2004 was a good year for film. Sure, we were hip-deep in the usual sludge churned out by a typically uninspired and uninspiring movie making system. But there were gems in the muck.

Just so you know my personal bias, my favorite film of all time is Joe Versus The Volcano. That's as good a reason as any to ignore any Top Five or Top Ten or Top Seventeen And Five-Eighths list from me, so go away.

Still here? Fine, but your stubbornness isn't impressing anyone.

Here are my Top Five favorite films from 2004:

  1. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
  2. The Incredibles
  3. Shaun of the Dead
  4. Baadasssss!
  5. Goodbye, Dragon Inn

Yes, Sky Captain was my favorite film of the year. I loved it from the start, my eyes increasingly child-wide as I fell into the "retro-future" world of it all. At about the halfway point I was actually pulled out of the film by my realization of how much I was enjoying it. Right then in the middle of my first time seeing it I knew I was watching one of my favorite films.

The Incredibles was aptly named. Brad Bird kicks ass, Pixar kicks ass, and together they booted booty. Edna Mode should receive a best supporting actress nod.

Shaun of the Dead is the zombie movie I've been waiting two decades to see. In fact, it's the zombie movie I wish I'd made. The bastards.

Baadasssss! is one of the best films about filmmaking ever. I've long insisted that Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is the most important film of the 70s, and hopefully Baadasssss! will pull the cluetrain into a new generation's station.

Goodbye, Dragon Inn is the only film I saw three times in the cinema last year. Even Sky Captain only brought me out twice. GDI is a bittersweet, textured, and beautiful meditation on watching movies, or more specifically on the love of watching movies.

As I wrote, 2004 was a good year for movies. There were many others that could have made my list in another year, or could easily have made this year's list if I'd been in a different mood when I wrote it up. Below are the Honorable Mention movies, all of which I anticipate watching many times in the future. I'll probably be watching them alone now that you all know my taste in film, but them's the breaks.

Movies are my friends.

2005 Jan 21 // Link // E-mail
Song in my head: "Naomi" by The Mr. T Experience