The best and worst movies of 2008

10. Quantum Of Solace: I know this is a controversial choice to start off my list but for me I thought this was a smash bang James Bond film that once again displayed why Daniel Craig is one of the best Bond’s ever. Ruthless, bitter, pissed off and a stone cold killer, that’s how James Bond should be.

09. Man On A Wire: I lived in New York City when Philip Petite did this daring tightrope walk across the World Trade Center Towers. I grew up hearing stories about it, urban legends and downright lies. This well executed and fascinating documentary shed much wanted light on the “Artistic Crime Of The Century”. It never drags; it isn’t biased, and doesn’t try to lionize Petite. Instead Man On A Wire just shows who he was, why he did it and how.

08. The Incredible Hulk: This is another controversial entry because so many people trumpeted Iron Man over Incredible Hulk, which I didn’t. The Incredible Hulk had a good development of characters, great action and a Hulk I could believe in. Where Iron Man got seriously boring in it’s third act, Hulk kept a steady incline of drama vs. action.

07.  Be Kind Rewind: This is the kind of movie I love to be a part of because I never saw it coming. I dislike Jack Black strongly and I’m not a big fan of Mos Def either. Having them together in one movie seemed like poison for me but Michel Gondry’s ability to capture the charm of day-to-day life in this Jersey suburb totally disarmed me. Black and Def make a great comedy team and their reenacted movies are hysterically funny.

06. Redbelt: This largely ignored movie was one of the great little films of 2008. The story of a con put against a martial arts teacher is exciting, filled with twists but never devolves into an “action movie”. David Mamet wrote and directed this film with the same hard-nosed style he had with Glengarry Glennross but with a lot more humanity than usual. Lead actor Chiwetel Ejiofor should get an Oscar nomination but probably won’t.

05. Gonzo: I’m a huge Hunter S. Thompson fan hands down so anything that comes out about the man I’ll either watch or read. This documentary was one of my favorites because it didn’t try to saint Thompson. It showed his character from all angles, from genius to asshole and everything in between. Gonzo is a true comprehensive look at how Thompson went from the front lines of journalism to almost a cartoon character. Bittersweet and heartfelt, one of the best films of the year.

04. Milk: I first found out about Harvey Milk through the band named for him and from that point the story of how he became the first outwardly gay official in public office fascinated me. Sean Penn has Milk and his mannerisms nailed and the film manages to tell a huge story in a very intimate way with a supporting cast that is near perfection. In this age of fighting for Proposition 8 this film hopefully will open some eyes.

03. Slumdog Millionaire: I really didn’t want to see this mainly because I’m not a huge Danny Boyle fan. I enjoyed 28 Days Later but hated Trainspotting and Sunshine so I tried to stay away. When I finally saw it I was floored not just by the filmmaking but also how the story was sweet and inspirational without being sappy and sentimental. The performances are flawless and while you cry at some points you walk away from it feeling happy and content. A real switch from most of the cynical films I’ve seen this year.

02. The Dark Knight: Yes Heath Ledger is brilliant as the Joker, yes Christian Bale is the perfect Batman but it’s the vision behind the story that makes this one of the best films of the year. Director Chris Nolan took the archetypal mobster storyline and simply applied the DC Characters to it. In doing that and writing an intelligent script Nolan has created not just a wonderful Comic Book Movie but also a wonderful movie.

01. The Wrestler: This is another one of those movies that took me by complete surprise. I’ve never been a Mickey Rourke fan, ever, in any film he’s ever been in. However my love of wrestling forced me to go see The Wrestler and just like Be Kind Rewind I was disarmed and blown away. Rourke’s portrayal of a broken down wrestler who is way beyond his prime is heartbreaking. The best thing about the films is that it doesn’t ever let up; it continues to break your heart through to the end of it. Most directors chicken out at the end of these kinds of stories and tie everything up in a nice bow. Darren Aronofsky doesn’t even attempt it, sticking with the script all the way to bitter end.

10. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull: After basterdizing the Star Wars movies Lucas turned his attention to the Indiana Jones films. This complete failure of a movie makes Indiana Jones seem old and dated for the first time ever. Everything here seems forced, almost as if Spielberg and Lucas were hoping if they made enough references to the old films we’d forget this one sucks so much ass. If you love Indiana Jones at all, skip this movie.

09. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button: Schmaltzy, overly sentimental and filled with Hollywood style Southern platitudes that nobody who is from the South actually uses. My whole family is from the Deep South and these long drawn out “southern” sayings just don’t exist. Brad Pitt does nothing in the movie except look forlorn and speak in an annoyingly forced southern accent. What made F Scott Fitzgerald’s original story so great was its intimacy. Director David Fincher is so impressed with himself and how epic the sets and actors are that he removes and intimacy to show us how much money he’s spent on the whole shebang. Awful.

08. Step Brothers: I’m all for stupid and silly humor but this movie doesn’t even attempt to have a story. Instead you get Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly doing scene after scene trying to out-stupid each other. The movie feels like for each scene they set up the camera and said, “Uh, ok, um, do something”.

07. X Files 2: It’s not enough that X-Files creator Chris Carter managed to ruin the X Files with the first movie and the last two seasons of the show, now he’s burned the body into nothing with this movie. Not only is the plot for X Files 2 stupid and the ideas inane but both David Duchovney and Gillian Anderson look like they would rather be anywhere else in the world besides making this movie. Don’t worry you two, we’d rather be anywhere than watching it.

06. Cloverfield: This shaky camera letdown was one of the biggest steaming shitpiles of the entire year. What started out as a good idea quickly descends into a boring and endless series of screaming yuppies and vomit inducing shaky camera work. There are also giant holes in even the out-of-reality logic the film sets up for itself. For instance we’re supposedly watching footage secured by the army about what happened when the scary monsters attacked New York but for some reason the Army didn’t edit out the forty-five minutes of a surprise party being recorded by the camera before all hell breaks loose. What could have been an amazing film is an abysmal failure.

05. Max Payne: Imagine the film Constantine without the depth or the Dolph Lundgren Punisher film without the great acting and you have the shit stink mess that is Max Payne. Mark Wahlberg’s emotional range goes from A to B and with this film he manages to not even get to B. The plot is derived from a popular video game and the film even manages make that idea worse by adding this silly supernatural element. If Max Payne spent more time trying to be a good movie instead of being “cool” or visually stunning it might not suck so badly.

04. 88 Minutes: Al Pacino needs to give up acting. He’s gone from one of our greatest talents to this sad yelling caricature of himself. It’s pathetic to watch and heartbreaking to think of against his earlier works. I’d go into the plot of 88 Minutes but it doesn’t get much more complicated than your average coloring book so why try. The film is basically an excuse for Pacino to overact around hot women.

03. The Happening: Wow, congrats Mark Wahlberg, you’re on the worst list twice. The Happening should be viewed by everybody that works in film because it fails on every level a movie can. Writing, direction, acting, sets, cinematography, costumes, I’m sure even the food at Kraft Services sucked. I can only guess M. Night Shyamalan did The Happening as performance art because not even a community theater director could think these scenes were any good.

02. Tropic Thunder: I usually try to see both sides of an argument but people who liked this movie are flat out wrong. Not only is this movie juvenile and stupid but also throughout the film you can almost feel the actors elbowing you in the ribs and saying, “See how clever we are. Isn’t this movie clever? Gosh we’re so clever!!” The sad part is it isn’t clever it’s easy. All of the supposed “send ups” of Hollywood have been exploited before and the way it’s done here is just too simplistic to be believed. Want to see a great movie that satires Hollywood see The Player not this dribble.

01. The Spirit: Frank Miller dug up the corpse of Will Eisner and fucked his mouth with this film. A shameful desecration of a brilliant piece of literature by Eisner who had as much to do with the creation of comic books as Stan Lee or Jack Kirby if not more. The Frank Miller of Dark Knight Returns and Ronin is dead replaced by this Hollywood sell out who believes the ego strokes heaped onto him by supposed “Geeks” like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Badly acted, self-aggrandizing and so lost in it’s own coolness factor it forgets to make any sense. Shame on you Frank Miller for making this movie, shame on you.

Pineapple Express: This drug movie featuring Seth Rogan is fucking hysterical. I didn’t put it on my top ten list because I’ve never watched it when I wasn’t stoned so I don’t know how funny it is on its own.

Kung Fu Panda: Fun, sweet and a good time all around. Jack Black’s animated wanna be Kung Fu saga has some really good belly laughs in it. Fun for kids and adults.

Bolt: Another awesome animated film that kids and adults will love. Watching Bolt slowly discover the world outside of the studio his TV show is taped as he searches for his “human” is awesome. Though I found myself enjoying the cat more than the popular hamster character.

Get Smart: I know, it’s not a great movie but I laughed my ass off through the whole thing and I wasn’t high. Steve Carell does a great job as Maxwell Smart and it’s obviously done with much love for the original series.

The Day The Earth Stood Still: This was actually not a bad remake until the third act where instead of a robot attack we got robot bug swarms. Yeah, really dumb way to end it.

Forbidden Kingdom: I would have loved this tale of an American boy magically sent back to ancient Japan where he learns Kung Fu from Jackie Chan and Jet Li if it hadn’t overloaded itself with slapstick.

Hellboy 2: I wasn’t a huge fan of the first one and even less a fan of this installment. I suppose director Guillermo Del Toro (who I am usually a gigantic fan of) wanted to add humor but it doesn’t work. Instead Hellboy 2 seems silly and slapped together. It looks great though.

Iron Man: Iron Man: Everybody loved this movie and I have no idea why. Robert Downey JR basically plays himself and the whole movie seems like one long episode of American Chopper in that all he does is build the suit. Then suddenly in the third act the filmmakers realized there was no ending so they forced this battle between Downey and Jeff Bridges. I hope Iron Man 2 is better than this movie that falls way short of the mark.

Wall E: What everybody saw as magical I saw as boring. What everybody saw as a great statement on how lazy we are getting as a society I saw as an easy plot device. I didn’t hate Wall E but I didn’t care about it either, it just seemed too easy for me. Pixar is better than that.

Doubt: While the performances by every member of the cast are flawless (especially Viola Davis) the film is heavily flawed. Mainly because there is never really any doubt to speak of. Writer/Director John Patrick Shanley adapted this screenplay from his stage work and something must’ve gotten lost. This feels like Shanley had a gripe against the Catholic Church and this is his way of expressing it. That’s all fine and good except that isn’t Doubt it’s certainty.

Rambo: Unlike Rocky Balboa this return to character for Stallone is extremely forced and hard to watch. Rambo isn’t scary anymore he’s a relic and this film feels extremely dated. Great violence though, I will give it that.

Son Of Rambow: This would have been a perfect little comedy if the character of Will Proudfoot hadn’t been so incredibly unlikeable.

Punisher: The third attempt to bring the Punisher to life and it failed yet again. This is basically a first person shooter video game that runs too long.

Chronicles Of Narnia: Decent

Diary Of The Dead: Awful

Drillbit Taylor: Decent

Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Decent

Harold And Kumar 2: Bad

You Don’t Mess With The Zohan: Awful

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

Nick And Nora’s Infinite Playlist

Well that’s it for me for 2008, let’s hope 2009 is just as solid movie wise.