2004 Films: Ranked
Submitted by hinterland on Thu, 02/03/2005 - 06:54
Tags:
-=10=-
- Tony Takitani (Jun Ichikawa, Japan) Introspective Drama
- Git [Feathers in the Wind] (Il-gon Song, S. Korea) Drama/Romance
-=9=-
- 3-Iron (Ki-duk Kim, S. Korea) Daoist drama
- Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, US/France) Romance
- The Hotel Venus (Itsumichi Isomura, Japan) Fashion commercial/Drama
- The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson, US) Religion/Christianity
- University of Laughs (Mamoru Hosi, Japan) Comedy/Period Drama
- Primer (Shane Carruth, US) Sci-fi/Mystery
- Dumplings (Fruit Chan, China/HK) Horror/Drama
- Three... Extremes (Fruit Chan/Takashi Miike/Chan-wook Park, HK/Japan/S. Korea) Horror
- A Day on the Planet (Isao Yukisada, Japan) Comedy/Drama/Life
-=8=-
- Hana and Alice (Shunji Iwai, Japan) Friendship/Comedy
- Izo (Takashi Miike, Japan) Absurd Comedy/Violence
- Samaria (Ki-duk Kim, S. Korea) Coming of Age/Transition
- Woman is the Future of Man (Sang-soo Hong, S. Korea) Minutia of Life
- House of Flying Daggers (Yimou Zhang, China) Martial Arts/Drama/Romance
- Swing Girls (Shinobu Yaguchi, Japan) Comedy
- Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow, China) Comedy/Martial Arts
- Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, Germany) War/History
- The Machinist (Brad Anderson, Spain/US) Mystery/Thriller
- Taegukgi (Je-gyu Kang, S. Korea) War/Melodrama
- Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, UK) Zombies/Comedy
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Wes Anderson, US) Comedy
- Layer Cake (Matthew Vaughn, UK) Crime/Drama
- The Aviator (Martin Scorsese, US) Drama/Biopic
- The Sea Inside (Alejandro Amenábar, Spain) Drama
- Otakus in Love (Suzuki Matsuo, Japan) Comedy
- Machuca (Andrés Wood, Chile) Drama/Coup d'etat
- The Incredibles (Brad Bird, US) Family/Cartoon
- This Charming Girl (Yoon-ki Lee, S. Korea) Isolated Drama
- Brothers (Susanne Bier, Denmark) Drama/Melodrama
- Finding Neverland (Marc Forster, US/UK) Fantasy/Drama
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Alfonso Cuarón, UK/US) Fantasy/Adventure
- Mr. Hong (Seok-beom Kang, S. Korea) Romance/Comedy
- Citizen Dog (Wisit Sasanatieng, Thailand) Comedy/Romance/Drama
-=7=-
- Crying Out Love in the Center of the World (Isao Yukisada, Japan) Drama/Romance
- Kamikaze Girls (Tetsuya Nakashima, Japan) Style/Friendship
- Sideways (Alexander Payne, US) Comedy/Drama
- The Taste of Tea (Katsuhito Ishii, Japan) Comedy/Drama
- Control Room (Jehane Noujaim, US) Documentary
- Hypnotized [Faceless Beauty] (In-shik Kim, S. Korea) Drama
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, US) Quirky Drama
- Spider-Man 2 (Sam Raimi, US) Comic Book Superhero
- Collateral (Michael Mann, US) Thriller
- The Terminal (Steven Spielberg, US) Drama/Comedy
- Zebraman (Takashi Miike, Japan) Superhero/Comedy
- Someone Special (Jin Jang, S. Korea) Romance/Comedy
- Flying Boys (Young-Joo Byun, S. Korea) Romance/Comedy
- A Very Long Engagement (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France/US) War/Melodrama
- Once Upon a Time in High School (Ha Yu, S. Korea) High School Drama
- Locomotive Teacher (Ryuichi Hiroki, Japan) Sappy Drama
- Dawn of the Dead (Zack Snyder, US) Horror/Action
- The Woodsman (Nicole Kassell, US) Drama
- I, Robot (Alex Proyas, US) Sci-fi/Action
- The Grudge (Takashi Shimizu, Japan/US) Horror
- Romance of their Own/Temptation of the Wolves
- Some (Yoon-Hyun Chang, S. Korea) Action/Crime
- A Moment to Remember (John H. Lee, S. Korea) Romance/Melodrama
- Crónicas (Sebastián Cordero, Mexico/Ecuador) Drama/Crime/Mystery
- Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan) Animation/Adventure
- The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, US) Mystery/Drama
- Hotel Rwanda (Terry George, US/UK) Drama/War/History
- Vera Drake (Mike Leigh, UK) Drama/Crime
- Turtles Can Fly (Bahman Ghobadi, Iran/Iraq) Kurdish Refugee Children
- The Bourne Supremacy (Paul Greengrass, US) Action/Thriller
- Windstruck (Jae-young Kwak, S. Korea) Romance/Comedy/Melodrama
- Spider Forest (Il-gon Song, S. Korea) Mystery/Thriller
- The Motorcycle Diaries (Walter Salles, Argentina/Chile/Peru/etc) Adventure/Drama
- Arahan (Seung-wan Ryoo, S. Korea) Action/Comedy
- The Big Swindle (Dong-hun Choi, S. Korea) Thriller/Crime
- Saw (James Wan, US) Horror/Thriller
- Ocean's Twelve (Steven Soderbergh, US/Australia) Crime/Thriller
- Nobody Knows (Hirokazu Koreeda, Japan) Drama
- Pirated Copy (Jianjun He, China) Drama
-=6=-
- Vital (Shinya Tsukamoto, Japan) Drama
- Casshern (Kazuaki Kiriya, Japan) Sci-fi/Action
- Kill Bill Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino, US) Action/Thriller
- Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood, US) Drama/Sports
- Bad Education (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain) Drama
- Mindhunters (Renny Harlin, US/Netherlands) Thriller
- 2046 (Kar Wai Wong, China/HK) Drama
- New Police Story (Benny Chan, China/HK) Action/Thriller
- The Bodyguard (Panna Rittikrai/Petchtai Wongkamlao, Thailand) Action/Comedy
- Banlieue 13 (Pierre Morel, France) Action
- Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Mamoru Oshii, Japan) Anime
- Calvaire (Fabrice Du Welz, Belgium/France/Luxembourg) Horror
- Suspect Zero (E. Elias Merhige, US) Crime/Thriller
- The Final Cut (Omar Naim, Canada/Germany) Sci-fi/Thriller
- Gajok [A Family] (Jeong-cheol Lee, S. Korea) Drama
- The President's Barber (Chan-sang Lim, S. Korea) Comedy/History/Drama
- The White Diamond (Werner Herzog, Germany) Documentary
- Assassination of Richard Nixon (Niels Mueller, US/Mexico) Drama
- Cutie Honey (Hideaki Anno, Japan) Live Action Anime
- The Notebook (Nick Cassavetes, US) Romance
- Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (Tetsuya Nomura/Takeshi Nozue, Japan) Anime/Action
- Toss-Up (Ugur Yücel, Turkey/Greece) Drama
- Criminal (Gregory Jacobs, US) Crime/Drama
- Starsky & Hutch (Todd Phillips, US) Comedy
- Dodgeball (Rawson Marshall Thurber, US) Comedy
- Rikidozan (Hae-sung Song, S. Korea/Japan) Wrestling History/Drama
- Spygirl (Han-chun Park, S. Korea) Comedy/Action
- In Good Company (Paul Weitz, US) Drama/Comedy
- Kinsey (Bill Condon, US/Germany) Biopic
- Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Brad Silberling, US/Germany) Family
- S Diary (Jong-kwan Kwon, S. Korea) Romance/Comedy
- Simon (Eddy Terstall, Netherlands) Drama/Comedy
- Ab-normal Beauty (Oxide Pang Chun, China/HK) Horror
- Mean Creek (Jacob Aaron Estes, US) Drama/Adventure
- Secret Window (David Koepp, US) Drama/Thriller
- Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Kerry Conran, US/UK/Italy) Action/Adventure
- Michael Moore Hates America (Michael Wilson, US) Documentary
- Shrek 2 (Andrew Adamson/Kelly Asbury/Conrad Vernon, US) Cartoon/Adventure
- AVP: Alien vs Predator (Paul W.S. Anderson, US/Canada/Germany/Czech/UK) Action
- The Punisher (Jonathan Hensleigh, US/Germany) Action/Thriller
-=5=-
- Survive Style 5+ (Gen Sekiguchi, Japan) Stylistic Comedy
- Drugstore Girl (Katsuhide Motoki, Japan) Comedy
- Napoleon Dynamite (Jared Hess, US) Comedy
- Harold & Kumar go to White Castle (Danny Leiner, US/Canada/Germany) Comedy
- Appleseed (Shinji Aramaki, Japan) Animation/Sci-fi
- Re: Cutie Honey (Hideaki Anno, Japan) Anime
- Intimate Strangers (Patrice Leconte, France) Drama/Mystery
- Crash (Paul Haggis, US/Germany) Melodrama/Racism
- Alfie (Charles Shyer, UK/US) Comedy/Drama
- L'amant (Ryuichi Hiroki, Japan) Drama
- Napola (Dennis Gansel, Germany) Drama/War
- Eurotrip (Jeff Schaffer/Alec Berg/David Mandel, US/Czech) Comedy
- Fahrenheit 9/11 (Michael Moore, US) Documentary
- Everybody Has a Little Secret (Hyeon-su Jang, S. Korea) Romance/Comedy
- Ray (Taylor Hackford, US) Biopic
- Closer (Mike Nichols, US) Drama
- Garden State (Zach Braff, US) Ennui Romance/Comedy
- Incident at Loch Ness (Zak Penn, UK) Mockumentary
- Longinus (Ryuhei Kitamura, Japan) Action
- Mean Girls (Mark Waters, US) Comedy/Drama
- Infection (Masayuki Ochiai, Japan) Horror
- Blood and Bones (Yoichi Sai, Japan) Drama
- Alexander (Oliver Stone, US/UK/France/Ger/Neth) Epic/Drama
- Saved! (Brian Dannelly, US) Religious Comedy/Drama
- The Butterfly Effect (Eric Bress/J. Mackye Gruber, US) Thriller/Drama
- Super Size Me (Morgan Spurlock, US) Documentary
- Wicker Park (Paul McGuigan, US) Drama/Romance
- The Forgotten (Joseph Ruben, US) Drama/Mystery
- Laws of Attraction (Peter Howitt, Ireland/UK) Romance/Comedy
-=4=-
- I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell, US/Germany) Comedy
- Melinda and Melinda (Woody Allen, US) Comedy/Drama
- Marebito (Takashi Shimizu, Japan) Mystery/Horror
- 100 Days with Mr. Arrogant (Dong-yeob Shin, S. Korea) Romance/Comedy
- D.E.B.S. (Angela Robinson, US) Action/Comedy
- P.S. (Dylan Kidd, US) Drama
- The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (Stephen Hillenburg, US) Comedy/Adventure
- Shall We Dance (Peter Chelsom, US) Romance
- Cube Zero (Ernie Barbarash, Canada) Thriller
- Imaginary Heroes (Dan Harris, US) Melodrama/Comedy
- A Blue Automobile (Hiroshi Okuhara, Japan) Drama
- Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Alexander Witt, Germany/France/UK/Canada) Overblown Action
- The Girl Next Door (Luke Greenfield, US) Romance/Comedy
- Mail Order Wife (Huck Botko/Andrew Gurland, US) Mockumentary/Drama
- Night Watch (Timur Bekmambetov, Russia) Drama/Fantasy
- Love in Thoughts (Achim von Borries, Germany) Drama/Hedonism
- Speak (Jessica Sharzer, US) TV Drama/Angst
- Jersey Girl (Kevin Smith, US) Drama/Comedy
- A Cinderella Story (Mark Rosman, US/Canada) Romance/Comedy
- Meet the Fockers (Jay Roach, US) Comedy
- Don't Tell Papa (Sang-hun Lee, S. Korea) Comedy/Melodrama
- Eros (Michelangelo Antonioni/Steven Soderbergh/Kar Wai Wong, Italy/US/HK/China) Drama
- The Edukators (Hans Weingartner, Germany) Drama/Liberal Rant
- Shark Tale (Bibo Bergeron/Vicky Jenson/Rob Letterman, US) Children/Comedy
-=3=-
- Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Adam McKay, US) Comedy
- Team America: World Police (Trey Parker, US) Puppet Comedy
- A Hole in my Heart (Lukas Moodysson, Sweden/Denmark) Drama
- Palindromes (Todd Solondz, US) Drama
- 9 Songs (Michael Winterbottom, UK) Porn
- Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki, US/Netherlands) Drama
- Silver Hawk (Jingle Ma, China/HK) Cheesy Action
- Godzilla: Final Wars (Ryuhei Kitamura, Japan) Sci-fi/Action
- A Dirty Shame (John Waters, US) Trash
- Dead Birds (Alex Turner, US) Horror
-=2=-
- Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (Beeban Kidron, UK) Comedy/Romance
- Bride & Prejudice (Gurinder Chadha, UK/US) Bollywood/Romance/Comedy
- Knots (Greg Lombardo, US) TV Movie Rubbish
- Mango Kiss (Sascha Rice, US) Gay Romance/Comedy
Author Comments:
This is formerly the Top 10 of 2004 list. I decided to round up (most) all of the films of 2004 that I've seen and stick them in a ranked list.
The higher up it is, the better I think it is, to some extent. In many cases, a film could jump up or down on my list depending on my mood. It's in constant flux.








7 of these I don't even know, one I have seen: The Passion of the Christ. What an awful movie! Urgh!
I don't understand why people don't like The Passion. Nothing is more awesome than a violent Christian movie. Whereas other religious stuff is all about peace, happiness and love, Gibson shows the Messiah being savagely beaten. I'm hoping Gibson starts picking scriptures and makes a series of graphic Christian films.
A number of my choices haven't made their way stateside yet. I'm sure a couple of them never will, which is a shame.
I think that Gibson has just made this movie to make money, and there he has (unfortunately) succeeded. A first con for the movie is that the actors are really bad. Caviezel doesn't fit in at all as Jesus Christ (he is for example way too tall: Jesus is reported as having been 5'9" and Caviezel is sth. around 6'2"!). Another blame for the actrESSes in the film: They are all the time just crying (surely due to the awfully bad screenplay). Apart from that, this horror film (I think that's the right genre for it) is not even historically correct. Soldiers of the Roman Empire in this region speaking Latin? No way! Jesus speaking Latin? Surely not.
The movie is emotionally cold, too. As spectator, you cannot show feelings like compassion or sadness, because you are shocked and disgusted by what you see on the screen. No, this film is REALLY bad.
A girl I know gave most of the same reasons for not liking it, but most of these I see as being rather pedantic. The language and height issue you'll find in most period films. Stories based on history are always distorted and sensationalized. Schindler's List, for example, is based on a fictitious book. Also, remember that Gibson originally intended to show The Passion without subtitles, which is likely the reason for the emotional exaggerations and melodrama.
As a non-Christian, I can't really say I went into it looking for a religious experience or anything. I liked it primarily because of it's different take on the material. I think the shock The Passion causes is what makes it great. It's completely different than the feel-good, politically correct material Christians typically put out.
You go apparently from totally another point than I do. I'm a non-Christian too, but what I knew about this 'story' was even enough to judge how wrong the movie is. Apart from that, I think that the shocks you get through Gibson's film are above all just sensationalism.
I'm a Christian and I love Gibson-esque superviolence, but I thought the Passion was a terrible movie.
What language did Roman soldiers speak, then?
The soldiers who worked for the Roman Empire in that region spoke above all Greek and Hebrew, no Latin.
They didn't speak Hebrew. The language of the region was Aramaic. According to the Gospel of John chapter 19, verses 19 and 20, "Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek." Why would they have the sign in Latin, if that language was not commonly spoken in the area?
I don't understand why people either hate or like the film. I thought it was good, but nothing special. And Gibson definitely DIDN'T make the film for the money!!!! If you know a bit about his life and motivations, you can be sure, that money wasn't even a slight motivation.
That doesn't mean that I agree with Mel Gibsons opinion, the films statement, etc. BTW.