My Top 10 Films of 2007

Here's the top 10 movies I saw in 2007. All personal opinion of course!

Babel
Brad Pitt gives a career best performance in a drama that genuinelly grips from start to finish.

What Would Jesus Buy?
Produced by Supersize Me's Morgan Spurlock, this documentary focuses on the Reverend Billy - a man on a mission to stop the mass shopping epidemic that takes over the world during the festive season. Don't write him off - ethical commentary on sweatshops, globalisation and multinationalism make this an essential, and smart, watch.

Zodiac
David Fincher's best movie to date - a thrilling investigation into San Francisco's Zodiac Killer and utterly unmissable.

Stuck
Stuart Gordon cements his evolution as a thoroughly mature director following his impressive due of King of the Ants and Edmond. This is edge of your seat stuff and another five star offering.

Teeth
A film festival favourite and for good reason - girl meets boy, things go a bit too far, boy realises that girl has some seriously scary gnashers in a very personal place. Both hilarious and stomach churning.

Blood Diamond
DiCaprio continues to impress with his roles and this is probably his best turn since The Aviator. And to think he was once that wee fella in Titanic...

A Mighty Heart
The true story of Daniel Pearl, Michael Winterbottom follows up his vital Road to Guantanamo with this moving little tear jerker that is sure to nab Angelina Jolie an Oscar nomination.

American Gangster
Another based-on-a-true-story offering, Ridley Scott's epic starts off a little slow but soon manages to accomplish what any great movie does - it glues you to the screen and makes you forget that time is even passing...

Control
Obviously if you are a fan of Joy Division this film carries an extra wallop but even if you are not the story of Ian Curtis is tragic enough to pull on anyone's heartstrings.

Sicko
Michael Moore strikes with the movie of the year - an impassioned call for the US to follow the leads of so many other countries and introduce socialised healthcare. If you watch this as a Brit you WILL breath a sigh of relief for the good old NHS...

Tony Tenser RIP

Just heard this sad news from Gil Lane at the Manchester Fest of Fantastic Films. My thoughts go out to his family:

[I]Sadly I am advised that Tony Tenser died on the 5th Dec - we'll be putting something on the website in a day or so.[/I]

Keep an eye on the Manchester Festival of Fantastic Films web site at:

http://fantastic-films.com/festival/

In a long and illustrious career Tenser produced the classic Witchfinder General in 1968 as well as Roman Polanski's masterpiece Repulsion (1965) and later Cul-de-sac (1966).

I, personally, will cherish the memory of sharing the back seat of a car with Tenser as we drove him back to his nursing home in August 2005, shortly after his appearance at that year's festival in Manchester (where he amusingly referred to the then 66 year old Ruggero Deodato as a "young man"). A very frail, but nonetheless enthusiastic and warm, gentleman - Tenser entertained the car with his stories of Brigitte Bardot, Vincent Price and Polanski. There was a real sadness when he said that his 2005 honour would probably be the last one that he would experience.

RIP

Calum Waddell