Movies I've seen this year. Ranked
Oct. 24th, 2005 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieHere 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.
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.
