2003 Film List - Page 4

Brook K · 06-29-2003, 04:34 AM

Added 2 more:

28 Days Later was a big let down. I should have known not to get to excited about a new horror film, but I couldn't help it. The setup and concept are excellent but the execution is so completely derivative in virtually every way that it never feels fresh or truly engaging.

And it continues my chief complaint with most modern horror/monster movies -- WOULD IT BE TOO MUCH TO ASK TO ACTUALLY SEE AN ATTACK?? The hyper-cutting combined with DV (and often darkened lighting) takes all the visceral pleasure out of the scenes. For a film that is basically a summary of Romero's Dead trilogy, the least Boyle could have done was allow us to see the money shots, something Romero always delivered. It's not as if Boyle's style made the film any scarier. It offered no scares and very little effective tension.

A generous B- based mostly on concept

Lilya 4-Ever is a heartbreaking portait of discarded youth and its exploitation by an insatiable sex industry. And yet the film also offers the most sublime images and spiritual honesty that I've seen in some time. I love the idea of a Heaven where you can play all the basketball you want. I'll put a longer review in the indie/foreign thread as this film merits a much longer examination than I have time for right now. One of my favorites of the year so far. A-

Arman · 06-29-2003, 07:10 AM

John Thomas · 06-29-2003, 04:38 PM

Got around to the theater and saw...

28 Days Later: I'm with Brook on this one, though I don't care so much for the "money shots". Great premise that stalled in the last 1/3 of the movie. Had it finished with the flourish of the first part of it, it'd easily be my #1 so far. Alas, it gets a still-respectable 7 out of 10.

Arman · 07-01-2003, 02:36 AM

JohnS · 07-01-2003, 07:38 AM

Back from one of the absolute worst summer movie days in history.

Charlie's Angels:Full Throttle ZERO

Was too over the top, too ridiculous and tried to be too much like a video game, more than anything.
The first one was much more original and pleasing.

The Hulk ZERO

Yep!
I'm probally the only person giving this zero stars.
This film was a freakin bore!
Nothing about this movie was exciting.
No great action sequences, and one especially was a laugh.

I hope I feel better tomorrow when I see Capturing the Friedmans and 28 Days Later.

Jason Seaver · 07-01-2003, 12:18 PM

I bought 30 Loews "Weekday Escape" tickets last summer which expired June 2003, and used #30 last night on 28 Days Later, a decent bit of postapocalyptic adventure hampered by being shot on digital video (and not the good stuff Lucas & Rodriguez use). A pretty good story, for the most part, but it's tough to enjoy what you can't see.

¾

Matthew Chmiel · 07-02-2003, 01:31 AM

Updated my list with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. In my opinion, it's on par with the original, but nowhere near as good as T2 (which is a full four stars).

This weekend I plan on seeing Whale Rider and maybe see 28 Days Later again.

Dennis Pagoulatos · 07-02-2003, 03:29 AM

Updated with T3.

-Dennis

Matt Stone · 07-02-2003, 05:36 PM

Updated with T3 (****/*****). Much, much better than I expected with a great performance from Nick Stahl.

Seth Paxton · 07-02-2003, 10:45 PM

Got to the theater too late to see T3, so I wasted some money on
Charlie's Angels 2
4 of 10
Not outright awful and at times inspired (at least as much as the first film was), this film represents McG being his own worst enemy. If something works, why not do it more and bigger and crazier and louder. Well the answer is because this crosses the fine line from fun action into outright silliness and enhanced fighting becomes the realm of Superman abilities.

And as much as I like the hot chicks, cripes did I feel almost dirty watching this film. I swear that at one point he is trying to hit the pee fetish audience and that at another time we have Demi Moore fondling her pistol like it's a phallic symbol.

Give it a better story, turn the action and sex back down to the teasingly fun levels of the first one and he could have had a nice follow up flick. If the first film was a film made with an MTV video sensibility, the second is a series of MTV videos strung together and called a movie.

A shame to see some rather fun performances wasted, especially people like LaBlanc, Wilson, Mac and Cleese, all of whom are pretty good with what they are given.

Still, this should make for a fun rental/cable movie, especially if you think your viewing might be interrupted by a phone call or the pizza guy.

Seth Paxton · 07-03-2003, 07:27 PM

T3
7 of 10
There is nothing inherently wrong with T3. The action is pretty furious and well-staged, and more surprisingly the underlying story is actually a nice bit of development off the first two films.

And yet, after I left the theater and began to reflect on the film I couldn't help feeling that the entertainment factor was wearing off. The film just didn't make me care that I had seen it all that much. In the end I think the reason I have that feeling is because I had seen all the action scenarios before in T2 or T1. Yes, there were some slightly new angles on them and occassionally a funny twist to what we have seen before, and yes T2 did have some repeated twists on T1, but in this case T3 offers basically no new scenarios which T2 and T1 both had in spades. There is no scene that I saw and said "Wow, I've never seen that before" like both T1 and T2 had.

So in the end it becomes disposable entertainment despite having a very pleasing story idea underneath it. Also the acting was shakey from everyone but Nick Stahl, including Arnold who struggled playing a robot. Yeesh.