Top 10 Films of 2006 (Joel's picks)
10. The Matador
Post-007, Pierce Brosnan makes the silver screen shine as the paranoid assassin Julian Noble in one of the year's best acted films. Greg Kinnear is fantastic support for Brosnan, and Hope Davis even chips in with the needed quality that makes a hit or miss script deliver off the page and onto celluloid. Don't get me wrong, the plot is first-rate but could have been (obviously) a lot worse if the leads didn't perform to a very high calibre, and perform they did, with the Irishman gleaming with class. This film will have you in thoughtful phases of laughter, change your stereotype of Brosnan, and leave you very satisfied at the climax because of the overtones of morality and decency it possesses.
9. Over the Hedge
Steve Carell's Hammy is my character of the year. It is very rare that I laugh out loud in the confines of the cinema auditorium, firstly because I have a weird cackle and secondly because I embarrass everyone I'm with. However, every time Hammy rapidly zoomed onto the screen I was in stitches - Carell's voice just made him even more amazingly comical in an Anchorman-like scene stealing performance. The film is very good for a simple story but unfortunately it can't better the next eight entries in the list. However, it obviously still ranks very highly taking into account the rest of the films I have seen in 2006, and I would even welcome a sequel as Bruce Willis and William Shatner did a good job of introducing other memorable characters with satires of American life never getting old in my eyes.
8. X-Men: The Last Stand
It is very rare that one encounters a sequel that is as good as its predecessor and it is even rarer that the third in a trilogy doesn't venture into the realms of critical disaster. I thought Brett Ratner did a cracking job with The Last Stand however, with the film easily as good as the first two in the series in my eyes. Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry still ooze that quality and Famke Janssen's Lady Jean Grey turning evil was a well-executed, if a little predictable, factor in the plot. Kelsey Grammer's Beast stole the show however, and I can't wait to watch all three of the films in quick succession to see if any actor looks more like the mutant they play than Dr. Frasier Crane himself!
7. Miami Vice
Michael Mann's resume is full of well-acted, well-made and well-researched pictures. Miami Vice is no different in respect to the latter two factors, but it is only Jamie Foxx who saves the film in the acting department after Farrell does his best to murder the picture. Mann was simply revisiting his roots with the television show that made him famous in making this 2006 update. Tubbs and Crockett are still greeted with the glorious Floridian climate that I personally love so much and that same coolness which actually translates in this film but fails in so many others. Michael Mann does excellently with his camerawork, possibly trying to match the bona fide quality and essence of Heat (1995).
6. Inside Man
Spike Lee's bank heist joint may seem to be trying to get a little too clever at times, but it always shines with slickness. Denzel Washington, a stunning Jodie Foster and Clive Owen are cast well, and in the darkness of the cinema on opening night with everyone wondering about the conclusion of the heist, made the film a great spectacle with a Usual Suspects (1995) style. New York always makes a wonderful setting and the bank in Lower Manhattan around the corner from Wall Street and the three references of Al Pacino bring about a sense of nostalgia which is always welcome in a film. It's very unusual to have a fully engaging film from this genre, but Spike Lee delivers.
5. Cars
The second CGI film from this list barely betters Dreamworks' Over the Hedge, and is still a little off the pace of the original Pixar film Toy Story (1995) and its sequel. Nevertheless, Owen Wilson commits his voice well to his racing car character Lightning McQueen and nearly outshines Paul Newman's Doc Hudson and Larry the Cable Guy's Mater. Route 66's presence made me love the film as this is the heart of America which I hope to explore in the next couple of years, and the animation and jokes were top-notch and flowed to near-perfection.
4. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Will Ferrell in a car with a cougar was one of the funniest cinematic moments of 2006. I thought the film wasn't quite near the standard of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), but the comedy still flowed freely and the weird characters, including Sacha Baron Cohen as Bobby's French rival, still "shaked 'n' baked". I will hopefully see the film again in the next few days on DVD to revise the one-lines I learned back in the summer, and I know for sure that the film will leak with comedy once more. I'm sorry Mr Ferrell, "you ain't first" but you're definitely not last.
3. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
One of the most humorous performances you will ever see is delivered by Sacha Baron Cohen in this low-budget and relatively short piece of magical celluloid. Every scene is so funny that it would be a waste of time trying to explain it to you when you may as well just go and buy the DVD and laugh your socks off. Many say they saw all of the best sketches via the trailer, but this film has a hidden substance that just says "watch me!" again. Go and buy it, you will soon realise that I can't really explain all of the hysterical moments you will encounter! Like a Jackass movie, get ready to hurl, cry and laugh all at the same time.
2. Casino Royale
Being a massive Bond fan I felt a little uneasy with the casting of a blonde Daniel Craig to play Jimmy. In nearly two and a half hours however you do forget the insecurities that built up since the absolutely dreadful Die Another Day (2002) and Casino Royale is delivered in such a way that you soon wonder if all of the other films have been based on another 007. It has action, drama, comedy and everything you expect and a lot, lot more than you ever felt possible. I know that sounds vague, but so many things happen in the film which are new that it feels as if you have to try and kickstart the segment of the brain with your Bond archived memory all over again. Craig is helped and complimented wonderfully by an absolutely gorgeous Eva Green and Judi Dench sticks two fingers up at the time frame of the EON films by appearing for the 5th time as M. I'm glad I travelled down to London to see the public's premiere in Leicester Square in November and I'm not surprised to see it still in cinemas more than two months later.
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