Top 10 Films of 2008

We finish off the CurryPopTart Best of 2008 list with the Top 10 Films of 2008.  2008 was a pretty solid year for film with a good mix of Hollywood blockbuster’s and critically acclaimed independent film’s.  If you have not yet seen one of the film’s on this list, you should do so immediately, this is the cream of the crop:

(1)  The Dark Knight

Batman films have always been the highlight  of the superhero genre, but The Dark Knight takes it a step further breaking into the main stream as not only a great superhero film, but a great crime film as well.  Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker was much hyped and as a rarity was able to surpass it’s expectations.  The film is giving ”Titanic” a run for its money, which is no easy task these days.  There is a lot of Oscar talk surrounding this flick and it surely was the best movie of 08.

(2)  Iron Man

Robert Downey Jr. seems to be a common thread in the top 10 list this year.  Iron Man is his true big break in getting back in Hollywood’s good graces and something tells me he won’t have to worry too much about job security for the future.   Downey is a perfect Tony Stark and Jon Favreau does a great job of bringing the Iron Man story to the big screen, yet still keeping it fresh for today’s audience.  Iron Man is the second best comic book movie and one of the best of ‘08.

(3)  Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire has been winning awards left and right and deservably so.  The story is about a poor Indian kid played by newcomer Dev Patel, who finds himself as a contestant in the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.”  After winning 10 million rupee’s he is questioned to how a teenager from the ghetto could possibly know the answers to these hard questions.  The story is told through flashbacks of his life growing up in the ghetto and that his real life experiences are what helped him get the answers right.  There is also a love story intertwined in the plot and a lot of social commentary on India’s lack of a middle class, as it is very wealthy and very poor with no in between.  Slumdog Millionaire is a sleeper pick for 2008.

(4)  Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder was a return to form for Ben Stiller as this has been a passion project of his for over the last 10 years.  The script was written by Stiller and rising superstar writer Justin Theroux about a war movie that gets a bit too real.  Robert Downey Jr. steals the show playing an African American seargent and cameo’s by Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey really added some extra humor.  With some deeper Hollywood undertones in the film, Tropic Thunder was a delight to all comedy fans.

Music Biz Looks to Internet For Revival

Last week we reported on Warner Music Group pulling their material off of YouTube and I said how major labels should look at sites like Hulu to create a new business model.  Well as predicted, Hulu is expected to sign a deal with WMG for videos of its artists.  If this does indeed prove to be true, than it would be a major shift in how the record industry works.  Advertisers are more drawn to a site like Hulu over YouTube because it is more professional with its content.  YouTube is the wild west of videos and viewers will surely be open to a streamlined site with everything that they’re looking for without worrying about mislabeled inappropriate content or getting “rickrolled.”   The Financial Times has more on this story.

Week 17 NFL Picks

Adi:

STL @ ATL | NE @ BUF | KC @ CIN | CHI @ HOU | NYG @ MIN | CAR @ NO | CLE @ PIT | OAK @ TB | TEN @ IND | DET @ GB | JAC @ BAL | SEA @ ARI | WAS @ SF | MIA @ NYJ | DAL @ PHI | DEN @ SD

Brian:

STL @ ATL | NE @ BUF | KC @ CIN | CHI @ HOU | NYG @ MIN | CAR @ NO | CLE @ PIT | OAK @ TB | TEN @ IND | DET @ GB | JAC @ BAL | SEA @ ARI | WAS @ SF | MIA @ NYJ | DAL @ PHI | DEN @ SD

News and Notes

Myspace has announced its top 10 bands of 2008 and surprisingly The Gorillaz take the number one spot.  I know they’re huge oversea’s and that must have contributed a lot to this number but its strange to see the biggest Myspace band of the year being one that didn’t release any new material.

2008’s Most Popular Musical Acts on MySpace were:

Gorillaz (682,875 friends)
Bullet for My Valentine (596,885 friends)
Amy Winehouse (542,268 friends)
Coldplay (525,110 friends)
Lily Allen (462,159 friends)
MIA. (399,858 friends)
Oasis (353,484 friends)
Imogen Heap (351,484 friends)

- Starting Sunday you will be able to buy the Iphone from WalMart.  The price, with a new two-year service agreement with AT&T (or qualified upgrade), is $197 for the black 8GB model and $297 for the black or white 16GB version.  While the WalMart savings is only $2 compared to the AT&T store, I wouldn’t feel as if this site was doing its duty if I didn’t tell our viewers to NOT buy the phone. 

Top 10 Box Office Grosses for 2008

The top 10 biggest box office film of 2008 have been announced and theres no real big surprise. Dark Knight takes the lead by over 200+ million and theres a quite a few family friendly kid flicks to round out the bottom half of the list. CurryPopTart’s Top 10 Film’s of 2008 will be up early next week so keep checking back.

(1) The Dark Knight – $530,750,228
(2) Iron Man – $318,313,199
(3) Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – $317,023,851
(4) Hancock – $227,946,274
(5) Wall-E – $223,749,872
(6) Kung Fu Panda – $215,434,591
(7) Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa – $172,332,000
(8) Quantum of Solace – $161,300,000
(9) Twilight – $158,461,000
(10) Horton Hears A Who – $154,529,439

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas to the white devil, Happy Hanukah to the jews, and Happy Kwanzaa to the brotha’s.  CurryPopTart will only be updating sporadically through the holidays but do keep checking back for our Top 10 Films of 2008 and some reviews of the big movies opening on Christmas Day.  Anything you can do to help spread the word on this site will be greatly appreciated.  Have a great holiday!

Top 10 Albums of 2008

2008 won’t go down as a very memorable year in music as quite frankly, there just weren’t that many great albums.  A lot of the big stuff has been pushed back into ‘09 and we were under a constant barrage of radio friendly pop and rap.  But in this wave of garbage, we here at CurryPopTart have been able to find 10 gem’s that would make perfect stocking stuffers:

(1) T.I. – Paper Trail

We’ve tracked this album all year with heavy anticipation.  T.I. wrote the whole thing under house arrest and it is his realest, most genuine, and down to earth piece of work to date.  With so many big singles and collaborations with the biggest names in the business, Paper Trail was an underrated album that is deserving of a top spot.  This record will make you a T.I. fan if you were not one before.

 (2) Lil Wayne – The Carter III

Lil Wayne claims to be the greatest rapper alive, and this album is certainly sending him well on his way.  The Carter III makes no bones about being a catchy club friendly record with tons of hooks and production.  Weezy dropped some major singles in ‘08 including “Lollipop”, “Got Money”, and “A Milli.”  The Carter III will be a tough record to follow up and was one of the best of 2008.

 (3) Metallica – Death Magnetic

After the absolutely abysmal “St. Anger” in 2004, and a litany of problems between band members, Metallica is BACK in 2008.  “Death Magnetic” is a true return to form for the once heavy metal rockers.  The riffs, drum beats, and vocals are all classic Metallica and every hardcor fan has came around realizing that the boys still have it.  Stand out tracks are “The Day That Never Comes”, “My Apocalypse”, and “All Nightmare Long.”

  (4) Kanye West - 808’s and Heartbreak

Kanye West comes in fourth fittingly with his fourth major studio album.  Kanye was once a producer for greats like Jay Z before stepping behind the mic himself.  This record is a strong mix of his production skills and his ability as a singer as every song is emotional and full of pain from losing a mother and breaking up with his fiancee in the same year.  This is NOT a rap album so much as it is a record full of hip hop love songs.  Stand out tracks are “Heartless” and ”Love Lockdown.”

Warner Music pulls all vid’s off Youtube

Warner Music Group ordered YouTube on Saturday to remove all music videos by its artists from the popular online video-sharing site after contract negotiations broke down.

The order could affect hundreds of thousands of videos clips, as it covers Warner Music’s recorded artists as well as the rights for songs published by its Warner/Chappell unit, which includes many artists not signed to Warner Music record labels.

The talks fell apart early on Saturday because Warner wants a bigger share of the huge revenue potential of YouTube’s massive visitor traffic. There were no reports on what Warner was seeking.

“We simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate recording artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide,” Warner said in a statement.

YouTube is hugely popular, with more than 100 million viewers in the United States alone in October, according to comScore, a Web audience measurement firm.

Warner Music, home to artists including Red Hot Chili Peppers and rapper T.I., was the first major media company to negotiate a deal with YouTube in 2006. Its executives believe that deal gave the site legitimacy in the eyes of search giant Google Inc (GOOG.O) which bought it soon after for $1.65 billion.

As part of the original 2006 negotiation, Warner, Universal Music and Sony Music all took small stakes in YouTube pre-acquisition and profited when the Google acquisition closed.

The music companies typically get paid a share of any advertising revenue associated with the video and a per-play payment for every video viewed. The per-play fee is usually a fraction of a penny and with millions visiting YouTube everyday it was all expected to add up to a substantial amount.

But a source familiar with Warner Music’s talks said the amounts it has been receiving from YouTube were “staggeringly low”.

I think record labels are starting to get to the root of the problem. The main way that I personally listen to music now is through Youtube. It’s so easy to type in the song or artist you want and get lost in dozens of videos many which are rare or live. These artists should be getting reimbursed in some way and a conglomaerate like Google (owners of Youtube) certainly have the financial resources. Let’s not forget about the big advertising bucks they are getting.

With cd’s becoming virtually obsolete at a rapid pace, and with music being the lowest bought entertainment product this past Black Friday, seeing a 10-30% drop from last year at certain retailers, its clear that record companies need to act fast to save what little they still can. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the big ones like Sony and Universal teaming up to create a musical version of Hulu which is the site NBC, CBS, FOX created to stop consumers from getting their shows from sources where they could not profit. In the end, Hulu has become popular and well liked amongst users and I think if the labels can do something similar it could possibly compete with Itunes and yet still give users the content they desire for free.

NFL Week 16 Picks

Adi:

IND @ JAC | BAL @ DAL | CIN @ CLE | PIT @ TEN | SF @ STL | SD @ TB | NO @ DET | MIA @ KC | ARI @ NE | BUF @ DEN | NYJ @ SEA | HOU @ OAK | ATL @ MIN | PHI @ WAS | CAR @ NYG | GB @ CHI

Brian:

IND @ JAC | BAL @ DAL | CIN @ CLE | PIT @ TEN | SF @ STL | SD @ TB | NO @ DET | MIA @ KC | ARI @ NE | BUF @ DEN | NYJ @ SEA | HOU @ OAK | ATL @ MIN | PHI @ WAS | CAR @ NYG | GB @ CHI

Vote for the Best of 2008

So far here on CurryPopTart we’ve unveiled the top 10 video games, top 10 songs, and top video of ‘08. The two categories left on our list are the big ones… Top 10 Albums of 2008 and Top 10 Film’s of 2008.

For categories that big.. we need help. We want you to vote for your favorite Album’s and Movie’s of 2008 by commenting on this post or if you would like to keep it anonymous send in your votes to Adi@currypoptart.com the deadline is this SUNDAY DECEMBER 21.

Tell a friend or two as well and keep checking back starting next week for the results. Let the voting begin!