For further background on the year in film, please refer to the Some Other Movies From 2006 entry.
The following things happened in 2006:
- NASA launched the first space mission to Pluto.
- Disney bought Pixar.
- The Winter Olympics were held in Turin, Italy.
- Twitter was launched.
- The Yogyakarta Earthquake killed over 5000 people in Indonesia.
- China completed the first railway into Tibet.
- Google bought YouTube.
- Director Robert Altman passed away.
Underlined entries were viewed on Netflix.
Excellent
1. The Fall
A young immigrant and an injured stuntman bond over the stories they tell each other. It's one of the most amazing looking movies I've seen in a long time. Director Tarsem Singh made this before The Cell and Immortals. His output might not have caught the attention of critics, but he has a unique command of images.
2. Candy
As great as Heath Ledger is/was in The Dark Knight, I think he's better in this movie. It's a more complete performance, with all the highs and lows you'd expect from an actor later awarded an Oscar. Ledger stars with Abbie Cornish and Geoffrey Rush in this tale of love and heroin addiction. Critics weren't kind to it, but Ledger was nominated for multiple awards for his performance.
Some Good Ones
1. Idiocracy
As an American, I feel the need to revisit this movie every so often. As with George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece 1984, Idiocracy says a lot about both the time we live in and the future we might be doomed to inhabit. Besides all that, it's got what plants crave!
Fun Fact: This movie made less than $500,000 dollars worldwide. It has since become a cult film, much like director Mike Judge's earlier movie Office Space.
2. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
The One Impossible Thing in this movie: in Tokyo there are cameras EVERYWHERE. Disappearing into a crowd? Eluding police on a major road? Not going to happen.
And hey it's Lucas Black, from Friday Night Lights! One of my favorite movies, and possibly my all-time favorite football movie. He's good in this movie too, and probably a better actor than both Vin Diesel and The Rock. He might not look as distinctive, but yeah, he's a better actor.
Fun Fact 1: Sonny Chiba is in this. He was in Kill Bill Vol. 1 three years before.
Fun Fact 2: Many of the characters in this movie, including Lucas Black, are set to reappear in F9.
Fun Fact 3: Vin Diesel only appeared in this to get the rights to the Riddick movies.
3. Seraphim Falls
Pierce Brosnan stars in this story of survival in the Old West. It's a solid movie, and putting Brosnan and Liam Neeson opposite each other was an interesting idea. Those watching it in 2021 will be reminded of The Revenant, and even though Seraphim Falls lacks the depth of that film it's still worth watching.
4. We Are Marshall
Matthew McConaughey stars as a coach trying to revive a college football program after a tragedy. McConaughey is good in the role, but a lot of the "moments" in this movie don't feel earned. Why IS everyone in that town so obsessed with their local football team? Why ARE they so broken up by the tragedy? Why IS it so important to get the team going again, so soon after? We Are Marshall never really answers these questions, but it's a decent football movie regardless.
Fun Fact: Ian McShane appeared in this the year before Hot Rod. I wonder if it was difficult to go from something so serious to something so silly in less than a year. He adds a lot to both movies.
5. The Marine
A WWE production. Ex-marine John Cena and his ridiculously hot wife (not gay not gay not gay) cross paths with a group of homicidal jewel thieves. As these things go it's well done. T2's Robert Patrick is in both this movie and We Are Marshall above.
Fun Fact: South Carolina? Naw, bro. This movie was filmed in Australia!
Un-Fun Fact: John Cena recently apologized to Mainland China for saying Taiwan was a country. I now have zero qualms about acquiring F9 via "Buccaneer's Bay."
6. Eight Below
Paul Walker and Bruce Greenwood journey across Antarctica via dogsled. If you've seen other dog-centric Disney movies you can guess the rest. It's pretty good.
7. This is England
A young boy falls in with some skinheads. It's OK, but some of the scenes serve no purpose, and it felt like a crucial scene was missing from the end. They just beat someone to death, and you're going to cut straight to the kid's conversation with his mom? Really?
Some Bad Ones
1. Cocaine Cowboys: Reloaded
For the Hollywood version I hereby refer you to both Scarface and American Made. This documentary on the south Florida drug trade starts out good, but it goes into way too much detail.
Centering a movie around Griselda Blanco, known in Dade County as "The Godmother," would be interesting. I wonder if anyone's considered that.
2. Grandma's Boy
With any movie like this you have to ask yourself if the funny bits are worth sitting through the bits that advance the plot. In the case of Grandma's Boy I'd have to say no, they aren't.
Fun Fact: Jonah Hill is in this. It was his third movie.
3. The Covenant
"How about I make you my wee-otch?"
Really, Sebastian Stan, did you really just say that?
In The Covenant a group of ridiculously handsome witches (or is it warlocks?) vie for dominance on the eve of one witch's "ascension." It has a 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and I think that rating is a bit too high.
4. Underworld: Evolution
Uninteresting vampires, werewolves and vampire-werewolves continue to be uninteresting and do uninteresting things. Something something the bad guy's brother something something vampires and werewolves. How many bullets does Selene have in that gun? And why keep shooting when it's obviously not working?
5. The Lake House
What kills this movie is causality. The minute you start wondering why Sandra Bullock doesn't just look up 2006 Keanu Reeves, or why 2004 Keanu Reeves doesn't just look up 2004 Sandra Bullock, the ending to this movie becomes obvious, and the whole thing collapses in upon itself.
Fun Fact: This is a remake of a South Korean movie. The South Korean original was also not popular at the time.
Nope.
1. Silent Hill
If it looks like a video game, and sounds like a video game... is it a video game? In the case of Silent Hill no, it's not a video game. Unless you count the video game, which is actually a video game. I got about twenty minutes in and completely lost interest.
Pretty Much Terrible in Every Respect
1. John Tucker Must Die
You've gotta feel sorry for John Tucker's black friend in this movie - he's trapped in the whitest school in America. His school is so white, in fact, that the most ethnic thing about it are the goth girls who fail to participate in gym class.
And were any of the actors or actresses in this movie under the age of 25 while they were filming? Some of those high school seniors look like they're pushing 30, and even underneath all that makeup the star of this movie looks like she's been to college and back.
Whatever. For the sake of explaining its almost self-explanatory plot, John Tucker Must Die is about four high school girls who exact revenge on a manipulative basketball star. And of course before you can cry, "Oh! The irony!" the girl at the center of the plot is having feelings for the basketball star, and the basketball star is reciprocating. And guess who the basketball star's cute younger brother is going to end up with? Certainly not the plain girl who learns to be "hot!" Perish the thought!
So Bad It's Good
1. D.O.A.: Dead or Alive
Street Fighter: Swimsuit Edition. Girl power? Uh... not sure. Eric Roberts collected a paycheck for playing the villain, and Devon Aoki was probably ecstatic to get the part. What is a "ninja princess" anyway? Do the ninjas on that weird cloud island have some kind of monarchy going on? Do they swear fealty to a Shogun? The director, Corey Yuen, did The Transporter in 2002, and Dragons Forever in 1988.
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