As 2007 has come and gone, Star Magazine's movie critic Marshall Fine names the best and worst films of last year!
BEST
1. No Country For Old Men -Javier Bardem rocked the year's scariest haircut as the chilliest killer ever seen on film in this Coen brothers' gem. This movie redefined screen tension, pitting a scrappy cowboy (Josh Brolin) against the unstoppable Bardem - a man on a mission to recover stolen drug money - across the scarily wide-open spaces of southern Texas. Tommy Lee Jones added spice as a sorrowful sheriff trailing both of them.
2. Michael Clayton -George Clooney gave the best performance of his career, in this gritty tale of lawyers run amok. Michael, a law firm fixer who has finally been asked to go too far, may be the year's most morally complex character - and its most dramatic. The film also soared on the wings of Tilda Swinton as a nervously amoral attorney.
3. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - The great Philip Seymour Hoffman led a cast that included Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei and Albert Finney in a story of brotherly love turned frighteningly sour. He and Hawke were the offspring from hell, whose plan to rob their parents' jewelry story went from being a victimless crime to a snowballing disaster.
4. Gone Baby Gone -The directorial debut of Ben Affleck, this tough Boston crime story featured breakthrough performances by Affleck's brother, Casey, and newcomer Amy Ryan, as a drug-addled mother scared temporarily straight by the disappearance of her child. Complex and rich in detail, it proved Ben has the chops as a filmmaker.
5. The Lives of Others -Winner of the best-foreign-film Oscar, this consistently surprising thriller revealed the toll of totalitarianism on its perpetrators as well as its victims. The late Ulrich Muhe gives a heartbreaking performance as a rules-bound government eavesdropper who hears more than he bargained for.
6. Sicko -There are 40 million people without health insurance in the U.S. - but documentary maker Michael Moore focused instead on the ways that health insurance companies try to get out of helping the people who are covered. Then he turned around and showed how so-called "socialized" medicine in Canada, England, France - and Cuba - offers better, cheaper care for all of its citizens. The year's most politically charged topic.
7. The Darjeeling Limited: Art imitated life in Wes Anderson's film, in which suicide-attempting Owen Wilson played a suicide-attempting man who tries to bond with his two brothers in a trip across India. This was Anderson's best film yet, alternately whimsical and heartfelt, with equally strong performances by Wilson, Adrian Brody and Jason Schwartzman.
8. Grindhouse - OK, so this one flopped at the box office because it wasn't everybody's cup of blood. But this three-hour extravaganza of gore and thrills - featuring complete films by both Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino - was the year's wildest ride. The two halves have been released individually on DVD - but here's hoping they put out the original double-feature as well.
9. Ratatouille - This computer-animated comedy - about a rat who wants to be a gourmet chef - had amazing animation, a story with plenty of heart and a script with a lot of laughs. Plus - despite the fact that the rats were handling the food - it left you hungry for a great meal.
10. Knocked Up -This was the year's comedy sensation - a bawdy comedy with surprisingly adult emotions about a slacker (Seth Rogen) who gets a career woman (Katherine Heigl) pregnant - then takes his responsibility seriously. It featured the year's best stoner jokes and gave hope to every out-of-shape guy who ever lusted for a beauty at a singles' bar.
WORST
1. Evan Almighty
2. Smokin'Aces
3. Catch & Release
4. Black Snake Moan
5. License to Wed
6. No Reservations
7-10. The third film in a trilogy: They were some of the year's biggest at the box-office — Spiderman 3, Rush Hour 3, Ocean's 13, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. But every single one fell flat on screen.
