FILMS OF THE DECADE: THE YEAR 2007

WITH HINDSIGHT. . .

NOW that we are up to the year 2007, the mind is starting to play tricks.

Can it really be three years since I popped into Odeon New Street's tiny basement screen number seven to watch The Last King of Scotland?

I remember being blown away by Forest Whitaker's towering performance as Idi Amin which remains one of the best of the decade.

But maybe, just maybe, had I seen the film on a much bigger screen it would have made my top ten for the year.

I can't remember what I was thinking when I left it out, but I did want to give a special boost to Bromsgrove director Chris Atkins for Taking Liberties, which I thought did on a tiny budget for modern England what the brilliant The Lives of Others was doing for Eastern Europe.

Both of these films are now even more relevant at the end of 2009 than they were when originally released.

Enchanted at No 2? Why not - if such feelgood films were this easy to make everyone would be doing it. And it did star Timothy Spall!

Letters From Iwo Jima remains specialist viewing, yet it's also a powerful reminder that everyone has a mother wherever you come from.

Unless - or until - we get a film about the Taliban's perspective on the current Afghan conflict, then this will probably remain the nearest thing to seeing how the other half lives to fight when the pressure is really on.

One other point. Up at No 4, a little seen Irish movie called Once which I found profoundly moving in these migratory times.

How proud was I when it won an Oscar for best original song (Falling Slowly) just a few weeks later!

THE YEAR 2007 IN MOVIES

Mail Film Editor Graham Young looks back at the year in pictures.

BOX office records reached a 30-year high in mid-2007 - thanks to a combination of blockbuster trilogies reaching their conclusions and the wettest summer in memory.

Champion of the Oscars was Martin Scorsese, whose October 2006 release The Departed won best director and best picture awards.

After so many near-misses in the past, he gleefully accepted both prizes despite the fact he'd simply remade a Hong Kong classic.

Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) and Helen Mirren (The Queen) were both dead certs for their respective best actor and actress prizes.

Families and children have been particularly well served this year.

Charlotte's Web, Ratatouille, Stardust and Hairspray - now the highest grossing musical after Grease and Chicago - were great fun.

The Golden Compass, Miss Potter, Mr Bean's Holiday, The Simpsons, Firehouse Dog and Arthur & The Invisibles all offered value for money.

But I especially liked Bridge to Terabithia and The Last Mimzy, live action dramas which both dared to be different and will stand repeat viewings.

Hollywood's two major problems were sequilitis and how to reflect The War on Terror / Iraq.

The predictable emphasis on safety-first cash-generating sequels paid off the box office, but only The Bourne Ultimatum matched critical expectations.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was so self-indulgent at 168 minutes 23 seconds that cinemagoers were just glad to leave alive.

Ocean's Thirteen markedly improved on Twelve, but could hardly have been worse, while Shrek The Third simply ran out of gas.

Bruce Willis survived Die Hard 4.0 while 60-year-old Sly Stallone made the most unlikely comeback of the year in Rocky Balboa (VI). Stand by for Rambo 4, which he's written and directed, on February 22!

Chris Cooper's FBI-mole thriller Breach aside, Hollywood's modern war movies are in limbo land in the post 9/11 era.

Lions for Lambs, The Kingdom and Rendition were all victims of US impotence in global affairs, unlike Blackburn's Michael Winterbottom with Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart.

Leading from the front was Clint Eastwood, whose peerless Letters from Iwo Jima sums up a soldier's lot on every side of conflict in every era.

And all this from a then 76-year-old director who followed Flags of Our Fathers with a Japanese language take on the same Second World War story.

Two music-led films stood out alongside Hairspray in 2007.

Micro-budget Irish movie Once had the year's biggest heart, combining modern migration themes with how music defines all of our lives sooner or later.

For a movie about epilepsy and suicide, Control was very funny, too, with brilliant newcomer Sam Reilly memorably exploring the life and times of Joy Division's Ian Curtis.

Waitress was a peach of a film about food and love, with added poignancy following the sad news that 30-year-old writer, director and star Adrienne Shelly was murdered in November, 2006. Her young daughter, Sophie, features at the end.

Released just 12 days after Madeleine McCann disappeared, David Fincher's Zodiac was a chillingly-efficient serial killer drama.

It had a brilliantly-realised newspaper office at the core of a still, puzzlingly-unsolved 40-year-old mystery.

Birmingham's own Steven Knight brought the best out of Canadian director David Cronenberg - and star Viggo Mortensen - with his visceral Eastern Promises' script depicting the uncompromising nature of London's Russian-gangland underbelly.

Life under Stasi supervision in East Germany in 1984 turned The Lives of Others into the best foreign film by far.

It certainly added fuel to Taking Liberties, a film made by Bromsgrove's Chris Atkins about Britain's loss of freedoms under the Blair government.

Transformers and I Am Legend lifted 'special' effects to a whole new level, the car chase in Tarantino's Death Wish was simply unbelievable and Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf 3D showed why James Cameron (Terminator 2 / Titanic) is so excited by the potential of new technology's ability to revive an old art form (hence Avatar in 2009).

Close calls for my top ten included the overly-complex Michael Clayton, featuring a sensational George Clooney, and early-year Oscar contenders like Notes on a Scandal, Blood Diamond, Venus and Hairspray.

You just can't stop the beat...

GRAHAM YOUNG'S FILMS OF THE YEAR - 2007
1. Letters from Iwo Jima
2. Enchanted
3. The Lives of Others
4. Once
5. Control
6. The Bourne Ultimatum
7. Waitress
8. Zodiac
9. Eastern Promises
Taking Liberties

BLOCKBUSTERS
1. The Bourne Ultimatum
2. Ratatouille
3. Stardust
4. Blood Diamond
5. Die Hard 4.0
6. Transformers
7. Spider-Man 3
8. Elizabeth - The Golden Age
9. Beowulf 3D
10. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

FOREIGN
1. Letters from Iwo Jima
2. The Lives of Others
3. Tell No One
4. Days of Glory
5. Apocalypto
6. La Vie En Rose
7. The Counterfeiters
8. Moliere
9. Day Watch
10. The Curse of the Golden Flower

FOR WOMEN
1. Waitress
2. Evening
3. Notes on a Scandal
4. Atonement
5. Brick Lane
6. La Vie En Rose
7. The Upside of Anger
8. The Painted Veil
9. The Jane Austen Book Club
10. Michael Clayton

FOR MEN
1. Eastern Promises
2. Die Hard 4.0
3. This is England
4. I Am Legend
5. Shoot 'Em Up
6. Hallam Foe
7. Knocked Up
8. American Gangster
9. Mr Brooks
10. Rocky Balboa

PICK & MIX
1. The Last King of Scotland
2. Venus
3. Breach
4. The Kite Runner
5. The Lookout
6. The Hoax
7. The Namesake
8. The Illusionist
9. Fracture
10. 28 Weeks Later

TURKEYS
1. Norbit
2. The Cleaner
3. Reno 911!: Miami
4. Daddy Day Camp
5. Magicians
6. Straightheads
7. Pirates of the Caribbean
8. Rush Hour 3
9. Lions for Lambs
10. Paris Je Taime

FAMILIES
1. Enchanted
2. The Bridge to Terabithia
3. Charlotte's Web
4. Ratatouille
5. Stardust
6. Hairspray
7. The Last Mimzy
8. The Simpsons
9. The Golden Compass
10. Mr Bean's Holiday

COMEDIES
1. Enchanted
2. Knocked Up
3. Hot Fuzz
4. 2 Days in Paris
5. Blades of Glory
6. Ratatouille
7. Kenny
8. You Kill Me
9. Mr Bean's Holiday
10. Run Fat Boy Run

ROLL OF HONOUR

Script: Enchanted, Control, Waitress.

Director: Adrienne Shelly, Waitress; Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima; Paul Greengrass, The Bourne Ultimatum; David Cronenberg, Eastern Promises; Marc Forster, The Kite Runner; Francis Lawrence, I Am Legend.

Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland; Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises; Peter O'Toole, Venus; George Clooney, Michael Clayton; Will Smith, I Am Legend; Sam Riley, Control; Ryan Nelson, Half Nelson; Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond.

Actress: Adrienne Shelly and Keri Russell, Waitress; Nikki Blonsky, Hairspray; Amy Adams, Enchanted; Katherine Heigl, Knocked Up; Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal; Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls.

Cinematography: Zodiac, I Am Legend, Into the Wild, Babel, Seraphim Falls, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, Eastern Promises, Shoot 'Em Up, The Bourne Ultimatum, Elizabeth, American Gangster, The Lives of Others, Letters from Iwo Jima, The Painted Veil, The Illusionist.

Effects: Transformers, I Am Legend

Themes: The Bourne Ultimatum, Elizabeth, Enchanted
Scores: Elizabeth, Michael Clayton, Stardust, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Charlotte's Web, La Vie En Rose, Ratatouille, The Painted Veil, American Gangster, The Good German, Notes on a Scandal.

Soundtracks: Once, La Vie En Rose, Enchanted, Control, Shoot 'Em Up, Dreamgirls.

Openings: I Am Legend, Hairspray, Enchanted, The Bourne Ultimatum, Apocalypto, Zodiac, The Magic Flute.

Endings: Michael Clayton, Tell No One, Once, Breach, Days of Glory, Letters from Iwo Jima, Hot Fuzz.

Comeback: Sylvester Stallone.

Scene: Waterloo station - The Bourne Ultimatum; creature fight, I Am Legend; playing golf, I Am Legend; touching arm, Notes on a Scandal; the twist - Bridge to Terabithia; web spinning, Charlotte's Web; the long tracking shot on the beach in Atonement.

All-rounder: Cate Blanchett (The Good German / Elizabeth / Notes on a Scandal and next January's Bob Dylan biopic, I'm Not There).

Crowd-pleasing moments: Enchanted's magic of love; the beginning of Hairpsray; Harry Potter's first kiss.

Landscapes: Letters from Iwo Jima, Days of Glory, Into the Wild, Babel, Seraphim Falls, The Kite Runner.

Cityscapes: The Bourne Ultimatum, A Mighty Heart, I Am Legend.

Seascapes: The Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

Space: Sunshine

Chases: Death Proof, The Bourne Ultimatum, We Own The Night, Die Hard 4.0.

Sound: Transformers, I Am Legend, The Bourne Ultimatum, Eastern Promises, Elizabeth, The Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Apocalypto, Letters from Iwo Jima, Blood Diamond.

Stunts: Eastern Promises, The Bourne Ultimatum, Blood Diamond, Die Hard 4.0, Spider-Man 3.

Most chair-gripping moments: Bath-house scene in Eastern Promises; creature death in I Am Legend; Djimon Hounsou torn from his village, Blood Diamond; the betrayal, The Kite Runner.

Most overrated film: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Devastation: I Am Legend, Transformers.

Battles: Letters from Iwo Jima, Transformers, Days of Glory.

Animations: Ratatouille, Charlotte's Web.

Sweetest movies: Enchanted, Waitress, Charlotte's Web.

Shocks: The uncompromising violence of Eastern Promises; car exploding, Michael Clayton; real life murder of Adrienne Shelly, star, writer and director of Waitress.

Shoot-outs: Shoot 'Em Up, American Gangster, Seraphim Falls, Hot Fuzz.

CGI: I Am Legend, Transformers

Funniest Performances: Peter O'Toole and Jodie Whittaker - the next Julie Walters? - in Venus; Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl, Knocked Up; Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey, Enchanted.

Funniest Moments: Peter O'Toole stumbling in Venus; curtain and creature comfort scenes, Enchanted, Timothy Dalton's demise in Hot Fuzz.

Films so painful to watch they should be destroyed:
Norbit, Outlaw, Rise of the Footsoldier, The Cleaner, Reno 911!: Miami, Straightheads, Magicians, Paris Je T'aime.