2007 Best Reviewed Movies (Page #3)

Adrienne Shelly's sunny final film is also her most artistically successful and intrinsically marketable directorial effort. An old-fashioned fairy tale that honors the transformative power of female friendship and motherhood, "Waitress" features a dynamic cast led by Keri Russell, whose character will surely do, in a Rachael Ray kind of way, for down home pie-making what the title character of "Babette's Feast" did for Cailles en Sarcophage.

When Russell's character Jenna, a waitress in a cheery southern diner, discovers that she's pregnant, she doesn't exactly jump for joy. Motherhood was never in her plans, and she's already saddled with her needy, jealous and infantile husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto).

At first, things seem hopeless and her dreams for a better life are in ruins, until a good-looking doctor (Nathan Fillion) arrives in town and mixes things up. With the support and love of her friends and co-workers (Adrienne Shelly and Cheryl Hines) at Joe's Pie Diner, Jenna exhibits her skills with crusts and fillings which are particularly appreciated by Joe himself (Andy Griffith). She then gains the courage to embrace independence and create the life of her dreams.

This documentary looks at the process of getting four Broadway musicals--"Avenue Q," "Wicked," "Taboo" and "Caroline, or Change"--off the ground and eventually on to the Tony Awards.

Two co-dependent high school guys want to hook up with girls before they graduate and go off to different colleges, but, after a calamitous night just trying to buy alcohol for a school party, overcoming their separation anxiety becomes a greater challenge than getting the girls.

Andy, an overextended broker, lures his younger brother, Hank into a larcenous scheme: the pair will rob a suburban mom-and-pop jewelry store that appears to be the quintessential easy target. The problem is, the store owners are Andy and Hank's actual mom and pop. When the seemingly perfect crime goes awry, the damage lands right at their doorstep. In the meantime, Andy's trophy wife is having a clandestine affair with Hank, and the family patriarch, who is intent on pursuing justice at all costs, is completely unaware that the culprits he is hunting are his own sons.

The story will follow a seasoned if unsuccessful thesps in their 70s who are forced to re-evaluate their lives after the introduction of an inquisitive young woman.

Ian Curtis has aspirations beyond the trappings of small town life in 1970's England. Wanting to emulate his musical heroes, such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop, he joins a band, and his musical ambition begins to thrive. Soon though, the everyday fears and emotions, that fuel his music, slowly begin to eat away at him. Married young, with a daughter, he is distracted from his family commitments by a new love and the growing expectations of his band, Joy Division. The strain manifests itself in his health. With epilepsy adding to his guilt and depression, desperation takes hold. Surrendering to the weight on his shoulders, Ian's tortured soul consumes him.

Homer Simpson must save the world from a catastrophe he himself created. It all begins with Homer, his new pet pig, and a leaky silo full of droppings--a combination that triggers a disaster the likes of which Springfield has never experienced. As Marge is outraged by Homer's monumental blunder, a vengeful mob descends on the Simpson household. The family makes a narrow escape, but is soon divided by both location and conflict. The Springfield citizenry has every reason to be out for Simpson blood. The calamity triggered by Homer has drawn the attention of U.S. President Arnold Schwarzenegger and Environmental Protection Agency head Russ Cargill. "You know sir," Cargill tells the president, "when you made me head of the EPA, you were applauded for appointing one of the most successful men in America to the least successful agency in government. And why did I take the job? Because I'm a rich man who wanted to give something back. Not the money, but something." That "something" is a devil's plan to contain the disaster. As the fates of Springfield and the world hang in the balance, Homer embarks on a personal odyssey of redemption--seeking forgiveness from Marge, the reunion of his splintered family, and the salvation of his hometown.

The intelligent crime drama is centered around Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a once promising high school athlete whose life is turned upside down following a tragic accident. As he tries to maintain a normal life, he takes a job as a janitor at a bank where he ultimately finds himself caught up in a planned heist.

Benjamin Barker, a man unjustly sent to prison by a lecherous judge, vows revenge, not only for that cruel punishment, but for the devastating consequences of what happened to his wife and daughter. When he returns to reopen his barber shop, Sweeney Todd becomes the Demon Barber of Fleet Street who shaved the heads of gentlemen who never thereafter were heard from again.

An 11-year-old boy has his life changed forever when he befriends the class outsider, a girl. Together they create the world of Terabithia, an imaginary kingdom filled with giants, trolls and other magical beings.

"The Namesake" is the story of the Ganguli family whose move from Calcutta to New York evokes a lifelong balancing act to meld to a new world without forgetting the old. Though parents Ashoke and Ashima (Irfan Khan, Tabu) long for the family and culture that enveloped them in India, they take great pride in the opportunities their sacrifices have afforded their children. Paradoxically, their son Gogol (Kal Penn) is torn between finding his own unique identity without losing his heritage. Even Gogol's name represents the family's journey into the unknown.

Two sixty-minute horror movies, Quentin Tarantino's zombie pic "Death Proof" and Robert Rodriguez's slasher-themed "Planet Terror", are combined as a feature.

When young Eric O'Neill (Phillippe) is promoted out of his low-level surveillance job and into the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, his dream of becoming a full-fledged agent is on the verge of becoming a reality. Even more impressive, O'Neill is handpicked to work for renowned operative Robert Hanssen (Cooper), within "information assurance," a new division created to protect all classified FBI Intelligence. O' Neill is quickly confronted with the true reason behind his hire: Hanssen is the sole subject of a long-term, top-secret investigation, a suspected mole made all the more dangerous by the sheer global import of the information he is charged with protecting.

The Bureau asks O'Neill to use Hanssen's growing trust to slowly draw the traitor out of deep cover. Engaged in a lethal game of spy-versus-spy, O'Neill finds himself fighting to bring down Hanssen before the treacherous double agent can destroy O'Neill, his family and the nation they are both sworn to serve.

Linney portrays Special Agent Kate Burroughs, the FBI staffer in charge of O'Neill, and Dennis Haysbert (Far From Heaven, TV's 24) is Special Agent Dan Plesac, who teams with Burroughs to bring Hanssen down. Also