Sorry, Spidey. Poor Peter Pan. Lights out for "Friday Night Lights." And the "Super Size Me" guy was, well, downsized. It didn't seem like a remarkable year in movies until I had to shave those favorites from my top 10 list.

In case you're wondering why a couple of other critical crown jewels aren't on our lists, Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" won't arrive in Pittsburgh until late January and hasn't been screened yet for local critics. Neither has "Hotel Rwanda" with Don Cheadle.

But we saw scores of other movies. Here are my picks, in order of preference:

1. "THE AVIATOR"
Martin Scorsese hits the rewind button on Howard Hughes' life and takes us back to a heady time when Hughes wasn't a recluse in a hotel room with long fingernails and empty Kleenex boxes on his feet. Before succumbing to obsessive-compulsive disorder, the billionaire was an industrialist, aviator, moviemaker, playboy and risk-taker. Scorsese, whose movie mimics the Technicolor process of Hughes' heyday, directs star Leonardo DiCaprio in a rich, mature turn, allows Cate Blanchett to soar as Katharine Hepburn and re-creates the glamour of Hollywood hot spots in this biopic. It's not perfect, but you know you're in the hands of a master while watching it.

2. "ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND"
The Charlie Kaufman character in "Adaptation" talked about needing coffee and a muffin to jump-start his writing. The real Kaufman has somehow rewired his brain to burrow into the sweet spot of creativity and inventiveness. This time, he's written a story about a company that allows the broken-hearted or disillusioned to have memories of their relationships erased. It's brilliant, as are Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.

3. "SIDEWAYS"
As Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti), wine snob, failed novelist and eighth-grade teacher, gently explains, the pinot is a hard grape to grow. "It's thin-skinned, temperamental, ripens early. It's not a survivor like cabernet that can grow anywhere and thrive even when neglected." This Alexander Payne movie, pairing Giamatti with Thomas Haden Church as mismatched road-trip buddies, can thrive anywhere, too. It's a movie for grown-ups, who can relate to the pain that so beautifully registers in Giamatti's eyes.

4. "THE INCREDIBLES"
Insurance claims adjuster as secret superhero. How's that for inspired? Lawsuits force the brave and the bold into the Superhero Relocation Program, but you can't keep a good superhero -- Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, Frozone -- or their gifted children down in this animated adventure.

5. "FAHRENHEIT 9/11"
Say what you will about Michael Moore -- and many of you have -- he knows how to make a provocative documentary filled with indelible images. It's hard to shake the sight of President Bush sitting frozen in an elementary classroom or high-pressure salesmen pitching the Marines as if selling long-distance service, or a grieving mother from Flint, Mich., asking, "Why did you have to take my son?"

6. "RAY"
Jamie Foxx gives a virtuoso performance as Ray Charles, a musical genius who never let his blindness stop him. During the course of the 2 1/2-hour movie, Foxx becomes Charles, from the way he plays the piano and cocks his head to how he shifts his weight from foot to foot when walking. This biography provides a rich sampling of music and a lively look at the women, adversities and triumphs in Charles' life.

7. "VERA DRAKE"
Talk about your unlikely protagonists. Vera Drake is a wife, mother, cleaning lady, neighborhood good Samaritan and underground abortionist in post-World War II London. This Mike Leigh film is compelling, uncompromising in its ending and a quiet showcase for Imelda Staunton in the title role and for an excellent supporting cast.

8. "MARIA FULL OF GRACE"
In his first feature-length film, writer-director Joshua Marston juggles tension and tragedy with hope and new beginnings. It's a most graceful act, as we watch a 17-year-old Colombian named Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno) become a drug mule. If the heroin pellets in her gut are detected, she lands in prison. If they break, she dies.

9. "HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS"
This Zhang Yimou movie is a lesson in artistic composition, with costumes that are color-coordinated with the bamboo forests and tree-swept hillsides, plus fight scenes reminiscent of Cirque du Soleil. Yes, it's a martial arts movie (not one of my favorite genres) but also a love story in which characters utter lines such as, "If we meet again, one of us will have to die." Opens here in January.

10. "THE DOOR IN THE FLOOR"
The first third of a John Irving novel has been turned into a portrait of a family shattered by tragedy. After the loss of their two sons, a husband and wife (Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger) tried to mend their marriage and broken lives by having a third child, but all three of them live in separate orbits. Bridges is superb, especially in a later scene in which he tells a haunting bedtime story.

AND A NOD TO:
James Caviezel, who was struck by lightning and flogged, for real, a few times while making "The Passion of the Christ." Debates about director Mel Gibson's own religious beliefs and the movie's portrayal of Jews overshadowed Caviezel's turn as Jesus, which proved a Lenten inspiration for many.