The Year in Movies: 2004

 2004

Number of Movies I've Seen: 71

Number of Movies from my original top 365:  12 (since there are so many, I will just make the titles hyperlinks to the original posts)

Oscar Winner:
Million Dollar Baby - I don't get the appeal of Clint Eastwood. I guess he's a pretty iconic actor, but wow is he a bland director. Unforgiven  was solid, but his recent movies have been really underwhelming. This movie is fine... just fine....

Box Office Winner:
Shrek 2 - .The worst kind of sequel. Let's just do everything we did in the first movie, but from our secondary character's perspective... blech...

My Top Ten:
1. NEXT POST!

2. Before Sunset - I'll talk about this more in my 1995 recap in a few weeks, but I adore these films. This is the only one of the three to go for a "real-time" narrative and the actors pull it off effortlessly. I am blown away by the ending every single time. Jesse & Celine forever!

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - I know I say this a lot, but I really need to rewatch this one with Abby. I can't wait to see her eyes as she watches how Michel Gondry breaks all the rules to bring Charlie Kaufman's vision to the screen. Stop what you are doing and go watch this film on Netflix.

4. Friday Night Lights - On my shortlist for best sports film of all time and easily the best football film ever made. Suck it Remember the Titans.

5. Saved! - Criminally underrated and underseen movie. If you grew up in Sunday School and questioned your teacher every week, this movie is for you. Mandy Moore is actually okay, but Macaulay Culkin is divine.

6. The Incredibles - On my shortlist for best superhero film of all time. It was actually a step down for Pixar for me (and for Brad Bird whose previous film was The Iron Giant), but a step down from Pixar's greats is still stellar.

7. A Very Long Engagement - World War I, beautiful cinematography, lost love, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and Audrey Tautou. What's not to love?

8. Garden State - (PICTURED ABOVE) I actually said this best in my original post so I'll just direct you to that.

9. Finding Neverland - I dig Peter Pan stories. It stands to reason that I would dig an origin story of the Peter Pan legend.

10. Shaun of the Dead - I actually have grown to love this movie more over the last 15 years. It hits a 39 year-old a whole lot different than a 23-year-old.