Thaumatrope Features*: My Favorite Films of 2007

Everybody’s doing it so I’ll take my turn on the “year-end carousel” and list my favorite movies of 2007. As I child I enjoyed going to the movies very regularly, maybe twice a week (or sometimes even a day). Now, given the price and quality I don’t find myself going nearly so often, or when I do, I regret it (I’m looking at you, Hills Have Eyes 2—but really what should I have expected?). These are listed in the order that they were released beginning in January:

Children of Men, Epic Movie, The Messengers, Hannibal Rising, Bridge to Terebithia, Ghost Rider, Reno 911: Miami, Wild Hogs, 300, The Hills Have Eyes 2, Blades of Glory, Grindhouse, Disturbia, Kickin’ It Old Skool, 28 Weeks Later, Spider-man 3, Shrek the Third, Knocked Up, Mr. Brooks, License to Wed, Transformers, Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, Sicko, Live Free or Die Hard, Sunshine, The Invasion, Superbad, The Simpsons Movie, Hot Rod, 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama, Into the Wild, Resident Evil: Extinction, Bee Movie, Stephen King’s The Mist, I Am Legend, Sweeney Todd

For the purpose of this top four, the criteria is not based on genre, humor or star-power, but on rewatchability. These are the films that I would at to my collection as something about each film lends them to a high level of rewatching. Some very good movies were excluded, not because I didn't care for or enjoy viewing them, but rather, because I probably would never take it upon myself to sit and view them again. My top four in order from most family-friendly to mature rating:

Bridge to Terebithia [PG]
Released February 16
Directed by Gabor Csupo
Starring Josh Hutcherson, AnnaSophia Robb, Zooey Deschanel
Tagline: "Discover a place that will never leave you, and a friendship that will change you forever."
Currently Available on DVD
Comment: It strikes me as being a difficult thing to make a film about childhood and growing up that does not talk down to its audience, ad this film achieves that. Having ever read the book there are surprises in this film I did not expect. I saw this with my son, who had read the book, and he found it as emotionally powerful. It's too bad it was so poorly marketed as a "fantasy" film, as I'm afraid those unfamiliar with the novel had little idea what to expect.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer [PG]
Released June 15
Directed by Tim Story
Starring Ioan Gruffudd, Michael Chiklis, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Julian McMahon
Tagline: "Rise"
Currently Available on DVD
Comment: I have read "comic books" off-and-on for nearly twenty-five years, and this film best captures the feel, spectacle and playfulness of the characterise better than most. Avoiding the need to be "dark" or ultra-realistic, Rise is an entertainment for the whole family. (Had the producers only re-cast Alba's role who knows how great this could have been...)

Sicko [PG-13]
Released June 22
Directed by Michael Moore
Starring Michael Moore
Tagline:"This might hurt a little."
Currently Available on DVD
Comment: Both the most humorous and saddest film (t the same time) of the year. If movies did have such a huge impact on the public (i.e. films like "Superman" makes kids jump off buildings), surely we would have a national health care system by now...

Into the Wild [R]
Released September 21
Directed by Sean Penn
Starring Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn, Hal Holbrook
Tagline: "Your great adventure on Alaska."
Currently Available on DVD
Comment: Succeeds where most other movies fails by improving on the structure and story of an already excellent literary (Non-fiction) work by John Krakauer. A most amazing American film, and for me, likely to become one of my all-time favorites.

Embrassez votre été invincible!
* Historical Note: A very early version of a "magic lantern" was invented in the 17th century by Athanasius Kircher in Rome. It was a device with a lens that projected images from transparencies onto a screen, with a simple light source (such as a candle). In 1824, the Thaumatrope was invented by (the earliest version of an optical illusion toy that exploited the concept of "persistence of vision") by Dr. John Ayrton Paris.