Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: 2004 in films and TV-series

12/05/2021

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The Top 10 of the Year

1. The Chorus/Les Choristes - Christophe Barratier + Best Family Movie of the Year + Best French Movie of the Year + Best Mega-Hit of the Year + Best Music Movie of the Year

2. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy - Adam McKay + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Big Hit Movie of the Year + Best Comedy of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year + Best San Diego Movie of the Year

3. With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II/Pusher II - Nicolas Winding Refn + Best Copenhagen Movie of the Year + Best Crime Movie of the Year + Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Sequel of the Year

4. Machuca - Andrés Wood + Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Chilean Movie of the Year + Best Coming-of-Age Movie of the Year + Best Political Movie of the Year

5. The Notebook - Nick Cassavetes + Best Breakthrough of the Year: Ryan Gosling + Best Melodrama of the Year + Best Romance of the Year + Best Screen Couple of the Year: Ryan Gosling & Rachel McAdams + Best South Carolina Movie of the Year

6. Napoleon Dynamite - Jared Hess + Best Dance Movie of the Year + Best Dollar Return of the Year: 115.25 Times the Cost + Best Idahoan Movie of the Year + Best High School Movie of the Year + Best Independent Movie of the Year + Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year

7. Before the Fall/Napola – Elite für den Führer - Dennis Gansel + Best Boxing Movie of the Year + Best German Movie of the Year + Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year + Best War Movie of the Year + Most Under-Appreciated Movie of the Year

8. Collateral - Michael Mann + Best Los Angeles Movie of the Year + Best Thriller of the Year

9. Beautiful Boxer/บิวตี้ฟูล บ๊อกเซอร์ - Ekachai Uekrongtham + Best Biopic of the Year + Best LGBT Movie of the Year + Best Sports Movie of the Year + Best Thai Movie of the Year

10. Finding Neverland - Marc Forster + Best London Movie of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Freddie Highmore

Other great 2004 movies (in alphabetical order):

Along Came Polly - John Hamburg + Best New York Movie of the Year + Best Romcom of the Year

The Aviator - Martin Scorsese + Best Epic of the Year + Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 24.52 mil. $ range

Dawn of the Dead - Zack Snyder + Best Gore Movie of the Year + Best Remake of the Year + Best Zombie Movie of the Year

Head-On/Gegen die Wand/Duvara Karşı - Fatih Akin + Best Drama of the Year

The Libertine - Laurence Dunmore + Best English Movie of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

Saw - James Wan + Best Horror Movie of the Year

Shrek 2 - Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon + Best Huge Hit Movie of the Year + Most Profitable Movie of the Year: 217.92 mil. $ range

Six Feet Under - season 4 - Alan Ball + Best Continuing TV-series of the Year

What's Wrong with This Picture?/Tid til Forandring - Lotte Svendsen

Good, recommendable 2004 movies (in alphabetical order):

Brothers/Brødre - Susanne Bier + Worst Poster of the Year

Closer - Mike Nichols

Deadwood, season 1 - David Milch, creator + Best New TV-series of the Year + Best Western Title of the Year

The Edukators/Die Fetten Jahre Sind Vorbei - Hans Weingartner

Howl's Moving Castle/ハウルの動く城 (Hauru no Ugoku Shiro) - Hayao Miyazaki

Mean Girls - Mark Waters

She Hate Me - Spike Lee + Worst Dollar Return of the Year: 0.18 Times the Cost

The Bottom 10 of the Year

1. A Hole in My Heart/Ett Hål i Mitt Hjärta - Lukas Moodysson

2. The Eye 2/見鬼2/Gin3 Gwai2 2 - The Pang Brothers

3. New Police Story/新警察故事 - Benny Chan

4. Alien vs. Predator/AVP - Paul W.S. Anderson + Most Undeserved Hit of the Year

5. Garden State - Zach Braff + Most Overrated Movie of the Year

6. 2046 - Wong Kar-Wai

7. National Treasure - Jon Turteltaub

8. The Sea Inside/Mar Adentro - Alejandro Amenábar

9. Palindromes - Todd Solondz + Best Poster of the Year

10. A Home at the End of the World - Michael Mayer

Other failed, mediocre and/or poor 2004 movies (in alphabetical order):

Blade: Trinity - David S. Goyer

District 13/Banlieue 13/B13 - Pierre Morel
Exorcist: The Beginning - Renny Harlin + Most Deserved Flop of the Year
The Final Cut - Omar Naim

Garfield - Peter Hewitt

The Grudge - Takashi Shimizu

House of Flying Daggers/十面埋伏/Shí Miàn Mái Fú/Sap6 Min6 Maai4 Fuk6 - Yimou Zhang
The Incredibles - Brad Bird
Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, video - Peggy Holmes, Theresa Cullen, Carole Holliday + Best Christmas Movie of the Year

Ocean's Twelve - Steven Soderbergh
Oh Happy Day - Hella Joof

Seed of Chucky - Don Mancini

[48 titles in total]

Notes:

The first update of the 2004 lists adds 12 titles to the mix; none breach the top 10, while 1 new title gets into the bottom 10. Still only two 2004 films have perfect 6/6 'masterpiece' rating and two with the lowest 0/6 rating. From the top:

Christophe Barratier's amazingly well-made and beautiful, family-friendly, school-set period drama The Chorus is the year's best, followed by the other masterpiece, Adam McKay's ludicrous, hilarious San Diego-set news anchor satire Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
The Top 10 goes on with Nicolas Winding Refn's best film yet, the hard-boiled Copenhagen crime thriller With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II; Andrés Wood's outstanding coming-of-age drama set during Chile's Salazar regime, Machuca; Nick Cassavetes' soaring romance melodrama adaptation The Notebook; Jared Hess' fabulously quirky low-budget comedy debut Napoleon Dynamite; Dennis Gansel's sensitive Nazi schooling drama Before the Fall; Michael Mann's lean, cool Los Angeles-set hitman thriller Collateral; Ekachai Uekrongtham's outstanding gender-fluidity boxing biopic Beautiful Boxer, and finally Marc Forster's moving fantasy drama Finding Neverland.
The year also saw the release of Laurence Dunmore's great costume drama The Libertine, Martin Scorsese's Leonardo DiCaprio-starring Hollywood grand-scale biopic The Aviator, Fatih Akin's heady proforma marriage drama Head-On, James Wan's innovative horror classic Saw and Zack Snyder's effective zombie remake Dawn of the Dead.
Among the just good offerings are found the first season of David Milch's western series Deadwood, the insistent German political drama The Edukators and Mark Waters' popular high school comedy Mean Girls.
At the bottom of the barrel, Swedish master filmmaker Lukas Moodysson's complete dud, the pornography-hating, apartment-set feel-bad flick A Hole in My Heart takes the prize as the year's worst. The Pang Brothers' truly remarkably incompetent The Eye 2 follows sharply behind as the second grade zero title of the year.
The remaining films at the bottom are: Benny Chan's condescending action franchise reviver New Police Story; Paul W.S. Anderson's preposterous sci-fi franchise mash Alien vs. Predator; Zach Braff's aggravating 'young-man' drama/romance indie Garden State (new entry), Wong Kar-Wai's pretentious, overrated art movie vacuum 2046; Jon Turteltaub's mumbo-jumbo adventure hike National Treasure; Alejandro Amenábar's euthanasia-embracing drama The Sea Inside; Todd Solondz's uncomfortable, strange Palindromes; and finally Michael Mayer's jumbled alternative-family drama adaptation A Home at the End of the World. David S. Goyer's ridiculous vampire action franchise-killer Blade: Trinity leaves the bottom list in this update.
Among the list of other 2004 titles that led expectations hanging we find outputs from master filmmakers Brad Bird (The Incredibles) and Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Twelve), - however both were financially highly successful.
While some major stars cemented their power in 2004 movies, - among others Julia Roberts (Closer and Ocean's Twelve), Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland and The Libertine, a flop but a great film and performance), Ben Stiller & Jennifer Anniston (Along Came Polly) and Tom Cruise (Collateral), - the year also saw breakthroughs for the likes of Ryan Gosling (The Notebook) and Rachel McAdams (The Notebook and Mean Girls), and one former major star reached a new low for his career; Robin Williams in The Final Cut.

Biggest flops of the year:

[The loss is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]

1. The Aviator - 24.52 mil. $ range
2. Exorcist: The Beginning - 18.8 mil. $ range
3. The Libertine - 15.68 mil. $ range
4. Blade: Trinity - 13.44 mil. $ range

5. She Hate Me - 7.4 mil. $ range
6. A Home at the End of the World - 5.9 mil. $ range
7. 2046 - 4.24 mil. $ range
8. New Police Story - 3.98 mil. $ range
9. Before the Fall - 3.02 mil. $ range

10. Seed of Chucky - 2.08 mil. $ range

= Combined losses: 99.06 mil. $

Biggest hits of the year:

[The gain is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]

1. Shrek 2 - 217.92 mil. $ range
2. The Incredibles - 160.56 mil. $ range
3. Howl's Moving Castle - 70 mil. $ range

4. The Grudge - 64.88 mil. $ range

5. Saw - 40.36 mil. $ range
6. National Treasure - 39 mil. $ range
7. Ocean's Twelve - 35.08 mil. $ range
8. Mean Girls - 34.6 mil. $ range

9. Garfield - 31.24 mil. $ range

10. Along Came Polly - 29.32 mil. $ range

= Combined profits: 722.96 mil. $

On the 2005 Oscars:

Hosted by Chris Rock for the first time, Scorsese's The Aviator led nominations with 11, followed by Finding Neverland and Million Dollar Baby with 7 each. The night's biggest winners became The Aviator with 5 statuettes, Million Dollar Baby with 4 and The Incredibles and Ray with 2 each.
So fell the Oscars:
Million Dollar Baby won Best Picture, Director (Clint Eastwood), Actress (Hilary Swank) and Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman). The other Best Picture nominees were The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Ray and Sideways.

Jamie Foxx won Best Actor for Ray, which also won for Sound Mixing. Cate Blanchett won Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, which also won for Art Direction, Cinematography (Robert Richardson), Costume Design (Sandy Powell) and Editing (Thelma Schoonmaker). Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth won Best Original Screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor Best Adapted Screenplay for Sideways. The Incredibles won Best Animated Feature; The Sea Inside Best Foreign Language Film; and Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids Best Documentary. The short Oscars went to Mighty Times: The Children's March (doc.), Wasp (live action), and Ryan (animated). Jan A.P. Kaczmarek won Best Score for Finding Neverland; Jorge Drexler Best Song for Al Otro Lado del Río from The Motorcycle Diaries. Incredibles also took Best Sound Editing. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events won Best Makeup, Spider-Man 2 Visual Effects. Honorary Oscars went to Sidney Lumet and Roger Mayer. 42.14 mil. viewers clocked in in North America, a 3 % decrease from the previous year's show.

2004 titles still on the watch-list:

The Card Player, Lightning in a Bottle, Kinsey, The Raspberry Reich, Innocence, Nobody Knows, Binta and the Great Idea, Wandering Shadows, The Ninth Day, Dead Man's Shoes, Being Julia, Vera Drake, A Very Long Engagement, The Phantom of the Opera, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Ryan, Birthday Boy, Gopher Broke, Guard Dog, Lorenzo, Everything in This Country Must, Little Terrorist, Mighty Times: The Children's March, Autusm Is a World, Sister Rose's Passion, Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids, Super Size Me, Twist of Fate, Downfall, Yesterday, Shark Tale

Previous annual lists:

2020 in films - according to Film Excess

2019 in films - according to Film Excess
2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess
2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2001 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2000 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

What do you think of the 2004 list?
Which 2004 titles would make to your top and bottom lists?
Which worthwhile 2004 titles are missing on the watch-list?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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12/05/2021

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

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