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* "WALL-E" leads Tom Charity's list of year's best films
* Others in top 10: "Appaloosa," "Wrestler," "Benjamin Button"
* Among the year's worst: "Seven Pounds," "Fool's Gold," latest "Mummy"
"WALL-E"
Yes, the second half is merely really, really good, but the nearly wordless first 40 minutes suggests unsuspected affinities between Charlie Chapin and Stanley Kubrick.
"Encounters at the End of the World"
The documentary of the year also has an apocalyptic theme. Werner Herzog visits Antarctica and discovers we're all on thin ice.
"In the City of Sylvia"
A man returns to the city to find the girl that got away. Jose Luis Guerin fashions a remarkable mazy quasi-musical out of looks and glances.
"Still Life"
Maybe the most prescient film of the year, Jia Zhangke looks at China as a superpower in the making -- and the unmaking -- as the towns along the Three Gorges Dam project are dismantled brick by brick.
"Appaloosa"
Ed Harris was obviously born to make Westerns. Too unpretentious for its own good, this was classical American moviemaking at its best -- better, incidentally, than Clint Eastwood's revisionist riff on gun lore in "Gran Torino."
"The Wrestler"
Darren Aronofsky's authentically downbeat movie is distinguished by its sympathy for the muscle men and strippers who never got beyond the first rung of the American Dream.
"Let the Right One In"
Preteen vampires. This is what "Twilight" would be if it were five times better, Swedish and told from the point of view of a lonely 12-year-old boy.
"Paranoid Park"
This poetic teen art film is the most fluent and coherent of Gus Van Sant's experimental works. Part crime mystery, part coming-of-age story, it's positively overflowing with burnished imagery and adolescent turmoil.
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
We know there are no second acts to American lives, but Benjamin takes Fitzgerald at his word. Brad Pitt ages with uncommon grace in David Fincher's fantastical love story, the ultimate slow dissolve.
"JCVD"
Jean Claude Van Damme -- the Muscles from Brussels -- pulls a Mickey Rourke, playing himself (brilliantly) in a Belgian bank robbery thriller written and directed by first timer Mabrouk El Mechri. What late nights were invented for.
And the worst ...
Then there are those films that make you lament losing two hours of your life, even if you have a job to do. These are listed in reverse order, from (relatively) least-worst to the most egregious offender of the year:
"The X-Files: I Want to Believe"
This pretentious spiritual non-thriller signaled a sorry end for Scully and Mulder. Still, at least no expense was lavished on what looked like an extended TV special.
"What Happens in Vegas"
Ashton Kutcher steals the washroom door. That's how desperate things get in this total bust, probably the least romantic romantic comedy of the year.
"88 Minutes"
Al Pacino has 88 minutes to live ... yet this mind-bogglingly dumb movie dies agonizingly slowly.
"Seven Pounds"
You have to sit through the entirety of Will Smith's soggy new movie to find out just how shameless it is. I'd rather take a bath with a jellyfish.
"Fool's Gold"
Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey's vacation snapshots would have been more amusing than this torpid exotic adventure. Oh, wait, these WERE the vacation snapshots ...
"Australia"
Just because Baz Luhrmann loves old Hollywood movies doesn't mean he can make one. Where's Crocodile Dundee when you need him?
"Eagle Eye"
A big-budget tech thriller -- apparently suggested by Steven Spielberg himself -- that borrowed from all over but made absolutely no sense.
"The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor"
It doesn't get much sloppier than this mummy movie without a mummy. Rachel Weisz made a shrewd choice not to return.
"The Spirit"
Granted, I hated "300," and "Sin City" left me cold, but at least they had a degree of technical accomplishment to wrap around Frank Miller's puerile pulp fascism. His own movie is just an inept embarrassment.
"Funny Games"
Michael Haneke is a prodigiously talented filmmaker, but this shot-for-shot American remake of his Austrian thriller was an arrogant, redundant scold and the very worst reason to see a movie all year.
Review: The best (and worst) films of 2008 - CNN.com
* "WALL-E" leads Tom Charity's list of year's best films
* Others in top 10: "Appaloosa," "Wrestler," "Benjamin Button"
* Among the year's worst: "Seven Pounds," "Fool's Gold," latest "Mummy"
"WALL-E"
Yes, the second half is merely really, really good, but the nearly wordless first 40 minutes suggests unsuspected affinities between Charlie Chapin and Stanley Kubrick.
"Encounters at the End of the World"
The documentary of the year also has an apocalyptic theme. Werner Herzog visits Antarctica and discovers we're all on thin ice.
"In the City of Sylvia"
A man returns to the city to find the girl that got away. Jose Luis Guerin fashions a remarkable mazy quasi-musical out of looks and glances.
"Still Life"
Maybe the most prescient film of the year, Jia Zhangke looks at China as a superpower in the making -- and the unmaking -- as the towns along the Three Gorges Dam project are dismantled brick by brick.
"Appaloosa"
Ed Harris was obviously born to make Westerns. Too unpretentious for its own good, this was classical American moviemaking at its best -- better, incidentally, than Clint Eastwood's revisionist riff on gun lore in "Gran Torino."
"The Wrestler"
Darren Aronofsky's authentically downbeat movie is distinguished by its sympathy for the muscle men and strippers who never got beyond the first rung of the American Dream.
"Let the Right One In"
Preteen vampires. This is what "Twilight" would be if it were five times better, Swedish and told from the point of view of a lonely 12-year-old boy.
"Paranoid Park"
This poetic teen art film is the most fluent and coherent of Gus Van Sant's experimental works. Part crime mystery, part coming-of-age story, it's positively overflowing with burnished imagery and adolescent turmoil.
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
We know there are no second acts to American lives, but Benjamin takes Fitzgerald at his word. Brad Pitt ages with uncommon grace in David Fincher's fantastical love story, the ultimate slow dissolve.
"JCVD"
Jean Claude Van Damme -- the Muscles from Brussels -- pulls a Mickey Rourke, playing himself (brilliantly) in a Belgian bank robbery thriller written and directed by first timer Mabrouk El Mechri. What late nights were invented for.
And the worst ...
Then there are those films that make you lament losing two hours of your life, even if you have a job to do. These are listed in reverse order, from (relatively) least-worst to the most egregious offender of the year:
"The X-Files: I Want to Believe"
This pretentious spiritual non-thriller signaled a sorry end for Scully and Mulder. Still, at least no expense was lavished on what looked like an extended TV special.
"What Happens in Vegas"
Ashton Kutcher steals the washroom door. That's how desperate things get in this total bust, probably the least romantic romantic comedy of the year.
"88 Minutes"
Al Pacino has 88 minutes to live ... yet this mind-bogglingly dumb movie dies agonizingly slowly.
"Seven Pounds"
You have to sit through the entirety of Will Smith's soggy new movie to find out just how shameless it is. I'd rather take a bath with a jellyfish.
"Fool's Gold"
Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey's vacation snapshots would have been more amusing than this torpid exotic adventure. Oh, wait, these WERE the vacation snapshots ...
"Australia"
Just because Baz Luhrmann loves old Hollywood movies doesn't mean he can make one. Where's Crocodile Dundee when you need him?
"Eagle Eye"
A big-budget tech thriller -- apparently suggested by Steven Spielberg himself -- that borrowed from all over but made absolutely no sense.
"The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor"
It doesn't get much sloppier than this mummy movie without a mummy. Rachel Weisz made a shrewd choice not to return.
"The Spirit"
Granted, I hated "300," and "Sin City" left me cold, but at least they had a degree of technical accomplishment to wrap around Frank Miller's puerile pulp fascism. His own movie is just an inept embarrassment.
"Funny Games"
Michael Haneke is a prodigiously talented filmmaker, but this shot-for-shot American remake of his Austrian thriller was an arrogant, redundant scold and the very worst reason to see a movie all year.
Review: The best (and worst) films of 2008 - CNN.com
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