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TOP MOVIE PICKS FOR 2008
By John Delia

In choosing my top 10 films of 2008 I took the following into consideration; most of the Best Film nominations for the Oscars come from movies that are drama related. I am not a huge fan for the way the Academy of Arts and Sciences chooses their best films, best actors, etc., in fact with some 300 plus films a year, I don’t know how the voters see them all. So I am choosing 10 films of a dramatic nature and 10 that are action adventure or comedy related. I put animated film in a separate selection and name my top 5.
My number ten choice in the category of drama related films is Hounddog starring Dakota Fanning as a young girl who finds herself confronted by a rapist when she is lured to a woodshed by boys who have promised her tickets to see Elvis Presley. The dark film had me cringing with trepidation of a dastardly outcome. Why 10? Because the film was pulled from theatres in September before many could see the amazing acting performance by Fanning and the rest of her cast. Number 9. Coming in at number 8 is Seven Pounds which provides a platform for a remarkable performance by Will Smith as a man who has to face up to a tragedy he could have prevented. At number 7 I chose Frozen River for the content and acting. The taught drama follows the plight of a down and out single mother who turns smuggler to get the money to buy a doublewide for her kids.
I decided on Defiance for my 6th choice. The high-energy drama takes place in Russia during WWII where a Jewish man and his brothers join with a resistance group to save Jews being sought out by local police for money. At number 5 Mickey Rourke returns to the screen as a wrestler trying a comeback. The Wrestler has a gutsy Rocky type storyline with amazing performances by Rourke and Marisa Tomei. My 4th pick is Slumdog Millionaire, an uplifting film with a memorable rags to riches tale. In 3rd finds The Reader with an amazing performance by Kate Winslet as a woman tormented by her past. Coming in 2nd is a compelling film starring Angelina Jolie called Changeling. The film features a great storyline, stellar acting and fine directing by Clint Eastwood.
My top pick for 2008 is probably no surprise to those who have seen it; it’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with an amazing cast that gives outstanding performances throughout the nearly three-hour film. The storyline is so bizarre that it kept me enthralled to its very touching ending. Brad Pitt gives his best performance ever as the old man who grows young with age. In support Cate Blanchette, Tilda Swinton, Taraji P. Henson and Elle Fanning make their roles unforgettable and plot wise perfect. Direction by David Fincher is flawless with a smooth progression of time making the characters plausible and fascinating.
Not to let down any segment of my readers, here are my top 10 picks for Action Adventure and Comedy. 1 The Dark Knight, 2 Iron Man, 3 Tropic Thunder, 4 Eagle Eye, 5 Traitor, 6 Hancock, 7 Quantum of Solace, 8 Burn After Reading, 9 Mongol and 10 Pineapple Express. For best in animation for 2008 I chose 1 Wall-E, which visualizes our planet as a dump. The extremely well made CGI animated film gives a what-if message that can hardly be ignored, 2 Bolt (especially the 3D version), 3 Kung Fu Panda (the IMAX version) 4 Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and 5 Horton Hears a Who.

FINAL ALALYSIS: 2008 was a pretty good year with studios providing at least 50 blue chip films from the 300 plus that were released.

2008 MOVIE FAVORITES
By Denise Castillón

Since, I didn’t see every film from 2008, so I cannot rightly declare the years’ best. Nevertheless, 2008 was a very good year for film. In fact, there were six especially enjoyable movies I couldn’t help, but watch them twice:

SEX AND THE CITY – More than a Chick Flick, the feature film “Sex in the City”, like the long-running TV show, attracted woman -and men, with its controversially candid sexual content as well as its emphasis on fashion, friendship and the pursuit of love by four fabulous New York single gals.

IRON MAN - The seriously gifted, [despite himself], Robert Downey Jr. as the witty playboy, Tony Stark, who grew a conscious, then suited up as the kick-ass action hero, the “Iron Man”. That’s all I, and the film-going masses, needed.

DARK KNIGHT - Christopher Nolans’ masterful follow-up to his film, “Batman Begins”, stars Christain Bale, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine and, best of all, Heath Ledger. The late Ledger’s portrayal of the viciously unscrupulous “Joker”, was magnificently introduced in the explosive, action-packed opening scene, and certainly deserves a posthumous Oscar nomination. “Dark Knight” was also the summers’ first feature to mix both traditional 35 mm and large-format in one film.

ELEGY - This potent drama, based on “The Dying Animal” by Philip Roth, retained the satirical humor and powerfully expressive language as written in the acclaimed author’s novella. The superbly crafted “Elegy” embraces deliberate plotlines and strong character development fully delivered by brilliant performances from Sir Ben Kingsley, Penelope Cruz and, quite undeniably, Dennis Hopper.

TELL NO ONE – An intensely exciting Foreign Language action-thriller from France. “Tell No One” is a romantic love story woven into a fast-paced, complex suspense thriller. Starring Francois Cluzet, as a grieving husband suspected of murder, Cluzet skillfully conveyes his characters’ restrained emotions with just a glance from his expressive eyes.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE - Danny Boyles’ “Slumdog Millionaire” is a harrowing and suspenseful drama juxtaposed with an epic love story set in the shanty towns of poverty-stricken Bombay. An uneducated, street orphan is tortured and interrogated by a police, after he’s suspected of cheating on India’s popular TV game show import, “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”. Through flashback story-telling, the “slumdog” reveals how the hard-earned lessons learned, while surviving on his wits in the slums, enabled him to successfully answer each trivia question. Once returned to the game show, the tension continues to build as our optimistic hero increases his winnings, from which he hopes will finally reunite him with his beloved, despite the repeated and cruel obstacles set up by his cunning brother.

WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY NEW MOVIE YEAR!