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HTF Top 10's of 2004: Time To Throw Down! - Page 4

post #91 of 139
2/3/05 at 10:03pm
I guess I'm saying I was disappointed because of the hype. The movie was very good, but I think that's almost entirely because of Foxx's performance. Removing that from the equation I felt the rest of the film was a little disappointing. That doesn't change the fact that it was a very good movie that is worthy of praise.
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post #92 of 139
2/4/05 at 2:19am
Moreso because of my issues with the script than hype, FWIW Todd, I agree with you re Ray. Foxx's perf is mos def on my list of bests in 2k4, but I had enough issues with Ray to keep it outta my top 10. -p
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post #93 of 139
2/4/05 at 6:48am
Ray certainly underwhelmed me. Foxx is great and the musical sequences are wonderful, but the rest is either hit and miss acting or just too glossed over for serious drama. If it was fiction instead of biopic I really think people would be panning this as just average.


I notice that several other people are ranking Girl Next Door pretty high. I loved it and thought the retelling of Risky Biz was clever and well directed, but it has gotten blasted by some people. I just don't see that when I look at mistakes like Eurotrip or even Anchorman which are either straight sophmoric or inconsistant and bland filmmaking that merely let the actors play in front of the camera.



On to my list, I'm adding Garden State at #9 of my list. M$Baby goes in at 12, and Passion of the Christ slots at 15 (which surprised me). I also reworked some other films in the top 20, Spidey2 slipped on a 2nd viewing by a few places, Kill Bill2 (like KB1) went up a couple of places on its 2nd viewing.


I have 21 films before I drop off to films that are too flawed for me to either love or respect, and that is about 10-15 short of a good year unfortunately. Then again, its still 21 new films that affected me greatly in some way which is still a good thing.

I have Rwanda, Long Engagement and Vera Drake on deck. Village on DVD next week. But my top 10 is probably wrapped up at this point.
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post #94 of 139
2/4/05 at 9:14am
I need to adjust my top 10 to add Rosenstrasse and possibly He Hate Me. Shaun of the Dead will get bumped, and possibly The Five Obstructions.

I still have a ton of movies to see. I haven't seen The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby, or Hotel Rwanda, not to mention A Very Long Engagement, Vera Drake, Ray, or several others. I'm hoping to see Moolade this week, along with either Million Dollar Baby or seeing Bad Education again. I really need to see Bad Education again before writing about it or deciding whether to add it to my top 10. It is quite a complex film I've had trouble digesting.
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post #95 of 139
2/6/05 at 10:19pm
Good news (of a sort) - I am *nearly* finished entering everybody's top 10 (I promise!). Barring a series of unfortunate events on Monday, I guarantee it will be posted sometime in the eve tomorrow. Work has been so hectic with my co-worker having been called on jury duty most of the week last week, and him on vacation 2 weeks before that, plus the holidays ... it's been a nasty January, I've had zero time to do much else, even in my spare time. Thankfully I'm all caught up in most other things, and I'm nearly caught up with the stats, too.

One thing I noticed, even though I'm not all the way through the list: There definitely are fewer participants this year than last (there were 74 last year I think), plus those that did participate have posted many fewer titles than they did last year. Thankfully we have the likes of Scott Weinberg and Bill Harris to ensure I have a very full database of titles to type in.

Just in case the final tallies change by the time I get to the last entry tomorrow (sure seems like an eternal amount of time has passed entering them, too! I doubt I've seen much sunshine since I've started all of this!) I won't divulge the details. But the #1 spot has the #2 slot beat by just less than twice as much. Mind you, things could change by the time I'm through ... but it'd have to take an Incredible stroke of fortune for the next one on the list to take the lead.



Stay tuned...
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post #96 of 139
2/6/05 at 10:38pm
1. Spiderman 2
2. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring
3. The Aviator
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
5. Before Sunset
6. Touching the Void
7. Sideways
8. Million Dollar Baby
9. The Incredibles
10. Spartan

~T
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post #97 of 139
2/6/05 at 10:57pm
Quote:
Just in case the final tallies change by the time I get to the last entry tomorrow (sure seems like an eternal amount of time has passed entering them, too! I doubt I've seen much sunshine since I've started all of this!) I won't divulge the details. But the #1 spot has the #2 slot beat by just less than twice as much. Mind you, things could change by the time I'm through ... but it'd have to take an Incredible stroke of fortune for the next one on the list to take the lead.
Thanks for all the unpaid work, Dana, but is there something amiss with your computer keyboard?

Also noticed the lack of participation--it looks like we're down at least a dozen lists from last year. I wonder if it's in part due to a continuing trend of failed expectations (or more bluntly, titles that stunk) from rehashed studio pictures, coupled with lack of availability of the more acclaimed, smaller "indie" releases in non-metropolitan theaters...such that these limitations and disappointments just dissuade HTFers from bothering to compile a list of banality and rubbish.
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post #98 of 139
2/6/05 at 11:03pm
Wow... Dana. Looking forward to seeing those incredible statistics.
Thanks for putting so much of your time and effort into it.
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post #99 of 139
2/6/05 at 11:19pm
I sorted out the rest of my list, so far I've seen forty films, of the ones I've not seen, Mean Creek and Ray are highest priorities to watch, maybe getting that blockbuster-sic-netflix tryout for those two.

here's my top 20 + 1
  1. 1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  2. The Passion of the Christ
  3. The Incredibles
  4. Finding Neverland
  5. The Aviator
  6. Closer
  7. Million Dollar Baby
  8. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
  9. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
  10. Control Room
  11. Collateral
    4 star runner-ups
  12. Hero
  13. De-Lovely
  14. Kinsey
  15. The Village

    3.5 films:
  16. Bourne Supremacy
  17. Hellboy
  18. Spider-man 2

    3.0 films:
  19. America's Heart and Soul
  20. Dodgeball
  21. Saved!
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post #100 of 139
2/7/05 at 7:19pm
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post #101 of 139
2/7/05 at 7:31pm
Nice lists, but I could have sworn that Touching the Void was a 2003 release?
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post #102 of 139
2/7/05 at 9:29pm
Well, an unfortunate event did happen, though it was kind-of idiotic on my part ... I forgot to charge my cellphone batteries, and since I use my cellphone to connect to the 'net while I'm away from my apartment, and since I almost never leave work and go straight home to my apartment (traffic is the #1 reason, so I hang out at Borders to do this and other work) ... I didn't get all of 'em entered. Believe me, I was racing away to get as many in tonight, hoping against hope, but ... wow, you guys sure do see a lot of films! Such shame - I broke my promise! :b

The good news is, I have 30 of the 50-ish entries, and it's taken me probably 3-4 hours to enter the bulk of those 30, so I expect another 3 or 4 hours tomorrow evening, so it'll be ready then. Barring another unfortunate event, of course. (I'm charging my cellphone battery backup as I type.) Oh, and the positions of #1 and #2 haven't changed; FYI, though, there's a neck-to-neck race for #3, but I expect that to sort itself out as I enter the remaining 20-or-so (the last 6 of the top 10 will probably shuffle quite a bit so I'll not say anything, except to note that I've seen 7 of them - a surprising thing, given how little I went to the theater last year). I'd give ya more hints, but WOW am I tired. I haven't even gotten around to updating my placeholder in this list with MY top 10!

Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow with a real list. Wish me luck!
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post #103 of 139
2/7/05 at 10:54pm
Thanks for the hard work!

I'm guessing Eternal Sunshine and Sideways are top two, with Aviator and M$B duking it out for third place.
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post #104 of 139
2/8/05 at 12:35am
I think Eternal Sunshine and Incredibles are the top two with Spiderman 2 and Sideways vying for nubmer 3

Adam
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post #105 of 139
2/8/05 at 7:47am
Drat. Looks like I'm too late, but here are my picks anyway.


1. Dogville (Lars von Trier)
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)
3. Hotel Rwanda (Terry George)
4. A Very Long Engagement (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
5. The Corporation (Abbott & Achbar)
6. Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood)
7. The Aviator (Martin Scorsese)
8. Fahrenheit 9/11 (Michael Moore)
9. The Incredibles (Brad Bird)
10. Closer (Mike Nichols)
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post #106 of 139
2/8/05 at 3:17pm
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post #107 of 139
2/8/05 at 3:17pm
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post #108 of 139
2/8/05 at 6:59pm
FYI,

I have 45 of the 56 ranked entries entered; heading home now, gonna enter the last 11 in a short bit, and post the results tonight. There'll be probably 6 or 7 folks of the 56 whose entire list I haven't yet gotten to enter (Scott Weinberg and Michael Perez are 2 notables), but I did get their top 10's entered at least (checking off their entire list of films only factors in the frational weighted average and another column, not the main ranking).

Surprisingly, 3rd place is still very close (the above guesses had one of 'em right - it's not a hero of the webbed variety, but instead of the femme fatale variety. )
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post #109 of 139
2/8/05 at 11:13pm
And here we are. Each column's meaning and calculation is explained at the bottom of the ranks.

56 members here have ranked films, and these rankings directly affect the order of the top 30. However, there are alternative ways of coming up with rankings - these require tabulating all the films each member has listed in the 2004 Film List. Each member's total appears in the chart at the bottom. The tally may be a few films off, depending on a few factors, including whether or not I could find the film in IMDB.com, or if the member had duplicate entries or inaccurate tallies, or other reasons - feel free to contact me to help correct things if you think your totals are not right. Currently I still have 7 members' 2004 Film List entries to tabulate (ChrisBEA, Elizabeth S, Mark Pfeiffer, Matthew Chmiel, Michael Perez, Scott Weinberg, and Stevan Lay).

I'll be updating this on a semi-regular basis, depending on how often folks update their top 10 lists.

So ... without further ado, here ya go. Looking over it, I think the forum once again demonstrates pretty good taste when it comes to judging film quality. Enjoy!

The Top 30 of Our Top 10 of 2004
Contributing, Qualifying Members:56
Includes all member updates through:09 Feb 2005
#FilmTotal ScoreFractional Weighted Total Top 10 List Appearances : 2004 List Appearances Weighted Average Unweighted Average
1 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 327 38.05 44 : 46 7.43 5.84
2 The Incredibles 232 27.44 35 : 45 6.63 4.14
3 Sideways 174 22.16 28 : 33 6.20 3.10
4 Kill Bill: Vol. 2 164 21.69 27 : 37 6.07 2.93
5 Spider-Man 2 144 16.73 23 : 42 6.26 2.57
6 Million Dollar Baby 142 17.57 21 : 26 6.74 2.53
7 Before Sunset 132 15.12 18 : 22 7.33 2.36
8 The Aviator 112 15.69 21 : 26 5.33 2.00
9 Garden State 110 14.20 20 : 35 5.50 1.96
10 Ying xiong (Hero) 83 11.78 17 : 26 4.88 1.48
11 Collateral 83 11.51 16 : 34 5.19 1.48
12 Dogville 82 12.29 13 : 20 6.27 1.46
13 The Passion of the Christ 80 9.56 12 : 27 6.67 1.43
14 Finding Neverland 79 9.37 14 : 29 5.64 1.41
15 Closer 62 9.34 13 : 25 4.73 1.10
16 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou 56 7.15 9 : 16 6.22 1.00
17 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 48 9.61 15 : 27 3.17 0.85
18 Shi mian mai fu (House of Flying Daggers) 45 6.28 9 : 19 5.00 0.80
19 The Machinist 37 4.40 5 : 12 7.40 0.66
20 Touching the Void 34 7.55 9 : 21 3.78 0.61
21 Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring) 31 3.98 5 : 12 6.20 0.55
22 Hotel Rwanda 30 4.00 5 : 11 6.00 0.54
23 Un long dimanche de fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement) 26 4.01 5 : 8 5.20 0.46
24 Napoleon Dynamite 25 3.27 5 : 17 5.00 0.45
25 Shaun of the Dead 24 4.15 7 : 24 3.43 0.43
26 Friday Night Lights 22 2.66 5 : 18 4.40 0.39
27 Tasogare seibei (The Twilight Samurai) 22 2.19 3 : 7 7.33 0.39
28 Maria Full of Grace 21 2.99 4 : 15 5.25 0.38
29 Miracle 20 1.94 3 : 19 6.67 0.36
30 Vozvrashcheniye (The Return) 19 2.91 5 : 9 3.80 0.34
Columns:
  2. Position
  3. Film Title
  4. Total Score: A summation of each film's position in each contributor's top 10, with points given as follows: 1st place = 10, 10th place = 1. 10th place ties get .5 points per tie, limit to 2. All ties above 10th place have the points averaged for the positions (i.e., a 2-place tie for first would give 9.5 points for each place: 10+9, divided by 2).
  5. Fractional Weighted Total: The total combined fractional weighted scores of each contributor's film. Fractional weighted scores are computed for each contributor by the position of the film against the total number of films seen -- i.e., if a contributor saw 50 films, 1st place is 50/50 (1.00), 10th place is 41/50 (0.82). This gives more weight to lists with higher film totals.
  6. Top 10 List Appearances : 2004 Film List Appearances: Ratio of a film's appearance in this thread to how many appearances it makes in contributors' lists in the 2004 Film List thread. This gives better value to the Weighted Average (and Total Score) numbers.
  7. Weighted Average: Total Score divided by Top 10 List Appearances. This is considered weighted because it only takes into account those contributors who have the film in the top 10.
  8. Unweighted Average: Total Score divided by total number of Top 10 contributors (currently 56).
Contributing members [Number of Films in Top 30 Seen/30 : Total Films Seen]; if your name is not on here, and you are sure your list is complete, email me. Grey numbers beside names denotes 10 or less -- if you have only those listed here in the Top 10 list, then you didn't post a list in the 2004 Film List.
07/30 : 010 Adam Lenhardt
08/30 : 055 Andrew Schwarz
27/30 : 094 Arman
25/30 : 275 Bill Harris
22/30 : 072 Brian.L
21/30 : 081 Brook K
09/30 : 011 CalebC
09/30 : 021 Chris
21/30 : 075 Chris_Richard
12/30 : 026 ChrisBEA
22/30 : 079 Craig S
11/30 : 032 Dana Fillhart
04/30 : 010 Dave Hackman
04/30 : 010 Don_Limey
10/30 : 037 DustinWoods
24/30 : 065 Edwin Pereyra
07/30 : 010 Elizabeth S
21/30 : 070 Eric Howell
07/30 : 010 Eric Peterson
10/30 : 013 Fred Bang
09/30 : 009 hanson mat
08/30 : 009 Holden Pike
05/30 : 010 Jedrek
10/30 : 036 Joe Kamsan
09/30 : 010 Jonny P
08/30 : 009 JonZ
09/30 : 010 Jose Martinez
09/30 : 051 Justin_S
24/30 : 089 Kirk Tsai
17/30 : 048 Kristian
08/30 : 009 Larry Sutliff
06/30 : 010 Luis Cruz
17/30 : 051 Marc_Savoie
18/30 : 034 Mark Pfeiffer
16/30 : 068 Matt Stone
08/30 : 010 Matthew Chmiel
16/30 : 022 Michael Perez
28/30 : 101 Nick C
20/30 : 092 Nick Sievers
00/30 : 010 Pascal A
18/30 : 025 Quentin
07/30 : 008 Rich Malloy
09/30 : 009 Richard Kim
13/30 : 035 Rob Willey
08/30 : 010 Scott Weinberg
13/30 : 044 Scott_MacD
05/30 : 010 scottLarson
21/30 : 059 Seth Paxton
07/30 : 012 Shad R
26/30 : 111 Stephen R
07/30 : 007 Stevan Lay
09/30 : 010 Thi Them
07/30 : 010 Tim_C
08/30 : 009 ToddP
16/30 : 058 Travis_S
14/30 : 020 ZacharyTait
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post #110 of 139
2/9/05 at 12:15am
Neat stuff Dana, first thing I noticed was the strong affection shared by those who've viewed Eternal Sunshine and Before Sunset. Only a handful of viewers neglected them on their top 10 lists. This is also reflected in their high weighted averages. But continuing down the column, The Machinist and Twilight Samurai managed similarly high weighted scores, but appeared on less than half of the top 10 lists of their viewers' lists... I guess those who bothered to list these pictures felt especially great affinity for them, boosting their weighted averages.

Compared to last year's chart, it looks pretty similar in terms of studio-attachment, mostly major studios' prestige wings (Fox Searchlight, Focus, Miramax). Both years featured one foreign language pic (unless Hero falls out--quite possible, seeing how #10-#14 are separated by only 5 points). Finally, in terms of auteurs, by my count, of the top 14 (since the range of scores of the last few is so compressed), 8 of the directors also participated heavily in the screenplay development, of which 7 were the original "visionaries" (Eternal Sunshine, Incredibles, KB2, Before Sunset, Garden State, Dogville) or at least was inarguably as envisioned by the auteur (Passion of the Christ).
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post #111 of 139
2/9/05 at 7:38am
Great chart, Dana. You're work is much appreciated.
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post #112 of 139
2/9/05 at 8:02am
Better late then never I suppose.

#1 House of Flying Daggers
#2 Million Dollar Baby
#3 The Incredibles
#4 Hotel Rwanda
#5 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind
#6 The Aviator
#7 Dogville
#8 The Twilight Samurai
#9 A very long Engagement
#10 Finding Neverland
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post #113 of 139
2/9/05 at 9:34am
Nice to see a few unlikely choices on the list this year. Hope they don't drop off.

My post in the 2004 thread may be unclear, but I've actually seen 22 of the 30 films listed, Dana, as well as seeing 100 total so far.

The movies I haven't seen are:
A Very Long Engagement
Hotel Rwanda
The Machinist
Harry Potter
Hero
The Aviator
Before Sunset
Million Dollar Baby
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post #114 of 139
2/9/05 at 11:37am
Awesomely stupendous. It's nice to see what the "Movies" forum regulars dug this year.
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post #115 of 139
2/9/05 at 5:20pm
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post #116 of 139
2/9/05 at 5:41pm
Thanks for all the compliments - as painfully tedious as the data entry was, getting the kudos makes it all worthwhile.

I've made notes about the errors, and will correct them this weekend. Edwin, I did get your updates in time for the post, in case you were wondering George See, I'll get your list in the next update. Adam_S, I'll try and get yours into the Tracker but I'll have to log in as you to do it (or you can update it yourself if you remember your username/password - http://68.44.19.1/films).

Thanks again, and looking forward to seeing the next round of changes to the list!

(Oh, PS - I should also give props to Seth Paxton, who is the original owner of the stats. I only took it over for him a couple years back. Thanks, Seth, for starting something really cool!)
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post #117 of 139
2/9/05 at 8:50pm
Really cool, Dana! Glad to be part of it this year. Looks like I haven't seen everything on the top 30, I'll try to rectify that in the next couple of months (just rented "Vozvrashcheniye (The Return)" tonight ).
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post #118 of 139
2/10/05 at 6:13am
Pretty decent mix of flicks being nominated.


And even though these categories aren't being tabulated, here are some of my further picks for best of 2004. If for no other reason than there were lots of good films, but only ten little spots to fill for the official list, so...

...BEST DIRECTOR
1. Lars Von Trier, Dogville
2. Michel Gondry, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, A Very Long Engagement
4. Terry George, Hotel Rwanda
5. Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby
6. Martin Scorsese, The Aviator
7. Mike Nichols, Closer
8. Gabriele Salvatores, I'm Not Scared
9. Michael Moore, Fahrenheit 9/11
10. Brad Bird, The Incredibles

...BEST PERFORMANCE, LEAD ACTOR
1. Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda
2. Javier Bardem, The Sea Inside
3. Gael García Bernal, The Motorcycle Diaries
4. Leonardo DiCaprio, The Aviator
5. Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby
6. Bill Murray, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
7. Jim Carrey, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
8. Sean Penn, The Assassination of Richard Nixon
9. Gael García Bernal, Bad Education
10. Ewan McGregor, Young Adam

...BEST PERFORMANCE, LEAD ACTRESS
1. Tilda Swinton, Young Adam
2. Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby
3. Nicole Kidman, Dogville
4. Audrey Tautou, A Very Long Engagement
5. Catalina Sandino Moreno, Maria Full of Grace
6. Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
7. Sophie Okonedo, Hotel Rwanda
8. Annette Bening, Being Julia
9. Nicole Kidman, Birth
10. Neve Campbell, When Will I Be Loved?

...BEST PERFORMANCE, SUPPORTING ACTOR
1. Clive Owen, Closer
2. James Caan, Dogville
3. Omar Sharif, Monsieur Ibrahim
4. Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby
5. Willem Dafoe, The Clearing
6. Nick Frost, Shaun of the Dead
7. Chris Cooper, Silver City
8. Lluís Homar, Bad Education
9. Peter Sarsgaard, Garden State
10. Mark Wahlberg, I Heart Huckabees

...BEST PERFORMANCE, SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1. Isabella Rossellini, The Saddest Music in the World
2. Cate Blanchett, The Aviator
3. Natalie Portman, Closer
4. Irma P. Hall, The Ladykillers
5. Laura Dern, We Don't Live Here Anymore
6. Cate Blanchett, Coffee & Cigarettes
7. Eva Amurri, Saved!
8. Helen Mirren, The Clearing
9. Sandra Oh, Sideways
10. Isabelle Hupert, I Heart Huckabees


...BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
1. 2046 (D.P.s Christopher Doyle, Kwan Pun Leung & Yiu-Fai Lai)
2. House of Flying Daggers (D.P. Xiaoding Zhao)
3. A Very Long Engagement (D.P. Bruno Delbonnel)
4. I'm Not Scared (D.P. Italo Petriccione)
5. Hero (D.P. Christopher Doyle)
6. The Aviator (D.P. Robert Richardson)
7. Collateral (D.P.s Dion Beebe & Paul Cameron)
8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (D.P. Ellen Kuras)
9. Birth (D.P. Harris Savides)
10. Bad Education (D.P. José Luis Alcaine)
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post #119 of 139
2/12/05 at 6:43am
Quote:
Edwin, I did get your updates in time for the post, in case you were wondering

Thanks Dana. However, I don't think the film count was updated properly. Great job as always, though.

~Edwin
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post #120 of 139
2/14/05 at 9:12pm
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