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

May & June 2001

Notable releases: (listed in release order)

May:
-The Mummy Returns
-A Knight's Tale
-Shrek
-Pearl Harbor


June:
-The Animal
-Cats & Dogs
-Moulin Rouge!
-What's the Worst That Could Happen?
-Evolution
-Swordfish
-Atlantis: The Lost Empire
-Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
-Dr Doolittle 2
-The Fast and the Furious
-AI: Artificial Intelligence
-Baby Boy
-Crazy/Beautiful

T2Q Comments:

-The Mummy Returns: I know not everyone shares this opinion, but I've always felt that this was a clear case of a sequel outclassing it's original in just every way.

The campy tone that they had a horrendous time trying to balance properly in the first film? Nailed.

The annoyingly useless sidekick brother-in-law character? Actually somewhat useful and funny.

The uselessly awful and dumb pilot character that had to literally fade into the scenery because he was so pointless? Replaced with an amusing pilot character that actually does something to help the characters.

Evy being a clumsy object? Replaced with Evy given a backstory relevant to the mythology and some sweet action scenes.

Plus they threw in awesome pygmy mummies and a score that was thirty billion times more memorable and amazing to just amp the whole franchise up to new levels. Even the Scorpion King prologue was pretty epic and awesome. The only thing really sucked was the CGI Scorpion King at the end and the cliched resurrection of Evy.



-A Knight's Tale: I'm still surprised this concept was ever turned into a film. "Let's base this on a story in Canterbury Tales, but play it as a comedy/musical where medievl characetrs sing and dance to modern songs from the 70's, 80's and 90's! The lead will be played by a teen comedy actor and the bad guy will be played by that guy from Dark City! It'll be awesome!".

And you know what? It kinda is. I really liked this one. The actor who plays Chauncer is also awesome in the role (he also voices JARVIS in Iron Man). Before he did Dark Knight, this was probably the role Heath was best known for.

-Shrek: A surprise smash, and though I think Shrek 2 remains the strongest of the series, this had a good start. John Lithgow as Lord Farquad was great.

-Pearl Harbor: Crappy movie, but spectacular action sequences and visuals. I think it suffered from trying to fit in too many parts of the war- Battle of Britain, Pearl Harbor and the china thing, etc. I also give it's second trailer (in it's theatrical version, not the version that was posted online with different music for whatever reason) tremendous credit for being one of the few theatrical experiences that was so emotionally overwhelming that it moved me to tears.


-The Animal: This came out this long ago? It's seems like only yesterday that people were mocking the cliche of Rob Schneider movie concepts this stood as an example to ("Rob Schneider is- The Stapler!"). Never saw it, but never cared to.

-Cats & Dogs: Amusing family film.

-Moulin Rouge!: Another strange, strange film with music set out of time, but visually spectacular. The musical decision works in it's favor, as I usually don't like musicals much since their enjoyment is as dependent on the quality of the songs as it is the plot and acting (thus why I feel, say, Chicago loses steam halfway through).

-Evolution: This almost could have been the next Ghostbusters, but it falls short of the mark. It's still very funny with a great sense of quirkiness to it. I used to use that 3-eyed smily face as an AIM icon for a long time, as I recall. Trailers were very fun too.

-Swordfish: Not a top=notch action/thriller but I think it gets a bad rap. The ball-bearing bullet-time explosion is still spectacular, and both Hugh Jackman and Travolta are good in it. Also has a couple other memorable scenes in it.

-Atlantis: The Lost Empire: One of Disney's better modern efforts, though some of the ending when the inevitable villain betrayal occurs hurts it (in many ways, it's not that dissimilar from Titan A.E., both attempts at mature animated action features whose plot are harmed but late game b

 

Here's my comments on the films that I've seen, together with when it came to cinemas here.

May:
-A Knight's Tale - it came in the summer. This I think is one of these films where you can't just place it i a trend, it was just a creation of its own. It hasn't even spawned any imitation, that I know of, which shows how unique it was.

-Shrek - (September)I don't think anyone can deny how successful Shrek has been. It was the first "grown-up" animated feature that I saw, a big change from the Disney film I was used to.

-Pearl Harbor - (summer) I remember liking this film when I first saw it, I think I was dazzled by the battle scenes, and the fact that the Dolittle raid was included.


June:
-Moulin Rouge! - (September/October) This was the first time, after TPM, that I had heard about a film and waited for it for several months. I love it, even if the plot isn't perfect.

-Evolution - (summer) saw it on DVD years later. It was decent nothing more or less.
-Atlantis: The Lost Empire - (November) I thought that the basis for the story was silly so I didn't see it until my nephew got it on DVD a couple of years ago. I was definitely pleasantly surprised, and think this is one of the few good Disney animations of the last 10 years.
-AI: Artificial Intelligence - saw it on DVD, just can't understand it all, I just think it's boring.

When talking about trends there are as was said a couple of franchise builders here, Shrek, Fast and the Furious. It's a bit strange that A Knight's tale didn't spawn anything, on the other hand I think the interest in medieval films would be totally drowned in epic storytelling after LOTR. Moulin Rouge! was definitely a trendsetter, but the trend was pretty shortlived sinced it wasn't followed by any particularly good films, every person I've heard talking about Chicago always says that it got the Oscars that MR should have had.

 

That's pretty much what I thought to a degree- in theaters I wasn't sure how much I was really digging the movie, but when they started to pull back from him wishing to the fairy, I was like "Oh, if they end it here, that's great enough to maybe justify the rest of the film", but alas, the movie kept going and going...

Though, in it's defense, the endings weren't "tacked on"- AFAIK it was always meant to end with the other two endings. They just feel out of place.

I think the premise had a solid hook- I mean, they basically ripped off Stargate.

It also had one the coolest, most un-Disney-like teaser trailers ever, and even a couple of the other trailers were creepy-cool.

 

"Naughties" is the correct spelling. "Aughties" is a similar, alternative name too.

 

July & August 2001

Notable releases: (listed in release order)

July:
-Kiss of the Dragon
-Scary Movie 2
-Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
-Legally Blonde
-The Score
-America's Sweethearts
-Jurassic Park III
-Planet of the Apes


August:
-Original Sin
-The Princess Diaries
-American Pie 2
-Osmosis Jones
-The Others
-American Outlaws
-Captain Corelli's Mandolin
-Rat Race
-Bubble Boy
-Ghosts of Mars
-Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
-Summer Catch
-Rush Hour 2
-Jeepers Creepers
-O



T2Q Comments:

Kiss of the Dragon: Been meaning to see this one since Jet Lit made it in response to fans wanting less wirework and CG fights.

Scary Movie 2: Possibly the best of the series, before it was tamed down for 3+

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Good CG, but disappointing story.

Legally Blonde: Admittedly amusing.

The Score: Great cast, but never managed to see it.

Jurassic Park III: Dissapointing. Has it's moments. But the slapdash feeling of events reflects the movie actually being written on the set, particularly the cheesy ra-ra ending that was just so damn corny. Plane crash/attack is a great sequence, though.

Planet of the Apes: Great visuals, amazing makeup work, good cast, and a general vision that made the idea of POTA appealing. Sadly the overall execution and need to try and out-twist the original's twist ending (can we blame M. Night for that?) just flattened the whole movie. I recall it being too long as well.

Original Sin: This was ok. Nothing to rave about but Banderas is always awesome and any movie where Jolie gets naked can't be bad.

American Pie 2: I actually think this was my favorite of the series. The first didn't blow me away like most people, and though the third was better than the first, I still liked the second better.

The Others: I recall this being decent too but it's been awhile.

Rat Race: fun manic comedy, great cast

Bubble Boy: starring future academy award winning actor, Jake Gyllenhaal.

Ghosts of Mars: A big bomb from Carpenter

Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back: Intended to be the true conclusion to the Jersey series (thus the number of cameos) by being fully comedic instead of the dramedy of Chasing Amy and Dogma, Smith would eventually "really" end the "comedy" series with the-admittedly superior Clerks 2. But while Clerks 2 endcaps specific characters, Jay & Silent Bob I think is a fitting conclusion to the crazy universe. And then there's Mark Hamill's "Don't **** with the Jedi Master, son."

Rush Hour 2: Another sequel that, IMO, outdoes the original. It reverses the fish out of water story ala Toy Story 2, but does it very well.

-Jeepers Creepers: I know Rogue 1.5 disagrees with me greatly on this film, but suffice it to say, I really loathed this film and it was painful to watch. It had some initially good horror moments like the cave and the "Duel"-inspired truck, but the rest of the movie, as far as I recall, is basically...well, you know how every horror movie has that moment or two where the characters do something completely stupid that no actual person would logically do in that situation? (ie: "Let's watch the bad guy regenerate and wait for him to start coming after us again before we try to flee, instead of fleeing as soon as we see him beginning to regenerate". Well, the majority of Jeepers Creepers is filled with those stupid "WTH are you thinking?!" moments constantly. I was squirming in my seat at how awful it was.


Overall Trends:

Kiss of the Dragons relatively high profile release seems to be a continuation of the Romeo Must Die trend. Final Fantasy bombed so hard it shut down the animation studio. Legally Blonde gave Reese Witherspoon serious box office pull and influence. Burton's rep was probably hurt somewhat by this as well. Mostly good success with sequels, minus JP3.

 

I don't think I saw any of these films on the screen, just as DVDs later on.

 

The US release was in Sept.

Since release dates vary by region, this type of chronological release progression requires there be one release order to go by (in this case, I'm using yearly release lists on wikipedia). If you refer to title selection, well, there's going to be less info on those for me to reference and, likely, fewer users here who have actually seen them.

Plus, as seen in the above posts, I should apparently stay away from things involving other languages

However, if there are any notable foreign language films that weren't widely release over here during whatever timeframe we're currently discussing, feel free to bring it up.

 

It actually isn't- JP4 has been in the works since almost immediately after JP3 came out.

The one thing I really liked about Jay & Silent Bob was that it not only mostly adapted the "Chasing Dogma" comic but also tied in their cameo in Scream 3 (in that now we know why they were at a movie studio).