The James Logan Courier

By Jacqueline Truong, Courier Staff Writer

As we count the days of the new year of 2007, so, too, are we counting down the top ten movies of 2006. In retrospect, most of the movies on my list are actually quite profound if not depressing. From the emergence of a major 9/11 film, such as "World Trade Center," to a tragic tale of a father trying to make ends meet as he and his son face the harsh reality of the world in "Pursuit of Happyness," indeed, this year's indelible movies give a new meaning to an old-fashioned good time at the movies. Without further ado, here begins the count down...

1. X-Men III: The Last Stand
This action film focuses on the battle between Professor Charles Xavier's X-men and Magneto's Brotherhood when a cure is finally discovered to treat these genetic mutations and, eventually, eliminating it entirely.


2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Johnny Depp's character as Captain Jack Sparrow endeavors eternal damnation when his life is indebted to Davey Jones, a lengendary captain of the ghostly ship. Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann must save Captain Sparrow once again.

3. World Trade Center
This heroic film, a tale of true heroes, shows all of us that, in the midst of after the tragedy of 9/11, hope continues to exist if we continue to have faith; faith is the driving force behind each of the heroes' faith that under each piece of rubble they will find someone alive. As long as we all have faith we shall never give up in fighting against terrorism.

4. Volver
Pedro Almodovar's film serves as a celebration of womanhood whose main plot is about three generations of women trying to console one another and trying to survive as each of them face their own hardship. Almodovar intricately weaves tragedy and comedy together that one can hardly notice how one is drawn to this emotional story.

5. The Departed
This thriller revolves around the Massachusetts State Police and the Irish mafia gang trying to pinpoint the mole and discovering their identity when a gangster from the Irish Mafia gang infiltrates the police force and, at the same time, a police officer, from the Massachusetts State Police, infiltrates the gang.

6. Babel
Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett's performances are just riveting in this tragic film, which interlocks the lives of a married couple visiting the Moroccan desert with the six other families's lives.

7. An Inconvenient Truth
Al Gore's documentary sheds light on the reality of global warming; it enlightens us about the growing proble of global warming that continues to grow worldwide each day.

8. Blood Diamond
In the midst of a civil war and chaos during the 1990's in Sierra Leone, a South African mercenary, a Mende fisherman, and a smuggler work together to gain possession of a priceless, pink diamond, which can change their lives completely.

9. Pursuit of Happyness
Chris Gardener struggles to survive with his son when his wife abandons the family, steering Gardener's life in a new direction as he pursues a new way of life as a professional broker.

10. Pan's Labyrinth
Taking place during the 1940's in Spain, this film shifts between two worlds; it focuses on a young girl, who moves with her pregnant mother and her new husband. The young girl tends to shift from the real world to her own imaginary world because her only way to cope the repression of post-war facism is to stay in the world she has created for herself in order to escape from the the harsh real world.