Movies of the Year! Movies of the Year!

In 2006 I watched 129 movies that I hadn't seen before -- 18 in the theater, 111 on video. Only 21 of 'em were 2006 releases, but none really blew me away (rated 9 or 10 stars on my scale of ten). However, I liked these 7- and 8-star movies a lot:

1. Borat: Culural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
2. Wordplay
3. Jackass Number Two
4. An Inconvenient Truth
5. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
6. Friends with Money
7. Little Children
8. Strangers with Candy
9. V for Vendetta
10. This Film Is Not Yet Rated

Alright, so a top-ten list doesn't mean a whole lot when drawn from a field of only 21 -- that's like the 30-team NHL playing a seven-month regular season to determine which 16 teams make the playoffs -- but still... Other promising-sounding 2006 movies that I haven't yet seen: Brick, The Departed, Half Nelson, Idiocracy, Letters from Iwo Jima, Running with Scissors, Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny, United 93, Volver, and probably many others... Of these, the one I'm most excited to see is Mike Judge's Idiocracy -- it never screened in Seattle but it's due on DVD January 9 -- 'cause I'm a big fan of Judge's other stuff (Beavis & Butt-Head, Office Space, and especially King of the Hill)... I never did see Snakes on a Plane, and at this point have lost what meager interest I had.

Biggest disappointments: For Your Consideration was sorta funny, but a far cry from Christopher Guest's last three comedy knockouts... Art School Confidential had lots of Ghost World/Bad Santa-type potential, but it just fell flat.

Most hated movie of 2006: Little Miss Sunshine. I give this one an "Oh, brother" and a "Ghaa."

Most awesome pre-2006 movie that I only saw for the first time this year: The Beaver Trilogy (2001).

Most anticipated movies of 2007: Spider-Man 3, Reno 911!: Miami.

For those keeping score, here's my 2006 mid-term report.