As my loyal readers know, my job covering movie junkets lets me see many movies for free every year. In fact, the only movie I paid to see this year was “Iron Man.” Fortunately, most of the movies I wanted to see (the big summer extravaganzas), I got to cover. Unfortunately, I also had to see a lot of very bad movies for the job, making it a lot easier to come up with a “Worst Of 2008” list. You ‘ll see that list in an upcoming post. I’m still haven’t seen many of this year’s Oscar hopefuls, so there aren’t many of those in my top ten. Not that I like many of the Oscar hopefuls each year anyway…
Without further ado…
1. “THE DARK KNIGHT” – I loved how director Chris Nolan set this in the real world, full of breathtaking shots of Gotham City. Exciting action and a lot to think about to boot. Plus if you think a movie is only as good as its villain, this was the best movie ever!
2. “FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL” – “Tropic Thunder” may be funnier overall, but this gets the nod because of the well done romantic arc (even I would have picked Mila Kunis over my beloved Kristin Bell in these circumstances) and the use of Hawaiian locations.
3. “IRON MAN” – I have friends who enjoyed this more than “The Dark Knight” because of the comedic scenes. I think the comedy and Robert Downey’s gleeful performance has obscured the fact that this too was an example that superheroes done seriously are superheroes done right! You will believe a man can fly…
4. “TROPIC THUNDER” – Loved the Hollywood jokes as well as the well directed action scenes. And yes, it’s just comedy but Ben Stiller got some of the year’s most daring performances from Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise…
5. “FROST/NIXON” – I was fascinated by the give and take between the characters. A true thriller without a punch thrown or gun shot…
6. “THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM” – An exciting stew of everything I like about martial arts movies featuring a great fight between the masters Jackie Chan and Jet Li…
7. “GET SMART” – The surprise of the year. I thought this was going to be terrible, and it turned out that everything taken from the TV series didn’t work. Steve Carrell played a smarter Maxwell Smart, but that didn’t stop him from getting into hilarious trouble. And like “Tropic Thunder,” the actions scenes worked well.
8. “RAMBO” – And speaking of action scenes, I have to admit I enjoyed seeing Sly mowing down the bad guys in the violent finale. A true trip back in time to the 80’s moviewise…
9. “QUANTUM OF SOLACE” – A bit of a disappointment when compared to “Casino Royale,” thanks to jittery editing in the early action scenes and a villain who really shouldn’t be able to go toe to toe with Bond in the final fight. But hey, I love action movies and the sheer immense rediculousness of the action and Daniel Craig’s emotionally closed-in portrayal of Bond made it enjoyable…
10. “HANCOCK” – Yes, this movie was not as good as it could have been. But I still enjoyed the idea of a homeless, lost superhero and the centerpiece fight between Will Smith and Charlize Theron was a knockout…
Brian & The Biz 
December 15, 2008 at 9:24 pm |
Hey – what about Hulk???
December 16, 2008 at 1:14 am |
That’s “The Incredible Hulk” to you! It was actually a tossup between that and “Hancock” for number ten, but in the end, I just had a better time at “Hancock.”