I can't say I've watched even 1/20 of the movies that were released this year. However, most of them I would have hated.

Some of them are still on my to-watch-as-soon-as-I-can list, such as "Babel," "Flags Of Our Fathers," "The Queen" and "The Departed."

But, my list of the best movies of 2006 really includes movies from 2005 and 2006 that I happened to have watched this year. I'm not aiming for mega-credibility here. I'm just a guy in need of a good list.

Hell, my list for next year is likely to include a bunch of 2006 movies that I watch next year. However, I draw the line at the 24-month timeframe. A boy has to have standards.

In the interest of full-disclosure, here are the 2005-06 movies I watched this year for the first time:

2006

Grandma's Boy

Clerks II

Little Miss Sunshine

The Matador

The Devil Wears Prada

Thank You For Smoking

Failure To Launch

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for
Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

You, Me & Dupree

The Pursuit of Happyness

Rocky Balboa

Snakes On A Plane

2005

Wedding Crashers

Rumor Has It

Syriana

The Longest Yard

Kicking & Screaming

The Weather Man

Good Night & Good Luck

Fever Pitch

The Upside of Anger

Diary Of A Mad Black Woman

That's 22 movies from the past two years, not including some older movies my buddy T made me watch as part of my continuing film education. I'm too embarrassed to say what he made me watch only because it would sap what miniscule credibility I had left.

However, the 10 movies from this bunch that I picked were top-notch. Movies I would not only recommend, but I'd also buy if given the chance and a good price.

So, here goes. Academy, take note:

10. Clerks II -- One of my cinematic joys this year was to introduce one of my brothers to the Kevin Smith series. This sequel to the 1993 classic was way better than expected, although -- really -- all of Kevin Smith's movies are fun, funny, raunchy, well written, classic.

Even though Daunte and Randall are a bit older and pudgier, it still works. Funny as hell. Plus, they leave the door way open for a Clerks III, so even better.

9. The Pursuit of Happyness -- Will Smith's work in this movie makes an ordinary movie really on the brink of great. I don't think most folks will consider this movie great; however, I separate the whole movie from Smith's performance. Plus, the understated way the movie ends is not only incredibly moving, it's really much smarter and classier than you'd expect from a very mainstream sort of movie. There's no doubt this movie will be featured on cable networks about a billion times over the next 10-20 years.

8. Thank You For Smoking -- First, I've seen Aaron Eckhart in several movies, including "In The Company of Men," which was a brilliant little indy film about a couple of terrible guys who lead this secretary into thinking that one of them loves her.

In this movie, Eckhart plays a pro-tobacco lobbyist who is at once quite funny but also damned smart and right on-point, socially, I think with regards to how tobacco is vilified in this country. You can hate tobacco all you want or smoke like a chimney, but you can't watch this movie and not think there is more than an air of truth to what Eckhart's character represents. And, like in The Pursuit of Happyness, Eckhart struggles with being a good father under unique circumstances.

7. Grandma's Boy -- This is a low-budget Adam Sandler-financed juvenile comedy about an older dude who works as a video-game developer, who happens to live with his grandmother. It's funny, raunchy and disturbing at times, such as when Shirley Jones and some teenager get it on -- although, Jones ain't exactly the ugliest 70-year-old woman on the planet.

Erase that thought.

Nevertheless, it's a movie I could watch another 20-25 times, easily. I probably will as soon as my buddy T buys it.

6. Borat -- I'll spare my typing fingers the rest of the title. By now, you probably know what this movie was all about. This comedian fools folks into acting like idiots. It's crude, crass, funny as hell and brilliant. Underneath the raunchiness and the idiocy is some social commentary I think, particularly when one considers how stupid people are willing to act and speak when they think the camera is merely shooting footage for a "foreign documentary."

To be honest, I don't think time will treat this movie as well as, let's say, "Grandma's Boy," which I think will be a big sorta-cult hit for the next couple of decades.

5. Fever Pitch -- This 2005 release featured Jimmy Fallon in a leading role, which turns most moviegoers off right there. However, this love story about a guy and his baseball team, intermingled with his love for a girl, was simple, charming, goofy and well received by reviewers.

I'm a sucker for a good baseball movie. I was never that endeared by "Field of Dreams" because I don't equate baseball to some emptiness inside or some desire to reconnect with a relative. Baseball is about passion and joy, and both are so well represented in "Fever Pitch." Those who refuse to see it because the normally lame Fallon is in it are just missing out.

4. The Matador -- Pierce Brosnin plays an assassin who is losing his mind. He loves his booze, his hookers and he hoodwinks Greg Kinnear into helping him pull off one last hit. The writing is fierce and biting and supremely dark. Lots of references to deviance, and I loved it. The whole movie. And, the references to deviance.

3. The Weather Man -- I had been holding off on watching this movie about a weather man (not a meteorologist) whose life is just on a downward spiral because I hadn't heard one person say anything about it. It was like the movie that was always there in the new releases section of Blockbuster but that nobody ever had a word about, one way or the other.

Rent it, already! Look, I love dark, happy-as-cancer movies, and Nicholas Cage's character being tortured by Michael Caine is beautiful. Caine was brilliant in this, and the humor is highly cringe-worthy. Two words for you: Camel toe.

2. Little Miss Sunshine -- Widely considered to be the best comedy of 2006, Greg Kinnear, Steve Carrell and Alan Arkin head up an impeccable cast, a family headed to Redondo Beach, Calif., to support a little girl (played by Abigail Breslin) in a beauty pageant.

The girl isn't beautiful, really, by pageant standards, but the family is at once dysfunctional and sweet. Oh, but the girl IS talented, as you'd see in what is probably the funniest scene I've seen all year. Let's just say that her heroin-addicted grandfather (played by Arkin) was her talent coach.

It's worth it just for the ending, but the whole thing is worth skipping a rent and heading for a buy. And, Steve Carrell is stellar. This is the type of movie that will stand by "Raising Arizona," "Harold & Maude" and "Rushmore" as a film that people either love or think is supremely weird.

I thought it was brilliant, although I do use that term a bit much.

1. Rocky Balboa -- Technically, No. 4, 3 and 2 are probably significantly superior to the Rocky finale. However, I've seen it twice now, and the sixth installment of the Rocky Balboa series is not only respectful of the original Rocky, to which it alludes a ton, it's also among the very most moving sports movies I've ever seen.

I wrote about it a bit on Saturday, but really I don't have the time to do it much justice. There are some obvious flaws in the movie, I think, based on the integration of a ton of pop-culture references and personalities (from HBO and ESPN).

However, as much as I love the underdog role Sly Stallone played in 1976, I love even more that this is a movie most people are chuckling at as some sort of vehicle for Stallone's desperation. Truth is, there is probably some fact underlying that sentiment. It really is like Stallone was looking for that one last cinematic comeback, to go out on a high note -- film-wise.

I'll say this now, and you can call me a genius when it happens. Do NOT be surprised when this gets a nomination for Best Picture in a month or so. The vast majority of reviewers loved this movie. I also think there will be a groundswell of support for Stallone's work in this series, overall, good and bad, as well as a deep appreciation for his success in recreating a movie with so much respect for the original.

There's no chance this movie should win Best Picture. Not with "The Queen" and "Babel" and the Eastwood films out there -- all of which I'll see soon enough.

However, if this movie does get nominated, and I think there is definitely an outside chance of it, then it would be foolish to count it out come Oscar time.

Maybe it shows I need to watch a more serious variety of films. Maybe it shows what a sap I am, but pound-for-pound, it was the most enjoyable movie I saw this past year.

Side note: How would Rocky Balboa fare in a list of my favorite sports movies? I'll put together a more comprehensive list sometime, but right now, I'm thinking it would go: 1. Rocky, 2. Hoosiers, 3. Tin Cup, 4. Major League, 5. Friday Night Lights, 6. Rocky Balboa, 7. White Men Can't Jump, 8. A League Of Their Own, 9. For The Love Of The Game, 10. The Longest Yard (original).