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One of the best films of 2000, this is the kind of film that you love to watch over and over again. That’s saying a lot for a subtitled film. Director Ang Lee (ICE STORM) brought to life a Chinese kung-fu move with heart and emotion. I had to twist my wife’s arm to go see this in the theater. It’s now one of her favorites and she let out an audible, “wow,” in the theater when the first character effortlessly takes flight.

Veteran fighter Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat, ANNA AND THE KING) is about to retire and he has given his legendary sword, the Green Destiny, to Sir Te (Lung Sihung, EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN). It also allows him to reunited with his childhood friend, Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh, TOMORROW NEVER DIES), who is employed as a guardian. Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien have long loved each other, but have kept their feelings repressed. Jen Yu (Ziyi Zhang, RUSH HOUR 2) is the Governor’s daughter, who is engaged to marry a man she does not love. Secretly, she is being trained in the Wudan martial arts by thief and murderer, Jade Fox (Pei-pei Cheng, THE LEGEND OF BLACK MASK), who killed Li Mu Bai’s master.
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This Canadian teen horror film played some festivals in the States, but never got any true theatrical release. The film went straight-to-video in 2001 and has slowly garnered a cult following thanks to the Internet. There is a good reason for this; it’s the very smart horror film.

The story follows the Fitzgerald sisters – Brigitte (Emily Perkins, IT) and Ginger (Katharine Isabelle, FREDDY VS. JASON) – whose fascination with death has led them to become outcasts in their community. They stage gruesome death photos and disavow anything girly. They are even late in getting their periods and dread the day they come, thinking they will change into everything they hate. Recently, dogs of their town have been turning up mauled to death. One night, the girls find the culprit – a werewolf, which attacks Ginger. Slowly, the teen starts to go through a transformation, unleashing the animal inside. The original werewolf was smashed by a van, driven by a young drug dealer named Sam (Kris Lemche, EXISTENZ). As Ginger strikes up a relationship with a punk kid named Jason (TV’s NOAH), Brigitte talks with Sam about the werewolf and how to cure someone who has been bitten. Rounding out the cast is the girls’ clueless, caring, but ultimately kooky mother Pamela (Mimi Rogers, GUNG HO).

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The buzz for this film is electric. It’s based on the true story of “America’s first female serial killer” Aileen Wuornos. It is a low-budget independent film from a first time feature director Patty Jenkins. If you haven’t heard of it yet, you will. The main reason for this is Charlize Theron (CIDER HOUSE RULES). She plays Wuornos in a performance that is mesmerizing and brutally real. If she does not win the Oscar, they should discontinue the award forever.

Many people say they didn’t even know it was she. With make-up and adding some 20 pounds, the slim, blonde model transformed into a trailer trash female straight from central casting at THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW. A lot of people didn’t think she had a performance like this in her from her past work as “the girlfriend” — they just weren’t paying attention. If you watch her performances as the “girlfriend,” they are all different. She truly never gives the same performance twice. Check out her performance in THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE to see some of what she can do. Theron embodies Wuornos in everyway. Watch her eyes – she is the character.

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In general, the reviews of this film have been positive. It has made a few top ten lists for 2003. However, the negative reviews for the film always bring up that the movie depicts a white hero coming in to save a minority group. I can see how this opinion is being formed. However, these critics are missing the bigger point.

The story follows decorated Civil War and Indian War fighter Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise, MAGNOLIA) as he is hired to help train the new Japanese military in the ways of the West. Algren is a drunk and has been squeaking out a living by doing gun demonstrations on tour. The Japanese “soldiers” he is supposed to train are peasants and farmers, who must go up against the highly skilled samurai. Even with guns, the Japanese soldiers are no match for the samurai. In the battle, Algren is taken prisoner, because the samurai leader Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe, U.S. debut) is interested in knowing his enemy and respects the fighting spirit in Algren. Katsumoto places Algren in the care of his sister Taka (Koyuki, U.S. debut), who was the wife of one of the samurai Algren killed. Through his time in the samurai village, Algren learns about the code of honor these people live by and is haunted by the Indian massacres he participated in.
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This film perplexes me. The hype is high and it may not have lived up to my expectations. Every year there is a critical sensation that just doesn’t blow me away like all the reviews say it will. Maybe over time, this film will resonate more, once it’s distanced from the hype. But that’s not to say I didn’t like the film, which is fueled by powerful performances and a harrowing crime story.

The story deals with how tragedy often reaches from our pasts and taints our futures. Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins, SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION) was abducted when he was an adolescent as his friends Sean (Kevin Bacon, FLATLINERS) and Jimmy (Sean Penn, DEAD MAN WALKING) watched. Over the years, the three friends grew apart. Jimmy went to prison and has been married twice. His daughter Katie (Emmy Rossum, SONGCATCHER), with his first wife, is the love of his life. His new wife, Annabeth (Laura Linney, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME), complains that he needs to remember that he has two other daughters. Dave is plagued by what happened to him, unable to reconcile it in his mind. Sean has become a homicide cop and is estranged from his wife who calls him but doesn’t speak.
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The second Bond film is considered by many to be the best. It ups the ante from DR. NO and Sean Connery has truly grown into the character. This entry introduced Desmond Llewelyn as Q, the inventor of all of Bond’s nifty gadgets. It also starts some of the contrived conventions of the series, but ultimately it balances between the straightforward style of the first film and the superhero elements of later installments.

This time around the plot is far more complex, which makes it more engaging than DR. NO. The evil enterprise SPECTRE plans to ignite a war between the U.S. and Russia, so they can take control of the world in the aftermath. Russian agent Tatiana Romanov (Daniela Bianchi, ALWAYS ON SUNDAY) thinks she is doing a mission for Russia, but she is really being set up by SPECTRE. Her orders are to allow Bond to steal a Russian decoder, and once Bond is killed, his theft will be revealed starting WWIII. However, SPECTRE didn’t anticipate the true sexual appeal of James Bond, who easily makes Tatiana fall in love with him. Bond’s sexual prowess is definitely pushed more over-the-top than in DR. NO, however Tatiana isn’t totally helpless, often helping Bond in crucial moments.
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Gurinder Chadha has followed up her wonderful film WHAT’S COOKING? with this delightful crowd pleaser about an Indian girl named Jess (Parminder K. Nagra, TV’s ER) who just wants to play soccer. The plot is standard “girl fights tradition to do what she wants” kind of story. What sets this film apart is that it has heart and real pathos. The characters are fleshed out and the action of the story occurs naturally.

Jess gets caught playing soccer and her father (Anupam Kher) and mother (Shaheen Khan, CAPTIVES) forbid her from playing. In a lesser film, this would be the big second act conflict that propels the film to an inevitable end. However, this film has Jess continue to defy her parents over and over again, much like a real teenager. She is spotted playing in the park by Jules (Keira Knightley, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN) who invites her to play for her female team, which is coached by ex-men’s player Joe (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, TITUS). Those three form an unusually believable love triangle.
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