Top films I've seen this year

MY FILMS OF THE YEAR

So I’ve seen 119 films this year through a combination of TV, DVD, and the cinema (only 3 on the big screen though).

The top thirteen (yes, thirteen) I’ve seen (not all released this year, but in the last 2 years) are:

Tell No One – my first Lovefilm rental and it was a good start – a gripping French thriller about a woman seemingly coming back from the dead.

El Orfanato – Another Lovefilm rental and probably the most frightening film I’ve sent this year – horror of the psychological kind rather than visceral but very effective

Wall-E – Last year’s big hit which I saw on DVD. An animation with real heart and the first 20 minutes are about as good an example of silent cinema as you’ll see.

Frost/Nixon – the first of the two Michael Sheen films on my list, this adaptation of the stage play based on the Frost/Nixon interviews was a classy act with fine performances all round

Vicky Cristina Barcelona – this soufflé of a film from Woody Allen saw him back on form with a ridiculously good looking cast.

In Bruges – tremendous British film with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleason as two hit men hiding out in Bruges. Dark, but very comic at times with one of the best scripts of recent years.

Slumdog Millionaire – the one that got all the Oscars in the Spring and well deserved recognition for Danny Boyle. It didn’t blow me away, but maybe that was due to all the hype there’d been about it. However, it’s still a fine film.

Let the Right One In – possibly my film of the year which earned its own blog-post earlier in the year. Atmospheric scandanavian horror and marvellous stuff

In the Loop – from the team behind the Thick of It, this scathing satire of government on both sides of the Atlantic was foul mouthed but very funny and relevant.

The Damned United – Michael Sheen again, this time as Brian Clough in this fine film about his time in charge of Leeds United.

Up – Seen at the cinema, this was the animation of this year. Nothing quite lives up to the first 15 emotional minutes, but when they’re as good as they are here, that’s not a major failing.

Moon – Brilliant science fiction film starring Sam Rockwell. Has a bit of an oldschool feel to it eschewing flashy CGI and is all the better for it – it’s about the story, not the spectacle

Sherlock – I wasn’t expecting great things from this Guy Ritchie film, but give it its due, it was decent enough. A tad too long, but the Robert Downey Jr/Jude Law partnership of Holmes and Watson works effectively enough.



Other films I enjoyed this year included The Departed, Ratatouille, State of Play, The Reader, The Good the bad and the Weird, Volver, Man on Wire, Changeling, Persepolis, Ghost Town, Son of Rambow and Burn After Reading.

And what about the worst film I’ve seen this year – it’s an “honour” shared by two films – both the fourth instalments of a franchise.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – what did they do to our memory of the first three films. Spaceships, bloody spaceships, that’s what. *sigh*

Die Hard 4.0 – I spent 2 hours trying to find a plot but eventually had to admit defeat

Maybe there’s a lesson there – stop at 3 films!