Anita: Swedish Nymphet (1973)

When you get right down to it, sure, “Anita” is sexploitation, and sure in many occasions it can be pure smut, but, and this is a giant but: “Anita” can also be quite entertaining. Very much in the vein of films like “Black Snake Moan,” Wickman’s drama porn is not just a display for Christina Lindberg and her gorgeous physique, it’s an interesting study in the habits of nymphomaniacs, and the misery that can arise from sex and sexual acts when it’s made out of sheer impulse and not pleasure. Sixteen year old Anita is a girl with so much psychosis that she’s hopelessly addicted to sex and really has no grasp on restraint or discretion when it comes to getting what she wants.

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Cinema Crazed's Top 10 of 2007…

10. 3:10 to Yuma
I wasn’t completely sure that this remake would even manage to end up remotely watchable, at first. Even with people like Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, I couldn’t muster up enough enthusiasm to be optimistic, and yet, watching it left me utterly stunned. I’m a huge fan of the original film, so it took a great deal of raw acting talent and keen storytelling to stand apart from the original and somehow emphasize the struggle of morals and greed and add a sense of complex morality provocations for the audience and force our imperfect characters into a situation that required a great deal of courage and some stupidity.

Mangold doesn’t give us too many polished heroes and villains even if he edges slightly toward grind house atmosphere and gives our hero a perfectly flawed personality paired with a beaten down and pathetic personality, as well as our antagonist who is a charming, likable and incredibly evil sheep in wolf’s clothing. He’s the incarnation of the devil, a dapper and tempting individual who provides all the sins to everyone he comes across such as greed, lust, envy, and murder, and takes great pride in doing so. Paired with the rousing performances, and incredible action scenes, this is one of the best remakes of all time.

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There Will Be Blood (2007)

there_will_be_bloodMy expectations were too high. My anticipation worked against me. It was too exclusive. Whatever the excuse or reason, “There Will Be Blood” is not the best movie of 2007 as I’d hoped, but hell, it sure is a damn good piece of dramatic filmmaking that flexes every single muscle of raw acting talent from each of its cast members involved. “There Will Be Blood” is likened to masterpieces such as “Citizen Kane” and “Giant,” and in many ways Paul Thomas Anderson aims his film down those roads but ends up with his own masterpiece of a man’s rise to power, and fall into his own lust for greed, oil, and his amoral misdeeds in the process.

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The Snow Queen (2007) (DVD)

1168125852One of the appealing aspects of “The Snow Queen” that instantly won me over the unorthodox atmosphere present within this fantasy world. Director Julian Gibbs never quite opts to provide a set and strive for a period piece, instead he makes a noticeably unrealistic set piece and alters it enough to make the world of “The Snow Queen” from the impoverished village to the winter wonderland look like a moving painting as done from a surrealist of a sort. The pastels and shades to “The Snow Queen” are so utterly appealing to watch, and while I could notice the CGI, I absolutely loved what Gibbs was going for with this.

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I Am Legend (2007)

Let me just put this on you right now. I have never read “I Am Legend,” I love the previous incarnations, I’m not a fan of Richard Matheson because I’ve never read his work, I had no bias’ going into this movie, and I looked forward to this loose adaptation of Matheson’s beloved novel. Is that all a plus or a negative? I’m not sure, really. The first hour of  “I Am Legend” is fantastic, and I say this as someone who was comfortably middle ground when it came to the film and expectations.

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No Country for Old Men (2007)

MPW-31148I won’t lie when I tell you that it was a shame to see the Coen Brothers in such a slump. They gave us in no specific order “The Ladykillers,” a now infamous remake of a much better film, and then “Intolerable Cruelty” a week and dull dark comedy that was too glam for the duo. I’m glad to report that “No Country for Old Men” is just where they belong. It’s grit, edge, dark humor, and sheer menace in one package of incredible performances and results in a hybrid that’s basically my favorite film of 2007 and soon may just become one of my favorites of all time. Of course, this is not new for the Coens as “The Big Lebowski,” and “Fargo” currently rank in my top list.

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10 Seconds to Midnight (2007)

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Jason Roberts’ science fiction thriller was a thinker, and by that I mean that I simply didn’t get it. At all. I sat there in the end dumbfounded, confused, and ultimately unsatisfied. And then I thought, and thought, and then figured out that perhaps writer Aretha Donnelly was asking the audience to decide for themselves what she was trying to get across.

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