Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
DIRECTOR: Chris Columbus
CAST:
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Sir Richard Harris, Robbie Coltrane, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Kenneth Branagh, Jason Isaacs, Tom Felton, Miriam Margoyles, Richard Griffiths, Warwick Davis, Fiona Shaw, John Cleese, Christian Coulson, Toby Jones (voice of Dobby), Julian Glover (voice of Eragog)
REVIEW:
It’s easy to see how Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets might be an enthralling fantasy adventure for kids- there is comedy, danger, magic, some nice special effects, and a few legitimately exciting scenes- but like its predecessor, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone , what it has to offer for adults is a mixed bag, and the movie doesn’t work as well as it could have. Continue reading
Ash Wednesday (2002)
DIRECTOR: Edward Burns
CAST: Edward Burns, Elijah Wood, Rosario Dawson, Oliver Platt, James Handy, Michael Mulhern
REVIEW:
Actor Edward Burns’ latest film as writer/director, like his 1998 drama Looking Back, is clearly an attempt to switch gears from romantic comedies into something more serious, but while Ash Wednesday clearly wants to be one of those Catholic guilt-suffused Irish-American mob melodramas, a moody gritty tale of guilt and redemption with fundamentally decent but damned characters seeking redemption but getting drawn back into the criminal lifestyle they tried to leave behind, it ends up being a lesser entry that has a feeling of being made by some film school students—-ambitious, not entirely untalented, but inexperienced and in over their heads—-trying to cosplay Scorsese-lite.
Continue readingRed Dragon (2002)
DIRECTOR: Brett Ratner
CAST:
Edward Norton, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Fiennes, Emily Watson, Mary-Louise Parker, Harvey Keitel, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anthony Heald, Bill Duke
REVIEW:
Following in the footsteps of 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs and 2001’s Hannibal, 2002’s Red Dragon was purported to complete the Hannibal Lecter ‘trilogy’ (but then came the ill-conceived flop Hannibal Rising, detailing Hannibal’s childhood and thus removing the last shred of the character’s enigma- and whose bright idea was it to try to make a Hannibal Lecter movie without Anthony Hopkins?). Actually, Red Dragon is a remake of 1986’s Manhunter, which was itself an adaptation of author Thomas Harris’ book Red Dragon, the first to feature the character of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, meaning although it was the last made, Red Dragon is chronologically the first in the series.
Signs (2002)
DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan
CAST: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin, Cherry Jones
REVIEW:
For his latest venture, The Sixth Sense helmer and thinly-veiled Hitchcock wannabe M. Night Shyamalan has crafted a sparse, low-key thriller using an alien/home invasion scenario as a vehicle for a thinly-veiled parable about faith and predestination.
Continue readingK-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
DIRECTOR: Kathryn Bigelow
CAST: Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Peter Sarsgaard, Donald Sumpter, Ravil Isyanov, Christian Camargo, John Shrapnel, Joss Ackland
REVIEW:
WARNING: THIS REVIEW WILL REVEAL ASPECTS OF THE FILM’S PLOT
Following in the vein of such films as Das Boot and Crimson Tide, K-19: The Widowmaker is a thriller with an epic backdrop of historical conflict unfolding within the claustrophobic confines of a submarine. Kathryn Bigelow’s entry in the submarine genre doesn’t rewrite the book on anything—in fact, at times it’s cobbled together out of cliches, despite being based on an actual incident—but it’s well-made and engaging, and hits the expected points effectively. Continue reading
Road to Perdition (2002)
DIRECTOR: Sam Mendes
CAST: Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Tyler Hoechlin, Daniel Craig, Stanley Tucci, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Dylan Baker, Ciaran Hinds, Liam Aiken
REVIEW:
An adaptation of a graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and illustrated by Richard Piers Rayner, and produced by such illustrious names as Dean Zanuck, Richard D. Zanuck, and Steven Spielberg, Road to Perdition marked Sam Mendes’ eagerly-anticipated next project following his Oscar-winning American Beauty. It’s a venture into the gangster genre, but what it’s really about at its core is the relationships between fathers and sons. The result is visually splendorous and technically accomplished but a little emotionally remote, and viewers wanting a more action-packed gangster yarn may be bored by the deliberate, unhurried pace. Nonetheless, for fans of the gangster genre, Road to Perdition is a sumptuous and handsomely-crafted entry. Continue reading
The Bourne Identity (2002)
DIRECTOR: Doug Liman
CAST:
Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Brian Cox, Julia Stiles, Gabriel Mann, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
REVIEW:
In some ways, The Bourne Identity (and its sequels) are throwbacks to older, no frills action movies, without computer animation or special effects, just car chases and bone-crunching fight scenes. The plot isn’t dumb, but it’s simple and straightforward enough to do an effective job of providing the skeletal framework while stringing the action sequences together, and in star Matt Damon we have an action hero who’s more everyman than the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
DIRECTOR: George Lucas
CAST: Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee, Ian McDiarmid, Temuera Morrison, Frank Oz (voice)
REVIEW:
Attack of the Clones, George Lucas’ second installment in his Star Wars prequel trilogy, falls into the “middle chapter” syndrome that Empire Strikes Back managed to avoid, feeling less like a satisfactory stand-alone story unto itself and more like a bridge between The Phantom Menace and what would become Revenge of the Sith (eventually supplemented by the seven-season animated Clone Wars series which does a lot of expanding and plugging what happens in between). Part of why Clones falls into the pitfall that Empire avoided is simply that Empire was a stronger, more accomplished motion picture. Clones evidences, and—and in at least one plotline—magnifies some of the flaws of Phantom Menace: an uneven pace, stiff performances, and clunky dialogue. It all eventually culminates in an epic battle royale, but it takes a lot of tedium to get there.
Continue readingAbout a Boy (2002)
DIRECTOR: Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz
CAST:
Hugh Grant, Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, Rachel Weisz
REVIEW:
Based on the book by Nick Hornby, produced by the producers of Bridget Jones’ Diary, and directed by the team of brothers who brought us American Pie, About A Boy is a prime example of how an approach heavy on irreverent wit and keeping the cloying sentimentality to a restrained minimum can inject enough freshness into a generic stock premise to make what could have been a bore a breezy and enjoyable viewing experience. Continue reading
Insomnia (2002)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan
CAST: Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Martin Donovan, Maura Tierney, Jonathan Jackson
REVIEW:
WARNING: THIS REVIEW WILL REVEAL ASPECTS OF THE PLOT
In hindsight, after such impressive entries on Christopher Nolan’s filmography as The Dark Knight, The Prestige, Inception, and Interstellar, Insomnia feels low-key and even slight, lacking the grandiose ambition the British director would later become known for. Ranked alongside his later efforts (Insomnia was only his third film after little-seen indie Following and the critically acclaimed mind-bender Memento), it’s one of his least memorable films, but a “lesser” Christopher Nolan film is still a taut and intriguing murder mystery/psychological thriller worth viewing. Continue reading