Yeah, maybe it is a bit late coming, but a few re-watchings were required before I could compose my "official" best and worst lists of 2008 at the cinema. As cinematic years go, I slacked somewhat, seeing just 55 of the year's offerings, and 4 of those I didn't see until they reached DVD. But then I made up the numbers with multiple viewings of many films, including eight viewings of my favourite film last year.
Rather than go for a countdown, I'm going to just copy and paste my compiled cinema viewing notes into here with some thoughts and explanation thereafter...
Top Ten highlighted in green, Bottom Ten in red.
1. The Dark Knight- 5/5
2. In Bruges- 5/5
3. Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street- 5/5
4. Iron Man- 4/5
5. WALL·E- 4/5
6. Pineapple Express- 4/5
7. Changeling- 4/5
8. Ghost Town- 4/5
9. Tropic Thunder- 4/5
10. Cloverfield- 4/5
11. Burn After Reading- 4/5
12. Inkheart- 4/5
13. Hellboy II: The Golden Army- 4/5
14. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull- 4/5
15. Quantum of Solace- 4/5
16. Forgetting Sarah Marshall- 4/5
17. Juno- 4/5
18. Walk Hard- The Dewey Cox Story- 4/5
19. Son of Rambow- 4/5
20. No Country for Old Men- 4/5
21. The Incredible Hulk- 4/5
22. Yes Man- 4/5
23. Step Brothers- 4/5
24. Wanted- 4/5
25. Get Smart- 4/5
26. Kung Fu Panda- 4/5
27. Charlie Wilson's War- 3/5
28. Zach and Miri Make A Porno- 3/5
29. The Spiderwick Chronicles- 3/5
30. Taken- 3/5
31. Journey to the Center of the Earth- 3/5
32. How To Lose Friends & Alienate People- 3/5
33. 21- 3/5
34. The X-Files: I Want To Believe- 3/5
35. Be Kind Rewind- 3/5
36. Rambo- 3/5
37. Teeth- 3/5
38. The Forbidden Kingdom- 3/5
39. Hancock- 3/5
40. The Chronicles of Narnia- Prince Caspian- 3/5
41. Madagascar- Escape 2 Africa- 3/5
42. Vantage Point- 3/5
43. Superhero Movie- 3/5
44. Made of Honour- 3/5
45. The Love Guru- 3/5
46. Dan In Real Life- 3/5
47. The Cottage- 3/5
48. The Day The Earth Stood Still- 2/5
49. Twilight- 2/5
50. W.- 2/5
51. Max Payne- 2/5
52. Jumper- 2/5
53. Aliens Vs. Predator- Requiem- 2/5
54. The Happening- 2/5
55. Star Wars- The Clone Wars- 1/5
Well there it is. It was really a foregone conclusion that The Dark Knight would be no.1, and also that Star Wars: The Clone Wars would be the worst. Only In Bruges and The Happening respectively really challenged those films for their position. My aggressive recommendation of In Bruges will continue until everyone has seen it, something that I hope will be sped up by the recent and very well-deserved Oscar nomination for Martin McDonagh's screenplay.
I already kind of did a year in review post, albeit more focussed on experimenting and hypothesizing what the year's films would be like if made in other years, so this post is basically the list above, as you've seen it. 2009 will be a year in which I'm seeing more movies at the cinema than in 2008. Thus far seen 9, ranging from the bizarre, (The Spirit- what the fuck, Frank Miller?) to the surprisingly good, (Sex Drive is probably destined for lesser appreciation than a certain film about fucking pastry products, even though Sex Drive is better written) and the really amazingly good, (Slumdog Millionaire- review coming soon!) Obviously the movie I'm most looking forward to at the moment is Watchmen. I actually die a little inside every day that I wake up and realise it's not March 6th yet, so I hope I hold out til then, and will finally see Rorschach and co. running around on the big screen.
Come back when I'm more awake for reviews of Frost/Nixon, Slumdog Millionaire and possibly some other Oscar fare like Valkyrie or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button if I go to the cinema tomorrow. Ooh, and Bolt! Think I'm seeing that tomorrow with the family, so will probably review that.
In the meantime, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.
Mark