2007: My Top Ten Favorite Movies By Year

1610   7.5   7.8 

I thought that the limited comicbook series was just okay.
But then Zack Snyder & the writers took Frank Miller's story & used this movie to add a whole different dimension to the telling of this early historic battle. While the story itself suffered a bit because it had to be shorten into a "two-hour" movie ( or however long this thing ran), it seemed to be made up by the surrealist matrix-like effects that were used to enhance the story-telling in a manner such as when an artist uses a new medium for his/her artwork.
In this history epic, I have seen the future of film storytelling,
And it works.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

769   6.8   7.5 

Judd Apatow scored big with 40 Year Old Virgin, a comedy that explores the ups & downs of trying to get laid. He follows up with what is in my opinion, his 2nd. best film, Knocked Up, a film that explored the ups & downs that can come after getting laid.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

575   7.3   8 

A great crime drama in a time when such films have become rare without the boost of big banging shoot-em up guns blasting away.
Though based on a real story of a drug kingpin & the police detective determined to bring him down, the film goes down the path of the ever prevalent poetic licensing that these types of films tend to take, in order to focus more on the story of the rise & fall of an Amarican gangster whose distrubution of only the purest of heroin whilst eliminating the "middleman" changed the way drugs became distributed on the streets.
Denzel Washington plays the crimelord who sees his only option towards the American Dream is his wry combination of street-savy intellect & non-hesitant ruthlessness. Russell Crowe seemlessly tackles the part of the leader of a police task-force whose unwavering straight-edged honesty serves as both crutch & "cure" to the corrupt laden NYC precincts.
Both actors move through their respective roles with a chemistrytic ease that can only result from two artisans both comfortable & confident with their craft.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

1034   7.7   8.2 

Ratatouille is a prime example of the potential that 3-D animation can achieve on film.
The idea of combining the points of views of both rodent & restauranteer made this a great vehicle for integrating sharper & more creative angles in the storytelling and that could only be achieved at the level that it did through the use of this medium. For my money, it's where the heart & beauty of this movie lies.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

870   7.5   8.2 

The spy theme was never really one of my favorite genres. Therefore I avoided the first Bourne flick when it came out in theatres. However, when I did catch it on TV, I was surprised & impressed by it's ability to both keep me intrigued & "thrilled". I rented the second, which I liked even better & it resulted in me making the effort of seeing the third in theatres. After the Ultimatum, the Bourne Trilogy became for me one those extremely rare trilogies where each successive movie actually was consistantly better than the one that preceded it. I can't get away from looking at this movie as part of it's collective whole, with the Ultimatum acting as an intelligent bad-ass ending to an intelligent bad-ass series.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

717   7.2   7.8 

Back in the day, Michael Jackson may have been the skinny guy who was bad,
but here in the present,
the new skinny king for bad is named McLovin.
And he's not just bad.
He's supe....
well,
you get the picture.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

567   7.6   7.9 

Despite Tarantino's sub-par effort on Death Proof, there was still enough in his half (like the car-chase & the first "car-killing" by the "car-killer") that added to the much superior first half, Planet Terror, a zombie-fest by Robert Rodriguez. And while the shlock that comes with most zombie flicks usually puts me off, Robert Rodriguez's style of depicting his half of The Grindhouse as a caricature of a genre that has already gone cartoonishly over the top, makes this a walking undead gore-a-rama that I could not only stomach, but enjoy as well. Coupled with a modern sense of violence that we've all mindlessly grown to love, it's a zombie action flick of an energetic quality that sparked some life into my usually dead reaction to most shambling corpse fare.
So, if you're into chicks with guns, zombie apocalypeses & amputees (& let's be honest.... who isn't?), then this is the zombie flick for you.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

329   6.9   7.5 

A movie that, even tho was nominated for a bunch of awards, for me, still feels somewhat under-rated. Corporate corruption revealed more in it's ability to constrict the world of business towards it's own needs more than in its services to actually provide to it's supposed clientele.
A "thinking man's" political thriller in that it's suspense is driven more by the consequences of it's story than it is by action.
George Clooney does a capable job, Tom Wilkinson is always fun to watch, Tilda Swinton is always even more fun to watch, and of course, Michael Clayton is one of the last movies to be produced (along with his final acting role) by the late Mr. Sydney Pollack.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

37   7.6   7.2 

So far, the most updated amazing computer animation in any animated feature.
Simply put, the computer-generated visuals in this film truly have to be seen in order to be believed.
However, even though the story is solid, as the sci-fi epic that Appleseed's visuals aspire to be, it does lack some originality in it's plotline. It is for this reason, combined with the indistinguisnness of the faces (as is usually common for most 3-D anime) that prevented this film from being ranked higher on this list, despite the fact that the graphics are, so far, some of the most favorite that my eyes have ever laid upon.
That said, there wasn't a frame in this movie where I just wasn't completely stunned with awe. The technical details & intricate designs in Ex Machina are some of the most striking ever to be generated on film.
The Transformers looks like they were created by Fisher-Price compared to the hardware these guys are wearing.
A true marvel to behold.

The Mighty Celestial's rating:

1189   7   7.4 

Take a classic cartoon about a bunch a large robots from outer space that change into a bunch a cool vehicles that raised the testosterone level to the point that little boys became little "guys",
mix in a healthy batch of modern day hard driving live action peppered in with a few swear words & gritty gun play,
and top it all off with the absolutely & ridiculously hot Megan Fox,
and there you have it.
A summer super-mega-blockbuster incorporating all the things that can easily make the males of our species grunt with ultimate ball-quivering delight.



(However, I will say that, no matter how enjoyable this Transformers movie was, it's no excuse for the horrific monstrosity that is it's sequel.)

The Mighty Celestial's rating: