Archive for Release Year: 2003

15 posts from 13 October 2022 to 11 June 2017.

  • And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself

    Neither a fluff piece nor a hatchet job

  • Veronica Guerin

    I give it 7/used needles

  • Gothika

    Ghost Whisperer on Rohypnol.

  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

    Yo ho, a pirate’s life for me. Nothing says “Freedom!” like a PG-13 Disney movie based on ripping off old Treasure Island and Cutthroat Island.

  • Paycheck

    Standard John Woo film. Shit blows up while stuntpeople do increasingly crazy stuff.

  • The Haunted Mansion

    Light horror for kids. At least that’s how this is sold, but the backstory includes people committing suicide, with on-screen hangings. Just like Pirates of the Caribbean, this was adapted from a Disneyworld ride, except this is dead, Jim.

  • A Mulher que Acreditava ser Presidente dos Estados Unidos da América

    The superior crazy people film. All female cast in which some poor woman deals with mental illness by pretending her neighbourhood in Washington Street is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

  • Tokyo Godfathers

    An adult version of Ice Age. Three hobos who make for a strange family find an abandoned baby in the trash and go on a self-imposed quest to deliver them into her family. They eventually deliver themselves into their old estranged families…

  • Good Bye Lenin

    A satirical look at the transition from late-stage decadent DDR into unified Germany, by way of complete exhaustion. Should always be accompanied by Das Leben der Anderen for a more complete picture.

  • Confidence

    The old style caper, the genre killed dead by Ocean’s Eleven. This is nicely done, but ironically rides on its coattails. Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz (what a shitty role for her), Paul Giammati, Andy Garcia (how ironic), and a bunch of nobodies fart out a competent ripoff from the big thing two years before.

  • National Security

    This is not very funny per-se, and it gets even worse the more you analyse it. The incredible part is how a satire of the Rodney King case can make it to the screen with such a budget. This could be easily recut into a grimy and gritty cop show about police brutality.

  • Underworld

    Romeo and Juliet with vampires and werewolves, throwing other variations in the mix. The setting is pushed to the recent past where everyone drives Maserati, dresses up like Neo, and shoots either silver bullets or liquid UV light.

  • Memories of Murder

    “Ordinary, with a normal face”. I feel much was lost in translation here. This seems part police procedural, part period piece based on the background events that seem historically important, but my knowledge of contemporary Korean history prevents me from appreciating it more.

  • The Animatrix

    A wide ranging anthology of The Matrix-adjacent stuff.

  • Silmido

    A mix of Saving Private Ryan and Full Metal Jacket, if they were both directed by Jackie Chan or John Woo. The action scenes are so over the top, it’s hard to take the rest seriously.