Best of A Decade: 2006

Between finishing high school and starting college, you'd think that I wouldn't have had a lot of time for movies. You would think wrong. This was the year I really started becoming a pop culture junky. My obsession with musical theatre began to wane and I was hooked on the silver screen!

Tristan and Isolde

Ahh James Franco. So beautiful. By taking the magic that makes the story of Tristan and Isolde interesting though, they just made a nice little take on Lancelot and Guenivere, which is fine. Because I like that story too.

Cars

Notice there have been a lot of Pixar movies here? I love Cars. I love Paul Newman voicing the old Paul Newman car. I love George Carlin as a hippie VW bus. I love Jeremy Piven as Lightening McQueen's agent, Ari Gold, I mean Harv. I love it's quiet little story line. I love everything about it.

Take The Lead

Antonio Banderas does the tango...do I need to say more? I will, mostly about Lauren Collins as a debutante. Because Paige in a private school uniform is still Paige, is she not?

John Tucker Must Die

I love movies that were clearly made ten years too late, and this is one of those movies. It fits on the shelf quite nicely next to Ten Things, and Drive Me Crazy. And Brittney Snow is adorable, as is Penn Badgely. (BTW, in flashback, Brittney plays Penn's stepmother Lilly on Gossip Girl! Funners!) Sophia Bush is hilarious as Brooke Davis, I mean, some other girl who is nothing like Brooke at all whatsoever. Oh right and Jesse Metcalfe has his shirt off almost as much as Taylor Lautner in New Moon. And he's legal.

Clerks II

While hardly the best of the man's work, I do like this particular entry in Kevin Smith's catalogue. It was nice to see Dante and Randal back behind the counter, and Elias, the socially retarded born again kid, obsessed with the Transformers and Lord of The Rings, is one of Smith's better comic creations. Also pillow pants.

Accepted

I love Justin Long. There I said it. Plus this was the first movie I saw with my college friends. And it brought Jonah Hill to our attention ("Ask me about my weiner!) and Blake Lively was actually likable in something. It's a silly little romp, but it's a lot of fun.

The Devil Wears Prada

The clothes, the shoes, the Emily Blunt, the Meryl Streep! Yes, the adorable Anne Hathaway is the least of the good things in this gem of a chick flick. Streep won a Golden Globe for her performance as Miranda Priestly. (A mistake in my opinion, but I'll get to that next.) And did I mention the clothes?

Dreamgirls

I'm sorry, I drifted off for a minute thinking about this movie. It's probably the best of the new era musicals. Beyonce was robbed of a Globe and Oscar nom (see, I said I would get to it.) And Eddie Murphy was unreal. And shall we talk about Jennifer Hudson's Oscar winning performance as Effie?

Rocky Balboa

Not the best movie in the series, but it beats out Rock V. Also, Milo Ventimiglia fulfilled the prophecy put down by Amy Sherman-Paladino all those years ago..."I know Jess seems exciting, because he's dark and brooding, and he's seen a lot of Stalone movies!" "Nothing wouldn't happen to wear a leather jacket and do a convincing 'Adrian!' would it?" Plus there's the whole Milo-Philly correlation. In Gilmore Girls, Jess ends up in Philadelphia. American Dreams takes place in Philadelphia and then this. I'm just waiting for Peter Petrelli to head to the city of brotherly, love.

The Departed

If I watched this movie one more time, I'm pretty sure my roommate Jen was going to kill me. But it's just so good! It's all star cast shines and Scorcese finally won his best director Oscar. (He probably should have gotten it three years before for Gangs of New York.) It's always interesting to see a movie where everyone but one character ends up dead at the end.