This Sunday (Feb. 22) ABC will be airing the 81st Annual Academy Awards. In celebration/correction of that event, I'll be offering the definitive list of the best and worst films of 2008. I planned on seeing a few more of the critics' favorites before Sunday, but I'm burnt out. I've had my fill of pensive meditations on family dysfunction so I'm calling it quits on 2008 film catch-up.
Here's a list of all the films eligible for this year's awards (i.e. every film released in 2008 that I can remember having seen).
There are some advantages to reading the What I'm Watching Awards over watching the Oscar telecast. Reading this will be much shorter and I feature no montages or self-righteous speechifying. Visitors will also be glad to know that my awards are 100% "Reader"-free. I also don't have this to live down.
Who am I wearing?
Van Heusen and Gap
Today we'll be looking at the Worst of 2008 (in no particular order):
Dear Zachary--this documentary took a tragic subject and used it as an opportunity to make a shrill, bitter screed. A nasty piece of work that does not honor its participants.
Doomsday--a genre exercise that kept piling on the ridiculous. Imagine an afternoon of 80s made for cable sci-fi/sword and sorcery flicks all bundled up into an hour and a half. Not nearly as fun as it sounds in part due to the nauseating gore sucking any potential fun out of the proceedings.
27 Dresses--a leaden romantic comedy almost redeemed by the watchable Katherine Heigl and James Marsden. Paper thin characters in service to script.
The Day the Earth Stood Still--a boring remake made more ponderous by a wooden Keanu Reeves.
Seven Pounds--(SPOILER) the feel good suicide movie of the year.
Eagle Eye--ludicrous.
Righteous Kill--almost my least favorite of this year. DeNiro and Pacino go through the motions in this tired police thriller. Very boring.
Worst Film of 2008
Zack and Miri Make a Porno--Kevin Smith peaked with "Clerks." That film's limiting budget, amateur cast, and necessarily static camera helped hide his directorial handicaps. Not good with actors, too in love with his own scripts, poor editing, and a general ugliness in his presentation all add up to make my least favorite film of 2008. And his tender take on porn films was a hollow fiction.
Worst film that I enjoyed in spite of itself
The Happening--bizarre, awful, but compulsively watchable. The stilted line delivery that Shyamalan asks each of his actors to use is a head scratcher. I wasn't particularly troubled by the premise which I found plausible enough and Shaymalan still manages to get in a few good scares. But the goofy dialogue--why you eyein' my lemon drink?--Python-esque lion mauling, and bizarre line deliveries sink this film. It's a meticulously crafted horrible movie. So fundamentally off and un-human that it plays like cinema from another world. Don't miss it.
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