Best Movies Of 2008!

Quite late in the day, but at least I finally got it made. In no particular order, the best movies that I have personally seen in 2008.

The Dark Knight – The Dark Knight to me personally is quite easily the best of the decade. Christian Bale is back as Batman and with Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman, who all do a good job, even Aaron Eckhart is good, but the real surprise is Heath Ledger with his interpretation of The Joker. Hollywood truly lost a great actor with the passing away of Heath Ledger.

Taken – A very simple tale, a young girl while on a holiday to Paris gets kidnapped or “Taken” to be forced into the flesh trade, but the bad guys did not consider her father, Liam Neeson, to be coming for them and come he does with all guns blazing. Really a bad thing for the bad guys considering Liam Neeson is an ex-CIA operative and trained by the very best in the very best and to be the very best. A great movie, one that I enjoyed immensely, and Liam Neeson really comes into his own as an action star in Taken.

Iron Man – It has taken Robert Downey Jr. this long to finally deliver on the promise he has shown over the years and it finally came down to the most commercial cinema you could find in this day and age (apart from last year’s Transformers), but it is rip-roaring fun to the core and edge of the seat entertainment, even Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow put in fine performances.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army – Guillermo del Toro is back I should say though Ron Perlman once again excels in his reprisal of Hellboy. Loads of special FX and fun along with regulars from the original Hellboy like Selma Blair, Doug Jones, etc.

Cloverfield – Probably not to everyone’s liking, but nevertheless a giant rollercoaster ride full of fun if you can stomach it (literally). Shot in handy cam mode with the shakes present, Cloverfield opens up new avenues of filmmaking like probably making a movie on your mobile phone. The creature itself is never shown properly and the camera pans incessantly and no recognizable or popular/familiar face among the leads here, but tons of fun nevertheless.

Wall-E – I nearly gave this one a miss, but my sister caught up on it on the big screen in the U.S. and it came with pretty strong recommendation from her and hence off I went to catch up on it albeit on DVD. Really good fun (if I say so myself) and I must admit I am not really a fan of the animated genre (the last I saw and liked was The Incredibles), but Wall-E is really good fun and not to be missed.

The Forbidden Kingdom – The first pairing of Jackie Chan and Jet Li, two of Kung Fu’s/martial arts’ best known and biggest exponents apart from the legendary Bruce Lee and while The Forbidden Kingdom is no masterpiece in and of itself, it still is pretty good fun and reaches the legendary status because of the coming together of Jackie Chan and Jet Li on the big screen for the very first time. The action is breathtaking and beautifully choreographed and shot and both Jackie Chan and Jet Li really shine as great exponents of the martial arts genre.

Transsiberian – I was recommended this movie at the fag end of the year, but it came with high recommendations especially since I am a fan of the Hitchcock style of suspenseful movie making and boy I was not disappointed. Director Brad Anderson holds a lot of promise for this genre and has built up a reputation of sorts for following in Hitchcock’s footsteps. Really good and worth a DVD rental if you missed it the first time around.

Wanted – Timur Bekmambetov’s impressive Hollywood debut is loaded with nonstop adrenaline pumping action and of course Angelina Jolie. Morgan Freeman is wasted, but
James McAvoy really comes into his own with Wanted. One of the best action flicks of recent times and that is saying a lot, right?

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – Indie is back and wow! Highly entertaining fare and really great fun. Harrison Ford is great as always, but the surprise is Cate Blanchett as Col. Dr. Irina Spalko.