Stephen King reveals his top flicks of 2008
December 13th 2008 08:29
MOVIE NEWS
It seems legendary horror novelist Stephen King is a bit of a Jason Statham fan. King does an annual list for EW.com of his favorite films of the year. In 2008 he has two featuring the former British diver turned star of no-brainer action films.
King quantifies such decisions by explaining, "I'm not trustworthy when it comes to movies. I'm two-minded about them".
"Take this year's Saw film. I sat there in my favorite seat — third row middle, so the screen towers above me — and my forebrain was thinking, 'Oh, man, this is the year's biggest pile of cinematic dog vomit. But the rest of my brain is thinking, 'I'm at the mooooovies! Is this great or what!'.''
10th is Death Race 2000, featuring Statham as a con forced to compete in a series of pay-per-view death races that are ratings hits. "Death Race is filled with laconic violence and blasting muscle cars, but just beneath the surface is a biting satire of reality TV,'' he writes.
9th is Redbelt about a martial-arts instructor, who doesn't believe in prize fights but is forced into one. King says, "written and directed by the always ferocious David Mamet, this is not your father's Karate Kid".
8th is the horror The Ruins, a story about a group of young people who are torrmented by carnivorous plants, that Kings says "could have been ludicrous. Instead, it's unrelenting." See horrorphile's recent review here.
7th is Lakeview Terrace starring Samuel L Jackson, who King says is "terrific as the smiling, mentally unbalanced cop who doesn't like the interracial couple who live next door".
6th is the second Statham flick, The Bank Job, in which, King says "any doubts that Jason Statham is more than a muscle boy are set to rest in this rich (and often amusing) story of one of the biggest bank robberies in British history".
5th is Funny Games, the grim story of a home invasion by two thrill-seeking young men in white gloves, which Kings says "was the most terrifying movie of the year. Although the blood here is measured in drops rather than in Saw's gallons, the film is relentless, and all but unbearable".
4th is Ben Stiller's war epic Tropic Thunder, King calls "The funniest, most daring comedy of the year. Thunder is crude, rude, and constantly entertaining".
3rd is the WALL-E, King says "one of the longest animated features of the last 25 years or so, and certainly the best; the first half an hour is an almost wordless tone poem that combines humor with an elegiac sadness for our throwaway culture".
Second is Trainspotting director Danny Boyle's latest Slumdog Millionaire, which King says is a "brilliant, sentimental, hilarious, and ultimately uplifting epic of survival in an urban world of cataclysmic poverty.
And ... drum roll please ...
1st is The Dark Knight, of course, after all it is everyone else's, sin't it? King calls it "the best superhero movie ever. This is to cape-and-tights movies what Godfather II was to the gangster movie: a genre-defining event".
So there you have it. Strange he hasn't waited another few weeks to make the list though - Statham's Transporter 3 comes out this week.
King quantifies such decisions by explaining, "I'm not trustworthy when it comes to movies. I'm two-minded about them".
"Take this year's Saw film. I sat there in my favorite seat — third row middle, so the screen towers above me — and my forebrain was thinking, 'Oh, man, this is the year's biggest pile of cinematic dog vomit. But the rest of my brain is thinking, 'I'm at the mooooovies! Is this great or what!'.''
10th is Death Race 2000, featuring Statham as a con forced to compete in a series of pay-per-view death races that are ratings hits. "Death Race is filled with laconic violence and blasting muscle cars, but just beneath the surface is a biting satire of reality TV,'' he writes.
9th is Redbelt about a martial-arts instructor, who doesn't believe in prize fights but is forced into one. King says, "written and directed by the always ferocious David Mamet, this is not your father's Karate Kid".
8th is the horror The Ruins, a story about a group of young people who are torrmented by carnivorous plants, that Kings says "could have been ludicrous. Instead, it's unrelenting." See horrorphile's recent review here.
7th is Lakeview Terrace starring Samuel L Jackson, who King says is "terrific as the smiling, mentally unbalanced cop who doesn't like the interracial couple who live next door".
6th is the second Statham flick, The Bank Job, in which, King says "any doubts that Jason Statham is more than a muscle boy are set to rest in this rich (and often amusing) story of one of the biggest bank robberies in British history".
5th is Funny Games, the grim story of a home invasion by two thrill-seeking young men in white gloves, which Kings says "was the most terrifying movie of the year. Although the blood here is measured in drops rather than in Saw's gallons, the film is relentless, and all but unbearable".
4th is Ben Stiller's war epic Tropic Thunder, King calls "The funniest, most daring comedy of the year. Thunder is crude, rude, and constantly entertaining".
3rd is the WALL-E, King says "one of the longest animated features of the last 25 years or so, and certainly the best; the first half an hour is an almost wordless tone poem that combines humor with an elegiac sadness for our throwaway culture".
Second is Trainspotting director Danny Boyle's latest Slumdog Millionaire, which King says is a "brilliant, sentimental, hilarious, and ultimately uplifting epic of survival in an urban world of cataclysmic poverty.
And ... drum roll please ...
1st is The Dark Knight, of course, after all it is everyone else's, sin't it? King calls it "the best superhero movie ever. This is to cape-and-tights movies what Godfather II was to the gangster movie: a genre-defining event".
So there you have it. Strange he hasn't waited another few weeks to make the list though - Statham's Transporter 3 comes out this week.
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