Dan Owen reviews

DAN'S   MOVIE   DIGEST

2 0 0 2   r e t r o s p e c t i v e

P a r t   T w o

One movie that deserved more success than it managed was The Count Of Monte Cristo � the latest movie adaptation of the classic revenge tale. Guy Pearce made an entertaining boo-hiss villain, while Jim Caviezel was almost unrecognizable in his titular role. Good action and great fun in that joyously old-fashioned sense of the word.

Intrepid Aussie madman Steve Irwin made an unlikely transition from cult natural history show to movie action hero with Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course. Sadly the whole effort was totally unnecessary, as the film was a somewhat cynical big-screen rendition of his hit show mixed with a decidedly poor downed CIA satellite subplot. Very weak, but Irwin's infectious love of dangerous animals just about held the film together.

Danny DeVito didn't do much this year (beyond cameoing as Mini-Me in Goldmember, and directing one of the year's biggest box-office duds � Death To Smoochy.) The premise was delicious � kids TV entertainer Robin Williams is fired for taking bribes and replaced by Edward Norton's Smoochy The Rhino. Smoochy becomes an instant TV sensation, while a bitter Williams plots the rhino's downfall as revenge. Sounds good, don't it? Well, occasionally the film hits its targets, but usually the script is far too pedestrian and unwilling to go that extra step. And, fundamentally, it's just not that funny. The germ of a good idea wasted.

Still licensed to kill after 40 years, Pierce Brosnan returned for his fourth outing as James Bond in Die Another Day. The producers must have been scared. Bond films don't come much more important: the 20th film in its 40th year. Gulp! Thankfully for the millions of tuxedo-wearing fans they managed a taut, effective piece of fun that deliciously provided Bond anoraks with in-jokes galore and � yes! � the return of The Villain's Lair�! 00-Heaven!

A very disappointing, but noteworthy, low-budget horror flick Dog Soldiers topped the charts for awhile this year. Sean Pertwee and a rag-tag group of poor British actors frolicked around Scotland shouting obscenities while being snarled at by Alsatian-headed extra's. Good late-night alcohol-fuelled bunkum to laugh at, but sadly a huge disappointment for the sober few that believed the cleverly marketed hype-machine...

Technically not a film released in 2002 (only for us in the UK) but nevertheless deserving of note and high-praise was newcomer writer/director Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko. Jake Gyllenhaal (one to watch alert!) played the title role in the kind of trippy High School teen drama David Lynch may have attempted once upon a time. Creepy, unsettling, laugh-out-loud funny, and terribly unique � Donnie Darko was one of the best kept secrets at UK cinemas. Cult adoration beckons on DVD...

2002 saw Steven Spielberg continue to reinvent himself after his post-Oscar run of worthy projects like Saving Private Ryan and Amistad, by moving into high-concept sci-fi (AI, Minority Report). But 2002 also saw a 20th Anniversary Special Edition re-release of one of his biggest hits: E.T � The Extra-Terrestrial. Audiences didn't seem so enamoured with the midget alien two decades years after he first phoned home � perhaps due to extra footage apathy, a dislike for the CGI interventions (walkie-talkies instead of guns?), or maybe UK audiences just couldn't shake the memory of those dodgy BT adverts from their heads? Whatever the reason, E.T - Special Edition was a fairly successful revamp of the 80's classic, still packed a satisfying emotional wallop, but just didn't recapture the magic of 1982...

Arachnophobes take cover! As if Spider-Man wasn't enough, the producers of Independence Day resurrected the B-movie genre again with Eight Legged Freaks; the predictable tale of a desert town being overrun by giant, mutated spiders. Sounds like fun and should have been fun, but this dreary film's unsurprising plot and wooden characters are not even backed up by consistently good CGI effects. 10% fun, 90% boredom.

The Guru (of Sex, originally) was a minor hit that deserved to do better. Jimi Mistry starred as a jobbing actor who heads to New York and becomes an Indian Guru with the help of sexpert Heather Graham. Very funny in places, with a fantastic Grease-meets-Bollywood dance-number. Graham is good value, Mistry should make studio execs take notice, and overall the film is an enjoyable slice of entertainment riding the Indian culture wave. Shame it didn't do better.

Returning to keep us under his spell was Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, back just 12 months after his screen debut with Harry Potter & The Chamber Of Secrets. Director Christopher Columbus ironed out the kinks in last year's movie (better effects, better story) and delivered a far more entertaining visit to Hogwarts. The actors looked confident, the action was slicker, ILM's visuals improved Quidditch ten-fold, and Potterphiles salivated at the prospect of the best book so far in 2005...

Ice Age grabbed some plaudits amongst the animation fraternity with its enjoyable prehistoric-set CGI adventure. The graphics were good, yet no match for Shrek, while overall it lacked the spark of Toy Story, et al. But, it was still a strong entry in the increasingly successful big-budget CGI animation canon.

Robin Williams. If visions of a lovable rainbow-braced alien loon pulsate through your head right about now � good for you. If, however, visions of a red-nose wearing funny doctor take precedence � continue reading. Insomnia marked an apparent trilogy of Williams' movies this year that (shock, horror!) didn't make you want to shake him to death. British director Christopher Nolan (never to live-up to Memento, methinks...) chose Williams to play the unhinged could-be murderer for his Al Pacino starring remake set in snowy Alaska. The movie's success is debatable, but it was well-crafted and not sunk by Williams � who's strictly on Serious Mode�.

The franchise that won't die returned this year with a post-modern edge in Jason X. The tenth instalment of Jason-induced slaughter supplanted the hockey-masked fiend to the distant future, where he is discovered by a spaceship full of soon-to-be victims. Not exactly Shakespeare, but compared to all the previous sequels, Jason X was far more enjoyable than it had any right to be.

K-19 � The Widowmaker. Confusing title? That was one reason given for Kathryn Bigelow's underachieving true story of submarine-based disaster. Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson both exceeded themselves in the bad Russian accent competition, but beneath all that K-19 was actually a fairly good bit of entertainment that just never hit the right note of urgency and drama.

The mouse-house have been starved of a true hit ('Pixar' joint efforts omitted) for some years now. That all changed slightly with the more adventurous Lilo & Stitch; the tale of a rogue alien befriended by a young Hawaiian girl. The 2D animation had a contemporary edge, the gags were strong, the storyline suitably sweet, and there were no musical debacles in sight! Not a massive smash hit, but a strong step in the right direction for 'Disney'.

At the beginning of the year Hobbits were dominating the charts. The Lord Of The Rings � The Two Towers should make sure 2003 mirrors that achievement. Peter Jackson's stunning sequel totally eclipsed the achievement of last year's film effects-wise - bringing us some groundbreaking CGI animation for the digital actor Gollum and a tour-de-force of filmmaking for the Helm's Deep action sequence. Sadly the expanding cast size meant many actors were sadly wasted (McKellen, Lee, Monaghan, Boyd...) and its split, less immersive plot meant the film didn't capture the imagination as readily. But this sequel was still epic, fun and a fitting continuation for the trilogy.

Barry Sonnenfield came out of the wild, wild wilderness to lazily remake Men In Black as (clever this) Men In Black II. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones went through the motions to the backdrop of variable special-effects and numerous rehashes of the original. Again an underwritten villain holds the world to peril, again Smith releases a hit single on the back of the project, and again Frank The Pug steals the show. It's like 1997 never ended.

Spielberg continued his mid-life crisis with another stab at the sci-fi genre following AI, with Minority Report. Tom Cruise starred in the handsomely produced and immaculately plotted adaptation of the Philip K. Dick short-story, although it lacked the indefinable sparkle usually associated with Spielberg. Still, top-class entertainment was assured � as well as a believable mid-21st Century setting. And this was just Spielberg in neutral gear...

The Mothman Prophecies was a commendable left-field choice for straight-laced Richard Gere to star in, although it's a shame the finished article is a film of two differing halves. The first half is an effective Lynchian mindbender that delves into spooky X-Files territory � with Gere discovering a prophesizing entity that haunts a small town. The second half just becomes rather dull and repetitive, although it at least manages a good climax.