MY TOP TEN OF 2007

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There are still several films released in 2007 that I haven't seen yet --- I Am Legend, Juno, Enchanted, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Eastern Promises -- but I doubt I'll see them before year's end. So below is my Top Ten Movies of the year that I did see. The top three I enjoyed so much that I picked up DVD copies of them. I'll probably end up with a couple others in my library, too. Anyway, here's my list with No. 1 being my favorite.

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1) The Lookout. Crime thriller by Scott Frank. Well-done characters, solid storyline with Joseph-Gordon Levitt and Jeff Daniels. Levitt is a star high school hockey player. Life is wonderful and a bright future lays ahead of him. Then he's in a car accident that leaves him with brain damage and little prospects. He gets a job as a graveyard shift janitor at a local town bank and attempts to rebuild his life. No more story hints. This is a story that the less you know the better it is. See this one. It's cool. Jeff Daniels plays Levitt's blind roommate.

2) Live Free and Die Hard. Yep, Bruce Willis is back as cop John McClane and, despite being older, he is still neck-deep in high-tech bad guys and incredible stunts. Popcorn thriller that I just thoroughly enjoyed. Deadwood's Timothy Olyphant is the main bad guy.

3) Stardust. Fantasy adventure with Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro and Charlie Cox as the noble Tristan. Not everything works as well as it should but this is fun. I especially liked Pfeiffer as the evil witch, De Niro as the sky pirate, and the ghosts of the murdered princes. Makes me smile just thinking about them.

4) 3:10 to Yuma. A remake of the old Glenn Ford western with Russell Crowe as the captured outlaw and Christian Bale as the poor rancher taking him to jail. Pretty damn good (except for part of the end but the original stumbled there, too.) This is the first Crowe movie I've liked since L.A. Confidential.

5) Distrubia. A spin on the Hitchcock Rear Window storyline with Shia LaBeouf as a high school kid on home arrest who, while watching his neighbors, discovers one (the always reliable David Morse) may be up to no good. Not a classic like the Hitchcock movie with James Stewart and Grace Kelly but good.

The second half of my top ten are:

6) Ratatouille.

7) The Bourne Ultimatum.

8) Breach.

9) Wild Hogs.

10) 28 Weeks Later.

I know. A strange group of movies but I recommend them all.