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2007 Bellview Awards, Part III

1/1/08

Folks--

The finale!

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The 20 Best Movie Moments of the Year:

A “movie moment” is essentially when you have a scene where everyone in the audience seems to have the same reaction—maybe it’s a big laugh, or an awe-inspiring stunt, or a moment where everyone in the audience, even “that guy that never cries”, cries.  Two recent examples:  maybe the most famous line about wine in the history of the movies from "Sideways" ("I'm not drinking any fucking merlot!"), or the best moment from 2004, the bag of weed dream sequence from "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle."  And now, this year's list...

20--"Stardust": When we get to see the female apparel in the closet of Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro)

19--"Margot at the Wedding": When Malcolm (Jack Black) starts crying while trying to explain why he wants Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to come back home

18--"Black Snake Moan": The first time you see Pauline (Christina Ricci) chained to the radiator

17--"The Simpsons Movie": Homer's rendition of an old-school TV theme, renamed "Spider-Pig"

16--"The Great Debaters": The ending is powerful, and that hangin' sequence was also a whopper...

15--"The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters": Mr. Awesome's advice, "Don't get chumpatized!"

14--"Red Road": The bodily fluid sequence

13--"Interview": "Sorry about that, Cunt-i-a."

12--"The Bourne Ultimatum": The Waterloo Station sequence

11--"Knocked Up": The second sex scene, which features the line "It's a STYLE..."

10--"Transformers": The first time you hear the voice of Peter Cullen, who voiced Optimus Prime for the 1980s TV show and does the voice of Prime again in the movie

9--"Once": The first jam session in the piano store

8--"Eastern Promises": The bathhouse fight scene

7--"The Mist": The very-end ending

6--"Hot Fuzz": when the priest gets shot, and he yells "Jesus...Christ!" before hitting the pavement

5--"300": Leonidas (Gerard Butler) chewing on an apple as dead bodies are being stacked into a wall

4--"Into the Wild": The goodbye sequence between Chris (Emile Hirsch) and Ron (Hal Holbrook)

3--"The Kingdom": The film's grand highway-to-apartment complex finale

2--"Grindhouse": The opening trailer for "Machete"

1--"Teeth": I can't tell you why, but if the film has not been edited, you'll know it when you see it!

 

Best DVD Rental of the Year--TV Series:  "Arrested Development", Season 1 (22 20-minute episodes)

The fast-paced nature of the jokes, as well as great performances by nearly every recurring character, make this one the easy choice of the four TV series/seasons I watched in 2007.  I can see what made Jason Bateman and Michael Cera so popular with others, as they are playing these same characters now in "Juno" as well as other roles each had this year.  Too bad it only made it through two-and-a-half seasons before getting the axe!

 

Best DVD Rental of the Year--Movies:  "Jesus Camp"

Pound for pound, the great Orson Welles thriller "Touch of Evil" was a better movie (I saw that earlier this spring, too), but "Jesus Camp" is the one you need to see if you haven't already.  Sure, it's a religious documentary, but don't let that stop you if you have been on the fence about watching this--this is about as fair a doc as you are ever going to see and some of the revelations in this film really are shocking.  This was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, too.

 

Most Popular (counted by number of responses) Bellview Essay--Meg Cooch, LLP

My love letter to my lovely fiancée was the essay that got the edge over my Iceland travelogue; I am STILL waiting for my response letter, but I'll have to settle for a future with a beautiful person instead

 

Best Xbox 360 Game:  "Bioshock" and "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare"

The best single-player game of the year--and slightly better than "Gears of War" in this category--is "Bioshock", with the coolest atmosphere, the best mix of action and magic in a first-person shooter ever and some of the scariest moments I've ever seen on a console.  In hi-def, "Bioshock" is ridiculous.  The best multi-player game is "COD4"; as evidence, I have logged over 60 hours on it so far and there are no signs of it leaving my console.  The RPG-style of the multiplayer makes it feel like legalized crack, and the framerate matched with an incredibly deep system of maps, weapons, and game types has made me forget I was waiting over a year to buy "Halo 3"

 

Best Wii Game:  "Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition"

The mix of puzzles and action in "RE4" are great, but you add in Wii remote functionality and a $30 price tag for what is easily a 15-hour experience and you get a 100% no-brainer

 

Best PS2 Game:  "God of War 2"

My PS2 died in mid-2007, but this sequel to maybe the PS2's best action game lives up to incredible hype thanks to an almost-nothing-has-changed approach by the game's designers

 

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Good stuff in 2007: a couple of film festivals, a ton of travel and airline miles acquired, watched a ton of movies on DVD, got lucky enough to buy a Wii, changed jobs within my company...and, oh yeah, I got engaged.  2008 is already looked slam-packed, with a bunch of weddings to attend (as well as helping to plan my own), a number of proposed trips, a move upcoming into downtown Washington and a chance to elect either a black guy or a woman into the office of the President.  I better get my nap in now!

 

 

Comments?  Drop me a line at justin@bellviewmovies.com.