Das Experiment -- 2001 -- R

See? Now this is the reality show I wanna see. Some scientists concoct an experiment in which they take some volunteers and assign some to be guards and some to be prisoners. The idea is to watch how the people react to each other in their assigned roles over a period of two weeks. The experiement ends after 6 days.

Talk about brutal, once we hit the prison after the 20 minute act one, it just becomes more and more interesting from a psychological standpoint. At first, no one takes any of it seriously, but when the guards step into their roles and begin taking action and humiliating the prisoners, psychological hell breaks loose. 

This one has a remarkable amount of characterization for the main characters, and while there are no major revelations in watching it, it is a fascinating bit of study to behold. The movie is supposed to be based on the true story of a similar experiment, many of the scenes happening exactly as they were portrayed on screen.

The thriller-esque plot keeps its pace up very, very well as the guards' desire to torture the prisoners increases and the prisoners slowly de-humanize. If you can handle German with English subtitles, it is a very interesting movie to watch.

The Others -- 2001 -- PG-13

Nicole Kidman in a house with two kids and a staff of three. This film looks like it could have been a low budget wonder, since it was all about the story. The family hears noises and things move on their own. The daughter speaks of seeing and speaking to a boy named Victor, who says the house belongs to his family. Freaky weird things happen throughout the film and then we get the twist. 

I suspected it during the film, but the way it was executed was ingenious. All the strangeness of the film melted away into perfect order. While the film ran, it was a spooky haunted house film giving one spooky vibes about any house. Once it ended and all the pieces were in place, everything changed and the spookiness melted away.

Definitely a worth watching film.

Moulin Rouge! -- 2001 - PG-13

This was a really good movie, in my opinion. It moves from a solid acid trip in the beginning to a solid drama by the time the conflict is established. There are many who dislike it, but that may be the case of a movie fan watching a musical, which is what this is. It follows the traditions of musical melodrama, with a smattering of comedic pop parody thrown in. The melodrama in this film is nearly impossible to acheive in a traditional film, but for a musical, it is inevitable. 

The film contains a mix of original music and remakes of popular songs from the 70's through the 90's, the latter with often amusing results, that are likely deliberate. In many cases the writers inject plot relevant counterpoint over existing tunes, such as what was done with the song "Roxanne" near the end of the film. Just astounding. The villain teeters between comedic and evil on purpose throughout, but the relationship between Kidman and McGregor is wonderful and it builds to a riveting climax. 

If you dislike or don't get musicals, this movie will complete pass you by, and you'll hate it. If you have at least a healthy respect for musicals, or like me, you really enjoy a good one, this one works just fine.

Planet of the Apes -- 2001 -- PG-13

This remake by Tim Burton has a lot of good things going for it. The plot is decent and everything ties together better than the original version. The main character has a direct responsibility for what is going on. Some good action, and not too many contrivances make the plot side of this film very enjoyable.

However, the character side stinks. Non of the characters have any character at all. While some are likable, they never get developed to the point that we care. There are several hints made at the past of a few of them, but the topic is never persued to the point where we fully understand. The biggest pet peeve though is that I didn't know the name of a single character. The names were barely used throughout the film (perhaps once or twice for each character), and without a solid understanding of the name, character just goes into the toilet here. I take it back...I know the monkey's name was Proteus or Hercules or something Greek like that.

So it had a good plot, and the main character's journey (whatever his name was) was pretty well defined and relatable. If the names were interjected more throughout the script, that would have helped a lot.

The Tailor of Panama -- 2001 -- R

Andy Osnard is an MI-6 agent (MI-6 is the British Secret Service made famous by James Bond), played I'm sure not coincidentally by Pierce Brosnan, who got into trouble by blowing his cover and having an affair with a minister's wife. As a result he is sent to Panama to check around and see if anything is going on with the canal. There, he finds a tailor named Pendel who not only makes fine suits but spins elaborate yarns. 

His stories intrigue Osnard, who could care less about national security and is more interested in finding himself a large retirement nest egg. He takes Pendel's stories (which I think he knows are bogus) and runs with them with further embellishments and turns it into the secret service. This causes a chain reaction of events up to the potential invasion of Panama by the United States.

I think the movie, though crass and vulgar for no real reason, was well conceived and well written with a clever storyline of the tailor who lives within his web of stories. He hasn't even told his wife the truth about his past -- another thing, beyond a severe need for money, that Osnard holds over his head. The main characters are well rounded and their motives are understandable. Even though Osnard is a clear cut scoundral, he still has a need either for redemption and barring that, he'll take what he can get and get out.

The primary weakness has to do with the backstory of why Osnard is in Panama, something I never fully understood. He wasn't sent there to be out of the way; it's like he had a reason, but I never got it.

Beyond this, though, good film.

Tomb Raider -- 2001 -- PG-13

This is a film that was frustrating in how much didn't work, but how easy it would have been to fix its shortcomings. I probably could have done it in an afternoon. It had a final run time of 1 hour, 40 minutes. In a 2 hour movie world, they could have added another twenty minutes to take this film up to a much better level.

I was worried from the opening scene, which should give us an idea of what we're in for. So we have what amounts to our "tomb raider" fighting a robot in a tomb. Huh? It appears the robot is guarding a treasure of some kind, but that makes no sense in ancient architecture. When its explanation was revealed, it made sense in context, but didn't make sense dramatically. She isn't tomb raiding at all...but why not? Why aren't we seeing her in action instead of in a farce? To make things worse for this opener, nothing in this opening scene returns anywhere else in the film, meaning that you could cut this scene entirely and lose nothing. That's bad.

Then, there was the star. Not the actress, who did fine, but the character. In a movie like this one, you have a choice: either make her a person with depth and a past, or make her like Bond, with no past, but a lot of character. They chose to do neither. She's a woman with half a past, sort of a fatal flaw that really doesn't play into anything, and very little development. The development she does have is barely setup and not explained. She needed to be either filled out to the point where she had some kind of growth during the film, or made a static character with a Bond or Indiana Jone-like respect to her.

The other characters were almost completely flat. Her counterpart, Alex West, was given a meager past with her that is never delved into nor expounded upon, nor even utilized. His stand on what's going on is thin to none. Somewhere near the end, we get a half-baked idea that there might be a love interest or something there, but it was neither setup nor really used either. This relationship between him and Lara could have been used for a lot of development and growth between them, however, I guess in the interest of moving along, nothing was done with it, and his very presence is questionable.

The villain also fell flat primarily due to minimal setup. No character moments were really given to him. He delegated most of the action to other characters only taking center stage at the end, which is really too late to show off the villain's abilities. His motivation is ill-explained, and although he gets a pay-off, how his help acts at the end makes little sense except to bring the film to a close.

The plot had its own problems, primarily due to some major plot points being thrust at us with very little reason. The first plot point was stumbled upon due to a dream or something, and Lara continued to have this almost psychic tendency to get herself going in the right direction. Now this is fine if it is setup properly, but without that setup, it falters badly and just feels like bad storytelling. Then came the bigger question: why is she continuing on with the plot? She was given a basic mission and she accomplished it for the most part before we hit the one hour point. Some hinting was done at a possible reason for her to go on, but no reason was given as to why that reason was so important to her, especially since the reason goes against her fulfilling the mission.

The basic plot is actually fine. If it had been more action oriented and the characters better drawn, this film would have been a sight to behold. The actions sequences were actually pretty cool, and the concept, while a little hard to swallow, is fairly well explained. Many of the sequence are in line with what a video game adaptation would be in that they are a little over the top in scale, but that works for the idea.

Where this movie falls apart is in the execution of the idea. The writers and filmmakers took too many shortcuts in the conception of the storyline. They cut out character for action, and character driven plot for unexplained psychic phenomena-driven plot. With some very short scenes, this film could have been much, much better, but as is, it remains mediocre.

Spirited Away -- 2001 -- PG

Wow. That was impressive. While the animation looks like typical anime, the imagination behind the imagery was just incredible. And the plot never slowed down for a minute. Two hours just flew by and I barely noticed. That's some incredible pacing.

Our basic plot here is a girl and her family are moving and they are supposed to meet the movers at their new house. Well, they take a wrong turn, discovering this abandoned building that they decide is worth exploring. They end up in this ghost town where, for some reason, food is prepared. No one is around, and being hungry, they decide they'll just pay whenever whoever is supposed to be there shows up. The girl wants no part of this and wants to leave.

Night falls, and spirits come out. Her parents are turned into pigs by the woman who owns the bathhouse which is the centerpiece of the town. The bathhouse is for spirits, so her being human makes her stand out like a sore thumb.

She goes through a lot of adventures, meeting different people and befriending them all with the sole purpose of trying to save her parents and get home. One thing after another goes wrong, and she tries through the goodness of her heart to try and fix it the best she can, and though corny as the idea sounds, it works perfectly.

The girl is admirably developed as are most of the people she works with. The supporting characters are easily known and as we move through this journey with her, it's easy to relate to her emotions and feel the film as it rolls along.

So this is a very well written and executed story that has excellent pacing, great characters, and an easy to follow and accept plot in a fantastic world. The creatures depicted are just wild to watch and the film as a whole is a fun ride. Definitely a good watch.

Amelie (Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le) -- 2001 -- R

Wow. Finally, I got to see something good again. This film is in French with English subtitles, so it's not for everyone, but for those who can enjoy it, it is a really good film.

We basically start with the birth of Amelie (sounds like "Emily") and her growing up with her father, the doctor, and her mother, the teacher. We get no less than 20 minutes of voiceover introducing her, her like/dislikes, those of her family, friends, and all those around her. It was a strange way to set up this world, but remarkably effective since we knew everyone from the get go without trying to figure them out as we go along. It goes a bit over the top occasionally, but it's better to know than not to know.

The story revolves around Amelie's interactions with these people and how she wishes to help people in her own way. It all started when she found a forgotten box of treasures, and the owner's reaction when she returned it. It inspired her to do as much good as possible, and she does in very often humorous ways. She moves on to helping others in the best way she knows how, and while it occasionally backfires, she often succeeds in amusing and unique ways.

The characters are very well rounded, interesting, and unique in their quirky ways. The lady behind the cigarette counter is not just about the stoagies...she's a hypochondriac. That guy who's always in the bar? Well, he's hung up on the waitress and is stalking her. The inevitable romantic interest? He collects pictures that people have thrown away from under photo booths. Just an incredible assortment of unique individuals that made this film that much more enjoyable to watch and follow.

I laughed quite a few times at the silliness that went on here, but it was so simple that I throughly enjoyed every moment. Granted, the subtitled movies aren't for everyone, but if you ever wanted to try one, this would be a great start.

Pulse (Kairo) -- 2001 -- R

This is the Japanese version of the film that has been remade into an American version and I'm not sure if its out yet or not.

I was rather concerned early on when we were going through mundane tasks such as installing an internet browser complete with entering the serial number in that this movie might run a bit slow. Well, it was definitely a slow burning fuse and a very cerebral flick, as a lot of Japanese horror tends to be.

We get introduced to two people and their immediate cirlce of friends. One is a girl working in a plant shop who has a friend with a side job of programming or something. She goes to his place to get a disk, and he hangs himself just before disappearing into a moldy spot on the wall.

The other is a economics student who installs the internet for the first time (hooray, dial-up!) and is immediately logged onto a video site promising to interact with the dead. This site figures somewhat prominently into the backdrop of this weird plot and multiple videos of the dead are displayed depending on how many monitors they happen to have. Of course, this flips out the student guy, and he usually turns off his computer after a few minutes.

The plant girl slowly loses her friends to their own moldy spots on the walls after they enter a forbidden room, which is a room that has been sealed off by red tape. Anyone who goes into this room and interacts with a ghost will become a moldy spot. The student guy has the same experience, but he befriendsa computer girl who tries to help, but ends up being sucked into the ghostly world via the dead video sites, which apparently have much the same effect as the forbidden room.

Getting lost? Well, it does its best to keep the film moving along despite the relative confusion. We do eventually get a decent explanation of what's going on and it slowly affects everyone in the world until student guy and plant girl are the only ones left and they meet up. Student guy looks for computer girl and in a fit of total randomness,they decide she must be in an abandoned factory. ?!

But here's the part that really gets me. Once the two main characters hook up and go off gallavanting together to find all the answers, they split up on several occasions. "Wait here. I'll be right back." No no no no no no no! You're in situations where sticking together keeps each one of you safe from the freaky stuff going on. If I never hear the phrase, "Let's split up," in a horror movie again, I'll die a happy man.

Of course they find her there, and she reenacts one of the things we saw earlier on the video site. It's Japanese horror, so it's no secret that everyone is totally screwed so it's not much of a spoiler to say it doesn't work out too well for anyone here.

The main pair of characters are pretty well developed through their interactions with their friends, and their friends get developed both before and after they die...or rather, become moldy spots.

In all honesty, the film does build a really creepy atmosphere, and while it's not a scary film, like a lot of Japanese horror, you're bound to be at least a little creeped out by the goings on in this one.

Mulholland Dr. -- 2001 -- R

So from the creator of Twin Peaks, I figured I'd be getting into something weird here, and I wasn't disappointed in the least. It was a bit weird. I knew a little about it going in, and that was it was originally intended as a pilot to a TV series that never materialized, so David Lynch reenvisioned it as a movie.

We start out with a horrific car accident that one person walks away from. She has no memory of herself or her past, and so cannot in any way tell anyone anything about herself. She finds herself in the apartment of Hollywood hopeful Betty, who out of the kindness of her heart, allows the lost girl to stay with her until they can figure out who she is and where she belongs. End normal part of movie.

It is difficult to comment on where this film goes without spoiling very much of it. Suffice to say, Mulholland Dr. is the kind of film that tells its story as it wants to, and then leaves you at the end to figure what in the world just happened. It doesn't neatly tie up all of its loose ends nor does it claim to...or does it?

What Lynch has created is something like a painting that you stare at in a museum and work to figure out the meaning behind the skillful strokes. I had a few ideas of my own before checking out the thoughts of other people, and in some cases, we agree, and in others, I think they've lost their minds. This is that sort of film. Not the Citizen Kane variety where you are left "knowing" the meaning but never being explicitly told, but the variety where the meaning is there if you want to try and work it out.

Of course, with this tapestry, we're not without some weak points. First, there is a veritable slew of characters in this and it is very easy to get lost in the mix. Many of them only appear in one or two scenes, and their storylines don't seem to have any cohesion to the larger narrative. Of course, could these extra characters be characterizations of the larger tapestry? Hard to say, but it's possible.

But on the other hand, we had the best darn dialogue since Star Wars II...yeah, it was that bad. I would like to think that it was deliberate and all that tapestry crap, but let's face it here; this was some pretty crappy dialogue. It sounded stiff and very "movie-ish" in it's construction. You know, those lines that no one in real life actually uses like, "I was thinking of something." "Yes, what is it? You can tell me." "Well, it was a dream." "What was your dream about?"

The main set of characters were pretty well developed, and on the whole, the characters were interesting and quirky in their individual situations. The two leads were easy to follow and they maintained my interest as they looked for answers in a world that defied explanation.

On the whole, the film begs for thought, a trait absent from most productions, which serves to set this one in a place reserved for the most unique. It misses the mark of perfection due to its sheer greyness at the end along with way too many characters (despite their relative greater purpose) and some dialogue that would make George Lucas proud. I'm not saying it's not worth watching, but it'll take more than one viewing to figure it all out.

Jason X -- 2001 -- R

How to start. You may remember a Kubrick film that has two titles: a short one and a long one. It was called Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb. It was often spoken of with both titles together, and in all likelihood., it's all one long title. I was considering this little debacle I just watched and think it could be double titled as well. Jason X or How To Be Slaughtered By A Psychopathic Undead Killer on a Spaceship.

I understand the point of this whole series, and I want to be clear that I'm not knocking the premise. The point here is to squeeze as many kills into as short a timeframe as possible. It's also the point to make them creative and gruesome at the same time, and in many ways, this one lives up to the Friday the 13th mantra. The part I always complain about in these is the stupidity of the characters and the contrivance of the plot. These things are still going strong in this tenth installment.

This time, they got a bit creative and just admitted that we only want to see the hack-n-slash, so screw continuity. Jason is locked up in a secure facility (ha-ha) pending his cryogenic freezing until they can figure out what to do with him. Well, he escapes his bonds and kills a lot of people before he is frozen solid along with the woman who was in charge (she gets stabbed for being stupid). Four hundred fifty-five years later, a team finds the facility intact and takes the woman and Jason to their spaceship since Earth (now referred to as Earth One) is a dusty hulk of a former planet. If you just asked how the freezer stayed on for 455 years, just keep telling yourself: it's only a movie... it's only a movie...

So the next sequence in the film actually makes perfect narrative sense, and works well within its framework. They take the woman and Jason to the ship. I mean, he's been cryogenically frozen for 450 years, and they have no idea who he is, so logically, unless they take steps to revive him, he's no threat at all...right? Well, wrong, of course. The undead monster comes to life and wipes out the immediate unfortunate in yet another creative way.

It is at this point that we have difficulty suspending our disbelief as nearly everyone on this ship is a "pretty" person. There are a handful of regular looking people, but lots of pretty teens, including most of the grunts. I didn't know model-quality girls went into the military to be grunts. Makes those co-ed barracks that much more interesting, I guess. Everyone wants to be in their platoon all of a sudden.

Anyway, after a couple of people are killed, they decide there is a hostile on board and go after him. Still making sense here. Jason wipes out the grunts and some others who don't know what they're dealing with, leaving a handful of survivors who now know what they're up against. This also leads us into easily the dumbest part of the entire film.

Now we're in F13 territory where instead of the standard movie question of "What's the worst that could happen?", we seem to be asking, "What's the easiest way to get this person killed?" They split up constantly, allowing them one on one time with the man. They get a shuttle ready to go and when Jason attacks someone on the bridge, shuttle girl flips out and shuts everyone out of the shuttle. I'm wondering how far this contrivance can possibly be pushed, and they show us. She tries to launch out on her own, but wait! the fuel line is still attached. Well, it must be clamped hard cause she rammed herself right into the bottom of the ship. I could not take this seriously. I laughed. I'm still shaking my head.

So they get the jump on the big guy eventually getting a big enough gun to blow him to pieces...but wait, he landed on that fix-em-up table in the lab. Good thing the lab is smashed to pieces and nothing wor- oh wait, it turned itself on. Hey, it's performing a self-diagnostic or something. It's running by itself! It's fixing Jason up all by itself. It resolved its own error message. Wow, that is one smart computer. I guess in the future, computers will be able to resolve troubleshooting step number one on their own: Is it on? Now we have...Uber-Jason! Did you laugh? Good.

Uber-Jason manages to get himself into a part of the ship, they're cutting away because it has a leak or something. They want to blow up the walkways and seal up the main portion of the ship. Well, Jason is on a walkway when they go boom, and as can be expected, he can survive and navigate the vacuum of space. Here's where disbelief is blown again.

Jason, of course, punches through the hull of the room everyone is hiding in causing the obligatory vacuum suction into space, by which another pretty teen meets their fate. I'm seeing where this is going and thinking it should be all right for them, since Jason will be fighting a constant uphill battle to get anywhere in the ship since he created a hull breach and everytime he tears open a door, he'll be fighting against the atmospheric pressure rushing out. You see, our heroes did the smart thing in running from the Uber-Dude and sealing every single door behind them. This would seal each compartment creating the scenario I described with the pressure. Well, I guess once you get far enough into the ship, the pressure equalizes enough with the outside air and you can tear open doors as you please...wait a minute. That's right, Jason tore through the doors and there was no atmospheric breach. Oh well.

Anyway, it's a film that gives you the chance to watch a  bunch of people get killed in some creative ways, and does have its element of fun if you don't think about it too hard. It's a nice turn from the former films and gives us an Alienesque story where everyone is trapped in space and has to deal with him without going anywhere. So, definitely not the worst of the series by any stretch. To be honest, in comparison with some of the other ones, it's actually one of the better installments.

To make the matter just a touch funnier...IMDB has it classified as a comedy as well as sci-fi and horror. They finally figured it out.