That movie was far and away the most ambitious piece of dung I've ever seen. If only he had put as much time into the script (it's like a 5th grader's 1st draft) as he put into patting himself on the back (he plays a character who writes a book that saves the world??? Gimme a break). Who knew M. Night would turn pretentious?

1. Pan's Labyrinth
2. The Departed
3. Children of Men
4. Munich
5. A Cock and Bull Story
6. Good Night and Good Luck
7. Manderlay
8. The History Boys
9. Little Miss Sunshine
10. The Queen

I agree, for me 2006 was not the year I will look back to in 2016, while other movies of more then 10 years ago still can keep me focused. I don't know if it is because the movies were not good this year or we have seen almost everything already.
For that reason I will give you a movie most will disagree.
"Scarie Movie 4". OK We all saw that before but I can still laugh with the silly stupid jokes.
But don't ask me tomorrow when I'm in another mood and maybe I will say "Flag Of Our Father", "Cars" or what pops up in my head at that time.

My BEST OF 2006 list
 

http://www.movieposterbid.com/pics/9...20of%20men.jpg
PICTURE
1. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón)
2. Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood)
3. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
4. Manderlay (Lars von Trier)
5. Volver (Pedro Almodóvar)
6. Army of Shadows* (Jean-Pierre Melville)
7. The Science of Sleep (Michel Gondry)
8. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)
9. Who Killed the Electric Car? (Chris Paine)
10. Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck)
11. The Secret Life of Words (Isabel Coixet)
12. The Good Shepherd (Robert DeNiro)
13. An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim)
14. OSS 117: Nest of Spies (Michel Hazanavicius)
15. The Departed (Martin Scorsese)
16. Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (Yimou Zhang)
17. Thank You for Smoking (Jason Reitman)
18. 49 Up (Michael Apted)
19. Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris)
20. Stranger Than Fiction (Marc Forster)

*although made in 1969, it was never released in the United States until 2006

http://z.about.com/d/movies/1/0/k/e/...otlandblog.jpg
ACTOR
1. Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
2. Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
3. Ulrich Mühe, The Lives of Others
4. Ken Watanabe, Letters from Iwo Jima
5. Ken Takakura, Riding Alone for Tjousands of Miles
6. Kazunari Ninomiya, Letters from Iwo Jima
7. Gael García Bernal, The Science of Sleep
8. Lino Ventura, Army of Shadows
9. Jean Dujardin, OSS 117: Nest of Spies
10. Peter O'Toole, Venus
11. Aaron Eckhart, Thank You for Smoking
12. Clive Owen, Children of Men

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0929/csmimg/p11c.jpg
ACTRESS
1. Helen Mirren, The Queen
2. Shareeka Epps, Half Nelson
3. Sarah Polley, The Secret Life of Words
4. Penélope Cruz, Volver
5. Kate Winslet, Little Children
6. Bryce Dallas Howard, Manderlay
7. Pell James, The King
8. Simone Signoret, Army of Shadows
9. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Sherrybaby
10. Ivana Baquero, Pan's Labyrinth
11. Gretchen Moll, The Notorious Bettie Page
12. Amy Sedaris, Strangers with Candy

http://www.lepublicsystemecinema.fr/...N%20-%20OK.jpg
SUPPORTING ACTOR
1. Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
2. Brad Pitt, Babel
3. Ben Affleck, Hollywoodland
4. Sebastian Koch, The Lives of Others
5. Michael Peña, World Trade Center
6. Steve Carrell, Little Miss Sunshine
7. Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
8. Tsuyoshi Ihara, Letters from Iwo Jima
9. Rory Culkin, Down in the Valley
10. Jason Schwartzman, Marie Antoinette
11. Danny Huston, The Proposition
12. Michael Caine, Children of Men

http://www.economist.com/images/cities/ldn/cc/babel.jpg
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1. Rinko Kikuchi, Babel
2. Debbie Doebereiner, Bubble
3. Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
4. Martina Gedeck, The Lives of Others
5. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Stranger Than Fiction
6. Charlotte Gainsbourg, The Science of Sleep
7. Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
8. Carmen Maura, Volver
9. Catherine O’Hara, For Your Consideration
10. Jessica Lange, Don't Come Knocking
11. Frances McDormand, Friends with Money
12. Lili Taylor, Factotum

http://www.playfuls.com/fun/gimages/...oJima07122.jpg
DIRECTOR
1. Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima
2. Alfonso Cuarón, Children of Men
3. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, The Lives of Others
4. Jean-Pierre Melville, Army of Shadows
5. Lars von Trier, Manderlay
6. Michel Gondry, The Science of Sleep
7. Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth
8. Pedro Almodóvar, Volver
9. Ryan Fleck, Half Nelson
10. Robert DeNiro, The Good Shepherd

http://images.contactmusic.com/image...0702x07xfc.jpg
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
1. Letters from Iwo Jima, Iris Yamashita & Paul Haggis
2. Pan's Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro
3. The Lives of Others, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
4. Manderlay, Lars von Trier
5. The Science of Sleep, Michel Gondry
6. The Secret Life of Words, Isabel Coixet
7. Volver, Pedro Almodóvar
8. Half Nelson, Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck10
9. Little Miss Sunshine, Michael Arndt
10. Stranger Than Fiction, Zach Helm


http://www.southernillinoisan.com/co...s/18732119.jpg
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
1. Children of Men, Sexton, Arata, Fergus, Ostby & Cuarón
2. Army of Shadows, Jean-Pierre Melville
3. OSS 117: Nest of Spies, Jean-François Halin & Michel Hazanavicius
4. Thank You for Smoking, Jason Reitman
5. Little Children, Tom Perrotta & Todd Field
6. The Prestige, Jonathan & Christopher Nolan
7. The Departed, William Monahan
8. Casino Royale, Purvis, Wade & Haggis
9. A Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keillor & Ken LaZebnik
10. A Scanner Darkly, Richard Linklater

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-imag..._of_men372.jpg
CINEMATOGRAPHY
1. Children of Men, Emmanuel Lubezki
2. Letters from Iwo Jima, Tom Stern
3. Pan's Labyrinth, Guillermo Navarro
4. The Good German, Steven Soderbergh
5. Babel, Rodrigo Prieto
6. Army of Shadows, Pierre Lhomme & Walter Wottitz
7. The Departed, Michael Ballhaus
8. Marie Antionette, Lance Acord
9. Little Children, Antonio Calvache
10. Hollywoodland, Jonathan Freeman

http://www.boxoffice.com/jpg/june06/tji/electric.jpg
DOCUMENTARY
1. Who Killed the Electric Car? (Chris Paine)
2. An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim)
3. 49 Up (Michael Apted)
4. Sir! No Sir! (David Zeiger)
5. Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (Stanley Nelson)
6. The U.S. versus John Lennon (David Leaf & John Scheinfeld)
7. Neil Young: Heart of Gold (Jonathan Demme)
8. Jesus Camp (Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady)
9. Wordplay (Patrick Creadon)
10. Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man (Lian Lunson)



2006 MOVIES SEEN (so far): Manderlay, Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, Bubble, Neil Young: Heart of Gold, Eight Below, Firewall, 16 Blocks, Dave Chappelle's Block Party, V for Vendetta, Don't Come Knocking, Thank You for Smoking, Inside Man, Brick, The Devil & Daniel Johnston, The Notorious Bettie Page, Friends with Money, Art School Confidential, Kinky Boots, American Dreamz, United 93, 49 Up, Army of Shadows, The Lost City, Mission:Impossible III, An American Haunting, The Proposition, Down in the Valley, Poseidon, Wah-Wah, Sketches of Frank Gahry, The King, X-Men: The Last Stand, An Inconvenient Truth, The Break-Up, The Puffy Chair, A Prairie Home Companion, Nacho Libre, Only Human, Wordplay, Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, Superman Returns, Strangers with Candy, Who Killed the Electric Car?, Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, A Scanner Darkly, Edmond, The OH in Ohio, Lonesome Jim, The Hole Story, OSS 117: Nest of Spies, Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, Clerks II, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Miami Vice, Shadowboxer, Scoop, Little Miss Sunshine, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, The Descent, The Night Listener, World Trade Center, Conversations with Other Women, Half Nelson, The Illusionist, Factotum, Invincible, This Film is Not Yet Rated, Hollywoodland, Sherrybaby, The Black Dahlia, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, The U.S. versus John Lennon, The Last Kiss, Confetti, Jesus Camp, Feast, All the King's Men, The Science of Sleep, School for Scoundrels, Sorry Haters, Sir! No Sir!, The Last King of Scotland, The Queen, The Departed, Little Children, Man of the Year, Infamous, The Prestige, Flags of Our Fathers, Tideland, Marie Antionette, Babel, Death of a President, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Stranger Than Fiction, Volver, The Painted Veil, Harsh Times, Casino Royale, For Your Consideration, Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny, Dreamgirls, Days of Glory, The Good Shepherd, The Good German, Letters from Iwo Jima, Night at the Museum, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, The Lives of Others, Notes on a Scandal, Children of Men, Venus, Pan's Labyrinth, The Secret Life of Words

Could you explain to me what was so great about choices 3. and 7. on the films list?

Well I can explain what I liked about them, sure.

For my review of The Science of Sleep, clicky HERE.

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/photos...esofothers.jpg http://framingdevice.org/wp-content/...-of-others.jpg

I haven't written up a review yet for The Lives of Others, but I loved it (obviously). Set in 1984 East Berlin, this look at a stoic and efficient Stasi officer who doesn't question The State or his role and methods in it but slowly and shockingly awakens to feel love, art and oppression through the latest subjects he is following was brilliantly done. It's Kafka and Orwell via Coppola's The Conversation, and though a fictional story it is perfectly rooted in the details of the GDR of that time period and benefits from three great performances by Martina Gedeck and Sebastian Koch as the artists/lovers and Ulrich Mühe as the Stasi man on the other end of the listening devices. I like what it has to say about art, about basic freedoms, about the pettiness of bureaucracy, about the power of and limits of love and how sometimes in a corrupt and evil system even trying to do right only ends up in pain and tragedy. I found it literate, smart and compelling, and for a first feature from writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck it's an amazingly polished and accomplished work.



Why, what didn't you like about them?

My half-assed review of Das leben der anderen

As far as The science of sleep, I was so annoyed by the English dialogues I'm still having trouble finishing that film. I've stopped it about half a dozen times so far. If it had been filmed entirely in French or Spanish it would have been a far more enjoyable experience (but even then the film is nothing special). Watching Gael and Gainsbourg struggle with English was very painful. Not that their English was bad, but the English dialogue somehow seemed extremely badly written and unconvincing. It made their characters seem really daft (it appeared as if they were trying improvise but failed at it miserably). Plus, you can't even compare their performances with those in their native tongues. And I know any illogical plot development can be attributed to the director's aim of making the film as close to a dream as possible (yah, dreams are confusing and illogical), but that's just an excuse in my opinion. One minute Gael is chasing Zoe, the other he's madly in love with Stephanie? I don't think so. One minute he's all normal, the other he's falling apart? She loves him, she doesn't care for him....very very inconsistent and confusing. But again, if it wasn't for so much language mixing I might have had a different impression. Potentially a great idea but shabby execution...IMO naturally...;)


Edit: OMG, Eternal sunshine... was his film?! :eek:

Ok, you make a lot of sense in your review. I suppose I totally missed the point. :shrugs:

Two questions, Holds.

1- What did you like more about World Trade Center as opposed to United 93?

2- I really thought Mark Wahlberg was fantastic in The Departed and you don't even have him in your top list. Was it you weren't impressed or you found it to be a cluttered field?

http://www.blogdecine.com/images/world_trade_center.jpg

I liked them both, and while United 93 is purposefully much more restrained I think the trick of making two men talking at each other in the dark so compelling is a bigger feat, cinematically. Because of the subject matter neither is a flick one will find themself popping in the DVD player all that often, but I would be much more likely to give WTC a spin of the two. The scope of Stone's movie is bigger, and the recreations of that morning under the towers before they fell and of ground zero afterward are damned impressive and eerie.


http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.ya..._wahlberg6.jpg

I thought Wahlberg did fine for what it was, but he's barely in the movie and he only shows a single aspect of that character; a very one-note performance of limited importance. The lines and attitude he's given to play are amusing to watch and serve the movie well enough, but he ain't the best anything of the year. Not for me. Even if you want to look at former music performers turned actors, the work Kazunari Ninomiya did in Letters from Iwo Jima, now that was an impressive award-worthy acting job full of layers and complexity. I think Wahlberg's Oscar nomination is a joke, by far the least-deserving of the acting nominees this year.

But you can put him on your list.

In no particular order:

World Trade Centre
Little Miss Sunshine
Clerks 2
Cars
Red Road
Starter For Ten
Harsh Times
Thank You For Smoking
V For Vendetta
Jackass: Number 2

I am thinking for DaVinci Code also

I couldn't agree more.

did the original post seriously have snakes on a plane as a top 10 or was that a joke?

I've not been very impressed at the cinema lately but then again there's still quite a few I want to see (e.g. Pan's Labyrinth, Little Miss Sunshine, Volver)

Not in strict order:
Babel
The Illusionist
The Departed
The Last King of Scotland
Blood Diamond
Borat
The Prestige
Children of Men
V for Vendetta
Inside Man

All mine or PG-13 or PG cuz that is all I can see:

1. The Pursuit Of Happyness
2. Cars
3. Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
4. The Illusionist
5. The Devil Wears Prada
6. Happy Feet
7. Lady In The Water
8. Eight Below
9. Click
10. Marie Antoinette

Re: Top 10 Films of 2006
 

I had to update my list, as I just saw The Secret Life of Words yesterday and it's fantastic.

Re: Top 10 Films of 2006
 

Imdb says it's from 2005.

Oh, IMDb says. Well that changes everything.

http://images.rottentomatoes.com/ima...o_03_thumb.jpg http://images.rottentomatoes.com/ima...o_01_thumb.jpg http://images.rottentomatoes.com/ima...o_16_thumb.jpg

The Internet Movie Database is a tool. You have to know how to use it. If you'd bother to look up the information under release dates you'd see The Secret Life of Words premiered at the Venice Film Festival and played in its native Spain in late 2005. It wasn't released around the rest of the world until 2006. It made it's U.S. debut in December of last year, so according to Academy Awards eligibility guidelines it is considered a 2006 film. As I've said in previous years and other by-year compilations on the board I use the Oscar benchmark because it's better than nothing and gives some sort of line of demarcation. I realize this is very U.S.-centric, but as this is where I see movies it works for me.

But thanks ever so much for pointing that out! Did you know that on the IMDb Paul Haggis' Crash is listed as a 2004 film even though it was nominated for the 2005 crop of Oscars and won that award in 2006? Fascinating.

Re: Top 10 Films of 2006
 

Holden, Crash was released in 2004. To qualify for an Oscar, it has to play atleast 1 week in Los Angeles. It didn't do that until 05.

Re: Top 10 Films of 2006
 

Snakes on a Plane was a top notch b-movie. I loved it myself!

but anyways, my list (in no particular order):

The Departed
Superman Returns
Clerks 2
Little Miss Sunshine
V for Vendetta
The Good Shepherd
Brick
Art School Confidential
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Hollywoodland