Published on June 27, 2005

From his beloved ‘Sin City’, our resident film critic Hanuman assesses the best and the worst in the first half of 2005

The first six months of 2005 have seen a fair mix of excellent and dreadful releases. Apart from belated showings such as “Million Dollar Baby”, “Ray” and “Closer” – all Academy Award heavyweights – the first half of the year also delivered the Quentin Tarantino-Robert Rodrigues sizzler “Sin City” and what is billed asthe final chapter of “Star Wars”.

Audiences, too, had their fill of real stinkers, such as “Bogeyman” and a flaccid remake of “The Amityville Horror”.

And absolutely no one cared for “Sahara” or “Son of the Mask”.

The biggest disappointment was “Batman Begins”, a jingoistic, pompous flick that stars Christian Bale, who is better known for hisnasty roles as “American Psycho” and the blood-thirsty punk in “Shaft”.

Also big letdowns were epics like “Kingdom of Heaven”, which suffered from a simplistic plot.

And an equally spectacular botch-up was Sidney Pollack’s “The Interpreter”, which had Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn playing sappy platonic roles. If that’s the future of movie romance, we’re in trouble.

Best film: “Sin City”

“Kill Bill Volume 2” gave a preview of what Quentin Tarantino likes, and “Sin City” is his co-production with Robert Rodriguez to magnify the hard-hitting, sexy graphic novels by Frank Miller.

The film also marks the return of Mickey Rourke, in his first leading role in a long time, and Bruce Willis and Clive Owen are excellent as two other tough guys who battle powerful politicians, twisted fiends and dirty cops.

Easily the freshest take on the comic-book genre, with extremely stylish cinematography and special effects.

Best Romantic Comedy: “Mr & Mrs Smith”

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play a suburban couple on the brink of a disastrous marriage after six or seven years (she says six, he says five). The mood is campy and the action campier. But their sizzling chemistry is hard to resist, and you’ll cheer this odd couple on as they blast their way out of tight spots.

Best Martial Arts: “Unleashed”

Also called “Danny the Dog” in its European release, it has Jet Li showing he can both act and fight, playing a human pitbull exploited by fiendish Bob Hoskins.

Best Sci-Fi: “Star Wars 3 – Revenge of the Sith”

It took George Lucas almost a decade to learn from his biggest blunder: Over-merchandising the last three “Star Wars” cheapened and belittled the importance of this space adventure, which revolutionised films when the first episode was released in 1977. The cameras now do close-ups of the players, not the special effects.

Best Boxing Film: “Million Dollar Baby”

Director Clint Eastwood crafted another masterpiece and it swept the Oscars, earning Hilary Swank her second Oscar and Morgan freeman his belated first.

Best Tragedy: “Closer”

Natalie Portman and Clive Owen steal the show from Jude Law and Julia Roberts in this adult drama directed by a master, Mike Nichols.

Best Animation: “Robots”

Ewan McGregor and Robin Williams save Robot World from an evil corporate boss and its horrific mother. Best attack on consumer society this year.

Best Spoof: “Be Cool”

John Travolta, Cedric the Entertainer, Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughan, The Rock, James Woods and a cast of amazing players play cruel jokes on Hollywood and the music industry.

Best Spy: XXX2: The Next Level

Titled XXX: State of the Union for its US release, this flick shows off Samuel L Jackson as the recruiter of super agents. Ice Cube is his new triple X. Granted Ice’s too short and not muscular enough to play a Navy Seal, but he does have attitude and that goes a long way here.

Worst Chick Flick: “Hitch”

Will Smith plays the politically correct chick’s dream lover. He doesn’t go the extra mile to court the girl (Eva Mendes) – he takes her to Ellis Island. What rubbish. In these post-September 11 times they would have been blasted out of the waters.

Worst Political Drama: “The Interpreter”

Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn can’t save this absurd film about an assassination plot at United Nations headquarters. Among the things Kofi Annan is guilty of is allowing these jokers to film inside the UN. Sydney Pollack should have quit after “Out of Africa”. He has little idea of the Dark Continent’s politics and makes it worse in this banal pic.

Biggest Brain-Scrambler: “Kingdom of Heaven”

Blacksmith Orlando Bloom learns the art of war by training for five minutes with his long-lost dad, Liam Neeson. You are then asked to believe that in that short time, he’s acquired all the skills needed to defeat Saladin’s mighty army as they lay siege to Jerusalem. Ridley Scott has definitely lost it here.

Biggest Bore: “Batman Begins”

The most jingoistic flick this year reworks Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, to death, literally. Christian Bale is all wrong for the role, and Katie Holmes bangs nails into this coffin.

Not even Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson can save it, which shows just how low it has sunk.

Worst Remake: “The Amityville Horror”

A greatly reduced version of the ’80s horror movie comes across as sloppy, silly and boring.

Worst Sequel: “Miss Congeniality 2”

Without Michael Caine and Candice Bergen, Sandra Bullock sinks into oblivion. William Shatner, too, suffers a terrible blow in this shallow sequel.

Worst Kindergarten Cop: “The Pacifier”

Vin Diesel in one of his worst flicks, playing bodyguard to a bunch of noisy children. For this role, he undergoes full facial works, toning, eyebrows plucked and end up looking ghastlier than he ever did.

Diesel must quickly quit doing cute roles before nausea sets in.

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