Pop Of King (74) – 2007: My Top Movies – (14 grudnia 2007)

STEPHEN KING’S BEST OF 2007: MOVIES

10. IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH
Most of 2007’s political movies failed because they were too angry to be anything but propaganda. This one, about a heartbroken father trying to discover the truth about his son, was tight, involving, and controlled. One of two great Tommy Lee Jones performances this year.

9. 28 WEEKS LATER
Scary as hell, one of the two or three best zombie movies ever (we’ll see how I Am Legend stacks up). These folks may be brain-dead, but they’re fast, and the movie-opening chase sequence is a tour de force.

8. THE LOOKOUT
Joseph Gordon-Levitt shines as the ex-big-deal hockey player trying to remember how to open cans of soup after a catastrophic car accident (for which he was responsible). When he gets caught up in a robbery, this class-A thriller becomes a tightly wound crime classic.

7. 3:10 TO YUMA
The best non-humorous Elmore Leonard adaptation since Mr. Majestyk. You expect Russell Crowe to be great – he’s always good when he’s bad – but the big surprise is Christian Bale (pictured). He doesn’t outdo Gary Cooper for simple decency, but comes close. And you get to watch Russell Crowe wear that amazingly cool hat.

6. LITTLE CHILDREN
Todd Field’s poison bonbon about bored young marrieds in the suburbs is as funny as it is sad. Kate Winslet is great – you’d expect that – and so is Gregg Edelman as her porn-addled husband. The unexpected treat is Jackie Earle Haley (pictured, with Phyllis Somerville) and his turn as the bewildered „sex criminal” who becomes the subject of neighborhood hysteria.

5. CHILDREN OF MEN
Like 28 Weeks Later, this is a near future you wouldn’t want to inhabit, but you can’t look away. And as the Ordinary Guy In Over His Head – in this case spiriting what may be the last pregnant woman on earth to safety – Clive Owen (pictured) makes a terrific old-school hero. This movie also contains the year’s best line, delivered by Michael Caine just before he’s shot: „Pull my finger.”

4. BREACH
Tight, taut, perfectly paced. You expect Chris Cooper (pictured, right) to be great as the super-religious (but deeply amoral) FBI agent selling secrets to the Soviets; the pleasure comes when you realize Ryan Phillippe (left) is just as good as the agent assigned to bring him down. Their final locked stare was one of the year’s classic moments.

3. THE LIVES OF OTHERS
It’s about eavesdropping, but for once not about the people who are being listened to. This one is about the listener: party hack Gerd Wiesler, brilliantly played by Ulrich Mühe (pictured in background), who died much too soon. „Peek not at a knothole, lest ye be vexed,” my mother used to tell my brother and me; the moral of this story is „Listen not at one, lest ye be changed.”

2. GONE BABY GONE
The second great film to come from a Dennis Lehane novel. What makes this special isn’t so much the terrific performances by Casey Affleck (pictured, left), Michelle Monaghan (right), and Ed Harris (center), or the tight script; it’s Ben Affleck’s smart, heartfelt direction. He puts lower-middle-class Boston on the screen as it really is, and tells a story that could happen in any American city. You call that universality, folks, and it’s rare. Particularly in Hollywood.

1. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
The Coen brothers have lately fallen on hard times, critically and commercially. This restores them to their proper place as great American filmmakers. No Country is the best modern-day Western since The Getaway, and one of the best adaptations of a major novel ever. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Javier Bardem doesn’t steal the movie as psychopath Anton Chigurh. Tommy Lee Jones (pictured) doesn’t quite let him, and his stalwart sheriff gives Christian Bale (3:10 to Yuma) something to shoot for when he grows up.

STEPHEN KING’S BEST OF 2007: TV

5. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
Didn’t want to like it. Kept telling myself, „This is soap opera, pure and simple.” In the end, couldn’t quite believe it. But those kids are way too purty.

4. DEXTER
The morals may be twisted, but the first season was much more fun than The Sopranos.

3. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
It sagged in the middle, but picked up at the end. The best of Battlestar are the tough-as-nails women. Call them Space Grrrls.

2. DAMAGES
A Devil Wears Prada knockoff that turned into a great thriller. Glenn Close has replaced James Gandolfini atop my TV Bad Guys list, and Ted Danson made a terrific corporate sleaze.

1. LOST
Still the best. I rewatched the entire third season to make sure, and – yes – still the best. Heroes just doesn’t have its mythic grandeur. People are reaching for the stars here. And maybe beyond. Really, there’s never been anything like it.