Posted by Danny, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Jan 7, 2008 at 11:15 am

I'm surprised none of the critics chose "Charlie Wilson's War" as a top ten film. Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman were superb.

Posted by Hulkamania, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Jan 7, 2008 at 4:29 pm

No Country for Old Men was unbelievable. I'll buy the DVD when it's available.

Posted by Mr. Martin, a resident of Menlo Park, on Jan 8, 2008 at 10:13 am

I think it would be fun to see the "top movies" broken down into categories. "Best Animated Film", "Best Documentary", etc. These lists are good though -- "Into the Wild" was my favorite movie last year.

Posted by Mr. Movie, a resident of the Green Acres neighborhood, on Jan 8, 2008 at 1:59 pm

One of the movies on your poll "the Diving Bell and the Butterfly" has not opened down her eon the Peninsula, so your survey is not really a valid one.

Posted by Tyler Hanley, online editor of Palo Alto Online, on Jan 8, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Tyler Hanley is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

Mr. Movie: The survey on the homepage was based on the Weekly film critics' Top Ten lists (published Jan. 4) as well as Golden Globe nominations and top selections from critics' circles nationwide. "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is screening in San Francisco, which is close enough to Palo Alto to warrant the film for consideration. Also, we welcome survey ideas. Feel free to e-mail ideas to me at thanley@paweekly.com.

Posted by Moviegoer, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jan 8, 2008 at 4:27 pm

When asking someone for their view of the best movie of any year, it is important to know what demographics that person is in. My teenage son, my college student daughter, my older mother and myself would all answer very differently to this question. Therefore saying which is the best movie is useless to everyone. It is much better to tag the audience for each potential genre and then ask that audience to choose between movies in that genre.

In other words, asking an action movie fan which is the best action movie would make sense. Asking a Tom Cruise fan, which is his best movie, a single woman what is the best date movie, a teenager which is the best special effects movie, etc. etc.

Otherwise, asking for a survey on movie preferences will only work because of who is responding. Since we who write in this Forum have very varied opinions on most topics, it would follow that we would have very different opinions on movies.