A selection of films I enjoyed from the year when Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet, Twitter was launched and Pauline Fowler shuffled off this mortal coil.
300 (Zack Snyder)
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (Jonathan Levine)
Apocalypto (Mel Gibson)
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (Scott Glosserman)
Black Book (Paul Verhoeven)
Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón)
Cold Prey (Roar Uthaug)
The Departed (Martin Scorsese)
Exiled (Johnnie To)
The Foot Fist Way (Jody Hill)
The Hills Have Eyes (Alexandre Aja)
Idiocracy (Mike Judge)
Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone)
Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Tom Tykwer)
The Prestige (Christopher Nolan)
Silent Hill (Christophe Gans)
Them (Xavier Palud & David Moreau)
In hindsight, 2006 was a vintage year for cinema.
According to my Letterboxd, I also liked this lot: Bug (William Friedkin); Cocaine Cowboys (Billy Corben); The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky); and Jonestown; The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (Stanley Nelson). I haven't revisited them in ages, though, and I have no idea if they still hold up.
Glaring blindspot - Littleman.
10 comments:
Bug is one I really wanna see.
2006 flicks I liked not mention here: This Is England, Crank, A Scanner Darkly.
I only remember A Scanner Darkly for its cel-shaded look and Keanu Reeves being in it. I ought to revisit it again.
Nice to know someone else enjoyed the Silent Hill movie, the game's fandom was way too hard on it at the time. I remember the ending sequence especially, it was effective. I think any Silent Hill movie is always going to have some difficulty translating the game's specific use of slowness in building dread, but it was still a solid flick. Haven't bothered with any follow-ups.
I was 12 when 300 was going through its promotional cycle, wouldn't even be able to guess how many times I would have heard my classmates say "this is sparta" (ditto for my own use of the phrase). Fun movie, but christ, us kids at the time drove it into the ground.
I feel like 2006 gets a weird cultural rap for being a "transition year" from the Bush era into the recession-era poptimism, leading people to ignore its output -- most unfortunate. Little Man reaches such levels of absurdity that it's impressive in its own way; we're not going to be returning to such a cultural epoch anytime soon.
I never played the Silent Hill games. I was put off with survival horror after trying out one of the early Resident Evil games, and finding the controls really slow and clunky. Had the same result with Capcom's Onimusha 2 when it was released on the O.G. Xbox. I'm going off on a completely different tangent.But, yeah, I really enjoyed the Silent Hill film adaptation. The atmosphere was top notch. I'm tempted to check out the new film, since Christophe Gans also directed it.
Was a fan of Frank Miller's 300 comic book mini-series in the late '90s. Even named my terrible handle because of it. Day one watch for me at the cinema. I though it was really a faithful adaptation. Sadly, Zack Snyder lost me after everything he did post Watchmen.
The 2000s felt like the last decade before modern sensitivity and internet scrutiny dictated how media should be produced, promoted and consumed. Never cared for the era at the time, but I'm appreciative of it now.
Completely off topic, but do you remember Matchbox's mid 80s toyline Linkits? Had been trying to remember who made it and its name for years to no avail. Never seen it in any of the vintage toy shops I've been in until I saw a couple of boxed figures at a carboot sale yesterday.
I don't remember Linkits at all, I'm afraid. Spot anything else at the carboot sale? I regret not coppin' an Imperious Leader when I saw a bunch at a toy fair last year.
Me and a mate were reminiscing over Action Jack toys over the weekend.
Man, Linkits is truly the Betty's Bunch of toylines: nobody but me and a few random people on the internet remember it.
Re: the carboot, I copped the Linkits and some Carry On magazines for Screaming and Cleo.
I don't remember Action Jack from back in the day, but I've seen them in a few vintage toy shops.
Nice score with the Carry On mags. Might be worth something, if they're from the '60s.
Also, it goes without saying, Amanda Barrie's Cleopatra is way better than Liz Taylor's.
Natch.
The Carry On magazines are from the mid 2000s. Was hoping they'd have a Behind magazine too but no luck, and I can only find it on eBay as part of bundles.
Crazy how Elke Sommer went from Italian horror to a Carry On film.
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