My Year in 2008 Movie-Going

Last year, I had intended to do a year-end review of movies for 2007. As it way my first year in which I had both the income and proximity to a theater, I watched almost one movie a week. It was a wonderful year to watch movies, with many great movies. However, I never got the post written, and my thoughts were left in the dark.

At the end of 2008, I again intended to share my thoughts on the year of movies. However, this presented a problem, as many of the year-end movies didn't appear in my area until the end of January, when they all came into the theater at once. Therefore, I had to delay my post due to going to the theater 3 or 4 nights a week. By this past Tuesday, I had finally watched Gran Torino, ending my year of 2008 movies.

Overall, I can't say 2008 was as good as 2007, especially when comparing the Oscar Bait movies of the years. Three of my favorite movies from 2008 (Ironman, The Dark Knight, and Wall-E) came out during the summer, and one (In Bruges) debuted about a year ago. Although I enjoyed movies like Rachel's Getting Married, Gran Torino, and Slumdog Millionaire, none of them entered my list of favorites like Juno, There Will Be Blood or Walk Hard did in 2007.

Still, there were some very good things about the films of 2008. Dreamworks finally made an animated movie worth a damn (Kung Fu Panda). Pineapple Thunder, Tropic Thunder and Forgetting Sarah Marshall made me laugh. Pixar showed us that it is possible to make a love story about two robots heart-warming, and also showed that it was possible to top Ratatouille in terms of ambition. Even a movie that looked like it would be a disaster (W) turned out to be a very competent surprise.

So where will 2009 take us? The first big movie of this year is coming out March 6, when we get to see if the fears of nerds everywhere will be realized when Watchmen comes out. Later in the year, new entries from Pixar, Harry Potter, and Star Trek come out, all movies that could be great, or be disappointing. I'm sure there will be more movies to get excited about, but for right now those are the four movies I am anticipating.

Until next time, enjoy the popcorn, and I hope to see you at the movies.