
Just to be clear, I liked every single one of the films listed below (I liked Michael Clayton a lot less than the others). I just can't see why some critics thought they were masterpieces and why some of them are being showered with many awards and nominations.
THE MOST OVERRATED MOVIES OF 2007
Michael Clayton - I still think it is the most overrated movie of 2007. Everybody is raving about it, when it simply didn't do that much for me. I actually thought the story was kind of convoluted and it went too much around the block to tell us one simple message: big corporations are corrupt and somebody has to step up and stop them, no matter the cost. Tom Wilkinson is a great actor, but here he is too self-conscious of his performance and you can see him striving to get an Oscar nomination. He is overacting, simply put. George Clooney is fine, but not spectacular and the one performance I liked very much was Tilda Swinton's, but as good as I think she is, she doesn't deserves any awards.
And now that we are talking of awards, how the heck did it get 7 Oscar nominations? I'm very very baffled by that. The Academy had a whole lot of very good movies to choose from (Gone Baby Gone, Zodiac, etc) and it went for this one?
I really like what Tony Gilroy did with the Bourne movies but here he just put me to sleep in some parts of the film and his direction didn't deserve a Best Director nod.
Just a head scratcher for me this year.
Ratatouille - Now, this is a film I did like. Thought the animation was amazing, Remy was just adorable, and the whole theme of creation/art/criticism was very very interesting. Critics are calling it a masterpiece, which I don't think it is. I was bored at times and when the focus of the film changed from Remy to annoying Linguini, the film just lost me. Linguini is one of the worst characters Pixar has created ... and had the story spent more time with the most interesting character (Remy) this would probably be in my top ten. To read my full review of the film go here.
El Violin - The story about a Mexican farmer/violinist who plays his music throughout towns ravished by bloody revolts and strong military oppression, received a great deal of praise in Mexico and has won countless awards in film festivals around the world. While I think it totally works as "cine de denuncia" or "cine social", it still doesn't deserve that amount of praise.
And overrated to some extent...
.... Hairspray - I thought is was very good fun and it was hilarious to see John Travolta in drag, but a 92% over at Rotten Tomatoes seems a little bit excessive to me.
Anyways, I'll stop bitching and moaning now. Look for the honorable mentions and my top ten films of 2007 in the coming days.
And now that we are talking of awards, how the heck did it get 7 Oscar nominations? I'm very very baffled by that. The Academy had a whole lot of very good movies to choose from (Gone Baby Gone, Zodiac, etc) and it went for this one?
I really like what Tony Gilroy did with the Bourne movies but here he just put me to sleep in some parts of the film and his direction didn't deserve a Best Director nod.
Just a head scratcher for me this year.
Ratatouille - Now, this is a film I did like. Thought the animation was amazing, Remy was just adorable, and the whole theme of creation/art/criticism was very very interesting. Critics are calling it a masterpiece, which I don't think it is. I was bored at times and when the focus of the film changed from Remy to annoying Linguini, the film just lost me. Linguini is one of the worst characters Pixar has created ... and had the story spent more time with the most interesting character (Remy) this would probably be in my top ten. To read my full review of the film go here.
El Violin - The story about a Mexican farmer/violinist who plays his music throughout towns ravished by bloody revolts and strong military oppression, received a great deal of praise in Mexico and has won countless awards in film festivals around the world. While I think it totally works as "cine de denuncia" or "cine social", it still doesn't deserve that amount of praise.
And overrated to some extent...
.... Hairspray - I thought is was very good fun and it was hilarious to see John Travolta in drag, but a 92% over at Rotten Tomatoes seems a little bit excessive to me.
Anyways, I'll stop bitching and moaning now. Look for the honorable mentions and my top ten films of 2007 in the coming days.