Well, as 2006 closes out it’s time to look back at the Top 20 Movies that made me realize why I am lucky to work in the industry I do. Sure, I get that feeling when I cover certain theatrical releases, DVDs, or conduct interviews with talent, but for a pure, unbridled, uncorrupted experience, there’s nothing like going to a movie theater, sitting down and seeing another film that makes me fall in love with cinema all over again.Movie Picture#1 Rocky Balboa

Immediately this film disarmed people by openly admitting that Rocky shouldn’t be fighting. Then, Rocky even admits that he shouldn’t be fighting the current champ. So what does that leave? Well, a deeply human story about age, getting older, and dealing with the situations that life throws at us. From the opening strains of the old school “Take It Back” by Frank Stallone, to the emotional moments of Rocky deciding to get back in the ring, to the final Pay Per View-styled fight that is this film’s climax, everything about Rocky Balboa makes it a worthy admission into this fistic franchise. In this, the final chapter, Rocky proves that the old dog still has some tricks it his sleeve.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

Movie Picture#2 The Departed

Nobody makes films like Martin Scorsese. Period. To see this movie as simply a return to the director’s previous gangster forays, is to easily dismiss just what a layered and updated tale this is. Focusing on Irish gangsters, this star packed film is infused with the kind of gritty action, and thick dialogue that has been co-opted by other street tales of late. Not for one moment does it feel like we are seeing a director out of his element. In 2004, Clint Eastwood upended Scorsese at the Oscars with a special interest film posing as a boxing movie. This year it seems like Scorsese will finally get a best director statue for making the kind of film it seems he has shied away from for over a a decade.

Movie Picture#3 A Scanner Darkly

Few movies depict Orange County as anything other than a candy coated pastiche of beaches, babes, and boardwalks. Set in the often ignored city of Anaheim and focusing on a drug called Substance D, we get to see the War on Drugs fought in a post 9/11 world. Nobody trusts anybody, the drug makes the characters loopy, confused, and paranoid (among other things), and to top this all off, some of the police work in shapeshifting suits so that nobody knows who anybody is. However, this movie never spirals out of control, it doesn’t beat you over the head with imagery, it just simply touches on the complexity of the drug issue. Few films can be visceral, entertaining, and thought provoking yet A Scanner Darkly manages to do it all.

Movie Picture#4 Screamers

Sadly, the most important film of the year barely got released. This movie follows the band System Of a Down as they continue to spread the word about the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Woven into this is how it was ignored and the ultimate effects this had on places like Germany in the 1940s, and in areas like Rwanda and throughout the world. We even see how ignoring groups of people simply for self interests such as money can lead to things like 9/11. The impact of all this is further illustrated by the band’s musical performances which, despite what I may think of their music, drives home their points with a great deal of passion. Screamers is the kind of film you should see whenever you can.

Movie Picture#5 The Groomsmen

Yet another movie that isn’t filled with huge stars or special effects, just a simple story about being in your 30s and growing up, so of course it gets put out in 3 three theaters and then must claw for a place at the DVD table. Edward Burns has made one of the few films that I really feel speaks to my generation. Sure, these guys are a little older than me, but their dreams, hopes, desires, and musical influences are right in line with everything I could want from a movie like this. Something happens to people as they get older, it’s hard to put into words but they change. This film is an examination of that.

Movie Picture{DVMWXONTooSrRQ||#6 World Trade Center}

The cynics and lizards in the audience will see a film like World Trade Center and scoff at it’s accuracy. They will question whether or not the events really happened this way, and they will look for any and all ways to say that this movie is a piece of American propaganda. However, with Oliver Stone at the helm, what was created was a film that captured how this country, despite all our differences, managed to come together and heal as one nation after the awful tragedy of September 11th.

Movie Picture#7 The Prestige

What could have been a ponderous film about magic and trickery is actually about two men who love their craft more than anything (or anyone) else in the world. Told in a hackneyed style that moves back and forth between time periods, by the time the movie ends you realize you’ve been in on one of the most innovative cinematic tricks that came out in the past year.

Movie Picture#8 Apocalypto

Mel Gibson has had one helluva year. After “the incident” in Malibu, it seemed like he was going to be a Hollywood pariah forever. Well, Tinseltown has a short memory, and the fact that Apocalypto is one of the more visually stunning and ambitious films of the year certainly doesn’t hurt. Told with very little dialogue, I sadly think we are going to remember this film more in 20 years for the filmic achievement it was, rather than the controversy that surrounded it.

Movie Picture#9 CSA: The Confederate States of America{FIhwbkhqeprXkk||

Playing like 2 hours of TiVo from the History Channel, this movie is a bitingly, satirical look at the issue of race in this country. Sadly, despite the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, it doesn’t seem like a lot has changed for Black People in this country. This film slyly shows how no matter what gains seem to have been achieved, there always seems to be a price that is more detrimental than it is supplemental. A movie like