2004 Films: Ranked

Submitted by hinterland on Thu, 02/03/2005 - 06:54
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  1. -=10=-

  2. Tony Takitani (Jun Ichikawa, Japan) Introspective Drama
  3. Git [Feathers in the Wind] (Il-gon Song, S. Korea) Drama/Romance

  4. -=9=-

  5. 3-Iron (Ki-duk Kim, S. Korea) Daoist drama
  6. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, US/France) Romance
  7. The Hotel Venus (Itsumichi Isomura, Japan) Fashion commercial/Drama
  8. The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson, US) Religion/Christianity
  9. University of Laughs (Mamoru Hosi, Japan) Comedy/Period Drama
  10. Primer (Shane Carruth, US) Sci-fi/Mystery
  11. Dumplings (Fruit Chan, China/HK) Horror/Drama
  12. Three... Extremes (Fruit Chan/Takashi Miike/Chan-wook Park, HK/Japan/S. Korea) Horror
  13. A Day on the Planet (Isao Yukisada, Japan) Comedy/Drama/Life

  14. -=8=-

  15. Hana and Alice (Shunji Iwai, Japan) Friendship/Comedy
  16. Izo (Takashi Miike, Japan) Absurd Comedy/Violence
  17. Samaria (Ki-duk Kim, S. Korea) Coming of Age/Transition
  18. Woman is the Future of Man (Sang-soo Hong, S. Korea) Minutia of Life
  19. House of Flying Daggers (Yimou Zhang, China) Martial Arts/Drama/Romance
  20. Swing Girls (Shinobu Yaguchi, Japan) Comedy
  21. Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow, China) Comedy/Martial Arts
  22. Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, Germany) War/History
  23. The Machinist (Brad Anderson, Spain/US) Mystery/Thriller
  24. Taegukgi (Je-gyu Kang, S. Korea) War/Melodrama
  25. Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, UK) Zombies/Comedy
  26. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Wes Anderson, US) Comedy
  27. Layer Cake (Matthew Vaughn, UK) Crime/Drama
  28. The Aviator (Martin Scorsese, US) Drama/Biopic
  29. The Sea Inside (Alejandro Amenábar, Spain) Drama
  30. Otakus in Love (Suzuki Matsuo, Japan) Comedy
  31. Machuca (Andrés Wood, Chile) Drama/Coup d'etat
  32. The Incredibles (Brad Bird, US) Family/Cartoon
  33. This Charming Girl (Yoon-ki Lee, S. Korea) Isolated Drama
  34. Brothers (Susanne Bier, Denmark) Drama/Melodrama
  35. Finding Neverland (Marc Forster, US/UK) Fantasy/Drama
  36. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Alfonso Cuarón, UK/US) Fantasy/Adventure
  37. Mr. Hong (Seok-beom Kang, S. Korea) Romance/Comedy
  38. Citizen Dog (Wisit Sasanatieng, Thailand) Comedy/Romance/Drama

  39. -=7=-

  40. Crying Out Love in the Center of the World (Isao Yukisada, Japan) Drama/Romance
  41. Kamikaze Girls (Tetsuya Nakashima, Japan) Style/Friendship
  42. Sideways (Alexander Payne, US) Comedy/Drama
  43. The Taste of Tea (Katsuhito Ishii, Japan) Comedy/Drama
  44. Control Room (Jehane Noujaim, US) Documentary
  45. Hypnotized [Faceless Beauty] (In-shik Kim, S. Korea) Drama
  46. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, US) Quirky Drama
  47. Spider-Man 2 (Sam Raimi, US) Comic Book Superhero
  48. Collateral (Michael Mann, US) Thriller
  49. The Terminal (Steven Spielberg, US) Drama/Comedy
  50. Zebraman (Takashi Miike, Japan) Superhero/Comedy
  51. Someone Special (Jin Jang, S. Korea) Romance/Comedy
  52. Flying Boys (Young-Joo Byun, S. Korea) Romance/Comedy
  53. A Very Long Engagement (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France/US) War/Melodrama
  54. Once Upon a Time in High School (Ha Yu, S. Korea) High School Drama
  55. Locomotive Teacher (Ryuichi Hiroki, Japan) Sappy Drama
  56. Dawn of the Dead (Zack Snyder, US) Horror/Action
  57. The Woodsman (Nicole Kassell, US) Drama
  58. I, Robot (Alex Proyas, US) Sci-fi/Action
  59. The Grudge (Takashi Shimizu, Japan/US) Horror
  60. Romance of their Own/Temptation of the Wolves
  61. Some (Yoon-Hyun Chang, S. Korea) Action/Crime
  62. A Moment to Remember (John H. Lee, S. Korea) Romance/Melodrama
  63. Crónicas (Sebastián Cordero, Mexico/Ecuador) Drama/Crime/Mystery
  64. Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan) Animation/Adventure
  65. The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, US) Mystery/Drama
  66. Hotel Rwanda (Terry George, US/UK) Drama/War/History
  67. Vera Drake (Mike Leigh, UK) Drama/Crime
  68. Turtles Can Fly (Bahman Ghobadi, Iran/Iraq) Kurdish Refugee Children
  69. The Bourne Supremacy (Paul Greengrass, US) Action/Thriller
  70. Windstruck (Jae-young Kwak, S. Korea) Romance/Comedy/Melodrama
  71. Spider Forest (Il-gon Song, S. Korea) Mystery/Thriller
  72. The Motorcycle Diaries (Walter Salles, Argentina/Chile/Peru/etc) Adventure/Drama
  73. Arahan (Seung-wan Ryoo, S. Korea) Action/Comedy
  74. The Big Swindle (Dong-hun Choi, S. Korea) Thriller/Crime
  75. Saw (James Wan, US) Horror/Thriller
  76. Ocean's Twelve (Steven Soderbergh, US/Australia) Crime/Thriller
  77. Nobody Knows (Hirokazu Koreeda, Japan) Drama
  78. Pirated Copy (Jianjun He, China) Drama

  79. -=6=-

  80. Vital (Shinya Tsukamoto, Japan) Drama
  81. Casshern (Kazuaki Kiriya, Japan) Sci-fi/Action
  82. Kill Bill Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino, US) Action/Thriller
  83. Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood, US) Drama/Sports
  84. Bad Education (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain) Drama
  85. Mindhunters (Renny Harlin, US/Netherlands) Thriller
  86. 2046 (Kar Wai Wong, China/HK) Drama
  87. New Police Story (Benny Chan, China/HK) Action/Thriller
  88. The Bodyguard (Panna Rittikrai/Petchtai Wongkamlao, Thailand) Action/Comedy
  89. Banlieue 13 (Pierre Morel, France) Action
  90. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Mamoru Oshii, Japan) Anime
  91. Calvaire (Fabrice Du Welz, Belgium/France/Luxembourg) Horror
  92. Suspect Zero (E. Elias Merhige, US) Crime/Thriller
  93. The Final Cut (Omar Naim, Canada/Germany) Sci-fi/Thriller
  94. Gajok [A Family] (Jeong-cheol Lee, S. Korea) Drama
  95. The President's Barber (Chan-sang Lim, S. Korea) Comedy/History/Drama
  96. The White Diamond (Werner Herzog, Germany) Documentary
  97. Assassination of Richard Nixon (Niels Mueller, US/Mexico) Drama
  98. Cutie Honey (Hideaki Anno, Japan) Live Action Anime
  99. The Notebook (Nick Cassavetes, US) Romance
  100. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (Tetsuya Nomura/Takeshi Nozue, Japan) Anime/Action
  101. Toss-Up (Ugur Yücel, Turkey/Greece) Drama
  102. Criminal (Gregory Jacobs, US) Crime/Drama
  103. Starsky & Hutch (Todd Phillips, US) Comedy
  104. Dodgeball (Rawson Marshall Thurber, US) Comedy
  105. Rikidozan (Hae-sung Song, S. Korea/Japan) Wrestling History/Drama
  106. Spygirl (Han-chun Park, S. Korea) Comedy/Action
  107. In Good Company (Paul Weitz, US) Drama/Comedy
  108. Kinsey (Bill Condon, US/Germany) Biopic
  109. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Brad Silberling, US/Germany) Family
  110. S Diary (Jong-kwan Kwon, S. Korea) Romance/Comedy
  111. Simon (Eddy Terstall, Netherlands) Drama/Comedy
  112. Ab-normal Beauty (Oxide Pang Chun, China/HK) Horror
  113. Mean Creek (Jacob Aaron Estes, US) Drama/Adventure
  114. Secret Window (David Koepp, US) Drama/Thriller
  115. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Kerry Conran, US/UK/Italy) Action/Adventure
  116. Hellboy (Guillermo del Toro, US) Dark Action/Superhero
  117. Michael Moore Hates America (Michael Wilson, US) Documentary
  118. Shrek 2 (Andrew Adamson/Kelly Asbury/Conrad Vernon, US) Cartoon/Adventure
  119. AVP: Alien vs Predator (Paul W.S. Anderson, US/Canada/Germany/Czech/UK) Action
  120. The Punisher (Jonathan Hensleigh, US/Germany) Action/Thriller

  121. -=5=-

  122. Survive Style 5+ (Gen Sekiguchi, Japan) Stylistic Comedy
  123. Drugstore Girl (Katsuhide Motoki, Japan) Comedy
  124. Napoleon Dynamite (Jared Hess, US) Comedy
  125. Harold & Kumar go to White Castle (Danny Leiner, US/Canada/Germany) Comedy
  126. Appleseed (Shinji Aramaki, Japan) Animation/Sci-fi
  127. Re: Cutie Honey (Hideaki Anno, Japan) Anime
  128. Intimate Strangers (Patrice Leconte, France) Drama/Mystery
  129. Crash (Paul Haggis, US/Germany) Melodrama/Racism
  130. Alfie (Charles Shyer, UK/US) Comedy/Drama
  131. L'amant (Ryuichi Hiroki, Japan) Drama
  132. Napola (Dennis Gansel, Germany) Drama/War
  133. Eurotrip (Jeff Schaffer/Alec Berg/David Mandel, US/Czech) Comedy
  134. Fahrenheit 9/11 (Michael Moore, US) Documentary
  135. Everybody Has a Little Secret (Hyeon-su Jang, S. Korea) Romance/Comedy
  136. Ray (Taylor Hackford, US) Biopic
  137. Closer (Mike Nichols, US) Drama
  138. Garden State (Zach Braff, US) Ennui Romance/Comedy
  139. Incident at Loch Ness (Zak Penn, UK) Mockumentary
  140. Longinus (Ryuhei Kitamura, Japan) Action
  141. Mean Girls (Mark Waters, US) Comedy/Drama
  142. Infection (Masayuki Ochiai, Japan) Horror
  143. Blood and Bones (Yoichi Sai, Japan) Drama
  144. Alexander (Oliver Stone, US/UK/France/Ger/Neth) Epic/Drama
  145. Saved! (Brian Dannelly, US) Religious Comedy/Drama
  146. The Butterfly Effect (Eric Bress/J. Mackye Gruber, US) Thriller/Drama
  147. Super Size Me (Morgan Spurlock, US) Documentary
  148. Wicker Park (Paul McGuigan, US) Drama/Romance
  149. The Forgotten (Joseph Ruben, US) Drama/Mystery
  150. Laws of Attraction (Peter Howitt, Ireland/UK) Romance/Comedy

  151. -=4=-

  152. I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell, US/Germany) Comedy
  153. Melinda and Melinda (Woody Allen, US) Comedy/Drama
  154. Marebito (Takashi Shimizu, Japan) Mystery/Horror
  155. 100 Days with Mr. Arrogant (Dong-yeob Shin, S. Korea) Romance/Comedy
  156. D.E.B.S. (Angela Robinson, US) Action/Comedy
  157. P.S. (Dylan Kidd, US) Drama
  158. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (Stephen Hillenburg, US) Comedy/Adventure
  159. Shall We Dance (Peter Chelsom, US) Romance
  160. Cube Zero (Ernie Barbarash, Canada) Thriller
  161. Imaginary Heroes (Dan Harris, US) Melodrama/Comedy
  162. A Blue Automobile (Hiroshi Okuhara, Japan) Drama
  163. Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Alexander Witt, Germany/France/UK/Canada) Overblown Action
  164. The Girl Next Door (Luke Greenfield, US) Romance/Comedy
  165. Mail Order Wife (Huck Botko/Andrew Gurland, US) Mockumentary/Drama
  166. Night Watch (Timur Bekmambetov, Russia) Drama/Fantasy
  167. Love in Thoughts (Achim von Borries, Germany) Drama/Hedonism
  168. Speak (Jessica Sharzer, US) TV Drama/Angst
  169. Jersey Girl (Kevin Smith, US) Drama/Comedy
  170. A Cinderella Story (Mark Rosman, US/Canada) Romance/Comedy
  171. Meet the Fockers (Jay Roach, US) Comedy
  172. Don't Tell Papa (Sang-hun Lee, S. Korea) Comedy/Melodrama
  173. Eros (Michelangelo Antonioni/Steven Soderbergh/Kar Wai Wong, Italy/US/HK/China) Drama
  174. The Edukators (Hans Weingartner, Germany) Drama/Liberal Rant
  175. Shark Tale (Bibo Bergeron/Vicky Jenson/Rob Letterman, US) Children/Comedy

  176. -=3=-

  177. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Adam McKay, US) Comedy
  178. Team America: World Police (Trey Parker, US) Puppet Comedy
  179. A Hole in my Heart (Lukas Moodysson, Sweden/Denmark) Drama
  180. Palindromes (Todd Solondz, US) Drama
  181. 9 Songs (Michael Winterbottom, UK) Porn
  182. Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki, US/Netherlands) Drama
  183. Silver Hawk (Jingle Ma, China/HK) Cheesy Action
  184. Godzilla: Final Wars (Ryuhei Kitamura, Japan) Sci-fi/Action
  185. A Dirty Shame (John Waters, US) Trash
  186. Dead Birds (Alex Turner, US) Horror

  187. -=2=-

  188. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (Beeban Kidron, UK) Comedy/Romance
  189. Bride & Prejudice (Gurinder Chadha, UK/US) Bollywood/Romance/Comedy
  190. Knots (Greg Lombardo, US) TV Movie Rubbish
  191. 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.

192202/11/2005

7 of these I don't even know, one I have seen: The Passion of the Christ. What an awful movie! Urgh!

hinterland02/11/2005

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.

192202/12/2005

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.

hinterland02/12/2005

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.

192202/12/2005

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.

lukeprog02/12/2005

I'm a Christian and I love Gibson-esque superviolence, but I thought the Passion was a terrible movie.

AJDaGreat02/12/2005

What language did Roman soldiers speak, then?

192202/12/2005

The soldiers who worked for the Roman Empire in that region spoke above all Greek and Hebrew, no Latin.

RosieCotton03/04/2005

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?

WB03/08/2005

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.