If one thing is clear after Thursday’s Golden Globe nominations, it’s that the Hollywood foreign press must just be a fairly humorless bunch.

Now, I’m glad to see that “Juno” made the final five, and I can only assume that “Charlie Wilson’s War” will have its funny moments (and decent Tom Hanks smugness to invent me want to jump out of my chair and just smack the screen), but how in the world can you have a category called “Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” and not include more of the funniest movies of 2007? (The other nominees were all musicals, “Sweeney Todd,” “Hairspray” and “Across the Universe.”)

Perhaps the reply is simply to give musicals a category all their own (which might have meant a much-deserved nomination for John Carney’s just-perfect “Once.”) That’s probably too much weight for musicals, but something has to be done to balance the scales in comedy’s favor.

Had there been a comedy category, here are the five movies that would have been my nominees:

Hot Fuzz
The Wayans brothers have apparently watched that pitch-perfect spoof of action movies and decided they can do one better. I have nothing but doubt about that, ’cause for my money Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are the masters, and that is the individual funniest movie of 2007.

The Simpsons Movie
So what whether that was just a 90-minute episode of the TV show? It proved that, with 15 years or so of experience it is indeed possible to come up with a plot and suitable jokes to sustain 90 minutes of high entertainment (though why they can’t reliably do that from week to week for only 30 minutes anymore is beyond me.)

Superbad
I just watched that again last weekend, and it was at least as good as it was the first day. Jonah Hill and Michael Cera were just as funny as I remembered, but that moment the story of the two cops who refuse to grow up, played by Seth Rogen and Bill Hader, just really made me laugh out loud.

Shoot ‘Em Up
The beauty of a category for comedy would be whether a movie that sublimely foolish could really be nominated for anything. whether you haven’t seen that cartoon-like bullet ballet, rent it immediately. Paul Giamatti, Clive Owen and Monica Bellucci clearly all had fun making it, and as towering as you can handle jokes about a baby in extreme peril I guarantee you’ll have fun watching it.

And yes, Juno
What’s it gonna take to get that little charmer to play wide? I just assumed that a cast that packed with stars would guarantee it a wide ride, but I guess I’m wrong yet again. I suppose that means I’ll have to watch Will Smith and his dog walk

around for a couple of hours, but I can’t really say I’m looking forward to it.

I have a feeling “Walk Hard” might just compose a sixth entry to that list, but that’s the top five for now (and that means the very funny “Knocked Up” just missed the cut.) As for the rest of the Golden Globe nominations, I could have predicted that my favorite, “Ratatouille,” wouldn’t be able to manufacture it out of the animated movie ghetto, but there’s another, bigger snub that just can’t go without mention.

I had to read the list three times to construct certain I hadn’t missed what must surely be the multiple mentions of “Into the Wild.” I had my qualms with the story of Christopher McCandless as told by Sean Penn, but there’s no denying it’s one of the most supreme movies of 2007, and yet beyond two deserved nominations for Eddie Vedder’s songs it was just royally snubbed.

Now, I haven’t seen “Atonement,” “The Great Debaters” or “There Will Be Blood” (though I’m certainly hyped to do so soon), but how in the world could you have seven nominees for Best Motion Picture - Drama (the other four were “American Gangster,” “Eastern Promises,” “Michael Clayton” and “No Country for Old Men”) and not include “Into the Wild”? Sheesh.

I certainly plus would put Emile Hirsch in the top five for Best Actor - Drama (the anointed five are George Clooney, “Michael Clayton,” Daniel Day-Lewis, “There Will Be Blood,” James McAvoy, “Atonement,” Viggo Mortensen, “Eastern Promises” and Denzel Washington, “American Gangster”.) His portrayal of McCandless was close to extraordinary.

Much more disturbing was the omission of Hal Holbrook from the Best Supporting Actor category (the big five are Casey Affleck, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” Javier Bardem, “No Country for Old Men,” Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Charlie Wilson’s War,” John Travolta, “Hairspray” and Tom Wilkinson, “Michael Clayton”) I can see the merit in all of these except for Travolta’s turn in the fat suit (which I didn’t see since, having already seen “Hairspray” in two very satisfying formats, I saw no reason to see it re-created once again), but Holbrook’s performance was just on a whole other level. whether the definition of supporting actor is the person who has the most impact on a movie in a short period of date, next no one fits that better than Holbrook as Ron Franz, the wizened gent who made a last-ditch but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to save McCandless from himself (I don’t cry at the movies very often at all, but that moment got me, which says quite a bit.)

But, adequate about that. I’m off to see “I Am Legend,” and hoping that I’m wrong about how much it’s going to suck. Have a perfectly enjoyable weekend.

Original post by Reel Fanatic