What were the best movies of the year? What were the worst letdowns? Peter Travers explains what was so great about Gus Van Sant's Milk, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire and Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight — and why 007 flick Quantum of Solace, hideous epic Australia and vampire love story Twilight were massive cinematic bummers.

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David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an early Oscar frontrunner, but Peter Travers has some critical words for Brad Pitt's new film. What's better? The depressing but brilliant Revolutionary Road, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. Plus, the final scumbucket of 2008: Adam Sandler's nauseating Bedtime Stories and Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson's dog Marley & Me. Full the full report — and Travers' last "aye, chihuahua!" of the year — click above.

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Photo:Doane Gregory
That would be three days actually—a Friday, Saturday and Sunday that amassed $31 million cash money for the inane, critically savaged Keanu Reeves remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still. If that weren't bad enough, Fox studios and a privately owned celestial communications network came up with an even stupider publicity campaign to hype the movie about an alien (Reeves) who visits earth to destroy us for destroying the planet through global warming. They utilized equipment at Cape Canaveral to beam the movie to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth. Experts say it will take four years to receive the transmission. If there is life on Alpha Centauri, lord knows what revenge they might enact in 2012 for inflicting this crap on them. Me, I rushed home after the screening to watch the original Day the Earth Stood Still on DVD, in sparkling black-and-white, to get the bad taste out of my mouth. Am I wrong? Did you find something to like about the remake? I'm all ears.

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There's an eclectic batch of films hitting the cinemas this weekend, including the Ron Howard-directed adaptation of the Peter Morgan play Frost/Nixon and the birth of rock and roll biopic Cadillac Records, which stars Beyoncé. Click above to see which movie Peter Travers thinks you should spend you movie money on this weekend, and stick around to drop kick Four Christmases into the scum bucket.

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Photo: New Line Cinema

Is it possible to see Four Christmases and actually like it? Next week's box-office grosses will tell. Maybe word of mouth will be so bad that audiences will wise up and stay away. No knock on moviegoers for being curious. If you build a comedy—even a lousy one— with sass man Vince Vaughn and Oscar winning cutiepie Reese Witherspoon, they will come. And did they ever! The heavy-handed, holiday farce grossed a whopping $46.7 million for the Thanksgiving weekend, driving the vegan vampires of Twilight to $39 million and second place. The Twi-hards must have traded in multiple viewings for turkey and leftovers since the vamp epic declined a steep 62 percent from its opening week. Girls, get back out there—Twilight needs your help. Stupid movies, from Max Payne to Beverly Hills Chihuahua, have been topping the box-office for months with each studio claiming bragging rights. It's got to stop. No way does being No. 1 translate into being good. So fight back. I need to hear from those of you who shelled out hard cash for Four Christmases. Did you feel satisfied or scammed? Don't mince words.