Credit: Far Out / Press

Was 2007 the greatest year in movie history?

Tue 8 July 2025 22:30, UK

Attempting to objectively put your finger on which year in cinema history qualifies as the best is, to put it mildly, a difficult task. In fact, it’s an almost impossible one, with every year you think of tending to come with its own pros and cons. In the end, all any cinephile worth their salt can do is cast an eye over years that seem particularly strong, and make an argument for them being designated the greatest.

After analysing 1999, a movie year so superlative that a book was written about it entitled Best Movie Year Ever, it can’t be denied that the last year of the 20th century is a prime candidate for the top of the pile. However, there’s another relatively recent year that a lot of movie fans and critics love to suggest is a contender. That year is 2007, and there’s a ton of compelling evidence to back up its status as the best of the best.

Let’s start with a quick rundown of the undisputed, enduring classic motion pictures released in 2007. In no particular order, these include No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Zodiac, Michael Clayton, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Ratatouille. That’s a robust mix of movies from wildly differing genres, and it includes several of the best directors in modern cinema delivering arguably their defining masterpieces (Coen brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher).

OK, so the critical darlings were great, but what about movies that didn’t quite achieve classic status, but were still damn good films? Well, in that vein, you’ve got Sidney Lumet’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises, Joe Wright’s Atonement, Joy Division biopic Control, Ridley Scott’s American Gangster, Todd Haynes’ off-kilter Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There, Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone, and Noah Baumbach’s Margot at the Wedding.

In truth, 2007’s bench was stacked in every genre, and that’s a large part of why its case for greatness is so hard to ignore. If you wanted comedy, which still existed as a theatrical concern at that time, you had Knocked Up, Superbad, Walk Hard, Blades of Glory, Juno, and Hot Fuzz. If you wanted action, there was The Bourne Ultimatum, The Kingdom and 300; if you wanted to scream bloody murder, you had 30 Days of Night, The Mist, and two of the best Spanish horror films ever made, The Orphanage and REC; and if you wanted drama, look no further than Into the Wild, Lust, Caution, and The Savages.

Sure, 2007 still had its fair share of duds, including some genuinely terrible blockbusters, and the number of films directed by and starring women was still startlingly low. But what the year excelled at is precisely the opposite of what Hollywood gives us today. Only 18 years ago, audiences could still watch well-made, thought-provoking studio movies, all made at a decent budget with genuine movie stars, alongside the latest Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, or Shrek film. It wasn’t an ‘either/or’ scenario, and that has been lost as studios have become more and more obsessed with low-risk IP-driven movies.

Indeed, it’s perhaps too reductive to argue that 2007 was the last year before Hollywood started on its path to the often-soulless modern landscape, but it certainly feels that way sometimes. After all, 2007 was the year before Iron Man started the all-conquering Marvel Cinematic Universe and The Dark Knight made a billion dollars, ushering in the superhero industrial complex that defined the 2010s. Sure, 2007 boasted a couple of cape flicks (Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer), but that’s a far cry from where the industry would be 15 years later in 2023, when there were nine films based on Marvel or DC heroes.

In this respect, 2007 was perhaps the last year cinephiles of a certain generation still recognised the cinema they grew up loving. Going back to watch a lot of the movies released that year reveals a movie business that still took chances, whether it was a movie star taking on a challenging role, a director pushing themselves to their limits, or a film refusing to let audiences off the hook with a happy ending. Hell, even the lighter movies were more thought-provoking and better crafted than much of what is released today.

It’s no wonder that iconic critic Roger Ebert wrote the following in his year-end review: “It was a time of wonders, an autumn of miracles, one of the best years in recent movie history. One great film after another opened, and movie lovers found there were two or three, sometimes more, must-see films opening on a weekend. I gave up rationing my four-star ratings and went with the flow.”

What happened in movies in 2007?

January, 2007

‘Smokin’ Aces’ is the best of a bad bunch in January

As with many cinematic years, things start slowly, with January home to several dismal releases. However, Joe Carnahan’s Narc follow-up Smokin’ Aces does at least deliver a nice blast of pulpy fun, even if critics aren’t exactly bowled over by it.

February, 2007

Eddie Murphy snatches Oscar defeat from the jaws of victory

Everyone and their mother believes Eddie Murphy is on course to win his first Academy Award on February 25th, thanks to his captivating turn in 2006’s Dreamgirls. Then, Norbit is released on February 9th, and is so abysmal that many believe it single-handedly made the Academy think better of rewarding Murphy. Ouch.

March, 2007

Robert Downey Jr. - Mark Ruffalo - Actors - Split

‘Zodiac’ is the year’s first classic

After two months of middling fare, David Fincher’s Zodiac becomes the first bona fide classic of the year. More of a newspaper movie than a traditional serial killer flick, its story of obsession somehow dies at the US box office, and doesn’t receive a single Oscar nomination the following year. This is why we can’t have nice things.

April, 2007

‘Grindhouse’ shits the bed

Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez lovingly create a scuzzy double bill of movies, complete with gruesome fake trailers in between, that would have been at home in the grimy grindhouse movie theatres of the ’70s. Unfortunately, America does not care. Not even a little bit. After tanking at the domestic box office, Tarantino’s Death Proof and Rodriguez’s Planet Terror are released separately in other territories.

April, 2007

‘Hot Fuzz’ confirms ‘Shaun of the Dead’ was no fluke

The second instalment of what will come to be known as the ‘Cornetto Trilogy’ confirms that Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and director Edgar Wright are the new voices of a uniquely British style of comedy that still appeals to the rest of the world. “Yarp!” indeed.

June, 2007

Katherine Heigl - Knocked Up - Far Out Magazine

‘Knocked Up’ defines mainstream comedy for the next decade

Judd Apatow builds on his success with The 40-Year-Old Virgin by giving the world Knocked Up, which becomes an enormous success. Its blend of gross-out, foul-mouthed improvising and a surprisingly sweet core defines US big screen comedy for the coming decade.

August, 2007

“I am McLovin.”

If you could escape people quoting this line after the release of Greg Mottola’s Superbad, you must have much more high-brow friends than most. McLovin was everywhere.

September, 2007

Brad Pitt names his favourite actor of all time — Credit: Alamy

‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ meets a similar fate to ‘Zodiac’

The public ignores Andrew Dominik’s 160-minute revisionist western, which stars Brad Pitt and a never-better Casey Affleck, despite its rave reviews. It’s now considered a classic. Still, at least it fared a little better than Zodiac, earning two Oscar nominations for Affleck and cinematographer Roger Deakins.

October, 2007

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - Sidney Lumet - 2007

A slew of great movies is released

October is a smorgasbord of greatness, with the likes of Sidney Lumet’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton, Craig Gillespie’s Lars and the Real Girl, and Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone all seeing release. What a time to be alive.

November, 2007

No Country For Old Men - The coin toss - Javier Bardem - 2007

‘No Country for Old Men’ is the movie of the year

After their two least acclaimed efforts (2003’s Intolerable Cruelty and 2004’s The Ladykillers), the Coen brothers rebound with arguably the best film of their incredible career. No Country for Old Men is a critical and commercial smash that is nihilistic and frightening, without ever losing a bit of its Coen-ness. It makes a star out of Javier Bardem, gives Tommy Lee Jones one of his defining roles, and justifiably wins ‘Best Picture’ at the Oscars.

November, 2007

The Coen Brothers - Joel Coen - Ethan Coen - Directors — Credit: Far Out / Alamy

Or maybe that honour should go to ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’?

Even though the Coen brothers’ noir classic conquered the Oscars, a huge number of critics actually opted for Julian Schnabel’s biopic of Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby as their number one film of the year. Mathieu Amalric beautifully portrays Bauby, who battled with locked-in syndrome, and the film receives four Oscar nominations.

December, 2007

Nicholas Cage - Actor - 2023 — Credit: Far Out / YouTube Still

“I’m going to kidnap the President of the United States.”

Nicolas Cage utters this immortal line in National Treasure: Book of Secrets, barely three years after delivering the equally ludicrous, “I’m going to steal the Declaration of Independence” in the first National Treasure movie. Does this have any bearing on whether 2007 is the best movie year ever? Not really. But goshdarnit, it was a highlight of my cinematic year.