The Best of 2004 Viewing

Review by: Brendon McCullin
Date: 12/15/04

It being the end of another year, it’s practically a requirement that anyone that writes anything put out a Top 10 list of some type or other. However, being largely tethered to my home it’s difficult to find 10 things of any one topic that I experienced during the year. Thanks to my trusty Blockbuster membership card, though, there is one that I can manage – My Top 10 DVD’s of 2004.

Unfortunately, with a toddler to chase, I now see things on DVD only slightly more often than I do in a multiplex. So, the full title of this list is actually “The Top 10 DVD Releases of 2004 We Rented and Foolishly Attempted To Watch Despite The Presence of a 2-year-old In Our House.”

Now for a couple of quick disclaimers: during the past year there were two movies that my wife and I actually saw together in a theater – Spider-Man 2 and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – neither of which is included here since I haven’t seen the DVD’s. Spider-Man 2 was excellent and Prisoner of Azkaban was better than the first two in that series, and I assume that the same is probably true for each film on DVD.

Also, I will readily acknowledge that I have friends that greatly enjoyed such hip 2004 releases as The Cooler and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. However, since there’s not a chance in hell that my wife and I would ever find time to watch something like that, we don’t even bother trying, so they’re not eligible for this list.

With that out of the way, on with the list:

	10. Matchstick Men – I missed the beginning of this movie, but despite the twisting nature of the story it really didn’t hurt anything. It makes the list because of a nice surprise ending and also because when I with Warner Bros. while this was in production I thought that it was going to be awful and it’s not. The extras include a commentary track from director Ridley Scott and a day in the life of the director feature, but no commentary from Nicholas Cage, which is a shame because that guy’s loopy.
	9. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – I didn’t actually see this but I did rent the DVD. With a running time of something like 8 hours I just couldn’t find the time to watch it. However, I’m told by reliable sources that this is the best of the three movies. Despite my lack of direct knowledge, I believe that it’s a requirement for doing a Top 10 list that something LOTR related must be included. Apparently, the extras are so numerous that it would take a shut-in a month to get through them all.
	8. Bad Santa – Really, I saw the Badder Santa version of this, although I’m not sure what was “badder” about it. The dark humor goes way over the top sometimes, but it does feature the best comedic use of a kick to the groin in many a year. It also spawned the catch phrase “F*** me, Santa” which is worth some additional bonus points. There isn’t much in the way of extras, so hopefully you like the movie.
	7. Freaks and Geeks: The Complete Series – It would be a correct assumption that if I don’t have enough time to watch a movie then I don’t have time to watch a season of a TV show. I did borrow this from a friend though for purely narcissistic reasons – I’m in one of the episodes. In episode 6, I’m the next guy in line as the “freaks” sneak into a bar and it’s also my huge melon partially obstructing the camera’s view of the bar’s band. The show was probably too smart for network television, but it plays like a very funny miniseries on DVD. There are a ton of extras in the set. Trust me when I tell you that co-creators Paul Feig and Judd Apatow practically killed themselves to get this released so the least you can do is check it out.
	6. Starsky & Hutch – Admittedly, I am a fan of the comic stylings of Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. There seems to be a little comedy troupe being formed that includes Stiller, Wilson and his brother Luke, Will Farrell, Vince Vaughn and Jason Bateman, and there are worse groups of actors that we could be repeatedly subjected to. Stiller earns extra credit for donning the same ugly thick knit sweater that Paul Michael Glaser wore in the TV show. Among the extras, the making-of featurette with the cast continuously bad mouthing each other is extremely funny.
	5. Love Actually – Richard Curtis, who wrote the seminal romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral, wrote and directed this. With 8 different story lines there’s way too much going on and it’s a given that each viewer won’t care about at least two of them. However, I found the multiple stories lent themselves to the stop-start nature of my home viewing. It was like watching a soap opera in pieces. The real selling point though is the accents and acting talent of Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, and Alan Rickman. The extra on the music is nice but what would’ve been nicer would’ve been a commentary track by the ultra-blunt Thompson.
	4. School of Rock – To be honest, I find Jack Black grating as often as I find him funny. This, though, might just be the perfect vehicle for him. Playing a never-was rocker that steals his roommate’s identity to pose as a substitute teacher at a private school and forms a band with the young students, Black is manic, funny and sympathetic. For a movie with a goofy premise, this features some serious alt-comedy talent in director Richard Linklater, writer/actor Mike White, Joan Cusack and Sarah Silverman in addition to Black. Best of all, the extra features are just as good as the movie.
	3. Kill Bill, Volume 1 – God love Quentin Tarantino and his non-linear storytelling techniques. It doesn’t matter if you watch the movie in dribs and drabs because it will take a while to figure out what the hell is going on no matter how you see it. Seriously, Tarantino is one of the few directors that can get away with throwing in a whole segment done in anime. The violence was extreme enough that it made my former military officer wife squeamish, so the kids should like it. The extras are sparse mostly because it’s a given that Tarantino is saving everything for a combined release of Volumes 1 & 2.
	2. Elf – Bottom line, Will Farrell in tights standing next to James Caan is funny. They could improv the rest of the story and it would still work because of that fact. Jon Favreau of Swingers fame directed and brings a light touch to this surprisingly sweet fable. There are plenty of extras on the DVD, including commentary by Farrell and Favreau, but I will freely admit that I had trouble finding my way around the menus. Still, Will Farell + Tights = Funny.
	1. Lost In Translation – This is one of those smart comedies that you probably shouldn’t trot out when the friend that believes the epitome of funny is Adam Sandler doing Opera Man comes over. Is there any actor working today that is having a more interesting career than Bill Murray? His performance as an established actor that’s stuck in Japan to film a commercial and strikes up a casually intimate friendship with Scarlett Johansson will end up being one of the highlights of that career. Sophia Coppola’s semi-autobiographical story is both funny and painful. The extras includes insight from the increasingly reclusive Murray and some interesting behind the scenes footage from the location shoot in Japan. The only thing that could’ve made it all better would’ve been commentary from Spike Jonze and Cameron Diaz about the characters that are not based on them.

(Brendon McCullin is a staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine.)