Movies 2005

I expect I might see another couple of movies before the year is officially over, but I figure I'll post this now. The past couple of years, I've listed the movies I saw that year in some sort of rank order by how much I liked them. Last year I saw 28 movies. This year I've seen 23. There are a few big ones I didn't see, like Wedding Crashers, 40-Year-Old Virgin, whatever numbers Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are up to by now, and King Kong, which I guess I should want to see, but I'm not finding myself all that drawn to it. I'll probably end up seeing it, but I won't be too upset if I don't. Anyway, here's what I saw in 2005, ranked by how much I liked.

1. Little Manhattan
2. Fever Pitch
3. Proof
4. Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang
5. Prime
6. The Weather Man
7. Crash

8. Good Night and Good Luck
9. Hitch
10. In Good Company
11. The Baxter
12. The Ringer

13. The Aristocrats
14. Bewitched
15. Batman Begins
16. March of the Penguins
17. The Producers

18. Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic
19. Monster-in-Law
20. Palindromes
21. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
22. Last Days
23. The Woodsman

I've chunked them into 4 categories. Movies I really liked, movies I liked, movies I thought were OK, and movies I really didn't like much at all. A few notes... Prime was a terrible name for the movie it was -- it's the comedy with Meryl Streep and Uma Thurman where Meryl Streep is the therapist and Uma Thurman is dating her son. I couldn't remember the name of it without googling. That's not good. But I liked it a lot. Little Manhattan was a really sweet romantic comedy that hit the right notes for me. I liked Fever Pitch a lot more than most people did. I think Jimmy Fallon's character was really engaging. And the baseball thing. That probably affected my opinion a lot. Proof was smart. I really liked it. Everyone else who saw March of the Penguins liked it more than I did. I didn't hate it, but it didn't really do great things for me. Same with Batman Begins, undoubtedly a fine film, but I just thought it was okay. And The Aristocrats may have been funnier in a packed theater than where I saw it -- I just thought it got old really quickly. Sarah Silverman's movie was a disappointment -- I thought it would be much funnier; a lot of the content was given away in the articles I'd read beforehand. Good Night and Good Luck is a fine movie. Something didn't grab me though. Still liked it, just not enough for it to be in that top tier. I recommend any of those first 7 if you're looking for something to rent.

I want to see Woody Allen's new movie, Match Point.

UPDATE: Saw "The Ringer" this afternoon, the Farrelly Brothers movie about a guy who pretends he's mentally challenged and fixes the Special Olympics. It's not as offensive as it sounds. I guess it couldn't be as offensive as it sounds. It's actually sort of sweet. I liked it. Added it to the rankings, right there in the middle at #12. It's pleasant and light, if you're looking for something relatively mindless.