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Dan Owen reviews
2 0 0 7 R e t r o s p e c t i v eP a r t O n e
Firstly, I apologize for the absence of Dan’s Movie Digest editions since mid-2007. Other commitments have meantI’m not as able to provide weekly DMDs for DVDFever, in-between maintaining my own blog. But, I can stretch todoing the annual retrospective on the big cinema releases of 2007: the so-called “Year Of The Threequel”.
Join me on a monthly trip down recent memory lane.
JANUARY
The year began with some big Oscar-contending films, likeThe Last King Of Scotland(which won Forest Whittaker an Oscar for his portrayal of Idi Amin).
Staying in Africa, Blood Diamond was also released, starring LeonardDiCaprio. This intelligent drama about diamond smuggling was nominated for twoOscars (Best Actor/Supporting Actor) but didn’t win.
There was also the multi-narrative drama Babel, which won Best OriginalScore, but didn’t really click with audiences, despite the presence of BradPitt and Cate Blanchett in the cast.
Apocalypto was more to cinemagoers’ taste, with Mel Gibson’s depictionof the ancient Maya civilization proving to be a palpable mix of exciting, violent,exotic action. Just don’t prove too deeply into its shaky historical accuracy!The slick production earned the film some Oscar nominations (Best Makeup/SoundEditing/Sound Mixing) but it didn’t win any.
A more crowd-pleasing Oscar-nominated film was The Pursuit Of Happyness,probably because of Will Smith’s charismatic performance alongside his realson Jaden, and a feel-good script based on the true story of Chris Gardner –a man who became homeless with his son, but battled through to become a corporate highflier.
Nostalgia also helped Sylvester Stallone get his first big movie success inyears, with the fifth sequel to his 1976 breakthrough Rocky. It was expectedto be an embarrassing turkey, but Rocky Balboa showed considerable heartand audience affection for the character helped the film make over $70 millionworldwide!
One filmmaker without such luck was Darren Aronofsky, whose stalled sci-fiepic The Fountain finally arrived, and was pretty much ignored by themasses. Originally conceived as a big-budget goliath in 2003, Aronofsky pareddown his idea to a more manageable film, but good performances from Hugh Jackmanand Rachel Weisz couldn’t prevent this art-house style chin-stroker from flyingover most peoples’ heads.
FEBRUARY
Against all expectation, CGI/live-action hybrid Arthur & The Invisibles didstrong business during half-term, despite lukewarm reviews.
On the flipside, Dreamgirls was hyped as a musical smash-hit with Oscarsuccess written all over it in late-06, but the end product was only reallymemorable for the star quality of singer Jennifer Hudson (an American Idolcontestant) . However, while the Broadway adaptation wasn’t the phenomenon wewere expecting, it still won two Oscars (Best Supporting Actress/Sound Mixing).
Its progenitor may have been an Academy Award darling, but Silence Of The Lambsprequel Hannibal Rising could only dream of such repeated success.This was a lazy cash-in on the Lecter brand-name, now devoid of a Anthony Hopkinsiconic performance and essentially becoming a period serial-killer yarn that providedmore snores than shocks.
Charlotte’s Web was another underachiever, which was surprising given thenovel’s standing in the school-going consciousness. It received generallyfavourable reviews, particularly for Dakota Fanning’s performance, but seemedto go unnoticed by parents.
The big UK hit of the year was undoubtedly Hot Fuzz, the follow-up fromShaun Of The Deadcreators Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. It was a loving pastiche of Hollywoodcop films, transposed to sleepy rural England, and drummed up big business inthe UK where it seemed to have crossover appeal to ordinary people unaware ofShaun Of The Dead and just after some home-grown laughs (without Hugh Grant).It also did well in the States well, considering the limited number ofscreens it was shown on!
Visionary French director Michel Gondry disappointed many with his EternalSunshine follow-up, an indulgent mess called The Science Of Sleep.Beyond a few neat visual tricks, this played out like an extended 10-minuteshort and seemed to prove the Frenchman needs a decent script to work his magic on.
That same month, Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine lead actor, Jim Carrey, starred inNumber 23. Carrey was reunited with his Batman Forever director JoelSchumacher for this mystery suspense, about a man who begins to realize hislife is full of 23’s. The intriguing idea unfortunately couldn’t be capitalizedon, and Schumacher’s film became one of the year’s most derided films.
MARCH
With Spring looming, Ghost Rider was expected to give summer blockbusterfans an early treat. It didn’t, because the entire project was an awful wasteof time, with Nicolas Cage grinning his way through a tedious storyline, hinderedby the charisma vacuum of Eva Mendes. Amazingly, millions were still suckeredby the hype and Ghost Rider actually had the biggest opening weekend in the USof any 2007-released films so far until 300 arrived. Zack Snyder (who somehowmanaged to make a Dawn Of The Dead remake work), delivered a spectacle of machismoand CGI backgrounds, to translate Frank Miller’s comic-book take on a realSpartan victory to gory life. It divided critics, but audiences lapped up thebrutal, violent, eye-popping visuals.
The Illusionist became another casualty of the year, primarily becauseit was too close in spirit to The Prestige. Edward Norton starred in this Victorianmystery as an enigmatic magician, alongside Jessica Biel and Paul Giamatti. It was aperfectly good little story in its own right, but was unfortunately branded asa Prestige wannabe.
David Lynch returned to befuddle audiences with Inland Empire, which didn’treally get a wide enough release to reach many people anyway. Personally, I didn’tlike it, but others consider it one of Lynch’s better films. It’s well-madeand stylish, but I just wish Lynch would tackle different things post-Mulholland Drive.
The year’s worst comedy became an extraordinary hit in March, with Eddie Murphyin another fat suit somehow enticing people to part with their cash to see Norbit.It was panned by pretty much everyone, but inexplicably made a mint.
Meet The Robinsons was the year’s first big fully-CGI hit animation, although itdidn’t really spark much interest. It was a Disney product (without the helpof Pixar) and most critics seemed to like it, but it just kind of hung aroundand made over $153 million at the worldwide box-office without anyone really noticing.
A more intriguing CGI animation arrived the same month, in the green shape ofTMNT. This was an attempt to relaunch the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brand,that didn’t really work. While the animation was pretty good, the story was weakand only critics who had grown up with the Turtle phenomenon responded favourably.Still, it did make just under $100 million around the world, proving there’sstill an audience for the heroes in a half shell.
The dreaded horror sequel reared its ugly head with The Hills Have Eyes 2,which somebody thought everyone wanted to see, just because the recent remakewasn’t a total dud. They were wrong. It made a pitiful $37 million worldwide.Mind you, it only cost $15 million, so THHE3 is probably months away.
Another inexplicably hit in the UK was Mr Bean’s Holiday, which provedto be perfect half-term fare for children and their cruel parents. 10 years afterRowan Atkinson near-silent comic creation floundered in a big-screen debut, whothought this would be any good? It wasn’t. But, parent power and Bean nostalgiakept the film in the UK chart for a very long time, and it’s actually made over $200 million worldwide!
2007 Retrospective Part Two –2007 Retrospective Part Three –2007 Retrospective Part FourPage Content copyright © Dan Owen, 2008.
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.