With mere weeks to go, I had no idea what my list for favorite movies of 2008 was going to look like. More accurately, my list contained several movies that my inner critic told me had no business whatsoever in a year-end top ten list. There were a lot of movies that I liked (as you’ll soon discover), but not a whole lot that I loved. Starting about December 1, though, that changed dramatically. Whew.
Oh, and if you just read fellow BE critic Jason Zingale’s list before checking out mine, your eyes do not deceive you. Unlike, say, EW’s Owen Glieberman and Lisa Schwartzman, who seem to go out of their way to run lists as dissimilar as possible, JZ and I are pretty much on the exact same page this year. A meeting of the minds, or a lack of options? A little of both, I suppose.
Best movies of 2008
1. The Dark Knight
I’m not sure how Christopher Nolan is going to top this. This is so much bigger, smarter, darker and bleaker than any other superhero movie ever made that it’s insulting to lump it into the superhero category.
2. WALL·E
Repeated viewings of this since its release on DVD have elevated it towards not just the top of my list of 2008, but on the list of Pixar’s finest work. The dancing-in-space sequence is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
As a longtime David Fincher fan (his video for Madonna’s “Oh Father” still gives me chills), I’ll be the first to admit that his reputation has loomed larger than the quality of his work. He puts his money where his mouth is here. The last ten minutes are devastating.
4. Frost/Nixon
The only man who can give Samuel L. Jackson a run for his money at saying the word “motherfucker”: Richard Milhous Nixon.
5. Iron Man
Let that be a lesson to you: always take the Humdrum-vee over the Fun-vee.
6. RocknRolla
My pet theory: the name of Gerard Butler’s character One Two is a reference to the Specials’ song “Little Bitch.” Can anyone confirm this?
7. Slumdog Millionaire
Do you think that guy that won all those “Jeopardy” episodes was tortured like this movie’s hero was?
8. Let the Right One In
If you see one vampire movie this year…it ain’t “Twilight.” This Swedish import combines the lure of the undead with the hell that is junior high school. The ending to this movie is sadder than any I’ve seen all year, even the one with the dead dog.
9. Revolutionary Road
Only Leo and Kate could make a movie about two miserable suburbanites so watchable.
10. Tropic Thunder
“Now let’s make a movie!” *Clank* “Oh.” *BOOM* Nothing all year made me laugh harder.
Honorable mentions:
The Wrestler
Choke
The Wackness
Burn after Reading
I Was a Middle-Aged Teenager, Part Deux
I’m 40 years old, but some of my favorite movies – or scenes – came from movies that were aimed squarely at my inner 20-year-old.
Step Brothers
If we were to update our Movie Tunes piece, the “Sweet Child o’ Mine” scene would easily be in our Top 20.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
It had what most Apatow-related movies sorely lack: balance. And hot damn, how awesome is Mila Kunis?
Sex Drive
Rumspringa! WOOOOOO!
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
If anyone is thinking about seeing if this will work in real life, we beg you, STOP. The world has enough bad amateur porn as it is, and your friend isn’t a tenth as hot as Elizabeth Banks.
Wanted
I’d debate whether Morgan Freeman’s character was telling the truth in the movie’s final bloodbath, but does it really matter? This was big, dumb, silly, and an absolute blast.
Pineapple Express
Between this and “Choke,” I’ll never think of anal beads the same way again.
Role Models
Finally, a Seann William Scott movie that didn’t make me want to drown kittens.
Docs that rock
Man on Wire
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
The Kids Movies Are Alright
Kung Fu Panda
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Horton Hears a Who
Appealing to a man, but made for a woman
What Happens in Vegas…
Definitely, Maybe
Baby Mama
27 Dresses
Worst movies of 2008 (that I saw)
1. The Love Guru
Not even Justin Timberlake could save this from being the unfunniest movie of the year, if not all time. It’s like a bunch of teenagers came up with dick joke punch lines, then worked their way backwards for setups. Painfully bad.
2. Meet Dave
It’s over, Eddie. The next time you have a thought about a family movie comeback vehicle, let it go.
3. Over Her Dead Body
The only Eva worth watching this year is the one in “WALL·E.”
4. Untraceable
Screen Gems makes “Saw Lite,” tries to equate gawker’s block on the highway with willingly contributing to the death of another human being. Uh, sure.
5. Mad Money
Note to self: get job at Federal Reserve. If Diane Keaton can steal from them, so can I.
6. Deception
Hearing Michelle Williams say “fuck and suck” might be the funniest thing I heard in a movie all year.
7. Nim’s Island
Someone once asked Elijah Wood why he did the movie “Flipper.” His answer: to swim with dolphins for six months. Now we know why Abigail Breslin did “Nim’s Island”: to play with sea lions. We forgive you, sweetie. Jodie Foster and Gerard Butler, on the other hand, have some ‘splaining to do.
8. Made of Honor
Made all the more sickening by the fact that this will stand as Sydney Pollack’s final performance. He steals the movie, but the movie he’s stealing isn’t worthy of his presence.
9. Married Life
A black romantic dramedy that’s neither dark, nor funny, nor romantic.
10. The Spirit
“NO EGG ON MY FACE!” Um, I don’t know how to tell you this, Sam, but this movie is one giant piece o’ egg on your face.
Well made, but repulsive in every other regard
Funny Games
Few movies will make you angrier than this self-serving cheat of a film. It’s basically two hours of director Michael Haneke saying, “Fuck you America, you violent, brutish thugs.” America responded by (rightly) ignoring his film. I guess we’re not as brutish as you thought, Michael, and what does it say about you that you tried to profit from our supposed misery? Douchebag.
My co-workers saw them so I didn’t have to
Meet the Spartans
Strange Wilderness
Disaster Movie
88 Minutes
Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins
Bonus points to that last movie when cast member Mike Epps gave us quite possibly the worst interview ever.
“Snakes on a Plane” award for Movie Title of the Year
“The Midnight Meat Train.” And surprise, it actually wasn’t that bad.
It’s unfortunate that the curators of Sam Kinison’s catalog have limited access to his best material. This two-disc set features four performances by Kinison, though three of them were filmed in 1991, when he was selling out 5,000-seat theaters but his routine was in creative freefall. (To make matters worse, two of those routines look and sound like bootleg recordings.) The 1987 show “Breaking All the Rules” is easily the best of the bunch, with a still-hungry Kinison prowling the stage like a panther. Kinison’s playful bitterness, however, turns to pure ugliness on 1991’s “Family Entertainment Hour.” Kinison’s clearly playing to his audience’s fears here (gays), and even the bits that are supposedly for the women pander to the men at the same time. The gay bashing gets worse in the other two performances, “Outlaws of Comedy” and “Live in Las Vegas” (the bootleg shows), and even his audience appears to have had enough of it. He even had a band for two of the shows. (They were terrible.) If you want to speed-watch the set, pop in “Brother Sam,” a 2002 Playboy Channel tribute that features interviews with Kinison’s brother Bill as well as Rodney Dangerfield. 
