Looking back, 1997 was a disappointing year and a year of pleasant surprises. The major lesson to be learned is big budgets and huge marketing campaigns don’t mean a thing if a movie, to put it mildly, blows.

Some of the year’s best movies were made for the movie budget equivalent of pocket change. Conversely, some of the year’s worst movies had huge budgets hovering around the $100 million mark, or higher.

Without further ado, here is my list of what I consider to be the 10 best and 10 worst movies of 1997. On to the good news first.

10. “Swingers.” The first example of not needing a big budget to make a great movie. Jon Favreau wrote and starred in this little movie about guys on the prowl. What made the film such a joy to watch was that it was all so true and also very funny. We all know guys like these; perhaps some of us are guys like these. And it introduced the term “money” into my vocabulary.

9. “Austin Powers.” Finally, a movie that is pure silliness because it meant to be. Watching Mike Myers as a cryogenically frozen secret agent from the swingin’ ’60s trying to deal with being thawed out in the politically correct ’90s was a laugh riot. Some scenes made me laugh so hard my face hurt. Particularly the “seductive” dance and striptease Myers does to the song “I Touch Myself.” Oh behave, indeed.

8. “Boogie Nights.” This sprawling, epic tale of the porn industry in the ’70s and early ’80s is one of the best-crafted movies I’ve seen in a long time. Everything from the set and costume design (it was so accurate, time travel must have been involved somehow) to some great actors made this movie truly masterful. Burt Reynolds gave one of the best performances of his career, and as porn superstar Dirk Diggler, Mark Wahlberg was perfect.

7. “My Best Friend’s Wedding.” Finally, Julia Roberts is back where she should be — in a romantic comedy — and is in top form. She stars as a restaurant critic hellbent on breaking up her best friend’s wedding because she suddenly realizes she’s in love with him. It is an absolute delight to watch, and I especially like the fact it doesn’t cop out at the end the way you think it would.

6. “Hercules.” After a couple of clunkers, Disney really delivered big time this summer. “Hercules” was fun, full of great one liners and cleverly poked fun at itself and the Disney marketing machine along the way. The villain here, Hades voiced by James Woods, is the best villain since Ursula the Sea Witch in “The Little Mermaid.”

5. “Fifth Element.” This movie was really weird, but in a good way. Bruce Willis was in top action-star form, and Chris Tucker as DJ Ruby Rhod was over-the-top and hysterical. A great sci-fi flick with a little bit of everything — ugly aliens, ancient Egyptian prophecies, space battles and an opera aria sung by a blue woman with tentacles growing out of her head. It might not have made perfect sense, but “Fifth Element” is the most visually brilliant movie of the year.

4. “L.A. Confidential.” One of the smartest movies in a long time. You had to pay close attention or you’d be lost in this giant piece of film noir.

If this one doesn’t score some major Academy Awards (especially for Russell Crowe, who had such a strong screen presence and gave a very powerful performance), I will lose what little respect I have left for Oscar.

3. “The Full Monty.” Out-of-work factory workers in Britain do what they have to do to make some money; they become strippers. Both funny and touching, with a real break-out performance by Mark Addy.

2. “Chasing Amy.” Another great movie from Kevin Smith. This guy really knows how to write fantastic dialogue; it sounds like things real people would actually say. (Think about it, has Arnold Schwarzenegger ever said one thing in a movie that real people would ever actually say?) The performances were also high caliber, especially Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams in the lead roles.

1. “Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition.” I’m counting “Star Wars,” “Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” as one movie just so three separate spaces aren’t taken up. What can I say about these films that hasn’t already been said? They’re great, great and great. The best films ever made in the history of mankind.

Watching the trilogy on the big screen again was the best time I’ve had at the movies in years. Sure, some of the new stuff George Lucas put in didn’t work, but for the most part, it was really cool. I waited in line six hours to see “Star Wars,” a movie I’ve seen literally a hundred times, on opening night. Was it worth it? Duh.

Some films should get an honorable mention in the also ran category. “Anastasia” was an engaging and lavishly-illustrated animated movie, and I loved Bartok, the fast-talking albino bat. “Anaconda” wins the prize for the movie that was so bad it was good category. And finally, “Scream” was a perfect example of the genre. It was funny, clever, frightening, and above all else, a hell of a good time.

Speaking of screaming, some movies will make you want to do just that. So here are my worst movies of the year, from best-worst to worst-worst:

10. “A Life Less Ordinary.” Two very likable stars, Cameron Diaz and Ewan McGregor, couldn’t save this incomprehensible mess.

9. “Fire Down Below.” There was one glaring omission from this action movie, the action. It was fatally boring. Kris Kristofferson’s villain was nothing more than an obscenity-spewing redneck version of Donald Trump.

8. “Con Air.” The action all had a frenetic, wait-till-you-see-what-we-blow-up-next quality to it. The climax, where the plane crashes on the Las Vegas strip, was absolutely ridiculous. Even Nicholas Cage couldn’t save this one from crashing and burning.

7. “Kull the Conqueror.” Kevin Sorbo, who as TV’s Hercules is the king of cheese, seemed to be the only one in this movie who got the idea. Everyone else took things way too seriously. I must also mention that Tia Carrere was absolutely awful.

6. “‘Til There Was You.” This movie was such a zero I barely remember it. I just remember it was terrible. A romantic comedy without the romance. And without the comedy.

5. “Event Horizon.” A promising concept that went nowhere at the speed of light. It was supposed to be a horror story in space, but it replaced gross gore for scares. There’s a difference between scary and gross.

4. “A Thousand Acres.” Absolutely mind-numbingly dull. This one was so boring I thought my brain would implode and my ears would start bleeding. Possibly the most painful experience I’ve had at the movies since, hmm … since birth.

3. “Starship Troopers.” For those of you who have asked: yes, I did get the satirical elements of this movie. Even satire couldn’t save this movie from being boring and repetitious.

Bugs run up, shoot the bugs. Bugs run up, shoot the bugs. Bugs run up, shoot the bugs. Bugs run up, shoot the bugs. Bugs run up, shoot the bugs. Etc.

2. “The Jackal.” Winner of my worst accent of the year award goes to Richard Gere, who must have picked up his Irish accent from the Lucky Charms leprechaun. This movie was so illogical, made so little sense and was basically so stupid I could actually feel my individual brain cells attempting to commit suicide while I watched it so they wouldn’t be subjected to it anymore.

1. “Lost World: Jurassic Park.” I don’t care how much money this one made; it was crap. I left the theater angry at this movie, it disappointed me so much. Here’s an idea: have a plot. It makes it so much more interesting for the audience.

Nothing was interesting about this movie. Boring people doing boring things. Even the dinosaurs were boring. I’m going to stop now, before I really start ranting.

Now I’m in sort of a bad mood. Maybe I should have done the worst first. I’m going to go watch “Star Wars SE” and cheer myself up.

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Mike Milik is a senior in advertising from West Des Moines.