Previously, in 2004...

 2004: A Look Back

As I mentioned on Monday, we'll be doing the final aspects of our 2019 race (our new feature of "If I Had a Ballot" next week, officially concluding the year on Thursday, but I'm not breaking my twice-a-week schedule just because I happened to coincide with the 2020-21 Oscar nominations on Monday, and so we are going to kick off our 13th Oscar Viewing Project retrospective.  I choose which ones we are doing next in the order that I completed a year (seeing every film), and so while I know there are gaps in our ballots (we have yet to do 2006, 2017, or 2018 even if we've gotten every other year between 2005-19 done), we'll be heading back to 2004 for the next ten weeks since that was the next year I completed.  

That is enough behind-the-scenes from me, so I want you now to sit back, relax, and transport yourself back to 2004.  A time when Justin Timberlake wasn't to blame for Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl (thankfully history corrected that), a young state senator named Barack Obama was making his triumphant national stage debut at the Democratic National Convention, and somehow America reelected the worst president (to date), George W. Bush (history would require me to say "to date," but expect a lecture from me toward anyone that wants to "he's not that bad" #43).  And of course, let's remember the movies...

Box Office

This is what the Top 10 at the (Domestic) Box Office looked like:

1. Shrek 2

2. Spider-Man 2

3. The Passion of the Christ

4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

5. The Incredibles

6. The Day After Tomorrow

7. The Bourne Supremacy

8. Shark Tale

9. The Polar Express

10. National Treasure

2004 was the first year of my life where I lived in a major metropolitan area by myself for the full calendar year, and as a result I had access to all of these movies, and saw most of them (I have seen parts of National Treasure, though I don't think I've seen it fully).  What's striking about this list in retrospect is that this is really one of the first years that was totally filled with sequels & franchise films, something that would become the norm in the years that followed, but at the time was a bit of an anomaly.  Also, for a year where I struggle personally to name a lot of high-quality animated films, cartoons dominated the box office in a way that would've been unthinkable even a year or two prior, making up 40% of the Top 10 (it's hard to remember now, but at one point animated films were something of a risk, and even Disney wasn't a guaranteed success).  In addition to National Treasure, some other movies that made $100 million at the box office that I didn't see include 50 First Dates, Van Helsing, and Dodgeball.

The Films I Missed

While I've seen all of the Oscar nominees, I haven't seen every film in 2004.  In addition to the movies I just listed, I missed a couple of films that got cited by precursors.  Looking at the Golden Globes, A Love Song for Bobby Long, De-Lovely, and Beyond the Sea are all movies that I didn't catch, while BAFTA gives me The Merchant of Venice that I haven't caught.  There are a couple of films I'm actually going to make a point to see before I finish "My 2004 Ballot," specifically some more obscure animated films so that I don't embarrass myself with that ballot, but if any of the movies I just name-checked are worth my time, please let me know & I'll catch them before we hit the end of this project.  Otherwise, we'll kick off with Makeup & Visual Effects next week!