These are some of the films that I seen this year that I must make note of in order:
1) BLACK HAWK DOWN (theater)
2)MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING (theater)
3)THE RING (theater)
4)LORD OF THE RINGS: TWO TOWERS(theater)
5)THE SUM OF ALL FEARS (rental, was this film this year?)
6)JASON X
7)MR DEEDS (rental)
8)HARRY POTTER (theater)
9)AUSTIN POWERS: GOLDMEMBER (rental)
10)BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF (rental)
11)REIGN OF FIRE (rental)
Can't remember seeing anything else, but these are the older films that I liked that I seen this year. Not in order..............................
SPIDER BABY
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
VAMPYRE LESBOS
HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND
GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN
TOMBSTONE
PSYCHOMANIA
EMANUALLE
THE WEREWOLF vs THE VAMPIRE WOMAN
NIGHT OF THE GHOULS
CARNIVAL OF SOULS
KILLER SHREWS
SHIVERS
WILD ANGELS
HORROR HOTEL
HOUSE OF WHIPCORD
RETURN OF THE BLIND DEAD
ROBOT MONSTER
BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS
BLOODY PIT OF HORROR
CORPSE GRINDERS
Rent "Donnie Darko", a strange but interesting flick
SIGNS. I liked this film alot and will place it at #3 on my years list of films.
Was it a good film yThanks Susan, I'll keep my eye out for DONNIE DARKO.
Oh, and I forgot about ear this year? I don't think so. Guess its hard to come up with a good film these days. Out of the 12 films that I mentioned for the year I only really liked the first 7 films. The others I will probably never see again.
BLACK HAWK DOWN
MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING
SIGNS
THE RING
LORD OF THE RINGS: TWO TOWERS
SUM OF ALL FEARS
JASON X
For the older movies I seen this year I forgot to mention
MISSLE TO THE MOON
THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON
BLOODLUST(creature feature dvd is poor quality transfer)
FRIGHTMARE (British one)
HOLLOWEEN H2O
PUPPET MASTER
PHANTASM IV
I liked "signs" too, one of the few I guess as so many people ripped it for not being scary enough. But IMO it wasn't supposed to be the next Independence day. I think if anyone truly thought this film's focus was the aliens, they really didn't get it at all.
I enjoyed MBFGW too. But there were far more films I wanted to see this year than actually did as there is that annoying fact of "limited release". I missed "Donnie Darko" last year so it was a rental this year that really gripped me for it's strange view of the 80's decade of decadances which included overmedicating kids and putting more importance on self image and success, good soundtrack and just all around "different". I liked "Insomnia" and "One Hour Photo" as well.
Dissapointments this year were:
"The bourne identity" (talk about no chemistry)
"The Red Dragon" (the book was superior to the others so i guess i expected more from the film. I still hope to see the "Manhunter" version sometime) Hannibal was quickly made into a characerature with eye rolling results.
Overall I guess i didn't see much this year which is pretty sad. Hopefully all the films I actually wanted to see will end up on video, someday.
Of all the films I have seen this year, only one, "Spirited away" was a masterpiece. Oh, well, there also was "Apocalypse Now Redux", but I don't know if it is alright to consider it a 2002 movie.
Darn, Scott. You beat me to it. Well, anyway, here are my top 10 favorites from 2002,
which was not a shabby year. In alphabetical order, and with a tie for 10th place, so I can slip one in under the wire, they are . . .
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Count of Monte Cristo
Gangs of New York
Lilo and Stitch
Moonlight Mile
Reign of Fire
The Rookie
Signs
Star Trek:Nemesis
Treasure Planet
and Tuck Everlasting
Yes, I hope to see GANGS OF NEW YORK soon. Looks interesting.
Once upon a time in China 1
My top five of 2002:
LOTR: TTT
Black Hawk Down
Spider-Man
Catch Me If You Can
The Ring
I can't believe that I'm seeing such things. People actually thought "The Ring" and "Signs" were good films. They were TERRIBLE. The Ring had so many plot holes and assumptions that made no sense. Signs was pretty bad too, Mel Gibson played such a wooden character, but of course they had to zoom in on his face to high-light the lack of emotion. 2002 has been a terrible year for films.
"The Ring" did have some plot holes, but, really, what horror movie doesn't? I mean, any movie dealing with the supernatural expects you to give it a little leeway in the believability department - it's not the most realistic subject matter to begin with.
I enjoyed "Signs" for the most part, but the ending totally lost me. I thought they were making an excellent thriller, and then they had to go screw it up by trying to force a whole bunch of religion upon the audience. I think the director really lost a lot of non-religous audience members with that, because not only was it done very heavyhandedly, forcefeeding the moral to the audience, it wasn't even all that relevant to the rest of the movie.
They really confused the point of the movie by throwing that in there. At the point in the movie where the TV said that a very basic, primitive weapon was used to kill the aliens, someone behind me in the audience said, "Oh, I know! They're going to kill the monsters with prayer!" Totally out of left field, but it's easy to see how one would almost expect that kind of a cheesy ending the way this movie went aboot things. It's one thing to say that fate set up certain conditions that allowed them to survive the alien at the end, but it's really a whole nother thing to imply that his dead wife was psychic because of God. I mean, honestly. Overall I still enojyed the movie, even with the crap ending, but I wouldn't put it on my list of top movie of the year.
And don't get me started on "Gangs of New York"...
My top 5 so far would be:
1. Spider-Man
2. Frailty
3. Irreversible
4. Dog Soldiers
5. Changing Lanes
I cant believe nobody mentioned Spider Man
ALL of the films I've seen in 2002? Okay.
Following [3-star, hour long b/w]
The Man who Wasn't There- (Billy Bob Thornton)
The Anniversary Party- (Alan Cumming, Jennifer Jason Leigh)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch- (John Cameron Mitchell) It's everything you've heard and a teaspoonful more.
Lantana- (Anthony Lapaglia, Geoffrey Rush) mystery
Zoolander-
Iris- (Judy Dench) Biopic about Iris Murdoch left me wanting more.
Spider-Man-
Waking Life (from the maker of Slacker) Cool, amazing, phenomenal.
Jeepers Creepers - horror
My Big, Fat Greek Wedding- Surprised and delighted that it was so good.
The Fluffer- A glimpse into the gay porn world.
The Salton Sea- (Val Kilmer)
Men in Black 2-
The Brotherhood of the Wolf- A bunch of concerned French people want to know what mysterious creature is killing the townsfolk. Can you blame them?
13 Conversations About One Thing- [3-star] See it, love it.
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers- Hobbits in a hostile world.
I work at a theater, and also review moviews part time for a newspaper, so I get to see a lot of free movies. Even with that in mind, I saw a lot of movies this year. The following is the list of all the movies I saw in theaters this year. If there's a number in parantheses after a movie, that means I saw it more than once.
40 Days & 40 Nights
8 Crazy Nights
8 Legged Freaks
About a Boy
Adventures of Pluto Nash
Attack of the Clones
Ballisitic: Ecks Vs Sever
Beautiful Mind
Blue Crush
Bourne Identity
Catch me if You Can
City by the Sea
Death to Smoochy
Die Another Day
Enough
FearDotCom
Gangs of NY
Goldmember
Good Girl
Halloween: Ressurection
Harry Potter 2
Hot Chick
Ice Age
Jackass
Jason X (2)
K19: The Widowmaker
Kung Pow! Enter the Fist
Lilo & Stitch (2)
LOTR: TTT
MIB 2
Minority Report
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Mr. Deeds
The New Guy
Orange County (2)
Panic Room
Punch-Drunk Love (2)
Queen of the Damned
Red Dragon
Reign of Fire
Resident Evil
Return to Neverland
The Ring (2)
Road to Perdition (2-3)
Rollerball
Royal Tenenbaums
Rules of Attraction
Santa Clause 2
Scooby Doo
Scorpion King
Serving Sara
Signs (2-3)
Simone
Slackers (3)
Spider-Man (2)
Spy Kids 2
Super Troopers
Sweetest Thing
Swimfan
They
Trapped
Undercover Brother
Windtalkers
XXX
I didn't even try to keep track of all my rentals...
Gee, I think you see them all.