Jaynes Top 10 Films of 2006: The Honorable Mentions

It’s getting to be that time of year again.
Jayne’s top films of the year! I’ve spent the last couple of weeks working on my top list, and I’m just about ready to start the countdown. But first, I’m going to give a shout out to the honorable mentions. I got this list whittled down to 18 films, before I really struggled to narrow the list, so here are the films that just missed the cut (in no particular order):

Snakes on a Plane: Okay...this is not great cinema. It’s not even good cinema. But it is a great popcorn flick. You’ve got snakes. You’ve got a plane. And you’ve got a pissed off Sam Jackson in the middle of it all cursing up a storm, kicking ass and taking names. No film this year more perfectly delivered on what it claimed to be. Seeing this film on opening night reminded me of seeing “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” for the first time. People were screaming back at the screen, throwing snakes, running around, and it worked. Films like this are a very rare thing, and I think this flick will be around for a very long time.

Jackass 2: This movie is on here for one reason: I laughed my ass off for the entire 90 minutes. If a movie can do that, then it deserves some recognition no matter how juvenile the flick may be. Every time you thought things couldn’t get weirder/grosser/funnier, it does.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated: The best documentary I saw all year. The film is an expose’ of how the MPAA works. I was really amazed with the level of secrecy within the association. They won’t tell you why a film got the rating it did (outside of vague generalities), they won’t tell you who gave it the rating (The director actually hires a private eye to track these people down) and they won’t tell you what you can do to get a different rating. The film is very entertaining and funny, and takes its best turn when director Kirby Dick submits the documentary for rating to the MPAA. How surprised will you be to hear it received an NC-17?

V For Vendetta: An excellent comic book adaptation. The Wachowski brothers took a dense expansive graphic novel and turned it into a 2 hour script that managed to capture the essence & tone of the source material. Natalie Portman was an inspired piece of casting, and she was amazing (And the infamous SNL rap is an Easter egg on the DVD). But the real show stopper of the film is Hugo Weaving as V. To be able to pull off a layered performance without the use of facial expression is really something to behold, and personally I think he should be considered for an Oscar nomination.

The Descent: When did the English get so good at horror movies? Between this film and Danny Boyle with "28 Days Later", they're running away with top notch, suspenseful horror. This film keeps the audience guessing, and doesn’t fall into any of the normal horror cliché’s. The cast are made up of strong characters, and the filmmaker really captures the feeling of claustrophobia. This was probably the hardest movie to cut from my top list.

Clerks 2: I’m a Kevin Smith fan. I’m sure that doesn’t come off as a surprise given Smith is an uber-geek filmmaker. Still, I can admit that “Jersey Girl” sucked, and that “Jay & Silent Bob Strikes Back” was silly more than anything else. With Clerks 2, Smith comes back to form. It’s not high art, but it’s entertaining. A funny, funny movie.

Scanner Darkly: This is a tough film. Part “Slacker”, part “Requiem for a Dream” and “Part Blade Runner”, it really makes the audience work at figuring out just what the hell is happening, and what it all means. Still, I found this movie fascinating. And I love the roto-scoping Technique that director Richard Linklater first pioneered in “Waking Life”. The story is a little erratic, but I found it entertaining (I realize I’m kind of in the minority on this film), and I really enjoyed the twist ending.

Tomorrow the MCP's top film list of 2006 begins!