2008 Films List (Reviews, Discussion & Tracking) (1 Viewer)

[Adam_S]

Wall*E - 10 of 10

When was the last time the end credits were of an equal caliber to the rest of the movie. Wall*E is fantastic from start to finish, a wonderful and impressive science fiction romantic comedy. somehow a dystopia became the setting for the rebirth of love and it is absolutely brilliant. Possibly my favorite Pixar, definitely number 2 under Incredibles at this point. Wow, just wow, utterly amazing.

 

[Adam_S]

Hancock - 6.5 of 10

Much like Get Smart this is a film that is rife with problems but very entertaining. Will Smith is fantastic as the petulant superbeing Hancock and Jason Batemen provides good support when he's not yammering about a stupid "allheart" sideplot. I also really like Charlize Theron in her role. it's not great cinema, but a decent way to spend the afternoon.

My biggest quibble is how they deal with the scifi/fantasy macguffin explanation of Hancock. A lot of reviewers seem to think audiences will revolt, but the audience I was with didn't seem to care they were just glad to get an explanation. I however wanted a more interesting explanation after Theron's initial comments about being built in pairs, I theorized that rather than just Adam and Eve (for example) a whole 'colony' of humans were created on Earth in the beginning, they were immortal and had fantastic abilities, but the act of reproducing, or even just the emotions of love would strip away their abilities and immortality. There's a lot of interesting material to mine there. And most dramatic fantasy that is good always has magic have a high price to pay to use it.

and I'd also like to put forth that the allheart logo on the moon was by far the absolute worst thing Hancock did in the entire movie. gross.

 

[Adam_S]

Catching up:

Dark Knight - 9 of 10 Outstanding, best batman film yet made. holds up to a repeat viewing as well. Christian Bale is phenomenal, as is the overpraised Heath Ledger. It's a morally deep ambiguous and fantastic take on the superhero mythos.

Bottleshock - 8 of 10 - despite an egregious use of ineffective beauty shots to build an opening and bridge transitions, this film has solid performances and a fun script. I found it much more entertaining and relatable than Sideways, the other 'wine' movie.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona - 9 of 10 - Second best film of the year and one of Allen's finest films. Rebecca Hall delivers the standout performance, matched by an equally good Javier Bardem. Penelope Cruz is pretty good with a very juicy scene stealing role. and Johannson is very good as the sort of self centered person you don't ever want to meet or be around.

Tropic Thunder - 7 of 10 - a haphazard movie that parodies making movies and parodies big action movies. unfortunately the film doesn't know the line between over the edge and too far over the edge. Robert Downey Jr is fucking brilliant, Stiller is solid, Black is forgettable and a little unknown boy does a better job of yelling at people than tom cruise does (the roles they have in this film are the same thing, effectively), and is a hell of a lot funnier. The best bit is when the director arrives in the jungle for his guerrilla shoot, it's a relatively short scene that ends explosively, but it's brilliant.

Hamlet 2 - 5 of 10 - unfortunately it's a good concept that's derailed by useless sideplots and an inability to plant, develop and build the big finale show that closes the film. basically everything a solid backstage musical programmer often did effortlessly in the thirties and forties is never accomplished here. The formula here to follow is Summer Stock for instance, but the doesn't and its just a haphazard flinging of one off jokes at the audience until we get to the finale. Better to get the dvd and just fast forward to the finale.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - 5 of 10
Lucas wisely restrained the cartoony superman aspects of Tartakovsky's Jedi, but the film lacks the life and focused brilliant storytelling of that film. The dialogue is worse than any of the prequels. The new girl jedi sidekick is actually really good (despite fanboys automatically disliking her on principal, girls are to be romantic interests not leading action leads in star wars and so she steps outsides the boundaries of whats acceptable to fanboyism unless you're a tarantino esque faux 'strong' character). The biggest problem here is that we don't have a plot that lets the characters mature and develop, instead we have a hackneyed and dismaying rescue the huttlet plot that plays havoc with film continuity and sort of betrays a lot of what I personally loved about Return of the Jedi's jabba. and we have a cartoon format and yet every alien species is still bipedal. I don't get it. kinda lame and pointless but there were possibilities here, Lucas just boned it again.

Burn After Reading - 7 of 10 - lower tier Coen's comedy, better than Intolerable Cruelty and one of Brad Pitt's best performances. Frances McDormand is also fantastic, but I didn't really care for Malkovich here. I felt his character worked least of anything in the film, and his portrayal was subtly off compared to the rest of the tone of the film. JK Simmons was the best damn thing in the film, perfect, brilliant and spot fucking on. Lovely cinematography, the Coen's are probably the best directors alive in terms of knowing how to frame a joke. George clooney is also really good here. Overall I liked it better than NCfOM.

The Women - 7 of 10 - I wanted to hate this movie I really did. And it starts off very badly, with a series of bad and unnecessary ADR and a laughable HUD when Bening enters Sacs for the first time. But Annette Bening is absolutely terrific. Meg Ryan gives one of her best performances. and for every moment the script is awkward or off, there's another where it's got a real wit, can make you chuckle and has a pure sincerity to the interrelationships of the titular Women. Is is better than Cukor's original? No. He was a much better director, and the performances and wit (excepting perhaps, Carrie Fischer, and Candice Bergen who are so utterly perfect it's a crime the rest of the film isn't as good as their scenes) just don't quite measure up. And although India Ennega is very good and a highlight, she's no Virginia Wiedler in the role of the daughter. But it's a completely worthy remake, very well done to the spirit of the original and nicely modernized for the most part. It'll have a long successful shelf life on DVD. Overall, I actually liked it a bit better than Burn After Reading, which surprised me quite a lot.

 

[Jose Martinez]

My Favorite to least favorite theatrical releases of 2008 so far...

1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. Gran Torino
3. Marley and Me
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5. Frost/Nixon
6. Changeling
7. Adoration
8. The Dark Knight
9. Australia
10. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
11. The Wrestler
12. Cloverfield
13. Iron Man
14. Wall E
15. Rachel Getting Married
16. The Reader
17. W.
18. Blindness
19. Miracle at St. Anna
20. Hell Boy 2: The Golden Army
21. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
22. Yes Man
23. Zack and Miri Make a Porno
24. Synecdoche, New York
25. Doubt
26. Traitor
27. Frozen River
28. Seven Pounds
29. The Incredible Hulk
30. Quantum of Solace
31. City of Ember
32. Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls
33. Hancock
34. Wanted
35. The Bank Job
36.The Chronicles of Narnia : Prince Caspian
37. Be Kind Rewind
38. The Forbidden Kingdom
39. Burn After Reading
40. Appaloosa
41. Tropic Thunder
42. Transporter 3
43. Doomsday
44. 10,000 BC
45. The Day The Earth Stood Still

(as of Jan. 20, 2009)

 

[Adam_S]

Appaloosa - 8 of 10

A solid and engaging western, it's not fantastic, but it's very enjoyable and has some outstanding performances. I think Zellweger should have been more of a femme fatale, and her face is still scary, but overall this was a very worthwhile film, wonderfully paced and some solid cinematography. The story feels a bit by the numbers though, and it's more of a programmer than a paragon of the genre, nothing wrong with that though.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - 9 of 10

A charming teen romantic comedy that features the luminous Kat Dennings. This is also, by far, Michael Cera's best performance. The direction is solid and assured, the cinematography is fine, not amazing, the editing keeps things moving along nicely, and perhaps the only stumble is a gross-out moment that sort of actually works, but is still really nasty. Very enjoyable.

 

[Greg Layton]

It's been a busy movie week for me...

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - :star::star::star:
Pretty standard "Night out" genre movie. I had minor nitpicks with it, though. #1. I'm officially done watching Cera play this role. I know he doesn't exactly have the body type to be cast as Superman, but come on, you can only milk a cash cow for so long. #2. What was up with the orgasm sub-plot? Seemed completely out of place to me. Other than that, it was a solid film. I enjoyed the tie-in to Electric Ladyland... I was probably the only person in the theater who really understood the signifigance of that name/place.

Appaloosa - :star::star::star:
Ed Harris is the man. And I was impressed with Renee Zellweger, she was cast perfectly here as the needy woman. Truth be told, this probably deserves a higher rating, but I wasn't satisfied with the ending. The climax to the film, the shootout between Viggo and Jeremy (also brilliantly cast) seemed... well... anticlimactic. Hard to really put my finger on, I guess.

I think you're spot on with the by the numbers comment, Adam. Any ideas on what could have been done to improve the ending?

Flash of Genius - :star::star::star:
Great casting here... Alan Alda is always a joy to watch, and I found myself looking forward to each scene involving Tim Kelleher... according to IMDB he's been a character actor his whole career... I sincerely hope that this movie helps launch his career to the next level, he stole every scene he was in. Other than the solid acting, I felt like I'd seen this movie before. The "me versus the big corporation" angle was told much better in The Rainmaker and the "my obsession with this case is destroying my family" angle was straight out of Zodiac. Speaking of the family thing, I didn't really buy Kearns being ostrasized by his family and then having all the kids sleeping at his place 10 minutes later. Seemed a bit too convenient. That being said, supposedly it's a true story, so I guess they had to do what they had to do.

So, all in all, three solid movies that all have slight flaws in my eyes. Certainly exciting to have movies to look forward to again after a weak summer.

 

[Adam_S]

Ending of Appaloosa I think the ending fit, to a degree. I just don't think the stakes were ever really high enough. Nothing really bad or unexpected happens to our trio of protagonists, the big 'oh no' moment is the bad guy coming back respectable with a pardon. Raising the stakes would be having Harris forced to hang Mortenson for the shootout, having either Harris or Zellweger be killed in a ruthless and despicable manner or such like.

N&N subplot
I liked this, because so often you see either a makeout session/groping or a girl giving a guy head as a sort of modern first base that you have to have for this generation. I thought showing a girl getting off to be both progressive and unique to the genre, especially as the guy seemed more concerned about her satisfaction than his own, which is essentially verboten in American cinema. It's also a way for them to have more an intimate moment than a kiss without them jumping into bed each other.

 

[Greg Layton]

I have a new #1 movie for 2008... The Visitor. Richard Jenkins deserves a Best Actor nomination. It's been a while since I became so close to a set of characters... they felt real.

 

[Jon Paul Gottier]

 

[Jon Paul Gottier]

2008 has been big for me. JCVD was awesome. I saw it premier in Toronto during Midnight Madness! The audience was cheering and going nuts. It was one of the best screenings I've ever been, too. Van Damme was amazing are there are two huge scenes that will be cinematic history!!! For real; you'll know it when you see them.

Last Stop 174 and Slumdog Millionaire are very similar, and the sheer acting of 174, outshines the niche that Slumdog uses (a hindu version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire).

Last Stop 174 affected and haunted me for hours after I saw it. It is soooo good.

I'm still waiting on the Wrestler.

Cheers.

 

[Jon Paul Gottier]

Adam S... I agree about Hamlet 2; it tried to hard. From your list I really think you'll like JCVD. I loved Bigger, Faster, Stronger, but still haven't made it through Iron Man. I've tried to watch it twice, and pass out. Bobbie Downey JR sells the role of Tony Stark, did you ever read Marvel's Civil War? It suck that Iron Man didn't grab me, because 'I support Tony Stark'. But they've already bought Iron Man 2 & 3, and the Avengers, and it looks like Don Cheadle will be replacing Terrence Howard.

 

[sumita]

In 2008 so many movie are Released But i like The dark Night and Iron Man..

 

[Adam_S]

Rachel Getting Married - 9 of 10

One of the best of the year, Anne Hathaway and Rosemarie DeWitt are superb in this film. Demme's direction is outstanding and the script is impeccable. all around brilliant that gets better the more you think about it.

Happy-Go-Lucky - 8 of 10
Sally Hawkins is outstanding as Poppy, the titular teacher. For all her bubbly facade she perpetually has trouble connecting to people, whether its a bookshop keeper, a homeless man, a driving instructor or even one of her students. Excellent film, and Hawkins is superb, as is Eddie Marsan playing the driving instructor who doesn't like the way Poppy's attitude, demeaner and philosophy of life effect him.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno - 7 of 10
Kevin Smith's latest shows that he's matured a little, but at the same time is becoming more generic. Elizabeth Banks delivers a terrific performance, as does Craig Robinson with one of the funniest performances in a Smith movie, "there's no such thing as free titties."

W. - 6 of 10
Brolin is brilliant, as is Elizabeth Banks, Tobey Jones and Richard Dreyfuss. What saves the film is that it's not nasty, but makes an attempt to present an even-handed film if you're not picking up on the more satiric elements. James Cromwell turns in a very good performance but one that isn't even close to George HW Bush.

W. is a must see though for one of the worst performances in recent memory. Thandie Newton as Condolleeza Rice is unbelievably bad. Every single thing she does would be too much for an SNL performance, Mad TV's low standards wouldn't even accept something this horrendous. It's one for the ages, for sure, the hands down Razzie winner for supporting actress by a long shot.

 

[luckygirlhaha6]

I like lost 1-4...have ordered it on dvdcollects.com

 

[Brian.L]

Will there be a 2009 Films List thread?

 

[cherrypie]

I'll contribute a few.

Indiana Jones the Temple of the Crystal Skull - 6 out of 10 - OK, yeah, I like it. It was not necessary and came across more like an afterthought, like a piece of extra merchandise for hardcore fans but still, liked it despite its silliness.

WALL-E - 7 out of 10 - Am I the only one who prefers Ratatouille over WALL-E? Maybe it's just personal taste. Now, lets not get me wrong. I loved WALL-E. I just *prefer* Ratatouille.

And for independent films...

Red Roses and Petrol - 7 out of 10 - Good! Liked the irish jig and the music was good too. I'm curious if there ever will be a soundtrack release.