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The Best (and worst) in Films - 2004

The Short-List

by SFS Staff on Dec 31, 2004
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SF Station's critics take a look at the year in films. Below are our picks of the best -- and worst -- in movies and the most notable performances of 2004. The lists include controversial documentaries that color-coded a country between blue and red, quiet independent films with piercing impacts on audiences and foreign films with universal messages. A unifying motif? -- Amidst the epic, big-budget flicks that Hollywood churned out this year, smaller films with even smaller payrolls won out. Without further ado, here are our picks…*

Stefan Gruenwedel

The Best Films
1. Fahrenheit 9/11
2. Garden State
3. The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
4. Japanese Story
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The Worst Films
1. Team America: World Police
2. Connie and Carla
3. A Dirty Shame
4. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
5. The Stepford Wives

Best Performances
1. Toni Collette: Japanese Story
2. Peter O'Toole: Troy
3. Jamie Foxx: Ray

Worst Performances
1. Ian Iqbal Rashid: Touch of Pink
2. Toni Collette: Connie and Carla
3. Matthew Broderick: The Stepford Wives

Michael Koch

The Best Films
1. Collateral
2. The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
3. Sideways
4. Garden State
5. Baadasssss!

The Worst Films
1. Van Helsing
2. Passion of the Christ
3. Cat Woman
4. Stepford Wives
5. Alexander

Best Performances
1. Jeff Bridges in The Door in the Floor
2. Paul Giamatti in Sideways
3. Brad Bird in The Incredibles

Worst Performances
1. Halle Berry in Catwoman
2. Angelina Jolie in Alexander
3. Julianne Moore in Laws of Attraction

Anhoni Patel

The Best Films
1. Super Size Me
2. Fahrenheit 9/11
3. Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War/Garden State (tie)
4. Bright Young Things
5. Napoleon Dynamite

Honorable Mention: Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, The Motorcycle Diaries and The Village

The Worst Films
1. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
2. The Alamo
3. DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story
4. Princes Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
5. Broken Lizard's Club Dread

Honorable Mention: The Big Bounce

Best Performances
1. Bryce Dallas Howard, The Village
2. Emily Mortimer, Bright Young Things
3. Jon Heder, Napoleon Dynamite

Honorable Mention: Bernie Mac, Mr.3000, , David Carradine, Kill Bill Vol. 2 and Jamie Foxx in Collateral

Worst Performances
1. Sara Foster, The Big Bounce
2. Kate Beckinsale, Van Helsing
3. Renée Zellweger, Bridget Jones, Edge of Reason

Honorable Mention: Dennis Quaid, The Day After Tomorrow and Gwyneth Paltrow, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Rossiter Drake

The Best Films
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Sideways
3. Kill Bill Vol. 2
4. Fahrenheit 9/11
5. Shaun of the Dead

The Worst Films
1. The Grudge
2. Christmas with the Kranks
3. White Chicks
4. The Ladykillers
5. Without a Paddle

Best Performances
1. Paul Giamatti, Sideways
2. Sean Penn, The Assassination of Richard Nixon
3. Uma Thurman, Kill Bill Vol. 2

Worst Performances
1. Jimmy Fallon, Taxi
2. Jennifer Lopez, Shall We Dance?
3. Jason Schwartzman, I Heart Huckabees

Hubert Huang

The Best Films
1. Sideways
2. Maria Full of Grace
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
4. Fahrenheit 9/11
5. Infernal Affairs

The Worst Films
1. Alien vs. Predator
2. The Chronicles of Riddick
3. Van Helsing
4. The Whole Ten Yards
5. Man on Fire

Best Performances
1. Catalina Sandino Moreno, Maria Full of Grace
2. Paul Giamatti, Sideways
3. Clive Owen, Closer

Worst Performances
1.Kate Beckinsale, Van Helsing
2. Bruce Willis, The Whole Ten Yards
3.Vin Diesel, The Chronicles of Riddick



*Check out the critics' full reviews below!



by SFS Staff on Dec 31, 2004
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