The List

One my many quirks, as a film buff, is that I look forward to the issue of Premeire magazine where they publish a comprehensive list of the 100 best reviewed movies of the last year. Usually this list is used to identify movies that were on my radar and fell off my radar before I put them in my Netflix queue. Everything is Illuminated and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang fall into this category. While I'm checking out the list, I get kind of surprised where movies that I enjoyed fall, how about 40 Year Old Virgin coming in at #39, yet I can't think of a funnier movie from last year. And although I do think Wedding Crashers was also very funny, it coming in ahead of 40 Year Old at #35 doesn't make sense to me. I think most shocking of all on this list would be that you would probably not be able to guess the #1 reviewed movie of the year. I'll give you a hint, it's not nominated in any major category for the Oscars. And Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night, Good Luck and Munich comprise the remaining Top 5. Now if you are thinking a cartoon, you would be wrong...as Wallace and Gromit came in at #8. Give up? How about Grizzly Man being the best reviewed film of 2005. Very strange.

In any case, a by-product of this list is the bottom 10. Now here's where the real fun comes in. I always cringe when I realize I saw one of the bottom ten. The level of severity depends on whether or not I saw it in the theater or just on HBO. And what really hurts is when I not only saw one of the bottom 10, but that I liked one of them. Let's take a look and see...

100. The Pacifier
99. Stealth
98. Domino
97. Monster-In-Law
96. Be Cool
95. Bewtiched
94. The Longest Yard
93. The Dukes of Hazzard
92. Diary of a Mad Black Woman
91. Fantastic Four

Whew. I only saw the Longest Yard remake On Demand and that was out of sheer boredom. Yeah it sucked, but it wasn't #100. Lucky for me Constantine came in at #90, and it was a movie that I really liked. I doubt anything on this bottom dweller list shocks anyone, but it's kind of funny to think of the box office money these gems brought in. Without looking up actual figures, I would have to guess both Dukes and Longest Yard hit 100 million, Diary of a Mad Black Woman cleaned up in the African American community and cost barely anything to make, equating to huge success for the director/star. Fantastic Four was a weak superhero movie, but brought in some bank. I think even The Pacifier was a hit with 8 year olds. Oh well, America has rarely ever gotten it right. I'm certain that more people saw Stealth then will ever see Grizzly Man despite the fact that the Discovery Channel seems to be showing it nightly.