Top 5 Movies of 2008

Seems like an appropriate way to start a new year and a new blog. These are in alphabetical order.

• Be Kind Rewind - While the reality of the plot, and Mos Def's acting both leave much to be desired, I was overcome with the charming home-town feel of the film. Michel Gondry is great at this kind of stripped-down filmmaking, and the fact that he used actual residents of the town with no acting background to act along-side Jack Black and Danny Glover was great.
  
• Burn After Reading - The Coen brothers never let me down. I actually just watched this last night, and it was just amazing. Brad Pitt's character is just plain hilarious. A lot of their movies have that mood the whole time like SOMETHING is going to happen and you just can't wait to find out what...this one is no exception.
• The Dark Knight - You've seen it, I'm sure. There isn't much I have to say about this one. Bravo, Heath.
• Horton Hears a Who - Ok, I'm biased. You might not like this at all. Horton was my favorite Dr. Seuss book as a kid. It amazed me to think a whole world of living things could exist on a small speck. So I loved the film adaptation.
  
• Synecdoche, New York - (#2 on TIME's list!) The latest from my personal favorite screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and also his directing debut. It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a struggling theatre director who starts a large scale theatre project in a life-size replica of New York City, within a warehouse in New York City. It was originally announced that Kaufman was writing a horror movie, but Kaufman soon corrected the announcement, saying the film is about everything that people are actually afraid of in life: sickness, death, despair, regret, failure. It is a beautiful mess of a movie; don't expect your typical Hollywood Blockbuster, and don't plan on catching all the essence of the movie on the first view.

Honorable Mention:

• Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Just hilarious, and super quotable. Almost replaced Horton on my list.
  
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - This was just a great story, and well acted too. It was almost three hours long, but didn't even seem like it.

Worst Movies:

• The Strangers - not that I expected much, but this was two hours of nothing happening. And then the "surprise" ending was cliche and pointless.
• The Happening - Also the biggest disappointment. I love M. Night and Marky Mark, but they both failed me. The laughable dialogue, equally laughable deaths, and Wahlberg's annoying, whiney character all made me want to join in the festivities and cut my throat with my ticket stub.
  

Movies I still haven't seen!! - Frost/Nixon, The Fighter, My Winnipeg, Milk

AND Movies I Want to See In 2009:

• Where the Wild Things Are - directed by Spike Jonze, featuring acters in giant wild-things costumes with CGI faces. The early stills look awesome. It was originally postponed because the studio said the the shooting they did was too dark for kids, but I think its scheduled for an October release
• Watchmen - definitely worth an IMAX trip.
• Funny People - I'm not a big Adam Sandler fan as of late, but hopefully Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen will make up for that.
• Inglourious Basterds - Tarantino directing Brad Pitt, Mike Myers, B.J. Novak, and Sam Jackson in a movie about Jews fighting back against the Nazis. Oh my, if this is good, it will be GOOD.
• Nine - I've been looking forward to something else with Daniel Day Lewis ever since "There Will be Blood," so I don't even care what this is about! (fun fact. this is set to release on 9/9/09, along with another movie entitled "9." Don't get them confused.