Insomnia (2002)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan
CAST: Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Martin Donovan, Maura Tierney, Jonathan Jackson
REVIEW:
WARNING: THIS REVIEW WILL REVEAL ASPECTS OF THE PLOT
In hindsight, after such impressive entries on Christopher Nolan’s filmography as The Dark Knight, The Prestige, Inception, and Interstellar, Insomnia feels low-key and even slight, lacking the grandiose ambition the British director would later become known for. Ranked alongside his later efforts (Insomnia was only his third film after little-seen indie Following and the critically acclaimed mind-bender Memento), it’s one of his least memorable films, but a “lesser” Christopher Nolan film is still a taut and intriguing murder mystery/psychological thriller worth viewing. Continue reading
Spider-Man (2002)
DIRECTOR: Sam Raimi
CAST: Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, Bill Nunn
REVIEW:
Spider-Man represents just about the perfect kind of summer blockbuster comic-book movie- flashy, fast-paced, faithful to the spirit of its source material, competently-acted, and achieving a nice balance between its serious moments and others where it’s not afraid to lighten up and poke fun at itself. Continue reading
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
DIRECTOR: Joel Zwick
CAST: Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Andrea Martin, Louis Mandylor, Joey Fatone
REVIEW:
My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a bit of the little engine that could of 2002 (ultimately grossing $368 million worldwide, against a budget of only $5 million), a small indie movie and a very personal (semi autobiographical) passion project for writer and star Nia Vardalos that got financial backing with the help of producers Rita Wilson and her husband Tom Hanks. In fact, the movie turned into a sleeper hit to the extent that it’s almost become overhyped. My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a pleasant, unambitious concoction that goes down easily and pleasantly while remaining a trifle on the insubstantial side. It gets the bulk of its limited mileage out of its blend of cross-cultural observational comedy and vaguely Cinderella-esque story, but even at its slim hour and a half runtime, it starts to run out of places to go before we get to the titular wedding, which is indeed big and Greek. Continue reading
Panic Room (2002)
DIRECTOR: David Fincher
CAST:
Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, Dwight Yoakam, Patrick Bauchau
REVIEW:
A slickly-crafted thriller that doesn’t quite reach the Hitchcockian levels it obviously aspires towards, but is good for a couple hours of engrossing entertainment nonetheless Continue reading
We Were Soldiers (2002)
DIRECTOR: Randall Wallace
CAST: Mel Gibson, Sam Elliott, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Barry Pepper, Chris Klein, Keri Russell, Ryan Hurst, Don Duong
REVIEW:
From writer-director Randall Wallace (writer of Braveheart and Pearl Harbor) comes this intense and powerful Vietnam war film covering the previously relatively obscure Battle of the Le Drang Valley—-not inappropriately known as the Valley of Death—-in November 1965, in which Americans and North Vietnamese met each other in major combat for the first time, with 300 men of the Seventh Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore desperately holding their surrounded position against wave after wave of a total of 4,000 North Vietnamese troops.
Continue readingThe Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
DIRECTOR: Kevin Reynolds
CAST:
Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Dagmara Dominczyk, Luis Guzman, Richard Harris, James Frain, Michael Wincott, Henry Cavill
REVIEW:
Kevin Reynolds’ The Count of Monte Cristo, based on the book by Alexandre Dumas, is good old-fashioned swashbuckling adventure that harkens back to the sort popularized by Errol Flynn in the ‘30s. It packs swordfights, secret treasure, prison escapes, romance, betrayal, and revenge into a briskly-paced two hours, and if along the way it sacrifices a little depth, it’s not lacking in entertainment value. Continue reading
Lone Star State of Mind (2002)
DIRECTOR: David Semel
CAST: Joshua Jackson, Jaime King, Matthew Davis, D.J. Qualls, Ryan Hurst, John Mellencamp, Thomas Haden Church
REVIEW:
If one happens to stumble across the fairly obscure Lone Star State of Mind, they might not find a lost great film, but an amiable comedy that serves up enough slapstick, twists and turns, and quirkiness to make for a diverting hour and a half, even if it might not linger long in the memory. Continue reading