The following films were all seen at the cinema during 2001.
Art Of War cert. 18 (6/10)
Wesley Snipes, Anne Archer, and Donald Sutherland. Snipes and Archer are members of an elite UN anti crime and corruption team, targetting specifically goverments or goverment agencies. Sutherland is the UN Secretary general who seems to have been taken in by more than one side when mayhem breaks out during a UN conference. Snipes seems to be the fall guy, though for what is not quite certain as no one is who they appear to be. The ending is really rather lame, and to be honest the rest of the film, although showing some promise, does not ever really excite.
Meet The Parents cert.12 (4/10)
Allegedly this is a comedy, but I didn't find it more than vaguely amusing, and that not often. Both Ben Stiller and Rober DeNero can do better than this, and have done so. They managed to hold it together, just about, but even they couldn't really make this turkey seem anything other than what it was. Stiller is meeting his girlfriends parents for the first time, with the intention of asking her father for permission to marry his daughter. Unfortunately her father, Deniro, is an ex-cia man, though Stiller doesn't know this at first, and starts to give him the third degree, and generally scares him silly. The end result is that through his slight ineptness he manages to cause chaos at her sisters wedding. Although everything works out okay in the end, the impression left was why bother?
Unbreakable cert.15 (8/10)
An excellent film. Bruce Willis is actually getting better at this type of film, and I'm very impressed. Samual L Jackson has always been a favourite actor of mine, and it's almost worth watching this film just to see his hair style! That aside, this is a wonderful film, made by the same people who made Sixth Sense, and any some ways, it is vaguely similar. There's obviously something strange about the Willis' character, which Jackson tries to prove, in a very strange way. The twist at the end is all the more startling simply because, although you know there must be a twist, this isn't the one you expect. Very strongly recommended.
Vertical Limit cert.15 (7½/10)
Better than cliffhanger with which it bears some resemblance, this film holds together better, and although the basic plot is no less far fetched, the way it is done is, on the whole, far more believable as the plot holes are less obvious. Like Cliffhanger, this film starts off with a climber falling to his death, though the reason is slightly different, and also like Cliffhanger, one of the other principles involved doesn't climb again for another four years. Four years later and a climbing expedition goes wrong high in the Himalayas, 26 thousand feet up K2. Annie (Robin Tunny), is helping Elliot Vaughn (Bill Paxton) to get to the top when a tradgedy occurs, and three of the team are left stuck in a crevasse, injured, and with only a little over a days worth of water. Her brother Peter, (Chris O'Donnell), who arrived at the base camp almost by accident a couple of days earlier trys to arrange a rescue, and six more people set off up the mountain with barely enough time. Not a bad film, the scenery was absolutely spectacular, and with a background of the Pakistan/India war going on not very far away, and some ulterior motives, there was actually quite a lot to watch. They even managed to get in, albeit very briefly, a high altitude cricket match!
Cast Away cert.12 (5/10)
Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt lead in this actually quite weak story about a man stuck for four years on a tiny island in the Pacific. Chuck Nolan, Hanks, is a Fed.Ex. manager who lives by the clock, yet still manages time to have a girlfriend, Hunt. He's about to propose to her, gives her the ring, but doesn't actually ask her, as he's just about to fly off on another foriegn trip for Fed.Ex. His plane comes down in the middle of the ocean, in a storm, and more by luck than judgment, not only does he survive the crash, he manages to end up on a tiny island with enough tropical storms for him to find water, and enough cocnuts, crabs and fish for him to survive. Four years later some debris is washed up onto the beach which helps him to build a raft on which he can sail home. When he gets home, he finds that Kelly has moved on, and is married with a young daughter, though she still has his car. There were a number of things I disliked about this film. First, and probably the most important, was the sudden four year jump. This was a cheat, we should have seen some more of the intervening years, and certainly some hint of the turmoil going on back at home. While it was certainly pretty, there's no way, in reality, that that island was big enough to support him, there should have been more about the sheer struggle to survive, or alternatively, it should have been a shorter period of time. Not the best Hanks film by a long way, and definately not an oscar winner, and not even very good as a sinple feel good film. Disappointing.
Bounce cert.12 (5/10)
Simple and extremely predictable plot. Man switches plane tickets with someone else who is then killed when that plane crashes, man goes to meet bereaved wife to try and apologise, and the two slowly fall in love. End of story, end of plot. Ben Affleck is the person who should have died in the plane crash, but didn't, and Gwyneth Paltrow is the widow of the man who did. Alegedly a gentle romance with a bit of a sting, in fact a predictable boring mush. Avoid.
Dude, Wheres my car? cert.15 (6/10)
Funny, slightly sexy, and definately brain dead. This is one of those movies where if you even try to take it seriously you'll end up hurting yourself. Plot holes abound, but you don't care, it's even mildly sexist. Two guys wake up in the morning totally unable to remember what they did the previous evening, but as they go out and start looking for their car, the soon find out that someone is after them for lots of money, a strange artifact, and even their lives. The humour is in watching them try to work out what happened in this strange and extremely far fetched comedy.
Hanibal cert.18 (8/10)
Not as good as the original, but then very few sequels are, and with a change of cast, Julianne Moore taking over from Jodie Foster as FBI agent Clarice Starling. Lector is accidentally discovered in Italy by one of Lectors surviving victims, a heavily made over Gary Oldman, where he is currently living quietly as an art historian. Lector is very quickly back into his old ways, as much as anything for his own survival, and soon makes his way back to the united states. This film is just as dark and brooding as Silence of the Lambs, and the acting, direction, script and score are all perfect. There are occasions when you can even symathise with and maybe even root for Hannibal Lector, and for me that is a mark of an extremely skillful performance by all concerned.
What Women Want cert.12 (6/10)
Mel Gibson is an advertising executive and a womaniser and even a bit of a mysoginist who has a bit of an accident, and in the process discovers that he can now read the minds of all the women around him, including his own daughter. At first he's scared, then uses it for his own ends, including bedding the counter girl at his local coffee shop (Marisa Tomei). At first all he's trying to do is to get one over his new boss, (Helen Hunt) but soon he's using it to try and get her into bed as well. There's a fair amount of slap-stick humour, but overall I found this film to be a little dull. Much more could, and perhaps should, have been made of his new found ability, and I couldn't believe that it could make him a better person as quick as it did. Not a big screen film, more a made for TV movie that escaped! With Lauren Holly and Alan Alda.
© Dave Stratford 2001