Without any further ado!
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#5: HERO
WHEW! That was a close one! For a while there, we almost didn't have a number 5 in the top 5! This year, it would have been known as the Top 4. Thankfully this movie came in on the last day of the Follies Fest and saved us from cutting this list short. What is quite possibly my favorit Jet Li movie ever, Hero comes in and litterally saves the day with it's grace, beauty, danger, and drama. A truly magic movie that slams the shit outta Crouching Tiger.
#4: TROY
If you want to do a large epic movie, what better material than mythology? Brad Pitt and Eric Bana steal the show in one of the greatest fights ever, and what is one of the biggest battle scenes ever filmed solidifyes this movie as a sweeping epic for the ages. Troy was one of the first movies of the summer and held firm as a top player for a long time.
#3: HARRY POTTER 3
A much darker, more grown up, and artistically directed film than the previous 2. Alfonso Cuarón struts his stuff as the deffinitive director the Harry Potter series needed. The dementors were amazing, Sirius Black was tragic and heroic, and Buck-Beak UNBELIEVABLE. A job well done for a series that really, really needed it.
#2: SPIDER-MAN 2
Sam Raimi consistantly proves that he is one of the best directors of our time. From the humble beginnings of Evil Dead, to the mega summer blockbuster Spider-Man always proves to be, he has got the talent and the determination to make every movie he does a winner. Spider-Man 2 is one of the best comic book-to-movie adaptations ever. We get to dig deeper into the characters and see the rifts and the trials they constantly have to go through. Not only is it a great action movie, it's a compelling story too.
#1!!!! SHREK 2
Shrek 2 basically made this summer it's bitch. It bent these summer movies over and went hog wild with them. Holy Jeez! Two summers in a row, the highest grossing movies of the season were animated films. With an evolution of characters from Shrek 1, followed by wonderful brand new characters, and a story that mirrors the first but continues the story on it's own different route this movie is a slam dunk. Ontop of the compelling story, the animation and the over all look of the film has made huge strides and is visually one of the best CGI Films ever made. And it's FUNNY!
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#5: VAN HELSING
Hugh Jackman has quickly and solidly made a huge name for himself. Why he decided that Van Helsing would only further his career is beyond me. And how Stephen Sommers get Universal Studios to back his projects so whole-heartidly is an amazing feat. Because most of his movies, while sometimes campy, suck! What sets Van Helsing apart from say, The Mummy Returns, is that Van Helsing is not campy and it's not fun. It's torture. Totally destroying the mythos behind every creature in the film. And directed almost to the point of bafoonery. A drunk burro with Parkinsons could have made a better film.
#4: WHITE CHICKS
I don't care who I offend, the Wayans' Brothers are just not funny. The only humor they can come up with are gross out jokes and movies that only solidify the stronghold of stereotypical nonsense. Hence, White Chicks. At least Damon saw that this ship was sinking and scurried like a rat into his own sitcom on ABC. Which is actually doing well! White Chicks serves as a vehicle to take every stereotype between the black and white cultures and make one long hour and a half joke that fails to rouse one single smile. Make-Up for the Wayans' transformation was supplied by Mrs. Jones' fifth grade drama class.
#3: THE VILLAGE
M. Night had me nearly halfway through the movie with a vice like grip of suspension and charming "turn of the century" township, surrounded by monsters. Monsters that scared the bejeezes outta me when they made their first appearance of the movie. Then the big secret was revealed and I hated this movie to shit! I think M. Night actually called in sick the days he was supposed to write the script and had some kid from a local Starbucks type it out for him. This story is nothing the M. Night past would have ever entertained writing. After the big reveal the movie collapses on itself and no one in the theatre remains entertained.
#2: CATWOMAN
I knew I was going to despise this movie immediatley when I discovered that not only would this movie not take place in Gotham City, but would not even be about the Catwoman character I grew up with in comics and movies alike. Halle Berry is atrocious and should officially have her Oscar taken away by a storming horde of rioting villagers. The fact that she hasn't yet is a tribute to the leagues of people who avoided this movie like the plauge. Sharon Stone gives a performance that should nullify her from ever stepping in front of another movie camera. A mess of a movie that was going on a mess of a script, director, and cast.
#1!!!! ALIEN VS. PREDATOR
I wouldn't sit through this movie again even if you took all my most cherrished childhood belongings and threatened to set them on fire. To sit through 1 more second of this movie would mean to congratulate Paul W.S. Anderson on a job well done on a movie that took the largest of dumps on two characters I've loved since childhood. The fact that he even has the ability to call these 2 beings "alien" and "predator" is an insult. Whatever money Mister Anderson spent on Film School, he better be able to get a refund. Maybe he can get a job at a movie theatre.