"The Prestige solidifies Nolan as one of the greatest young directors working in Hollywood, and it's the best movie of 2007."
Just thought you should know.
I can't say I agree with many of your choices--namely The Prestige, Superman, Fountain, and Vendetta. But then again I haven't seen almost all the others, somewhat regretably.
And I know, I know, it's all subjective... but...
"The surprise ending isn't the point with The Prestige, it's just icing on the cake... Watching it means fighting your way through every second of the film just as the characters battle and scrap their way through the story."
What surprise ending? What fight? This movie seemed incredibly contrived to me, with regards to both plot "twists" and dialogue. It was well-made, but to claim it's so confusing and challenging to watch... Maybe I'm too skeptical for it. But I didn't find it confusing nor a great challenge.
As a side note, my own list:
1. A Prairie Home Companion
2. Little Miss Sunshine
3. Brick
4. Volver
5. Wordplay
6. The Departed
7. Babel
8. Special
9. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
10. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
A Prairie Home Companion gets waaaayyy too much credit just because it's Altman... and now it's going to get even more because it's the last ever Altman.
I mean it's a pleasant enough film, and the ending is kind of interesting, but number 1? It's very slow and sometimes boring. It doesn't really take any risks and it just sort of plods along nicely. It's a nice movie. That's about the only adjective that suits it to me.
All the movies on your list are all fairly similar really... slower, low key movies. Some of them are nice, but not many of them really made that much of an IMPACT on me... except Babel which is horrible.
Like you said, all subjective.
People do seem to have very strong feelings about The Prestige. Some love it, others have complaints the same as yours... they weren't surprised by the ending. But that's my point... it doesn't matter if you were or not. I don't think Nolan was really trying to deliver some sort of big TWIST ending. Who cares if you weren't surprised by the ending? It's not a Shyamalan movie.... thank god.
I wish people wouldn't get so hung up on twist endings.
Pretty good Top 10, Josh. I still don't have the balls to watch United 93, but after seeing it's your #1, I just might force myself.
I have to give my Top 10.
1: Apocalypto
2: The Departed
3: Borat
4: The Prestige
5: The Proposition
6: Thank You for Smoking
7: Slither
8: Silent Hill
9: Cars
10: Little Miss Sunshine
Silent Hill? Hmm. I didn't see it, but didn't want to.
I'm surprised I haven't seen Apocalypto on more people's end of year lists so far, I thought it would get more attention. It's a solid choice. I can see why someone might pick it even if I wouldn't.
I liked almost everything you listed, even if it didn't make it to the top of my picks.
Oh yeah, I loved it. I think the story could have been told a million times better, but to me the story is so amazing that it's almost impossible to screw up. The acting was decent (better than the games) and the script was garbage, but the story, visuals and Rhada Mitchel's mug for 2 hours made up for it. It's also well worth a watch for horror fans who are tired of pop-out scares and want something just visually disturbing... I could ramble about it for hours, but it's impossible to deny its many flaws.
Wow I've only seen 2 movies on Josh's top 10 list. A bunch of 2006 movies that I wanted to see but missed. Now that I'm at college, I don't get the chance to go to a movie theater that often :/.
__________________ "I'm up to here with cool, ok? I'm so amazingly cool you could keep a side of meat in me for a month. I am so hip I have difficulty seeing over my pelvis" - Zaphod Beeblebrox BrassGuy
Biggest surprise from Josh's Top 10 of '06 list...
"Great Stuff that didn't make the cut: Nacho Libre"
I'm flabbergasted that got a nod, but The Departed didn't. I can't remember without looking at the review or the thread if you saw Scorsese's latest, but I'm surprised it didn't fall in at least your Top 15 of '06. If you didn't see it, that makes sense.
I think my Top 10 list would just be all the movies I went to see this year.
__________________
The text found here will not be changed for at least 6 months.
United 93 - great choice, this movie was devastating in all of the right ways.
The Prestige - Can't say I enjoyed this one very much. I didn't see much meat in the story.
Superman Returns - This one isn't getting nearly as much praise as it deserves; another worthy entry.
Borat - Well, this one IS getting enough attention, but it still deserves to be on the list.
V for Vendetta - I pretty much agree with everything you said, but I don't agree with placing it so high in this list.
The Fountain - Example. Would you really say that V for Vendetta is better than this? I haven't seen Children of Men, but I can't imagine V being better than that, either.
Anyway, yeah, I'm confused about no nods for Departed, too.
Looking back at all these lists, I actually didn't care much for 2006 in film. Even my own list... the movies I really loved go up to #6. I just sort of liked the others; they were better than the rest of the mediocre films I saw this year, from Miami Vice to Tideland to Scanner Darkly... I only hated a few, but there was really not very much that was outstanding. (Note: I haven't seen United 93, or Borat, or a lot of potentially very powerful films, though I plan to... so I may be speaking too soon.)
It just seemed like a lot of directors making movies I didn't like for once (Singer, Nolan, Arronofsky), or the usual surprise indie pop-up (Brick, Little Miss Sunshine). I'd say I want film that challenge me more, but The Fountain was just silly and inane to me, and The Prestige... I won't repeat myself.
I'd like to see more films like Volver or Pan's Labyrinth (a close cut for my list), taking certain conventions but really twisting them upside down. A war epic merged with a fantasy world, or a single woman living in hard times and NOT finding the perfect guy by the end. I want to see the bad guy win. The best part of The Fountain was when her death because it was unexpected. And how in The Prestige, they weren't bad guys or good guys... just guys. I liked these parts of the films because they show that filmmakers are realizing that they need to switch things up, not make another Mission Impossible.
Side note in defense of Prairie Home Companion: I have to say, I've never much cared for Altman's films... I find them often slow and sometimes irritating. But for some reason I really loved Companion. My opinion may change upon a second viewing, but something about the way it unfolded itself really appealed to me.
I can see most of those movies up there, several are on my list, but I haven't seen Idiocracy and Little Children. My only serious disagreement is Charlotte's Web.
1. V for Vendetta (The most disturbing mainstream box office bomb in years.)
2. Stranger Than Fiction
3. United 93
4. The Departed
5. The Devil Wears Prada
6. Little Miss Sunshine
7. Tristan + Isolde
8. Happy Feet
9. The Fountain
10. The DaVinci Code
For what it's worth, these are the movies from 2006 that are in the IMDb's top 250:
80. 8.2 The Departed (2006) 47,938 Votes 115. 8.1 V for Vendetta (2005/6) 74,067 174. 7.9 Laberinto del Fauno, El (2006) 5,615-----!!!!!!! WTF 211. 7.9 The Prestige (2006) 19,812 233. 7.8 Little Miss Sunshine (2006) 23,054 235. 7.8 United 93 (2006) 18,391
This site is operated by Cinema Blend LLC. For advertising inquiries, contact Gorilla Nation. CinemaBlend.com is a private, independently owned website which is intended only as entertainment. The views expressed on this website may or may not reflect those of its owner. Don't take us too seriously.
Oops, sorry Josh.
Linear Mode
