Blitz
01-02-2008, 05:23 PM
Basic. Use this thread to talk about the best shit you saw in movies this year. Best, worst, favourite moments, etc.. Anything goes. Probably be some spoilers in here.
My Top 10 movies I saw in 2007 (Not all were necessarily released in 07, but I didn't see them till this year), along with my favourite scene in each one, in no particular order:
*Sunshine-A beautiful, beautiful movie. Uniformly excellent performances, great cinematography, the best score in a movie this year.
-Choice scene-The introduction of Pinbacker, a psychotic astronaut literally scorched by the sun. Sunshine could've descended into standard slasher territory here, but Pinbacker's religious rantings are very creepy, and the visual style (the movie literally distorts and warps when Pinbacker is on screen, and you can almost feel the heat radiating from him) is unique and refreshing.
*The Science Of Sleep-Aching is the first word that comes to mind when I think of this movie, but not in a bad way. Great performance from Gael Garcia Bernal, and a very funny supporting turn from Alain Chabat as his co-worker. The visual style of the dream sequence was lovely.
-Choice scene-Stephane (Bernal) gives Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg) a time machine that goes back one second in time "for the occasion of... you're pretty".
*Once-Such a basic movie, but so good. A musical that never feels like a musical, every time a song starts, it feels completely natural. 2 sterling performances from a pair of non-actors in Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (who's got a smile that I firmly believe could cure cancer), who's characters are never even given names but are never forgettable.
-Choice scene-Irglova takes Hansard to a store where the owner lets her play the piano for an hour every day. Hansard teaches her one of his songs, and they duet on it. The song is beautiful, the chemistry is undeniable, but the the best moment is towards the end, where there is a quick cutaway to the shopkeeper, who is not dancing or mugging for the camera or something stupid like that, but merely smiling the gentle smile of someone who's had their day brightened for a moment by music.
*Little Children-The movie that turned Patrick Wilson into one of my favourite actors. All the performances are good, but special praise must be given to Jackie Earle Haley as the child molester who just can't figure out how to change. Kudos to them for using narration that never got annoying as well.
-Choice scene-Haley's Ronnie McGorvey goes out on a blind date with a mousy woman who admits to a nervous breakdown. The date goes well, and McGorvey asks her to take a detour on the way home. She stops where he tells her and gives a short monologue about how the last guy she went out with ditched her. She turns to Ronnie only to see him masturbating while staring at a swingset. You gotta feel bad terrible for the woman finally coming out of her shell to a pedophile.
*300-The action movie of the year, quite easily. Don't think I need to say much about this, it's a visually stunning flick that gets the blood pumping. End of story.
-Choice scene-THIS-IS-SPARTAAAAAAAAAA. Kicks fool into pit. End of story.
*Superbad-The comedy of the year, quite easily. So much praise went to Christopher Mintz-Plasse as McLovin, but Michael Cera, to steal a phrase from Roger Ebert, not only steals every scene he's in, but puts it in the bank and draws interest. A surprisingly sweet movie as well. Also Bill Hader needs more work :heart:
-Choic scene-Cera finally gets the girl of his dreams into the bedroom. They're both drunk as fuck. No one does awkwardness like Michael Cera, and he's never so good as in this scene.
*Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon-Here was a movie that I was expecting little from that came out of nowhere and knocked me on my ass. A typical slasher film turned on it's ear as a documentary crew follows fledgling serial killer Leslie Vernon as he plans a murder spree in a world where Freddy Kruger and Jason Vorhees are as real as Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy. We get the performance of the year from Nathan Baesel as Vernon. He has to shift between aw-shucks charm, boyish glee, sly humour, and serial killer scariness, and he does it easily and realistically. and an interesting style that intersperses regular slasher flick style with the documentary style. In a just world Baesel would be a huge star off this flick. See this movie. I can't say enough good about it.
-Choice scene-Vernon chases down one of the camera men from the documentary crew who've decided to try to stop his spree. The camera man pulls of his mask and futilely tries to remind Vernon of the fun times he had, as Leslie remorselessly snaps his neck and calmly puts his mask back on.
*Gone Baby Gone-I've enjoyed Ben Affleck as an actor, but after this movie I'm hoping he stays behind the lens for the rest of his career. This Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) adaptation is Ben's directorial debut, and it never ever feels like the work of a first timer. Casey Affleck gives a beautiful lead performance, and I gotta believe Ed Harris has to get at least a supporting actor nomination out of this, if not the win flat out. Witness the scene between Harris and Affleck outside the hospital, in which Harris' character becomes crystal clear: "You take a child, you beat a child, you molest a child, you hurt a child-you ain't on my side. And hope you don't run into me because I will lay you the fuck down. Easy". Maybe the best script of the year as well.
-Choice scene- The hospital scene is great, but you can't beat the final 20 minutes or so, in which Affleck's Patrick Kenzie finally unravels the mystery behind a missing girl, and has to make a difficult decision where right and wrong aren't clear at all. Check the very last scene, in which Kenzie simply sits on the couch with the young girl, and you can tell by his face that he'll be questioning his decision for the rest of his life.
*Alphadog-On my list mostly because I expected a 0 from it and ended up with about a 7. Justin Timberlake gives a good performance, and any movie with Ben Foster has a meth head neo nazi who takes a shit on his enemies carpet is just fine by me.
-Choice Scene-Frankie (Timberlake) and Elvis (Shawn Hatosy) tell Zach (Anton Yelchin) that they're taking him home. Instead they take him out to the desert and execute him. Zach's breakdown upon figuring out what's going on is hard to watch, and it's even worse when his "friend" Frankie keeps reassuring him that everything is Ok.
*Smokin' Aces-The 2nd best action flick of the year, that, while not as balls out fun as 300, benefits from better performances. Ryan Reynolds, Common, Nestor Carbonell, Chris Pine, and especially Jeremy Piven all create memorable characters. The Tremor Brothers need a spin off.
-Israel (Piven) enlightens his bodyguard Ivy (Common) on "the lie I tell your eyes". A close second is the all too brief cameo by Jason Bateman as the lawyer Rip Reed, whose hotel room is covered in the results of a night of
debauchery you wish you could've seen.
You?
My Top 10 movies I saw in 2007 (Not all were necessarily released in 07, but I didn't see them till this year), along with my favourite scene in each one, in no particular order:
*Sunshine-A beautiful, beautiful movie. Uniformly excellent performances, great cinematography, the best score in a movie this year.
-Choice scene-The introduction of Pinbacker, a psychotic astronaut literally scorched by the sun. Sunshine could've descended into standard slasher territory here, but Pinbacker's religious rantings are very creepy, and the visual style (the movie literally distorts and warps when Pinbacker is on screen, and you can almost feel the heat radiating from him) is unique and refreshing.
*The Science Of Sleep-Aching is the first word that comes to mind when I think of this movie, but not in a bad way. Great performance from Gael Garcia Bernal, and a very funny supporting turn from Alain Chabat as his co-worker. The visual style of the dream sequence was lovely.
-Choice scene-Stephane (Bernal) gives Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg) a time machine that goes back one second in time "for the occasion of... you're pretty".
*Once-Such a basic movie, but so good. A musical that never feels like a musical, every time a song starts, it feels completely natural. 2 sterling performances from a pair of non-actors in Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (who's got a smile that I firmly believe could cure cancer), who's characters are never even given names but are never forgettable.
-Choice scene-Irglova takes Hansard to a store where the owner lets her play the piano for an hour every day. Hansard teaches her one of his songs, and they duet on it. The song is beautiful, the chemistry is undeniable, but the the best moment is towards the end, where there is a quick cutaway to the shopkeeper, who is not dancing or mugging for the camera or something stupid like that, but merely smiling the gentle smile of someone who's had their day brightened for a moment by music.
*Little Children-The movie that turned Patrick Wilson into one of my favourite actors. All the performances are good, but special praise must be given to Jackie Earle Haley as the child molester who just can't figure out how to change. Kudos to them for using narration that never got annoying as well.
-Choice scene-Haley's Ronnie McGorvey goes out on a blind date with a mousy woman who admits to a nervous breakdown. The date goes well, and McGorvey asks her to take a detour on the way home. She stops where he tells her and gives a short monologue about how the last guy she went out with ditched her. She turns to Ronnie only to see him masturbating while staring at a swingset. You gotta feel bad terrible for the woman finally coming out of her shell to a pedophile.
*300-The action movie of the year, quite easily. Don't think I need to say much about this, it's a visually stunning flick that gets the blood pumping. End of story.
-Choice scene-THIS-IS-SPARTAAAAAAAAAA. Kicks fool into pit. End of story.
*Superbad-The comedy of the year, quite easily. So much praise went to Christopher Mintz-Plasse as McLovin, but Michael Cera, to steal a phrase from Roger Ebert, not only steals every scene he's in, but puts it in the bank and draws interest. A surprisingly sweet movie as well. Also Bill Hader needs more work :heart:
-Choic scene-Cera finally gets the girl of his dreams into the bedroom. They're both drunk as fuck. No one does awkwardness like Michael Cera, and he's never so good as in this scene.
*Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon-Here was a movie that I was expecting little from that came out of nowhere and knocked me on my ass. A typical slasher film turned on it's ear as a documentary crew follows fledgling serial killer Leslie Vernon as he plans a murder spree in a world where Freddy Kruger and Jason Vorhees are as real as Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy. We get the performance of the year from Nathan Baesel as Vernon. He has to shift between aw-shucks charm, boyish glee, sly humour, and serial killer scariness, and he does it easily and realistically. and an interesting style that intersperses regular slasher flick style with the documentary style. In a just world Baesel would be a huge star off this flick. See this movie. I can't say enough good about it.
-Choice scene-Vernon chases down one of the camera men from the documentary crew who've decided to try to stop his spree. The camera man pulls of his mask and futilely tries to remind Vernon of the fun times he had, as Leslie remorselessly snaps his neck and calmly puts his mask back on.
*Gone Baby Gone-I've enjoyed Ben Affleck as an actor, but after this movie I'm hoping he stays behind the lens for the rest of his career. This Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) adaptation is Ben's directorial debut, and it never ever feels like the work of a first timer. Casey Affleck gives a beautiful lead performance, and I gotta believe Ed Harris has to get at least a supporting actor nomination out of this, if not the win flat out. Witness the scene between Harris and Affleck outside the hospital, in which Harris' character becomes crystal clear: "You take a child, you beat a child, you molest a child, you hurt a child-you ain't on my side. And hope you don't run into me because I will lay you the fuck down. Easy". Maybe the best script of the year as well.
-Choice scene- The hospital scene is great, but you can't beat the final 20 minutes or so, in which Affleck's Patrick Kenzie finally unravels the mystery behind a missing girl, and has to make a difficult decision where right and wrong aren't clear at all. Check the very last scene, in which Kenzie simply sits on the couch with the young girl, and you can tell by his face that he'll be questioning his decision for the rest of his life.
*Alphadog-On my list mostly because I expected a 0 from it and ended up with about a 7. Justin Timberlake gives a good performance, and any movie with Ben Foster has a meth head neo nazi who takes a shit on his enemies carpet is just fine by me.
-Choice Scene-Frankie (Timberlake) and Elvis (Shawn Hatosy) tell Zach (Anton Yelchin) that they're taking him home. Instead they take him out to the desert and execute him. Zach's breakdown upon figuring out what's going on is hard to watch, and it's even worse when his "friend" Frankie keeps reassuring him that everything is Ok.
*Smokin' Aces-The 2nd best action flick of the year, that, while not as balls out fun as 300, benefits from better performances. Ryan Reynolds, Common, Nestor Carbonell, Chris Pine, and especially Jeremy Piven all create memorable characters. The Tremor Brothers need a spin off.
-Israel (Piven) enlightens his bodyguard Ivy (Common) on "the lie I tell your eyes". A close second is the all too brief cameo by Jason Bateman as the lawyer Rip Reed, whose hotel room is covered in the results of a night of
debauchery you wish you could've seen.
You?