2006 In Movies

[Demonic Attorney]

Movies I saw:

An American Haunting:  To call this film awful would to be unfairly tax the expressive capacity of the word "awful."  I told everyone I saw it with before we rented it that it was going to be terrible.  I have a theory about horror movie previews.  You can make virtually any horror film, no matter how awful, stupid, or poorly executed, seem good by isolating brief snippets and presenting them in a preview.  The problem is, brief climax-moments do not make a horror movie good.  Background, story, rising action, and atmosphere make a horror movie good, and those are basically impossible to judge through a preview.

The Da Vinci Code:  Why people think this was a good film, I have no idea.  Maybe the book was amazing and moviegoers feel some sort of loyalty to the story.  Whatever the case, my experience with this film was sitting in a state of apathetic boredom as one-dimensional characters abruptly shift from one poorly-introduced puzzle to the next, while the shadowy boogeyman of established religion chases them around for implausible reasons.  The foundational premise of the film was even introduced in a half-assed, unconvincing way.

Lady In the Water:  Oh my God, you have got to be kidding me.  This film easily ranks in the five worst movies I've ever seen, and that's including all the video game movies I've made the tragic mistake of watching (The Spirits Within).  The concept of this movie makes less than no sense, its central characters are less complex than a racial caricature, the foundational conflict receives less rational explanation than Intellligent Design, the story has about has much logical organization as Finnegan's Wake, and the only discernible goal the film had was to allow M. Night Shaymalan to star in one of his own inconceivably vapid stories.

<Pirates> of the Carribean:   I hated the first one, so I guess it's my own fault for assuming that the directors would make the second one any better.  My girlfriend said it was about a half hour too long; I guess if you changed that assessment to "three hours," I'd probably agree with her.  I guess I just demand more from a movie concept than "cinematic adaptation of an amusement park ride used as an excuse to put as many teen hearthrobs on screen at one time as possible and have them act out the plot of a 19th century romance novel.

Ultraviolet:  Taking stock of all the movies I've seen in 2006, I think I owe Hollywood a hard kick in the groin.  It was like they took "V for Vendetta," but instead of story, allegorical significance, and character development, thought it would be better to add hackneyed and poorly executed action sequences, terrible acting, and Mila Javovich in a tight outfit.  The fact that I watched this movie on the worst date I had this year probably made it even worse, which a special achievement in itself, given how bad it was to begin with.

Freedomland:  I wanted to like this.  I really did.  They raised some important social/political issues, they came up with a good story, and they even had good actors.  I just think their focus was misplaced.  Instead of spending so much of the film on the mother's character, if they had spent more time on how her actions had affected her community, I think it could have been better.  In any event, still a huge step from the other pieces of crap I've gone through.

V for Vendetta:  Solid film.  I don't think any cinematic adaptation of 1984 can really do justice to the original work, especially one that also tries to satiate the average dimwit's need for action sequences and explosions.  Still, the story made sense, the characters were dynamic enough to matter, the dialogue was mostly above the level of stupid, the resolution had some rational relationship to the rest of the story. 

Silent Hill:  I liked this one.  It actually inspired me to play through all the video games.  They did a really good job with atmosphere and building up the story, even if they did completely abandon the original story in the process.  The resolution and ending were pretty disappointing, but I'd already enjoyed an hour and a half of a good movie, so I can forgive a good portion of that.

X-Men 3:  A lot's been said on this already.  As a devotee of the series when I was little, I don't like how they took elements from much larger and more involved stories and smashed them together to create a melange of lesser sub-plots.  As a movie, it wasn't bad, per se.  As an X-Men product, it fell short, the post-credit resolution notwithstanding.

The Grudge 2:  Now this was a horror movie.  I guess if I had to say something negative about it, it's that the movie's over-reliance on repetitive horror climaxes robs it of the chance to build up as much rising action as say, The Ring.  Still, the repetitve "peak" moments created an atmosphere themselves, and the creative variety in their presentation kept it from becoming uninteresting or boring.  I really liked this movie.

An Inconvenient Truth:  A subject that sorely needs to be addressed, this movie did so on a wide scale that is already creating ripple effects.  For the most part, it was pretty honest in its persuasive strategies, too.  It relied on objective evidence, and didn't try to manipulate the audience into reaching its conclusion.  There were a few "partisan jab" moments I didn't think were necessary, but aside from that I have almost nothing but praise for the film.  Some might criticize it as using the "fear" route to persuasion, but you have to ask yourself how someone could present evidence regarding this problem and not touch on the fear response.

Thank You For Smoking:  And here we have the flip side to An Inconvenient Truth.  I was having trouble telling what the movie was trying to criticize more:  tobacco, lobbyists, the media, government, or big corporations.  I guess the movie might be persuasive if you take Nick Naylor's character as representative of all of the above, but if you remember he's a fictional character, the "point" of the movie falls apart.  There's so much evidence about what all of the above entities have done, on a pretty much daily basis, to deceive people for their own financial benefit that this movie could definitely have been another "An Inconvenient Truth" if the direction was more informative and less sensationalistic.  Unfortunately, a lot of people with good intentions see it as more important to be witty than honest.

[Metman]

You guys have all beaten this thing as well as anybody else could including me...but I'll chime in on a short list of movies that I really enjoyed and movies that I expected to really enjoy and was disapointed.

The Good
"V for Vendetta" - This was my favorite film of the year.  It is simply empowering; this is the only movie I cried in.  It moved me that much.

"The Departed" - I expected nothing less from the cast and you shouldn't either.

"Borat" - Funny, shocking, and uncomfortable. 

"An Inconvienant Truth" - The most important film to watch this year.

"The Prestige" - Great story, great acting, and better twists.  Throughout the entire movie I was trying to predict what would happen in the end.  I changed my story four or five times and was still wrong.  It kept me on my toes the whole time.

Now the Crap
"Casino Royale" - I've seen all the Bond films and despite this being a cool action flick it sucked as a Bond movie.  If you want to discuss this at greater lengths I would but now it would just look like a rant. 

"Dead Man's Chest" - I had high hopes considering Depp worked with Keith Richards on the part, it was too long and no longer was the character original. 

"X Men 3" - Again, I had high hopes for this since I really enjoyed the first two, but nothing worked in this film. 

"Miami Vice" - This is the only movie I walked out on, ever.  It didn't grab my attention and I couldn't understand what Farrell was saying or where the plot was going.  I went to the theatre next door and watched the second half of Borat...again. 

[nataz]

"An Inconvienant Truth" - The most important film to watch this year.

As a scientist I was disappointed. As an enviromentalist it was nice to see something like this push a litter further into the mainstream.

[Atlatl]

From what I'm told, Children of Men has taken the "Movie of the Year" place in the minds of everyone I've talked to that were lucky enough to have seen it - it opened last Friday in a limited release, so it will be part of the '06 consideration, too, I think. I look forward to seeing that.

[Metman]

"An Inconvienant Truth" - The most important film to watch this year.

As a scientist I was disappointed. As an enviromentalist it was nice to see something like this push a litter further into the mainstream.

What was it you were disapointed in?  Gore did a great job referencing his work and using examples.  I've read both sides of the argument and there isn't much that he didn't touch on.  I agree with you that it is nice to see that the film pushed the information further into the minds of the mainstream.  Frankly, it shouldn't be about politics.  This is our home we are talking about, and it's something we have taken for granted, especially those of us as Americans. 

I would also like to suggest a documentary that I found to be very enlightening as well.  I'm not sure how old it is so I don't know if it fits in the 2006 year.  It's called "The End of Suburbia".  Those of you that saw and are intrigued by "An Incovienant Truth" would very much appreciate this documentary.

[jro]

The Libertine was an '05 movie.

Only in NY/LA.  It wasn't release wide until March of 2006.

[conboy31]

This is my first post and hopefully it allows me to post in the forum that I intended to.

As for movies of 2006, I enjoyed Casino Royale and Fearless. Royale because it shied away from the trend of trying to cram in as many gadgets and kills as possible and getting back to the old school plot while Bond had some tricks up his sleeve.  Fearless becaues of the great martial arts skills that were highlighted.
Blood Diamond was also a solid movie. I am neutral about Will Ferrell movies but I was disappointed in Talladega Nights.   

[Atlatl]

I saw "The Good Shepherd" this evening - very well done. I knew in the back of my mind that I was watching a slow movie, but somehow it didn't feel slow at all. It was very hard to follow in the beginning, and parts of it made your mind do a couple flips before you realized what was going on, but again, very well done.

[skirge5]

From what I'm told, Children of Men has taken the "Movie of the Year" place in the minds of everyone I've talked to that were lucky enough to have seen it - it opened last Friday in a limited release, so it will be part of the '06 consideration, too, I think. I look forward to seeing that.

I just finished watching that movie. Wow. Very cleaver writing and it manages to be incredibly touching. The movie was insanly good. See it.

[Vegeta2711]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, one of my favorite movies of the year was Crank. It was an excellent dark comedy. In fact, that made it infi times better than nearly every 'watching this see people kneed in the face' movie. We need more dark humor.

[Moxlotus]

From what I'm told, Children of Men has taken the "Movie of the Year" place in the minds of everyone I've talked to that were lucky enough to have seen it - it opened last Friday in a limited release, so it will be part of the '06 consideration, too, I think. I look forward to seeing that.

I just finished watching that movie. Wow. Very cleaver writing and it manages to be incredibly touching. The movie was insanly good. See it.

I give it a solid B.  It was good, but could have been better.  I liked V a lot more.  However, it had a bunch of artsy symbolism crap that the Academy will like, so it'll be nominated for a bunch of stuff.

[Jacob Orlove]

I just saw Children of Men last night. It was really good.

[Matt]

Has anyone read Y: The Last Man? I'm reading it in bits and pieces through the trade paperbacks (using Borders as my own personal library).

[Smmenen]

Yes, I own the first four trades, but have only read the first two.  They were entertaining.    That has nothing to do with movies though.

[Mr. Nightmare]

I just saw Children of Men last night. It was really good.

I saw that this weekend, I agree.  I also saw A Scanner Darkly finally, and it reaffirmed my love for Richard Linklater.  That man is a genius.

[Matt]

I just saw Children of Men last night. It was really good.

I saw that this weekend, I agree.  I also saw A Scanner Darkly finally, and it reaffirmed my love for Richard Linklater.  That man is a genius.

I dunno, I thought Fast Food Nation was pretty bad.

[Bardo]

I dunno, I thought Fast Food Nation was pretty bad.

Slacker, however, was brilliant.

As for me, having kids pretty much killed my time at the movies this year--unless Over the Hedge, Cars and Curious George is your idea of quality cinema... I haven't had a worse year for cinema since I was like five years old.

[Mr. Nightmare]

I just saw Children of Men last night. It was really good.

I saw that this weekend, I agree.  I also saw A Scanner Darkly finally, and it reaffirmed my love for Richard Linklater.  That man is a genius.

I dunno, I thought Fast Food Nation was pretty bad.

Yeah, but even considering that, you have:

A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Bad News Bears (2005)
The School of Rock (2003)
Waking Life (2001)
SubUrbia (1996)
Before Sunrise (1995)
Dazed and Confused (1993)
Slacker (1991)

That's a pretty solid resume.  Plus, who else is doing the kind of cinematography that's displayed in Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly?  It's a pretty ballsy move to make a film that looks that different, and I applaud him for it.

[Godder]

As for me, having kids pretty much killed my time at the movies this year--unless Over the Hedge, Cars and Curious George is your idea of quality cinema... I haven't had a worse year for cinema since I was like five years old.

My wife and I regularly go to animated movies if they look good, and we don't have children (yet). We're such nerds .

[Vegeta2711]

As for me, having kids pretty much killed my time at the movies this year--unless Over the Hedge, Cars and Curious George is your idea of quality cinema... I haven't had a worse year for cinema since I was like five years old.

It always amazes me. There's films like Spirited Away and such that are animated and just beautiful to watch no matter what your age is. Yet every single freaking CG film in the past 2-3 years has been, 'talking animals or inanimate objects'. I was really happy when CG began to take off, because I figured what they were going to be able to do with it would be great. Instead we get talking animals every month.

For however bad Final Fantasy and FF7: Advent Children are, at least they did something with the damn technology.

[Atlatl]

I couldn't agree more, Vegeta. For any good that CG brings, unfortunately the downside is that it lets animation studios get lazy. Pastimes, when frames had to be individually hand-drawn, the movie had to be good or it wouldn't be getting made. Years of drawing and editing is not something they took lightly. But lately we have bad films popping up left and right because the big studios have gone into "Crank em out, Boys!" mode - at least we have Pixar and Dreamworks coupling good stories with (some) of their amazing animation.

[jpmeyer]

As for me, having kids pretty much killed my time at the movies this year--unless Over the Hedge, Cars and Curious George is your idea of quality cinema... I haven't had a worse year for cinema since I was like five years old.

It always amazes me. There's films like Spirited Away and such that are animated and just beautiful to watch no matter what your age is. Yet every single freaking CG film in the past 2-3 years has been, 'talking animals or inanimate objects'. I was really happy when CG began to take off, because I figured what they were going to be able to do with it would be great. Instead we get talking animals every month.

For however bad Final Fantasy and FF7: Advent Children are, at least they did something with the damn technology.

Man, and lemme tell you, I can't STAND how all of those anthropomorphic animal movies use racial caricatures for just about every character except for the main one.  Even one like Happy Feet, which is one of the better ones that I've seen, still has (sexually potent) black, (greasy) Latino, and (hook-nosed, conspiratorial) Jewish caricatured characters.  I think the only one that I could think of that really wasn't so bad was Over the Hedge (really just the skunk), but it still had a scene where the black woman animal is considered to be unattractive so she has to get a makeover in hopes of passing as non-black.  That and the fact that the villain was an upwardly mobile female professional.  It's so frustrating when the movies like give inklings of trying to be progressive (suburban alienation! plundering the environment!) and then have crap like that.

Oh, and the worst one by far in this regard was Madagascar.

[Klep]

I just got back from Children of Men, and I can only echo the comments others have made.  It really is a great film.  To my mind, the best film of '06 is now either Children of Men or The Good Shepherd.

[Atlatl]

The Departed | Blood Diamond  >  The Good Shepherd

I saw Children of Men last night, and I was speechless at the end. So very depressing, heart wrenching, and.... perfect. What an amazing movie.

[Disburden]

I just got back from Children of Men, and I can only echo the comments others have made.  It really is a great film.  To my mind, the best film of '06 is now either Children of Men or The Good Shepherd.

\


I just saw Children of Men with my girlfriend. That was a great movie. I happened to get an Academy Awards screening DVD, so I didn't even have to leave my house. Sweet.

Definitely best of '06.

[oneofchaos]

 Children of men was an amazing movie, it's not every movie where 3/4 of the entire cast of characters is shot/blown up

[Moxlotus]

Children of men was an amazing movie, it's not every movie where 3/4 of the entire cast of characters is shot/blown up

Don't watch too many horror movies do ya

[oneofchaos]

Children of men was an amazing movie, it's not every movie where 3/4 of the entire cast of characters is shot/blown up

Don't watch too many horror movies do ya

Since when do all the characters in a horror movie get blown up or shot, instead of being like...tortured, eaten, or slightly chainsawed?

[ctthespian]

I have to say that Children of Men in my opinion was no where near as good as The Departed, Blood Diamond or The Good Shepard.  My friend and I left Children of Men going "Did you like that cause I don't know if I did?"

I'd say The Departed and Good Shepard take the cake with Blood Diamond being a close second.

_Keith

[Machinus]

After all the hype, I was extremely disappointed. I was expecting complexity and depth, and instead it was horror and gore. There was no room for thinking or growth due to everyone being murdered.