Another great year for film..  Trying to pick my favorites this year might have even been harder than in 2007.  

To reinforce my tradition of not placing importance of one film over another in each category, I decided to alphabetize the lists this year.  

Here’s the list of the movies I saw in 2008…  I was a little lazier about keeping this list up to date this year, so it’s possible I missed one or two movies.   I saw 150 movies this year, which is a handful less than last year, but still fairly ridiculous.  This year was very polarized, with some completely amazing movies and some complete stinkers.  I’m going to wait a few weeks (until before the Oscar ceremony) to compile my "Best Of 2008" list, which should hopefully give me some time to catch up on some of the ones I missed this year.

Also, I am coming to the point, with my HDTV and surround sound system, that the distinction between "Theatre" and "Video" viewing is becoming rather academic.  I do still prefer to watch movies in the "art house" theaters in Boston, because the audiences are usually quite respectful.  But the downsides of going to one of the multiplexes easily match (and probably surpass) any downsides of watching a movie in your living room.  So it’s possible in the future I may not keep track of the distinction, but I haven’t decided yet.

The list is mostly in the order I viewed them, and I tried to italicize any films I had already seen.

Continue reading “The Movies I Saw in 2008” →

What a tough year…   There were so many great films, I simply couldn’t find a place for all of them on the list.  What’s crazier is that even having seen 160 pictures in 2007 (and catching up on several early in 2008), there are still so many I feel I missed out on!  I did my best on this list..  The listed films are in no particular order.
• Top 11 Films of 2007:
  
  • There Will Be Blood
  • No Country for Old Men
  • Hot Fuzz
  • Lars and the Real Girl
  • The King of Kong
  • Grindhouse
  • Zodiac
  • Eastern Promises
  • 3:10 to Yuma
    
  • The Bourne Ultimatum
  • The Lookout
• Bottom 4 films of 2007:
  • Transformers
  • Hannibal Rising
  • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
  • Frownland
• Film which should have been in last year’s top ten: The Queen




• Best Remake/Reworking: 3:10 to Yuma (honorable mention goes to Halloween)




• Most Unnecessary Remake/Reworking: The Invasion (So unnecessary I didn’t need to see it!)




• Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood




• Best Actress: Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose




• Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood




• Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett for I’m Not There




• Best Supporting Actor: Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton




• Best Ensemble: Hot Fuzz
  




• Best Original Screenplay: Lars and the Real Girl




• Best Adapted Screenplay: There Will Be Blood




• Best Cinematography: There Will Be Blood




• Best Soundtrack: There Will Be Blood




• Most Alarming Cinematic Trend: Remakes going 3 or 4 levels deep…
  




• Most Memorable Lines:
• Daniel Plainview: Drainage! Drainage, Eli, you boy. Drained dry. I’m so sorry. Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that’s a straw, you see? You watching?. And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake… I… drink… your… milkshake!
• Nicholas Angel: Are there any questions?
  Danny Butterman: Is it true that there’s a point on a man’s head where if you shoot it, it will blow up?
• Brian Kuh: If anybody wants to see, there’s a Donkey Kong kill screen coming up.
• Stuntman Mike: Do I frighten you?
  [Arlene nods]
  Stuntman Mike: Is it my scar?
  Arlene: It’s your car.
  Stuntman Mike: Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. It’s my mom’s car.




• Best Documentary: The King of Kong (honorable mention goes to Monster Camp)




• Best use of Special Effects in a lame movie: The Golden Compass




• Best Interviews in a Documentary: The King of Kong




• Films I feel guilty for missing: In the Valley of Elah, Away from Her, The Savages, Gone Baby Gone




• Films I don’t feel guilty for missing: Atonement, The Invasion, Alvin and the Chipmunks

I have no idea how I am going to compile the “best of” list, given how many great movies came through this year.. As you can see, the new TV greatly increased the number of movies I watched at home from the past few years.

Over the next few weeks I’ll try to catch up with some of the movies I missed in 2007 and then post my “best of”.

The list is pretty much in the order I saw the pictures, and I tried to italicize films I had previously viewed.

Theatre:

1. Children of Men
2. Pan’s Labyrinth
3. Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
4. Letters from Iwo Jima
5. Smokin’ Aces
6. Hannibal Rising
7. An Unreasonable Man
8. Zodiac
9. 300
10. The Host
11. Hot Fuzz (2x)
12. Les Ordres
13. Grindhouse (2x)
14. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres
15. Black Book (Zwartboek)
16. Fay Grim
17. The King of Kong
18. Fido
19. Rabbit
20. Black Sheep
21. Death Trike
22. Monster Camp
23. Spider-man 3
24. 28 Weeks Later
25. Incubo sulla città contaminata (a.k.a. Nightmare City)
26. The Return of the Living Dead
27. Sleuth (1972)
28. Severance
29. Crazy Love
30. 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama
31. Live Free or Die Hard
32. Sicko
33. Transformers
34. Frownland
35. Talk to Me
36. Sunshine
37. Interview
38. The Simpsons Movie
39. The Bourne Ultimatum
40. The Ten
41. Summercamp!
42. Naked Lunch
43. The Omega Man
44. Superbad
45. TRON
46. Halloween (2007)
47. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
48. The Rape of Europa
49. 30 Days of Night
50. Elizabeth: The Golden Age
51. American Gangster
52. No Country for Old Men
53. Blade Runner
54. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
55. I’m Not There
56. In Bruges
57. The Golden Compass
58. Lars and the Real Girl
59. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Video:

1. Clerks.
2. Sssssss
3. Mr. & Mrs. Smith
4. Goodfellas
5. Haiku Tunnel
6. Heavy: The Story of Metal
7. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
8. Un Chien Andalou
9. Tzameti (13)
10. Cannibal Holocaust
11. Oldboy
12. The Evil Dead
13. Evil Dead II
14. Marjoe
15. The Proposition
16. The U.S. vs. John Lennon
17. Moog
18. Crónicas
19. Marie Antoinette
20. Hostel
21. Getting Away with Murder
22. The Hills Have Eyes
23. Ghosts of the Abyss
24. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
25. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
26. Batman
27. Superman Returns
28. Serenity
29. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
30. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
31. War Dancing (a.k.a. Dance to Win)
32. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
33. Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi
34. Hustle & Flow
35. Fright Night
36. Batman Begins
37. Lord of War
38. Red Eye
39. The Nomi Song
40. Beerfest
41. All the President’s Men
42. Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out
43. Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream
44. The Bourne Identity
45. Aliens
46. The Omen (2006)
47. Blow Dry
48. Transporter 2
49. Rize
50. Apt Pupil
51. District B13
52. When Stand Up Stood Out
53. Coffy
54. Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
55. Patriot Act: A Jeffrey Ross Home Movie
56. Halloween (1978)
57. Poseidon
58. The Queen
59. Mission: Impossible III
60. The Conversation
61. Cars
62. Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
63. The Departed
64. Henry Fool
65. The Call of Cthulhu
66. Damien: Omen II
67. Fast Food Nation
68. For Your Consideration
69. The Iron Wall
70. Volver
71. Click
72. Hard Candy
73. Up for Grabs (2004)
74. Kurtlar vadisi – Irak
75. Slither
76. The Meaning of Life
77. Crash
78. Jesus Camp
79. Times Square
80. This Filthy World
81. Stranger Than Fiction
82. Darkon
83. Word Wars
84. Ronin
85. Redacted
86. Primeval
87. The Illusionist
88. Closing Escrow
89. Idiocracy
90. Beer League
91. Henry Rollins: Uncut from NYC
92. Jackass Number Two
93. The Birds
94. Cocaine Cowboys
95. Krieger und die Kaiserin, Der (The Princess and the Warrior)
96. Children of Men
97. A Smoky Mountain Christmas
98. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
99. La Vie en Rose
100. Amazing Grace

I figured I’d issue a mid-point progress report…  Already at a ridiculous pace this year, already having seen as many videos half-way through the year as I saw throughout all of 2006.  I also think I might have missed adding a video or two to the list, but I can’t figure out what I missed..  The list is pretty much in the order I saw the pictures, and I tried to italicize films I had previously viewed.

• Top 10 Films of 2006:
  
  • The Departed
  • INLAND EMPIRE
  • Half Nelson
  • A Scanner Darkly
  • Children of Men
  • Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
  • Superman Returns
  • Jackass Number Two
  • Clerks II
  • The Descent
• Bottom 5 films of 2006:
  
  • Snakes on a Plane
  • Death of a President
  • Miami Vice
  • The Science of Sleep
  • Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

• Film which should have been in last year’s top ten: Brokeback Mountain
• Best Remake/Reworking: Casino Royale
• Most Unnecessary Remake/Reworking: Miami Vice
• Best Director: Martin Scorsese for The Departed
• Best Actress: Laura Dern for INLAND EMPIRE
• Best Actor: Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson
• Best Supporting Actress: Michelle Williams for Brokeback Mountain
• Best Supporting Actor: Jackie Earle Haley for Little Children (this was an astonishing performance…)
• Best Ensemble: Jackass Number Two
• Best Original Screenplay:Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck for Half Nelson
• Best Adapted Screenplay: William Monahan for The Departed
• Best Cinematography: Children of Men
• Best Soundtrack: Clerks II
• Best Concert Film: Awesome: I Fuckin’ Shot That!
• Most Alarming Cinematic Trend: Documentaries better suited for PBS being stretched to feature length for theatrical release.
• Most Memorable Line: “Even the trees walked in those fucking movies! ” — Randal Graves in Clerks II
• Best Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth
• Best Faux Documentary: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
• Worst Faux Documentary: Death of a President
• Best use of Special Effects in a lame movie: The Science of Sleep
• Best Interviews in a Documentary: Why We Fight
• Film I feel guilty for missing: The Queen and The Good Shepherd (tie)
• Film I don’t feel guilty for missing: The Wicker Man (2006) and Basic Instinct 2 (tie)

Keeping up the tradition of the past few years, here is the list of flicks I watched in 2006. This was a strange year for me, I saw more movies in the theatre, but (relatively) few on video. I can only attribute that to all the home improvement stuff
coco_b and I had to deal with this year… Our plan is to move to a new home in 2007, so it’s possible that this trend could continue for another year. In a few weeks I will put together my “best of 2006” list, but I want to give myself an opportunity to catch some of the things from 2006 I haven’t seen yet.

The list is pretty much in the order I saw the pictures, and I tried to italicize films I had previously viewed.

Continue reading “The Movies I Saw in 2006” →

• Top 10 Films of 2005:
  1. A History of Violence
  2. Syriana
  3. Capote
  4. Me and You and Everyone We Know
  5. Murderball
  6. Land of the Dead
  7. The Baxter
  8. Sin City
  9. The Devil’s Rejects
  10. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
• Bottom 5 films of 2005:
  1. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
  2. The Squid and the Whale
  3. Doom
  4. The Skeleton Key
  5. Unleashed
• Best Remake/Reworking: King Kong
• Most Unnecessary Remake/Reworking: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Best Director: David Cronenberg (A History of Violence)
• Best Actress: Reese
  Witherspoon (Walk the Line)
• Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote)
• Best Supporting Actress: Catherine Keener (Capote)
• Best Supporting Actor: Alan Rickman (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
• Best Ensemble: Serenity
• Best Original Screenplay: Me and You and Everyone We Know
• Best Adapted Screenplay: A History of Violence
• Best Cinematography: A History of Violence
• Best Soundtrack: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
• Most Alarming Cinematic Trend: Remaking or Rehashing Old Films
• Most Memorable Line: “They’re Prescription, June!” (Walk the Line)
• Best Documentary: 10e chambre – Instants d’audience
• Best Faux Documentary: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (At least, the actual parts of the film that were supposed to be documentary)
• Best use of Special Effects in a lame movie: War of the Worlds
• Best Interviews in a Documentary: Double Dare
• Film I feel guilty for missing: Crash
• Film I don’t feel guilty for missing: Supercross: The Movie

Here is a list of the movies I saw this year. I saw just about as many movies in the theatre but far less on video as the past few years, which is somewhat counterintuitive given how long I was laid up with my leg. I think the reduced number of videos is a combination of my immobility while laid up with my leg combined with ‘s last semester, where she was sequestered for 3 months straight, in which we didn’t watch anywhere near as many movies as we usually do.

I kept track of movies as I watched them this year, so this list is rather complete. Also, this year I was smart and linkified the films as I added them to the list, which made putting this up very simple. I have no idea if any of you actually care about this list, but I find it personally interesting. If you are curious about my opinions of any of these films, just ask. In addition, in a few hours/days I will put up my picks for the best and worst of the year.

Update: I went through and italicized any film I had seen already.

Theatre:

1. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
2. Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst
3. Million Dollar Baby
4. The 10th District Court: Moments of Trial
5. Born Into Brothels
6. Inside Deep Throat
7. La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc
8. Cursed
9. Sin City
10. Millions
11. The Interpreter
12. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
13. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
14. Shane
15. Unleashed
16. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (twice: once analog, once digital)
17. Double Dare
18. Brothers
19. Howl’s Moving Castle
20. Batman Begins
21. Land of the Dead
22. War of the Worlds
23. Me and You and Everyone We Know
24. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
25. The Devil’s Rejects
26. Murderball
27. Labyrinth
28. March of the Penguins
29. Wedding Crashers
30. The Aristocrats
31. The Skeleton Key
32. The 40 Year-Old Virgin
33. The Brothers Grimm
34. Le Monde du Silence (The Silent World)
35. The Baxter
36. A History of Violence
37. Serenity
38. MirrorMask
39. Capote
40. Good Night, and Good Luck.
41. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
42. Doom
43. Jarhead
44. The Squid and the Whale
45. Walk the LIne
46. Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic
47. The Ice Harvest
48. Aeon Flux
49. Syriana
50. King Kong (2005)
51. Wolf Creek

Video:

1. The Last Samurai
2. West Side Story
3. Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle
4. Envy
5. Rounders
6. The Last Broadcast
7. Shaun of the Dead
8. Garden State
9. Love Actually
10. Along Came Polly
11. Mystic River
12. Spider-man 2
13. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
14. Deep Throat
15. Team America: World Police (2 Times)
16. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
17. Jackie Brown
18. Trainspotting
19. Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (2004 Special Edition)
20. The Stepford Wives (2004)
21. The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
22. The Pixies
23. Stand By Me
24. Ghostbusters
25. Strange Days
26. The Bourne Identity
27. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
28. Dirty War
29. The Transporter
30. The Sound of Music
31. Mean Girls
32. Private Parts
33. The Incredibles
34. The Big One
35. Deliverance
36. The Fugitive
37. After the Sunset
38. Revolution OS
39. Fight Club
40. And All That Could Have Been
41. Predator
42. The Matrix
43. The Matrix Reloaded
44. Waxwork
45. The Matrix Revolutions
46. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
47. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
48. Sideways
49. Z Channel: A Magnificient Obsession
50. Star Trek: Insurrection
51. Star Trek: First Contact
52. Boogie Nights
53. Hoop Dreams
54. The Last Shot
55. In Good Company
56. Oceans Eleven
57. Pauly Shore is Dead
58. The Last Man on Earth
59. Sonic Outlaws
60. Napoleon Dynamite
61. Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy
62. Wayne’s World 2
63. Old School
64. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
65. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
66. Triumph of the Nerds
67. Fantastic Four (2005)
68. Primer
69. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
70. Die Hard
71. A Christmas Story
72. American Psycho
73. Effects
74. The Big Lebowski

• Top Films of 2004:
  1. Shaun of the Dead
  2. Team America: World Police
  3. Saddest Music in the World
  4. Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
  5. Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
  6. Fahrenheit 9/11
  7. A Dirty Shame
  8. The Corporation
  9. Spiderman 2
  10. Dogville (surprise)
• Bottom 5 films of 2004:
  1. Saw
  2. The Village
  3. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
  4. House of Flying Daggers
  5. Starsky & Hutch
• Best Reissue: Monty Python’s Life of Brian
• Best Remake/Reworking: Dawn of the Dead
• Best Director: John Waters
• Best Actress: Isabella Rosselini (Saddest Music in the World)
• Best Actor: Paul Bettany (Dogville)
• Best Supporting Actress: Lynn Redgrave (Kinsey)
• Best Supporting Actor: Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead)
• Best Ensemble: Shaun of the Dead
• Best Original Screenplay: Shaun of the Dead
• Best Adapted Screenplay: Spiderman 2
• Best Cinematography: Dogville
• Best Soundtrack: Team America: World Police
• Most Alarming Cinematic Trend: Ben Stiller’s Increasingly
  Annoying Schtick
• Most Memorable Line: Team America: World Police
  Lisa: Promise me you’ll never die.
  Gary Johnston: You know I can’t promise that.
  Lisa: Promise me you’ll never die and I’ll make love to you right now.
  Gary Johnston: I promise I’ll never die.
• Best Documentary: End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones
• Best Faux Documentary: The Battle of Algiers
• Movie which was good, yet didn’t make it anywhere else on this list:
  Napoleon Dynamite
• Best Fake Television Network: “The Ocho” – Dodgeball
• Reinforcement that M. Night Shyamalan sucks: The Village
• Best use of Special Effects in a lame movie: Sky Captain and the
  World of Tomorrow
• Most audience manipulating “Documentary”: Tarnation
• Film I won’t watch until I can get it off Napster: Metallica:
  Some Kind of Monster
• Best Interviews in a Documentary: The Fog of War
• Film I feel guilty for missing (tie): Sideways & The Motorcycle Diaries
• Film I don’t feel guilty for missing: MXP: Most Xtreme Primate