Gopher

5. Pan's Labyrinth (94 points, 8 lists) The level of imagination, craft and fantasy present in Pan's Labyrinth is nothing short of astounding. Few movies scare me, but this one did the trick.

6. Blood Diamond (85 points, 9 lists) Wouldn't you know it, I haven't seen this one. Someone else want to write about it?

7. Casino Royale (84 points, 10 lists) In Casino Royale, Marc Forester and Daniel Craig made an absolutely kick-ass Bond movie, perhaps the best one in decades. Even though Quantum of Solace was horribly underwhelming (I blame the writer's strike), I have big expectations for Skyfall.

8. United 93 (78 points, 8 lists) Perhaps United 93's greatest feat is how it isn't trying to reveal anything beyond the story on the page. Greengrass wastes no time crafting this story, harrowingly and powerfully, into an inspiring film.

9. V for Vendetta (77 points, 8 lists) Whenever discussions about the best graphic novel adaptations come up, I feel like this gets shafted. This is a compelling, disturbing movie that has something really interesting going on.

Someone can write about Pirates and Apocalypto if they want. I have no interest.

10. BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN (50 points, 8 lists) My country send me to United States to make movie-film. Please, come and see my film. If it not success, I will be execute. What's up with it, Vanilla face? Me and my homie Azamat just parked our slab outside. We're looking for somewhere to post up our Black asses for the night. So, uh, bang bang, skeet skeet. Just a couple of pimps, no hos. The only thing keeping me going was my dream of one day holding Pamela in my arms and making romance explosion on her stomach. Gypsy! Give me your tears! If you will not give them to me, I will take them from you! Kazakhstan greatest country in the world, All other countries are run by little girls. Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium, all other countries have inferior potassium. Kazakhstan home of Tinshein swimming pool, it's length thirty meter and width six meter. Filtration system a marvel to behold. It remove 83 percent of human solid waste. Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place, From Plains of Tarashek to northern fence of Jewtown. Kazakhstan friend of all except Uzbekistan, They very nosey people with bone in their brain. Kazakhstan industry best in the world, we invented toffee and trouser belt. Kazakhstan's prostitutes cleanest in the region, except of course Turkmenistan's. Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place, From Plains of Tarashek to northern fence of Jewtown. Come grasp the might penis of our leader from junction with the testes to tip of its face! Great success! Love this movie.

11. Apocalypto (47 points, 4 lists) When I catch him, I will peel his skin, and have him watch me wear it. (I actually like that line)

12. Thank You For Smoking (40 points, 6 lists) The satire of corporate and image culture in Thank You For Smoking, Jason Reitman's first feature film, feels genuine, and the performances are funny and committed. I liked it a lot.

13. The Illusionist (34 points, 5 lists) Even on this BOT list, that *other* 2006 magician movie sort of buried this one. But The Illusionist is one beautiful movie, both visually and emotionally.

14. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (28 points, 3 lists) UGH.

15. Inside Man (26 points, 5 lists) I haven't thought about this movie for a while, but this is a solid suspense thriller that really works. I liked it.

Here we go again... again... again... again... again. Eight Below- 1 Flags of Our Fathers- 1 Snakes on a Plane- 1 Deja Vu- 2 Shortbus- 3 X-Men: The Last Stand- 3 An Inconvenient Truth- 4 Night at the Museum World Trade Center- 4 Who Killed the Electric Car?- 4 Madea's Family Reunion- 5 Clerks II- 6 Over the Hedge- 6 Half Nelson- 6 Da Vinci Code- 6 Slither- 6 Grandma's Boy- 7 Hostel- 8Kamome Diner- 9 The Descent- 9 Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby- 10 Paprika- 11 Volver- 11 Babel- 12 Click- 12 Dreamgirls- 12The Good Shepherd- 12 This Film is Not Yet Rated- 12 The Girl Who Leapt Through Time- 14Happy Feet- 14 Rocky Balboa- 15 The Last King of Scotland- 15 Lucky Number Slevin- 18 Cars- 19 Letters from Iwo Jima- 19 The Devil Wears Prada- 20 The Fountain- 20 (I expected this to do much better here) The Queen- 20 Hard Candy- 21 Brick- 23 Stranger Than Fiction- 25

So Lorax could finish in Despicable Me territory if WOM is good enough. It has no competition for two months. I hate to bring this up, but... could it win next weekend too?

Anything north of 40m for John Carter next weekend is a relative success. The film's negative buzz has been deafening and generally positive reviews won't do anything about it. Anyway, 6m OD for Project X means that 20% came from midnights. That's insanely front loaded.

If we use the same ratio that Devil Inside had, it'll open to 10m today. That looks a little high, though.

Mad Men Season 5, Game of Thrones Season 2, Louie Season 3, and Breaking Bad Season 5 are all no-brainers. What about the new shows? Veep- looks really funny, and it's from the creators of In the Loop! )Girls also has some potential. It looks like someone took an indie movie and made it an HBO series. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwG48qbkfHk&feature=relmfuNew shows already out:Luck- Confusing as hell but some of it is beautiful to watch House of Lies- I'm done, the show's writing has burnt out all of Cheadle's goodwill Smash- Good, not great, but still worth watching Life's Too Short- Huge disappointment Awake- Pilot was interesting, I'll pick it up if I hear good word about the following episodes

Phineas and Ferb is the big cartoon show now, I think. iCarly is incredibly successful but probably wouldn't translate to the big screen well. A Last Airbender movie produced on a shoestring budget is feasible, I guess. I still want my Hey Arnold sequel, but Nick hasn't aired that show in a decade, so I won't hold my breath.

KFP2 flopping on DVD is probably the nail in the coffin for a KFP3. Maybe if they bothered marketing KFP2, then they wouldn't be in this situation. Puss in Boots, on the other hand, is probably game for a sequel- keeping the Shrek franchise alive is good enough incentive on top of its strong DVD/overseas performance. I would worry about Madagascar 3 (very tight window between its release and Brave, plus it's a sequel no one really asked for) and Rise of the Guardians (another tight window between it and Christmas, since it's a holiday-themed movie) if I were them.

This means they're probably going to put a Fairly Oddparents movie in the works. But I know that show has sucked for a long time. I wish Butch Hartman got to make the movie he wanted back when he pitched it in 2003.

I haven't watched the show in an extremely long time- apparently it's creatively running on fumes now- but I loved the first movie. I thought it was a lot of fun. I would see a second one.

2011: Drive 2010: The Social Network2009: Inglourious Basterds 2008: The Dark Knight 2007: Ratatouille This site has some good taste.

2006 time! 1. Little Miss Sunshine 2. The Prestige 3. Children of Men 4. Pan's Labyrinth 5. The Queen 6. Casino Royale 7. United 93 8. The Last King of Scotland 9. Dreamgirls 10. Happy Feet 11. The Departed 12. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan 13. The Fountain 14. Thank You for Smoking 15. Cars

1. Ratatouille A 2. There Will Be Blood A 3. Zodiac A 4. No Country for Old Men A 5. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street A- 6. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford A 7. Hot Fuzz B+ 8. Into the Wild A 9. Michael Clayton A- 10. Gone Baby Gone A- 11. The Bourne Ultimatum A- 12. 3:10 to Yuma A- 13. Transformers C+ 14. Knocked Up A- 15. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix B-

1. RATATOUILLE (156 points, 14 lists) I know, this is a bit of a surprise. I often waver between this and WALL-E of what my favorite Pixar film is- WALL-E is delightfully ambitious, but Ratatouille is also incredibly ambitious (it's a movie about a RAT making FOOD) and a terrifically written and crafted story. Like some of the movies on this list, I can't watch Ratatouille enough.