There are a couple of more discussion points to hit before getting to the lists. They center around the strength of genre films. There are a few genres that had above average an above average year in 2007.

Horror. This was a surprisingly good year for horror movies. In recent years, this genre has been plagued with numerous sub-par remakes and riddled with sanitized PG-13 fare. Now, I am not looking for extreme, over-the-top flicks; what I want are quality horror films that deliver creepy tales, bloody ballets, or essentially anything that felt fresh. This year delivered a host of horror films worth your time. Without getting into too much detail, here are a sample of movies, big and small, to spend a dark night with: The Abandoned, Dead Silence, Grindhouse (Planet Terror), Vacancy, 28 Weeks Later, Bug, Hostel Part II, Captivity, Halloween, P2, Mulberry Street, Tooth and Nail, and The Mist. Yes, I liked all of these films and felt they had something to add to the genre. I even found a couple of fun ones on DVD in Hatchet and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. What are you waiting for? Go check some of them out (after you finish here, of course)!

Comedy. Yes, the year did start with such lowlights as Epic Movie and Norbit, but they were definitely not a sign of things to come. There is definitely something to be said about what would come later in the year. Judd Apatow proved his success in recent years was no fluke, delivering the fantastic Knocked Up, producing the equally excellent Superbad, and writing the (at the moment) underrated Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. While this may have been the year of the Apatow, he was not the only person on the block delivering genuine laughs. The minds behind Reno 911! brought the troop to the big screen in very funny fashion, as well as the table tennis spoof Balls of Fury (not great, but still quite funny). Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg proved that Shawn of the Dead was not a fluke, delivering the brilliant ode to action Hot Fuzz. The late Adrienne Shelly brought the fun and smile-inducing Waitress, while The Simpsons made their long-awaited big screen debut. The last title I am going to mention is the probably the biggest surprise in the fact that I really liked it, the Andy Samberg vehicle, Hot Rod. Yes, you read that right.

Those two genres really stepped up and delivered plenty of good films this year. At the lower end of the scale, action and science fiction had some strong entries, but we were not overloaded with great entries. There are a few titles to note before moving on include Shooter, Grindhouse (Death Proof), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Live Free or Die Hard, even Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer delivered the goods. Overall, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of science fiction in the big picture, although the excellence of Sunshine helps dampen the pangs of loss.