Bowling for Columbine

Release Year: 2002

Director: Michael Moore

Review: When 'Bowling for Columbine' was first released I remember being heavily influenced by it.  Michael Moore is notoriously a very divisive film maker, and that is much more evident going back and watching the film with some years since its release.  Now that you know his methods of manipulation the film is less effective.  Despite this, its still remarkably persuasive.  I might already agree with what he is preaching, but he is a master at unraveling the argument in such a way that its tough not to get swept up in his cause.  The staggered flow of the film, streaming together stories, archive footage, cartoons, and the like, all help keep you engaged and gradually build up steam until it forces you to a boiling part.  Manipulative?  Sure.  Effective? Absolutely, and this is exactly why Moore is a master at his brand of documentary.
Rating: 4/5

City of God

Release Year: 2002

Review: My second viewing of this definitely reinforced my love for this film.  It's simply awe-inspiring to behold.  The brutal violence is justified with deep characters and heady material.  There are no lulls and the film engulfs you in this horrible slum world that is City of God.  It is a visual masterpiece, that draws you in with its eye candy and rips you apart with its gut wrenching story.  

[First Review: June 27th, 2008] Review: A really fantastic movie. One of the best foreign films I have ever seen. I can't overstate how beautifully the movie is shot and how powerful the message is.
Rating: 5/5

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Boksuneun naui geot)

Release Year: 2002

Director: Park Chan-wook

Review: Park Chan-wook's first film in what would become known as the 'Vengeance Trilogy'.  Ryu(Song Kang-ho), a deaf-mute works in a factory trying to support his sick sister who needs a kidney transplant.  After finding out he wasn't able to donate his own kidney to save her, Ryu turns to the black market to obtain the organ, only to be duped and lose all of his savings.  Left desperate and running out of time, Ryu and his ultra left wing friend take matters into their own hands.  

This is definitely the least cohesive of the Vengeance Trilogy, not harnessing emotion quite as well as the other films.  There are signs of things to come, and this was a solid foundation to build on, but it was a bit too unfocused to actually be moving.  It is certainly a revenge tale, but the focus isn't on the right person.  It was hard to sympathize at all with Ryu, and since he was the central character it lessened the impact of the entire vengeance plot.  He got exactly what he deserved, and his vengeance wasn't as justified as Dong-jn(Shin Ha-kyun), who had a very limited role.  Present throughout is the beautiful framing that characterize all of Chan-wook's films and a very gritty realism that roots all the unpleasant imagery in a stark setting.   However, where in the rest the trilogy this adds to the ambiance of the revenge theme, it was more off-putting here.  There was a depressing, disturbing, tone throughout the film that felt unjustified for the message that it was conveying.  While there are some great scenes, the end result is a watered down version of the other two films in the trilogy.
Rating: 3/5

Raising Victor Vargas

Release Year: 2002
Review: A nice coming of age story about a teenager living in the Lower East Side learning to deal with his ego, family and girlfriend, despite the challenges of living in a in poor neighborhood and a difficult family situation. Using unknown actors and filming on location in New York, there is a real authentic, gritty feel which makes it more believable and easier to connect to the characters. Unfortunately the story just didn't go anywhere. The conflicts felt lacking and plot lines just seemed to die without really fleshing themselves out. 'Raising Victor Vargas' has a great feel to it, but lacks anything else that would raise this above being an average coming of age story.
Rating: 3/5

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Release Year: 2002
Review: Once again it's difficult to get past the liberties the film takes with the film plot. After just reading the book even subtle discrepancies seem glaring. However, putting this aside and only taking the film in as an entity in of itself I'm still left wanting. My biggest gripe is with the acting which, given the young actors experience, is unsurprisingly poor. However, each has established themselves firmly as their character. It's very hard to think of Harry Potter and not think of Daniel Radcliffe at this point. In the first film there was very limited acting given to the Hogwarts students, undoubtedly because of their inexperience. Instead, the first movie felt like a picture book, where most of the story telling was done through imagery rather than dialog. This film gives a bit more trust to the actors and the scenes are beginning to feel a bit more complete. Overall it was a good attempt to condense the book into a film under three hours, but it still felt a little cheap and a bit empty.
Rating: 3/5

The Piano Teacher

Release Year: 2002

Review: A challenging film about a repressed piano teacher with a sexual deviance. This film will make you think and question what you are a watching, which if done right, is a mark of a good movie. What holds this back from being a great film is the lack of importance. I never felt connected to Erika, the lead, so the emotions she was experiencing did not impact me as much as they could have. In the end I felt as though I had witnessed something that should have shaken me, but I couldn't care as I didn't feel for the character. Despite this, it is a well acted film and there is substance to be taken out of it, I just wish it had hit harder with me emotionally.

Rating: 3/5

The Sum of All Fears

Release Year: 2002
Review: The Sum of all Fears is a pretty bland action flick, with a predictable plot and nothing that hasn't been done a hundred times before. Given the magnitude of the events that occur in the film there should be a feeling of great tension and overbearing urgency, but it never delivers. Sure, there are some paint by number tricks used to try and build suspense, but that can only bring a film so far. Part of the problem may lie in the acting of the lead role played by Ben Affleck. Normally I am a fan of Affleck, but I never believed his portrayal of Jack Ryan. It seemed as if Affleck was playing a character in one of his other roles and just seemed to stumble onto the wrong set. The film fails to capture the audience and create a feeling of overwhelming chaos and peril and therefore fails to deliver as a great movie given its genre. It is watchable, but not remarkable.
Rating: 3/5

25th Hour

Release Year: 2002
Review: A film about a man who has one day left to spend with his friends before he is sent to prison. There are some moments of genius, but on a whole there were too many scenes that were sloppy. Whoever cast Tony Siragusa as one of the major supporting characters should never work in casting again, as his almost unbearably bad fake accent killed nearly every scene he was involved in. Fortunately to balance out that train wreak of a performance was Edward Norton, who delivers in his role as Monty Brogan, playing a guy who had everything, but didn't realize it until it was all gone. Despite its flaws there are some powerful scenes that make this film worth the watch.
Rating: 3/5

Punch-Drunk Love

Release Year: 2002
Review: This movie felt like it was one opening montage that just wouldn't end. The wide angled lens and continuous overbearing background music got irritating after about 15 minutes. I kept waiting for a reprieve from the monotony of the shooting style, but it never came. Besides the frustrating cinematography, Sandler's mumbling and plot points which seemed to go no where, I was left confused by the mental status of Sandler's character. It's as if the film made light of a serious mental illness despite, how dangerous the outcome might be, and expects us to laugh or find it endearing. While this film is usually considered one of Sandler's best films, it's full of flat dialog, empty plot lines and awkward acting.
Rating: 2/5

Spellbound

Release Year: 2002
Review: A documentary about eight middle school students from around the United States preparing for and competing in the 1999 National Spelling Bee. I'd heard a lot of good things about this movie, and although I typically stay away from documentaries that are more then a few years old this one really holds up well. The children they follow are all very unique and interesting from one another. You get a true feeling of just how different the cultures in even our own country are. I will never watch the National Spelling Bee the same way again.
Rating: 4/5