Okay, this is the official list. This was more difficult than making 2003's list because there weren't as many movies as I really loved this year. Most of these movies I liked, but didn't LOVE.

1. Kill Bill, Volume 2
"You and I have unfinished business."

I can't believe people whine about the second part because it's not as violent or doesn't have as much action as the first. I actually love the second volume, if not more than the first. I love it when she's buried underground, I love the whole Pei Mei sequence, the Elle Driver showdown, the killing of Bill, and the awesome credits. I just love, love, love Kill Bill. It is just the ultimate revenge movie. I also love the sequence in which its told and the old school credits at the beginning. It's just such a cool movie.

2. Hotel Rwanda
"There will be no rescue, no intervention for us. We can only save ourselves."

This was the most powerful movie I saw in '04 and it would have been my choice to win the Oscar, except it wasn't even nominated! What makes this movie even more powerful is that it's based on a horrifying true story that happened about ten years ago.

3. Mean Girls
"That is so fetch!"

I saw this movie a second time recently and appreciated it a lot more than I did the first time I saw it in the theaters with the annoying TBs. Tina Fey is absolutely brilliant: she can write a story that's hilarious, but not too dumb and actually has a plot and a heart, although it did get a little smatlzy at the end. Linday Lohan is a lot prettier when she has red hair, not that washed out blonde, and isn't a stick, and I think she looks the best in the movie before she becomes one of the Plastics. Oh, and I absoluetly love LOVE LOVE Janis and espeically Damien: "Look it's Danny DeVito!" "Four candy canes for you Glenn Coco, you go Glen Coco!" Oh, and the One Way or Another montage was hilarious and had the right amount of '80s cheesiness.

4. The Aviator
"Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints... show me all the blueprints... show me all the blueprints... show me all the blueprints..."

From the five movies that were nominated for Best Picture, this one would have been my choice to win. This film is about the mogul Howard Hughes, who, uh, I've never heard of until this movie came out. He's rather quite a genius, producing the first million dollar movie, then creating planes, including the water plane which was suppose to be used for WWII, but it wasn't completed until after the war was over! Oops! He has OCD and you see it progress as the film goes on. Pretty crazy what he does. It was so much fun seeing Cate Blanchett as Kate Hepburn, Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner, Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow, and Jude Law as Errol Flynn. And that one part where he crashes the plane? Whoa...

5. Criminal
"You have one thing money and practice can't buy - you look like a nice guy."

Very clever movie starring the awesome John C. Reilly (love him!), Diego Luna (mmm...Diego), and Maggie Gyllenhaal. John and Diego play Richard and Rodrigo, who are both criminals who con people out of their money and John takes Diego under his wing, so to speak, to teach him some tricks and be his partner when they’re conning people. There’s a big thing they have set up at the hotel where Richard’s sister works. He’s supposed to deliver an important document that’s a fake, but looks real. It’s worth lots of money and the more people that get involved, he keeps having to share the money with. There’s a twist in the end that I didn’t see coming. It made me go…hey, they got me! Anyway, it’s a fun movie, just under two hours. I would highly recommend it.

6. Collateral
"Guy gets on the subway and dies. Think anybody'll notice?"

Very smart movie starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx with Foxx playing a cab driver and Cruise as just another dirty killer making his rounds one fateful night. The movie takes place during one night and gets more intense as the story moves along. Jada Pinkett Smith plays a passenger in Foxx’s cab and she’s in the first ten minutes of the movie. She plays an important role in the movie, even though she doesn’t reappear until the last half hour. And that was one intense half hour! I thought the movie was smart and better than your average summer blockbuster.


7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
"Do you want to move a bit closer?"
"Huh!?"
"To the shack."

There's only two things I don't like about this movie, but I'll get to those later. Of course, I love the HP books more than the movies and I think the LOTR movies are better than the HP movies, but I do think the HP movies are cute and this one is the best of the three. I loved all the crazy random magic like the giraffe and Harry's dancing parents in the photo...although they look nothing like James and Lily and should have been a lot younger, but oh well. I loved the Time Turner plot, I think Michael Gambon is a better Dumbledore than Richard Harris. Oh, and of course I loved the scene with Ron and Hermione looking at the shreiking shack and when Hermione grabs Ron's hand :-D. The two things I don't like about the movie: Ron and Hermione. Okay, it pains me to say that, it really does. I just hate what they do to the characters, I don't feel like they're the same characters I read in the book. Since when did Hermione become Hermione Michelle Gellar? She's a little too.....self assured in the movie. And this is Harry's story, not Hermione's. I HATE THAT THEY GAVE RON's LINE TO HER! UGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! And Hermione would never be caught dead wearing a pink zip up hoodie (I really doubt pink is her color) and she certinaly would not care what her hair looks like. I HATE that line when she sees her past self at croching behind the pumpking and she's all like, "OMG is that lyke what my hair looks like? Lyke eww!!!1" :::Bangs head on desk:::: I think the real Hermione would want to throttle Emma Watson, hahaha, you know, if she existed. I really hate that they make Ron into the scaredy cat, bumbling sidekick. This pisses me off to no end as Ron is my favorite character and I am very protective of him. They make him scared of EVERYTHING, it's a bit ridicoulous and irritating. And yes, he is the comic relief of the movie, but his humor in the books is very different...it's more sarcastic, which is why I love Ron! But other than that, I enjoyed the movie, although they could have explained the plot better. Good thing I read the book ;-)


8. National Treasure
"You want to steal the Declaration of Independence?”

This was my guilty pleasure of '04 and I loved it! Yeah, the movie wasn't very believable, but so what....it was fun and I enjoyed it. Sometimes you just want to see a movie that you can just sit back and enjoy. I liked that it didn't take itself seriously (They were squeezing lemon juice on the back of the Declaration of Independence, y’all!) and it was a good paced movie with lots of adventure and comedy and an all around good fun popcorn flick.It kinda reminded me of Indiana Jones meets The Da Vinci Code with a bit of The Mummy in there for good measure. I loved that Nic Cage's character had to pay $35 for the real DoI because the lady in the gift shop thought it was one of those souvenirs. Bwah!

9. The Incredibles
"Normal? What do you know about normal? What does anyone in this family know about normal?"

Very cute movie about a superhero family each with their own special powers (the mother stretches like elastic, the son can run faster than a speeding bullet, the daughter can become invisible, and the father has super strength). The character Edna was especially funny and my favorite. Gotta love Pixar!

10. A Very Long Engagement

A French movie starring Audrey Tautou and from the director of Amelie. It tells the story of a young woman who is waiting for her fiance to return home to her from World War 1. She still believes he is alive and does not give up hope on finding him. The plot does get a bit confusing, but the main reason why I list it in my top ten of '04 is because I am in love with the beauty that is this movie. The cinematography is just simply gorgeous. Jodie Foster has a bit of a part to show off the French she's learned...she appears to be quiet fluent in the language!

I did this last year, so I'm going to do it again for this year.

During 2004:

( Movies I saw in the theater: )

( Movies I rented or Netflixed: )

( TV series I rented: )

( Books I read: )

( CDs I bougth/got as a gift: )

( DVDs I bought/got as gift: )

( Songs on iTunes I bought: )