R0BTRAIN's Top 10 Movies of 2005

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R0BTRAIN’s Top 10 Movies of 2005

by Robert Sutton, InsidePulse Movies

Studios have been trying to account for the lower box office totals of 2005. The consensus seems to have been that quality was down, and therefore people weren’t going to theaters. It seems every year in the new millennium has had the reputation of having lowered the quality of cinema, and now 2005 paid the price for its poor quality films. This simply isn’t true. 2005 was a wildly successful year for film in my eyes. On the entertainment side, the greatest franchise in the history of cinema wrapped up its run with a slam bang finish that left it the most financially successful film of the year. The Dark Knight finally put the ghost of Joel Schumacher to rest with a tremendous movie. George Romero returned to the big screen with a tremendously entertaining zombie killer. El Spielbergo gave us another banner year just as he did with Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List in 1993 with his crowd pleasing War of the Worlds and the stunner Munich. Arthouse films also soared with Syriana and many other pictures causing audiences to hold their collective breaths. This is all just the pecking on the surface for what was a great year for the fanboy and the critic in me. These Top 10 were the cream of the crop for me in 2005, but rest assured I loved many, many more.


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10:Cinderella Man – Ron Howard’s boxing epic is a wonderful piece of underdog entertainment. Is Cinderella Man schmaltz? Yes it is, but it’s really well done schmaltz. Howard triumphantly pulls at your heart strings to make one of the most emotional experiences I’ve had at the movies this year. Helping the film are really tremendous performances from Russell Crowe, Paul Giamatti, and Renée Zellweger, all of which should deserve Oscar consideration. This was the one great drama that came out of the summer season, and it’s too bad it’s been all but forgotten.


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9:Layer Cake – I love a great Gangster picture, and the British always have come up with some real gems the last few years. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and Sexy Beast are all prime examples of the exuberant style of British film making, but Layer Cake outdoes them all. This is a taut thriller with flourishes of real brilliance and beautiful images. Daniel Craig’s Bond tryout goes swimmingly as he erased any doubts I may have had about the actor before. Did I mention how bad ass George Harris (Katanga from Raiders of the Lost Ark) is in this film? I could really go on and on about the picture from the soundtrack to the solid plot, but needless to say this is one of the best Cockney Gangster films ever and definitely one of the best movies of 2005.


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8:Kung Fu Hustle – Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle is like a live action Bugs Bunny cartoon, and I love Bugs Bunny cartoons. It really is breathless entertainment, combining a great story with Chow’s zany antics and fantastic fight scenes. The comedy is broad, but very effective with Chow making great use of CGI. The choreography by Yuen Woo Ping is also top notch, so when the movie switches into its action gear it doesn’t let up until Chow gives you more to laugh at. The movie just puts this great big grin on your face that only let’s up so you can laugh out loud.


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7:Serenity – When Fox cancelled Firefly, it was one of the biggest TV travesties of all time, until they turned around and cancelled Arrested Development. Fortunately, Joss Whedon’s space/horse opera was able to make a jump that few franchises have ever done, to the big screen. What a tremendous ride it was too. Serenity is an old school space adventure with fantastic characters and a storyline that was deeper than I’d expected. Nathan Fillion’s Captain Malcolm Reynolds is a hero out of the same mold as Indiana Jones, who talks with his fists when he’s not making a smart ass comment. Hopefully this isn’t the end for this universe, there’s so much greatness that’s left in this series.


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6:Oldboy – I know Oldboy already showed up on Michelangelo’s list in 2004, but the picture wasn’t actually released domestically until this year, so I’m putting it here. Oldboy is actually a film that deserves every bit of the hype it’s garnered. It’s hard to speak about the plot without giving away some of the movie’s magic, but suffices to say the film is absolutely magnificent. No film this year had the sheer intensity that this Chan-wook Park masterpiece has. It’s too bad that more people won’t see Choi Min-sik’s performance as the tortured Oh Dae-su as the raw emotion he exudes propels him to perhaps the best male performance of the year. Its hard to stomach at times, but Oldboy is completely unforgettable.


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5: King Kong – Peter Jackson’s three hour adventure is an incredible achievement. By taking the skeleton of the original’s plot, this film fleshes out everything that the original could have been if it had great performances and modern special effects. As with the original Kong, the best character in this entire picture is the title ape. Fortunately, Jackson is able to raise the other roles in the film to a point that they nearly get close to Kong’s greatness. This is a wonderful marvel of a movie that doesn’t let up until the big ape falls from what was the tallest building in the world.


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4: Frank Miller’s Sin City – There was a time when I thought this Miller’s graphic novel’s would be impossible to put on film. Well, I’m ecstatic that Robert Rodriguez was able to prove me wrong. Well since this film wasn’t shot on film, I’m still right but that’s not important. What is important is that Rodriguez was able to take one of the most stylistic comics of all time and put it up on screen for all to see. This is actually the most faithful adaptation of a Comic ever produced and should earn Rodriguez a stature with the fanboy community that he had not previous been able to achieve. Mickey Rourke is eerily perfect as Marv and goes on the same list Christopher Reeve’s Superman and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine as the best translations of Comic Book characters ever.


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3: Batman Begins – I was beginning to think that a great Batman film would never be put on screen. Once again, thank God I was wrong. This new version of The Dark Knight isn’t the “Hey Freeze, I’m Batman” that’s been haunting my nightmare since Joel Schumacher signed on to direct the series third and fourth installments. This was the Batman of my youth. This was the Batman that Frank Miller and Jeph Loeb gave me years ago as I sat in class reading The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One Batman: The Long Halloween instead of paying attention to my teachers. Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins has all the darkness that I’ve always wanted on screen from the Caped Crusader without it having to be animated or have Tim Burton’s quirkiness. For once, this is a Batman film that is actually about BATMAN. What a novel concept. In the same year that Marvel stumbled horribly with Fantastic Four and Elektra, DC finally stepped up and hit out a home run. Here’s hoping the trend continues with Superman Returns next year.


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2:(tie) Syriana – Imagine you have this huge puzzle in front of you. Near the beginning you only have a small portion of the pieces and nothing really makes much sense, but as the session goes on and on, the piece slowly add up to the most astonishing picture you’ve ever seen. That’s what watching Syriana was like. Syriana was at once the most confusing and one of the most rewarding and moving experiences in cinema this year. From top to bottom, no film had such a wide array of great performances in a single movie. George Clooney is the best he has ever been as Bob Barnes, a CIA agent who is basically a broken man and finally gets his wits and purpose after the country he has fought and killed for turns its back on him. Matt Damon has also never been better than he is here as Bryan Woodman, a businessman that may be in league with either one of the most brilliant men in the world or with a tyrant-to be. Every role is filled with electric performances from Tim Blake Nelson and Christopher Plummer, to Jeffery Wright and William Hurt. I’m hoping this is the film the Academy will honor in the coming months.



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2:(tie) Munich – For a few years now, we’ve all been looking for Steven Spielberg film to really have a proper followup to Saving Private Ryan. Minority Report is the best Science Fiction of the new millenium, but his output has been marred by work well below his par (A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Terminal). With Munich, the greatness we knew Steven Spielberg could achieve and has in the past finally comes to fruition again. His story of assassins losing themselves while trying to right a great wrong just stays with you emotionally no matter how hard you try and shake it. Eric Bana has the performance his career and everyone else is no less than spectacular. I can’t understand why this film got the “Art Film” treatment with its limited release, instead of just going wide. This film deserves way more exposure than its getting and I’m afraid many are going to miss this masterpiece because just not enough places are showing it. If this were any other year, this would probably be my #1 film.



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1: Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – Will I take flack for putting George Lucas’ final Star Wars epic at the top of my list? Yes, I will. Will I care? No, I most certainly will not. No film has divided the staff of IP Movies or our readers more than this film, but I will not stop defending it. I think I’ve written enough about the film in my review and Column that people already know my mind. For me Revenge of the Sith was more than just a movie. It was the culmination of 27 years of loving movies. Star Wars was the first movie I remember as a child. The Empire Strikes Back was my first experience in the theater. Seeing the final Star Wars on opening night was just overwhelming. Yes, you can argue with me about dialogue and acting if you want (I don’t think either are that bad), but every time I’ve seen the movie in theaters (5 times) or watched it on DVD, once the that Lucasfilm logo comes up and the words “A Long Time Ago In a Galaxy Far, Far Away” hit the screen, I’ve been swept away. I love every single moment of Revenge of the Sith. Every. Single. Moment.

Robert Sutton feels the most at home when he's watching some movie scumbag getting blown up, punched in the face, or kung fu'd to death, especially in that order. He's a founding writer for the movies section of Insidepulse.com, featured in his weekly column R0BTRAIN's Badass Cinema as well as a frequent reviewer of DVDs and Blu-rays. Also, he's a proud Sony fanboy, loves everything Star Wars and Superman related and hopes to someday be taken seriously by his friends and family.