As many of you know, watching movies is probably my favorite hobby. At one point in my life, I thought I'd make this hobby a living (the whole going to film school thing), but that didn't happen (by choice), so now it's just a hobby I can appreciate even more. It wasn't a bad year for me for watching movies, but it wasn't great either. Either way, it's all summed up here after the cut. It should be noted that my year in review is for movies that I watched in 2008, rather than movies that were released in 2008.


How Many:
159 = The number of movies I watched in 2008. Not as many as I'd like, and way below years past, but it was a busy year, what with having a kid and moving. That still averages out to a little more than 3 movies per week, which I find acceptable. Only 12 of these were movies I had previously seen, so my movie watching horizons have been broadened by 147 this year.

Movies watched break down as follows:
94 Netflix disc rentals
46 movies free on DirecTV/Cable
7 award screeners
7 from my personal DVD collection
3 in the theatre
1 on Netflix Watch Instantly
1 while in the hospital

I watched the most movies from March - April. 72 in total over those 3 months. Not surprisingly, this coincides with the 3-month period I was without television.

New Technology:
In November, Jim's Mom and I pitched in to get Jim an early Birthday present -- a PlayStation 3. I switched my Netflix account over to Blu-Ray and we've been enjoying the high-definition ever since.

Also in November, Netflix released Watch Instantly on the XBox 360. It is OMG SUPER AWESOME, and though I've used it mostly for watching TV shows thus far, I believe it's going to become a larger source of movie-watching for me in the coming year.

Favorites: The movies I just enjoyed the most.
• Lars and the Real Girl (2007) - Funny, charming, sweet, and just a bizarre idea. Ryan Gosling is excellent, as always, and really makes the film work.
• The Dark Knight (2008) -- An entirely satisfying movie-going experience. It was long, yes, but it didn't mind one bit. I was especially pleased to discover that Heath Ledger's preformance as The Joker was not overrated.

Best: Aside from my favorites, these are the best movies I saw this year (in the order that I watched them).
• Juno (2007) -- This was also the first movie I saw in 2008. A good way to start off the year.
• There Will Be Blood (2007) -- Aside from being a great film with another incredible performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, it has the best movie quote of the year -- "I drink your milkshake!"
• Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) -- Incredibly beautiful, fantastic music, well acted and directed. It was a very satisfying film adaptation of my favorite dark musical. Sacha Baron Cohen was surprisingly perfectly cast for the role of Pirelli.
• Across the Universe (2007) -- Different, enjoyable, and quite the eye-candy piece.
• The Diving Bell and Butterfly (2007) -- I appreciated the true-life story and how incredibly well-made the film was more than I enjoyed watching it. That being said, it is an incredibly unique film and absolutely worth seeing.
• Interview (2007) -- I'm not entirely sure why I liked this so much, but I did. It's one of those films that could just as well be a play -- it's held together by dialogue and I often find movies like this quite refreshing.
• Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring (1986) -- I rented these from Netflix at my father's recommendation and then proceeded to sit on them for 6 months. It was hard to bring myself to watch them, but I was glad when I did. Just plain old, solid dramatic filmmaking with a great story to tell.
• Enchanted (2007) -- This also wins the award for "Worst Marketed Movie by Disney." I saw the trailers and had no interest in seeing it, but at the very strong recommendation of one of the writers at work, I rented it. Incredibly charming, uplifting, and fun, but also witty -- this is Disney making fun of itself and embodying its most Disney-ness at the same time. It really works.
• Atonement (2007) -- A great dramatic film. Also, James McAvoy is hot.
• The Orphanage (2007) -- A great "horror" film from Mexico. It's more of a suspenseful ghost story than a horror, I think, but I'm loving this new breed of sophisticated horror films that I hope to see more of in the coming years.
• Redbelt (2008) -- The newest film by David Mamet doesn't disappoint. It is, however, unexpected. Chiwetel Ejiofor is excellent.
• Wall·E (2008) -- I love how incredibly cinematic this movie is. The first half of the film has almost no dialogue and it's wonderful.

Worst: I watch a lot of bad movies for free on tv. I know most of them are bad going into it, but I'm still interested in seeing them for what I expect will be some enjoyment. The following was the... WORST... movie I watched this year.
• Epic Movie (2007) -- I expected it to be dumb and awful, but it surpassed my expectations. Every single joke fell flat. Some jokes didn't even seem to be jokes at all, but they were clearly supposed to be funny.

Most Disappointing:
• Eagle Vs Shark (2007) -- Not bad, but I expected more funny-akward and less just akward.
• Sunshine (2007) -- I actually liked this movie, but I had such high expectations for it and it could have been so much better that it unfortunately turned out to be more of a disappointment than anything.
• Slipstream (2007) -- Written and directed by Anthony Hopkins. It looked intriguing, but ended up a complete mess. A total failure.
• Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) -- A lot of people really liked this movie, and I expected that I would as well. I found it boring, depressing, and I found the editing techniques cheesy and annoying.
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) -- Not entirely awful, but still pretty bad and an absolute diappointment for the return of the series. The ending was particularly bad.

Most Surprising:
• Enchanted (2007) -- See above.
• Stardust (2007) -- I knew I'd like this, but it was even more enjoyable than I expected. It's just a really FUN movie.
• He Was a Quiet Man (2007) -- Christian Slater proves that he is not, in fact, gone and that he can, in fact, act. I miss this guy, and it think this was a great off-type role for him in a not-too-well-known independant film. I hope it will garner some attention so that he can work his way back into more mainstream filmmaking as well.
• The Howling (1981) -- This was part of my Horror Movie Marathon line-up this year. It was a great amusing, cheesy, 80's horror flick. There was one fabulous scene, however, which took me entirely by surprise and brought the whole movie up a notch in my book.

Least Memorable:
• The Night Listener (2006) -- When I saw this in my list of watched movies, I thought it must be a mistake. I remebered what the movie was, but I had no recollection of watching it at all. After reading a synopsis, some vague memories of some movie kinda like that came fleeting back... but really, I don't remember a thing. In general, I take that as a bad sign.

Honorable Mention:
• Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005) -- Movie that Made Me the Most Angry. Wal-Mart is the Devil, and this documentary proves it.
• Man On Wire (2008) -- The documentary was good, but nothing too special. The subject matter, on the other hand, was AMAZING. I'm astounded at the feat documented in this film. This was also the last movie I saw in 2008. I was watching it as the clock struck midnight, also kinda making it the first movie I've seen in 2009.
• Doctor Who (2005) -- As soon as Watch Instantly became available on the XBox 360, I started watching the new Doctor Who television series. So far I'm 1/2 way through season 3. It's excellent, excellent, excellent. Because it's not a movie, I can't officially include it in my round-up, so I thought I'd give it honorable mention here as it definitely belongs among my favorite viewing experiences of 2008.