It’s a shame Alison Lohman has never done a lot of work for Hollywood over the years. While she has remained consistent through television and film roles, she hasn’t really ever broken out as a highly publicized cinematic artist. Like Sarah Polley and Vera Farmiga, she’s always remained on the fringe, but never quite broke out as someone overly saturated. Perhaps that’s a good thiing. Whenever Alison Lohman decides to commit to a film she’s a force to be reckoned with. One of the better dramatic suspense films of 2002 that came out at a time where other films were stealing its thunder was indeed “White Oleander.”
The Hot Chick (2002)
What makes Rob Schneider’s movies so bad, (among many other million defects) is that Schneider is basically unlikable and incredibly obnoxious, and when he pretends to be a girl stuck in a man’s body, it’s just plain creepy. Not only that, but he’s such a horrible actor in both comedic form and dramatic form; much of that can be seen when he pretends to be the female Jessica played by Rachel McAdams and pretty much makes no effort in copying her exact mannerisms or body characteristics. In “Face/Off”, Travolta and Cage studied each other’s facial expressions, mannerisms, and even their modes of speech which made the film mostly tolerable, but in this Schneider simply acts homosexual more than a woman.
The Italian Job (2003)
Not exactly a remake per se, but based on the concept of the original 1969 film starring Michael Caine, “The Italian Job” is a fun popcorn action flick. The filmmakers play it smart by comprising an all-star cast of actors that play their roles well; there’s a round up of charismatic and memorable actors who all play some great characters. Mark Wahlberg leads the cast as Charlie the gifted thief and leader of the group, Charlize Theron is Stella, the daughter of John who is a legitimate safe cracker for the police. Edward Norton plays the slimy and sneaky Steve.
Auto Focus (2002)
Based on the book “The Murder of Bob Crane” by Robert Graysmith, the film “Autofocus” chronicles the life of Bob Crane who had an early career as a radio DJ with a hit show and then made his foray into television with the hit series “Hogan’s Heroes” one of the most successful television series of all time. It’s by the life on the road where he formed an addiction to sex often luring women to his mansion and engaging in orgies, threesomes, and much more until his death at age 49 where his skull was crushed by a tripod by an unknown assailant.
Big Fat Liar (2002)
Jason Shepherd (Frankie Muniz) is a slacker and he always tends to get into mischief; the problem is, he’s a liar who tends to fib to get him out of the toughest situations. Eventually, all of it comes back to him when he is hit by a car and made late for school. He hitches a ride with a limo seating a Hollywood producer named Marty Wolf (Paul Giamatti ) who steals young Jason’s essay called “Big Fat Liar” and makes it into a movie. Jason misses a school deadline and decides to go to Hollywood to get revenge on the ruthless producer. Now he and his best friend Kaylee (Amanda Bynes are out for revenge and will stop at nothing to get back his paper.
Finding Nemo (2003)
Pixar studios has managed to change the way people think about animated films not just by the incredible animation, but the great stories and utterly memorable characters. “Finding Nemo” is one of those films that parents can watch with their children and not want to run out of the theaters screaming at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. What shines most throughout this film is the mature and sometimes meaningful theme and moral of the story.
The voice work from the cast is great, especially by Albert Brooks who plays the inept and retentive Marlin. Meanwhile Degeneres supplies the excellent quirky offbeat and flawless voice characterization for female fish Dory. The film has an all-star cast of big name and talented character actors that voice various characters, most notably Willem Dafoe, and Geoffrey Rush. Pixar is so skilled in their ability to portray the human spirit and are adept in making seemingly mundane objects around us be portrayed as human as represented in the movies “Toy Story”, “Monsters, inc.” and especially this.
Stanton and the Pixar crew develop hilarious and memorable supporting characters that help leave a mark upon the audience. They fiddle with Oceanic life very cleverly and the comedy and adventure are awe inspiring. “Finding Nemo’s” animation in the film is practically flawless presenting some amazing and often eerily realistic animation given to the audience. When the film is bright and sunny it’s amazing, thus shown in the Coral reef scenes, and when the film is dark and murky as shown in the underwater caves in the water it’s absolutely stunning and amazing to see and such a spectacle to behold.
Pixar has created a dynamic and entertaining film for all ages that’s pleasantly accessible to all audiences with its themes about parenthood, the dangers of the outside world, and self confidence. The kids will appreciate the vivid characters and brilliant animation, and you’ll surely appreciate the witty adult humor and human themes.
The DVD has hours of great extras including screensavers, deleted scenes, a fun charades game with Crush, a commentary, and both a widescreen and full screen version of the film.
The Transporter (2002)
I started off enjoying this film, but by the second half I began to notice something: I was zoning out. Why would I zone out? Simply because the second half is rushed, contrived, and boring. The film started off as a really awesome sleek and stylish piece of action, but then started to head off into such a predictable route. The entire second half begins to feel so tacked on and meaningless that I immediately began losing interest. It wasn’t hard to notice the shoddy fight choreography where we can see Statham pulling his punches on the stuntman with his slow fight maneuvers. I tried to ignore it but soon knew that I’d seen better fighting in a Van Damne flick, and that’s pretty pathetic.