Best of 2008 (Movies, of course)

So here it is. Not that you've been waiting for it, but all the same, it is here. I have officially compiled a list of my top 10 favorite films of 2008. Without further ado:

(The ones that hyperlink to my full reviews will not, clearly, have anything written about them here. Because that would be redundant. Redundant...redundant.) (I'm sorry.)

1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. The Dark Knight
3. Wall*E
4. Hellboy 2 - There's a great story behind Del Toro's involvement with this franchise as it relates to Pan's Labyrinth. I won't bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that the first Hellboy was kind of fun, but ultimately forgettable, and this one is a strange, funny, beautiful and moving story that follows the same characters and displays far greater maturity and depth.
   
5. Son of Rambow
6. The Fall
7. Iron Man - I somehow failed to review this one. I think that when it came out, I wasn't in the habit of posting reviews to this blog. Ah well. I don't think I need to say much about it. It was fantastic, as most of you already know. In no way does it need my endorsement or explanation. If you haven't seen it, you should probably go fix that right away.
   
8. Cloverfield - There's so much to say about this movie. From a purely academic standpoint, it was easily one of the most important movies to come out this year. A lot of people hated it. A lot of people (including, obviously, myself) adored it. That's reason enough to take a serious look.
   
9. Penelope - This is that one about that girl who's born with a pig nose. I know. There was no way I was going to see this film. And, oh yeah, Christina Ricci was starring. How could I have been duped into this one? Sometimes I'm wrong. And sometimes it takes a happy accident for me to realize it. A couple of good friends (girls, both) were going to see it--for a dollar--so I thought...why not? And I was so, so pleasantly surprised. The cinematography, editing, and writing were all so much better than I could have expected, even if I had been expecting to enjoy it. I really believe that this is one of the hidden gems of this year.
   
10. Get Smart

This post is already certainly long enough. But I would feel remiss if I didn't mention the films that almost made it onto this list. Here goes: (in no particular order) The Incredible Hulk, Quantum of Solace, Speed Racer (I'm serious. Yes, really. Stop it.), The Band's Visit, Be Kind Rewind, Ghost Town.

And that's all! Tune in next year for...well, probably more of the same.

*Revision (kind of): I realize, suddenly, shamefully, that The Fall was not, in very fact, released in 2008. No, it was released in (and this is something that I swear I knew) 2006. I saw it this year for the first time, is the thing... Ugh.

Movies, Movies, and, also, FILMS!

You hate the title of this post. And you ought to. It's terrible.

But I've watched a lot of movies in the past few days. Between yesterday and today:

1. Moonlight Mile (2002). I saw this film pretty shortly after it came out, and then watched it again within the week. I really loved it back then. So now, older, wiser, a film-student...I was just curious--you know--is this movie actually good, or does it actually, um, suck. Only one way to find out. I won't give any of the plot away; it's better if you go into it blind. Suffice it to say it's a dramedy (maybe more drama than comedy), and it's got Jake Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, and Susan Sarandon. But yes, it's very good, it turns out.
   
2. Baby Mama - I never gave this one a review on this blog, but I very much enjoyed it when I saw it in the theaters. Tina Fey is brilliant, and so is Amy Poehler. And they have, just, fantastic onscreen chemistry. The trailers didn't sell this movie to me, but I trusted Tina, and she delivered.
   
3. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed - Ben Stein is quite a guy. If you don't know anything about this little indie documentary, I'll try do some painless summarizing (oxymoron, I know). So, Darwinian Evolution, as a scientific theory, has become an establishment. Anyone who questions it's validity, or points out its shortcomings, will be rejected and ostracized by that establishment. This doesn't mean a lot to your basic dude on the street, but to serious scientists interested in serious science (those to whom we owe all of our modern advancements), this is a big deal. It's anti-science. So Ben Stein holds interviews with a good number of people on both sides of the fence--those in- and outside of the establishment, and he tries to help us dudes on the street understand why the issue is so important. I was aware and supportive of the sentiments Ben espouses before I saw this film, but it was still an enlightening 90 minutes. See it.

Because it's Christmas (Eve), it's probably important to talk about Christmasy things. Mainly because I won't be blogging on Christmas Day. At least, that's my hope.

So here my list of essential Christmas films: (I won't encumber them with any kind of a review or commentary.)

1. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
   
2. Scrooge (1951)
3. A Christmas Story (1983)
4. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
5. Mr. Krueger's Christmas (1980)
6. Elf (2003)
7. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
8. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
9. Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
10. Gremlins (1984)

And, just for kicks, here are some essential Christmas albums:

1. (This is surprising) The Christmas Sessions - MercyMe
2. Sing, Choirs of Angels! - The Mormon Tabernacle Choir
3. This Good Night is Still Everywhere - Dustin Kensrue
4. Songs for Christmas - Sufjan Stevens
5. The Lost Christmas Eve - Trans-Siberian Orchestra
6. Let It Snow Baby...Let It Reindeer - Relient K

And, of course, I have to finally conclude by saying, "Merry Christmas" (because it's what I'm hoping you will have.)

I'll Eye YOUR Eagle

OK, so I finally saw Eagle Eye, which I intended to see when it came out because, you know, it had Shia Lebeouf and Michelle Monaghan and a really sweet trailer.

Turns out that it was...kinda fun. It was like an edgier, more serious, less plausible, more politically charged version of Live Free or Die Hard, actually, all told. I'll waste no more effort explaining the comparison. You'll either see it or not.

I like this kid Shia, gotta tell you. Also, Michelle is just a really lovable actress. Strengths. Premise...NSA accidentally invents...Skynet?

Last time I BLAGGED, I talked about not talking about films about which I fail to be passionate. There was only one aspect of this film that struck a chord, and I'll leave it to a better writer than myself to explain. I'll pull one quote:

And at the end, sure enough, we get the Moral: Yes, the government must try to gather intelligence in order to protect the people, but Not This Way.

OSC's review of Eagle Eye is the concluding bit of a rather long article. Feel free to read it all, but them's directions if you want 'em.

Anyway. Yeah. I'll let him do the talking.

Gameshows and Love Stories

I saw a film last night that blew me away.

I've been accused of being hyperbolic in my descriptions of things I love. This may be true. However, I like to think that there are a lot of things to be passionate about in this world, so why bother fussing about the mediocre things? When I write a review of a film, it'll be a film I either loved or hated. If a film is middling and unremarkable, why talk about it?

"Oh yeah, that was an alright movie. It turned out to be about what I thought it was gonna be about. And the acting was pretty good. I liked the music. It was kinda fun sometimes. And the ending was pleasant. It was kind of slow, but it had its moments--you know--there were a couple of parts that were kind of cool..."

Why?

Instead, let me tell you about Slumdog Millionaire. This is going to sound strange, but I don't know how else to say it. During several lengthy segments of that film, the strength and depth of feeling that I was being pulled through actually caused me to physically tremble.

The concept is so simple. A young man is on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" He's accused of cheating. He's beaten. Tortured. Why won't he confess to having cheated? How could a slumdog possibly know the answers to all the questions?

That's what the rest of the film is about. The answers to the questions are used like touchstones in the history of this young man's life. How did he know the name of the man who invented the revolver? You'll have to see the film to find out. The premise is simple enough, almost, to be trite. But it is not trite. It is grand, beautiful, and deeply moving.

How did they pull it off? This melodrama of melodramas. Must have been the writing, which was flawless and unassuming in its seemingly effortless brilliance. Or maybe the music, which was somehow exactly right for every single second of the film. But it could just as easily have been the cinematography, or the editing, or the production design--all of which were outstanding enough to satisfy the brightest hopes of those who care about such things. Or let's argue for the acting and directing--why else did everyone fall deeply, shamelessly in love with our hero and the love of his life?

All of those things could provide powerful, convincing evidence as for why this film worked so transcendently well. But maybe, above and beneath all of that, there was something else. Someone believed in something better than what we normally see. Through all of the horror we push through, there must be something worth the struggle. It must, must, must be true, and those people responsible for the making of this film not only believed but demanded it. And then they set to work.

I'm trying to remember the last time my heart was filled to overflowing by a film. I can't. I'm sure it will come to me. I certainly won't say that Slumdog Millionaire is the most wonderful film I've ever seen. Because, like I mentioned earlier, I'm trying to avoid reckless hyberboles. I will say, though, that the film I saw last night makes that a tough thing to do.

Another Terminator Movie

Anyone who knows me well knows that I sort of freak out over most (I deliberately don't use the word all) things Terminator. I love all three movies--I think they probably comprise the greatest science-fiction/action trilogy of all time. I think the story is wonderful, and the films are really very, very good. James Cameron, before he sort of dropped out of the industry after Titanic, was the most talented director of action films in the last...well, at least thirty years, but possibly ever. He was responsible for the first two (brilliant pieces of work, both), and the third one, in my not-so-humble opinion, was a fine film as well.

I'm not too hot on the TV series that gracing Fox these days, but it could be worse. I've been watching it because I'm compelled to. That's what obsession does.

But what I'm infinitely MORE excited about is Terminator Salvation. There are two trailers for it on Apple right now--the second one was added today, and it looks pretty wonderful. That's the primary motivation for this post.

A lot of people that are much bigger dorks about the Terminator franchise than I (yes, it's possible...frighteningly possible) are extremely skeptical about whether this film will be any good. Here's why I think it will be great:

1. Christian Bale. The man can't miss. He's been in some of the most solid blockbusters of the last few years, and I can't see him making a bad choice for something like this. He's smart--in the last three years, he's had the lead role in Batman Begins, Rescue Dawn, The Prestige, 3:10 to Yuma, and The Dark Knight. That's three years.

2. Jonathan Nolan and (to a lesser degree) Paul Haggis. Jonathan Nolan is the writing talent behind Memento, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight. Jon is simply a brilliant writer, and he has, to my knowledge, final writing credit on this film. But if that's not good enough, Paul Haggis had the script before him, and he's been behind such little projects as Crash, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Casino Royale, Letters from Iwo Jima, and, most recently, Quantum of Solace, just to name a few. If you can't trust the Terminator franchise in these guys' hands, well...you get the idea.

3. The trailers. Admittedly, you can never fully determine whether a film will be good or bad based solely on its trailer. Everyone has had the experience of being fooled into seeing a terrible film because the trailer made it look slick and sexy. But I'm getting better at being able to see through the bull, and these two trailers look extremely promising.

Alright. I'm done advertizing for this film. Mostly I just wanted to vent about how excited I am about it.

Rice that is free.

Two things:

1. You need to have Google Reader. What is it? If you have Gmail, just click on the little blue link that says "Reader" in the upper left-hand corner. All will be explained. You need it because you don't want to have to come visit my blog every day to find out whether or not I have posted. Say you want to be able to ignore my blog completely unless I post something. Well, Google Reader will tell you when I've posted so you don't have to go look for yourself. This will work with any website that has an RSS feed. If you don't know what that is...well anyway, I'm done explaining things for now. I'm really the wrong person to be explaining them anyway. I just barely figured out what some of this stuff is several months ago, and I don't use it that much as it is.

2. I, in fact, use Google Reader. With it, I stay up to date on politics (more or less), movie trailers, my favorite webcomics, my favorite band, and a handful of my friends' blogs.

Today, while I was reading a recebt post on The Fischbowl, I was alerted to a pretty cool site called "FreeRice." Here's what you do: You go to the website and immediately start answering vocab questions. For every question you answer correctly, they donate 20 grains of rice to The United Nations World Food Program.

And they're not messing around with the vocab. There are 60 levels of difficulty, and they escalate as you answer correctly. On level one are words like "liquid" and "dozen" and "awful." On level 60 are words like "champher" and "apodeictic" and "lansquenet." With all of my knowledge and lucky guesses, I could only get up to level 42 ("jambeau" and "horologe" and "picaresque"), but you can start on any level you'd like. It's just that if you start at level 60, you'll probably fail to win any free rice for anyone.

So, fun times. Start a Google Reader account, improve your vocab, and win free rice for hungry people.