1st Annual End of the Year Movie Review

Well everybody, the year is coming to an end so I thought I’d give my year end wrap up of the silver screen

Best Comedy:

Tropic Thunder

There was some tough competition this year with movies like Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Pineapple Express, Role Models, Get Smart, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan and many others but I feel Tropic Thunder topped them all. This movie was a blast. Absolutely hilarious, I almost fell out of my chair a couple times I was laughing so hard and at least once I seriously could not breathe. One of Ben Stiller’s better performances and movies, Jack Black was funny but Robert Downey Jr. was easily the funniest man in the movie. This movie is priceless and filled with so many great lines.

Best Action Movie

Doomsday

This movie was just plain fun to watch. Rhona Mitra was really good as was Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell. I really enjoyed that in the fenced in area half the people went Mad Max wasteland psycho and the other half went 16th century kingdom, very entertaining.

Best Comic Book Movie

Iron Man

I still am so thankful for Brian Singer to have made Comic Book movies popular and give them some credit. This year was the biggest year yet for Comic book movies. We had Hellboy II, Wanted, The Incredible Hulk and of course the two biggest and almost rivals, Iron Man and The Dark Knight. I know, Dark Knight was huge and made billions and everybody has been raving about it. I loved it too but I think once you get over the hype and drama of Heath Ledger’s death, the movie was good but almost too serious and I’m not gonna lie, the way Christian Bale talked as batman really got on my nerves after a while. Iron Man I thought was so perfect. Robert Downey Jr. blew me away as Tony Stark, portraying that role so perfectly I actually believe he was born for that role. Terrance Howard did a great job as James Rhodes, I am very disappointed he has been forced out of the sequels. Gwyneth Paltrow was a perfect Pepper Potts. And of course, Jon Favreau did an amazing job directing this movie, I had my doubts about this character on the big screen but he really pulled it off. This movie was just plain fun to watch and I keep watching it and love it every time. It’s funny, it’s exciting and the performances were all top notch.

Best Drama

The Bank Job

This movie was fantastic. It’s based on an amazing true story and was done very well. To all the people who say that Jason Statham can’t really act, I highly recommend seeing this movie, he was absolutely fantastic in it, I would almost say an Oscar worthy performance. The story was great, all the actors were amazing and it was just overall a great movie. I will admit that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button looks superb and will report on that when it comes out.

Best Family Movie

WALL-E

I love Pixar so I was pretty excited about this movie. It’s a little unconventional and interesting in that there’s virtually no dialogue for the first 30 or 40 minutes, therefore this movie is very visual and relies mostly on “body” language. This movie was highly entertaining and very funny and even though there is an environmental message in it, this movie, unlike many others including happy feet, doesn’t beat you to death with that message leaving the movie very enjoyable.

Best Documentary

Religulous

Granted I only saw one documentary this year but it was fantastic. Bill Maher was hilarious as usual and had many great points to present. This documentary was very simple, present facts and ask questions about people’s religion that they should know and see them try to explain it, excellent. I recommend everybody see it.

Best Horror Movie

Cloverfield

I thought this movie was really fun to watch. J.J. Abrams did a fantastic job. The creature was terrifying and the action was great. I liked the idea of shooting it on a handheld camera and I loved that as an audience member, we had no idea what was going on, just like the people “filming” it. I feel this made the experience that much more interesting.

Best Sequel

Step Up 2 The Streets, yeah this movie was absolutely amazing I can’t even, oh my god I just couldn’t finish that sentence. No, the real best sequel is:

The Dark Knight

This movie was really good and the performances were great and the story was even better. I’m not going to talk about this one anymore because everybody knows what it is.

Biggest Surprise

Speed Racer

Hated by critics and audiences alike, I found this movie very enjoyable. My favorite review I read about this movie the writer described the movie as “two and a half hours of fuchsia vomit” I respectfully disagree. I think the reason most people didn’t like it is because they were expecting some kind of serious movie when in fact it’s a movie based on a Japanese animation cartoon from the 80’s that was ridiculous and over the top and so was the movie. To me, this movie is just fun to watch and the effects were awesome.

Biggest Letdown

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I love the Indiana Jones movies, they are some of my favorite movies, but I really wish that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had left this series and character alone. One of my biggest problems was Shia LeBeouf’s character, he was annoying, the whole swinging through the trees with the monkeys scene just pissed me off, and the fact that they are trying to “pass the fedora” I flat out hated. They should have left his character in the greaser fight and never said he was Indy’s son. I didn’t care for the fact that there were actual aliens in it. I was waiting for this movie because I love the character but I left the theater wishing they hadn’t made it.

Best Movie Nobody Saw

In Bruges

There were many movie that came out this year that I rushed out to see but that apparently nobody else had even heard of, much less actually saw, and I recommend them all; Choke, RocknRolla, Run Fatboy Run, CJ7 and several others. My favorite was In Bruges about two hit men hiding in Bruges, hence the title. The cast was excellent, Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes. This movie was very funny with a great story and shocking and hilarious ending.

Best performance

Heath Ledger

I still can’t tell whether the fact that he’s dead is what helps this performance or not, but his performance as the Joker was absolutely amazing. Every time I watched it, he sent chills down my spine. From the way he talked to the way he walked and that terrifying laugh. The interrogation scene alone should earn him an Oscar in my opinion. Granted, I was against that at first because I thought everyone was saying it just because he died, but the more I think about that scene the more I think he truly deserves it over every other performance I’ve seen this year. Heath Ledger was a truly great actor with such amazing potential and he will be missed.

Best Scene Stealer

Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder

If for nothing else, see Tropic Thunder for Tom Cruise’s performance as Les Grossman. I don’t think I have ever laughed so hard at a movie as I did with that character. The makeup and costume was perfect and priceless but the icing on the cake that made it all so great, Tom Cruise’s awesome hip hop dance moves.

Best Movie of the Year

Iron Man

I already explained why I love this movie. Dying to see the sequels and The Avengers movie.

Anticipation of 2009

There are some great movies I’m looking forward to next year here’s a list of the ones I’m looking forward to the most.

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (I just wish it had dinobots)
2. Watchmen (read the graphic novel, top notch)
3. Terminator Salvation (finally, the movie they’ve hinted at for 20 years)
4. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (the delay has driven me nuts)
5. Inkheart (what can I say, I like Brendan Frasier)
6. Star Trek (can’t believe I’m saying that, I never liked Star Trek)
7. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (should be awesome, Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool)
8. Angels & Demons (DaVinci code was fantastic)
9. Race to Witch Mountain (I like Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson too)
10. Fanboys (only a full two years after it was supposed to be released)
11. Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian (first one was good)
12. Pink Panther 2 (Steve Martin and John Cleese back together, be still my heart)
13. The Box (Richard Kelly’s movies are insane)
14. Up (I’m a sucker for Pixar movies)
15. Monsters Vs Aliens (OH NO, HERE COMES… Susan!)
16. 2012 (I also love apocalypse movies)
17. G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (yet another 80’s cartoon gone serious movie)
18. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (No Kate Beckingsale but Rhona Mitra!)
19. Crank: High Voltage (just see the first, should be awesomely hilarious)
20. Sherlock Holmes (the good one with Robert Downey Jr. Directed by Guy Ritchie)