New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

2003 Film List - Page 11

post #301 of 601
10/13/03 at 8:50pm
Saw Matchstick Men Which was better than I heard but not quite as good as it could be. Very nicely done film that I enjoyed a heckuva lot.
Reply
post #302 of 601
10/13/03 at 10:44pm
Kill Bill Out-fucking-standing with a good deal more depth and artfulness than I see it getting credit for in most reviews. Jumps to my #2 of the year A
Reply
post #303 of 601
10/15/03 at 3:47am
.
Reply
post #304 of 601
10/15/03 at 11:36pm
We savored our hatred.
It was like a badge of moral superiority

Updated with The Weather Underground an engrossing documentary about America's most famous terrorist group. Its strength is that it is told in the words of the participants through period footage and new interviews. If you are at all interested in this period of American history or in seeing how the ideals and actions of this group can be compared/contrasted to today's terrorist groups this is a must see. The weakness of the piece though, is in the filmmakers inability or unwillingness to ask tougher questions or explore events more in depth rather than the broader brush strokes it chooses to use. B+
Reply
post #305 of 601
10/16/03 at 1:55am
Updated with a bunch of first-timers from the Scary Movie Challenge.

Next up: TCM Remake on Friday.
Reply
post #306 of 601
10/16/03 at 4:03am
Added a buncha stuff:

The good:

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Wonderland
Intolerable Cruelty

The bad:

The House of the Dead
Duplex

The so-so:

Owning Mahowney
The Safety of Objects
Under the Tuscan Sun
Reply
post #307 of 601
10/17/03 at 11:05am
Updated my list with 2 I saw 2 weeks ago and 1 I saw last weekend while on vacation in Acadia National Park (in downtown Bar Harbor, Maine).

Out of Time, a good Hitchcock-style thriller that has some problems, 80%.

School of Rock, a lot of fun given primarily by Black, 80%.

Camp (which I saw at my very first sit-down-and-order-pizza theater, a nifty experience); Camp is a film that has a love/hate duality with me; 80%.
Reply
post #308 of 601
10/17/03 at 6:05pm
Updated with the much better than expected Texas Chainsaw Massacre (****/*****).
Reply
post #309 of 601
10/18/03 at 7:17am
Updated with Clint Eastwood's Mystic River, which contains some of this year's best performances yet problematic in many ways.

~Edwin
Reply
post #310 of 601
10/18/03 at 10:17am
May - Doesn't completely work as a horror film, both because I found the shifts in her character jarring and unconvincing and also, because of my affection for the "good" May. The first 2/3'ds of the film is a wonderful, warm, and sad story about a sheltered young woman seeking to come alive and find her place in the world while her "best friend" a treasured doll, peers spookily out of her box.

*Brook Horror Corrolary #3 - Dolls and kids are spooky

Poor May just doesn't quite know how to act around others and takes things just a bit too far in her interactions. Her neediness and vulnerability will unfortunately lead her to more pain and loneliness until at last she lashes out.

I'm too lazy to look up the actress's name, but her performance was outstanding, full of small nuances in movement and facial expression that make this shy girl come to life. I only wish it had a conclusion that was worthy of the rest of the film. B (up until the last 20m or so it was an A-)
Reply
post #311 of 601
10/18/03 at 11:42am
.
Reply
post #312 of 601
10/18/03 at 4:35pm
Updated with a rental 2003 movie,

The Core out of

A as-expected rental movie, but does have some moments of good situations that keep it watchable. If only they had a decent convincing plot and not nearly 2hr 20 minutes long, it could've been at least decent.

Also made some changes,

Kill Bill Volume 1 has been upgraded to a tie with my favorite film of the year in Finding Nemo . Saw it twice and its better then expected and what movies should be like. Everything is in this movie.

The, Matrix Reloaded has also been slightly upgraded a 1/2 while, I was fully disappointed in theater, I gave it a 2nd chance with the DVD and while not nearly as good as the orginal it was still better then a rental type of movie and fans shouldn't be disappointed with this release.

Raymond
Reply
post #313 of 601
10/19/03 at 7:21am
Updated with four from the first two days of the First Annual Boston Fantastic Film Festival:

Undead is a fun little alien/zombie film from Australia that sometimes has a hard time balancing its "splat-stick" humor with the more serious elements - a movie with zombie fish doesn't quite earn scares or real suspense. ¾

Ju-On: The Grudge is a creepy-as-hell horror/ghost movie from Japan. Although the various stories of an encounter with a haunted house don't quite tie together, the lack of explanation makes it even scarier at points. Director Takashi Shimizu certainly knows how to make the audience jump, as well. ¼

Love Object is a creepy psychological horror movie that makes an Audition-like jump from off-beat romance to horror/torture, but without the same skill or shock value. The end is also too pat and grisly for my taste. ¾

Godzilla, Mothra and King Gidorah: Giant Monster All Out Attack is the best you can expect from a movie with that name, and I mean that in a good way. I found the human characters more engaging than in most Godzilla movies, the effects work is very good, and despite the fact that the filmmakers are having fun (the Emmerich/Devlin Godzilla is mocked in the first scene), much is played straight; there's actual suspense to this.
Reply
post #314 of 601
10/19/03 at 6:01pm
Updated with the excellent Mystic River (*****/*****). I agree with some that problems existed in this film, but the good far outweighs the bad, and this is one of the year's best IMO.
Reply
post #315 of 601
10/19/03 at 6:34pm
I updated with a bunch but the 2 best were:-

Kill Bill - My favorite film this year. I agree with Brook's sentiments about it being more artful than it is getting credited for. Tarantino's skills just keep improving.

Matchstick Men - I enjoyed it a lot and I initially thought it was worthy of 3.5 stars but a couple of days after now I rate it . Solid filmmaking and deserved more of an audience at the theatre.
Reply
post #316 of 601
10/19/03 at 8:40pm
I updated my list with a bunch of older ones from this year that I hadn't seen yet for one reason or another: The Italian Job, Hollywood Homicide, The Matrix Reloaded, A Mighty Wind, The Core, Hulk, and Better Luck Tomorrow.

Some good (Italian Job, Matrix Reloaded, Mighty Wind, Better Luck Tomorrow), some so-so (Hulk), and some not very good at all (Hollywood Homicide and The Core, and I had low expectations going into both of those, which they didn't live up to...)

Dying to see Kill Bill...
Reply
post #317 of 601
10/21/03 at 5:23am
A couple more from BFFF:

Visitors plays in coy as to whether it's a ghost story or just an isolated woman near the end of her rope. Radha Mitchell of Pitch Black is appealling enough as a woman sailing around the world solo only to have the wind die on her, but the film seldom builds up a sense of urgency. ½

2LDK is a "Duel film", a Japanese filmmaking challenge laid down by the maker of Versus to create short features where two people face off in one space. Here, the tension between two actresses who share an apartment comes to a boil in a brutal (but often darkly funny) 70 minutes.

Other stuff:

Carnage is a 13 Conversations-esque piece where several different stories are tied together by a bull killed in a bullfight. I'm not a big fan of this genre, and the opening act is very slow, but it's good enough. ½

Intolerable Cruelty is the funniest movie I've seen in some time. There haven't been many great modern screwball comedies, but the Coens, Clooney, and Zeta-Jones are all perfect for it. The final bit with Wheezy Joe nearly caused me to miss the entire next scene, I was laughing so hard, and clinched the rating.

Underworld... Gah. For a second, the thought of Kate Beckinsale in the tight leather made me forget how much I hate vampires, especially when they're given an air of nobility/aristocracy. Unfortunately for me, there were 7,260 more seconds left, all in the overdone tech-noir look. ½
Reply
post #318 of 601
10/21/03 at 7:18pm
.
Reply
post #319 of 601
10/21/03 at 8:03pm
Updated with Down With Love.

~Edwin
Reply
post #320 of 601
10/21/03 at 8:16pm
Updated with Mystic River out of


Solid and border-line great preformances all around, but the end result doesn't add up to anything worthwhile, I wasn't entralled with any of the characters and by the end result I felt pretty ho-hum about their situation. Still, a nicely done movie, just not engaging IMO.

Raymond
Reply
post #321 of 601
10/23/03 at 5:35am
Updated with John Malkovich's The Dancer Upstairs - long, unexciting and hardly interesting.

~Edwin
Reply
post #322 of 601
10/23/03 at 9:54am
.
Reply
post #323 of 601
10/23/03 at 10:29pm
.
Reply
post #324 of 601
10/24/03 at 1:25am
Updated my list with 2 I saw last weekend (but just got around to mini-reviewing): Kill Bill: Vol. 1, 80% (higher score on style and technicalities, lower on script/dialogue and acting), and Runaway Jury, an solid thriller (85%).
Reply
post #325 of 601
10/24/03 at 8:07am
Missed the last day of the Boston Fantastic Film Festival (damn brothers and their birthdays), though one of the films (Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat In Outer Space) will be playing here next week.

Returner is a not terribly original alien-invasion/time-travel bit that lifts most obviously from T2 and The Matrix. But, there's some good action, especially in the future war scenes. ¾

Robot Stories offers up four twenty-minute stories on a budget. My favorite was #4, "Clay", about a dying artist uncomfortable with the idea of having his mind uploaded into a computer.

Avalon, which has been more or less buried in the USA by Miramax (supposedly, the forthcoming DVD will be dubbed and full-frame as a final insult), looks beautiful but is deadly bleeding dull. Excruciating, really - there's not an interesting character or much new to contribute to the "lost in VR" subgenre. ½
Reply
post #326 of 601
10/24/03 at 7:39pm
.
Reply
post #327 of 601
10/25/03 at 7:19am
Updated with F. Gary Gray's The Italian Job, which I found fun, fast-moving and entertaining.

~Edwin
Reply
post #328 of 601
10/25/03 at 6:49pm
2003 Film List
By Lowell Battles


Last Updated: February 11th, 2004
Criteria Used: Initial U.S. theatrical release occurred in 2003.

Number of Films Seen: 44

Just Added:
Anger Management
L'Auberge espagnole (The Spanish Apartment) **
The Italian Job ***
Open Range ***
In America ****
The Triplettes of Belleville **

Coming up Next:

List by Rating (Too lazy to do alphabetical too):
Rated out of 4 Stars.


****

American Splendor
Finding Nemo
In America
The Last Samurai
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Lost in Translation
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Matchstick Men
Mystic River
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

***

All The Real Girls
Bend it Like Beckham
Better Luck Tomorrow
Big Fish
Cold Mountain
Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door (Tengoku no tobira)
He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not (A 'la folie... pas du tout)
Irreversible
Kill Bill: Volume 1
A Mighty Wind
Raising Victor Vargas
28 Days Later
Whale Rider
X-Men 2

***

American Wedding
The Italian Job
Lost in La Mancha
May
Open Range
The Rundown
Seabiscuit
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
21 Grams

**

L'Auberge espagnole (The Spanish Apartment)
Dark Blue
Identity
The Matrix Reloaded
Old School
Phone Booth
Shanghai Knights
The Triplettes of Belleville

**

Spider
Tears of the Sun



Anger Management



Lowell
Reply
post #329 of 601
10/26/03 at 9:34pm
Wrong Turn I love the concept of in-bred hillbilly genetic abominations, but like 28 Days Later, the execution is all wrong. Most of the money shots are fast cut or filmed in too much of a closeup, and the said freakish genetic mutations are hardly shown in closeup at all. If you went to the trouble of getting Stan Winston to do your effects, how about actually showing his work? There were a couple of quality deaths and on the 3 hot chicks. C+

The Dancer Upstairs: A pretty good police procedural with political elements but this movie didn't need a love interest. Every "romantic" scene serves only to grind the movie to a halt, padding the running time of an already overlong movie. C+
Reply
post #330 of 601
10/27/03 at 3:44am
.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Movies (Theatrical)