DVD Times Top 10 Films of 2008

2008 proved to be a very strong year for UK cinema with releases of a large number of high-profile films of wide appeal. This is reflected in the voting by the DVD Times team of reviewers of their Top 10 films of the year, which not only shows a higher number of votes for common films than in any previous year, but results in a distinct and almost inseparable Top 5 films of exceptional quality.

Each receiving 5 votes from the nine DVD Times reviewers polled, the Top 5 below then are ranked based on the preferential order of the votes, where an preference was expressed.

1. No Country For Old Men (5 votes)


The Coen Brothers most successful film won multiple awards in 2008, but caused a lot of debate and division among the contributors and readers of DVD Times. Their dark and reflective look at a nation built on violence and greed however tops our end-of-year poll with more first preference votes than any other film.


2. There Will Be Blood (5 votes)


Coming in second in our end-of-year poll, Paul Thomas Anderson’s oil mining epic took a different approach to the theme of the founding values of the American nation and found a no less powerful conflict in the struggle to reconcile the twin gods of money and religion.


3. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (5 votes)


New York artist Julian Schnabel’s immersed the viewer into the world of fashion-designer Jean-Dominique Bauby – marvellously played by Mathieu Almaric – completely paralysed and locked into his own body after a major stroke, and made it a profoundly moving and life-affirming experience.


4. WALL-E (5 votes)


The world’s premier animation studio Pixar succeeded once again in delighting children and adults alike, using the unlikely pairing of a couple of silent mechanised robots to highlight essential human values that are in danger of being lost in a maybe not-so-distant future world.


5. The Dark Knight (5 votes)


With some of the most exciting action sequences seen on the screen this year, shot on IMAX cameras, and a mesmerising performance from the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, Christopher Nolan raised the Batman franchise to a new level and pummelled the DVD Times team into voting it fifth in their films of the year.


Individual Lists

Mike Sutton 1 No Country For Old Men 2 In The Valley Of Elah 3 WALL-E 4 The Orphanage 5 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street 6 Rambo 7 Hellboy II –The Golden Army 8 Juno 9 The Cottage 10 Before The Devil Knows You're Dead

John White 1 Sparrow 2 No Country For Old Men 3 A L'intérieur 4 Mad Detective 5 La fille coupée en deux 6 [REC] 7 Sukiyaki Western Django 8 The Mist 9 Frontièr(e)s 10 Machine Girl

Noel Megahey 1 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days 2 Import/Export 3 There Will Be Blood 4 Summer Hours 5 The Diving Bell And The Butterfly 6 Tropic Thunder 7 The Mist 8 Quantum of Solace 9 The Fall 10 Mongol

Clydefro Jones 1 Wendy and Lucy 2 WALL-E 3 Reprise 4 The Visitor 5 The Dark Knight 6 Mad Detective 7 Man On Wire 8 The Wrestler 9 In Bruges 10 Burn After Reading

Alan North 1 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days 2 There Will Be Blood 3 WALL-E 4 No Country For Old Men 5 Changeling 6 [REC] 7 In Bruges 8 The Dark Knight 9 Cloverfield 10 Ghost Town

Roger Keen 1 The Diving Bell And The Butterfly 2 In Bruges 3 Lust, Caution 4 There Will Be Blood 5 Female Agents 6 The Duchess 7 The Dark Knight 8 Tropic Thunder 9 In The Valley Of Elah 10 Changeling

Matt Shingleton 1 No Country For Old Men 2 The Diving Bell And The Butterfly 3 John Adams 4 There Will Be Blood 5 In Bruges 6 The Dark Knight 7 WALL-E 8 The Orphanage 9 Be Kind Rewind 10 Mongol

Dave Foster -- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street -- Sukiyaki Western Django -- The Orphanage -- Lars and the Real Girl -- The Diving Bell And The Butterfly -- A L'intérieur -- The Dark Knight -- WALL-E -- Sparrow -- Changeling

Gary Couzens -- The Baader Meinhof Complex -- Changeling -- The Diving Bell And The Butterfly -- Happy-Go-Lucky -- Hunger -- No Country For Old Men -- The Savages -- There Will Be Blood -- Waltz with Bashir -- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931) reissue