You’re the Best of the Class this Year…

For the past year or so I have been keeping a log of all the movies, books and media I have consumed throughout the year and giving personal ratings for everything. I can now present you with my top ranked items for the year of our Lord, 2006!

My only rule for adding things to the list are that I have to have not seen/read/played that item previously. This means my lists are filled with items that weren’t released in 2006, so don’t consider this a Best of 2006 list like you would see on other, so-called “web sites.” So without further ado, here is Robert Gomez’s favorite media of 2006:

Movies

• Deep Red (a.k.a. Profundo Rosso) (9/10)
  • Beautiful horror mystery with one of the best, and fair reveals at the end of the movie. It’s like a live action romantic painting.
• Wallace and Grommit and the Curse of the Were Rabbit (9/10)
  • Very amusing animation that doesn’t rely on American animation formulas of anthropomorphism. Lot’s of humor for adults too.
• Frenzy (9/10)
  • Hitchcock does giallo!
• Rear Window (9/10)
  • What can I say, it’s a classic.

Books

• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (10/10)
  • A great puzzle that keeps up its pace all the way to the last page
• The Fortune of War by Patrick O’Brian (9/10)
• Desolation Island by Patrick O’Brian (9/10)
  • Both of the above books are part of the Aubry/Maturin naval warfare books. These are (so far) my favorites in the series with strong, over-arching plot lines or espionage and survival and a slightly reduced emphasis on naval tactics and such.

Games

• Day of Defeat: Source (10/10)
  • My first real foray into online FPS gaming. Fast paced and forgiving for n00bs.
• Half-Life 2 (9/10)
  • A great game with some nice game play twists. I get a bit boring about 2/3 into it, but picks up again by the end.

Music

• Hello Young Lovers by Sparks (10/10)
  • A masterpiece of epic, symphonic goofiness and left-of-center pop structuring. Sparks best since Kimono my House.
• Fear Box Set by Ennio Morricone (10/10)
  • See my review in the archives.