2005 is out!

It's 4:30pm, I haven't showered yet, it's pouring rain outside, someone's blasting mariachi music nearby...and I'm totally content. 2005 was a very interesting year for me. It started out with me being broke and seriously wondering what the hell I was doing in LA. Then the year progressed with some great big highs and some real steep lows and now that it's all over, I couldn't be happier. Well...okay, I could definitely be happier, but I haven't felt this good about an oncoming year in quite a long time.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my family, my friends, my bosses, and my enemies for helping me see my faults, supporting my decisions, giving me hope and pointing me in the right direction for the future. I kiss you all.

And now, my TOP TEN MOVIES OF 2005!

I saw a ton of films, but as much as I tried, I did not get to see all the movies I wanted to see this year. I totally missed Syriana, March of the Penguins, Goodnight & Good Luck, Murderball, Wedding Crashers, Rize, Cinderella Man, Thumbsucker, Grizzly Man, Wolf Creek.....sometimes it's really difficult being a movie lover these days.

So, here are my favorite movies of 2005. Not necessarily "the best", just the ones that I saw that I enjoyed the most.

10) KUNG FU HUSTLE - Pure genius slapstick. I love a movie that takes pride in perfectly crafting silliness, especially if it involves martial arts.

9) THE DEVIL'S REJECTS - Exploitation revivalism at its finest. The kind of horror movie that scars your brain. Rob Zombie more than made up for House of 1000 Corpses.

8) KISS KISS BANG BANG - A buddy/action movie that makes fun of buddy/action movies. Very clever and a lot of fun.

7) WAR OF THE WORLDS - Yeah...it's got problems, but you know what? I was on edge the entire time once the aliens emerged from the street. Dopey, but I had a blast watching it.

6) HOTEL RWANDA - Not fun, by any means. A very well crafted story of the horrors that men do, and the people who take action against it.

5) OLDBOY - An inventive thriller that goes to some pretty intense and wild extremes. Amazing filmwork.

4) WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT - It's about time they got their own movie. It feels like a longer version of one of their shorts, which is a good thing.

3) MUNICH - The best movies spark discussion and debate, and I think this is one for the ages. I want to study this movie.

2) THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN - Holy crap, I haven't laughed so hard at a movie since A Dirty Shame last year. Unapolagetically crass, but with a heart, and just plain hilarious.

1) ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW - I can't explain why, but something about this movie really hit me deep. I think I just liked it's portrayel of the weirdness and beauty of everyday life.


and for the record, I also saw: King Kong, The Aristocrats, Crash, The Edukators, The Corpse Bride, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Unleashed, Palindromes, The Nomi Song, Walk the Line, A History of Violence, The Island, Sin City, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Bad News Bears, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Constantine, Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire, The Jacket, The Constant Gardener, Ong Bak, Sky High, High Tensino, Night Watch, Red Eye, Kingdom of Heaven, Appleseed, Batman Begins, Land of the Dead, Last Days, Just Like Heaven, Chicken Little, and November.


Aaaaanyway, I hope everyone has/had a fun-filled (but SAFE) New Year's Eve and I wish you all a fantastic 2006. Thanks for stopping by! See you next year.

-Russ