2008 Cinema round up...

Well what a year...

I went to watch just under 20 movies, but no less than 5 totally blew me away... And 6 other nearly did!

So in a way this year's top 10 comes naturally...
Here it is:
1) WALL·E
2) The Dark Knight
3) No Country for Old Men
4) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
5) Wanted
6) Speed Racer
7) Hellboy II: The Golden Army
8) Iron Man
9) Burn After Reading
10) Zack and Miri Make a Porno

As usual the order is actually quite arbitrary and could change if I was in a different frame of mind...
Right now, Wall-E has to come 1st. Such an accessible, cute, poetic & scary as hell dystopia vision is just unbelievable.
Then comes the Dark Knight, with its epic construction and deconstruction of a myth.
To see No Country For Old Men been knocked like that to 3rd place is a shame. It's true that in terms of scope one could find much in common with the Dark Knight, although it's theme is violence... Yet as of now that's how it feels it should fit.
Sweeney Todd then, with an incredible return from Tim Burton in the darkest places...
In 5 I still stand by the sheer awesomeness of Wanted I can't wait to see it again.
I also stand by Speed Racer, glorious movie under LSD, just forget the monkey, or the monologues (they're far shorter than in Matrix anyway), it's just too cool not to enjoy!
In 7 & 8 come the "other" superheroes, both at an end of their spectrum: Hellboy in the gothic imagery of Del Toro & Ironman as the blueprint for a perfect Marvel adaptation.
In last positions come the "funny ones". I know I'm caught at the trap of letting the funny movies behind the "serious ones"... I think it's more that this year the serious movies are just too good.
Anyway eventhough Burn After Reading kind of follows a "Coen recipe", it's still a damn good film that shouldn't stay in the shadow of the darker No Country...
Last but not least Kevin Smith having people make a porno is just a must see... :)

So there you go. I wish I could have squeezed Pineapple Express in there, but this is a top 10, you have to make sacrifices.

So 2009 has a lot to do to match 2008, we'll see how it goes but with movies like Watchmen or Benjamin Button coming up, I'm quite confdent I'll still have my fix anyway...