The Year so Far

[ZapRowsdower]

2006 is halfway done, and now I begin posting the best and worst of certain categories thus far. Feel free to add in your own input as well.

Best Picture

A Prairie Home Companion
Brick
Inside Man
The Proposition
United 93

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Aaron Eckhart for Thank You for Smoking
Josh Hartnett for Lucky Number Slevin
Guy Pearce for The Proposition
Denzel Washington for Inside Man
Hugo Weaving for V for Vendetta

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Salma Hayek for Ask the Dust
Sophia Myles for Tristan + Isolde
Keke Palmer for Akeelah and the Bee
Natalie Portman for V for Vendetta
Emma Thompson for Nanny McPhee

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Laurence Fishburne for Akeelah and the Bee
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Mission: Impossible III
Kevin Kline for A Prairie Home Companion
Ian McKellen for The Da Vinci Code
Clive Owen for Inside Man

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Jodie Foster for Inside Man
Lindsay Lohan for A Prairie Home Companion
Idina Menzel for Ask the Dust
Meryl Streep for A Prairie Home Companion
Emily Watson for The Proposition

Best Achievement in Directing

Robert Altman for A Prairie Home Companion
Paul Greengrass for United 93
John Hillcoat for The Proposition
Rian Johnson for Brick
James McTeigue for V for Vendetta

Best Original Screenplay

Robert L. Baird, Dan Fogelman, Dan Gerson, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, John Lasseter, Phil Lorin, Kiel Murray, and Steve Purcell for Cars
Nick Cave for The Proposition
Russell Gewirtz for Inside Man
Paul Greengrass for United 93
Rian Johnson for Brick

Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Akiva Goldsman for The Da Vinci Code
Garrison Keillor and Ken LaZebnik for A Prairie Home Companion
Jason Reitman for Thank You for Smoking
Robert Towne for Ask the Dust
Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski for V for Vendetta

Best Ensemble Cast

A Prairie Home Companion
Lucky Number Slevin
Thank You for Smoking
The Proposition
United 93

Best Animated Feature

Cars
Over the Hedge

Best Documentary Feature

An Inconvenient Truth

Worst Picture

Basic Instinct 2
BloodRayne
Date Movie
Freedomland
Ultraviolet

Worst Actor in a Leading Role

Jon Foster for Stay Alive
David Morrissey for Basic Instinct 2

Worst Actress in a Leading Role

Milla Jovovich for Ultraviolet
Kristanna Loken for BloodRayne
Julianne Moore for Freedomland
Sharon Stone for Basic Instinct 2

Worst Actor in a Supporting Role

Matthew Davis for BloodRayne
William Fichtner for Ultraviolet
Michael Madsen for BloodRayne
Frankie Muniz for Stay Alive
Brian Tee for The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Worst Actress in a Supporting Role

Nathalie Kelley for The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Michelle Rodriguez for BloodRayne

Worst Screenplay

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer for Date Movie
Chris Morgan for The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Richard Price for Freedomland
Guinivere Turner for BloodRayne
Kurt Wimmer for Ultraviolet

Worst Director

William Brent Bell for Stay Alive
Uwe Boll for BloodRayne
Joe Roth for Freedomland
Aaron Seltzer for Date Movie
Kurt Wimmer for Ultraviolet

Most Offensive to the Eyes

Date Movie
Ultraviolet

Biggest Disappointment

X-Men: The Last Stand

Asshat of the Year… Half of It, Anyway

20th Century Fox, for jumping the gun on X-Men 3 – handing it to Brett Ratner was a bad move.
Uwe Boll, because he’s still making movies.
Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, for making Date Movie.
Justin Lin, for selling out without any artistic integrity.

[Quorthon]

I've only seen like one or two movies this year.

I'm so poor.

[Heineken Skywalker]

I've seen far fewer than Smitty, but truth be told, I didn't really care about seeing the majority of these in a theater anyway. It takes too much effort these days, so when we do go, it's something we really wanted to see on the big screen.
There are a few listed that I'll try to see when they hit HBO or dvd.

[ZapRowsdower]

I expect by the end of the year, 90% of these will probably no longer be on the list. Especially considering they usually save the best movies for December.

That's why I do this, because I don't want us to forget the better movies of the FIRST half of the year.

The entries I DO think might last the Oscar season are (on MY list, anyway):

Best Picture: United 93 (95% chance), Brick (85% chance)

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Hugo Weaving for V for Vendetta (80% chance), Aaron Eckhart for Thank You for Smoking (70% chance)

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Keke Palmer for Akeelah and the Bee (80% Chance), Emma Thompson for Nanny McPhee (60% chance)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Clive Owen for Inside Man (70% chance, especially considering Owen won the first two snootchies for this category) Kevin Kline for A Prairie Home Companion (60% chance)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Meryl Streep for A Prairie Home Companion (75% chance)

Best Achievement in Directing: Paul Greengrass for United 93 (99.9% chance. As in, 5 other movies would have to have better direction for this to not make the list. Not likely), Robert Altman for A Prairie Home Companion (90% chance), Brick (90% chance). These three movies are probably safe.

Best Original Screenplay: Brick (90% chance), Cars (80% chance)

Best Adapted Screenplay: A Prairie Home Companion (90% chance), Thank You for Smoking (85% chance)

Best Ensemble Cast: A Prairie Home Companion (This WILL make the category, and you can take that to the bank), Thank You for Smoking (90% chance), United 93 (80% chance)

Best Animated Feature: Cars (Will probably win), Over the Hedge (Will make the category -- not that many animated movies are released per year)

Best Documentary Feature: An Inconvenient Truth (Will win. Highly doubtful that a better documentary will present itself this year, considering this is the best documentary I've ever seen.)

As for the Asshats, expect all of these to remain intact. Movies don't get much worse than these -- the only way any of those movies will be removed is if some filmmaker pulls a Van Helsing on me and pisses me off. But other than that, this is pretty much what the list should look like by the end of the year.

[Heineken Skywalker]

I'd have to say my Biggest Disappointment so far would be:
THE DaVINCI CODE

I don't think Brett Ratner ruined the X-MEN franchise at all. X3 may have had more action and less heart than it's predecessors, but I wasn't disappointed. I feel like I got what I wanted out of the movie. What critics and non-comic fans seem to forget is that this is still a film franchise based on a superhero comic book series. These aren't arthouse films. No matter how many Shakespearian trained actors and Tony Award winners you stick in these movies, at the end of the day, they're still guys and gals in leather & spandex costumes, flying around on wires and pretending to beat the crap out of each other. When did everybody start taking this stuff so seriously?

[Pulpmariachi]

heinekenskywalker said:

I'd have to say my Biggest Disappointment so far would be:
THE DaVINCI CODE

I don't think Brett Ratner ruined the X-MEN franchise at all. X3 may have had more action and less heart than it's predecessors, but I wasn't disappointed. I feel like I got what I wanted out of the movie. What critics and non-comic fans seem to forget is that this is still a film franchise based on a superhero comic book series. These aren't arthouse films. No matter how many Shakespearian trained actors and Tony Award winners you stick in these movies, at the end of the day, they're still guys and gals in leather & spandex costumes, flying around on wires and pretending to beat the crap out of each other. When did everybody start taking this stuff so seriously?

Well...when the first two handeled the campy factor and the sophistication of the movies very well. You had your action then your heart. X3 was just loads of action with nothing and characters always going, "Shut up BITCH." Pretty much anytime anyone said that word it was just...out of place and stupid. Ratner is a studio director for hire, there's nothing really good about him. Studios like him because he can turn in pictures on-time and on-budget. You also have to look at the factor that the first two X-Men films established a mood and point about them. It's like Batman and Batman Returns, eventually followed by Batman Forever.

But then, I'm not a comic book fan.

[ZapRowsdower]

I LIKED X-Men 3 (saw it twice), but I had high hopes for it, especially since X2 set it up so nicely.

[Heineken Skywalker]

I honestly only remember one use of the word, bitch.
"I'm Juggernaut, bitch!". If you say there were more, then okay. Didn't really bother me one way or the other.
But either way, we're gonna have to agree to disagree. Lots of action? Again, yeah, that was great. It's the X-Men. The comics are filled with action and lots of epic battles. I think people are reading way too much into the first two movies. They have some subtext, but they're not as deep as everyone wants to make them out to be. What else was the third one supposed to do to expand on the topic that the mutants are different from everyone else? I think they pretty much covered that theme in the first two movies. Did we really need it rehashed a third time?
Remember the last time a director tried making a Marvel Comics movie really deep and cerebral? It was called HULK. People ripped it apart for being too slow or boring. People claim to want more depth to their popcorn movies, but when a director attempts it, he gets fed to the lions. It's a fine line between making a superhero movie with some subtext, while still maintaining the "slam-bam" of a summer blockbuster. I think the X-MEN franchise, all three movies, has been able to do that just fine.
While I enjoy the idea that the mutants are an analogy for minorities fighting racism, the fanboy in me also gets giddy at seeing characters like Hank McCoy/Beast finally being brought to life, or Juggernaut crashing through walls.
If it turns out this was really the final X-MEN movie, then all in all, I'm satisfied with the trilogy and thought it was a fitting conclusion. Of course, there's going to be a Wolverine spin-off, which I'm looking forward to, and a possible Magneto prequel, which honestly, I'm not that excited about.

[Phoenix]

I, of course, really enjoyed X-Men. But honestly the year so far for me hasn't been that hot. All of your top listed movies Smitty could be made-for-TV films. Nothing warranting the (just raised) $9 price tag at my AMC theater. Do I need to see "Prairie Home Companion" on the big screen? My opinion? HELL NO!

[ZapRowsdower]

NOTHING can justify the raised ticket prices, not even the upcoming Superman movie everyone's looking forward to.

Just when it looked like the slump was coming to an end, some asshats decided it was a good idea to raise ticket prices again. What the fuck? Are they TRYING to run their own business into the ground? There are hundreds of movies released in a year, and maybe one movie per every hundred is worth paying that much for. If that.

Although I must disagree with you, Phoenix, on one point. None of my top movies could be listed as Made-for-TV movies. Their production values are much higher, more care was put into them... these films stand out among the rest.

[Quorthon]

iamthesmitty said:

NOTHING can justify the raised ticket prices, not even the upcoming Superman movie everyone's looking forward to.

Just when it looked like the slump was coming to an end, some asshats decided it was a good idea to raise ticket prices again. What the fuck? Are they TRYING to run their own business into the ground? There are hundreds of movies released in a year, and maybe one movie per every hundred is worth paying that much for. If that.

Although I must disagree with you, Phoenix, on one point. None of my top movies could be listed as Made-for-TV movies. Their production values are much higher, more care was put into them... these films stand out among the rest.

One of my friends thinks that every time you see a Coca-Cola ad or something like that in a theater, that's one dollar that should be removed from the ticket price.

I agree with that sentiment. Greedy Hollywood bastards.

[Heineken Skywalker]

phoenix said:

I, of course, really enjoyed X-Men. But honestly the year so far for me hasn't been that hot. All of your top listed movies Smitty could be made-for-TV films. Nothing warranting the (just raised) $9 price tag at my AMC theater. Do I need to see "Prairie Home Companion" on the big screen? My opinion? HELL NO!

Couldn't agree more, Phoenix. There are some movies Smitty listed that I will eventually see on cable or dvd, but only a few movies so far this year where I said, "I gotta see that in a theater, right now!".
The visual summer stuff like MI-III, X-MEN 3, CARS or the upcoming SUPERMAN RETURNS, are "must sees" in a theater for me, simply because they'll lose a lot at home.

[Pulpmariachi]

heinekenskywalker said:

phoenix said:

I, of course, really enjoyed X-Men. But honestly the year so far for me hasn't been that hot. All of your top listed movies Smitty could be made-for-TV films. Nothing warranting the (just raised) $9 price tag at my AMC theater. Do I need to see "Prairie Home Companion" on the big screen? My opinion? HELL NO!

Couldn't agree more, Phoenix. There are some movies Smitty listed that I will eventually see on cable or dvd, but only a few movies so far this year where I said, "I gotta see that in a theater, right now!".
The visual summer stuff like MI-III, X-MEN 3, CARS or the upcoming SUPERMAN RETURNS, are "must sees" in a theater for me, simply because they'll lose a lot at home.

I think you lose lots with any movie you see at home. Just the big-screen up there with projection, the experience with complete strangers, just having to sit through something without any home distractions. I love the theater.

Of course, ticket prices in the Springs range from between four dollars and seven dollars for the theaters (not counting the dollar theaters) so we don't have too badly compared to other places it seems.