Yet another completely new end of year list for me, but there was so much fun to be had in theaters this year with several kick ass characters that I felt it was only necessary to take a look at the ten best. Again, this list is in no particular order, but while you read just imagine a dinner party with these ten folks invited.
Without Sharice ogling Georgia Sykes (Alicia Keys) we wouldn’t have had a chance to check out the beauty that is Miss Keys through the most conventional of looking glasses – the scope of a high powered rifle. Taraji’s performance as Sharice is one for the books as it helped make Smokin’ Aces one of the more fun movies of 2007.
There was no way I could overlook Lazarus, I mean we have to give props to a man that chains up a half naked Christina Ricci to a radiator… Don’t we?
Without Queen Gorgo I think 300 would have been an absolute waste. So much attention has been paid to the special effects, but Lena Headey as the Queen gave Leonidas something to fight for as the film did its best to abandon any kind of plotline in an effort to give you more and more action, which I can respect, I am just happy Gorgo was there to give me reason to justify my enjoyment.
My second African American foul-mouthed favorite is Tracie Thoms as Kim in Quentin Tarantino’s “Death Proof”. I have no idea how Thoms got cast in this role, but she was absolutely perfect. How about a sampling of some of her perfectly delivered dialogue:
Before you can claim a nigga, you got to claim a nigga, and you can start by giving that mutha fucka a handjob in the back of the van on Tuesday.
Mutha fucka try to rape me I don’t want to give him a skin rash, I wanna shut that mutha fucka down.
You don’t like it up the ass do yah? You redneck, lunatic bastard.
Yup, you love her just as much as I do now.
Why would anyone cast Dan Fogler in a film when you could always hire the lovable and cuddly Nick Frost? Oh yeah, because Nick would turn down shit roles in Balls of Fury and Good Luck Chuck. Fortunately he didn’t pass on playing with Simon Pegg once again as Policeman Officer Danny Butterman in Hot Fuzz. I watched this film once again last night and all I can say is his performance was off the fucking chains!
The Surprise Dick Head Award of 2007 goes to none other than Billy Mitchell. For any of you that weren’t able to see The King of Kong this year be sure to add it to your Netflix queue, this guy is the ultimate douche.
My dialogue driven character has got to be Michael Clayton. Tony Gilroy wrote some of the greatest lines in film this year for this title character, his delivery of the following line and the result of said line is pure cinematic genius:
I’m not the guy you kill. I’m the guy you buy off! Are you so blind that you can’t see that? I sold out Arthur for 80 grand. I’m your easiest problem and you try to kill me?
The oddest thing happened to me while watching The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a film about the French “Elle” editor-in-chief, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffers a massive stroke leaving him completely paralyzed except for one blinking eye. While watching you begin by seeing the world through the paralyzed eyes of Bauby and are occasionally flashed back in time to take a look at the man before he was paralyzed. What stunned me was that as soon as you leave the paralyzed body of Bauby all you want to do is get back to it. Amalric’s performance is that captivating and comforting, you actually begin to enjoy what feels like “alone time” with such a charismatic and altogether entertaining character. It is truly magical.
Aurora is on this list primarily for that freaky as shit night vision scene in The Orphanage. The combination of acting, camera work, screenwriting and sound is absolutely terrifying and once it is over you want to just run away. It’s great!
Viggo’s performance as Nikolai just missed my Top Ten Performances of 2007, but the character is too good to deny twice. Nikolai is a character that you instantly know is a bad dude and someone you just don’t want to get involved with if you are on the right side of the law. However he is charming, helpful and gives off that comfortable feeling as someone that you can ultimately trust, which only helps make watching Eastern Promises that much more entertaining.
As far as killers go Anton is one of the absolute most lethal. I am just waiting to hear about the first story where someone is going around killing people with an air gun. Oh man, the Coen brothers don’t want that day to come.
