Music
...here we go!1) THE LAST SAMURAI (Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe)
-This is just a great epic with excellent actions, great acting, a fine story, and extraordinary cinematography...my oh my the beautiful Japanese landscape. Tom Cruise was very good, but Japanese actor Ken Watanabe was even better. Oh the grace of the swords and (again) the beautiful Japanese landscape.
2) THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (Elija Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, etc.)
-This is the final chapter of LOTR and it was definitely as good if not better than the first two. The visual effects are stunning and the journey of Frodo and his crew gets even more interesting and exciting. Simply a great finale to the best trilogy in cinematic history.
3) MYSTIC RIVER (Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon)
-This is the best pure drama I've seen in a long while. It's a great story about a mystery murder case that brings three childhood friends back together and shows the consequences of the past. Absolutely perfect acting performances from all.
4) FINDING NEMO (voices: Albert Brooks, Ellen Degeneres, Alexander Gould)
-One of the best animation I've ever seen. Pixar just keeps outdoing themselves everytime at making these animation features. A heart warming story with hilarious moments. Gorgeous sceneries.
5) COLD MOUNTAIN (Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Renee Zellweger)
-I really have love-hate feelings towards this movie. It has a great story, great acting performances, great cast (also includes Natalie Portman & Philip Seymour Hoffman among others), and great cinematography. BUT its story is maddeningly similar to that of the classic tale of "The Odyssey".
6) SEABISCUIT (Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper)
-A fine film base on the true story of Seabiscuit, the little horse that did great things. Being one of these 'inspirational' movies, the plot is obviously very predictable but still very warming.
7) MATCHSTICK MEN (Nicholas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Alison Lohman)
-Nicholas Cage again proves his versatility as an actor here as he plays a con artist who has a mental problem until he meets his supposed daughter. An interesting and heartwarming story with a big twist in the end.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL (Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom)-One of the best selling films of the year. It has a good enough story to go with some great visual effects and action sequences. It also reminds us how good an actor Johnny Depp really is and introduced us to a beautiful new actress in Keira Knightley.
9) X-MEN 2: X-MEN UNITED (Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen)
-Definitely one of the better comic book movies I've seen. The action's good, the effects are good, and the story is actually good. I actually think it outdone the first film.
10) LOVE ACTUALLY (Huge Grant, Keira Knightley, and a bunch of notable British actors)
-One of the more charming love story in a long time. It has probably more than ten stories related to some form of love all going at the same time. Could make you confuse at first, but ultimately fun and heartwarming for the holiday season.
Other movies that I would really want to see soon that could possibly make the list: MOSNTER (Charlize Theron), BIG FISH (Ewan McGregor), MASTER AND COMMANDER (Russell Crowe), LOST IN TRANSLATION (Bill Murray), The House of Sand and Fog (Ben Kingsley)....to name a few.
