Movie List 2008

Almost to the halfway point of 2008 and I have already been to 16 movies in the theater. Some good and some great and some named Sex and the City. Here is my brief rundown and ranking of the movies that I have been to from least enjoyable to best.

Note: the criteria is completely subjective and I am not a harsh movie critic. But I do measure by number of times I look at the time on my cellphone...

15) Tie: Doomsday and Sex and the City : Sex and the City was painfully long and while I did have a few good laughs, there were inordinate dead spots. I checked my phone every 15 minutes to see if we were closer to the end. If they would have tightened the movie to an hour and forty minutes it definitely would have scored higher than Doomsday. Doomsday had an awesome premise (evil plague that kills the population so lets build a 25 foot wall around Scotland) but in reality it was a mishmosh of action that had a sketchy plot. Where the hell did that medieval castle come from anyway?

14) The Happening : I have seen all the previous M. Night movies with Lance in the theater so we had to go! It was entertaining while in the theater and immediately thereafter, even if we did laugh at inappropriate times (cue the large girl with the tiny backpack trying to outrun the wind) That said, after discussing the movie later there were several plot holes that annoy me, which is why this doesn't rate higher. Still better than The Village or Lady in the Water, I don't know that that means much though.

13) 10,000 B.C. : seemed like it would be a great adventure movie in a particularly dead time for movies in early March. However the plot was pretty sophomoric and the battle scenes were ok, but we have seen them before, and better.

12) Horton Hears a Who : I did look forward to this movie, and enjoyed it, but after all the hoopla and the ballyhooed celebrity voices, there wasn't much that the film did to add to the book. You can read the book in 15 minutes pausing to let children see the pictures and somehow the movie was an hour and a half.

11) Harold and Kumar - Escape from Guantanamo Bay : Stupid plot, stupid movie, but tons of fun. Including more Neil Patrick!

10) Rambo : Complete gratuitous violence. Amazing. Set in Thailand/Cambodia it is Sly Stalone running around killing people. Hundreds of ways to die in this awesome action flick

9) You Don't Mess with the Zohan : Typical Sandler romp. complete fun! Inordinate amount of cameos...

8) The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian: Better battle scenes than the first movie, but the story fell flat in some areas. Not a bad sequel, but not exactly LOTR's inspiring either

7) The Incredible Hulk: Smashed Ang Lee's Hulk and good summer popcorn fun. Ed Norton makes any movie watchable

6) Kung Fu Panda: Jack Black and crew did a stellar job with this interesting take on kung fu and typical kid's message of believing in who you are, even if you are an outsider. Question though, is anyone in hollywood truly an outsider? How can people who have all their hair, have perfect teeth, incredible skin, toned bodies, and hot better halves really comment on what its like to be the screw-up ugly duckling...over and over again....

5) Charlie WIlson's War: Although this came out in 2007, I saw it in 2008 so it gets added to the list. Especially since it was smart, well written, and incredibly witty. Julia Roberts, Amy Adams, Tom Hanks, and Phillip Seymor Hoffman worked great together and the end result was a fantastic telling of a "true" story.

4) Cloverfield: Did it match the viral hype? I don't know, but it was a cool movie and was the standard bearer for me for the first 5 months of 2008!

3) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: The old man still has got it and Shia didn't completely piss me off in this movie. It was really good throughout although the end got a little weird for me, but as far as action movies go, Indiana did not disappoint

2) Juno: Endearing, funny, different. Juno was quirky and perfect. Soundtrack was really new and fresh as well. Everything about this movie was so good that I forgot that I saw it in 2008....(silly me) but I did see it in January, so it was early in the year.


and finally you should be able to guess number 1. It was a the surprise hit to many and kicked off Hollywood's summer...


1) IRONMAN: I don't have much to say about this other than that Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark makes so much sense now that you can't even imagine anyone else playing him. I think that wraps up why the movie (which was carried by Downey and not the costume) played so well! It is number 1 on my list and I'm sure on many others. Great movie, you should see it in the theater if you haven't yet before it goes away....