2007 / Sam Raimi > I couldn’t help but have high expectations for Raimi’s latest venture: With the first sequel, he had fired on all cylinders. The emotions were on the dot, as was the action and the romance in-between. It was about Peter Parker, not Spider-Man or the villains. So, the third incarnation could only get better, right? Not exactly: The melodrama here is downright silly at times, and while there’s definitely some fun to be had, it doesn’t really satisfy in the end. In fact, if it wasn’t for Venom’s downright creepy, lingering presence, this would be almost unbearable.

2007 / Mike Binder > In Reign Over Me, Binder continues displaying the skill of creating laughter in the face of tragedy he utilized so effectively in The Upside of Anger. And in doing so, he may have crafted one of the best films dealing with loss since The Sweet Hereafter, while taking an indirect approach towards 9/11 through a perspective that hasn’t yet been fully explored. Sandler is spot on, but Cheadle, as he so often does, steals the show as the man who you know has problems but just can’t face them. Sandler is his foil and while we see him transform, Cheadle follows suit ever so subtly. It has its slow moments and its awkward moments. It’s not brilliant, and it isn’t groundbreaking, but it has the kind of heart that one cannot often find in Hollywood these days.

2007 / Zack Snyder > One thing is undeniable: The film is visually stunning with visceral battle scenes that generally satisfy. However, the faithfulness to Frank Miller’s original work keeps 300 from becoming a cinema classic. There are awkward, boring moments of long narration, seemingly infinite slow-motion sequences and not enough liberty taken to adjust and adapt to the different medium. The screenplay felt weak, with a storyline that tried to be a foundation for the action but instead just felt like a distraction to the meat. It has its moments—notably, the oracle and her mystical movements—and it may just have given birth to another generation of comic book films, but ultimately 300 is a film of enjoyable superficiality that should have been 20 minutes shorter.

2007 / David Fincher > Maybe it’s because of my high expectations for Fincher, but the man’s crafting of this solid, methodical work is lacking the underlying charisma that drove Fight Club and Seven into the annals of film history. Moreover, compared to Bong Joon-Ho’s Memories of Murder, Zodiac’s absence of heart tugs on the length of the film, which clocks in at nearly three hours. When you know there’s no payoff (as both cases still remain unsolved), it’s harder to keep from twiddling in your seat. Fincher’s attempt at losing the gimmicks that some would say have plagued his previous films is successful for the most part: By the end, I felt satisfied, but in retrospect there wasn’t enough to make this nearly as memorable as his previous ventures.

2007 / Nick Cassevetes > I’ll consider myself fortunate to start the year off with two films that were not critically well-received, but have nonetheless given me an abundance of entertainment. Along with Smokin’ Aces, Cassevetes’ seemingly satirical look at the lives of irreverent, hedonistic teens in Southern California is sometimes witty, sometimes outrageous, and almost impossible to stop one’s self from watching. In the right light, his is a tragic mockumentary, filled with polarizing scenes of drug abuse and sex, anger and lack of control.

Emile Hirsch continues to impress and mature, and Ben Foster gives one of the more intense performances (reminiscent of Spud from Trainspotting) I imagine we’ll see all year. Justin Timberlake isn’t great, but is watchable. (The problem with popstars in acting is that you always focus on them, judge them deeply and in the process, forget that there is a film around them; thankfully, it’s not so much the case here.) In fact, much of the acting is to the point, often over the top but fitting for Alpha Dog’s ride through mayhem and madness.

2007 / Joe Carnahan > While a cornucopia of outlandish fun, Carnahan’s follow-up to the critically-acclaimed Narc lacks the subtlety and tension that made his initial directing effort so effective. But that’s not to take away from the fact that for nearly two hours, I was glued to the screen with little thought of what else was around me. Whether the movie has a real point or not is not the point at all, but rather that its sustainability is jaw-dropping. It’s a fine mess, if you will, and a mess that luckily you can leave behind once the credits roll.

2006 / Christopher Nolan > There’s really no other way to put it: This was a well-crafted film that I just couldn’t enjoy as much as I should have. It’s intricate and one can garner a lot of satisfaction dissecting each thread from beginning to end, but I personally couldn’t be motivated to care beyond the broad level. Coming from a person who finds Memento to be one of the most overrated films in history, one might think that I just have it in for Nolan—but I did enjoy Batman Begins and even found Insomnia to be fairly solid. Maybe the fact that Scarlett Johansson just can’t act was an issue, or maybe I just can’t get over the fact that Nolan’s knack for complicating matters just drives me insane. Alright, it’s probably the latter. At least The Dark Knight looks promising.

2006 / Michael Kang > The quiet subservience of youth is often incorrectly displayed in film. There lies a difference between emotionally manipulating through stereotypes and enveloping the stereotypes to build a foundation for something more. Kang does the latter here, gently and effectively. Non-actor Jeffrey Chyau’s lead character is unassuming and imperfect, but is as a boy his age should be. One of the key reasons the film works is because Kang doesn’t seem to approach this as an “Asian-American” film, but rather a film about growing up where the central character just happens to be Asian.

Along with Saving Face, this is arguably the only other so-called Asian-American film that I find myself recommending to others. I’m now anxiously awaiting Kang’s next film, West 32nd, which as far as I know is the first film that Korea’s CJ Entertainment has funded for a Korean-American director as well as Korean-American stars (John Cho and Battlestar Galactica’s Grace Park).

2006 / John Lasseter & Jon Ranft > Toy Story might have jumpstarted the animated film genre a little over eleven years go, but the magic of previous Pixar films have definitely failed to carry into 2006. This, what has widely been called the best animated feature of the year, is long, arduous and painstaking in its delivery of an all too obvious life lesson. It rarely entertains but instead folds back into a shell to manipulate emotions and make us feel as if there’s something below the hood, but alas there isn’t. It’s a little insulting, even, when compared to the magic of The Incredibles and the ingenuity of Monsters, Inc. One can only hope that Brad Bird comes back in full force with Ratatouille to restore the pride of Pixar and take the art form back to respectability.

2006 / Tony Goldwyn > It’s nowhere near as bad as I expected (which was, essentially, a cross between Garden State and Crash). It’s definitely a film where personal identification makes or breaks one’s opinion. It’s made for people in certain stages in their lives, especially those in longer-term relationships who question and wonder the long-term viability of these lives. The Last Kiss, surprisingly, does little to answer those questions, which is preferable as not to seem pedantic and righteous. In the sector of emotional resonance, though, it comes nowhere near Nichols’ Closer, which further perfected the art of heartbreaks. Nonetheless, the supporting stories here are relevant and of interest, and Rachel Bilson’s film-debut is full of appreciative spunk.