Thursday, January 01, 2009

My Top Ten Films of 2008

As another year comes to an end, and every other website on the planet is having their "Best Of..." lists, I thought I would join in as well. Becasue, as everyone knows, bloggers think their opinions matter more than everyone else's. So feel free to comment and let me know if there are some obvious omissions.

10. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, and Lee Pace have some fun at a lingerie showing in old timey England.

9. Be Kind Rewind

Sweded films have become a new obsession of mine and I hope to do a Fight Club version myself.

8. Happy-Go-Lucky

This movie will make you think "Man, I wish I was as happy as her" or "She is so goddman annoying!" Either way, it leads to a good post-movie conversation. Oh, and you'll never think of your car's mirrors the same again.

7. Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Never heard of Russell Brand prior to this and he has the best line in the film. Also, any film that can make me think Mila Kunis is a good actress has done something right.

6. Man on Wire

A film about the twin towers that doesn't even mention 9/11 but can still cause me to get teary eyed is just plain beautiful.

5. Ghost Town

Ricky Gervais proves that not only is he a great lead for films, he also can play a lovable character. And extra kudos for taking The Sixth Sense and actually making it funny.

4. Iron Man

I thought Robert Downey Jr was a badass back when he was doing Elton John music videos, this just confirmed it for the rest of the world. Also, an actual decent love story is brewing here.

3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

A great story of one man's life that is also shown with amazing visuals. You'll question whether you're living the life you wanted to as well as your sexuality when you see Brad Pitt with his shirt off 17 times.

2. Wall-E

After Ratatouille I was nervous Pixar had lost me, but they came roaring back with an amazing film that had me in awe for the first 20 minutes, laughing after that, and then wiping tears from my face in the end. +10 extra points for a great song by Peter Gabriel

1. The Dark Knight

Call me a fan boy or claim I have bias for living in Chicago and my response will be "Why so serious?" Having watched it in IMAX and being blown away by the visuals, the opening bank robbery is one of the best heists in a long while and the many scenes with the Joker are just excellent.

Films that didn't make the list that I also saw:
Pineapple Express - Not that funny except when Danny McBride is on screen, which is very little
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Why were there CGI gophers? WHY?!
Definitely, Maybe - I thought with a great cast would come a great movie. I was definitely wrong, maybe.
Flash of Genius - Not bad, just predictable. Greg Kinnear plays these roles well.

1 comment:

The Enlightened Citizen said...

You liked Benjamin Button huh? I just saw it this evening and want to read the actual F. Scott Fitzgerald short story before fully making up my mind but I initially liked the movie as well. The friend I saw it with hated it. Interestingly, I found it creepier when Button grew younger and died a baby then it was when he was born old and lived with an outwardly old appearance. Did you have a similar feeling?