Year End Review
January 9, 2007
Closed out 2006 with a rather light load of movies under the belt, thanks in large part to the torrent of colorless dreck cranked out by the studios last year. Numerous were the weekends when there weren't but books (!) to lay work-weary eyeballs upon. The breakdown:
It would appear no DVDs were watched in 2006, however, the list generally tracks movies by the year they are released, not the year they are viewed. Update: this is no longer the case. Movies are counted on the year they are viewed, though listed in the year they were released.
As is our custom, we narrowed the '06 field to a Top Five. It was no easy task - after a couple obvious choices, there's a profusion of strong contenders. The highlights were (in no particular order) The Fountain, The Departed, Superman Returns, The Prestige, and Pirates of the Caribbean 2.
The Fountain, while not everyone's cup of existential tea, was an extraordinary story with lavish visuals. Despite numerous flaws (many of which only really offend my acute nerd sensibilities), Superman Returns was big fun - starting with the perfect casting of the Man of Steel. The Prestige and The Departed were solid efforts on all fronts; great cinematography, interesting stories, terrific acting, etc. New to the list would be Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Pirates wasn't originally a contender, until a recent "dollar-show" second viewing left an unexpectedly favorable impression (though the sword fight on the water wheel is still entirely overwrought).
That hearty group managed to topple the likes of Rocky Balboa, Apocalytpo, and Little Miss Sunshine.
Looking ahead, 2007 has lined up some promising titles - Children of Men, David Fincher's Zodiac, 300, The Simpson's Movie, a new Harry Potter film, and of course the final Pirates flick. Should be good stuff.
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