2008: Movies I've Seen

Submitted by AJDaGreat on Mon, 05/26/2008 - 07:32
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  • A

  • Slumdog Millionaire
  • Synecdoche, New York
  • WALL•E

  • A-

  • The Dark Knight
  • Frozen River
  • The Wrestler

  • B+

  • The Brothers Bloom
  • Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
  • Forgetting Sarah Marshall
  • In Bruges
  • Let the Right One In
  • Me and Orson Welles
  • Milk
  • Rachel Getting Married

  • B

  • Doubt
  • Frost/Nixon
  • Ghost Town
  • Gomorrah
  • The Hurt Locker
  • Ponyo
  • The Reader
  • Waltz with Bashir

  • B-

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Iron Man
  • Man on Wire
  • Pineapple Express

  • C+

  • Burn After Reading
  • Hamlet 2
  • Role Models
  • Vicky Cristina Barcelona
  • W.
  • Zack and Miri Make a Porno

  • C

  • Changeling
  • Horton Hears a Who!
  • Revolutionary Road

  • C-

  • Tropic Thunder

  • D+

  • Gran Torino

  • D

  • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

  • D-

  • F

  • Should See

  • I’ve Loved You So Long
  • Wendy and Lucy
Author Comments: 

C+ or higher = all movies I liked to some degree and would probably recommend
C = average
C- or lower = all movies I disliked to some degree and would probably not recommend

Cloned From: 
2007: Movies I've Seen
neptune08/13/2008

I love your top two choices (particularly number one - it's just insanely good), but what did you like about Iron Man? I found it really boring (and a copycat of basically every other superhero film which made it very formulaic), the only redeeming feature was Downey Jr.

AJDaGreat08/13/2008

I actually think Iron Man has a number of things that separate it from other superhero films. I have never seen an origin story that it so grounded in reality. Sure, that may be inevitable given Iron Man is more the "dude who is so super-rich that he can afford ridiculously awesome technology" type of superhero rather than the mutant/alien type of superhero, but even Batman Begins's origin story had many more scifi/fantasy elements. In what other superhero film does the origin of the hero arise not from being bitten by some mutant creature or arriving from some other planet, but from an actual character shift that occurs logically over the first half of the film? In what other superhero film can you see not just elements that echo global politics, but play into global politics very literally? What other superhero film can make a conflict out of such clear, concrete intentions? In what other superhero film is the hero such a cocky bastard that instead of realizing the wisdom in concealing his true identity, he reveals it at the end of the film to bask in glory?

Also, not knowing anything about Iron Man (the character or the film) before I went in to see the movie, I didn't even know that Obadiah Stane was going to turn out to be the main villain. I thought he would remain just an everyday naysayer and that the villain would ultimately be the terrorists.

There are certain elements of every origin story that you could call a formula, which Iron Man does indeed subscribe to. However, I think these elements didn't hinder the film's ability to dazzle and surprise me.

neptune08/13/2008

You make a good case And I did love the ending where he revealed he was Iron Man, but I still think the whole superhero thing has been done to death. Iron Man is indeed better than X men, Superman, Spiderman & Hulk (and more) but I just didn't think it was interesting compared to the rest of film. If anything, The Dark Knight is the style that future superhero films should aspire to be (as it was complex in loads of different ways and having not known anything about Batman before watching, I didn't know Harvey Dent became Two Face, so that was a shock but also incredibly well done in the story), a mainstream superhero film yet still one of great quality. And concerning the begining of Batman Begins, I can't comment as I haven't seen it.

I'm still not a huge fan of Iron Man and I imagine I'm going to HATE the Avengers (as any good points of Iron Man will be lost in an over the top cheesey blockbuster), but I can see where you're coming from. :)

Rushmore01/12/2009

Glad to see slumdog get an A. I was looking around and some of the grades for it on listology were a little low IMO, thats not a jibe or anything but i was so taken by the movie i couldn't sdee how anyone could rate it anything but their top grade. It's shot to my #14 in my to100. I was so moved by the movie, each shot was so brilliantly composed and framed. attention to this detail can sometimes come off pretentious, however the story had so much heart, i never felt that. The sequence of the two brothers stealing food from the train passengers set to MIA's "Paperplanes" was amazing. As was the first chase through the slums that opened the film

AJDaGreat01/12/2009

I agree, Slumdog is a terrific film. I think it might be easy to be disappointed by it given all the hype it's getting, but I saw it really early and it blew me away. It's certainly not without flaws, but I'm sick of people dismissing it as just a ridiculous Bollywood-esque romantic fantasy. It has far more layers than that: the camerawork is superlative, the exploration of Indian culture is fascinating, and the gruesome violence provides a powerful counterpoint to the fairy tale. Hell, the torture scenes were enough to make my mom walk out of the theater, so it's clearly not just a frivolous romance.