What movies did you see in 2006?

[LSPoorEeyorick]

It seems like blogland is filling up with the annual movie meme. Of all of the 2006 releases, what ones did you see? Any thoughts on your favorites, or your not-so-favorite, or the year at large? Anything you still want to see?

A comprehensive list can be found here.

(And, sure, I suppose that we could just read back into the earlier pages of the misc. movies thread, but sometimes a meme is just... fun.)

[innerSpaceman]

Hmm, I don't think that list is comprehensive, but here goes:


Munich - Pretty darn good;
The New World - beautiful but unbelievably bad;
The Libertine -worst movie of the year, worst Depp film ever;
End of the Spear - yawn;
Underworld Evolution - sequel yawn;
Tristam & Shandy - not as funny as I was led to believe;
Eight Below - cute, yet meh;
16 Blocks - tight actioner;
V for Vendetta - yawn;
Thank You for Smoking - clever and enjoyable;
Brick - brilliant modern noir;
United 93 - riveting and excellent;
Mission Impossible III - surprisingly decent episode;
Poseidon - big is not more;
The Da Vinci Code - disappointingly dull;
X-Men Last Stand - choppy, but fun;
Cars - beautiful and cute, but a lesser Pixar work;
A Prairie Home Companion - charming yet pointless;
The Lake House - sickly sweet gak;
Superman Returns - utterly charming;
Pirates Dead Man's Chest - horrible sequel;
Lady in the Water - worst M. Knight ever;
Little Miss Sunshine - adorable and winning;
World Trade Center - completely meh;
The Queen - fascinating;
The Departed - ok, screener in hand, not watched yet;
Marie Antoinette - suprisingly not awful;
Casino Royale - best Bond in decades;
Happy Feet - entertaining;
The Fountain - yeah, screener in hand, not watched yet;
Apocalypto - so-so;
Pan's Labyrinth - gorgeous, but not my tea

And so many more from the last quarter of the year are on my Netflix list ... but I'm waiting to see what additional screeners I get. I've only seen about a quarter of the above films at the movies.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Sigh. Our always paltry theater-going was cut into even more with the home purchase, so most of what we've seen this year isn't on the list as we do most of our movie watching via Netflix. But here goes.

Chapelle's Block Party - Exactly what you'd expect and want. Chapelle pulled off one hell of an event, and cracked me up the whole way through
Mission Impossible III - Surprisingly good. I was entertained
X-Men the Last Stand - Ugh. How they made a massive battle of a thousand mutants boring, I'll never know. But they did
Cars - Loved it. Not my favorite Pixar entry but a firm middle-of-the-packer
Superman Returns (3D-IMAX) - With Christoclone Reeve, this movie delivers. Picked up the spirit of the original perfectly
PotC: DMC - Yawn
Clerks II - Smith has been redeemed after JaSBSB. It'll never match the first (or Mallrats), but it was damned funny
Little Miss Sunshine - Fabulous. Simply fabulous, with a killer payoff in the end


Wow, that actually was a longer list than I expected. Maybe next year, being around the corner from a $1.75 second run movie theater, the list will grow.

[Alex]

Movies released in 2006 that I have seen (in chronological order, no less). Bold means good. Red means bad. Unbold black is so-so

Glory Road
The Matador
Underworld: Evolution
Eight Below
Freedomland
Firewall
16 Blocks
Ultraviolet
V for Vendetta
The Hills Have Eyes
Inside Man
Thank You For Smoking
Slither
Lucky Number Slevin
The Wild
Stick It
United 93
Keeping Up with the Steins
Mission: Impossible III
Poseidon
The Sentinal
The Da Vinci Code
X-Men: The Last Stand
Cars
Click
Once in a Lifetime
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Devil Wears Prada
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Word Play
Nacho Libre
Lady in the Water
The Night Listener
Clerks II
Superman Returns
Little Miss Sunshine
An Inconvenient Truth
Step Up
Scoop
Miami Vice
Invincible
Snakes on a Plane
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
The Illusionist
Crank
The Guardian
Huo Yuan Jia (aka Jet Li's Fearless)
Renaissance
The Departed
The Prestige
Borat
Casino Royale
Happy Feet
Volver
Apocolypto

[Strangler Lewis]

Munich
Nanny McPhee
Thank You For Smoking (fell asleep)
Ice Age: The Meltdown
United 93
Cars
A Prairie Home Companion (fell asleep)
Monster House (ten minutes before kids wanted out when the house ate the boyfriend)
Borat

Some observations:

I know he wrote the novel, not the screenplay, but "Thank You For Smoking" confirmed my belief that the worst example of undeserving legacy success walking around today is not W; it's Christopher Buckley.

We went to Monster House to beat the 108 degree heat on a weekend when our air conditioning was broken. Should have gone to Clerks II; the kids would have kept their heads in their popcorn and, hopefully, not understood a word.

Finally, to stir the pot: I thought "Cars" was one of the worst movies I've seen in I don't know how long. It was dull, repetitive, contrived and confused. The fact that it was also a huge valentine to red state gas guzzling NASCAR sensibilities does not make it a good or bad movie, but certainly added to the skin crawling effect.

[Gemini Cricket]

Munich - Stay for the last shot of the film. It's worth it.
New World, The - Bleh! Horrible editing choices.
Matador, The - Meh - Original is better.
Why We Fight -
Dave Chappelle's Block Party -
V for Vendetta -
Thank You For Smoking - Made me want to have a cigarette.
Inside Man - Jodie Foster - what a mean beeyatch.
United 93 - - Possibly the best of the bunch.
Poseidon - - Forced to watch it on a plane... Bleh!
Da Vinci Code, The - Meh
Inconvenient Truth, An - - Important film, watch it today.
X-Men: The Last Stand -
Cars - Meh
Prairie Home Companion, A - Meh
Lake House, The - - Another plane film... where were those exits again?
Superman Returns - Meh
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Meh - Too long.
Queen, The - - Best actrees = Mirren
Departed, The - - Best Director = Scorcese? Best Film?
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan - - LOVED it.
Flushed Away -
Casino Royale - - Yummy!
Happy Feet - - Movie about green gay penguin. Nice.


Overall, I didn't see many films year. Not much to choose from imho.

[Not Afraid]

We didn't see much.

The Departed - good film, but not something I'd see again
Casino Royal - saw it twice and loved it


We DVD's a lot, but never enough to keep up - Capote, Accident, Modisty Blaise, Cars, The Libertine (UGH!), The Third Man, Junebug. And we went to the Egyptian on occasion, but we're lacking in the film department.


There's a whole lot out there at the moment I want to see, however. Primarilay Volver and The Queen, but I'd give Maria Antoinette and Running with Scissors a chance.

[Alex]

Hmm...somehow Running with Scissors is missing from my list. It is a black unbolded movie.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Munich – fair, and I suppose it was interesting, but the writing lacked coherence or good enough character development. Things were telegraphed in a ham-handed way.

Brokeback Mountain – I really expected more of it. In retrospect, it's a fine film, but I guess I expected more of Lee, of the Proulx story at large.

Match Point - had a really great payoff scene at the end. And not so much else.

Transamerica – was interesting, but went to a place that made me feel pretty uncomfortable. Huffman's performance was a marvel.

The New World – Kind of flat. Truly not fond of Farrell. Was the first Malick film I've ever seen; perhaps I should have gone with something else.

Failure to Launch – I was home sick. I don't know why. I'd read the screenplay for work and I knew just how bad it was.

Thank You For Smoking – a nice introductory piece from a director with potential. I enjoyed it.

Slither – Excellent horror-comedy. Gunn is a brilliant director, and I look forward to what he does later. I loved just about everybody in the film—they're all actors I can't wait to see more of, whether on Thursday nights or popping up in odd places I don't expect them.

Art School Confidential – So masturbatory. A waste of my evening.

The Da Vinci Code – I enjoyed the clues and the puzzles in the book. But there was no puzzling in the movie, just moving from this solution to that, from this place to that.

Over the Hedge – Very cute. Much moreso than I expected. I think my love of Steve Carrell gives it a boost, too, but I suspect that the climax involving his character would have made me laugh pretty hard, even if I wasn't a fan.

X-Men: The Last Stand – Fluff, but watchable fluff.

Cars – Charming! Goes to show that the same old story can be told in new and amusing ways. Plus, it spawned my favorite spin-off toy of the year, the tipping tractors.

A Prairie Home Companion – thoroughly enjoyable. Great performances (even by Lohan, of whom I am not fond) and excellent music. Plus, the "dirty jokes" song is a classic. Sad it's Altman's last.

Strangers With Candy – I love the series, so I loved the first half-hour of the movie. And then it became clear that it was great for the sitcom format, but not so much for the full-length feature.

Superman Returns – Underrated! Elegant, interesting spin on the characters and the times. And I was drawn in by the thrill of it all. It's been said but it deserves to be said once again: isn't it creepy how much he looks and sounds like Christopher Reeve?

The Devil Wears Prada – The kind of movie that the studios used to be really good at. Well-made, fun, with a swell performance from Streep.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest – I was so thrilled with the first one that I don't think anything could top it. This one had some great moments though, particularly the reveal of the blue-bayou-style swamp. Throw me a roll!

Monster House – A lovely coming-of-age movie, with interesting, fully fleshed-out characters and pretty stunning monster animation. Though there was a moment in there that I got frustrated (why is it always the evil fat lady!?) the resolution made me feel better. (Tom was the other way around though; he loved it until that resolution.)

Little Miss Sunshine – hands-down, my favorite film of the year. Sweet, painful, horribly funny. And the best dance performance of the year. I want to see the Oscar dancers take a crack at that one!

An Inconvenient Truth – convinced me that Gore really does have it in him to be a good leader. Maybe not in the official political realm, but here he did a great job. The film actually made me cry. Snot on my sleeves.

Quinceanera – An excellent small film. Despite a fair bit of embarrassment felt when we bumped into the producer at Arclight (a friend of Tom's) and we had to admit we hadn't seen her film yet but we were going into…

Trust the Man – a waste of my evening. It turns out that I just don't like watching movies where I can't connect with any of the characters.

Half Nelson – excellent performance from Gosling, but I'm not sure if it merits an award. The young actress might, though.

The Illusionist – was fairly obvious, and only fleetingly magical. Giamatti good, Norton uncharacteristically bad.

Snakes on a Plane – mother****ing mother****ery.

Hollywoodland – surprising performance from Affleck; limited otherwise.

The Black Dahlia – like amateur hour with a good hairdresser.

The Last Kiss – Attack of the movies where I can't connect with any of the characters.

School for Scoundrels – we saw this one at a preview for free; my brother was in town. That's the best thing I can say about it—that I watched it with my brother.

The Departed – everybody raves about it. But I just thought it was rather blasé. "Oh, look. Cops and mobsters. Switching places. Shooting at each other. Drinking until they're comfortably numb. How… innovative." Overly coincidental placement of female character in both men's lives bothered me in particular.

The Queen – a lovely movie about the divide between the royals and the public (and their voice, Tony Blair.) Excellent writing, exellent performances down the line. One of the best of the year.

Flags of our Fathers – I have trouble with war movies to begin with, particularly when we're at war. It clouds my judgement. Though I was moved to emotion by the movie, it had nothing to do with the movie itself. That left me kind of cold. Current politics were what affected me.

Marie Antoinette – Pretty. Pretty shallow.

The Prestiege – I found it intriguing and exciting from the first moment through the final shot. I hear that the book is better, but as I'd never read it, the film thrilled me plenty.

Babel – son of the attack of the movies where I can't connect with any of the characters.

Flushed Away – Very cute. Not as clever as Wallace & Grommit in their various tales, but still, an enjoyable romp. And singing slugs!

Volver – A lovely film. Convinced me that Penelope Cruz can actually act—in her native tongue, anyway. I loved the focus on the women and their superstitions and their various broken bits.

Stranger Than Fiction – sharp writing, sweet performances, generally a comforting/comfy movie. Like snuggling up with a blanket.

Bobby - the audio of Bobby speaking was much more effective than the movie itself.

Casino Royale - Definitely well-made, action-packed, interesting. I'm just not the target audience for Bond movies of any stripe.

Fast Food Nation - does the 'Altman'-style ensemble work much better than Bobby. Discussed things I knew about, things I'd read about, but visually displayed them in a way that was still shocking.

Happy Feet - an odd experience, having had no heads-up about the popular music "Moulin Rouge"-style score. Still, it was pleasing enough.

Still really wishing to see V For Vendetta, Dreamgirls, The Good German, The Good Shepherd, The Painted Veil, Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth, Miss Potter, Iraq in Pieces and Letters from Iwo Jima.

[Strangler Lewis]

Originally Posted by LSPoorEeyorick

Brokeback Mountain – I really expected more of it. In retrospect, it's a fine film, but I guess I expected more of Lee, of the Proulx story at large.

Match Point - had a really great payoff scene at the end. And not so much else.

Well, if we're going to count 2005 movies, then my list of movies seen in the past two years practically doubles.

I really liked Match Point, although (cue David Spade voice) I liked it better the first time when it was called Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Brokeback Mountain was good, but a bit meandering. I did not like the state of nature guitar that accompanied the fishing, swimming scenes. I also wasn't sure of the film's ultimate point of view since it seemed to suggest early on that Heath Ledger's finest hour was when he defended his wife and daughters at the fair.