In a less predictable, commercial and more intelligent feature-film debut, pop-star Mandy Moore stars as Jamie Sullivan, the local preacher’s daughter and an impish reclusive bookworm who is constantly ostracized by her classmates. Shane West plays Landon Carter, the local ne’er do well (yes, I use that word, so I’m un-cool) who constantly gets into trouble with his friends. One night after nearly killing a friend, he is forced to star in the school play alongside Jamie. Soon, the two become friends and they fall deeply in love with one another despite the resistance of her father.
Tag Archives: Romance
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
“The Fast and the Furious” is a fun movie. The action and fast hot rods will get any viewer pumped up with very high adrenaline action scenes that are all excellent if a little farfetched. We get to see a lot of cool stunts performed with the great looking hot rods and they never fail to deliver with the engrossing hot rod action. One technique in this movie that I did enjoy was the way whenever a hot rod would rev up, we’d zoom through its engines to see it start. It was an unconventional plot element to bring us in to the moment, but very cool.
That said, “The Fast and the Furious” is a virtual “Point Break” Xerox copy replacing surfing with racing. We know the cop is going to fall in love with the girl, we know he’s going to get close to the leader of the gang, we know he’s going to find out, and we know in the end he’s going to let the leader get away. Star Paul Walker is also pretty stiff in his turn here. There’s also Vin Diesel who despite being a bit over the top at times is at least an intriguing villain and potential anti-hero. Diesel as character Dom is the coolest character in the entire film, and he steals a lot of scenes from co-star Walker.
Michelle Rodriguez who’s grossly underused but still manages to get her few moments in to the action and fights, and there’s Jordana Brewster who garners a shockingly compelling sub-plot with Diesel as his sister and potential love interest for Walker’s character. While I wasn’t terribly surprised or kept on the edge of my seat, “The Fast and the Furious” is at least good action fodder with it unabashed silliness at the surface of every racing scene and bit of dialogue. It’s a cheesy movie, but it’s a fun cheesy movie. Though flawed, “The Fast and the Furious” is a fun, dumb, action-packed piece of B grade genre fun.
A Knight's Tale (2001)
Man, it really pisses me off when such a movie with such heart has tons of flaws to it. First off, the beginning of the movie threw me off so much. I mean, classic rock in medieval times? While two knights joust, we see the crowd of peasants and noblemen pounding their fists on the wooden banisters to the beat of Queens “We Will Rock you.” Am I missing something?
Texas Rangers (2001)
In yet another attempt on Hollywood’s part to re-create the incredible western genre that is rapidly dying, James Van Der Beek of “Dawson’s Creek” fame plays Lincoln Dunnison, a boy who witnessed his entire family get slaughtered by ruthless bandits, for some unknown reason. His life is spared and he now sets out to on a journey to join the famed army of the west, the “Texas Rangers”. Dylan McDermott plays the ex-leader of the famed Texas rangers who is asked to reform them because of a new threat. This bad it’s, really bad.
Amelie (2001)
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.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
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.
The Majestic (2001)
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?