It’s Friday night and there’s nothing planned. And I couldn’t be happier. I’m exhausted. Instead, I’m going to write five top five 2008 lists for the five days before the new year. Most of it is fairly predictable, and all of it is skewed toward probably the last four months. I haven’t really thought of what the other four lists are going to be about, but the first one is my five favorite movies that were released this year.
5. THE ORPHANAGE
Horror movies rarely actually scare you these days. The Orphanage is really creepy. The jump scenes aren’t plentiful, but they’re effective. And the final sequence builds anticipation perfectly. It’s as uncomfortable as the scene in Zodiac where Jake Gylenhaal is in the basement looking at movie posters with the creepy neighbor.
4. FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL
Every time I think of good comedies this year I think of Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express and somehow forget about Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I watched it sort of late, after everyone said “watch it, it’s really good.” If you haven’t seen it, watch it, it’s really good.
3. TROPIC THUNDER
I was fired up for this movie since the first trailer came out. Robert Downey Jr. playing a white guy playing a black guy? And a giant budget? Count me in. I watched this at a theater in Berkeley and I already thought it was kind of quirky because it plays a retro movie every week. Then Tropic Thunder opened with the advertisement for Booty Sweat and ‘quirky’ became a major understatement. Halfway into the next trailer I realized it was fake and hope I wasn’t the only idiot that didn’t know. Tropic Thunder lived up to my expectations, which were pretty high. Dan showed me the menu for the Blu-Ray (and I assume it’s the same for the DVD) — it’s awesome.
2. PINEAPPLE EXPRESS
That Hills parody from last year made me a giant fan of the comedic stylings of James Franco. The ‘How to Act’ shorts really sealed the deal. I went and watched Freaks and Geeks in a couple of weeks, then I yearned for more. And nothing came for a while after that. Then the Pineapple Express trailer came out and I marked my calendar for that.
When I got a copy, I pretty much shoved it down my brother and my friends’ throats. And I can’t say I regret it. There are a few parts that I skip on re-watches, but the first scene with Franco and Seth Rogen doesn’t get old to me. Definitely my favorite comedy since Superbad.
1. THE DARK KNIGHT
No surprise here. Everyone’s seen it. I don’t have much to add about the movie itself. Perfect performances. Midnight showing made it an (awesome, awesome) event. The audience was a bunch of college kids, which I was starting to miss because I was right in the midst of the “Ces in the Real World” experiment. One of the better days of the year, in part because I got to watch Jurassic Park on the big screen again (same quirky theater) before getting in line for The Dark Knight. Can’t ask for much more than that.
MOVIE I HATED: THE MUMMY 3
Slept through the middle — food coma’d from my birthday dinner with the roommates. I tried really hard to stay awake because I didn’t want to disrespect my roommates like that. But The Mummy 3 really did the trick. I didn’t think I missed all that much, then I talked to Wally about it (one of the other 13 people who actually saw it), and he told me, yeah, I didn’t miss much. I actually enjoyed the first and second films in the series. I remember me and Russ ditching a bunch of our friends to watch The Mummy II and not regretting it a bit. Now that I think harder, I remembered that they watched Driven, starring Sylvester Stallone. So the not-regretting-it might be more about what we missed than what we saw. Either way, it’s easily the worst in the series. And probably the worst third film in any series.