best films of 2005-2006 (sadly without huntsman)

best: transamerica--felicity hufmann manages to create a sympathetic and realistic transgendered character in this 'road movie' as she travels to new york to find her son, who, she discovers, is both a rent boy and a drug addict. they spend most of the trip back to los angeles arguing yet bonding as the son, toby, doesn't yet realize that bree (huffman) is his father. there's no real happy ending here, but a lot of humour and a lot of pain. bittersweet and well made.

runner up: sin city (which surprised me)

other films you liked?

Can only think of one good film I've seen lately and that was Munich. What did you think of it AgentWood?

Worst was that Truman Capote film, which was just complete bollocks. The way that writer talked was just unbearable. Actually I gave up watching this after just half an hour on my flight to the US a couple weeks ago.

2046 blew everything else away, this year and last, no contest.

King of Nothing wrote: Can only think of one good film I've seen lately and that was Munich. What did you think of it AgentWood?

Worst was that Truman Capote film, which was just complete bollocks. The way that writer talked was just unbearable. Actually I gave up watching this after just half an hour on my flight to the US a couple weeks ago.

munich was good, but a bit long. it was less high and mighty than your typical spielberg film and i liked how it showed how the assassins weren't exactly james bonds (even though the new james bond played one of them, ironically) and didn't kill with glee. they could have shortened it by about half an hour, though.

i didn't care for capote, either. philip seymour hofmann might have sounded and acted like tru, but all that means is that i probably would have found the man annoying. the one redeeming factor was catherine keener as harper lee. she's always good.

I'm still waiting to see Match Point and Munich, but I figure I can weigh in :p

I liked Jarhead a lot and was disappointed to see it not pick up any Oscar nominations. Good Night, and Good Luck was good, but I feel like the framing narrative (looking back on it instead of "in the moment") weakened it a lot. For some reason, I just feel like the film copped out of the "threat" posed by McCarthy by showing "all's well that ends well" right from the get-go.

Walk The Line, I liked it more than I thought I would. Even if it did do too much cliched "biopic" standards, the performances by Phoenix and Witherspoon carried it through the weaker moments

I want to see the remake of All The King's Men, because I read the book last summer. But it disappeared without a trace

So...my vote goes to the upcoming release RV, starring Robin Williams

Snakes on a Plane

"Walk The Line" Jaquin Phoenix was a force of Nature and the scene where the warden says to not play anuthing that would remind the prisoners they are prison (at san quentin)

the sneered "You think they forgot" just nailed it. THAT was Johnny cash

"Munich" was more a meditation on what terrorism does to the soul....Eric bana was great

"Match Point" ace movie Jonathon Rhys Myers was magnificent-just so good! Woody Allen making a good movie without the New York skyline? wow

"Hustle & Flow" Terrance Howrd made a drug dealer/pimp almost heroic. You could see his dream. He wanted it so bad, the passion....

"Crash" No easy answers...none...Matt Dillion may have been a racist jerk but yuou can see what made him

"syriana" great & complex....

"Good Night & Good Luck" great performace by david Straithorn-just a great period piece...it spoke true to what is happening right now

do yourself a favor-get the soundtrack..Diane Reeves has such a wonderful voice...set the tone so well

Terrence Michael Mason wrote: Snakes on a Plane

and you also liked "Anaconda", right?

Ed Dalder wrote:

"Good Night & Good Luck" great performace by david Straithorn-just a great period piece...it spoke true to what is happening right now

what i liked best was how clooney didn't hire an actor to play mccarthy. by using actual footage of the HUAC hearings he showed how insidious the man really was.

i didn't know much about edward r. murrow before the film; i only knew him by name and hearing my parents and others talk about him--how he was the greatest newscaster in history. i had no idea he took on joseph mccarthy. they don't make them like murrow anymore, do they?

AgentWood wrote:

Ed Dalder wrote:

"Good Night & Good Luck" great performace by david Straithorn-just a great period piece...it spoke true to what is happening right now

what i liked best was how clooney didn't hire an actor to play mccarthy. by using actual footage of the HUAC hearings he showed how insidious the man really was.

i didn't know much about edward r. murrow before the film; i only knew him by name and hearing my parents and others talk about him--how he was the greatest newscaster in history. i had no idea he took on joseph mccarthy. they don't make them like murrow anymore, do they?

fascinating bit of trivia-people in test audiences were heard to ask "who is playing Senator McCarthy?" to let ol' Joe hang by his own words-just mind bending....

Terrence Michael Mason wrote: Snakes on a Plane

had to pipe in! saw there is a release date for this piece of shit. August 18, kiddies!! It looks so campy I just can't resist....

Ed Dalder wrote:

Terrence Michael Mason wrote: Snakes on a Plane

and you also liked "Anaconda", right?

Despised it...but it's Samuel L. Jackson....and a lot of snakes....on a plane!

AgentWood wrote:

Ed Dalder wrote:

"Good Night & Good Luck" great performace by david Straithorn-just a great period piece...it spoke true to what is happening right now

what i liked best was how clooney didn't hire an actor to play mccarthy. by using actual footage of the HUAC hearings he showed how insidious the man really was.

i didn't know much about edward r. murrow before the film; i only knew him by name and hearing my parents and others talk about him--how he was the greatest newscaster in history. i had no idea he took on joseph mccarthy. they don't make them like murrow anymore, do they?

It would've been too easy for Clooney's critics (read: Fox News) to blast him if he cast someone as McCarthy. I do applaud the use of actual footage from McCarthy himself (though I was under the impression that McCarthy and Murrow had it out in an actual debate...don't know where I got that from, but anyway)

I still think the framing device of the awards ceremony years later was a bit of a cop-out. Granted, you already know how it's gonna end from historical sources, but there's no real "threat" when you know from the get-go that Murrow's just going to be flashing back to his confrontation with McC. Of course, the confrontation itself was rendered perfectly, but I think the notion that "this is what happened a few years before the film begins" is too convenient. If it had been more "in the moment" of the actual events, I think it might have been better (but it was good as is, certainly)

Terrence Michael Mason wrote:

Ed Dalder wrote:

Terrence Michael Mason wrote: Snakes on a Plane

and you also liked "Anaconda", right?

Despised it...but it's Samuel L. Jackson....and a lot of snakes....on a plane!

Oh I Know!!!! Whenever I think of it I just giggle-a beavis & butthead "heh-heh, heh-heh" reaction....What's NOT to like!

I didn't see many films this year, but those I did, they were pretty decent. Thumbsucker - the title describes the protagonist and the plot, but the actor playing the title character does a pretty good job, although the script had some not-so-greatly-written moments.

Oliver Twist - This didn't get much attention and I had to see it for an assignment for a Victorian lit class, but the actors all gave good performances, especially Ben Kingsley - who mostly seems to be wasting his talents on d-grade flicks like "BloodRayne" and "A Sound of Thunder" - and the younger actors playing the title part and Nancy. Visually, it was also good. However, because the book is very long, much of the second half was cut out, which was kind of annoying.

Good Night and Good Luck - My mother dragged me to see this, but it wasn't bad. Ironically, she fell asleep and I had to tell her afterward what had happened. Not a bad effort from the guy who played Batman with nipples.

Crash - saw this on video and, although most of the situations seemed contrived for the sake of a plot, it reminded me much of race issues in Philadelphia. I don't think it deserved best picture, but the performances were still good.

its too early to tell for 2006. who knows what yet may be.

I passed on 2005. 2006 does not look promising either.

Best ones I have seen lately are A History of Violence, Crash and Wolf Creek.

Serenity.

Land of the dead.

XMen3 (I hope).

i thought Sin city was good, something quite fresh with the whole comic book styling and all that, erm Jarhead was good. and thats about all the good films i saw at the cinema, the rest we're average-poo.

Craig W wrote:

XMen3 (I hope).

ditto

A History Of Violence was good,but had a bit of a weak ending. Munich was spot on. I have to admit im looking forward to The Da Vinci Code.

patrick stewart appreciation society wrote:

Craig W wrote:

XMen3 (I hope).

ditto

Ditto Ditto

Sir Ian, Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammer (as Beast) Halle Berry.... and so on talk about star power!

My Capote review.

Seymour's Hoffman's portrayal may be accurate but it amounts to sitting through the arduous ordeal of watching a cross between Keifer Sutherland and Eddie Izzard, do an impression of Droopy.

Walk the Line

batman begins crash wallace & grommit & the curse of the were rabbit sideways (in the uk it was 2005)

want to see the aquid & the whale, the edukators, 2046

Shug wrote: Don't watch many films, but we watched King Kong last week, with several stella's and a take away I quite enjoyed it. Watched Crash a while back but I seemed to guess what was gonna happen all the way through it.

When was the Butterfly Effect? That was quite good. And no, I'm not being faceitious, my memory is just gash.

The Butterfly Effect was in late 2004, early 2005. However, in this country, it was just an Ashton Kutcher film, which you really can't take seriously.