Top 10 movies of 2008

The film industry hasn’t seen a year this awesome since ‘Gangs of New York,’ ‘Chicago,’ ‘The Pianist’, ‘The Hours,’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ duked it out for best picture. Fans flocked to the theaters for pop culture sensations ‘Twilight’ and ‘The Dark Knight,’ Sean Penn inspired a movement with ‘Milk’ and ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ enchanted millions. Here are The Daily Orange staff’s choices for best motion pictures of 2008.

10. Twilight

A sexy, jailbait cast and all the charm of vampirism launched ‘Twilight’ into pop culture utopia after its November release. Seemingly overnight, the ‘vamp’ fad took over high schools across the nation, with British hunk Robert Pattinson and damsel Kristen Stewart leading the way. Based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer, the film created a following of fans anxious for the sequel ‘New Moon,’ set to release in November 2009. But ‘Twilight’ didn’t just create a multimillion member fan club or reignite the obsession with vampires; the film’s greatest achievements were in writing, cinematography and finding Robert Pattinson.

9. WALL-E

Nothing says ‘family movie’ like the tale of a lonely robot stranded on a desolate Earth thousands of years in the future. A magical film with subtle but powerful messages drew in massive audiences while they joined WALL-E on his journey to save his love, Eve. Although the film lingers as a sad depiction of the nature of human beings and the poor robot’s quest to find companionship, the animation should be applauded and the writers certainly owe themselves a pat on the back.

8. Revolutionary Road

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are back – but this time there’s no sinking ship. Winslet finally has a respectable career (and lost weight), and DiCaprio is, well, still gorgeous. But ‘Revolutionary Road’ goes far beyond a tragic love story – it flawlessly paints a portrait of a gilded time while introducing a relationship that both captivates and disturbs its audience. The film is nothing less than a masterpiece, capturing the frustration and suffocation felt within the suburbs of the 1950s.

7. Doubt

Philip Seymour Hoffman. Meryl Streep. A preacher who allegedly molests children and the relentless nun who is determined to destroy him provide an Oscar-winning duo destined to make cinematic gold – which they did. ‘Doubt’ is one of the year’s best films and one of the most distressing in recent history. But this film holds a secret – while it is a political thriller about religious hypocrisy, the characters suffer less from God’s wrath and more from greed, prejudice and fear of change.

6. Iron Man

Robert Downey Jr.’s career has never been so sweet, and Tony Stark was the perfect character to portray his suave and sexy new persona. A billionaire genius kidnapped by terrorists turned vigilante superhero, Downey Jr. fought his way back into the Hollywood spotlight with his search for justice. In what would have been one of the biggest superhero movies of all time (if not for that other one and a few spiders), an impressive cast led a stunning action film to become the second grossing film of the year, with more than $318 million in box office revenue. A clean and structured action flick, ‘Iron Man’ has made many top lists for 2008, including ours. Oh, plus Robert Downey Jr. Sold.

5. Tropic Thunder

In an age of fart jokes and spoofs, ‘Tropic Thunder’ lit up the comedy film genre with something new – an action comedy that was serious about the action and hard-core with the comedy. Robert Downey Jr. (with his second appearance on this list) stole the screen as the black lieutenant/Australian hunk Kirk Lazarus. His performance was not only Golden Globe worthy, but one of the most convincing and controversial comedy roles written in the last decade. Even better, Ben Stiller proved to the world that he hasn’t lost one bit of his humor or edge (or those muscles). Jack Black may have played a pretty typical role, but Matthew McCounaghey and the rest of the diabolical cast crafted the hands-down funniest movie of the year. But let’s not forget the biggest comeback of all: Tom Cruise as the overweight and balding movie tycoon Les Grossman. Epic. Simply epic.

4. Slumdog Millionaire

While vastly overrated at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ was a stunning display of filmmaking. From score to cinematography and the basic but heart-wrenching plot, British director Danny Boyle presented a tale set in a distant land, with foreign actors about poverty, destitution and love – and he owned every minute of the screen. Mumbai’s recent tragedies bring the story even closer to home as light shines on an area of the world where the poor are neglected. The movie has strong political messages about corruption and greed, portrayed forcefully by a young but talented cast.

3. Milk

Sean Penn proved once again why he’s worthy of the all the Golden Globe and Oscar nominations he’s received. But Penn didn’t make this movie near-perfect – the writing did. ‘You gotta give ’em hope,’ said Harvey Milk, and this movie did. After a year of successes and defeats for the gay community, ‘Milk’s’ release was just a few months too late to rejuvenate the movement – but it certainly lit a spark. Like Milk’s life, the movie made in his memory has already had a profound effect on the gay community. The cast managed to prove themselves: Sean Penn’s performance was his best yet, James Franco grew from a stoner-boy to a mature man, and Emile Hirsch came out – literally. Who knew that Speed Racer could act, much less dominate the silver screen?

2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Timeless. Enchanting. Moving. Pick your adjective, this movie mastered it. Set in New Orleans and narrated during Hurricane Katrina, ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ tells the story of a man who is born old and ages backwards. Based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the novella that takes 30-minutes to read blossomed into a 3-hour magical journey of experience, life lessons, love and grace. Cate Blanchett’s beauty can’t be described as anything other than flawless, and Brad Pitt’s performance was beyond his years. The make-up, one of the film’s greatest achievements, creates characters who are believable, humble and anything but fake and plastic-looking. The score, cinematography, dialogue, progression of plot and direction were perfect displays of what film should be and what filmmakers should strive to achieve.

1. The Dark Knight

‘The Dark Knight’ was destined for Hollywood gold. When director Christopher Nolan jumped on board for the sequel to 2007’s ‘Batman Begins,’ he knew he had something special. But it wasn’t until Heath Ledger signed on to play the role of the disturbed psychopath ‘The Joker’ that ‘The Dark Knight’ became something more than just a film. Unfortunately, the movie was as cursed as it was fortunate. After Ledger’s death in January, lead actor Christian Bale’s arrest in July and Morgan Freeman’s near-death accident in August 2008, the film still managed to rake in more than $400 million at the box office, shattering every single record in the history of film save ‘Titanic.’ Ledger’s performance will be known as one of the most intuitive and daunting in the history of film, and ‘The Dark Knight’ rightfully takes its place as one of the most intriguing, challenging and moving films ever, and the best film of 2008.

Worst 10 movies of 2008

10. Jumper

It’s not Hayden Christiansen’s fault – blame George Lucas for snatching him long before he was ready to carry his own on the silver screen. The idea itself can’t sustain a film – okay, so the guy can jump through mysterious time portals and travel the world in seconds. Cool. What else? Someone should have asked that question before they went into production – and demanded a better answer then, ‘so, there’s a league of bad guys who want to kill jumpers, but Christenson has to save this girl, and they go through a whole bunch of places, and, uh, yeah!’

9. The Incredible Hulk

No matter how many times they try to remake this movie, it always ends up being terrible. This time, they brought Edward Norton down with them. Granted, this version was better than the 2003’s ‘Hulk’ starring Eric Bana, but it makes the list of worst films of 2008 because… they should really just stop remaking it! A giant, green angry man just does not look real yet. Give CG a few more years and it might happen, but go with Brad Pitt then and it might have a chance.

8. The Day the Earth Stood Still

Okay, so ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ wasn’t painfully terrible, but it was a vast disappointment. Keanu Reeves has been known to do some tasteless movies. The original was great, but bringing back the old needs to end somewhere. ‘War of the Worlds’ was a smart pick to bring back because it was cheesy enough to do so; the producers embraced the cheesiness and combined it with Tom Cruise (before he went crazy and then became cool again). There were some spectacular effects, but that was about it. The acting was bland; Reeves’ character seemed as stale as he does in real life and the lead actress, Jennifer Connelly, wasn’t enough to put it through. Not to mention how annoying Jaden Smith became during the film.

7. Disaster Movie

Now this one was painful. Enough, already! The first ‘Scary Movie’ was funny, but we’ve had it with the spoofs – especially the spoofs of spoofs! Poking fun at movies that gross more than $400 million is just plain stupid, and poking fun at movies that poke fun isn’t funny. These movies are the equivalent of a bad strip club; you know you’re going to get something you really don’t want to see, accompanied by nasty bathrooms (or poop/fart/other bowel jokes), naked women and bad performances.

6. High School Musical 3

All I remember from this film was an audience of middle-aged, overweight soccer moms outraged at the sight of the lead characters doing the unthinkable. Not giving each other herpes or getting pregnant, mind you – the two lead characters, brace yourself, held hands. And they were of the opposite sex. And that’s about as seriously as anyone with half a brain over the age of 12 took this movie.

5. The Mummy III: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

The first one was pretty good, the second one was great, the third… not so much. Brendan Fraiser put on quite a few pounds and they replaced Rachel Weiss with a less attractive, over-the-top, melodramatic no-name actress (Maria Bello). She doesn’t even have a photo on The Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com). The mummy-snowman/evil Jet Li entourage was ridiculous and the CG looked like paper cutouts.

4. Penelope

Man, I miss the days when Christina Ricci was cool (‘The Adams Family Values’). Ricci killed what little chance she had of ever being the ‘It’ girl with her role as the pseudo-charming pig-girl, Penelope. Her search to accept herself (which starts with her running away from home) leads her to hunk James McAvoy. She eventually accepts her deformed figure and finds love and friendship. All of which could have been avoided with a simple nose job.

3. Meet Dave

Eddie Murphy, what happened? I know he got what’s-her-face knocked up and all, but this isn’t the first disaster he’s done in recent history. On the one hand he has ‘Shrek,’ but on the other he has ‘Norbit’ and ‘The Adventures of Pluto Nash’ stacked against him. The latter was listed as one of the worst films of all time by multiple critics – this is one more to add to the list.

2. Indiana Jones and Temple of the Crystal Skull

‘South Park’ summed it up: they raped our friend and we just sat there and watched. In massive numbers, in fact; it was the third top grossing film of the year. Add aliens, a creepy-Cate Blanchett (in no way reminiscent of her role in ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’), an old Harrison Ford, an awkward Shia Lebouf and… whatever the hell else happened and you have one epic failure.

1. Prom Night

Advertised as a horror movie and released as comedy, ‘Prom Night’ easily snags worst movie of the year. Britney Snow has had a rough run; from a Nazi on ‘Nip/Tuck’ to whatever she was in ‘John Tucker Must Die,’ her career has been anything but promising and ‘Prom Night’ epitomized the dying career of the young ‘actress.’ Every scene was predictable, every line was forced – every murder was even done in the same manner (really, Mr. Serial Killer, spice it up a bit!). As the poster-child of the slasher-genre-gone-bad, ‘Prom Night’ killed. And not in a good way.

Published on January 14, 2009 at 12:00 pm