EDIT: List has been revised after goin' to the movies last night and seeing my new #1 pick.
I didn't see shit this year, so this is really a top 7 list with 3 good films latched onto the end to round it off. The last 3 are all great films that I loved and are all lightyears ahead of the rest of the stuff I saw this year (Appaloosa, Indiana Jones, Dark Knight, Pinapple Express, etc) but I have a feeling if I saw more stuff that was on the critic's lists they wouldn't even be in my top 20, let alone my top 10. But here's the list anyway.......
1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. In Bruges
4. Man on Wire
5. Frost/Nixon
6. The Fall
7. Encounters at the End of the World
8. Religulous
9. Cadillac Records
10. Seven Pounds
12 comments:
No Dark Knight or Wall-E?
Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
@ Upset
Haven't seen Wall-E, and I hate to be blasphemous but Dark Knight was just a run of the mill comic movie to me, complete with the cheesy ogligatory "Oh......they weren't really dead" scenes. Heath Ledger was amazing, but the rest of the hype for the film wasn't deserved. The whole metaphor-for-the-war-on-terror thing started annoying the fuck outta me in the second act, and it just kept gettin' worse. Chris Nolan is an amazing director, and there's some great scenes in the flick......but it's still a batman movie.
No Bangkok Dangerous?..........I guess i won't be reading your blog anymore.......good luck
Yeah, the best Batman movie ever since George Clooney was beefing with Arnold Schwrazegneggerasdskljsdfg. Chris Nolan came back and topped an already good movie, "Batman Begins". I don't view it as another "Batman movie". But as an epic, exciting, magical crime thriller that had me at the edge of my seat, did you see it in an IMAX theater? I guess not, because if you did, you would feel the same way as I do.
I liked the movie. A lot. I liked both Nolan Batman movies.......for what they were. Batman movies, not epic masterpieces. And Dark Knight is defintely the best of the bunch, but that's like sayin' it's the best Christina Aguilera album because DJ Premier produced a couple dope songs on it. At the end of the day, we're still in zing-bang-pow! territory, and I doubt any comic book movie could really be on the same cinematic level as a serious drama that doesn't involve goofy costumes and catchphrases and flying bat cars, so I give Nolan huge credit for coming as close as he did. The fact remains that the script was still just as corny and shallow as any comic book movie in history, so I don't get the hype. That's all I'm sayin'.
Heath Ledger still deserves any award he gets for his role. He was pretty unforgettable.
I've got a top 5 from this year.
1 - The Dark Knight in IMAX
2 - The Dark Knight
3 - The Dark Knight with Spanish Sub-titles
4 - The Dark Knight with commentary
5 - Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Still, you must have not seen the Dark Knight on an IMAX screen? It all makes sense now. I forgive you.
I saw Jumanji on an IMAX screen when I was 10, and I thought it was the most awesome shit ever. I'm not comparing the two movies at all, my point is that ever since then my theory has been that a truly good movie is still good on any sized screen.
I know there's a handful of scenes in The Dark Knight that are breathtaking in IMAX, but those are just individual scenes, camera shots really. The rest of the movie is built on a convoluted and corny script, and it's almost mind boggling how much unnecessary bullshit is packed into the third act. None of that changes when the screen gets bigger.
Your move, sir.
Well, my good man. (No Homo)
Take it for what the movie is, a summer blockbuster, once you do that, hold on to it.
What I'm saying is, the Dark Knight deserves to be in the top 10 because it really is an entertaining film. Sure the last half of the movie kind of disappoints and all these other subplots and whatnot are unnecessary, but it still is a fantastic crime thriller. It's just, instead of DeNeiro or Crowe as the protagonist, it's a rich man in a bat suit with a cape. It's definitely a lot better than some of the movies you have on your list. I'm even surprised you didn't put the Wrestler or Milk on your list. But that's a whole other rant I'll do later.
In conclusion, this list sucks......just like your face.
Have a nice day.
I didn't think the Wrestler lived up to the hype, even though Rourke's performance was everything the critics said it was. He was great. The story just didn't matter much to me, and the last scene was too cliche and predictable to forgive. It was a good movie, though. I wouldn't watch it twice. Aronofsky made one of my favorite movies ever, The Fountain, and I just didn't think this was the best he could do, especially with the characters. He coulda took it a whole other direction, but he stayed in an old formula, which isn't always bad, but it didn't work for me this time.
Haven't seen Milk, but the old documentary The Times of Harvey Milk is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen in my life. I'm sure the new one is a great movie too, I just wasn't able to catch it before the year was over.
And to respond to your latest fanboy speil, I admitted it was an entertaining movie. Like I said, I loved both Nolan batman flicks for what they were, which as you said is summer blockbuster comic book movies. I even said that it probably really was the best comic book movie ever made, like people keep saying. I just still don't think that puts it anywhere near the same league as any movie in my top 10.
Are we done here?
*condescendingly looks at watch*
I haven't seen most of these...so Benj. Button was better than Slumdog to you? I've been meaning to go see Benj. Button. Just saw Revolutionary Road today and it was decent but I am not sure if I would recommend it to anyone.
I didn't like Frost/Nixon too much. I thought the actual acting was extremely good, but the movie I wouldn't want to see again.
Bwaaaaahahaha@ Jumanji in Imax. I still love that movie...even remember selected quotes that I still use. Dark Knight was a movie, like Frost Nixon to me where there was good acting (by Ledger)...I didn't really like/connect with Christian Bale or Maggie. And, yeah, it's a Batman movie. A bit overhyped for me so I agree with your opinion.
@ Gem
I don't think I'd want to watch Frost/Nixon again either, but there's usually a few movies like that every year in my top ten. Sometimes it takes me a whole year just to see if a movie even has any staying power. Last year I really liked Wristcutters, and I just watched it for a second time the other day and it was just as great.
And since you brought up Maggie, I didn't wanna mention it but that's another big problem I had with Dark Knight. I hate her as a leading lady. She's just not that great of an actress, and I know it's rude to say this but it's hard to believe that a superhero and a dashing superstar rising politician would both be in love with this frumpy ass unattractive lady at the same time. It's not just that she doesn't do it for me personally, it's that I don't think she does it for ANYbody, which is a weird thing in a hollywood movie.
I know it sounds like I'm just tryin' to find any reason to hate on the movie, but it really did have a lot of problems for me, especially for a movie that might win an oscar. That's insane to me. I don't mind if some comic book nerds love it to death and think I'm retarded for missing the "magic" in it, that happens all the time, but the hype for this thing just won't stop snowballing. I already thought the Oscars lost all credibility when they gave Lord of the Rings best picture, but this would be even worse IMO.
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