Michael Clayton (2007)

I Am Legend (2007)

With a different script -- and maybe Josh Brolin instead of Will Smith, and the mood of the first half hour maintained throughout -- this could've been great.

No Country For Old Men (2007)

Brilliant, then not.

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

The opening scenes may lead to you believe you're in for a dirty good time, but don't be fooled.

Prepare to suffer.

The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Limited is right.

3:10 To Yuma (2007)

Director James Mangold made a terrific Western years ago. It was set in New Jersey, and the title was Copland.

If there were acting awards that meant anything, Sylvester Stallone would have one for Copland.

3:10 To Yuma is not in the same league.

Although it features some fine acting, little in the movie makes sense, right from the beginning.

And if you disagree, remind me never to rob a stagecoach with you.

Rush Hour 3 (2007)

The villain and his minions capture Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker and lead them down into the Paris sewer. The villain tells a vaguely menacing anecdote about the sewers, then offers them one last chance, tell me where the girl is and you live -- something Jackie Chan isn't about to agree to: his eyes narrow, his jaw sets.

Chris Tucker beams: "You got a deal! Thanks for showing us the sewer!"

The Bourne Ultimatum

“Engage the asset,” evil David Strathairn intones on two occasions in The Bourne Ultimatum, and each time there follows a sequence of near-identical ciphers answering the phone and snapping into action in the anonymous room where they’d been zoned out in front of the TV; it’s a sly joke that’s niftier and chillier the second time around.

Recommended.

Spiderman 3 (2007)

There are about seven different storylines and none are resolved in a satisfying manner, which makes it seem closer to the comic book I remember than the two previous movies.

Most importantly, it looks better.

Knocked Up (2007)

During the very funny Knocked Up – an amiable blob of a comedy – Kristen Wiig, in the course of two brief scenes with a shape and snap the rest of the movie lacks, nearly walks away with the picture, and makes it look easy.

Grindhouse (2007)

Planet Terror is the movie I always hoped for when I went to the drive-in; Death Proof is the movie I usually got.

Two criticisms: see the girl in the poster? Showing us how she got that way is a bad idea. It's just a letdown.

Also, the eight or ten female characters in a film should not all talk exactly like the film's infamously motormouthed director.

That said, the whole package was a hoot and a half, and if another installment came out every month...I'd probably never see a respectable film in the cineplex again.

The Lookout (2007)

Zodiac is the best movie I’ve seen this year, but The Lookout is my favorite.

Thank God for neo-noir: In the past few years, Out of Time, The Ice Harvest and now The Lookout are the only pure examples I can point to that suggest someone still thinks there are grown-up Americans still going to the cinema in search of entertainment.

All three are flawed, but they get so many things right, and provide so much pleasure, that you’ll never read about their flaws here.

Zodiac (2007)

Terrific.

From the gorgeous tracking shot, early on, of a residential street on the 4th of July in late sixties California (fireworks blooming just above the rooftops of the pretty bungalows) to the final scene of two haunted men in an airport security office room (anti-climactic only if you were expecting a chase and shoot-out), Zodiac is smart and gripping. Recommended

Children of Men (2006)

The cinema verite style ambush scene is enough to recommend the movie.

How'd they do that?