Sunday, February 22, 2009

2008 Movie List

Another year, another list. Two straight years with an American movie as my number one film. Must be some sort of record.

Final UPDATE: 12/31/08
78 Movies

MY LEAST FAVORITE FILM OF THE YEAR
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

OTHER BIG STINKERS
Leatherheads

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Zach and Miri Make a Porno

The Reader

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

MEDIOCRE
The House Bunny

Revolutionary Road

City of Men

Kabluey

Baby Mama

W.

Gran Torino


Be Kind Rewind

Frownland

Snow Angels

Quantam of Solace

ENOUGH GOOD MOMENTS TO BE A BIT BETTER THAN MEDIOCRE
Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay

Tropic Thunder

Religulous

Tell No One

City of Ember

Diminished Capacity

At the Death House Door

GOOD ENOUGH
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

The Last Mistress

Frozen River

Chop Shop

The Visitor

Momma's Man

Standard Operating Procedure

Man on Wire

The Dark Knight

Burn After Reading

Frost/Nixon

Funny Games

GOOD
Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback

Iron Man

The Strangers

Still Life

Joy Division

Trouble the Water

Surfwise

Reprise

Role Models

Step Brothers

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Slumdog Millionaire

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Kung Fu Panda

Trumbo

In Bruges

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

Milk

VERY GOOD
Synecdoche New York

Pineapple Express

A Christmas Tale

Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story

Mongol

Wall-E

Harvard Beats Yale 29-29

Encounters at the End of the World

Wendy and Lucy

Flight of the Red Balloon

Paranoid Park

The Betrayal

Operation Filmmaker

TOP NOTCH
Edge of Heaven

Ballast

Let the Right One In

The Wrestler

Up the Yangtze

Waltz With Bashir

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Happy-Go-Lucky

TWO VERY CLOSE SECOND PLACE FILMS
My Winnipeg

The Class

MY FAVORITE FILM OF 2008
Rachel Getting Married

13 comments:

Mondale said...

Happy Birthday!

David said...

you suck. man on wire was the bomb-diggity.
dn

ms.bri said...

I have seen almost none of these but I agree with you on those I did see (this might be the first year!). Indy was the absolute worst waste of money ever. Wall-E was awesome. Burn After Reading was fine. I also saw Seven Pounds and didn't like it, which is saying something because that's usually the sort of schlock I lap right up. Maybe it's that I have SO little money and even less time that I just end up pissed if I go to the movies and don't enjoy it. Plus I was in the TINY Pavillion theatre from hell. Why bother?

I have Vicky Cristina sitting in my living room waiting for us to have two spare hours and Milk and In Bruges and Rachel Getting Married are all on our Netflix holding pattern.

ms.bri said...

Oh, and Happy Birthday! Hope you aren't sharing it with Double Trouble.

mas said...

Apparently I saw the two worst movies of the year with you - and I agree wholeheartedly.

youthlarge said...

ugh, nick and norah. can't believe that's the last movie i've seen in a theater.

not sure how i feel about being married to a man who thinks forgetting sarah marshall is a good movie. that might have been worse than nick and norah.

China-Latina Chowhound said...

I loved Forgetting Sarah Marshall - I watched it two times in a row!

Chris Larry said...

I am basically convinced that youthlarge does not like movies unless they are ironically bad. Forgetting Sarah Marshall was great.

I would drop Tropic Thunder to mediocre, and Snow Angels might be my least favorite movie experience of the year. Notice I didn't say the movie was "bad" in terms of film making but I found about as unpleasant a cinematic experience can be, and not in the "made you think though" way.

My guess is I would like Religulous more than you, but I love Maher and have a high tolerance for him.

i dont see much to argue with here though, especially when you account for differences in personal taste.

Not sure about my fave yet...

Listmaker said...

david,

you suck.

civility is the bomb diggity.

chris,
not sure if i agree with your critique of youthlarge's tastes.

agreed on tropic thunder. i should drop down. but then again, robert downey by himself raises it a little. then again, i really didn't like it. i liked the first hour of snow angels, kind of.

i wanted more from religulous but i didn't hate it.

David said...

sorry i touched a nerve. your hormones must be raging.
dn

youthlarge said...

witty! where do you come up with these dave?

David said...

Yeesh. Easy, guys.

I'd have thought my "you suck" comment would have been taken in the spirit of friendly jest.

I shall rephrase/repost:

"You suck. Not literally, of course. And not even figuratively, as one might direct the phrase toward Matt Army or George Bush or Armando Benitez. No, you suck in the gentle elbow nudge, slightly disappointed but not really, oh man I'm actually a little surprised you didn't love that documentary about the crazy French tightrope walker as much as I did sense.

Man on Wire was the bomb-diggity."

dn

David said...

Just to make myself clear, I'm totally joking, Dan (& Sujan). I loved the movie and Dan didn't--that's pretty much it. If I seemed like a dick in my comments, I didn't mean to--please chalk it up to lack of tact rather than any intent or genuine disregard of anyone's opinion or feelings.
dn