Best of 2007

To counter the failures (and some successes) of the Oscar nominations, and along the lines of the format of AFI, I'm listing my choices for the Oscar top categories and the Best of TV for 2007.

Movies:
Top Movies of the year (in order):
1. No Country For Old Men
2. Michael Clayton
3. Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead
4. 3:10 to Yuma (though I hated the ending)
5. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
6. The Bourne Ultimatum
7. Waitress
8. American Gangster
9. Mr. Brooks
10. The Shooter
11. 28 Weeks Later
12. Charlie Wilson’s War
13. Once
14. The Mist

Best Actor:
1. George Clooney (Michael Clayton – I don’t like him, but he was terrific)
2. Russell Crowe (3:10 to Yuma)
3. Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)
4. Philip Seymour Hoffman (Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead)
5. Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men)
6. Denzel Washington (American Gangster)
7. Matt Damon (The Bourne Ultimatum)
8. Mark Wahlberg (The Shooter)
9. Kevin Costner (Mr. Brooks)
10. Ryan Philippe (Breach)

Best Actress:
1. Ellen Page (Juno)
2. Naomi Watts (Eastern Promises)
3. Keri Russell (Waitress)

Best Director:
1. Joel & Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men)
2. Ridley Scott (American Gangsters)
3. Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum)
4. Adrienne Shelly (Waitress)
5. James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma)
6. Sidney Lumet (Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead)
7. David Silverman (The Simpsons Movie)

Best Supporting Actor:
1. Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men)
2. Christian Bale (3:10 to Yuma)
3. J. K. Simmons (Juno)
4. Tommy Lee Jones (No Country For Old Men)
5. Russell Crowe (American Gangster)
6. Philip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson’s War)
7. Mark Ruffalo (Zodiac)
8. Jason Bateman (Juno)
9. Jeremy Sisto (Waitress)
10. William Hurt (Mr. Brooks)

Best Supporting Actress:
1. Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)
2. Adrienne Shelly (Waitress)
3. Joan Allen (The Bourne Ultimatum)
4. Michelle Monaghan (Gone Baby Gone)
5. Marisa Tomei (Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead)
6. Hope Davis (The Hoax)
7. Allison Janney (Juno)
8. Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)
9. Laura Linney (Breach)
10. Jennifer Garner (Juno)
11. Amy Adams (Charlie Wilson’s War)
12. Kate Mara (The Shooter)

Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted):
1. No Country For Old Men
2. Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead
3. Waitress
4. Michael Clayton
5. 28 Weeks Later
6. Charlie Wilson’s War
7. Juno
8. 3:10 to Yuma
9. Mr. Brooks
10. The Simpsons Movie

And the Razzie awards:

• Worst Movie of the year: Atonement (of course, it gets an Oscar Best Picture nod and wins the Golden Globe)
• Worst Director of the year: Michael Bay (Transformers)
• Worst Actor of the year: Nicholas Cage (National Treasure: Book of Secrets)
• Worst Actress of the year: I didn’t see I Know Who Killed Me, but I’ll guess Lindsay Lohan
• Worst Supporting Actor of the year: Sacha Baron Cohen (Sweeney Todd)
• Worst Supporting Actress of the year: Saoirse Ronan (Atonement)
• Worst Screenplay of the year: Superbad

I'll add a disclaimer that there are still a bunch of movies from 2007 that I missed and want to see. So the following movies could be added at a later time:

• Away From Her
• Bee Movie
• Cloverfield
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• Grace Is Gone
• I’m Not There
• In The Valley Of Elah
• Into The Wild
• The Martian Child
• Ratatouille
• Reservation Road
• Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Television (a little awkward halfway through the season):
Best Drama:
1. L O S T
2. Mad Men
3. Battlestar Galactica
4. Pushing Daisies
5. Dexter
6. The Riches
7. Burn Notice
8. Saving Grace
9. Moonlight
10. Psych

Best Comedy:
1. 30 Rock
2. The Office
3. The Big Bang Theory
4. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
5. How I Met Your Mother

Best Actor:
1. John Hamm (Mad Men)
2. Michael C. Hall (Dexter)
3. Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies)
4. Eddie Izzard (The Riches)
5. Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
6. Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice)
7. James Roday (Psych)
8. Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory)
9. Alex O’Loughlin (Moonlight)
10. William Peterson (CSI)

Best Actress:
1. Elizabeth Mitchell (L O S T)
2. Minnie Driver (The Riches)
3. Tina Fey (30 Rock)
4. Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica)
5. Holly Hunter (Saving Grace)
6. Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies)
7. Gabrielle Anwar (Burn Notice)
8. Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?)
9. Kate Walsh (Private Practice)
10. Jordana Spiro (My Boys)

Best Supporting Actor:
1. Jack McBrayer (30 Rock)
2. Paul Adelstein (Private Practice)
3. Michael Hogan (Battlestar Galactica)
4. Zeljko Ivanek (Damages)
5. John Krasinski (The Office)
6. Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother)
7. Jack Coleman (Heroes)
8. Ray Wise (Reaper)
9. Barry Watson (Samantha Who?)
10. Ian Hart (Dirt)

Best Supporting Actress:
1. Christina Hendricks (Mad Men)
2. Jane Krakowski (30 Rock)
3. Jenna Fischer (The Office)
4. Angela Kinsey (The Office)
5. Emily Procter (CSI: Miami)
6. Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother)
7. Jorja Fox (CSI)
8. Chandra Wilson (Grey’s Anatomy)
9. Cristine Rose (Heroes)
10. Sara Ramirez (Grey’s Anatomy)

MOVIE REVIEW - Robocop (1987)

Doesn't really hold up after a couple of decades. Mildly enjoyable sci-fi police flick with some decent bad guys. Fun to watch for current actors in early career roles and in 80s garb. I won't be watching the two sequels.

MOVIE REVIEW - Zodiac (2007)

Story of the investigation of the 70s San Francisco Zodiac Killer. Decent story, decent acting - too long, but mostly good.

MOVIE REVIEW - Learning Curve (1998)

A teacher gets frustrated with out of control students in a district that doesn't support discipline. So he takes matters into his own hands in quite an extreme (and ultimately satisfying) way. This is a B-movie, but has a guilty pleasure vengeance factor.

MOVIE REVIEW - Waitress (2007)

I had never heard of Adrienne Shelly until this movie was released, shortly after she was murdered. Adrienne wrote, directed, and costarred in this beautiful, incredibly funny, sweet movie starring Keri Russell (who finally has great hair again). Keri stars as an unexpected pregnant waitress with a terrible husband. She wears the misery she feels from her marriage on her sleeve, yet she still finds a way to bring happiness to those around her (including the viewers). She bakes luscious pies that she gives bizarre names to - "I hate my husband pie" - and the layering of ingredients as she bakes mimics the layering of emotions Keri brings to this delightful character. Packed full of lines like, "I should never drink - I do stupid things when I drink, like sleep with my husband" - this is a chick movie that I don't mind proclaiming my love for. How fun.

MOVIE REVIEW - National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)

A fun adventure ride, equal to the first; but it's also as dumb as the first one, and it still stars the worst actor of our generation. But still fun.

MOVIE REVIEW - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

I'm surprised that I'm giving this a good rating, but I liked it. About 5 minutes in, I thought, "Why am I here - I am so not a musical guy." But it quickly grew on me - fascinating story, typical Burton settings (if a tad less weird than normal), and a very interest choice to have Johnny Depp sing. I don't really like Depp - yes, he was born in Owensboro, but he doesn't claim us, and I've never understood why everyone rates him highly. But his singing was, how do I describe it? Weird, but intoxicating. He enunciated every not-so-harmonic word using every muscle in his face. His voice is gravelly, but kinda cool. The music is an intentionally bizarre juxtaposition against the darkness and gore, but it surprisingly did have a lightening effect (not that it's a comedy, mind you) on the revenge, murder, and cannibalism. Helena Bonham Carter is a good actress, but her singing voice was quite annoying - especially her high notes with no trace of color or vibrato. The two twenty-something actors were bad choices, I thought - decent singing voices, but nothing special, and pretty bad actors. And Alan Rickman can't sing (though he is historically the quintessential bad guy). But it's all good - anything here that is below par is drowned in the ultra bright red blood (and that's a good thing).

MOVIE REVIEW - Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

Fascinating true story about the man who enabled the US covert war in Afghanistan against USSR in the early '80s. Starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, the real standouts were Philip Seymour Hoffman (as usual in his movies) and Amy Adams. It's not a comedy, but it has many hilarious moments - partially because Charlie and Gust were wild characters, and partially because the writing was pretty great (even if it had typical Sorkin preachy moments - but less than usual for him). My cousin told me it was an interesting story that was just a mediocre movie - but I liked it quite a lot - very enjoyable.

MOVIE REVIEW - Breach (2007)

Enjoyable but predictable (and not just because we know how it ends). The acting is good, especially the always reliable Laura Linney, and the final scenes between Chris Cooper and Dennis Haysbert - "It's a sad day for all of us, Bob."

MOVIE REVIEW - Crank (2006)

Similar to Transporter films - mostly on adrenaline, and Statham does it well.