We meet Blade again, back from the original blockbuster hit from ’98 and he’s still kicking undead ass as much as ever, except now he’s in Europe. In the movie, there are these new evolved vampires called “Reapers” on the loose that are stronger, faster, smarter, cooler, and a lot more scarier than regular vampires. The thing with this species is that they don’t only feed on humans but on vampires as well. Now, a group of trained vampires called the “Blood Pack” enlists blade in helping them eliminate the potential threat. But is there more to their offer than meets the eye?
O (2001)
In a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s “Othello”, this controversial movie starring Mekhei Pfeiffer (ER, 8 Mile), Josh Hartnett, and Julia Stiles. This movie was supposed to be released back in ’99 but due to the school shootings in Columbine, it was shelved by the studio for a couple of years and re- released yet again in 2001.
Piñero (2001)
This is possibly the most grueling movie I’ve ever had to endure because it’s simply dull; I thought biographical movies were supposed to be interesting yet this isn’t. Benjamin Bratt plays Miguel Pinero in this documentary/biographical tale of the Puerto Rican poet who rose to fame with his poetry and inevitably fell from grace by a brutal drug addiction and liver disease and died at forty in the late eighties though revered by culture and poets everywhere. If Pinero was a much of a genius as this movie proclaims him to be then he gets the short end of the stick because this is simply a lot of nothing.
Glitter (2001)
I doubt even with another leading lady at the helm, “Glitter” could have risen above abysmal and become remotely watchable. It’s such a cliché and monotonous by the book tale of instant fame, that it barely deserved to be made in to a film. Writers Kate Lanier and John Wilder don’t give any new material or bring anything fresh to the table story-wise, yet simply dole out mindless cliché after cliché relentlessly. Mariah Carey’s woefully misguided “Glitter” is the story of Billie Frank and how as a young child she was left in an orphanage by her drug addicted mother. She and two other orphans form a friendship and a bond and Billie makes an oath that someday she’ll grow up and make it into a huge singing star.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Angelina Jolie. The woman who made this movie worth watching. My, how she is a hot woman, and she pulls off the role as Lara Croft well. In fact, she’s the best thing in this movie. She is great portraying the character of Lara Croft, giving off a great sense of beauty and grace while showing great boldness and ferocity in battle. But man, was this long awaited adaptation of the game disappointing. How do you have a pitch perfect actress play the role and then offer no rewards for fans that have been waiting for this for years? I can even forgive the fact that Jolie isn’t even British.
Rock Star (2001)
Chris ‘Izzy’ Pole is a hardcore fan of a famous rock band named “Steel Dragon” and passionately sings the lead for a tribute band called “Blood Pollution”. One day he gets a call from the agent of “Steel Dragon” to come an audition for the band as the lead singer and he’s ecstatic. When he passes the audition he gains instant fame but soon learns it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. One major fault of this is the incredibly watered down and cliché plotline. I’ve seen these plot devices and characters in a lot of other and better rock biographical movies before.
Joe Somebody (2001)
Joe Scheffer is an honest workaday man who loves his daughter. One day while driving to work with his daughter Natalie he gets harshly humiliated by a bigger man in the parking lot. After feeling embarrassed, he decides to prove himself to his daughter and begins taking karate lessons with a washed up action star Chuck Scarett to seek revenge on the bully. But after a while, he begins to wonder if fighting is the best way to solve the problem and if being a man means fighting or just being an honest man to the people that matter in life. Comedies, family comedies especially are very lame if not predictable nowadays, so it was a treat watching an original one like this.