I thought WALL-E was too repetitive of itself. I got sick of "EVA!!!" after the 100th time WALL-E said it, and I got tired of Eve shooting something after the 100th time she did it. I could provide 50 more examples of repetition in the movie, but I’ll leave it at that.

In Bruges was a fantastic film, I loved every second of it. It was horribly mismarketed, but Focus Features knows how to take that screwball comedy and give it context. The trailer made it seem like an all out laugh riot, but this was a really emotional movie with deep, interesting characters. I think I’d put it at #3 on my list so far this year:

1) Speed Racer
2) Redbelt
3) In Bruges
4) The Visitor
5) (tie) Iron Man/The Incredible Hulk

Having seen it five times, I’d say In Bruges is the best. Is it sad if Wanted might be my #2?

This is surprisingly easy for some reason. While there hav been plenty of films to like so far in 2008, there have been extremely few to love. More, the stuff that’s been awful has been truly, almost historically so. In all my years of doing film criticism I can’t remember a first six months filled with so much irredeemable garbage.

That said, here would be my choices for the top ten (so far) of 2008:

• WALL-E
• The Edge of Heaven
• 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
• The Visitor
• Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
• Standard Operating Procedure
• Kung Fu Panda
• Snow Angels
• Stop-Loss
• The Fall

Whow knows how many of these will make it to my list at the end of the year (the first four, I’m guessing), the real story is that, for as poor as 2008 has been, there have still been some incredible treasures worthy of discovery. I guess that’s something.

I missed The Visitor but I will certainly catch it on DVD, primarily because outside of WALL-E and now Heath Ledger, Richard Jenkins is the only one with Oscar buzz from the first half of the year. Oh, and I am sure Panda will get an Animated nom and others will get several below the line effects and sound noms.

There are only two movies released this year (in Norway) that have made any impression on me. While Iron Man was entertaining it wasn’t all that much. So the best movies so far this year are In Bruges at number 1 and then The Dark Knight.