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. Gomorrah/Gomorra - Matteo Garrone + Best Big Hit Movie of the Year + Most Deserved Hit of the Year + Best Epic of the Year + Best Gangster Movie of the Year + Best Italian Movie of the Year + Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Toni Servillo
3. Ponyo/崖の上のポニョ (Gake no Ue no Ponyo) - Hayao Miyazaki + Best Adventure Movie of the Year + Best Family Movie of the Year + Best Huge Hit Movie of the Year + Best Japanese Movie of the Year
4. Doubt - John Patrick Shanley + Best Drama of the Year + Best Religious Movie of the Year
5. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Nicholas Stoller + Best Romcom of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year + Best Music Movie of the Year + Best Hawaii Movie of the Year + Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Mila Kunis
7. The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow + Breakthrough Actor of the Year: Jeremy Renner + Best Independent Movie of the Year + Best War Thriller of the Year
8. The Dark Knight - Christopher Nolan + Best Action 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
9. The Reader - Stephen Daldry + Best Adaptation of the Year
10. Frost/Nixon - Ron Howard + Most Undeserved Flop 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
Appaloosa - Ed Harris + Best Train Movie of the Year + Best Western of the Year
Bolt - Byron Howard, Chris Williams + Best Dog Movie of the Year
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - Mark Herman + Best War Movie of the Year
Horton Hearts a Who! - Jimmy Hayward, Steve Martino + Best Fantasy Movie of the Year
The Promotion - Steve Conrad + Best Box Office Disaster of the Year + Best Comedy of the Year
Sex and the City - Michael Patrick King
Good, recommendable 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 Period Movie of the Year
Che: Part One - The Argentine - Steven Soderbergh + Best Political Movie of the Year
Cherry Blossoms/Kirchblüten - Doris Dörrie + Best Tokyo 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
Il Divo/Il Divo - La Spettacolare Vita di Giulio Andreotti - Paolo Sorrentino + Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Toni Servillo
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 + Copenhagen Movie of the Year + Best Drama-Thriller of the Year + Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.05
Good - Vicente Amorim + Best German Movie of the Year
The Happening - M. Night Shyamalan + Best Mystery of the Year + Best Sci-fi Horror of the Year
Happy-Go-Lucky - Mike Leigh + Best English Movie of the Year + Breakthrough Actress of the Year: Sally Hawkins
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 On-Screen Couple of the Year: Jennifer Aniston & Steve Zahn
Pineapple Express - David Gordon Green + Best Los Angeles Movie of the Year + Best Stone Comedy 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
3. 10,000 BC - Roland Emmerich + Most Undeserved Hit of the Year
4. Synecdoche, New York - Charlie Kaufman
5. Body of Lies - Ridley Scott + Most Deserved Flop of the Year
7. Hunger - Steve McQueen + Most Overrated Movie of the Year
8. Take the Trash/Blå Mænd - Rasmus Heide
9. A Christmas Tale/Un Conte de Noël - Arnaud Desplechin
10. Lemon Tree/עץ לימון [Etz Limona] - Eran Riklis
Other failed, poor and/or mediocre movies (in alphabetical order):
The Baader Meinhof Complex/Der Baader Meinhof Komplex - Uli Edel
Bangkok Dangerous - Danny Pang, Oxide Chun Pang + Worst Poster of the Year
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
The Eye - David Moreau, Xavier Palud
Henry Poole Is Here - Mark Pellington
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
New York, I Love You (2008) - 11 directors
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning/องค์บาก 2 - Tony Jaa, Panna, Rittikrai + Best Martial Arts Movie of the Year + Best Revenge Movie of the Year + Best Thai Movie of the Year
Superhero Movie - Craig Mazin
Ticket to Romance/En Enkelt til Korsør - Gert Fredholm
[75 titles in total]
Notes
19
titles are added to this update of the year 2008 in films and
TV-series; 3 new entries make it to the Top 10, while 2 make
their way onto the Bottom 10 list.
The #1 spot is still claimed by Clint Eastwood's sensational crime-drama Gran Torino, an instant American classic. Silver goes to new entry Matteo Garrone's South-Italian gangster epic Gomorrah; and new entry Hayao Miyazaki's widely appealing adventure fantasy Ponyo takes bronze. The list goes on with John Michael Shanley's electric clergy drama Doubt; Nicholas Stoller's hilarious, multifaceted romcom Forgetting Sarah Marshall; Anders Østergaard's stirring Burmese revolt documentary Burma VJ; new entry Kathryn Bigelow's stirring Iraq War thriller The Hurt Locker; Christopher Nolan's best Batman movie, the spectacular, huge The Dark Knight; Stephen Daldry's poignant WWII drama The Reader; and with Ron Howard's terrific political interview portrait Frost/Nixon rounding off the list. Leaving it in this edition are Byron Howard and Chris Williams' irresistible stunt dog family animation adventure Bolt; Ed Harris' old-school western Appaloosa; and Mark Herman's devastating children-around-the-time-of-Holocaust war movie The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
Other noteworthy entries of the year include Steve Conrad's under-seen and under-appreciated supermarket comedy The Promotion, the third, uproariously funny season of Tina Fey's 30 Rock, the first of Steven Soderbergh's 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; hilarious Dr. Seuss adaptation Horton Hears a Who!, M. Night Shyamalan's wrongfully ridiculed environmental thriller The Happening; the ridiculously maligned, hilarious silly comedy The Love Guru and frightening Aussie ghost horror mockumentary Lake Mungo.
The Bottom 10 is still led by Robert Beaucage's unfathomably dismal low-budget horror romance Spike; new entry Larry Bishop's biker trash Hell Ride races in for silver; and Roland Emmerich's ludicrous, uncompelling major adventure 10,000 BC takes bronze. Following on the list are Charlie Kaufman's head-scratching, pretentious downer Synecdoche, New York; Ridley Scott's boring and dispiriting Middle East thriller Body of Lies; Toby Wilkins' dull, anti-riveting low-budget horror Splinter; new entry Steve McQueen's pretentious prison drama Hunger; Dane Rasmus Heide's clumsy and immature comedy debut Take the Trash; Arnaud Desplechin's aggravating drama A Christmas Tale; and with Eran Riklis' dull, unengaging Lemon Tree rounding off the list. Leaving it in this edition are The Pang Brothers' unpersuasive hitman actioner Bangkok Dangerous and David Moreau and Xavier Palud's flawed horror remake The Eye.
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), - the latter of whom, however, redeems the misstep plenty with his self-starring masterpiece Gran Torino, the year's finest film.
Among the year's most popular stars are Christian Bale (The Dark Knight), Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan (Mamma Mia!; the former also in hit drama Doubt), Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex and the City), Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino), Steve Carell (Horton Hears a Who! and Get Smart), James Franco and Seth Rogen (Pineapple Express) and Keanu Reeves (The Day the Earth Stood Still). And among the stars who contributed to the year's turkey harvest we find Mike Myers (The Love Guru), Will Ferrell (Semi-Pro), Vincent Cassel (Mesrine part 1 and 2), Nicolas Cage (Bangkok Dangerous), Benicio del Toro (Che Part One - The Argentine), John Travolta (Bolt), Samuel L. Jackson (Cleaner) and Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe (Body of Lies).
On the 2009 Oscars:
Hugh Jackman
was hired as a first-time host, bringing excellent showmanship skills
to the proceedings, 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, with 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 the recently deceased 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
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
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. Ponyo - 47.96 mil. $ range (new entry)
6. Cloverfield - 43.28 mil. $
7. Horton Hears a Who! - 34.4 mil. $ range (new entry)
8. Burn After Reading - 27.44 mil. $ range
9. Pineapple Express - 14.96 mil. $ range (new entry)
10. The Day the Earth Stood Still - 13.24 mil. $ range
= Combined profits: 766.28 mil. $
Highest-grossing movies of the year:
1. The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.) - 997 mil. $
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Paramount) - 790.6 mil. $
3. Kung Fu Panda (Paramount) - 631.7 mil. $
4. Hancock (Sony Pictures) - 629.4 mil. $
5. Mamma Mia! (Universal) - 609.8 mil. $
6. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Paramount) - 603.9 mil. $
7. Quantum of Solace (Sony Pictures/MGM) - 589.5 mil. $
8. Iron Man (Paramount) - 585.5 mil. $
9. WALL-E (Disney) - 521.3 mil. $
10. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Disney) - 419.6 mil. $
2008 titles currently on the watch-list:
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, The Tonto Woman, La
Corona, The Duchess,
Wanted, Hellboy II. The Golden Army, Defiance, The House of Small Cubes,
Presto, This Way Up, The Pig, Smile Pinki, The Conscience of Nhem En,
The Witness from the Balcony of Room 306, The Betrayal -
Nerakhoon, The Garden, Trouble the Water, Revanche, Baby Mama, Of Time and the City, Nights and Weekends, Recount, Anvil, Seven Pounds
Previous annual lists:
2022 in films - according to Film Excess
2021 in films - according to Film Excess
2020 in films - according to Film Excess
2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2019 in films - according to Film Excess
2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess
2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
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 IV]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
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 IV]
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 and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
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 V]
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 III]
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 III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
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
1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
1995 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess1993 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
1992 in films - according to Film Excess
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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