Steve Pratt takes a look at the film releases of the past 12 months and lists his top ten films of 2004 - even if most of them seem to have a two or a three in the title.

GOODBYE to 2004, a year in which Hollywood continued to play the numbers game with far too many movies containing a 2 or 3 in the title. It was a year in which the British showed they could make a horror movie that was both scary and funny, and in which the Mexican director of a sex comedy took the reins of a popular children's series.

And a year in which winning an Oscar or looking like Jude Law wasn't enough to compensate for poor judgement in picking movies.

This time 12 months ago the third and final part of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, The Return Of The King, was unveiled. Bigger and longer than the previous two instalments, this tied up the loose ends of the epic story and was judged the best of the three by many. Director Peter Jackson's film went on to grab armfuls of well-justified Academy Awards come Oscar time.

It was third time lucky for Jackson as best director. The schoolboy wizard embarked on his third cinematic outing in Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban and, freed from the directorial reins of Chris Columbus, found a darker side. Director Alfonso Cuaron moved from sex comedy And Your Mother Too to help Harry and friends cope with adolescence.

Spider-man 2 and Shrek 2 both demonstrated that sequels don't have to be inferior to the original. Bridget Jones 2: The Edge Of Reason proved otherwise, being both unfunny and unoriginal

We can swiftly pass over Princess Diaries 2, Scooby Doo 2, Scary Movie 3 and Agent Cody Banks 2 but pause to reflect that Kill Bill Vol 2 was superior to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol 1 in many ways. Both showed that QT has lost none of his touch at merging dark comedy and violent action.

Alien Vs Predator was two sequels in one, but not twice as good. Matt Damon returned as the amnesiac agent in The Bourne Supremacy which, with British documentary-maker Paul Greengrass directing, had a grittier feel.

The overblown, overpriced Chronicles of Riddick was Pitch Black 2 by any other name but nowhere near as good as the low budget original. The most unneccessary sequel - actually a prequel - was The Exorcist: The Beginning. Producers decided director Paul Scrader's film wasn't scary enough and let new Renny Harlin start again from scratch. The result was still awful.

Jim Carrey showed he could be serious in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, even if no-one had the faintest idea what the movie was about. He's good too in current Christmas release Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Big budget epics Troy, featuring Brad Pitt in a skirt, and Van Helsing, despite Hugh Jackson proving a good action man, both underperformed at the box office.

People insisted on remaking - sorry, re-imagining - old hits as they were too lazy to think of anything new. Stepford Wives and Thunderbirds both flopped in the summer. The Ladykillers, despite the Coen brothers and Tom Hanks, came and went without anyone much caring.

Then there was Alfie. They really should have left the Michael Caine original alone. Which brings us to Jude Law, who took over as the lothario but showed with Alfie and several other movies that he wasn't a box-office draw. Any hopes of Ben Affleck making a comeback after the J-Lo marriage fiasco were squashed by flops Jersey Girl and Surviving Christmas. Halle Berry seems to have succumbed to the curse of Oscar, headlining a pair of duds - Catwoman and Gothika - in the wake of a best actress win. Vin Diesel too needs to find another hit. Will Smith's star shows no sign of tarnishing thanks to I, Robot. A bright spot was British movie Shaun Of The Dead, from Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. This was a witty, gory, zombie movie (or zom-com, as the makers called it) that won the approval of cult US director George Romero, whose own Dawn Of The Dead was effectively remade.

Lock Stock producer Matthew Vaughan made a good start as a director with Layer Cake, yet another British crime drama but one with enough original touches to warrant a view. Star Daniel Craig had a good year too, both as a crime boss in Layer Cake and as a tormented man in Enduring Love, the film of the Ian McEwan novel.

Two other British film comedies (allegedly) did nothing to inspire confidence in the homegrown industry - Sex Lives Of The Potato Men, of which critics were denied preview screenings, and Fat Slags, so bad it was disowned by the Viz people who created the characters.

And so to the top ten films of the year, listed in no particular order and not necessarily the best, just the ones I enjoyed most.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING. A triumphant conclusion to the ambitious trilogy.

THE INVINCIBLES. The Pixar people do it again - animated superheroes that put Batman, Superman and Spider-man to shame.

SHAUN OF THE DEAD. Brit zombie movie showing the spirit of Hammer isn't dead.

SPIDER-MAN 2. The webbed wonder, played by Tobey Maguire, gets caught up with the multi-tentacled Doc Ock.

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN. Wizardry at Hogwarts as young Harry learns more family secrets.

COLLATERAL. Director Michael Mann on the mean streets of LA as hit man Tom Cruise takes a cab driven by Jamie Foxx.

SHREK 2. Shrek meets the in-laws in an animated sequel displaying all the wit and invention of the original.

KILL BILL VOL 2. Uma Thurman's tough Bride continues to seek revenge with her big sword.

FAHRENHEIT 9/11. Not as good as Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine but any movie that annoys politicians is a good thing.

HERO. Visually stunning martial arts movie about a fighter defeating three would-be assassins of the emperor.

Published: 30/12/2004