2001 Film List (1 Viewer)

[Jason Seaver]

1 hour just for one cricket match...not exactly quick pacing.

Or a masterstroke of paring it down to essentials.
(I know, I should let the British guys make the cricket jokes...)

 

[Seth Paxton]

Just added 3 more films

Hearts in Atlantis - 6

Man, is King out of ideas or what. Dead Zone meets The Body for this one that feels like King died and people pasted together another story by him from previous work.

Maybe the book is much better than the film to be fair. Nothing terribly wrong, just not exactly a great script nor great pacing. Some scenes sort of lead nowhere completely, lots of stuff not fully pursued to me, and a bit empty on the whole.

Last Castle - 7

A very good, functional action drama. A pretty basic premise but done with enough originality and skill to keep it entertaining. A good popcorn flick. Gandolfini is strong as always.

No Man's Land - 9.5

This is now my #9 film of the year. It's excellent. It has humor, warmth, sorrow, thoughtfulness and politics all equally blended in to one. It has those Catch-22 elements of crazy military rules/situations, but it goes beyond that in search of the loss found in such fruitless wars of hate. Men hating each other who don't know why they do exactly. The film stays honest in it's answers to these situations or lack thereof.

It's close enough to mainstream even by US standards that it can be enjoyed by a wider audience than it's getting, which is too bad. Maybe DVD will help it reach it's full potential of audience.

 

[Seth Paxton]

And a couple more
Training Day - 7
Good film, but not great. Another popcorn action/thriller like Last Castle. Denzel is solid but not the best of the year by any means. I don't think I would have even nominated this role to be honest. I can see how Crowe has been running strong against him lately.
Ethan is actually really solid, on par almost with Denzel I'd say. It's just that these characters aren't really exploring a lot of emotions thanks to a script that is just average.
Joy Ride - 6
Well, I got my $3 worth of entertainment out of it. At times it's predictable, at times the characters do the less than smart thing, but at other moments they at least react reasonably close to what you would expect. Plus, no matter what actions get them into some moments, those moments ARE thrilling and exciting in that fun, popcorn way. No harm in that.
Worth a rent for some thriller fun if you keep your expectations at an average level.
On deck Va Savoir.
Also, just watched Following by Christopher Nolan (Memento). Really solid film, though obvious budget limitations kept it from being as good as Memento. I think the film could benefit from 95 minutes of screen time rather than under 70, color 35mm film, and a better lead actor. But the script and direction are solid. Should please all Memento fans.

 

[JohnS]

O
Quite frankly, I didn't think I was going to like this movie that much. I pretty much thought that the cast couldn't carry the movie and I'm also not that big of a shakespeare lover.
I was wrong.
I liked all of the main cast and thought they moved the story along very nicely. I really liked the way it was told from begin to end. I kinda of thought that there was a little too many basketball scenes, but it wasn't too distracting.
The best thing I loved was the cinematography.
Alot of the shots of the camera hovering over, under and across the areas was really terrific.
RATING=B+
Donnie Darko Comments in the best of 2001 list!
RATING=A
Sexy Beast
I liked this movie, only for the fact that Ben Kingsley did a great performance as a tepermental gangster.
The scenes of him throwing a tantraum was funny yet powerful.
The story was nice, but felt like it didn't go anywhere or really drew in my attention untill the last minutes.
RATING=C+
SECOND VIEWING-Zoolander I first gave this movie a D+. But after a second viewing, I have now given it a B+.
I guess the film grew on me. Stiller and Wilson are just great togther.

 

[Dana Fillhart]

Updated my list with the somewhat-disappointing Haiku Tunnel (low 75%) and the surprisingly-"It doesn't suck!" Antitrust (low 80%).

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

Updated with the amazing Donnie Darko. It is now my #1 film of 2001 making Memento #2.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Saw K-Pax and will be watching Donnie Darko. I'll update both after watching DD.
But K-Pax was "eh" to me, not bad but not great. If you want to see a guy shake up the looney bin watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest instead, a much more honestly thoughtful film.

 

[Brook K]

Avoid Our Lady Of The Assassins a film that has quite a few good
reviews, but I found to be mostly awful. A writer returns to his home of
Medellin, Columbia where he hasn't been in 30 years and finds basically hell
on Earth. He picks up a teenage boy in a club and they begin a
relationship. The film proceeds from there in ponderous fashion, they take
walks through the streets as the man reminisces about locations from his
childhood and the boy alternates between killing anyone who threatens the
writer even slightly, and avoiding drive-by shootings by gangs that are
after him. Then there are "quiet" moments in restarants, churches or at the
writer's apartment where we hear the writer give banal, nihilistic speeches
on the emptiness of life, the non-existence of God, blah blah.......and then
there's the bizarre supernatural elements, a boy who can predict death,
dream/hallucinatory scenes of ghostly bikers with uzi's blazing.
This thing was a chore to sit through, I couldn't believe some of the
reviews I read. Maybe it's different on film in a theater, but transferred
directly from digvideo kills whatever sort of realism this film was going
for in my mind. It has the look of porn/Mexican TV soap operas/Baise Moi,
ie. overly bright video. It feels exactly like a movie, not the documentary
effect described in some of the reviews (Ebert, Village Voice). While the
naive might be shocked at the cheapness of life presented here, it's hardly
revelatory, similar scenes could be found in dozens of locales around the
world. It might have been better if they'd just dispensed with the awful
script and shot a straight documentary.
The DVD from Paramount is nice video wise, but has burned in subs and not so
much as a trailer.

 

[Bill McA]

Updated with the excellent documentary Kurosawa, the awful Exit Wounds (partially filmed in my home town), the mediocre See Spot Run, The Invisible Circus, Just Visiting and Startup.com

 

[Bill McA]

Updated with this year's Oscar winner for Documentary feature, Murder on a Sunday Morning

 

[JohnRice]

I don't watch nearly as many new movies as the rest of you, and the simple truth is, I will never waste my time seeing about 70% of the movies that were released. Given that, I made a top 9 list. I coldn't come up with ten from what I have seen. I won't bother listing all the 2001 releases I have seen, which is probably around 40. I also included the notable titles I still have to see.

top nine, in order. I included a couple guilty pleasures.

1) Donnie Darko

2) The Man Who Wasn't There

3) Memento

4) Snatch

5) A.I. Artificial Intelligence

6) Mulholland Drive

7) Moulin Rouge

8) Legally Blonde

9) Josie and the Pussycats (that's right)

Notable ones I haven't seen

Lord of the Rings

Black Hawk Down

In The Bedroom

Ghost World

Gosford Park

Sexy Beast

The Others

Monster's Ball

Lantana

Once I see all these, my top list will obviously change a bit.

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

Updated my list with Mulholland Drive. Will update my list again later tonight when I watch The Deep End.

 

[Brook K]

Caught Training Day which started out pretty good and grew more dismal and cliche as it went along. The performances were fine, but the script was the usual Hollywood laziness. The ending was good for a laugh, though.
C

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

Added The Deep End to my list. Overall, it was a decent movie with some great preformances from Tilda Swinton, Goran Visnjic, and Jonathan Tucker (or as Whyte likes to call him, the "100 Girls" boy).

 

[Jason Seaver]

Updated with Trouble Every Day, which apparently got a one-week Oscar-qualifying run last November. Hey, they can dream, and this did barely avoid my bottom ten. Still, pretty bad movie. It's French in tone and setting, but much of the dialog is in English (that is, about half of the maybe twenty lines of it). I'll give it some credit for a couple of the more disquieting scenes of bloodsucking in recent memory - as much as it ties vampirism to sexuality, it's not romantic at all - but otherwise, a real waste of two hours and five buck.

 

[Brook K]

Updated with Series 7 which was interesting in concept but boring in execution and Osmosis Jones, a script packed with corniness, but really well done and inventive animation. I would give both C+'s

 

[JohnS]

Pinero
A somewhat dull account on the life of Pinero.
This movie was extremeley choppy, and I didn't like how they presented this film.
RATING=D

 

[Kristian]

Added Training Day and revamped the list to match my 2002 list.

 

[Bill McA]

Updated with Jason X, a routine updating of the Friday the 13th franchise.
This outing takes place on a spaceship which (luckily for Jason) just happens to be populated by scantily-clad horny youngsters and guys with big muscles!.
The entire film is shot with dull blue lightning to disguise the fact that the 'spaceship' is actually an empty warehouse in Toronto.
Still, the film still has its few moments (Cronenberg & Robert Silverman cameos, the freezing face death, Jason and the 2 Camp Crystal Lake bikini babes) which make the film mildly entertaining in spite of itself.
Also updated with Heartbreakers, Cats & Dogs, The Forsaken, Mulholland Dr., One Night at McCools and The Tailor of Panama

 

[Oscar]

oK here is comes the 2001 list of the most open minded guy on the forum:
1:Spy Kids :star: :star: :star: :star:
2:Shrek :star: :star: :star: :star:
3:The Mummy Returns :star: :star: :star: 1/2
4earl Harbor :star: :star: :star: :star:
5:Moulin Rouge :star: :star: :star: :star:
6:Atlantis :star: :star: :star:
7:Cats and Dogs :star: :star: :star: :star:
8:Atlantis :star: :star: :star:
9:K-PAX :star: :star: :star: :star: 1/2
10:The Fast and the Furious :star: :star: :star: :star:
11:The Musketeer :star: 1/2
12: Harry Potter :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
13:A.I. :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
14:Hearts In Atlantis :star: :star: :star: :star: 1/2
15: Lord of the Rings :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
16: A Beautiful Mind :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
17:The Royal Tenenbaums :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
18: From Hell :star: :star: :star: :star: 1/2
19: Jurassic Park 3 :star: :star: :star: :star:
20: Black Hawk Down
:star: :star: :star: :star: :star: