2008 in films - according to Film Excess

The 10 Best Movies of 2008:

1. Doubt - John Patrick Shanley + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Drama of the Year + Best Religious Movie of the Year + Best Play Adaptation of the Year

2. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Nicholas Stoller + Best Romcom of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year + Best Comedy of the Year + Best Music Movie of the Year + Best Hawaii Movie of the Year + Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Mila Kunis

3. Burma VJ/Burma VJ: Reporter i et Lukket Land/Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country, documentary - Anders Østergaard

4. The Dark Knight - Christopher Nolan + Best Superhero Movie of the Year + Best Blockbuster of the Year + Best Villain of the Year: The Joker (Heath Ledger)

 
5. The Reader - Stephen Daldry + Best Adaptation of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: David Kross

6. Frost/Nixon -Ron Howard + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

7. Bolt - Byron Howard, Chris Williams + Best Dog Movie of the Year + Best Family Movie of the Year 
 

8. Appaloosa - Ed Harris + Best Western of the Year + Best Train Movie of the Year

9. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - Mark Herman + Best War Movie of the Year

10. 30 Rock - season 3 - Tina Fey, creator + Best New York Title of the Year + Best Returning TV-series of the Year + Best Sitcom of the Year 

Other great 2008 movie:

Eagle Eye - D.J. Caruso

Good, recommendable 2008 movies (in alphabetical order):

24: Redemption (TV movie) - Jon Cassar + Best TV movie of the Year

Bronson - Nicolas Winding Refn + Best Prison Movie of the Year + Most Violent Movie of the Year

Buddenbrooks/Die Buddenbrooks/Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family - Heinrich Brelouer + Best German Movie of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year

Che: Part One - The Argentine - Steven Soderbergh  + Best Political Movie of the Year

The Class/Entre les Murs - Laurent Cantet + Best French Movie of the Year + Best Debate-sparking Movie of the Year

Cloverfield - Matt Reeves  + Best Poster of the Year + Best Found Footage Movie of the Year + Best 'Huge Hit' Movie of the Year

The Day the Earth Stood Still - Scott Derrickson + Best Remake of the Year + Best Science Fiction Movie of the Year

Departures/おくりびと (Okuribito) - Yôjirô Takita + Best Japanese Movie of the Year

Il Divo/Il Divo - La Spettacolare Vita di Giulio Andreotti - Paolo Sorrentino + Best Italian Movie of the Year

Flame & Citron/Flammen og Citronen - Ole Christian Madsen  + Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Thriller of the Year

Frozen River - Courtney Hunt + Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year + Best Social Realism Movie of the Year

Mesrine: Killer Instinct + Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1/Mesrine: L'Instinct de Mort + Mesrine: L'ennemi public n°1 - Jean-François Richet + Best Two-Part Movie of the Year + Best Gangster Movie of the Year + Biggest Flop Movie of the Year (range of 40.85 mil. $ loss collectively)

Terribly Happy/Frygtelig Lykkelig - Henrik Ruben Genz

The 10 Worst Movies of 2008:

1. 10,000 BC - Roland Emmerich + Most Undeserved Hit of the Year

2. Body of Lies - Ridley Scott

3. Take the Trash/Blå Mænd - Rasmus Heide 

4. A Christmas Tale/Un Conte de Noël - Arnaud Desplechin

5. Lemon Tree/עץ לימון [Etz Limon] - Eran Riklis + Most Overrated Movie of the Year

6. Bangkok Dangerous - Danny Pang, Oxide Chun Pang + Worst Poster of the Year

7. The Eye - David Moreau, Xavier Palud

8. Eden Lake - James Watkins + Most Unpleasant Movie of the Year

9. Cleaner - Renny Harlin

10. The Escapist - Rupert Wyatt

Other failed, poor or mediocre 2008 movies (in alphabetical order):

The Baader Meinhof Complex/Der Baader Meinhof Komplex - Uli Edel
Be Kind Rewind - Michel Gondry
Bottle Shock - Randall Miller
Burn after Reading - Ethan and Joel Coen
The Burning Plain - Guillermo Arriaga
The Changeling - Clint Eastwood 
Deadgirl - Gadi Harel, Marcel Sarmiento + Sickest Movie of the Year
Ticket to Romance/En Enkelt til Korsør - Gert Fredholm

[42 titles in total]

Notes

Most 2008 movies, good and bad, are missing on this first, tentative listing of the year, some of which will emerge on the first updated list in some months.
There was no doubt as to which of the reviewed 2008 titles would command the #1 spot, - excuse the pun, - John Michael Shanley's electric clergy drama Doubt stands tall. Nicholas Stoller's hilarious, multifaceted romcom Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Anders Østergaard's stirring Burmese revolt documentary Burma VJ take silver and bronze, respectively. The rest of the Top 10 are crowded with 7 excellent offerings: Christopher Nolan's best Batman movie, the spectacular, huge The Dark Knight; Stephen Daldry's poignant WWII drama The Reader; Ron Howard's terrific political interview portrait Frost/Nixon; Byron Howard and Chris Williams' irresistible stunt dog family animation adventure Bolt; Ed Harris' old-school western Appaloosa; Mark Herman's devastating children-around-the-time-of-Holocaust war movie The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas; and finally the third, uproariously funny season of Tina Fey's 30 Rock.
Other noteworthy movies of the year includes a thrilling surveillance actioner Eagle Eye, the first of two Che Guevara movies, Che: Part One - The Argentine with Benicio del Toro as the title revolutionary, a sizzling, French classroom drama called The Class, a New York-chomping kaiju thriller, Cloverfield, and a Danish WWII resistance thriller with impressive scope, Flame & Citron.
The worst of the year are topped by Roland Emmerich's ludicrous, uncompelling major adventure 10,000 BC, followed by Ridley Scott's boring and dispiriting Middle East thriller Body of Lies and Dane Rasmus Heide's clumsy and immature comedy debut Take the Trash. The list is completed by Arnaud Desplechin's aggravating A Christmas Tale, Eran Riklis' dull, unengaging Lemon Tree, The Pang Brothers' unpersuasive hitman actioner Bangkok Dangerous, David Moreau and Xavier Palud's flawed horror remake The Eye, James Watkins' relentlessly unpleasant horror Eden Lake, Renny Harlin's immaterial thriller Cleaner and Rupert Wyatt's flawed prison escape movie The Escapist.
Great and master filmmakers who churned out sub-par efforts in 2008 include Uli Edel (The Baader Meinhof Complex), Michel Gondry (Be Kind Rewind), The Coen Brothers (Burn after Reading) and Clint Eastwood (The Changeling).

Biggest flops of the year:

[The loss is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account] 

1. Mesrine: Killer Instinct & Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 - collective two-part movie loss in the range of 40.85 mil. $, or around 20.4 mil. $ per movie
2. Bangkok Dangerous - 28 mil. $ range
3. Bolt - 26 mil. $ range
4. Cleaner - 23.4 mil. $ range
5. Body of Lies - 21.1 mil. $ range
6. Che: Part One - The Argentine - Part 1 & 2 endured a collective loss in the range of 41.6 mil. $, split in two coming to about 20.89 mil. $
7. Burning Plain - 17.7 mil. $ range
8. The Baader Meinhof Complex - 13 mil. $ range

2008 titles currently on the watchlist:

Pedro, Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!, The Good the Bad the Weird, Three Monkeys, Medicine for Melancholy, Paris 36, French Roast, Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty, A Matter of Loaf and Death, Instead of Abracadabra, The Door, Food Inc.

Previous annual lists:
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2016 in films - according to Film Excess 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess   
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2014 in films - according to Film Excess  
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2013 in films - according to Film Excess    

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess 

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess    

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

What do you think of the 2008 lists?
What films of the year are your favorites and least favorites?
Is any essential title/s missing on the watchlist?