40 Favorite Films of 2004
by Blue_Leaf | created - 26 Jun 2014 | updated - 10 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. 3-Iron (2004)
R | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A transient young man breaks into empty homes to partake of the vacationing residents' lives for a few days.
Director: Kim Ki-duk | Stars: Lee Seung-yun, Jae Hee, Hyuk-ho Kwon, Joo Jin-mo
Votes: 58,261 | Gross: $0.24M
2. 2046 (2004)
R | 129 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
Several women enter a science fiction author's life over the course of a few years, after the author has lost the woman he considers his one true love.
Director: Kar-Wai Wong | Stars: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Ziyi Zhang, Faye Wong, Gong Li
Votes: 61,762 | Gross: $1.44M
3. Before Sunset (2004)
R | 80 min | Drama, Romance
Nine years after Jesse and Celine first met, they encounter each other again on the French leg of Jesse's book tour.
Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Vernon Dobtcheff, Louise Lemoine Torrès
Votes: 287,774 | Gross: $5.82M
4. Birth (2004)
R | 100 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
A young boy attempts to convince a woman that he is her dead husband reborn.
Director: Jonathan Glazer | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Cameron Bright, Lauren Bacall, Danny Huston
Votes: 40,813 | Gross: $5.01M
5. Brothers (2004)
R | 117 min | Drama, War
Two brothers must negotiate changing roles and shifting family dynamics when one is sent to war in Afghanistan.
Director: Susanne Bier | Stars: Ulrich Thomsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Connie Nielsen, Sarah Juel Werner
Votes: 11,810 | Gross: $0.38M
6. Down to the Bone (2004)
R | 104 min | Drama
A woman stuck in a stale marriage struggles to raise her children and manage her secret drug habit. But when winter comes to her small town, her balancing act begins to come crashing down.
Director: Debra Granik | Stars: Vera Farmiga, Hugh Dillon, Clint Jordan, Caridad 'La Bruja' De La Luz
Votes: 2,439 | Gross: $0.02M
7. Downfall (2004)
R | 156 min | Biography, Drama, History
Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler
Votes: 375,179 | Gross: $5.51M
8. Dumplings (2004)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Horror
Aunt Mei's famous homemade dumplings provide amazing age-defying qualities popular with middle-aged women. But her latest customer - a fading actress - is determined to find out what the secret ingredient is.
Director: Fruit Chan | Stars: Bai Ling, Miriam Chin-Wah Yeung, Sum-Yeung Wong, Wai-Ling Chan
Votes: 10,293
9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
R | 108 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
When their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories forever.
Director: Michel Gondry | Stars: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Gerry Robert Byrne
Votes: 1,077,847 | Gross: $34.40M
Top 1000
10. Head-On (2004)
R | 121 min | Drama, Romance
With the intention to break free from the strict familial restrictions, a suicidal young woman sets up a marriage of convenience with a forty-year-old addict, an act that will lead to an outburst of envious love.
Director: Fatih Akin | Stars: Birol Ünel, Sibel Kekilli, Güven Kiraç, Zarah Jane McKenzie
Votes: 57,662
11. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
PG-13 | 121 min | Biography, Drama, History
Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, houses over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda, Africa.
Director: Terry George | Stars: Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin Phoenix, Xolani Mali
Votes: 372,218 | Gross: $23.53M
12. Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
PG | 119 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Chieko Baishô, Takuya Kimura, Tatsuya Gashûin, Akihiro Miwa
Votes: 449,250 | Gross: $4.71M
13. The Incredibles (2004)
PG | 115 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
While trying to lead a quiet suburban life, a family of undercover superheroes are forced into action to save the world.
Director: Brad Bird | Stars: Craig T. Nelson, Samuel L. Jackson, Holly Hunter, Jason Lee
Votes: 808,487 | Gross: $261.44M
14. Intimate Strangers (2004)
R | 104 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
A Frenchwoman tells her marital troubles to a man she mistakes for a psychiatrist, and soon they form an unusual relationship.
Director: Patrice Leconte | Stars: Sandrine Bonnaire, Fabrice Luchini, Michel Duchaussoy, Anne Brochet
Votes: 5,279 | Gross: $2.11M
15. Keane (2004)
R | 100 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A disheveled man desperately searches New York City for his young daughter.
Director: Lodge Kerrigan | Stars: Damian Lewis, Liza Colón-Zayas, John Tormey, Brenda Denmark
Votes: 5,819 | Gross: $0.03M
16. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
R | 137 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
The Bride continues her quest of vengeance against her former boss and lover Bill, the reclusive bouncer Budd, and the treacherous, one-eyed Elle.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah
Votes: 805,357 | Gross: $66.21M
Top 1000
17. Kinsey (2004)
R | 118 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A look at the life of Alfred Kinsey, a pioneer in the area of human sexuality research, whose 1948 publication "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" was one of the first recorded works that saw science address sexual behavior.
Director: Bill Condon | Stars: Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Chris O'Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard
Votes: 50,954 | Gross: $10.21M
18. The Machinist (2004)
R | 101 min | Drama, Thriller
An industrial worker who hasn't slept in a year begins to doubt his own sanity.
Director: Brad Anderson | Stars: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, John Sharian
Votes: 415,501 | Gross: $1.08M
19. Man on Fire (2004)
R | 146 min | Action, Crime, Drama
In Mexico City, a former CIA operative swears vengeance on those who committed an unspeakable act against the family he was hired to protect.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Denzel Washington, Christopher Walken, Dakota Fanning, Radha Mitchell
Votes: 389,538 | Gross: $77.91M
20. Maria Full of Grace (2004)
R | 101 min | Crime, Drama
A pregnant Colombian teenager becomes a drug mule to make some desperately-needed money for her family.
Director: Joshua Marston | Stars: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Guilied Lopez, Orlando Tobón, Virginia Cristina Ariza
Votes: 36,181 | Gross: $6.52M
21. Mean Creek (2004)
R | 90 min | Crime, Drama
When a teen is bullied, his brother and friends lure the bully into the woods to seek revenge.
Director: Jacob Estes | Stars: Rory Culkin, Ryan Kelley, Scott Mechlowicz, Trevor Morgan
Votes: 33,358 | Gross: $0.60M
22. Mean Girls (2004)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy
Cady Heron is a hit with The Plastics, the A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George.
Director: Mark Waters | Stars: Lindsay Lohan, Jonathan Bennett, Rachel McAdams, Tina Fey
Votes: 435,075 | Gross: $86.06M
23. Mysterious Skin (2004)
Unrated | 105 min | Drama
Two pre-adolescent boys both experienced a strange event and later it affects their lives in different ways. One becomes a reckless, sexually adventurous prostitute, while the other retreats into a reclusive fantasy of alien abduction.
Director: Gregg Araki | Stars: Brady Corbet, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elisabeth Shue, Chase Ellison
Votes: 76,309 | Gross: $0.70M
24. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
PG | 96 min | Comedy
A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.
Director: Jared Hess | Stars: Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell
Votes: 237,746 | Gross: $44.54M
25. Nobody Knows (2004)
PG-13 | 141 min | Drama
In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu | Stars: Yûya Yagira, Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura, Momoko Shimizu
Votes: 31,401 | Gross: $0.68M
Top 1000
26. Primer (2004)
PG-13 | 77 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention.
Director: Shane Carruth | Stars: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden, Anand Upadhyaya
Votes: 114,146 | Gross: $0.42M
Top 1000
27. Ray (I) (2004)
PG-13 | 152 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The story of the life and career of the legendary rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles, from his humble beginnings in the South, where he went blind at age seven, to his meteoric rise to stardom during the 1950s and 1960s.
Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Jamie Foxx, Regina King, Kerry Washington, Clifton Powell
Votes: 157,388 | Gross: $75.33M
28. Saint Ralph (2004)
PG-13 | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport
Saint Ralph is the unlikely story of Ralph Walker, a ninth-grader who outran everyone's expectations except his own in his bold quest to win the 1954 Boston Marathon.
Director: Michael McGowan | Stars: Adam Butcher, Campbell Scott, Jennifer Tilly, Michael Kanevsky
Votes: 6,336 | Gross: $0.80M
29. Saw (2004)
R | 103 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Two strangers awaken in a room with no recollection of how they got there, and soon discover they're pawns in a deadly game perpetrated by a notorious serial killer.
Director: James Wan | Stars: Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Danny Glover, Ken Leung
Votes: 466,631 | Gross: $56.00M
30. The Sea Inside (I) (2004)
PG-13 | 126 min | Biography, Drama
The factual story of Spaniard Ramon Sampedro, who fought a 28-year campaign in favor of euthanasia and his own right to die.
Director: Alejandro Amenábar | Stars: Javier Bardem, Belén Rueda, Lola Dueñas, Mabel Rivera
Votes: 85,249 | Gross: $2.09M
31. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Horror
The uneventful, aimless lives of a London electronics salesman and his layabout roommate are disrupted by the zombie apocalypse.
Director: Edgar Wright | Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis
Votes: 593,889 | Gross: $13.54M
32. Sideways (2004)
R | 127 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Two men reaching middle age with not much to show but disappointment embark on a week-long road trip through California's wine country, just as one is about to take a trip down the aisle.
Director: Alexander Payne | Stars: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh
Votes: 204,243 | Gross: $71.50M
33. Somersault (2004)
Not Rated | 106 min | Drama, Romance
A young girl flees her hometown and arrives in the Australian Alps, where new experiences help her learn the differences between sex and love.
Director: Cate Shortland | Stars: Abbie Cornish, Sam Worthington, Lynette Curran, Damian de Montemas
Votes: 8,192 | Gross: $0.09M
34. Speak (2004)
PG-13 | 89 min | Drama
After a blurred trauma over the summer, Melinda enters high school a selective mute. Struggling with school, friends, and family, she tells the dark tale of her experiences, and why she has chosen not to speak.
Director: Jessica Sharzer | Stars: Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Perkins, Richard Hagerman, Allison Siko
Votes: 29,435
35. Vera Drake (2004)
R | 125 min | Crime, Drama
Abortionist Vera Drake finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain--a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family.
Director: Mike Leigh | Stars: Imelda Staunton, Jim Broadbent, Heather Craney, Richard Graham
Votes: 26,851 | Gross: $3.75M
36. Yesterday (I) (2004)
R | 90 min | Drama
After falling ill, Yesterday learns that she is HIV positive. With her husband in denial and young daughter to tend to, Yesterday's one goal is to live long enough to see her child go to school.
Director: Darrell Roodt | Stars: Leleti Khumalo, Lihle Mvelase, Pepi Khambule, Harriet Lenabe
Votes: 2,482
Top 1000
37. Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004 TV Movie)
R | 122 min | Documentary, Biography, History
The story of Z Channel, one of the first U.S. pay cable stations and its programming chief, Jerry Harvey. Debuting in 1974 in LA, their eclectic slate of movies became a prime example of the untapped power of cable television.
Director: Xan Cassavetes | Stars: Jerry Harvey, Chuck Ross, Timothy Ryerson, Bob Strock
Votes: 1,693
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