2002 Film List - Page 7

Brook - I also really dug The Salton Sea.

Seth - I also really hated Bad Company.

Latest Additions:

Half Past Dead
Friday After Next

Crap.

The Hours

A movie I didn't expect to dig all that much for some reason. Regardless, I was wrong. Man, is it satisfying to just sit back and watch great actors act. Even those in small parts (Reilly, Collette, Harris) were spot-on perfect, and I can't possibly imagine a better trio of female leads than what's on display here. I had a few minor gripes, but overall an excellent film.

Yeah, based on his effort in the Hours and past close calls I'm surprised that Harris isn't getting more Oscar buzz. Cooper was outstanding but Harris really grabbed me. Not just in his look or the seriousness of the role, but in touch he seemed to be with the themes for his character. I think it's Harris at his very best (which is pretty damn good).


Now to ruin my rep (maybe. if there is anything to ruin even)
S1mOne
8 of 10
I was very surprised with how good this film was considering the reaction it had received. I suppose if it is taken as a straight SF film people would see it as hokey and unbelievable. However, I saw its approach to the SF aspects being VERY similar to how Being John Malkovich approached its own. There are many leaps of faith or gaps because that simply isn't the point of the film. The SF is only a device and in that way the SF can and must be bent to fit the theme. It's a "I get the basic idea" sort of thing. One example of this good artificiality is how Pacino is able to address the public at this oddly placed podium stepping out from nowhere and with no one else's involvement - unreal but quite fitting the film's tone.

It would be different if the film was just trying to be a SF thriller or investigative film. However, I saw the themes in this film to be strongly related to ideas we already saw in Network and The Truman Show (which Niccol wrote/produced). The film constantly has Network's commentary on the absurdity of stardom running, and in fact I would almost call this Network with film instead of TV. We also have some of the visual approaches that Weir/Niccol took with Truman as well as the controlling relationship from that film. In Truman we had some commentary on Christof's persona, the needs from his "creator" position, and in S1mone we find Pacino with very similar needs.

Now S1mone is hurt somewhat by being mostly a one man show whereas Network was really working many angles. And in the end S1mone goes for a slightly more bland resolution (though still with a wink on the subject), and that's what keeps me from seeing it as a 9 or 10 type film. But I really don't see this as some nasty mess or something.

And I also got a ton of laughs out of the film, much like moments in Network or BJM will make you laugh. The absurdity of the moments. Or maybe I'm just like the critics in the film who loved "I am Pig".

PS - I didn't realize that Niccol was the writer/director on Gattica and writer/producer on Truman Show until after seeing the film. So the Truman comparisons came before knowing there was such a real link. That's 3 straight interesting SF scripts by Niccol, something worth noting in modern H'wood.

Also take note that Niccol's next SF script is Paani and has Elizabeth and Four Feathers director Shekhar Kapur signed on. That sounds promising to me.

Antwone Fisher
9 of 10
Well, my top 30 is loaded with outstanding films as 2002 was very good to us on all fronts, big action, SciFi, romance, comedy, and great drama Fisher which fits in at 18 on my list (just above Y Tu Mama, Perdition, Far From Heaven).

Denzel didn't blow me away with his direction, though there were a few moments of beautiful work. However he did a great job of letting the script come out and giving the actors room to breathe (including himself). He and Luke just tear this stuff up, and it's good stuff by Fisher. The film never felt manipulative and Denzel made nice use of an opening image as an opening/ending resolution motif that choked me up. The 2 supporting actresses (Richardson and Bryant) are very good with limited but critical work.

And the story is inspirational, there is no denying that. It was refreshingly real even though it was walking over worn ground. It's like a Springer show of tragedy, yet I don't think Fisher ever asks the audience for sympathy nor does he use it as an excuse. Maybe that's one reason why the film felt so honest.

I certainly could see the case for acting recognition for Luke and Denzel (perhaps better than in Training Day or Hurricane), as well as the script by Fisher. I'm actually quite surprised the Academy didn't nominate it after the WGA did.

One last thing, if you need an actress that can come in an kick ass in even the smallest of supporting roles, enough to make your film truly better, just call up Viola Davis. She picked 3 outstanding films to be involved with in 2002 (Solaris, FFHeaven, AFisher).

Updated with the smartly written Igby Goes Down by Burr Steers and the harrowing Rabbit-Proof Fence by Phillip Noyce.

~Edwin

RE: Rabbit-Proof Fence


That first comment is a head-scratcher for me as, with Brook, I found the motivations explained plain and clear in the film.

I would also have to disagree with your comment about Kenneth Branagh. He brought the character to a different level to what might otherwise easily had been just another stock villain.

~Edwin

Updated my List with:

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (*** / ****)

An amusing and enjoyable diversion even if it doesn't have much depth.

I also lowered the ratings on some stinkers too.

Lowell

I'll go over to the RPF thread to explain more.

Beijing Bicycle was a mixed bag for me. I think the film's narrative is flawed when it goes away from telling the story of a simple rural lad trying to survive on the mean streets of Beijing and then asks us to follow a middle class punk who's story is much less interesting. But taken as a critique of the Westernization of Chinese life and values the film gains a great deal of power.

I also think there is some merit in the Village Voice review that referred to this as part of the "Miramaxation" of world cinema. A little more grit and realism along the lines of City of God or the better Iranian films would have done Beijing Bicycle some good. The slickness and overly intrusive score work against some of the feeling's it is trying to evoke. For now I think I'll give it a B-, intellectually stimulating, but emotionally unsatisfying.

Well, here comes my addition to the group. I'll try to fancy it up some later...

2002 Movie List
last updated: February 23, 2003
Criteria: U.S. release during 2002 (with some exceptions - if they really don't belong in 2002 let me know and out they go)
Number of films seen: 45
Rating system: x.x out of 10

The Pianist - 10

Chicago - 9.5
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - 9.5

Audition - 9
Brotherhood of the Wolf - 9

Punch-Drunk Love - 8.5

About A Boy - 8
About Schmidt - 8
Adaptation. - 8
The Hours - 8
Gangs of New York - 8

Below - 7.5
The Bourne Identity - 7.5
Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets - 7.5
One Hour Photo - 7.5
The Ring - 7.5
Road to Perdition - 7.5
Spider-Man - 7.5
Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones - 7.5

Blade II - 7
Catch Me If You Can - 7
Dog Soldiers - 7
The Emperor's Club - 7
The Good Girl - 7
Minority Report - 7
Panic Room - 7
Red Dragon - 7
Resident Evil - 7
Signs - 7

Insomnia - 6.5
Solaris - 6.5

My Big Fat Greek Wedding - 6
The Sum of All Fears - 6
Unfaithful - 6

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever - 5
Blood Work - 5
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood - 5
Reign of Fire - 5
Windtalkers - 5
XXX - 5

High Crimes - 4.5
John Q - 4.5

Life or Something Like It - 4
Men In Black 2 - 4
The Mothman Prophecies - 4

Still Hope to See:
8 Mile
Antwone Fisher
Bowling for Columbine
Changing Lanes
City of God
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Crime of Father Amarro
Das Experiment
Drumline
Far From Heaven
The Four Feathers
Frida
Ghost Ship
Igby Goes Down
K-19: The Widowmaker
Moonlight Mile
Narc
The Quiet American
Rabbit-Proof Fence
The Rules of Attraction
Secretary
Skins
Star Trek: Nemesis
Tadpole
Talk to Her
The Transporter
We Were Soldiers
White Oleander
Y Tu Mama Tambien

And for those who have to know....here's a top 10:

1 - The Pianist
2 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
3 - Chicago
4 - Brotherhood of the Wolf
5 - Audition
6 - Punch-Drunk Love
7 - Gangs of New York
8 - The Hours
9 - About A Boy
10 - Adaptation.

As always, positions could change based on newer additions and/or further consideration.

Updated my list with The Pianist, which gets a 10/10 from me. My Top Ten is overdue for an overhaul, but The Pianist will definitely be on it.

Watched 13 Conversations About One Thing and enjoyed it, though the #@#$% DVD from Netflix stopped with 5 min to go and I couldn't get it to play the rest of the movie. In some ways it reminded me of a good Woody Allen movie. The interlocking storylines mostly worked very well, especially the Alan Arkin section, which I thought was the best developed and most interesting. B

Updated my list to include all sorts of random stuff, such as Stuart Little 2 (good for diabetics), the fantastic DVD An Evening with Kevin Smith, the more-entertaining-than-expected John Leguizamo flick Empire, the wholly awful The First $20 Million, the cute 'n kinetic Powerpuff Girls, the stunningly wretched Enough, and the meandering pablum that is Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

Oh, and the well-acted but very dull The Quiet American.

And still I haven't seen 8 Mile.

Updated with:

The Quiet American an above average movie with some really great acting.

Frida an very average movie all around.

Updated with Elie Chouraqui's Harrison's Flowers.

~Edwin

Updated my list with:

About a Boy (***1/2 / ****)

and

Chicago (***1/2 / ****)

Two very good movies that fall just outside my Top 10.

Lowell

Updated with all sorts of stuff. Damn this snowstorm.

Juwanna Mann - One of the worst comedies I've ever seen. Ever.

Eight Crazy Nights - One of the worst animated films I've ever seen. Ever ever.

Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat - Easily one of the worst concert movies I've ever seen. Ever ever ever.

The Four Feathers - Not as bad as I'd heard, but it comes off mainly as 'little kid dress-up hour'.

Tadpole - It never helps when a movie's main character is an unlikeable jerk. Veteran character actors save this one from a total failure.

Windtalkers
1 of 10
To paraphrase Scott, "one of the worst war films I've ever seen. Ever ever."

Give it a hack script built on cliches, direct it with the flair of a poor high school production also complete with cliches, put in performances by the actors that seem to say "hey, it's a paycheck", and make sure to avoid any new concept of interest including the alleged premise for the film - code talking Indians fighting for their country - and you've got crap stew. The first 30 minutes were cringe inducing hack filmmaking with a budget. Do I really need a flashback to the opening scene anytime Cage stresses out in battle? "oh, so THAT'S why he is freaking out now, I just thought he was confused, you can't expect me to remember the start of a film 35 minutes into it."

If only the film had 1 character be unnreasonably prejudiced against Indians (hello, this is 1940 not 1890) only to turn it all around when one of them saves his life.

Oh wait...

If you ever wondered what Ed Wood would do with a decent budget, the experiment has been completed. I even thought Woo screwed at least half of the action scenes, turning them into cornball cliched moments of melodrama.

.

Changing Lanes could have been a pretty good movie, but what I saw last night wasn't. The script has too many speeches with unnatural formal dialogue which only works if you establish that sort of world within your film, which this movie never does. It always pulls its punches and has too many scenes that completely diffuse any tension that has been built and the moral ambiguities are destroyed by the laughably trite ending. C

Jason, you can now delete this post. Thank you.

Updated with some of those annoying remainders from last year:

The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course - One episode of a TV show intercut with some of the worst 'plot padding' I've ever witnessed. This is less than a movie.

Octopus 2: River of Death - Wanna see a giant Octopus demolish the Statue of Liberty?

Auto Focus - Excellent work by Greg Kinnear and Willem Defoe keep this sketchy biopic afloat. The trademark Schrader seediness is present and entertaining, but the flick lives you with kind of a "What was your point?" vibe. Still a solid DVD rental / cable flick.

Brown Sugar - Charming actors salvage the 'same old thing' feeling that permeates the whole of this urban When Harry Met Sally revisit. Familiar and predictable to a painful degree, but surprisingly not awful.

The Country Bears - I consider it it a dragon slain. Every bit as horrifying as I expected.

Updated my List with:

The Pianist (***1/2 / ****)

An incredible story told very well by the old pro Roman Polanski. The skirmish/battle sequences seen from the window perspective were absolutely amazing.

and,

Talk to Her (Hable con Ella) (***1/2 / ****)

A refreshing story with tons of visual flair and style. I also loved the color changing credits.

Two more very good movies that fall just a bit outside my Top 10. And that about concludes my 2002 movies I'm going to see in the theater. Now I just have to wait for the ones I missed to come to DVD.

Lowell

Okay, Matt Stone and I just endured hours of driving in the wretched snow storm that hit us today. Fit right in with the crappy trip to Chicago last year. But it was worth it since we got together to catch Talk to Her and The Quiet American back to back basically.


The Quiet American
9 of 10
I'm honestly surprised this film wasn't being more strongly considered for Best Picture. It's far more than just a Caine showpiece. The script is outstanding, both in story and dialog. Frazier is solid, though not special, but Caine is great as is the rest of the supporting cast. It's like a mix of the tensions from Year of Living Dangerously and In the Mood for Love. Numerous beautiful and/or captivating shots/scenes fill the film as well. I think Philip Noyce's direction is better here than in Rabbit Proof Fence. All you need to know about the film is the establishing shot showing the tranquility of a Saigon river city scene with nighttime warfare far in the distance like "fireworks" as the voice over describes. The film is all about such contradictions.

I put it at 13 on my 2002 film list (which is only missing 2-3 "top" films at this point). I put Caine just below DDLewis and above Nicholson. Outstanding character to work with and he brings it all out.

Talk to Her
9.5 of 10
The direction and writing in Talk to Her DO deserve the nominations they earned, and it's too bad there wasn't room to nominate Dario Grandinetti (Marco) for Best Actor as well. He really sold the film for me. The most amazing aspect of this film is that while there is a plot line that is rather sick, it is played so that you can (and probably will) still strongly sympathize with the offending character. The film is just interesting as hell to watch and snuck up on me with some of its emotional moments (a scene at basically the end got me just because Dario is so good in it).

This film goes in at #10 on my list.

I updated my lists with the same films (obviously), and Seth's post sums up my feelings.

4.5/5 for The Quiet American, and 5/5 for Talk to Her.

.

Updated with Y Tu Mama Tambien.

Updated with:

The Importance of Being Earnest - Light and entertaining, though it lacks the confident spark of Parker's earlier An Ideal Husband. (3.5 stars out of 5)

Return to Never Land - One of the better Low Rent Disney Sequels - though that's hardly high praise. (2 stars out of 5)

White Oleander - Well-acted and intermittently touching tale, though it doesn't leave much of an impression. Pfeiffer is fantastic (in what was a much smaller part than I expected), Zellweger delivers a great supporting turn, and young Alison Lohman is spot-on perfect. Alas, it takes more than solid acting to make a worthwhile film. (2.5 stars out of 5)

Spirited Away - If this doesn't win the Oscar for Best Animated Film, you'll hear an explosion somewhere in Philadelphia. That'll be my brain. (4.5 stars out of 5)