I knew I should have done this ages ago, but everytime I wrote it, it was a mess. This one is just as much of a mess as they were, but it's the best I could come up with.

“The home of Dr. Geary, another outlaw, like myself. We're navigators, we're aviators, we're eating taters, masturbating alligators. Bombardiers, we got no fears, won't shed no tears. We're pushing the frontiers of transcendental perception. What's weird is we haven't met yet, on this or any other plain.” – Bono, “Across the Universe”

“I'll tell you what. The day I need a friend like you, I'll just have myself a little squat and shit one out.” – Marcia Gay Harden, “The Mist”

“You all probably heard of the rumors that my movies are financed with Nazi-gold. Well, what shall I say? It's true!” – Uwe Boll, “Postal”


I miss last year. 2007 was such a joy, and easily the best year for film since 1994. Within that year, I’ve seen more films that one year that most people wouldn’t be able to see in ten. Films like “Grindhouse,” “Hot Fuzz,” “Children of Men,” “Across the Universe,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Sweeney Todd,” “300,” “28 Weeks Later,” “Hairspray,” “Death Sentence,” “3:10 to Yuma,” “The Kite Runner,” “Juno,” “Things We Lost in the Fire,” “American Gangster,” “Zodiac,” “Ratatouille,” “Walk Hard,” “The Simpson’s Movie,” “Superbad,” “Michael Clayton,” “August Rush,” “Enchanted,” “Knocked Up,” and “Rush Hour 3” all took the cake for entertaining the hell out of me last year. Even the films that didn’t entertain me as much as they should have – “Spider-Man 3,” “Beowulf,” “Transformers,” “Evan Almighty,” “30 Days of Night,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” “Balls of Fury,” “The Brave One,” “The Heartbreak Kid,” “Dan in Real Life,” “Bee Movie,” and “Stardust” – still managed to stick to my head for sometime or another. I could never forget the times where I would run ramped in the movie theater.

And even though that all of those times, where I would sit down in a comfortable (and sometimes uncomfortable) theater seats, I would pick apart some of the previews. There would be films like “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,” where you could see shit flying from a mile away, and then there would be films like “Ocean’s Thirteen,” where the end result surprised me in the end. But out of all those times, I missed a lot of the films in the theater. One of the films that I’m most disappointed that I missed was William Friedkin’s latest film “Bug.” I know not many people really caught that one, and those who did missed the point of it or hated it, but I got to admit that I loved it. It came out at the wrong time. To be put up next against “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” “Shrek the Third,” and “Spider-Man III” must be harsh, but what would you expect? “Bug” was without a doubt one of the most disturbing films I have encountered in quite some time.

I couldn’t begin to tell you how much I looked forward to Frank Darabont’s rendition of “The Mist.” As much as I don’t like “The Shawshank Redemption,” the trailer for “The Mist” really hit me hard. It was about time that someone could do horror correctly, without using too much blood and relied on the suspense to keep people scared. I caught “The Mist” on DVD; it came and went in the theaters too fast for me. It is truly everything that I wished for. The last time a Stephen King film didn’t suck was “Misery,” and that has been about eighteen years. We won’t forget “The Mist” for a long time, because we will be missing horror films like these. And while horror remakes come out the ass within the next few years, I have a feeling that I will be watching “The Mist” a lot more within the time being.

I have a strong bias towards Wes Anderson. It’s not that he isn’t a great filmmaker, but he is an acquired taste. I tried to sit through films like “Rushmore” and “The Royal Tenebaums,” but nothing could ever work. I would become bored and would run outside to go rent another DVD. 2007 saw the release of Wes Anderson’s latest film “The Darjeeling Limited.” It wasn’t released in many theaters and I think Fox Searchlight is regretting it. The film starred three stars – one very big (Owen Wilson), one kind of big (Adrian Brody), and one that hasn’t broken out into the mainstream film industry just yet (Jason Schwartzman). Had this film been released in more theaters (like in New Jersey), these stars may have been recognized a lot more. Wilson would have stepped away from his well-known humor (though playing a suicidal man may not have boosted up his image, especially after his own suicide attempt), and Schwartzman would have been posted on every teenaged girl’s MySpace. But instead, Fox only released it in a few hundred theaters and the buzz was kept small. It’s a shame because if this film was released in New Jersey back in 2007, there was a very high chance that this would have been one of my favorite films of that year, if not my favorite.

I’ll never forget the many times that I sat through “Across the Universe” since it has been out on DVD. I caught it while it was in theaters opening night, saw it two more times during its theatrical run, and must have watched it every day for a week since it’s been out on DVD. In all, I probably watched the film twenty times, and it just isn’t enough. But between this and “Juno,” I’ve been slowly seeing many teenagers craving these films. I can’t begin to tell you how many teenaged girls have been posting pictures of Jim Sturgess on their MySpace and quoting “Juno.” Yesterday at the mall, I saw four girls wearing “Juno” t-shirts alone. It begs the question where the hell were they while “Across the Universe” was in theaters, or when “Juno” was still in limited release. Did they want to see the films then? Or did they never hear of them?

I look back at the year of 2007 and sigh a loud sigh, but a peaceful one. 2007 was only three months ago, but it was one year I would never forget. I must have seen about fifty films in theaters, an all time high. It will likely be beaten this year. I probably saw about thirty so far and haven’t stopped. I was looking at the films released so far this year, and I noticed that I could only recommend nine of those films that I’ve seen in theaters – “Cloverfield,” “The Signal,” “Strange Wilderness,” “Charlie Bartlett,” “Definitely, Maybe,” “Funny Games,” “Be Kind Rewind,” and “Never Back Down.” For the rest of the year, however, I’ll be waiting, anticipating for more to come. Films like “Stop/Loss,” “Wall-E,” “Speed Racer,” “Iron Man,” “Indiana Jones,” “Postal,” “Midnight Meat Train,” “Choke,” “Hamlet 2,” “Repo: The Genetic Opera,” “Tropic Thunder,” “The Dark Knight,” “The Punisher: War Zone,” “Burn After Reading,” “Death Race,” “Righteous Kill,” “Valkryie,” “Miracle at St. Anna,” “Max Payne,” “Zach and Miri Make a Porno,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Gran Torino,” and “Defiance” are just many films that are coming our way that are sure to grab my attention. Within these next few months, I hope to expand my film dictionary, in hopes to be watching more films and checking out what I have missed many long years ago.