"The best of its breed." —Judith Crist

VideoHound's GOLDEN MOVIE RETRIEVER 2006

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MOVIES ON VIDEOCASSETTE AND DVD

"It simply doesn't get any better than this."
—Library Journal

Reality bites.

Except when we're talking about recent movies. Some of the biggest, most talked-about, highest-grossing, and well-regarded films of the year dealt in some way with reality. Hollywood (and its foreign counterparts) decided to keep it real, coupling an inordinate amount of high-profile documentaries with a run of quality, topical biopics and true-life stories. The Aviator, Martin Scorsese's film detailing Howard Hughes's rise to success in Hollywood and the aviation industry; Ray, the long-awaited biopic of the late, great Ray Charles; The Motorcycle Diaries, the story of Che Guevara's life changing road trip as a young adult; and Hotel Rwanda, the heart-wrenching story of hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina's struggle to save his family and a group of refugees from genocide in Rwanda, were all critically praised and award-winning examples of the movie industry's ability to recognize a good story when it reads one. Other biopics of note this year included Kinsey, Beyond the Sea, Baadassss, and Finding Neverland.

The Presidential election brought with it plenty of partisan acrimony, and much of it spilled into the local megaplexes. Most had a decidedly anti-Republican, anti-George W. Bush slant. They were led, of course, by Michael Moore's controversial (to put it mildly) Fahrenheit 9/11. The box-office success of Fahrenheit 9/11 opened the door for other political docs to vent their spleen, including, but not limited to, Bush's Brain, The Fog of War, Uncovered: The War in Iraq, and Control Room.

Presidential politics wasn't the only target of documentarians (it just seemed like it for a few months). Big business, a close ally of Bush and the G.O.P., probably didn't like being the focus of many a trained camera, either. Morgan Spurlock took on McDonald's with his enlightening and ultimately life-threatening experiment Super Size Me. The Corporation looked at Corporate America's collective personality and found it lacking in basic human niceties, and Outfoxed charged Fox News with being, basically, the Bush Administration's propaganda arm.

Not all the documentaries were about boring things like politics and big business, though. Some were about rock groups not getting along (Metallica: Some Kind of Monster), inventing punk (End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones), or partying on a train (Festival Express). Some important non-U.S. docs this year included Born into Brothels, S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machines, and Story of the Weeping Camel.

Although non-fiction made a huge impact this past year, there was plenty of stuff springing from the minds of screen-writers, too. While much of it dealt, excellently, with real-life issues in a true to life way (Million Dollar Baby, Maria Full of Grace, The Sea Inside, Garden State), there was plenty of fun, spectacle, and fantasy if you wanted to get away from all that nasty realism and reality. Let's face it, watching rockers fight over, well, anything, or seeing grownups running around in tights (as long as they're not in some weird Cirque de Soleil performance piece) is usually more fun than realizing how crappy the world can be sometimes. Luckily, superheroes were again a big part of the cinematic year, for good (Spider-Man 2, The Incredibles) and bad (Catwoman, Elektra). In fact, Incredibles was so good, it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay, while Catwoman coughed up a bunch of Golden Raspberries (which Halle Berry showed up personally to collect). Spider-Man 2 represented the best-case scenario in both the superhero and sequel genres, while clunkers like ScoobyDoo 2 illustrated why it's not too wise to go to the adaptation well too many times. Here's hoping that The Incredibles and the upcoming Batman Begins and Fantastic Four revive the hit-and-miss comic book adaptation/superhero genre and return it to its pre-Joel Schumacher glory.

What's that? What other non-reality based movies were popular this year? Well, we thought you'd never ask! Sideways scored big with its little story of a couple of middle-aged guys on a last-fling road trip through wine country. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind showed that Jim Carrey loves to go over the top (and can still pull it off), but he can also play it low-key and shine, as well (we'll let you figure out which movie proved which point). Collateral (combined with Ray) solidified this as Jamie Foxx's best year ever. Shrek 2 helped The Incredibles bolster animation's clout as a Hollywood player, while Troy and Alexander did nothing for the sword-and-sandal epic.

Speaking of epics, it's time to talk about this great new edition of VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever. C'mon, you knew we'd get around to tooting our own horn sooner or later. Our fifteenth edition features all the irreverence, information, indexes, and instant crossword puzzle help and trivia answers you've come to expect. You want new categories? Then you've come to the right place! We taxed our brains (and you know how painful that can be) to come up with new ones like "Taxing Situations," and "Brainwashed." Not to mention "Bats" (for our belfry), "Blackout" (not the passing out kind), and "Midlife Crisis" (not that a 15-year-old dog would know anything about that), "Slasher Flicks" (you know, for the kids), and "Veterinarians" (we are ambivalent about them, obviously). We looked on a map and saw that there were more places where movies are set, so we added "Dallas," "New Jersey," "Wisconsin," "San Diego," and while we were down that way, "Tijuana." We give, and we give, and we give, and we ask so little in return! Just $24.95, plus tax! As always, if you have questions, comments, category suggestions, compliments, points to make, or if you want to let us know that your favorite movie isn't in the book, feel free to drop us a line. Although you should know that if it isn't in the book, it doesn't mean we're idiots (there are other reasons for that), it might just mean that particular movie isn't available on video or DVD yet, or it came out after our editorial deadline. Anyway, here's where we are, which is, as always, still where we get our mail:

VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever
27500 Drake Rd.
Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535

or email at jim.craddock@thomson.com