The best so far!!

It seems like a good time to recap the best films of 2008 so far. We are half way through the year and the thing that strikes me is that it has been a very good year for blockbuster films. Usually the big summer films with the explosions and larger than life charaters are good for one thing and that is mindless entertainment. this year the big summer blockbusters seem to be a notch or two above any other year. I suspect this is due to the influnce of a few films in recent years, those that were critical as well as commercial sucesses, those that were good even while blowing things up. What are these films that began to attract talent to the franchises? For it is the talent of the creative teams that is raising the bar. for some reason big stars and good directors are getting into the block buster business and from what they are turning out it wasn't just for the payday. The Bourne Franchise and the Spider-man films are what led the charge. Those were hit's as well as critically well received, perhaps it even goes back to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, when a blockbuster fantasy film cleaned up at the Oscars as well as the box office. Also look at Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, Daniel Craig as James Bond, and Christian Bale as Batman. These are great actors taking leads in franchise, blockbuster films. In the last few decades you had your great actors and you had your action stars, we kept them in seperate drawers and they rarely ever got to the same table. But now we have great actors taking on the roles of action stars. But the interesting thing is they are not just taking the roles they are altering them into more than just action stars they are turning them into action characters. Now this year we have Robert Downey Jr. as Ironman, Edward Norton as the Hulk, Harrison Ford as .... OK well somethings never change, and that's ....OK, cause Harrison Ford is active enough, smart enough, and gosh darn it people like him. So before I go any farther down this road and before we cast our eyes forward to the rest of 2008 and the Dark Knight, and Quantum of Solace, let's look at the first 6 months and I'll tell you what I think the 5...well 6 best films have been so far.

1. Wall E
2. Iron Man / The Incredible Hulk ( I know kind of a cheat)
3. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
4. Kung Fu Panda
5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

My prediction is that by the end of 2008 Wall E will still be #1 a short review will appear at this blog in the next two days.