It's the end of a long, shitty year, so what better way to finish it out than with a few posts of top ten lists?

Today:

Avitable's Top Ten Movies of 2007

(in no particular order)

Of course, I only chose movies I actually saw, and I usually pick my top movies based on re-watchability. When I buy it on DVD, am I going to sit down and watch it again, or is it going to sit in the wrapper for a year? How many times will I re-watch it? Do I get excited to have other people watch it, too? Et cetera.

1. The Bourne Ultimatum – This is one of the only trilogies I can think of where the third movie is actually discernibly better than the first two. I enjoyed all of the Bourne movies, even though they are huge departures from the entertaining books, but this one is taut, only contains about ten lines of dialogue, and is viscerally realistic.
2. Grindhouse – Ever the avant-garde filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez gambled with their joint love letter to the exploitation films of the 70s. While each film (Planet Terror and Death Proof) watched separately suffers, the experience of watching them together, with fake previews sandwiched between them, in an audience of movie fans, was tremendous. Once these two come out on one DVD as the experience was intended, I plan on having a Grindhouse moviefest just so people who didn't watch it the way it was intended can truly appreciate it.
3. Superbad – Unlike the cringe-worthy crapfests like The Heartbreak Kid, Meet the Fockers, and others that built plot around devices, this is a comedy that is funny because it's genuine. It's realistic. It's something that doesn't rely on a deus ex machina or cliched plot contrivance to reach a climax. And it's one of the funniest movies I've seen in the last few years.
4. Knocked Up – Also coming from the Apatow-helmed team of comedy geniuses, Knocked Up was funny, touching, and very, very horrifying. Seth Rogen showed that you can headline a movie without being a pretty face from the WB or CW, and Paul Rudd is one of my new favorite actors when it comes to supporting comedic roles. I was worried about this movie because I think that Anchorman is one of the stupidest films to ever come from people who are usually funny, but I think this is definitely the year of Apatow.
5. The Simpsons Movie – Even if this movie was a complete pile of utter shit, a year where we finally got a Simpsons movie would have been a good year. It's even better that the movie is sharp, funny, and felt like the Simpsons of the old days, before all the good writers went to work for Conan, the Daily Show, The Office, and 30 Rock. Maybe someday, they'll attract new writers again, and we'll get some more good Simpsons on TV, but I'm fine watching and re-watching this movie in the interim.
6. Live Free or Die Hard – The fourth installment of the Die Hard franchise is excellent because it doesn't take itself seriously. Bruce Willis's John McClane gets the absolute shit kicked out of him. He gets shot and beaten and burnt and blown up and battered and bruised, and he weathers it like a champ, laughing to himself as he barely makes it out of one ludicrous situation just to land in another. Justin Long does an admirable job as McClane's hacker sidekick, and the computer plot wasn't too hackneyed or convoluted, so even sheeple can follow it. This is a movie that I've seen four or five times now, and it never fails to entertain.
7. Transformers – It wasn't because of the CGI (even though it was fantastic). It wasn't the plot, or the huge, city-destroying action. It was all thanks to Shia LaBoeuf's character, Sam, that I consider this to be one of my favorite movies of the year. If they had gone with a dud as the human backbone to the entire plot, the movie would have been nothing but brainless robot-on-robot action. But Shia managed to inject a genuine sense of humor and comedic timing that made it enjoyable and allowed me to overlook the movie's shortcomings (a lifeless though hot Megan Fox, a scene where urine is supposed to be funny, the hacker scenes). For something based on a toy line, it's come a long way.
8. Ocean's 13 – Another third chapter of a trilogy makes it into my top 10 for the year. Sorry Spider-man 3, but you're out of luck. And let's get it out there – Ocean's 12 sucked. It sucked big hairy gorilla balls and was clearly just a way for the group of actors to hang out at Clooney's European villa and joke around. But they got their act together, and Ocean's 13 manages to recapture the fun and glitz and shallowness of the first one without feeling like a clone or copy. That's difficult to do, and while 13 isn't quite as fun as 11, it's a close one. It's also one of those movies that I know I'll watch straight through whenever it's on TV, just like Ocean's 11.
9. Juno – Ellen Page is an amazing actress. If you haven't seen her in Hard Candy, go check that out. In this movie, she dominates a movie filled with strong actors (Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, J. K. Simmons, and Allison Janney) and manages to pull off snarky, confident, and vulnerable. It's another comedy about pregnancy, but it's more of a tragicomical look at how a teenager's life can completely change in an instant of stupidity.
10. 300 – 300 was just a stylized marvel of amazingly choreographed mayhem, violence, and warfare. It's fun, thrilling, and I almost went gay from all of the hotness. What else can I say?

Honorable Mentions – these are ones that I mulled over, but didn't quite make it:

1. Hot Fuzz – It just didn't quite live up to the tremendously satisfying Shaun of the Dead. It's funny and smart and I've seen it a few times, but I think my expectations were just a bit too high. Let's call this one #11.
2. Breach – Tremendous movie. Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillippe did amazing jobs. It just doesn't have the same rewatchability as the others in my top 10.
3. Sweeney Todd – Another close one. I've only seen it the once, and maybe a few more times will change my mind, but the slowness in the beginning and the fact that they cut out Anthony Head's part so that he only had one short line just doesn't make it quite in my top ten.

And here's the list of ones that I haven't yet seen, but they might have made it in my top 10, if I had. I'll see many of them over the next few months, I'm sure:

I am Legend
Charlie Wilson's War
Disturbia
Into the Wild
Gone Baby Gone
3:10 to Yuma
Alpha Dog
Elizabeth 2
Enchanged
The Kingdom
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
Southland Tales
The Ten
Walk Hard
Zodiac

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