The Rest of Film Observations in 2005

This post will cover favorite performances, underrated/overrated, and moments of 2005.

Favorite Unsung Performances of 2005

These performances stood out and were not given much credit during awards time. Some might not even be "award-worthy" but they were good. In no order:

1. Isla Fisher, Wedding Crashers. Her psycho babe was one of the most memorable performances of the year. And her sexy revelation that ends up roping in Vince Vaughn roped me in, too.

2. Clifton Collins, Jr., Capote. As Perry Smith, one of the convicted killers Capote interviews, Collins has the best, most heart-wrenching scene of the whole movie.

3. Seth Rogen, The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Steve Carrell is definitely a funny guy and carries this movie, but perhaps the funniest performance came from Rogen.

4. The penguins in Madagascar. Penguins were a huge hit this year, and don't worry, even more penguins will be hitting screens with Happy Feet around Thanksgiving. But these penguins, led by director Tom McGrath lending his voice to Skipper, were the main reason Madagascar was in any way funny, and then they had their own short before Wallace & Gromit, also funny. Why can't Madagascar 2 be just the damn penguins?

5. Vince Vaughn, Wedding Crashers. Sure, it's Swingers' Trent all over again, but damn if it still isn't entertaining.

6. Michael Caine, The Weather Man. Here's a guy who usually gets nominated for everything, but this time, he got overlooked. His performance may have been the most satisfyingly droll of the year.

7. Maria Bello, Viggo Mortensen, and Ed Harris, A History of Violence. William Hurt's 10 minutes get recognized, but the three who carried the whole movie to that point get snubbed? Especially Bello.

8. Bill Murray, Broken Flowers. There was a lot of buzz on this performance over the summer. That goes to show how long buzz lasts in the Best Actor category.

9. Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale. Another critically loved performance, but very few accolades.

UNDERRATED FILMS OF THE YEAR (CRITICALLY DRUBBED OR LITTLE-SEEN)

I was shocked that Rent didn't garner more of an audience, and the same goes for Zathura, although I blame marketing on that. Marketing also sunk Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, a comedy that deserved a lot better. Red Eye was a mid-level hit but not, probably, would it could have been.

But no doubt, The Weather Man was this year's most underrated film. This is damn funny stuff, in some ways Gore Verbinski's best film even though it's certainly nowhere near as commercial. Funny performances, off-kilter dialogue--if this had been an indie flick, we'd be hearing praises nonstop. One thing that hurt: being pushed back constantly from its original April release date.

OVERRATED FILMS OF THE YEAR (CRITICALLY OVERPRAISED)

I heard "masterpiece" being thrown around for movies like The Devil's Rejects and Land of the Dead. Wow.

Also, three films nominated for Best Picture are space-fillers for more deserving fare: Good Night, and Good Luck, Capote, and Munich. There are good moments, good messages in these films, and I even have them ranked in my "Top 32" or whatever you want to call it, but way overpraised.

But I thought the most overrated might be The Constant Gardener. Director Fernando Meirelles, who made the kinetic City of God (and if you haven't seen that movie yet, as I always say when I mention this, you need to go see it now), makes an awfully tiresome political movie here--one that is rich with detail and plot, yes, but not much on excitement.

DISAPPOINTMENTS (MOVIES THAT HAD PROMISE AND FAILED)

Disappointing could describe a great many films this past year. I was awfully disappointed with the adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's a hard book to film, I guess, but the rhythms of joke-telling were botched. Those same, classic Adams gags were there, but presented in a slipshod manner.

Elizabethtown was another biggie. In many ways, it had the feel of Cameron Crowe flicks from the past, but it was over-bloated with that loooooong ending, the Susan Sarandon speech that seems to go on for hours, and other missteps. What was disappointing was enjoying it, and then not enjoying it, and then just getting frustrated.

I loved it then and I still think it's good today, but Star Wars Episode III underlined the failure of the entire series. After the first two failed to bring out that Star Wars magic, the third was handicapped by those failures, and that's why when the Jedis get massacred it's not as resonant as it should be. Anakin was so unlikeable in the first place, that his transformation wasn't all that shocking.

I also had hope for the aformentioned Land of the Dead, considering it was "master of zombie horror" George A. Romero.

But no movie was more disappointing than Sin City. With a kickass teaser and awesome visuals, with Tarantino on board to direct a scene, I thought this would just blow me away. As I've said before, if you strip away the look of this film, then all you have is this crappy movie you'd see on late-night cable.

Memorable Moments of 2005

There are numerous moments here that may be a bit of a spoiler, so I would urge caution. You might want to read the highlighted titles first before proceeding.

In Hitch, Will Smith looks at client Kevin James's supplied bio, and under "Musical Interests" it features, on the same line, Led Zeppelin and Clay Aiken.

In Star Wars Episode III, Anakin Skywalker, who has turned to the Dark Side as is helping the Emperor wipe out all the Jedi, enters a room full of future Jedi. A little boy tells Anakin his concerns about what's happening, and that's when he sees the instant glow of the light saber. The little boy takes the slightest step back, before the scene cuts.

In Mindhunters, after the bad guy gets shot dead, one character remarks to another in a great cheesy bad line, "Well, I guess we found his weakness...Bullets."

Batman stands looking over Gotham, his purpose clear to protect it, in one of those perfect mood-setting scenes, in Batman Begins.

Once the attack is in full bloom in War of the Worlds, we get a closeup of a video camera's viewfinder, recording all of the action.

There were numerous scenes in Crash that deserve to be here. One is where Michael Pena has an argument with storeowner Shaun Toub, who is about to shoot Pena. His young daughter runs out, thinking she's invincible. Toub shoots just as the girl jumps in front of Pena. What follows is the most tense 30 seconds in film this year.

Also, Terrence Howard's face as he gets pulled over by cops the first, then especially second, time. Also, William Fichtner's offhand remark to Don Cheadle, "Black people...They just can't seem to keep their hands out of the cookie jar." Also, Matt Dillon saving Thandie Newton from a burning car, this after previously molesting her in an earlier traffic stop. There's much more, but those are the ones I felt needed to be mentioned.

In A History of Violence, when Viggo Mortensen finally exposes his true character and blows away the three guys (including Ed Harris) who have been harassing him.

In Sky High, Kurt Russell has two great line readings. Early on, as he's telling his son Michael Angarano that one day he won't be a superhero dad anymore, and that he'll need to take over one day, he says reflectively, "One day when if I have to stop a meteor from hitting the Earth, it'll be me that explodes into a million pieces." Also, at the end, talking to Lynda Carter, "Whatever you're teaching these kids...then just keep teaching them...it."

As guards stand post outside of Folsom Prison, an audible thumping can be heard from inside. As the camera gets closer, it gets louder, and we see the prisoners stamping their feet and clapping their hands. It's Johnny Cash giving them a legendary performance in Walk the Line. Also, as Reese Witherspoon as June Carter does a comedy bit on stage, Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) can't stifle a quick laugh, drowned out by the audience's, as he waits behind the curtain.

In Hustle & Flow, Terrence Howard goes to a neighbor he doesn't exactly see eye-to-eye with and respectfully asks him if he can turn his music down. "I can't tell you to do it, I can only request." Also, when he finally starts pounding out songs "Whoop That Trick" and "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp," is when the movie is at its best.

In the otherwise horrible Dukes of Hazzard, there is one sliver of sunshine--well, Jessica Simpson in a bikini with a knockout bod certainly qualifies, but it's a hotshot racer talking on a headset during the big race in the end, asking, "Did you get the Celine Dion tickets?" and "Of course I want back-stage, don't be dumb."

In Cinderella Man, when Jim Braddock (Russell Crowe) humbly asks for money from the wealthy promoters. Also, after Braddock has a comeback fight that no one expects him to do anything in, and he emerges as a knockout winner, Paul Giamatti comes into the dressing room and exclaims, "Jesus Christ! Mother of Mary, Jesus...all of the saints...did I say Jesus?"

In March of the Penguins, one of the female penguins after losing her baby, as Morgan Freeman says, "does something unimaginable." And that's to try to steal another mother's baby. But the other penguins won't allow it.

In King Kong, the three dinosaurs and King Kong fight, but the spectacular part of it is when they, including Naomi Watts, get caught in vines that hang over a huge drop below. Kong has to fight the dinos, and make sure Watts doesn't fall, in the best action scene of the year. Also, when Kong makes it to New York, he frantically searches for his blonde-headed love, getting disappointed and haphazardly tossing each woman he finds aside like trash. When he finally finds Watts, they have a touching moment on an ice pond, before the attack comes.

Also, Andy Serkis, in his other role as a sailor, gets swallowed by this huge centipede thing that just engulfs his face.

In The Weather Man, Nicolas Cage, told by wife Hope Davis not to forget the tartar sauce, gets distracted by everything he sees on the trip to the store, especially a woman that stands in front of him at a crosswalk. He thinks, as he looks at the girl's behind, "Tartar sauce...tartar sauce. I wish I had two dicks..." Also, when Michael Caine explains to Cage what "camel toe" means.

In Thumbsucker, Benjamin Bratt gets the funny, cheesy lines. One, on his show "The Line" as he helps someone out, a partner says, "They're just wetbacks," or something to that effect. He says, "There are no wetbacks here...only people!" Later, as he runs into the main character Justin (Lou Pucci), he introduces himself. "I'm from that show, 'The Line?' You know...'Sometimes You Gotta Cross It?'"

In The Bad News Bears, during a game, Billy Bob Thornton asks a kid what he thinks. Continuing to look out into the field, his reply is, "I think bird food sometimes tastes like candy." It may have been the most surreal funny moment of the year for me.

In The 40-Year-Old-Virgin, Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd have a hilarious "cut down" fight while playing video games, always beginning with, "Do you know how I know that you're gay?" Also, Steve Carrell's attempt to fit in with the guys during a poker game when the talk turns towards sexual experiences, "Yeah...I love titties," he says, unsure, sipping his soda. There are, of course, tons more from this movie.

In Wedding Crashers, the montage where Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson keep crashing weddings and bagging numerous women to the tune of "You Make Me Want to Shout." And there are quite a few times Vaughn goes on a riff, but the one where he's talking about all the different scenarios he hates about dating--"Should I hug her, should I not, do I do the hug where your butt sticks out so that you're not too close," and so on, culminating in, "Maybe we could play a little game called 'Just the Tip,' you know, see how it feels..."

There were a great many suspense moments in Munich, and the one where an unintended target, a little girl, answers a phone rigged with explosives was memorable, as was the one where Eric Bana has to turn out a light to signal that it's OK to blow up a bed in a next-door hotel room rigged with explosives, and when he does--that one second where it's silent and all of the sudden the wall blows apart, throwing him several feet. My favorite scene, though, is when Mathieu Kassovitz explains to Bana that the reason he feels pride in being Jewish is that they are a peaceful people, not searching for vengeance, and every time they do one of these hits, he seems to be losing some of his soul.

In Jarhead, in a cool dream sequence set to the tune of Nirvana's "Something in the Way," it culminates in Jake Gyllenhaal vomiting a ton of sand. Also, when Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard finally get a chance to kill someone, they are told to stand down because the napalm is on the way. Sarsgaard's flip out had to have been one of the most draining scenes for an actor in the year.

In Serenity, hot chick Kaylee (Jewel Staite) comments on her dry spell concerning sex, "I haven't had anything twixt my nethers t'weren't hooked up with batteries."

In Broken Flowers, when Bill Murray waits for old flame Sharon Stone, her daughter Lolita (Alexis Dziena, who is a regular on TV show "Invasion") is on the phone. She walks off, then comes back completely naked, like Murray isn't there.

In Proof, there are a number of flashbacks of Gwyneth Paltrow and her dad Anthony Hopkins that will eventually tell you the truth about who authored this amazing math proof. Hopkins is slowly going crazy, and it is speculated whether he was even sane enough to write an amazing proof before his death. In the climactic scene of the flashbacks, Paltrow is excited to finish the work and has come up with the proof, and she hears a call from Hopkins to come into his room, because he believes he's got it. Paltrow comes in with her proof, but lets Hopkins share his first. Reading from his notes, Paltrow reads his findings, heartbreakingly out of touch:

Let X equal the quantity of all quantities of X. Let X equal the cold. It is cold in December. The months of cold equal November through February. There are four months of cold, and four of heat, leaving four months of indeterminate temperature. In February it snows. In March the Lake is a lake of ice. In September the students come back and the bookstores are full. Let X equal the month of full bookstores. The number of books approaches infinity as the number of months of cold approaches four. I will never be as cold now as I will in the future. The future of cold is infinite. The future of heat is the future of cold. The bookstores are infinite and so are never full except in September...

The "Tells." (Spoiler)

I promised I'd go over this. There were two thrillers in particular that basically gave away the surprise bad guys early into the film.

In Derailed, when we first see Jennifer Aniston, the camera angle is behind her, not even showing her face, giving that mysterious allure to a character that really shouldn't be given much extra attention. That introduction stayed with me for the whole film, and I knew she was behind the scheme.

In Flightplan, there's an early scene with Peter Sarsgaard and the stewardess where he asks about what movies will be playing on the flight. The act of focusing on something that seems arbitrary calls attention to both characters--and yes, they were behind the abduction.

And so, there's the rest of my 2005 observations. Hope it is in any way entertaining.