This was n’t just the twelvemonth that skill fable dominated the movies – it also sport an amazing variety of SF history . Here ’s our lean of the greatest – and most horrendous – movie of 2008 .
Okay , so here are the movies that blew us away and horrified us this class :
BEST :
10 . Let The Right One In . This acute , beautiful Swedish picture about a 12 - twelvemonth - old boy ’s family relationship with a vampire did the nearly - inconceivable : it almost made us forget the blah Twilight . It ’s a allegory of the mankind - destroying tycoon of adolescence , that delay with you long afterwards .
9 . Teeth . This year saw a boomlet in feminist repulsion movies , between this film and Zombie Strippers . But theraw sarcasm of vagina - dentata movie Teethwas sharper , and the story of how Dawn comes to realize her toothy mutant pussy is a superpower rather than a oath is a beautiful spin on adolescence .
https://gizmodo.com/mutant-pussy-attacks-in-raw-brilliant-satire-teeth-349130
8 . Speed Racer . fairly much everyone hates this movie except us – Entertainment Weekly number it double on its class ’s big lists , even as the mag praised the flavorless Benjamin Button . But wereally did love this film , for its crazy , phantasmagorical CG vistas and fun travel along - your - heart storyline . Racer was the last affair you ’d await from the Wachowskis : a moving picture about family values , in which Speed learns that love for family trumps everything else . ( And Susan Sarandon and John Goodman , as Speed ’s parents , passably much run away with the motion picture . ) This flick is a religious cult classic wait to happen .
https://gizmodo.com/speed-racer-is-rewardingly-weird-state-of-the-art-cgi-388755
7 . Cloverfield . Of all the movies on this year ’s “ best ” list , this is the one I can least imagine wanting to catch more than once . But that ’s okay , because the one time you watch it , you ’ll be blown away . At least in the theater , the film ’s shaky - camcorder gimmick actually work : it’stotally immersive , and you really survey these yuppie dorks as they campaign their way through pubic lice and behemoth dust to save their friend .
https://gizmodo.com/nevermind-the-monster-cloverfield-is-all-about-9-11-346346
6 . Sleep Dealer . Wecalled itone of the best small - budget science fiction picture show in years , in our review back in October . arrange in a future where Mexicans do menial labor in the U.S. via telepresence , Dealer is a commentary on immigration and racial discrimination . But it ’s also a brilliant intellection experiment and a character slice . And it has the hot cyberpunk node - installation panorama since the flawed - but - merriment Existenz .
https://gizmodo.com/sleep-dealer-serves-notice-in-new-york-premiere-5068561
5 . Iron Man . This picture show surpass our first moment , delivering a mind - expanding story of the military - industrial composite rather of just a superhero clout - em - up . I was so excited , Iwrote a giant essayinstead of a unproblematic brushup .
https://gizmodo.com/robert-downey-jr-s-exposed-torso-is-america-385943
4 . City Of Ember . It could have been just another young - people - discover - their - world - is - a - lie movie , but alternatively itbecomes a post - apocalyptic masterpiece . Thanks to Martin Laing ’s mammoth sets and Gil Kenan ’s beautiful direction , the subterreanean metropolis becomes a real place . you’re able to actually finger the terror and claustrophobia when the lights begin going out . And Bill Murray is in rarified form as the tainted , short - sighted mayor .
https://gizmodo.com/ember-proves-the-only-grown-up-movies-are-aimed-at-kids-5061881
3 . Synecdoche , NY . Charlie Kaufman feed us Being John Malkovitch and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind , but this is probably hisweirdest , most dreamlike film . Caden ( Philip Seymour Hoffman ) is suffering from a unearthly , nonsensical ill that is making his autonomic functions shut down , and meanwhile his girl is sour into an anaemic fetish model . So he create an ambitious , incomprehensible workplace of graphics – a recursive model of New York inside a New York storage warehouse , sodding with actors playing real people . And it ’s a comedy . I laughed so hard at the clobber about Caden ’s therapist , and his attempts to make himself shout out when his tearducts have shut down , I about choked on my popcorn .
https://gizmodo.com/charlie-kaufman-will-break-your-brain-in-synecdoche-ne-5069579
2 . The Dark Knight . This movie set about us so put to work up , wereviewedittwice . Sure , it was too tenacious – and did the Joker really have to put explosives in the infirmary and the boats ? – but its ambition give off , in the conclusion . The story of Harvey Dent ’s fall from grace is epic enough to support all of the movie ’s interminable incidents and action countersink pieces . And we ’re still debating the movie ’s political sympathies ( professional - overrefinement ? Pro - surveillance ? Anti - Cuban sandwich ? Nihilistic or just anarchical ? ) months later .
https://gizmodo.com/screw-superheroes-just-give-me-darkness-5026715
https://gizmodo.com/the-dark-knight-twice-as-long-as-it-should-be-5026466
1 . Wall - vitamin E The only flick in years that I ’ve require to watch again , right away . If I had n’t been crave and late for dinner , I would have watched it two or three times in one sitting . The first half hour , boast the cunning - bot in the post - apocalyptic abandon Earth , is poetic and slapsticky . But then Wall - E get into space , and it just gets crazier and more satiric , all without ever being mean or punk . Plus it ’s amoving automaton love story .
https://gizmodo.com/humanity-cannot-be-saved-in-wall-e-5020391
Even though 2008 was a pretty awesome year for movies , I still end up with way more nominee for the “ worst ” list than the “ best ” tilt , woefully .
1 . Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull . This is one of those movies that I was so - so about at the time , but it ’s gotten speculative in my mind since then . Too much Shia , especially Shia of the Jungle . Criminally underused Karen Allen . Mostly , too much tiresome retreading of past Indy movies , and CG emmet , and a totally crap alien head - melting ending .
2 . Hancock . All we could think about wereways it could have sucked less . Like if it was really a funniness instead of a bland romp that turns histrionic halfway through . It had one joke , and run it into the soil like … like a drunken superhero who smashes into the mineral pitch when he flies . A couple of risible moments could n’t rescue this washout .
https://gizmodo.com/9-ways-hancock-could-have-been-a-pretty-good-movie-5020557
3 . Doomsday . Actually , this one belongs on a special so - bad - it’s - cracking listing . You ’ll be getting drunk / stoned and find out this one on videodisc long after most “ safe ” movies are forgotten . Just for the anthropophagus who dance to Fine Young Cannibals , and Malcolm McDowell ’s SCA realm . Yes , it ’s pretty terrible , but in a wonderful way of life .
https://gizmodo.com/doomsday-total-nonsense-but-awesome-368204
4 . X - data file : I require To Believe . Was n’t this a show about people who inquire things ? Apparently not , or at least the movieturned into a dull kinship drama . Bleh .
https://gizmodo.com/in-x-files-2-tmi-is-out-there-5029354
5 . Jumper . I like the clips of the “ jumpscar ” particular effect and the whole busbar - attack thing , but it did n’t make for much of a movie . Even with a script by David Goyer , thewhole thing is underwhelming . You keep waiting and await for David ( Hayden Christensen ) to step up and become a hero – or at least become interesting to learn – and it never happens .
https://gizmodo.com/teleportation-paladins-and-underground-lairs-what-c-356345
6 . The 24-hour interval The Earth Stood Still Unlike mycolleague Nivair , I had n’t pre - pronounce this one . I really thought it could be a good cinema in its own right , even if it was n’t on-key to the original . I was horribly , eye - searingly wrong . Itstarts out great , but then Keanu goes on a boring road trip-up while droning about the environs and eating at Mickey D ’s . jumbo automaton Gort show up here and there , but he ca n’t stop the film from standing still .
https://gizmodo.com/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-remake-is-pure-sucky-evil-5037895
https://gizmodo.com/three-ways-to-make-the-most-of-day-the-earth-stood-sti-5108166
7 . The Happening could have been an interesting motion-picture show – people go pop themselves in horrible way , for no ground . But then it had toturn into a horror film about trees trying to destroy us , until they change their minds . People stare in horror and desperation – at tree . Ohh kay .
http://io9.com/5016361/the-happening-is-the-biggest-intelligent-design-movie-of-the-year
8 . Meet Dave . With a script by MST3 K ’s Bill Corbett and a cool concept ( a tiny guy land on Earth in a human - sized spaceship that looks like him ) , this could have been a fun ride . Instead , it ’s a case forEddie Murphy doing funny voice .
https://gizmodo.com/eddie-murphy-does-the-funky-robot-5024105
9 . Space Chimps We got one great revive science fiction pic , so of course Hollywood had to punish us with an avalanche of drek . include thishorrific Andy Samberg vehicle about scalawag in space . Probably Fly Me To The Moon belong to on this “ worst motion-picture show ” list too , but none of us saw it . It was too soon after Chimps , and it just looked like pure torture .
https://gizmodo.com/space-chimps-monkeying-around-isnt-entertaining-5026777
10.The Spirit could have been sorta capital too – we love Will Eisner , and Frank Miller used to be one of the greats , 20 years ago . But Miller has turn into a ego - pasquinade , and he decided togo all - out with the brainsick campin this film . Weirdly , even though this film is a ocular vortex and features aneyelineredSamuel L. Jackson tog as a Nazi and torturing cat , the film ’s biggest trouble is that it ’s boring .
https://gizmodo.com/when-is-too-much-crazy-a-bad-thing-5117483
https://gizmodo.com/samuel-l-jackson-did-his-own-makeup-in-the-spirit-5112849
And then there were a lot of movie that were neither “ good ” nor “ worst , ” they just were . Like , say , Incredible Hulk . It was n’t a great moving picture , it was n’t a frightening movie , it was just adequate . Call it “ the believable Hulk . ” Or Death Race , which I could n’t bring myself to hate despite the lackluster third Virginia reel . Or Wanted , which was as dumb as ten piles of rock music but looked purty . Or Star Wars : Clone Wars , which was a playfulness , if forgettable , video show , which got put on the big screenland due to George Lucas ’ hubris .
Indiana JonesJumperMoviesSpeed race driver
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