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No Awards Here… 2008
The So-Called Experts Weigh In
Greg Wright | 09.01.09
Posted in Commentaries

What does it mean to publish a list of the “Year’s Best Movies”?

Here are some considerations for the past year:

  • There were 603 theatrical releases in 2008.
  • Of these 603, I actually saw 98 in their entirety. (Of these 98, I reviewed 70.)
  • Of the remaining 405, I edited detailed reviews of another 195. (At least a dozen of these 195 appear on various year-end “best” lists.)
  • One film that made my list of favorites for the year, Lord, Save Us From Your Followers, ranked 515th out of those 603 in terms of boxoffice. It sold a total of 1,468 tickets.

So out of 603 releases, I am well familiar with 293—less than half of the films released during the year. And I’m reasonably well informed, by critical standards. This is why I continue to be reluctant to offer an opinion about which were the “best” films of the year. All I can really talk about with much assurance is which films were the best (by various standards of measure) of the films I actually saw.

Bottom line: take it all with a grain of salt…

So without further ado, here are selections from Jeff and I. I think you’ll see that the very subjective criteria used to derive these lists represent a wide variety of thinking. And almost every one of these films has been reviewed at PtP. Search away!

Jeff’s Top Ten

  1. The Dark Knight
  2. The Bank Job
  3. WALL-E
  4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  5. Milk
  6. Cloverfield
  7. Definitely, Maybe
  8. Iron Man
  9. Charlie Bartlett
  10. Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Greg’s “Ten Films I Liked the Best”

  1. Ping Pong Playa
  2. Surfwise
  3. Iron Man
  4. The Forbidden Kingdom
  5. War, Inc.
  6. U2 3D
  7. The Visitor
  8. Lord, Save Us From Your Followers
  9. Young @ Heart
  10. I.O.U.S.A.

Greg’s “Ten ‘Best Films’ That I Saw”

  1. Surfwise
  2. Mongol
  3. Seven Pounds
  4. Horton Hears a Who
  5. Iron Man
  6. The Forbidden Kingdom
  7. Reprise
  8. The Visitor
  9. Snow Angels
  10. Chris and Don: A Love Story

Greg Wright’s “Most Underrated Films of 2007”

  1. Seven Pounds
  2. Snow Angels
  3. Horton Hears A Who!

Greg Wright’s “Most Overrated Films of 2007”

  1. WALL-E
  2. The Dark Knight
  3. Man On Wire

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