The Magdalene Sisters (2002)

magdalene“The Magdalene Sisters” takes place on 1964, the heels of the women’s liberation front where young women realized their sexuality and did so through protest, standing up for their rights, and burning their bras showing they wouldn’t be constricted sexually through man made products, yet here we visit a village in Ireland where women’s liberation hasn’t quite caught up. If anything “The Magdalene Sisters”, a well acted and very well directed film, analyzes the constriction of women in Ireland and how utterly one – dimensional their values were. It’s more of a film centered completely around ignorance and not only about religious ignorance, but social ignorance, and paranoia that the slightest thing will destroy the religious function and faith.

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Monster (2003)

Monster“Monster” is the biographical film and story of Aileen Wuornos, deemed the first female serial killer of Florida murdering five men from 1989 to 1990 who picked her up while she was a prostitute, attempting to get money without sex. Traumatized after being brutally attacked and raped, she no longer wanted to continue having sex for money and began killing the men who picked her up to support her lesbian girlfriend Selby. “Monster” is more of a tragedy than an actual biographical picture starring Charlize Theron who is basically stunning here transforming into the infamous serial killer who was executed on 2002. Theron is the most convincing actress to play Aileen Wuornos ever and really dives into the role of Wuornos. Here we witness not the birth of a monster, but the evolution of a monster, a woman who was always an outcast, always disliked, always abused, and always brought down, so inevitably she’s transformed into a ruthless killer.

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Masked and Anonymous (2003)

Mask5This pointless, droning, pretentious, pompous, and incredibly self-indulgent piece of philosophical dribble is that rare indie film that makes me say “Oh, that’s why it was never widely distributed”. Being released in only 17 theatres, the writer and director for this film do a really ingenious thing, throughout the film. There are about fifty cameos from some really good actors. It not only gives the audience something to look at, but when surrounded around people who can really act, the producers attempt to make us forget how much of a one note simply awful actor Bob Dylan is. I mean he’s Bob Dylan, this man is like a bad-ass in my eyes with some incredible music, but come on, did he really need to do this film?

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Malibu's Most Wanted (2003)

563815Sure, it was a bit presumptuous on Kennedy and his agent’s part in spinning off a mildly amusing character from his rather obscure comedy show into a feature length movie, and while, once again, all of my expectations were down, I was pretty surprised to find this was just so entertaining. The movie no one has been asking for but came to theaters anyway, stars Kennedy as white rapper B-Rad who lives in the rough and tough notorious streets of–Malibu California with a large mansion he declares as small, and friends who are about as intimidating as gangsters as Britney Spears is talented, not.

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The Medallion (2003)

the-medallionTaking its cue from “Golden Child” and just about every other fantasy film, a young child, a “chosen one” is chosen to guard the medallion, cue candles, a temple, and guards who are supposed to protect a lethal weapon but are knocked out with a tap on the head, also, cue spooky British villain Snakehead who plans to steal the medallion for immortality, but first he reads from a book at the very start of the film introducing the concept of the medallion in a low spooky British voice: “Every so and so, a child from so and so, is chosen to do so and so, to protect the medallion!” The term “immortality” is hard to define in this film; if you take one half of the medallion you can’t be killed.

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The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

It ends here. Let’s hope. The finisher to the Matrix trilogy begins where we last left off from “Reloaded”. Now the Sentinels are making their way into Xion faster and faster and the crew are looking for a way to seal off their exit. Meanwhile Neo has awoken from his coma and is unaware of the traitor in their ranks. You’ll have to forgive me for not finishing, it gets a little confusing from there. But nonetheless you have to wonder why the classic “The Matrix” was so poorly received when the sequels made its way into theaters years later. Was The Matrix, after all, just a one trick pony? Just a fad? Or was it the Wachowski Brothers’ plan to have the sequels fail? Maybe the Wachoski’s didn’t give their all in the sequel story arcs, or is it all a trick of the architect?

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The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

I thought “The Matrix” was great and very innovative in its own right. The basic element from the original “Matrix” film is present in this; there’s your pretty dazzling opener with Trinity doing what she does best and we enter into the great story that serves a heaping help full for any “Matrix” fan to feast on. The Wachowski brothers manage to surprise and amaze with some stunning machine special effects and great scenes that truly dazzle the mind. The opening where we’re introduced to Zion is truly magnificent as we’re first shown the exterior’s of the almost too lifelike Zion guard robots then shown the entire city. Zion is a basic hybrid of modern machinery and old age homes that live among each other in a community.

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