2004 saw some excellent flicks and some real dogs. Troy showed that not even an all-star cast could save a turkey. As my daughter told me, all the producer had to do was simply hire Homer to write the screenplay. When Cecil De Mille produced a big star and big budget movie, he respected his audience and their beliefs. When adding orgies and violence to his biblical pieces, he never forgot that religion was the central focus. Troy managed to eliminate most of the references to the Greek gods that made Homer's story interesting to begin with. For the Greeks, gods' interactions with humans were a driving force in their stories and their lives. Troy simply told an action story badly and forgot what the story was really about. It was not just about a pretty boy stealing a pretty girl and starting a war. It was also about how the gods themselves intervened in the lives of humans.

Then there was the Day After Tomorrow, the disaster flick of disaster flicks. When watching the flick, I looked over at my kids and they were laughing! With poor writing combined with an implausible story, the Day After Tomorrow failed as a propaganda movie, but the special effects saved the movie since they did much to blunt the negative aspect of the rest of the movie. It went from being a serious movie that was suppose to warn us about global warming with the new theory that we are all going to freeze because we are going to fry to mere puffery depending upon the great special effects.

But there were some gems. Garden State, Sideways and Finding Neverland showed that great stories and great writing do still exist in Hollywood. Sideways explores two friends on a trip in the California wine country as one of them is preparing to get married. We see the two men as they deal with their inner demons over the course of the week filled with adventures. Finding Neverland showed why Johnny Depp is one of our generation better actors. His characterization of J.M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, showed a man in conflict. His J.M. Barrie wanted a world in which children need not grow up, but the reality of the world, including the death of a close friend and the collapse of his marriage intrudes. He can't escape adulthood nor can the children he befriends. Garden State showed a young man coming home for his mother's funeral and forced to deal with his own life as well as his relationship with his father.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakaban was the best Potter movie produced. For one, the director stayed faithful to the book, which did not hurt. Adding a little darkness to the series, we see a more mature Potter and friends dealing with a more serious threat.

Hollywood showed its leftist tint as Fahrenheit 9/11 demonstrated Michael Moore at his propaganda best. Moore is quickly becoming the Leni Riefenstahl of his generation as his propaganda flicks are as brilliantly produced as they are intellectually bankrupt. Then there was The Manchurian Candidate. The original movie suspense came from the fact that the enemy was disguised as the most patriotic of Americans. The original movie theme was that McCarthyism did more to subvert the war against communism than aid it. The movie producers also believed that the enemy really exists and were immensely evil. The modern version treated the modern America without enemies, and it was as if 9/11 did not occur. While the movie was slickly made and brilliantly acted, the intellectual premise that our main enemy is corporate America showed that some in Hollywood live in fantasyland.