In an annual series, Every Movie Has a Lesson is going to look back twenty years to revisit, relearn, and reexamine a year of cinema history to share favorites, lists, and experiences from the films of that year. Here’s the report from 2005!
PERSONAL Favorites
Image: IMDb
Because of Winn-Dixie, Constantine, The Pacifier, Fever Pitch, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Madagascar, Fantastic Four, Bad News Bears, An Unfinished Life, Green Street Hooligans, The Greatest Game Ever Played, Into the Blue, The Legend of Zorro, Zathura, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, March of the Penguins, ARE WE THERE YET?
I’m happy to defend Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith to this day. The prequel story probably didn’t need three movies, but they sure got the finale right. The Jessica Alba crush (and resulting overexposure) was clearly alive and well in 2005. In my retrospective post about the “Best of 2004,” I lamented about how Hollywood used to make proper sports movies in the 1990s and 2000s (see Fever Pitch, The Greatest Game Ever Played, andBad News Bears here in 2005 too). The very same can be said for PG-rated live-action family crowd pleasers, which seem to have gone the way of streaming. I miss stuff like Because of Winn-Dixie, Are We There Yet?, The Pacifier, The Legend of Zorro, Zathura, The Greatest Game Ever Played, and even Bad News Bears. We can do better than only offering animated fare to families nowadays.
Guilty Pleasures
Image: IMDb
The Weather Man, Man of the House, Sahara, Kicking and Screaming, Mindhunters, Unleashed, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Sky High, Stealth, The Dukes of Hazard, Roll Bounce, Waiting…, Dreamer, Just Friends, Yours Mine and Ours, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Rumor Has It
As I look at this list, I see more of those easy-to-enjoy live action family flicks like Yours, Mine, and Ours, Dreamer, Sky High, and Cheaper by the Dozen 2, only a little less in quality than the “favorites” section. I also see what would be the last gasps of mid-budget star-driven studio programmer. They were the bread-and-butter of the 1990s where a $50-90 million gross on a $10-30 million budget was like an RBI double off the outfield wall on the studio earnings ledgers. The Weather Man, Man of the House, Sahara, Kicking and Screaming, Dukes of Hazard, and Rumor Has It fit that description. I miss those and I think Hollywood does too.
OVERRATED
Image: IMDb
The Wedding Date, Robots, The Interpreter, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Four Brothers, Corpse Bride, Flight Plan, Doom, Jarhead, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Rent, Match Point
Not every last vestige of the star-driven programmer worked. I think The Wedding Date, The Interpreter, Four Brothers, Match Point, and Flight Plan are misses for their respective stars. I probably need to rewatch Kiss Kiss Bang Bang before entirely calling it overrated, but Shane Black movies and I don’t get along. A little higher up the pedigree, Jarhead was painful to watch then and it still a miss now. I miss Robin Williams as much as the next person, but Robots is forgettable. Finally, Tim Burton should maintain permanent residency in the “Overrated” hotel. As wondrous as he is as a creator, it has become the same gaudy noise over the years.
Rewatches Needed
Image: IMDb
Be Cool, The Upside of Anger, Crash, Monster-in-Law, The Island, The Great Raid, Red Eye, The Brothers Grimm, A Sound of Thunder, Proof, Two for the Money, Domino, Elizabethtown, North Country, Stay, Fun with Dick and Jane, Syriana, Memoirs of a Geisha, The New World
This list is big and I don’t know where to start to unpack it. There are more of those star-led midbudget entries like Fun with Dick and Jane, Red Eye, Elizabethtown, Two for the Money, and The Upside of Anger. This swath of diminishing quality is probably why they died and lost their favor and reliability with studios and audiences. I heavily dislike what Terrence Malick has become. I’m afraid if I rewatch The New World I’ll think of it less than I do. I can almost echo the very same general dislike and fear with Michael Bay’s The Island. The universally maligned Best Picture winner Crash would be a fascinating rewatch. I know A Sound of Thunder was a universal bomb, but I like the original novel that I’ve read since, where I would like the comparison.
Blind Spots
Image: IMDb
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Capote, The Constant Gardner, Assault on Precinct 13, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants, Lords of Dogtown, Howl’s Moving Castle, Land of the Dead, The Devil’s Rejects, Junebug, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Serenity, The Squid and the Whale, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, Casanova, The Producers
This list is huge and embarrassing. I have no excuses other than being a busy teacher or not cultured enough to give better cinema a try. Part of it is not being a horror guy too. Capote and The Constant Gardner are musts, and I know I’m at a better age than 26 to appreciate them. Hayao Miyasaki’s animated classics are big hole of mine that I’m working on. Of all of them, I think I would dig The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy the most, but I hear I need the book as well. That can be too much homework.
Still Bad
Image: IMDb
Electra, Racing Stripes, Son of the Mask, Cursed, The Jacket, Hostage, The Ring Two, Miss Congeniality: Armed and Fabulous, D.E.B.S., Beauty Shop, A Lot Like Love, xXx: State of the Union, The Longest Yard, The Honeymooners, The Perfect Man, Bewitched, Rebound, Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo, The Skeleton Key, Transporter 2, The Man, Just Like Heaven, In Her Shoes, The Fog, Shopgirl, Prime, Derailed, The Ice Harvest
Yup, this was it. This was the year star-driven midbudget studio programmers dies. The bombs here are huge.
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