2003’s been a weird year at the box office. Movies like “The Hulk” and “The Matrix: Revolutions” should have been hits were instead flops. And the number one movie at the box office last Summer was an animated adventure instead of the standard action “blow stuff up” fare.
It’ll be interesting to see just how the movie studios handle this Summer’s mess in the years to come. I wonder if we’ll see less action and more variety in movies for the coming Summer season. (Somehow, I doubt this.)
Best Movie of the Year – 28 Days Later: It’s been nearly half a year since I first saw this movie and I’m still thinking about it. Movies don’t usually effect me in such a way. Most times I forget about the movie until it comes out on DVD then debate whether or not to pick it up. With “28 Days Later” I was thinking about it from the time I left the theater to the time it (finally) came out on DVD.
I think it’s the idea behind 28 Days Later that makes the movie memorable. The idea that over the course of a very short period of time everything that we know can fall apart permiates the film. That it’s possible one day we could be going to the supermarket and the next we’re fighting for our lives outside that same market. 28 Days Later hits home in the post 9/11 world that we live in.
Since the movie was shot on a digital camera it adds to the whole “you are there” creepy feeling. (If you’ve never seen the movie trust me, the world that 28 Days Later exists in isn’t a place you want to visit!)
28 Days Later has probably single handedly reinvented the zombie/horror/holocaust movie. I would guess that this year’s”Dawn of the Dead” remake owes some of it’s being made to the success of 28 Days Later.
The rest, in alphabetical order:
Finding Nemo: I’ve liked every Pixar movie that’s come out since “Toy Story” back in 1995. Every single feature they’ve made since their first has been pure gold. Not one has been a “miss” and “Finding Nemo” was no exception. From the story that hits your heart to the animation that makes Pixar’s ocean look more inviting than the real one, Finding Nemo’s a winner.
Kill Bill: Kinetic action mixed with Tarintino’s sense of dialogue is a pleasure to watch. And what is “Kill Bill” other than “kinetic action” and “Tarintino’s sense of dialogue?” Best of all the fight scenes are about as far away from the “Matrix” style fight scenes as a movie can get. (And we’re living in a world permiated with Matrix style fight scenes.) Kill Bill really harkened back to those old style 1960’s and 1970’s early asian kung-fu action movies. “Keeeeeeey-Ah!”
X-Men 2: X-Men United: I didn’t like the first X-Men movie. I found the storyline dull and the characters uninteresting. So I wasn’t too excited when the second movie was released but still went to see it anyway. About a half hour into the movie I realized that X2 was great! The characters/plot elements were more inline with the stories that came from the comic books and the action was over the top in a good way. There were elements in the story that I felt that only a true fan would understand. (How lame is that?)
I find myself counting the days until the next X-Men is released.
