2008 Films - Ranked
Submitted by CaptMal on Sun, 01/20/2008 - 11:27
Tags:
- A+
- Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
- The Dark Knight
- Milk
- Synecdoche, New York
- The Wrestler
- Happy-Go-Lucky
- WALL·E
- The Hurt Locker
- Generation Kill
- 102 Minutes That Changed America
- Iron Man
- A
- Låt den rätte komma in
- Food, Inc.
- A-
- Religulous
- Burn After Reading
- Rachel Getting Married
- In Bruges
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall
- Gake no ue no Ponyo
- Pineapple Express
- Tropic Thunder
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- Cloverfield
- B+
- It Might Get Loud
- Doubt
- Zack and Miri Make a Porno
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Role Models
- Ghost Town
- Trouble the Water
- Composing the Beatles Songbook: Lennon and McCartney 1966-1970
- Bolt
- B
- Vicky Cristina Barcelona
- Recount
- W.
- Il y a longtemps que je t'aime
- Defiance
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army
- Soul Power
- Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
- The Incredible Hulk
- Justice League: The New Frontier
- Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs
- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
- All Together Now
- Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
- Definitely, Maybe
- South Park: Imaginationland
- B-
- The Reader
- The Other Boleyn Girl
- Changeling
- Body of Lies
- Wendy and Lucy
- The Brothers Bloom
- The Duchess
- Baby Mama
- Be Kind Rewind
- Speed Racer
- Futurama: Bender's Game
- Last Chance Harvey
- The Business of Being Born
- Horton Hears a Who!
- C+
- Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
- Leatherheads
- Gran Torino
- Shine a Light
- Revolutionary Road
- Slumdog Millionaire
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
- Smart People
- Transsiberian
- Frozen River
- Batman: Gotham Knight
- C
- Vals Im Bashir
- Frost/Nixon
- American Teen
- Traitor
- C-
- Miracle at St. Anna
- Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
- Dance of the Dead
- Taken
- D+
- The Midnight Meat Train
- The Deal
- The Day the Earth Stood Still
- D
- Hamlet 2
- Step Brothers
- Hancock
- D-
- Righteous Kill
- F
- The Happening
- High School Musical 3: Senior Year
- Twilight
- Feast II: Sloppy Seconds
yo mate
so what films in 2008 are you hoping to catch?
I am terrible at knowing when things come out, so I had to go to IMDb:
Be Kind Rewind - None of Michel Gondry's other movies have come close to Eternal Sunshine, and while I don't think this one will either, it just looks like a hell of a good time. Love the Jack Black/Mos Def pairing.
The Dark Knight - RIP Heath Ledger. He sure looks amazing as the Joker here, and hopefully it'll be even better than Batman Begins.
Diary of the Dead - I think I'm one of the few who enjoyed Land of the Dead.
Iron Man - I'm a comics dork (especially Marvel Comics) and this looks like a lot of fun. Great cast, too. My only sadness is that Robert Downey Jr. is the perfect person to plumb the depths of Tony Stark's alcoholism and addiction problems...but they aren't gonna be explored until the sequel!
Leatherheads - George Clooney is an excellent director, and this just looks totally charming.
Funny Games U.S. - I haven't seen the original, but I love the trailer for this one. Even though I thought writer-director Michael Haneke's widely-praised Cache was extremely boring.
Hancock - This could be a disaster, but a comedy pairing Will Smith as a drunken superhero and Jason Bateman as his P.R. rep gets the benefit of the doubt from me.
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay - The first one was surprisingly enjoyable, plus one of the posters for this has Neil Patrick Harris riding a unicorn. That is all I need to see.
The Incredible Hulk - 2003's Hulk was a misguided attempt, sure, but I don't think it's quite as bad as everyone says it is. That said, seeing that Edward Norton's playing Bruce Banner and co-wrote the script, plus Tim Roth's the villain, I'm glad they're revamping the franchise.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - As much as I want to see this out of love for the character, my main question is: How much are the fans gonna be pissed this time? (Hopefully, not at all, but I could totally see another Phantom Menace happening...and I liked that movie!)
Run, Fatboy, Run - Pretty much just because Simon Pegg is in it and Michael Ian Black wrote it.
Shine a Light - I'm pretty mixed on the Rolling Stones, but the trailer was fantastic, and seeing Jack White performing with them live I'm sure will be awesome.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 - I totally own up to enjoying the first, which was a fun confection of a tween flick. Plus, Alexis Bledel (I'm a Gilmore Girls nut).
Smart People - Dennis Quaid, Thomas Haden Church, Ellen Page. With them in place, I shall forgive the inclusion of Sarah Jessica Parker.
Son of Rambow - This could've been way cutesy and saccharine, but the trailer won me over.
WALL-E - I. Love. Pixar.
Valkyrie - This could be a return to form for both Tom Cruise and Bryan Singer, which is something I'm all for. Cruise hasn't done anything worth watching since The Last Samurai (which was not great, but very entertaining), and the X-Men movies are so far the only Singer flicks I've liked. And I loved 'em.
Those are the only ones I know about, so I'm sure there are plenty more that are gonna come along and wow me.
some great choices!
Be Kind Rewind - well i personally really enjoyed Science of Sleep but i would agree that Eternal Sunshine placed the bar high. Yes! someone who agrees, i too really enjoy the paring of Mos Def and Jack Black, should be very interesting. I though Def was fantastic in 16 Blocks and stole the show in hitchikers.
The Dark Knight - for me, this is the movie event of 2008, nothing comes close. RIP Heath Ledger.
Run, Fatboy, Run - being from the UK i've seen this and can give you a heads up. I personally did NOT enjoy this, it doesn't have any of simon peggs influence. It's pretty cliched, but i'll be interested to see if you end up liking it, just one man's opinion, you may enjoy.
WALL-E - pixar can do no wrong!
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in terms of others i would add, hmm none really. but i wasn't really looking forward to cloverfield, and it blew me away. oh Son of Rambo looks funny :)
I wanted to love The Science of Sleep. First off, Gondry was behind the camera for the first time since Eternal Sunshine. Then you have Gael Garcia Bernal, one of the best actors working today (sidenote: Has he done anything since Babel?). While I appreciated its inventiveness, it just kind of came up empty for me. Which is also how I feel about Gondry's Human Nature, though I did like that one a bit better.
Run, Fatboy, Run doesn't look that great. I almost didn't include it, but then I saw that Michael Ian Black was the screenwriter. I have a special affinity for his sense of humor, and I dearly miss his Comedy Central show Stella. We'll see how it plays out.
Glad you loved Cloverfield. There's been some particularly nasty audience backlash, at least here in the States (though the critics liked it a lot). It was written by Buffy/Angel/Lost scribe Drew Goddard, so I always knew it was gonna rock. ;-)
It'll be interesting to see what they do with the already-greenlit sequel.
Diary of the Dead is fucking terrible. Save yer pennies.
That really sucks.
Not the first time I've heard that, but still. Since you dug Land of the Dead (I got all sneaky and looked at your lists...which is actually the point of this site, so not sneaky at all), it's even more disheartening.
Why, exactly, was it shit?
A+ for WALL-E..is they're anything pixar can't do !!?? Well you know my feelings about cars & bugs life but still, i thinik they've done more than enough to redeem themselves of two mishaps :P i'm really hyped to see this when it hits the UK
oh, just to say, thought i'd say here well i'm here, i've got a copy of watchmen and gonna start reading tonight, had a flip through seems very interesting. i'll get back to you with my opinion once i've read a few pages (probably on your book list)
Pixar has got to have the most sterling, consistent track record of any company in the business' history. I mean, it's just ridiculous that they keep making masterpiece after masterpiece. After I saw the movie, I was reading where someone said that WALL-E is basically one of Chaplin's Little Tramp movies, transposed to sci-fi. And that is totally right. It's the Disney/Pixar equivalent of Modern Times, and considering how much I love that movie, that's high praise. It's also kind of the optimistic version of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Awesome about Watchmen. Hope you dig it!
thats interesting the point about chaplin. As the review i watched online mainly Roeper & Phillips , said that the first bit may drag for the kids and its mostly Wall.E just messing about doing his day to day stuff. However that too me sounds very interesting, making most of it visual due to our main characters lack of vocal expression, which i assume was the point he guy made about chaplin. I'm sure (though i haven't seen it) that would be a great chance for the animators to really explore what they can do, making the little actions interesting.
Yeah, I don't think a lot of kids today (who are used to the nonstop obvious gags in movies like Kung Fu Panda; which isn't a slight on the movie, since I haven't seen it) are going to enjoy WALL-E as much as other Pixar efforts. I don't know though; all I know is that I saw it with my mom and we both absolutely loved it.
ah glad to see a low rating for hancock, what a great premise gone to waste
Ugh, it was so bad. Worse even than I had anticipated.
You're right, it was a brilliant premise, but it was absolutely wasted. I've read that the original script (provocatively titled Tonight, He Comes) was an introspective drama about a fallen superhero and his relationship with a little boy. Various directors were attached, including Michael Mann, before Will Smith came aboard and the movie was rewritten. How much better would've that have been?
yeah its strange how the star can sometimes take control of other aspects of the film. like Alexander Payne who wrote a screenplay for chuck and larry then adam sandler came on board and i can imagine very little of payne's script survived.
Oh, I know. When I was watching Chuck & Larry, I was shocked to see Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor's names in the credits.
But apparently they wanted their names taken off of the movie since nothing resembling their script remained. I was like, "Thank God."
Speaking of Payne/Taylor, I can't believe they haven't released a movie since Sideways! Though I know they're working on a sci-fi comedy, which should be all kinds of fun.
Now there's a worthy #1 if ever I saw one.. :)
Word. :-D
y'know what, i'm so tempted to buy Iron Man from america , but think i'll wait till it comes out over here, but i too think it will get a bump up to A+, as to be honest it may aswell be now, cus i did love it, what a great film.
Yeah, I loved it in theaters, but there was something missing that kept it from being on the same plane as Batman Begins or Spider-Man 2.
Well, watching it on DVD yesterday made me wonder what the hell I was thinking. It's a great movie, a big rousing Hollywood film of the kind we don't usually see; it mixes smarts with charm and character and big honkin' action. It's a far different superhero movie than The Dark Knight, but just as great for what it tries to accomplish.
The scene that really sums up the whole thing for me is when Tony is trying to replace his heart charger thingy, but messes up and has to have Pepper do it. Everything that's so appealing about the movie can be boiled down to that one scene: The excitement, the wit, and the fantastic chemistry between the actors. (I also loves me some unrequited romance, so the Tony/Pepper stuff drives me nuts.)
The only mistake in the movie is the scene where the kid sees Iron Man flying and drops his ice cream. Why must there be a gratuitous scene like this in every superhero movie?! We get it! Kids like superheroes! They're amazed that they exist! At least The Incredibles managed to have fun with that.
I find it funny that my three favorite movies of the year are all about superheroes...
Thats what appealed to me too, as you say its a hollywood blockbuster with genuine charm and wit, with great action and a fantastic centeral performance by Downey Jr. I remember thinking before i had seen The Dark Knight that going by TDK hype and previews there was going to be no superhero movie that could rival it, after watching Iron man i was thinking "damn, TDK is gonna have to pull something special out of the bag" i don't know why i only gave it A- either really, and nearly 100% it will go up to A+ on rewatch. I can't wait to rewatch!
I really liked the fact that Tony Stark & Pepper's a unrequited romance too, mainly for me because it would of been so easy for a big blockbuster movie like this to have the pay off of them getting together to end the film. Plus it makes more sense to his playboy character that they don't end up together, at least for the first film.
Ha! thats true, i just did a run through in my head of superhero movies that have that kid acting amazed scene in them, its a lot!
TBH i'm not suprised 3 superhero type movies our in your top films of the year. Theres so many of them around and the qwaulity is just getting better and better. Oh i'm a little suprised you didn't catch Hellboy II? not a fan? i will say unlike the first film, it does have more fun with the character, its not as serious as the first film, and there are some very good scenes in there. A real treat in my book
Even The Dark freakin' Knight had an "amazed kid" scene. (Oddly, the Spider-Man movies, which would seem like the best fit for such campy scenes, haven't had any yet.)
As for Hellboy II, I wasn't a fan of the original and so was on the fence about seeing it. I love Mike Mignola's Hellboy comics, but the movie couldn't translate the right kind of quirkiness to the screen. I also think that Guillermo del Toro is overrated, so I'm not sure if I would dig Hellboy II. I will probably check it out at some point, though.
Well i guess in the defense of Hellboy II i would say it deffinatly felt more quirky than Hellboy I. For example a scene where hellboy is falling from a building then suddenly some random romantic music starts playing while he is falling or Hellboy & Abe drunk and singing "Can't Smile Without You" is priceless. I would agree though that the first film wasn't quirky enough and didn't have enough fun with the material
Synecdoche, New York is deffinatly on my too see list now, A+, awesome. the plot outline had me interested straight away
"A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play"
what a great idea, then throw in the fact its written and directed by the mind behind Eternal Sunshine, adaptation and being John Malkovich. Plus Philip Seymour Hoffman is just a brilliant actor. I haven't seen much of his films, but i loved his small role in Almost Famous and also his role in 25th hour. can't wait till it hits the UK!
Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of the best actors working today.
And Synecdoche is such an amazing movie, though the plot outline really doesn't do it justice. It's about much more than that...it's about everything, actually, and if that sounds confusing, that's only because it is confusing.
haha well it is Kaufman, so i guess confusing is just part of the deal :)
Yup, pretty much. :-D
glad you enjoyed the wrestler!
Oh man, it was so great. Just so brutal and raw. Mickey Rourke gave a truly beautiful performance.
It's also by far my favorite Aronofsky film. The self-conscious style which prevented me from loving Pi and Requiem for a Dream--and which I felt suffocated The Fountain--was entirely passed over for gritty naturalism, and he made it work in spades.