films of 2006

The best animated feature of 2006, is a strange story of a house that seems to be alive and eating anything that attempts to disturb it. Monster house works perfectly as an animated feature. Gil Kenan bring alot of adult and kids humor to the story, plus many fun characters. Also a series of good set pieces to an exciting and original story.

Based on the famous American photography Diane Arbus. Fur is a strange look into the world of people with freakish illnesses, and one person finding there true career and emotional voice. The main freak in this case is a character named Lional, played by the always watchable Robert Downey Junior. The film is carried by the stronger central performances of Nicole Kidman and Junior. Still this is a slowed paced film, and may not be to everyones tastes.

An interesting take on the US involvement in the second world war, from the stand point of the guys who raised the flag at tiwo jima. Good performances, but a lack of standout performances, bad pacing and a lack of standout moment, struggles to make flags of our fathers a great film.

After the hype and excitment has cleared is the The Da Vinci Code a worthy adapatation, of one of the most popular novels of the past five years. The answer is a missed effort, and a rushed film to make, whilst the buzz was still fresh. The ...(read more)story is a great one. The search for the holy grail though a series of da vinci art. Still Ron Howard is not a good enough director to bring the complicated story to the screen, followed by a bad script, which runs like a 6-12 year old explansion of everything that is going on, and not allowing the viewer to work things out by themselves. Hanks is missed cased and Mckellen acts more like a bumbling school teacher than a grail expert. A great book needed more time to get things right, one feels.

An actress gets her big break in a hollywood film only to discover that the script has been cursed and is infact a remake of an incomplete script, where the leads orignally died. As with all of David Lynchs films there is meaning, and inter laying stories, but as with all of the director films it is hard to work out, and most people get lost and just sweep along with his films. Visually as always Inland Empire is impressive. You won't forget those human rabbits in a while. The performances are also good especially Laura Dern as the lead, with a tough role to pull off. Still to say Lynchs films are an aquired taste is an understatement, and with the said three hours can be a bit to much.