 2007:
Children of Men
(runners up: The Believer, Big Fish, Crash)

Can't believe I waited this long to see Crash and Big Fish, both of which are excellent. The Believer is much less well known (it seems) than it should be, but is brilliantly dark and has a fantastic performance from Ryan Gosling in the title role. Children of Men gets my vote, overall, though for providing an incredibly gritty view of future Britain, awesome cinematography, and an exciting, dark, story.

Best DVD extras I experienced in 2007:
Sin City (Recut and Extended).

Great mini-documentaries, two commentaries, all three stories in full, the original film without post-processing and the mandatory 10-minute cooking school. Plus a paper copy of The Hard Goodbye.

Best TV show that I saw for the first time in 2007:
The Wire (season 1)
(runners up: Robot Chicken (s1-3), Frisky Dingo (s1-2), Long way round (and Long Way Down))

Robot Chicken is the funniest programme, Frisky Dingo the most interesting programme and Long Way Round the best documentary I saw this year, but the Wire gets the overall choice. Despite its potentially fast-paced setting, it is willing to take its time and make you care about the characters on both sides of the case. The slow build up over several episodes makes it feel like a real police investigation, and it's not afraid to get its hands dirty in the darker side of the story too. Looking forward to seeing season 2.

Best single of the year (even though I know nothing about music):
Grace Kelly - Mika
(runner up: About you now - Sugababes, Shine - Take That)

Yeah, I'm a sucker for catchy pop tunes. I've really liked pretty much everything Mika has come out with so far, though, which is unusual for me and any one artist.

Most annoying song of the year:
Beautiful girls - Sean Kingston

Two girls played it repeatedly at full volume on a mobile phone on the back seat of a bus for 45 minutes. Like, no break, no change in song, just that one over and over and over again...

Best artist I started listening to this year:
They Might Be Giants

Weird, catchy alt-rock, that defies categorisation thanks to its variety. Perfect music to have on while travelling, less good for working, because it's so distracting. 'Istanbul (not Constantinople)', 'Doctor Worm' and 'Birdhouse in your soul' are probably my faves atm.

Best live show I saw this year:
Stephen Lynch

Also the only live show I saw this year, but that shouldn't detract from it's clear dominance over this field. Was amazing to see him in such a small venue, and, though he didn't have a huge amount of new material, his old stuff got more than a good reception. Unnecessary surgery dude...

Best game I played this year:
Portal
(runner up: Half Life 2: Episode 2, TF2) (Technically the Orange Box was the only game I bought this year, so choices were restricted).

Incredibly funny for a game with such a simple concept to it. Worth it for the credits song alone. Yahtzee got it spot on here, so I don't need to say any more. The developer's commentary is brilliant as ever - Valve clearly think a huge amount about every step of the design process, and it shows.

Most time wasted this year:
www.kongregate.com
(runner up: facebook)

Best podcast I started listening to this year:
Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Reviews

Best blog I started reading this year:
Worse than Failure
(runner up: Awkward things I say to girls)

Special mention for best RSS feed that's not really a blog:
Zero Punctuation
(runner up: The Superest)

Filmography

As promised this morning, these are the films I saw at the cinema in 2007 in approximately the order I saw them. I used this list to construct them, and the final set seems strangely small, so it's possible I have missed some out. Let me know if you spot any and I'll add them in.

The films are all listed as having had their UK cinema release in 2007, but two of them I technically saw on DVD. I tried to keep the comment under 25 words for each one, and think I pulled it off pretty well:

Rocky Balboa
I probably missed something through not having seen the other films, but this never felt exciting or interesting. 4/10

Blood Diamond
Leo is great and apart from a couple of silly action scenes, the whole thing hangs together well. 9/10

Hot Fuzz
Good but not great. Some funny moments, but loses something by having an accomplished protagonist. 6/10

The Illusionist
Entertaining story: more down-to-earth than the Prestige, but without the darkness of that film. 7/10

300
Brilliant comic-book epic. Allow yourself along for the ride and it's exhilarating stuff. 9/10

Blades Of Glory
Sub-par Ferrell vehicle. Some good jokes, but I just didn't care about any of the characters. 4/10

Shooter
Wahlberg is great, and the first hour is slick and exciting. Then Danny Glover comes along. 3/10

This Is England
Dark and gritty - Stephen Graham is brilliant and its an interesting take on the issues involved. 8/10

Spider-Man 3
Disappointingly unfocused. Doesn't know whether it's trying to be slapstick or dark.
4/10

Transformers
Great visuals, but I just don't care about wise-cracking robots falling over. 4/10

Conversations With Other Women
Funny and touching. Very original presentation pulled off well. A nice package that doesn't stretch itself. 8/10

Magicians
Distressingly unfunny. They can do so much better and it hurts to see them fail. 3/10

Zodiac
Great moody and oppressive thriller. Lags towards the end, but just about keeps us interested. 8/10

Pirates Of The Caribbean 3: At World's End
Depp is great. Most of the rest is forgettable. Too much random mythology pulled out of nowhere. 5/10

Shrek The Third
Terrible in comparison to its forebears. Has some funny moments, but no focus. 4/10

Die Hard 4.0
Enjoyable in a brain-switched-off kind of way. Less about the personalities and more about the effects, which is a pity. 5/10

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
Meh. 5/10

The Simpsons Movie
Very funny. Expansive storyline and the return of Hank Scorpio (in all but name). 8/10

The Bourne Ultimatum
Fantastically taut thriller. Great set-pieces and manages to stay the right side of believeable. Just. 9/10

Knocked Up
Funny, and at least tries to do more than just feed the audience one liners. 7/10

Atonement
Great acting and a very moving story thoroughly well told. 9/10

Run, Fat Boy, Run
Sappy and stupid. Has one funny scene, and spends the rest of the time firmly on the rom-com-rails. 3/10

Michael Clayton
Great thriller. George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson are excellent and the script manages to guide us easily through a complex story. 9/10

Day Watch (Dnevnoi Dozor)
Exciting and strange. Made me want to read the books. 7/10

The Counterfeiters
Slow, but with a great script. Makes you question whether you could do the right thing. 8/10

Rendition
Dark story with twists that come together really well. Makes you question whether you could do the right thing. 8/10

Lions For Lambs
Slow moving but rewarding. Glossy rather than passionate. Makes you question whether there even is a right thing to do. 8/10

American Gangster
Interesting biopic with great action scenes. Ending feels rushed, but lead performances are great. 8/10

Rescue Dawn
Let down by poor special effects and cringeworthy ending, but the whole middle section is brilliantly done. 7/10

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Very slow, but builds tension brilliantly. Affleck almost outshines Pitt, and the attention to detail sells it. 9/10

We Own The Night
Good in patches, but loses its way. There's a dark, interesting film there somewhere, but it's not on the screen. 6/10

I am Legend
Not an awful premise, but neither psychological nor horrifying, and hence not really interesting or exciting. 6/10

And, for completeness, the ones I wanted to see but never got around to:
Apocalypto, The Last King Of Scotland, The Pursuit of Happyness, Smokin' Aces, Babel, The Good Shepherd, Letters From Iwo Jima, The Number 23, Amazing Grace, Sunshine, Alpha Dog,
Fracture, Fast Food Nation, 28 Weeks Later, Ocean's Thirteen, Seraphim Falls, Breach, 3:10 To Yuma, Shoot 'Em Up, The Brave One, Control, The Kingdom, Stardust, Eastern Promises, Sicko, The Lookout, Bug, Into The Wild, The Darjeeling Limited, Sleuth, The Golden Compass, The Killing of John Lennon, Youth Without Youth.

And one that failed to come out altogether:
Grindhouse
(But that's a rant for another day...)