“I don’t think the dead care about vengeance.”
The Scoop: 2008 PG-13, directed by Marc Forster and starring Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko and Mathieu Amalric
Tagline: Bond is Back
Summary Capsule: James Bond, still blatantly hurt by his true love’s betrayal, lives up to his 00-status by traveling the world to find out exactly who or what is trying to pull a whole lot of powerful strings
“His name was Jason and today was his birthday.”
The Scoop: 2009 R, directed by Marcus Nispel and starring Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker and Amanda Righetti
Tagline: Welcome to Crystal Lake
Summary Capsule: A bunch of idiot kids with various connections to one another end up in Crystal Lake, near an old summer camp with a brutal history.
“When somebody asks me a question, I tell them the answer.”
The Scoop: 2008 R, directed by Danny Boyle & Loveleen Tandan, and starring Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor and Saurabh Shukla.
Tagline: What does it take to find a lost love?
Summary Capsule: Young man becomes a contestant on the Indian ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ to gain the attention of his true love and maybe fulfill his ultimate destiny
“This isn’t my life anymore, Mulder. I’m done chasing monsters in the dark.”
The Scoop: 2008 PG-13, directed by Chris Carter and starring David Duchonvy, Gillian Anderson and Amanda Peet
Tagline: To find the truth, you must believe.
Summary Capsule: Some FBI agents, stymied on a case with some X-Files undertones, rescues our heroes Mulder and Scully from outsider status in exchange for some consulting. Boredom ensues for the audience.
Perhaps due to a childhood head injury (my very first scar!), I have never manifested any kind of nostalgic longing for years past. I never understood it myself: I’m ‘half empty’ regarding nearly everything else, but remain convinced that each year has been better than the last and that this trend will continue . . . forever!
Looking back at the films released in 2008, I see a definite trend towards improving quality in films. Yes, I will admit that The Dark Knight and Iron Man certainly contribute mightily to the sense of an upward spiral, both being such massively entertaining and accomplished films that they skew the entire year towards perceived goodness. But for arguably meeting the astronomical expectations, they deserve the VIP status that comes with wrecking 2008’s bell curve of “awesomeness.” (NOTE: I don’t completely understand statistics or their applications, so there you go)
