OK, I didn't see everything, so this is a very short list. There are also some things here that I just happened to watch, not necessarily FROM 2008...there's a list of things I want to still check out and haven't had a chance to yet...Ballast, The Fall, Tropic Thunder, W., and Let The Right One In come to mind.

Anyway, here they are in no particular order...

1. Wall E - The best thing Pixar's ever done in my opinion. A purely visual film, as moving and optimistic as you'd expect from Pixar. One of the best romances and science fiction movies I've seen in a long time.

2. Valkyrie - Tom Cruise, for all his weirdness, is still a great actor, and this is a fascinating movie about the plot to kill Hitler and how close it came to succeeding, but for the hesitancy of some of the plotters. Bryan Singer redeems himself after the disaster that was Superman Returns.

3. Redbelt - David Mamet's Mixed Martial Arts movie - yeah, David Mamet did an MMA movie, and it's awesome. Chiwetel Ejiofor (Serenity) comes across as one of the most upstanding guys since John Wayne in The Shootist as a jututsu instructor who is pushed into the ring by circumstance.

4. The Orphanage - Juan Antonio Bayona is the director behind this very well done ghost movie in the vein of The Others.

5. In Bruges - A weird little movie about a couple of Irish hitmen stuck in a tiny little European tourist town after badly botching a job. Colin Farrel, Brendan Gleeson, and a very cool Ray Fiennes.

6. The Call Of Cthulthu - This one is from 2005. It's a very low budget indie movie made by a group of people who avidly love the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Instead of trying to come up with a hip FX laden update (like this year's Cthulthu, which sounded terrible), they made a lavishly atmospheric silent movie, specifically made to look as if it were filmed in 1929, when Lovecraft's stories were written. And it's great.

7. Stander - I missed this one and it took me five years to catch up with it. A really cool based on a true story about a South African police captain who began robbing banks and was assigned to head the investigation of his own crimes! Awesome movie with Thomas 'The Punisher' Jayne.

8. Lagaan - Going way back to 2001 on this one, it's a Bollywood musical (I would argue THE Bollywood musical) about a poor village in Colonial India that makes a bet with the British governor that they can beat the Brits in a cricket match (even though they've never played it before). If they wind, their province will not be taxed for ten years. If they lose, they have to pay ten years worth of taxes. One of the most upbeat and toe-tapping musicals I've ever seen, marred only by my utter lack of knowledge of cricket.

9. Deliver Us From Evil - An incredibly disturbing documentary following a pedophilic priest living free in Ireland and the families he has shattered with his crimes. Terrific documentary, but I wouldn't watch it again.

10. Ralph Nader: An Unreasonable Man - I seem to only watch documentaries that infuriate me. Nevertheless, a great picture about a great and nationally misunderstood man.

11. The Long Good Friday - A 70's British crime flick starring Bob 'Roger Rabbit' Hoskins as a gang boss trying to figure out who's bombing his fronts in the midst of his pulling down the biggest legit deal of his life. Killer movie with an awesome soundtrack and one of the best entrances
(by Hoskins) of a character I've ever seen.

12. Iron Man - You've all seen it and you know why it's great. Bring on Captain America!

13. The Dark Knight - Ditto, though I don't know how Nolan can ever live up to this one with a third. Either the Joker isn't in it and it's a letdown, or there's a new Joker and he's put up against Heath Ledger and it's a letdown. Anybody care to see Brad Pitt take a whack at the Joker? I kinda would...

14. Kung Fu Panda - The best animated movie I've ever seen come out of Dreamworks. A lot better than I anticipated, a great send up of movies like The Five Deadly Venoms series and wuxia high wire flicks like Croucing Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Beautiful to look at too. Ski-doosh!

15. Pineapple Express - OK, this movie's all about a certain mostly illegal pasttime, but it's still funny and that's saying something. I thought this was gonna be a one-joke bore, but Seth Rogan and the increasingly good James Franco were hilarious. I loved the over the top, unexpected violence as well as the bumbling stupidity of nearly every character. Particularly the two hitmen.

Anyway, those are the best things I saw this year in and out of the movie theater.