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OK, now it’s time for me to single out scenes, actors, and the most overrated/underrated films of the year.

Overrated Films

Overrated does not mean that the movie is bad, or wasn’t worthy of praise.  So when I list these movies, it’s a knee-jerk reaction to say, “How could you not like this movie?” when I in fact enjoy most of the movies I’m listing.  But sometimes, a movie gets lavish praise for one thing and the rest is ignored.

5. Babel

Babel was a plot point away from being one of my favorite films of the year. Sounds like I’m being overly critical, but considering the one plot point, the connecting tissue between Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi, the film’s breakout star) and the rest of the film is so slight, I felt cheated. Still, considering that her story is very good, I still nearly included this film in my top 12 list.

4. Pan’s Labyrinth

When a movie has a couple of tour-de-force scenes, as this does, and they are strikingly original, suddenly the whole movie is propped up by the critical community.  I might be one of the only people who felt let down by Guillermo Del Toro’s latest, but so be it.

3. Little Miss Sunshine

I enjoyed LMS quite a bit, but after two viewings I was still disappointed on some of the choices that were made in the film, and those who have seen it know there’s a big one in the middle that robs the viewer of a more entertaining third act.

2. Dreamgirls

Overall, the one film in this list that I actually didn’t like at all.  Jennifer Hudson’s big moment, the singing of “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going,” is so good that I wonder if, by rule, people call it a good movie because of it.

1. The Queen

Helen Mirren’s destined Oscar-winning performance has been praised almost unanimously, and I agree with that.  But the film?  It’s basically PM Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) calling her on the phone the whole time asking her to fly the flag at half-mast.  Is this what constitutes the absolute best of films?  Not for me.

Underrated

Again, underrated doesn’t mean that the movie is great or even good.  Many times, they are guilty pleasures that were shunned because of their lack of importance, or they are films that were disliked for other reasons (take a look at Gibson’s Apocalypto and how detractors focus on the violence, but didn’t bat an eye when the ultra-violent Braveheart went on to take Best Picture; a racial tirade will do that).

6. Slither

For the most part, critics did get into the goofy fun of this sci-fi/horror gem from March.  But audiences didn’t respond; it might be considered a better rental or cable movie than an evening out at the theatre.

5. Grandma’s Boy

I’m not for once saying this movie was good at all, but it did have some funny moments scattered about and it went virtually ignored, as January movies usually are.  But if this thing is on TV one day, just happens to come on Comedy Central or something, you’ll probably end up watching it, laughing, and feeling guilty later.

4. Beerfest

Another comedy that for some reason didn’t click with the frathouse crowd while in theatres, but might find a healthy following on video.  Just a goofy, fun movie.  Beerfest might have been my favorite comedy outside of Borat.

3. Crank

September’s Crank starred Jason Statham as a guy injected with some sort of poison and has to keep his adrenaline up as he seeks revenge.  The movie follows suit, goes over-the-top in the good way, and never once slows down.  The closest to an interactive video game that movies get.

2. Running Scared

This underseen pulpy thriller had a lot of ridiculous twists and turns, and anyone willing to go onboard with its lunacy is rewarded for it.  Basically dismissed as a bad action thriller, it certainly was more fun than that.

1. Lady in the Water

Because M. Night Shyamalan has made two incredible films in The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, the critical community sharpens its knives whenever Shyamalan falters.  And this film certainly has flaws galore.  But I wonder how this movie would have been received if say, Guillermo Del Toro, or some unknown, had directed it. 

Many critics focused on Shyamalan’s own character in the film, a writer who will write something that will lead to his own death, as the ultimate in ego run amok, and the in-movie critic played by Bob Balaban also sent the critics into a frenzy of hatred.  But, I got wrapped up in the fairy tale world more in this than I did in Pan’s Labyrinth, and that, my friends, is one of those comments that will get the Film Geek Squad on my ass (But I’m a card-carrying member!).  Once again, I’m not saying it’s great; I certainly could have had a better movie, but this thing got savaged like no other film I have ever seen, and considering all the crap that came out and this thing still ends up on people’s worst lists is beyond my comprehension.

Moments of 2006 (Spoiler Warning)

I do these things every year, and sometimes I forget a few things, but these moments were some of my favorite of 2006.

United 93

The blip that reads AA11, the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center, disappears on a traffic controller’s screen, with the faintest of reverberation on the soundtrack. A chilling moment.

The final image: a first person perspective from the cockpit of the plane approaching the ground, ending in darkness.

World Trade Center

Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, and crew run towards an elevator in a desperate attempt to survive as the tower crumbles around them.

Cage and Pena, trapped under unthinkable amounts of rubble, get a ray of hope when marine Michael Shannon arrives. “Don’t leave us!” they say. The return remark, “We’re not leaving. We’re the Marines. You are our mission!” was one of the best moments of the movie.  

The Departed

Leonardo DiCaprio chases Matt Damon to get an ID, having to be careful not to be identified himself. Scorsese jam packs this with awesome camera tricks, including one really cool one involving pieces of a reflective wind chime, one side reflects DiCaprio’s eyes, and when the other side flips over, Damon’s footsteps.

Damon picks up a phone only (dead) Martin Sheen uses and calls Dicaprio. DiCaprio, seeing the caller ID, knowing his only real ally is dead, paces the floor, considering answering it.

Borat

Borat’s first words are, “Hello, my name is Borat. I like a-you, I like sex! It’s nice!”

The “Running of the Jews,” which culminates in a bunch of Kazakh kids beating a “Jew egg” to pieces.

And Borat, finally meeting his love Pamela Anderson, finds her at a book signing and tries to kidnap her with a wedding sack.

Children of Men

Three action scenes that absolutely kick ass: the first one involving the flaming car that rolls down the hillside, followed by an army of rebels and ending with a number of shocking deaths, all in one take.

The second one involves Clive Owen needing to give a car a push before he can start it, and get it past the bad guys, and then after passing them, be able to start the thing before they can catch up.

The third one involves a traitor shooting a gun at Owen as he tries to exit through a door that won’t exactly open all the way.

And, near the end of the film, Owen remarking to Claire-Hope Ashitey, “Hell of a day.”

The Prestige

The whammy ending in which the full meaning of the multiple hats at the beginning of the film is explained, and is incredibly dark…and satisfying.

Scoop

Woody Allen says he once practiced Judaism but he converted to Narcissism.

Beerfest

The Broken Lizard crew drinks so much that one (Jay Chandrasekhar) wakes up naked next to a deer with a bite taken out of it.

There’s also the funny disclaimer saying not to consume as much beer as these guys do in the movie, or you will die.

Jackass Number Two

Unsuspecting members of the Jackass cast read a note on the wall where the text gets smaller and smaller, leading them to put their face closer to the note, only to be punched by a mechanical boxing glove from a hole concealed by the message.

Casino Royale

The slam-bang preface, in black and white, that shows us how Bond got his “00” status, and the stunt-heavy opening that is a chase through an industrial zone, involving cranes, elevators, tight spaces, and death-defying jumps.

Half Nelson

Addict Ryan Gosling goes to drug dealer Anthony Mackie to plead with him to leave his student Shareeka Epps alone because he’s a bad influence, only to realize he himself is a bad influence.

Flushed Away

A cell phone carrying a live video feed of main baddie The Toad masks a frog’s face. As The Toad makes demands, the frog mimes all of The Toad’s gestures, and stays in character no matter what the situation.

Little Children

Convicted child molester Jackie Earle Haley goes on a date with Jane Adams, and everything seems fine, until he asks her to drive him to the playground and he reveals his secret in the most heartbreaking, disturbing way imaginable, telling her, “Don’t tell on me, okay?”

Dreamgirls

Jennifer Hudson’s “And I Tell You I’m Not Going,” sung with such emotional intensity it brings down the house.

The Pursuit of Happyness

When Will Smith is told he’s got the job and he goes out to the sidewalk, overcome with emotion, clapping.

Déjà Vu

Denzel Washington is driving a Hummer, with a screen depicting a video image from the past on the very road in which he drives that he must “follow,” while at the same time keeping his eye on the present-day road.

Stranger Than Fiction

Dustin Hoffman tries to figure out Will Ferrell’s place in the world, and rules out that he is a golem. “Aren’t you glad you’re not a golem?” he asks.

Crank

Jason Statham, who must keep his adrenaline up the entire film, does the nasty with Amy Smart in front of a bunch of gawkers in Chinatown.

The Descent

As the protagonists move around in the dark, a light comes on just in time to catch one of the extremely scary creatures right behind them.

Hollywoodland

Ben Affleck is about to entertain kids in his Superman costume, and before he jumps into the fray, asks, “You can’t see my penis can you?”

Little Miss Sunshine

Abigail Breslin’s inappropriate, but fitting for the film, nasty dance to Rick James’ “Superfreak.”

Alan Arkin tells his grandson Paul Dano to “fuck a lot of women,” and being 15, should be “getting some of that young stuff.” 

A Prairie Home Companion

John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson’s “Bad Jokes” number.

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore’s cartoon presentation of a frog slowly boiling in water has him saying, “The frog stays in the water as it gets hotter, not noticing the increase in temperature, and the frog stays there until…until…someone saves the frog.”

Scary Movie 4

Craig Bierko plays toss with his son, a la Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds, and is unable to throw it even half the distance.

Also, Bierko chopping duraflame logs with an axe.

Slither

A woman is in a bathtub, and one of the sperm-like creatures swims its way towards an unmentionable place.

Running Scared

Runaway kid Cameron Bright finds himself in a seemingly OK apartment with Elizabeth Mitchell (later a recurring “other” on TV’s Lost) and Bruce Altman, who are actually really creepy sexual predators.

Lady in the Water

Paul Giamatti asks Bob Balaban how the movie he saw during the afternoon was.  A short, quick, “Sucked,” is the answer.

Actors/Actresses of 2006

Leonardo DiCaprio had a one-two punch with The Departed and Blood Diamond, and he’s rightfully getting recognized for both.

Matt Damon also had a one-two punch with The Departed and The Good Shepherd.  Both represent his best work to date.

My Best Actor award would go to Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson.  Of all the jobs turned in this year, his is the most memorable and rewarding.

And I won’t forget his co-star Shareeka Epps, whom the movie could not do without.

Yeah, I’ll jump on the Helen Mirren bandwagon for The Queen.  Her performance is complex: cheeky, dramatic, well-conceived.

Jackie Earle Haley got some of the only positive comments for All the King’s Men, but it was Little Children that he somehow stole from Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson.

Judi Dench is deliciously passive-aggressive in Notes on a Scandal.  Her performance is worth the raves, and probably my favorite turn by a woman…closely rivaled by:

Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.  A lot of times, Streep is given token raves and gets an Oscar nomination because she’s Streep (and well, I can’t blame the Academy for that, on the whole).  But this one was memorable.

I also thought Gong Li turned in her best performance in awhile with Curse of the Golden Flower.  After watching her struggle with English in Memoirs of a Geisha and Miami Vice, this was an engaging turn.  I rooted for her whole-heartedly.

Ken Watanabe is also deserving of his consideration in Letters from Iwo Jima.  Even though history has been written, you think maybe he might be able to pull off his much-maligned plan, and forget that he’s fighting Americans.

Clive Owen, who is one of my current favorites, in both Inside Man and Children of Men drew me in.  His opening speech in the trailer for Inside Man made me want to watch the movie.

Some others I forgot: Kikuchi for Babel, and Emily Blunt’s scene-stealing turn in The Devil Wears Prada.

And those are my ultimate observations for 2006, and I’m ready to focus on 2007, one that might be the most lucrative ever for Hollywood, especially when the summer hits.  Until next year…

The Top 12

The Bottom 12