2004 Film List

I wasn't involved in last years list, and was a little late this year. Not sure of all the rules, but I've only been tracking what I've seen theatrically. So far 57. I haven't been comparing, as I am not sure I have all the criteria down. I have also been tracking my DVD viewing in th DVD CHallenge thread.

Well, I've posted less just because nobody's clearing out the update posts like Jason Whyte used to. Also, I've off-loaded the "seen for the first time" stuff to my blog.

But, five more since the 15th:

#60: The Stepford Wives - ¾ - How do you make a movie set in 2004 where the characters don't know the concept of the Stepford Wife? Badly.
#61: Control Room (documentary) - - Very interesting fly-on-the-wall view of the Al-Jazeera news service
#62: The Terminal - ½ - Far from Spielberg's most ambitious, but well-executed.
#63: Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story - ¼ - Flat. Out. Funny.
#64: La Finestra di Fronte (Facing Windows in the USA) - ½ - Better than the "food movie" I thought it was going to be.

Updated my list to include Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban (seen back on June 4th; 90%), Fahrenheit 9/11 (seen today; 80%), and The Terminal (seen today; 85%).

Touching The Void - Gripping story and presentation takes us through this incredible mountaineering survival story. Quite literally an edge-of-the-seat experience that the whole time I was watching I wished I'd caught it at the theater. A-

Added Fahrenheit 9/11, Saved! and Spider-Man 2.

(Hi everyone!)

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Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11


At Bat: Spider-Man 2

~Edwin

One day to go and more likely am not going to see another one for today & tomorrow, so here's my Top 10 for the 1st Half of 2004 out of only 39 seen (in alphabetical order):

Bon voyage
Dogville
The Dreamers
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Fahrenheit 9/11
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Hero (Ying Xiong)
Kill Bill: Volume 2
The Passion Of The Christ
Touching The Void

Disappointing: The Terminal & Shrek 2
Surprising: none [probably just a little bit ... hated Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore & Ray Romano but like them all in 50 First Dates and Welcome to Mooseport]
Worst 4: Torque, Club Dread, You Got Served, Catch That Kid

Updated with Touching the Void and Spider-man 2, both excellent films and i'm glad I caught the former in its last session at my local cinema. Not sure if it would have the same impact at home but a great story of the human spirit.

Updated with the fantastic Spider-Man 2 (*****/*****).

Updated my comments on Fahrenheit 9/11 and bumped up its rating a notch upon further reflection.

~Edwin

Spartan - well-executed and intense at times, with the usual Mamet twists and turns. Val Kilmer provides a strong presence as the lead. However, the extreme cynicism of the story turned me off. B


I ended June with 27 movies seen, not bad since business trips limited me to two movies in a nine day period in the middle of the month. I have seen 194 films on the year, I need to pick up the pace a bit if I'm to crack 400.

Best film I saw in June was Fassbinder's In A Year With 13 Moons followed by the outdoor screening of The Red Shoes I saw in LA.

I have only managed to see 18 2004 films so far, so my top 10 isn't as representative as Arman's (I'll consider this year a disappointment if more than my top 3 are on my year end list), but here it is:

1. Dogville
2. The Return
3. Dawn Of The Dead (04)
4. Touching The Void
5. The Saddest Music In The World
6. Osama
7. Kill Bill, Vol. 2
8. The Ladykillers
9. Twentynine Palms
10. Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself

Disappointing: Kill Bill v2, Twentynine Palms
Surprising: The Return

Updated my list with,

Touching the Void

I was disappointed with this movie. Expectations were high from reading the great recommendations from most everyone about this movie. I just found it to be really boring. I think something like this feels better as a book. I definetly would be more into it if it were a book. But watching the dramaziations of the story just felt very "B" something along the lines of Unsolved Mysteries.

Spiderman 2

Way better then the first, but not close to X-Men 2. I like the premise on how they deal with Parker/Spiderman but the characters themselfs just felt flat. I was not very fond of the pacing of this movie, good highes and then long lows. Still though, much better then the first.

Ray

Well the first six months are behind us.
Top ten theatrical viewings for the first half:
The Passion of the Christ
Kill Bill Volume 2
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Terminal
Super-Size Me
The Saddest Music in the World
Shrek 2
I'm Not Scared
Fahrenheit 9/11
Spartan

See the rest of my top picks: http://draven99.blogspot.com/2004/07...e-give-it.html

Three more:

#65: Saved! - ¼ - A clever way to do a teen movie and not have it feel like something we've seen a million times before.
#66: Around The World In 80 Days - - Good when Jackie takes control. Not so much otherwise.
#67: De-Lovely - ¾ - Problematic and uneven, but worth seeing if the subject matter interests you.

My first half top ten:



Kill Bill Volume 2
Bon Voyage
(Where Hero would go)
Control Room

¾

Io Non Ho Paura (I'm Not Scared in the USA)

½

The Saddest Music in the World
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Spartan
Tasogare Seibei (Twilight Samurai in the USA)
Hellboy
Shrek 2

And the bottom five:

¾

Dogville

½

Van Helsing
Moonlight
Nightingale in a Music Box



Dominator

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2


On Deck: Two Brothers

~Edwin

Dodgeball
6.5 of 10
Funny performances carry an otherwise light content film enough to make it more enjoyable than not. Vaughn is especially strong in a classic Chevy Chase (Seems Like Old Times era) manner, Rip Torn is his typical outstanding self and despite rehashing a lot of his routine gimmick even Stiller is pretty solid. Vaughn's low-key comedic reaction was critical though and he often sells jokes that would otherwise flop from being too over-the-top.

Fahrenheit 9/11
8 of 10
This is satire, not documentary. Too many facts are twisted, too much of the methodology is suspect for the film to be a true documentary. Even many of the facts are altered, fabricated or misrepresented simply to make a point that could not be made without such changes to them. Worse is that by simply playing it straight up Moore probably could have achieved many similar points or at least a similar idealogical resonance with audiences.

But instead Moore goes for the same old gimmicks and grandstanding. In Roger and Me it was fresh, in Bowling for Columbine the humor and even sometimes contradictory stances within the film made it easy to overlook, but here Moore takes his ideals far too seriously for us to totally overlook the same old schtick being used yet again.

However, it is still funny at times, it does invite an emotional response from viewers, and at times it does give us a new look at old news. Some points are valid, some are suspect, but the SATIRE of the film is almost always entertaining. As entertainment, much like Hardball or Daily Show, this is another good film by Moore.


Spider-Man 2
9 of 10
I didn't quite like it as much as the first film. The effects are better and generally the story is perhaps even more true to the nature of the comic, but the film bogs down with too much repetition of some of the conflicts. A viewer can only watch the same situations and problems so many times before they feel like saying "okay, get on with it, we realize this is an issue".

The final act was far more satisfying and actually took a direction that a viewer might not expect from the film, especially given both other superhero films and Spidey 1/first half of Spidey 2.

Overall the film is a triumph of capturing the essence of a Spidey comic, from personal challenges to the staging of superhero/villain battles. When Spidey fights and when Spidey wins, it looks and feels just like I always read it to be. I knew he would win but I still cheered when he did. Give me more of these films, many more of them.

Eurotrip
2 of 10
A few funny moments, mostly on pure comedic acting rather than good writing, are all that saved this film from being an ultra-disaster. This is Mad-Libs teen comedy at its worst and most simplistic. Nudity, grossness, brashness and rudeness can be hilarious and fun, but there needs to be something clever behind it. Here there is nothing, and it is especially tragic considering just how much good material could be mined from the basic schtick of obnoxious American teens wandering Europe. Sadly the first 10 minutes of American Werewold in London had more quality laughs on that topic than the whole of Eurotrip. It was 3 times dumber and more insulting than European Vacation, and that's saying something.

Spiderman 2: Thought it improved on the original in nearly every way, especially the villain and score departments. Molina's Doc Ock is truly menacing and threatening in a way that superhero movie villains rarely are. I don't find Toby McGuire entirely convincing (not in the same way that Hugh Jackman IS Wolverine) in his Spiderman without the mask moments, but as ordinary Peter Parker he captures the character and his inner struggles. Never reaches the heights of X2, but probably the 2nd best of the new wave of comicbook films. B+

Updated with the hilarious Shaun of the Dead (****½/*****).

Updated with the not-too-horrible anti-global warming infomercial The Day After Tomorrow (***½/*****).

The Butterfly Effect - Has its moments and Ashton Kutcher is surprisingly unannoying, but the story gets more and more ridiculous as it drags on and I got bored with it after 80m or so. B-

Updated with Jersey Girl(***½/*****). Kinda like About a Boy, only not as good.

Jean-Jacques Annaud's Two Brothers


On Deck: Baadasssss!

~Edwin

Updated with the funny Anchorman (****/*****).

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It's in town here but I doubt if I'll see it until DVD. I haven't seen Before Sunrise and it would seem that would be a necessity before viewing the sequel.

Added 3 more:

Miracle - a fine, if conventionally structured, dramatization of one of American's greatest sports moments. Kurt Russell provides a strong anchor to center the film around. B

The Trilogy: On The Run - The first film of Lucas Belvaux's ambitious trilogy I was able to see, concerns a revolutionary who escapes from prison into a world very different from the one he left behind. Refusing to realize his organization no longer exists, he will fight on, alone if necessary.

It is a thought-provoking and dramatically moving film. Billed as a thriller, it is really a dramatic character piece about idealism and how time and life's changes affect our beliefs. Definitely worth seeing. I've read that the films have a cumulative effect and build upon one another so this grade is subject to change B+

Farenheit 9/11 - Moore's best film to date in which he is able to curb (but not eliminate) his worst instincts. It has many important things to say and show, especially in showing the Iraqi POV and that of some of our soldiers, as well as continuing to present a picture of domestic poverty. But Moore still has a bad habit of undermining his own message with flippancy and cheap jokes (like cutting from a weeping Iraqi mother who's children have been killed in a bombing to Brittany Speers saying we should listen and support the President) and of casting a too-wide net rather than one weighted to sink deeper. (though this certainly isn't a problem unique to Moore and is one I often have with documentaries). B+

Next Up: The Dreamers

The Dreamers - B, review in 2004 Alt Movies Thread

Wow, people keep tabs on what I post. (I've been mostly quiet on HTF for awhile, so I'm kind of out of the loop.)

Arman, I had seen Before Sunset twice before it opened here today, so you're not that out of the loop where you live. One was a screening for Wexner Center members (and a regional premiere, I think), with the second being the press screening. Ordinarily I would have waited for the critics' screening, but the Linklater pic had been at the top of my most anticipated films list. It is a terrific film, perfect really; however, right now I can't quite justify moving it above Lars von Trier's Dogville and The Five Obstructions.

Hey, we're one of the few cities getting the 70mm print of Tati's Playtime and just this week got a screening of the currently withdrawn MC5 film. These are good times for local moviegoers.

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I went to see I, Robot expecting to hate it, but I actually thought it was pretty decent. Maybe a little too much gratuitous Will Smith, but overall a decent summer flick. (****/*****)