Amph Film Releases & Trends of a Decade Retrospective: The Nineties A-Z. Now Disc: 1993 D-G

July:
-Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Not really impressed by it. I haven't seen the old film either, but I loved the book as a kid. This was more weird than fun.

-The Island
Was really panned by the critics here, I thought it was decent. Nothing I've seen after the first time, but I don't regret seeing it either. Of course it had both Ewan McGregor and Sean Bean, and that alone lifts a film for me.

Ok, didn't see many of those films either.

 

September & October 2005

Notable releases: (listed in release order)

September:
-Underclassman
-The Exorcism of Emily Rose
-The Man
-An Unfinished Life
-Corpse Bride
-Cry Wolf
-Good Night, and Good Luck
-Just Like Heaven
-Lord of War
-Pride and Prejudice
-Wolf Creek
-Flightplan
-Dirty Love
-A History of Violence
-Oliver Twist
-Roll Bounce
-Serenity
-Capote
-The Greatest Game Ever Played
-Into the Blue

October:
-In Her Shoes
-Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
-The Gospel
-Two for the Money
-Waiting...
-Domino
-Elizabethtown
-The Fog
-Doom
-Dreamer
-Kids in America
-North Country
-Stay
-The Legend of Zorro
-Prime
-Saw II
-The Weather Man


T2Q Comments:

-The Man: Didn't see this Sam Jackson/Eugene Levy pairing, but it looked like the worst buddy comedy movie combination since Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock.

-Corpse Bride: A gorgeous looking film that sadly does not approach the greatness of the (admittedly massive) shadow of The Nightmare Before Christmas. I think part of it comes down to the music not being as memorable (though the one club number in the underworld at least comes close to, ironically, having any life to it). Technically magnificent though.

-Good Night, and Good Luck: Really enjoyed this one. Love that they used actual footage of McCarthy to show how over-the-top he actually was (and apparently thinking anyone cast in the role would be accused of over-acting).

-Lord of War: Decent flick.

-Flightplan: I know I saw this but I don't remember any specifics. I don't recall any negative opinion of it, though.

-A History of Violence: Saw this recently for the first time. Well acted and some great moments, though sometimes it feels like it doesn't always come entirely together. Still worth a look though.

-Serenity: I wasn't a hardcore browncoat or anything, but I did really enjoy the series when i watched it on SFC/DVD. Was glad this movie got made- I like the cast and Whedon's wit, plus the Operative is a great villain. Just really enjoy it's "Han Solo: The Movie" vibe. Arguably the most Star Wars-like movie since the original Star Wars.

-Into the Blue: An excuse to get Paul Walker and Jessica Alba into skimpy swimwear.

-Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: Never saw this or other W&G fare, but I had been meaning to, as I enjoyed Chicken Run a lot.

-Two for the Money: Ok flick. Kinda predictable gambler/betting/sports/wall street rise/fall scenario.

-Domino: Don't have high expectations for this one, but all I know is everytime I saw the title in the trailer in theaters, I assumed it was another botched comicbook adaptation.

-Elizabethtown: The Orlando Bloom flick we brought up briefly an update or two ago.

-Doom: Videogame movies don't have to suck. One of the first steps they can take to not make an adaptation suck (besides choosing a game to adapt that has an actual story) is to not take what story there is and replace it with your own stupid thing shoved into the setting just so you can cash-in on a recognizable title.

Case in point: Taking Doom's concept of invading creatures from hell and replacing it with a virus that turns people into monsters (or superhumans, if it chooses it to) just so you can have a throwdown between Super-Karl-Urban and Infected-Evil-Dwayne-The-Rock-Johnson.

However, for five minutes of live-action FPS glory, the movie was kinda cool. But still a shame it falls flat on the concept for such stupid choices. It's Hellraiser meets a zombie film set on Mars. How do you **** up a Hellraiser Zombie film set on Mars?!?!.

I mean, it's not like Ghosts of Mars wasn't out just 4 years before this to show you how not to do something like this.

And I'm not even a Doom fan (couldn't find a Mac version- so Castle Wolfenstein is the first FPS in my experience) and it's still frustrating.

-The Legend of Zorro: A dull sequel to the rather awesome original. For a film that took so

 

So, I go on about Doom just a couple days ago in my earlier post, all the while thinking they should remake it right, and boom, Universal starts development of a 3D remake.

Coincidence? I have to assume the simplest answer is that Universal is reading this thread and find my work inspiring.

 

November & December 2005

Notable releases: (listed in release order)

November:
-Chicken Little
-Jarhead
-Zathura
-Get Rich or Die Tryin'
-Derailed
-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
-The Matador
-Walk the Line
-The Ice Harvest
-In the Mix
-Just Friends
-Rent
-Syriana
-Yours, Mine and Ours

December:
-Æon Flux
-Transamerica
-The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
-Brokeback Mountain
-Memoirs of a Geisha
-King Kong
-The Family Stone
-The Producers
-Cheaper by the Dozen 2
-Fun with Dick and Jane
-Rumor Has It?
-Munich
-The Ringer
-Casanova
-The New World


T2Q Comments:

-Jarhead: Pretty decent Gulf War movie. That trailer also made me purchase a Kayne West song. I regret the purchase now.

-Zathura: The film that got Jon Favreau Iron Man. I never saw Jumanji though, but one day I'm gonna do a double feature of them.

-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The Potter films all blur together to me, but this one, as I recall, was of the same quality all post-Prisoner Potter films have been.

-Yours, Mine and Ours: Cheaper By the Dozen 1.5, tired concept retread #6,785

-Æon Flux: Never as good as the strange animated series that it's based on, but is mildly entertaining at times, even if it's never really good.

-The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: An attempt to LOTR this childrens series to the screen, but while it's a pretty decent adaptation, it feels like it's missing 15-20 minutes of character development (especially the supporting characters like the various animal/mythological soldiers in the army, as their actions and "moments" feel empty and undeserved).

To it's credit, the Christian subtext isn't played-up to any eye-rolling degree (like in the sequels), beyond the Jesus-Lion sacrifice angle, which, while obvious, is at least played as allegory (and not literal, as it is unfortunately done so in the sequels).

Though the whole sequence with Santa Claus giving out weapons to children still feels randomly ridiculous and inappropriate, but I realize that's at least partially due to differences in British/American cultural perspectives (I just have to assume Father Christmas is a bit more hardcore than his brother, Kris ).

-King Kong: I don't have any particular affinity or fond memories of the original (or the 70's remake), but I rather enjoyed this huge adventure film. It seemed to generally capture the feel of those 30's adventure flicks the original was among, as well as a modern dash of Raiders to a degree. After the dino stampedes (the brachiosaurs falling off cliffs was a pretty memorable visual) as well as the epic V-Rex fight, you almost don't want the movie to continue onto New York City.

And, in away, due to the length, the NYC portion almost feels like an obligatory afterthought, even if it has it's moments like Central Park's ice, etc. Almost get the feeling it could have been 2 films.

-Cheaper by the Dozen 2: Cheaper By the...oh, they really released these a month apart? Sheesh.

-Munich: Awesome flick by Spielberg with a great cast.


Movies I Want See
-The Ice Harvest
-Fun with Dick and Jane
-The Matador
-Memoirs of a Geisha
-The New World
-The Producers
-Syriana
-Zathura

Overall Trends:

Using his LOTR clout, Jackson gets his pet project off his chest. Narnia does decently enoguh to warrant a continuation as a franchise. Favreau has built a reliable enough body of work to earn Iron Man. Potter marches on. Spielberg continues to excel with Jewish-centered historical stories.

 

November:
-Chicken Little
Not a good film. I remember seeing it in the cinema, so I guess I must have taken my nephew to it. Had some laughs, but not much more.

-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
This is the one with Cedric, otherwise I agree with that most HP films are a bit blurry.

-Walk the Line
I saw it years later, and enjoyed it. A lot better than some other music biographies out there.

December:
-The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
I have a bit of strange relation to Narnia, where I never read the books, eventhough I loved reading some excerpts. Saw the film, it was a child version of LOTR, but with the Liam Neeson as Aslan. It didn't make me interested in seeing the other Narnia films that have come after.

-Brokeback Mountain
I've only seen the first 20 minutes, and that was at an "all girls Heath Ledger wake" the week after he had died.

-The Producers
I was quite disappointed. The original film is much, much funnier. It had some nice choreograpy, but not many jokes.

-Casanova
I love this film. It's my favorite kind of genre the romantic swashbuckling adventure, with quite a lot of humor thrown in. I can watch it over and over and over again. Beautiful costumes and scenography as well.

 

The year 2005 in review- what's worth seeing (once or several times?), what's worth keeping?

Skimming back through the lists I posted, here's my personal selections (and, as always, I encourage folks to skim back through the lists and make their own):


Worth Keeping: (aka: get the DVD!)
-Batman Begins
-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
-King Kong
-Serenity
-Sin City
-Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Worth Seeing a Few Times: (aka: maybe get the DVD)
-The 40-Year-Old Virgin
-Constantine
-The Devil's Rejects
-The Island
-Good Night, and Good Luck
-Kingdom of Heaven
-Mr. & Mrs. Smith
-Munich
-Saw II
-War of the Worlds

Worth Seeing Once: (aka: rent it or get it in the $5 bin at Best Buy or Walmart)
-A History of Violence
-Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
-The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
-Corpse Bride
-Crash
-Fantastic Four
-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
-Hostage
-The Interpreter
-Jarhead
-Lord of War
-Transporter 2
-Wedding Crashers

If It's on Cable: (aka: not completely awful, but no need to intentionally seek it out)
-Æon Flux
-Coach Carter
-Doom
-Elektra
-Robots

List of Films I Still Want To See:
-Assault on Precinct 13
-Boogeyman
-Cinderella Man
-The Constant Gardener
-Capote
-Cursed
-Domino
-The Dukes of Hazzard
-The Exorcism of Emily Rose
-Four Brothers
-The Great Raid
-Hide and Seek
-The Jacket
-Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut
-Madagascar
-March of the Penguins
-The Pacifier
-Red Eye
-The Ring Two
-The Skeleton Key
-Stealth
-Unleashed
-Waiting...
-Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
-White Noise


Heh, as I expected, that last list grew significantly that year. My Netflix will be busy once I sign up.

 

Worth Keeping: (aka: get the DVD!)
-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
-Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
-Madagascar
-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
-Casanova

Worth Seeing a Few Times: (aka: maybe get the DVD)
-Kingdom of Heaven
-Walk the Line
-North Country
-The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe


Worth Seeing Once: (aka: rent it or get it in the $5 bin at Best Buy or Walmart)
-March of the Penguins
-The Island
-The Interpreter
-Pride and Prejudice
-The Producers

If It's on Cable: (aka: not completely awful, but no need to intentionally seek it out)
-Fantastic Four
-The Legend of Zorro
-Chicken Little

List of Films I Still Want To See:
-Robots
-Valiant
-Syriana
-Brokeback Mountain
-Memoirs of a Geisha
-Munich

 

January & February 2006

Notable releases: (listed in release order)

January:
-BloodRayne
-Grandma's Boy
-Hostel
-Glory Road
-Hoodwinked
-Last Holiday
-Tristan and Isolde
-End of the Spear
-Underworld: Evolution
-Annapolis
-Big Momma's House 2
-Nanny McPhee

February:
-Something New
-When a Stranger Calls
-Curious George
-Final Destination 3
-Firewall
-The Pink Panther
-Date Movie
-Eight Below
-Freedomland
-Doogal (US) / The Magic Roundabout (UK)
-Madea's Family Reunion
-Running Scared


T2Q Comments:

-BloodRayne: Uwe Boll strikes again.

-Underworld: Evolution: An enjoyable sequel to the original, even if the ending is a complete rip off of T2.

-Big Momma's House 2: Please, stop.

-Nanny McPhee: I never even heard of this until trailers for the sequel started to play. And, based on that, I have no interest in ever watching either one.

-Final Destination 3: I didn't care for this one. It started to gear the series towards a parody of itself and stopped bothering to make interesting characters that we actually want to see escape Death.

-Firewall: Yes, this is completely a Generic Harrison Ford Movie, but not the worst of the bunch- though not among the best either. This film also spawned the awesome trailer for Wife Force One.


Movies I Want See
-Annapolis
-Date Movie (yes, I realize it won't be good)
-Freedomland
-Grandma's Boy
-Hostel
-Running Scared
-When a Stranger Calls

Overall Trends:

Hostel starts the "torture-porn" trend (though Saw unfairly gets retroactively lumped into that subgenre). Annapolis was the point where it seemed James Franco was in every damn trailer. Ford, I think, has started to gravitate towards more lighter stuff, but goes with a semi-safe bet like Firewall to keep things rolling.

 

March & April 2006

Notable releases: (listed in release order)

March:
-16 Blocks
-Aquamarine
-Dave Chappelle's Block Party
-Ultraviolet
-Failure to Launch
-The Hills Have Eyes
-The Shaggy Dog
-She's the Man
-Thank You for Smoking
-V for Vendetta
-Inside Man
-Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
-Stay Alive
-Basic Instinct 2
-Ice Age: The Meltdown
-Slither

April:
-The Benchwarmers
-Friends with Money
-Lucky Number Slevin
-Phat Girlz
-Take the Lead
-Scary Movie 4
-The Wild
-American Dreamz
-The Sentinel
-Silent Hill
-Akeelah and the Bee
-Alien Autopsy
-Stick It
-United 93



T2Q Comments:

-16 Blocks: I think I saw this, but can't recall anything other than the basic premise.

-Ultraviolet: Never saw it, but it looked like Resident Evil meets Aeon Flux with a dash of Equilibrium thrown in, but not in a good way. Still, kinda want to see it- though apparently it had a troubled production when the studio cut a lot of the story and violence out of the movie.

-V for Vendetta: Having not read the graphic novel, I really liked this one. Weaving and Portman are quite good here. The throwing knife swirls were a great little FX touch as well.

-Inside Man: Again, can't remember if I saw this one or not. Gonna add it to my list of stuff to watch anyways.

-Basic Instinct 2: Never saw this, don't plan on it, but considering they released a "all the nudity" montage video prior to release on the net, they must have been desperate or stupid (or both!).

-Scary Movie 4: While the series started to wobble with the shift in tone from the 3rd movie, it still managed to be funny (and many of it's shortcomings are explained through deleted and alternate scenes). Here, it seems like they weren't even trying half the time, but it works some of the time at least.

-The Sentinel: I never saw the finished version, but I did get the chance to see a rough cut preview screening (amusingly, it was scored with a lot of music from 24). I remember it being a pretty decent flick, though some of the middle section needed some work (not sure if they did fix the confusing tanker chase material, for example).

-Silent Hill: Having not played the original game, I did like this one, even if it had some flaws that kept it from being great (and it's also a good example of how some reviewers like Ebert can color a negative impression of a movie based on an incorrect recollection of a movie- such as the complaint that the story was too complicated to track here, despite the fact that the movie almost literally spells the entire thing out to the audience at one point as almost a recap). Great visuals though.

-United 93: First movie about 9/11 to hit theaters.

Movies I Want See
-Ice Age: The Meltdown (may have seen this one, but i lost track of the series around here)
-Inside Man
-Lucky Number Slevin
-Slither
-Stay Alive
-Thank You for Smoking
-The Hills Have Eyes
-Ultraviolet
-United 93

Overall Trends:

Outside the 9/11 thing and the Ice Age franchise, not much to comment on here, except maybe the continued history of inaccurate adaptations of Alan Moore material, perhaps . I think Scary Movie 4 killed that series, even if it essentially was continued through the Date Movie/Epic Movie/Meet the Spartans line of spoofs.

 

Finally some films I've actually seen:

-V for Vendetta
I watched it and thought it pretty good. I've realised I really dislike Alan Moore's creations though, so I guess as far away from the originals the better. It's worth seeing, but I don't think I'm going to watch it again.

-Inside Man
Now this is one of the best heist-films there is. So many twists and turns that you want to see it again directly after having seen it the first time. What is really the goal for the bankrobbers?

-Ice Age: The Meltdown
A clear letdown after the first Ice Age. It didn't kill the franchise, but it's clearly the weakest link.

 

I think Sharon Stone was the only one who wanted to make the movie, in hopes that her only really recognizable hit could kick off a career comeback*. When things fell through they were still contractually obligated to make the movie for her or something.

*You know, between this and Catwoman...

 

May & june 2006

Notable releases: (listed in release order)

May:
-An American Haunting
-Art School Confidential
-Hoot
-Mission: Impossible III
-Goal!
-Just My Luck
-Poseidon
-The Da Vinci Code
-Over the Hedge
-See No Evil
-X-Men: The Last Stand

June:
-The Break-Up
-The Omen
-Cars
-A Prairie Home Companion
-The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
-Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties
-The Lake House
-Nacho Libre
-Click
-Waist Deep
-Superman Returns
-The Devil Wears Prada


T2Q Comments:

-Mission: Impossible III: Probably the best of the series- more streamlined than the first film, and avoiding the ego-centric genre-mashup that made the second so awful. JJ Abrams scores out the gate.

-Poseidon: The only notable thing in this movie was Josh Lucas's character being pretty awesome.

-The Da Vinci Code: Decent thriller, though the controversy around the book hyped it up more than it probably deserved. The sound cut out for the first couple minutes on opening night in a packed theater. Some guy started calling out "If anyone here has read the book- tell us what they're saying!".

-X-Men: The Last Stand: A bad movie with moments of good stuff. But, following up what was arguably the best comic book movie made until that point, it was an epic failure that ended up being such simply because a spiteful Fox wanted to beat Superman to theaters.

The stuff with the mutant cure is actually pretty good here, and they do make the Phoenix scary. However- it's a terrible sequel. That excellent character work with Pyro that made you wish he played Anakin? Reduced to a sneering punk. The Phoenix firebird glimpsed at in X2 and was the last thing was saw in X2, whose inclusion was meant to be the main reason to lure fanboys into X3? Isn't used AT ALL (the lazy bastards couldn't even use it as a transitional effect to the zombie style they chose to go with). Cylops, who had been sidelined a bit for the previous two films with the promise that this story would be his focus? Killed off a few minutes in.

Sir Ian can only save so much.

-Cars: While not a bad movie, this was arguably the worst Pixar movie (but even the worst Pixar movie is watchable). What really turned me off was that Cars had a strangely negative message resulting from the execution ultimately not reflecting what their initial intent was.

It's uncharacteristic of Pixar to have a movie with negative messages, which is why Cars was so disturbing by presenting a twisted notion of nostalgia, portraying it as something that should be lived and not simply remembered and enjoyed. The message of the movie basically sums things up as "Today and Tomorrow will never be as good as Yesterday", which is an absolutely awful thing to be telling kids.

Thankfully they tend to be more distracted by Mater's antics, but it's much more obvious to adults, which makes it stand out amongst the Pixar catalog as their other films don't have that saturated notion of pessimism and regressing social development.

I have no doubts that Pixar's intention with Cars' message was to say "Enjoy life- stop and smell the roses" etc, etc. And while some of that is there, I believe the execution is where things get distorted into "today is awful and sucks, yesterday was great and magical- we need to make things like they were yesterday for things to be happy and good and right again".

It's different than Toy Story- Toy Story also had the "things that once made you happy still can" message, but they didn't have Buzz Lightyear/"the new thing" made out to be something that should be scorned and discarded in favor of only Woody- they showed how both the modern and and nostalgic can coexist.

Cars doesn't do this. Cars says McQueen's modern world is wrong and the nice little town suffers because of it. Only when the modern world abandons it's ways and adopts those of days past will the characters and town be able to be happy and make the world right. And that's just the wrong message to be sending to kids who should be finding their own happiness and making their own world- not bei

 

You know, I almost added that to my list, vaguely recalling I found the trailer to look pretty decent, but figured it might have just been another 3D animated movie lost amongst so many.

 

July & August 2006

Notable releases: (listed in release order)

July:
-Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
-Little Man
-You, Me and Dupree
-Clerks II
-Lady in the Water
-Monster House
-My Super Ex-Girlfriend
-Little Miss Sunshine
-The Ant Bully
-John Tucker Must Die
-Miami Vice

August:
-Barnyard
-The Descent
-The Night Listener
-Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
-World Trade Center
-Pulse
-Step Up
-Zoom
-Accepted
-The Illusionist
-Material Girls
-Snakes on a Plane
-Beerfest
-How to Eat Fried Worms
-Idlewild
-Invincible


T2Q Comments:

-Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: A little bloated but still incredibly fun (the cannibal adventure may be too long, but it's worth it for the hilarious sphere-cage antics), with some great characters (Davey Jones) and moments (gotta love the rolling water wheel three-way duel, as well as the Krakken). Impressive for building itself around elements only briefly mentioned in the first film, so that it feels like an organic expansion rather than an add-on. Not as good as the first film, but still a fun watch.

-Little Man: I never saw this, and never will, but I wonder if this came first, or those Lottery "little luck" commercials?

-Clerks II: A fitting conclusion to the Jersey Saga, as well as the best summary of the LOTR trilogy .

-Lady in the Water: I really wanted to give M Night a chance after The Village. LITW had a lot of potential, but it ultimately falls flat and feels too random. There are some great parts to it (the subplot surrounding M Night's character in particular is more interesting than the rest of the movie) and the cast is generally very good. But this would be a misfire, ultimately.

-Little Miss Sunshine: Cute little film.

-Miami Vice: Flawed film- they obviously wanted it to be "Collateral 2", but without Tom Cruise's intensity to anchor it, it doesn't quite work. I think their efforts to expand the scope of the concept ultimately made it more diluted and unfocused. However, Mann does manage to capture that big city-at-3am vibe on video better than anyone (the film's association with Nonpoint's cover of In the Air Tonight made that concept and that song a permanent association in my mind).

-The Descent: Really great horror/action film. The sense of claustrophobia in the film is palpable and it has a few clever, genuine scares. The US version chopped off the original ending to leave it more open-ended, but the original ending is much better (not to mention all those damn birthday cake interludes have zero purpose in the film without the original ending!).

-Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby: Funny flick. Enjoyed this one more than Anchorman.

-Snakes on a Plane: Every motherfracking thing it motherfracking needed to be.

(however, was surprised we didn't get the martial arts showdown that was seemingly being setup in the film)

-Beerfest: Of the Broken lizard films I've seen, this one is the best. Not a great comedy, but it has more consistency than Club Dredd and Supertroopers.



Movies I Want See
-Accepted
-The Illusionist
-Invincible
-Monster House
-My Super Ex-Girlfriend
-The Night Listener
-Pulse (probably bad, but still)
-World Trade Center

Overall Trends:

More 9/11 films with WTC. The superhero genre is starting to get a lot of parody/comedy films with Zoom and My Super-Ex-Girlfriend. The Illusionist ends up being confused with The Prestidge. Ricky Bobby would be the start of comedic pairings between Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly.