Films: Watched in 2002

Yes, it was going pretty good, mostly because I was trying to catch up on some purported good stuff from 2001. And then I saw that piece of dreck Orange County. I knew it wasn't going to be "good" but I didn't think it was going to be that bad. Especially from Jake (The Zero Effect) Kasdan.

Orange County was my first "official" 2002 film. I think your first "official" film of the new year always sucks. My first "official" 2001 film last year was Hannibal which kinda sucked, too.

Well, Jim, I watched it completely based on your (and a few others) favorable comments on Listology. It was a good watch.

Why, thanks, Jim! I'm glad too that I'm finally annotating some of my entries. One's opinion carries more import (I think) when you can jot down a few words about the subject matter. I think the key for me was realizing I didn't have to write full-length reviews.

As you've noted on other lists I'm amazed at how much easier it is to write about movies you have an issue with or didn't like then movies that you enjoyed. Maybe that's why the talking heads on TV and radio always sound so negative because it's so much easier to talk negatively about a subject.

Case in point: I'm still planning on writing something up for Fellowship of the Ring theatrically. I've seen it twice and think I might like to see it again maybe on DVD before I finalize my thoughts. It should be easier than this for movie I liked so much.

I would say that The Big Sleep is probably my least favorite classic "film noir" movie seen to date. The plot was way too convoluted and even now, after finishing it up some 16 hours, ago the movie has almost completely faded from my memory. I have seen quite a few "noir" films, including Sunset Blvd., The Third Man, The Manchurian Candidate, Touch of Evil, Double Indemnity, Night of the Hunter and The Killing (a favorite) so I think that I know what they're going for in the genre, but man did The Big Sleep bore the pants off of me.

I don't generally do direct comparisons across genres and even though Spider-Man might suffer from the recently seen syndrome, (as I guess The Big Sleep does or should) when recently watched films sometimes get better rated than they should , I'm comfortable with those ratings as of now.

After the first time I saw Spider-Man it was a definite 6 but after seeing it again and having a chance to watch the stuff going on around the main characters, seeing the big picture as opposed to just keeping up with the cool effects, I ended up rating Spider-Man a 7 of 10 for a Good rating, but just barely. I really don't think there's an excess frame of film in that movie and the thing which bothered me the most the first time I saw it, the pacing which seemed very slow, seemed perfect, almost robust, the 2nd time through.

What can I say? That's the way they played for me. Your mileage may vary. ;-)

Oh. I suppose I could have reviewed this very list to find your most recent 4 rating. Whoops!

I need to see Minority Report again. To tell you the truth I didn't much care for it. The movie itself was a visual marvel, the story was above average and the performances were all pretty good. It just didn't gel as a whole for me. It was almost too antiseptic. I got no sense of character motivation from any none of the leads.

I'll have to write up my thought on Rollerball. That should be easy considering how bad it was. And the last movie I gave a 4 to was Orange County my first 2002 film of the year. I actually ranked Rollerball higher because I wasn't expecting much. I expected a lot from Orange County because of the Jake Kasdan (Zero Effect) factor.

Because it was that good! :-) No, just joking.

On Tuesday my girlfriend and I were near the theater with no plans on seeing a movie. Out of nowhere she says "hey, let's go see a movie!" I told her that I thought we'd seen everything worth seeing. But I said maybe we should just go see a film that we had the least interest in seeing. Our only 2 choices were Mr. Deeds and Scooby-Doo. So we picked Scooby-Doo.

Then on Friday I was babysitting my sister's kids and they wanted to go see a movie. This time our choices were Lilo & Stitch or Scooby-Doo. I asked them which one of them their mom was most likely to take them to see and they said Lilo & Stitch so I took them to the other one.

It's not a great movie by any means but I actually had a lot of fun watching it, both times.

Thanks, Jim! You mean in quantity of films. Or just the way that I bounce around? Or that you and I see to pick similar movies? Do tell! :-)

Keep encouraging me! My internet connection at home has been down since Saturday.

Damn, Jim. I owe you some thoughts, big time!