Movie-buff Spanier picks top films of '07

Adam Smeltz

Graham Spanier calls himself no harsh critic — not of the big screen, at least.

The Penn State president this week shared his annual list of quick-hit movie reviews, cheering “The Kite Runner,” “Atonement” and “No Country for Old Men” as recent favorites.

Also in his top picks: Ridley Scott’s drug-infested “American Gangster” and the Tom Hanks piece “Charlie Wilson’s War. “

But in the latter, Spanier wrote, “buffoon-like portrayals, especially of CIA employees, distract and compromise credibility.”

This from the man who leads the FBI-affiliated National Security Higher Education Advisory Board. In any case, Spanier has been penning his movie reviews for about two decades now. He sends them through e-mail — to several hundred recipients, outlined on a list that includes a cross-section of Penn Staters, friends and family.

The current reviews, sent on Sunday, cover 25 films released late in 2007. With Spanier’s permission, the complete text is posted today on CentreDaily.com.

“I do them usually right after Christmas,” Spanier wrote in a separate note. “Because of my impossible schedule during the year, I don’t get to see many movies until Thanksgiving. Thus, I am unable to do a top-10 list for the year, for example.

“But over the long Thanksgiving weekend and through the holiday break, I try to see almost every movie out, many at odd hours like the 10 p.m. show on a Sunday night,” he said.

The tradition stems from a couple elements, one being Spanier’s love for movies. “I like many movies others don’t, and I see many movies others won’t,” he wrote.

Beyond that, the Spanier family spends the holidays in Des Moines, Iowa. The city “has a very high per-capita number of movie screens and not an abundance of other things to do over several days (other than sleep and eat).

“On some days, I will see as many as three or four movies,” he wrote.

Spanier, known to enjoy the performing arts and to play the washboard at the Phyrst bar, injects a little of himself into the reviews. In one, he refers to George Clooney as a “Graham Spanier look-alike.”

“OK, OK,” Spanier quickly concedes, “but I bet he can’t play a washboard.”

Adam Smeltz can be reached at 231-4631.