2008 Top Movies

WOW, just WOW... stunned and floored!!!!

Without spoiling too much of the movie, The Mist is a well crafted film that fills in the genre of horror with more than just monsters and creatures. The study of group dynamics, the examination of fear, tension & paranoia, and the focus on religion are all worked into this hopelessness scenario.

There may be some viewers that this movie will not work on, or cannot reflect on the Director's views. It will, however, leave a prolonged afterthought and linger even further after more discussions.

While it was fun to have monster movies such as Cloverfield and I Am Legend that supported the ideas of end-of-days scenarios, The Mist is a movie that ranks as more entertaining and directed piece of cinema.

PS: The Mist is a great testament to film-making and creative control. After watching this movie, I'm now left wondering what Darabont could have done with The Shawshank Redemption & The Green Mile if he had it his way... full creative authority of his vision and storytelling.

Who would've thought of combining an epic crime saga within a comic book format would work? The new benchmark in superhero storytelling.

Man, did the movie studios dropped the ball with this movie, or what?

There is a lot to like about I Am Legend and there are a lot of excellent scenes in the movie, however, none of those are present in the last quarter of this Sci-Fi/Thriller... unfortunately. As such, it may have been more prudent for the studios to have kept the genesis of the storyline as this would've IMO turned what was a "good" movie into a "great" movie. It would also have given the movie title more significance as it did with the book.

Nevertheless, there's still plenty of positives that can be made for it such as the production designs and Will Smith's performance. The sense of desolation is ominous, made into a character itself. The sense of loneliness was not over emphasised, giving Smith the ability to draw the viewers into his character's reality. The yearning for human companionship conveyed by the mannequins was touching, leading to the emotional scene with Sam. And the sense of safety was effectively illustrated by the bathtub scene.

Overall, I would still recommend this movie even of its shortfall of an ending.

Quirky, offbeat, but endearing.

I guess the best approach to take in this movie is to follow the instructions of the doc and "just go along with it". The movie does have that over-stretch stamp to it as it (the premise) is indeed absurd, however, the small-town feel & look of the movie and the quirky characters (besides Lars) makes this movie more than just a joke-within-a-joke but makes it also endearing, I think.

While I liked this movie and would highly recommend it, I just didn't get that feeling that I could revisit it anytime soon... much like any endearing small towns you may pass through along your travels but cannot see yourself living there even though you had a fun experience, really enjoyed yourself, and have come to liken the local people there.

While The Happening may not be the worst movie of all time nor is it MNS's worst effort (that title goes to Lady in the Water, IMO), it is a movie that was much ado about nothing. I mean, it's not a good sign when you have a movie where the main talking point is what is not on the screen (or what could have been) then what is actually depicted or illustrated by the filmmaker. Add to that you feel like you have been cheated (once again) by this creative and ultra imaginative director where you think you're in for some juicy oranges but instead been sold a lemon.

The Happening starts off well enough with some excellent scenes such as the low-level-shot gun sequence and an interesting end-of-days premise that prepares us for what seems like a promising journey ahead. But as the train ride comes to a halt due to a loss of communication to the outside world, so does the movie with the audience. The opportunity was rife IMO at that point to examine group dynamics (like in The Mist) in threatening situations/scenario. Rather we get MNS trying to tell us that display homes are creepy and rustling trees is eerie. WTF?

This movie wins points on the relentless factor. But the handi-cam work is most nauseating (it took several minutes for my eyes and focus to adjust and my senses to equalise.)

Also thumbs up for the savvy marketing and trailer - influenced my cinema dollars... yeah, I was a sucker for the 'Liberty head-roll' trailer ;)

Underwhelmed and disappointed :(

This fourth chapter of Indiana Jones just gets lost in the shuffle to the recent action/adventure movie franchises as National Treasure and The Mummy movies because there was nothing extraordinary memorable to leapfrog it above the others.

Sure, you still get some trademark Spielberg action sequences. You get Harrison Ford ('nuff said - he is da man!!), and Shai Labeouf does a good job. But what is up with the script?? It took three-quarters of the movie to establish momentum and when it did it turned into a David Twohy matinee flick.

This was suppose to be the biggest film of the year/summer but it didn't feel like that at all.