the list of 9 for january 26, 2008:
THE NINE MOST OVERRATED FILMS OF 2007
I used to do this "overrated" list every year. But over the last few years, despite (in myopinion) the decreasing quality of new films and filmmakers, I had no reason to write such a list- mainly because other critics agreed that the cinematic output of Hollywood, the independentscene, and mainstream foreign films (which is to say, the foreign titles that had theatricalreleases in the U.S. and were not just "festival favorites") was rather weak. Then all of asudden, every critic around has been hailing 2007 as a watershed year for American cinema. Whatare they smoking? Are they just desperate? Because for man-on-the-street reactions, as well as theslightly more informed opinions of unpaid cinephiles like yours truly, there's been a sense of"emperor's new clothes" regarding many of the highly-praised releases from 2007, including but notlimited to the following nine films:

  1. ZODIAC. A frequent sight on many critics' Ten Best listsfor the year, this journalism saga about the newspapermen obsessed with the never-caught ZodiacKiller in early '70s San Francisco has a good look to it, and some tense scenes, but it'soverlong, Jake Gyllenhaal is not a compelling leading man, and the story fizzles out. The filmoffers no believable reason why any of these men would sacrifice their livelihoods andrelationships over finding the press-hungry murderer a decade after his final kill. But admittedly, David Fincher's films tend to leave me dissatisfied.

  2. I'M NOT THERE. Todd Haynes's overdone multi-actorportrait of Bob Dylan in the 1960s seemed to have been made only to appeal to art and/or filmand/or music critics. While Cate Blanchett is stunning in her take on Dylan, most of the rest ofthe film is meandering, oblique and irrelevant.

  3. SUPERBAD. This so-so raunchy comedy about three geeky highschoolers and their quest for adventure over one warm spring evening was strangely hailed as"tender and believable," despite its many tiring scenes of co-screenwriter Seth Rogen and BillHader as strident, unfunny cops. I suppose Superbad's sweetly awkward last ten minutes madeeverybody forget the rather run-of-the-mill teen movie that preceded it.

  4. LA VIE EN ROSE. Marion Cotillard was given a lot of awardsand nominations for her ability to simply disappear under heavy make-up and lip sync to Edith Piaftunes in this by-the-numbers, unaffecting biopic about the legendary French singer. However, thecinematography is outstanding.

  5. ONCE. A truly unqualified independent success, thisshot-for-nothing Irish film about two Dublin musicians quietly falling for each other is a niceenough experience, but star Glen Hansard's whiny, undistinguished songs did nothing for me. Musicis even more subjective than cinema, though, so I won't deny other people falling in love with theOnce soundtrack.

  6. MICHAEL CLAYTON. Tony Gilroy's drama about a corporatelawyer (George Clooney) who supposedly "finds his soul" - though honestly, I think the characteris just tired of all the crap he's had to deal with - might have been a great film if its scriptwas not full of unexplained plot holes and implausibilities. "Why does Clayton get out of his carto look at some horses on the road, conveniently at the exact moment when somebody blows up hiscar?" is a question that no one, not even Gilroy, has been able to adequately answer.

  7. EASTERN PROMISES. Viggo Mortensen is impressive as aRussian mob chauffeur in London, but the screenplay to this crime drama is plodding and obvious,and costar Naomi Watts sleepwalks through her role. This is a really bland film, a disappointment from David Cronenberg.

  8. 2 DAYS IN PARIS. Although critics were rightfully annoyedby it, for some reason this grating "comedy" about an uptight American guy (Adam Goldberg,insufferable) and his French girlfriend (writer-director Julie Delpy) slowly breaking apart while in Paris kept packing in the art houses in a Paris-friendly movie year.

  9. SICKO. There were many good, but hardly great, 2007"classics" that I could have chosen to end this list with (among them: There Will Be Blood, NoCountry for Old Men, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Sweeney Todd - note that I haven'tseen Atonement or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which both sound boring), butI'll choose an overrated documentary instead. Michael Moore's much-anticipated look at the sorrystate of health care in the U.S. promised to be incendiary, but only really told us, with a shrug,what we already know: that it would be better to have a national health system paid for by taxesthan to have a for-profit, insurance industry-driven system like we do now. Is this really news toanybody?

Copyright © Mark Tapio Kines 2011