B's Best of 2007

terrific flick! it certainly has some typical coen bros. humor sprinkled throughout but this is a stronger and more impressive narrative than most of their great work. great amount of credit goes to the book by cormac mccarthy for the story, but an amazing adaptation by the coens as well. the tension in this flick builds and sustains itself in ways that i can't remember experiencing in a long time. the lack of music seems to add to the mood. javier bardem is a flat-out badass! brolin & jones are great as well. tommy lee jones' character delivers wit and wisdom as well as the important messages of the movie, including the abrupt ending. a truly entertaining movie. i can't wait to watch it again!

jason reitman's follow up to "thank you for smoking" is another great flick, "juno". it is sweet, smart, funny and tender. ellen page is completely charming as juno and michael cera nails another role as an awkward teen. juno's parents are understanding and real, not to mention - hilarious at times. witty and smart-ass dialogue is delivered flawlessly in scene after scene by a great young actress and the talented cast around her. a real winner. and the soundtrack is totally wizard too.

First off, Daniel Day-Lewis is flat out amazing. The movie is grandiose but settles into a spiralling biopic by the end. The turn of the century oil man, Daniel Plainview is not only a hardworking American - he IS America. Greedy, opportunistic, corrupt, violent, heartless, smart, determined and shameless. He is a sinner, a skeptic, a capitalist, a liar, a smooth talker, a victim, and a survivor. Day-Lewis is such a good salesman that you actually root for the charming son of a bitch. His relationship with his son and with the town preacher are intricate and mesmerizing. Johnny Greenwood?s score is haunting and unique, the production is top-notch, the direction is confident and the story is rich and textured. A very solid flick that features a wonderful performance. In the end it felt to me like other Paul Thomas Anderson films - on the brink of greatness but falling just shy.

an astonishing piece of filmmaking. the first half of atonement is damn near flawless and the rest is good. a terrific story is told my very capable actors, with glorious lighting, costumes, sets and camerawork and a fantastic score.

michael moore has to be one of the most polarizing filmmakers ever. his movies are consistently judged before even being seen. i, for one, enjoy his flicks. they are highly opinionated documentaries and are always worth seeing. sicko may be his most important movie yet. i just wish more people were willing to see it.

this is a very solid, moody and entertaining flick. some real-life drama, a smart script, great performances and confident direction combine into a good, if not a little lengthy movie. this is an entirely character driven movie which is funny at times and creepy as hell at others. it is similar to "se7en" at times and there's a "silence of the lambs" feeling to some scenes. a thoroughly engrossing look into the obsession spawned by a serial killer in the recent history of america.

the most enjoyable movie experience i've had in a long long time. i only wish that the weather was better here in michigan so that i could have seen it at a drive-in. rodriguez has made an amazing zombie movie that could entertain an audience of any era and tarantino does his best to keep up and almost matches "planet terror" for pure entertainment. two fantastic movies, great trailers, blood, sex, zombies, guns, cars, music, chicks; what more could you want from these guys. what a fabulous inspired vision they had and really came through with it. bravo!

a fantastic flick! tremendous performances emerge from a great and engaging story. denzel is the ultimate likable bad guy. very entertaining.

a thoroughly entertaining and engrossing documentary. the film is skillfully put together and features memorable characters and an incredibly intense competition between two grown men playing arcade games. the two are rarely in the same room together really don't even directly converse with one another. steve wiebe is so likable that the injustices and obstacles that he faces on his way to donkey kong glory can be felt by viewers who have never played an arcade game in their life. billy mitchell could be one of the best cinema villians in recent memory. a highly recommended flick!

movies like this are rare to come out of hollywood these days. that's because it is built to be more of an artistic success than a commercial one. i'm sure that's where george clooney is supposed to help out. he certainly does a great job in the flick but i feel like tom wilkinson's performance was even more impressive. wilkinson continues to dazzle me even in small roles, as does tilda swinton who is solid in this movie too. it is a smart engaging flick where the down & dirty side of lawyering is on display, as is a sense of morality and justice.

a grown-up teen comedy that has a firm base in reality. seth rogan is good, katherine heigl is great and paul rudd and leslie mann are fantastic. it has heart, it has crudeness, it has jokes of all kinds - a very funny quasi-romantic comedy.

another home run from pixar studios. i am continually amazed by the animation in these movies. a funny and sweet flick that anyone could enjoy.

james mangold updates an old western and might have resurrected a genre in the process. "3:10 to yuma" is more of a buddy movie with two men who have a different moral compass than it is a straight up good vs evil western showdown. i enjoyed the characters and the characters' development. i'm not a russell crowe fan by rule but he and christian bale are fantastic. it is nice to see alan tudyk and peter fonda again. i swear that logan lerman kid could be christian slater's son. this is a preachy or stale movie full of dusty landscapes but rather entertaining, character-driven storytelling that happens to be in the old west. i really enjoyed this flick and i hope i get to see more like it.

this is a strikingly beautiful movie that includes an impressive performance by casey affleck. subtle and introspective character work by affleck and brad pitt reveal the thoughts and soul of jesse james and bob ford. a very interesting and gorgeous movie, but a very long one.

a very enjoyable movie at times funny, gross, exciting, sad, compelling and scary. it's kind of like a korean "little miss sunshine" with a mutated fish added. visually impressive and entertaining overall.

herzog's rescue dawn is a good little war flick. i really enjoyed the parts of the story where the captives were developing a plan to escape. christian bale gives another tremendous performance and steve zahn is impressive in a emotional dramatic role. jeremy davies has earned my respect. he continually challenges himself with characters that i can't stand and pulls them off realistically. rescue dawn is a war flick that is more about humanity and survival than about destruction and chaos.

not ground-breaking but certainly funny as hell. a totally re-watchable and highly quotable teen comedy. jonah hill is completely over the top and somewhat annoying at times while i think michael cera is comedy gold as the superbad "straight man". mclovin' may be one of the best characters to come along in a while. extended edition is recommended.

a dysfunctional family tale intimately wrapped up in a heist movie makes for a tense dramatic flick. the ageless sidney lumet gets terrific performances out hoffman, hawke, finney and tomei but plays the non-linear storytelling card a few too many times. the story unfolds nicely but loses some momentum toward the end. the triumph in this movie is making the audience care about a couple of deadbeat brothers. the characters are flawed, but well-defined and superbly acted. at some point during the movie you'll know that nothing is going to turn out well for anything of these characters but you don't have to feel too bad about it - just enjoy the ride. definitely worth a watch.

this is the kind of movie that i really enjoy. it has a thoughtful script, is beautifully shot and features good interesting characters portrayed by very solid actors. this noir-ish crime drama boasts great performances by the increasingly steady and impressive joseph gordon-levitt and jeff daniels. matthew goode really impressed me in this flick too.

"here's the thing about die hard 4: die hard 1, the original, john mcclane is just this normal guy, you know. he's just a normal new york city cop who gets his feet cut and gets beat up but he's an everyday guy. in die hard 4 he is jumping a motorcycle into a helicopter in the air. he's invincible. it sort of lost what die hard was. it's not terminator." -michael scott, the office. michael scott is right, john mcclane has certainly evolved into a superhero. the completely over-the-top action scenes get ridiculous in die hard 4. i would rather the flick was rated "R' and had john mcclane and kevin smith swearing more than see someone jump on the wing of a fighter jet. but, regardless i enjoyed the hell out of the movie - it was entertaining. when i want to see a movie like the first "die hard" i can always watch the first "die hard". yippee-ki-yay

a delicious bloody treat of a movie with a superb cast and confident direction. everything is spot on, i just don't like musicals all that much.

it is a little strange watching "i'm not there" and knowing that bob dylan himself is still alive while 6 different people portray fragments of his life. it is stranger still watching "i'm not there" and knowing that heath ledger is no longer alive. the movie is interesting and entertaining and of course the music is excellent, but i feel like i only enjoyed it because i am a bob dylan fan. cate blanchett is simply amazing as quinn, the mid-60's dylan getting backlash for going electric and dealing with expectations from fans and the press. the best and most inspired parts of the movie revolve around blanchett, but the other dylans have some nice moments too. overall it's a little confusing and contradictory, imaginative and sprawling, rebellious and poetic - just like the man it's based on.

i don't know how this looks in a regular theatre but on an IMAX 3D screen it was pretty impressive! i thought it was outstanding visually. the flick is well cast but some of the performances don't seem to transfer well to the animation mostly due to a lack of changing facial expressions. i haven't read the epic poem in a few years but the story seemed to follow pretty closely. this might have been a laughable flick if done in live action, but the animation made it totally enjoyable for me.