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List added by The Mighty Celestial on 7 January 2009 08:07
2004: My Top Ten Favorite Movies By Year |
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 634  7.1  7.6  Growing up, it always frustrated me whenever the majority of big budget action flicks or martial arts movies of the time often seemed to sacrifice on story to make room for the expansive bangs & the expensive effects. It was generally said, that in these types of movies, you couldn't really have both, particularly, at a consistent high level. And I was one those kids who always asked "Why not?" And then came the House Of Flying Daggers. And with it's beautiful story of love & intrigue, combined with lavish costumes, great performances & unique individually themed action sequences (which combined with the vivid colors, gave me the same effect as when reading a really kick-ass comicbook) it seemed to asked the very same question. So far one of my favorite in the burgeoning genre known as wuxia.  The Mighty Celestial's rating:
 
2332 7.5 8 Only two words can be used to describe this movie: Bad @ss.
Not only is this Quentin's homage to martial arts flix, but it also includes homage's to anime & those funky, grainy 70's Bruce Lee's wannabe's that made us laugh with their unsynchronized voice-overs, jagged camera movements & b-level musical sound effects. And yet, he was able to combine all this in a manner that was just plain... well.... ... bad-@ss.  Oh, & by the way, out of sheer curiosity, I just performed the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart technique on myself, just to see if it works. Now, as I post this, I have just completed taking the 5 steps forward, & am now waiting to see if anything will actually happ The Mighty Celestial's rating:
2576 7.2 8.1 So far, this is my favorite animated feature of all time.
One of the best voice castings for the lead roles I've seen (or is it heard?) & it has a great story, full of charm, wit & family chemistry. I always thought that Hollywood never seem to be able to put out 100% in any feature dealing with superheroes, but they really did with this one. The effects are incredibly cool, the over-all visuals are stunning & the characters are all drawn with an equally high level of quality & dynamicism (.... is that really a word?). Added with the "Jack Jack Attack" story on the DVD, & I know that it will probably be a long time before the family "I's" get dethroned from #1 on my list of fave computer animation movies.  The Mighty Celestial's rating:
1215 7.4 8.2 The chemistry that results from Clint Eastwood's & Morgan Freeman's presence in this movie epitomizes the main thing I like about Million Dollar Baby. These are two seasoned actors so comfortable in their craft, that they both simply move in this film with a flowing ease of two veterans of their field who are just willing to allow the emotion of the story & the naturalness & trust of each other's acting ability to drive the momentum of this movie. And their chemistry of friendship, as cliche as it sounds, truly belies on the phrase of that "indescribable something" & yet, it's so tangible that the much younger yet equally talented Hilary Swank can't help but to follow suit in doing. It all leads to an overall performance from the trio that makes this a film whose power stems not from the boxing themes that one would usually expect from a boxing flick, but more from the emotions that weave & tie the characters together & allows the plot to unfold at it's own volition. In the end, it seems almost overkill to describe Million Dollar Baby as anything other than a boxing film that focuses on the female contingent of the sport directed by & starring Eastwood, along with Hillary Swank & Morgan Freeman.
Or in other words, a film that had me at "Mo Cuishle".  The Mighty Celestial's rating:
2531 6.9 7.7  In this one, Peter Parker roughs thru his dilemas with the same down-to-earth fustrations as in the comicbooks, his relationship with Mary Jane convincingly reaches it's next level, & Doc Ock is portrayed much better as a villian than he ever was on the printed age. As a hardcore nerd of this genre, I was pretty satisfied at Marvel's initial effort at trying to do what Burton did with the Batman; introduce the webhead as a serious legitimate property for film. The most I could've hoped for this sequel was that it be at least half as good as it's predessor. Instead, Spidey-2 turned out to become one of my favorite movie adaptations of a comicbook superhero ever. Which I guess I should've anticipated since before I even entered the theatre, I noticed that my spider-senses didn't go off, all atingling an' sh*t. The Mighty Celestial's rating:
 
1369 7.4 7.9 Johnny Depp & Kate Winslet solidly anchor this fairy tale-ish depiction behind the process of a fairy tale.
Finding Neverland starts off as a story of a man who's refusal to grow up results in the fantasy based chapters of his stage production & ends with a boy who is forced to grow up by the grim reality of the loss of a loved one. The end is truly moving & successfully endearing enough to mask the pixie-like liberties taken with any historical fact of this story of the inner mental creative workings of the man who would eventually find the Lost Boys.  The Mighty Celestial's rating:
2149 7.2 7.7 As someone who had no real interest in this series or it's subject matter, it wasn't until this istallment that I finally watched a Harry Potter movie. And being that I never read any of the books, I was quite taken aback at the over-all consistancy of balance between the fantasy element of the wizarding world & that of the perosnal struggles of what goes thru a young person's mind trying to deal with things like death, authority & finding one's place in the life. Compelling drama, a storyline that both successfully continues the series & yet also manages to stand on it's own, well-placed chemistry between the characters, medevil sets that visually stun, Dementors that horrify, old tree willows that whomp & even a werewolf that looks pretty damn bad-ass.
I walked into this film an indifferentiated non-fan & ended up coming out a hardcore Pot-head.  The Mighty Celestial's rating:
546 7.6 8  The nine year follow-up to the masterfully written Before Sunrise. A love story that indulges in the idea of the kinds of bonds that can form if two people actually tried to communicate in a manner mired in bared-boned honesty (to which, I must confess, the "come-down-to-reality" part of my male brain wants to smirkly say "yeah....rrriight...") & with an intention of true understanding. The two characters in Sunset come off just impeccably convincing as two people who truly have gone on from their 1st. meeting, but never let go of the genuineness of that first shared emotionally intimate experience. Simply great acting, a great script, and a great sequel with a great ending. The Mighty Celestial's rating:
775 6.5 7 A man being killed by the senseless and violent act of being impaled with a trident is not funny.
 Unless it's a rumble caught on T.V. & stars the Anchorman. Then, just like the rest of this movie, it's frikkin' hilarious. The Mighty Celestial's rating:
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Description
2004 shaped up to be the year of minor disappointments & quiet surprises for me. There were movies like The Aviator, Super Size Me, Ray, Sideways, Collateral, which are all fine movies, but they're also films that I expected to like more than I did. On the other hand, there were a quite a number of films that I ended up liking alot more than I anticipated, many which are on this top ten. When I look over the quality of the quality of films I have listed not just in the top ten & twenty, but also in those in my yet to see list that are regarded as top-notch, it seems that, over-all, this was another solid year in film. List cont. 11. The Bourne Supremacy - The second chapter to one of the best spies series on film (Yep. And I'm including that one 007 bloke.) 12. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind - Another effort by Jim Carrey to be taken seriously as an actor in a romance story in the not too distance future (as a matter of fact, Eternal Sunshine's setting seems so not so distant, that it may supposed to be occurring in a parallel present-time reality) about the contradictory choice to forget an unforgettable love, if the technology existed to do so. 13. Ray 14. Collateral 15. The Aviator 16. Shaun Of The Dead - I knew that this was gonna be my kind of zombie movie when in one early scene, the main character, Shaun (duh!) said that he still liked Second Coming, the much under-appreciated 2nd. album by the Stone Roses. After that part, my hairy pimp-ass just sat back into my easy-chair, relaxed, & enjoyed all the thrills, chills & gags. 17. The Passion of the Christ - I can't tell how many times during this movie I found myself saying "Ouch!....that has gotta hurt....!" 18. Sideways 19. Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle - Does White Castle super-size? 20. Super Size Me - Great movie to watch alongside Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. Films from this year that I have not seen but am interested in seeing - Friday Night Lights - Hellboy - Fahrenheit 9/11 - The Machinist - Crash - Hotel Rwanda - The Terminal - Howl's Moving Castle Other lists by The Mighty Celestial: My Top 20 Female Movie Bad-Asses http://www.listal.com/list/my-top-10-female 10 Movies That Feature A Dancin' Travolta In 'Em http://www.listal.com/list/my-list-9158 Yep. When It Comes To Comicbook Movies .... http://www.listal.com/list/yep-am-huge-comicbook WAATAAAH!! My Top 10 Favorite Martial Arts Flix! http://www.listal.com/list/my-list-thecelestial The Final Frontier Of Space... & Time. My Top 50 Favorite Sci-Fi Flix Ever http://www.listal.com/list/final-frontier-space-time Can't We Be Dysfunctional Like A Normal Family? http://www.listal.com/list/dysfunctional-family-movies/edit My Other Top Ten Favorite Movies By Year Lists: http://www.listal.com/list/19551959-my-top-ten-favorite http://www.listal.com/list/1976-my-top-ten-favorite http://www.listal.com/list/1982-my-top-ten-favorite http://www.listal.com/list/1983-my-top-ten-favorite http://www.listal.com/list/1984-my-top-ten-favorite http://www.listal.com/list/1992-my-top-ten-favorite http://www.listal.com/list/1993-my-top-ten-favorite http://www.listal.com/list/1995-my-top-ten-favorite http://www.listal.com/list/1997-my-top-ten-favorite http://www.listal.com/list/1998-my-top-ten-favorite http://www.listal.com/list/1999-my-top-ten-favorite http://www.listal.com/list/2003-my-top-ten-favorite http://www.listal.com/list/2005-my-top-ten-favorite http://www.listal.com/list/2007-my-top-ten-favorite http://www.listal.com/list/2008-my-top-ten-favorite
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