Working on the 'ole top 10.

I've got one week from tomorrow to decide which of this year's films were good enough to make my top ten. And if that wasn't bad enough, I've also got to rank them, and declare my number one. This was so easy last year. I watched Sympathy for Lady Vengence on DVD, and it blew me away. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a movie since then that has given me the same feeling.

Now, I'm not saying that there weren't any good movies this year. There were even a few great ones, but I can't help but to admit that none of them, to borrow a phrase from the internet, really OWNED me. There are still a few '2007 films' I haven't seen yet, meaning movies that will be coming out early next year, but will campaign for various critics' top 10 lists so as to be considered for Oscar recognition. For me, those films include The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Copolla's Youth Without Youth, Persepolis, and Chop Shop. If you or someone you know has a way for me to see any of those films before next Saturday, or if you have a suggestion for another 2007 film I should see let me know.

Here is the list of movies I've seen this year. I posted something similar last year, however, this year's list is going to be a little more productive. First, I am going to mark all the films I really enjoyed in bold. These will be the films vying in my head for my top 10. I'm also going to mark all the horrible ones that stand no chance of breaking in my list with a strike mark. Although, some films were so bad this year, I wish an HTML programmer had developed a double strike, a triple strike, and sometimes even an embedded java function that shoots a dull pain into a filmmaker's body every time someone clicks on the title for his horrible movie. As for the rest of the films, the ones I left unmarked, those are pretty much the movies I either felt neutral about or just liked.

Here's the list, in no particular order:

Once
No End in Sight
Kurt Cobain About a Son
Margot at the Wedding
Redacted
The Host
Rocket Science
Alpha Dog
Epic Movie
Smokin' Aces
Norbit
Hannibal Rising
Ghost Rider
The Astronaut Farmer
The Number 23
Black Snake Moan
Zodiac
300
Reign Over Me
TMNT
Blades of Glory
The Lookout
Meet the Robinsons
Grindhouse
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters
Pathfinder
In the Land of Women
The Condemned
Waitress
Spider-Man 3
28 Weeks Later
Delta Farce
Transformers
Black Book
Pirates of the Caribean: At Worlds End
Knocked Up
Mr. Brooks
Hostel: Part II
Ocean's Thirteen
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
1408
Evan Almighty
Live Free or Die Hard
Ratatouille
Sicko
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Hairspray
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Rescue Dawn
The Simpsons Movie
The Bourne Ultimatum
Hot Rod
Stardust
Superbad
September Dawn
Death Sentence
Halloween
3:10 to Yuma
Shoot 'Em Up
In the Valley of Elah
Eastern Promises
Across the Universe
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Into the Wild
Feast of Love
Lust, Caution
The Darjeeling Limited
The Heartbreak Kid
Michael Clayton
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Wristcutters: A Love Story
30 Days of Night
Gone Baby Gone
Things We Lost in the Fire
Dan in Real Life
American Gangster
Fred Claus
No Country for Old Men
Enchanted
Bee Movie
Balls of Fury
Beowulf
Sweeney Todd
Atonement
Starting Out the Evening
The Savages
Juno
There Will Be Blood
The Mist
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

As you can see, I've got my work cut out for me. Wish me luck, or give some helpful suggestions if you can.