35 From 4: My Favorite Films From 2004

  The years that made up the 70's made it the "decade of Deliverance". What I mean by that is that when it comes to "hillbilly horror", that was the era that started it all. Films like The Hills Have Eyes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and of course, Deliverance, introduced the idea of what kind of really REALLY bad things can happen to someone who finds themselves inadvertently lost in the backwards of the darkest areas of hill country.
  Calvaire is the Belgium equivalent of this type of inbred of scare-fare, using the hills of Hautes Fagnes (that's High Fens in English) as the source of their inbred antagonists. The highly stilted language may be different, but it still contains the same variety of bone-chilling dread that such a scenario would invoke.



 Since Calvaire was a film that I had stumbled upon while journeying through the internet, I had no clue of what it was about. After watching it, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it in terms of being a disturbing psychological thriller.  So afterwards, I went onto the internet to see if anyone else had heard about this French speaking indie-import, and to my dismay, saw just how middling its reviews were. I have watched it a couple of times more since then, and TBH, I honestly can't see why this movie is ranked as low as it is. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this is a psych-thrilling classic that will stand up through the ages, but I also believe that it's definitely worth a watch or two for anyone who likes their nightmares of wandering in dark woods as the center of an entertaining horror flick.

   2004 was a very good year for comic book fans of which I was one. Not only did it feature two very solid superhero movies based off straight up comic book characters, Spiderman 2 and this one, but also this was the year which saw the debut of the first animated film featuring The Incredibles, which may not have been based on actual comic book characters but was pretty obviously inspired by one of Marvel Comics' longest standing flagship titles, The Fantastic Four.
 I was a big fan of comic book artist Mike Mignola’s art almost from the beginning. His unique and chiaroscuro style had him as the next step of evolution from the legendary Alex Toth (most famous for Space Ghost) who art was very simple, elegant and distinctive.  When Mike became a big enough name in the comic industry to spawn off into his own series, Hellboy was the result. I read it when it first came out and use the term “read” loosely here. Because the truth is, there really wasn’t all that much to Hellboy as a comic book. The character looked great, the art was great, the basic concept was great, but when it came to story, it was about as skeletal as one of mythic creatures that Hellboy tended to shoot through with his massive gun.

  Which is why this celluloid version of the deviled dude is such a joyful watch. With little to work with, Hellboy the movie has no choice but to “flesh” the character out, literally and literarily, if he was to work within the context of a live-action film.

  A demon that was summoned for evil purposes, but instead, decides to work on the side of the angels, Hellboy joins a governmental bureau for defense against paranormal stuff that is bad, and along with a couple of other superpowered misfits, goes around the world fighting against, well, y’know… paranormal stuff that’s bad.

  Written and directed by the always talented Guillermo del Toro, Hellboy may not be the greatest comic book movie ever, but boy, set up against the acclaimed Mexican director's artful direction and flashy, red-colored plot, it’s still a hell of a good one.

  What's the best way to follow up a movie based on the good deeds of a spawn from hell? How about at a movie about the "hell" suffered from a Spawn from Heaven?
  A cinematic biblical depiction that helps to reveal the ugly truth (a truth that many God-fearing movie producers of previous cross-bearing films probably already knew but didn't want to any of their "Divinely inspired" film work to look at too closely) about the level of severity and brutality that resulted in what is referred to as the "Passion of the Christ", which is basically, the short period of time that Jesus experienced before he was crucified on a large wooden cross. For the "true" Son of God, it was a hard time of absolute physical torment and excruciating torture, the kind that any modern-day mindset would be able to comprehend by today's standards. But it is a depiction that director Mel Gibson, mustering up as much of his high level of star power, in order to attempt to bring "life' in all of its gory and gruesome detail.



  Now I don't think it's a sin admitting this, but I can't tell you how many times throughout the running span of this movie that I found myself watching and then responding out loud "Ouch!!.... now that kinda shit has really gotta hurt...!"
 To be dreadfully honest here (remember... the Bible says that telling a lie is a sin), I was kinda hoping that the depiction of this particular Bible story would have gone beyond the crucifixion scene, as far at least, up to the part when Jesus rose up from the grave.
  Because if it had gone that far, then between this movie, They Came Back, and the two Dead flicks (Shaun and Dawn), I would have been able to proclaim 2004 as the year for zombie motion pictures. Then, that way, I could've argued with many of my fellow film-loving fans on the internet that, in the same way that Die-Hard is a Christmas movie, that this one, Passion of the Christ, is a Halloween flick. Then that would give the excuse to play it in the background whenever any trick-or-treaters would stand at my doorway, as I dropped Snickers and Milky Way mini-bars into their sacks and Jack'O'Lantern shaped plastic baskets. 

   Dead Man's Shoes is one those British films that is usually made exclusively for movie fans from across the pond, and as is most often the case from those types of motion pictures, iT ISs one that only got so-so reviews.  However, from my point of view, I think it’s a little above that.  Now, I’m not saying that it’s one of the year's best (otherwise, it would have a much higher spot on this list), but just like Calvaire which I mentioned earlier in this list (and which also got lower reviews than I would've given it), I do think it's an entertaining revenge movie that's worth giving a looksee and then some.  



  After a soldier returns from his military duty, he learns that three years earlier, a small gang of drug dealers had bullied his younger. Now, if this situation ended here, then it still would've made for a tale about a vet's vicious quest for vengeance that is fueled by the power of brotherly love. But add to the fact that the younger brother suffers from a mental disability, (not to mention that the script of this movie hints that the older soldier sibling also might not be in the best of health upstairs), now you've got a story that you know will end really bad for the bad guys. In short, those dope-pushers have pushed their last dope. For each of them are now running on borrowed time. Each of them is now running in dead man's shoes.
   (Y'know, after penning that last sentence, I'm wondering if maybe I should look into perhaps getting a job writing movie poster blurbs or somethin'....)

  Will Smith in yet another big-budget, fast-paced, action-packed, science fiction movie. But this time, without the inept script of Independence Day or the goofy weightlessness of Men in Black.
And, of course, instead of a myriad multitude of aliens trying to assimilate into human society, the former artist known as the Fresh Prince finds hisself surrounded by a whole buncha of individually challenged robots whose "soul" purpose is to serve humanity.
That is, unless the classically "Conversed" Will Smith can stop them. 

 After honing his skills behind the camera as a cinematographer, Pierre Moral is still behind the camera, but this time he's sitting in the director's chair. Teaming up with writer and producer Luc Besson (also known for his director skills on such films as Le Femme Nikita and Leon: The Professional). The end result of their collaboration is District B13, a frenzied French film in which parkour is the main driving force of the action scenes.
  For those of you who don't know what parkour is, it's the act of moving forward by running, jumping, or climbing over whatever obstacles are in your path. Even if it's something as big as a building, the object is to get through it by leaping stairwells, climbing through windows, flipping over walls and fences, etc. (you can probably get a better description or definition of parkour if you look it up on Wikipedia or just google it.... or better yet, look up a video of it in the ol' YouTube).
Now while the act of parkour is utilized as a plot device in this story and helps to give the film a distinctive nature, the truth is, in future films, it might be good it was used sparingly.
  After watching District 13, it's easy to see that this is a style of action that easily become tired pretty quickly. And not just as a plot device, but even more-so for the actors who actually have to perform the stunts.



  Aside from the exhaustion that those stunts induced, the stars in this district didn't allow that from portraying their roles with much compromise. They deliver the performances that are required to sell the distinctive theme of the plot here which goes something like this....
 Six years into the future, gangs have taken over a ghetto just outside of Paris France (I know what you're thinking..."Wait... France has ghettos?!). One gang in particular has stolen a very powerful bomb and have unwittingly activated its countdown sequence.
 Now one cop must go undercover and team up with a criminal to get passed the ghetto walls and passed the gangs in order to deactivate the bomb before it goes off and takes the ghetto with it.

  The dead have come back to life. But this time, they're not out for blood, brains or body parts. They just want to live amongst the living.
  Thus begins the process of re-integration and healing.
  But if anyone thinks that people can just go on to the other side, and then just come right back, they're wrong. Dead wrong.
  Oh, okay, maybe that makes this movie sound a bit more cryptic than it really is, but still, the message of "you just can't go home again" still applies.

   They Came Back is most likely the least scary zombie flick ever made. Not because it’s “so bad” that it’s just not scary. Now obviously, that’s a description that can be applied to the vast majority of other zombie films out there whose premise is based more on schlock than shock. But this one doesn’t instill fear in viewers because isn’t its purpose. This is not a horror movie. They Came Back is about introspection. Not just about us, but also about society. And if that sentence makes you think “Oh, it one of those types of 'thinkin' movies “, then you’re right. And if “one of those types of movies“ is the kind that turns you off, well then, that means that this isn’t the type of zombie flick for you. But worry not. There are plenty, and I mean plenty, of the other types of zombie movies out that are shambling out of the big movie making machine that is Hollywood that I'm sure will satiate your taste for the brain consuming formula that has inflicted this genre since that infamous night when we saw that the dead were coming to get Barbara. 

 Most sports teams are known to have hardcore fans. But because it is a sport that spans the entire globe, football (soccer to those who live in the United States) is a sport whose fans take the concept of hardcore to the level of the extreme. Known as hooligans, to them, you're not a hardcore fan unless you're willing to spend the weekend bashing in the faces of fans of the opposing team.
 The Football Factory is a tale that reveals how far beyond the pitch die hard followers of the teams are willing to prove their loyalty and that being a part of a firm (the term used to describe these gangs of hooligans) is not just an obsession with the home team, but even more so, it is a way of life.
 A lifestyle in which, from an outside point of view, may seem a tad chaotic and pointlessly violent, but to those within a firm, it is a way for the disenfranchised man's man to let off some steam and feel a sense of direction or a a sense of purpose. Not to mention that these brutally physical confrontations tend to provide the kind of adrenaline kick that addicts are jonesin' for. Except, instead of a needle or a bong, the fix comes from using one's fists.
 Here in the United States, we just paint our faces and where giant foam hands making the "we're number one" signals with the fingers.

  From what I’ve read, The Football Factory really isn’t a very well-regarded film. Which isn’t a surprise because it stars Danny Dyer, an English actor that is not known for starring in very many high-level quality pictures. But despite that I found this to be a very interesting film, even though it does often get its plot points a little twisty-turny here and there. But I think it’s examination into the lives of those within the football factory and the whole hooligan culture is quite interesting and entertaining. And maybe it’s my interest in that little known (and from I understand, almost extinct these days) sub-culture makes me like this movie more than most people or more that it's worth. But whatever the reason, it doesn’t really matter, it’s a film that I like enough to include on this list, which, just like any other list that I post up here on this site, is more a reflection of me and my tastes in cinema more than it a comparison to what the rest of the world defines as being a high-quality movie.

  At the height of his career, Bruce Lee was an action star who tried to bring some legitimacy to the genre of martial arts movies in order to allow it to gain a wider audience. However, after he passed away, filmmakers from that part of the world from which he was born began taking the path of least resistance when creating these kinds of “kung fu flix”. Known commonly as “chopsocky”, these fight films reached the point that they were being released very quickly en masse, and at such a cheap rate that any respectability that was achieved during the Young Dragon’s time, quickly dissipated within a few short years.

However, by the 90’s, martial artist actor Jackie Chan, who started out at a young age as a contemporary of Bruce’s, had become a star in his own right, and instead of “fighting” against the absurdity that the genre, he worked with it, to give chopsocky a comedic kick that stuck. This caused Chan’s movies to evolve into his own particular brand of action flick, and, at the same time, other similar manic martial arts motion pictures to change into something else. Sort of a kung fu fighting farce, it spawned a type of genre that mixed high level Eastern style combat with absurdist action sequences along with likeminded storylines to fit the format. For me personally, I like to think of them almost as being a Bruce Lee film in which Lee was replaced by Bugs Bunny. And when it comes to these “kartoon karate” features, probably my favorite is this one, Kung Fu Hustle.

  

 Two buddies, Sing and Bone, try to advance their criminal careers from petty crooks to members of the number crime organization of the neighborhood. And then a buncha stuff happens (too much to go into here), but, let's face it, the important part in this story is the manner in which the absurdity of both the humor and the high kicks are cranked up a notch. 
  Because this a movie that demonstrated that the only way that the genre of chopsocky was gonna still be able to stand on its own legs during these days of the modern, more discriminate mainstream audience, is that when it comes taking Kung Fu to the next level, ya gotta be willing to do the Hustle.

  When it comes to anime, even though I do like watching a couple of’ em, I wouldn’t say that I was an avid fan. As any true follower of that form of animation will tell you, it’s an acquired taste. In Japan, they have always had their own unique way of telling a story and for anyone who is not familiar with it, it a kind of storytelling that can be a bit jarring and even confusing at first.

  As anyone of color knows, the scariest and most dangerous thing to a black man is an emotionless white man with alot of money and who expects someone else to drive him around. And as Jamie Foxx finds out in this movie, they don't come any whiter, any more emotionless, any richer than Tom Cruise. That is, in Hollywood, at least. Seriously though, for both Foxx and Cruise, their comfort zones are collateral damage here in this Michael Mann high stakes street level thriller, as the two stars play characters outside their usual roles.
  A cab driver with dreams of someday starting up his own business picks up a fare who just so happens to have started his own successful business.... as a high stakes hitman. And even though he is a deadly assassin who never misses, on the upside, he does tend to tip really really well.

  Okay so we all know that Tom Cruise is probably the biggest box office star of all time. Even in his order age, he’s proving that he is king of the mountain when it comes to putting asses in movie theaters seats. I mean, did you see what kind of money the Top Gun sequel from 2022, Maverick, brought in?

  So, on those very rare occasions that you see him going into Cruise control and taking a back seat in a major motion picture, it could be a little jolting. However, once you are able to adjust your movie viewing senses, you might be able to notice what kind of dimension his big star presence can bring to a secondary role such as this one.

  Now, don't get me wrong, I still respect George Romero's satiric/comedy slant that he brings to his tales of the walking dead, and even moreso, I understand that there's an audience out there for it, the truth is, I myself have little patience for this particular brand of subgenre to the overall genre..
  Therefore, when Zack Snyder came along and redid Dawn with a budget more substantial than what Georgey-Ro was used to, and with a more solid story-line, along with the shlock gage turned down a couple of notches, I found myself actually enjoying watching a film about a subject that beforehand, I had no interest in: a mallful of zombies searching for something to munch on beyond the barriers of the lower level food court.

  I remember seeing Charlize Theron for the first time in a semi-indie thriller called 2 Days in the Valley. In that Tarantino copycat anthologically constructed story, she plays the role of a femme fatale who gets into a cat fight with a super sexy simmerin' Teri Hatcher. And I gotta admit, it was truly one of the hottest scenes I've ever watched outside of any of the multitude of video options provided from PornHub. 
  In this movie, she plays the role of a female fatale of a much different order. So different in fact that it will most likely have the complete opposite effect of what anything on PornHub has to offer (unless, of course you're some kind of out of the stratosphere type of freak, in which case all I can say is, "god bless ya...now get outta here!"). Monster is called Monster because it is the biographically based on a true story of a murderous "Mz." who went by the name of Aileen Wuornos and her relationship with her same sex better half. Following their journey as they run on the lam trying to balance their feelings for each other with Aileen's serial killing spree, it's the role of a lifetime for Charlize, and it's the one that helped to break her out of the blonde bombshell hole that her career was pigeoning her into. 
  In other words, Monster is the kind of Oscar baiting vehicle that many actors, male or female, who dream of having the label of "award-winning" added to their Hollywood status seek for the majority of their careers. Mz. Theron was the lucky recipient of this lottery hit, a lucky hit that she was able to parlay into a successful reputation as the kind of actress who could be depended on both the critical and commercial side when trying to push a film project to the masses. 
  A good flick with good performances (not just by CT, but also by her co-star, the always interesting to watch, Christina Ricci), this is what you wanna watch when you're in the mood for a little bit of quality escape from the escapism of the flood of brainless fodder that the rest of like to flood theaters for. 

Whenever I think of the name "Damien",, especially when its applied to a little boy, I always think of The Omen, a 1976 horror film in which Satan manifests himself as the "bastard" child of a well-to-do family.
In this movie, the story also centers around a small boy named Damien. Except, instead of a little devil, this one is a more of a little angel, although it's a character trait that results from his humble Catholic upbringing rather than any kind of divine heritage.
In it, the good Damien "finds a bag of a million + dollars, and tries to spread his good fortune for the benefit of others. But his time is limited since the British currency is about to transfer into the euro, thus making the bagful of pounds useless.
A nice family flick that twists and turns it's usually predictable premise into an unpredictable fable that'll keep both adults and kids "richly" entertained.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is a film that is about as politically polarizing as it gets. But the truth is, I am a person who hates self-limiting and mind-narrowing labels such as "conservative" and "liberal". Therefore, I often refrain from letting too many people know that I watched this or any of Michael Moore's films (only those few people who really know me and are aware that I dislike participating in bullsh#t-slinging debates). Because, political partisanships aside, this is a good watch just for the sake of watching a good documentary unfold, done by an excellent film-maker. Even if I disagree with some of his points or his accuracy, the blend of humor with insights into the hubris of political, corporate and media
relations makes for an entertaining watch on discussions which, normally, my head would either shake at or just turn completely away from.

The zom-com finally crystalizes itself with this entry, a film that features a shlockful of ghouls and gags, but without the over-the-top camp that infested the genre for such a long time.
I knew that this was gonna be my kind of zombie movie when in one early scene, the main character, Shaun (duh!), in the midst of the zombie apocalypse, stated that he liked the album Second Coming, the much under-appreciated second effort by the Manchester shoegazing band, the Stone Roses.
After that part, I knew that this was a zombie flick that I could relate to. So, from there on, i just let my fat, hairy pimp-ass sink back into my easy-chair, relaxed, and enjoyed all the thrills, chills and gags that followed.

  I had no interest in watching anime movies when I was first introduced to them in the early 1980's, but since I had a few friends who were fellow nerd boys of all things fantasy, I did a few of them a looksee based on mt buddies' recommendations. And even though I never did become as hardcore of a fan as they were, I did come to appreciation the particular style of animation that came mostly out of the Japanese animation industry. To the point where I do enjoy watching some of them more than I would've expected. Howl's Moving castle is an example of why. This is the kind of feature that, IMO, exemplifies the medium's horizon seemed vast and open and full of endless possibilities.

And back then, the  By the new millenium, with the symbiotic monopoly of the genre by Disney and Pixar, that potential had pretty much dissipated.
The only chance we now have of seeing outside the norm of Pixney is through the rare outside efforts of non-American countries and particularly through Japan's anime industry.
Expanding on the quality of their style (although, I still feel at times that their mode of artwork can get a little stifled), anime animators can reach new heights when they cover epics like Diana Wynn Jones Howl's Moving Castle.
Twisty-turny plotlines with really big organic visuals help tp provide a healthy alternative to computer-generated hoopla that's takes up the majority pf space in theaters today.

 As someone who grew up during the 70s and who had taken a lot of family trips to many of the big chain fast food restaurants of the day, there's one particular thing that I noticed. As time went on, from that period of time between my childhood years up to those years as an adult, the serving portions of the food at these restaurants just kept getting bigger and bigger. Heck, there was even a point when the cups for the soft drinks looked more like barrels than they did as cups. And I would think to myself "Geez, if these portions of food are this big now, how big are they going to be twenty years from now? I mean, where's the limit?" Luckily, another Who seemed to be asking that? Very same question was a guy named Morgan Spurlock.  And even more luckily, he didn't just ask the question. and the luck didn't stop there. Spurlock didn't just ask the question. He decided to see if he could find an answer. And after documenting his journey for those answers, he revealed what many of us most likely already knew... it turns out the answer is, not only did we reach the limit, but more even more scary, we also surpassed it.
By a lot.



  I remember going to see this documentary the same weekend that I saw another 2004 food-themed film feature, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.
Which is kind of fitting when you think about it, since this is a story of one man's expedition to reveal the ugly truth (a truth that we all most likely already suspected, but didn't want to admit to),
Super Size Me probably makes the perfect McCompanion piece to Harold and Kumar's road "trip" quest for artery clogging convenience chow.

What do you do when you've been comfortably numb for so long that you're can barely feel reality?
Go back to the neighborhood where you grew up, bump into your friends from high school, start becoming aware of the slightly weird idiosyncrasies in them and/or in their lives, and have one of those cathartic big talks with your dad.
Oh, and most importantly of all (and this is key), start dating Natalie Portman.
Welcome back to the world of the "living".
Welcome back to the world of the Garden state.

Okay, this movie is a movie about one guy named Harold (you probably can't tell by his name, but he's not a white guy) and another guy named Kumar (another non-white guy, but his name is obvious enough to give that away) and they wanna go to White Castle (now the "White" part in that name has nothing to do ethniticity) to partake in some sliders (which you probably figured out since what other reason is there to go to White Castle?). And these two guys who crave sliders are a couple of college stoners (yet another thing you probably figured out since who else craves White Castle sliders other than college stoners?).
Okay, so any of you reading who haven't seen this movie may be wondering, if a person can figure all this stuff out from just the movie title alone, why even bother going to see this flick?
To which the answer is,
what the movie title doesn't tell you is that in this sliders craving, puff-puff-passing road trip, Harold and Kumar get joined by the living legend of Doogie Howser MD.
Aha,
now you're wondering "WTF?! How the heck did that happen?"
Well, in order to find out, I guess you'll just to watch the movie now,
'ey there, Mr. Smarty-pants...?

mmmm..... cake........

During the period of his career when he often considered the king of comedy when it came to films, this is another effort by Jim Carrey to be taken seriously as an actor. An "estranged" romance story set in the not too distant future (as a matter of fact, Eternal Sunshine's future comes off so "not so distant", that it may "actually" be occurring in a parallel present-time reality) about the contradictory choice to forget an unforgettable love, if only the technology which exists would allow the human mind to do so.
An existential sci-fi rom flick that shows that even though it's absence that makes the heart grow fonder, it's absence of memory that makes the heart grow stronger.

Howard Hughes may have been born into money, but no one can ever call him stagnant. Taking his millionaire status and raising it even higher, the high risk entrepreneur jumps from one industry to another, eventually stepping into the field of the air as an aviator and as an innovator. Not to mention, stepping into the psychological instability that would eventually claim his sanity near the end of one of the most fascinating lives in modern American history.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the wealthy industrialist and aptly directed by Martin Scorcese, it is a story that, just like the man, comes off gloriously epic and distinctively melancholy at the same time.

Y'know, I've always found it difficult to try to describe movies like this, where the idea is just out-loud laughs centered around a plot that happens in a world that seems to shift between satire hovering not too far off the ground, to cartoonishly sky-high spoof. I usually just find myself saying that a movie of the caliber of Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy is hilariously funny. If there was one thing that I could say that would add any distinction in this entry its that, in this particular case, Burgandy effectively does it's job with very few times of stooping to the level of comedy that colors itself "blue".
That's not to say that the edge of Anchorman isn't there. I mean, a man being killed by the senseless and violent act of being impaled with a trident is not funny.



Unless it's a raucous reporters' rumble that is being led by the Legend that is Ron Burgandy.
Then, just like the rest of this movie, it's frikkin' hilarious.

The ante has been turned up on Jason Bourne as he learns more and more about his shadowy past while trying to maneuver through an international trail of espionage and conspiracies. And the one thing he learns as travels from one exotic location to the next, is that, despite his fragmented memories, with his innate abilities of that of a high level assassin still intact, this is a bumpy road he can move through as though he were born to ride.



In The Bourne Supremacy, the saga continues of the amnesiac assassin who tries to discover who or what he is before he can be "dealt with" by those who created him. The quality in which the manner of suspense, action and story-line are all meshed together here by director Paul Greemgrass, this second chapter of the Bourne franchise is what, in my opinion, makes this one of the best spies series ever on film.
And, yep, when I say that, I'm even including the one franchise that features that one 007 bloke.

Usually, one of the main consequences of love is a bun in the oven followed by getting hitched at the end of a shotgun.
However, even though there is a gun involved, that is not the case here.
Instead, we have the story, or better yet, the unstory of a loner who resides in a plush hotel with not much of a life outside of its walls. Until he meets a beautiful woman who slowly helps him to feel like not being alone anymore
But as the light romance begins to move along, we come to see that there is a reason why this is a guy who tends to keep to himself.
And then that's when the aforementioned consequences begin to reveal themselves, That, and this lonely guy's lonely story.

In one of those career defining moments that most Hollywood actors spend their whole professional life chasing, In Living Color alumni, Jamie Foxx transforms himself into one of music's biggest legends, Ray Charles.



Now, I could do what I usually do here with most of the entries in my movie lists, but for this one I'll just that Ray, more than most other biopics that I have given a high rating, the reason I like it has more to do with my personal taste in music. Because as far as all time singers go, Charles has always been a personal favorite of mine. His rendition of Leon Russell's A Song For You is one of those songs that would, without question, be on my "desert island" music must have's.
So, to come across a film like this takes the time and effort to portray the life of such a favorite legend of mine, well, that's always gonna earn a spot on my list.

   I admit that I completely dismissed all of the Harry Potter stuff because when I first became aware of the books, from what I had heard, they were a really big hit with the tweener audience. Therefore, I obviously just assumed that these would have absolutely no appeal to me, particularly as an adult.  English stories that were being concocted from across the pond about some geeky "spectacled" kid who carried around a wand because he was some kind of a witch or something, that didn't seem like anything I would be into as a reader. And this was a mindset that had stayed with for several years after the Pottermania had taken off. Then one day, while I was babysitting my niece, who just so happened to be a fan of the Potter books. At one point of the sitting, we were watching TV together and as I surfed through the channels lookin' for something that would (hopefully) appease both our viewing tastes, I came upon one that was showing the film adaptation of The Prisoner of Azkaban. My niece turned to me and excitedly said to me, "Oh, leave it here, leave it here!". So, being the dutiful uncle that I was, I submitted to the idea that we were gonna watch a Potter flick with the anticipated feeling that I would not in any way derive any kind of enjoyment from it. But I stayed by my niece's side and decided to "endure" it for her sake. 
 And, of course, as the fate would have it, to my surprise, not only did I find The Prisoner of Azkaban to be pretty enjoyable, but also, rather compelling and interesting.  I think that the biggest thing that so surprisingly drew me in was the Intellectual approach that the story had towards the idea of a secret civilization of wizards living amongst us mere "mudbloods" and the manner in which all the various creatures of classic mythological lore were presented. In particular, the details of the myth and legend of the wereaolf, which was one of the prominant themes to this chapter of the Potterverse.
 In other words, I had just fallen down the same rabbit hole that the rest of the world had fallen into when it came to this universally massive and successful franchise. From here on end, I was what they called a die-hard "Pothead" (that's the name I heard that they affectionately put on the hardcore fans of this series, but I will confess that before this life-changing event that brought me my niece closer together, I was a sort of a mild version of the other kind of pothead that was, as still is, more well known universally). I watched the other films that preceded Azkaban, and then and went out and purchased all the book. Not to mention, that I watched all the later films on the weekends that they debuted.

Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet solidly anchor this fairy tale-ish depiction behind the process of a fairy tale.
Finding Neverland starts off as a story of a man who's refusal to grow up results in the fantasy based chapters of his stage production and ends with a boy who is forced to grow up by the grim reality of the loss of a loved one.
The end is truly moving and successfully endearing enough to mask the pixie-like liberties taken with any historical fact of this story about the inner creative workings of the man who originally "found" the Lost Boys.
And when I say the "Lost Boys", I'm obviously referring to the ones from Peter Pan.
Not the two Corey's from that one punk vampire movie.

For many years after World War II, German cinema avoided any kind of depiction of one the most infamous of dictators, Adolf Hitler.
The controversy that immediately followed after the 2004 film Downfall finally broke that taboo, shows that even 60 years after the "Big One", the scars of the second war to end all wars are still there and still incredibly sensitive.



Centering on the close circle of Hitler's command during the last days of the war, Downfall details the happenings within the Third Reich as it crumbled between various desperate acts of defection and disillusioned battle plans. Although many critics disapproved of this movie's attempt of depicting Hitler in any light that might resemble a human being, the truth is, lead actor Bruno Ganz, along with the psychotically capturing script, does an exceptional job of showing the Nazi leader as a shell of a man. In the end, it reveals the final hours of an unbalanced shallow husk of a human, who's last stand was fueled to the end with only the hatred, cruelty and gibbous paranoia that was his and the Nazi movement's ultimate downfall.

 When Richard Linklater first "burst" onto the independent film scene in 1990 with Slacker, many critics predicted that he was going to bring many good things into the world of alternative movie viewing. And when one looks at the work he produced immediately following his debut, it's pretty evident that was a task which he managed to accomplish.  But one area that he took me by surprise with his unique ability to write deep introspective and most importantly, non-formula storytelling, was that of the romance picture. Linklater created a trilogy that featured evolving stages of a star-crossed couple whose attraction to each other was based on the openness of their dialogue and their ability to expose their deepest feelings, no matter how vulnerable it may have revealed themselves to be.
  The nine-year follow-up to the masterfully written Before Sunrise.
A love story that indulges in the idea of the kinds of bonds that can form if two people actually tried to communicate in a manner mired in bared-boned honesty (to which, I must confess, the "come-down-to-reality" part of my male brain wants to smirkingly say "yeah....rrriight...") and with an intention of true understanding.
The two characters in Sunset come off just impeccably convincing as two people who truly have gone on from their first meeting but never let go of the genuineness of that first shared emotionally intimate experience.
  Simply great acting, a great script, and a great sequel with a great ending that does something that very few sequels manage to do.... make the viewer want yet another sequel. 

After the smash success of the very first Spider-Man movie, Marvel's Cinematic Universe begins it's dominating expansion throughout the Universe, with a follow up "fly-catcher" flick in which the Wall-Crawler, no longer a "sophomore", moves up into the next step of his life, both as a man and as a masked crimefighter.
In this one, Peter Parker roughs thru his dilemmas with the same down-to-earth frustrations as in the comic-books, his relationship with Mary Jane convincingly reaches it's next level, and Dr. Octopus is portrayed much better as a villain than he ever was on the printed age.
As a hardcore nerd of this genre, I was pretty satisfied at Marvel's initial effort at trying to do what Burton did with the Batman; introduce the webhead as a serious legitimate property for film.
The most I could've hoped for this sequel was that it be at least half as good as it's predecessor.
Instead, Spidey-2 turned out to become one of my favorite movie adaptations of a comic-book superhero ever (it would've been my favorite super-hero themed of the year if it weren't for the movie that I have listed at #3).
Which I guess I should've anticipated since before I even entered the theater, I noticed that my spider-senses didn't go off, all atingling an' sh*t.

  If you ever were to go to a comic book convention and ask the question “Which is the best film adaptation of Marvel Comics’ most long enduring flagship title, the Fantastic Four?”, you would instantly notice a couple of things. First, you would notice what a regrettable decision it was ask such a question at a comic-con considering the long winded and overly detailed opinions you’d be barraged with. 


  So far, at this point in time, this is my favorite animated feature ever, but it not just because I'm a self-proclaimed nerd of the comic book medium.  As far as I'm concerned, not only does the Incredibles have one of the best voice castings for the lead roles I've seen (or is it heard?) but also, on top of that, it has a really great story, written by Brad Bird, the same guy responsible for the Iron Giant (another one of my favorite all-time animated flicks). From beginning to end, this semi-origin of the I's is full of charm, wit and a family chemistry that is entertaining beyond just the younger demographic. I always thought that Hollywood never seem to be able to put out 100% in any feature dealing with superheroes, but they able to pull it off with this one. The effects are incredibly cool (even at a CGI level), the over-all visuals are stunning and the characters are all drawn with an equally high level of quality and dynamicism. When viewed with the "Jack Jack Attack" extra featurette on the DVD, I feel pretty confident that it will probably be a long time before the family "I's" get dethroned from #1 on my list of fave computer animation movies of all time. 

  The saga of the Bride with no name continues. Except now, she has a name. And a few others too. And those few other names are the ones that she gets to scratch off his kill list. But will she survive long enough to the last name on that list?
Tune in to find out.



  At the end of it all, only two words can be used to describe this movie: Bad ass.
Not only is this Quentin's homage to martial arts flix, but it also includes homages to anime and those funky, grainy 70's Bruce Lee's wannabe's that made us laugh with their unsynchronized voice-overs, jagged camera movements and B-level musical sound effects. And yet, he was able to combine all this in a manner that was just plain... well... bad-ass.



 It's funny though, as bad-ass as I continually keep claiming this first chapter of  Kill Bill to be, it did not end up being in the number one position of this list. Which on any other given year, it would have very easily achieved. However, as it turns out, 2004 was the year that featured one film that not only overcomes this one as being the best of the year, but also, made it into my top 10 favorite films of all time. And just by pure coincidence, it is a martial arts epic that out katana-ed this one in terms of kung fu style artistry, which is not an easy feat against either of parts of the KB. I will not say anything more about it since it is the next entry that is coming up...

  As someone who became a rather hardcore fan of movies starting at a very early age, I grew up at a time when it was widely accepted that big budget actions flicks were the kind of cinema that had to sacrifice on story in order to make room for the expansive bangs and the expensive effects that acted as the fuel for this type of widescreen entertainment. This was a belief that was only intensified when applied to any action movies that were centered around a martial arts theme. Of course, as with anything else, there were a few exceptions, but still, high level action did not equate with high level scripts for quite a long time.
   By the time the 90's rolled around, there was such a massive level of influx of big budgeted blockbusters that the market was becoming quite overly saturated with 'em. As a result, the movie making machine that was Hollywood had to find better ways to for these movies to compete with each other. Fortunately, one of the ways was by writing better material for the plots of the stories and the dialogues of the characters.



 While this was going on, another phenomenon was going on during the 90's, and that was the rise of foreign films within the American movie theater. And in particular, Asian movies were becoming a more prominent import into the industry. Eastern cinema was coming in various genres, which obviously included martial arts movies, which had been reaching U.S. shores since the 70's, but their waves were becoming more tsunamic because of the works of such talents as Jackie Chan and John Woo. But my favorite thing about these action films from the Orient was the burgeoning subgenre within the genre known as wuxia, which took the martial arts foundation of the stories and combined it with Shakespearean themed drama, along with a medieval style fantasy element between all the "kung fu fighting".
   The most widely recognized of this type of cinema is Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which as good as it is, for my own personal tastes, House of Flying Daggers is the pinnacle that wuxia has achieved so far. And with it's beautiful story of love and intrigue, combined with lavish costumes, great performances and unique individually themed action sequences (which combined with the vivid colors, gave me the same effect as when reading a really kick-ass comic-book) left such an impression on me, that not only did it become my favorite film of 2004, but also has made it into my top ten faves of all time.