Our Top 10 Lists of 2005 - "Time to throw down!" - Page 5

Not merely to counteract Brook's demotion ( just saw it for the first time last night), I've added "The Squid and the Whale" to my favorite ten list, keeping "The Best of Youth" there, but knocking "Munich" out.

It's funny how much my list has been juggled, and I still haven't seen the vast majority of films released last year (even easy-to-see stuff like "The New World", "Brokeback Mountain", "Broken Flowers", "Walk the Line" and frankly lots more!). "Tropical Malady" stays on top, but "Cache" has moved up to about a tie (and I haven't yet seen it again - it's just stayed in my consciousness more than any other). "A History of Violence" has dropped in my estimation a bit after seeing it again, but still one of my ten favorites of the year. And "Yes" came in strong at no. 3, and I'm already dying to see it again only a week after my first viewing. I'm very glad I followed Rosenbaum's strong review of that film, even though the critical drubbing it got elsewhere delayed my viewing of it for so long.

And I can't believe "Batman Begins" is by an enormous margin the favorite film of the forum. I'd agree it's better than every Batman film that came before, but still an extremely conventional drama without much emotional or thematic resonance. The savior/vigilante dichotomy is not exactly fresh, but I guess this film's up there with "Dirty Harry" on that count, and some people consider "Dirty Harry" a masterpiece, too. I sorta get it - more with "Harry" than "Batman" - but I still found it fairly forgettable and hardly a film worthy of being regarded so much more highly than every other film released last year.

As someone who enjoyed the film, I'll trade your bewilderment over Batman Returns to your highly rated King Kong using some of the same reasons you gave above. I mean, I can understand going gaga over the special effects like a 7-year old in a candy store but rating it far higher than The Best Of Youth? C'mon.

~Edwin

I agree completely Rich. And King Kong is superior to Batman Begins in every conceivable way. It's not even close.

You must be looking at someone else's list! I don't think I've ever given "Kong" more than an honorable mention, whereas "The Best of Youth" resides in my top ten.

But I'll take "Kong" over "Batman", on the basis that I love the first act and the last act, but I'll concede that the middle act goes on far too long and mostly for no other purpose than extraneous dino-killing. I did find this portion of the film to be weakest, like all those movies I hate that are nothing more than the celluloid equivalent of an amusement park thrill ride. Kong's hardly perfect, but I certainly liked it enough to give it a mention!

EDIT: actually I may have had "Kong" in the top ten early on. I saw that one in the theaters, whereas most of the films on my list I've caught up with lately on DVD (including "The Best of Youth").

I think Edwin may have meant that Kong is also in the top five for HTF which also boggles my mind. A good film, most definitely, but hardly competitive, in my mind, with the entertaining and the arthouse fare from last year.

I think Edwin's referring to an earlier iteration of my list, but his memory is apparently better than mine! At the time we started keeping track, I hadn't seen a good many films that currently are among my ten favorites.

And I suspect there'll be many more changes to come - I have high hopes for "The New World" and "L'Enfant", and though "Brokeback" looks a bit too Hollywood conventional (save the gay angle, I guess), I've been assured by many that I'll think differently once I see it.

That's right, Rich. I was referring to an earlier version of your list. When I posted my thoughts on The Best Of Youth about a week or so ago, you had commented on it as well and said that it was in your Top 10 for the year. At the time you had it at #9 and Kong was in your Top 5, to my surprise. I was going to comment on it then but didn't.

However, you had since come to your senses by updating your list recently.

~Edwin

Re: Our Top 10 Lists of 2005 - "Time to throw down!"

added my list finally.

A late top 10 addition was The Constant Gardner. Great film.

Re: Our Top 10 Lists of 2005 - "Time to throw down!"

Adding justin, Tim and elizabeth, Fred Bang and Steve Felix and reordering my list (bumped Mrs. Henderson out, pushed KKBB up to number three, pushed Batman up, Family Stone down.) here is the new htf top 25 (i've not made any other adjustments to lists unless an update post was made to this thread.

Title	Total	# of Votes	# of #1 votes	# of omissions
Batman Begins	253.5	38	4	24
Munich	216.5	27	10	35
Star Wars	148.5	21	8	41
King Kong	124	19	1	43
Brokeback Mountain	122.5	19	2	43
New World	113.5	14	5	48
Crash	99	15	1	47
Cinderella Man	97	14	2	48
Sin City	89	15	2	47
History of Violence	88	16	2	46
Constant Gardener	85	20	0	42
Harry Potter	80	16	0	46
Syriana	73	13	1	49
Serenity	63	12	0	50
Capote	62	11	2	51
Grizzly Man	59	11	2	51
Good Night, and Good Luck	56	13	0	49
Chronicles of Narnia	52	11	0	51
Walk the Line	51	13	0	49
Old Boy	50.5	7	1	55
Downfall	41	8	1	54
Pride and Prejudice	40	6	0	56
War of the Worlds	38	11	0	51
40 Year Old Virgin	37	9	0	53
Broken Flowers	37	6	0	56

Re: Our Top 10 Lists of 2005 - "Time to throw down!"

Good work Adam...hope my late addition/edit didn't force you to recalculate?

Re: Our Top 10 Lists of 2005 - "Time to throw down!"

it's all in a spreadsheet, I press one button to resort after entering in your top ten

still waiting for lists from
Edwin
Thomas C
Tino
Tim C
Matt Stone
Dana Filhart
Rob Willey
Chris Richard

Re: Our Top 10 Lists of 2005 - "Time to throw down!"

Cool

Re: Our Top 10 Lists of 2005 - "Time to throw down!"

Edit...added The New World today to #3. Might even go higher...

Re: Our Top 10 Lists of 2005 - "Time to throw down!"

Another edit. Watched The Weather Man again for the 2nd time in about 2 weeks and just loved it even more. Some here really find it too depressing, and it is at times. I found it pretty real and a bit uplifting and hopeful. After viewing #2 it moved from the honorable mentions to my top 10 for 2005.

Re: Our Top 10 Lists of 2005 - "Time to throw down!"

Bumped up Pride & Prejudice a spot.

Re: Our Top 10 Lists of 2005 - "Time to throw down!"

Lucky for you I wasn't around HTF as much when you posted this bunch of crap.




Adam, I think you had been using my 2005 film list for this, where I did have an updated top 10. But I went ahead and fixed the top 10 I had here which was badly outdated. The New World has been my top film since the DVD came out.

Re: Our Top 10 Lists of 2005 - "Time to throw down!"

Best of 2005

1. Grizzly Man



2. Junebug



3. The Squid and the Whale



4. Broken Flowers



5. Caché



6. Hustle & Flow



7. 40 Year Old Virgin



8. 2046



9. Brokeback Mountain



10. Thumbsucker


Honorable Mentions (in order): The Bridesmaid, Sin City, Shopgirl, Capote, Gabrielle, The Talent Given Us, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Downfall, Syriana, No Direction Home

Re: Our Top 10 Lists of 2005 - "Time to throw down!"

Hmmm... Better late than never I guess. The 10 best 2005 releases I have seen to date, loosely sorted:

Pride and Prejudice -- a magical experience
Crash -- structure
Sin City -- shockingly good (normally not a fan of style over substance)
Serenity -- fan of the show, terrific send off
Match point -- tight
The New World -- poetry
Downfall -- subject matter
Broken Flowers -- Murray
War of the Worlds -- frustratingly uneven. the good is jaw-dropping stuff.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - the Hungarian Horntail

--
H