By Brandon Nolta

Bonjour, y’all. My name is Brandon, and my editor tells me and my colleagues that our year-end posts should have some sort of bio on them. In my case, I can’t imagine why the hell you’d want to know anything about me besides what I write, if that, but OK. I am a freelance writer and editor, now living in the cold wastes of northern Idaho so my better half can attend law school. I could bore with more, but that’s why we have the Internet. On to the movies.

Everybody does a best-of list, and frankly, I don’t give a damn. I know what I like, what I saw that sucked and didn’t, what I want to see and what I don’t, so I thought I’d go a different route and give you my winners in the Biggest Surprise and Biggest Disappointment sweepstakes of 2007. When I say Biggest Surprise, I mean a pleasant one. The Biggest Disappointment should be self-explanatory. Having said that, I continue.

Biggest Surprise: MR. BROOKS

I expected this film to suck people into the screen from sheer awfulness, I really did. Kevin Costner’s been underrated as an actor for years (check out A PERFECT WORLD or OPEN RANGE for what the man can really do), but he doesn’t always pick the best scripts. Plus, having Demi Moore in a film is usually the kiss of doom. Throw in Dane Cook, and you might be excused for thinking better results could be had by taking a dump in the projector.

Yet, I was mistaken in my assumption. MR. BROOKS is an oddball thriller, a serial killer B-movie with an interesting premise, a solid script and some surprisingly good acting. Cook portrays an annoying ass quite well, and Moore holds her own as a frazzled homicide detective (although her travails were nearly Sisyphean), but it’s Costner and Hurt who sell the steak with their sizzle. Playing two aspects of one brilliantly methodical whacko, the two men interact with verve and style, even eerily echoing each other’s mannerisms in one tremendously creepy conversation while driving. I saw this with my honey, and we both thoroughly enjoyed the film.



Biggest Disappointment: 300

This film depressed me. I had such high hopes for it, as a fan of Frank Miller (the graphic novelist whose work the film is based upon) and Zack Snyder, who did a great job with his remake of DAWN OF THE DEAD. Plus, it had Gerard Butler, who’s been a sturdy bit player in films that don’t measure up to him for years, leading a cast of character actors seasoned and otherwise. I thought it couldn’t miss, so I went to see it and expected to be blown away.

Well, if being blown away could happen on a rising gale of blah, I guess it worked. While I appreciated the stylish design and look of the film, it was about the only thing worth looking at (well, that and a half-naked Lena Headey). The story was nonexistent, the fight scenes curiously flat, and the hyperstylized approach that worked so well with SIN CITY just came across as much ado about not much to this viewer’s eyes. I sat there for 117 minutes and thought, “Who cares?” After it was all said and done, I doubt I could have told you much of what happened or who it happened to, except that a) the hunchback bought it, b) Xerxes was pretty damn silly for a supposed god-king whose armies shook the earth, and c) Leonidas spent too much of his military budget on baby oil and protein bars, from the looks of things. I also saw this with my honey, and neither one of us were thrilled. It could have been more, but it wasn’t. Damn it.