2008 Movies Ranked

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2008 was a strong year for movies in my opinion.

28. Wanted

D: Timur Bekmambetov

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“Curving the bullet” could have been the best action idea since Gun Kata, but they had to ruin it with generic racking and bullet time.  Some of the action is good, but most of it is given away in the trailer.  The movie tries too hard to make it the movie fantasy fulfillment, and it comes off as obnoxious.  The best part was a really good precision F-Bomb from Morgan Freeman.

 

27. The Happening

D: M. Night Shyamalan

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Despite some funny moments, it wasn’t nearly as funny as I thought it would be.

26. Pokemon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior

D: Kunihiko Yuyama

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It’s boring, but it has some decent scenery.

25. Twilight

D: Catherine Hardwicke

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A bad movie, but at least it has some good scenery.  Still take it over Underworld, though.

24. The Spirit

D: Frank Miller

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While it has some style and funny moments, it’s a confused movie whose humor doesn’t work most of the time.  I found The Octopus’ simpering clone sidekicks particularly annoying.

23. Eagle Eye

D: D. J. Caruso

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Well-paced and watchable, but it has an absurd premise and nothing else special.

22. Be Kind Rewind

D: Michel Gondry

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At first the movie is funny and visually creative.  It’s interesting to see how the protagonists recreate movies’ special effects with no budget in a hurry, and I agree with the stance against copyright fascism.  However, the movie becomes dull and pretentious when it starts to take itself seriously.  It’s painful when a character straight-facedly asserts that their recreations have “more heart and originality than those formulaic Hollywood blockbusters.”  That might be one thing if the films in question weren’t classics like Ghostbusters, Lord of the Rings, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Lion King (which they “improve” by adding foul language) and RoboCop.

21. Star Wars: The Clone Wars

D: Dave Filoni

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An answer to a question that was already answered. But it did spawn a surprisingly good series.

20. Hancock

D: Peter Berg

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A confused mess of a movie.

19. Tropic Thunder

D: Ben Stiller

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While everyone else seemed to like this movie, I didn’t particularly enjoy it.  I liked the “Don’t go full retard” scene, but that’s about it. 

18. Bolt

D: Chris Williams, Byron Howard

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This movie does have its strengths.  It was a step in the right direction for Non-Pixar 3D Disney films.  I liked Mittens (Susie Essman) and the movie had a lot of good poignant and heartwarming moments.  Let’s not forget the oddly autobiographical nature of Miley Cyrus’ character.  Still, the movie was mostly a rehash of Buzz Lightyear’s arc from Toy Story.  It gets worse when you find out the much better idea Disney scrapped in favor of this.

17. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

D: Steven Spielberg

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I’ve been waiting years to watch Indy kill some commies, and this was just a big disappointment.

16. Step Brothers

D: Adam McKay

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Occasionally funny, but stupid, humor.  I know that it’s parody, but I found Kathryn Hahn’s character among the most irritating desperate housewives I’ve ever seen.

15. Hellboy II: The Golden Army

D: Guillermo del Toro

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The movie is worth a look for its beautiful and creative visuals, but it has a confused story and a bland villain.

14. The Wrestler

D: Darren Aronofsky

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I expect something more visually interesting from Aronofsky, but this is a solid movie nonetheless.

13. The Hurt Locker

D: Kathryn Bigelow

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Though some may criticize its cowboy cop antics at the beginning, I like how it subverts the trope and brings its characters into the real world halfway through.  It's also nice how it shows the quiet ennui of civilian life after war.  The movie was a actually released in 2008, but it came out in the US in 2009, and that was the year for which it was awarded an Oscar.  I hate the Oscars and there were much better movies, but I am happy that this movie beat out the blue beast for Best Picture.  The fact that Bigelow is James Cameron’s ex-wife made the defeat even sweeter. 

12. Slumdog Millionaire

D: Danny Boyle

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A stylish mix of over-the-top Bollywood style with gritty storytelling.  My big problem was the passive damsel character who just sat on her ass watching reality TV and waited to be saved by the protagonist.  Probably why I ranked this movie below…

11. Horton Hears a Who!

D: Jimmy Hayward, Steve Martino, Chris Wedge

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I know a lot of people hate this movie, and Jim Carrey’s Horton gets pretty annoying with his spastic pop-cultural references, but I found it amusing.  I particularly love Will Arnett’s vulture character, and the Mayor’s visit to the dentist is one of the best slapstick sequences I’ve seen.

10. Death Race

D: Paul W.S. Anderson

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I normally hate the WonderShit’s movies, but still I actually found this one enjoyable.  It had a lackluster story and bland characters, but it was still fun for its art direction and action scenes with cool weaponized cars.  I liked the Buick Riviera most of all, and that 7 Series was cool too.  A lot of people dismissed this as a bastardization of the satirical tone of the original, but then again I thought the original’s humor was a bit forced.

9. Burn After Reading

D: The Coen Bros.

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A lot of people didn’t get this movie, but I found it to be a funny satire of confusing, and ultimately uninteresting, spy thrillers.

8. Kung Fu Panda

D: John Wayne Stevenson, Mark Osborne

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Jack Black’s grandstanding as Po is a bit annoying, but the members of the supporting cast and their stories make this a compelling movie.  The action is top-notch, too. 

7. Iron Man

D: Jon Favreau

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A fun movie with a lovable, snarky hero.  I doubted Favreau’s ability to make an action movie, but he ended up turning Iron Man, who was at the time a walking joke about alcoholism, into the best modern superhero.

6. Gran Torino

D: Clint Eastwood

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One of Eastwood’s better movies.  I like the car it revolves around, and Eastwood’s character is one of the best badass curmudgeons out there.

5. Quantum of Solace

D: Marc Forster

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A lot of people dismissed it as a Bourne wannabe for its excellent car chase at the beginning (it was the same choreographer, so I say it's fair play), but it did a great job continuing Daniel Craig’s story as Bond from Casino Royale.  I count it in the Top 3 Bond movies.

4. WALL-E

D: Andrew Stanton

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Leave it to Pixar to make us feel for to mute robots falling in love.  I also liked the role of the humans in the movie.  It would have been easy for the movie to turn them into strawmen, but they were treated with respect and sympathy, and they even helped save the day.

3. Doubt

D: John Patrick Shanley

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A movie which skillfully uses the changes undergone by the Catholic Church during Vatican II reforms as the setting for a pedophilia scandal involving one priest.  A sense complexity is provided by the fact that there is no evidence that the act happened in the first place.  Great performances by Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams reinforce this movie.

2. Speed Racer

D: The Wachowski Bros.

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As I already said, this is one of the most criminally underrated movies ever made.


1. The Dark Knight

D: Christopher Nolan

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The movie has its flaws, but Nolan deserves credit for reimagining Batman in a thrilling, gritty universe.  It also goes without saying that it has one of the best villains in movie history.  2007 was a frustrating year because I had to listen to people talk about how awesome Transformers and 300 were, so I found it refreshing that this time around all the hype was given to a movie that actually deserved it.

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