Cinematical

• Box Office: Shutter at the Thought
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Horror, Box Office, Best/Worst, Box Office Predictions

  The ability to sustain a sense of Seuss in a CGI scenario (I can't rhyme like the good doctor, but I can alliterate with the best of them) worked in the favor of Horton Hears a Who, last week's number one flick by a country mile, giving it the biggest opening weekend of 2008 so far. Like many of the folks taking part in our weekly box office competition (see the bottom of this post for details) I underestimated the tale of teen angst and kickboxing that is Never Back Down while overestimating the drawing power of the apocalypse with Doomsday,...
  



• The Ten Best Films of 2007 - Polowy's Picks
  

  Filed under: Fandom, Michael Moore, George Clooney, Lists, Best/Worst, Hold the 'Fone

  
  
  It was a damn fine year for movies, 2007. It's hard enough picking 10 top flicks from the crop after a just-decent year, so the task was especially tricky this time around. (At least at Moviefone we're able to pick the 50 best.) That's why I'm thankful for the unwritten critics' rule that Top 10 lists can start with a tie, so long as there's common thematic bond between them. Here are my 11 10 favorite movies of the 007.
  
  10. Tie: Dan in Real Life / Grace is...
  



• Kansas City Critics Love 'Blood,' 'Juno,' and 'Old Men'
  

  Filed under: Awards, Lists, Best/Worst

  Did you know that the Kansas City Film Critics Circle is the second oldest critics group in the country? Yep, they've been voting for their favorites since 1966, which is when they gave Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? their highest accolade. Members of the KCFCC include Loey Lockerby, Russ Simmons and my good pal Dan Lybarger ... but even if you're not familiar with their work, it sure looks like the whole crew has some pretty excellent taste in movies.
  
  So here's what the KCFCC threw some love towards as part of their 42nd(!) annual awards presentation...
  
  Best Film
  There Will Be...
  



• The Ten Worst Films of 2007 -- James's Take
  

  Filed under: Lists, Best/Worst

  
  
  Want to know a dirty little secret?
  
  Contrary to what you've heard recently, critics hate writing bad reviews.
  
  No, they're not fun to write; they're exhausting. No, they're not less work than a good review; they're more difficult. And when you love movies -- which you better, as a critic -- you don't sit down in the dark before a film and think, "Boy, I hope the next two hours of my life will be wasted." But every movie is not, in fact, good -- and these were the high marks among the low points in 2007, from one critic's highly subjective perspective....
  



• The Ten Best Films of 2007 -- Patrick's Picks
  

  Filed under: Fandom, New in Theaters, Home Entertainment, George Clooney, Lists, Oscar Watch, Best/Worst

  
  
  The best movie year since 1999, 2007 offered a staggering bounty of cinematic delights. I keep track of all the movies I see in a given year and give each a letter grade, "A" through "F". Usually my Top Ten list consists of all of the "A's" and a few "B's." This year, "A" pictures made up my top twenty. With so many great films, I won't wallow through a "Worst of the Year" list, I'll simply present you with a few that...
  



• 2007: The Year in Horror. All of It. Seriously.
  

  Filed under: Horror, Fandom, Lists, Best/Worst

  
  
  I've already done an "official" top ten list and all that year-end movie-critic jazz, but since today's my birthday I figured I'd spend an hour or two on a piece I'll simply enjoy writing. Most of the solid horror sites have done their own top / bottom lists, so I thought it would make sense to try a different approach. So let's start waaaay back in January and just tiptoe through the year in horror together. And then at the end we'll figure out how the horror geeks were treated in 2007. (All links lead to my review of that particular film,...
  



• The Rocchi Review with Cinematical's Erik Davis -- Now on iTunes!
  

  Filed under: Podcasts, Fandom, Distribution, Oscar Watch, Best/Worst, The Rocchi Review: Online Film Community Podcast

  
  
  What are the movies that got away in 2007? What's the point of all these Top Ten lists, anyhow? When is hype welcome, and when is hype hype? And what movies are making us smile in anticipation for 2008? Tackling these questions -- and many more -- alongside James this week is Cinematical's Editor-in-Chief Erik Davis, rounding up 2007 and looking ahead to 2008. And speaking of looking forward, Cinematical's Podcast content is now in iTunes; you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can...
  



• Scott Weinberg's Top Ten of 2007 (and some real stinkers, too)
  

  Filed under: Fandom, Lists, Best/Worst

  
  
  Even at the end of the lamest movie years, this is always too hard. I'm supposed to take a list of over 200 movies and cramp it down into one 10-title list? No way. That's not to say that there were too many films jockeying for position on my "best" list, but hell, I spent a LOT of hours watching all these movies, and I'll be damned if I'm only gonna cover ten of 'em!
  
  Last year I went a little insane and did ten different top ten lists, but I have a little more of a social life this year, so I'm...
  



• Ten Really Bad Moments in 2007 Cinema
  

  Filed under: Gay & Lesbian, Independent, Romance, Lists, Best/Worst, Religious

  

  Once upon a time, back when I started out this line of work, it was my aim to see every movie ever made. Then came the VHS player. Once the direct-to-video market began, numerous filmmakers stopped thinking of the pleasures and rigors of making films for the big screen. Instead, they started thinking of a quick payoff. VHS financed the rise of the indie movie for good (or often, ill). It all added up to a huge increase in the number of films released. Eventually, I realized if I wanted to do some...
  




• The Ten Best Films of 2007 -- James's Take
  

  Filed under: Awards, Lists, Oscar Watch, 12 Days of Cinematicalmas, Best/Worst

  

  If I had to think of one moment that summed 2007 up for me as a critic and moviegoer, then that moment came before an early-morning press screening at Cannes. Two film writers were speaking about a film from the day before -- excited, animated, engaged. One of them said "Le Scaphandre et le Papillion?" She then made a hand gesture worth a thousand words, and then exclaimed "Cinema!" And I felt the same way about The Diving Bell and the Butterfly as she did -- that it was a work of pure cinema, using every possible...