2005: The Year in Movies

Now I should mention my favorite films of the year. I've been pretty thorough about having entries about the movies I've seen, so I won't do too much recapping here.

My top film of the year goes to Serenity with an honorable mention for Kung Fu Hustle. A special mention goes to Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic, but I can't put it in the same rankings as movies of a more traditional format because it really is a slightly souped-up stand-up routine. Still, these are the two that I enjoyed the most, and I'll mention them separately because of their very different formats.

Also on my list for great films this year (not in any order except that I am looking at a chronological list to help jog my memory) are Thumbsucker, Mirrormask, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Sin City (which I unfortunately saw on home video rather than in the theatre), Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Batman Begins, The Transporter 2, Fantastic Four, The Aristocrats (a hilarious documentary), Bad News Bears, Corpse Bride, Domino, Pride and Prejudice (which was much better than I thought it would be), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Aeon Flux (which barely makes this list).

Films that are also worth mentioning but are below the others (in varying degrees---I have a wide range of opinions among the films on this list; I liked them all at least a little bit, but some much more than others) include King Kong (perhaps the best film on this particular list), Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Star Wars: Episode III, War of the Worlds, The Legend of Zorro (which barely makes even this list), Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Sisterhood of the Travling Pants, Jarhead, Good Night, and Good Luck, Wedding Crashers (which barely makes even this list; I wasn't expecting much and that saves it a bit in this year-end review), 2046, Narnia, Howl's Moving Castle (which almost makes the above list), and Proof.

The film The Constant Gardner was notably bad. One of my friends unfortunately convinced me to see it. Shopgirl and Broken Flowers were decent films but were not as good as I thought they'd be, so they need to be listed among my disappointments.

I saw a lot of films this year... despite the big list above (or maybe because of it), I bet I'm even forgetting a few.

In looking at wikipedia's entry on 2005 films, I browsed through their list of notable deaths. Bob Denver, best known for his role as Gilligan, died on September 2nd. I hadn't caught that.