Heineken's Movie Round-Up 2004

[Heineken Skywalker]

Here's my take on the movies I've seen this year, including my rating on the 1-10 scale. I've listed them from favorite to least favorite and I will update as I see more movies.

Million Dollar Baby: Simply brilliant. Not what you think it's going to be and see it before someone spoils it for you. Trust me on that one. 10/10

Ray: One of the best biopics I've ever seen. Jamie Foxx is brilliant. Read my full review in "Must see 2004". 10/10

The Incredibles: Pixar rules! A great combination of humor, superhero mythology and state of the art animation. 9.5/10

Team America: Simply one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Kudos to Stone & Parker. 9/10

Troy: You want the original? Read a book. I thought this was a grand "sword and sandal" epic on a par with most of the other films of its type. People took it way too seriously. 9/10

Spider-Man 2: The best comic book movie of the year and one of the best comic book movies of all time. Maguire continues to impress in the dual role and Doctor Octopus is an even better villain than the Green Goblin in the first movie. Better effects and outrageous fight scenes that outdo everything in the first movie. Too much down time spent with Mary Jane & Aunt May, which is the only reason this movie doesn't get a 10. 8.5/10

Shaun of the Dead: Pretty damn brilliant! One minute your laughing your ass off, the next you're cringing at the onscreen disemboweling. Dead-pan humor and many in-jokes referencing other zombie movies. Smart, funny satire of the "zombifying" of people due to their jobs, relationships, etc. Add this one to the list of the few movies that can successfully mix comedy & horror. 8.5/10

Kill Bill: Vol. 2: More dialogue & less action than Vol. 1, assures me that I'm going to enjoy both volumes even more when I watch them back-to-back. Uma is great and Carradine is a revelation. A must-see! 8/10

Meet The Fockers: Robert De Niro & Ben Stiller are back, this time joined, in two of the best casting decisions of the year, by Dustin Hoffman & Barbara Streisand. This movie is a riot. I laughed almost continueously from beginning to end, as did much of the audience I saw this with. A sequel that actually works and may even be better than the original. 8/10

Finding Neverland: Another brilliant performance by Johnny Depp. The story of J.M. Barrie, and the family who influenced him to write the play, PETER PAN. Interesting visual style which allows us to see into Barrie's imagination as he comes up with his ideas. Great! 8/10

The Aviator: Scorsese scores again. Leonardo DiCaprio gives one of his best performances as Howard Hughes and Cate Blanchett steals every scene she's in as Katharine Hepburn. The story was fascinating, as I didn't know much about Hughes going in other than the basics, ie: he was rich, he loved planes, he directed a few movies and he became a paranoid recluse in later years. Good film, recommended and maybe, finally, an Oscar for Scorsese? 8/10

Friday Night Lights: Billy Bob Thornton gives a strong performance as the coach, but the story is more about the players. Derek Luke is the standout as the star running-back who gets injured. And country music star Tim McGraw gives an intense performance as the father of one of the kids on the team. 8/10

Fahrenheit 9/11: Yeah, it's one-sided and Moore's got an agenda. So what? It's his movie. If this movie doesn't get you to get out and vote, one way or the other, nothing will. 8/10

Dawn of the Dead: An action packed, faster paced version of the Romero classic. Everything I could've wanted from a zombie movie. 7.5/10

Collateral: Brilliant performances by Cruise & Foxx & the direction by Mann are the main reasons to see this one. Gets a little predictable towards the end, but it's a cool ride getting there. 7.5/10

The Polar Express: Tom Hanks lends his voice to about 5 or 6 characters in this terrific computer animated flick. Amazing visuals and a story with heart. A destined to be Christmas classic. 7.5/10

Blade-Trinity: Not sure what the critics have against this movie. Maybe it's a little worse, only cause three movies later, the formula's starting to wear a little thin. For the most part I found myself quite entertained. I thought Ryan Reynolds was a good addition and was actually pretty funny. And Jessica Biel was pretty good eye candy. Parker Posey was miscast though. I just really didn't buy her as this vampire bitch. Lots of ass kicking, some cool effects, some humor. If you liked the first two, I really don't see what's not to like about this one. 7/10

The Village: Suspenseful, atmospheric story, great direction & acting, and a star-making performance by Bryce Dallas Howard. My least favorite Shyamalan movie, but still recommended. 7/10

The Passion of the Christ: Very well made & well acted. Didn't move me the way I expected it too and the way that it obviously moved so many others. One of the most gruesome films I've ever seen. 7/10
 <br>Metallica: Some Kind of Monster: Even non-fans will enjoy this documentary. An honest dissection of pop culture icons. 7/10

Cellular: Almost non-stop action drives this old fashioned B-thriller. Original yet somehow familiar. No big surprises, but pretty entertaining anyway. Good popcorn movie. 7/10

Supersize Me: Very entertaining documentary about what happens when a healthy man eats nothing but a diet of McDonalds' food for thirty days. Answer: He gains weight and gets ill. Who knew? 7/10

Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow: Starts out great, but kinda loses steam in the second half. Great visuals, so-so story. Nice homage, but STAR WARS and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK did it much better. 7/10

The Terminal: Great performance by Tom Hanks that pretty much carries the whole movie. Even though it's very loosely based on a true story, the movie is a Spielberg fantasy based in the real world. 7/10

The Manchurian Candidate: A little slow at times, but overall decent remake and a pretty effective thriller. Denzel Washington & Meryl Streep prove once again that they're two of our best film actors, as he runs a gamut of emotions and she steals every scene she's in. 7/10

I, Robot: More than just a "Will Smith summer movie", but not a ton of surprises either. Slick, wall-to-wall CGI, stunts, explosions, etc. A little thoughtful, but mostly just a typical popcorn movie. It is what it is. 7/10

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: I'd have to say that this was the best film in the series so far. The three young stars have definitely gotten better as actors and the effects continue to improve. 7/10

Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie: Basically, the same thing you get on tv for free, but more of it. If you're already a fan, go for it. All others, enter at your own risk. 7/10

Hero: Beautiful looking movie, some very nice choreography, costumes and set design and Jet Li gives a good performance. Storywise, not as good as CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, but nontheless, I was fairly entertained by it. 6.5/10

Along Came Polly: Ben Stiller plays another likeable shmuck & Jennifer Aniston is cute & likable as the free spirit he falls for. Some of the funniest scenes in the movie though feature the supporting actors, Alec Baldwin, Philip Seymour Hoffman and especially, Hank Azaria. Light & fluffy and nothing groundbreaking, but I laughed several times. 6.5/10

Hellboy: Ron Perlman was born to play this role. The look, personality & attitude are perfect. Great effects. Unfortunately, the story wasn't all that. 6/10

The Bourne Supremacy: The story wasn't as enthralling as the first time around. Irritating "shaky cam" direction doesn't help. 6/10

Shrek 2: Funny at times, but way overrated. A lot of boring characters for a children's movie. Puss 'n Boots (Antonio Banderas) steals the show. 5.5/10

The Punisher: Good performance by Thomas Jane is undermined by a script that seems to get more ridiculous as it goes along. Far too many eyebrow raising moments to be taken seriously, even for a "comic book movie". Should've been much darker. I've seen worse, but not in any hurry to see it again. 5/10

Alien Vs. Predator: Disappointing addition to both franchises. Both races of aliens have more personality than all of the one-dimensional human characters. Some fighting and cool effects but overall, a big "Who cares?" kind of movie. 4.5/10

Van Helsing: One of the biggest wastes of time, talent & money I've ever paid to watch on the big screen. Ridiculous situations & dialogue. Good idea gone horribly wrong. Here's hoping director Stephen Sommers never touches another classic horror monster. 3/10

[Bartwald]

Good idea to do those, guys! Even more so, as we now have two competing threads on the topic of What Was Best In 2004. Which gave me an idea of how to choose the board's best movie of 2004 - no top tens this time; but more on this later.

[ZapRowsdower]

That's a good idea, but shouldn't we wait until 2005 to do that? In all fairness, some 2004 movies haven't been released yet. ;D

I'm keeping a good eye on the Aviator, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Wimbledon, Shark Tale, the Incredibles, etc.

[Heineken Skywalker]

Even more so, as we now have two competing threads on the topic of What Was Best In 2004.

Well, let's not call 'em "competing threads". Mine is a list of "everything" I've seen, good or bad. Smitty has two seperate threads, one for movies he recommends, and one for movies he doesn't recommend.
And as far as the best of 2004 goes, let's wait until about February or March of 2005, as a lot of movies don't open wide until early the following year. They just open in select cities in December so they can be considered for Oscar nominations.

[Bartwald]

IamTheSmitty said:

That's a good idea, but shouldn't we wait until 2005 to do that? In all fairness, some 2004 movies haven't been released yet. ;D

It's all cool - I just got an idea of how it can be done, I'm not going to start it anytime soon. Waiting until February is on one hand a very good idea - everyone should see the best of 2004 by then - but on the other, the subject will be old news then and therefore not so exciting. I think we should discuss this. Who wants January? Who, apart from Heineken, is for February/March?

[ZapRowsdower]

Why don't we come up with our OWN Oscars, once February comes around, we begin nominating for all the Oscar categories, announce our nominations, then have the board vote from the list of nominations who/what they think should win, and we announce our winners on Oscar night.

[Bartwald]

This might work pretty well, I think!

[LivingDeadGirl]

That sounds good to me.

[Heineken Skywalker]

Updated the list today, Sep. 5, with THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.

[LivingDeadGirl]

I finally saw Passion of the Christ this past weekend. Very good, but very graphic.

[Heineken Skywalker]

Updated the list today, Sep. 12, with HERO.

[LivingDeadGirl]

What did you think of Hero? I've read all good reviews so far, so I kinda want to see it.

[Heineken Skywalker]

Just scroll back up to my original post in this thread where I have listed all the movies I've seen so far this year and you'll see that it's been modified to include HERO and you can read my mini-review/opinion of it, plus the score I gave it from 1-10. Whenever I post in this thread that I've updated my list with a movie, that's what it'll mean, that it's been added to the main list. Last week's MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE review is there as well, in case you didn't see that one either.

[Bartwald]

My own rating for Hero would be 5/10: beautiful but with a plot that, all in all, failed to engage me.

[Heineken Skywalker]

Updated the list today, Sep. 13, with CELLULAR.
See my comments above and a slightly more detailed review in Smitty's 'Must See - 2004'.