2008, in Film: The Moviebarn top 12

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” For you lot, Christmas and New Year offer a chance to eat lots, stock up on gadgets and DVDs for the next year, and generally hang out. For people who spend their time talking about anything in particular, it can be a bit of a pain. That’s because you, the public, expect/demand, an end-of-year review list rundown top 100 bonanza. But just to be a bit contrary, I won’t give you a simple run-through of the top films of the year. Instead, we’re on a trip back in time, to the land called 2008, to look at A YEAR IN FILM!!! This one, that hasn’t even finished yet…

Kung Fu Panda: Review

Spare a thought, if you will, for the guys in charge of signing off the titles of Hollywood movies. The problem they face is the old ‘book-by-cover’ routine - the prejudgments an audiences will make based on a film’s title can make or break a picture. Best then, when your film features a Chinese bear that knows martial arts, to keep it simple. ‘Kung Fu Panda’. No confusion.

Wanted: Review

 

Another week in Movieland, and another comic book/graphic novel/scribbling-on-fag-packet writ large on the big screen. And just like the best talent scouts and the seediest old men, Hollywood’s started gettin’ them while they’re young. Wanted was snapped up by Universal after just one issue, a graphic novel that, frankly, has ball-all to do with the film.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Review

Yes, everyone’s favourite fedora-wearing professor is back on the block. A mere 19 years after The Last Crusade, Spielberg and Lucas have brought one of cinema’s greatest icons out of cold storage, and thrown him into the start of the Cold War. And the good news is they haven’t done a terrible job.

Speed Racer – Whaaaaaat?

To be honest, it’s all gone a bit wrong for the Wachowski Brothers’ adaptation of the 60s animation. I’ve been doing the reading catching the buzz, and managed to watch the vast majority of the film, albeit in little bits. Now it’s time for a post-mortem.