Can we officially declare 2004 the Worst Movie Year Ever?

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Before Sunset
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring
Anchorman
Dogville
Hero
Friday Night Lights
Collateral

which is quite a lot really.

Yes Men
Team America (x-post with ned)
The Two Guys Go To White Castle Movie
Shaun Of The Dead
Motorcycle Diaries
Mean Girls
Control Room

I also have a vague suspicion I might really dig Van Helsing

Van Helsing was.....

Other shit* movies I forgot:
-A Cinderella Story
-New York Minute
-that new Exorcist movie
-Paparazzi
-The Princess Diaries 2

*falling under the category "universally reviled by critics"

Miccio, NOBODY dug Van Helsing.

Films I will probably want to watch at some point: Shaun of the Dead; Friday Night Lights

I happen to know people who feel otherwise. Hugh Jackman in a completely batshit film means classic to many.

I dug Van Helsing.

I also really liked 13 Going on 30 but then again I'm a GIRL!

I actually think this has been a pretty good year, although I'd have to spend a while remembering everything I've seen (or wanted to but haven't yet).

Frankly the only genres I care about now these days are cult comedies, documentaries and atmospheric tense stuff so I'm pretty happy. Plus this SAW movie is coming out so woo woo.

There's an echo of this in pop music as there was no clear anthem there either. Maybe pre-election run-up anxiety is preventing me (and the greater culture) from fully embracing anything.

Lots of great DVD releases this year though!

first of all The Butterfly Effect was alot like Dogville... it had passion in its convictions... kids getting raped and dogs getting set on fire in order to service the plot... thumbs up.. that said it wasn't a GREAT movie but it was defintely in like the top 20 movies of the year thus far..

Best movies of the Year so far... that i can recommend without hesitation...

1. Before Sunset (is there anything wrong with this movie?)
2. Kill Bill, Vol. 2 (how it can be so much better than the boring Vol. 1 is beyond me)
3. Shaun of the Dead (Funny. Will hold up better than any comedy this year)
3. Collateral (ending kinda textbook but fits with the structure of the movie, Jamie Foxx is fucking great)
3. The Dreamers (thats some nice naked people, and a nice cock)

Movie i didn't see in the theater so i shouldn't include it but is so fucking super and might be better than most of those movies above but because i didn't see it in a theater it gets lower status...

6. Dogville

Other movies that I think were really really good and wouldn't hesitate to recommend

7. Dawn of the Dead
7. I

7. Dawn of the Dead
7. I

And movies I thought were quite good but I had some problems with...

-Garden State ( what a crappy ending?? and its like David Eggers.. Im so precious.. but a little less "fuck me" than eggers is)
-The Butterfly Effect (a movie that didn't pull any punches and from the writers of spectacular Final Destination 2 so i might be a bit biased)
-Seeing Other People (strangely the movie felt like I was watching TV, but.. better than most fucking movies I've seen this year)
-Mean Creek

Movies I thought was really good in setting a unique tone and mood and I really enjoyed but absolutely fucked any possible intellectual justification i could have for my enjoyment

- The Village

Movies that sucked and disappointed me in order of most suckiness and disappointedness

- Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind (just cause its got a good concept doesn't mean we shouldn't give a shit about the characters. its called romance.. if My Best Friend's Wedding is doing it better you're not doing it right)

- Garden State

- Mean Girls (kinda stupid, kinda smart)

- Spider Man 2 (it just sucked. and Spider Man was so damn good)

- Open Water (It has to be as boring as Van Helsing.. maybe more.)

- Wimbledon (don't ask me why i thought it would be good. that kirsten dunst is cute!)

Movies that were utter shit and made me ashamed

- Van Helsing ( I didn't actually stay awake through the whole thing)

- Hellboy

- Napolean Dynamite (ya you go guy. make a pastiche out of all the popular indie styles of the last five years, make your characters SUPER QUIRKY and then make them all unlikable so i don't even want to laugh at them. Nice title sequence though, and that dance sequence very funny. But hey.. the Kidz LUV it)

- Ghost in the Shell : Innocence (very likely i was in over my head)

Better than it should have been...

- The Day After Tomorrow (it seemed ok to me. its all an expectations game.)

oh yeah... Hero was really boring... pretty, but Boring.

thanx for listening... 30 hours withought sleep and beer for breakfast... and lunch??...

That said I did kind of accidentally watch Something's Gotta Give and that made me want to claw my own brain out like nothing else.

-The Butterfly Effect
Refused to see it because of that dooshbag.

-Seeing Other People
Didn't see it, nor did other people I know.

-Mean Creek
?

- The Village
M. Night Shamalama is good, but the first one was enough to last me years, thanks.

- Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind
I likee. Jim Carry was slightly distracting but K. Winslet, very nice. Just enough stupidity to keep it interesting.

- Garden State
Umm...

- Mean Girls
Lindsay Lohan. Yum.

- Spider Man 2
(Yawn) Ok.

- Open Water
Overripe, overrated piece of tripe.

- Wimbledon
Oh My.

- Van Helsing
I'm 28, I don't need to see this.

- Hellboy
Wha>>>

- Napolean Dynamite
Will you please out of the way of my locker, I have to put my nunchucks away, thanks.

- The Day After Tomorrow
Drivel but then again I saw a shitty pirated version. The girl was kind of hot though, but really too young for me to consider seriously.

the day after tomorrow was drivel. but it was drivel done well. as i said its an expectations game... i thought it would probably suck and i wasn't pleasantly surprised that it wasn't all that bad.. especially compared to Troy (monologues and fight scenes!) or Van Helsing...

i loved 'red lights' and 'f911,' liked 'eternal sunshine' more and more upon reflection, and sat through 'soul plane,' 'van helsing' and 'sleepover,' all of which offended my sensibilities on varying levels (in order: stoooopid and contrived, totally boring and nonsensical, and barely above an abc family movie as far as production quality/plot contrivance goes).

uh decide for yourself if that's a good thing or not

I am anticipating Alexander and am desirous of experiencing Friday Night Lights, based on the bad stuff I've heard.

Saved was quite a dissapointment for me this year. It had SO MUCH potential.

Before Sunset
Friday Night Lights
Zatoichi
Endless Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Collateral (except for lame-o ending)
Harry Potter
Control Room
Hellboy (not as good when I saw it on DVD, though)
Dawn of the Dead
and others

Even Van Helsing wasn't so terrible - Kate Beckinsale in leather and a bad accent makes up for a lot of things.

I think it was a very mediocre year - only one or two that I unreservedly loved (Before Sunset, maybe maybe Friday Night Lights, maybe Zatoichi), but quite a few that were better than they should have been.

Also some real stinkers - Spider-Man 2, Intermission, Garden State, Kill Bill Vol. 2 on second viewing

x-post, I forgot Harold and Kumar which has to go on the good list

Hrm. OK, Battlefield Earth was 2000. So it's close.

i didn't like coupon: the movie. i preferred the south korean original.

i'm sure your opinion matters as much as anyone else's, and never claimed otherwise. it's just that i'm not sure extolling the merits of the south korean film industry is going to change too many people's impression of the year in movies as a whole.

do any of those korean movies have tarantino comentaries?

Arg.

it looks like a movie about cid from ffvii, but not as interesting.

Anchorman -- I found it a lot better than I ever expected it to be (I wasn't the biggest Will Farrell fan). I think the turning point for me that made me really like the film (rather than just finding it mildly amusing) was the "milk was a bad choice!!!" bit.

Spiderman 2 -- I don't understand why some people here are hating on this, I found it more watchable and involving than the first one (which I never really liked much). To me it actually felt pretty close to a comic book coming to life.

Alien vs Predator -- Reaaaaaaaaaalllllly stupid but i enjoyed it all the same.

Wow. Sorry. Merely throwing that out to say that it's interesting that fewer people went to the cinema this summer rather than last. To say that this is not indication of the state of the industry is somewhat disingenuous. I will acknowledge that fawning over box office grosses is not only fetishistic but also inaccurate and incomplete considering that DVD accounts for 50% to 60% of studio revenues from feature films. And these figures are generally not reported. But that's because theatrical release is really tantamount to a brand launch these days--it's not about movie going public. The weird attention paid by the press to first weekend grosses is an indication of its complicity in the scheme. Which I rant about a bit here: http://entertainmentcomplex.blognation.us/blog/_archives/2004/10/14/160616.html

anyway, no need to get worked up. Zowie.

Yeah I worked in a theatre that same summer as well and saw every single one of those movies save Battlefield Earth - you also left out maybe the two worst ones of all, Gone in 60 Seconds and The In-Crowd.

*The Motorcycle Diaries
*Before Sunset
*Old Boy
*Open Water
*Saw
*Coffee and Cigarettes
*Natural City
*Starsky and Hutch
*The Eye 2
*Dodgeball
*Farrenheit 9/11
*Supersize Me
*Collateral

I quite liked "Shaun of the Dead" but not as much as others did. "Dawn of the Dead" was mediocre. I quite enjoyed "Wonderland" (2003 but held over until 2004 for UK release), although it wasn't nearly as good as I had hoped for.

If you go and see "Sky Captain" then you only have yourself to blame. I make a point of not seeing any films with Gwyneth Paltrow in it.

Once again, you are confusing the state of the industry (a fiscal consideration) with the state of the quality of product within the industry (a quality consideration).

*Traffic
*Requiem for a Dream
*Unbreakable
*Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
*Gladiator
*Meet the Parents
*Billy Elliot
*What Lies Beneath
*Thirteen Days
*Audition
*Sexy Beast
*Road Trip
*Final Destination
*Ghost World
*Ginger Snaps
*Uzumaki

Esther Kahn (Arnaud Desplechin)
Mission to Mars (Brian De Palma)
La Commune (Paris, 1871) (Peter Watkins)
The American Nightmare (Adam Simon)
The House of Mirth (Terence Davies)
In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai)
George Washington (David Gordon Green)
Dancer in the Dark (Lars Von Trier)
Dead or Alive 2: Birds (Takashi Miike)
Little Otik (Jan Svankmajer)
Scary Movie (Keenan Ivory Wayans)
Hamlet (Michael Almereyda)
Erin Brockovich (Steven Soderbergh)

Haha yeah, I dunno exactly why I found that bit so funny, or why everyone else I know who's seen it found that bit so funny, but it just fucking slays me.

-- alfalfa romeo (n*t*p*tr*...), October 18th, 2004 8:33 PM.

How hard is it for you to get to the Oak Street / U Film Society? Their facilities mostly suck, but they usually have lots of interesting stuff (and retrospectives).

* Mona Lisa Smile- ok, just saw it because its my alma mater in the movie. The 50s costumes were cute, at least
* Day After Tomorrow- I like dumb action movies a LOT, but this was just stupid and lame
* Chronicles of Riddick- now this is more like the kind of incredibly stupid action movie I enjoy!
* Man on Fire - DUMB
* Dirty Dancing Havana Nights - saw this THREE times on an airplane when I had to fly to the east coast 3 times in June. I should have brought better books with me on those flights, I think I lost at least 100 IQ points watching it.
* Spiderman 2- eh

No.

Before Sunset
Collateral
The Dreamers
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Undertow
We Don't Live Here Anymore

Movies I kinda liked:

Anchorman
Garden State
I Heart Huckabees
Kill Bill Vol. 2
Mean Girls
Shaun of the Dead

Movies I didn't like:

Club Dread
Coffee and Cigarettes
The Saddest Music in the World
Silver City
Spider-Man 2

I think I wanted to like it a lot more than I actually did. I liked certain scenes a lot -- especially the actual competitions (MEXICO vs. POLAND, or whatever) -- but in retrospect, it didn't really work for me.

The Girl Next Door has Elisha Cuthbert bending over and pouting sexily. Sure, she's fully clothed (in tight jeans) but that one moment is 100 times sexier than any porn ever (tho proper hard porn is incredibly unsexy IMO so maybe I'm the wrong person to give an opinion).