1. Let The Right One In - Hands down my top film of the year. Basically just your 12 year-old boy meets vampire trapped in 12 year-old girl story. Director Tomas Alfredson plays within the rules of vampire lore that we are all familiar with, but somehow manages to make it feel like nothing you’ve seen before. No fangs, coffins, capes or crosses. This film makes every other “vampire” film look stupid by comparison.
2. Milk - The only thing that would have made it better if is were about this Milk. We need more Habs jerseys in hip-hop.
3. The Wrestler - Best thing about this film is that my girlfriend was stunned by how depressing it is. She was honestly expecting a happy ending. Honey, there hasn’t been a wrestling picture with a happy ending since Body Slam. Hey, the guy that directed that film was the stunt coordinator for Smokey and the Bandit, so you know it’s good.
4. The Dark Knight - The best performance by Nicky Katt…ever. Suck it, Dumbauld. Shotgun SWAT for life!
5. Frost/Nixon - I think if they added a car chase sequence in this film…or maybe a karate fight, it would have cracked my top three.
6. Slumdog Millionaire - Burning out kid’s eyes, poop, dancing AND trivia. This one’s got it all.
7. Iron Man - Saw it in the theater.
8. The Visitor - Legit film. Gets a little heavy-handed towards the end, but worth checking out on DVD. This film must be huge in bongo enthusiast circles.
9. Tropic Thunder - I was underwhelmed with this at first, but it plays much better on DVD.
10. Wall-e - The first half was perfect. The second half had fat people on hovercrafts. Only Special Ed should travel via hovercraft. By the way, if the intro to this video were released in 2008, it would be my #13 film of the year.
11. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - I liked this more than I thought I would, but this is a B-grade in my book. Man, this year was a weak year for films.
12. Happy Go Lucky - Eddie Marsan’s teeth still give me nightmares. 
13. American Teen - I don’ t remember much of this film, so here’s a link to the awesome site This is Why You’re Fat.
14. Hellboy II: The Golden Army - Seth MacFarlane was a pleasant surprise.
15. Revolutionary Road - They sure yell at each other a lot in the suburbs. I think I’ll stay within city limits. By the way, in case Ron didn’t mention it yet, in Pittsburgh we now have six Super Bowls.
16. Kung Fu Panda - I like this movie, so sue me.
17. JCVD - Other than Sudden Death, this is Jean-Claude Van Damme’s best work.
18. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - “Dracula’s Lament” is the song of the year.
19. The Strangers - I had trouble falling asleep after seeing this move. Go ahead and make your fun. 
20. Pineapple Express - This film is kind of a mess, but hilarious. It was basically a three-way tie for 20th along with Step Brothers and Hamlet 2. Equally hilarious, but also messes. Those just missed making my list. I think Danny McBride made the difference.

(Read the article)

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When it came time to put this list together, I realized I didn’t really see that many quality movies. In the past years most of my list wass made up of films that we saw at the Toronto Film Festival. This years festival wasn’t bad, but not too many of the films we saw had huge buzz in the months that followed. We did see the Wrestler and Slumdog, but my favorite film of the festival didn’t even get a 2008 release (that being the film Sugar) Having a kid makes it more difficult to get out to movie on a weekly basis too. I used to be a weekly fixture at the local theater, but priorities changed and I just don’t get to the theater as much as I used to. Despite having Netflix, I don’t really watch that much on DVD either. But here we are, well into awards season and I have managed to put a list together.  In my eyes 2008 overall was a down year for movies. Lots of stuff out there, but not too many films I would call “great.” I present to you, my top 20 films of 2008. (Read the article)

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All things considered, 2008 was a pretty good year. Obama won. The Phillies captured the World Series title. I walked on the Great Wall of China. The Snuggie was unleashed on the world.

But when it came to movies, 2008 was disappointing. Very few films really captured my imagination, and a few (Gran Torino, Synecdoche, New York, The Reader) were just plain disappointing. Too often, I found myself leaving a movie and thinking “Well, that was … pretty good.” I don’t know what to blame. The writer’s strike? G.W. Bush? Whatever the reason, I’m looking forward to a big 2009.

With that in mind, not everything sucked. There were a few films I enjoyed, and it was a surprisingly good year for superhero movies and cartoons. Here’s my top 20 and nominations: (Read the article)

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I think I owe everyone at Orange Street an apology.

While I was frantically able to keep up with my TV shows, fantasy sports and my workout routine, the one thing I’ve lost track of after having a daughter in September was my movie schedule. Something had to give — for me it was movies in the theater. I just find it much more important to catch up on an episode of Burn Notice than I do to check out Waltz with Bashir. (Read the article)

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This has it all. A musical number, karate chops and world record for saying “I’m pressing charges” consecutive times.  

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Why did you have to disappoint me?

I saw a midnight screening of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and I have to say I am shocked at how much I disliked it. Coming out of it, I kept looking for reasons for me to like it, but I just couldn’t. There are some high points, but I have to say that the low points far out weigh them.

Next to the Holy Trilogy, I would have to say Indy was my favorite film series during my formative years, so Crystal Skull had a lot to live up to. Maybe Iron Man just set the bar to high for the summer?

I felt that the story was a little weak and the “prize” was exactly what I didn’t want it to be. I don’t want to ruin it for anyone that hasn’t seen it yet, so that’s as much as I will say. Also, the dialog was on par with another ruiner of childhood memories, Episode I : The Phantom Menace.

I was excited for the Indy revival, but right now I wish it never had happened.

I want some feedback. I’m interested to see what others thought. I know over all It has been getting mixed reviews, but Rotten Tomatoes gives it a glowing 80% fresh. Am I over thinking this thing or can I really be disappointed?

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Well, the Madness is over for another year. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I look forward to the final video montage every year. If you missed it here it is:

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There is a GI Joe movie in the works. I was a huge fan of the 80’s cartoon, the Marvel comic book and the toys of the same name. I would say out of all of the afternoon cartoons it was easily my favorite. I really got into the comic book first. It was a great read, until they started following the goofy cartoon storylines (Serpentor anyone?).

When I heard that a GI Joe movie was being made, the first thing I thought of was, who is going to play Snake Eyes? He is arguably the most popular GI Joe character of the bunch. I had read a while back that they cast Ray Park in the role of Snake Eyes. Most of you may remember him as Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I. Good choice, I think. Park is a martial artist by trade just like Snake Eyes. Pictures of the costume were recently released to the internet and it looks like they are sticking with the “version 2″ costume for Snake Eyes. The coolest one in my opinion. One thing of note is that in the comic book the red insignia you see there is actually a tattoo that Snake Eyes shares with Storm Shadow. I hope they elaborate on that in the movie, its one of my favorite GI Joe story lines. Another great Snake Eyes story comes from issue 21, aka “The Silent Issue.” but I doubt they will make a movie sans dialog.

Besides Ray Park as Snake Eyes, they have cast most of the major (and minor) characters. There were so many good guys and bad guys, I’m not sure how they can cram all of them into a 2 hour movie. The casting seems to be spot on, but I have a feeling most of the minor characters will just get glanced over. On the Cobra side of things it seems like they have all of the big guns, Destro, Baroness (played by noted Pittsburgh hater Sienna Miller), Zartan and Cobra Commander. It was also reported that part of the movie storyline will focus on Destro. He’s an interesting character, so it could make for a good movie plot.

It will be interesting to see which story lines they actually go with. I read recently that the stories will be pulled from the comic book from the 80’s. That being said, I have sneaking suspicion that the whole thing is going to be one huge mess. The whole project stinks of last summer’s other 80’s cartoon translation, Transformers. I didn’t love Transformers, but I didn’t hate it either, so maybe that is where I will have to level my expectations for the Joe movie.

As a side note, I can’t possibly post anything about GI Joe with out putting a link to the hilarious GI Joe PSA parodies on YouTube. Not sure why, but this is my favorite one.

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Not sure if this is fo’ realzies, but it’s hilarious.

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The new Hulk trailer came out last night. Not sure what I really think yet. It worries me a bit that there hasn’t been as much promotion for Hulk as there has been for Iron Man. The Hulk looks ok in the trailer. I think he still looks a bit rubbery to the point of looking like clay-mation. Hopefully they can clean that up before June.

As side note, you Toronto Film Fest guys might notice a Toronto hot-spot in the final seconds of the trailer.

I’ve posted the trailer here, but make sure you check out in HD to get the full flavor.

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