Movies of 2008

(There will be spoilers, but not major ones, just fyi.)
The masterpiece I was hoping for. At first as the movie went on, I thought it was going to not trump Batman Begins, but my god was I wrong. Just like the Joker's constantly changing background story about his scars, the movie seems to constantly continue to present twists and turns that are brilliant beyond words.

The cast: Christian Bale is brilliant as always with his charming, yet conflicted nature storming him with personal vendettas that only the greatest heroes could ever trump. Bale is the most talented actor working in Hollywood right alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, even if that man is a monster of a god among actors. The supporting cast (Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Michael Caine) are all fantastic and help keep the foundation of the story amazing. Sadly, despite him being one of my favorite actors, Michael Caine suffers from not having enough involvement. Don't get me wrong, he's still spectacular, but I didn't get to see all the charm he brought in the first film as much. That's probably the movie's weakest point. Still, everything scene Caine is in stands as a highlight of the whole movie. Next comes Freeman who I especially love and his performance is full of depth that the first movie did not show. Really great stuff. Then there's Maggie. Wow. So much better than Katie Holmes even though I still admire her performance in the first one. It was brilliant as well.

Then there's Gary Oldman. If the man wasn't a legend already, he cements himself in the records as a brilliant actor in the role he seemed born to play, as Gordon. The man cannot be praised enough, juggling his constant duties as a police officer who is around people who hate the Batman, and cooperating with him at the same time.

Two of the biggest performances most people were most anxious to see were Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart. Heath Ledger, how can I put this, deserves every Oscar of the last ten years. Okay so obviously he doesn't, but it is definitely true he needs the nomination at the least. I obviously can't speak for him winning it right now because all the movies of the year have not been released but still, it's the best performance of the year so far. The chaotic, psychotic nature of the Joker is so masterfully done that Jack Nicholson's performance of the Joker is put to shame, no matter how much I like it as well. Nicholson got nominated for the Joker in '89 so Ledger better get it as well, or I'll be mad as hell and won't take it anymore.

The biggest surprise though was Eckhart. He did not have the best performance, however he came in a pretty close second and blew me away. He should not have been as overshadowed as he has been from Ledger's performance because it has the power and emotion that any great performance has. Brilliant stuff. The performances are what make this movie truly spectacular and a shining example of what an actor should bring to the screen.

Nolan is a top director and his script shows it. He now has three masterpieces on his hands (the other two being Batman Begins and The Prestige) so anything he does from now on has to be watched closely because it will probably be great. But seriously though, this is a prime example of a harrowing tragedy, with everything around Batman falling down around him, the Joker one step ahead of him. Never have I been on such a roller coaster of an experience with a story in a theater with suspense that I have not seen since the days of Hitchcock.

The cinematography is gorgeous, the score genius (seriously), and just about everything you could think of. The Dark Knight shows that comic book movies are no longer just light summer fluff, no. TDK has set a standard that if future comic book adaptations don't even come near to this movie, they will fail because they don't feel like art, which this movie is. I can only imagine where they will go from here (if Nolan and Bale do not come back, I will be furious), but there are plenty of avenues to explore that could make the next Batman film just as bloody brilliant as this one. If you don't think this is as close to perfect as you can get, you obviously do not appreciate movies. God bless you Heath Ledger.

2nd Viewing Response - Not only is it just as good, but scenes that seemed a little weak were made stronger by knowing where the movie was going. Morgan Freeman's performance wasn't as good as I remembered though. It was great of course, but not AMAZING. And I have to give Bale more credit than I did because nothing was going to top his performance in the first one, his origin story.

Wall-E is without a doubt Pixar's most ambitious project to date. Toy Story was a revolutionary step forward in animation and since then, it seemed like that major step forward would overshadow everything else they made after it (much like M. Night and the effect The Sixth Sense had on him). Things shaped up though after the release of Ratatouille last year and that great film only made Wall-E even more anticipated. He was just so damn adorable. By the time the movie came into theaters, people were dying to know whether Pixar would deliver again. And without a doubt, they certainly did.

The story revolves around a robot who is on a deserted planet Earth cleaning up the trash, which is what he is programmed to do, stacking them up in high buildings. And that's about as basic as it gets. You get a "love" interest added on sometime later with EVE and eventually move onto a spaceship were we see what happened to human beings. All that is interesting, but the true beauty lies with Wall-E himself. He has an undeniable charm that is infectious and will warm even the darkest of hearts. Reminders of Chaplin cross through the audience as almost the entire first 20-30 minutes is without any dialogue of any sort. The silence creeps up on the audience capturing a serene, but haunting landscape of destruction and beauty. Pixar crafted a beautiful movie, but not in there traditional sense. This world that Wall-E is in is a dark, apocalyptic environment that has rich detail in every building, item, and etc. bringing to life one of the most breathtaking animated movie to date. You have to see it to believe it.

Like I said the character Wall-E is incredible and the first 30 minutes of this film are easily a masterpiece among other great works of art. So what about the rest of the film? Well, it definitely works, but not quite on the same level. EVE doesn't add anything that Wall-E has not already brought to the screen, but her presence brings out even more charm from Wall-E has he consistently tries to charm her when she seems to not even care. Eventually they become friends of sorts and it is charming to see a romance more powerful than any shitty romantic films Hollywood likes to churn out constantly. She soon finds what she was programmed to find on Earth, and the story transcends briefly into a tragic love story. These moments in the film are equally spectacular as the beginning.

What comes after this though is the weak point in the movie. A bunch of politics of sorts ease its way into the film, most of which I care not to get into, mostly because they only work on a simple way. Delving too deep into these politics would be besides the point that Pixar made, or so I would think. The fact is that although Pixar took great measures to please adult audiences, this stands as a children's movie. That said, it still has far too many subtle things that adults can pick up on that will keep them interested throughout the 2nd half of the film, while the children are entertained by the mayhem that ensues on the screen.

I can't think of much else to say right now about Wall-E because so much of the movie you have to see for yourself to completely understand why its Pixar's best film yet. Do yourself a favor and make sure you see this near masterpiece in a theater, to experience something truly magical.

This would be a bonafide classic Woody Allen movie if wasn't for that horrible voice over. Seriously, when is VO ever necessary?

RocknRolla is without a doubt, one of the most unadulterated, exciting and entertaining film I've seen so far this year. Guy Ritchie has proven before, with movies like Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, that he is a talented director and knows how to work actors to their fullest. This is no exception. Tom Wilkinson gives a fantastic performance in this as a crime boss that's just an all around bad person. All the other cast members perform well, most of them being unknown actors, at least to me. The story is typical of a good Ritchie movie and while convuluted at times, still is entertaining as hell and sets up the following parts of the trilogy perfectly. There's never a dull moment in this 2 hour crime/mob pic and that makes this one of the best of the year, so far.

You take an uninteresting and overused topic, add the Apatow touch along with Jason Segal and you got gold. By far the best comedy of the year so far, until Pineapple Express comes out.

My God was this good. This was my first thought after walking out of the theater, completely surprised that I would be so impressed by this movie. The acting is incredible, the actions sequences intense, etc. But let me get to the negatives first, since they are so few.

Well first off, if you complain about the CGI, your an idiot. It's not perfect but the industry is really moving closer and closer to achieving the sense of realism needed for CGI characters in movies like the Hulk. Also, all the performances were not amazing. One in particular, Liv Tyler, stands out as not too good. She wasn't necessarily bad but I prefer Jennifer Connelly over her any day, sorry. William Hurt was more or less the same as Sam Elliot in his performance, but once again, I would rather see Sam Elliot back.

That's all there really is worth nothing that is bad. The rest of the cast, Norton and Roth, are great and convincing. I know comparisons suck but Roth was a much better villain than Jeff Bridges in Iron Man or even Nick Nolte in the first Hulk. He's an underrated actor and deserves a lot more attention.

The actions awesome, the story's well structured and enjoyable, and really is just more my type of movie compared to Ang Lee's Hulk. This and Iron Man have really got me way too excited for the Avengers movie. It has the potential to be completely amazing. Can't wait.

So here's the thing. A comedy has one primary goal and that is to make people laugh. You might think this would be obvious, but alas, its not so clear cut to certain directors. David Gordon Green is a director who's works I have not seen yet, but from what I've heard he's pretty talented. Sadly, that does not shine through here. I love Judd Apatow comedies as much as the next guy, maybe even more, but this just doesn't deliver the amount of comedy you would hope to expect.

The key to the success though of this movie is in its characters. But only one certain character shines for the most part and that is James Franco. He steals every single scene he is in and is almost always hilarious. Franco presents the perfect stoner since the creation of Cheech and Chong. Gary Cole, while not fully utilized, has a great presence when he enters a scene giving a great villain role, not better than a certain other movie though (you know what it is). Seth Rogen though, is starting to grow a little weary on me. Don't get me wrong, I still love him, he's been fantastic in the past, but it seems now all he is doing is playing himself over and over again, and it does not work here. Franco easily outshines Rogen in any scene but when we have him alone, the scene usually does not have many laughs. Also Bill Hader in the beginning is hilarious, despite what anyone else says.

I really do love this movie and I think it is hilarious, but it seems that for every funny moment or scene, it is followed by one, sometimes even two, scenes which are not funny or only make you kind of giggle or something along those lines. Also, the ending while well made, ultimately feels lackluster due to the lack of humor even if it is supposed to be a satire of sorts on violence. It just drags on and on. That very last scene though had some of the biggest laughs in the movie though. Great stuff. Going back to this movie again will probably let me like it more, picking up on the more subtle jokes that supposedly exist all throughout. It's the funniest movie of the summer, but not of the year. Definitely recommended despite it's problems.

Well it's finally here. And of course the big aching question for all: was it worth the wait? In short, yes. But it should be noted here that hype can kill any movie. Yes, a movie should be as great as possible but people have unreasonable expectations for it. Obviously, The Dark Knight lived up to it, but in a year so full of great movies, they seem like disappointments with all the ridiculous hype. But enough ranting. That said, this was still very entertaining.

Probably at this moment, it's my 3rd favorite of the 4, but that might change upon repeat viewings. The main thing the movie doesn't do wrong is emphasize on Jones being old. If Spielberg had done that, the movie would have gotten old fast (no pun intended) and the audience's interest lost. Thankfully Spielberg crafts Ford's character as badass as he ever was. CGI also worried many people, creating the impression that the original feel of the first 3 movies would be lost. But one's got to remember that back in the 80's, those movies were also constantly finding ways to outdo themselves with impressive visuals. It's just now, the industry has CGI. But even still, the CGI isn't overdone with only maybe 3 scenes total that are heavily CGI centered. For the most part, CGI never gets in the way of the film.

The acting by everyone was pretty exceptional. Harrison Ford still had the best performance of the movie, but Cate Blanchett followed close behind. Her performance might have bordered on stereotypical of "the Reds" at times, but she was still phenomenal, as cold and haunting as ever. John Hurt performed well too, but nothing too extraordinary. And Karen was Karen. Which leaves us with Shia LeBouef. What's there to say about him? Has he ever truly played a deep and emotional character up to now? He's been in I, Robot, Disturbia, and Transformers, to name a few. He's not exactly the deepest of character actors, as of now. Then again, the role he's in doesn't need a truly extraordinary actor. He does do a fairly great job in the movie though, as the comic relief known as "Mutt" Williams. For most of the movie, he's a typical grease-ball of the 50's, combing his hair back constantly. And that really does get annoying the 100th time he does it. But later on in the movie, he gets the chance to stretch his acting muscles a bit especially with emotional scenes involving his stepfather and such. (SPOILER) It's a little cliche to see Mutt be the son of Jones and doesn't really come as a surprise to the audience when the reveal comes, but does give the chance to have a strong bond form between LeBouef and Ford. (END SPOILER) Overall, everyone performed well, but besides Ford, everyone had room to improve to reach greatness.

With the CGI, action scenes became more explosive and intense. The major car chase scene, while over dramatic, was still awesome. Also the scene with the ants has got to be one of the most chilling scenes in all of the 4 movies. That could have not been done easily, if at all, back in the 80's. The part in the beginning where all the crates explode after the car drives through them made no sense, and the whole magnetism thing was a complete stretch.

One of the most important aspects of the movie is the story, and overall it's kind of a mixed bag. On one hand, it maintains the historical-ness of the first and third movie, not pulling any of that Temple of Doom cult stuff, which is a good thing...until the Crystal Skull is found. (SPOILER) The whole alien aspect of the story just seems silly. I understand how it ties into Indy's whole "not believing in supernatural crap", but still, Lucas and Spielberg should have left their love of extra-terrestrials out of the Indy franchise. Everything about the flying saucer and the aliens "being one" was out of place and just an excuse to actually think of some historical artifact to chase after. Or something along those lines. The story still didn't get too destroyed by all the aliens, so overall it was still fun and exciting.

Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and the Last Crusade all are amazing films. And so is the latest Indiana Jones movie. It combines all of the exciting elements of the previous films, providing a fun and exciting follow up to the first three films. Anyone who is a fan of the Indiana Jones movies or of action/adventure movies to begin with, should go see this, as its full of charm and character. Here's hoping that Indy 5 will be equally as great, if not better, than Crystal Skull. And yes, there will be another; its basically spelled out all over the movie.

Well I watched the first Hellboy again recently since I had forgotten most of it, and still found I liked it. So I came in excited for Hellboy 2, hoping that maybe, just maybe, it could possibly be a little better. Sadly, that's not the case. That's not to say it's not entertaining in its own right, I always appreciate some good mindless fun, but del Toro pushed it a bit too much this time.

One of the main problems has to be the story. First off, I don't give a damn about it. Nothing throughout the entire movie made me feel anything towards caring what happened next. And besides that, it feels like he took Lord of the Rings material and stuck his name on it and called it Hellboy. If you really sit there and pay attention (I know it can be hard to do), everything starts to seem derivative and extremely bland. The whole movie almost feels like a big, fat paycheck waiting for del Toro so he can do more genius productions like Pan's Labyrinth. Maybe knowing he was going to do The Hobbit after this influenced some of his decisions and ideas, I don't know.

Good news: John Hurt is a joy to watch like always. And Ron Perlman maintains the same over-the-top persona that made Hellboy himself so damn entertaining.
Bad news: Selma Blair still can't act. And that's fact.

So the story sucks and some of the cast cannot act, what is there then to look forward to? What del Toro does best of course, pretty visuals and some kick ass action. Okay, so he does more than that most of the time, but man is the movie visually stimulating. He's a man that has a knack for these things and the beautiful imagery helps enhance the remarkable choreography of the fights.

It's not that I do not like Hellboy, as I enjoyed the first movie, but the almost blatant rip-off of LotR and annoying romance sub-plots (there was some humor to be had though so it wasn't all bad), make this a disappointing follow up to the original. I'm up for a re-watch sometime in the future and maybe I'll enjoy it some more, but for now it seems too much like a quick cash in.

This is pretty great and not well known apparently. Saw it at the Enzion theater near me (plays more Indie films than anything) and very glad I saw this. Great performances all around and an intriguing plot that does start to get tedious towards the end, but the first half is an extremely well done thriller. Definitely recommended.

Entertaining garbage. Jason Statham, despite his limited range of emotion, could make anything watchable, which will most likely be the case with the masterpiece called Death Race coming out later this year.

Not bad by any means, but I was kind of hoping for something else. Something, I don't know, a little more. It's funny while you are there but once I left the theater I forgot most of it, yet some of the lines were drop dead hilarious. Worth a watch while in theaters.

If I wanted to watch a great action flick, I would watch Die Hard. If I wanted a metaphysical crazy thing like The Matrix, well, I would watch that. If I wanted to watch...well you get the point. The definition of pointless fun.

One of the greatest songs ever was born from this movie but other than that its pretty average.

Disappointing to say the least.

Way to ruin a good book Hollywood. Even Keven Spacey was painfully bad and mediocre. Ugh.

Al Pacino could read the phone book and I would be entertained. This dribble can't be saved by him though.

Painfully unfunny and terribly stereotypical. Owen Wilson seems washed up and while its kind of charming, I wish I was watching Superbad instead.

This is a pretty bad movie, I'm not gonna lie. After the 2nd vantage point, you start to lose any interest at all. A grand disappointment.

Not exactly the intelligent thriller of the year. When Rambo shoots, its fun. When he opens his mouth, I fall asleep, which is way too often unfortunately.