fling93 loves fishies

My Top Ten Films of 2004

Well, I know the Oscars are long over and 2005 is already more than a quarter over, but here’s my belated top ten list of the best films I saw in 2004 (I have no idea how some bloggers do weekly features, since I have trouble with just a yearly one!). This wasn’t one of my heavier movie-watching years due to my night classes, so I’m not separating out “Films That Everyone and Their Grandma Has Already Seen,” like I did last year. So this will be a true top ten list, just of a smaller field than usual.

10) Kinsey - 7.5 cute smiley fishies

Most biographical films run way too long, and this one is definitely better structured as a film than most. However, it skims the surface on many of the issues, and greatly downplays a lot of Alfred Kinsey’s own sexual behavior. And it should have ended with the last interview, instead of with that extra scene. But on the whole, it greatly piqued my interest in finding out more about him.

9) Shrek 2 - 8 cute smiley fishies

I know a lot of people didn’t like this one as much as the first one, but I for one thought it had a much more interesting and less predictable plot. And I loved the addition of Antonio Banderas’s Puss In Boots.

8) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - 8 cute smiley fishies

Reviewed here. Funny, entertaining, poignant, with great acting (even from Jim Carrey), and the visuals are breathtakingly stunning.

7) Kill Bill: Vol. 2 - 8 cute smiley fishies

A surprising character-driven departure from Vol. 1. Bill’s Superman speech is vintage Tarantino dialogue.

6) Garden State - 8 cute smiley fishies

Cute and inventive visuals and quirky characters. Generally not enough to make a picture, but this one has the hotness that is Natalie Portman in a role that she was made for.

5) Spiderman 2 - 8.5 cute smiley fishies

You’ve all seen this already, so you don’t need me to yammer on about it.

4) I Heart Huckabees - 8.5 cute smiley fishies

A hilarious and trippy philosophical journey. Plus Naomi Watts is just gorgeous.

3) The Incredibles - 8.5 cute smiley fishies

The title says it all.

2) Dorian Blues - 9 cute smiley fishies

Reviewed here. Yes, a Cinequest film. An honest, touching, and very, very funny coming-out story.

And finally, the best film that I’ve seen all year is…

1) Hotel Rwanda - 9 cute smiley fishies

Almost as good as Schindler’s List, and Don Cheadle’s performance of a lifetime.

Films I Saw That Didn’t Make the Cut

From good to okay:

Sideways (quite funny, but otherwise unremarkable, and it starts pretty slowly) - 7.5 fishies, Bourne Supremacy (a solid action film) - 7.5 fishies, Collateral - 7.5 fishies, Finding Neverland - 7.5 fishies, Awful Normal - 7 fishies (reviewed here), In Good Company - 7 fishies, Mean Girls - 7 fishies, Lemony Snicket - 7 fishies, Fahrenheit 9/11 - 7 fishies, Closer - 6.5 fishies (reviewed here, and most of those fishies are only there because of Natalie Portman), Saved! - 6.5 fishies (reviewed here), The Forgotten - 6.5 fishies, Phantom of the Opera - 6.5 fishies (most of which are because Emmy Rossum is hot in a Natalie Portman-esque kind of way).

Films I Saw That I Didn’t Particularly Care For

From okay to bad:

I, Robot - 5.5 fishies (reviewed here), The Stepford Wives - 5 fishies (the only plus is that Nicole Kidman looks pretty good in a bob), Vote for Me (a Cinequest film) - 5 fishies, Eurotrip (hey, I wanted to gawk at Michelle Trachtenberg) - 5 fishies, Spectres - 4 fishies (a Cinequest film with Marina Sirtis, reviewed here), The Brown Bunny - 2 frowny fishies (and completely skewered here).

Films I Haven’t Seen But Want To

In order of preference: House of Flying Daggers, The Aviator, Ray, Shaun of the Dead, Before Sunset (I want to see Before Sunrise first, of course), Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Team America: World Police, Napoleon Dynamite, Million Dollar Baby, Hellboy, The Passion of the Christ, Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios de motocicleta), Troy, Ocean’s Twelve, The Butterfly Effect, Van Helsing, The Polar Express, Flight of the Phoenix, The Village.

As always, suggestions are welcome!