Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

With Slumdog Millionaire having already won a shedload of awards and being 'the greatest feel good film of the decade', Danny Boyle has clearly rebuilt his reputation after Sunshine failed to impress.
Slumdog is brilliantly done and tells the story in an original way. My favourite scenes are most definately the ones showing Jamal and Salim when they're still children, some of the shots of Mumbai's slums are fantastic. The actors portraying the young incarnations of the characters are fantastic and I cannot stress that enough. Dev Patel (of Skins) is also brilliant showing that he is a more than capable on the big screen.
It got a bit sugary towards the end for my liking, but I was anticipating it because it is a feel good film and it's done brilliantly in the mainstream charts. I would definately go and see it, if only to see what all the hype is about.

Garden State (2004)

Even though I'm about four years behind in getting around to watching this, I have to say it's perhaps one of the best films I've seen in some time.
Most people will know it because of lead man, Zack Braff, the star of Scrubs, but it is most definately a film that can stand for itself. That's not to say that it would have been as good without Braff, his performance in Garden State is outstanding. He plays the character of Andrew Largeman fantastically, the awkwardness he portrays in places is so intense that you feel it yourself. He also shows the lethargic lifestyle of Largeman in an inspired way. I don't think the film would have been as fantastic as it was without Braff if I'm honest. At times he really does capture your attention and gives a truely emotional show. It is not without his trademark humour either.
The film is the slow-going , nothing much happens type of film, not in a bad way, it's slow going, but it does reach it's conclusion and the ending is amazing, I'll admit I was feeling awfully emotional.

Natural Born Killers (1994)

Natural Born Killers is a very violent film when you first watch it. However, upon second viewings, you start to realise that the film makes a lot of points. The most predominant being about the Media using sick stories to boost ratings. Not only that though, it makes a comment about the general publics interest in murder, often even admiration from the murderers.
Symbollically we see the two murderers , Mickey and Mallory destroying the mass media in the end and triumphing over everyone else.
In a backwards way, it seems rather optimistic. Putting across the idea that everyone is able to free themselves from whatever burdens they have.
The film is noted for it's completely 'off-the-wall' style of moving the story on. A bit that stands out is where it paradies a sit-com in order to tell the quite disturbing story of Mallory, complete with canned laughter when her father threatens her with sexual abuse. From the very beginning the editing is frantic and psychedelic, often cutting to black and white or filetered lenses for no apparent reason.
Another point that I think i ought to make about NBK is the brilliant soundtrack, composed by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. The music shifts from ambient and quiet to loud and frantic in such a way that it seems to disjoint your senses, which is perfect for this film.

Yes Man (2008)

I'm a huge fan of Danny Wallace and all of his works. When I heard they were basing a film on his book The Yes Man, I was naturally very excited. When I heard that it would star Jim Carey I was unsure, but still curious.

My opinion may be biased due to me being such a huge fan of the books, but the film is brilliant. The story stays true to the book for the most part, but has been alterred in some areas for obvious reasons, it would simply have not been accesible to a large audience if it had been the same story completely.
The casting is also spot on, Jim Carey is in his element all the way through (a lot of people will compare his performance to the one he did in LiarLiar undoubedly). Zooey Deschanel plays her character perfectly too - not a typical, personalityless Hollywood female character, but a real , kindof odd girl. I was also happy to see Danny Masterson playing Rooney being a fan of his previous work on That 70's Show. Mr Wallace himself also makes a cameo in the film as a man talking in a bar.
I really enjoyed Yes Man. I thought it good as far as simple entertainment goes, the film however didn't capture the meaning of the book particularly, the ending was changed fo an obvious Hollywood audience.

Quantum Of Solace (2008)

This film is about 60% of the water in Bolivia... That's all you need to know really, that's how terrible it is.
Film-Makers like to make stories and villains realistic, perhaps so we , the audience can find them more accessible. Realistic plots and villains can work, in fact I usually prefer more realistic films, but they only work when you don't have action sequences randomly dropped in every now and then and 219 special effects artists working on the set.

Marc Forster has also reassured us more than enough that he knows how symbolism works. Why is it that every film released at the moment has an artsy, pretensious director who thinks symbolism is the key to a film? He tries to tell us that oil is more valuble than gold by drowning a girl in it and referencing Goldfinger and he inserts Hitchcock references all the way through. Not only this, he's also made every action sequence in the film revolve around a natural element (fire , water , wind etc). We've established that your intelligent enough to use symbolism Forster...

To top it all off, Bond is now such a good spy, he can ride his motorbike up to the fence of his supervillain nemesis's hideout on a sunny afternoon and listen to him chat.

The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)

This might be the biggest disapointment of 2008 (and there's been a few). A pointless attempt at remaking a film that was written for its time.
The plot rambles aimlessly through a series of events without really going anywhere good and eventually ends up trying to force a message upon you and fails miserably.
The message being that humans have a negative effect on the planet. How uninspired?

However, that's not the only thing that ruined the film, Keanu Reeves may be one of the brilliant sci-fi actors of the last decade, but he is terrible in this film. An over the top attempt at being emotionless doesen't get my approval. Jennifer Connelly boosts the film a bit, but not even the best actors in the world could save this disaster of a film.

Fargo (1996)

Fargo is up there with my favourite films of all time, I consider it to be the Coen's best film.
I don't think the brothers will outdo themselves for a long time with this.
What sets this film apart from a lot of Hollywood films is the setting, it's not often we get a whole film set in a snowy, small-town place. The setting makes it possible for the film to have some amazing shots, a brilliant example is just after Jerry has been told that he won't be lent money, there is an extremely long shot that looks as if it has been done from a roof or something. We see Jerry walk across a carpark completely surrounded by snow.
I think the characters in the film are some of the most interesting I have seen. Frances McDormand plays the heavily pregnant police-woman Marge, she is obviously a good police-woman who calmly looks at dead bodies, but is also a family orientated woman who tries not to disturb her husband in the morning. Steve Buscemi plays the 'funny-lookin'' Carl who graduallly becomes more and more dranged towards the end of his part. Pete Stormare plays Gaere Gusmord who is fantasticly psychotic, the ruthless and unemotional values he portrays are brilliantly.
Fargo is one of the better Coen films and I highly rate it and would recomend watching it if only to see the excessively bloody scene where Buscemi is forced through a woodchipper.