Best of A Decade: 2004

2004 was a lean year for new movies for me, because I spent a lot of it catching up on stuff I missed in 2003. But there were definitely some stand outs, and here they are.

Garden State

I think that Garden State is one of the most romantic movies ever made. Plus I love a good behind the scenes story, and Garden State has one of the best. When Zach Braff got the job as Dr. Jon Dorian on Scrubs he immediately quit his day job. When he found out it would be a year before he would actually be working on the show, he sat down and wrote this little beauty. Plus it made me not hate Natalie Portman, and got me listening to Frou Frou.

Jersey Girl

One of the things that I love about Kevin Smith's movies is that there isn't an ounce of pretension in them. They are exactly what they are, with no apologies. Jersey Girl is a soft, sweet, marshmallow of a movie about fatherhood, family and being who you are. It doesn't try to be something else and that's what makes it great. Also Ben Affleck and that little girl singing Sweeney Todd. That's good too.

Saved!

"I am filled with Christ's love!" Let's face it, Born Again Christianity is funny. Most religion is funny, when you employ comedy. This movie, about a perfectly behaved born again girl who's boyfriend tells her he's gay, so she has sex with him to prove he isn't (one is the lesser sin!) and then finds herself pregnant and ostracized. And as good as Jena Malone is in this as Mary, it's Mandy Moore owns as the meanest mean girl you'll ever see. One who thinks she's doing God's work.

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

Ben Stiller's character in this movie is just an R rated version of his Heaveyweights character from the 90s, but what makes this movie great are in the fact that the characters are all so out there that Vince Vaughn is the strait man. Also it ends with the heroes receiving a trunk full of gold labeled "deus ex machina." I love a good Greek drama joke, don't you?

De-Lovely

OK, another one of those not that good movies that the experience of made it for me. I went to go see this Cole Porter bio-pic with the cast of a production of Anything Goes I'd just finished. We all sang along and it was very nerdy and very fun.

Spider-Man 2

The first movie was better. But it didn't have Alfred Molina in it as Doc Oc. Therefore there wasn't that wonderful visual that I get every time I see it...That of him singing if "If I were A Rich Man," and doing the Tevye shimmy with all of those mechanical arms. So funny!

Shaun of The Dead

I love Simon Pegg. I love him. I love this movie and it's gory funny, perfectness. A lot of laughing.

The Incredibles

As good as superhero movies get, they're not better than The Incredibles. Everything about this was funny.

Finding Neverland

I'd watch Kate Winslet in anything. But I really love this movie, and James Barry, the author of Peter Pan. Less because of Winslet, and even less because of Johnny Depp and more for Freddie Highmore, as Peter, the precocious boy whose name Barry steals for the play.

Coming in 2005: Episode III, Walk The Line, Rent and more!