Legal Research

Top 10 Films of 2008

By scott

Now I have to confess I have managed to miss a number of films such as Wall-E that i should have seen, but of what I did see, these were the best (and most came out at the beginning of the year and were Oscar nominated)

1. There Will be Blood - Seeing this at the Cinema was an assault on the senses. Oppressive score, barnstorming performance by Day Lewis. Outstanding cinematography. [Ok, yes, I’ll admit it was not to happiest film, and you could argue that the lack of any really pleasant character makes it a hard film to love]
2. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Johnson - Another long, beautifully shot, film. Once again a great score and great central performances, and a fascinating story.
3. Juno - I’m not sure I’d trust someone who didn’t like this film. If nothing else the scene stealing performances by Alison Janey and J.K. Simmons (also the best thing in Burn Before Reading) are a delight.
4. No Country for Old Men - Yes, it is violent, and yes the ending is a bit odd (but then, it is in the book), but this was a great ride.
5. Charlie Wilson’s War - I’m not Tom Hanks’ greatest fan, but he was excellent in this enjoyable romp, unbelievably based in truth. Indeed it was just a shame for Tom that Philip Seymour Hoffman was also in the film doing yet another stellar start turn performance.
6. Gone Baby Gone - Very impressive directorial debut for Ben Affleck, with a fine performance from his younger brother Casey.
7. The Orphanage - Spooky.
8. Iron Man - Total tosh, but tosh of the highest calibre.
9. The Dark Knight - God did this feel go on and on or what? Edit out the boat scene and re-release please. That aside, I thought this built quite well on the first film (which is still much much better) although Christian Bale’s whole whispering thing got annoying. Heath (where’s my posthumous Oscar) Ledger does a great turn as the Joker, and demonstrated that his acting ability will indeed be missed. Would he get my vote for the Oscar? No. Why? Simple, the standout performance in this film - for me - was given by Gary Oldman.
10. Cloverfield - I’m including this because I actually expected to hate it, and for about the first 15 minutes or so of the film I still thought that. But then what follows is around an hour of good old fashioned monster movie silliness, that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Worst Film
Indiana Jones and the Lost Franchise (or whatever it was called). This was woeful.

Full post as published by Information Overload on December 23, 2008 (boomark / email).