My Favorite Films of 2004
I'm in the mood to write, so here goes... (in no particular order)

Note - I said "favorite", not "best"...

Sideways - Probably the best character study I have seen in a long time. Paul Giamatti in stellar. Pinot Noir rules BTW.

The Aviator - Succeeds on every level. Leo finally gets a chance to shake off the Titanic hangover he's had forever. Very Oscar friendly picture. By no means Scorsese's best, but if he doesn't get an statue for this one, he never will.

Hero - I loved this movie. Great storytelling. Even better cinematography. Fantastic fight sequences.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - I loved the surrealism of this film. Jim Carrey finally gets a film where his acting lives up to the hype. Give the guy a nod! He's earned it.

The Passion of the Christ - All the controversy drowned out the fact that this film was absolutely remarkable.

Dawn of the Dead - Best WTF moment of 2004 film: "Get up, come on get down with the sickness... You mother get up, come on get down with the sickness... You fucker get up, come on get down with the sickness..."

Spiderman 2 - Easily the best summer film of 2004 and one of the best comic book pictures of all time.

Napolean Dynamite - This movie had to be the stupidest movie ever... I mean no plot, little acting to speak of, and committed the unforgivable sin of helping bring back moon boots... So somebody tell me why I can't stop quoting it? Pick up line of the year: "I see you're drinking 1%, is that because you think you're fat?"

The Grudge - That fucking kid was creepy!

Friday Night Lights - Fantastic film. Tragic and inspiring all at that same time. Billy Bob Thorton is spectacular, as is Tim McGraw (yes, that Tim McGraw.) IMHO the most underrated film of the year.

That concludes my little list... I'd like to get this blog back up and running, so hopefully I'll have more posts coming soon.

- posted by Stephen @ 1:36 AM