Lost In Translation
Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson were the year's oddest couple in Sofia Coppola's wistful, poetic tale of love lost and friendships forged amidst the neon-drenched cityscapes of contemporary Tokyo. Dislocation and ennui might not seem ideal bedfellows, but they proved a beguiling combination as Murray's down-on-his-luck actor and Johansson's unhappy young bride collide and connect before going their separate ways. What we want to know, though, is this: what did he say to her at the end?
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The Motorcycle Diaries
The year's best foreign flick by a country mile, rendered all the more memorable by a career-making turn from Gael Garcia Bernal as the youthful Che Guevara. Walter Salles' chronicle of Che's life-altering travels around South America throbbed with idealistic fervour, though in the end it was the prickly yet loving relationship between Bernal's revolutionary in progress and his best friend Alberto Granado (Rodrigo De La Serna) that made these Diaries read so honest and so true.
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Shaun Of The Dead
Splice the apocalyptic horror of George A Romero with the offbeat sensibilities of cult Britcom Spaced and what you do get? One of the wittiest farces of this or any other year. Simon Pegg wakes up one morning to find north London infested with zombies - which, quite frankly, is really inconvenient when all you want to do is patch up your relationship with your girlfriend down the local boozer. A love of the genre allied to an unmistakably homegrown comic sensibility resulted in 2004's grisliest guffaws.
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Shrek 2
It had a lot to live up to, but few would suggest the sequel to 2001's cracked fairy tale didn't match or even better its spirited predecessor. The secret to its success was in reuniting the original's ensemble cast (Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz) before upping the ante with a fresh infusion of voice talent (Julie Andrews, Jennifer Saunders and a scene-stealing Antonio Banderas). The only franchise to truly challenge Pixar's dominance of the computer-animated genre.
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Spider-Man 2
Stunning, exciting, eye-popping - and that was just the trailer! The biggest blockbuster of the summer was more than just a comic book movie: it was THE comic book movie, a truly epic, even mythic adventure that tackled grand themes and iconic characters with a technical virtuosity and dynamism that left the audience reeling. Tobey Maguire brought humour and humanity to the masked web-slinger, while the special effects had to be seen to be disbelieved.