Movies of 2008

As I've written previously, I watch a lot of movies, though most are viewed as DVDs on my television. Because I do not see that many films in the theater, it can be difficult for me to write a post on the year's best movies (of 2008, or any other year).

Indeed, many of the best films I saw this past year were 2007 films that I missed in the theaters. Some were even older.

To make this rank-ordered 2008 list, I scanned the top 150 grossing movies of 2008, as well as IMDB's most popular titles for 2008 (and their most popular by average vote list). These were the only 2008 films I saw this year, so far as I know. Those marked with asterisks were viewed in a theater:

The Visitor **
Transsiberian
The Dark Knight **
Smart People
In Bruges
Tropic Thunder
Burn After Reading **
Iron Man
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Rachel Getting Married **
The Bank Job
Baby Mama
Wanted **
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull **
Get Smart
Vantage Point
Penelope
21
Be Kind, Rewind
27 Dresses

And here's the annual list of movies I intend to see in the near future (but probably in 2009): Adventures of Power, American Teen, Appaloosa, Brideshead Revisited, Cadillac Records, Cloverfield, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Definitely Maybe, Diminished Capacity, Doubt, Edge of Heaven, Frost/Nixon, Frozen River, Ghost Town, Gomorra, Gran Torino, Hamlet 2, Happy-Go-Lucky, JCVD, Kung Fu Panda, Man on Wire, Milk, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Momma's Man, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Pineapple Express, Quantum of Solace, Revolutionary Road, Religulous, RockNRolla, Role Models, Seven Pounds, Shine a Light, Slumdog Millionaire, Standard Operating Procedure, Stop-Loss, Street Kings, Synecdoche, New York, Taken, Tell No One, Under the Same Moon, Vicky Christina Barcelona, W., The Wackness, WALL*E, What Just Happened, Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?, The Wrsestler, and Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

Keep in mind that I didn't get around to seeing several 2007 movies from last year's list: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Into the Wild, No End in Sight, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.


Note: I did not provide links to the Powell's Bookstore website, where you can buy DVDs of many of the films listed in this post. However, if you buy books or DVDs from my link, I receive a 7.5% sales commission. All funds are used to operate this blog -- or will be gambled away at my monthly poker game.

Powell's is a great independent bookstore -- always a highlight of my trips to Portland -- with union representation, tremendous selection, and reduced-price used or sale books.


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