icecreamdisco presents: THE YEAR IN FILM (1 Viewer)

[icecreamdisco]

my top ten, in no order (going by US release dates)

mysterious skin
nobody knows
good night, and good luck.
grizzly man
2046
broken flowers
the devil's rejects
wolf creek
the proposition
wallace & gromit: the curse of the were-rabbit

honorable mentions: last days, kung fu hustle, oldboy, the 40-year old virgin, the first 2/3 of war of the worlds, king kong, me and you and everyone we know, we jam econo: the story of the minutemen, murderball, the beat that my heart skipped, enron: the smartest guys in the room, kiss kiss bang bang, head-on, my summer of love, the family stone, russian dolls

entertaining but somewhat forgettable: red eye, the island, land of the dead, the exorcism of emily rose, mrs. henderson presents

good, but overrated: batman begins, sin city, little fish, howl's moving castle, dear frankie, look both ways

not good, and overrated: the constant gardener, thumbsucker, corpse bride, the wedding crashers, millions, crash

not really including anywhere since no one really rated it low or high and i appreciated it for the story behind it rather than the film itself: the magician

bad: the jacket, constantine, house of wax, shopgirl

******

and that's everything i've seen. there'd be way more if i included the ones that were released locally this year. yikes. i may amend this list since there's some new stuff coming out over the next few weeks that will probably make the cut (broken flowers & king kong, namely).

feel free to take issue with this list or contribute your own.

 

[lessthanthree]

my top 5
devil's rejects
grizzly man
2046
we jam econo
wolf creek

i still need to see mysterious skin! i've heard amazing things about it

 

[icecreamdisco]

yeah, you really gotta see it.

if only to see the 3rd rock from the sun/angels in the outfield kid fucking a bunch of seedy NY creeps.

 

[fake_mcdickpant]

i dont even like movies

 

[Benny_]

Hidden Blade
Tony Takitani
2046
Broken Flowers
A History of Violence
Sin City
King Kong
Good Night and Good Luck
Match Point
Capote

Honourable mentions: The Upside of Anger, The Life Aquatic, Three... Extremes, Oldboy, Downfall, Last Days, Russian Dolls, Wolf Creek, Nobody Knows, Me, You and Everyone We Know

.. Haven't really seen enough movies to form any of those other lists. I'm expecting Broken Flowers to knock off The Upside of Anger or Sin City when it comes out though.

 

[imsooverskool]

Sin City and Wolf Creek were definite highlights for me

oh and HP and the Goblet of Fire, 'coz i is obsessed!

Looking back i really didn't see that many movies this year, quite sad really

 

[icecreamdisco]

last days

wow... i'm really surprised you liked this (not because of your tastes, i'm just surprised anyone here liked it). the fact that it's one of the most daring and uncompromising films of the last few years, but marketed as the definitive cobain biopic really ensured a quick backlash and death, but i think it'll be remembered fondly in years to come.

really wanna see capote.

 

[AlleyCat]

wolf creek
you and me and everyone we know
batman begins
sin city
the upside of anger
kiss kiss bang bang
look both ways
millions
mysterious skin
little fish

it was a pretty good year i think... although there were many terrible films this year as well.

 

[nwatts]

Disagree with Corpse Bride icecream. Why aren't you a fan? The rest of the list is fairly good. Land of the Dead wasn't great IMO, but I can see how lots love it. Crash is definitely overrated, but I still think it has merit.

2046 was probably the best of '05 for me. The Life Aquatic was a standout from early in the year. I'd say Downfall and Bad Education aswell, but they were last summer, so i'm not sure if you'd class them as '05 films.

I wasn't happy with this year of films, though. This Australian summer season looks to throw up a brilliant bunch of films that'll definitely surpass those of the rest of the year. Namely, Broken Flowers, Capote, Jarhead, The New World, Brokeback Mountain.

 

[AlleyCat]

i reeeeeally want to see broken flowers...!
just thought id let you know.

 

[Mr_Shrimp]

i reeeeeally want to see broken flowers...!
just thought id let you know.

yes, me too, it looks awesome.

good list icecream, only two disagreements. i love crash and i thought wedding crashers was hilarious. i think they should get into the good but overrated category at least..

 

[Benny_]

How was Wedding Crashers overrated? Who rated it?

 

[katietheskatie]

i thought wedding crashers was great, but i didn't expect too much from it .. come on, it's an owen wilson/vince vaughn movie. i got a lot of laughs from it, so hey.

 

[Benny_]

I enjoyed it too, I just wasn't aware people really loved it that much.

 

[walrusbear]

wedding crashers was good until the last 3rd

 

[icecreamdisco]

lots of people rated wedding crashers high; it was one of the few mainstream comedies this year that was a critic's darling too. anyway, it dragged and dragged and never decided whether it wanted to be a sweet romcom or a raunchy fratboy comedy. corpse bride had awesome visuals, but a lacking script made up of boring songs and too many lame post-mortem puns. on a related note, crash needed a few songs since it reminded me of a musical in between song numbers, what with it's complete lack of anything resembling reality. racism! the musical more like it.

 

[walrusbear]

since this is your thread, ice cream, do you have an opinion on The Life Aquatic??

a complete failure? an interesting failure? or lots of flawed fun??

 

[crazyhomo]

not really including anywhere since no one really rated it low or high and i appreciated it for the story behind it rather than the film itself: the magician

really? i thought this was one of the better films of the year

and sif batman was overrated. but then, i guess i went into it expecting shit

 

[icecreamdisco]

wait, where did my reply to walrusbear and crazyhomo go? i wrote it last night. it was pretty long too.

anyway, to recap: the magician = good short film dragged insufferably over feature length, saved by excellent performance from lead; the life aquatic = lacks interesting characters but creates a lovely world for them to exist in; batman begins i watched with high expectations and a painfully empty stomach, but my initial thoughts were that it tried to hard to lend credence to it's mythology and be the 'comic book film for adults' and became a little stifled and dreary... but otherwise it's pretty good.

i've added shopgirl and king kong to my 'bad' and 'honorable' sections, respectively.

 

[jack white]

The best this year: Mysterious Skin, Corpse Bride (yes icecreamdisco, I agree it lacked a script, but it had so much style to make up for that...) and Tarnation.

The worst: Dukes of Hazzard.

Not as bad as everyone said it was: Elizabethtown.

Huge disappointment: Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

Huge surprise: Dodge Ball. It was actually hilarious!