My favorite movies of 2008

So, I was thinking this morning about what movies I really enjoyed last year. As I've commented many times, I don't think it was a particularly deep year for films, although, some of the ones at the top, were REALLY good. But nothing like 2007, where there were about 7 movies that had a legit argument, not only to be nominated, but to win Best Picture (No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Juno, Atonement, Michael Clayton, Charlie Wilson's War, etc...).

So here we go, starting at 10.

10. Quantum of Solace

I just think it would be fundamentally wrong not to have this film listed here. I think the world knows how I feel about Daniel Craig, and just how much I really love what he has done with the character. I have made many, many comparisons to the reinvention of Bond and Batman, and I think they are both just incredible. This films biggest downfall, was that it wasn't Casino Royale. But given that Casino Royale is probably the greatest Bond film of all time...That's not so bad.

9. Smart People

This is a movie I never heard much about, but because I watch a lot of HDNet, I knew it existed, and threw it on my Queue. Really glad I did. It was smart, funny, charming, and SJP actually looked like a human being. I LOVE Dennis Quaid. Ellen Page is incredible, and Thomas Haden Church is a riot. Not a lot of people have seen it, and everyone really should. It won't take up too much of your time, it's short, and makes every second on screen count. Sort of like a "Little Miss Sunshine," kind of film.

8. Frost/Nixon

This is here pretty much out of respect for Ron Howard. The movie itself didn't blow me away, but the incredibly strong performances by Frank Langella and Michael Sheen did. It was a story that a young man like myself didn't know a lot about, and it was well acted, and wonderfully made. It tells a story that needs to be heard, without being overly critical or sympathetic to the man.

7. The Reader

This is a movie that actually did come pretty close to blowing me away. First of all, Kate Winslet is naked for a good portion of the first hour, so that can't be bad. But also, you want a story to tell, this was the best story of the year. It was heart wrenching, intelligent and frustrating. I always say, a great movie draws an emotional response out of you. It may not always be one you like...But it draws one out none-the-less. 

6. Iron Man

Did not think I would enjoy this movie. Didn't think I liked Robert Downey, Jr., turns out, I do. This was arguably the year of the comic book movie, and this one kicked off the summer in the right way. Great story, well acted, and Jon Favreau did a wonderful job of putting it all together. Not to mention, a movie that actually made me feel like Gwenyth Paltrow was good looking, very good looking. Well played Favreau...Well played.

5. Pineapple Express

HILARIOUS! Most importantly, introduced me to Danny McBride, who is now rocking my socks off with his HBO show Eastbound and Down. This guy is brilliant. And not to mention James Franco...how great was he? Good year for Seth Rogen as well. Zach and Miri was also a good movie that is not far outside of this list.

4.Gran Torino

I want to first say that the movies 2-4 could be in any order, depending on my mood. I'm pretty sure it is obvious what number 1 is going to be...but all 4 of these films totally blew me away. This movie in particular showed me something I wasn't expecting out of Clint Eastwood. Totally got snubbed by the Academy, and that's just sad. Incredibly well put together, and beautifully acted. Should have gotten a lot more respect than it did from those idiots.

3. In Bruges

If you haven't seen this yet...Good night alive, you MUST. Colin Ferrel hasn't really been making a bunch of great films lately...but wow. Just wow. This was the funniest, strangest, most wonderful movie I have seen in a very long time. I mean, midgets, hookers, drugs, and hitmen...Do you need any other reason to believe this film is a masterpiece? 

2. The Wrester

I am noticing a trend here. Films that didn't get the love they deserved from the Academy. I actually turned off the show when Sean Penn won instead of Mickey Rourke. I mean, did they not see this performance? I'm not saying it was Daniel Day Lewis good, but it wasn't far away. This movie touched me, and made me a little sick, and totally intrigued me. No nomination for this movie for Best Picture--idiotic.

1. TDK

No surprise there. Lack of nominations for the major categories--Idiotic, crazy, narrow minded, wrong, stupid, uppity, ridonk.

Honorable Mention: Forgetting Sarah Marshall--Totally hilarious, and Jason Segel is awesome. Not to mention how hot both Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell are. Ghost Town--The only time I remember actually crying I was laughing so hard at a scene all year. Didn't know it was going to be so good, but it really was. Charlie Bartlett--This is technically a 2007 movie, but I didn't see it until recently. So I wanted to give it some props, knowing that if it had been a 2008 movie, it would have been in the top 5 or 6. Funny, funny stuff.

I am sure you notice a lack of the films nominated for Best Picture...Yeah, that's because they weren't actually all that good. I will refer you back to my post about what the nominations should have been.

A Poor Year in Movies

Every year, there are films left off of a whole bunch of different categories when the Academy Award nominations come out. But this year, people seem to be really upset. I'm one of them obviously! I am under no sort of delusion that "The Dark Knight" is the greatest movie of all time, far from it. Although it could be argued that TDK is one of the best movies in a very long time, it's probably not "The Godfather." But in what, in my opinion, was a pretty weak year of movies, to say that it wasn't even one of the best 5 of the year is astronomically stupid.

The only thing I can come up with was that this had to do with the Academy shrugging off a comic book movie, which was the popcorn movie of the year. Well, that bothers me. It first bothers me because, sure it was a "comic book" movie, but wasn't it so much more? This was a truly masterfully, carefully put together crime drama. It had incredible performances, a non-stop pace, and a really well crafted story. And also, didn't one of those stupid "Lord of the Rings" movies WIN Best Picture? I know that's not a "comic book" movie, but it's sort of a similar argument right?

But I think a greater travesty is that Chris Nolan wasn't even nominated for Best Director. I think that everyone who worked on the film would agree with me. What he accomplished with this film is unseen, or heard of before. It was his masterpiece. 

My award nominations (Taking into account, at this point, I am yet to see "Milk," or "Rachel Getting Married")

Best Picture

The Dark Knight

The Wrestler

Gran Torino

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Frank Langella--Frost/Nixon

Sean Penn--Milk

Dev Patel--Slumdog Millionaire

Clint Eastwood--Gran Torino

Mickey Rourke--The Wrestler

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Cate Blanchett--The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Anne Hathaway--Rachel Getting Married

Kate Winslett--The Reader

Kate Winslett--Revolutionary Road

Angelina Jolie--Changeling

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Heath Ledger--The Dark Knight

Michael Caine--The Dark Knight

Robert Downey, Jr.--Tropic Thunder

Josh Brolin--Milk

Phillip Seymour Hoffman--Doubt

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams--Doubt

Penelope Cruz--Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Marisa Tomei--The Wrestler

Viola Davis--Doubt

Taraji Henson--The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Director

Danny Boyle--Slumdog Millionaire

Darren Aronofsky--The Wrestler

Christopher Nolan--The Dark Knight

Clint Eastwood--Gran Torino

David Fincher--The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Don't hate him because he's beautiful

What is with people? Everyone just seems to hate the new Bond movie. Why? Because it isn't as good as "Casino Royale"? Well, there hasn't been a single Bond movie as good as "Casino Royale," so maybe all you clowns should back the hell up!

Is it flawed? Absofreakinglutely. Many of the things complained about by people are legit. The story is not traditionally Bond complicated, and the editing of the action sequences is a little jumpy.

Here is my take though. This is a different Bond. Much like we have a different Batman now, what is being done here is different than what used to be done in these films. Old school Bond was episodic. One had NOTHING to do with the other. Same for Batman. But that is not the case anymore. "Quantum" picked up right where "Casino" left off. And given that we still don't know what this "organization" really is, and given that Bond still has not caught Mr. White, I suspect this story line runs right through the next film as well. Perhaps into all four that Daniel Craig has signed on for. (On a side note, while I hope that Nolan and Bale make one more Bat film, and then the franchise is completely put to rest, I hope that Craig signs on for more Bond films. I believe that Nolan could completely end any notion of another Batman film, because he has perfected it, but we all know that Bond films are unlikely to ever stop. So I would like to see Daniel Craig in as many as possible.)

Back on topic, all of these movies run together, so the "lack" of a story is just an unfair complaint. And frankly, it's just not even that true. The movie has a story. It's just not as complicated as past Bond films. And why is that necessarily a bad thing? This film serves a purpose in the greater plot of Daniel Craig's James Bond. 

As for the second big complaint, the editing, yeah, that one is pretty real. You are jumping all over the place, and if you are in the first 10 rows, and you don't have a perfect view of the screen...Poor you! But, you know, it's not that big of a deal. It's not really distracting from the movie. And the action sequences are really cool, just slightly poorly edited. 

But all and all, this is the new James Bond. I have seen probably 20 of the Bond films in my life, and this is by far, my second favorite of them all. It's not "Casino Royale," but we shouldn't expect it to be. This is a quality movie, with the finest James Bond to date, that continues the reinvention of the character into what Ian Flemming intended him to be. A dark, mysterious, bad ass, but also, very human. This is Bond, and I can't wait for November 2010.

Commissioner Hates Astros

Home games...Perhaps an overrated thing, but then again, maybe not. But maybe we got a definitive answer this week when the Astros had to go play at Wrigley North against the Cubbies. The Commish says there were no other options, but I beg to differ. There were lots of other options. And pulling these guys away from their families and loved ones hours after a devestating disaster...was NOT the answer.

The Commish says he had to do it. But Brad Ausmus, who lives in West U, had other things on his mind. He had a few of his teammates at his house when the storm rolled in. The water got so close to his front door, that he was afraid he was going to have to wake his sleeping friends to ask them to move all his furniture up to the second floor.

Lance Berkman luckily has a home near his home town of New Braunfels, in San Marcos. Or maybe that's not so lucky. Since he got a call at 4 a.m. to leave his family, and get back to Houston for a 10 a.m. flight to Milwaukee.

And all this while, what are the Cubbies doing? Just relaxing in their homes, and then getting on a bus a couple hours before BP and riding the 80 miles to Miller Park from Wrigley. Man, that sounds so fair.

It was an incredibly difficult situation for ALL involved. There is no doubt about that. Would I want to be in Selig's shoes to make that decision? No, not at all. Did he make the right decision? No, not at all. Baseball is a business, everyone gets that...But there are about what, 8 gajillion other business in the Houston area? And all of them understood the importance of family after this storm, all except Major League Baseball.

The games had to get played, and sooner, rather than later, no doubt about that one. And could MMP have hosted a game on Sunday? Yes, it could have. Should it have? No, probably not. But making the Houston Astros go to Milwaukee to play the Cubs? That is about like asking a team on the west coast to play a "home game" against the Yankees at Shea.

So why not put the onus on the Cubs to have crappy conditions? Maybe play the games in Round Rock? No, that wouldn't have drawn much, but hey, so what? At least it would have almost been like a home game for the Astros, at least more so than the Cubs right? And just play one there on Sunday, and then back at MMP on Monday, which would have been perfectly fine. This city was ready for a game on Monday. It would have been a really nice distraction. And then just play the last game, if needed, on the Monday after the season is finished.

But instead, the Commish thought it would be more fun to completely ruin the Astros emotional state. Is he the reason the Astros got 1 hit in 2 games? No, not exactly. They are professionals, and should have been ready to play mentally. But can we blame them for not being ready to play?

Chris Sampson said that he didn't even want to get on the plane because he hadn't heard from some of his friends and family yet. Is that not more important than a freaking baseball game? The way that tv runs the world is a great thing in some ways...but in others...it is just stupid. And this is one of those moments. Couldn't the playoff tv schedule have been slightly adjusted if needed? And hell, we don't even know if it would have needed to be. The Astros may have been no hit, and one hit no matter where they played. But that doesn't seem too likely does it? Given that they are the best team in baseball in the second half, it seems like had things gone a little closer to their way, it might have been a bit better for them.

But now it's finished. They have lost 3 straight, but luckily, the Brewers are just awful and have lost everything lately. So it is still up to the Astros to go out there and take it! They have only games left against crap teams, and have no one to blame anymore. Rally around your city and make us proud. But I will be honest. In this bloggers opinion, it doesn't matter how it turns out, they have done me very proud. They have continued to fight, and play hard, and that is all we can really ask for. But they are the best team of the 3 in the fight for the Wild Card, so hopefully they will go and take it!

Great fight here!

Another incredible video, this one involving a curious cat.

Greatest video every put on the internet

This fool deserves some sort of medal.

Could They?

Ok, this is getting a little interesting. With another strong performance from Randy Wolf, and a great night from the Puma, the Astros pulled themselves to within 4 games of the Wild Card lead. There are 17 games left to play, and if the Astros finish up 12-5, that gets them to 90 wins. Is that enough to get in?

I think that it could be. The Brewers are awful. The Phillies could fall, if it weren't for one Brad "Lights Out" Lidge. And the Astros are just better than the Cards. The only real problem here is that the Astros don't have any games left with any of those teams. But you know, 4 games is not that much, so let's at least wait and see. Got 5 left with the Pirates, so that should help...

And on that note. If the Astros somehow pull off this thing, and make the playoffs, how can anyone but Lance Berkman be the MVP? With no El Cachubby for a month, Roy struggling early, and Wandy going out recently, Lance has been the steady hand for this team. So if the Astros make it in, Lance has to be the MVP, and Coop may be Manager of the Year too...