Top Ten of 2008

It's February, and that means my one month grace period on culling together my list is officially over. So now, I've seen most of the Oscar bait, I've mulled it over, and I've come to my final decision on what I think are the best movies of 2008. You'll find that my list is genre-intensive, and that's primarily because I felt 2008 was the best year for genre cinema since 2005, perhaps even since 1989. Comic book films finally went legit, Dreamworks created a film every bit as dynamic and visually crisp as the best of PIXAR, and certain films did a wonderful job of highlighting the marginalia of populer culture.

As I've done in the past, I'll give you my 20-11 list, then count down from ten to one, explaining myself along the way.

20. In Bruges

19. Mongol

18. Frost/Nixon

17. Son of Rambow

16. Tropic Thunder

15. Man on Wire

14. Valkyrie

13. Burn After Reading

12. Quantum of Solace

11. Gran Torino

10. Kung Fu Panda - As great as WALL-E is, I find Kung Fu Panda the more purely entertaining film. It's got a gorgeous animation style; it's funny, never resorting to fart jokes or pop culture references; Hans Zimmer's score is one of the most dynamic and engaging scores of the year; Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman sell their characters remarkably well; and the action sequences are simply tremendous. Kung Fu Panda makes my #10 spot because it thoroughly surprised me. I was expecting to love WALL-E; I wasn't expecting anything from Kung Fu Panda.

9. Speed Racer - Perhaps the most misunderstood movie of 2008, I think Speed Racer is destined to reach Blade Runner-like heights of cult cinema. As cartoony as a lot of the movie is, the visual effects are a monster leap forward from anything I've ever seen, and more than sell the world that the Wachowskis set up. It's probably the geekiest movie of the year, really only playing to one particular audience. The people that seem to get the movie absolutely love it, and I proudly count myself among them.

8. Let the Right One In - I've made it pretty clear how little respect I have for the vampire genre. More often than not, vampire stories shirk the rules when it's convenient to the plot, and that never ceases to bug me. Either follow the rules, or don't bother. So when a movie like Let the Right One In comes along, I have to take notice. Even the title follows the rules of the genre. But beyond simply being a successful vampire flick, this is a movie about a surprisingly intense friendship with some potentially dangerous consequences. It's far, far more successful than that other vampire movie from last year. Of course, that was no contest.

7. Milk - Regardless of your personal politics, it's hard to deny Milk as a powerful biography and political success story. Gus Van Sant subdues his more artistic sensibilities to allow Sean Penn all the room he needs for one outstanding performance. Even then, Van Sant does some really unique things with archival footage, and it helps tell Harvey Milk's story remarkably well. Of course, the reason to see the film is for Sean Penn's performance, but Emile Hirsch, James Franco, and Josh Brolin give equally successful turns.

6. Hellboy II: The Golden Army - 2008 was perhaps the best year for comic book films ever, and in the year of Iron Man and The Dark Knight, it's easy to overlook a film like Hellboy II. Everything Guillermo del Toro learned from Pan's Labyrinth is on display here, which includes an extraordinary amount of visual effects (practical and CG), makeup effects, and sheer imagination. Hellboy II really lives and dies by Ron Perlman's performance, and he performs admirably. Along with Speed Racer, this is certainly one of the most creative films in quite some time.

5. Iron Man - Now, The Dark Knight might technically be the better film, but (like Kung Fu Panda) I find Iron Man more purely entertaining. Robert Downey, Jr's turn as Tony Stark is simply one of a number of wonderful performances in 2008, and he goes a long way in making the film watchable. Of course, Jon Favreau's steady direction and knowhow for marrying practical effects with CG also help make Iron Man the popcorn action flick to beat in 2008. Only time will tell if Marvel Studios can parlay Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk into an equally successful franchise, but until then, Iron Man is a better film than we probably deserve.

4. The Dark Knight - And then there was Batman. To me, the success of The Dark Knight always seemed like a foregone conclusion (sorta like my reaction to WALL-E). My expectations were very high, and they were met. That's not to slight the film's achievement. Christopher Nolan deserves a lot of credit for springboarding from the already admirable Batman Begins into a film that's considerably more complex. Heath Ledger's take on The Joker is, indeed, fantastic and disturbing, but it's Aaron Eckhart's turn as Harvey Dent that really breathes life into the film. As a superhero film, I doubt The Dark Knight will ever be topped.

3. The Wrestler - As harshly brutal, gruesome, and starkly realistic as Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is, you'll be hard pressed to find a more likable film, and the reason for that is Mickey Rourke's performance as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a has-been pro wrestler faced with his own mortality. It's easily the best performance of 2008, and the film is one that you're not likely to forget any time soon. It's bound to be Rourke's signature performance, and it's almost certainly Aronofsky's best film. If you don't shed a tear for Randy at any point during this film, you just might be a robot.

2. WALL-E - As I've pointed out before, my love for WALL-E seemed predestined. I'd been looking forward to it ever since I saw the teaser attached to Ratatouille. A PIXAR sci-fi movie? I'm there. But what I found was not just a great sci-fi story, but a remarkably moving love story as well. The things that Andrew Stanton and his team do with visual storytelling is awe-inspiring, and it's one of the most deft and agile animated films ever made. And as much as I've kinda dumped on it so far in this post, let me make it clear: I absolutely adore WALL-E. It's one of the more life-affirming films of the year, almost as life-affirming as...

1. Slumdog Millionaire - WALL-E may be the most deft and agile animated film ever made, but Danny Boyle's tale of a lovestruck youth competing on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to win the attention of the girl of his dreams is every bit as deft and agile in its storytelling. The way Boyle and his team deal in flashbacks and time jumps is not only astounding, but remarkable in how fluid much of the film ends up being. It's a film that's not always easy to watch, but the ultimate reward in watching Jamal succeed in his journey is like nothing else I saw in 2008.

Five Movies that Deserved Better in 2008

There were a lot of movies in 2008. And, as with any year, many of those movies go unwatched, unappreciated, and unloved, either because they were mismarketed or simply released at the wrong time. Here are five movies that, while not top ten material, absolutely deserve a second look from some, and a first look from others.

Son of Rambow - The movie that Be Kind, Rewind wished it could have been, and one of the best family films of the year. It'll inspire any one, young or old, to pick up a camera and start making their own movie. Maybe I'm just a sucker for this kind of movie, but it's got a great heart, a great cast of youngsters, and it's proof enough that Garth Jennings is a director worth wactching.

In Bruges - This one is kind of a hard sell right out of the gate. A comedy about hitmen laying low in Belgium and examining their life while ruminating on the works of Hieronymus Bosch. Yeah, it's pretty ambitious for a first-time director. But while it's not quite as strong as it wants to be, it's definitely funny, and both Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson earned their Golden Globe nominations.

Blindness - Not necessarily mismarketed so much as just met with general apathy. The story of an epidemic of blindness and the chaos that the situatio wreaks on the world is sort of Children of Men-lite, but still fairly successful. It's a bleak, bleak movie, but one that I'm sure will become a cult classic once it hits DVD.


The Spirit - Yeah, it's still in theaters, but it's already being ignored as the worst comic book movie of the year (I guess everyone forgot about Punisher: War Zone). Put Frank Miller behind the camera and let him write the script, and I guarantee he'll deliver something akin to The Spirit every time. And if this movie is your kind of thing, then you'll love what he has to offer. It's certainly a lot of fun, but by no means great cinema.

RockNRolla - Guy Ritchie wants to make a trilogy with the characters from this movie, but it looks like that'll never happen, because RockNRolla tanked hard at the US box office. And while it's not nearly as good as Snatch, it's still a fun ride. Gerard Butler and Thandie Newton totally sell this movie, and the way they play off each other more or less makes the movie.

Others worth remembering: Appaloosa; City of Ember; The Day the Earth Stood Still; Diary of the Dead; Ghost Town; Hamlet 2; Midnight Meat Train; Rambo; Role Models; Zack and Miri Make a Porno

The Worst of 2008

It's that time of year. 2008 is over and it's time to take stock. What kind of movie year was 2008? For my money, I'd say it was a particularly great year for genre film. We haven't had a year this good for geek cinema since 2005. Sure, that's not too long, but name me two better years for sci-fi/comic films. Yeah, I thought so...

But I'm not here to ruminate on all the nuances of the year. I'm here to club the worst movies of the year. Now, this list is a bit skewed. I don't get paid to see every movie that comes out, so I still have to be picky about what I see, and I'm usually pretty good about knowing what I will and won't enjoy. So you won't be seeing movies like Disaster Movie, The Hottie and the Nottie, any number of awful horror remakes. Those are forgone conclusions. To that end, these are the five movies that I enjoyed the least. Some of these are truly terrible movies. Others are simply big disappointments. Let's get started...

Dishonorable Mention - Star Wars: The Clone Wars - A movie that I can't rightly even call a movie. Look at it for what it is: A 90 minute pilot for the Cartoon Network series, which I'm told is getting progessively better. Good, because this pilot is a terrible, terrible movie. Everything from the lazily painted backdrops to Ahsoka Tano to Jabba the Hutt's gay, New Orleanian uncle just reeks of Lucas and co. wringing the last drops of life from a once mighty franchise...


5. The Happening - Earth to Shyamalan: Plants. Are. Not. Scary. The only way to truly enjoy The Happening is to watch it as some kind of morbid comedy. Some of the death scenes are well staged, but in the context of the movie, they're laughable. However, watching Marky Mark try to negotiate with a houseplant (a plastic one at that) is pretty funny.




4. Hancock - For what the first act of this movie promised, the left turn it inevitably takes is so sharp that it could cut diamonds. The second half of the movie completely ruins any good will that the first half had built. It's a film that wants to be longer, darker, more satirical, and edgier than it is, and for some reason, it just isn't. If not for The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and Hellboy II, Hancock might have single-handedly set superhero movies back ten years..




3. You Don't Mess with the Zohan - The first movie on this list featuring SNL alums, Zohan tries desperately hard to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to be an action comedy of epic proportions, but it also wants to do what Sandler and Co. have always done (dick jokes and silly voices). The result is something that isn't at all as funny as it seems to think it is, and ends up being just embarassing for all involved.



2. 10,000 BC - Roland Emmerich's career of late is yielding one logical conclusion: He needs to get producer Dean Devlin back into the fold ASAP, because it's clear that he was the brains of the operation. 10,000 BC is a movie that's dumb as a brick, and hopes its audience doesn't notice. In two hours, we go from frozen tundra to rainforests to deserts and ultimately to pyramids. There's just a horrible lack of logic to this whole movie, and I'm STILL confused by what it was supposed to be doing. I have no idea.


1. Step Brothers - Even worse than You Don't Mess with the Zohan, I laughed maybe four times during Step Brothers. Moreso than any of the other movies on my list, Step Brothers was just embarassing to watch. Seeing two forty year old men act like a pair of eight year olds is just pathetic. Like I said in my original review, had the two men been in their 20s, it might have been acceptable. But Step Brothers as it is now is just terrible. Unfunny nonsense, and the worst comedy I've seen in years.

There you have it. Come back soon for two more lists. My top ten of 2008, and a list of ten that deserve more attention.