What was the biggest letdown of 2008? Midnight Meat Train. I went in expecting some sort of crazy killer action film by Ryuhei Kitamura (come on, Versus? Alive? He has some of the best pointless sci-fi action flicks) and Clive Barker. Instead, I got some weird creature film. I can't say much more without spoiling it, but I can tell you two things: the acting is terrible, and the plot is incredibly cheesy - not even cheesy in the fun 70's sci-fi way, but in the "we tried way too hard to be original and failed miserably at it" way.
Now, for the unexpected jewel of 2008... Son of Rambow! It was originally released in early 2007, but it didn't make it over here to the U.S. until May of this year. Not only did the film have an original plot, but every single person in it could act! Shock! The leading stars, Bill Milner and Will Poulter, had better acting skills than most Hollywood actors. All the characters were interesting and had many dimensions, something I've rarely seen in the films of 2008. When a character was mean or rude, the roots of that rebellion and behavior were always explained. I'm happy to hear that Poulter will be in the next Narnia movie, and hope he'll make a great addition to the otherwise boring main cast (seriously, without Eddie Izzard and Warwick Davis, Prince Caspian might not have had any redeeming qualities).Well, there you have it, my letdown and unexpected jewels of 2008 - surprise, no foreign language films!
