One stone tablet down... One to go...

 So like the last season of Battlestar Galactica we're now down to the final five. In this case I mean my final five favorite movies of 2008 - not Cylon "skin-jobs".

You may notice that there are alot of movies on yesterday's list as well as today's that made almost everybody in media-land's lists. I'd like to think this is a statement to how few really excellent movies there were last year, and how those few good ones really stood out from the rest of the pack. Here are my five favorite movies of 2008:

5) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Once again the dynamic combination of David Fincher and Brad Pitt blend together to create another classic film addition. Though not as grim as Se7en, and nowhere near as revolutionary as Fight Club, Benjamin Button is nonetheless just as important as Fincher's earlier work with Pitt.

Button is a big film, (I hear it's much bigger than the cut we saw) but it's a big film built on little moments, with characters every bit as fleshed out as Pitt's reverse-aging lead. Button's childhood in the old folks home. The affair over a tea table in Russia. The War. The life long courtship of Kate Blanchett's Daisy. Fincher pretty much proves that when he puts his mind to it he can deliver a solid Holiday film classic just as big and as bold as filmmakers like Spielberg and Zemeckis. But most importantly Button is a film about life, where we come from and where we're going to. I loved it.

4) In Bruges - A crime film with a sweet vein of melancholy flowing through it. There were few films more charming, more enchanting, or more politically incorrect than Martin McDonagh's In Bruges. This is a film debut that reminds me of Danny Boyle and Chris Nolan's first films. In his first major film work McDonagh manages to re-write the English crime film as we once knew it and craft it into something more akin to a fairytale than it has any right to be. Maybe that's because of the film's location - set in Bruges. I'm sure local tourism has taken off since this film's release. It's a beautiful city, maybe not for two hired killers on the run, but for the rest of us I'm sure it would be a fascinating town to spend the weekend in.

If this film does have one strong suit it's that we spend most of our movie time with the best acting duo since Val Kilmer and Robert Downey did Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell are absolutely magic in this flick. Especially Farrell. He earned his Golden Globe for his work in this film, and if there are any good souls left with access to the Oscar voting cards he should be nominated for a Best Actor award as well. This was my favorite acting performance of 2008. 

3) WALL-E - If there is one film that exceeds In Bruges in the charm department it's Pixar's latest masterpiece WALL-E. I haven't had a movie make me glow with a sense of wonder like this since Spielberg's E.T. back in 1982. And I was a tyke back then.

WALL-E recaptures that Disney spirit. Sure there are a few "now" jokes and themes that resonate with today's savvy urban 10 year old - but the film feels like a classic Disney piece. Like the great-grandson of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, (and Bambi, Dumbo, Peter Pan...) this is a Disney film. It's also the best sci-fi flick in recent years.

I don't know how Pixar manages to maintain their quality assurance record - I'm sure there must be some deal with a few Dark Lords of Hell to maintain a winning streak this commanding - but as long as it's their souls in mortal peril and not mine, I hope the streak continues. WALL-E was my favorite Summer movie by a long shot.

2) Rambo - So how many Worst Of lists did this movie make? All of em'? Do I care? Sorry wieners and sniveling cinema be-yatches but Rambo kicked some serious frakking ass.

This is how you bring a hero out of a 20 year retirement Steven Spielberg.

Stallone is absolutely savage in this movie. He's a modern day Frankenstein built from the body parts of dead steroid junkies. The bloodthirsty spirit of the eighties returning from the lost land of big hair and bigger explosions to teach us all a lesson in warfare and bloodletting.

In an era where the words "Hope" and "Change" are the current band-aid catch-phrases for a world plagued with insurmountable problems Stallone's John Rambo says "You ain't changing nothin'" and "F**k the world". Grim words  - but ballsy. This was the bravest film of 2008. That it actually rocked as hard as it did is still a mystery - even to me.  

1) The Wrestler - It's such a cliche' to pick the last movie you saw of the year as the best movie you saw of the year. Do I have the attention span of a three year old? But Rambo was the first movie I saw in 2008, so my memory can't be all that bad - my taste in films maybe, but not my memory thank god.

Yes The Wrestler was my favorite film of 2008. And there's a huge laundry list of the reasons why it is. Leading off would be Mickey Rourke's performance. Following closely behind would be Darren Aronofsky's stripped-down Direction. Following that, and appeasing the metal head in me, would be the Marisa Tomei in her birthday suit and the selective mix of 80's hair anthems. Of course Marisa does more in the film than just parade her boobs in front of the camera. She throws down a knock-out performance almost as outstanding as Mickey's.

The main reason I loved The Wrestler so much is that it's the manifestation of the screenplay that Coen brothers fans watched Barton Fink agonize over while he worked and re-worked the story over and over again in the Hotel Earle in the movie Barton Fink. Barton had to write a "wrestlin' picture" and it slowly and painfully became the best work a writer of Fink's pedigree had ever written. Darren Aronofsky just finally got around to making the film adaptation of Fink's unseen masterpiece. This is Fink's vision. A wrestlin' picture that transcends the genre. That astounds the critics and audience. That may even change the world as we know it. Which now that I've written it I know it's complete horses**t, but it sounds nice enough anyway.

I didn't see a better movie in 2008. 2009 has its work cut out for it.

 Want a feminine perspective on the Best Movies of 2008? Since I had to drag her to far more movies than she probably wanted to see this winter, here's Mrs. Movie Examiner's Top 8 Favorite Movies of 2008: (sorry about making you watch Funny Games babe...)

1) Slumdog Millionaire

2) The Wrestler

3) The Dark Knight

4) WALL-E

5) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

6) Body of Lies

7) In Bruges

8) The Other Boleyn Girl