Here is a quick list of all the movies I’ve seen this year. (That I can remember and were in the theater.)
1. Hostal
2. Annapolis
3. Final Destination 3
4. 16 Blocks
5. Block Party
6. Inside Man
7. Brick
8. Hard Candy
9. United 93
10. Mission Impossible 3
11. One Last Thing…
12. The Da Vinci Code
13. X-men: The Last Stand
14. The Break-Up
15. Superman Returns
16. The Devil Wears Prada
17. Clerks 2
18. Lady In The Water
19. Little Miss Sunshine
20. Talladega Nights
21. World Trade Center
22. Half Nelson
23. Invincible
24. This Film is Not Yet Rated
25. The Last Kiss
26. The Departed
27. Saw 3
28. Borat
29. Deja Vu
30. Dreamgirls
31. LOL
32. The Descent
Top Ten Eleven in no particular order:
1. Half Nelson – Saw this at the Philadelphia Film Festival. Great acting, and hearing the director talk about the movie made it even better.
2. Dreamgirls – and I’m telling you, Jennifer Hudson was Great!
3. United 93 – Well directed movie, gripping.
4. Deja Vu – Took a lot of thinking but I really liked this movie.
5. Little Miss Sunshine – Great cast. A very good “Dramedy.”
6. Hard Candy – WOW! Very, very tense. Also viewed at the Philly Film Fest.
7. Brick – Detective noir, set in a high school? Great!
8. Clerks 2 – Pillow pants!
9. This Film is Not Yet Rated – Great Doc about the MPAA. Philly Film Fest.
10. The Departed – Great cast. As good as if not better then the original.
11. The Pursuit of Happyness – Will Smith, also great!
Movies that underwhelmed me:
1. LOL – Saw this at the Philly Film Fest also. I maybe in the minority because a lot of people thought this was good, but I can’t say anything positive about it so I won’t say anything at all about it. The director and cast were there which made it cool. Maybe I missed something and should watch it again.
2. Super Man Returns – Boring.
3. Block Party – I guess I thought this was going to be more of Dave doing jokes and stand-up. A good concert movie, but I really didn’t like it. On the DVD they have extended footage of the performances. Maybe I should have watched that.
Movies that surprised me:
1. The Devil Wears Prada – After being highly disappointed with Super Man me and my girlfriend walked into this movie as the trailers started playing and thought we might as well stay for awhile. Very funny movie and well acted.
2. Invincible – Didn’t have high expectations for this one. Good, plus the Philly connection was a plus.
3. One Last Thing… – Philly Film Fest, also. Another local touch and the Director was present and took a swipe at Mark Cuban’s Magnolia Distribution company for not distributing the movie right. Only in the theater for 3 weeks then to DVD didn’t help this little movie. Check it out if you get a chance.
As far as writing, I didn’t do as much as I wanted to this year. I did send out one of my short scripts to get notes. The best and worst parts of this process was reading the notes and finding out what I knew was wrong with the script, (I know I shouldn’t have sent it out but I did.) and being told that there is something there and with a few rewrites it could be a better script.
That’s a quick wrap up of the year, and I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and good luck on whatever it is you set out to do this year!
Next week I will talk more about the Sitcom and other projects I have planed.