Oltmans Movie Lists

Well, finals week is here, so I have finally put together my list of all the movies I’ve seen this year.  This was a great year for me for movies, both in terms of the quality of movies and in the number I was able to watch.  I think I set my own record for most movies watched in one year with 80.  That doesn’t happen without a lot of good movies and a little extra time (thank you paternity leave!).  Once again the list is split into four sections: Movies I didn’t like, Movies that are enjoyable if you’re in the right mood, Movies I liked, and Movies I loved.  If you would prefer to think of them as 1, 2, 3 or 4 stars, be my guest, but remember that just because I didn’t like a movie doesn’t mean it wasn’t a well-made movie, it just means I didn’t enjoy watching it.  Last year’s best picture, The Artist, is a perfect example of that.  I decided to just rank the movies that came out in the last year or so, and the older films that I watched this year have a short summary at the end.

  Really Good Movies 1) Stranger Than Fiction – I’ve only found a couple people that like this as much as I do, but I love Will Ferrell, and thought this was a really creative movie. 2. The Departed 3. Munich 4. Babel – Except for the parts in Japan –I thought that girl was creepy. 5. The Office: Season One.   I didn’t get into this show until the end of the first season, so this was a great way to get caught up.   Best comedy on TV since Seinfeld.   Good movies – the movies in this category aren’t totally in order, but I liked all of them. 6. 40 year old virgin 7. Déjà vu 8. Fight Club (I’d already seen it) 9. Anchorman (ditto) 10. Undeclared – TV series by Jud Apatow, the guy that did 40 year old virgin, Freaks and Geeks, Anchorman, Knocked Up, etc. 11. The Constant Gardener 12. The Chronicles of Narnia 13. Thin Red Line 14. Grizzly Man 15. Glory Road 16. Minnesota Twins World Series Highlights – does it get any better than game 6 of the ’9

Worst movie of the year, hands down 42.   Reno 911!Miami I don’t know why I watched the whole thing.   It was maddeningly unfunny, worse than anything I’ve seen over the last couple years.   The trailer for this was way funnier than the actual movie.   It makes me angry just thinking about it.   Movies I didn’t enjoy 41. Blades of Glory – I love Will Ferrell, but this was not funny at all.   I’m convinced the guy from Napoleon Dynamite was perfect for that one role, and will never be funny again. 40. Apocalypto – Pointless, violent action movie.   About as unrealistic as an action movie can get.   How many times can you get shot with an arrow and still outrun a jaguar?   Movies I enjoyed at least part of, but weren’t all that great or memorable 40.5 Totsi – I forgot about this one because I rented it in the store.   It won an academy award for best foreign film a couple of years ago, but I just thought it was so-so.   It says on the rental box that it’s a st

Movies I Loved Lest you think that my film tastes just run towards documentaries, historical miniseries, and foreign films, my top film of the year is… 1. The Dark Knight, aka the highest grossing, biggest, most-hyped movie of the year.   There wasn’t a cooler movie made this year.   Even though it was long, I wanted it to keep going.   I can’t think of a superhero movie I’ve ever liked more than this one.   There was so much hype leading up to the movie about how great Heath Ledger was, but I kind of figured it was just people making a big deal about him since he had died.   Wrong.   Ledger was what made this movie great for me.   His Joker goes down as one of the best bad guys in any movie ever (Darth Vader is still #1, of course) 2. Mongol – About five years ago my brother had the idea that he wanted to write a screenplay for a movie about Genghis Khan.   I thought it was a great idea – Khan is a fascinating figure, and you’d have to figure that all his exploits and battl