Archive for December, 2008

All month long, we’ve been talking about the best of 2008 in movies, music, and television. Now, as ‘08 draws to a close, I wanted to leave you with my picks for the best of the best. See you next year, Buzz readers!

Top 10 Movies of 2008	The Sounds of 2008	Top 10 TV Shows of 2008
10 Greatest TV Characters of 2008	The Best Soundtrack Songs of 2008	The 10 Best TV Episodes of 2008

Why was 2008 so good for Robert Downey Jr.? Because we just couldn’t get enough of him. The man’s had a lot of career ups and downs, but this just might have been his biggest year ever.

How so? Well, let’s see. There was a little thing called Iron Man, which shot to the top of the box office as the Summer’s first true blockbuster and was basically just the most fun ever. It didn’t take long for Marvel to decide that Downey’s man-robot deserved another go-round, with Iron Man 2 already scheduled to open in May 2010 and Iron Man 3 in development, too. Oh, and Tony Stark’s also going to be showing up in The Avengers, making RDJ one of the busiest superheroes on the block.

But that’s not all. He also took on a role that could have been incredibly controversial or just bad, an awards-obsessed actor who physically changed his skin to play a back man — and pulled it off perfectly. Tropic Thunder became Downey’s second box office winner of the Summer — and this time, the role nabbed him a Golden Globe nomination and your votes as the best comedic male actor of the year.

And Downey shouldn’t be falling off the radar anytime soon. Besides the Iron Man and Avengers films, he’s also signed on to play Sherlock Holmes, will be a cowboy who battles aliens, and will be back in theaters this Spring in The Soloist. It’s so good to see him back at the top of his game; here’s hoping that 2008 is just the start.

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• The Terminator will be added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. — Zap2It
• Unless a deal is struck today, Time Warner Cable subscribers will lose Viacom channels (MTV, Comedy Central, etc.) just after midnight tonight. — Variety
• Fox is looking to delay the release of Watchmen. — Reuters
• Funny Games star Michael Pitt has been cast in Martin Scorsese’s HBO pilot, Boardwalk Empire. — The Hollywood Reporter
• Duffy topped the British album charts in 2008 with Rockferry. — Reuters
• Meanwhile, Lil Wayne finished atop the US year-end charts. — Billboard
• Brothers and Sisters may be going down one brother. — Entertainment Weekly

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As 2008 winds to a close, I’m wondering if some of you have a few minutes to do me one last favor for the year. I still need a few people to take the BuzzSugar survey, so if you can help me out, read on:

You know I want to make BuzzSugar the best site it can possibly be, and that means I need to know a little more about you. After all, your comments, feedback, and loyalty are what make BuzzSugar tick. So, if you’ve got a few minutes, please take the 2008 BuzzSugar reader survey! It’s quick, it’s painless, and it’ll help me make sure I’m delivering the best, most timely, and most fun entertainment content on the web.

Just click here to get started. Thanks to everyone who’s already taken the survey, and thanks in advance to the rest of you for your help!

As you told me in my best of 2008 polls, some pretty good music came out this year. But what achieved “most played” status on my iPod this year? As we prepare to say goodbye to 2008, I’ve pulled out some of the songs that were staples in my collection. Combine these songs with the soundtrack songs from the other day, and you’ll have a pretty good sense of what came pouring through my earphones this year. To check out the list, just

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Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire isn’t the kind of movie that sits back and waits for you to fall in love with it. It doesn’t give you the chance to refuse. From the opening minutes, it washes over you, sucks you in, and spins you through a whirlwind of colors and sounds and emotions. It’s a movie that is completely, gloriously alive.

The movie centers on Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), an Indian teenager who’s poised to win 20,000,000 rupees in his country’s version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The movie opens with him kidnapped and tortured by police who want to know who’s feeding Jamal the answers. Doctors and lawyers don’t even win the way he has; how could a kid from the streets possibly know all of this? The rest of the movie unfolds around that question, as Jamal explains through flashbacks and memories how every moment of his life has brought him here.

It’s a joy to watch, but that doesn’t mean it’s an entirely joyful movie; parts of Jamal’s story are downright painful, in the same way that watching The Wire makes me ache inside. But Slumdog never falls too deeply into heartbreak. Mirroring the path of its protagonist’s life, every moment is another brick building to a perfect conclusion. For the rest of my thoughts, just

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Every other Wednesday on BuzzSugar, I post a Recast challenge, where I ask you to choose new actors for a classic TV show or movie. The reader who submits the best cast wins a BuzzSugar t-shirt!

Guess who’s coming to DVD for the first time? Oh, I guess the picture gave it away: Blossom! Seasons one and two will hit stores on Jan. 27. In light of this momentous occasion, I thought we could try our hand at recasting the show.

Who could play level-headed teen with a flair for fashion, Blossom Russo (originally played by Mayim Bialik)? And then there’s her family: Brothers Joey (“Whoa!”) and recovering alcoholic and drug addict Anthony, and their dad Nick, who’s doing the best he can to raise the three kids. Finally, the series really would not have been the same without Blossom’s energetic friend Six (played by Jenna von Oÿ who was really impressive at talking at the speed of light).

Leave your entry in the comment section below, and I’ll pick one winner to feature Tuesday, Jan. 6, complete with a “new” cast photo. To see a list of characters to recast and a photo of the BuzzSugar t-shirt,

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You’ve voted on the different categories of movies as we looked back at the best of 2008, but I’m curious to know whether you think the year in cinema was a good one overall.

Sure, some movies made a lot of money off of us this year (ahem, The Dark Knight), but when you look back on ‘08 in its entirety, do you think it delivered really great films?

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