Worst of 2007?
OK, it wasn’t my intention to keep writing about the Academy Awards (which I do in my column in tomorrow’s print edition as well – it will end soon, I promise), and I suppose I can argue this isn’t really about the Academy Awards, and besides, I just saw it this morning because I’ve been sick for five days and just returned to the office.
In a release from the Web site Movieguide, the group – which “is dedicated to redeeming the values of the entertainment industry by influencing industry executives and informing the public about the influence of the entertainment media” – listed the “Worst Movies of 2007.”
I wasn’t really sure I understood what they were looking for in films, so I went to their Web site to see if I could figure out what their mission was. I came across a page that listed the best “family” and “mature audience” films of the year:
The Ten Best 2007 Movies for Families
1. Ratatouille
2. Enchanted
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks
4. Bella
5. The Game Plan
6. In the Shadow of the Moon
7. Shrek the Third
8. The Ultimate Gift
9. Nancy Drew
10. Bridge to Terabithia
(You’re forgiven for not recognizing some of these. “Bella” was a limited release that never played Macon County, “In the Shadow of the Moon” was a documentary about moon trips, and “The Ultimate Gift” was out in March for two weeks.)
The Ten Best 2007 Movies for Mature Audiences
1. Amazing Grace
2. August Rush
3. Spider-Man 3
4. I Am Legend
5. Strike
6. The Great Debaters
7. The Astronaut Farmer
8. Pride
9. Transformers
10. Live Free or Die Hard
(I bluntly have no idea what “Strike” is. I can find no record of it. “Pride” was the Terrence Howard swimming flick.)
So they’re kind of soft-hearted, but leave room for deaths in sci-fi/fantasy (“Spider-Man 3,” “I Am Legend,” “Transformers,” “Live Free or Die Hard”).
Previous award-winners from the group are here.
And these are the worst, according to the fax I’ve received. There’s no explanation what any of these awards are given the names they have. Maybe you guys can explain them. And maybe you can explain why “Live Free or Die Hard” (body count 41), “Transformers” (2,019) and “I Am Legend” (the human race, pretty much) are blessed, and these are not.
The Anti-Christian Bowling Award: “There Will Be Blood”
The Snake Oil Huckster Award: “Sicko”
The Fool’s Gold Award: “The Golden Compass”
The Real Dark Ages Award: “Across the Universe”
The Et Tu Brutus Directing Award: “Charlie Wilson’s War”
I truly don’t get the last two at all. Unless the Real Dark Ages Award is just a complaint about the 1960s. You can like “Across the Universe” or not. (I didn’t, for the most part. I liked some of the re-imaginings, like turning “I Want To Hold Your Hand” into a lesbian’s song of longing, and the military portion of “I Want You,” until they were carrying the Statue of Liberty through the jungle. But it just didn’t hang together for me the way “Moulin Rouge” and even “A Knight’s Tale” did.)
I’m just sure there was anything to find offense at in it, Christian or otherwise.
And I have no idea what the group’s complaint about “Charlie Wilson’s War” is. I could guess, but nothing makes sense.
The “Golden Compass” jab is predictable enough, coming from a Christian group, and the “Sicko” blast is expected from a conservative group.
But “There Will Be Blood”? There were four deaths, two accidental. (That’s the credits sequence from “No Country For Old Men.”) SPOILER ALERT as I dig a just a bit into “There Will Be Blood:”
Are they upset that one of the deaths was a Christian minister? Or, better put, a minister who wasn’t exactly very Christian in his dealings, and came to make a deal with his own devil at the exact wrong time?
I don’t know. I just don’t understand it.
Maybe it’s another case of people looking to be outraged by something. You may not have noticed, so allow me to let you in on a little secret: There’s a lot of rage out there, not just on the letters to the editor blog and on Mark Tupper’s discussions. People are good about working up their anger and letting it spill over everything.
That only works for me if it’s a Larry the Cable Guy movie.