Tuesday, June 4, 2024

Picks of 2004

Greece winning the UEFA European Championship wasn't the only shocker of 2004. A number of films released that year genuinely surprised me. As a staunch opponent of films dear to me getting the remake treatment, who would have thought Zac Snyder's Dawn of the Dead would have been great. Don't get it twisted, anyone who prefers the remake over the original still deserves to be put in stocks and shamed.

Way too many blindspots in 2004 for your host, along with films which were enjoyable at the time, but scarcely remembered, hence left off.

The Aviator (Martin Scorsese)

Calvaire (Fabrice Du Welz)

Creep (Christopher Smith)

Dawn of the Dead (Zac Snyder)

Dead Man's Shoes (Shane Meadows)

The Incredibles (Brad Bird)

Kill Bill: Volume 2 (Quentin Tarantino)

Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow)

Man on Fire (Tony Scott)

Mean Girls (Mark Waters)

Pusher II (Nicolas Winding Refn)

Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright)

Spartan (David Mamet)

Team America: World Police (Trey Parker)

Dumplings (Fruit Chan)

The Village (M. Night Shamalamadingdong)

Unpopular Opinions: 

Never fell under the spell of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Not sure how anyone could fall in love with Kate Winslet in the first place let alone be so heartbroken after breaking up with her you'd want your memories of the relationship erased from your mind.

Regarding the second chapter in Tarantino's Kill Bill saga, there's a lot that I like and a lot that I don't. It is a good film, but it's the turning point for me where his indulgences would really become irksome from this point onward.

Simon Pegg owes his entire success to Edgar Wright. Much prefer Hot Fuzz (2007) in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, but won't front on Shaun of the Dead being a good film. Pegg is less of a whiny and annoying manchild in the second one.

5 comments:

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Primer is a fave of mine. 2 I liked at the time but have never revisited are The Machinist and Birth.

Spartan said...

Birth is the only Jonathan Glazer film I haven't seen. Really want to as his other three films have all been incredible.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

I'd never even heard of Birth until years later after I read an article about Under The Skin praising it. Seems like it's totally flew under the radar because whenever I've brought it up in IRL conversation, nobody's ever heard of it let alone seen it.

Spartan said...

Knew Nicole Kidman was in it and had the film confused with another British film she was in around the same time - Birthday Girl. 🤦‍♂️

Hopefully one of current blu ray labels will issue Birth.

Spartan said...

Totally forgot about White Chicks.