From My Collection: Thirteen Days Movie Review

The Kennedys are a mythologized family and political dynasty. The brothers John F. and Robert, because of their tragic and untimely deaths through assassination, are lionized more than almost any other political figure of the last century. Because they also had distinctive accents, speech patterns, and styles, it’s difficult to portray them on film without resorting to some form of ghastly imitation. Roger Donaldson’s 2000 film Thirteen Days, about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, gets the casting so right for their roles that at times you almost forget you’re watching icons. You’re really seeing these characters, these men, trying to avert nuclear war and the destruction of life as we know it.

Scream 3 Movie Review

Because the first Scream ushered in a new era of cheap Hollywood slasher films, it just feels wildly out of place to find yourself watching Scream 3 attempting to be all self-referential and ironic about the tropes of the genre after a slew of other films started repeating the formula unironically. Screenwriter Ehren Kruger took over the responsibility for penning this entry from original creator Kevin Williamson (but Wes Craven returned to direct). What he did, I suppose in an attempt to freshen things up, was to set the slashing amid the making of the latest “Stab” film (you might remember that’s the series based on the murders that took place in the first film.  So we get treated to lazy jokes about Hollywood and actors and directors and screenwriters that pale in comparison to the satire of, say, The Player or Wag the Dog.

Short Cut Movie Review From My Collection - Mission: Impossible II

I was so crazy for John Woo at the time Mission: Impossible II came out that almost nothing could have deterred my enthusiasm for the film. I still love it today and see plenty to admire in it and it remains my favorite of the four films in the series, but there are some obvious flaws in it that I never quite saw 13 years ago.

People have been criticizing this film, as well as many other Woo films, for the use of slow motion, for the unbelievable drama, for the doves and pigeons. Okay, his use of birds floating around during climactic action scenes does get tiresome. But I think the heightened drama really plays well in most of his films, and especially well in the case of Mission: Impossible II. Woo loves to combine elements of Douglas Sirk level melodrama with totally unbridled action. Isn’t an action sequence more thrilling, doesn’t the lump in your throat or the hold on your breath grow more powerful if the dramatic tension is raised even beyond the level of realism? Why should we criticize a movie that employs ridiculous and unbelievable action stunts for coupling it with unbelievable drama?

Until Misson:Impossible – Ghost Protocol, this was easily some of Tom Cruise’s greatest stunt work as an actor. His love interest, played by Thandie Newton, is exquisitely beautiful. I never had any problem believing the two of them could fall so hard for each other so quickly. Dougray Scott isn’t exactly the greatest villain in action history and he does force it occasionally, but watching it now I’m more focused on his number two man, played by Richard Roxburgh. Compare Roxburgh’s performance here with his role in Moulin Rouge and you see what a fantastic actor he is.

The movie’s weakest link, I see now, is Robert Towne’s screenplay, which relies too heavily on cliché-ridden often lazy dialogue. It’s remarkable to think this is the same guy who wrote Chinatown. Also, some of the stunts don’t make physical sense when a man is flying through the air in one direction and he’s suddenly propelled in the opposite direction by a bullet. It’s poor in a disorienting way. But overall, the stunts are spectacular and the vast majority of the action expertly directed by master Woo.

Best in Show Movie Review

Christopher Guest got a taste for the so-called mockumentary sub-genre when he wrote and starred in Rob Reiner’s This Is Spinal Tap, the classic comedy that pretends to be a documentary about an 80s hair metal band. Starting in the mid-90s, Guest began writing and directing his own mockumentary style films beginning with Waiting for Guffman, which focuses on a small town community theater production. My favorite of his films, however, is Best in Show, about the quirky characters involved in the fictional Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show in Philadelphia.

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations Movie Review

John Mark Byers (right) gives an interview on local TV news.

The impression I got from Paradise Lost, Joe Berlinger’s and Bruce Sinofsky’s documentary that focused on the trials of the West Memphis Three and the crimes they were convicted of committing, was that their intent was to present an objective portrait of those events. Five years later they returned to follow up and explore new evidence and accusations to make Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, a documentary that is much more unabashed in its partisan view of the crime, investigation and trial.

From My Collection: State and Main Movie Review

Robert Altman’s brilliant 1992 return to form The Player gets all the ink when it comes to Hollywood satire. It is a fantastic piece of work – suspenseful and darkly comic. But re-watching State and Main, David Mamet’s comedy about a Hollywood production that tears apart a small New England town, I realized this has to be ranked as one of the great satirical films. What makes it more remarkable is that Mamet was primarily known for his thrillers, set up as complex confidence games. Although it was not nearly as much a departure as his 1999 film The Winslow Boy, a G-rated period piece family drama about a boy accused of theft at his school. State and Main is as biting and funny as his great screenplay for Wag the Dog, a satire of the political process.

John Cusack Week Continues with High Fidelity Movie Review

I’ve rarely had as strong a personal connection to a movie or a character as I had to John Cusack’s Rob Gordon in High Fidelity. At the time it was as if Rob was speaking directly to me. In fact, he regularly breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to camera, a wonderful little touch by the screenwriting team (J.V. DeVincentis, Cusack, Steve Pink, and Scott Rosenberg) in adapting the Nick Hornby novel and deftly handled by Stephen Frears so that it never feels forced or gimmicky. However, it wasn’t only the direct connection to Rob that Cusack and Frears made me feel as an audience member, but a story that was, quite frankly, what I imagined I would write at the time if I were to write a screenplay.

Modern Classic Movie Review: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

From about the mid-1990s to the first years of the twenty-first century, starting with the mainstream introduction of Jackie Chan in North America, Asian martial arts films achieved something beyond the cult status they once had. It was probably a question of time and perhaps somewhat inevitable that eventually one would go on to garner the kind of awards that indicate a certain level of popular acceptance. That it happened only five years after Jackie Chan’s first US hit, Rumble in the Bronx, is somewhat remarkable.

When Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was released it quickly became one of the most successful subtitle films of all time. It was nominated for 10 Oscars – a record for a foreign language film. There were reports of applause in movie theaters at the conclusion of the first fight and chase sequence along the rooftops. Although it continued a grand tradition of martial arts films involving mysticism, the warrior’s philosophy, and seemingly supernatural powers, this was the first time it was not only seen en masse, but with stunning production value.

Top Ten of 2000

This list was made in early 2001, but posted on 11 November 2015 and backdated to 1 January 2001.

1. Traffic dir. Steven Soderbergh

2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon dir. Ang Lee

3. Almost Famous dir. Cameron Crowe

4. You Can Count on Me dir. Kenneth Lonergan

5. State and Main dir. David Mamet

6. Requiem for a Dream dir. Darren Aronofsky

7. Wonder Boys dir. Curtis Hanson

8. Thirteen Days dir. Roger Donaldson

9. Gladiator dir. Ridley Scott

10. Shadow of the Vampire dir. E. Elias Merhige

All films seen from 2000 (based on U.S. commercial release)

* review available on this site

+ from my collection

^ no U.S. theatrical release

all films in bold received at least one Oscar nomination

100 Girls dir. Michael Davis

28 Days dir. Betty Thomas

All the Pretty Horses dir. Billy Bob Thornton

+Almost Famous dir. Cameron Crowe

American Psycho dir. Mary Harron

Bamboozled dir. Spike Lee

The Beach dir. Danny Boyle

Bedazzled dir. Harold Ramis

Before Night Falls dir. Julian Schnabel

Best in Show dir. Christopher Guest

Billy Elliot dir. Stephen Daldry

Boiler Room dir. Ben Younger

^The Book that Wrote Itself dir. Liam O. Mochain

The Boondock Saints dir. Troy Duffy

Bounce dir. Don Roos

Bring It On dir. Peyton Reed

Cast Away dir. Robert Zemeckis

The Cell dir. Tarsem Singh

Charlie's Angels dir. McG

Chicken Run dir. Nick Park and Peter Lord

Chocolat dir. Lasse Hallström

The Contender dir. Rod Lurie

*+Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon dir. Ang Lee

Dancer in the Dark dir. Lars von Trier

Dr. T and the Women dir. Robert Altman

Dracula 2000 dir. Patrick Lussier

Dude, Where's My Car? dir. Danny Leiner

Erin Brockovich dir. Steven Soderbergh

The Family Man dir. Brett Ratner

Final Destination dir. James Wong

Finding Forrester dir. Gus Van Sant

Frequency dir. Gregory Hoblit

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai dir. Jim Jarmusch

The Gift dir. Sam Raimi

Gladiator dir. Ridley Scott

Gone in Sixty Seconds dir. Dominic Sena

*+High Fidelity dir. Stephen Frears

Hollow Man dir. Paul Verhoeven

The House of Mirth dir. Terence Davies

How the Grinch Stole Christmas dir. Ron Howard

If These Walls Could Talk 2 dir. Martha Coolidge, Jane Anderson, and Anne Heche

Jesus' Son dir. Alison McLean

Keeping the Faith dir. Edward Norton

The Legend of Bagger Vance dir. Robert Redford

Loser dir. Amy Heckerling

Me, Myself, and Irene dir. Peter and Bobby Farrelly
Meet the Parents dir. Jay Roach
Men of Honor dir. George Tillman Jr.
Mission to Mars dir. Brian De Palma
*+Mission: Impossible 2 dir. John Woo
My Dog Skip dir. Jay Russell
Nurse Betty dir. Neil LaBute
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps dir. Peter Segal
+O Brother, Where Art Thou dir. Joel Coen
The Original Kings of Comedy dir. Spike Lee
*Paradise Lost 2: Revelations dir. Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
The Patriot dir. Roland Emmerich
Pay It Forward dir. Mimi Leder
The Perfect Storm dir. Wolfgang Petersen
Pollock dir. Ed Harris
Proof of Life dir. Taylor Hackford
Quills dir. Philip Kaufmann
Reindeer Games dir. John Frankenheimer
Remeber the Titans dir. Boaz Yakin
+Requiem for a Dream dir. Darren Aronofsky
Road Trip dir. Todd Phillips
Romeo Must Die dir. Andrzej Bartkowiak
Saving Grace dir. Nigel Cole
Scary Movie dir. Keenan Ivory Wayans
Scream 3 dir. Wes Craven
+Shadow of the Vampire dir. E. Elias Merhige
Shaft dir. John Singleton
Shanghai Noon dir. Tom Dey
The Skulls dir. Rob Cohen
Small Time Crooks dir. Woody Allen
Snatch dir. Guy Ritchie
Space Cowboys dir. Clint Eastwood
*+State and Main dir. David Mamet
*+Thirteen Days dir. Roger Donaldson
Tigerland dir. Joel Schumacher
+Traffic dir. Steven Soderbergh
U-571 dir. Jonathan Mostow
Unbreakable dir. M. Night Shyamalan
The Virgin Suicides dir. Sofia Coppola
What Planet Are You From? dir. Mike Nichols
What Women Want dir. Nancy Meyers
Whatever It Takes dir. David Raynr
What's Cooking? dir. Gurinder Chadha
The Whole Nine Yards dir. Jonathan Lynn
+Wonder Boys dir. Curtis Hanson
X-Men dir. Bryan Singer
You Can Count on Me dir. Kenneth Lonergan