The TV Addict 

IRON MAN
Conclusive proof that not only is Robert Downey Jr. the coolest thing since the iPhone, but that a summer superhero film can be insanely fun without sacrificing a shred of quality, depth, and drama. In fact it reminds us how hard it can be to make an accomplished film that genuinely entertains, and how rewarding it is when someone succeeds.

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY
Most certainly the most visually stunning film of the year, HELLBOY II also greatly improved upon its predecessor in every aspect from the characters, the plot, the action, the drama, and the villain. Most of all it further humanized (often hilariously so) its protagonists to the point where you completely forgot you were sympathizing and empathizing with a big red devil monster and a man-sized telepathic fish.

PINEAPPLE EXPRESS
In a summer short on decent laughs, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS proved to be the comedic winner of the season thanks to yet another fun script from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg that was both a loving homage to and gentle satire of its inspired genres, and two lovable protagonists that you couldn’t help but laugh at and with, while never failing to root for them.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH 3-D
If it weren’t for the 3-D this film might very well have found its way to the “Mediocre” section of this list, but thanks to that absorbing third dimension it dug up that child like sense of wonder I used to have for high-adventure films just like this one. So yes, maybe not the greatest film of the summer, but certainly one of the best movie experiences I had this summer, which is why it finds itself on this part of the list.

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HEROES

Saul (James Franco) and Dale (Seth Rogen), PINEAPPLE EXPRESS
It’s always fun and/or thrilling to see regular dudes thrown into the deep end of a live or death situation in a wrong man type of scenario. It was a particular pleasure to watch Saul and Dale – as unassuming as anyone can probably get – constantly scramble to find themselves out of their situation. It was distinctly relatable while still being utterly absurd and hilarious.

Tony Star/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), IRON MAN
Tony Stark is classic hero in the sense that he starts off as anything but, discovers his conscience, and then decides to do the right thing. It’s a solid, well established heroic trajectory, yet what made Stark somewhat refreshing is that in his transformation he is never saccharine. Afterwards he still maintains that devilish rogue charm and cocky swagger that made him such a fun and appealing character. He’s a hero, but never a square. That’s exactly how Stark would have it.

Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE
See? I do have positive things to say about THE X-FILES movie. Aside from Anderson being more gorgeous now than she was on the show (okay, that has nothing to with her character being a hero), Scully was the highlight of the film for me. She was sensitive and engaging, and her noble (and heroic) struggle – medical, emotional, moral – to try and help a terminally ill child almost made the film worth the price of admission. Almost.

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HEROES

Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano), THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM
It’s really nothing against Angarano, whom I’m a great admirer of, but I have to moderately resent any character that is chosen as the hero of a film that also stars Jet Li and Jackie Chan. That being said, there was also the fact that he was basically The Karate Kid just thrown into Asian and kung-fu mythology, who has to learn how to defend himself to save some guy called The Monkey King (yeah…) and teach greaser bullies that even the Jets and GREASE boys would have been embarrassed by.

Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE
One the biggest disappointment of the X-FILMS film was that it took one of my favorite television protagonists who was always dour, but always full of sarcastic humor and kooky passion, and turned him into a big whiny bore. That’s kind of ironic too because when the show was on that’s what I thought about Scully.

The Fearsome Five, KUNG-FUN PANDA
Though they were not meant to be the central heroes of the film, they were hyped up to be, well… fearsome. For supposed kung-fu legends they were barely in the film, and when they were they acted like petulant children. There’s also something to be said about the fact that all five of them couldn’t beat the bad guy, but Po did with his pot belly and a funny word (“Skadoosch”).

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Robert Downey Jr., IRON MAN/TROPIC THUNDER
Between his pitch perfect performance as Tony Stark in IRON MAN, and his hilarious spoof of method actors in TROPIC THUNDER, this has undoubtedly been the Year of Robert Downey Jr. Seriously, the Chinese should break tradition and insert the first human into their long list of “Year of [Insert Animal here]” because that’s how awesome he was this year.

Heath Ledger/Aaron Eckhart, THE DARK KNIGHT
The double whammy of Heath Ledger’s Oscar worth performance as the exhilaratingly anarchic Joker and Aaron Eckhart’s deceivingly simple portrayal of a white knight who violently and tragically falls from grace are a large part of what made THE DARK KNIGHT so damn good. They both helped make clear the two things Batman can never become. Also, their performances reminded us of what we’re missing out on with Ledger’s passing, and how horribly overlooked Eckhart is as an actor (and even is in this film).

Ben Burtt, WALL-E
Because WALL-E’s voice was really only a series of robotic noises, one might not be inclined to call it a performance in a traditional sense. Nevertheless, when you have a character like WALL-E who is nevertheless a seemingly living breathing, enchanting little creature because of those sounds that are indistinguishably human, someone is doing something right. That someone is Ben Burtt, the man behind the robotic voice, without whom the movie wouldn’t have been half of what it turned out to be.

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David Duchovny, THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE
If you like actors infusing the characters they play with comatose like indifference, then David Duchovny in the recent X-FILES film may just be your thing. Seriously, look up “phoning it in” or “doing it for the money” or “doing it for online porn fees” (too soon?) in the Film Encyclopedia and you’ll see a picture of Duchovny in this film. He gave us a hollow, emotionless, humorless, soulless Mulder. In other words, not Mulder at all.

John Hannah, THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR
You know how some actors’ performances just steal whatever scene they are in? Well, sometimes there are performances that make you wish somebody would steal them right out of the movie. John Hannah in THE MUMMY 3 was one a case of that. Admittedly, in many ways this was more the fault of the writers writing the character, mainly because they turned an already barely tolerable goofball into an ingratiating, useless, painful punch line. Nevertheless, John Hannah could have passed on the role, and he didn’t, so he’s at least somewhat culpable. I mean really, who volunteers (well, volunteers to get paid) to have fake Yak vomit thrown all over them? Besides Laurence Olivier, no one.

Mark Wahlberg, THE HAPPENING
I like Wahlberg, but in THE HAPPENING it just seemed like he never connected with the material or the character, both because of his own initiative and some pretty poor directing on M. Night Shyamalan’s part. You know you’re in trouble when someone’s performance actually manages to be more wooden and awkward than (SPOILER) than its killer tree concept.

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“The Yak Yaked,” THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR
It was hard to pick just one bad moment from the train wreck that was the third MUMMY film (the Yeti sequence was a very close second), but undoubtedly the sequence in the plan where not only does a Yak vomit for an unbelievable attempt at humor, but it’s promptly followed by a cut to an image of Johnathan covered in puke uttering the not even remotely clever line “the Yak yaked.” My soul died a little that day.

“The Ending,” INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
The less I have to talk about this the better for you all, because it will just end up in a vitriolic rant that will make your toes curl. Regardless, if you’ve seen the film you don’t really need me to explain why the ending of INDIANA JONES qualifies as one of the worst moments in a movie this summer.

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… And we’re off! So begins the week long (well, four day week anyway) theREELaddict Summer Lovin’ Event. Needless to say with today’s list there are minor spoilers abound.

You can expect the Worst Moments to appear this afternoon.

As always, feel free to post your praises, complaints, and own lists below.

“The Magic Trick,” THE DARK KNIGHT
Never will I look at a pencil in quite the same way again. The already famous pencil trick was so impressive not only because of the shock and murderous coolness of the moment, but it was also an effective and brutal introduction to the Joker and the way he was always just one step ahead, waiting prone with an act of violence. It’s a moment that elicited first stunned silence, then laugher and thunderous applause. Myself included, though after a while I thought “I’m applauding murder,” but hey, that’s showbiz.

“The Dance,” WALL-E
Though I’m partially inclined to call all of WALL-E a best moment, or to draw upon any number of other scenes from the film, I think it was WALL-E and EVE’s adorable dance in the film that was not only one of the most lovely moments of the year, but also one of the most romantic displays of love I’ve seen in a long time. Yes, even though they are only robots.

“Drunken Singing,” HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY
HELLBOY II may have been an all around great film, but the greatest thing it gave us was Hellboy and Abe Sapien drowning their romantic sorrow in booze and subsequently launching full-scale into a drunken recitation of Barry Manilow’s “I Can’t Smile Without You.”

“Marian Ravenwood Returns,” INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
Say what you will about the movie, or even about what was done with her character subsequent to her reintroduction, but the moment Marian Ravenwood stepped back onto the screen after a twenty-seven year absence (recalling some of her lines from RAIDERS no less), I had a massive grin on my face. Surprisingly, it was a bigger grin than Indy got.

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