Movies of 2008

easily the most powerful, and possibly the best film of 2008. i was shaken by this epic film which began as a story about a mother and her son and blossomed into a bone chilling crime saga for the ages. my favorite film from both clint eastwood and angelina jolie, this film had me speechless. the end brought back memories of shawshank and the art direction is some of the best work i have ever seen. the oscars for best picture, best actress, best screenplay, best director, best art direction, and possibly best supporting actor have major candidates here. truly remarkeable.

magnificent. just a shade inferior to batman begins, but it was a very different movie from that one in some ways and absolutely phenomenal in its own right. while the first felt more complete, this film felt more epic, like a crime saga rather than just a story. the talk about ledgers performance was justifiable as he was truly great. it wasnt necessarily the best the joker could have been played, but it was a stellar interpretation of my single favorite character in the history of fiction. two face was done well, the story was amazing looking to harvey dent as the white night he was always meant to be, and the twists the joker takes us through are excellent. i waited for this film for three years and wasnt disappointed. easily one of the best films i have ever seen.

i originally had intended to rate this a bit lower on first instinct, but the more time that has passed since watching it the more ive realized that this is easily one of the funniest comedies i have ever seen in my entire life. i very rarely hand out a perfect rating like this, but this really is a comic masterpiece. the characters are phenomenally constructed disfunctional lunatics, and the actors played them all perfectly. The script was beyond clever as a perfectly woven story about nothing. Many people seem to dislike the films pointlessness, i feel that this is the magic and brilliance of the film. malkovich was hysterical and pitt gives a performance for the ages in a rare comedic role for him. even clooney was hilarious throughout the entire film. this cements the coens as the most versatile director in hollywood, if that hadnt already been cemented. its been 25 hours since ive seen this and its already becoming one of my favorite and most highly quoted movies ever. oh, and the cinematography was astounding.

amazing. hilarious at every turn, the action sequesnces were perfectly planned, and the story was flawless in every way. there arent more than a couple of animated films ever made that are better than this, and this was one of the most enjoyable movie theatre expiriences of my life. it was also the fist film i took my son to in the theatre, and i couldnt have picked a better film.

wow, what a remarkeable film. i was blown away. most people i spoke to before i saw it said it was about as good as the first but no one really seemed too impressed, so i was pleasantly suprised when i saw it. its not only better than the first, its a truly phenomenal movie. there were great goose bump moments and the characters were well done. the only thing keeping this film from a 5 star rating is the very ackward way the film closed in its final two minutes, especially with the song that was chosen to close out the film. in all, it was a great film expirience that creates excitement for the series to continue.

when people say things like "critics dont know what they are talking about" i usually think to myself, "there is a reason they get paid to review movies and you dont, because they know movies!" having said that, this is one of those instances where the critics are uniformly slamming a film and i, a person who generally see's film much the same way as the more well circulated critics, just cant see what the problem is. i loved this film. a part of me even wants to rate it higher. sure the story has been told before, but the issue is has it been told better? i say no. this is as real and gritty of a cop story as i have ever seen on film. the way the characters family lives were intertwined was brilliant and the story was genuine and legit. the cinematography was horrible, to the point of being distracting, but that is my only criticism of this authentic cop drama.

what a great start to the 2008 movie year. sort of a hybrid of the styles of godzilla and blair witch but much better than both, this film builds great anticipation and stirs the creative juices of its viewer. there were missteps but they were seldom and insignificant, for the most part this film was exactly what it wanted to be and exactly what i expected. many in my screen room were dissapointed at the end because of the information that the viewer is left with, i say those people missed the point of why the film was done the way it was. easily one of the best monster movies ive ever seen.

i have very mixed feelings about this flick. it definitely left me wanting more in a good way. there are still loose ends and i feel that we will see more of quantum, which is exciting, and the storyline succeeding in having a very bond-like feel. the action was intense and well choreographed, and olga kurylenko made for one of the best bond girls in recent times. however, bond is on a trend to be less bond-like and more action star, and im not a fan of the new direction at all. without moneypenny and q, and with gadgets absent from the film, bond has steered away from being the smooth thinking man's hero to being another in a long line of tough action stars that fight and kill their way through every situation. we already have so many of these action stars, bond was the one franchise that gave us something unique and all that was unique about bond which seperated him from the rest is either downplayed or absent from this rebooted version. even with all that said casino royale might be my favorite bond, but if this bland trend continues then i have less of a reason to love bond more than any other action franchise out there. very good film that i loved watching, but im dissapointed in the new direction.

this film is definitely one of the big suprises for the year. the vulgarity was over the top at points and the drug themes were silly and pointless, but this film accomplished something rare in cinema. it managed to be dark and serious with profound and thought provoking themes while being appropriately hilarious at the same time. this is a film that touches three major organs, the brain, the heart, and the funny bone. great flick.

a vissionary film from del toro. a solid fantasy film with awesome effects, great characters, and another witty performance by pearlman. a little too detached from the human world for me and could have benefitted from a slightly more serious tone, but in all one of the funnest films of the year.

this was a very good film, but still disappointing at the same time. lets start with the good. the acting was very solid, and mostly so from the places it was least expected. crowe and dicaprio were fine, but it was the rest of the cast that pulled it out. the action sequences were very good, and in general the story was about what i expected. there were problems however. the film developed complex story lines only to give far too simple explinations to those stories. the plot was a bit typical in too many ways to keep me suprised, and the end was as predictable as it could have been to the detrament of the film. it was very good and i highly recommend it, but it wasnt anything you havent seen a dozen times before. for dicaprio, a solid addition to his career but no where near the quality of his last two films.

this was a very good film. sort of a hybrid of the departed and the bourne series but not quite as good as either. the film shows the differences in the approaches to islam, spanning a fairly epic storyline across many national borders and stages of life for the main character. cheadle is already one of my favorite actors out there, but this just adds to his greatness.

i enjoyed this movie alot. it was essentially exactly what i expected it to be, not as fun or profound as many other comic films ive enjoyed, but incredible special effects and a really solid story. downey jr was phenomenal as tony stark, but i actually didnt care much for almost any other performance in the film. i felt like much of the diologue was contrived and too corny, and i didnt care for parts of the final fight scene. but the humor used was very funny and well timed and overall it lived up to all expectations.

this is a great flick. just about on par with iron man and a lot of fun to watch. in comparing it to the last hulk, i am one of the few people out there that really liked the last one. to be great, this one needed to blow the last one out of the water and i dont feel that it did. this was a better film than the last hulk, but not by enough of a margin to me for justify a remake. the last hulk had that incredible desert scene and far more character development, which was one of the things people hated about the last one but i loved. im a glutton for character development. although this was better than the last one overall, there were things the last one did much better, so the only perfect hulk film to me now is a hybrid of the things that the two both did well on. the effects in this one were amazing and the use of abomination rather than nick nolte was obviously a step up. liv tyler was also a pleasant suprise, she was really good.

the obvious historical innaccuracies are a huge black mark for this film, and it had its rediculous moments, but i couldnt help but enjoy this film a lot. im usually more into the intelligence of a film and this was more action and eye candy than intelligent, but i had a lot of fun watching this movie. i couldnt wait to see what would happen next. the end felt silly, but i still cared more about the characters than i should have. this may be a bit of a guilty pleasure because its not "good", but i loved it anyway.

another really good flick from disney/pixar. these guys make nothing but really good movies. this was one of my least favorite pixar flicks, due to an ending that sort of fell flat and the fact that wall-e was the only really strong character in the entire film, but much of the animation was solid and the film had a charm to it that many films aim for and few accomplish. overall a great addition to the pixar filmography.

after making one of the greatest musicals of all time, baz luhrmann and nicole kidman reunite to attempt a sweeping epic. they fell short. this is actually a high score for me indicating that i really liked the film, and i did like it a lot, but it was nowhere near the epic it was trying to be. luhrmanns attempt to recreate old hollywood just felt sappy and corny, and the story felt like 3 seperate films rather than one. while it felt silly, the cinematography was still consistent with true epics, it did contain some powerful moments, and i still had a lot of fun watching this film. nowhere near a top film for the year or an oscar contender, i still recommend it for people looking to escape for nearly 3 hours and look at pretty people running around in a pretty country.

although this is definitely my least favorite of shyamalans films, it was still a great movie that gets better with each reflection. it was less involved and more simple than shyamalans earlier work, and the acting and diologue were a bit weak at times, but the story was far more profound than people seem to be realizing based on reviews i have read. like some of shyamalans other films, people just arent thinking and are missing the point. the sign at the model homes near the end of the film sums up the purpose as it reads "you deserve this". this notion that humans deserve big homes and fancy things is not reality because we are not God, rather we answer to him. the subtle but effective theme of mankinds selfishness perpeates the film, and environmentalism seems to be a lesser point then mankinds refusal to think through the way we live. there is also a strong biblical theme of destruction being folllowed by rebirth that was profound if people caught it. great flick.

i am really torn on how much i actually liked this film. 3 is a low score and i wouldnt go higher than 4, but i will have to watch it again to really decide. the training sequence felt rushed and disheveled and the language was so out of hand that it just got annoying, but the actors did the best they could with this type of film and the action sequences were a lot of fun. usually unrealistic action scenes tick me off, but i can enjoy them when the entire premise of a film is to be over the top as with films like matrix or comic book films. as a comic film itself, this worked on many levels but i left the film still feeling like it fell a bit flat.

i decided to watch this despite spike lee's tremendous hypocrisy surrounding the films contraversy. it was worth a watch and overall was a great flick, but it doesnt justify its long running time. the war scenes were gritty and effective and the characters were interesting, but some of the coincidences were unbearable and the end was horrible. a must see but with caution as it is a bit overhyped.

the movie was a lot of fun, but entertainment and a bit of nostalgia were the only things this film really accomplished. this film doesnt downgrade the franchise because it was a very solid movie, but it was a mere shadow of indiana jones glory. ultimately, the real problem was sheer silliness. the entire film i thought multiple times, "that was really silly."
karen allens character was so silly she seemed drunk the whole film, and most of the action sequences were so silly that they felt like they belonged in a national lampoons spoof version of indiana jones. i didnt mind the absurdity of the plot that ive heard many complain about because temple of doom was equally absurd and i enjoyed that film, but the other indy films maintained semblences of realism within the adventure, this one did not. this might be nitpicking, but the lighting in this film was also really bad, it sort of felt too bright, like the characters were glowing. indiana jones is supposed to be a dark film. in all a good watch, but disappointing as an indy jones film.

this is a very difficult movie to score. everything in me wants to score it a little higher because it was so much fun, but the entire time i was watching it i couldnt shake a strong feeling of disappointment. it was a very pretty movie with solid martial arts scenes. the fantasy world created for the film was awesome and the characters were even solid. i still felt that the film was just a bit too silly and corny. i know that this film was written for a younger crowd, but the marketing did a bad job of relaying that message so as a grown man i wanted it to be more serious. in all, it was a lot of fun.

i think anne hathaway gets more beautiful with each film that she does, and she was stunning in this film. i also loved the characters and much of the humor was tasteful and spot on. i did feel that one of the important elements of the film was incredibly flawed and the "reveal" at the end was a big dissapointment to me, but this was a solid comedy that makes for a fun casual viewing. if it werent for the glaring flaw i would rate it higher because i will definitely see it again down the road.

part of me actually wants to grade this a little lower. i expected more. mortensen and harris's characters were well written and well played, but the movie still lacked quite a bit. the love story, which was misplaced, was among the worst i have ever seen. almost as bad as the love story in pearl harbor. zellweger was miscast and annoying in this film and her portion of the story only confused the film and made it silly to watch. had some amazing scenes and is worth watching, but still a big dissapointment.

not as good as it should have been, but much better than i heard that it was from many angry friends who hated it. the cinematography was weak and the acting a little soft, but i was still entertained enough to recommend this flick. i unfortunately have to agree with a friend of mine who said, "it feels more like a TBS tv movie than a movie you would ever see deniro in." but it was still worth a watch and had some good things going for it.

this film was much more predictable and "normal" than most of pegg's other movies, which sort of takes it down a notch, but it still had some hilarious moments. overall it was fun to watch and very charming.

for the first half of this film i was ready to love it. then about half way through is the big reveal where we find out who is pulling the strings, and i was overcome with one of the most extreme levels of disappointment ever. havent we beat this storyline to death already? dont get me wrong, i still enjoyed the flick ok, but i am still extremely frustrated that a film with this much potential went with this same storyline that we've seen a dozen times but without adding anything new to the concept. the worst part is that this film took some sequences almost shot for shot from another film to use this same exact storyline a few years ago, and that other film also featured shai lebouf!!! come on man, can we get original here?

this was a much better flick than i expected it to be. it wasnt just a silly neihborhood thriller, there was a philosophy behind the actions of the characters and it made the film a fairly interesting character study. the end was dissapointing and way too predictable, and it wasnt one to watch multiple times or anything, but it was very solid.

this flick was inventive and hilarious. it was a bit rediculous at moments and it didnt quite grab onto the charm it seemed it was looking for, but the often annoying jack black was actually pretty good and mos def was solid as always. an enjoyeable watch with solid laughs.

i watched this film mostly for nostalgia sake, but i was pleasantly suprised at how much i enjoyed it. rambo has always stood out amung action flicks for being socially consious, and this film may be the most socially profound of all rambo's. it was actually tough to watch at times for the realistic representation of genocide violence, but it was profound and aware of its issues. the film was hurt by a weak villian, shaky acting, and blood and gore that was so over the top it was cartoonish. this is possibly the most violent film i have ever seen. but the camera work was suprisingly strong for a film directed by stallone. solid flick.

this was an incredibly fun movie. i was completely entertained, the action was great and the film was well paced. i liked the characters much more than i thought i would, especially rachel bilsons character, and the plot was a fun one. unfortunately the film had way too many problems. many interesting plotlines were brought in that were not given any detail so that in the end, i was interested in the story while knowing none of the things a more complete film would have told me. if we get a sequel that explains the missing details my score would rise, but at this point this is a fun film that is incredibly incomplete.

obviously this had no shot at being a great movie, but i was pleasantly suprised at how "not horrible" it was. it was a prototypical treasure hunting movie with no real profundity, but it was what it was in a really fun way. i actually escaped a bit and just enjoyed watching this. i expected poor and got decent and thats ok with me.

this is a very average film. it was definitely well done, with great star power and solid performances, but the film suffered greatly from a less than desireable script. the film was shallow and lifeless, the characters empty and underdeveloped. the scenes were not connected to one another well. the characters were flip flopping with little explaination and there were some obvious solutions to many problems, but reasons were not given as to why some solutions were abandoned. johansson played the only semi-likeable character, and while the film entertained it fell flat in many areas.

nowhere near as good as the first, but much more fun than i thought it would be. the characters are actually more likeable than the original, but the rest of the film is simply meant to be a fun family adventure film. not necessary for anyone to see but not a waste of time either.

a very average film, and a strong miss-fire because of my expectations. i enjoyed the first two, but this one lacked chemistry and was too simple. the sub plots of romance and family discord were flat and uninteresting. the story was decent despite weak execution and it at least kept my interest for the most part. decent watch but should have been considerably better.

this was a great movie to watch with my kids but it doesnt do a good enough job of holding an adult audience. i found myself a little bored only a third of the way into the movie and i clock watched from there. the end was touching and fun and it had character, but they could have done more with the home alone style theme of defending the island. really just average.

i got roped into watchng this, and at some level i have to admit that it was mildly entertaining, but it was poorly acted, unbelieveably predictable, and ultimately just another silly teen scream fest.