2006 Ten Best Pics

1. Children of Men - Revolutionary, original, well-acted, visually amazing, great script, superb direction, and non-stop action. What more do you want in a film? This dark, yet hopeful film is one of the best films I have seen in years. Absolutely brilliant.
   
2. United 93 - Too soon? Not under the masterful direction of Paul Greengrass who shows the horrors of 9/11 with respect and taste. Harrowing and haunting, this realistic tribute to 9/11 will probably be the definitive film of that day's events.
3. Pan's Labyrinth - A violent fairy tale for adults about a young girl who escapes from the horrors of real life in a fantasy world like you've never seen before. Mixes politics, war, family, and fantasy almost effortlessly.
4. Lady Vengeance - Actually made in 2005, but not released in the U.S. until '06. Korean director Chan-wook Park's conclusion to his stunning and violent revenge trilogy. While Park's previous two entries in the trilogy, Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, are also excellent films, Lady Vengeance is by far the more thought out and better constructed of the three. The ending is quite shocking and you don't see it coming from a mile away like most films these days.
   
5. The Departed - Scorsese's best film since Goodfellas. Based on the great Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, Scorsese gets back to his roots in this gangsters vs. cops epic. The cast goes for broke and the film is non-stop entertainment.
6. Borat - Many of us have known about the genius of Sacha Baron Cohen since Da Ali G Show debuted on HBO a few years back or, even before that, if you watched it on British television. Cohen's lovable, yet undeniably offensive portrayal of the Kazakh journalist is comedic gold. No... platinum. No...Diamonds...
7. The Fountain - A lot of haters on this one and actually it took me a bit to realize the mind-trip I had just witnessed was a great film. Emotionally wrenching, yet a beautiful tale about love and loss.
8. Apocalypto - A chase film without cars, bullets, or Mel Gibson in The Road Warrior, but rather an exciting action flick with Mayans, spears, jaguars, and Mel Gibson calling the shots behind the camera and not dressed up as a Village People reject in a post apocalyptic world.
9. Brick - A great Noir film about a murdered ex-lover and the quest for the truth about what happened...set in high school. An interesting premise with hard-boiled dialogue that could have been used in any Bogart classic. Call it The Maltese Falcon Jr.
10. The Proposition - A western set in the Australian outback about a man who, to save the life of his youngest brother from a brutal lawman, must kill his psychotic older brother. Better than Deadwood? Yep.