Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: 2008 in films and TV-series

12/08/2020

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

The Top 10 of the Year

1. Gran Torino - Clint Eastwood + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Car Movie of the Year + Best Crime-Drama of the Year + Best Mega-hit Movie of the Year

2. Doubt - John Patrick Shanley + Best Drama of the Year + Best Religious Movie of the Year

3. 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

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

5. The Dark Knight - Christopher Nolan + Best Action Movie of the Year + Best Big Hit Movie of the Year + Best Superhero Movie of the Year + Best Villain of the Year: The Joker (Heath Ledger) + Most Profitable Movie of the Year: 217 mil. $ range

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

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

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

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

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

Other great movies and TV-series (in alphabetical order):

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

Eagle Eye - D.J. Caruso

Sex and the City - Michael Patrick King + Best Huge Hit Movie of the Year

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

Cloverfield - Matt Reeves + Best Poster of the Year + Best Found-footage 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 Big Flop Movie of the Year + 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

Go with Peace, Jamil/Gå med Fred, Jamil - Omar Shargawi + Best Box Office Disaster of the Year + Copenhagen Movie of the Year + Best Drama-Thriller of the Year + Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.05

Lake Mungo - Joel Anderson + Best Horror Movie of the Year + Best Mockumentary of the Year + Best Australian Movie of the Year

The Love Guru - Marco Schnabel + Silliest Movie of the Year + Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year + Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 45.68 mil. $ range + Most Under-appreciated Movie of the Year

Management - Stephen Belber + Best Independent Movie of the Year + Best On-Screen Couple of the Year: Jennifer Aniston & Steve Zahn

Mesrine: Killer Instinct + Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1/Mesrine: L'Instinct de Mort + Mesrine: L'ennemi public n°1 - Jean-François Richet + Best Gangster Movie of the Year

Semi-Pro - Kent Alterman + Best Michigan Movie of the Year + Best Sports Comedy of the Year + Career-Killer of the Year: Kent Alterman

Terribly Happy/Frygtelig Lykkelig - Henrik Ruben Genz

The Bottom 10 of the Year

1. Spike - Robert Beaucage

2. 10,000 BC - Roland Emmerich + Most Undeserved Hit of the Year

3. Synecdoche, New York - Charlie Kaufman

4. Body of Lies - Ridley Scott + Most Deserved Flop of the Year

5. Splinter - Toby Wilkins

6. Take the Trash/Blå Mænd - Rasmus Heide

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

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

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

10. The Eye - David Moreau, Xavier Palud

Other failed, poor and/or mediocre 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

Cleaner - Renny Harlin
Deadgirl - Gadi Harel, Marcel Sarmiento

Eden Lake - James Watkins
The Escapist - Rupert Wyatt

Let the Right One In/Låt den Rätte Komma In - Tomas Alfredson + Best Swedish Movie of the Year + Best Vampire Movie of the Year
Lymelife - Derick Martini

Mamma Mia! - Phyllida Lloyd + Best $ Return of the Year: 11.72

Superhero Movie - Craig Mazin
Ticket to Romance/En Enkelt til Korsør - Gert Fredholm

[56 titles in total]

Notes

10 titles are added to this update of the year 2008 in films and TV-series; 1 new entry goes all the way to the top, while another 3 make their way onto the Bottom 10 list.
The fresh #1 spot picture is Clint Eastwood's sensational crime-drama Gran Torino, an instant American classic. Silver goes to John Michael Shanley's electric clergy drama Doubt; and bronze to Nicholas Stoller's hilarious, multifaceted romcom Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The Top 10 list goes on with Anders Østergaard's stirring Burmese revolt documentary Burma VJ; 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; and finally Mark Herman's devastating children-around-the-time-of-Holocaust war movie The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Leaving the list in this edition is 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 entitled The Class, a New York-chomping kaiju thriller, Cloverfield, a Danish WWII resistance thriller with impressive scope, Flame & Citron; the ridiculously maligned, hilarious silly comedy The Love Guru and frightening Aussie ghost horror mockumentary Lake Mungo.
The Bottom 10 is led by new entry Robert Beaucage's unfathomably dismal low-budget horror romance Spike; Roland Emmerich's ludicrous, uncompelling major adventure 10,000 BC follows; and new entry Charlie Kaufman's head-scratching, pretentious downer Synecdoche, New York takes 3rd place. The list continues with Ridley Scott's boring and dispiriting Middle East thriller Body of Lies; new entry Toby Wilkins' dull, anti-riveting low-budget horror Splinter; Dane Rasmus Heide's clumsy and immature comedy debut Take the Trash; Arnaud Desplechin's aggravating drama A Christmas Tale; Eran Riklis' dull, unengaging Lemon Tree; The Pang Brothers' unpersuasive hitman actioner Bangkok Dangerous; and finally David Moreau and Xavier Palud's flawed horror remake The Eye. Out of the turkey race this time are 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), - who however redeems the misstep plenty with his self-starring masterpiece Gran Torino, the year's finest film.

On the 2009 Oscars:

Hugh Jackman was hired as a first-time host, bringing excellent showmanship skills to the precedings, successfully raising the ratings from the previous year's Jon Stewart-hosted slump by 13 % to almost 37 mil. viewers.
Most nominated of the year was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with 13 nods, and Slumdog Millionaire coming in 2nd with 10 nods. The night's biggest winner was Slumdog Millionaire, which took home no less than 8 statuettes, followed by The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with 3 Oscars.
They all fell like this:
Slumdog Millionaire won Best Picture and Best Director (Danny Boyle). Sean Penn won Best Actor for Milk, and Best Actress went to Kate Winslet for The Reader. Best Supporting Actor went to Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight, the 2nd time in Oscar history that an actor's award was given posthumously. Best Supporting Actress went to Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Dustin Lance Black won Best Screenplay for Milk, and Simon Beaufoy won Best Adapted Screenplay for Slumdog Millionaire.
WALL-E took home Best Animated Feature; Departures won Best Foreign Film for Japan, and Man on Wire won Best Documentary. The short film Oscars went to Smile Pinki (documentary), Toyland (live action) and La Maison en Petits Cubes (animation).
A.R. Rahman won Best Score for Slumdog Millionaire, and Best Song went to Jai Ho from the same film. Best Sound Editing went to The Dark Knight; Best Sound Mixing to Slumdog Millionaire. Best Art Direction, Makeup and Visual Effects went to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Anthony Dod Mantle won Best Cinematography for Slumdog Millionaire, which also won for Best Editing. The Duchess won Best Costume Design. Jerry Lewis was given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Oscar.

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. The Love Guru - 45.68 mil. $ range

2. Semi-Pro - 37.48 mil. $ range new entry
3. Mesrine: Killer Instinct & Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 - two-part movie release - 31.48 mil. $ range (in total)
4. Bangkok Dangerous - 28.04 mil. $ range

5. Che: Part One - The Argentine - 26.82 mil. $ range
6. Bolt - 26.04 mil. $ range
7. Cleaner - 23.4 mil. $ range
8. Body of Lies - 22.39 mil. $ range

9. Synecdoche, New York - 18.28 mil. $ range new entry
10. Burning Plain - 17.76 mil. $ range

= Combined losses: 277.37 mil. $

Biggest hits of the year:

[The gain 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. The Dark Knight - 217 mil. $ range

2. Mamma Mia! - 191.96 mil. $ range

3. Sex and the City - 101.08 mil. $ range

4. Gran Torino - 74.96 mil. $ range

5. Cloverfield - 43.28 mil. $

6. Burn After Reading - 27.44 mil. $ range

7. The Day the Earth Stood Still - 13.24 mil. $ range

8. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - 12.04 mil. $ range

9. The Reader - 11.96 mil. $ range

10. The Eye - 10.76 mil. $ range

= Combined profits: 703.72 mil. $

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2001 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2000 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

What do you think of the 2008 lists?
What movies of the year would be on your top and bottom lists?
Which worthwhile 2008 titles are missing on the watch-list?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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12/08/2020

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

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