Best of 2007

Lust, Caution

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Lust, Caution
  • IMDb: link

One of my favorites from the extremely strong slate of films released in 2007, director Ang Lee‘s Lust, Caution earned praise winning Lee his second Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival but also backlash for the film’s explicit sex scenes causing it to be released in America under a NC-17 rating. Loosely inspired by an attempt to kill a Japanese collaborator during WWII, Tang Wei stars as the most naive member of a group of radicalized college students who plan to kill a collaborator (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) set in power by the Japanese occupation in China.

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Dewey Cox Walks Hard on DVD

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
  • IMDB: link

walk-hard-dvdLast year the combination of writer/director Jake Kasdan and writer/producer Judd Apatow produced one of the best parody films in recent memory, and one of my favorite films of 2007.  Although the film received generally favorable reviews it struggled at the box office.  Those who missed out on their opportunity to see the film in theaters can finally check it out on DVD.

The film centers around the fictional life of music legend Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly).  The script, which parodies a variety of music biopics including Walk the Line, Ray, Great Balls of Fire!, Beyond the Sea, and others, is filled with the clichéd moments these films have been known for: tragic childhood, bad parents, drug use, affairs, etc.  For more on the film check out my original review.

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Michael Clayton

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Michael Clayton
  • IMDg: link

“I’m not a miracle worker; I’m the janitor.”

michael-clayton-poster

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a lawyer, though not in the traditional public perception of the term.  Michael doesn’t practice law, he doesn’t show up in court, and he doesn’t work on legal documents behind the scenes.  Michael is the firm’s “fixer” who comes in to solve problems.  Some refer to him as a miracle worker but in his own words he’s a bag man, a janitor who is called in to clean up the mess.  And he’s the best at what he does.

The firm’s latest problem involves its senior litigating partner Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), a manic depressive off his medication who seems to have lost his mind.  After Arthur undresses in a deposition and proclaims his love to the plaintiff (Merrit Weaver) in a three-billion dollar case which in which he is defending U-North, a company who is merging with his law firm, Michael is sent to straighten his friend out.  But the more time he spends on the case the more questions are raised about the cause of his friend’s behavior and the validity of the plaintiff’s claims.

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God That’s Good!

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
  • IMDb: link

“There’s a whole in the world like a great black pit, and the vermin of the world inhabit it, and its morals aren’t worth what a pin can spit, and it goes by the name of London.”

sweeney-todd-poster

When I heard Tim Burton was set to direct Sweeney Todd my initial response was to expect a great looking but overproduced and underwhelming film (like say Sleepy Hollow).  I was dead wrong.  In another director’s hands the bloody tale would have been cut, trimmed, and made to look nice enough to earn a PG-13 rating.  Burton however embraced the story of vengeance and loss and gives us a Sweeney Todd worthy of the name.  How good is Sweeney Todd? It’s arguably Tim Burton’s best film.

For those unfamiliar with the original story and the Broadway musical, the plot involves a young barber named Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) whose wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly) and infant daughter Johanna are taken from him by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman).  Turpin steals the women for himself and sentences Barker and banishes him from London forever.  The film opens with the return of Barker years later under the new name of Sweeney Todd

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Charlie Wilson’s War

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Charlie Wilson’s War
  • IMDb: link

“You can teach them to type, but you can’t teach them to grow tits.”

Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), a junior Congressman from a small district in Texas, did the impossible.  Not only did he spearhead the largest covert war in United States history, but he kept it a secret for years.

Wilson, a member of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee and the only Congressman from a district “who doesn’t want anything,” was in an unique position to change the world while nobody was looking.

After learning about the Afghan resistance against the Soviets, and being cajoled into providing more assistance by a powerful political contributor (Julia Roberts), Wilson with the help of his friends and CIA operative Gust Avrakotots (Philip Seymour Hoffman), over the course of the decade began increasing the money, weapons, and training being put into Afghanistan and began fighting a covert war which only a scant few even knew was taking place.  And we aren’t talking a small increase here; we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.

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