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2001 in Film Review

© Rachel Lindley

We’re down to the final full week of the year of 2001. Looking back on this year I’ve concluded that it has definitely been a year of surprises as far as the film business this year.

Earlier this summer it was concluded that it was the year of sequels with American Pie 2, Scary Movie 2, Rush Hour 2 and The Mummy Returns aka The Mummy 2, Dr. Dolittle 2, Jurassic Park 3 each planning to dominate the box offices. In the end, The Mummy Returns looked as if it was going to beat out some records when it gained $73 million at the box office.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is a little animation film from Dreamworks Shrek. Although Shrek’s budget was $60 million it managed to rake in almost $300 million (as of December 2) in box office dollars and video rentals. Not to mention a nomination at the Golden Globes for Best Animation picture which is another surprise considered award shows and the genre. But more on that later.

I must admit this year did look promising with a lot of supposedly good movies on the way. The long awaited Tomb Raider movie based on the Eidos Interactive games starring Lara Croft looked very action pack like it was going to blow away the competition. Good pacing, pretty good acting by Angelina Jolie and overall a rousing good time. Instead it turned out to be slow pacing, mediocre acting by everyone in the film except for the butler Hilary (played by Chris Barrie) and overall a 2 hour headache. The Planet of the Apes also looked like it would be one good movie but I didn’t get my hopes up considering Tim Burton’s love for dark directions and my overall love for the original film and Rod Serling’s screenplay adaptation of the book. Sure enough the film deserved a mild ok with an even lower ok for the ‘surprise ending’. Final Fantasy I believed was a rather good film, which could have been better. The effects were breathtaking and the story held up well but got a little lost in the translation. Nevertheless the dvd was well deserving of its price.

This summer brought one of the biggest films of this year that did not have a number at the end of the title nor did it have mind numbing action sequences. The Reese Witherspoon vehicle Legally Blonde took a mere $18 million to make yet managed $20 million it’s opening weekend going on to make over a $100 million in just a few months. The other film was the beautiful costume drama extraordinaire Moulin Rouge by Australian born Baz Luhrman. Luhrman, known for song and dance epics, really went out with the film creating a theatre-like $52 million masterpiece grabbed audiences and kept them coming back for more. It is no surprise then that the film is so far the winner of the Golden Globe nominations with 6 nods including Best Picture.