Film Junk 2007 Reader’s Choice Award Winners

Posted by on December 21st, 2007   Filed under: Polls

The Film Junkies have spoken! Without any further adieu, here are your picks for the 2007 Film Junk Reader’s Choice Awards. Are they what you expected?

Coming next week: the Film Junk Year End Video Podcast, and both our combined and individual Top 10 lists for 2007.

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Best Comedy

Winner: Superbad
Runner Up: Hot Fuzz
Nominees: Knocked Up, Superbad, Blades of Glory, Hot Fuzz, Hot Rod

I’m not that surprised to see that Superbad won, considering it was so widely loved by all. However, I did expect Knocked Up to get a lot more love.

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Best Action

Winner: The Bourne Ultimatum
Runner Up: Live Free or Die Hard
Nominees: The Bourne Ultimatum, Live Free or Die Hard, Transformers, The Condemned, Rush Hour 3

Bourne blew every other action movie out of the water this year, taking in twice as many votes as Transformers and Live Free or Die Hard combined.

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Best Animated

Winner: Ratatouille
Runner Up: The Simpsons Movie
Nominees: TMNT, Ratatouille, The Simpsons Movie, Beowulf, Bee Movie

No surprise here, Pixar reigns supreme once again. I thought that adding The Simpsons Movie to the animated category instead of comedy would even things out a bit, but no dice.

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Best Drama

Winner: No Country for Old Men
Runner Up: 3:10 to Yuma
Nominees: American Gangster, No Country for Old Men, 3:10 to Yuma, A Mighty Heart, Gone Baby Gone

Kind of a mixed bag of nominees in this category, but it’s clear that The Coen Brothers made an impression on a lot of people this year. The combo of Russell Crowe/Christian Bale seemed to fare better than Russell Crowe/Denzel Washington though.

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Best Comic Book Movie

Winner: 300
Runner Up: Spider-Man 3
Nominees: Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, 300, Spider-Man 3, 30 Days of Night

I think most of us expected 300 to dominate in this category, but I really didn’t think Spider-Man 3 would be the runner-up, considering how much criticism it drew.

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Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Winner: Sunshine
Runner Up: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Nominees: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, The Golden Compass, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Stardust, Sunshine

I’m ashamed to admit that Sunshine was a last minute addition to the category. We almost forgot about it, and yet it went on to win by a fair margin. Also interesting to note: Pirates 3 and The Golden Compass both had absolutely no votes whatsoever. Zilch.

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Best Horror

Winner: 28 Weeks Later
Runner Up: Grindhouse: Death Proof
Nominees: Grindhouse: Planet Terror, Grindhouse: Death Proof, 28 Weeks Later, Halloween, Hostel: Part II

This category was the tightest race of all. If Planet Terror and Death Proof had been combined, then Grindhouse would have easily walked away the winner. However, the Grindhouse votes ended up getting split between them, leaving 28 Weeks Later on top by a small margin.

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Best Documentary

Winner: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Runner Up: Sicko
Nominees: Air Guitar Nation, Sicko, The King of Kong, In the Shadow of the Moon, Helvetica

Even though there are a lot of Michael Moore haters out there, I thought Sicko would easily take this category simply because it was the only documentary in a semi-wide release this year. It seems more people saw (or at least heard of) The King of Kong than I originally anticipated.

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Best Suspense/Thriller

Winner: Zodiac
Runner Up: Eastern Promises
Nominees: Zodiac, Bug, Disturbia, Eastern Promises, Michael Clayton

Although Eastern Promises took an early lead, Zodiac came back strong to win the suspense/thriller category. I kind of expected Michael Clayton to fare a little better though.

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Best Limited Release

Winner: Juno
Runner Up: The Darjeeling Limited
Nominees: The Darjeeling Limited, Lars and the Real Girl, Juno, Eagle vs Shark, Control

This category was our way of including some movies that a lot of people might not have gotten a chance to see this year. It was a very close race between Juno and The Darjeeling Limited, but in the end, Juno edged out Wes Anderson and Co.

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Most Anticipated December Movie

Winner: There Will Be Blood
Runner Up: I Am Legend
Nominees: I Am Legend, Sweeney Todd, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, There Will Be Blood, National Treasure: Book of Secrets

We didn’t want to overlook some of the movies that came out right at the end of the year, so we came up with this category. I will say that I’m slightly surprised that P.T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood ended up on top, although to be fair, early reviews have been fantastic thus far.

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Best Film of the Year

Winner: No Country for Old Men
Runners Up: Hot Fuzz, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Grindhouse

In the first free entry category of these awards, No Country for Old Men received a pretty overwhelming majority of votes. There usually isn’t a lot of consensus when people are free to enter anything they want, but this one definitely had it. The big surprise here though was Hot Fuzz coming in second! Seriously? Best film of the year? Hey, I liked it a lot, but even I had to admit it was lacking something.

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Biggest Surprise of the Year

Winner: Enchanted
Runners Up: Gone Baby Gone, American Gangster

Yeah, I know, we haven’t actually seen Enchanted yet, and as we’ve been hearing, it’s a lot better than most people expected. I still wish I had gone out of my way to see Gone Baby Gone as well.

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Biggest Disappointment of the Year

Winner: Spider-Man 3
Runner Up: Transformers

Well, the disappointment category was pretty much created for a movie like Spider-Man 3, and it was probably an easy choice for most people. I find it interesting though that two of the biggest grossing movies of the year were considered, by and large, to be huge disappointments.



  • I still say that Spiderman 3 is nowhere near as outright loathed as many people think it is. It’s a matter of the more disappointed nerds who don’t stop talking about it.

    Campea called it the WORST movie of 2007, below Bratz. That’s pure hyperbole. You can’t even apply ‘film is subjective’ to something like that.

  • also in regards to Spiderman 3

    I now use the jazz scene at a litmus test of sorts. Everyone who didnt think Stayin Alive Parker was hilarious, to me, has a really shitty sense of humor.

  • Baychuk

    Knocked Up, Eastern Promises, Michael Clayton…were boring as heck! I had to actually struggle to sit through them.I watched those during basic training (on the weekends at the Mega’s theater) only because a fellow movie buff room mate was saying how good they were supposed to be….NOT! :D

  • Must say, your readers have great taste!

    And I’m so happy to see “The King of Kong” take home the doc prize. I love that little film.

  • A few thoughts…

    Best Comedy: You seem surprised that Knocked Up didn’t get many votes, but I’ve got a theory on that matter. I thought Knocked Up was a good movie, but a much better drama than a comedy. I didn’t really laugh at all when I watched it, but was enthralled by the story. I dunno, maybe that’s just me.

    Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy: I’m really disappointed in myself about this category. I’m a sci-fi nut, but I haven’t actually seen any of the films nominated despite my extreme interest in Sunshine, which I just couldn’t find the time to check out. I ended up voting for Sunshine just because I was most interested in that one, though.

    Best Horror: Not that I particularly consider either Death Proof or Planet Terror horror films, I was devastated by the fact that you counted these as two separate movies. I know that it makes sense but, not only was Grind House my favorite movie of 2007, after seeing it in the theater on opening night I will always think of these films as inseparable.

    Best Documentary: The only one I have seen was Sicko, which I didn’t particularly like, but I had to vote for it because I hadn’t seen any of the others.

    Best Limited Release: I really wish The Host had made this category. Again, I haven’t seen any of the nominees, but I’m most excited to see Juno, so it got my vote.

    Biggest Disappointment: I find it curious that Spiderman was both the second best superhero movie of the year and the biggest disappointment of the year.

  • Captain N

    Im not a big fan of Spiderman 3 myself. I would definitely call it the biggest disappointment of the year…but hardly the worse movie of the year. I agree that giving it worse movie of the year is complete hyperbole.

  • Primal

    Best Comedy: Not surprised with Superbad winning, but if only these readers choice awards were a few weeks later, maybe Juno would of been a nominee? I would of definitely of voted for that after seeing it today.

    Best Sci-Fi: I’m happy to see Sunshine win. it’s still among the top 15 movies I’ve seen this year. Although the competition is pretty damn pathetic compared to Sunshine.

    Best Horror: Enjoyed 28weeks, Loved Death Proof. But I really didnt like that you seperated Grindhouse. No one who saw this in the theaters only saw just one of the movies, well except for you Sean.

    Biggest Disappointment: I’m a bit surprised that the Film Junkies voted for Spidey3. I never really saw much of the hate or disappointment in the messageboards. It’s not like it was capping off an epic trilogy, so I really don’t know what people were expecting.

  • cib3k

    I hated Superbad. I actually watched around half an hour and then got sick of it. I hate movies with stupid teens obsessed by sex; Jonah Hill (the fat kid) was also annoying as hell. Maybe it’s because I’m not from US, but when I was in highschool, me and my friends, we weren’t the idiotic stereotypes you see in this kind of movies. So I can’t care less for these American Pie clones that some people seem to find so damn great. And to compare Superbad with Hot Fuzz is like comparing garbage with diamonds.

    Also, in regard to Spiderman 3, the other nominees weren’t exactly masterpieces; Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four 2 were also quite bad. Maybe 30 Days of Night would have qualified for a decent runner-up to 300. But I guess there are still more people who liked Spiderman 3 than people who liked 30 Days.

    Somebody mentioned Campea – the guy is an idiot. I drop on his blog from time to time to read his posts, out of boredom, and they are mostly laughable.

    I’m glad that Transformers is the runner-up to biggest dissapointment of the year. That was the dumbest Michael Bay movie I’ve ever seen, and some people praise it like it’s the best movie ever made.

    Regarding the other categories, I agree with most of the results.

  • Wow, Baychuk… Did you really use “Not”? Shame on you.

  • Baychuk

    # Edmundo
    December 22nd, 2007 22:08
    8

    Wow, Baychuk… Did you really use “Not”? Shame on you.
    ————————————————-
    Heh….I guess I did….heh, heh. Time to bring it back?

  • Schwing!

  • Simpsons was not a nominee for best comedy? I laughed my ass off in that film.

    WORST film… while I try to avoid bad films, of the stuff I saw, I’d say it’s a toss-up between Spider-Man 3 and Rush Hour 3. SPider-Man wins though because it’s so damn long to have to endure it for nearly three hours. At least RH3 is only 90- minutes of shit.

    I’m shocked and thrilled that BUG was a nominee. Great movie. I only gave it 3.5/5 stars, but the more I think about it, the better it gets.

  • Yeah… I think it’s well and truly time to bring that catchphrase back from retirement – NOT!!!

    Mind you, I’m surprised to hear the hate for Eastern Promises. I thought it was a good film – not excellent. Although, the film I saw a day after I viewed it, dealt with the exact same scenario and was a helluva lot more enjoyable. This film being Shoot Em Up.

    Did anyone else feel like Eastern Promises was a serious version of Shoot ‘Em Up? Y’know – Badass guys with accents kicking arse to look after a baby.

    Maybe it’s just me.

  • Baychuk

    Edmundo: you couldn’t resist either. lol

    As for Eastern Promises, it was well acted and all, but it just dragged. I could care less about the characters in that movie, well, the “drunk Russian step father” was funny.

    It was a movie with a big build up that ended up a big let down. Even the naked fight in the spa/change room did help. The ending was like, “What?!?” People in the theater (all 20 of them) were leaving about 5 minutes before the credits rolled because they knew was going to happen.

  • Reed Farrington

    I saw maybe 6 movies released in 2007, and 3 of them ended up on the Best list: Superbad, 300, and Sunshine. And 2 others were nominated: Grindhouse and Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End. (I did see the first 5 minutes of American Gangster, and the first 25 minutes of 30 Days of Night.)

    Unfortunately, I didn’t think much about those films. I suppose it’s a good thing that I’m not offering my opinions on the Filmjunk podcast.

    Jay started filming some of my comments for the end of the year videocast, but I was so incomprehensible that Jay had to cut me short and I fear I’m ending up on the cutting room floor (or to update the vernacular, I fear I’m ending up in the Recycle Bin).

    I’m sitting here trying to come up with words to describe why these films didn’t do anything for me. I don’t want us to get into a “film is subjective” discussion, or a “there are no original plots” discussion.

    I’ve written myself into a corner. I have no explanation for my opinions. My opinions are worthless. To quote the title of an XTC song, there is “No Language in My Lungs.”

  • Rob Schneider can’t release movies every year. Maybe his cameo in Chuck and Larry was the highlight of your year, but I guess you missed it.

  • I voted for Transformers in the biggest disappointment category because I was looking forward to it and it let me down big time. Worst movie of the year, however? Shoot ‘Em Up by a mile. Jesus, what a piece of garbage. I was actually angry after the first 20 minutes because it was so terrible. Usually if I see a bad movie I blame it on myself that I wasted $9.00, but in the case of Shoot ‘Em Up, I feel like I should be getting reparations. Shit, shit, shit!

  • tony

    i almost walked out of grindhouse. mabye i just didnt get it but death proof especially bored me to tears. the simpsons should have won best animated, and i am embarrased that i never saw sunshine, and am waiting ever patiently for it to come out on dvd.spiderman 3 wasnt that bad, it just couldnt live up to spidey 2, probably the best superhero movie ever.i did laugh my ass of at superbad, although i still give the nod to hot fuzz for funniest movie.28 weeks later best horror for soundtrack alone.