For those of you not familiar with the way we do business for these annual top-ten lists, we find the words “best” and “worst” very relative. What we are sure about is whether we would pass along the knowledge to see a film or not. This list is our most recommended of 2008, from tenth up to our very most.

10. Speed Racer - Wait… they put Indy 4 in the bottom 10 and Speed Racer in the top? Yes, we did! For fans of the original show, there just wasn’t any other way to implement all the elements of the show, and if audiences can believe that plants and Keanu Reeves are coming to kill us, why not futuristic cars loaded with weapons that race in three dimensions? Sure, it was sensory overload, but what a ride!

9. The Incredible Hulk - Ignoring the Ang Lee melodrama and kicking in years of Marvel comics back story, the new Hulk never looked better.

8. Kung Fu Panda - Hey look… no environmental message, Ma! Yes, we’re sorry some people instinctively hate Jack Black, but if that’s all that’s keeping you from watching this film, it’s your loss.

7. Iron Man - The so-called second-string super hero came out swinging early and never let up, even challenging The Dark Knight for the year’s box office tally (well, up until you throw in the international take).

6. Doubt - Give great actors a good script and you’ll get an incredible movie. Give great actors a bad script and you’ll get Indy 4.

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Didn’t get what you wanted for Christmas? For New Years? For some unpronounceable Pagan holiday? Something to wear over your cool Reaper t-shirts in the cold months ahead? Dark Reaper long-sleeve sweatshirts are now in stock! How about an inky-black hoodie up to 3X with the Reaper looking out for you? You got it! And there’s even a zip-up, but sizes only go to 2X for that hoodie. Check out all the new Reaper merch and support the Undead (who are, as you know, watching and stuff…)

For those of you not familiar with the way we do business for these annual top-ten lists, we find the words “best” and “worst” very relative. What we are sure about is whether we would pass along the knowledge to see a film or not. This list is our least recommended of 2008, from tenth down to our very least.

10. Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - To quote “South Park,” we all saw what happened, and no one did anything to stop it.

9. The Love Guru - Even Jessica Alba in traditional Indian dance garb writhing for our amusement couldn’t save this mostly-miss tale that seems more like a retread of an Austin Powers script rather than an original feature.

8. Quarantine - Giving away the ending in your trailer and then expecting us to buy a ticket to see how it got there is just plain wrong.

7. The Eye - Again, why can’t Jessica Alba get a movie worthy of her ability? People forget she did two seasons of “Dark Angel” for James Cameron, and the best film she’s had out in a few years starred opposite Dane Cook. Time for a new agent?

6. One Missed Called - Another missed horror opportunity. Start with better scripts, people!

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Burn Before Watching.

After a covert agency housed deep in the Pentagon (well, just the CIA, actually) fires one of their analysts (John Malkovich), he decides to write a tell-all memoir. The disgraced analysts’ wife (Tilda Swinton) is secretly plotting to divorce her husband because of her involvement with another man (George Clooney). Unknown to the wife is that her other man trolls Internet dating sites looking for lonely women and hooking up. In the meanwhile, a gym employee (Brad Pitt) makes the assessment that a found disk is full of government secrets, and his fellow employee (Frances McDormand) decides that the only way she can pay for elective surgeries to make herself over is either by blackmailing the disk’s owner or selling the secrets to another government.

From the setup above, you’d think this was the beginning of a quirky comedic Indie thriller. And you’d be right; it is the beginning, but that’s all the further it gets since what follows seems to be whatever popped into the head’s of the writers no matter how bizarre. The one thing the movie seems especially capable of doing is stringing you along just a little farther into incoherency, making promises with small, interesting bits that somehow all of this will work out and make sense. Sadly, at the point that even that characters themselves are asking the question, “Why the hell am I still watching any of this,” the filmmakers instruct audiences through the script itself to “Just keep watching until it DOES make sense.” Trickery!

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While the script itself seems far less dire than implied in its advertising, an incredible cast elevates a good script into a great film.

The year is 1964. At the St. Nicholas Catholic school in the Bronx, Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep) is the all-rules nun to be feared, ever watchful for inequity and swifter with punishment. When Sister James (Amy Adams) brings the actions of the progressive-thinking Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to Sister Aloysius’ attention, Sister Aloysius feels there is cause to suspect Father Flynn but has no evidence with which to damn him. What follows is a game of religion, wordplay, and power, but is Sister Aloysius’ investigation of Father Flynn for the good of the school or an attempt to destroy someone simply because she doesn’t like them?

Based on the Tony award-winning play, the story is straight-forward, a quest for evidence to prove an accused priest of something unthinkable in 1964. What is called into question is the hierarchy of power in the Catholic church and whether or not there’s even a victim to the supposed crime, but what fuels the film is the delivery of biting dialog that is always a loaded trap for anyone responding to it. One particular scene defines the minefield of words the three main characters walk through as Streep attempts to size up Hoffman in the presence of Adams, each taking their turns to seize power from the other with no regard to the actual lines drawn. Watching and listening to scenes like this are riveting, and having a cast this articulate to deliver it is indeed a miracle.

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On the heels of Fox’s win of copyright infringement over Watchmen, Warner Bros. is trying to get the word out, presumably to help put pressure on Fox to make a deal and keep March 6th, 2009 as the date we all finally get to see this thing. Will it work? See for yourself.