Now that Summer is officially over…
I can list my favorite movies of this summer movie season. In the order of best movies of the Summer of 2008:
1) The Dark Knight – Predictable but still truthful. Only flaw in this movie – Christian Bale’s “Batman” voice. Well, Maggie G. was not that great either. I will not go on about Ledger. You should already know this.
2) Pineapple Express – Walked into this movie with semi-low expectations b/c wasn’t sure of James Franco as a weed-runner and thought that the Judd Apatow train could be jumping the shark. Completely wrong. James Franco became cool. Seth Rogen had some dope lines. And… then it became a dope-ass action flick at the end. Lastly, who could ask for a better ending scene?
3) WALL-E - Who would’ve thought Pixar could make a social commentary film with such little dialogue so digestable to the masses? I was amazed at the visuals but more impressed with the children in the audience’s ability to interpret the apocalyptic messages w/o getting bummed out or being cynical. I was motivated to recommend this movie to everybody. Let’s see if the adults can promote the proper messages of this movie.
4) Iron Man – Props to the underdog team here – Jon Favreau and Robert Downey, Jr. No one thought Iron Man could be made for one. Then to get the Swingers director and RBD who couldn’t even bring with it his last lead role in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang to be the main forces behind this new franchise. But, it worked. With the Ghostface co-sponsor, Tom Morrello cameo, dope efx, made Paltrow tolerable, and prob the most “realistic” superhero movie ever. Marvel is becoming the New England Patriots of comic-book movies.
5) Tropic Thunder - And in for the close, the most unpredictable, offensive movie I’ve seen since Team America. But it was cracking me up every 35 seconds. I wanted to feel bad/disturbed about Robert Downey, Jr.’s blackface role (since my kid is going to be half-black I had to represent) but the movie handled that sensitive subject well. Downey stole the show here, like in Iron Man, with a support of some comedic cameos that will not go unnoticed. Booty Sweat is now tattoed in my brain. Lived up to the hype. Downey FTW!
Let the hate begin in the comments below. Now, waiting for Righteous Kill, Choke, and Burn after Reading. Maybe The Spirit, too.
hate begins here…….
your headline –
the summer is over?…. oh hell no!
go ruin someone else’s parade…………….. let sunny days prevail
Autumn starts officially on 9/1. The Bay’s real summer doesn’t start until October.
Dark Knight got a lot more flaws than that…
The biggest one to me was:
TWO-FACE!!! First of all, it was simply Harvey Dent with a burnt face. No signs of split-personality disorder. Remember when he asked Gordon what was his nickname @ the precient? Where the FUCK did that come from?!?! Harvey Dent was a saint, had Bruce wanting to let him represent Gotham. I’ve heard people give so many props to this over Batman ‘89 cuz of it’s likeness to the comics. Newsflash!!! Joker didn’t create Two-Face just like he didn’t kill Batman’s parents…which brings me to…
JOKER.
Heath did his thing no doubt, but exactly what thing was that? That character was alternate Joker. True, you can twist movies around a little but for an infamous character like the Joker?!?! That’s like having Darth Vader take off his mask whenever he felt like it. Heath’s Joker was so damn serious. He reminded me of Mickey from NBK more than the Joker. I could take that guy and put him in Sin City only changing his name and he would fit perfectly. Joker can kill and still be organized and well-kept. Trying to turn Batman into reality is ridiculous. It’s a superhero film.
Incredible Hulk may not have a better history or compelling storyline but it trumped Iron Man and Dark Knight. Better executed movie.
Concerning The Dark Knight and the previous comment:
A remake strictly judged against the original will always fail. The Dark Kight is someone’s interpretation of an old story and it’s motifs, not their attempt at remastering the original. Are you also upset that Adam West was passed over for the starring roll? Don’t get my wrong, I admire your purest attitude towards the genre; however consider that The Dark Knight takes many risks by bringing many new ideas to the table, and everyone of those ideas instantly became the new standard for Batman. That’s I judge the success.
[...] homie TC from the Smoking Section, who is a KTL reader and sometimes commenter, got the dope opportunity to interview Sir Lucious himself. Great ground was covered in the [...]
TC – great observations and appreciate the comments.