It’s that time of year again! (The end, specifically.) Time for the annual round-up of the best and worst movies of the year, and an accounting of what I did with myself for the last 12 months.
I reviewed 309 movies this year. That’s up from 298 last year and 264 the year before that. In fact, the number has gone up every year since I started doing this in mid-1999. The only wide releases I missed this year were “Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties,” “Curious George,” and, just this week, “Black Christmas.”
I think 309 is a lot of movies to review in one year. I doubt the figure will ever get much higher than that. There are certainly more films being released — I count about 100 that I missed that played in Portland for at least a week in 2006 — but there aren’t enough hours in the day to watch and review them all (at least, not for this kind of money).
The main article today is “The Best and Worst Movies of 2006,” which expands on the lists I’m about to give and offers additional scintillating details about the movies of 2006, too.
But without further ado, here are:
THE BEST MOVIES OF 2006
1. United 93
2. Children of Men
3. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
4. The Queen
5. Pan’s Labyrinth
6. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
7. Superman Returns
8. The Departed
9. The Descent
10. Neil Young: Heart of Gold
THE WORST MOVIES OF 2006
1. The teen-queen comedies: She’s the Man (Amanda Bynes), Just My Luck (Lindsay Lohan), Material Girls (Hilary and Haylie Duff)
2. Deck the Halls
3. Little Man
4. BloodRayne
5. Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
6. Zoom
7. Big Momma’s House 2
8. Basic Instinct 2
9. Date Movie
10. The PG-13-rated horror flicks: The Covenant, Pulse, The Return, Stay Alive
I’ve also posted another new feature, “Eric’s Media Inventory: What I Watched and Read in 2006.” This may be of interest only to me, but it’s a wrap-up of all the movies I saw, all the TV I watched, all the theater I attended, and all the books I read. (You may find some good recommendations in that last category.)
As far as this weekend’s movies, there aren’t any. No wide releases, anyway. I would have done a podcast of my top 10, except that I have a cold and my voice is completely shot. I sound like Bea Arthur, for about a minute, and then I sound like someone who can’t speak at all. Helen Keller, maybe. Anyway, no podcast. Enjoy the Best/Worst and Inventory articles, and happy new year!
