CaptainD's Top Ten Movies of 2008 - The 1,000th Review!
Feb 24 '09
The Bottom Line 2008 didn't seem like a great year for movies... but perhaps my opinion will change when I've seen a few more?
My opinion may change in time as I see the films that I missed at the cinema, but on the basis of the films I've seen so far that were released in 2008, it wasn't a great year for movies. Though there were many films that I enjoyed, there were only two that I rated 5 stars - these are my joint number one as I couldn't separate them in the end. Of the others in my top ten I enjoyed them all, but I can't say that any of them were exceptional. Again a number of animated movies make my list, because frankly most of them were more enjoyable than the season's blockbusters and mostly had better scripts too.
Anyway, for my thousandth review, here I present my Top Ten Movies of 2008:
Joint Number One: Wall-E & The Dark Knight
Wall-E set a new mark for animated movies - it was an utter joy to behold from start to finish, with a nice plot, wonderful visuals and great humour throughout. With the quality of computer animation by all studios rising all the time, PIXAR once again proved that they are still in a class of their own. Wall-E is designed to pack away the rubbish that humanity had accumulated over the centuries, and is the only machine of his type still operating. He meets Eve, a far more advanced robot sent to investigate whether the earth has become fit for human habitation once more. What has become of the human race? Also, how did PIXAR manage to imbue such a personality into a robot who doesn't say much at all? (Even more weirdly, how did they create a cockroach that we audiences around the world ended up caring about so much?!
It looks fantastic, the voice acting was perfect, the quirky music score enhanced the film, and there were some truly wonderful scenes (Wall_E and Eve dancing in space was one of my favourite moments of the film.)
The Dark Knight had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end - a very rare accomplishment for any film. Heath Ledger's Joker was definitely worrying, Christian Bale is making the Batman role his own, and Aaron Eckhart gave another extremely accomplished performance as Harvey Dent / Twoface. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman lent a depth and subtle humour to the proceedings. The dark tone of the movie drew some criticism but I felt that in this case, it totally suited the film. Despite the fact that I found Maggie Gyllenhall extremely annoying, I still felt that this was the best action film I saw in 2008.
Number Two: Easy Virtue
Featuring probably Colin Firth's career-best performance, a vivacious Jessica Biel in the lead role and Kirsten Scott Thomas as an embittered wife, this story of an American bride being brought back to England in the post-war years and having a less than welcoming reception from her new in-laws is imaginative and thoroughly entertaining. Very good performances on the whole with great period detail and a witty script based on the Noel Coward play.
Number Three: Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
Speaking of entertaining, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army was a blast from beginning to end. I'd not seen the first film (in fact still haven't at time of writing this), but I was immediately drawn into Guillermo del Toro ‘ssurreal fantasy universe. Ron Perlman is very funny as the big red dude who's just trying to fit in (admittedly without much success), and he's ably supported by the rest of the cast, some great special effects, good dialogue and a crazily fun storyline.
Number Four: Australia
Hugh Jackman is superb in this sprawling epic from Baz Luhrmann which also stars Nicole Kidman and perennial aborigine actor David Gulpilil. It starts off a bit slowly but gets better after the first half hour, and there are some tremendous action scenes and parts with great emotional power. Australia received rather a mixed reception but I for one really liked it. Despite the sets often not looking very realistic , the strong performances shone through to keep audience involvement.
Number Five: Penelope
Christina Ricci suffers from a curse - she has the face (well, just the snout really) of a pig, rendering her slightly unattractive to the opposite sex. James McAvoy comes into her life and starts unravelling the secrets of her past, while Simon Woods is hilarious as a rich kid determined to get even. Reese Witherspoon gets in on the act too and befriends the young piglet-faced maiden. A modern fairy story with quite a few laugh-out-loud moments.
Number Six: Iron Man
Robert Downey Jr could have been born to play Tony Stark, the rich, alcoholic, womanising industrialist made rich by selling weapons, but about to have some morality shoved into him. Maintaining a good mix of action and humour throughout, great special effects, and even Gwyneth Paltrow didn't annoy me in this.
Number Seven: Kung Fu Panda
Everybody was kung-fu fighting... da da de de da dum da.... or something like that. Animated movies that spoof genres far more effectively than most of these stupid "[put genre here] Movie" things could ever dream of are becoming more common, and in this movie martial arts movies are the victims. Jack Black voices a fat panda who dreams of becoming a legendary warrior. This is, of course, impossible. However since it's a film, of course it happens anyway.
Number Eight: Igor
Another genre that got ripped by an animated movie in 2008 was the horror genre - more specifically the Frankenstein story and all those old monster movies that had people quivering behind their couches at midnight. Frequently funny and featuring the voice of Steve Buscemi as a suicidal, undead bunny (seriously, do I need to say anything else to convince you that this is worth watching?!?),
Number Nine: Space Chimps
Yes, it's another animated movie. It's also another spoof animated movie, taking off (you guessed it) science fiction movies. This is definitely one that sci-fi fans will enjoy more - there are tons of references to skiffy films and TV series that the non-fan or even casual fan would probably miss, and without those it's a fairly average film.
So, my number ten is really one for sci-fi fans only... but since I'm a sci-fi fan myself, I'm leaving it in my list!
Number 10: St Trinians
The concept of resurrecting the St Trinians series didn't seem like a good one but the resulting film turned out to be surprisingly good. There is a plot about a spoilt rich kid being put in the terrible school and the school itself being in danger of being closed down, but really it's just an excuse for a series of comedy set pieces. Admittedly not all of them work, but certainly enough for it to be a very enjoyable film. Colin Firth got the part of the school inspector because the directors thought it would be fun to throw him out of windows and impose other similar indignities upon him, while Rupert Everet has fun in the dual roles as St Trinian's headmistress and the spoilt kid's obnoxious father. Plenty of pop culture references and a silly plot involving a quiz show hosted by Stephen Fry keep things moving along at a nice pace.
Well there we are... 2008 was a good year for superhero movies and animated movies, but there wasn't much else to get excited over (at least, not that I've seen so far). Yet another Top Ten List and my thousandth review on Epinions - I thought I'd never reach this milestone! I will now list all 1,000 reviews in chronological order, date order and in order of rating... :-D
Just don't expect me to reach two thousand reviews in a hurry....
Other Top Ten Lists Written by CaptainD in 2009
CaptainD's Top Ten Movies of 2007
CaptainD's Top Ten Movies from the Nineties
CaptainD's Top Ten Movies from the Eighties
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