INCEPTION Trailer - 50's Version!

What if Alfred Hitchcock made Inception?

Transformers: @#$% of the Moon Review

Hello Moviegoers! I got a chance to see a lot of films this summer, but there are a couple that I missed. So I decided to see “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” at the cheap show. I mean this was a second run theater so each ticket only cost three bucks. However, I still felt ripped off.

I wanted to like this movie. I really did. I loved the first Transformers movie. There was something about it that made it an enjoyable action film. It had its flaws, but I enjoyed it overall. The same cannot be said about its sequel, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”. That film was an insufferable mess. It had fantastic visuals, but the story was so convoluted, the characters were either very annoying or underwritten, and it suffered from an unbearable run time of 2 hours and 30 minutes.

The third, and hopefully the last in the series, film is called “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”. Fortunately it is slightly better than the last one, but that is not saying much. This time the film deals with an alternate history/conspiracy plot about the space race and the 1969 moon landing. It starts out promisingly, but the story gets convoluted and messy and it loses focus. Eventually, it ends up being a clash between the Decepticons and Autobots, with the aid of their human allies. Shia LaBeouf returns as the protagonist, Sam Witwicky, and this time he is severely unlikable. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who plays Sam’s new girlfriend, is actually a worse actress than Megan Fox. The rest of the characters were uninteresting and underdeveloped. Plus the run time really drags this film down, just like the previous one.

As much as I dislike this film, the visuals are well done. The guys at ILM really know how to make a movie look spectacular. There are even a couple of scenes that really made the film spectacular like an inventive sequence set inside a building about to topple, but scenes like these cannot save the film from an overly long final battle.

I know I am not expecting Oscar caliber material. I enjoy some big dumb summer blockbusters. However, there is a point when you just have to draw the line. If you enjoyed the last two Transformers, then you will probably like this one. However, I am done with this series. I am done with the subpar acting, tortuous story, flat characters, juvenile humor, and the tedious fight scenes that go on forever. 1/5

The Worst Line Reading Ever

I like the part where he said "OH GOD! OH MAN!"

Cincinnati Coupons

Who doesn't love coupons? CincinnatiCoupons.net has coupons for just about anything in the Cincinnati area. They even have super special awesome giveaways. For example, you can enter to win The Incredibles 4-Disc Blu-ray combo pack. Sounds sweet, doesn't it? Even if you're not a hardcore coupon clipper, they still have some good ones. Plus like I said before, who doesn't love coupons?

Here's the link to Cincinnati Coupons' giveaways: http://www.cincinnaticoupons.net/category/blogpost/

"The only reason people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory."

News on March 18th

Another super special awesome edition of Xavier University News. I could not do a movie review this week, but the show is still awesome without it. Enjoy!

The Hangover Part 2 - HD Trailer 2 (OFFICIAL)

One of the biggest sleeper hits in recent memory is The Hangover. I saw this at a free screening about three weeks before it opened, and I thought this was going to be so bad. However, the screening was free so I went anyway. To my surprise, I absolutely loved this film. It was one of the few films that had me laughing throughout the whole picture. It was a flat out hilarious comedy and I felt that I was going to die of laughter*. I had to leave the theater a couple times just to compose myself before I went back inside. It is the first movie that I have seen at the theater more than two times. Granted that these were all free screenings, but I would had still paid to see this film.

The film was a huge hit as it grossed $467 million worldwide. The production budget was only $35 million, so naturally the suits at Warner Bros wanted a sequel and they got one. I knew there would be a sequel to this film even though the story was complete in the first one. I was curious on what they were going to do for the sequel.

The Hangover Part II stars the four main leads from the original, Phil (Bradley Cooper), Alan (Zach Galifiankis), Doug (Justin Bartha), and Stu (Ed Helms) as they travel to Bangkok for Stu's wedding. After their little escapade in Las Vegas, Stu wants a safe, subdued pre-wedding brunch. However, things do not go as planned after they lose the younger brother of Stu's fiancée (Jamie Chung).

So this seems like a retread of the first film, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The trailer looks hilarious and features more of the same gags as the first film. Even Mike Tyson is scheduled to reprise his role as himself from the first film. In addition, Ken Jeong and Jeffrey Tambor are returning from the first film. Plus Paul Giamatti and Liam "Badass" Neeson have roles in the film. I am a little disappointed that Heather Graham is not returning, but Jamie Chung is an excellent substitute.

Some people say the original Hangover was overrated, but that is such a cliche argument. When there are films that have enormous success there will always be people saying that it was such an overrated film. It may be a retread of the first film, but as long as I laugh it is worth the money. The Hangover Part II comes out on May 26, which is part of Memorial Day weekend.

* People have actually died of laughing before. Look it up.

Super 8 Theatrical Trailer

Here's the new trailer for Super 8, the new movie from J.J. Abrams (Mission Impossible 3, Star Trek, Lost). At first the movie looked like it was going to be a sequel to Cloverfield, but thank you Jesus that it is not. The film is set back in 1979, where six children are using their Super 8 Camera to make a zombie movie. One night while filming they see a truck collide with an oncoming train leading to a catastrophic derailment. However, within the destruction, something inhuman emerges.

Steven Spielberg is a producer on this film so it should be interesting to see Abarams and Spielberg work together. The film sort of reminds of a re-imaging of Spielberg's E.T. Think about it. Super 8 has an alien, boys on bikes, conspiracy in town, cops, and Spielberg. Of course it seems like this alien is more ruthless and murderous. Anyway it's coming out on June 10 in conventional and IMAX theaters.

The Oscar Reactions

Well, it wasn't the worst Oscar show. Seriously though the Academy Awards ceremony was very subpar this year. Before I get to that let me tell you about my predictions.

The awards were predictable, but there were a few surprises. Colin Firth, Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, and Melissa Leo won in their categories. This is not a big surprise considering all of the other awards these four got before the Oscars. Colin Firth and Natalie Portman were definite locks. In supporting Actor category, Christian Bale was going to win, but there was the possibility of The King's Speech winning in this category. However, this did not happen and it's for the best. Christian Bale was so marvelous in The Fighter that it would have been a crime if he didn't win.

In the Best Supporting Actress category Melissa Leo took home the statuette. In her speech she dropped the F-bomb, which was one of the highlights of the evening. I was actually hoping that Hailee Steinfeld would take home the award, as she was the best thing about True Grit. She really knocked the role out of the park. Still, this is her debut performance and the Academy tend not to give out Oscars to first time actors/actresses. Steinfeld is a talented actress and she will be back. It's only a matter of time.

I knew The King's Speech was going to win Best Picture. I didn't think it was the best film of the year, but the Academy goes nuts over period pieces. Once you combine that with a historical figure trying to overcome a great obstacle and we have Oscar gold. IMHO, The Social Network was the best film of the year. It's a landmark film that defines a generation and talks about how a simple social networking site can lead to shattered bonds, excessive greed, and loneliness. It's a 21st century version of Citizen Kane. It was robbed of the award and I think it will be remembered more in the long run than King's Speech. For example there are great films like Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, and Citizen Kane that never won Oscars, but are still remembered after decades. I believe The Social Network is going to be one of those films.

I also felt sour that David Fincher didn't win Best Director for The Social Network. Instead Tom Hooper won for The King's Speech. I was hoping that Fincher, the veteran director, would take home for the prize. Fincher has done some amazing work (Fight Club, Se7en, Benjamin Button) and I'm sure that his work will be rewarded one day.

Toy Story 3 won Best Animated Feature, which shouldn't surprise anyone. It was the best animated film of the year despite being the weakest in the Toy Story trilogy. It was a great year for animation though. How to Train Your Dragon, Tangled, and Despicable Me exceeded my expectations. It's a shame the latter two did not receive Oscar nominations.

The screenplay categories were very easy to predict. The Social Network won Best Adapted Screenplay and The King's Speech won Best Original Screenplay. I was hoping that Inception might snag Best Original Screenplay since it did win the WGA award, but the script for The King's Speech wasn't eligible for the award. That's the only way Nolan won the WGA. Unfortunately that didn't translate into Oscar gold.

As far all the other categories go, it was hit-or-miss. I never saw Alice in Wonderland, but from what I heard it was an awful piece of !@#$. However, people did say the visuals and costumes were fantastic. So I figured it would win Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design, and it did! Best Cinematography went to Inception, which shocked me as I thought True Grit would get it. At first I thought Inception would get it, but a lot of Oscar prediction articles said that True Grit would get it. Even Roger Ebert said True Grit was his pick so I changed my decision and went with it. Plus the cinematographer for True Grit was Roger Deakins, who has worked with the Coen Bros on almost all of their films. He has been nominated eight times without a win, so maybe next time.

Inception was in line of my other predictions as it won for Visual Effects, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing. The Social Network won Best Score and Best Editing, Toy Story 3 also for won Best Song, and The Wolfman won for Best Makeup. Yes that's right, The Wolfman. If a terrible film like that can win an Academy Award then maybe it is time to abandon this category. Still, I have to give props to Rick Baker as this is his seventh win for Best Makeup.

Inside Job won Best Documentary Feature and In a Better World Won Best Foreign Feature. The Best Foreign Feature always throws me off because it is so random. It is one of the hardest ones to predict. First of all, countries can only submit one film to the Academy and sometimes a country doesn't even send a film. For example, I thought The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo would have been a lock for Best Foreign film, but Sweden didn't even submit it. Second, it is hard to predict because the majority of voters probably haven't seen all of the nominated films, so it's like blind voting. This year In a Better World won, but I was hoping that Incendies would be a potential upset.

Best Short Film went to God of Love, Best Animated Short went to The Lost Thing, and Best Documentary Short went to Strangers No More. I got both of those wrong, but there was no way to find these shorts so I just had to pick one and hope for the best.

Well I got 16 out of 24, which is better than last year. However, I was hoping to reach for at least 20 correct.

As far as the overall show goes it wasn't as horrible people said it was, but it was still pretty bad. James Franco and Anne Hathaway were chosen as the hosts for this show. I'm pretty sure they were the youngest actors/actresses to host show. This was done to bring in the younger demographic, but it failed miserably. The pre-taped skits shown at the beginning of the Awards looked decent, but then it collapsed after that. James Franco seemed spaced out and acted like he didn't want to be there. IMO, I thought he smoked that Pineapple Express before the show to relax. Anne Hathaway had plenty of energy, but it felt like she was trying to hard. However, she was carrying Franco on her back the whole time so she had to put in double the effort. It was a forgettable awards shows with only a few semi-big surprises, but at least there were some good movies nominated. Well, until next year.

P.S. Sorry that this post is way late. I wrote it the day after the Oscars and completely forgot about it until today. I think that proves how the forgettable this year's Oscars truly were.

The Ocsar Predictions Wrap Up

Okay, I swear that this is the last Oscar prediction post. I just wanted put down my final thoughts about who will win, who could win, and the nominees that snubbed i.e. Andrew Garfield, Chris Nolan, The Town. So here they are:

Best Picture: The King's Speech

Dark Horse: The Social Network

Should Have Been Nominated: The Town

Best Actor: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)

Dark Horse: James Franco (127 Hours)

Should Have Been Nominated: Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine)

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Dark Horse: Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)

Should Have Been Nominated: Andrew Garfield (The Social Network)

Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Dark Horse: Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)

Should Have Been Nominated: Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right)

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Dark Horse: Hailee Steinfeld or Helena Bonham Carter

Should Have Been Nominated: Mila Kunis

Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3

Dark Horse: None

Who Should Have Been Nominated: Despicable Me or Tangled

Best Art Direction: Alice in Wonderland

Best Cinematography: True Grit

Best Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland

Best Director: David Fincher (The Social Network)

Dark Horse: Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)

Should Have Been Nominated: Christopher Nolan (Inception)

Best Documentary Feature: Inside Job

Dark Horse: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Best Documentary Short Subject: Killing in the Name

Best Film Editing: The Social Network

Best Foriegn Language Film: In a Better World

Dark Horse: Incendies

Should Have Been Nominated: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

- Technically Sweden didn't send Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to the Academy for competition, which is a shame. The film could have really stood a chance in this category, and possibly could have gotten nominations in other categories.

Best Makeup: The Wolfman

Best Original Score: The Social Network

Dark Horse: Inception

Should Have Been Nominated: Tron Legacy

Best Orginal Song: "We Belong Together" (Toy Story 3)

Best Short Film (Animated): Day and Night

Best Short Film (Live Action): Na Wewe

Best Sound Editing: Inception

Best Sound Mixing: Inception

Best Visual Effects: Inception

Dark Horse: None

Should Have Been Nominated: Tron Legacy

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network

Dark Horse: Toy Story 3

Should Have Been Nominated: The Town

Best Original Screenplay: The King's Speech

Dark Horse: Inception

Should Have Been Nominated: Black Swan

The Oscars Are Here!!! (Part III)

Finally we reach Best Picture, which is the most prestigious award of the night. This is the second year that the Academy has expanded Best Picture nominees to ten. I’m still split on this issue because now films that have snubbed by voters all these year can finally get some attention. For example nominees like Toy Story 3 and Inception would have never been nominated for Best Picture if this change hadn’t happened. However, it still doesn’t really mean anything in the end. There are always going a few films that truly have a shot at winning the big prize.

The films that absolutely have no chance in winning are The Kids Are All Right, Winter’s Bone, 127 Hours, Inception, and Toy Story 3. The Kids Are All Right is a comedy that has solid action and heart. It has a good mix of drama and comedy, but I do not think this is Oscar worthy at all. I really didn’t see what all the hype was about. Comedies rarely win at the Oscars and this wouldn’t be the comedy to win the award.

Winter’s Bone was the surprise nomination for Best Picture. It’s a well done independent drama film that won the top award at the Sundance Film Festival. It even got nominations for acting and writing. However, some voters thought The Town should have been nominated in place of this. That may put some voters off.

127 Hours seemed like excellent fodder for the academy. It’s a biopic about a rock climber who overcomes the odds to survive after his arm gets crushed in between a boulder. James Franco’s performance elevated this film and managed to get the best reviews of his career. So what went wrong here? It certainly wasn’t the reviews as they are at 93% positive on RT. The film’s director, Danny Boyle, did not get a directing nomination so this film. That is vital for a film to win, so 127 Hours is out of the picture.

Inception is a big summer blockbuster that actually engages the audience instead of throwing non stop explosions in your face. Along with great writing and directing from Christopher Nolan, it was one of the smartest blockbusters in a while. Unfortunately, this film did not get a directing or editing nomination, which really hurt its chances. Despite all of the support from the Christopher Nolan fanboys, the voters still don’t think this is an Oscar worthy film.

Some people have already stated that Toy Story 3 is the greatest animated movie of all time. That’s a really bold statement as it was great, but it wouldn’t even crack my top 10 list of the greatest animated films. It is still the best animated film of the year though. However, if this was the year for an animated film to win this wouldn’t be it. I thought Wall-E and Up were more deserving of the big prize. Plus it’s a sequel and the Academy rarely gives sequels Best Picture. Plus it has its own category, which is Best Animated Feature.

Black Swan was a powerful and beautiful film. The movie is anchored by Natalie Portman’s marvelous performance. The director of the film Darren Aronofsky has made an intense, passionate psychological thriller. The problem with the film is that the film may be too obscure for many voters and that alienates them from voting best Picture.

True Grit has been an amazing success as it is one of highest grossing westerns of all time and it gained ten nominations. Plus it was directed by The Coen brothers, who are worshiped by Academy voters. Plus the Coens didn’t do a conventional remake. They went based the remake more like the original book, which made the film grittier and edgy. Plus there are outstanding performances by Jeff Bridges and newcomer, Hailee Steinfeld. This seems like a best Picture winner to me. However, remakes are rarely rewarded and it was great, but is it really Oscar worthy? Plus the Coen Brothers already won best Picture for No Country for Old Men, which was no less than four years ago.

The Fighter is packed with powerful performances and it has plenty of heart. It’s predictable, but it could pull a surprise win just like Rocky did back in 1979. However, the film’s just not as good as the last two nominees and it has already peaked.

At this point the real competition is between The King’s Speech and The Social Network. For a long time it seemed like The Social Network would sweep the awards. It earned outstanding reviews for David Fincer’s flawless directing, Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant screenplay, and excellent performances from Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield. It’s a film that defines a generation and a film that has high replay value. It’s a modern classic and some call it a 21^st century version of Citizen Kane. It swept so many critics awards and won the Golden Globe award for best Picture. However, something happened along the way and it stopped the momentum of the film. Despite coming out in October the film peaked by the end of the year. To add insult to injury it lost the DGA, PGA, and BAFTA to The King’s Speech.

The King’s Speech didn’t come out until December, but it gained momentum very quickly. The film has everything that the Academy loves. It’s a period piece dealing with historical figures. In the film King George, played by Colin Firth, has to overcome a debilitating stutter. Critics have called this Firth’s best performance along with other good performances by Helena Bonham carter and Geoffrey Rush. In addition, to all of that it robbed the social Network of the DGA, PGA, and BAFTA awards. Even the SAG got onboard. Once again, The Weinstein brothers have worked there magic with an effective ad campaign and excellent word of mouth. The only thing that can stop this film is The Social Network. There is also the slim chance of the King’s Speech and Social Network splitting votes, and The Fighter or True Grit could emerge as a dark horses. Nevertheless, this is highly unlikely. The Social Network was my favorite film of the year, but The King’s Speech pretty much has this wrapped up.

Well, that’s about it moviegoers. It has been a decent awards season, but not the greatest one. I still pulling for The Social Network to win the big one. The 83^rd Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday February 27^th on ABC.

The Oscars Are Here!!! (Part II)

The nominees for Best Supporting Actor are Christian Bale for The Fighter, John Hawkes for Winter’s Bone, Jeremy Renner for The Town, Mark Ruffalo for The Kids Are All Right, and Geoffrey Rush for The King’s Speech. Christian Bale has won every critic award out there, so he will win. The dark horse here is Geoffrey Rush, but that’s unlikely.

The Nominees for Best Supporting Actress are Amy Adams for The Fighter, Helena Bonham Carter for The King’s Speech, Melissa Leo, for The Fighter, Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit, and Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom). Melissa Leo is the favorite to win, but watch out for Hailee Steinfeld. Personally she’s my pick for the award, because she gave a wonderful performance and her own against veteran actors like Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon. However, she is still young and the academy doesn’t tend to give out awards for first time actors. The only way Melissa Leo would lose is if vote splitting occurs between her and Amy Adams. If that happens then it could be Steinfeld’s name called on Oscar night.

Stay Tuned for Part III

Xavier News on channel 14/An alligator broke into my house?

Here is the latest edition of Xavier University News. This includes my news story on the Oscars featuring my super special awesome voice. Enjoy!

The Oscars Are Here!!! (Part 1)

It's that special time of year folks. It's the Academy Awards! The nominations have been up since January, but I have not been able to post anything until now. I think I'll get most of my predictions correct this year. There are a couple categories that are troubling me, but hopefully I'm right about them.

Just like last year there are ten nominees for Best Picture. The nominees for Best Picture are Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, The King’s Speech, 127 Hours, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, and Winter’s Bone. The King’s Speech gained the most nominations as the film received twelve of them. True Grit followed with ten and then The Social Network and Inception, with eight each. Now let’s get on with the predictions.

The Best Actor nominees are Javier Bardem for Bitiful, Jeff Bridges for True Grit, Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network, Colin Firth for The King’s Speech, and James Franco for 127 Hours. Jeff Bridges won last year so unless he can pull a “Tom Hanks” win, he won’t get the award. Jesse Eisenberg did a great job in the Social Network, but he’s young and the Academy will most likely make him wait. Colin Firth has got this one all wrapped up. The main is that he is in a period piece playing King George, who has a stuttering problem. He must overcome this problem in order to deliver important message during World War 2. The Academy eats this stuff up. Historical figure plus overcoming the odds to succeed equals Oscar win. In my opinion, I though Franco’s performance was the best one of the year. However, there are two reasons why he will not win. He’s the host of the Oscars this year and some Academy voters might think it’s a tacky to have a host win an Oscar. Secondly, it just wasn’t his year. However, he will be back at the Academy and hopefully the next time he will win.

The Best actress nominees are Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right, Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole, Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone, Natalie Portman for Black Swan, and Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine. It’s nice to see newcomer Jennifer Lawrence because she did such a fantastic job in Winter’s Bone, that I expect her to do well in the future. She is a newcomer though so the Academy will make her wait. The real competition is between Natalie Portman and Annette Bening. At first it looked like this would be a tight race, but Portman really amazed people with Black Swan. Portman has nearly won every award in the awards season, so she is a lock. However, this Bening’s fourth nomination so the academy may feel the need to reward the veteran for their past snubs. They’ve done this before with other nominees it may happen here. I highly doubt it though.

That's Part one. Stay tuned for Part two (Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories). Peace out.

Operation: Dynamite - Xavier University Lip Dub

Here is Operation Dynamite! This is Xavier University's first ever lip dub. We did it to the Taio Cruz song "Dynamite". I suggested Cee-Lo's song "Fuck You, but I guess that wouldn't be really appropriate. Anyway thanks to the producers of this film, Jake Lutz, Anna Reid, and Katelynn Barlett. They did a fantastic job producing this lip dub from the beginning. Peace out.

Japanese McDonald's Ad

Mmmm i want a happy meal now.

XU News for February 11, 2011

Xavier University's news show from Friday. There's no super special awesome movie review this week, but it's still worth a view. Enjoy!!!

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger Film Review

You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger comes out DVD/blu-ray today. Here is my review of the film I did last year. It's one of Woody Allen's weaker films, but it's much better than the critics make it out to be. Since this is a Woody Allen film there are no extras and that really hurts the replay value. If you're a hardcore Woody allen fan then this will a good addition. This is a rental for me, but I'll buy it once the price goes way down. I don't think it's worth $20, or $26 for the Blu-ray.

http://www.amazon.com/Will-Meet-Tall-Dark-Stranger/dp/B003UESJCY/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1297822934&sr=1-1

Morning Glory Movie Review

Morning Glory was a pleasant comedy. It was definitely better than expected, but it didn't find an audience, as the $40 million film only grossed $31 million. It's coming out on March 8 and is available for Pre-order on Amazon.

Morning Glory (DVD): http://www.amazon.com/Morning-Glory-Rachel-McAdams/dp/B002ZG98FU/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1297119913&sr=1-1

Morning Glory (Blu-ray): http://www.amazon.com/Morning-Glory-Blu-ray-Rachel-McAdams/dp/B002ZG98G4/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1297119913&sr=1-2

Xavier News January 28th, 2011

It's the Xavier University's News Show! Xavier University, located in Cincinnati, OH, is known for its business school and basketball teams. However, don't forget that the university also has a fantastic news show airing every Friday at 3:00 P.M. Filmed live at the Xavier Television Center, this show tells viewers about everything going on the Xavier campus. The news will be on YouTube later that night. Plus the news has my world famous movie reviews by the Mystic Movie Guru himself. So check it out: http://www.youtube.com/user/XUTVA

The 50 Best Films of the 2000s

I should have done this ages ago seeing as we are in 2011.

Anyway, this is my list of the top 50 best films of the 2000s. These are not in any ranking (that would be way too hard).

Memento

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Almost Famous

American Psycho

Shrek

The Royal Tenenbaums

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Punch-Drunk Love

Minority Report

Oldboy

Gangs of New York

Adaptation

The Pianist

Spirited Away

Lost in Translation

Kill Bill

Mystic River

Finding Nemo

Monster

Spider-Man 2

The Incredibles

Sideways

Million Dollar Baby

Collateral

Match Point

Crash

Good Night, and Good Luck

The 40-Year-Old Virgin

Sin City

Casino Royale

The Departed

Borat

Pan's Labyrinth

Children of Men

Ratatouille

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

No Country for Old Men

There Will Be Blood

Zodiac

A History of Violence

Wall-E

The Dark Knight

Revolutionary Road

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Far From Heaven

In Bruges

Avatar

Up

Funny People

Where the Wild Things Are

Honorable Mentions:

Traffic

The Hurt Locker

Little Children

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Milk

Munich

Letters From Iwo Jima

Frost/Nixon

Pirates of the Caribbean

United 93

Dreamgirls

Catch Me if You Can

Little Miss Sunshine

Brokeback Mountain

Closer

The Aviator

Cold Mountain

The Hours

About Schmidt

Chicago

Insomnia

A Beautiful Mind

Gosford Park

Disney's A Christmas Carol

The Last Samurai