My 2008 in film
I’m blowing my wad a bit early writing this post since there is about two weeks to go till the year ends a a number of must watch films like Che, The Reader, Ollo and Benjamin Button still remain to be watched by moi.However patience has never been one of my virtues. Ergo I present you the list of films I saw in 2008 and it’s not just the films released in said year but rather all the films irrespective of release year which I saw for the first time.
The list might seem a bit short but then it doesn’t contain films I got so bored/disgusted/angry with that I didn’t manage to finish them. It also doesn’t contain films I’d watched before and had repeat viewings. For example I watched Kieslowski’s “The Double Life of Veronique” about 20 times but that doesn’t enter the list.
Neither does “Mission to Istanbul” which I switched off after the first 10 minutes.
My ratings of the films fall into the following category
Mindblowing (Paaji tussi bhagwan ho)
Great (Paaji tussi kamal ho)
Good (Paaji badi changi fillum banaye hain)
Decent (Paaji not bad effort hain twaadi)
Hmmmm (Paaji yeh baat kuch hajam nahin hui)
WTF (Paaji kya mindblowing chutiya kaata aapne mera)
So without further ado here is my 2008 in film…Oh wait. General disclaimer that my rating isn’t subjective ie it isn’t a film critics rating but rather a fanboy’s rating. So if I felt that sacred source material had been trifled with then I struck down with great vengeance. Also some films have a higher than expected rating just because of great cinematography with Max Payne being the prime example. I love the video game and the film is an absolute mess. However the lighting in that film is like porn to me and I’ve watched it 4 times despite the script and acting making me wince every time. Ergo if you are looking for logic of reasoning in my ratings there is a lot of that but it’s very personal.
Anyways my 2008 in film for real
Mindblowing
Tropa de Elite
A personal journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies
The Danish Poet
Hot Fuzz
Let the right one in
Here is What is
MR 73
Memories of Murder
Protege
The Chaser
Operation Filmmaker
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
Mongol
Once
Heima
Wall-E
Princess
Reprise
A Bittersweet Life
Blood Wedding
Mountains of the Moon
Robot Chicken: Star Wars
Young at Heart
Bodysong
Noise
Ridicule
Friday Night Lights
Ennio Morricone in Concert
Wind
Star Wars Clone Wars (Genndy Tartovsky)
Afro Samurai
Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do you Remember Love ?
Appleseed
Appleseed Ex Machina
Vexille
Anatomy of Hell
The Fog of War
Great
I have never forgotten you
Millenium Mambo
Silent Light
Iron Man
The Atomic Cafe
La Turbulence des Fluides
Milk
Mishima
What to do is case of Fire
Marat/Sade
Juno
The Krays
State of Grace
Red Cliff
Knocked Up
Tropic Thunder
You don’t mess with the Zohan
The Page Turner
Kinky Boots
El Lobo
The Vikings
The Heart of the World
After the Wedding
Red Dust
Sommersault
Good
Amen
The Upside of Anger
Shanghai Kiss
Cronicas
Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles
Electroma
Flash Point
Shadow Company
Assembly
Rhinoceros Eyes
Kungfu Panda
Gran Torino
Frost Nixon
Il Divo
Zack and Miri make a Porno
Zulu Dawn
Bigger, Stronger, Faster
The Sensation of Sight
Madagascar
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Mamma Mia
Close my Eyes
The Midnight Meat Train
Spiderwick Chronicles
Max Payne
Bent
Jar City
Beaufort
Capote
Burn After Reading
Appaloosa
One Night in Mongkok
Pork Chop Hill
1408
Megacities
Proof
Hellboy 2
Young People Fucking
Jaane tu ya Jaane Na
The Hit
Punish Me
Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy
Root of all Evil
Fractals
Forbidden to Forbid
The Reckoning
King of California
All the King’s Men
The Price of Milk
Decent
Jodha Akbar
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Flawless
Lucky Number Slevin
Dark Fury: The Chronicles of Riddick
Silk
Immortel
Resident Evil Degeneration
Gomorrah
Outlanders
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Elegy
The Killing Gene
A Wednesday
Rock On
Tombstone
Transsiberian
The Miracle of Bern
Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay
Highlander: The Search for Vengeance
In Bruges
The Memory of a Killer
Hulk 2
Callas Forever
The Desert Fox
Cross of Iron
Transformers
Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd
Hmmm
Streetfighter: The Animated Movie
Cadillac Records
Quantum of Solace
Citizen Ruth
Eichmann
Triangle
Bheja Fry
Fifty Dead Men Walking
Nowhere to Hide
Taken
Sukiyaki Western Django
Battle in Seattle
Before the Rains
The Last Lear
The Girl in the Park
Shamo
Be Kind Rewind
The Oxford Murders
Batman Gotham Knight
Harsh Times
Two Hands
The Fountainhead
The Centre of the World
Sarkar Raj
Street Kings
Orange County
Tokyo Ga
Yossi and Jagger
Anamorph
Bernard and Doris
Matthew Barney: No Restraint
Outpost
A guide to recognizing your saints
Like Minds
The Golden Compass
Wild Hogs
Khoya Khoya Chand
WTF ???
The Profit
The Pacifier
Hunger
August
Day Night Day Nightein
Mutant Chronicles
Darkon
Pineapple Express
Failure to Launch
Dead Space Downfall
Bangkok Dangerous
Death Race
Vantage Point
Wanted
Atilla
Babylon AD
Subject Two
Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Righteous Kill
Invincible
Blood and Chocolate
Deception
Beowulf
Speed Racer
Redbelt
Hitman
La Antena
The Shepherd
21
Doomsday
Red Corner
Cremaster 1
Star Wars Episode III
The Invincible Iron Man
Race
Southland Tales
Dhokha
Strangers
Taking Lives
88 Minutes
Flyboys
Beowulf
The Last Winter
Butterfly on a Wheel
The Ninth Gate
The Punisher
Charlie
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Impressive list.
And I am SO glad Star Wars Episode III was in WTF! hehehehe
I think Maddox sums up everyone’s irritation about this movie.
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=episode3
Was Beowulf that bad that it featured in the WTF list twice?
I wouldn’t be very surprised if the answer is ‘yes’.
Two diff versions. One is the animated version by Zemeckis and the other a cheesy steampunk version starring Christopher Lambert. It’s bizzare that one of the best epic poems inspires so many bad films. I must have seen 10 versions of Beowulf coz it’s one of my all time fav pieces of literature and the best version by far is the awesome “The 13th Warrior” where Beowulf is actually not the main lead.
Pineapple express in WTF and “ANATOMY OF HELL” in mindblowing..pornstars over dopeheads..WTF…
‘Pineapple Express’ and ‘Hunger’ in the WTF category??
Funny, as those two films stood out for being unique to me.
‘Pineapple’ dealt with friendship beautifully.
‘Hunger’ kicked me where it hurt the most!
Performances were amazing!
And that long 10min+ scene with the priest was fabulous!
Not a single cut.
One consistent long shot.
And such a powerful one.
Correct me if i’m wrong, but I believe it’s the 1st time in THE HISTORY OF FILM that such a scene has been filmed.
:-)
Butterfly on a Wheel was remaded into an equally WTF movie in Bollywood-Kidnap.
Righteous Kill, was a big big disappointment for me, as was 88 minute. Sad to see my favorite Pacino, wasting his talent here. The last good Pacino movie i saw was Insomnia.
Steve
Pineapple Express sucks both as a buddy film as well as a stoner film. I suggest you watch “Half Baked” to get a point of ref of what a stoner film should be.
As far as Hunger goes I’ll assume you know are unaware of the IRA’s history. I have major problems with any film which glorifies terrorists. If one wishes to provide the other side of the argument then an approach like “Paradise Now” or “Beyond the Walls” is needed, not sensationalist bullshit. That particular unbroken shot you mention is 17 mins long and serves no dramatic purpose whatsoever. That shot was specifically designed to claim a world record and for that singular purpose the film was shot in Techniscope as it uses 2 perfs instead of the regular 4 and gives twice the running time on a can of film. When an entire film is shot in a particular format just to get one shot I can smell the bullshit loud and clear. If you are interested in long take films I strongly reccomend you to watch the films of Bela Tarr where the long unbroken takes facilitate the storytelling.
Wow!
Really?? Bloody hell, i didn’t realise that THAT particular scene was shot that way.
Very technical.
Bela Tarr? No idea, but now i’m curious so will find out more in the new year.
But ur point on glorified terrorism?
Well, wouldn’t u say that applies to all those Bhagat Singh movies and ‘Rang De Basanti’ too?
I mean, there are alot of people who up until this day claim that Bhagat Singh was an Aatankhvaadi and not a freedom fighter.
Not trying to be controversial here, just wondering…
Maybe I enjoyed ‘Pineapple Express’ as I wasn’t really expecting a stoner film.
I knew very, very little about it.
Infact, had I known it was meant to be a stoner movie, I probably wouldn’t have gone to the movies to see it.
I really did enjoy that film.
I would have put 21 in good and vantage point in hmmm.
Steve
Please do read up on Bobby Sands and you’l find out why there is no comparison between him and Bhagat Singh. RDB is fiction while Hunger purports to depict history as it happened hence again you can’t compare the two. I went in to watch Pineapple Express expecting a Judd Apatow laugh riot and got a snorefest instead.
Temple Oak
Both films are in WTF coz ;-
21 – It’s racist, boring, offensive and plain stupid. Please note that I’m not judging on the basis of box office but purely on the basis of merit.
Vantage Point – When anybody does a film inspired by Rashomon, if it doesn’t reach a certain level of intelligence and credulity it goes straight into the dung heap. Snake Eyes falls into the WTF category for that very same reason, Do not mess with fanboys.
Butterfly on a Wheel – truly in that category for me too. Dint expect Day night Day Night to be in there tho…
Great list.
Arthi
Day Night Day Night infuriated me to no end coz it was cynically pretentious and tried very hard to be arty and imho failed miserably. I’m as a big fan of minimalist/experimental narrative films as they come but his was just an godawful mess. There was no plot, no character development and no sense of identification with anything goin on. For me at least. I know others have liked the film and more power to them. I loved Bodysong while some of friends couldn’t sit through it.
Two more films to the list
Hmmmmm
Blindness
WTF
Seven Pounds
PE was not a buddy movie duuuuude…Franco, Regan, and mcbride are dopehaeds who become friends for a duration of 3 hrs..HB gang smoked since they were kids..PE takes the drug dealer-customer relationship to a new level
.some scenes are fucking genius..I have huge respect for Chappelle, otherwise half baked lost the plot after 20 mins fr me..too imbecile and rom com..chappelle carried it..its an inferior movie any day.. heck see smiley face and then u ll know how to maintain the integrity of a stoner movie..HB was half baked 
..PE rocked..
Latest addition to Mindblowing
The Reader
Mitch what about The Wrestler and Doubt, i think both these movies have received a lot of acclaim, any idea about them.
Am hoping Kate Winslet gets her long overdue Oscar, she has The Reader and Revolutionary Road in hand.
Some Korean movies which i saw in Seoul.
Mindblowing
Tae Guk Gi
Joint Security Area
Great
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring( It was lush visually, but kinda slow).
Good
My Sassy Girl
My New Partner.
Im going to watch The Wrestler and Doubt tomm morning. Was hoping to watch Che today but the tickets have been consistently sould out in this limited week long release. Also need to watch Rachel getting Married, The Changeling, Australia, Repo-The Genetic Opera, What Doesn’t Kill you, Ballast, The Haunted world of El Superbeasto etc etc.
And I’m not even counting all the anime I have to see including the new Miyazaki and Oshii films.
Additions
Hmmmmm
Le Serpent
Passengers