Cinema Paradiso: March 2009

Apologies everyone who writes and reads this blog. I know I haven’t contributed at all in a long time, but I felt like writing a 2008 review and I wanted to share it with everyone. Hope I’m still welcome here.

So let’s start. I’ll make a list of the movies I saw from 2008.

First alphabetical order and in the end a top 10. Hope you enjoy it!

10.000 BC – Really cool special effect but not a great movie… 5/10
21 – It was kind of fun when I watched it, but I will probably never see it again. Worth a watch. 6/10
Australia – Kind of disappointing as I was expecting it to be one of the years greats. It’s epic, with breathtaking scenarios, good acting, good direction. But it’s too long, and it feels like two movies put together. I’d still recommend it thought. 8/10
Bank Job – Great heist movie. Definitely worth a watch. 8/10
Be Kind Rewind – I hope Michael Gondry keeps making this quirky little movies. The Sweeded movies are great 8/10
Body of Lies – a great director (Ridley Scott) and two of the best actors of our time (Russel Crowe and Leo Dicaprio), should have been a better movie. 6/10
Bolt – Disney is back to form. Not as good as their Pixar outings but Bolt, Mittens and Rhino are great, great characters. 7/10
Boy in Stripped Pyjamas – Interesting view on the Holocaust. I thought it was better than the Reader. Really depressing. 7/10
Burn After Reading – The Cohen brothers are indeed great. Brad Pitt is outstandingly funny. And it is literally about, well, nothing. 7/10
Changeling – The worse of the Eastwood’s movies this year. Angelina Jolie is outstanding though 6/10
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian – I enjoy the Narnia movies, not as much as the Harry Potter ones but I hope they keep making them 7/10
Class, The – Cannes winner, it’s the typical story about a teacher reaching out to troubled teens. Better than most attempts though. 7/10
Cloverfield – What a great way to start the year. One of the best monster movies of all time, great viral marketing, and solid direction by Lost’s J.J. Abrams. Next up is Star Trek, I have never been a fan, but I am actually excited about it. 8/10
Day the Earth Stood Still, The – Remake of the 1950 movie of the same title, Low key sci-fi, a great remake in my opinion. 7/10
Definitely Maybe – Outstanding romantic comedy. Great recreation of the 90s. Great story. It feels like a Woody Allen flick, what more could you expect? 8/10
Doomsday – A great throw back to the 80s 6/10
Doubt – Good acting, interesting story. 7/10
Eagle Eye – Fun action romp. Shia LaBeauf is great. 7/10
Escapist, The – The best Prison Break movie since Shawshank Redemption. Seek this indie flick, it is well worth it. 8/10
Eye, The – Another J-Horror remake. Please stop making them. 4/10
Forgetting Sarah Marshall – one of the Apatow’s crew for 2008. As usually it’s hilarious. Keep them coming. 7/10
Get Smart – Steve Carell is one of the funniest people in the business. The Rock was cool and Anne Hathaway sexy and fun. I really did enjoy this. 7/10
Ghost Town – Ricky Gervais is great. Even in a movie that is not that great he is still funny as hell. Gets better on repeated viewing. 7/10
Gran Torino – The best of the Clint Eastwood’s double bill for 2008. If this is the last we will see of him in front of the camera it is a great swansong 7/10
Hancock – This could have been a much darker much better movie but it’s still a funny Will Smith vehicle. 6/10
Happening, The – I was hoping for another Six Sense or another Village and I get this crap? Shame on you Shymalan. 4/10
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay – It was just too stupid 5/10
Hellboy II: The Golden Army – I didn’t really like the first Hellboy but I thought this one was pretty good. Del Toro will be great in directing the Hobbit. 7/10
High School Musical 3: Senior Year – ah fuck it, I love it and lets just leave it at that. 8/10
Horton Hears a Who! – Great Dr. Seuss adaptation. Not as good as Wall-E or Kung Fu Panda but really enjoyable nonetheless. Great use of anime in a small sequence. 7/10
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People – Funny but not belly busting movie as it should have been considering it was the first major Hollywood role for Simon Pegg. 6/10
Hunger – Steve McQueen’s british artist debut as a filmmaker is one of the most compelling movies you’ll se from 2008. Michael Fassbender is a star on the rise. 8/10
In Bruges – The best scrip of the year. Really funny. Excellent performances throughout. A great surprise. 8/10
Incredible Hulk, The – Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk wasn’t great… This is worse. 5/10
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – It wasn’t as good as the previous three but Spielberg and Lucas didn’t rape Indiana like South Park has suggested. I am glad they brought him back, it was fun once again. 7/10
Iron Man – I love Robert Downey Jr and I recognize that he is great as Tony Stark, but I just didn’t enjoy the movie, I really don’t understand all the hype around it. 5/10
JCVD – The biggest surprise of the year. A Van Damme movie that seems directed by Godard or Truffaut. Great performance by the muscles from Brussels. Seek it! 8/10
Journey to the Center of the Earth – Good set pieces but the end is not equal to the sum of its parts. 6/10
Jumper – Nice to see Rachel Bilson again and Hayden Christiansen is not as bad as he usually is. It felt like an origin movie, maybe a future sequel will be better. 6/10
Kung Fu Panda - this was a surprise. The voice acting is hilarious and the characters are great. Lacks a bit of a story though. 8/10
Let The Right One In – Impressive vampire flick. Really low key and not what you’d expect. Chilling. The second horror masterpiece of the year, should have gotten much more recognition than Twilight. 8/10
Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa – More of the same, with a great cast it doesn’t deliver nearly as many gags as it should. But you’ll like it if you liked the first one 6/10
Mamma Mia! – As gay as it sounds me and my friends had great fun watching this. Admittedly it wasn’t the best of movies but hey the songs are fun if you’re in the mood. 6/10
Man on Wire – Incredible documentary about a man who walks across the Twin Towers… on a rope. Unreal. 8/10
Marley and Me – The dog is hilarious and the film is actually quite good. 7/10
Milk – Overhyped because of the Gay Rights debate that is going on in the USA. Sean Penn and the supporting cast are great but Mickey Rourke should have never been robbed of the Oscar. Shame. 7/10
Mirrors – Great horror director (A. Aja). Good Cast (K. Sutherland). Bad movie. Really really disappointing. It has however one of the best scenes of the year… That bath scene with the jaw… Go on youtube and watch it. 4/10
Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The – Take it from someone who liked the first one, and loved the second one. This was garbage. Soooo boring. 3/10
Other Boleyn Girl, The – Two of the best looking girls in cinema (N. Portman and S. Johansson), good eye candy, not a great movie though. 6/10
Pinapple Express – funnier than forgetting Sarah Marshall. The other Apatow movie of the year. 7/10
Ponyo on a Cliff – The latest from the Ghibli house and the master of animation Hayao Myazaki. As always its worth a watch. 7/10
Quantum of Solace – I like Daniel Craig as Bond and, unlike most people I found this movie to be as good as Casino Royale. Also Olga Kurylenko is the prettiest gal you’ll see on screen in 2008. 7/10
Rambo – I think this is the goriest movie of the year. A bit crap, but I guess it was fun. 6/10
Reader, The – It was a good movie but it only got an Oscar nomination because it is an Holocaust movie. But it is good that the greatest actress alive finally got some recognition from the Academy (I am talking about Kate Winselt of course). Ricky Gervais was right in Extras. Kate Winselt + Holocaust Movie = Oscar 7/10
Revolutionary Road – Great direction by Sam Mendes and even greater performances by two of the finest actors we have (Di Carpio and Winslet). Really depressing though. 7/10
Righteous Kill – De Niro and Pacino back together. Not a patch on Heat. Really disappointing. 6/10
RockNRolla – Another cool gangster movie from Guy Richie. No one makes them like him 7/10
Role Models – McLovin, Stifler, and the funniest little dude in a movie this year. Great fun. 7/10
Ruins, The – The greatest studio horror movie of the year. Fans of the genre will be really pleased. 8/10
Saw V – More of the same, as good as II, III and IV, not a patch on I. That said, keep them coming and I’ll keep watching. 6/10
Seven Pound – Depressing, but a good movie. Better than Hancock! 7/10
Spiderwick Chronicles, The – Brilliant kids fantasy movie. The kind I always love watching. 8/10
Star Wars: Clone Wars – The first StarWars flop. I still thought it was quite enjoyable but not as good as any the live action saga. 6/10
Step Brothers – I want to keep liking Will Ferrel but I think I’m just getting tired of him 5/10
Strangers, The – Effective home invasion horror movie. 6/10
Taken – well, this was a surprising box office it! And it deserves it. Liam Neeson is one though bastard. 7/10
Timecrimes – Spanish timetravel movie. 2008’s Donnie Darko 7/10
Tropic Thunder – Robert Downey Jr playing is a dude, playing a dude, disguised as another dude. Enough said 7/10
Twilight – Glossy girly fun. Definitely NOT the best vampire flick of the year. 6/10
Untraceble – Interesting enough thriller, kind of like a soft core version of Saw. 6/10
Valkyrie – Tom Cruise is on a good path back to stardom with this and that great cameo on Tropic Thunder. Interesting story as well. 7/10
Vantage Point – Another movie inspired by Kurosawa’s 1950 Roshomon. Same story, different points of view. Not nearly as good as Kurosawa’s masterpiece. 5/10
Waltz with Bashir – A war documentary made in animation. Original and really well done. 8/10
Wanted – Meh, Angelina Jolie is hot in this, James McAvoy is cool. The special effects are also cool. The story wasn’t great, neither was the movie. 6/10
Wendy and Lucy – That great indie movie that no one knows about of 2008. 7/10
X-Files: I want to believe – It was great seeing Mulder and Scully again, but the movie wasn’t very good. Disappointing. I still want more X-Files movies though 5/10
Yes Man – I thought this was going to be a stupid Jim Carey comedy (don’t get me wrong I love the guy, especially in Eternal Sunshine and Truman show, but he does do stupid comedies), but instead we got this kind of low key love story. Zooey Deschanel is beautiful and the window song one of my favourite movie moments of the year. 7/10

Haven’t seen and will not see: Sex and the City, Max Payne, Meet the Spartans, Disaster Movie, What Happens in Vegas, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, 27 Dresses, Semi Pro, Hottie and the Nottie, Babylon A.D., Transporter 3, The Love Guru, Superhero Movie, Step Up 2: The Streets,

Haven’t seen and probably will eventually: Felon, Fool’s Gold, Drillbit Taylor, W., Never Back Down, Traitor, Bangkok Dangerous, Pride and Glory, Street Kings, The Forbidden Kingdom,

Haven’t seen and will defiantly see: A Wednesday, Jerusalema, Sunshine Cleaning, The Children ,Mom and Dad, Tales of the Despereux, Inkheart, Last Chance Harvey, The Good the Bad and the Weird, The Edge of Love

And now, my favourite movies of 2008:

The Top 10:

10 – Religulous – Really funny documentary about how ridiculous and dangerous religion can be. Bill Maher aided by Larry Charles (director of Borat) make it one of the funniest movies you will watch from 2008. It’s priceless seeing Maher asking the simplest questions to religion people and see that they barely know their religion and the sometimes outrageously stupid answers they come up with. This is not just making fun for the fun of making fun though. Maher fully believes that religion will destroy mankind and he is actually really convincing when he makes his point. 8/10

09 – Zack and Miri Make a Porno - Funniest thing you will see this year. However be aware that I am a big fan of Kevin Smith so I might be overhyping it for you. To be honest Smith sweet tooth (which as screwed him before… Jersey Girl anyone) nearly ruins some of the scenes but then he comes up with such crude jokes that you just have to forgive him. Amazingly funny supporting cast and a good rate of gags make this a must watch for any fans of comedy. Oh and be prepared for the greatest drunk to ever grace your screen. 8/10

08 – The Wrestler – Mickey Rourke’s comeback movie. And what a movie. Darren Aronovsky is a great filmmaker and I’ve loved all his movies so far. Bur Rourke is the real star of the movie. He delivers an outstanding performance as a retired Wrester who makes a comeback (much like Rourke himself). It’s good to have him back. It was a shame what happen at the Oscars. It would have been like Daniel Day Lewins hadn’t won last year for There Will Be Blood. The movie is a joy to watch and it’s the best performance of the year (apart from Ledger) and one of the best of all time. Damn you “homo loving sons of guns” indeed 8/10

07 – Slumdog Millionaire – The feelgood movie of the year and the big winner of the 2009 Academy Awards. Danny Boyle is a great director but just like Scorsese (an even greater director) he received his award for the wrong movie. 28 days later and trainspotting are better movies. But he seems like such a great guy that you can’t really be upset that his movie won pretty much everything this year. The movie is not bad, mind. But it’s not outstanding either and defiantly not the best of the year. The art direction, cinematography and soundtrack are great (Danny Boyle always makes good choices in the later section), the direction is good and the acting good enough. The story wasn’t a easy sell. It’s about how a kid from the slums (Skin’s Dave Patel) ends up wining the TV show “”Who wants to be a Millionaire?”. Intrigued? You should be. Watch it when you’re in a bad mood and it’ll make your day. 8/10

06 – Speedracer. I know it got bashed by the critics, flopped at the box office, no one seems to have liked it… You know what? Blade Runner had the same reception when it was released back in 1984. Ok, I am not saying this will eventually be recognized as one of the greatest of all time like Blade Runner, but, give it sometime to become a cult favourite and it will defiantly show up in future “2008 best movies list”. I was dying to see this movie ever since I watched that amazing trailer and it did not disappoint me. The Wachoswki brothers from Matrix (which I don’t even like that much) fame created a massively cool Pop-Art movie. Had this movie been released when I was younger and it would certainly be number one. It’s has great special effects, everyone seems to be having fun and the story is good enough. It was everything I expect from a kids movie and more. Future cult favourite, I am just a bit ahead of the crowd! 8/10

05 – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Let me start by saying I expected more. But… I did expect this to be the best movie of the year… It wasn’t, but it is still great and, since the Academy didn’t recognize any of the four best movies of the year they should have least given the best Picture / Director statuette to Benjamin Buttton. You know that great feeling you have after watching films like Forest Gump or better yet Shawshank Redemption? The feeling that you just watched a low key yet epic movie? It’s the feeling I got after seeing Curious Case. Nearly everything works in this movie. The acting is superb by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchet. The directing, cinematography, art direction and photography outstanding. So, what is the problem with this movie? Well, it is adapted from a great story, a man was born who ages backwards. Strange and intriguing premise which should have had a big emotional payoff. This however, is where the movie failed. It kind of leaves you unaffected. When the movie ends you don’t feel the rush you felt when Andy Dufresne finally re-encounters Red, or when Gwineth Paltrow’s head arrives in a box, and that is why Shawshank and Se7en are two of the best movies of all time and Benjamin Button, despite being a good film, will be eventually forgotten. 8/10

04 – Wall.E – Take the first 40 minutes of Wall.E and a couple of scenes from the second part of the movie. Delete all the humans. What do you get? The best movie of the year, miles better than my number one pick actually. Unfortunately the humans are in this movie which is why this is number four. The first part of the movie is basically Wall.E (a rusty old robot) doing his job, picking up garbage, then, he meets Eve (a futuristic robot) sent to Earth to look for plants. He falls in love. There is no dialogue but, as ridiculous as it sounds you do feel like you are watching one of the greatest love stories of all time. It is reminiscent of early Charlie Chaplin. Yes, Pixar has done it again they have crafted a massively original movie. The second part however is underwhelming, when a spaceship comes to pick Eve, Wall.E grabs onto it and flies through outer space (this sequence gives rise to an amazing scene as WallE crosses through the rings of Saturn) until he reaches a spaceship were all humans live. This is when the story starts to go downhill, it’s just a bit clichéd, predictable and the humans are simply annoying. Nevertheless this is worth watching for the robots. They are perfectly animated and you can feel all that Wall-E is thinking, even though he doesn’t even have a mouth just those big googly eyes. He is indeed Pixar’s greatest creation yet. If I haven’t convinced you to watch this yet, let me just say that the scene with Wall.E and Eve floating through space is by far the most beautiful thing you will see in celluloid last year and, in my opinion, one of the greatest movie scenes of all time. Pure cinematic magic. 9/10

03 – The Dark Knight – So much hype… so much viral marketing… was it worth it? Definitely. The new Batman is indeed one of the best movies of the year, and the second best comic book movie of all time (yep I thought the recently released Watchmen was better). Nearly everything in this movie is superb, except for Batman’s really annoying voice. But don’t let that distract you, Christian Bale is still the best Knight ever, Maggie Gyllenhal is much better than Katie Holmes and Aaron Eckhart does a brilliant job as Harvey Dent / Two-Face. Christopher Nolan was robbed of a best Director nomination, scratch that, win. Directing the cast and crew of this size with such a great success should have been more celebrated. Every scene is good, every twist worth your time. The cinematography and art direction are some of the best you’ll see this year and the plot/screenplay is really good as well. And then there is Heath Ledger. We lost such a great actor, I could see him reaching the heights of Brando, he really was that great. This was an amazing swansong (ok, he does have a small part in Imaginarium of Dr. Parnasus but..) and the post-hummus Oscar he receive is completely deserved. He is a fucking tour de force as the Joker and he left us with one of the greatest performances of all time and one of the greatest on-screen villains you will ever see. Thank you Chris Nolan for casting him he’ll now go down in cinema history like he deserved to. 9/10

02 – Martyrs – This is the reason I postponed writing this list for such a long time, I had to watch this movie first and I knew it would probably end up in my top 10… But I didn’t expect it to be this good. France, that’s were everyone should get their horror movies, they are the best at it. Last years inside was also one of the best movies of the year, but whereas Inside was a throwback to a fun 70s horror, Martyrs is much more. Martyrs is a masterpiece of filmmaking. I am not going to tell much about the story because that would ruin the movie (which is full of twists and turns) but I can tell you it starts of with a bruised girl running down the street, we eventually find out what she is running from and what could have been just another Hostel becomes so much more… The first part of the movie is a mix of violence and effective Japanese horror (don’t let yourself be put of by this, it’s not another Grudge or Ring), the last 30 minutes include some of the footage I found the hardest to ever watch on film. But it is so rewarding… The ending will leave you thinking like no other movie this year, so hopefully you can stomach it (I am not kidding, I am a big fan of horror movies and this did really disturb me). The acting is outstanding by the two leads, they convey terror like I haven’t seen in a long time, the cinematography is beautiful and the directing simply outstading. A perfect way to describe it is “Dreyer’s The Passion of Jeanne D’Arc, the Unrated Edition” (credit to totalfilm magazine). Pascal Laugier (director) knows his horror movies (the movie is dedicated to Dario Argento!) and next up for him is a remake of Hellraiser. I couldn’t be more excited. 10/10

01 – Vicky Cristina Barcelona – Ok lets be honest I am being unfair to the other movies this year. Woody Allen is one of my favourite directors so I was always going to love this movie, but I haven’t enjoyed a movie of his this much since… well, since Manhattan actually. Woody’s latest outing is extraordinary. As soon as the movie starts you know Allen wrote it. He is defianately the greatest screenwriter we have, seriously, no one does it like him. The movie is about two American tourists (R. Hall and S. Johansson) who both fall in love with the same Spanish fellow (J. Barden) who happens to have a neurotic ex-wife (P. Cruz). They get involved in this love square and that is pretty much the story. The acting is superb throughout, especially by Cruz (who I don’t even like), the cinematography, photography and score are outstanding and really make you feel like you are in Barcelona. But the real winner is Allen and his script. Do yourself a favour, take this two hour trip to Spain and enjoy the most enjoyable movie you’ll see from the past year. 10/10