Because 7 is as random and arbitrary as 10 (and because I haven't seen a few).

In somewhat particular order:

1. GRINDHOUSE - As most people know (right?), GRINDHOUSE was one of my favorite films of the year and one of the best times I've ever had at the movie theater. I rank it among STAR WARS; CLOSE ENCOUNTERS; SUPERMAN 2 (with 600 newspaper carriers); ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW; BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA in terms of sheer audience pleasure. So it sucks that Miramax released bhe films seperate on DVD, without the brilliant theater bumpers that made GH one of the most unique studio projects ever.

GH should never have cost 100 million dollars though; imagine if the directors had self-imposed a 2 million dollar budget for each movie. The films would have been better and it would be such an easy financial success that we could have enjoyed a whole GRINDHOUSE series.

PLANET TERROR works great as a b-movie you once watched on VHS in 1986 with friends, stoned and eating pizza. Rodriguez makes the old-skool theater experience palatable with a palette of film scratches and burns, including a brilliant "Reel Missing" gag. Josh Brolin channels Nick Nolte and presages his charismatic turn in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. I loved seeing Michael Biehn, Jeff Fahey and Tom Savini blasting viral mutants.

Though DEATH PROOF has an iconic Kurt Russell performance, one of his great roles, and a nifty drive-in feel, the female cast and dialogue I find irritating. It's "Sex and The City" mashed-up with VANISHING POINT. I would have made Zoe Bell a mute and let her imposing stuntwoman presence do all the talking. Oddly, I did think the extended version of DP worked better in terms of shading the characters. And there's more Russell.

However, the final shot is awesome and redeems the whole.



2. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN -I read this script two years ago and declared it one of the best I'd ever read. I figgered on the script alone, the Coen brothers would nail it. And they did. Based on Cormac Mcarthy's sparse existential cowboy lit, NCFOM is set in Texas circa 1980, about the collusion of many men and their mythic place in a violent, unknowing landscape. Javier Bardem plays Anton Chigurh, one of the great villains in American film history. Like a vengeful ghost pursuing his shadow, Chigurh represents the dark edges of society as witnessed by Sheriff Bell, aproposly wise and craggy in the form of Tommy Lee Jones, who narrates. As the man who steals drug money and sets the story in motion, Josh Brolin is a charismatic, stolid presence and perfectly cast. His escape from a relentless pittbull down a stream is one of the cinematic highlights of the year. For more thoughtful analysis, check out Living In Cinema.

The Coen brothers wisely stripped the film of their usual visual kinetics; these guys know how to tell a story on film and they've sublimated their style into the narrative. The ending has caused controversy with its apparent brusqueness, but i's really an epilogue, altho in the script it packs more visual punch than what was presented.

Stripped down to the essence and shot with haunting beauty by Roger Deakins, NCFOLM is a tone poem for our age along with being the Coen brothers best film.



3. HOT FUZZ - I avoided SHAUN OF THE DEAD because it looked like snarky English hipster humor and I don't do that. However, I was wrong. SOTD was made by clever people like Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost who GET the genre but don't act superior. How many zombie movies make you cry? And Wright's DON'T trailer from GRINDHOUSE was easily the best one, an amalgamation of every British horror film ever made.

So HOT FUZZ.

Smart, funny, a tad overlong and missing the more emotional cues from SOTH, but nobody in America is making this kind of satire. HOT FUZZ sends up the Bruckheimer homo-erotic gun pix with affection if not irreverence, thank God.

And with an astounding supporting cast of great English actors, you can't go wrong. My favorite is Timothy Dalton (who was a great James Bond) as the sinister grocery store manager. Loved seeing Edward Woodward pop up as a tribute to THE WICKER MAN along with the creepy little village. Simon Pegg is a surprisingly terrific action hero, quite the opposite of the shlub from SOTD.

Although Edgar Wright directs with the Avid frame-fucking of a Bruckheimer product, he also knows how to perfectly time a visual gag.

As of now, these guys are the best comedy filmmakers out there.



I'll have the remaining four films from my Top Seven soon.