I saw a lot of bad movies this year.

These are the ones I disliked the most.

And let me say that if I’d seen National Treasure: Book of Secrets, I’m sure I’d have hated it most of all.

10. Evan Almighty

Steve Carell! Lauren Helen Graham! Morgan Freeman! How can anything starring these people be anything but awesome? I think the problem is that every second of the movie was trying too hard, when, with all of that talent involved, it shouldn’t have had to try at all. I don’t blame the cast at all. I just wanted a lot better for all of them. Original review here.

9. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Like the first Fantastic Four, this isn’t entirely terrible. In fact, it’s actually pretty harmless and kind of fun in a dumb kind of way. But that’s the problem. I still keep hoping that a new writer or director will come along to put some actual thought and effort into this franchise. Original review here.

8. Shooter

Had Shooter been done just a little bit differently, it might have made my Top 10 for the year (or at the very least gotten an honorable mention). Mark Wahlberg was excellent in a film that tried to be part The Bourne Identity and part The Fugitive, and for the most part the film succeeds as a fun throwback to classic ’80s actioners like Commando. But about midway through the film, a mean, creepy and completely unnecessary sexual torture subplot comes into play and ruins the whole damn movie. It’s so jarring because it so totally doesn’t match the fun tone of the rest of the movie, which makes its inclusion even more puzzling, bizarre and disgusting.

7. Hannibal Rising

I’ve made this argument many times, and I’ll make it again. Which Hannibal Lecter is more terrifying? A conflicted youth who does what he does because of deep psychological and emotional traumas from his past, or an educated, cultured, charming gentleman who wakes up one morning and decides he’d like to eat people? I’ll go for the latter every time; sometimes evil just happens, and that’s when it’s at its scariest.

6. Catch and Release

Original review right here. I’ll summarize my contempt for this film by saying again that even though it has a solid cast, the main characters all do things that make them entirely unlikable, and all of their awful behaviors are inspired by a dead guy whose actions in life were even more awful and selfish than the actions of the people he left behind! Kevin Smith was a lot of fun as Jennifer Garner’s supportive friend, but by the end of the movie he was riffing on Star Wars as if the filmmakers thought that might be the only thing that could save their train wreck. But fear not, Jenny Garner! You not only also starred in my favorite movie of 2007 but were one of the reasons it was my favorite, so I’ll gladly forgive you for this one.

5. Because I Said So

Original review right here. I can only say “Shame on you!” to the writers and director who somehow found a way to make me dislike a movie in which I get to look at Lauren Graham, Mandy Moore and Piper Perabo.

4. War

Jason Statham vs. Jet Li! Well, not really. What should have been wall-to-wall action was weighed down by lots of bad dialogue and a putting-off of the inevitable Statham/Li confrontation until the very end. The film did have one very inspired plot twist, but it handled the twist so badly that it had to create a second (and very ridiculous) plot twist to fix the poor handling of the first (very excellent) plot twist. Truly, truly terrible.

3. The Reaping

Oh, the horror! And I don’t mean scary horror. I mean the horror of having to sit through tripe like this. Oh, Hilary Swank. But at least she was very good in Freedom Writers, which also came out this year. Anyway, The Reaping really is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Atrocious.

2. Ghost Rider

Writer/director Mark Steven Johnson’s Daredevil was awful despite an excellent leading man performance from Ben Affleck, but his Ghost Rider was downright abysmal. Terrible script, terrible effects, terrible characterization. I’m a huge fan of Nicolas Cage in the right roles, but everything about this movie is all wrong. (Except for the way cinematographer Russell Boyd captured the power of Eva Mendes’s derriere. That thing is good.)

1. Spider-Man 3

The first two Spider-Man movies are among my all-time favorites; this clunker is easily among my most hated, swirling in the same deep, black pool of bile at the center of my gut where Superman Returns lives. It’s so awful that I can’t even talk about it, so I’ll just direct you to my original review right here.

The Top 10 is coming up.

Fairy tales may not always come true, but sometimes they come to a theater near you. Director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) and his co-scripter, Jane Goldman, have delivered a big screen adaptation worthy of Neil Gaiman’s classic Stardust.

It’s on DVD now.

Our tour guide is the warm voice of Sir Ian McKellen, which begins the film thusly: “A philosopher once asked, ‘Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?’ Pointless, really. Do the stars gaze back? Now that’s a question.”

One such dreamer who believes they do is young Dunstan Thorne (Ben Barnes), who lives in the village of Wall. Wall is so named because it has a wall, guarded by a strange old man (David Kelly) intent on keeping the villagers from wandering into the magical kingdom of Stormhold that lies just beyond it.

Dunstan sneaks inside and quickly catches the eye of a beautiful girl (Kate Magowan) who tells him she’s a princess tricked into slavery by a witch called Ditchwater Sal (Melanie Hill). Dunstan’s not able to liberate the lovely lass but she does liberate him from his knickers, and nine months later a bundle containing a baby boy arrives on Dunstan’s doorstep. Dunstan (played now as an older man by Nathaniel Parker) raises Tristan (Charlie Cox) alone, and when Tristan comes of age he takes a job as a shop boy and falls in love with Victoria (Sienna Miller), the prettiest girl in all of Wall.

But as we are reminded many times throughout Stardust, there are shop boys and there are boys who work in shops for a time. Poor Tristan is the latter and seeks wealthy Victoria’s hand in marriage, even though he’s so blinded by his infatuation that he never notices when she takes advantage of his kindness or subjects him to casual cruelties. As she reveals to Tristan her intention to marry arrogant, well-to-do Humphrey (Henry Cavill) during their late-night picnic, they see a star fall beyond the wall. Victoria tells Tristan she’ll marry him instead if he can bring the fallen star back to her.

But why did the star fall?

It’s all part of a game arranged by Stormhold’s ailing king (Peter O’Toole) to see which of his scheming sons is worthy of taking the throne. Tristan enters Stormhold and retrieves the star, which looks like a girl (played by Claire Danes) and bears the name Yvaine. He’s intent on presenting her to Victoria, but others seek the star for darker purposes. He’ll have the king’s sons to contend with, but worst of all they’ll find themselves hunted by Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), a witch who seeks Yvaine’s heart to restore beauty and power to her and her ancient, equally evil sisters. Well-meaning but oft-misguided Tristan has just as much to discover about life on our muddy little orb as the alien star he’s protecting. As they encounter wonders, dangers and surprises at every turn, will they learn life’s most important lesson together?

Take some C.S. Lewis, add a pinch of Tolkien and stir in the hilarious whimsy of The Princess Bride and you’ll get Stardust, which brims with all the adventure and true love that a fantasy fan could ask for. The magic begins in the casting. You’ll have a lot of fun watching Cox grow into a hero’s boots as Tristan. Danes and her earnest, unique brand of inner/outer beauty will similarly win your heart as Yvaine. One of Pfeiffer’s earliest leading roles was as the (literally) star-crossed lover Isabeau in Richard Donner’s romantic fantasy classic Ladyhawke, and here she’s having a wickedly good time tapping into her naughty side (while poking fun at conventions of beauty and youth). Also fabulous is Robert De Niro as Captain Shakespeare, who commands a flying pirate ship and secretly enjoys corsets more than cutlery. In the hands of lesser storytellers than Gaiman and Vaughn, the character might have been one-dimensional. Instead, De Niro’s Shakespeare helps impart to Tristan and Yvaine the wisdom (and courage) they need to see the obvious.

Stardust looks beautiful. The magic looks and feels real, with computer effects used sparingly and appropriately. Vaughn was set to direct X-Men 3 but, as he told Ain’t It Cool News, dropped out because “I wanted to make a film that was as good as X2, and in the time period that I had, I couldn’t do it.” Thankfully he was able to take his time with Stardust, and it shows.

With magic, romance and adventure galore, the Stardust DVD helps close out 2007 year with a lovely helping of love and imagination.