Okay, these are my top two picks, as well as some good, fun (sometimes near great) movies that just didn't make my top ten but are worth seeing anyway. This is the last part of the list, I promise.

To recap 10-3 are:

10 - The Bourne Ultimatum
9 - Sweeney Todd
8 - Michael Clayton
7 - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
6 - Atonement
5 - Once
4 - Into the Wild
3 - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

2 - There Will be Blood - This may be the most powerful film of the year and Daniel Day Lewis gives the most powerful, transcendent performance by any actor (or actress) in any film of 2007, and to my mind one of the top performances of the decade. The director, Paul Thomas Anderson, has described it as a horror movie and much of the sick sick horror and feeling of queasiness comes from watching Day Lewis' decline from driven entrepreneur to soulless monster. The film is pitched as a struggle between two strong-willed men, one of whom is a preacher and the other of whom is a businessman. These two men are supposed to stand in for the competing forces of religion and commerce. And that is definitely a large part of the film. But the film is really about Day Lewis' relentless drive to succeed at all costs. In the process he discards all that is uneccessary to his success and all that makes him human, leading to a brutal and unforgettable final act. The soundtrack lends an air of dread to the whole endeavor making even routine actions seem ominous and portentous. I don't know if Stephanie and Ryan have seen this film, but there are two scenes in particular which stand out to me. I can't help but getting chills when I think about Daniel Day Lewis getting reluctantly baptized in a church where the preacher forces him to say, "I've abandoned my son." over and over again. Unbelievable. And then the scene at the end in the bowling alley where Daniel Day Lews and the preacher (Paul Dano) have their final confronation. Man, if I had just 1/10 of one percent of Day Lewis' talent.

Finally....

1 - No Country For Old Men - The film is set in motion by Josh Brolin stumbling upon a drug deal gone wrong and making off with $2 million dollars. The rest of the film deals with the consequences of that action. To me the film is an examination of fate. Josh Brolin unleashes a terrible killing machine in Javier Bardem while Tommy Lee Jones looks on largely helpless to resist. Bardem is the agent of fate, irrestible and implacable. He cannot be turned aside and will not waver. But like fate, he is arbitrary as well. Twice in the film he uses a coin to determine if someone will live or die. Josh Brolin is his ultimate target but he will not hesitate to stamp out anyone he sees along the way. Tommy Lee Jones acts as the overwhelmed observer of that fate. He grows increasingly incapable of comprehending his job and the world in which he finds himself, which is no country for old men in case you missed it. This film stood out in a crowded pack of top-notch films for several reasons, 1) The excellent excellent adapted screenplay. 2) The best ensemble acting in any film this year. No performance was off-key and several actors gave oscar-worthy performances, even those not nominated. In particular Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem should get a shared Best Actor Award. 3). The Coen brothers visionary directing which filled every scene with meaning and grabbed the most out of the sun-drenched countryside. This was unmistakably a Coen brothers film with all of their humor and grim realism. They took what could have been a shoot-em-up revenge fantasy and transformed it into a masterpiece.

Okay, that's it. There were so many great movies this year I couldn't list them all. Here are my also rans.

Ratatouille - Again, the perfect animated movie. There is a site on the web called metacritic which takes movie critics ratings and gives an average score based on a 100 point scale. So for example this year's Meet The Spartans got a 9 while No Country for Old Men got a 91. Well, Ratatouille was the highest rated film of 2007 with an average of 96. So, with over 50 reviews it averaged a 96, which is basically an A+. I agree with this wholeheartedly. It was cute, well drawn, totally family friendly and absolutely hilarious. So it didn't make it into my top ten only because it was so slight. There is not much to it beyond a bland "Believe in your dreams" type of message. You know me, no bloody deaths, no top ten. But still a fun movie. Definitely worth seeing.

Knocked Up - Very funny, vey human movie about trying to deal with pregnancy. Maybe this came at the perfect time for Meghan and I since we'd just found out we were pregnant, but we both thought it was great.

Juno - Another pregnancy movie. Also very funny and poignant. It deals in a very touching and humorous way with growing up and accepting responsibility.

Gone Baby Gone - Who knew Ben Affleck could direct? Well, this film is first rate. It's a brilliantly plotted missing child mystery where the mother's child is such a horrible person, you start to hope she won't get the child back. Great performances again by Casey Affleck and also by Amy Ryan.

Breach - Good spy drama - It's about the case of the worst spy in US history (in terms of damage to the US) as played by Chris Cooper who is great as always. The thrill of the movie is watching him on the tail end of a downward spiral and watching Ryan Phillipe trying to dance around him.

The Good Shephard - Matt Damon again plays a spy except this time the type of spy which actually exists, or used to. So bland and unaffecting he blends into the scenery, but a mastermind who grows to help direct the CIA. It's a bit cold-blooded, but still worth watching.

Away From Her - A film about a couple who have been together for 44 years when the wife develops Alzheimer's. Once at a nursing home, she forgets her husband who can only watch as she develops an attachment to a man at the home. It's poignant, well-acted and maybe something we will all have to face at some point. But god is it depressing. I really like this movie, but the wife was crying from the first few minutes and it almost never lets up. It is short and I highly recommend it but this one is more like eating your vegetables.

The Host - Hilarious Korean monster movie that doubles as a commentary on the US military presence in South Korea. No seriously. When a US military surgeon orders his reluctant Korean employee to dump old bottles of medical chemicals down the drain, they wash right out into the Han river and cause a normal fish to mutate into a huge tadpole/fish/lizard hybrid. The movie is very funny and there are lots of little digs at how the US is perceived in Korea. For example, when the monster first makes a rampage across the city, many Koreans die while fighting or fleeing it, but the Korean news media only reports on the death of one US soldier who bravely died trying to fight off the monster. Anyway, it's pretty good. Okay, that's all I've got. Hope this wasn't too much.

Let me know what you think and please give me any movie recommendations you might have.