My Year In Movies
My Top 20 Movies Of 2005
1) Serenity
A hands down winner really, though that does take into account my personal bias of just loving everything Joss Whedon writes or directs. But even without those biases I still think it would be the movie of the year. Engaging from start to finish, really well plotted, lines that had myself and the entire audience in the theatre cracking up, a really wonderful ability to play satire off the entire sci-fi genre and yet still work brilliantly as a sci-fi movie itself, the acting was all top rate, and just everything about it was exactly what a movie should be. It was great fun, it took me through all the emotions, and left me feeling like I'd seen something pretty special at the end, even after the third viewing. Just a masterpiece, and one of the best movies I've ever seen.
2) Sin City
The look of the movie is what really makes it of course, and it really is a breathtakingly beautiful movie appearance-wise. It looks like nothing I've ever seen before, and kept me mezmerised throughout. And although the look alone would probably have had me give the movie high marks, I really enjoyed the stories involved, the violence (objectively it was probably excessive and overly graphic, but I can't deny that I really, really enjoyed it), the amazing pace of the plot where it feels they don't even rest for a second to take a breather - the action and plot are developing literally non-stop, and after 2 hours it leaves you feeling exhausted at the end. I've never really seen a movie like it before, and may never see another like it. I just loved it.
3) Crash
(I'm counting this here even though it's listed on IMDB as a 2004 movie because every list I've seen from critics are also all counting this as a 2005 movie, and I believe it'll be eligible for the upcoming Oscars.) It has a brilliant script, brilliant acting, makes really wonderful use of score - it's all just brilliant. The way the movie intertwines so many different story threads, each of which deals with racism in very real and different ways. It really hits hard emotionally, parts of it are unbelievably sad, while parts of it are full of hope. It doesn't preach at all, rather it just offers all of these different stories about racism and allows us to take from it what we will. But it definitely does show how much racism is effecting the lives of so many everyday people (obviously it's a fictional account, but none of the characters are in any way unbelievable, we can believe that each of them exists), and does so in the most powerful and effective way possible.
4) Batman Begins
Easily the best Batman film ever in my opinion. Christian Bale is really great in it, especially with the first half of the movie which is pure character development and could have easily become frustrating or boring had it not been done so well. It also had an incredible darkness which suits the franchise perfectly; Cillian Murphy was really legitimately scary, there were moments of real bleakness in the portrayal of Gotham City, and not once did it get silly in the way I believe all previous Batman movies have. Really great stuff, and I can't wait to see what they do next.
5) The Constant Gardener
Rachel Wiesz is just brilliant here as the activist trying to take on the big pharmaceutical companies, and Ralph Fiennes is really great as her husband who's development the movie is really about, as he goes from a kind of weak diplomat whose heart is in the right place but doesn't really have the courage to take stands publicly against the powerful and risk his career or even his life, until he learns more about his wife and her life, falls in love with her more, and gets inspired by her to take a stand himself. Really great political thriller with an important message, a gripping story, really effective use of flashbacks to tell the story, and just incredible acting. Really great movie.
6) Cinderella Man
This seemed to be released at the wrong time of the year because it really doesn't seem to have a lot of buzz right now, but it really deserves it. Russell Crowe is as great in this as he always is as boxer Jim Braddock whose career seems to come to an end and he suffers through the great depression trying and struggling to make ends meet for his family. The difficulty of family life in those times is brilliantly portrayed, and you are really, really rooting for Braddock to succeed. The boxing sequences are all really terrific as well, especially the final one which was incredibly gripping, and really made me feel like I was there. Really brilliant, engaging film, that really had me rooting for the main character and feeling involved in his struggle.
7) Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
For me easily the best of the Harry Potter movies - really dark where it needed to be, and really fun where it needed to be as well. Daniel Radcliffe gave his best and most mature performance yet, and there were some great performances from the supporting cast too. Especially worthy of praise because the movie had the same running time as the other Potter movies and yet had twice as much material to work with, so the job they did to cut half of a book away and yet keep the story cohesive, gripping, and without feeling like there was a big void in the movie must have been an incredibly difficult task but they did it wonderfully.
8) Walk The Line
Joaqin Phoenix does such an incredible job here as Johnny Cash, really getting the look and the mannerisms down. Especially impressive is the fact that he did his own singing for the part. The movie is a really great telling of Johnny Cash's rise to stardom, his struggle with drug abuse, his romance with June Carter, who Reese Witherspoon plays brilliantly, and his difficult family situation. It's a really engaging story anyway, but really the concert scenes are really what make the movie - they are so brilliantly filmed, performed, and the music is so great in them. Great movie all around, and I think Phoenix will be very deserving of the Oscar if he ends up winning it.
9) Pride & Prejudice
Much, much better than I expected it to be, and while it still fell short of the BBC mini-version for me, it was about as good a telling of the story in two hours as is possible I think. The acting was really great, especially from the supporting cast (Donal Sutherland was a highlight for me), and the cinematography is especially great, with some really, really beautiful shots throughout. Not all of it was perfect; I found Keira Knightley's Lizzie a little too giggly and perky at times, and Matthew MacFadyen's Darcy was ruined for me by the fact that Colin Firth did an absolutely perfect job 10 years earlier and set the bar too high. The final scene was bad as well, but those things couldn't take away from what a wonderful movie this was overall.
10) King Kong
The criticisms of the movie are all fair - it probably does go on too long, the first hour isn't really necessary, they do dwell too long on some of the big special-effects heavy scenes, and yet I didn't care at all - I loved this movie from start to finish. Even the stuff that was essentially window dressing was wonderful window dressing, and thought 190 minutes is an incredibly long time to sit through any movie, not once did I find myself bored or restless or looking at my watch. It was thoroughly engaging, moving, scary, and just wonderful overall. Everything with King Kong and Naomi Watts together especially was effective, and I was very, very close to tears towards the end. And of course the special effects were outstanding - the dinosaurs were awesome, but the scenes with all the creepy bugs and swamp creatures really, really worked, and had so much of the theatre hiding behind their hands. Great stuff.
11) The 40 Year Old Virgin
Absolutely hilarious, but also with a really good heart and a sweet side. Steve Carell is superb. Funniest movie of the year.
12) Wedding Crashers
The second funniest movie of the year, I enjoyed both the gross-out comedy and the romcom aspects of it. Romcoms, and even pretty good romcoms are a dime a dozen, but it's been AGES since I've seen a really funny gross out comedy, and this was a breath of fresh air in that regard.
13) In Her Shoes
Chick flick or not, I just loved this. Really good story, really good acting, I was really into it from start to finish.
14) Hitch
Went on a bit too long, and the end was kind of boring, but it was so funny and so charming for so much of the movie, and the dancing scene had me laughing harder than I have in the cinema in a long, long time.
15) Hostage
Really gripping thriller. Couldn't fault it.
16) The Interpreter
Really great political thriller with some very high quality acting.
17) The Island
Much better than I expected it to be. As a good, fun action flick I couldn't fault it.
18) Red Eye
First hour was so great, last 20 minutes was so laughably bad.
19) War Of The Worlds
As above, except this time there was 60 minutes of suck to follow a great first 60 minutes, instead of just 20. This would have made my Top 10 had it stayed as good as it had been for the first hour.
20) The Family Stone
Really, really enjoyable, but it just seemed kind of pointless, and it became kind of farcical in the end which ruined it for me.
Can't wait to see:
Good Night & Good Luck
Syriana
Junebug
Jarhead
Rent
Brokeback Mountain
Munich
North Country
My Least Favourite Movies Of The Year
The Legend Of Zorro (Wow, did this ever suck? And it dragged on soooo long!)
Are We There Yet? (I really should have known better.)
Kicking & Screaming (I love Will Ferrell, but man does he ever do some poor movies? This was far sillier and more lame than Elf.)
Doom
Movies that didn't do it for me, but are highly regarded
A History Of Violence
Critics have absolutely raved about this and I just don't get it at all. I didn't hate it or anything, but it was much slower and much less gripping than I thought it would be, and the violence was graphic without being in any way entertaining, Viggo Mortensen seemed pretty wooden to me and yet is getting praised for a superb job - I just didn't get it. At all. Why do people like this so much?
Wallace And Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit
I've never liked Wallace And Gromit and I don't think I ever will. It's whimsical, but that's all it is. Got very few laughs from me, or the entire theatre really, and while there was nothing offensive about it, I just plain don't understand why so many love it.
Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith
How in the world is this in the IMDB Top 250 while Serenity has dropped out? I actually quite enjoyed the movie - there were some cool effects in it and it did a good job of bridging the two movies that surround it, but there were enough bad things about it (the script and the acting) that it really can't earn much more than a relative recommendation, and yet I guess a LOT of people must have really, really loved it for it to be in the Top 250.
Statistics
Movies seen this year:
January - 55
February - 24
March - 18
April - 10
May - 16
June - 5
July - 9
August - 22
September - 8
October - 5
November - 7
December - 26
TOTAL - 206 (which is down from 380 in 2004, and 291 in 2003)
Of which I saw at the cinema - 81 (which is up from 66 last year, but down from 102 from 03)
Average price of a cinema ticket - £1.59 (I buy a monthly cinema Unlimited card and like to work out what kind of value for money I get. Pretty good I'd say!)
Current amount of movies seen ever - 1270
Happy New Year Everyone!!
1) Serenity
A hands down winner really, though that does take into account my personal bias of just loving everything Joss Whedon writes or directs. But even without those biases I still think it would be the movie of the year. Engaging from start to finish, really well plotted, lines that had myself and the entire audience in the theatre cracking up, a really wonderful ability to play satire off the entire sci-fi genre and yet still work brilliantly as a sci-fi movie itself, the acting was all top rate, and just everything about it was exactly what a movie should be. It was great fun, it took me through all the emotions, and left me feeling like I'd seen something pretty special at the end, even after the third viewing. Just a masterpiece, and one of the best movies I've ever seen.
2) Sin City
The look of the movie is what really makes it of course, and it really is a breathtakingly beautiful movie appearance-wise. It looks like nothing I've ever seen before, and kept me mezmerised throughout. And although the look alone would probably have had me give the movie high marks, I really enjoyed the stories involved, the violence (objectively it was probably excessive and overly graphic, but I can't deny that I really, really enjoyed it), the amazing pace of the plot where it feels they don't even rest for a second to take a breather - the action and plot are developing literally non-stop, and after 2 hours it leaves you feeling exhausted at the end. I've never really seen a movie like it before, and may never see another like it. I just loved it.
3) Crash
(I'm counting this here even though it's listed on IMDB as a 2004 movie because every list I've seen from critics are also all counting this as a 2005 movie, and I believe it'll be eligible for the upcoming Oscars.) It has a brilliant script, brilliant acting, makes really wonderful use of score - it's all just brilliant. The way the movie intertwines so many different story threads, each of which deals with racism in very real and different ways. It really hits hard emotionally, parts of it are unbelievably sad, while parts of it are full of hope. It doesn't preach at all, rather it just offers all of these different stories about racism and allows us to take from it what we will. But it definitely does show how much racism is effecting the lives of so many everyday people (obviously it's a fictional account, but none of the characters are in any way unbelievable, we can believe that each of them exists), and does so in the most powerful and effective way possible.
4) Batman Begins
Easily the best Batman film ever in my opinion. Christian Bale is really great in it, especially with the first half of the movie which is pure character development and could have easily become frustrating or boring had it not been done so well. It also had an incredible darkness which suits the franchise perfectly; Cillian Murphy was really legitimately scary, there were moments of real bleakness in the portrayal of Gotham City, and not once did it get silly in the way I believe all previous Batman movies have. Really great stuff, and I can't wait to see what they do next.
5) The Constant Gardener
Rachel Wiesz is just brilliant here as the activist trying to take on the big pharmaceutical companies, and Ralph Fiennes is really great as her husband who's development the movie is really about, as he goes from a kind of weak diplomat whose heart is in the right place but doesn't really have the courage to take stands publicly against the powerful and risk his career or even his life, until he learns more about his wife and her life, falls in love with her more, and gets inspired by her to take a stand himself. Really great political thriller with an important message, a gripping story, really effective use of flashbacks to tell the story, and just incredible acting. Really great movie.
6) Cinderella Man
This seemed to be released at the wrong time of the year because it really doesn't seem to have a lot of buzz right now, but it really deserves it. Russell Crowe is as great in this as he always is as boxer Jim Braddock whose career seems to come to an end and he suffers through the great depression trying and struggling to make ends meet for his family. The difficulty of family life in those times is brilliantly portrayed, and you are really, really rooting for Braddock to succeed. The boxing sequences are all really terrific as well, especially the final one which was incredibly gripping, and really made me feel like I was there. Really brilliant, engaging film, that really had me rooting for the main character and feeling involved in his struggle.
7) Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
For me easily the best of the Harry Potter movies - really dark where it needed to be, and really fun where it needed to be as well. Daniel Radcliffe gave his best and most mature performance yet, and there were some great performances from the supporting cast too. Especially worthy of praise because the movie had the same running time as the other Potter movies and yet had twice as much material to work with, so the job they did to cut half of a book away and yet keep the story cohesive, gripping, and without feeling like there was a big void in the movie must have been an incredibly difficult task but they did it wonderfully.
8) Walk The Line
Joaqin Phoenix does such an incredible job here as Johnny Cash, really getting the look and the mannerisms down. Especially impressive is the fact that he did his own singing for the part. The movie is a really great telling of Johnny Cash's rise to stardom, his struggle with drug abuse, his romance with June Carter, who Reese Witherspoon plays brilliantly, and his difficult family situation. It's a really engaging story anyway, but really the concert scenes are really what make the movie - they are so brilliantly filmed, performed, and the music is so great in them. Great movie all around, and I think Phoenix will be very deserving of the Oscar if he ends up winning it.
9) Pride & Prejudice
Much, much better than I expected it to be, and while it still fell short of the BBC mini-version for me, it was about as good a telling of the story in two hours as is possible I think. The acting was really great, especially from the supporting cast (Donal Sutherland was a highlight for me), and the cinematography is especially great, with some really, really beautiful shots throughout. Not all of it was perfect; I found Keira Knightley's Lizzie a little too giggly and perky at times, and Matthew MacFadyen's Darcy was ruined for me by the fact that Colin Firth did an absolutely perfect job 10 years earlier and set the bar too high. The final scene was bad as well, but those things couldn't take away from what a wonderful movie this was overall.
10) King Kong
The criticisms of the movie are all fair - it probably does go on too long, the first hour isn't really necessary, they do dwell too long on some of the big special-effects heavy scenes, and yet I didn't care at all - I loved this movie from start to finish. Even the stuff that was essentially window dressing was wonderful window dressing, and thought 190 minutes is an incredibly long time to sit through any movie, not once did I find myself bored or restless or looking at my watch. It was thoroughly engaging, moving, scary, and just wonderful overall. Everything with King Kong and Naomi Watts together especially was effective, and I was very, very close to tears towards the end. And of course the special effects were outstanding - the dinosaurs were awesome, but the scenes with all the creepy bugs and swamp creatures really, really worked, and had so much of the theatre hiding behind their hands. Great stuff.
11) The 40 Year Old Virgin
Absolutely hilarious, but also with a really good heart and a sweet side. Steve Carell is superb. Funniest movie of the year.
12) Wedding Crashers
The second funniest movie of the year, I enjoyed both the gross-out comedy and the romcom aspects of it. Romcoms, and even pretty good romcoms are a dime a dozen, but it's been AGES since I've seen a really funny gross out comedy, and this was a breath of fresh air in that regard.
13) In Her Shoes
Chick flick or not, I just loved this. Really good story, really good acting, I was really into it from start to finish.
14) Hitch
Went on a bit too long, and the end was kind of boring, but it was so funny and so charming for so much of the movie, and the dancing scene had me laughing harder than I have in the cinema in a long, long time.
15) Hostage
Really gripping thriller. Couldn't fault it.
16) The Interpreter
Really great political thriller with some very high quality acting.
17) The Island
Much better than I expected it to be. As a good, fun action flick I couldn't fault it.
18) Red Eye
First hour was so great, last 20 minutes was so laughably bad.
19) War Of The Worlds
As above, except this time there was 60 minutes of suck to follow a great first 60 minutes, instead of just 20. This would have made my Top 10 had it stayed as good as it had been for the first hour.
20) The Family Stone
Really, really enjoyable, but it just seemed kind of pointless, and it became kind of farcical in the end which ruined it for me.
Can't wait to see:
Good Night & Good Luck
Syriana
Junebug
Jarhead
Rent
Brokeback Mountain
Munich
North Country
My Least Favourite Movies Of The Year
The Legend Of Zorro (Wow, did this ever suck? And it dragged on soooo long!)
Are We There Yet? (I really should have known better.)
Kicking & Screaming (I love Will Ferrell, but man does he ever do some poor movies? This was far sillier and more lame than Elf.)
Doom
Movies that didn't do it for me, but are highly regarded
A History Of Violence
Critics have absolutely raved about this and I just don't get it at all. I didn't hate it or anything, but it was much slower and much less gripping than I thought it would be, and the violence was graphic without being in any way entertaining, Viggo Mortensen seemed pretty wooden to me and yet is getting praised for a superb job - I just didn't get it. At all. Why do people like this so much?
Wallace And Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit
I've never liked Wallace And Gromit and I don't think I ever will. It's whimsical, but that's all it is. Got very few laughs from me, or the entire theatre really, and while there was nothing offensive about it, I just plain don't understand why so many love it.
Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith
How in the world is this in the IMDB Top 250 while Serenity has dropped out? I actually quite enjoyed the movie - there were some cool effects in it and it did a good job of bridging the two movies that surround it, but there were enough bad things about it (the script and the acting) that it really can't earn much more than a relative recommendation, and yet I guess a LOT of people must have really, really loved it for it to be in the Top 250.
Statistics
Movies seen this year:
January - 55
February - 24
March - 18
April - 10
May - 16
June - 5
July - 9
August - 22
September - 8
October - 5
November - 7
December - 26
TOTAL - 206 (which is down from 380 in 2004, and 291 in 2003)
Of which I saw at the cinema - 81 (which is up from 66 last year, but down from 102 from 03)
Average price of a cinema ticket - £1.59 (I buy a monthly cinema Unlimited card and like to work out what kind of value for money I get. Pretty good I'd say!)
Current amount of movies seen ever - 1270
Happy New Year Everyone!!