Amelie (2001)

Posted on April 5, 2002 by Felix Vasquez

In this French comedy, we meet Amelie (Audrey Toutou), a reclusive beautiful young girl who relies on her imagination to take her into her own magical worlds. When she discovers an old tin case in her wall containing relics of the past belonging to someone, she decides to make herself a deal: she finds the owner, if they are happy with discovering the relics, she will do nothing but good deeds from now on, if they aren’t happy, she will return to her reclusive life. Well, the owner loves the relics, and now decides to take her screwy life filled with screwball characters and do good deeds for them. This movie garnered tons of Oscar nods when it appeared on the scene, so when it came on, I was more than anxious to check it out.

Continue reading →

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Posted on April 3, 2002 by Felix Vasquez

In the academy-award winning biography picture, John Nash played by Russell Crowe is a shy college student who is considered somewhat of a genius by his peers and a bit of a odd man. He soon gets recruited by a secret government agent (Ed Harris) to encode secret documents and codes for the rival government. He then meets Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) who falls in love with him. But soon, John begins to discover that things in his life aren’t as they seem. Finally, that academy decided to award Ron Howard with the best director Oscar at the awards and did he ever deserve it. What struck me the most about this movie is the incredible style in which Howard directs.

Continue reading →

Training Day (2001)

Posted on March 26, 2002 by Felix Vasquez

It’s Rookie cop Jake Hoyt’s first day on the job and he must now meet up with a seasoned professional the charismatic cop Harris who takes a liking to him and decides to take him on a ride along to show him the ropes of the inner city, but what he has to show young Jake is beyond anything he ever learned in Police Academy. In probably Denzel Washington’s best performance in years, he is phenomenal as the dangerous and sly Harris.

Continue reading →

The Majestic (2001)

Posted on March 19, 2002 by Felix Vasquez

I love this movie for bringing to mind the old Frank Capra movies from the fifties telling the story of the average Joe brought about into a large situation where the character comes of age and self-discovery. Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey) is a movie writer for B-movies living in the 1950’s during the war where McCarthyism sprung forth upon America. He is blacklisted among others as a communist sympathizer and loses his job. Down in the dumps, one faithful night he goes for a ride and gets into a car accident. He is discovered that morning by an old man and is taken in a sweet little town. Struck with amnesia, he is accidentally mistaken by the townsfolk as a lost war hero and is instantly accepted within their confines, ultimately changing theirs and his own life. But what will happen when he eventually gains his memory back?

Continue reading →

Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

Posted on March 13, 2002 by Felix Vasquez

The film starts off With F.W. Murnau filming his potential horror masterpiece “Nosferatu”. It tells how F.W. Murnau came to Bram Stoker’s wife for the rights to make “Dracula” into a movie. She rejects their offer so F.W. Murnau plays it smart. He changes the name of the movie from “Dracula” to “Nosferatu”, then he changes the name of the vampire from “Count Dracula” to “Count Orlock”. F.W. Murnau is seen as a genius to his peers and friends.

Continue reading →

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Posted on March 12, 2002 by Felix Vasquez

Spielberg comes back in directing this tribute to late director Stanley Kubrick. Originally, an idea of Kubrick’s, he died before he was able to make the film, so Spielberg got the idea to finish it and make it as more of an ode to the late director. It’s funny, the vision of both Kubrick and Spielberg’s can be seen throughout the entire film. From the flicker of a mere light to a vast landscape of a robot city, I found this to be an engaging movie with incredible lights and characters. The movie resembles the classic fairy tale “Pinocchio” almost identically, as throughout the entire two and a half hours of the movie, we experience David’s search for the “Blue Fairy”, a being that can turn him into a real boy.

Continue reading →

Black Hawk Down (2001)

Posted on March 4, 2002 by Felix Vasquez

In the movie, a group of soldiers go to a Somolian city to intercept a civil feud going on between rebels and soldiers, but instead of a simple sweep, they are betrayed and ambushed by a huge onslaught of relentless Somolian soldiers who will stop at nothing to kill off the stranded US soldiers. This was one of the many crop of movies that came out briefly after the September eleventh tragedy, and this doesn’t fail with its gushes of patriotism. The movie is stock full of a powerhouse cast of young Hollywood hotshots like Ewan Mcgregor (Trainspotting, Moulin Rouge), Josh Hartnett (O, Halloween: H20), Orlando Bloom (The lord of the rings), and older veteran character actors like Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan, Dreamcatcher), and Ron Eldard (ER, Sleepers). The movie is directed by famed director Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator) who gives great dramatic tension with incredible camera angles and action shots.

Continue reading →