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What are your films of 2008?
What have been your favourite moments of the cinematic year? Tell us your best and worst movies of 2008
Tell us your best and worst films of 2008 below.
Well, we've got to ask: how was 2008 for you?
As December eases to a close, Time Out want to look back on the highs, lows and oh-so-many middles of the year's cinematic output. The word from a few periodicals that have already run their end-of-year round-ups is that expectations for 2008 being a poor year for cinema were well and truly quashed when the results finally rolled in. When you take a good look at it, the breadth of the cinematic output from the year offer all manner of delights – big and small – from locations across the globe.
The year started with a bang courtesy of the extraordinary one-two punch of the Coen brothers' ‘No Country For Old Men’ and Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘There Will Be Blood’ – certainly two films that will be riding high in the personal top ten lists. Then as the critical hits from 2007’s Cannes Film Festival arrived in cinemas (most notably Julian Schnabel’s ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’), alongside a few other leftfield treats (we’re thinking Sidney Lumet’s ‘Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead’ and Michel Gondry’s ‘Be Kind Rewind’), Cannes 2008 delivered many more reasons to be excited. For one, Steve McQueen’s magnificent ‘Hunger’ showed a debut filmmaker arriving on the scene with such a precisely and beautifully rendered vision, that few saw room for improvement. There was also Roy Andersson’s superb, blackly comic glance at modern Sweden, ‘You, the Living’, which offered some of the year’s biggest laughs. Animation had a very good year too, with Ari Folman’s ‘Waltz With Bashir’ making waves at Cannes, and then Andrew Stanton’s ‘WALL-E’ causing critics and audiences to swoon over its apocalyptic robo-romance.
Many scene stalwarts – from Europe, America and Asia – all delivered cinematic offerings with variable results: the critical thumbs mainly went down for François Ozon’s English-language period drama, ‘Angel’, as they had done previously for ‘Flight of the Red Balloon’ by Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-Hsien (although this writer thought it was one of the year’s best). Michael Haneke’s remake of his own ‘Funny Games’ was (sadly) met with relative indifference, while Harmony Korine returned to the scene with his divisive ‘Mister Lonely’.
However, for every high-quality movie there has undoubtedly been ten stinkers in its trail. Particular ire was felt towards ‘Disaster Movie’, but that’s not to say ‘The Hottie and the Nottie’, 'Cashback', ‘The Love Guru’, ‘The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor’ or ‘The Oxford Murders’ weren’t roundly detested as well.
We could go on and on and on, but those were some of our ups and downs from 2008, which you can read more of in the coming weeks. In fact, we want to know what your best and worst moments of the year have been. Let us know your top three films of 2008 (and why) as well as your turkey of the year (again, why) and the best ones will be include in the Time Out film round-up of the year.
Tell us your best and worst films of 2008 below.
Author: David Jenkins
User comments on this story
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- Rosie said...
- Twilight definitely the best with Wall-E in second place. Collge Road Trip and High School Musical 3 also star on the list. Posted on Dec 31 2008 10:33
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- HarleyQuinn said...
- Dark Knight was my favourite by far, with Wall E coming in second place. I don't have a least favourite. :D Posted on Dec 24 2008 07:44
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- Mickf said...
- 'Burn After Reading' and 'Juno' were my favourites, closely followed by 'The Dark Knight'. Without doubt the biggest turkey was 'The Day the Earth Stood Still.' Posted on Dec 22 2008 11:18
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- James said...
- Hunger and No Country for Old Men - both brave, beautiful and uncompromising films. They are not just by far my favourites of the year, but among my favourites of the last decade, Posted on Dec 21 2008 19:09
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- berabaz said...
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The Man from Earth(very thought provoking)
A film by Richard Sckenkman from Falling Sky Intertainment
I think from Jerome Bixby's book(No CGI or special effects)Not like last watched Bourne Ultimatum! Posted on Dec 20 2008 05:57 - Report as inappropriate
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- Sam said...
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1. There Will Be Blood
2. Juno
3. Wall-e
4. You, The Living
5. The Visiter
6. The Wave
7. Lars and the Real Girl
8. The Dark Knight
9. Hunger
10. Blade Runner (The Final Cut) Posted on Dec 19 2008 03:49 - Report as inappropriate
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- bebe said...
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Two much lauded films left me stone-cold, found them confusing, with very little sense as to why the characters did what they did: There Will Be Blood was bloody awfully pretentious, altho I realise I am in a minority here, and No Country for Old Men the same way.
Enjoyed stuff like Hancock but not top 10, a curiously flat year for me. Posted on Dec 18 2008 18:21 - Report as inappropriate
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- Denis said...
- It's a long time since I laughed out loud at a film.Perhaps the last time was at The Life Of Brian.Maybe I'm too hard to please.But In Bruges has been for me the best comedy for years with its Father Ted type humour translated to the world of hitmen.There was not a wasted moment or character in the movie. Posted on Dec 18 2008 11:12
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- critique said...
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Not the best year. In 2007 I had a top 20 plus list; this time round it was hard to muster a Top Ten. These are the films I most enjoyed (in no particular order)...
Before the Devil Knows You`re Dead
U23D
The Bank Job
The Orphanage
[REC]
In Bruges
Appaloosa
Burn After Reading
The Baader-Meinhof Complex
Lakeview Terrace
I found No Country, Blood, Juno and Wall-E to be disappointing but I bow to the majority. Of others which were generally well reviewed, I have yet to see 4 Months or Dark Knight. Posted on Dec 18 2008 08:32 - Report as inappropriate
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- jameskse11 said...
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Wall E and Dean Spanely share the top honours. Although worthy of place in my Top 10 for the year are Indiana Jones , In Bruges, I've Loved you for so long, The Savages, Appaloosa, Sweeney Todd, The Orphanage and Changeling.
I have to say I have become bored rigid of celebritized cartoon animals as this conception is so dull and what insect, animal is left or furthermore do we really care. The Bucket List, Saw 5, The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor are prime examples of substandard and formulaic rubbish that prevents us seeing quality films shown at respective Film Festivals worldwide. Posted on Dec 16 2008 16:14 - Report as inappropriate
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- bobzaguy said...
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Best: Milk
Worst: The rest. Posted on Dec 16 2008 14:04 - Report as inappropriate
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- Taha G said...
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My top 5 films this year in no particualr order are:
Waltz with Bashir
There will be blood
The mist
In Bruges and
Dean Spanley
My worst films this year well i dont have enough time to write them all but i was most dissapointed of Quantam of Solace especially after the brilliant Casino Royale Posted on Dec 16 2008 11:10 - Report as inappropriate
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- Will said...
- As well as many of the films already mentioned, I loved Heartbeat Detector. It was highly original and affecting, far more than its central premise seemed to suggest. Posted on Dec 15 2008 08:38
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- foxtrot said...
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Water Lilies
In Search of a Midnight Kiss
Juno Posted on Dec 15 2008 07:36 - Report as inappropriate
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- david said...
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Best:
Juno
Burn After Reading ( a superb romp, so much more entertaining than the overrated No Country for Old men)
Wall-E ( made Legend look so dated)
Iv'e Been Loving You so Long ( Oscar time for 2 ladies)
Slumdog millionaire ( Danny Boyle back to Trainspotting form - does a preview count?)
Turkey:
Taken ( Liam Neeson laughable as an action hero in a sick ,exploitative and hopefully soon to be forgotten disaster) Posted on Dec 14 2008 19:16 - Report as inappropriate
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