Why do I always whine, “We never go to the movies anymore”? Clearly, we totally do:

The 2004 Oscar nominations came out today, and I took a moment upon seeing them to wonder, “Was 2004 so lackluster that it became necessary to nominate Jamie Foxx twice? Did Paul Giamatti poison somebody’s dog?” This in turn prompted me to whip up my long-delayed list of the movies I saw in 2004. I found I was in a much less comfortable position to criticize the Oscar choices when it became clear how few of them I have yet seen. (I hope Closer wins some stuff so they bring it back to a couple of theaters for another weekend.) This year’s 41 movies seemed pretty lackluster until I re-examined my 2002 list, which only had 45 movies on it. So apparently, my typical year consists of me seeing almost as many movies as there are weekends and still thinking I missed everything. (How I could have possibly seen almost a movie a week this year, by the way, defies the laws of time and space. There’s just no way.) More for me than for you, here is 2004’s list.

genuinely liked

• Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
• Control Room
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Fahrenheit 9/11
• Garden State
• Incredibles, The
• Jersey Girl
• Kill Bill: Vol. 2
• Ladykillers, The
• Manchurian Candidate, The
• Mean Girls
• Spider-Man 2
• Super Size Me
• Trekkies 2

not half bad, actually

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Hellboy
• Motorcycle Diaries, The
• Ocean’s Twelve
• Ray
• Shaun of the Dead
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
• Terminal, The
• Village, The

eh.

• 13 Going On 30
• 50 First Dates
• Bourne Supremacy, The
• Collateral
• Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
• Grudge, The
• Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The
• Napoleon Dynamite
• Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism
• Spartan
• Starsky & Hutch

i love my girlfriend

• Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
• National Treasure
• Phantom of the Opera, The
• Shrek 2
• Welcome to Mooseport

dishonorable mention: jesus christ!

• Worst Movie of the Christ