2006 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The Jan 8-14 print edition of Variety lists the 250 films at the domestic box office in 2006, arranging the numbers in a different way from those of us who compile a top ten of a given year. For one thing, there's a considerable amount of overlap from 2005. For another thing, the prestige films of 2006 hadn't benefited yet from their predicted Oscar boost or a wide release, and dawdle at the end of the list. Anyway, here are the numbers we're sure you cannot live without:

Of the 250 top films of 2006, 23 were sequels (including prequels); 20 were remakes or spinoffs from TV shows (Miami Vice and so forth). Add that number and you have 43. 43 out of 250 means nearly a one out of six chance that you were watching a story you'd seen already in some other form. There were 16 animated films in release, with Cars, of course, as the biggest hit at more than $244 million; the least-earning on the list was Chicken Little, at just over $3 million.

The most successful horror film of the year was Scary Movie 4 (wow, scary) with the $80 million-grossing Saw III in second place; bringing up the rear was the assortment of controversial indie horror flicks, 8 Films to Die For. 18 movies broke the $100 million mark; Borat, at $125 million, is probably the most lucrative subtitled film ever made; no other foreign-language film made more than $10 million.

I see hundreds of movies every year, and to break 'em all down into a Top 10 (or 20) is just not nearly enough for me. So I spent the last few days compiling ten different Top 10 lists, all in an effort to A) share my opinions and B) perhaps point you towards a few flicks you might have missed. Obviously there's a few "easy picks" among my lists, but hey, I gotta call 'em like I see 'em. (Please do feel free to share your own lists in the comment section ... and Happy New Year! Movie-wise, 2007 looks pretty awesome!)

I. Top 10 Favorite Movies

1. Pan's Labyrinth -- Del Toro is a mad freakin' genius, and I hope he makes movies for the next 50 years.
2. Children of Men -- Stunningly hypnotic sci-fi drama from a director who can seemingly do no wrong.
3. The Descent -- One of the best horror films to hit the scene in ten years.
4. The Proposition -- John Hillcoat and Nick Cave do Walter Hill meets Sam Peckinpah.
5. Borat -- Rude, crude, hilarious -- and a whole lot smarter than you might think.
6. Conversations with Other Women -- More romantic than 50 rom-coms put together.
7. Hard Candy -- Dicey subject material, delivered with style, confidence and craftiness.
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest -- Ignore the backlash. This stuff is pure fun.
9. The Notorious Bettie Page -- Finally, a bio-pic that's not the same old blueprint. (And Gretchen Mol is amazing.)
10. (tie) The Prestige & The Illusionist -- I hate it when someone wedges two movies into one spot, but I had to do it for this nifty pair of magician-centric period pieces.

II. Top 10 Favorite Movies (Part 2)

11. Little Miss Sunshine -- Let's hear it for dysfunction!
12. District B13 -- Some of the wildest action scenes I've seen in years.
13. Stranger Than Fiction -- Kaufman-lite, but it really works.
14. United 93 -- Precisely the sort of movie it should have been.
15. Little Children -- Insightful, intelligent and fairly subtle suburbia satire.
16. The Queen -- I went in expecting yawns, came out wishing it'd been longer.
17. The Departed -- Scorsese revisits the streets in typically fine fashion.
18. Charlotte's Web -- One of the year's most pleasant surprises, frankly.
19. Awesome; I F*ckin' Shot That! -- Sue me, I love the Beasties.
20. Brick -- Didn't love it as much as most do, but there's no denying its appealing weirdness.

One of the perks of going on Christmas vacation away from home is that you find yourself reading papers in cities that you normally wouldn't stumble across normally. This week I managed to find Kristian Lin's wonderfully written "Ricky Bobby's Guide to Life (Or At Least The Movies) -- How Talladega Nights Explains the Year in Cinema" in the Fort Worth Weekly, a free paper in this part of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

It's a great article that takes quotes from the movie (which I got for my brother as a Christmas present) and applies them to life, and cinematic offerings from the past year. He touches on just about every film offered up in 2006, including lesser seen fare like the Argentinian film The Aura, and the Iraqi war documentary The War Tapes, which both deserve a much wider audience.

Who knew that Ricky Bobby carried so much wisdom in his words? As much as we'd like to tip our bestickered helmet to the man who wants to go fast, Mr. Lin deserves the lion's share of the credit for this list which manages to be both humorous and thoughtful at the same time. It's not only a lesson in life, but a good year's end guide to the films of 2006, some of which you might never have even heard of. Give it a read, and start updating your rental lists and hitting the theaters.

Right now, The Guardian has a neat little thirty-question quiz up called 2006: The year in film. How well do you remember everything (film-related) that happened this year? And when I say everything, I mean even the tiniest details -- like quotes from actors, marketing mishaps and deaths. That's right, The Guardian has assembled a unique list of multiple choice questions that are, at best, extremely random.

Personally, I found the quiz to be rather easy, but then again I write for a movie blog -- I should know these things, right? However, I was surprised to only score 28 out of 30. Yes, even I'm not perfect. They got me with one death question (pick the actor who died in 2005, not 2006), as well as on a question about a marketing mishap that occurred during Lucky Number Slevin's promotional campaign. Now, if you're a faithful Cinematical reader, then you should be able to answer most (if not all) of the questions correctly, seeing as we've covered each topic at least once. Have fun, and definitely come back after you've finished to let us know your score.

Bonus Cinematical question not included in The Guardian's quiz: Which film did Erik predict would gross the most money at the box office this past summer? And was he right?

[via Hollywood Wiretap]

Some time last Friday, I spent about an hour working in raw HTML on an Excel-ish guide to the films sold at Sundance up to that point. When Firefox crashed just as I was about to hit save, I consoled myself over the loss: "Not like there was much to report."

With the exception of two high-dollar, high-profile deals (days after Fox Searchlight spent a lamentable $10 million on Little Miss Sunshine, Warner Independent invested $6 million on Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep), the market in Park City was almost non-existant. Sure, a few films sold – Lionsgate surprised no one by picking up genre flick Right at Your Door; The Night Listener's topicality probably helped coax the new Miramax into a non-committal $3 million buy – but a lot didn't, and for once, the critical establishment and the money men seemed to be on the same side: though Sundance 2006 offered quite a few films worth seeing, it was hard to find much to get excited about. That strange silence flooding the Yarrow lobby every afternoon? That was the sound of a conspicuous lack-of buzz.

It's true - along with everyone else who covers the movies in any capacity, we here at Cinematical are officially in an Oscar Frenzy. Questions and speculation are flying around our lovely Manhattan office - Is Brokeback Mountain peaking too soon? Why is Munich not getting any awards? Will a giant ape rule the world? And are those bitches at the Academy going to stiff The Squid and the Whale just because it's small and sort of difficult? It's fun but, you know, also a little mind-numbing.

But there is an alternative - if you feel like you'll kill the next person who says the phrase "gay cowboys" but can't get enough of Academy Awards speculation, head on over to to the Los Angeles Times' Oscar blog and talk about next year's front runners. Yes, it's true: everyone has completely lost their minds. On what are they basing their beliefs that Dreamgirls - which has yet to EVEN START FILMING - is going to be good enough to get nominated? Or Borgia? At this point, who knows if Colin Farrell will even make it out or rehab? I mean, come on, people. Fun is fun, but this is insane.