this film is on

At the halfway point of this year, I reported on the movies I saw during the first half of 2007, and now it’s time for the movies I have seen since then. Again, this is only movies I saw for the first time this year; it doesn’t take into account how many times I’ve watched “Walk the Line” on HBO in the last month or all the times I put on “Broadcast News” while I was cleaning my apartment.

I keep these movies in an Excel spreadsheet and just add to it when I see a movie, but I just want to say that when I was looking over this list, it was really hard to remember movies that I watched in Seattle before the big move. The move makes it feel like I watched all these movies like ten years ago. Oh well.

44. 1408
This is one of John Cusack’s best performances, and while I may say that about a lot of his movies, you can really believe me about this one. He will make you laugh, make you cry, make you scared, etc.

45. The Omen
For me, this is one of those movies where I’ve read or heard about so many of the iconic scenes, that when I actually saw it, all of the twists and turns and gasp-inducing moments had lost a lot of their power.

46. In the Heat of the Night
I know this is awful, but all I can remember about this movie is liking the theme song and eating Chinese takeout while I watched it.

47. Munich
I just remember this movie being LONG. I kind of just wanted them to kill the guys and have their moral quandaries and get on with it already.

48. Little Children
Definitely one of the best movies that I saw this year. Also one of the saddest.

49. Dreamgirls
I realize this is getting boring but I really don’t remember watching this movie. I guess a change I’ll have to make for next year is making the comments on the movie as I watch the movie. Plus then this entry will already be written when I get to the end of the year.

50. Last Tango in Paris
Kinda the same thing as “The Omen”...you hear so much about the famous scenes, that when you actually see them, it’s anti-climactic.

51. Me and you and everyone we know
There are some funny scenes with the little kids. I might have thought it was a touch overrated.

52. Welcome to the Dollhouse
I liked it.

53. The Heiress
This movie just made me want to cross-stitch! Also it made me want to have a man fall in love with me solely because he thought I was coming into a big inheritance. Seems like there are worse things that could happen.

54. Risky Business
Shockingly, scientology was not the risky business to which the title referred.

55. Never Been Kissed
I don’t know why I watched this. I hate Drew Barrymore, and this didn’t change my mind.

56. A Prairie Home Companion
Loved this movie---one of my favorites this year. I watched it twice in a row. I have the soundtrack. I got mildly obsessed with Garrison Keillor

57. Fast Food Nation
Not as good as the book, but an interesting way to adapt the book.

58. Searching for Bobby Fischer
It made me wish that I was a child prodigy that had a difficult relationship with my father, and that I got to play chess with Laurence Fishburne and Ben Kingsley.

59. Zodiac
Probably one of the three best movies I saw this year. Great acting.

60. Black Snake Moan
This movie answers the age-old question: Can blues music cure promiscuity and mental illness? The answer, of course, is a resounding yes. Not only that, it can do it in 90 minutes.

61. Miss Potter
This film was sweet, but it had so many plotlines that I couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be about, exactly. Getting published? Falling in love? Environmentalism? The role of women at the turn of the century? It was just a lot crammed into 90 minutes. I don’t say this about a lot of movies, but I think this one could have been a little longer.

62. The Sweet Hereafter
Creepy, but good.

63. Bobby
Good actors, in kind of so-so parts. There were too many things going on. Still, much better than you’d expect from the guy in Mighty Ducks.

64. The Ex
I watched it at the gym, and it fit two elliptical workouts exactly.

65. The Last Waltz
Levon Helm is the man, which makes me feel bad about liking this movie that he criticized so badly. I can see how it’s a little biased toward Robbie Robertson, but it’s a great movie all the same. Lives up to the hype.

66. I'm Your Man
This is the concert film/documentary on Leonard Cohen. A boatload of great performances, but the movie is especially electrifying whenever Rufus Wainwright.is onscreen.

67. The Heartbreak Kid (2007)
This movie was a lot better than I thought it would be; I laughed out loud a few times. However, what I will always remember about this movie is where I saw it. Basically, there is this ghetto mall in Asheville that is so destitute that it doesn’t even have real stores in it anymore. It has stores where a man sells bags and little aquariums with swimming frogs…in the same store! And so this ghetto mall opened a movie theater that’s one of those movie theaters where you can drink while you watch the movie, which is great, except they painted it black and made it all sleek and weird and it just doesn’t fit the ghetto mall vibe. It feels creepy and like there are gangsters in the projection room waiting to kill you. I’m not explaining it well, but basically, I had a really weird experience at this movie theater. Maybe it affected my opinion of the movie.

68. Old School
It was funny.

69. Reservoir Dogs
I liked it; I don’t know why it took me so many years to watch it.

70. Super Troopers
I watched this movie sober and alone, which may be the worst way to watch it. I’d recommend watching it with people and drinking.

71. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
I would watch Albert Brooks read the phone book. Probably because it would go poorly for him and that would be funny.

72. Martian Child
This is one of John Cusack’s best performances. I am contractually obligated to say that about every John Cusack movie because I love him so much; you can choose whether you believe me or not on this one. After I saw the movie, I saw a review in an Asheville paper that said that Joan Cusack showed all the acting depth that she shows in her cell phone commercials, and I thought that was an extremely mean thing to say. I thought it was so mean that John Cusack would want to avenge his sister, and that he should come to Asheville and stay with me while he does so.

73. Shattered Glass
This is the movie about Stephen Glass and his fabrication of articles for The New Republic. It’s a great movie…lots of suspense. I have this new job writing articles and it made me both nervous and excited. Not that I’m saying that I would fabricate articles. But it would be nice if Peter Sarsgaard were my editor.

74. Waitress
I liked it, but I didn’t like it as much as all the critics told me I was going to. Great performances from people who sometimes did not have that much to do.

75. National Treasure
I don’t even remember this movie coming out, but I don’t usually like Nicolas Cage, so that’s probably why I ignored it. But it was really good!

76. National Treasure: Book of Secrets
I think what’s great about these National Treasure movies is they have just enough history to be interesting, and the rest of it is believable enough to be entertaining. But I worry about kids who might learn some false history because of these movies.

77. Knocked Up
I thought it was funny. However, I watched it with my parents and little brother and it was just slightly uncomfortable to see what my dad laughed at.

78. Ocean's Thirteen
It was fun. Not as fun as Ocean’s Eleven, but a good time.

79. Hairspray
Okay, technically I haven’t seen this one yet. But I think we’re watching it sometime tonight, because nothing says “happy new year!” like John Travolta in drag! Also we might work a jigsaw puzzle. New Year’s Eve is c-c-c-crazy at my house!