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#1- V for Vendetta Starring: Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, John Hurt Directed by: James McTeigue By far my favorite movie of 2006. You may see a lot of top 10 lists were there are more meaningful and potentionally powerful movies like Letter from Iwo Jima making the top spot, V for Vendetta to me was more enjoyable and worked on so many more levels than trying to be a pulpit for a director. V for Vendetta while it had a candy coated outer shell full of action and adventure the movie also had plenty of things to say about modern society and the what if's of fear overtaking reason. Great perfomances and movie that had a little bit of everything. |
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#2- The Departed Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Jack Nicholson Directed by: Martin Scorsese I am a little bit of a sucker for the gangster movie, not to mention the Martin Scorsese film. This movie is the epitome of cool gangster movies and pulled together one of the best ensemble casts of recent memory. From Leo's nervous angst, to Matt Damon cooler than a cucumber subtle villain, to Jack's over the top villainous performance this movie has all the characters and all the storylines not to mention a kick ass ending, | ||
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#3- Thank You For Smoking Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Cameron Bright, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott Directed by: Paul Haggis Political satire at it's very best. In a soceity where we have become so happy to sue others and blame them for our own faults this movie picks apart the "PC" soceity. It has become so ridiclous that a burgler who slipped on a knife while robbing someone's home sued the homeowner. While the studios may have lied to the average smoker and while there might have been some slimey PR spinners like Aaron Eckhart, it all comes down to personal choice and the movie defines that with comedy and wit. | ||
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#4- Casino Royale Starring: Daniel Craig, Michael Gambon, Colm Meaney, Kenneth Cranham, Jamie Foreman Directed by: Paul Haggis In the era of the remake and the sequel and the remake of the sequel some movies do a good job at it and others do not and Casino Royale becomes one of the top bond films ever 21 movies into the series that's a testament right there to how good it is. Casting off all the whole entrapments and starting over can be tough or it can be very refreshing in the case of Casion Royale as it was hight time to bring Bond up to date and they do a fantastic job of it. | ||
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#5- Little Miss Sunsine Starring: Abigail Breslin. Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Alan Arkin, Paul Dano Directed by: alerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton In the race to get our money with all the blockbusters and high priced movies that are thrown at us, it's always nice to have a movie that remembers a good story, fun chararacters and plain ole fun can be just as enjoyable as explosions and car chases. That's just what Little Miss Sunshine is a fun, character driven story that can make you laugh, grimace and learn something about the family unit all in one movie. | ||
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#6- Hard Candy Starring: Ellen Page, Patrick Wilson, Sandra Oh, Jennifer Holmes, Gilbert John Directed by: Jody Patton, Rosanne Korenberg, David Slade The power of this movie is how it can make you squirm in your seat like you were on a hot griddle all the while it never really shows you anything. It tackles some of the touchiest subjects of today's world with a grit and a drama that just glues you to your seat even though you are squirming and would love to turn your head. It's like slowing down to watch a car accident, you really shouldn't do it but you still do. | ||
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#7- Apocalypto Starring: Dalia Hernandez, Mayra Serbulo, Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Trujillo, Rudy Youngblood Directed by: Mel Gibson It sure has been fun to pick on Mel Gibson this year and I doubt many other people will include this movie in their top 10's even though they seem to forget Gibson can certaintly tell a story and certaintly gives you your bang for your buck. He brought in millions of Christians with Passion, took the whole world with Braveheart and for the lovers of a pure action film they should be here for this one too. A great classic foot chase action movie that will not get its credit or due that's for sure. | ||
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#8- Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest Starring: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Stellan Skarsgard, Bill Nighy Directed by: Gore Verbinski I love silly action movies, I do, and the Pirates franchise buys right into that. What ten year old boy didn't dream of being a pirate, a scallywag sailing the high seas and having outrageous adventure. The Pirates movies are just that they are a ten years olds story of outrageosness that some people will never just accept for their pure fun. Dead Man's Chest was the perfect second act in a three act play where all hell breaks lose and goes wrong and will fit nicely in the trilogy when they end the series this year. | ||
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#9- Stranger than Fiction Starring: Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Queen Latifah, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman Directed by: Marc Forster Not being a fan of Will Ferrell it was quite surprising for me to watch this little gem of a film. And I have to give that to the writing as well as the direction of Marc Forster who reigned in Ferrell perfectly. He fits the meloncoly, almost monotone character of Harold Crick so well you are drawn in just waiting to see what happens. This movie almost feels Kaufmanish with its outlandish story and characters that just seem to endear themselves to you despite their zaniness. | ||
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#10- Inside Man Starring: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor Directed by: Spike Lee Slick, stylish and highly enjoyable. I mean the movie doesn't have any agenda despite being one of the better hesit movies that you might have seen in the last decade. It's the kind of movie that just engrosses you in it's story as you try to figure out all the angles and the who done its. I am not that much of a fan of Spike Lee but his entrance into mainstream blockbusters was a fantastic one at that and Clive Owen has to be the most underated actor in all of Hollywood. | ||
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Honorable Mention- The Descent Starring: Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, MyAnna Buringr Directed by: Neil Marshall Not being a fan of Horror movies its rare when one of these movies even come close to my top 10 list much less being considered for a spot on it. This was a tough choice for me because it could have very well slipped into that #10 slot as it was engrossing to say the least. The first part starts as your a fantastic horror film that hits on claustrophobia about as well as any movie I have ever seen before it decends into some silly and utterly comical at times creatures that attack out of the dark. I wasn't a fan of the second part of the film as much as that just seemed to much typical horror genre stuff and that's the reason it missed the top 10 for just an honorable mention. | ||
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Honorable Mention- Hollywoodland Starring: Adrien Brody, Diane Lane, Ben Affleck, Bob Hoskins, Kathleen Robertson Directed by: Allen Coulter Ben Affleck isn't as bad as the critics and haters would make him out to be and he turns in one of his best perfomances of his career in Hollywoodland. He needs to stay away from the romantic lead and stick with what he can do best and that's dramas and action films as he makes both quite well. It doesn't hurt that the story of George Reeves is one of the most intersting unsolved murders ever. Everything seems to come together perfectly in a well crafted movie of lies and murder. | ||
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Worst Movies of the Year #1- Hostel Starring: Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eythor Gudjonsson, Jan Vlasák, Barbara Nedeljáková Directed by: Eli Roth I could go into great depths as to why I hated this movie so bery badly but to me Hostel defines what has gone wrong with Hollywood and films today. Too often they forget to tell a story and instead rely in shocking and disgusting you to the point where you are violently ill from having to watch the garbage they throw at you. Its a game of one upmanship that has gotten completly out of hand where each director tries to make their movie more shocking and horrific than the previous directors which results in each subsquesent film being worse and worse tell you get crap like Hostel. | ||
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#2- Date Movie Starring: Alyson Hannigan, Adam Campbell, Fred Willard, Jennifer Coolidge, Eddie Griffin Directed by: Aaron Seltzer Last year I only did a worse movie of the year but this year I decided to do a top 3 because all three movies deserve to be acknowledged for what utter garbage they are. Hostel is the epitome of bad horror movies gone so horribly wrong, well Date Movie is the epitome of the gross out comedy sliding down the same garbage chute. For a trumped up comedy I don't think I have ever seen a movie I laughed at less. Parody movies can be funny like Shaun of the Dead when they come up with their own original ideas but Date Movie is the worst part of some good and some bad movies thrown together hapchance, | ||
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#3- Bloodrayne Starring: Kristanna Loken, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Rodriguez, William Sanderson, Matthew Davis Directed by: Uwe Boll Hostel is the horror movie gone oh so wrong, Date movie is the Comedy/Parody and Bloodrayne is the action movie. I doubt their is a worse director in all of Hollywood that could match the craptastic direction of Uwe Boll. I mean when you are so bad you have to challenge your critics to boxing matches because you can't prove them wrong by making a movie decent enough to watch that gives you an idea of how bad Uwe Boll is. Bloodrayne has to be one of the worst action/video game movies ever made and is painful to watch. | ||
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Biggest Dissapointment of 2006 Eragon Starring: Edward Speleers, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Djimon Hounsou, Sienna Guillory Directed by: Stefan Fangmeier I understand that most movies never live up their book counterparts but Eragon was so much of a let down from its book that its not even funny. The movie is so medicore even had I not read the book the movie would have been nothing more than a cheap rip off of Lord of the Rings but having read the book and knowing the potential this movie had makes it my most dissapointing movie of 2006. | ||