Movies I've seen this year. Ranked

[dangermousie]

Here is the list of all this year's movies I've seen, ranked (yes, I am anal, why do you ask?) I have a three-way tie for my favorite movie this year. Proving my geek cred, the three are a Star Wars installment, a Joss Whedon flick, and an anime. Yeah.



Adored beyond the telling of it:

1. Serenity: It made me cry, it made me laugh, it made me forget to breathe. It's science fiction the way it should be and almost never is. It's a dystopia, it's a thriller, it's a love story, it's everything you want in a movie and so rarely get.

1. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith: You know that rare feeling when you watch a movie and you forget where you are and who you are and when you walk out, everything seems less intense and drab, as if you've just woken up? That's RotS for me. The end, on the planet of full of the fires of hell makes me think of Opera. The way opera is supposed to be, but never is, that is.

1. Howl's Moving Castle: Something so beautiful and fragile and perfect I don't really know how to describe it.

4. Kingdom of Heaven: An intelligent and layered period epic that does not feel ahistorical and is chockfull of fascinating characters and moral dilemmas. I can't wait for the Director's Cut.

5. Parineeta: This is what Bollywood does when it's really really REALLY good: gives you moments of such breathtaking intensity and beauty and romance, it feels as if goes straight to your veins.

6. Batman Begins: I had little desire to see this, but about 15 minutes in I realized it had just became my favorite superhero movie, ever. And Christian Bale's Batman was so real and mesmerizing, and painfully fucked-up beautiful.

7. Elizabethtown: No one can show what it feels like to be in love, or experience little moments the way Cameron Crowe does. Yes, the road trip is a bit long and should be cut. But who cares, when the whole thing is just...guuuh.

8. Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Wererabbit: Funny, clever and kind. If you don't like it, there is something wrong with you :P

9. Karam: The visuals would get this movie in, alone. But I love the angst and the beauty of this really dark movie about a hitman who has to do a series of hits or else his wife dies.

Very Good:

10. War of the Worlds: The end was a bit pat, but the rest of it scared the hell out of me and was really really moving and good and Tom Cruise, crazy or not, is smoking hot.

11. History of Violence: slow, understated movie about cost of violence that grabs you and doesn't let go. Plus, Viggo Mostensen was excellent.

12. Bunty aur Babli: If you are in a bad mood, pop this in. This story about two lovable (and in love) crooks is funny and charming and romantic.

13. Layer Cake: a really clever, twisty pretzel of a British gangster movie.

14. House of Flying Daggers: Doomed romance. Visually stunning doomed romance with Takeshi Kaneshiro being the Chinese Legolas. *swoon*

15. Proof: really clever and sad and hopeful. One of the few movies I've liked Gwyneth Paltrow in, this is a story about a mathematician's daughter who is falling apart.

16. Green Street Hooligans: violent edgy fun about an American drawn in by a London football hooligan gang.

Liked:

17. Paheli: it's colorful, it's feminist, it's period. Not to mention well-acted. Just not enough drama for me.

18. Kisna: delightful, if a touch on the Orientalist side, period melodrama romance.

19. Black: visually stunning and excellently acted, but it's a Miracle Worker remake, so won't go higher on the list.

20. Constant Gardener: Ralph Fiennes is excellent as a grieving man falling in love with his dead wife all over again, but politics is a bit heavy handed and the jerky camera made me sick.

21. Lucky: School girl and roue hook up in Russia, Bollywood style.

22. Fever Pitch: sweet and cute baseball-themed fairytale.

OK:

23. The Rising: Epic about 1857 uprising in India. Ambitious but wildly uneven.

24. Cinderella Man: Sap, sap, sap. But Russell Crowe is excellent.

25. Elaan: fun Bolly actioner, notable mainly for my overwhelming desire to drag former mob hitman (portrayed by John Abraham) to a very private corner for a get-to-know-you session.

26. Wedding Crashers: funny and unmemorable.

27. Kung Fu Hustle: Lovely moments mixed in with gross-out humor.

28. Bride and Prejudice: Cute and sweet, but Bollywood-lite.

29. Robots: Cute. Once.

30. Corpse Bride: Interesting. Once.

31. Dus: routine but slick action flick. Less explosions, more characters?

32. Brothers Grimm A for idea, and for hot Matt Damon. C for the rest.

Not so good:

33. Sahara: Blah.

34. Waqt: made me laugh in the wrong places.

35. The Island: Blah Part 2

36. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe: zzzzzzzzzz

37. Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants: stupid tweenie junk. But it did make me write a parody so not a total loss.

38. Mr & Mrs Smith: amoral AND boring.

Loathed:

39. Monster-in-Law: what was the point of this atrocity? And why did Jane Fonda, who was so brilliant in "Coming Home" come out of her retirement for that? Ugh.

40. Salaam Namaste: It had such promise, but it threw away everything that was good about Bollywood and replaced it with...nothing. It was worse than a random, played out HW romcom.

41. In Her Shoes: So bad, pointeless and dull I walked out.

42. Sin City: I WISH I walked out. Amoral and disgusting and made me sick.

Comments

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

I love how you can sum up my feelings for most of these (granted, I've only seen a handful of the 42 listed) in one sentence. Especially Sith and Batman. I had no desire whatsoever to see Batman and I loved it. And Episode III just goes without saying.

On the negative side - One of my friends attempted to get me to watch Sisterhood and I flat out refused. I hate manipulative tween crap like that - I even hated it when I *was* a tween. Another friend tried to get me to watch Sin City, and I protested and went into a full on rant about how I know it would disgust and outrage me, and he (thankfully) gave up. Ugh. Some things just flash warnings that say "stay away."

I wonder how this list will change once the year is over. Because fall/winter has some promises that I hope it can keep. (Rent, Narnia, Memoirs of a Geisha, etc.) And there will always be jokeworthy bombs. ;)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

You haven't missed anything with Sin City: atrocious.

And yeah, there is a whole bunch of movies I am anticipating at the end of the year.

Love the icon with joiful Ani. *swoon*

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

Guh. That shot of him grinning gets me every time.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. I want my HEA, dammit! :)

[wasabi-girl1.livejournal.com]

34. Waqt: made me laugh in the wrong places.

BAHAHA! So true! :D

40. Salaam Namaste: It had such promise, but it threw away everything that was good about Bollywood and replaced it with...nothing. It was worse than a random, played out HW romcom.


Hmm, wouldn't say I loathed it, but it definitely missed out on the potential it had. :(

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Akshay sobbing with the really ugly giraffe? Comedy gold.

[wasabi-girl1.livejournal.com]

Or how about Big B acting nuts, and then when Akshay starts confessing, looking around frantically and yelling "he knows!"

Or the fact that Akshay and Priyanka's baby was HUGE for a newborn.

Or even Amitabh saying the lines "I will bring my boyfriend to dinner." :D

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

"I will bring my boyfriend to dinner." :D

Now THAT I would pay good money to see!

Serenity Love.

[ayn-rand-fan-13.livejournal.com]

I have seen distressingly few of these movies. Serenity really is unbelievably good. There's kind of something for everyone there, even if you've never seen the show.
I do agree about the other ones I have seen, though, except for Sin City. They had me at "Guest Director Quentin Tarantino".
I actually mostly liked Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Oh, and I loved Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.

Re: Serenity Love.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

See, I am not a Tarantino fan. Think he is pointlessly violent. So the movie lost me....

Re: Serenity Love.

[ayn-rand-fan-13.livejournal.com]

I think he's excessivly violent, but he can also write dialogue like nobody's business.

[snacktastic.livejournal.com]

God, Revenge of the Sith was awesome. George Lucas, you magnificent bastard, I can't believed you pulled that shit off after AOTC and TPM were such disappointments.

[snacktastic.livejournal.com]

Oh and I really liked the Hitchhikers Guide. I think I was that one person. My love for Mos Def knows no bounds.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, RotS was amazing. I liked AotC (and thought TPM had its moments, thiankfully when JarJar was absent), but neither one remotely prepared me for RotS.

[mimesh.livejournal.com]

And here I thought I've seen a lot of movies this year... ;)

Hi, by the way :D
I found your journal via bollywhat in case you are wondering and I greatly enjoy your movie reviews.
Sadly some of the movies you've listed haven't been released here in Germany. But I agree with you on Sith and the Moving Castle (haven't seen Firefly so far).

14. House of Flying Daggers: Doomed romance. Visually stunning doomed romance with Takeshi Kaneshiro being the Chinese Legolas. *swoon*

The last bit was my exact thought in this scene when he "rescues" her. I think even the camera angle and frame were the same.

17. Paheli: it's colorful, it's feminist, it's period. Not to mention well-acted. Just not enough drama for me.

Generally, I would agree. But Paheli was my first bollywood film I watched in a movie theater and I was nearly overwhelmed by the visuals and the sound/music. Therefore it will always remain special to me.

But I have a different opinion about Sin City. I read a lot about this movie before seeing it so I knew what to expect especially in terms of violence. Yeah, I may have squeezed my eyes shut one or two times but I liked the overall atmosphere and the visuals were extraordinary. I can understand though that this film isn't everyone's cup of tea.

I'm really looking forward to some movies that will be released at the end of the year.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Hi! *waves*

My first BW in the theater movie was Main Hooon Na, and yes,always special.

Sin City is one of those love-it-or-hate-it movies. I remember when it came out, people on my flist all lined up one way or the other (I was, clearly, on the hate side :))

Oh, and Flying Daggers? Yup, so so so goooood.

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

Boy you sure do get to a lot of movies!

All I've seen this year:

The Aviator--Hollywood extravaganza for sure, but way better than I expected it to be.

Sith--Saw that about 5 times...

War of the Worlds and Hitchhiker's Guide--okay but not memorable

Kingdom of Heaven--I didn't see when it first came out, but saw it on the plane coming back from England. Really, really liked it, and can't wait to see it on DVD.

Serenity--loved...wistfully

Good Night and Good Luck--Best film I've seen in ages. Really, not the same as an engrossing fantasy film experience, just...sheer excellence.

Batman--Good, but not that good


And here's how dangermousie totally influenced my movie going:

I skipped Sin City and The Island largely on your thumbs down

And I do want to see: Constant Gardener, Proof, History of Violence, and Wallace and Grommit.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I didn't put Aviator in (it was excellent) because I saw it last year. Such a good film.

I am planning on seeing GN&GL later in the week. I've heard really good things about it and thanks for reccing it!

And here's how dangermousie totally influenced my movie going:

Heee. *Preens*

[antiqueskies.livejournal.com]

Please, please, please tell me what you think of Good Night and Good Luck. I so want to see that, but I need opinions to convince others to go with me so I don't have to be all hassled about being alone. Urgh.

[antiqueskies.livejournal.com]

I agree with most of them, except for one... Sin City! How can you not have liked that? The fact that it was amoral was the point - social commentary on how corrupt everything really is nowadays. It was one of those movies where I walked out and went, "Oh, wow. Society really does suck."
Not to mention that it was visually stunning, with black and white throughout and color only evident in the key shade of red with key points/characters.
Yes, it was violent, and raw, and gritty, and bloody, and disgusting, and all those other kind of "negative" words you could use, but that was the point. This is just about the ultimate story of what happens when law and order are overtaken by anarchy. It's a movie that, while being based on a graphic novel, can really stop and make you think about the world around you, and how maybe that part of town that you avoid is filled with hookers just trying to make it out or maintain some kind of control over the chaos that is their lives.
I thought this was one of the best movies of the year.

I take it you're not a big Quentin Tarantino fan either?

[antiqueskies.livejournal.com]

Wow, I totally just realized how bitchy I sound in that. Sorry, I just got off of work and I'm generally irritable then. :(

Anyhoo, I guess I can see this not being some people's thing, since it really is violent and is generally a "guy movie," but I'd still say people should watch it for the underlying themes.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

That's fine. :)

I am not a QT fan, no. I find both him and SC to be soulless, amoral without teaching anything (the violence and gore struck me as gratuitous, we did not need two hours of rendered limbs to get the simplistic point across) and the whole thing utterly repugnantly loathsome. But of course, that's why there are all these movies out there. One person's poison, is another's favorite dish! :)

[antiqueskies.livejournal.com]

And SC would be...?

I don't think amoral, just severely in need of psychological help. But I suppose it's the quirkness that makes him so great, IMO. Aside from that, I like the stuff he makes because well, I'm pretty twisted too. Ahem.

Anyhoo, very true on the movie thing. One of my roomies likes the really basic and what I would term juvenile type movies. Like, for instance, "Drumline." I can't even bring myself to waste the time to put it in the DVD player, much less watch it. Matter of taste, though.

Out of curiousity, why am I finding it annoyingly difficult to find Bollywood movies to buy instead of study? Blarg. It's like the internet companies see my plot and are out to make me a good student. Mmmm... I want new movies to review! /am referencing your post on Bollywood for n00bs as well/

[antiqueskies.livejournal.com]

God, I must be tired.

I understand SC now. Duh.

Oh, and I thought of another thing... You're not much of an anime fan either, are you? That was also sort of a dominant influence in SC.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yup, not an anime fan :)

Re: Bolly movies. Good and cheap ones can be found at http://www.nehaflix.com

[antiqueskies.livejournal.com]

SWEET!

/loves you/

[queenoftheheart.livejournal.com]

salaam namste was superb and I just came from "In her shoes" it was a cute girly one:)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Well, YMMV, of course :)

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Sin City - the most boring film I've seen in forever. Attractive graphics but nothing else. I (and my sister) walked out and we're amazingly cheap. I've never regretted it.

RotS almost made me forgive Lucas for The Phantom Menace. Almost.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, someone else who agrees on SC's overratedness. I kept hopeing it'd get better but it didn't. Wished I'd walked out. Aargh.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

This was one time I actually decided to leave a movie and felt really good about it. But most people seem to think it was wonderful so I tend to keep my mouth shut about it.

Also, having just seen Bunty aur Babli I think it might be going on my all time favourites list. If only for the mango pickle line.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heeee. I know, "Babli" was adorable.

[vierran45.livejournal.com]

*grumble* Everybody's already seen Serenity and it won't premiere here until my birthday (December 2) :( *grumble*.

I loved Wallace & Gromit and Karam, Batman Begins was very good, though some of the action scenes could have been shorter, and KoH & Howl's Moving Castle were good, but flawed films.

Still, I'm waiting for both films to come out on DVD, especially the director's cut of KoH which hopefully fixes some of the problems I had with the film.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think most of KoH's problem was jerky pacing and character transitions. Should be fixed by director's cut.

Howl's Castle is the only anime I've ever liked so that's saying a lot.

[madame-parker.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this list, now I have an idea of how to do my one.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

You are welcome :)