Ah, those summer times when you and your friends went across country with a stranger to get a record deal in L.A. Anyway, In pop music star Britney Spears’ debut performance, she plays shy girl Lucy who graduated from high school and one night decides to take up a pact her and her ex-best friends made up when they were toddlers. That night, all three girls in ruins take up on their pact and one of them decides to go across country on a road trip to land a record deal in a contest from a record company.
Joy Ride (2001)
Two very very stupid characters dive head first into a barrage of ridiculous moves that ultimately get them in deep. That’s the difference between this and “Duel”. In “Duel”, the main character is an innocent man being torment, throughout this movie, the main characters ask for it. The reason why Paul Walker’s character doesn’t deck Steve Zahn’s character is beyond me. This is somewhat reminiscent of Spielberg’s “Duel”, though the two don’t compare. You never get to see the driver “Rusty Nail” much. I thought it increased the tension of the movie and made him very mysterious.
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Monsters under the bed, monsters under the closet. Are there anymore universal themes in our childhood that we can relate to? Arguably Pixar’s most imaginative film, Pixar is known for creating simplistic stories revolving around childhood themes and “Monsters Inc.” is a success for tapping in to that classic fear of children fearing the monster in hiding in the shadows ready to scare them at a moment’s notice. But what about the monster? What is its purpose? Why does it need to scare us?
Pokemon The Movie: 2000 (2000)
I’m not a huge fan of Pokemon, but I am a casual watcher of the television program. This is alot better than the first one, and succeeds where the first one fails. This one makes me happy. The animation as always is spectacular and sleek, with mixing, computer animation, painting animation, and regular animation. We get to see this demonstrated in the pre-movie cartoon, “Pikachu’s Rescue”. In the scene where the clouds begin to form, we see the trees which are painted, brushing with the wind.
Wendigo (2001)
The film and entire story manages to orchestrate under the impression of a very long episode of “The Twilight Zone”, and carefully takes its time setting up the characters which, writer Larry Fessenden (who also directs, and edits) probably knew would ultimately affect the audience in a deep way. Hardcore horror fans probably will eventually become uneasy and impatient, but I was willing to sit through the entire film, because as the story progresses, I was very engrossed. Fessenden manages to skillfully craft a story of such sophistication, that no commercial Hollywood writer would have been able to think of it. Fessenden also manages to create some truly endearing, charming, and very realistic characters that the story revolves around, and I was very captured by the essence of the family.
The Bourne Identity (2002)
This is a long sweet breath of fresh air in the action genre, a genre I’m admittedly very tired of, and I welcomed this change of pace with an action film that has an actual plot. Adapted from the hit book by acclaimed author Robert Ludlum, this is an exciting and excellent spy-thriller starring the versatile Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, the amnesiac spy who must fight his way through CIA operatives, assassins, and French police. Until now, he’d usually done acclaimed dramas, but I must say that Damon handles this role very well.
Not Another Teen Movie (2001)
It’s a shame that “Not Another Teen Movie” is such a mixed bag, as it has a ton of material to derive some great laughs from. By now the movie theaters have been filled with teen movie fare, and there’s some good fodder for fun. Sadly “Not Another Teen Movie” has so much nonsense, but also a lot of really brilliant material that you’ll find yourself quoting for a while. It’s a good thing the funny fodder outweighs the sheer misfires by a few inches, or else “Not Another Teen Movie” would be a botched missed opportunity. “Not Another Teen Movie” spoofs everything from John Hughes flicks all the way to recent hits like “Bring It On”.
The subplot is taken from one of my least favorite teen flicks, “She’s All That,” with dips in to other recent teen hits and some classics like “Breakfast Club.” In the movie, the “popular jock” and gets dumped by the “popular chick” for a “weird guy” spoofing that weird kid from “American Beauty”. So, the “popular jock’s” friends make him a bet that he can’t make a prom queen out of the “pretty ugly girl” which in fact is very hot when all that crap comes off of her. My favorite character though was “the token black guy,” who was barely in the film and spouted words like “shit”, “damn”, and “that is whack”.
Granted, you might have to see about every teen flick from the eighties and nineties to get most of the jokes here, but when a reference delivers with a good sight gag, it offers some raucous laughs. There are some great cameos by Molly Ringwald, Melissa Joan Hart, and Mr.T that make this worth watching, and lest I forget some great eye candy from Jaimme Presley. While “Not Another Teen Movie” completely falls apart by the climax, it more than makes up for it with a solid first half that does a good job lampooning iconic teen movie moments. It’s no masterpiece, but if you like spoof movies, this might keep you giggling ‘til the end.