The Movies of 2008

Everything's better with Olga on it.

As 2008 winds down and we head into Holiday movie award season, it seems that movies this year will be remembered for many different things. The Dark Knight broke all kinds of box office records and Indiana Jones returned. Films that should have been hits, if they were made better, like Jumper, bombed, while the inane High School Musical 3 was a hit.

Even though last falls star filled Lions for Lamb and Rendition bombed horribly, Hollywood continued to think that its liberal politics and negative opinion of our military serving in the middle east was worth going on about. Stop Loss failed to attract an audience, and the heavy hand of Ridley Scott did not draw much attention to Body of Lies, even though it starred Leonardo Di Caprio and Russell Crowe. Eagle Eye was disguised as a action thriller, but was actually an indictment on our retaliation to terrorists. This year even offered a film with a conservative bias, An American Carol. It also failed to impress. The lesson is that Americans do not go to the movies to get told about politics. We go there to avoid them.

The break out star of the year was Olga Kurylenko. Although she did a nude scene in last years Hitman, she really got noticed this year in Max Payne and even more so in Quantum of Solace. She may very well be Hollywood’s first major sex symbol from the Ukraine. She even rivaled Angelina Jolie, Wanted, as the hottest action movie babe of the year.

Most of the entertaining movies this year seemed to be based on some other source material like comic book, video game or a sequel. However, one of the best comedies this year was an original screenplay by Ben Stiller, Tropic Thunder. Not only was it hilarious, but it disregarded political correctness. Something sorely lacking from recent films.

With the success of Tropic Thunder and Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr was definitely the top box office star of the year. The veteran of nearly 70 films, who first got noticed playing supporting roles in Brat Pack movies like Weird Science in the mid 1980s, and was nominated for an Oscar for Chaplin, finally proved to be box office dependable. He gave Iron Man its charm, something missing from Ed Norton's performance in Incredible Hulk, and he stole every scene in Tropic Thunder.

If this years movies reveal anything about the American movie going audience is that we simply want escapism from our films. We do not want to be told what to think about our country or its politics. We want excitement, action and some recognizable characters never hurt. We give Hollywood our money in return for a couple hours worth of entertainment. We want to see beautiful people going through exciting experiences, that take us away from our real life, not remind us of it.