2003 Film List - Page 8

Updated with The Good Thief an entertaining and visually interesting remake of my favorite heist movie, Melville's Bob Le Flambeur. Nolte is a shabbier, gruffer Bob, and the characterization's and bravura ending of the original isn't pulled off quite as well, but a fine effort by all involved. B+

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Updating with Uptown Girls (****):

I haven't yet added this to my list since the graphical nature takes a little bit of time, and I didn't want the feeling of the movie to subside before getting my feelings out.
One of the few movies this year where my opinion has been the polar opposite of the critics, I found Uptown Girls to be one of those rare movies that leaves you at a different place then where you started. Like a good book, it found the perfect blend of comedy and drama, creating it's own reality which is somehow more relatable than the one in which we live.
Is the situation realistic? Lord no... it's utterly rediculous, and I can only surmise that that is what left so many out in the cold. But it doesn't matter, because Boaz Yakin lets just enough reality peek through to belie the tragedy under our two leads. Pairing two polar opposites together... yin and yang is no new concept. It has been stinking up film since it's early beginnings and has brought us such cinematic disasters as Twins. But the trick with Uptown Girls is that which both characters react in opposite ways they are suffering from the same pain from within. The same pain of abandonment that everyone feels at some point or another, though for the majority of us it is luckily fleeting. If Yakin had pushed the 'woe betide me' factor any further it would have been no better than your movie of the week. If not for the 'woe betide me' factor it would have been nothing but a failed attempt at comedy. As it is, we see two characters who desperately try to hide their pain and fear and loneliness. One by drowning herself in the immaturity. The other by propping herself up on the rigid crutch of responsibility. But it is through their shared pain that they can find mutual stability.
One of the great, humble films in a year flooded with flashy pretension. Highly recommended if you don't mind a little substance with your cheese.

Oh. And in case I Am Sam (a horrible movie with decent acting) and Scifi's miniseries Taken didn't seal the deal, that will prove that Dakota Fanning is one to watch. Quite possibly the best child actor out there... she has the depth and professionalism of Haley Joel Osment but comes across much more natural.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the forgettable Spy Kids 3D: Game Over (*1/2)
I saw it without the glasses, so I maybe I didn't get the whole effect. It probably worked quite well as a spectacle, but as a movie it just didn't hold up. Bad acting, virtually no plotting, hamfisted morality ploys, and seemingly non existant direction. Rodreguez has never been the most subtle and intellectualized of filmmakers, and I could deal with the decent character development and plotting of the original Spy Kids being a fluke. Spy Kids 2 didn't have much of a plot either. But what I can't deal with is the mundanity and boringness of this time around. Instead of trusting in his greatest asset, his vivid imagination, he instead relied on a gimmick and out-of-nowhere cameos to carry the film. Previously, what he lacked in plotting he more that made up for in sheer inventiveness, and charisma in bucketloads from his cast. With only the occassional flash of that and the occassional line of witty veiled social commentary, SK3 just doesn't make the cut. What a waste of a celebrated franchise and a stupendous cast.

Updated with paint-by-numbers Jeepers Creepers 2 (**/*****).

Updated with the so-so The Secret Lives of Dentists (***½/*****) and the pretty good but predictable Dark Blue (****/*****).

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2003 Film List
(just a bit late )

Total eligible to date: 152

21 Grams ***1/2
28 Days Later **
A Mighty Wind ***
A View from the Top **
Alien Director's Cut ***
All The Real Girls ***
Amandla **
American Splendor **
American Wedding **
Angels in America **
Anything Else **
Bad Santa ***
Balseros ***
Basic **
Bend It Like Beckham **
Better Luck Tomorrow **
Big Fish ***
Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary **1/2
Blue Car **
Brother Bear **1/2
Bruce Almighty *1/2
Buffalo Soldiers ***1/2
Bus 174 ***
Calendar Girls **1/2
Capturing the Friedmans ***1/2
Charlotte Sometimes ***1/2
Cheaper by the Dozen **
City Of God ***1/2 (2002)
Cold Mountain **1/2
Confidence ***
Cradle 2 the Grave *
Daredevil **
Demonlover *
Dickie Roberts *1/2
Dirty Pretty Things **
Divine Intervention *1/2
Dogtown and Z-boys **
Down With Love **
Dreamcatcher *
Dumb and Dumberer *
Dummy *1/2
Elephant **
Elf **1/2
Finding Nemo **1/2
From Justin to Kelly *1/2
Gerry **
Girl with a Pearl Earring **
He Loves Me He Loves Me Not **
Home Room *1/2
House of Sand and Fog **
Hulk **
I Capture the Castle **
Identity **
In America **1/2
In the Cut *1/2
Intolerable Cruelty ***
Irreversible **
It's All About Love *1/2
Kill Bill Vol.1 ***
Killing Me Softly *1/2
L'Auberge Espagnole **
Laurel Canyon **
Levity *1/2
Lilya 4-ever ***
Lost In La Mancha ***
Lost In Translation ***
Love Actually **
Man On The Train ***
Manic **
Master and Commander ***
Matchstick Men ***
Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions **1/2
May *1/2
Mona Lisa Smile **
Mondays In The Sun ***
Monster **
Morvern Callar **1/2
My Life Without Me ***
Mystic River ***1/2
Noam Chomsky Distorted Morality *1/2
Northfork **1/2
Nowhere in Africa ***
Old School *1/2
Open Hearts ***
Open Range ***
Out Of Time **
Owning Mahowny **
Party Monster *1/2
Paycheck *1/2
Peter Pan **
Phone Booth *1/2
Pieces of April **
Pirates of the Caribbean **1/2
Platform **
Raising Victor Vargas ***
Runaway Jury **1/2
Russian Ark *1/2
School of Rock **
Seabiscuit **1/2
Secondhand Lions **
Shaolin Soccer *1/2
Shattered Glass ***
So Close *1/2
Something's Gotta Give **
Spellbound ***
Springtime In A Small Town **1/2
Spun *1/2
Stuck on You **1/2
Sweet Sixteen **1/2
Swimming Pool *1/2
Sylvia *1/2
T3 **
Technolust *
The Cat In The Hat **
The Cooler ***
The Good Thief **1/2
The Guru *
The Human Stain **1/2
The Italian Job *1/2
The Last Samurai ***1/2
The Life Of David Gale ***
The Lizzie McGuire Movie *1/2
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ***
The Magdalene Sisters **1/2
The Man Without A Past **1/2
The Missing **1/2
The Real Cancun **
The Recruit *1/2
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised ***
The Rundown *1/2
The Safety of Objects **1/2
The Secret Lives Of Dentists *1/2
The Shape Of Things **1/2
The Son **1/2
The Station Agent ***
The Triplets of Belleville **
Thirteen ***1/2
Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion ***
To Be and to Have ***1/2
Together **
Try Seventeen (aka All I Want) *1/2
Underworld *
Unknown Pleasures **1/2
Veronica Guerin **
Whale Rider **
Wonderland *1/2
X2 **1/2
XX/XY ***
Zero Day **1/2

The Magdalene Sisters is at turns tragic, enraging, and terrifying but I thought could have benefited from a less dramatized story. I'll put more in the Indy/foreign thread when I have time. B

All sortsa additions.

Now playing: Jeepers Creepers 2 (2 out of 5)

Coming soon: Matchstick Men (3.5 out of 5), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (3/5)

Cheeseball DTV time-wasters: Solid Cover(2/5), Cannibal Rollerbabes (2.5/5)

Old Retro Section stuff seen for the first time: The Tenant (4/5), eXistenZ (3.5/5), The Ugly (3/5) and four very mediocre Canadian TV Sherlock Holmes flicks - starring none other than Matt Frewer as Holmes: The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Sign of Four and The Royal Scandal. (These four were just recently released onto a 2-disc DVD set courtesy of Hallmark, for those who may be interested.)

On tap: Crash, Dickie Roberts, A Decade Under the Influence and some indie flick penned by a fourteen-year-old that I was just sent called Purgatory House.

Have a good weekend, all.

I just added 2 new 2003 movies to my list, Anger Management with 4.5/10, and The Good Thief with 7.5/10.

I also started my 2004 movie list (on my hard drive), with Ned Kelly, which opens in March 2004 in the US. It gets a 4.5/10.

Updated first-timers with Hideo Nakata's Dark Water (****/*****) and from a couple weeks ago, Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale (****/*****).

Thank God for Asian cinema

Updated with Irreversible.

I am with Seth on this one. The reverse told narrative is nothing more than just a gimmick making one think that there is actually more to it than what it has to offer. I also didn’t care for the improvised dialogue.

The first few minutes of camera shots were headache inducing. If that is considered brilliant then I have heard the same effects produced with today’s most potent drugs. Other than bringing the violence onscreen to a higher level than what has been shown in the past, Irreversible really does not have anything else worth noting.

~Edwin

Updated with Whale Rider (****/*****).

Updated with Peter Sollett's very good Raising Victor Vargas (****½/*****).

My biggest update ever: 55 films in 11 days!! That's right... from August 28 to September 7, I watched an average of 5 films per day at the Montreal World Film Festival (not including two dozen short films).

I don't know how I've remained sane until now, but it was definitely worth it. I watched films from countries all over the world... it almost feels like I've just returned from a trip around the globe. I was able to see all of the films which interested me, though, the only film I regret missing is "The Return", which won the top prize at Venice yesterday.

Here's the list:

• Gaz Bar Blues
• Milchwald (This Very Moment)
• Die, Mommie, Die
• Des épaules solides (Strong Shoulders)
• Plastic Tree
• Moi César, 10 ans 1/2, 1m39 (I, Cesar)
• Edi
• Le Coeur des hommes (Frenchmen)
• This Girl's Life
• Rengeteg (Forest)
• Alexandra's Project
• Song for a Raggy Boy
• Luck
• Abar Aranye (In The Forest... Again)
• Kordon (The Cordon)
• Manhood
• Das Wunder von Bern (The Miracle of Bern)
• Amar te duele (Love Hurts)
• La Vida mancha (Life Leaves Marks)
• Moonlight
• El Kotbia (The Bookstore)
• La Vida de nadie (Nobody's Life)
• Ni pour, ni contre (bien au contraire) (Not for or Against)
• Pretty Big Feet (For the Children)
• Three Days of Rain
• El Viaje hacia el mar (Seaward Journey)
• Mille mois (A Thousand Months)
• The Maldonado Miracle
• Miss Entebbe
• A Certain Kind of Death
• Ash Tuesday
• Panj é asr (At Five in the Afternoon)
• Kako los son (Like A Bad Dream)
• Il Cuore altrove (The Heart is Elsewhere)
• The Night We Called It a Day
• Elefantenherz (Elephant Heart)
• Um Filme Falado (A Talking Movie)
• The Gun, From 6 to 7:30 p.m.
• Tehora (Purity)
• Io non ho paura (I'm Not Scared)
• Extraño (Strange)
• Binecuvintata fii, inchisoare (Bless You, Prison)
• Elephant
• Il est plus facile pour un chameau... (It Is Easier for a Camel...)
• Karsilasma (The Encounter)
• Buddy
• For Good
• Ira Madiyama (August Sun)
• Tasogare Seibei (The Twilight Samurai)
• Jericho Mansions
• My Life Without Me
• Les Triplettes de Belleville (Belleville Rendez-vous)
• Maria
• 21 Grams
• Le Cerf-volant (The Kite)

I'll be updating my sig with my new top 20 list shortly...

Wow!

Speechless...

just read that Star article comparing the Montreal and Toronto festivals, which made it sound like Montreal's selection was way out on the fringe of indie-dom, so quite surprising to see Elephant and 21 Grams amongst their selection... no Dogville eh?

Laurel Canyon succeeds with its warm characters and star power but offers a mostly fluffy narrative that isn't as emotionally challenging as it could be. But for one of the hottest scenes this side of The Lady Eve between Natasha McElhone and Christian Bale engaging in some outstanding dirty talk. B-

Yeah, I was so surprised to find out they were showing... but they probably made an exception since it was the Palme d'Or winner at Cannes.

Though, last year's fest had a few surprises in there too: "Igby Goes Down", "Heaven", "Blue Car", "24 Hour Party People", "Rabbit-Proof Fence", etc.

Nope... Toronto got that one! (And, yes, I'm bitter that they're getting all the better films.)

Could be worse... The Boston Film Festival has five screens set aside for it, and today only two - two! - movies played. I liked Collusion and will see My Life Without Me tomorrow, but, man, this is thin.

Added:

The Fighting Temptations - (1.5 out of 5) - It's exactly what the trailers make it look like. Tread at your own risk.

Lost in Translation (4.5 out of 5) - Fantastic little "people flick" that should appeal most to Bill Murray fanatics and those who've spent a good deal of their lives away on business trips. Looking forward to seeing it again.

The Order (1.5 out of 5) - Dreary, dimly-lit and indecipherable pseudo-religous hoo-hah. Not even enlivened by any cool deaths or exciting bits. Ledger's performance ranks among the worst of the year.

All The Real Girls About half of this is a wonderful slice of life movie with warm, sensitive characters that speak in honest, real-sounding terms and several instances of laugh till it hurts comedy. But the other half is a droning relationship between a small town lothario and his best friends sister that becomes less interesting the more we see of the characters and eventually falls into the usual small town cliches. And Director David Gordon Greene's stylistic flourishes often distract from his obvious storytelling abilities. B-

Added:

Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (1.5 stars out of 5)
The Guys (3.5 / 5)
Russian Ark (3.5 / 5)

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Updated with Eli Roth's fan-diddly-tastic Cabin Fever (*****/*****). Check my thoughts in the review thread.

Updated with Cabin Fever (****).

DJ

Just a couple of updates:

Pirates of the Caribbean, what a blast I had with this film. It achieved exactly what it set out to do and had me enthralled for all 2hr20. Didn't feel too overlong while I was watching it but there were probably a couple of scenes that could have been tightened up. Great to see some Pirates back on the screen. ***1/2 out of ****.

Also just got back from seeing, Undead - an Aussie zombie flick. Believe me, we don't get many horror flicks made by Aussies so its great to finally see someone tackle the genre. Fairly solid effort from newcomers, The Speirig Brothers. While I prefer a straight horror film, this one clearly resides in the Horror-Comedy camp. But at least it works, there are some genuienly funny lines found throughout (of which a cop played by Dirk Hunter gets a good share). What really surpised me was the quality of the special effects, these guys did most of the Post-Production VFX on their home PC's and it looks pretty darn spiffy. Should be enough to form a bit of a cult following. Plenty of gory fun to be had here that pays affectionate tribute to Romero's zombie films, Recommended, *** out of ****.