Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights (2002)

ecn4What if “It’s a Wonderful Life” was directed by a mental patient with severe brain damage? What if it was written by a sociopath? This is the questions asked during the viewing of a potentially annoying and incredible unnecessary film called “Eight Crazy Nights”, a film supposedly created as a Holiday Chanukah film yet barely even covers the topic of Chanukah, the meaning of the word, or the holiday. Adam Sandler is disappointing; here is a guy who has so much money and resources yet piddles it away on these irrelevant and crude films that try so hard to be funny but end up causing people to roll their eyes so much it gives them a migraine.

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Adaptation. (2002)

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It’s easy for directors to spoof themselves and their own movies, and it could easily come off as self-indulgent, but director Spike Johnze somehow makes it seem refreshing and truly bold. I was intrigued from the beginning as Jonze dares to be cliché and predictable from beginning to end. Charlie Kaufman is an odd character. He’s insecure, self-loathing, balding, and never knows the right thing to say to people despite the fact that many people actually like him but he manages to instantly repel them with his knack for talking too much and saying the wrong or inappropriate thing as he does with an attractive friendly waitress (Judy Greer) at a restaurant. Charlie is constantly running his head with thoughts of insecurity despite the fact that he’s thought of as a genius in Hollywood.

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Auto Focus (2002)

auto-focusBased 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.

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Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

atlantisMichael J. Fox voices the character of Milo Thatch, an archaeologist who in his field is considered to be eccentric by his colleagues. Milo believes that the lost city of Atlantis is under water and he wants to retrieve the Shepard’s Journal, a book that proves to be a map to finding Atlantis. No one wants to provide the funding for his proposed expedition, until one night he’s taken to an eccentric old millionaire who wants to help him. He gives Milo the Shepard’s journal and tells him that his grandfather once wanted to explore Atlantis. So, Milo is then taken to a shipyard where he meets a team of explorers who are going along with him. All seems well, but after a while, Milo begins to suspect they have ulterior motives.

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About Adam (2001)

I enjoyed the whole depth behind this movie. This is a family who aren’t very close to begin with, and each character is completely opposite to the next one. Kate Hudson is enjoyable as the flirtatious man-eater. Her plot was probably the best one as she manages to fall head over heels for this snake. Frances O’connor gives a radiant performance as the meakish bookworm of the family who also becomes interested in Adam and gets involved in a lurid affair with him. Adam is also a very interesting character; I think Adam is more of a symbol in this movie than an actual character. He is the quintessential man that each of these people picture and often he gives them what they want or desire through intricate planning. We never truly learn anything about him and whenever he does talk about his past, his stories are altered for the people he’s with simply to charm them and win them over through pity and sentiment.

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Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)

I am a huge fan of this series and love the first two sequels but unfortunately it seems Austin has lost his mojo. From the first five minutes of the movie I found myself un-amused and highly disappointed. The movie, though true to its efforts, attempts to bring about new life to the series with a brand-new villain named “Goldmember” which I found sad and very odd. The movie resorts to awful bathroom/gross-out humor to almost desperate measures. The most disgusting aspect of the movie was “Goldmember” who, due to his obsession with gold began to get diseased throughout the entire movie as his skin peeled constantly.

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An American Rhapsody (2001)

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The movie is actually very tense in the beginning as we start in black and white bringing the feel of “Schindler’s List” as we watch the young couple attempting to escape the country of Hungary. I love the emphasis on each of the characters; Tony Goldwyn is great and has great chemistry with Nastassja Kinski. We then go to color where we see the two attempting to adjust to fifties American suburban life, and they slowly do. When they get their daughter Suzanne back, it’s all the more interesting, because she not only must adjust to a new country, but to a new life and family she never knew.

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