100 Best Movies of 2005, Ranked by Tomatometer

Between political dramas like V for Vendetta and Syriana, or social commentaries like Brokeback Mountain and Transamerica, there’s no doubt that 2005 was a year loaded with films that meant to deliver a message. Movies like Coach Carter taught us the importance of academics, even to the most talented athletes. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants took us on a journey through the complicated interpersonal lives of young women. And Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith taught us that in a lightsaber fight, it’s over when your master has the high ground!

2005 did deliver a few great departures, with raunchy comedies like The 40 Year-Old Virgin and Wedding Crashers, plus topsy-turvy adventures in kids movies like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Nanny McPhee.

In this list, we dig into a banner year for movies that shaped the culture in the first decade of the 21st century, based on Certified Fresh movies, Fresh movies with at least 20 reviews and a 60%+ Popcornmeter, and Rotten movies with a 60%+ Popcornmeter and 20,000+ user reviews!

(Photo by WB/ Courtesy Everett Collection. BATMAN BEGINS.)

2005 brought some ground-breaking action to the big screen (literally and figuratively). In War of the Worlds, alien machines burst through the Earth’s crust in a coordinated attack on humanity. It’s up to Tom Cruise to track down and save his estranged family. This was Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise’s second film together after the success of Minority Report in 2002.

A giant gorilla terrorizes New York City in Peter Jackson’s remake of the classic King Kong. The action sequences on Skull Island make it an important text for visual effect geeks! Bruce Wayne is back and this time a whole lot grittier, in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. The shift in tone in this film shaped a new era in superhero movies. Sin City, a uniquely artistic neo-noir film based on the Frank Miller comics, ushers in an era of highly stylized action and hero movies. Constantine, another DC Comic cult favorite, makes his screen debut, in a moody, spooky “occult classic”.

And, perhaps the landmark action movie of 2005 is Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. The conclusion to George Lucas’s prequel trilogy, it continues to be a polarizing picture in the franchise fandom. Though you probably already know that from your movie fan friend who can’t stop having the conversation!

Kids had a pretty good roster of fun flicks to watch in 2005! The young ones got frenetic favorites like Madagascar, Nanny McPhee, and Pooh’s Heffalump Movie. And adolescents got a taste of adventure and oddity in pictures like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

(Photo by Lionsgate/ Courtesy Everett Collection. CRASH.)

Crash, which took home three Oscars this year including Best Picture, was a commentary on racial tensions in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. While some critics found it’s character portrayals controversial, it resonated with voters enough to take home Best Original Screenplay as well.

Best Director went to Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain. While also controversial in its time for its portrayal of same sex romance between two cowboys, it has since been added to the National Film Registry for its cultural and historical significance.

Both lead acting awards went to portrayals of real-life subjects: Philip Seymour Hoffman as a literary legend in the biopic Capote, and Reese Witherspoon as beloved country musician June Carter in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. George Clooney would receive the Supporting Actor award for Syriana, a political thriller about oil and energy in the Middle East. Rachel Weisz would receive Best Supporting Actress for her work in The Constant Gardener, a thriller about a foreign diplomat attempting to solve the murder of his Amnesty International activist wife.

Some other Academy Award winners of note: Memoirs of a Geisha won Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Costume Designed, making it a must-see for visual art fanatics. King Kong broke the mold with wins in Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects, for the fans of spectacle. And music fans should check out Terrence Howard hip hop transformation in Hustle & Flow, which won Original Song for “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”.

(Photo by Tartan/ Courtesy Everett Collection. OLDBOY.)

Fans of American political history may enjoy Good Night and Good Luck. In the film based on real events, CBS News journalist Edward R. Murrow uses the power of the Fourth Estate to expose wrongdoing in Senator Joseph McCarthy’s ultimately bogus Senate investigation into Communism in America.

Israel and Palestine were top of mind in 2005. Paradise Now, a Golden Globe winning psychological drama, follows two young Palestinian men recruited to commit a suicide attack on Israel. The story follows the boys’ inner conflict with their mission vs. their humanity. In Steven Spielberg’s Munich, a Mossad agent disavows his agency to covertly assassinate 11 Palestinians accused of carrying out the 1972 Summer Olympics bombing. The movie contains a mixture of fiction and historical accuracy, and would also garner controversy from several interest groups and critics, though it would also receive five nominations for Academy Awards.

Park Chan-Wook, director of hit thrillers like Oldboy and Decision to Leave, delivered the final chapter of his Vengeance Trilogy in 2005, with Lady Vengeance. With Park’s signature blend of mystery and violence, the film would go on to compete for the Golden Lion at Venice International Film Festival.

(Photo by Focus/ Courtesy Everett Collection. BROKEN FLOWERS.)

Two female-led movies in 2005 shared some interesting similarities. Nine Lives is an ensemble drama about the complicated, interwoven lives of nine women struggling with life’s hardships. It stars an outstanding ensemble cast, including Sissy Spacek, Glenn Close, and Holly Hunter. In familiar format, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants also navigates the lives of four best friends who buy a pair of pants that miraculously fits them all. The heartwarming story about friendship follows the girls’ summer apart, as they confront and overcome their own personal teenage struggles. It also stars an outstanding ensemble cast: America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn, Blake Lively, and Alexis Bledel.

Brokeback Mountain was not the only LGBTQ+ film of note in 2005. Rent, adapted from the hit Broadway show, tackles themes of sexuality, drugs, class, and AIDS in New York City’s East Village. Though it did not fully connect with critics, it resonated with audience, particularly fans of the musical. Transamerica, an indie film starring Felicity Huffman, is a road trip comedy-drama about a trans woman and her estranged teenage son. Huffman won a Golden Globe for her role, and the film received a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Film – Limited Release. Breakfast on Pluto, also a comedy-drama, stars Cillian Murphy as a trans woman looking for love in and familial acceptance in Ireland and London. While polarizing for critics, it found its fandom among those in the general audience.

If you seek another notable comedy-drama, look no further than Broken Flowers. About an aging playboy who travels the country seeking his past conquests to find his long lost son, the Jim Jarmusch-directed film would go on to win the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Bill Murray, star of the movie, said in a Hot Ones interview that he thinks it’s a “perfect movie” and that “(he) couldn’t do any better than that”.

Need to cleanse tha palate from all that drama? 2005 has a few gems for you. The 40 Year-Old Virgin stars Steve Carell in his first leading role. The raunchy comedy about “losing it” ,supported by Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, and Seth Rogen, is one of those quote-machine comedies that defined the decade. Similarly, Wedding Crashers, starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn as a pair of players who through a series of zany events fall for their marks, would help set the tone for an onslaught of bawdy, adult-targeted comedies that millennials still can’t stop quoting.

A couple comedies you could watch with grandma include Hitch, a charming rom com about a secret matchmaker (Will Smith) who falls for a gossip columnist (Eva Mendez) unwittingly writing an exposé on his romantic alter ego. In Fever Pitch, a baseball fanatic (Jimmy Fallon) falls for a corporate executive (Drew Barrymore), but struggles to balance his commitment to the relationship with his radical fandom for the Boston Red Sox. This baseball romantic comedy is a charmer for anyone! Unless you are a New York Yankees fan! And, for folks who are less sports superfan, and more into the supernatural, Just Like Heaven may be in the cards. An architect (Mark Ruffalo) moves into a San Francisco apartment, only to be haunted by the ghost of a doctor (Reese Witherspoon) who lived there previously. Naturally, they fall in love. No spoilers here, go see the movie! (Tyler Lorenz)