Honorable Mentions

There are always those films which do not stand out as great films as a whole but that may contain certain scenes, performances, or other features that make them stand out in a unique way. I’ve listed some occasions below when the films themselves may not have been anything spectacular but they had some special item that made me laugh, cry, or gawk in astonishment.

• Tearjerkers- I always feel the need to address those movies that were able to bring me to tears so let me get the tear-jerkers cleared up. There were only a few movies that made me cry this year, though I came very close on some (Shrek, Vanilla Sky, and O were all close calls). One was Monster’s Ball brought on by Halle Berry’s heartbreaking portrayal of a mother who has just lost her son; the other was In The Bedroom, when Tom Wilkinson wanders through the room of his recently deceased son in a state of shock and grief. I saw both of these movies in roughly the same time of the year (late winter) so I guess I needed the catharsis. Another one that got me sniffling was Iris and if you don’t cry at Iris I have to question whether you have blood in your veins. Anyway, these are all great films and if you need a good cry, they are almost guaranteed tearjerkers.
• Best Car Chase- The Fast and the Furious - Every great action movie has a car chase in it so it is often rare to find a car chase scene that is different from any other car chase. One that particularly stood out for me was the first drag race scene in The Fast and the Furious. The scene combines pure adrenaline-packed racing shots with CG trips through the inner workings of some of the vehicles as the engines began to heat up. There were also some impossible shots thrown in moving from inside one driver’s car up the street and into another driver’s cockpit. These shots are clearly computer generated but it is quite impressive and really makes the scene more exciting than a traditional drag race scene. You could argue that they cheated a little with computer graphics but I felt that this was the most exciting, visually appealing, and unique car chase scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie and if you can stomach the rest of the cheesy dialogue in the film, it’s worth seeing for the drag race alone.
• Best Explosion- Swordfish - Another staple for action films, the explosion, has gotten pretty sterile to the average moviegoer. By now, we’ve all seen the traditional huge ball of flame and it’s time for something new. The best explosion of the year goes hands-down to Swordfish. In the opening scene of the film, a specially designed bomb goes off which jettisons hundreds of small steel balls into a crowded street. As if this weren’t cool enough to show in regular speed, the action slows down immediately following the explosion and the camera begins to move around through the frozen action using a technique called bullet-time photography (think The Matrix) allowing us to view the moment of the explosion from every different angle. It is by far the most innovative way I’ve seen to show an explosion and the experience gave me chills. If Hollywood took note the way they should have, you will be seeing this technique a good bit in the future and Swordfish deserves credit for innovating the great freeze-frame explosion that made the movie exciting and fun to watch.
• Best Cast- Ocean’s Eleven - This movie got so much hype from moviegoers that the untrained mind could be tricked into thinking it was one of the great movies of our generation. Not that this isn’t a good movie; it is without a doubt one of the most entertaining movies of the year. The thing is, though, that it isn’t entertaining like a great film, but like a home movie. You know everyone in it, all the faces and personalities, and you have kind of a personal history with all of them. It makes you smile to see all of your friends up on the screen having fun, but it’s no masterpiece. This movie may not be very artful, but it is just about the most fun you can have without getting anything out of a movie. It is a rare occasion to see such a collection of people so skilled in their art to collaborate on a project that is really nothing more than an expensive party on film. Director Steven Soderbergh, who directed such critically acclaimed films as Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and Sex, Lies, and Videotape, headed this remake of the classic Rat Pack film of the same name and got virtually every actor that had worked with him and their friends to sign on. The cast reads like a who’s who list of Hollywood actors: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Andy Garcia, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Carl Reiner, Elliot Gould, Don Cheadle, and plenty others. The plot of the movie doesn’t really matter as much as the dialogue and funny exchanges between the characters, but it involves a plot by recently released con-man Danny Ocean (Clooney) to rip off the vault of three of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas. As Danny assembles his team of eleven men to pull off the heist, we begin to find out that Danny is not doing the heist for the money, but for revenge against the owner of the casinos (Andy Garcia), who is now dating his ex-wife (Julia Roberts). The movie has some great exchanges between Roberts, Clooney, and Garcia and the heist scene is very interesting and suspenseful, while still keeping a light-hearted humor about the whole matter. All in all, the magic of Ocean’s Eleven comes not from the story or the acting or even the special effects (which are pretty good); it comes from the energy we feel between all these great actors having a good time and making a movie that they actually enjoy making. It works as a kind of microcosm of the Hollywood community in 2001 and it will be interesting to look back 20 years from now and see where all these actors are then and where they were in 2001.
• Breakthrough Performance- Denzel Washington in Training Day – This honorable mention goes to the film that finally gave Denzel Washington, who I believe to be one of our generation’s greatest actors, a role finally worthy of his talents. Training Day is a tale of police corruption and takes a striking look at life in the urban ghettos of modern day America. This film made modest earnings at the box-office but really got the attention of American moviegoers after it won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Denzel Washington’s performance as the violent, corrupt narcotics cop Alonzo Harris. Washington’s co-star, Ethan Hawke, was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the innocent, rookie Jack Hoyt. Both performances are astonishingly believable and Washington’s first role as a bad guy is fantastically hate-able. The story follows the rookie Jack on his first day as a narcotics officer and most of the movie consists of conversations between Jack and his new training officer, Alonzo. Alonzo tells Jack to forget everything he learned in the police academy and to play by the rules of the street, as the two perform various stings and setup jobs all around town. As the day goes on, Jack begins to discover that Alonzo may be involved in a high-reaching police conspiracy that involves murder, kickbacks, and all kinds of illegitimate operations. After confronting Alonzo about his unethical methods, Jack finds himself left alone in the ghetto, surrounded by drug-dealers, gang bangers, and people who don’t like the company of a white police officer. I like the way this movie doesn’t tip-toe around the issue of racial ghettos in America and the sharp difference between the black and Hispanic lower class and the white lower class. I also love Denzel Washington’s performance as a jaded cop who has decided to look out for himself alone, a decision that eventually comes back to haunt him. This is one of the best police dramas in recent years and is certainly better than most in its study of the characters and their individual feelings and emotions. Although it’s not on my list, this is by no means a substandard film and is definitely worth seeing.
• Most Underrated Film of the Year- Sexy Beast – My pick for the best movie that no one is talking about is the crime thriller/dark comedy Sexy Beast. It may sound like one of those undesirable movies at the back of the video store, but don’t judge a book by its cover or a movie by its title. This is not a porno; in fact, doesn’t have anything to do with sex at all. The title refers to the main character’s opinion of himself as a sun-tanned sex god living his retirement in the hills of Spain. Everything is going great until one day a boulder rolls down a mountain and lands in his pool, barely missing him. He feels lucky to be alive but little does our hero know that this is just a precursor to an even bigger problem rolling his way: Don Logan. Played magnificently by veteran actor Ben Kingsley, Don is a mob boss for whom our hero used to work as a professional thief. Don has returned to ask for one last job from the now retired thief, but the thief has other ideas. He would much rather stay at home in Spain with his beautiful wife and his best friend, so he politely declines Don’s offer. Unfortunately, Don is not a man who will take no for an answer. Don is a horrifically violent mobster and is used to getting everything he wants without hesitation; he expects the same when he asks a favor of the thief and when he is turned down, he simply moves in with him until he can get a yes out of him. Don is by far the meanest human being in any movie I’ve seen in years; he wakes up the thief with a kick in the face each morning, he relieves himself wherever he pleases (usually not the toilet), and he makes terribly offensive comments about the thief’s wife constantly. Ben Kingsley does a fabulous job as Don and makes him one of the most truly hate-able characters in the history of cinema. The story’s delightfully fresh dialogue and dark humor are very entertaining and visually the film is incredibly stylish. This is one of the most well-made films of the year and although it may not make much sense it is certainly a memorable movie experience, and that’s just as important as anything else.
• Best Characters- This is my most prestigious award because it honors the creations that stay with us forever, the characters. Every year there are a few characters that are so unique, colorful and likable that they stay with us like old friends. Most of the films this year centered on plot rather than character but there were quite a few memorable personalities. My first choice is the audacious and unpredictable Royal Tennenbaum, played by Gene Hackman in the movie of the same name. Royal is a man who gained extreme wealth through his three genius children and then squandered the money and lost his family through his idiotic behavior. In the film, he devises a plot to regain his family by pretending that he is dying in hopes of gathering them together that they might see what a nice guy he can be. His children also deserve awards as great characters for sheer originality: Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning plays in her early teens and has a wooden finger because she didn’t bother to have the real one sown back on after an accident; Chas (Ben Stiller) started a Fortune 500 company when he was 10, and runs fire drills on his children at 3 in the morning; and Ritchie (Luke Wilson) became a champion tennis player as a child and now spends his days sailing the coasts of Africa. There are dozens of other great characters in this film but if tried to give you all of them I would be here all day. My next character is Don Logan from Sexy Beast, who is played by Oscar Winner Ben Kingsley. Don Logan is arguably the meanest gangster in film history, almost to a comic extent. It shows amazing versatility that Kingsley is able to go from playing one of the most peaceful people in history, Gandhi, to one of the fiercest in Don Logan. And of course, you couldn’t have a list of great characters without including at least some of the creations of the Coen Brothers. Their latest film, The Man Who Wasn’t There offers two particularly original characters. Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) is probably the most laid back guy in the world, especially when he shouldn’t be. His reaction to his wife’s affair, her murder conviction and even the appearance of a UFO are all pretty much the same: he smokes a cigarette and goes back to whatever he was doing. On the flip side, there’s Freddy Reidenshneider (Tony Shalhoub) the hot shot lawyer who is called in to defend Ed’s wife. He could out-talk Oprah, the ladies from The View and Kathy Lee Gifford all at once if he had to and still not take a breath. He is by far one of the most entertaining characters to watch in the movies this year. Then, for the characters of the year, I have to include the best comedy duo in years, Shrek and Donkey (Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy, respectively). These two have better chemistry than any buddy movie you will ever see and they deliver some of the funniest lines and dialogues of the year as well. Finally, my absolute favorite character of the year may come as a shock to some. Of all the weird characters I’ve come across, the most random, and as a result amusing and interesting, characters that I have seen is the Cowboy from Mulholland Drive. He’s only in the film for about 30 seconds total and he has about 5 lines but his mannerisms and details and timing are so wonderfully weird and unique that I just have to smile. There is no other character I anticipate more than the Cowboy and his scenes are probably my favorite part of the film. If you are looking for yet another reason to see Mulholland Drive, see it for the Cowboy.
• Worst Film of the Year- Pearl Harbor – It is times like these that I realize the true deficiencies of the English language. I consider myself to have a rather large vocabulary and yet still I cannot find within myself the proper words to describe just how bad this film really is. “Abysmal” comes to mind, or perhaps “catastrophic” or “horrendous.” Anyway you slice it, this movie has no excuse for existing. It encompasses everything I hate about film; emotionless acting, pointless dialogue, predictable storyline, needless violence, characters that I don’t care about at all, and worst of all Alec Baldwin! This film’s few defenders( mostly teenage girls) will tell you that it is a cute love story and that I don’t like it because I am just an insensitive male who doesn’t care about love stories anyway, to which I respond, “WRONG!” Some of my favorite movies of all time are love stories, including Casablanca, Some Like it Hot, and Life Is Beautiful, and several of the movies on this list are love stories, like Moulin Rouge, A Beautiful Mind, and to some degree Shrek and Vanilla Sky. I can appreciate and admire a great love story and I can even tolerate a good one, but when a bad love story like this one gets combined with an action movie just so that guys will buy tickets, you get an even worse film than if you had just had the bad love story. I also don’t hate the film because Josh Hartnett and Ben Affleck are in it; I admire both actors and I think they have both shown their capability for serious acting in other films, which makes their performances in this film all the more disappointing. And finally, I hate the fact that this movie was hyped beyond all reason as the next Titanic when it wasn’t even half as good as its own trailer. I am, however, happy that it underperformed and hopefully it will be a spit in the face to Jerry Bruckheimer who insists on continuing to make movies based on “what the people want” rather than just making a good movie and hoping that people like it. Take this movie as an example of what is bad about Hollywood and commercialism. Please, don’t ever talk about this movie again in my presence or in the presence of any true film lover.