2004 Best Reviewed Movies (Page #14)

For Bobby Darin, performing was his life. It kept his heart beating. He came alive onstage, even when he was near collapse offstage. From the age of seven, Walden Robert Cassotto—Little Bobby knows the odds are stacked against him. Rheumatic fever has permanently damaged his heart, and he's not expected to make it to age fifteen. Bobby's family pour all their energies into caring for him. Bobby's frail heart may be one truth, but his mother Polly, a former singer, introduces her boy to another wonderful truth: music. Music becomes Bobby's bargaining chip against time; he's not only singing, but also playing piano, drums and guitar before he even hits his teens. Music takes him into a world beyond the Bronx, and beyond sickness. It's a world of effortlessly swinging songs, and couples dancing to the lilt of Bobby's voice. Bobby has a plan, and no heart ailment will stop him.

The normal façade of a modest house in Tokyo belies the hidden terror within. It is possessed by a violent plague that destroys the lives of everyone who enters. Known as 'The Grudge,' this curse causes its victims to die in the grip of a powerful rage. Those who are fatally afflicted by the curse die and a new curse is born--passed like a virus to all those who enter the house in an endless, growing chain of horror. Karen is an exchange student studying social work in Japan who innocently agrees to cover for a nurse who didn't show up for work. When she enters the assigned home, she discovers an elderly American woman, Emma, who is lost in a catatonic state while the rest of the house appears deserted and disheveled. As she is tending to the stricken old woman, Karen hears scratching sounds from upstairs. When she investigates, she is faced with a supernatural horror more frightening than she could ever imagine. Within this house, a chain of terror has been set in motion resulting from a terrifying evil that was born years before. As more people die, Karen is pulled into the cycle of horror and learns the secret of the vengeful curse that has taken root in this house. Now she must stop it before it's too late.

A young photographer (David Wissack) from Los Angeles takes his girlfriend (Katerina Golubeva) with him while looking for locations in the Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California for a photography shoot, where they find their lives changed by something horrible that happens in the desert...

In 14th Century England, this powerful tale of redemption follows a fugitive priest (Paul Bettany) who falls in with a troupe of travelling actors (led by Willem Dafoe). As they arrive in a small town, the actors encounter a woman being sentenced to death for witchcraft and murder. Discarding the expected bible stories, the actors stage a performance based on the crime. Through the performance of the play, they discover that the townspeople know the woman did not, in fact, commit the murder. The stage becomes a place where vital human truth is told. The fugitive priest comes to terms with his own crime and makes a powerful sacrifice, thereby redeeming himself.

This is the story of a 12-year-old boy, David (Ben Tibber), who travels across Europe by himself in 1952 after escaping from the Communist concentration camp in Bulgaria where he's spent most of his life. Advised and helped by a fellow inmate, Johannes (James Caviezel), David makes his way out of the camp with only a loaf of bread, a compass to guide him and a letter he's been told to deliver to Copenhagen, Denmark. Not even knowing where Denmark is, David must first make his way from Bulgaria to Italy...

Denzel Washington stars as a government operative/soldier of fortune who has pretty much given up on life. In Mexico City, he reluctantly agrees to take a job to protect a child (Dakota Fanning) whose parents are threatened by a wave of kidnappings. He eventually becomes close to the child and their relationship reawakens and rekindles his spirit. When she is abducted, his fiery rage is unleashed on those he feels responsible, and he stops at nothing to save her.

Now that Greg Focker is in with his soon-to-be in-laws, Jack and Dina Byrnes, it looks like smooth sailing for him and his fiancée, Pam. But that's before Pam's parents meet Greg's parents, Bernie and Roz Focker. The hyper-relaxed Fockers and the tightly-wound Byrneses are woefully mismatched from the start, and no matter how hard Greg and Pam try, there is just no bringing their families together.

Anna is a young widow who is finally getting on with her life after the death of her husband, Sean. Now engaged to be married, Anna meets a ten-year-old boy who tells her he is Sean reincarnated. Though his story is both unsettling and absurd, Anna can't get the boy out of her mind. And much to the concern of her fiancée, her increased contact with him leads her to question the choices she has made in her life.

In a world where people are implanted with a chip that records their lives, one man has final cut on the recorded history of his clients. Alan Hackman is the best "cutter" in the business, his ability to grant the corrupt absolution of the sins of his clients, has put him in high demand. However, his talent for viewing life without emotion has shaped him into a cold distant man and has made him unable to experience life in the first person. He believes he is a "sin eater" and his work provides him with the ability to absolve the dead of their sins. While cutting a Rememory for a high-powered colleague, Alan discovers an image from his childhood that has haunted him his entire life. This discovery leads him on a high intensity search for truth and redemption.

Oscar is a fast-talking little fish who dreams big. But his big dreams land him in hot water when a great white lie turns him into an unlikely hero. At first, his fellow fish swallow Oscar's story hook, line and sinker and he is showered with fame and fortune. It's all going along swimmingly, until it starts to become clear that Oscar's tale about being the defender of the Reef is all wet. Oscar is finding out that being a hero comes at a Market Price when his lie threatens to make him the Catch of the Day. Now he has to tread water until he can get the scales to tip back in his favor again.