2006 in movies

2006 is a crazy year for movies. I watched at least 180 titles, and I already gained the reputation of movie freak at home. Especially in these few last months, when I was busy juggling between movies and life in my spare time. The lack of reviews lately is proof of what movies could do to your time. I was too engrossed in the watching activity that I couldn’t make time for jotting down my thoughts. Weekends get so saturated with movies that it’s become a sin not to watch any at all. At times when things started to wind up boring, I asked myself if I was trying to make a record, because I felt I had to watch movies, instead of enjoying them.

One of the reasons why I thought I was forced to watch so many movies is because I got into a project to watch all the movies considered best by the American Film Institute. Why them? Well, people might argue whether the selected movies are really great, or just the result of winning votes cast by some “experts” in the movie business. I was and still am a rookie, and I need direction in pointing me out to quality movies. The question should be why not? True classics or otherwise, only after I watch them all can I make a decision for myself, no? Therefore, in the quest of finding those rare classics, I often trapped myself into a situation of having to watch movies when I wasn’t in the right mood. Bad mood leads to bad judgment. This means I have to cut down my motion pictures consumption next year. An idea not too difficult to carry out since I’m beginning to run out of titles to rent in my rental source as well. The quest is still ongoing, but I’m just going to slow down a little bit.

So this is a good year for quality movies? It’s got to be mostly yes, even when considering the total number. Some really good ones are indeed true classics: Schindler’s List, Arsenic and Old Lace, My Fair Lady, To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest. I’ve watched these movies more than once within this year alone. Recent favorites include As Good As It Gets (actually, it’s my all time fave), Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Monster’s Ball, American President, and Out of Sight. If you let me, I can go on and on about this list of movies I like and generally why I like them. Equally, I also prefer to point out which movies that I think, well, suck, and can’t understand why they were so well-rated. They are:

Beauty and the Beast: Okay, story loved by children and adults(really?) alike, but the movie just looked like a plain 5pm-tv/after-homework treat for kids—does it have to be considered one of the best movies (cartoons might be more acceptable) in the romance category?
Blazing Saddles: It took me more than a week to finish this movie, and it was mainly because I had a pressing agenda to follow (i.e: more movies to catch up). I don’t get it: is Blazing Saddles the Borat of 1970s? I was shocked by how easily the race jokes were used in this movie. Too vulgar and too slapstick for me.
Sunset Boulevard: The Great Noir reference. Expected, dragged, ends with a scene too many times repeated on detective tv shows. Or I’m simply too young to understand the originality.
Taxi Driver: I remember trying to like it and I failed. Now I can’t remember much about it except for Robert De Niro sporting a mohawk haircut. And that “You talkin’ to me?” scene.
Airplane!: I was more entertained by Steve Martin in The Pink Panther (which is a horrible movie) than Leslie Nielsen in this obscure air adventure.

There are, of course, movies released in 2005 and 2006 alone that are worth mentioning:
Brokeback Mountain: I didn’t like it very much, but this movie sent a strong message for bigots out there.
Casino Royale: Already the biggest box-office Bond movie ever, and people need not guess very hard why it’s such a hit. It’s the new blond Bond!
The Da Vinci Code: About the most over-hyped but also tedious entertainment of the year. A huge disappointment.
The Devil Wears Prada: I know chick flicks don’t get much appreciation these days, but please look at Meryl Streep here. She’s a knockout.
Find Me Guilty: A little preposterous, but still, it’s an accidentally funny court room satire based on true story.
Good Night, and Good Luck: I haven’t seen Capote yet, but from what I did see, David Strathairn earned his Oscar nomination by his performance as Edward Murrow here.
Cars: The most annoying line of 2006 movies I remember til this day—Owen Wilson’s Ka-chow!
An Incovenient Truth: Documentary can’t get any better than this. This is why people should go to movie for, even those who don’t like movies.
Thank You For Smoking: I don’t normally say cigarette is “charming”, but this movie really did entertain in a charming, elegant, funny way. With the most unlikely topic.
Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest: Quickly forgettable in a year. Good thing they’re delivering the last one next year.
The Lake House: A romantic drama that dabbles with sci-fi, it could get so lost close to ridicule, but both Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock actually hit it off, a good thing that lead the audience into buying the story as it is.
Nanny McPhee: I’m sorry I watched it. Didn’t change my preference at all.
Little Manhattan: Yet another kiddie tale. But I like this one, a cute puppy love story taking place in Manhattan. I thought Hollywood had dropped the view of New York’s spring since the 90s.
Superman Returns: Somebody should cover Superman’s crotch. It’s getting too much publications already. Yes, I do think Superman is ridiculous.
The Prestige: Quite interesting magic tricks, though Christian Bale could’ve polished that weird accent of his better.
V for Vendetta: My favorite of the year. I was so hooked up with V that I went to the cinema and watched it twice within the range of a week, read the comic, and watched it again sometime in August.

Missing: The Fountain, Babel, The Good German, Children of Men.

Moving on to the stats, there were:
*more than 180 titles watched
*25 visits to the movie
*about 21 movies I’d seen before 2006
*about 115 movies rented
*at least 15 days straight non-stop of movies viewing, calculated by average of 2hrs per film
*priceless moments

Here are the almost complete listing of movies in 2006, sorted alphabetically:

December recaps

Complete list, including those previously seen before*:

1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)*
2. The Elephant Man (1980)
3. Layer Cake (2004)
4. The Bishop’s Wife (1947)
4. Sommersby (1993)
5. Find Me Guilty (2006)
6. X-Men 3: The Last Stand (2006)*
7. Matchstick Men (2003)
8. Monster’s Ball (2001)
9. I Heart Huckabees (2004)
10. An Officer and A Gentleman (1982)
11. Dear Frankie (2004)
12. Noel (2004)
13. Polar Express (2004)*
14. Private Benjamin (1980)
15. The French Connection (1971)
16. Mean Creek (2004)
17. Happy Feet (2006)
18. Out of Sight (1998)
19. The Tailor of Panama (2001)

Sommersby

I can’t tell who had the idea to pair up Jodie Foster and Richard Gere together in a romantic story; they’re a couple I couldn’t imagine to be together had I not seen Sommersby. Even after I’ve seen it, still the idea of them starring in a post-Civil War southern romance seems a little preposterous. Why? Because in my mind Jodie Foster is the last person I would choose to play in a romance movie. She’s too tough and gleaming with her performances to be following other successful Hollywood actresses’ path. An English teacher falling in love for the King of Siam, or the kickass FBI agent she might be, but the truth remains that she’s a capable actress who tackles on difficult, challenging roles. To see her playing a Southern woman falling for a man who’s not her husband, and basically just that, makes her somehow not so Jodie Foster anymore. And then, Richard Gere. I know he’s the right guy for a role like Jack Sommersby: charming, kind, anything but violent, but not in the 19th century! He didn’t speak the part, or was convincing enough to be an ex soldier. I don’t know if he was good enough to be bad because he’s usually just too good a man.

Beyond that, the story is something else. I’m a sucker for historical piece, and I love romances. And I’m gonna admit that seeing Jodie Foster’s character really falling for her husband was so touching, my stomach had a few flipflops (this is a bad example). So I’d say Sommersby is a real good romance movie, as simple as that. What I don’t really get is this: why would a woman, inherited with abundant assets from her thought-to-be-dead violent husband, waited for 6 years (I don’t know what she’s waiting for), while along the way there was an available man who loved her better than her husband did? Love? Possibly. Soon afterwards she realized the man who admitted to be her husband was not her real husband after all, but she kept quiet. Who would want to ruin the new serenity worth waiting 6 years for? I couldn’t agree more.

The ending might come too bitter to accept, considering they’re working too well as a couple. I still can’t get over the fact that it had to end that way. People do expect the “happily ever after” phrase to turn out exactly as it is, most of the times.

4/5.