For further background on the year in film please refer to the Some Other Movies From 2002 entry.
The following things happened in 2002:
- The Sierra Leone Civil War ended.
- The Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City, Utah.
- The FIFA World Cup was held in South Korea and Japan.
- Switzerland and East Timor were admitted into the United Nations.
- The SARS epidemic began in China.
- The great Richard Harris passed away.
- The Queens of the Stone Age released Songs for the Deaf. A great album.
Underlined entries were viewed on Netflix.
Linked entries can be viewed in their entirety on YouTube.
Excellent
1. Talk to Her (Hable Con Ella)
It's hard to explain what this movie's about without giving something away. Let me just say that it's one of Spanish director Almodovar's films, and it might be my favorite. In the beginning a reporter begins a relationship with a female bullfighter, and from that point on this movie takes a sharp left turn into some serious weirdness. If I had to reduce this movie to a theme it would be a search for intimacy, or our search to establish relationships with people who might be unable (or unwilling) to reciprocate our affections. In terms of plot and narrative symmetry it's a deep dive, and I'll probably watch it again in the near future. The camera work is also amazing.
Fun Fact: Geraldine Chaplin is in this.
2. The Way Home
A young Korean boy learns to appreciate his grandma and her way of life. It's one of South Korea's highest grossing movies, and critics everywhere loved it.
On a more personal note, I thought I lived in a very rural part of Taiwan, but then I saw this movie. At least we have electricity. And running water. And stores.
Some Good Ones
1. The Sweetest Thing
Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate and Jason Bateman: 3 actors/actresses who've been in much funnier movies. The Sweetest Thing attempts to inject more sex and toilet humor into the rom-com genre, but despite a couple funny moments the results are decidedly mixed. Then again it was the early 2000s, and movies like The 40 Year-Old Virgin were built upon movies like this one.
2. The Sum of All Fears
Here's a thought: why is it always Nazis attempting to resurrect the Third Reich, or to create a fourth? Why not a group of conspirators attempting to resurrect Imperial Japan? Or would that topic be too sensitive? And why?
Anyway, in 2002 it was Ben Affleck's turn to play Jack Ryan. In The Sum of All Fears Ryan is caught between U.S. and Russian leaders on the brink of nuclear war, and as usual Ryan has to uncover a conspiracy before the world ends, or before the President is killed, or before the Lambada - also known as "the forbidden dance" - becomes popular once again. Critics at the time - among them Tom Clancy - were not loving this movie, but I thought it was OK.
3. Whale Rider
I was teaching a group of Paiwan kids today, and one of them started talking about how his ancestors beheaded people, and why they don't do so now. Life is fun that way, and when you look around you realize that we're surrounded by tribal cultures, wherever in the world we happen to be. If this isn't immediately obvious it's because they choose to keep to themselves, as I suppose "we" do in our own way.
Whale Rider follows a Maori girl as she contends with a headstrong grandfather. I really enjoyed this movie, even if it didn't end the way I wanted it to. Something in me wanted that girl to vanish in the end, just so her grandfather could learn how much that kind of pride really costs. The whale, in other words, seemed like a cop-out.
Another thing I liked about this movie was Cliff Curtis. After seeing him play such a hateful individual in Once Were Warriors it was nice to see him play a caring, concerned father in Whale Rider.
Fun Fact 1: Rachel House, one of Taika Waititi's collaborators, is in this movie.
Fun Fact 2: The director, Niki Caro would go on to direct North Country, another overlooked movie. In 2020 she directed Disney's Mulan reboot.
4. About a Boy
Every time I see Hugh Grant I think about that time he got caught with a prostitute. No judgment here - provided we're all of age everybody's human - but I can't help but remembering.
Fame is a funny thing. You could be Hugh Grant, you could be that handsome, and still feel isolated enough to go messing around with hookers in L.A. Again, everybody's human, and he's probably a much happier person now.
In About a Boy he plays a womanizing bachelor who befriends a young boy. And who is that young boy? Nicholas Hoult, who is much better known in 2021. It's a decent movie - even with the overbearing narration - and the ending isn't as predictable as you'd... predict?
5. Ghost Ship
Sure, dumb title, but it's a good movie. It borrows a bit from The Shining, it borrows a bit from The Thing, but this film about a haunted ship was well put together. Critics at the time hated it but it worked for me.
6. Dahmer
Jeremy Renner stars as the famous serial killer. It's not exactly action-packed but it's an engaging character study.
The Kind of Exploitation Picture Hollywood and Hong Kong Don't Seem to Do Anymore
1. Naked Weapon
Maggie Q parades around in a series of skimpy outfits while assassinating people. Wire work and cgi aside, what Naked Weapon really reminded me of was 70s films like The Killer Elite or Switchblade Sisters, movies that knew they were bad but realized that a certain amount of shock value goes a long way. A lot of the dialogue in this movie is terrible, but Maggie Q is beautiful and the fight choreography is pretty good.
Fun Fact: Maggie Q's costar in this movie, Anya Wu, is married to one of Confucius' descendants.
Bad, but Does That Surprise You?
1. The Santa Clause 2
I was only halfway paying attention to this, but let's see what I can remember:
A. Santa Claus (Tim Allen) has to find a Mrs. Claus (i.e. get married) or he'll lose his Santa powers
B. He has around a month to do so.
C. Elves make lame toys that no actual kids would actually want. Those shitty jumping dinosaurs and old timey trains might amuse Amish kids, but what about kids longing for a Sega Dreamcast? A PlayStation 2? A Nintendo GameCube?
D. There's some kind of "league of legendary beings" which consists of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Sandman (NOT the Spider-man villain), Father Time, the Tooth Fairy and a black woman who I THINK is Mother Earth. Could this "league of legendary beings" stand up to the Avengers? To the Justice League? That's a blog post for another day!
E. Santa's son got onto the naughty list. Uh oh.
F. Conveniently enough for Santa, while he's dealing with his son's naughtiness he realizes that the principal of his son's school is smokin' hot.
G. While Santa is away from the north pole trying to get laid/married, his elfin underlings create a faux Santa Claus out of toy components. Whoa.
H. The faux Santa turns out to be a fascist who wants to invade Poland... or maybe just put ALL the kids on the naughty list. The horror!
I. In an attempt to wrest control of the north pole from the true Santa (thus making him the "anti-Santa" in truly biblical fashion), he in turn creates an army of toy soldiers. And as it turns out these toy soldiers are far and away the most memorable things in the movie. Why? Because THEY ARE FREAKING NIGHTMARE FUEL, if anything in any children's movie ever was. Really, they're worse than the rabbits choking inside the tunnels in Watership Down.
J. Santa (predictably) saves the day just after faux Santa commits suicide in his bunker. Or maybe he's captured by north polar communist partisans, and executed by firing squad. Either way, the movie doesn't end well for him.
2. Mr. Deeds
Product placement? Yup. Jokes that fail to land? Yup. Boring, irrelevant romantic subplot? Yup. Occasional funny moments? Yup. I can't blame Adam Sandler for this one. He knows who he is and he knows what he's about. Besides, the dude is RICH.
Fun Fact: This movie is a remake of the 1936 Frank Capra film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. The "greeting card poet," Mandrake Falls and most of the plot were borrowed from the original. The original was, however, more a commentary on the need to maintain small town values in the wake of the Great Depression.
Some Bad Ones
1. Star Trek: Nemesis
Hey, it's Tom Hardy! This was his third movie and his first major role. He plays a younger clone of Captain Picard, leading a team of Romulans against the Federation.
Aside from that, yawn. This movie is boring. I was never that into the Next Generation version of Star Trek, and this movie reminded me why. Talk, talk, talk, arbitrary explanation, talk, talk, talk. You could say that each crew member of the Enterprise is outfitted with his or her own suit of plot armor, to be removed only when a death makes something more dramatic.
I think that at its best the Star Trek universe offers a more science-based conception of the future, but that scientific basis is nowhere evident in this film. The bioweapon that Tom Hardy's character wields, the transporter technology, holograms, faster than light travel, faster than light messaging, artificial intelligence, cloaking technology - it all seems to operate in the most random manner possible, seemingly bending to the will of whatever the plot wants it to do. By the end of this movie even something like Star Wars, with all its futuristic/archaic technology, comes off seeming relatively plausible.
Fun Fact: The critical and financial failure of this movie nixed plans for a fifth Next Generation film, and prompted the J.J. Abrams reboot in 2009. I suppose I can thank this movie for that.
2. Drumline
Zoe Saldana and Orlando Jones are MUCH better actors than the rest of the people in this movie. Really. So much so that it's distracting. They'll say something, and then some other actor will say something, and the difference in delivery will take you right out of the movie.
I also have trouble understanding why the school marching band - ANY school's marching band - is such a big deal. I get that they all want to do a good job, but the hazing? The waking up at 4:30 in the morning? The obsession? I don't know, I'm just not seeing it. Maybe this is some Southern thing that I've never heard about, but where I come from the school marching band was never that big a deal. Especially not, you know, compared to football.
According to the internet almost everybody loves this movie except me. Maybe there's something I'm not getting. Maybe it really is that ridiculous. Maybe I've seen Whiplash too many times, and this movie suffers by comparison.
3. Crossroads
Yes, we're all sympathizing with Britney Spears lately, and no, she's not a good actress. Once again Zoe Saldana gives the best performance in a movie full of bad performances, this time with Dan Aykroyd as Britney's mechanic father. Nothing says "star vehicle" like road trip, and in this one Spears embarks on a road trip to meet her estranged mother.
Fun Fact: At the time this movie was often compared to Mariah Carey's Glitter. I can attest to the fact that Crossroads is a much better movie.
Ugh.
1. A Walk to Remember
Mandy Moore and... some guy star in this Christian faith-affirming romance. I despised every person in this movie, and Mandy Moore most of all. I kept wishing they'd all wake up in a barren warehouse room somewhere, with Jigsaw's doll staring down at them, telling them that their day of reckoning had arrived. Alas, this never happens.
I deserve an award for sitting through most of this movie. I really do.
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