Thursday, January 1, 2009

A Year in Film






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Great Movies of 08

1. Dark Knight- the best superhero movie of all time.
2. Pineapple Express- great movie about friendship, and getting high.
3. Iron Man- injects the genre with a heavy dose of humor, thank you very much.
4. Role Models – it’s hard to be happy with life; perhaps dysfunctional kids are the answer.
5. Forgetting Sarah Marshall- ever broke a girlfriend and spent a long time crying about it? Shut up you wimp and laugh.
6. Burn After Reading- people are stupid, especially when they try to get over.
7. Step Brothers- for the man-child in us all.
8. Choke- god bless black comedy.
9. India Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull- don’t believe the hype, its good to have ‘em back.
10. Synecdoche, New York- not a happy scène in the whole thing, I loved it.

Well the New Year is here and let’s see what happen in 08 with the movies. It appears comedies had the best share this year with 4 films (Pineapple Express, Role Models, Sarah Marshall, & Step Brother). All four related to the Apatow crew, that’s dudes on a serious role. The blockbusters (Dark Knight, Iron Man, & India Jones) also had a good showing, leading the list. Lastly, there were some good independent movies as well. (Burn After Reading, Choke, & Synecdoche) Don’t miss any of these.



Anger Inducing Movies of 08

1. Disaster Movie
2. Meet The Spartans
3. Love Guru
4. Speed Racer
5. 10,000 B.C.
6. Meet Dave
7. Zohan
8. Sex & The City
9. Hannah Montana
10. The Happening


These movies were so bad it hurt. I go see everything due to my occupation. These are the ones I regret the most. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer have now made 4 terrible films (Disaster Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie, & Meet the Spartans). They need to be stopped and killed.





Netflix: Bringing Back the Funk

1. Five Easy Pieces- Jack Nicholson is one of my favorite actors and this is the role that made him a star. It’s an existential meditation on love a meaning of life, right up my alley.
2. The Last Picture Show- growing up in a small town sucks. This movie sorts that a much more out. Jeff Bridges & Cybil Shepherd when she was hot.
3. Diner- Dudes hanging out late night. Reminds me of nights a Waffle House with the Danger Crew. Many future stars including the awesome Mickey Rourke, in a role where you see why he got a shot at redemption in Wrestler.
4. Human Nature- The lost Kauffman/ Gondry team up. About manners and monkey men. Funny as hell. Tim Robbins & Patricia Arquette
5. My Left Foot- Daniel Day Lewis is his Oscar wining performance. Like Tropic Thunder says “never go full retard”


God bless Netflix’s. After much hesitation. (I fear my obsessive traits) lee convinced me to get it and my life got flipped upside down. In short, I stopped watching TV or leaving me bed at all. The beauty of this is movies I always heard about but couldn’t get a blockbuster where now easily available. In that spirit these movies are old and flew under everyone’s radar. I found em and now you can share the joy.



Anticipated Films

1. The Wrestler- Mickey Rourke (one of the best 80’s actors) gets a chance to shine again. With the help of director Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream)
2. Revolutionary Road- Titanic lovers reunite (DiCaprio & Winslet) reunite a decade later with out all the cheesiness and dead people.
3. Che- Benicio Del Toro is the man. This ones so long its two separate movies.
4. Gran Torino- basically, Dirty Harry 6 the geriatric years. Count me in.
5. Defiance- After centuries of getting their ass kicked. Jews fight back. You’re kidding.


This is what’s coming in the next couple months that look good. Oscars are on the way. And don’t even get me started on the next summer.

3 comments:

dRchunkerton said...

seeing that still of rourke, old as hell, sailing thru the air dressed as a pro wrestler sold me sight unseen.

i'm suprised that it took you this long to get onto netflix. you should try being less stuborn.

as usual i look to you for assesment of films new and old. thank you.

so, i haven't seen it so i can't offer an opinion, but the general consensus from the usual reliable sources is that the new indy sucks. why are they wrong? i want a post by you explaining. not why it's good, but why they've failed by panning it.

Rickles said...

Chunk i already wrote a review on india 4 when it came out. just look back in the blog list.

dRchunkerton said...

i wasn't asking for a review of the film...i was asking for a review of the reviews.