For further background on the year in film, please refer to the Some Other Movies From 2008 entry.
The following things happened in 2008:
- The Great Recession began. For details I refer you to The Big Short.
- Iran launched a rocket into space.
- Demonstrations by Tibetans led to unrest in China.
- 138,000 people died after a cyclone passed through Myanmar.
- The Canadian Prime Minister formally apologized to First Nations people for the Canadian Indian residential school system.
- The Summer Olympics took place in Beijing.
- The Android operating system was released.
- Satoshi Nakamoto published "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System."
- Heath Ledger, Roy Scheider and Arthur C. Clarke passed away.
Underlined titles were viewed on Netflix.
Linked entries can be viewed in their entirety on YouTube.
Excellent
1. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Jojo Rabbit? I think The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas tells a similar story much better. This, and that ending will Fuck. You. Up. Jesus, I really didn't think it would go that way. I'm not buying the part where he digs under the fence, but yeah, that ending...
You Make the Call: Many critics dismissed this movie as being derivative, but in my opinion the ending is worth it. Many other critics complain of "false equivalencies" between the suffering of a single German family and Jews persecuted during the Holocaust.
2. The Wrestler
One of my all-time favorite movies, my favorite Mickey Rourke movie, and my favorite of Darren Aronofsky's films. If you haven't see it you should, and if you've already seen it you should go see it again. This movie walks a fine line between Rocky and The Last Temptation of Christ, and it does so with an assurance that very, very few movies possess. Out of Aronofsky's films I'd pick Black Swan or Requiem for a Dream for second place, but both are still far removed from The Wrestler, which remains a masterful film.
Fun Fact: Nicolas Cage almost starred in this movie. That would have been interesting!
Find a Quiet Room Without Distractions
1. Synecdoche, New York
Uh... what's it about? Well, Charlie Kaufman's fingerprints are all over it, so if you like "meta" this film doesn't disappoint. Philip Seymour Hoffman is also great in the lead, playing - as you might expect - a stand-in for the writer and director of this movie. Many critics called it pretentious, others called it the greatest movie of all time, and others probably scratched their heads, wondering what they'd just seen.
Some Good Ones
1. Definitely, Maybe
Ryan Reynolds stars as a man recounting tales of relationships gone bad. Aside from the framing device, which seems very forced and artificial, it tells a good story of love lost and love found again. Reynolds appeared in Smokin' Aces two years before, and he'd appear in X-Men Origins: Wolverine the following year.
2. Transporter 3
Jason Statham rescues a hot Russian girl from a kidnapper. I liked 2 a lot more, but this one's OK. Luc Besson wrote the script, and had a lot of say over the production.
Fun Fact: Natalya Rudakova, who plays the hot Russian girl, was a complete unknown before filming started. Luc Besson spotted her on the street in New York, paid for her acting lessons, and flew her to Paris for the movie. Critics at the time weren't loving her performance, and she hasn't been in a major movie since.
3. Speed Racer
"More like non-jas...."
I don't care what anybody says, I've loved this movie since it first came out and I still have to re watch it on occasion. Sure, WAY too much backstory for its own good, but it looks amazing and parts of it are very funny. Anyone who can say some of the cornier lines in this movie with a straight face deserves an Oscar, and John Goodman says more than his fair share.
This movie was a financial disappointment, and failed to impress critics at the time. Just the same I highly recommend it.
4. Max Payne
Look, it's Beau Bridges! And Chris O'Donnell! What are those guys up to now? I have no idea.
I'm not sure if it's more apt to describe this movie as Sin City Lite or Constantine Lite. Whichever it is, it's weird to see Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis together in this movie. I kept thinking of Ted, and how much more engaging they were in that film. Not that this movie's bad, mind you - the scenes near the end are actually quite cool - but yeah, it's not as good as Ted. Or Constantine. Or Sin City.
Olga Kurylenko is, by the way, incredibly sexy in this movie. She played the same role in 2007's Hitman, but she's even hotter in this movie.
5. Death Race
Better than Transporter 3, another Jason Statham vehicle (ha ha) from the same year, but still not that great. As B movies go this one's a solid B. It takes itself a bit too seriously, lacks the cheesy charm of the original, and violence + EXTREME LOUDNESS don't quite compensate for a film that could have been 30 minutes shorter.
Fun Fact: David Carradine, who starred in the original Death Race 2000, voices "Frankenstein" in the beginning of the movie.
6. City of Ember
Two young adults discover that there's a world beyond their underground city. Reminded me a lot of Hugh Howey's Silo series, though City of Ember - at least in its film incarnation - is a lot better thought out. It bombed at the box office, but the critics weren't especially harsh on it.
7. 27 Dresses
Say what you like about Katherine Heigl, she could carry a movie. And say what you like about James Marsden, he could also carry a movie. Sure it's a rom-com, sure it's contrived, but it somehow works, damn it. They MAKE it work.
8. Bronson
Tom Hardy stars as "the most violent inmate in the history of the British prison system." Hardy is great in the role, but what keeps me from putting this movie in the "Excellent" category is that it's pointlessly violent. I love some of director Nicolas Winding Refn's other movies, but this effort seems more muddled than others. I'm just not sure what this movie was trying to say.
9. Never Back Down
It's nice when Djimon Hounsou has a role he can do something with. He's a good actor.
The rest of this movie? Basically nu metal + teenage angst + mixed martial arts. The star looks a lot like Tom Cruise. After Never Back Down he'd go on to star in The King of the Fighters and other movies you probably didn't know existed.
Fun Fact: Check out Evan Peters in this movie. He was quite husky back in the day!
Some Bad Ones
1. Step Up 2: The Streets
Whereas in Save the Last Dance Julia Stiles plays a white girl schooled in ballet who learns how to both dance and fall in love in the darker side of town, in Step Up 2 a while girl, schooled on the streets, learns how to dance ballet and fall in love in the lighter side of town. WHOA. I know, right? But turnabout is fair play, is it not? Overall it's pretty bad. Channing Tatum briefly reprises his role from the first movie, but aside from him I couldn't recognize anyone in the film.
2. Wild Child
A spoiled rich girl from southern California makes new frenemies in a British preparatory school. I'm of course NOT the intended audience for this one, but I still feel pretty confident in calling it terrible.
3. RocknRolla
Guy Ritchie directed this boring movie about British and Russian gangsters. There's a lot of famous people in it - most of them speaking in their natural accents - but plotwise it's all over the place.
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