In honor of the Oscars, each of us here at Cinema Strikes Back has assembled their “Top 10 of 2007″ lists. Then, using a fairly stupid formula, we combined the individual lists to come up with our collective “Top 5 of 2007″ list for Cinema Strikes Back. We each had slightly different criteria, but did not limit ourselves to films with a US theatrical release in 2007, since we tend to watch a lot of advance DVDs and festival screenings.

Normally none of our top picks are nominated for any Oscars, so needless to say, the fact that our collective favorite film of this year actually won “Best Picture” at the Academy Awards last night has us all in shock right now. In any case, without further ado….

Our individual picks continue below:

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1. No Country for Old Men – This Coen Brothers film lives up to its hype and shows that the brothers are back after a number of disappointing years.

2. I Served the King of England – Jiri Menzel’s most recent film is a scathing, yet extremely sexy and funny, indictment of the Czech people’s actions during WWII, and deserves a wider release.

3. Eastern Promises – Aside from a fairly pointless character played by Naomi Watts, this Cronenberg piece is full of terrific performances, especially by Viggo Mortenson. Cronenberg has really been topping himself with his recent Mortenson gangster films.

4. Grindhouse – Brilliant? Maybe not. Extremely fun? Definitely. Personally I preferred Rodriguez’s Planet Terror to Tarantino’s talky Death Proof. I’m fine with his films being talky, but the writing has to justify it, and here it didn’t. Fortunately Kurt Russell and the car chase saved the day. This rating is for the combined version with the trailers.

5. Getting Home – Normally I’m not a fan of the feel good movie, but I’ll make an exception for Yang Zhang’s tale of one man’s attempt to bring his dead friend’s body home for burial. See Charlie’s review here

6. There Will Be Blood – I thought the music, cinematography and performances, not to mention individual scenes, in this film were outstanding, but I did not think it held together as well as it should have (and the final scene contains way too much scenery-chewing). That said, it’s an impressive achievement and interesting to see Paul Thomas Anderson working outside his Altman-mode.

7. Cruel Winter Blues – This South Korean tale of two gangsters who set up camp in a rural town to assassinate a rival is clever, touching
and brutal in turn.

8. Sweeney Todd – Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are always great, the set design is wonderful, and I laughed my ass off.

9. Black Book – Paul Verhoeven conjures up an intricate little thriller that may be a little too Hollywood but doesn’t fail to satisfy.

10. Rescue Dawn – Frankly I am surprised Werner Herzog’s dramatization of Little Dieter Needs to Fly is receiving so little critical attention. Sure it’s no Aguirre, but it’s fascinating to see him take his themes of individualism, the cruelty of nature, and the obsession/madness of men in a more commercial direction.

HONORABLE MENTION

Sunshine (Danny Boyle’s intermittently successful sci-fi that falls apart in the end); Superbad (definitely funny, though a lot of time is wasted); Hell’s Ground [aka Zibahkhana] (kudos to Omar Khan for pulling off a modern re-imagining of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in Pakistan); The Darjeeling Limited (lesser Wes Anderson is still Wes Anderson); Sukiyaki Western Django (Takashi Miike’s mad re-do of Yojimbo by way of A Fistful of Dollars by way of Heike Monogatari is wacky fun); Paprika (Satoshi Kon’s imagery is mind-blowing); Tekkon Kinkreet (the story may be weak but the animation is top-notch); Dynamite Warrior (the most entertaining film out of Thailand since Ong Bak); The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (interesting dreamy atmosphere); Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-Hsien doing well out of his environment); The King of Kong (surprisingly gripping).

DISHONORABLE MENTION

Michael Clayton (having dealt with many a General Counsel, I just found the premise for this one too stupid and implausible); 28 Weeks Later (the allegory had potential but the lame characters sink it); Hot Fuzz (this just seemed off to me compared to the brilliant Shaun of the Dead); I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay (ugh, I hate “wacky, crazy people” movies); Mad Detective (one of To’s lesser works); Retribution (Kiyoshi Kurosawa is still spinning his wheels); 300 (considering that this movie is an oily beefcake story about the Spartans, historically acknowledged to be the boy-buggerin-est bunch of boy-buggerers that ever buggered a boy, even by the standards of Ancient Greece, I was kind of shocked at how homophobic this film was).

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1. No Country for Old Men
USA, Directors: Coen Brothers. This is the only movie this year that after seeing I immediately went back to see it the next day. And I can’t wait to see it again.

2. I Served the King of England
Czech Republic, Director: Jiri Menzel. Hysterically funny and also moving, I’m surprised it’s not on more top 10 lists.

3. Getting Home
China, Director: Yang Zhang. This movie stuck with me all year since seeing it at the New York Asian Film Festival. I never would have thought you could make a film with subject matter like this be a genuine “feel good” film.

4. The Boss of It All
Denmark, Director: Lars Von Trier. This is classic Von Trier, and one of the most creative comedies I’ve seen in a while. Once the basic setup was in place, I couldn’t stop laughing.

5. The Bourne Ultimatum
USA, Director: Paul Greengrass. I know this isn’t a fashionable “top 10″ pick, but I loved this film so much that it spurred me on to dig back and watch about 40 of the classic spy films of the 60s. Thank you Paul Greengrass for providing the rare non-disappointing end to a great trilogy.

6. The Year My Parents Went on Vacation
Brazil, Director: Cao Hamburger. I found this to be a deeply moving story with a stellar cast, no wonder my Brazilian friends were raving about it.

7. Rescue Dawn
USA, Director: Werner Herzog. Herzog scores again with a remake of his own documentary. The two films should really be seen together to get the full effect of how impressively realistic the film is.

8. Offside
Iran, Director: Jafar Panahi. This is another one that stuck with me long after I watched it. A fascinating look at the cultural debate among Iranian youth today, and impressively sympathetic to all sides. Highly recommended.

9. Grindhouse
USA, Director: Quentin Tarantino. I loved both parts of this film, but came to love Death Proof all the more after seeing the extras accompanying the film and realizing what an homage it was to stunt drivers (not to mention double features), which gets a big thumbs up in my book.

10. Red Road (UK/Denmark)
10.1 Eastern Promises (USA)
10.2 The Orphanage (Spain)
10.3 Juno (USA)
10.4 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (USA)
10.5 Zodiac (USA)
I had a terrible time picking number 10 this year, so I just went ahead and cheated, though on reflection Red Road is probably the most deserving of making the top 10. But I really thought all these films were great.

Honorable mentions: The Wind that Shakes the Barley (awesome, and while technically a 2006 film, I only saw it in 07); Charlie Wilson’s War, Black Book (I saw this in 2006, so I decided to disqualify it for contention this year, though it would have otherwise definitely made the top 10 list); City of Violence and Cruel Winter Blues (my favorite Korean films of the year); 3:10 to Yuma (I actually thought it was an improvement over the original for the way it changed the motivations for the main characters); Sukiyaki Django - Western (Miike’s best film in years); 300 (yes, I know it’s a big dumb action movie, but it’s a damn fun big dumb action movie); Darjeeling Limited; Breach; Gone Baby Gone; Persepolis; Hell’s Ground.

Biggest disappointment: Kantoku Banzai (I have long thought of Takeshi Kitano as one of my favorite directors and thus will faithfully watch every film he makes, but unfortunately I increasingly dread each such opportunity).

Biggest surprise masterpiece seen this year: Per Fly’s Baenken.

Movies I most thought were going to suck but watched anyway, and indeed they did suck: Return of the Killer Tomatoes (unexplained forces compel me to watch all the sequels to any movie I’ve seen; I don’t understand it either); Paganini (I really wanted Kinski’s swan song to have a redeeming factor, but there was nothing doin); Garbage Pail Kids the Movie (I don’t know what to tell you on this one, I used to collect the cards?).

Best movies I should have seen ages ago but for some reason only saw this year: Being There, In the Soup.

Number of films watched in 2007: 518

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1. No Country For Old Men
The Coens are at their best here. They manage to bring their style (I was reminded of Fargo and even Raising Arizona with the dead-pan humor) to Cormac McCarthy’s style and blend them together perfectly. As a fan of the book I felt the film captured exactly what makes McCarthy so great. When the movie smacks you, you’ll take it and you’ll like it. You have to earn everything you get from it.

2. Darjeeling Limited
I’m so in the tank for Wes Anderson it’s not even funny. But you know what? I like movies about brothers with Daddy issues. (Full disclosure: I have 5 brothers.) I have revised this movie up to #2 from 6. I was holding my bias in favor of Wes Anderson in general against this film in particular. I just re-watched it and realized I like this movie because I like this movie, not just that I’m into Anderson’s movies. Sure he covers some familiar ground with the family stuff but he does it really well and I respond very strongly to it. I found myself seeing some of the same things with my brothers and me. Much of the good and bad ways the brothers and their mother relate to each other rings true. I think Anderson deserves credit for capturing those things.

3. Zodiac
Sometimes a movie is just that good. I have no strong inclination to Hollywood serial killer movies. But Fincher just does it so well and with such style that the movie can’t be denied.

4. The Lives of Others (Germany)
Another one of those “this guy just knows how to make a great movie” movies.

5. There Will Be Blood
“I drink your milkshake!” I like the scene chewing actually. But the movie is much more than just Daniel Day Lewis being brilliant. Johnny Greenwood shows himself to be a force as a film-composer and P.T. Anderson shows that he can frame a shot and visually tell a story with great skill. One of the best shot movies I’ve seen in quite a while.

6. Sweeney Todd
I hate musicals. I mean I really hate musicals and especially the music in them. But I loved this movie. Sure I loved it for the dark humor and excellent imagery and set design. But I loved it because of the music also, not in spite of the music. Sondheim actually knows what he’s doing. Who’d a thunkit?

7. City of Violence (S. Korea)
When we watched this movie early in the year. I remember thinking “this is in my top ten.” Now all these months later I can still remember it even though it’s basically a throw away action flick. But this is the kind of movie that made me realize there was a whole world out there in Region III or wherever that I didn’t know about and set me and my friends on a lifelong journey of love exploring world cinema.

8. 28 Weeks Later
Don’t let the haters throw you off. This is a kick-butt movie. I didn’t feel the metaphor was much of an issue and I tend to disagree with the point of view of that metaphor. Just as an action movie it works and that’s all I ask of it. This was one of only a handful of movies of which I came out of the theater totally buzzed over how much fun it was.

9. The Boss of it All (Denmark)
Von Trier can be an unbearable pain. But he can also make a darn entertaining flick.

10. 300

I know some people don’t like this movie. There are legitimate criticisms. There is barely any story. There is no character development to speak of. But it does stick faithfully with Frank Miller’s comic so I’d say if that’s your problem with the film, take it up with him. It’s not supposed to be a historical document. It’s a big dumb action movie in which bad dudes make speeches about whoopin’ arse followed by scenes of said dudes whoopin’ arse. I really think that’s all there is to it. I can’t say it’s one of the ten “best” movies of the year but it’s one of the ten I enjoyed the most.

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All of my film picks were released in US theaters in 2007 (they may have been released elsewhere at an earlier date). They are listed in no particular order.

There Will Be Blood

No Country For Old Men

Tazza: the High Rollers

The Lives of Others

Grindhouse

Black Friday