Critics Club III: The Greatest Film of 2004

[Neon Ignition]

Weekend and time for the final as we continue our knuckle down round up of the decades movies in search of...


The Greatest Movie of 2004




Which of the above shortlist truly meets the title?

[teddymeow]

Shaun.

[JazzFunk]

Hmmmm. I'd say HELLBOY. Absolute spectacle, beautiful to watch, perfectly-cast, full of thick atmos. And the closest I've ever seen a movie get to the mythical purity of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.

HELLBOY was the balls, homeboy. Still is.

It's still the balls, homey.

[JazzFunk]

I mean, I thought SHAUN was a brilliant achievement. It was *actually* a very good, atmospheric Brit zombie flick.

But it gets ruined by the 'zany zany' again. I mean....that bit where they lob LPs at zombies...did anyone actually LAUGH at that bit????

I didn't. Not much at all. But I really liked it when it was quite a decent, low-key, Brit sink zombie-drama. And the bits where Peter Serafinowicz 'turns' is actually very effective and intimidating.

I really, really like and kinda admire SHAUN OF THE DEAD. But I've just never laughed once, at all, even though I've liked the film every time.

[JazzFunk]

And "Foree Electric" as the name as a 2003-era Dixons ripoff. Did that EVER sound authentic???

Just felt like a clumsy and shoehorned-in reference to Ken Foree in the OG DAWN OF THE DEAD.

Always found that so, so clumsy. Made me cringe when I first watched it, plus it even made me feel uneasy when I saw it briefly again about twenty/twenty-one months back on a Courvoisier binge.

[JazzFunk]

In all honesty, if I had zombies roaming about in my back garden, I'd likely select the swiftest, heaviest, most streamlined bludgeon I'd feasibly have in the house. Let's say an 1800s rolling pin or an 80s cricket bat signed by Geoffrey Boycott (but it's been pissed on and shat near by the cat).

No ****er is gonna throw LPs at zombies. Even Joe Swash knows it wouldn't work.

They did it to be ZANY.

Nah.

(grabs nearest bludgeon).

[Atticus]

Spidey for me. The Peter Parker side is given much love and the result is a film full of heart and soul. Best comic book film ever.

[JazzFunk]

IS 3 *really* that bad? It MUST have good bits???

[Atticus]

IS 3 *really* that bad? It MUST have good bits???

It’s a letdown after the film it follows. I’ve only seen it the once and as I remember you can see the Raimi film and the studio film wrapped up in the same package. There’s a decent film with a decent villain in there but it’s got other stuff going on that feels shoehorned.

[Dogg Thang]

I feel like Spider-Man 3 is just like X-Men 3. Yeah, it’s worse. It’s messy. It has stupid stuff in it. But evaluating it along with the previous movie, it follows it in a way that should be very much expected and it’s really not the catastrophic drop it’s made out to be. Really either the third movie isn’t as bad as people say or the second movie isn’t as good, in both film series. The big crime of Spider-Man 3 is trying to fit far too much in.

[JazzFunk]

Thanks dude. Another film I have in my stacks of DVDs. Deffo gonna watch it, that's when I find it.

Yeah, I could never believe any film by Sam Raimi could have no merit at all.

[Dogg Thang]

There are definitely good bits and it has that Raimi touch. It’s just kind of like two films mashed into one.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, there's a huge gulf in handling between the two villains and because the second studio one ties so hard it chomps a lot of the film. The clearly Raimi side of the film was blatantly meant to be more in tone with SM2