Top Movies of 2008

Pixar has outdone themselves in brilliance with their audacious and brave new picture. Its bold in its execution, painting its ideas on a grand scale thats bigger than anything they've done before, but with characters that are well-defined and have more emotional pull than many real life characters can even hope to achieve. Perfection.

Taking the traditional genre conventions, Nolan adds a massive crime saga, expands on the emotional character development from Begins and delivers an intense, contstantly gripping, intelligent action movie. Its completed with frightening villains led by a scene stealling Ledger, honourable but flawed heroes and more rises and falls in the epic narrative than many will be ready for.

Sarah Marshall is yet another home run for the Apatow clan. Thanks to the continually winning combination of colourfully written and acted characters and a plot that delivers equal parts sweet and gross, its seems impossible not to fall for these movies. Oh, and Russell Brand is scene steallingly awesome!

It easy to brand something like Juno unfavourably with its modern dialouge and risque subject matter. But when its equally sweet and caustic in each satisfying minute that passes, its impossible not to fall in love with, well, just about everything about this. Completely and utterly charming from start to finish, Juno is simply a knockout.

Perfect casting, awesome effects and a straightforward origins story without any flab around the edges, Iron Man is solidly entertaining genre pic that delivers the goods and sets into motion another franchise.

Purists will quaff at the modernisation in parts of this, but this is otherwise a perfect adapation of Horton. Bright, cheery and colourful, not to mention perfectly voiced by the cast, Horton is an absolute treat.

A deeply intense film that will force you to question deeply held morals, thanks to raw performances full of conviction and brutal honesty. Almost flawless, simply essential viewing for those up for the challenge, this certainly proves that Ben Affleck is a director to be reckoned with.

A careful concoction of old-school horror with thrills and mystery that totally delivers. Its slow to start, but the bulding of relationships, carefully placed revelations culminate to the shattering conclusion. Brilliant stuff.

Stiller delivers his usual schtick, Black is hilariously on cue, but its Downey Jr's consistantly spot-on comedic timing that steals every scene he is in. Tropic Thunder surprises with its gags, and most stick thanks to the chemistry between the great cast.

A delicious concotion of zombies exploding, over the top thrills and infectious laughs from the master of modern schlock. The awesome cast revel in the violence and the cheeseiness which top off this homage to Z-grade movies. Simply works on every level!

Hellboy is just as awe inspiring and just as much fun as its first outing, but even moreso with its deeper focus on characters without feeling like a introduction. Heaps of fun.

Thankfully, beyond all the hype, Cloverfield works more often than it fails. Despite how one-dimensional the plot and characters are, we thankfully gain enough of a connection to our protagonists, which is vital, as where this movie goes needs that as a backbone. Thanks to that, Cloverfield comes off as a very satisfying alternative view on the human response to such an unlikely event.

The Mist is successful in the appropriate scare factor moments. It builds nicely, decidedly chilly in its depiction of its characters, takes risks and comes to a conclusion. The satisifcation from that will differ from person to person; lets just say its confronting and daring, which gives it bonus points. Not for all tastes, but the unconventional will love it!

Borrowing a zillion ideas from films before it and running with them all at once, Eagle Eye's grand scale surprisingly gets by successfully with some stunning action sequences and a brisk pace that hide much of its superficialities.

Doesn't quite reach the giddy hights it aims for, but it never fails in the brainless laughs stakes that constantly work thanks to endearing characters and infectious performances from Rogen and Franco.

Seeing Lewis and Dano go toe-to-toe in this this exceptional epic of Americana is easily worth admission. Rather long, but rarely feeling bloated, Blood delivers award deserving performances and exceptional filmmaking to the masses, and delivers it well.

Tim Burton attacks the time honoured musical tradition with his usual trademark gothic and grim style - and it works. Depp belts out grim tunes with gusto, along with the rest of the cast. It looks, sounds and feels great. Although it wont be for everyones tastes, for the adventurous its a treat.

Get Smart writers have tapped into what made the show really good. Carrell's Max is his own interpretation rather than a copy, and it works more often than not. Its not perfect, but if given the chance, its certainly not as horrible as many fear.

It's hard to take it too seriously all the time with some decidedly dodgy effects and many of those ol' sci-fi chestnuts. But when it works, which is thankfully more often thanks to Will making the most banal dialouge bearable, Legend pulls off a solidly entertaining Hollywood sci-fi adventure, with splashes of dramatic and emotional flair even. Definatly above average. First top flick of 2008.

Surprisingly solid crime movie, with excellent performances from Washington and Crowe as well as an array for supporting cast. Scott gets biggest kudos for bringing to life the period so well. Aside from some hollywood conventions, Gangster is a wholy enjoyable film that grows on you the longer you watch.

The gimmick Gondry offers would have been spread too thinly over this if it were all that's on offer, and it gets a little bogged down in sentimentalism towards the end. But thanks to its rather swift running time, a decent story to tell and mostly spot on comic timing of its leads, Be Kind hits the right spot more often than not.

A lot of people wont like the direction of the jarring narrative twist in the second half. It does always work, but Hancock is anti-Smith and anti-Hollywood, jumping from funny to serious in the blink of an eye, and all the more enjoyable for delivering the unexpected.

Harold and Kumar trade the non-stop high times for some uneveness with flashbacks, a lovey sub-plot and too much politics. Surprisingly, things still work more often than they dont even if its more hit and miss, and there are plenty of laughs to be had with our bong buddies.

Panda, the movie, is never as awesome as Panda, the character, sets out to be. That's not to say that the movie doesn't have his charms, mostly thanks to the infectious personality of Jack Black who injects massive amounts of awesomeness that the movie itself can't seem to keep up with. It works more often than it doesn't, but not essential.

Well, you kinda get what you expect from this. Its a big, completely brainless action thriller. There are no discernable moments of cinematic achievements here, but the action is awesome and the plot works on a superficial level. Its a heap of fun, easy on the eyes and lax on the brain.

At worst its a three star rom-com, thanks to usual conventions it sticks to right to the end. At its best, its four star comedy gold thanks to the utterly charming Heigl and the completely excellent Marsden. It evens out in the end, making 27 Dresses laugh out loud funny and completely loveable.

Journey never succumbs to reality, but as a fun-filled harmless enough adventure flick it ticks all the right boxes for a good time. Fraser is his usual likeable self which makes the proceedings all the more enjoyable.

What can be said? Sandler is law unto himself, and we all know at this stage where we stand on his movies. Zohan is harmless enough, doesn't raise the bar on comedy, and its fine for a bit of guilty fun. Would you go in expecting more?

Bekmambetov is clearly a director to watch. Wanted's visceral energy is intoxicating, showing that action movies with no substance can still have plenty of style, and its not ashamed of that.

Starting with a bang, Vantage Point becomes entertaining only when the twists and plot start falling into place in the second half. The phoned in performances dont give the movie much weight, but its swift running time help move this along to a pretty satisfying conclusion.

The effects are average at best, but when it gets going there are plenty of rousing action scenes to be had. The supporting cast are okay, but its Norton and Roth who steal the show here.

Rendition is a mostly effective thriller with a decent cast who do as best they can with average material. A few twists and some action make this more Hollywood than world-changing, but its entertaining if nothing else.

Forget the awful dialouge in the sluggish opening, and the tacked on happy ending. What happens in between is nostalgic, magical, adventurous Indy. Dont take it too seriously, and you'll find it does the job. But its not a patch on the original films.

A minor step up from the first movie. Narnia strives for so much more than it is, and works hard to deliver, but still feels like Lord of the Rings-lite without the heart, emotion and well drawn out characters. Here's hoping a third outing will get there.

The movie is saved from mediocrity thanks to a few curveballs and the awesome cast. It dives too much into the mushy saccharine lovey stuff - even for a romantic movie - but its charms are easy to love.

While its still of little concequence as far as horror movies go, this is a very welcome change to the gorno's of late with little imagination. While the final act faulters slightly under the pressure of its set up, its still a mostly smart, tense thriller that works strongly thanks to its simple premise and some very chilling moments.

Its daring and provocative, but its also flawed and perhaps too ambitious. Painting with strokes that are much to wide, the plot becomes too convoluted to stand up under its own weight. It doesn't help when the cast themselves look lost in this wasteland. Not a total watershed as there is stuff here to love, but its as sparse and unconventional as Kelly's own dystopia.

While not quite a failure, 10,000BC falls short of delivering the awe and spectacle that Emmerich should have easily captured in such an epic. A very bloated plot, which at a lengthy running time runs out of steam too quick. Some nice set pieces save the movie, but you cant help but feel this is only half the epic that we should have got.

Shoot Em Up strives to be awesomely over the top, which is fine and works quite well. But its hit and miss, mixing up silliness with seriousness which makes it much so uneven than even Owen, Giamatti and Bellucci can't fix it.

Where did it all go wrong? Shyamalan has well and truly gone off the deep end and failed to surface. Sadly, its is actually an interesting premise and well set up hindered by awful dialouge, hammy acting from Wahlberg and a airy-fairy plot that fails to deliver what it so temptingly promises. Disappointing.

Prom Night in itself is a frightening enough a prospect without a killer on the loose. But this thrillless, bloodless limp affair plays out more like a teen soap opera than anything with real scares. Thankfully Schaech hams it up nicely enough to give this some slight retribution.

The plot never gets off the ground, coming across as an extended episode from the average bunch. It doesn't do the legacy of the series any justice, coming through as dull, mundane, with none of the spark the series had. Disappointing.