1 Lord of the Rings – Funny Scene when Aragorn and Gimli go out the side door of Helm’s deep. Loved this movie.
2 Talk To Her – Been a fan of Almodovar since seeing Tie Me Up Tie Me Down at Grafton Stovall. Go Dukes! The movie is beautiful and inspires vibrant thoughts and guilty laughs amid despair and heinous action – that sounds a lot stupider than I intended, but the movie’s better than my words.
3 Y Tu Mama Tambien – Missed the opening scene Doh! I’ve never been as hypnotized by cleavage. I like the road picture with hi-jinks as movie. Plus the beach scene with the fisherman gave me instant wanderlust daydreams
4 Spider Man – Glad they used key elements of the Amazing Spider Man #1 comic for his origin of Spiderman with radiation to genetics upgrade. JJJ was so fun to watch on screen, I guess I missed a lot of the humor in him while reading the comics. I hated when William DaFoe begged, pleaded and finally succumbed to the Green Goblin Mask/Identity in his house. I don’t need Shakespearean monologues in my super hero tales, especially that one. I took my nephews to this movie for a lot of personal enjoyment.
5 Star Wars – As I did for Episode I, I saw this at a Ziegfield matinee on Memorial Day. It is a nice tradition and a great way to kick off the summer. I watched The Phantom Menace the night before and I couldn’t stand it. I t maddened me. I was surprised how little of it I liked. It had the exact opposite of pumping myself up for Episode II. But the little I did enjoy in Menace, was the political intrigue that was largely in the background. With Clones, the political strategy and its effects played larger role; diplomacy had the heat turned up a notch. I enjoyed the Boba story and its planet of lithe aliens, as well. The opening taxi chase scene in my opinion was funny, instantly engaging, and exactly what I needed to get into this click. A friend cracked me up with the comparison between the picnic love scene and a douche commercial. I am very afraid if I saw this again it would drop like a stone.
6 Secretary – It seemed strange that a carnival slash boy fell down a well hysteria would arise because Maggie was sitting at a desk for over a day. I thought the ending of the characters finally being able to reveal themselves was a great expression of their newfound ability to not only love each other but also themselves.
Movies 7-12 are all very close for me, almost interchangeable in rank.
7 Gangs of New York – Leo paled to Daniel. I want to be part of DDL’s P Posse. For the first 1/3 of this movie, I wanted the camera to follow of lot of the peripheral action. Once I settled into the story being presented, I really enjoyed it. Hated the Robbie Robertson soundtrack song during the opening scene. Robbie, please stop with the faux Native American with electronic beats.
9 Harry Potter – These is a good movie series. Wish there was a little more multi-level humor for the adults in attendance, but I don’t think most adults care.
10. Road to Perdition – Not exactly the most psychedelic movie…Great to watch even though, as it has been compared critally to since its premier, it was NO Miller’s Crossing. When is Miller’s Crossing going to be available as a DVD! This movie probably contained my most disappointing ending in 2002. We spend ¾ of the movie watching Tom Hanks worrying that his son will turn out just like him, in having to turn to a life of crime and killing for a living. No matter how morally strict he raised his boy, Tom Hanks’ character is racked with fear that he has doomed his son to a future spot in hell. And than at the end, with the question the boy’s soul dangling, the boy "can’t" shoot the Jude Law assassin. We are given our answer but the best the scriptwriters could come up with for Tom Hank’s to utter is "I Know." Not only does that betray the suspense, it was just weak.
11 Story Telling – Odd movie for a first date – not too many dates after that. I thought the child who took his maid for granted was a great character. And the big bad-ass writing instructor who is working off some 40-acres-and-a-mule anger off on deconstruction chanteuses is pretty great "black humor." Ba doom crash!
12 Good Girl – Jennifer Anniston did a good job of bringing this screenplay of the danger of being uncertain with everything in your life except your boredom to life.
13 Dogtown and The Z Boys – This was definitely a cool movie. I like the subject matter and lots of the kids reminded of the teens that I thought were the coolest in 1978. It was mostly due to the bad mustaches. This movie would be a lot higher if I didn’t feel that I would have probably preferred to see a photo exhibit with a headphone guide - complete with Sabbath of course. A B&W moment capturing a 14 year old caught an inch above the rim of a pool looks like definition of radical. The video footage of the times often revealed how mundane some of the moves looked
14 Undercover Brother – I confused this title at first with the Tim Meadows movie, The Ladies Man. The Ladies Man would have ranked this high on my list.
15 CQ –
Went on a recommendation from a friend
I was disappointed.
(Sounds almost like the beginning of a Haiku)
16 Like Mike - A Bus Movie. Crispin Glover is in this; I agree with Dan in opinion of Crispin Glover. Obviously not that great, but unlike some bus movies, I watched it straight through. The sneakers at the heart of this movie are comically beat-the-hell-out-of. One cool scene occurs when the team point guard helps out the kid with the magic sneakers now playing in the NBA but still having to learn geometry. He demonstrates the three types of triangles with three NBA teams team defensive strategies.
17 Moonlight Mile – Not even Mediocre Mile.
18 K 19 – Bus Movie. Sat at a bad TV which was naturally dark, plus there was a glare, so it made it difficult to watch this movie. It was Russ’ wife Anya’s, whose father was Russian Sub Commander, favorite movie of the year. A funny story that many of you will remember: After over two months in America for the first time, and on practically her last day, she and Russ sat down for an all-day movieathon: Happiness, Mulholland Drive, and I forget the third but I think it was Being John Malkovich…any help confirming this third one? Amy Wan?
19 Divine Secrets of the Divine the Ya Ya Sisterhood – Justin and I opted for red wine and whiskey on our flight to San Francisco rather than put on the headphones, but this was the in-flight movie
2002
LISTS
dan
kevin
jeremy
alex
sujan
dave n.
sarah f.
juhi
genna
shawn
chris larry
mitch
chris m.
donovan
marc
jim
