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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 T w o
APRIL
Just before the summer season got underway, a few films dipped their toes inthe water.Sunshinewas an impressive Danny Boyle-directed sci-fi dramaabout astronauts reigniting the sun, which got some great reviews but little fanfare.The staggered release around the world was also unfortunate, and the quality-shiftin Act III didn’t help word-of-mouth buzz either. A great DVD, though, and oneof the year’s most underrated films.
Blades Of Glory was Will Ferrell star in – yep, you guessed it, anothersports comedy. This time he was a pro-skater alongside Jon Heder in what was adisappointing, but occasionally quite fun, time-waster.
Something far from fun was Wild Hogs, with a nauseating mix of middle-agedactors (Martin Lawrence, John Travolta, Tim Allen and William H. Macy!) stuckin a god-awful biking movie. Woeful. But, again, oddly successful. There reallywas no accounting for taste in 2007!
Next up was, erm, Next Nicolas Cage’s second folly of the year afterGhost Rider. Now he’s a Vegas magician who can see a few minutes into the future.Great idea (based on a Philip K. Dick story, see?) but bland and boring execution.Well, okay, some of the action sequences are good fun, but that’s about it.Seriously, when THAT final twist comes you’ll want to snap the DVD in half.
While Hot Fuzz enjoyed huge success and good distribution, another UK film calledThis Is England faced an uphill struggle. This ’80s-set drama aboutteenaged skinheads earned some great reviews and minor campaigns sprouted toget it into the multiplexes, but it seemed people would rather watch Wild Hogs.
MAY
Summer begins with a bit of a cheat in Bridge To Terabithia, a lovely family-filmwith some great performances and choking twist in its tale, but its marketingas a Narnia-style adventure was just ridiculous. I hope too many people didn’tfeel cheated when the realizes it’s actually a very simple, heartfelt, family film.
2007 was known as “The Year Of The Threequels” and Spider-Man 3 set theball rolling on that timely phenomenon. After the blockbusting antics of itspredecessors and critical respect for Spider-Man 2, everyone was primed for moregreatness from Sam Raimi. But, while still enjoyable in parts, Spider-Man 3 wasa bloated, unfocused mess. Sure, it’s fun to watch at the time, but it fades frommemory very quickly.
With Danny Boyle off in space, the sequel to his surprise horror hit 28 Days Later(cleverly titled 28 Weeks Later), was similarly misread by the public.On a wave of impressed reviews, it did mild business and the studio said they’donly pursue plans for a third movie (28 Months Later) if Weeks sold well on DVD.
Creating a triptych of magician-themed movies (after Prestige and Illusionist),UK comedy Magicians crashed-and-burned at the box-office. This low-budgetcomedy was the brainchild of the writing/acting talent behind hilarious sitcomPeep Show, but everyone was left stone-faced by the plodding direction, unremarkablejokes and thin storyline.
The year’s best thriller was probably David Fincher’s Zodiac, based onthe true life case of the Zodiac Killer, who stalked San Francisco back in the1970s. It was an accomplished and dramatic film that just didn’t really fit intothe summer schedule, and therefore flopped on both sides of the Atlantic.
One film that certainly didn’t flop was seafaring fantasy sequel Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End,which dominated the summer chart and became the year’s biggest grossing film.It’s the fifth most successful film ever made, too. Audiences obviously loveGore Verbinski’s everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to adventure, whileJohnny Depp certainly has his fans. Reviews were very mixed, but it seems mostpeople just wanted to see how the adventure ended — with the promise (threat?)of a fourth film, if you don’t know.
JUNE
A bad horror remake is just what you don’t want in summer, so along comes The Hitcherto stink up cinemas, starring Sean Bean. The original was a low-budget cultclassic from the 80s, and a remake could have worked – but it didnt.
More successful was Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, whichimproved on the widely-derided first effort, but was still considered a weakmovie overall. Audiences found it an engaging trip to the cinema, but the onlything of note was the brilliant CGI to create the Silver Surfer character.
Another month, another threequel; this time with George Clooney and his celebrityco-stars trying to apologized for Ocean’s 12 with Ocean’s 13. It wasn’tawful, but the magic’s wearing pretty thin now, guys.
Something else wearing thin was tolerance for Eli Roth, who chose to follow-uphis surprise hit Hostel with Hostel: Part II. More of the same, but gorier.To be fair, there were some interesting new avenues explored, but audiencesweren’t quite so willing to queue up for more “torture porn”.
One thing they did queue up for was Shrek The Third, which was universallycritiqued as being the worst of the Shrek trilogy, but still had kids and parentsdesperate to see for themselves. It’s not unwatchable, but it’s noticeablyshoddy compared to the others.
2007 Retrospective Part One –2007 Retrospective Part Three –2007 Retrospective Part Four -Page 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.