Greg’s 2007 Year In Review: Movies, Music and More

Posted by Greg on January 2nd, 2008 Filed under: Features

Outside of my Toronto International Film Festival updates, I haven’t contributed any writing to this website, so I figure it’s about time. What inspired me to do this was the post of Filmjunk’s Top Ten Films of 2007. I was asked to contribute a top ten films list, however, on the post both Jay and Sean have many other lists. I thought to myself “Whatzup wit dat?” Now, in their defense I did say that work was going to be tremendously busy for me, but I think I would have found time to jot down a few cool CD’s here and there if they had….you know…asked me.

Jackasses.

Without further ado, I think we should start off by reposting my top ten films of 2007 list.

Greg’s Top 10 Movies of 2007

1. No Country For Old Men
2. Juno
3. Ratatouille
4. The Bourne Ultimatum
5. Eastern Promises
6. Knocked Up
7. 3:10 To Yuma
8. Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who
9. Lars & The Real Girl
10. Michael Clayton

I would like to point out that I saw Juno back in September when most people thought Diablo Cody was the name of a used up stripper. Ummm….moving on. There were a bunch of films I had to reluctantly omit from my best of list and there were also a bunch of movies that I never saw. So, before you go e-mailing Film Junk about what a tool I am, make sure it’s for a good reason and not because of this.

Honourable mentions: Ocean’s Thirteen, Death Proof, Zodiac, The Condemned, 30 Days of Night, I’m Not There, Smiley Face, The Simpsons Movie

Didn’t get to see: Into The Wild, Gone Baby Gone, American Gangster, Sweeney Todd, Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead, There Will Be Blood, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Lions For Lambs

Movies I saw in 2006 that I didn’t consider: Rescue Dawn, Kurt Cobain: About a Son, Fay Grim.

Top Ten Worst Films of 2007

1. Balls of Fury
2. Hot Rod
3. Rush Hour 3
4. Evan Almighty
5. Disturbia
6. War
7. Ghost Rider
8. The Golden Compass
9. Underdog
10. The Mist

Top Ten Books of 2007

I’m a busy guy. I read one book. It was called “Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling” Are you surprised? You shouldn’t be. This was a great read. Bret “The Hitman” Hart is one of, if not the greatest professional wrestler of all time. He is Canadian and in the late 1990’s he was probably the most popular athelete worldwide. What made this book cool was the fact that there was no ghostwriter and that at a very early age, Bret had begun recording daily audio diaries so all of the stories have a tremendous sense of realism. What can I say? You like what you like, right?

As we’ve discussed on the podcast before I do have a background in radio. I went to school for broadcasting and worked at various radio stations over a period of 7 years, so I know music as well as I know film. The CD’s on my list are not going to be the same CD’s on anybody’s list. These are my favourite CD’s of 2007. One thing that I try not to do is tell people that this song sucks or that band is shit. If it was shit then a record label wouldn’t put it out and back it with millions in advertising. It may not be my cup of tea though. Put it this way…there are many bands that make me want to stick my finger through my eye and into my brain and swirl it around, but for some reason they still have millions of fans who will live and die by it. Much of the teen pop and teen punk records come to mind.

I went online to look at other top 10 lists and I could not believe how similar. Every. Single. One. Was. They all had the same 5 or 6 albums on it. This makes me believe that a lot of critics pick whatever everyone else says just to stay relevant. Some of those albums appeared on Jay and Sean’s lists, but I know Jay and I know he has a very wide taste in music so he gets a pass as a critic whom I respect. I may not share his taste is music, but I will never tell him he’s wrong for liking something. Jay and Sean’s lists gear towards the indie scene….that’s not me at all if you haven’t figured that out.

Top 10 CD’s of 2007

10. Maroon 5 - It Won’t Be Soon Before Long.
I thought these dudes were going to tank after having such an enormously successful debut album, but they wrote a bunch of catchy radio friendly hooks that I enjoyed listening to at work.

9. Original Soundtrack - Into The Wild
I had no desire to see this film, but when I heard Eddie Vedder’s soundtrack it became one of my must see films. That makes for a successful soundtrack.

8. Bruce Springsteen - Magic
I’ve never been a big fan of the Boss. Other than Born to Run and Glory Days I really had no time for this guy, but his reunion with the E Street Band produced some great rock tunes.

7. Feist - The Reminder
I never thought I would put this on a list, but what can I say? This Montreal girl can write some good pop songs. That 1,2,3,4 song made her known worldwide.

6. Cake - B-Sides and Rarities
Cake has always been a fun band for me and this collection of covers is a good time. From Black Sabbath’s War Pigs to Kenny Rogers’s Ruby Don’t Take Your Love To Town to the Muppet Show’s Mahna Mahna. Throw in a kick ass live version of Short Skirt, Long Jacket and you’ve got a success.

5. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
Go listen to this record.

My top four are just kickass rock records that I love cranking up the volume to. The top two are from two of my all time favourite Canadian bands…so I might be a tad biased towards them.

4. Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
3. Kid Rock - Rock and Roll Jesus
2. Finger Eleven - Them Vs. You Vs. Me
1. Three Days Grace - One X

Just a regular guy’s opinion.

Comments (12)

Greg, I’m not trying to single you out, but this just seems like as good a place as any to pose this question:

Did anyone like Planet Terror?

On my personal Top 10 list for the year I counted Grind House as one film instead of splitting it into two choices, but of all the best of 2007 lists I’ve seen (and there are quite a few out there to see) Death Proof is getting all the attention while Planet Terror gets left in apparent obscurity. I will admit that Death Proof is a bit more of a worthwhile cinematic achievement than Planet Terror, but based on fun-factor alone while watching them, I don’t think I could say which of the Grind House films I liked more. I loved them both, however for completely different reasons. I haven’t necessarily seen Planet Terror on any worst of 2007 lists, but could everyone just give a shit about Rodriguez’s addition to Grind House?
Posted by Rian on January 2nd, 2008
1980’s (and early 90’s)wrestling (WWF, AWA, NWA) were the best times for the sport.

And what so good about Eastern Promises? Everybody seemed to like it except the people that were in the threater with me watching it. Boo-Urns!
Posted by Baychuk on January 2nd, 2008
Rian: As far as Planet Terror goes, I didn’t hate it. It’s just not my type of movie. Death Proof was made by the last 30 minutes. Best ending in a very long time.

Baychuk: I liked Eastern Promises mostly because I really liked Viggo. That fight scene in the sauna was insanely intense. Maybe I was wrapped up in film festival hubbub, but I walked out of the movie quite satisfied.
Posted by Greg on January 2nd, 2008
Rian, I liked Planet Terror and its funny how the sucess of a film in theaters will change their opinions of the film. What if Grindhouse was a huge sucess in the box office and Grindhouse was released in its entirety on dvd? I’d guess no one would have Death Proof on the top of their list. It’s like picking the best short from Paris Je’taime. Yes its ridiculous, but everyone has to pick a side.

In the filmjunk podcast review, I remember Jay saying that both movies are meant to be seen together because there isn’t enough there in both movies to standalone. Obviously he has changed his mind since then, but I still think he was right on with that comment. I’d take the theatrical cut over the standalone extended dvd cuts anyday.
Posted by Primal on January 2nd, 2008
I have not seen Planet Terror but I loved Death Proof. Alot of people didn’t have a chance to see both of them together, so it makes sense for people to talk about them as two separate films.

This post was great Greg. You should totally write more stuff on the site.
Posted by Henrik on January 2nd, 2008
Hell yeah to your top four especially. I’ve got them all except Kid Rock. We get a decent amount of Canadian bands on our radio station in the Detroit area. So I’ve been listening to Three Days Grace, Finger Eleven and such before they were too famous. You like Our Lady Peace… or heard of One Man’s Opinion or Ashes of Soma?

I love Pearl Jam so of course Eddie Vedder stuff is good. I liked his song from Big Fish a lot.
Posted by joe on January 2nd, 2008
I really like your worst of list Greg. It makes me wanna yarf just looking at it. I’m kinda surprised that your have Smiley Face on your Hon. Mentions. Among the echelon of pothead movies, where would you rank it?
Posted by Primal on January 2nd, 2008
Joe: You have to pick up that Kid Rock record. I didn’t like his first one, but Cocky was awesome and then the next one and the live one were very disappointing…but this new one, dude….it blew me away by how good it was. Our Lady Peace is okay….but sometime Raine Maida gets on my nerves. His solo album is ass. Some other Canadian rock you should check out are Thornley and the Trews.

Primal: The fact that a list of mine bring on the feeling of nausea to you is a compliment that I will gladly accept. As far as Smiley Face goes…..Anna Faris is fucking gold in that movie and I laughed my ass off. Top 5 stoner comedies for sure.
Posted by Greg on January 2nd, 2008
Credit goes to Sean (I think) for finding that awesome pic of the Hitman.
Posted by Greg on January 2nd, 2008
Hey Primal,

I still agree that Grindhouse is ultimately meant to be seen as one experience. There are actual characters and references that cross through both films that can only be fully appreciated by seeing it as a whole.

Having said that, after the poor box office forced these two films apart, I do think steps were taken to help make them exist independent of one another. Let’s face it, Death Proof went on to do it’s own thing at Cannes and ended up on DVD as a full feature.

As for Rian’s original question: “Did anyone like Planet Terror?”

I find this strange because it seems like a large majority of the people who saw Grindhouse prefered Planet Terror over Death Proof. I’ve seen Death Proof slammed HARD on many movie sights *cough*themovieblog*cough*, essentially giving Planet Terror all of the glory.

Grindhouse was a unique movie going experience. I enjoyed both films, but ultimately enjoyed Death Proof more.
Posted by Jay C. on January 2nd, 2008
Cool, I’ll have to check that out then. Yeah I didn’t even know there was a solo Raine album… shows how good it is (or isn’t rather).
Posted by joe on January 2nd, 2008
p.s. I saw the double feature of Grindhouse in theater, and thought the fake movie previews were hilarious. I think I liked Death Proof more as a quality film, but liked Planet Terror more as pure enjoyment. Watching Terror first (when going dual-feature) is probably the best way to go.
Posted by joe on January 2nd, 2008