2003 Film List (1 Viewer)

[Edwin Pereyra]

Wachowski brothers' mindless and humorless romp, The Matrix Revolutions.
Next Up: Master and the Commander
~Edwin

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
Next Up: The Station Agent
~Edwin

 

[Seth Paxton]

Better Luck Tomorrow
8.5 of 10
I love the script, I love the characters, and for the most part I love the stylish direction. But at the same time I couldn't help but notice just how much the film borrows in tone, sound, and style from Fight Club. I like FC, so naturally I also liked this film. But I couldn't rate it higher because it also seemed like a lot of it's charm was not of its own making due to this "copying".
Still, this is a film that makes a nice companion piece to something like Trainspotting or this year's City of God, but with the twist that these anti-social youths are hiding within the structure rather than clashing against it.
I also just saw the DEC 2002 film Drumline which I thought was mostly awful (4 of 10). I can't believe its high RT score (I know its a thumbs up or down thing, but still). It's not offensively bad but the script is horrible and simply does not fit the subject matter (the only good thing about the film really).
Now I need to go see M&C too. I'm hyped on it.

 

[Raymond_H]

Updated with,
Master and Commander : The Far Side of the World :star: :star: :star: 1/2
A terrific movie, a great character movie and one of the best high sea movies ever. Crowe is one damn good actor too. While the action bookends the movie, the heart lies in the middle with some great storytelling between characters.
Elf :star: :star: :star:
A solid run-of-the-mill family movie but with some adult hooks by the director to please and the break-out performance in a talior made role/movie for former SNL star Will Ferrell.
Raymond.

 

[Dana Fillhart]

Updated my list with three very good films -- Love Actually (85%), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (85%), and Lost in Translation (80%). All recommended seeing.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Jonathan Mostow's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines does have some funny one liners. But overall, it is yet another throwaway summer action adventure flick.
~Edwin

 

[Jason Seaver]

Okay, what I've seen the past week:
Dragon Fight made me happy as a sandboy.
Master & Commander is a solid fighting-sailor movie, maybe the best ever made. Certainly, one of the most eye-poppingly gorgeous and elaborate; it just puts you in its time and place. :star::star::star:½
The Event is awful. I think even if I agreed with its politics, I'd have hated this movie, it's so lifeless with flat characters and no discernable drama. Wastes some pretty decent actors, too. :star:¾
I haven't yet figured out where I'll categorize The Animation Show; most of the cartoons are from previous years - I think the only new things created for the show are Don Herzfeldt's introduction, "Intermission In The Third Dimension", and close, which feature the little cornflake guys from "Rejected" (also included). New Herzfeldt is always a good thing, though, and -- ROBOTS!!!
Die, Mommie, Die! had me splitting my sides. Writer Charles Busch plays screen siren Angela Arden (yeah, you're reading that right), in a hilarious sendup of old-style Bette Davis melodrama. Great supporting turns by Jason Priestly, Natasha Lyonne, Stark Sands, and Phillip Baker Hall. :star::star::star:
More detailed reviews available (or forthcoming) on my movie blog (below).

 

[Damin J Toell]

Updated with Lars Von Trier's Epidemic (1987). This is its first official US release, so I am putting it with the 2003 films.
DJ

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Eric Byler’s Charlotte Sometimes was featured in Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival earlier this year. An overlooked film, indeed.
~Edwin

 

[Brook K]

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is inferior in every conceivable way to Cameron's films. The humor is awful, the action scenes demonstrate a way to abundant usage of CGI, the Terminatrix (or whatever) doesn't exhibit 1/10th of the menace of Robert Patrick, the film is underlit, the score generic, and there is no punch or tension to the scenes. Only the poignant (or at least as poignant as this type of soulless action flick can get) ending saves the movie from complete blandness. C+
Gerry count me in the "this is really good camp". I found it a moving rumination on the monotony of everyday life as well as raising extraordinary questions about what a person thinks about when they know death is at hand. For all of our "modernness", man must always respect nature. The Sun will keep coming up...we won't. A-

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Thomas McCarthy's The Station Agent.
Next Up: The Human Stain
~Edwin

 

[Seth Paxton]

Lost in La Mancha
7.5 of 10
It's a pretty well-told documentary which does a nice job of tying together the subject of the film being made with the production of the film itself. Unlike the often forced soap opera drama of Project Greenlight, here the audience sees what real cinema disasters look like and they are sickening to watch. At one point a flood begins to carry all of the equipment and set pieces away and my stomach just dropped even though I knew the film was doomed anyway.
It could have scored better if it had dealt a bit more with the emotional exchange that had to be going on with the players rather than spending most of the film as a semi-neutral recorder of history. For all the disaster we don't see too much in the way of real conflict, though its clear that there had to be some very spirited moments between the crew.
In that way La Mancha is all problems without the drama while Greenlight is all drama without the problems (at least the big boy problems that Gilliam's team was met by).
In the end I was impressed with the brief glimpses of the film, sets, costumes and storyline. It really does appear that this would have been a fantastic film, at least for Gilliam fans like myself. It really seems unfair that it fell apart like that.

 

[Raymond_H]

Updated with How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days :star: :star:
A run-of-the-mill romantic comedy. It gets some laughs, has a beautiful leading lady (who basically is the whole show) but fails to add any depth in this tired genre.
Raymond

 

[Arman]

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[Edwin Pereyra]

May
I thought I’d give this one a try as it appeared recently in a handful of Top 10 lists so far this year. What a POS! I never thought I’d use those words to describe a film. But anything less would be pure dishonesty on my part. This film is just vile and disgusting in its disguised pretentiousness. It offers nothing new to the genre. With this film, the last thing we need is rationalizing the Jeffrey Dahmers of the world and applauding them for their actions while passing it off as entertainment.
There are some who are quick to dismiss that those who dislike this film does not know anything about movies. Well, I’m happy to be in the company of “those people”. I can understand a certain predilection towards a particular genre. But “one of the best films of the year”? You got to be kidding.
~Edwin

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Added a few:
Winged Migration - Dazzling. I was like hip-mo-tized.
House of Sand and Fog - Fans of heavy drama will dig this one. I definitely did.
The Battle of Shaker Heights - Never helps when your main character is an insufferable little putz. It's the Igby rule.
Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns - Fans will love it; non-fans will enjoy it for about 40-some minutes before getting bored. DVD is loaded with cool TMBG goodies, too!
..and I never said May was one of the best movies I've seen this year.
I said it was the best.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things.
~Edwin

 

[Lowell_B]

Updated my list with the very good:
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (***1/2 / ****)
An excellent genre picture, it just sort of flows from scene to scene. Having the restrictions of making a movie in such a confined environment it's really something to have each scene be fresh and have the movie seem much shorter than it's running time.
A lot of great individual scenes too that really stand out. Loved the "classical music as a score" too, and who woulda thought Russell Crowe could play violin.
Lowell

 

[Brook K]

Looney Tunes Back In Action: Funny and entertaining. The "Tunes" and live action work well together. There's a number of funny references and injokes and even some creative animated sequences that hearken back to the imagination of Chuck Jones. Brendan Frasier does an admirable job of keeping up with the silliness and Jenna Elfman shows off some quality gams . The only real minus is Steve Martin's completely stupid villain.
I thought the humor was too adult skewed for my kids (4 and 2) but they both ended up really enjoying it. B

 

[Jason Seaver]

Another week, another few films.
On the rep-house list, we have Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe in How To Marry A Millionaire and Sonny Chiba in The Executioner. Both were kind of cruddy prints, but at least Millionaire was a good movie.
I added Bill Plympton's "Parking" (:star::star::star:½) and Don Hertzfeldt's "Welcome To The Show/Intermission In The Third Dimension/End Of The Show" (:star::star::star:¾) to the shorts list; both are good reasons for seeking out Hertzfeldt & Judge's "Animation Show".
Inner Senses has gotten a few good reviews at asian/horror film festivals, and has the notereity of being Leslie Cheung's last role, but it's ultimately not a very good movie. It's not bad, per se, but it's not exactly a high note for an actor so respected to go out on. Eerily, the plot involves at least one character jumping from a building. :star::star:½
The Matrix Revolutions: The Imax Experience was $10 dollars of suck and $4 of Zion being attacked. Really, it's a darn good thing I can be mollified by new and creative ways of blowing stuff up, otherwise I'd really hate this movie. :star::star:
(I'm expecting apologies from everyone who mocked me liking the new Star Wars movies more than The Matrix series any day now... )