Mediocre dominates year’s movies

All in all, 2008 wasn't the best movie year. Even so, the 10 best movies of the year were pretty darned good.

10 Best Movies

1. "The Wrestler" - Mickey Rourke is brilliant - yes, that Mickey Rourke - as a has-been pro-wrestler trying to find fame again after 20 years. Working against him is his beaten-down body, but in his favor is the stripper he comes to love (Marisa Tomei) and the daughter he longs to know again (Evan Rachel Wood). Opens soon.

2. "The Rape of Europa" - This superlative documentary makes a credible case for the theory that World War II was fought in part over the proprietorship of Western culture. It traces the Nazis' systematic looting of art from the countries they invaded and the Americans' efforts to restore it to its proper owners.

3. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" - Even without the gimmick - a man is born looking old and as he ages he appears to grow younger - this Brad Pitt film would be a captivating story of a full life lived well. The gimmick makes it all the more fascinating.

4. "The Visitor" - Thoughtful and gently funny, this drama puts a human face on an issue that is current but often overlooked. Richard Jenkins is masterful as the quietly distanced professor whose tentative friendship with two illegal immigrants grows through a shared love of music.

5. "Slumdog Millionaire" - A boy from the slums of Mumbai becomes a winner on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" leading the police to suspect he is cheating. As he explains how he knows the answers, he gives us a view of a life that is harsh but hopeful, and full of romantic love.

6. "I've Loved You So Long" - Kristin Scott Thomas is perfect as a woman just out of jail, trying to regain her footing by moving in with the sister she hasn't seen in years.

7. "Get Smart" - The funniest film of the year. Steve Carell proves adept at physical comedy, and even though the spy-movie spoof is no longer relevant, the silly jokes are smart and a surprising number of them are actually funny. The movie respects the TV show it was based on, and surpasses it.

8. "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" - The second-funniest film of the year. Woody Allen wisely left himself out of the film this time. Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall star as American tourists in Spain who, though very different, both fall for the same man, Javier Bardem.

9. "Man on Wire" - An utterly engrossing documentary about Philippe Petit's audacious 1974 tightrope walk between the Twin Towers comes to see the event as he and his conspirators did: as a piece of art, a thing of sublime beauty.

10. "Iron Man" - Hey, look, someone made a comic book movie that was actually good (although "The Dark Knight" was actually great until it fell apart). Robert Downey Jr. is perfectly cast as the wisecracking billionaire industrialist who builds an iron suit to serve justice and a lucrative franchise.

10 Worst Movies

1. "Max Payne" - It's as idiotic as any other movie based on a video game. So what makes "Max Payne" so unsurpassingly awful? The Valkyries. Half-man, half-bird creatures swoop down and carry characters off to their deaths, and they're Valkyries.

2. "Billy: The Early Years" - This ridiculously adulatory story of the young Billy Graham reveals that his early life was strikingly uncinematic and quite dull. Robby Benson's direction is terrible, but Martin Landau's performance as a dying atheist is the worst acting of the century. Maybe ever.

3. "Speed Racer" - It actually makes the 1960s cartoon on which it is based seem thoughtful and well-crafted in comparison. This is just an assault - of pop colors, of inanity, of a banal story.

4. "Punisher: War Zone" - A serial murderer kills a bunch of thugs, and we are supposed to recognize that he is morally superior to them. The point, of course, is to make his murders as gruesome as possible.

5. "The Love Guru" - Do you know how awful Mike Myers can be when he thinks he is being funny, but he isn't? Now you do.

6. "Death Race" - Oh, Joan Allen, what happened that you took this movie? Did you lose a bet? Did someone hold you at gunpoint? Couldn't you recognize how tedious, repetitious and inept it would be?

7. "Drillbit Taylor" - Judd Apatow made 37 comedies this year, or so it seemed, and they shared a total of 36 jokes. This shockingly humorless effort was the one that was left out.

8. "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" - Clearly, no one involved had any interest in making this third entry in the series, and their apathy oozes out of the screen. This version doesn't even have mummies.

9. "Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins" - The big climax is on an obstacle course where a middle-aged man who is 20 pounds overweight races a middle-aged man who is 100 pounds overweight, and we're supposed to care who wins. We don't.

10. "Blindness" - Pointless and lackadaisically directed. It wants to be deep, but it doesn't make the effort to have anything to say.