Last Five Movies

Fantastic 4: The One with the Silver Surfer (2007)
I never really got the Silver Surfer as a character. He seemed to be a product of some '70s acid-induced hallucination. Seriously: it's a silver dude on a fucking surf board, flying through space. And bringing him into 2007 really doesn't make his whole concept any less dated. It also doesn't keep this movie from sucking any less (although the Thames River turning to stone was pretty cool).

The Brave One (2007)
Earlier in the year, we had Death Sentence, which was supposed to be a pseudo-sequel to Death Wish, but was really more of a mindless shoot-em-up. Now, we have The Brave One, which is more of an actual remake of Death Wish, but with a sex change. A really great film, dealing with the issues of what makes people take justice into their own hands. A little too long, and the ending is pretty contrived, but still a great flick, nonetheless.

Black Caesar (1973)
One of the hallmark films in the Blaxplotation genre is really pretty stupid in retrospect. I was somewhat confused as to what Black Caesar's criminal enterprise was, as his gang didn't appear to do anything but kill white people. I find it ironic that such an influential Black film was written and directed by a white guy (Larry Cohen, of all people). And, I was saddened by the fact that Fred Williamson gets beaten to death by some street punks at the end, only to have the sequel, Hell Up in Harlem, retcon that incident right out of existence.

The Condemned (2007)
A great idea for a movie, completely torpedoed by its terrible execution. Kind of a cross between Battle Royale, Series 7, Running Man, and every other movie that steals its premise from The Most Dangerous Game.

A real no-brainer here:

Michael Clayton (2007)
It's a sad comment on the movie business that the best movie I've seen this year came out the second week of October, when absolutely no movies worth watching come out. I'd say it was a sure-fire Oscar winner, but the studios usually save all of their Oscar bait for November and December. But, Oscar loves these George Clooney "message" movies, so we'll see how it pans out in February.

Good stuff; check it out.