2008 Year in Review

Before I had this blog, I posted reviews in random places.  I was going through and cleaning up those places and found this entry on the best/worst of 2008.  I thought I would share as some fun flashback friday nonsense!  Incidentally, I have only seen three of the list the EW said to see.  Enjoy!

You all know how i feel about movies....here is the list (according to Entertainment Weekly) of the 25 movies you need to see before Oscar night....and just for fun, I've added the length of each: 

1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: 165 minutes (yikes!) 
2. Slumdog Millionaire: 120 minutes 
3. Milk: 128 minutes 
4. Frost/Nixon: 122 minutes 
5. The Dark Knight: 152 minutes 
6. Doubt: 104 minutes 
7. Revolutionary Road: 119 minutes 
8. WALL*E: 97 minutes 
9. The Wrestler: 105 minutes 
10. Gran Torino: 116 minutes 
11. The Reader: 122 minutes 
12. Rachel Getting Married: 113 minutes 
13. Vicky Cristina Barcelona: 97 minutes 
14. Changeling: 141 minutes 
15. Tropic Thunder: 107 minutes 
16. Happy-Go-Lucky: 118 minutes 
17. The Visitor: 104 minutes 
18. I've Loved You So Long: 117 minutes 
19. Frozen River: 97 minutes 
20. Nothing But The Truth: 107 minutes 
21. Man On Wire: 94 minutes 
22. Synecdoche, New York: 123 minutes 
23. The Duchess: 105 minutes 
24. Defiance: 137 minutes 
25. Austrailia: 165 minutes 

There it is. I have to admit, as of right now, i have seen a grand total of 2 of these movies:  Dark Knight (hands down best movie of last year) and Tropic Thunder. That's even less than i saw last year. I'll see a few more this weekend, definitely Slumdog Millionaire, probably the Wrestler...not Gran Torino - Clint Eastwood as an old, grumpy racist? Not interested. Maybe I will see the Changeling, but I've never heard of half of these...and Man On A Wire is the documentary about the guy who tightrope walked from one of the towers of the world trade center to the other. They made a documentary about that.  At least it's the shortest one on the list. 

That being said, here is my list of the top 20 movies that I think you should see from last year.  

• 1.  The Dark Knight - as I said, hands down the best film of the year.  All the performances were amazing: Bale was incredible, but rightly and unfortunately overshadowed by Heath Ledger, in the single most amazing performance I have seen this year.  It elevates this movie from "comic-book movie" to seriously well-crafted film.   
• 2.  Iron Man - as oppositely light as Dark Knight was dark, and yet still miles from mindless fluff.  Witness the re-relevance of Robert Downey Jr. Hey, comic book movies can be intelligent as well as incredible action pieces! Since when did Jeff bridges become an amazing villain? 
• 3.  Hellboy 2: The Golden Army - In case you haven't heard me say this yet, Guillermo Del Toro is the new definition of adult fairy-tale film-making. This movie is visually beautiful, action packed, quietly charming, features Doug Jones in three roles, and has the best version of a Barry Manilow song ever.  And, just in case you missed Pan's Labyrinth last year, rent that now.  It is one of the best pieces of work I have ever seen. 

• 4.  The Incredible Hulk - fabulous, not as fabulous as iron man...but fabulous none the less.  I don't like Edward Norton, but he was perfect as Bruce Banner.  This movies rights all the wrongs of Ang Lee's Hulk mess, and really gets me excited for what Marvel has planned next.
• 5.  Forgetting Sarah Marshall - funny all the way through, but with heart.  Really R-rated, crass heart! 
• 6.  Tropic Thunder - Just this side of too far.  And in some cases, on that side of too far.  It's a really funny take on big time actors who take themselves too seriously.  RDJ nails every bit of his crazy in this, which is perfectly balanced (and kept from being way too insulting) by Brandon T. Jackson.  And, holy crap!  Tom Cruise in this movie! See it just for him! 

• 7.  Quantum of Solace - Daniel Craig in one more movie away from me going, "Sean who?" in terms of James Bond.   I know, that's blasphemy! But I'm still nowhere near going, "Roger, who?" Craig is fantastic, and intimidating as Bond, I just hope that in the next one he'll be more fun. I really miss the fun pieces of Bond. 
• 8.  The Bank Job - a nifty little caper movie based on a true story.  Hey, can Jason Statham really act?  Or does this just happen to fit perfectly into his wheelhouse?  Either way, it's entertaining. 

• 9.  Death Race - well, if Statham can't really act, he can always rely on amazing B-grade action movies that require him to be shirtless and drive fast cars.  Seriously, how many car-driving movies will this dude be in? 
• 10.  Cloverfield - some people got nauseous on the single hand held camera work, I thought it worked great for this monster flick, although I did catch myself trying to peer around corners to get a better view of things.  Giant monster attacks New York City! We run with our video camera! Fantastic, and yay, T.J. Miller! 
• 11.  Vantage Point - not many people liked this movie, but I did. I thought it was interesting and fast paced. 
• 12.  Hancock - yes, Will Smith is as good as his hype, but this movie is not the straight-up comedy it was marketed as.  I think that's why it wasn't as well received as it should have been.  It's got more depth to it, an interesting ancient Greek subplot, and will remind you how great Jason Bateman is. 
• 13.  10,000 B.C. - admittedly, not a great movie, with all kinds of plot holes, etc. but, visually, a herd of stampeding woolly mammoths, a saber-tooth cat, building pyramids...that was all cool! 
• 14.  Eagle Eye - a decent thriller in which Shia La Boeuf runs from ....something? Very exciting, but I figured the bad guy out pretty early on. 
• 15.  Jumper - Hayden Christensen continues to try to prove he's more than just the embodiment of the dark side.  This movie is not great, but pretty visually interesting.  Diane Lane has an interesting part that I wanted more information from, Samuel L. Jackson wears a crazy wig, and Jamie Bell steals the whole movie. 

• 16.  Baby Mama - Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in a charming comedy! 
• 17.  Meet the Spartans - a spoof of 300.  I love spoofs, and I love Kevin Sorbo.  Turn off your brain for this one and just enjoy the stupid. 

• 18.  Zack And Miri Make A Porno - how can a movie with that title have that much heart? Kevin Smith, that's how. It's dirty as hell, and it's funny as hell.  Justin Long steals every scene he's in.
• 19.  Twilight - This is not on the list because it's good.  It's on the list because I had a blast going to see it with my friends and making fun of it loudly in a theater full of rabid tweens!  The experience puts it on the list.  Be warned, the movie itself is terrible! 
• 20.  Indiana Jones and The Space Aliens, I mean Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls - I'm not sure this goes on the list.  It really wasn't good.  I think I am giving it a pass just because it's Indy.  And Karen Allen was awesome.  

That's what I liked; now, here is what I thought were the worst movies of the year. 

• Untraceable - Easily one of the worst movies I have ever seen, on the list with The Fountain, The Brothers Grimm, and The Mod Squad reboot.  Holy crap was this bad.  Anything that starts out by torturing and killing a kitten....if I ever encounter anyone who was cast or crew for this movie i will greet them with a punch to the throat.  I'm talking to you Diane Lane. 
• P.S. I Love You - you know, you can make a good chick flick...so why was this one such crap? Apparently Hillary Swank is only good in heavy duty Oscar cry-a-thons. This was painful to watch.
• Babylon A.D. - not only was this movie crap, it was crap that was poorly shot, poorly acted and made no sense. 

• Max Payne - again, maybe the marketing department's fault.  This movie is not nearly as cool as the commercials/trailers made it look like it would be.   
• In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.  Statham was really busy this year.  This is a terrible movie directed by the king of bad movie making - Uwe Boll...in which Matthew Lillard did just chew the scenery, he devoured it.  Ron Perlman plays medieval Ron Perlman, LeLee Sobieski plays a witch/princess, Kristanna Lokken lives in a tree, Burt Reynolds is bored, and Statham's character is named Farmer.  I'm guessing 85% of the budget was spent on Ray Liotta's wardrobe. 

• Semi-Pro - A Will Ferrell R-rated basketball comedy set in the 70's that could have been so great, but was just tired, slow and boring.  On the upside, you get to see Woody Harrelson play basketball again, but you spend the whole time waiting for Wesley Snipes to show up.
• Wanted - I hated this movie so much.  I felt like it spent the whole time yelling at me: "look how cool this movie is! We're so cool!  You're not cool like us!"  Shut up, Wanted, just shut up.
• How To Lose Friends And Alienate People - too long, too cheesy, and not funny.
• Transporter 3 - Seriously, a lot of Statham this year.  There are scenes from this that would go on the good list, but the whole movie goes on the bad list. 
• Rocknrolla - same problem....some good scenes, but not enough to make the whole movie good. Ironically, this is a Guy Ritchie movie, but did not have Jason Statham in it.  Hard to believe, although, clearly he was very busy!

Looking forward to even more movie magic next year!