Best Of 2006 Version 1

I think I did a version 1 last year promising a version 2 which never came for a couple of reasons
1. I forgot
2. Apart from Howl's Moving Castle I didn't really see anything worthy of the list

This year there will be a version 2 as due to losing my free cinema privileges I only saw 53 of the films released last year, thats down about 40 on my average and there are currently 69 more I want to check out. So heres a top 10 in alphabetical order from what I did see, stayed tuned to find out what stays and what gets added.

A Bittersweet life
Brick
Cars
Mission Impossible 3
Munich
Sympathy For Lady Vengeance
The Host
The Matador
V For Vendetta
Walk the Line

The Host

Korean monster movie/viral epidemic film starring the awesome Kang-ho Song. Unlike all the hollywood garbage monster movies its funny, scary, unpredictable and good without having to be bad to be good. Best seen without knowing much more than this, so check it out if you can. Thumbs Up

Friend

Another korean flick, this time following four friends over a number of years showing how the decisions they make effect there outcome in life, as two become successfull when they choose to go to college, while the other two become gangsters eventually ending up rivals. Thumbs Up

Walking Tall

Not the shitty Rock starring remake but the average Jon Don Baker original. Based on a true story which I never realised, it would have been a lot better being 30 minutes shorter as the story is too thin for the time spent on it. Thumbs in the Middle

The Cincinnati Kid

Steve McQueen poker classic, according to the imdb Sam peckinpah was originally supposed to direct which I think would have been interesting. Rather strangely he was fired for wanting to add nudity to the film, the actress to be used was future Manson family victim Sharon Tate, maybe there is a lesson there. Thumbs Up

New DVD's

24 Season 5

Stats are in

And most things are down on last year, it was a poor year for music and film and things are not looking up too much for this year, so here we go

Total films watched: 211
DVD's bought: 61
CD's bought: 57
HD-DVD's bought: 9
DVD to watch pile: 100+ chances of this getting cleared this year pretty low but you never know.

Coming later this week, best of 2006 lists

Fearless

Supposed to be Jet Li's final martial arts pic which is a pity because all the Hollywood stuff he has been done has been shit. It's from the director of Bride of Chucky and Freddy Vs. Jason if you ignore his Hong Kong output. The pacing is a bit wonky with the majority of the fights being in the first 40 minutes with a rather dull middle section where the character tries to redeem himself. The fights are still great though. Thumbs Up

Cry Wolf

Annoying teen horror that has that oh so clever twist that you see coming 5 minutes in. Thumbs Down

Revolver

Absolutely hated this a the cinema so decided to give it another go now that its on Sky, It's not as terrible as I remember but the 20 minutes where it does the whole religious bullshit is still beyond bad and spoils the whole thing. Thumbs in the Middle

Enron: the smartest guys in the room

Documentary about the fall of Enron, it's pretty amazing some of the shit they got away with before they caught, including showing a profit in their books despite being 30 billion in debt and stopping electricity production in California to fake a shortage thereby forcing the price up while simultaneously betting on the price of electricity going up. Thumbs in the Middle

The Wild

Animated film about animals from a New York who end up in Africa, sound familiar, it's just as crap as Madagascar too. Only redeeming feature is Eddie Izzards Koala bear. Thumbs in the Middle

The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things

Interesting but tough watch about a kid taken away from his foster parents to be given back to his mother who is slightly unstable. They then proceed on a Road trip where the kid is given booze and drugs and gets lef home alone and then gets molested. Supposedly all based on a true story, which is nice. Thumbs in the Middle

New HD-DVD's

My player will come soon, if I say it often enough it will happen

Clerks 2 - haven't seen it yet so hope it's good

New CD's

Foo Fighters - Skin and Bones - got this last year but forgot to list it, live acoustic album

The Last Of Last Year

Haven't watched anything this year so here is what I finished off with last year and over the next few days I'll stick it all into the super computer and come back a statisticathon special, it will no doubt be slightly inaccurate as I noticed I missed some films I watched in recent months (some of which will be included here) so I'll give all stats a +-2% accuracy.

For a Few Dollars More

Second film in the Man with no Name trilogy and is of course as fantastic as the rest of them. Lee Van Cleef makes his first appearance and is his usual all kinds of awesome. Two thumbs Up

Duck Soup

Marx brothers movie and the first I have seen, its nothing more than a series of stand-up pieces and sketches loosely held together by a story. It's very hit and miss but the jokes come so fast that your always entertained. Thumbs Up

Firefly and Serenity

Always heard good things about the very short lived series and with Sky showing the movie and HMV doing the series for little over a tenner I thought it was about time to check it out, now I am disappointed I didn't do it sooner. The show ended way too soon, but the film does a decent job of trying to tie up all the loose ends even though it has to change a bit of the backstory from the series in order to make it a bit more accessible for people who didn't see the series. The film also does the best job I ever seen for convincing you that most if not all of the main characters will die by the end of the film. Thumbs Up

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation

The one Renee Zellwegger and Matthew McConaughey didn't want anyone to see and I wish I hadn't, bunch of high schoolers on the way to prom get lost and then leatherfaced to death. thumbs down

Nacho Libre

The director of Napolean Dynamite, Jack Black and co-written by Mike White, has to be funny right, wrong, at best it was amusing. There was too much of an over reliance of Jack black just looking funny rather than saying or doing something funny. thumbs in the Middle

Snakes On A Plane

"Im tired of these Motherfucking snakes on this Motherfucking plane" best line in cinema all year, this just fails in being great by not being consistently awful and only one person dies by snake to cock, thats just not enough. Thumbs in the Middle

Crank

This more like it, just consistently stupid and nonsensical, Jason Statham spends ninety minute trying to keep his adrenaline up by doing drugs, driving fast, having sex and shooting folks, the end. Thumbs Up

The Faculty

Robert Rodriguez's tribute to 50's conspiracy sci-fi flicks. I like this more each time I see it after being pissed the first time I saw it by its blatant rip off of the blood test scene in Carpenter's The Thing. Thumbs Up

Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

The series loses quality as it goes on and apart from Stallone's fantastically awful performance in 3 it is mostly unwatchable if you aren't watching the 3-d version, which I was. 2 is a good Ray Harryhausen tribute though. combined Thumbs Up

The Witches

Really shows its age and the only thing good is the henson company effects. Thumbs in the Middle

Matchstick Men

Overlooked Ridley Scott con movie, with Nic Cage overacting to perfection. Second time I watched it so its has that good thing where you can watch how cleverly the con gets put together. Thumbs Up

Mullholland Drive

David Lynch's usual bizarre madness, as with most of his movies the first time you watch them you do not have a clue what the hell is going on but its so well made and the bizarreness is so great that you enjoy it regardless, now that I have read exactly whats happening it was more fun the second time round, there is still a bunch of stuff in it that I have no idea of the meaning behind it but that just means I get to work it out next time I watch. Two Thumbs Up

New HD-DVD's

Still no player, end of the month hopefully

Serenity