Back to movies!

First things first, Happy New Year to all!!! :)

Among other things worth looking forward to at the turn of a year there are all those "best of" and "worst of" lists. I have been reading so many of these over last few weeks that its impossible not to get carried away and post a few of my own. And considering that most people consider me to be a movie buff, why not start with the movies!! I am sure I have seen some great movies this year which many of you haven't, so some recommendations won't really be out of order. So, here goes...

First, a little explanation of the lists. I am sure I have seen most of the movies that have opened in US or India in 2004 and are worth being in year's top 10. But I know some of them which I am yet to see. And at least some of them are sure to replace some of the movies in my best-of-2004 list as and when I get to see them. So first this list of movies I haven't yet seen in ascending order of likelihood of being great.

16) Friday Night Lights
15) Raincoat
14) Moolaade
13) A very long engagement
12) Swades
11) Virumaandi
10) Hotel Rwanda
9) The Dreamers
8) Vera Drake
7) Tae Guk Gi
6) Closer
5) The Sea Inside
4) Bad Education
3) House of Flying Daggers
2) The Aviator
1) Million Dollar Baby

The last 5 of these movies are getting such glowing reviews that I am almost certain I'd find them great. Pity I haven't seen them yet.

Now, before my top-10 I need to make some special mentions. There are 12 of them. I found all of them pretty interesting and would recommend them to anyone who likes good movies of their respective genre. (I intend to write a little note for each of the 22 movies I am going to list here along with providing a link to their trailers, but maybe not today).

So, list of my 12 special mentions is..

22) Collateral
21) Kinsey
20) Primer
19) Aayidha Ezhuthu/Yuva
18) Mean Creek
17) Maria Full of Grace
16) Garden State
15) Infernal Affairs**
14) Passion of the Christ
13) Sideways
12) Spiderman-2
11) Hero**

And now.. My Top-10 movies of 2004 are..

10) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
9) The Bourne Supremacy
8) The Incredibles
7) Maqbool
6) The Motorcycle Diaries
5) Before Sunset
4) Goodbye Lenin!**
3) Finding Neverland
2) Kill Bill: Vol. 2
1) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

(movies with a ** are older movies that opened in the US in 2004)

I must mention that most of these movies I have seen only once. So, the ones that I have seen recently are more fresh in my mind and hence might be ranked higher than they deserve. Some of the not-so-fresh-in-my-mind-and-are-probably-better-than-I-think-they-are movies are "Eternal Sunshine", "The Incredibles", "Spiderman-2" and "Garden State".