2006 MOVIE ROUND-UP (Updated)
So, for once, I’m trying to remember everything I saw that came out in a given year and recall what I thought about them. I flagged the ones I saw on DVD rather than theatrically and I'm sure I've forgotten soemthing. Here goes nothing for 2006:
Top 5 (Based on whether or not I would buy them the day they come out on video):
Children of Men - This edges out Pan's Labyrinth only because I got choked up a couple of times while watching it, which didn't happen during Pan. Essentially a message movie wrapped up in an action film, but the ideas are powerful and timely, and the filmmaking is jaw-dropping. I still can't figure out how they pulled of the chase scene shot from within the car, assuming that they didn't use any digital tweaking to merge shots.
Pan’s Labyrinth - Beautiful and heartbreaking. I've been wanting to see this for about two years now, ever since I first heard about it when Del Toro was doing publicity for Hellboy. It's a companion piece to one of my favorite movies, The Devil's Backbone. Both deal with the Spanish Civil War, and where Backbone approaches things via boys and comic books, Labyrinth comes via girls and fairy tales. And like a good unbowdlerized fairy tale, it is dark and violent. It lets you know from the first shot that it will not end well, but it still has the power to shock when the inevitable tragic events happen. And it's brilliantly designed so that you can argue the reality of the fantasy for hours.
Casino Royale - There exists, in my head, the idea of what the ideal James Bond movie should be. Nothing has quite matched it, but this comes the closest. It's not perfect, and the last thirty minutes do drag, but it's damn good and I can't wait to see where they go from here.
The Prestige - "Are you watching closely?" Hard to talk about if you haven't seen it (and I don't know that many who have), but it's a great cinematic puzzle from Christopher Nolan, and even if you figure out the major secret (It's pretty obvious) it's still a good show.
Tideland - An ugly, disturbing, nasty, nasty film about damaged people doing awful things to each other. I had the advantage of seeing a preview screening where Terry Gilliam was present to answer the question "What the hell were you thinking." And, well, I'm still thinking about it months later, which is more than I can say for some of the other things I saw last year.
And the rest...
Basic Instinct 2 (DVD) - Forgot about this one until I saw the Razzie nominations. It got too boring to finish, so I guess we didn't really see it, but we saw enough to know we didn't need to see more.
Borat - Wow, how'd that get an "R" rating. After watching Da ALi G Show a few years ago, I never thought I'd be able to sit through ninety minutes of Borat. And while it's not the funniest movie ever made, it's very funny and I found it suprisingly touching when Borat is sitting alone in the ice cream truck and reflects that the hooker was able to correctly pronounce his name. Cohen deserves best actor just for that scene (and for surviving the shoot).
Brick (DVD) - Cool little experiment - grafting film noir onto the high school movie. Worth a look and I'm not sure why it made Entertainment Weekly's worst of the year list. But then, I liked Tideland.
Cars - Pixar's first stumble, and it's still a good movie. I just don't care about cars.
The Da Vinci Code - Sucked. Worst thing I saw this year. Took an overrated book too seriously, drained any excitement out of it, and plopped it into theaters like it was something important. But it did actually make ome improvements over the book, like not having Langdon waste an entire chapter trying to decipher a code that's obviously just letters written backwards.
The Departed - Man, I like Scorsese. And I hope he finally gets the Oscar. But this is another one of those movies that I can recognize as being very good, but I just don't care about it. Didn't dislike anything about it, but I just didn't care.
The Descent (DVD) - Wasn't expecting this to be good. Very effective at building up tension and claustrophobia over the first hour, and then lets all hell break loose when the monsters show up (And that's a great reveal when they finally do). And I do not buy the theory that the goblins are all in the lead character's head. It just doesn't make sense.
Hostel (DVD) - Effectively nasty little thriller. I think Eli Roth has a good movie in him somewhere and that we're getting closer to it, but in the meantime, this'll do.
Idiocracy (DVD) - I didn't like this when we watched it last week and I saw why it got dumped into eight theaters and lasted a week. It's not good, but it has its moments, and after dealing with certain people this week, I can see how it would be plausible. Ah like munney.
Inside Man (DVD) - Nice little B-movie. Heist movies are cool and everything, but once it was over, I couldn't figure out why the calibre of people who were involved with making it were even interested in making it in the first place.
Little Miss Sunshine - Didn't care for it. Sorry. Great soundtrack, though.
Miami Vice - Saw both versions. Liked both versions. It's more effective on the big screen and I'd prefer a cut that starts where the theatrical cut does, but the rest of the movie is the director's cut.
Mission Impossible III - Worth watching to see Phillip Seymore Hoffman kick the crap out of Tom Cruise, but otherwise a waste of time.
Night at the Museum - Decent, unoffensive family film. Nothing more, nothing less. Now if they'd just let all the comedians in it do their adult material...
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest - We saw this with digital projection. That was nice. It filled the screen with music and pictures and color and action, none of which I can remember at all.
The Proposition (DVD) Gave up on it about halfway through. Between the incessant buzz on the soundtrack (It may have been a defective disc) and the pretentious Greek-chorus mumblings by Nick Cave (who I like), we just coudln't take it anymore. And it was supposed to be good. (And just how pretentious do you have to be to call something pretentious and then refer to Greek choruses, anyway?)
Silent Hill (DVD) - Wait, no, this was worse than The Da Vinci Code.
Slither (DVD) - Nice little throwback to 80s horror (I can't believe Night of the Creeps isn't on DVD).
Snakes on a Plane - Oh come on, it was fun.
Superman Returns - Disappointing. I think that about covers it.
Talladega Nights (DVD) - Transcendentally stupid. Wow. There is some truly funny stuff in here and a suprising number of best-actor nominees. I count three. It may go to four this Tuesday.
This Filthy World (DVD) - Ninety minutes of John Waters doing his live show. Funnier that Borat (or most of John's last few movies for that matter). I just wish I'd never found out about "blossoms."
V for Vendetta (DVD) - Not the worst thing ever made from an Alan Moore comic.
So, for once, I’m trying to remember everything I saw that came out in a given year and recall what I thought about them. I flagged the ones I saw on DVD rather than theatrically and I'm sure I've forgotten soemthing. Here goes nothing for 2006:
Top 5 (Based on whether or not I would buy them the day they come out on video):
Children of Men - This edges out Pan's Labyrinth only because I got choked up a couple of times while watching it, which didn't happen during Pan. Essentially a message movie wrapped up in an action film, but the ideas are powerful and timely, and the filmmaking is jaw-dropping. I still can't figure out how they pulled of the chase scene shot from within the car, assuming that they didn't use any digital tweaking to merge shots.
Pan’s Labyrinth - Beautiful and heartbreaking. I've been wanting to see this for about two years now, ever since I first heard about it when Del Toro was doing publicity for Hellboy. It's a companion piece to one of my favorite movies, The Devil's Backbone. Both deal with the Spanish Civil War, and where Backbone approaches things via boys and comic books, Labyrinth comes via girls and fairy tales. And like a good unbowdlerized fairy tale, it is dark and violent. It lets you know from the first shot that it will not end well, but it still has the power to shock when the inevitable tragic events happen. And it's brilliantly designed so that you can argue the reality of the fantasy for hours.
Casino Royale - There exists, in my head, the idea of what the ideal James Bond movie should be. Nothing has quite matched it, but this comes the closest. It's not perfect, and the last thirty minutes do drag, but it's damn good and I can't wait to see where they go from here.
The Prestige - "Are you watching closely?" Hard to talk about if you haven't seen it (and I don't know that many who have), but it's a great cinematic puzzle from Christopher Nolan, and even if you figure out the major secret (It's pretty obvious) it's still a good show.
Tideland - An ugly, disturbing, nasty, nasty film about damaged people doing awful things to each other. I had the advantage of seeing a preview screening where Terry Gilliam was present to answer the question "What the hell were you thinking." And, well, I'm still thinking about it months later, which is more than I can say for some of the other things I saw last year.
And the rest...
Basic Instinct 2 (DVD) - Forgot about this one until I saw the Razzie nominations. It got too boring to finish, so I guess we didn't really see it, but we saw enough to know we didn't need to see more.
Borat - Wow, how'd that get an "R" rating. After watching Da ALi G Show a few years ago, I never thought I'd be able to sit through ninety minutes of Borat. And while it's not the funniest movie ever made, it's very funny and I found it suprisingly touching when Borat is sitting alone in the ice cream truck and reflects that the hooker was able to correctly pronounce his name. Cohen deserves best actor just for that scene (and for surviving the shoot).
Brick (DVD) - Cool little experiment - grafting film noir onto the high school movie. Worth a look and I'm not sure why it made Entertainment Weekly's worst of the year list. But then, I liked Tideland.
Cars - Pixar's first stumble, and it's still a good movie. I just don't care about cars.
The Da Vinci Code - Sucked. Worst thing I saw this year. Took an overrated book too seriously, drained any excitement out of it, and plopped it into theaters like it was something important. But it did actually make ome improvements over the book, like not having Langdon waste an entire chapter trying to decipher a code that's obviously just letters written backwards.
The Departed - Man, I like Scorsese. And I hope he finally gets the Oscar. But this is another one of those movies that I can recognize as being very good, but I just don't care about it. Didn't dislike anything about it, but I just didn't care.
The Descent (DVD) - Wasn't expecting this to be good. Very effective at building up tension and claustrophobia over the first hour, and then lets all hell break loose when the monsters show up (And that's a great reveal when they finally do). And I do not buy the theory that the goblins are all in the lead character's head. It just doesn't make sense.
Hostel (DVD) - Effectively nasty little thriller. I think Eli Roth has a good movie in him somewhere and that we're getting closer to it, but in the meantime, this'll do.
Idiocracy (DVD) - I didn't like this when we watched it last week and I saw why it got dumped into eight theaters and lasted a week. It's not good, but it has its moments, and after dealing with certain people this week, I can see how it would be plausible. Ah like munney.
Inside Man (DVD) - Nice little B-movie. Heist movies are cool and everything, but once it was over, I couldn't figure out why the calibre of people who were involved with making it were even interested in making it in the first place.
Little Miss Sunshine - Didn't care for it. Sorry. Great soundtrack, though.
Miami Vice - Saw both versions. Liked both versions. It's more effective on the big screen and I'd prefer a cut that starts where the theatrical cut does, but the rest of the movie is the director's cut.
Mission Impossible III - Worth watching to see Phillip Seymore Hoffman kick the crap out of Tom Cruise, but otherwise a waste of time.
Night at the Museum - Decent, unoffensive family film. Nothing more, nothing less. Now if they'd just let all the comedians in it do their adult material...
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest - We saw this with digital projection. That was nice. It filled the screen with music and pictures and color and action, none of which I can remember at all.
The Proposition (DVD) Gave up on it about halfway through. Between the incessant buzz on the soundtrack (It may have been a defective disc) and the pretentious Greek-chorus mumblings by Nick Cave (who I like), we just coudln't take it anymore. And it was supposed to be good. (And just how pretentious do you have to be to call something pretentious and then refer to Greek choruses, anyway?)
Silent Hill (DVD) - Wait, no, this was worse than The Da Vinci Code.
Slither (DVD) - Nice little throwback to 80s horror (I can't believe Night of the Creeps isn't on DVD).
Snakes on a Plane - Oh come on, it was fun.
Superman Returns - Disappointing. I think that about covers it.
Talladega Nights (DVD) - Transcendentally stupid. Wow. There is some truly funny stuff in here and a suprising number of best-actor nominees. I count three. It may go to four this Tuesday.
This Filthy World (DVD) - Ninety minutes of John Waters doing his live show. Funnier that Borat (or most of John's last few movies for that matter). I just wish I'd never found out about "blossoms."
V for Vendetta (DVD) - Not the worst thing ever made from an Alan Moore comic.
posted by PunchBuggyBlues at 3:45 PM
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