A Look Back at 2007: The Unappreciated

With less than a month left in the year, it's time to start making sense of the year that was 2007. Over the next few weeks I'll be writing a few articles looking back at the films of 2007, leading up to my Top 10 for the year. To kick things off, we'll start with the five films that deserved more love than they got. For whatever reason, these five films went under the radar, didn't get the reviews they deserved, or simply failed to catch on. None are necessarily classics, but they certainly deserved better than they got.

5. Smokin' Aces

With all due respect to Javier Bardem, the psychopath of the year award goes to the Tremor brothers from Smokin' Aces. Their all too brief screen time in this film was by far the best part of the movie. And the scene in which (spoilers) they kill Ben Affleck's character and then pretend his corpse is forgiving them for his murder (end spoilers) is both hilarious and unsettling. The rest of the movie is pretty fun as well, with an amazing cast. And this is the film that finally proves that Clint Masell is the best new composer of the decade. He delivers yet another amazing score for a movie that probably didn't even deserve such a memorable score.


4. Hot Rod

In a year of Knocked Up, Superbad, Hot Fuzz, and The Simpsons Movie, I am almost embarrassed to admit I laughed hardest at Hot Rod. Watching this film, I couldn't help but be reminded of the early films of Adam Sandler (and yes, that's a good thing). The laughs are unexpected and not as idiotic as you might have expected. Take, for example, the scene in which Rod and his buddies are purposefully walking down the street and a crowd begins to follow them. This inspiring moment goes haywire when it suddenly turns into a riot. It's out of left field, yet it's a great spoof of similar ridiculously inspiring scenes in movie musicals. I don't know if this film is a sign that Andy Samberg will be the next big comedy star, but it's certainly the first time I've had any interest in a SNL alum since Will Ferrell.


3. Severance

I saw Severance way back in 2006 at an early screening and the fact that I still think about how fun that experience was at the end of 2007 is a sign of how wonderful Severance is. If you like horror movies mixed with dark humor, this is one of the very best - I'd easily rank it up there with Shaun of the Dead. The cast of characters aren't just there to be killed, and the villain is surprisingly realistic and frightening. The film got almost no press and a small early summer release before finding its way to DVD. Next Halloween season, if you want to impress your friends with a horror movie, watch this one. You'll never look at bear traps the same way again.


2. Grindhouse

Any film on this list I would suggest you go out and watch. Except Grindhouse. Grindhouse was an experiment from directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez to try and recreate the experience of going to see a double bill of cheesy exploitation films. A big part of the experience is seeing it in the theater with other people. Grindhouse came complete with fake trailers, advertisements for neighboring restaurants, missing reels, scratched prints, and more. Unfortunately most people didn't get the point when it was released in theaters, and after bombing it has been chopped up and kind of ruined on DVD. Gone is that experience of watching an event, replaced with two stand alone movies minus all the goodies. I highly suspect that this experience (a word I keep using, but it's the only one that accurately describes Grindhouse) will become a midnight movie staple. If it does, do yourself a favor and check it out there. Don't bother with these botched DVDs, they don't do Grindhouse justice.


1. Sunshine

Of all the movies on this list, Sunshine probably came closest to being a genuinely great film. Were it not for the fact that it turns into a slasher film in the final act, it would easily be among the best sci-fi movies of recent years. It is thoughtful, humbling, exciting, tragic, and funny. While watching it, one gets the sense that director Danny Boyle wanted it to be Children of Men in space. Fox Searchlight, who have had a banner year, somehow completely botched the release of this film, never putting it in more than a handful of theaters and getting a gross of only a few million. This should have been one of the blockbusters of the summer, instead it became an afterthought. Whether you like movies to thrill you or to make you think, Sunshine offers both in ample portions.

Catching Up: Mini-Reviews

My computer has been on the fritz the last month and I've been unable to update as regularly as I wanted, but I should be back on track now. I have a few mini-reviews of the films I saw in the last month, and I should be able to resume real reviews in the next few days with an early look at "Hot Fuzz," from the "Shaun of the Dead" guys.

300

I knew this was not going to be much more than a visual spectacle, but I was still surprised to see how vapid this film was. There was no reason to care about anything that was happening, and that lack of connection made for a supremely boring two hours. The characters had no depth and kept spouting bad one-liners every few minutes that got old fast. Perhaps the worst part, though was that it wasn't that violent or exciting, which was the whole selling point in the first place. I'd be willing to kind of overlook all that emptiness if it was at least fun, but it wasn't even that. The violence was uninspired and repetitive, and director Zack Snyder's use of slow motion got to the point of parody it was so overdone. This film has its fans, but I wonder if any of them will actually be able to sit through a second viewing. I know the people I saw it with were all seeing it for a second time, and all agreed they regretted rewatching it.

The Host

"The Host" is a Korean horror-comedy that recently hit America, and it is a delight. A poor family living along the edge of Han River witnesses a monster rise from the river and begin attacking onlookers. When the youngest member of the family is taken by the monster back to its lair, the family sets out to bring her home. The film is a bit short on the horror, but it doesn't really matter too much as it's just an overall fun ride. The characters are pretty silly, but at the same time you really sympathize with their plight to find the missing girl. I've heard "The Host" described as "Little Miss Sunshine" meets a monster movie, and that's about right. This film has a bit of everything: action, thrills, comedy, pathos, and allegory. Don't let the fact that it's a foreign film let you pass it up, it's worth a look.

Smokin' Aces

This is a film that pretty much delivers exactly what it promises: seven hitmen all converge on one hotel in order to collect a one million dollar bounty by rubbing out a mafia snitch. There is a lot of suspense as you are never sure if the hitmen will be successful in killing Buddy "Aces" Israel before the cops can save him. The cast is a lot of fun, and fans (and haters) of Ben Affleck will be in for a treat. Jeremy Piven also does a good job of making his character so unlikable that you want him to die, yet know that he needs to live. Ryan Reynolds, however, delivers a performance worthy of a far better film. He completely drops his smarmy persona to portray a young cop who is in over his head and slowly losing grip on sanity as everyone around him starts dying. If you want a fun, guilty pleasure action film with a cast of quirky characters, this is a good choice.