Awards season is upon us, so brace yourself for more studio ads singing the praises of their Oscar-begging flicks than panties-free pictures of Britney Spears. A few of these movies are listed below, but many are not. Critics get swept up in the awards hype and often shower adoration on films few care about later (Is best-picture winner A Beautiful Mind a film you check out regularly with your pals? How about Shakespeare in Love?). Here is our list of the 10 most memorable movies from 2006 that you’ll still be watching on DVD a year from now:
1. Casino Royale The best James Bond flick ever. Period.
2. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Easily the most audacious, funniest movie of the year with a string of lawsuits to prove it. Very nyze!
3. The Departed Martin Scorsese goes back to gangster-land to the joy of moviegoers everywhere.
4. The Descent This tight British spelunking shocker about six adventure-seeking women trapped far underground with an unknown menace is the scariest movie in years.
5. V for Vendetta Valiant vindicator V in his Guy Fawkes mask is visibly vexed about futuristic Britain’s virulent government. We’ll never forget the 5th of November or Natalie Portman’s passionate performance as Evey.
6. For Your Consideration If you were wondering how the cast members of a buzz-worthy indie film implode once critical accolades suggest the possibility of awards and fame, check out Christopher Guest’s hilarious skewering of the Hollywood machine.
7. Thank You for Smoking We’re still chuckling about the morally askew dinner meetings of the MOD squad (The Merchants of Death, featuring reps from the departments of alcohol, tobacco and firearms) and the gently evil brilliance of Aaron Eckhart’s turn as an unapologetic tobacco lobbyist.
8. The Da Vinci Code So dark the con of man, but so thought-provoking is Ron Howard’s adaptation of Dan Brown’s mega-selling novel about Jesus’s lineage and the religious sect hell-bent on keeping the secret buried.
9. Inland Empire It has no literal story structure, it’s shot on grainy digital film and we would need several blogs to tell you what it might be about. But David Lynch’s nightmarish look at the inner world of a struggling actress (Laura Dern) is sublime surrealism that will burrow into your subconscious…and stay there.
10. Pan's Labyrinth This haunting and heartbreaking dark fantasy is about a little girl who escapes her miserable existence shortly after the Spanish Civil War by discovering a magical world—one where she is revered as its long-lost princess. It is not only director Guillermo del Toro’s finest hour, it is a genre masterpiece.
What other 2006 flicks do you think will get heavy rotation in your DVD player? Let us know.
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Comments on this entry:
The Da Vinci Code? The Da Vinci Code???? How can you put side by side with memorables Casino Royale, Borat and Pan's Labyrinth a piece of cinematic bold trash like that Ron Howard's D.O.A The Da Vinci Code????
respect the rest of your list...