Year End Review: Movies
Everyone's been talking about what a crappy year Hollywood has been having, and I'd have to agree- but only up to a point. I thought that the summer movie season was a bit blah, and there were not huge amounts of movies knocking on my door demanding to be seen. There were however, some that just were not worth missing at all:
Top 10 Movies of 2005
1. Serenity: Only the most anticipated movie of the year for me personally. Firefly was one of those television shows that I just quickly fell in love with, and of course, because it was on Fox and Fox in its wisdom usually cancels that shows that are really good, it got canned. But, they brought it back as a movie! I was so pumped! And this movie totally lived up to my expectations. The story was advanced- with twists, turns and unexpected tragedy popping up all over the place. An eminently worthy big screen successor to a great television show. If you haven't seen this movie you should. And if you've never heard of Firefly, go out and rent it, buy it or borrow it from a friend. Both are worth seeing.
2. The Upside of Anger: This was a random choice at the time, but I was surprised at how funny, touching and well, good this movie was. Joan Allen is fantastic as a woman scorned- and I don't think I have ever been as impressed with Kevin Costner as I was in this movie. He was fantastic. And it's been awhile since I (or many people for that matter) have been able to say that.
3. Harry Potter and the Goblet Fire: Well duh, this was going to be on the list. I was impressed with this movie, but I had some issues with it as well. Mike Newell is to be commended for working with longtime Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves to boil down a very dense book into a taut, fast, fantasy thrill ride that moved a long at a very brisk clip. I thought the beginning was a little jerky- but once the movie settled down the thing just rocked out and did so very hard. Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort was an absolutely inspired choice. Like the Godfather of Soul, he is Super-Bad. (Though unlike James Brown, he is sans soul.)
4. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe: Another highly anticipated movie for me that failed to disappoint. I grew up with Lord of the Rings and they rocked and I grew up with Narnia and the first of what I'm devoutly hoping will be many Narnia films was just fantastic. The acting, the story- including the bits that I had long since forgotten about all came rushing back to me the first time I sat and watched this film. It was, quite literally, like watching a piece of my childhood come to life. Tilda Swinton was dripping evil as The White Witch and although I was somewhat doubtful about Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan he won me over within like a minute. I want more of these movies. Lots more. (Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Horse and His Boy. Please!!!!)
5. Good Night, and Good Luck: Fed the inner nerd in me quite nicely. Plus, I think it made a far more salient point about today's politics than Michael Moore's excremental 'Farenheit 911' (not that I have anything against Moore's views personally. Hell, I agree with some of them. I just can't stand movies that make slipshod, ill-thought out arguements and F911 was one of them.) Anyway, Good Night, and Good Luck was awesome. Putting it in black and white was a wise choice- keeping it confined pretty much to the CBS News Studios was also a wise choice. Another very wise choice was having McCarthy only be seen in actual news footage. Casting an actor to play the guy would have undermined the movie. Watching and listening to McCarthy himself made it much more powerful. One of the year's best.
6. Batman Begins: The Dark Knight returned with a vengeance. A trip back to the more old-school darkness of Batman and a welcome step away from the campy colorful surrealism which made for an interesting initial departure (Batman Forever) but soon went completely and totally overboard (Batman and Robin). Christian Bale is fantastic... Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy were great bad guys. All in all, this is probably the best Batman I have ever seen.
7. The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to The Galaxy: I love these books. I love the BBC radio series. And I love the movie. People kind of knocked it for departing from the original radio show and books for a bit, but from what I understand, Adams tweaked with things over time. So, the radio series is a little bit different than the book, the tv show different than... and so on and so forth. So that didn't bother me too much. I think they upped the love story a little too much, but despite that, it was still an awesome movie. In the current time of nonsense we live in, what more sensible advice could there be than: Don't Panic!
8. Crash: I didn't actually go and see this at the movie theater, but this has to be one of the more amazing films I've ever seen- certainly one of the best I saw this year. Race relations are still a touchy issue in this country and this movie confronted them head on in an almost brutal fashion. The acting was top notch, the story visceral, but this was a movie that you just couldn't take your eyes off of.
9. Kingdom of Heaven: This movie totally got a bum rap in my book. I found it engrossing. Everyone thought Orlando Bloom was shit in this movie. I found him tolerable- but Edward Norton, Jeremy Irons and the rest overshadowed him quite nicely and more importantly made this movie work. Plus, who can forget Saladin's response when asked what Jerusalem was worth: "Nothing..." he replied. "and everything." I really should buy this movie- when I get some more cash... I'm not even sure if I asked for it on my Christmas list. If I didn't, then I should have.
10. Shopgirl: A recent view of mine, I found it to be a nicely somber movie, but one that proved to have something of a happy ending. Steve Martin does a nice job in this movie- Clare Danes is frankly luminous and the story is suitably tragically draped in reality. I found it to be good- but sad in a way as well. Plus, for some reason the music kept creeping out to hit me in the face. It was good. Beyond good. I expected something truly tragic to come about, just on the basis of the music alone. But this movie is definately worth going to see.
Honorable Mentions:
Dukes of Hazzard
Wedding Crashers
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Also, keep in mind that there are tons more movies coming out that I want to go and see- I'll post reviews on them when I can. (Expect reviews of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Shopgirl, and King-King in the near future. You can probably throw Munich and Rent in there as well.)
But, that aside- these were the movies that I dug in a big way this year. They were all good in their own, unique way- although some you had to be in the right mood for, but all in all, despite the bad news for Hollywood this year, there were plenty of gems hidden away in this rather lackluster year. At least from where I'm sitting, that is.
Top 10 Movies of 2005
1. Serenity: Only the most anticipated movie of the year for me personally. Firefly was one of those television shows that I just quickly fell in love with, and of course, because it was on Fox and Fox in its wisdom usually cancels that shows that are really good, it got canned. But, they brought it back as a movie! I was so pumped! And this movie totally lived up to my expectations. The story was advanced- with twists, turns and unexpected tragedy popping up all over the place. An eminently worthy big screen successor to a great television show. If you haven't seen this movie you should. And if you've never heard of Firefly, go out and rent it, buy it or borrow it from a friend. Both are worth seeing.
2. The Upside of Anger: This was a random choice at the time, but I was surprised at how funny, touching and well, good this movie was. Joan Allen is fantastic as a woman scorned- and I don't think I have ever been as impressed with Kevin Costner as I was in this movie. He was fantastic. And it's been awhile since I (or many people for that matter) have been able to say that.
3. Harry Potter and the Goblet Fire: Well duh, this was going to be on the list. I was impressed with this movie, but I had some issues with it as well. Mike Newell is to be commended for working with longtime Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves to boil down a very dense book into a taut, fast, fantasy thrill ride that moved a long at a very brisk clip. I thought the beginning was a little jerky- but once the movie settled down the thing just rocked out and did so very hard. Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort was an absolutely inspired choice. Like the Godfather of Soul, he is Super-Bad. (Though unlike James Brown, he is sans soul.)
4. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe: Another highly anticipated movie for me that failed to disappoint. I grew up with Lord of the Rings and they rocked and I grew up with Narnia and the first of what I'm devoutly hoping will be many Narnia films was just fantastic. The acting, the story- including the bits that I had long since forgotten about all came rushing back to me the first time I sat and watched this film. It was, quite literally, like watching a piece of my childhood come to life. Tilda Swinton was dripping evil as The White Witch and although I was somewhat doubtful about Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan he won me over within like a minute. I want more of these movies. Lots more. (Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Horse and His Boy. Please!!!!)
5. Good Night, and Good Luck: Fed the inner nerd in me quite nicely. Plus, I think it made a far more salient point about today's politics than Michael Moore's excremental 'Farenheit 911' (not that I have anything against Moore's views personally. Hell, I agree with some of them. I just can't stand movies that make slipshod, ill-thought out arguements and F911 was one of them.) Anyway, Good Night, and Good Luck was awesome. Putting it in black and white was a wise choice- keeping it confined pretty much to the CBS News Studios was also a wise choice. Another very wise choice was having McCarthy only be seen in actual news footage. Casting an actor to play the guy would have undermined the movie. Watching and listening to McCarthy himself made it much more powerful. One of the year's best.
6. Batman Begins: The Dark Knight returned with a vengeance. A trip back to the more old-school darkness of Batman and a welcome step away from the campy colorful surrealism which made for an interesting initial departure (Batman Forever) but soon went completely and totally overboard (Batman and Robin). Christian Bale is fantastic... Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy were great bad guys. All in all, this is probably the best Batman I have ever seen.
7. The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to The Galaxy: I love these books. I love the BBC radio series. And I love the movie. People kind of knocked it for departing from the original radio show and books for a bit, but from what I understand, Adams tweaked with things over time. So, the radio series is a little bit different than the book, the tv show different than... and so on and so forth. So that didn't bother me too much. I think they upped the love story a little too much, but despite that, it was still an awesome movie. In the current time of nonsense we live in, what more sensible advice could there be than: Don't Panic!
8. Crash: I didn't actually go and see this at the movie theater, but this has to be one of the more amazing films I've ever seen- certainly one of the best I saw this year. Race relations are still a touchy issue in this country and this movie confronted them head on in an almost brutal fashion. The acting was top notch, the story visceral, but this was a movie that you just couldn't take your eyes off of.
9. Kingdom of Heaven: This movie totally got a bum rap in my book. I found it engrossing. Everyone thought Orlando Bloom was shit in this movie. I found him tolerable- but Edward Norton, Jeremy Irons and the rest overshadowed him quite nicely and more importantly made this movie work. Plus, who can forget Saladin's response when asked what Jerusalem was worth: "Nothing..." he replied. "and everything." I really should buy this movie- when I get some more cash... I'm not even sure if I asked for it on my Christmas list. If I didn't, then I should have.
10. Shopgirl: A recent view of mine, I found it to be a nicely somber movie, but one that proved to have something of a happy ending. Steve Martin does a nice job in this movie- Clare Danes is frankly luminous and the story is suitably tragically draped in reality. I found it to be good- but sad in a way as well. Plus, for some reason the music kept creeping out to hit me in the face. It was good. Beyond good. I expected something truly tragic to come about, just on the basis of the music alone. But this movie is definately worth going to see.
Honorable Mentions:
Dukes of Hazzard
Wedding Crashers
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Also, keep in mind that there are tons more movies coming out that I want to go and see- I'll post reviews on them when I can. (Expect reviews of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Shopgirl, and King-King in the near future. You can probably throw Munich and Rent in there as well.)
But, that aside- these were the movies that I dug in a big way this year. They were all good in their own, unique way- although some you had to be in the right mood for, but all in all, despite the bad news for Hollywood this year, there were plenty of gems hidden away in this rather lackluster year. At least from where I'm sitting, that is.
posted by Tom @ 1:41 PM
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