Movies I watched in 2006 ...

While we are at it ... here is my list from 2006.

2006 watched films

Some of my favorites:

The Devil and Daniel Johnston - Great documentary about a manic depressive musical genius.
Dogtown and Z-Boys - Flawless documentary film by Stacy Peralta about the 1970's Zephyr Skating Team. Nice narration by Sean Penn too. Oh ... and an incredible soundtrack.
Elizabethtown - Cameron Crowe does such a great job of translating all the eccentricities of a family to the screen.
Junebug - Great original character with great character development. No cliches here. Amy Adams shines.
The Last Laugh - a 1925 silent film with superb filming techniques such as long shots and difficult crane maneuvers.
Alice - a Jan Svankmajer film telling the story of Alice in Wonderland using tons of bizarre and surreal stop motion animation mixed with live action.
Nightwatch - A Russian Fantasy/Thriller part Science Fiction tale about vampires and the fight between good and evil with tons of superb special effects. Plus the most creative use of subtitling ever scene.
Roll Bounce - 1970s roller-skating coming-of-age comedy. Enough said.
Three Extremes - 3 stories by Japans top Horror/Thriller directors including Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Gozu) and Chan Wook Park (Oldboy, Lady Vengeance)
The Squid and the Whale - Written and Directed by Noah Baumbach, who was co writer of Kicking and Screaming (1995) and The Life Aquatic, the film is semi autobiographical about his dealings with his parents divorce when he was younger.

Movies I watched last year ...

The people over at The Internet Movie Data Base website have set up a nifty little system where you can store and rate all of the movies you have ever watched. You can then further store your list into any subcategories you want such as years watched, genres, want to buy, etc.

I've taken advantage of this system over the years to list the movies I've watched ... categorizing the films by the year I viewed them.

Now that we are into 2008 I can take a tally and it looks like I watched about 187 movies in the 2007. The full list can be viewed here.

Movies that topped my 'watched in 2007' list:

2001: Space Odyssey - Of course, last year wasn't the first year I saw this film ... it probably shows up on my list every year. It's on here because I bought the HD DVD version of the film at the end of the year. The ultimate Light and Sound show.

Angel-A - Just when Luc Besson said he may never direct again, he comes up with this beautiful film (6 years since his last directorial effort). The cinematography is brilliant and the acting is captivating.

Everything is Illuminated - Liev Shreiber's Screenplay Writing and Directorial debut is refreshingly original and surreal. I have never read the book the movie is based on but the film just shines with it's imagery and the Ukrainian broken English spoken though out the film is priceless.

Idiocracy - This is definitely not that great of a film technically speaking, and it barely makes my top viewings of 2007, but the subject and content is hilarious and hit's home in so many ironic places. This plus the fact that the movie is so damn quotable. Idiocracy is Mike Judge's (creator of Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill and the movie Office Space) look into the state of America 500 years into the future where everything in life has been dumbed down because of the laziness of our people.

Curse of the Golden Flower - This was the last film in Yimou Zhang's trilogy (the other two being Hero, and House of Flying Daggers) and was hated by critics. This film was my favorite in the trilogy. Taking place during China's Tang Dynasty, the movie focuses less on dazzling wire-fu fights of the previous films and more on the grand cinematography of epic war battles. Critics called the fight choreography unimaginative and the color palette too bright but this is what drew me in. I thought the film was beautifully shot and the vibrant colors breathtaking.

Playtime - 1967 French Jacques Tati film. Another one I have seen before 2007 and a film worthy of repeat viewings year after year. I reviewed the film here when describing 5 of my favorite films of all time.

The Prestige - I just like the way Christopher Nolan (and his brother Jonathan) tell a story ... and where else do you get to see David Bowie acting as Dr. Nikola Tesla?

The Shining - I bought this one on HD DVD last year also. The pale color palette of the film never looked so detailed before ... and the brilliant score has never sounded more haunting ... worthy of repeat viewings, blah, blah, blah.

Honorable Mentions:

Volver - I have a thing for Pedro Almodóvar movies.
Shortbus - Softcore where you actually care about the characters.
El Topo - The genius (or madness) of Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Diggers - Written by Ken Marino from the sketch comedy show The State
Children of Men - Reminded me of greats like Blade Runner and Brazil.
This is England - Growing up in England in the 80's. Enough said.
Tom Petty, Running Down a Dream - Clocking in at 4 hours long and I never got up once.