| Date | Review | Movie | Comment |
|---|
05/10/04 | 
| Children of Heaven |
|
05/09/04 |
| The King of Masks |
|
|
| Murder by Numbers |
|
|
| Whale Rider |
|
|
| Hero (Ying xiong) |
|
|
| Lara Croft: Tomb Raider |
|
|
| L'auberge Espagnole |
|
|
| The Italian Job |
|
|
| The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King |
|
| 10/12/03 |
| Amélie |
|
| 10/10/03 |
| Kill Bill Volume 1 |
|
|
| Ocean's Eleven |
|
| 10/01/03 |
| Try Seventeen (All I Want) |
|
| 9/25/03 |
| So Close |
|
| 9/21/03 |
| Shaolin Soccer |
|
| 9/13/03 |
| Memento |
|
| 9/06/03 |
| Merci Pour Le Chocolat |
|
| 9/01/03 |
| Road To Perdition |
|
|
| The Guru |
|
| 8/16/03 |
| Blade Runner |
|
| 8/02/03 |
| Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl |
|
| 7/19/03 |
| To Live |
|
| 7/02/03 |
| How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days |
|
| 6/21/03 |
| Lucía y el sexo (Sex and Lucía) |
|
| 6/17/03 |
| Finding Nemo |
|
|
| Fallen Angels | This seemed a little easier to follow than Chungking Express (also by Wong Kar-wai). That, combined with the fact that there were some funny parts, made me like it somewhat better.
|
|
| Chungking Express | A bit too confusing and a bit too weird for my taste.
|
|
| The Scent of Green Papaya | A very pretty movie, but a little slow for my taste. Well, I don't think the pace of the movie is really that bad, it's just that it wasn't quite what I expected. It's still an interesting movie and worth seeing.
|
| 6/01/03 |
| Bruce Almighty |
|
| 5/20/03 |
| The Transporter |
|
|
| The Mummy |
|
|
| The Matrix Reloaded |
|
| 
| The Beach |
|
|
| 15 Minutes |
|
|
| Spy Game |
|
|
| X-Men 2 |
|
|
| Catch Me If You Can |
|
| 4/20/03 |
| Bulletproof Monk |
|
|
| The Big Lebowski |
|
| 4/13/03 |
| Bend It Like Beckham |
|
| 3/14/03 |
| Ringu |
|
| 3/14/03 |
| Dr. Who: The Five Doctors |
|
|
| My Big Fat Greek Wedding |
|
| 12/24/02 |
| Six Days, Seven Nights |
|
| 12/24/02 |
| The Red Violin |
|
| 12/23/02 |
| The Count of Monte Cristo |
|
|
| The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers |
|
| 12/14/02 |
| Men in Black II |
|
| 12/14/02 |
| But I'm A Cheerleader |
|
|
| Die Another Day |
|
|
| The Cube |
|
|
| Farewell, My Concubine |
|
|
| Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever | There were five
other people in the theater watching this movie.
|
| 09/18/02 |
| Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker |
|
| 09/14/02 |
| The Bourne Identity |
|
| 09/07/02 |
| Queen of the Damned |
|
| 09/02/02 |
| Unbreakable |
|
| 09/02/02 |
| Rules of Engagement |
|
|
| Austin Powers in Goldmember |
|
|
| Spirited Away |
|
| 06/29/02 |
| Minority Report |
|
| 06/15/02 |
| Office Space |
|
| 06/08/02 |
| Vanilla Sky |
|
| 05/27/02 |
| Spiderman |
|
| 05/25/02 |
| Star Wars: Attack of the Clones |
|
| 05/19/02 |
| Sleepless in Seattle | Better than An Affair To Remember
|
| 05/12/02 |
| Tokyo Raiders
|
| 05/12/02 |
| Poltergeist | Interesting, but weird.
|
| 04/21/02 |
| The
Scorpion King | Well, I went to see this for one main reason: Kelly
Hu is hot. Note particularly that quality of plot and acting don't
play a part in that equation. My expectations were exceeded.
And the plot and acting were tolerable, too.
|
| 04/21/02 |
| Silence of the Lambs |
I finally saw most of this. I didn't have a very accurate impression
of it before; it's more interesting than I had thought. I liked
watching the psychological games that Hannibal played with Clarice and
enjoyed some of the plot twists. I think it's probably a lot more
intense if you don't watch it in broad daylight while eating lunch and
talking to your roommate, though.
|
| 04/20/02 |
| Finding Forrester |
|
| 04/01/02 |
| Ice Age |
|
| 03/17/02 |
| Shrek |
|
| 02/18/02 |
| Run, Lola, Run |
This movie is unusual in several ways. First, the protagonist's boyfriend
is involved in some sort of criminal activity and the protagonist herself
commits crimes in order to get him out of the predicament he has gotten
himself into. Neither of them seems like a particularly nice person.
In spite of this, we are expected to be on their side. We want Lola to
get the money to her boyfriend. I still feel very weird about that.
Second, the film mixes a number of techniques. For some reason, one
little part (repeated three times) is done in cartoon. Every once
in a while, the film stops to give a very fast slide-show type look at
the future for one particular minor character who Lola has just run into.
The quick succession of images fits very well with the techno soundtrack.
A substantial part of the film is shots of Lola running. You'd think
that would get boring, but somehow you can't look away for very long.
I switched to English audio (instead of just subtitles) to make
sure I could keep up. Even after seeing this movie, the premise, that
small details can have a big impact on your life, seems pretty
self-evident, but somehow the director managed to make an enjoyable
movie out of it. |
| 02/17/02 |
| Antitrust |
| 1/20/02 |
| The Road Home |
This is fairly slow moving, peaceful movie. There is a plot but it
takes place in the past. Since we know from the start what the end
will be, there's not a lot of tension. As with In The Mood For
Love, it feels like very little happens in this movie, but it
stirs a lot of emotions. It's a nice love story mixed with some
sadness and it's very enjoyable to watch. Some of the scenes are very
beautiful and the music is well matched. Having seen Zhang Ziyi in
Crouching Tiger and Rush Hour 2, I enjoyed the
contrast in the type of character she played in this movie (fairly
simple and nice as opposed to complex and immaturely self-centered
in CT and, well, the only word I can think of is bitchy in RH2). |
| 1/20/02 |
| The Truth About Cats and Dogs |
I missed the first half hour of this movie because it didn't look interesting
and I wanted to go running. When I got back, I was tired so I sat and watched
the rest of it. It's not bad, but not that interesting either. About what I
expected, I guess. I have to say, though, I'm a bit surprised it only got
a PG-13 rating. |
| 1/13/02 |
| Captain Ron |
This was shown on TV and my roommate told me they edited out one of
the more entertaining scenes. It was kinda fun, but mostly fairly
mindless. I probably won't watch it again. |
| 1/12/02 |
| Shanghai Triad |
This movie did a really neat job of saving a lot of stuff for the end,
so I'm reluctant to say too much. It kept me engaged because I had a
feeling that there was more going on than I could see, but I really
didn't know where the plot was going. Definitely recommended. |
| 1/6/02 |
| Spies Like Us |
I bought this movie because a college friend used to quote a line from
it and because it was cheap. It's pretty silly and mindless, which is
more or less to be expected. I can imagine I'd watch it again if I'm
in the right mood, though. |
| 12/30/01 |
| Raise the Red Lantern |
This is the second movie I've watched by Zhang Yimou. (The first was
The Story of Qiu Ju, which was several years ago so it's not
listed on this page.) After watching this movie, I decided to try
some more of his work, as you can see above. The movie is really
quite interesting, but I'm having some difficulty putting it into
words. Part of what makes the movie outstanding is the way the main
characters interact. There are some things about the characters that
don't become clear for quite a while, and at least one of them caught
me off guard (I can't explain without spoiling it). As a specific
example, I had to watch the movie a second time before I could
understand the scene where Songlian and Yan'er meet for the first
time. I really enjoyed the scenes where the four wives are eating
together, where they imply so many things that they don't actually
come out and say. In addition, I liked the way that, while one can't
fully approve of the behavior of any of the characters, one can still
to some degree empathize with them. There are other things that are
interesting and enjoyable about this film: the use of color, the songs
sung by the third concubine, etc., but I can't try to explain
everything. You'll just have to watch it. |
| 12/29/01 |
| Tremors |
Loban chose this movie and I was a bit skeptical, but it's really a
lot of fun. It's a monster movie and it's somewhat predictable what
people are going to die, but my guesses were less accurate as time
went on. Anyway, there's some humor, some variety in how they deal
with the monsters, a gratuitous gun scene, explosions, and a
reasonably attractive female seismologist. Really, what more can you
ask for? |
| 12/19/01 |
| The Lord
of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | I liked this movie, but
I'm not as into LotR as a lot of people seem to be. Perhaps I would
have liked it more if I had re-read the book first, but I didn't get
around to that, and my memory of it is very faint. The movie has some
good scenery, the acting is good, and I never felt bored even though
it was three hours long. I don't have anything significant to
complain about, but it didn't dazzle me enough to get 3 stars. Maybe
my expectations were built up too much, I don't know. Anyway, one
final comment is that I felt it was a little weird how quickly the
travelling went: they were in the mountains in the snow one minute and
down in the valley the next. Oh, well, that's a minor point.
|
|
| Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone |
|
| The Thomas Crown Affair |
| 11/03/01 |
| Monsters,
Inc. | This is one of the movies you go to partly to be dazzled by
modern animation and partly because it looks funny, and indeed this
movie lives up to expectation. The short at the beginning is
hilarious, too. |
| 10/31/01 |
| The Shining |
| 08/12/01 |
| Rush Hour 2 |
| 07/14/01 |
| Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within |
| 07/14/01 |
| Dude, Where's My Car |
| 07/14/01 |
| Bring It On |
| 06/24/01 |
| Swordfish | I didn't expect much from this movie, so I was
actually somewhat pleasantly surprised. Of course, some of the computer
stuff was cheesy, but they did do some research and it wasn't too
horrible. I liked the plot in that, for a while, it wasn't obvious which
characters were telling the truth or how the beginning would tie in. I
guess what I mean is that I think it did a good job of revealing what it
wanted to when it wanted to. The reference to Caltech amused me to no
end and there were a few other things (e.g. IKEA) that popped up in funny
ways. I'm glad I went to see this with another computer-literate
'techer. |
| 06/20/01 |
| The Ladies'
Man | Okay, so normally I hate to be interrupted while I'm watching something,
even if that something isn't very good. However, I was quite relieved to be
interrupted twice during this movie by phone calls and as a result of the
second one, didn't finish watching the movie. I guess there were a few funny
bits, but the suffering that had to be endured to reach them wasn't worth
it. I guess that's not surprising since I feel the same way about SNL in
general. |
| 04/21/01 |
| The Tailor of Panama | No, I can't see Pierce Brosnan as a British spy other than James Bond, even if you make him swear more. Thanks for asking, though. |
| 04/20/01 |
| Life is Beautiful | saw most but not all of it |
| 04/02/01 |
| Analyze This | |
| 03/30/01 |
| WarGames | Yes, I should have seen it before. It's really hard to evaluate this film objectively when it's main effect is to inspire nostalgic reminiscence of 1980s computer technology. I mean, whose heart doesn't beat faster at the sight of those small monochrome screens and acoustic coupler modems? |
| 03/24/01 |
| Shawshank Redemption |
| 03/23/01 |
| A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum |
| 03/23/01 |
| Twin Dragons |
| 02/16/01 |
| In The Mood For Love | This was an unusual (and unusually slow-moving) film and the end was somewhat confusing. I was also puzzled by the choice of music, which included a song in Spanish that talked about "your green eyes", a choice which was amusing because I'm quite certain none of the main characters had green eyes. In spite of these faults, I actually have a somewhat positive impression of the movie. I guess it's because the way it explored the emotions and other things going on inside the heads of the characters was different from other movies I've seen. I don't know how to explain it very well. |
|
| Shanghai Noon | Apparently
some people don't realize that the silliness of this movie is by design. The
characters and the ways in which they interact are unrealistic for the time
period in which the movie is set. This is intentional and it's actually pretty
funny. |
|
| An Affair To Remember |
|
| Pelican Brief |
|
| X-Men |
|
| American Pie |
|
| Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon |
|
| The Sixth Day |
|
| Proof of Life |
|
| Gladiator | I have nothing in particular against this movie, I just wasn't really interested in it. |
|
| Charlie's Angels | Okay, I'm not saying it's a great movie, but it was fun. |
|
| Chicken Run | (on a plane) |
|
| Drowning Mona | (on a plane) |
| 09/17/00 |
| Jane Eyre |
| ??/??/?? |
| Mystery Men |
| 08/28/00 |
| 28 Days | (on a plane) |
| 08/28/00 |
| American Beauty |
| 08/21/00 |
| Where The Heart Is | (on a plane, only listened a little) |
| NYA
| Reality Bites |
|
| Gorgeous |
| 07/31/00? |
| The Dinner Game |
|
| Galaxy Quest |
| 07/04/00? |
| Star Trek 4 | (again) |
|
| Being John Malkovich | (parts of it) |
| 05/24/00 |
| Mission: Impossible 2 |
|
| Cruel Intentions | (most of it) |
|
| Fight Club | (most of it) |
|
| Star Trek: First Contact | (again) |
| NYA
| She's All That |
|
| Casablanca |
|
| Supercop 2 |
|
| The Joy Luck Club |
| NYA
| For Your Eyes Only (007) |
| NYA
| Live and Let Die (007) |
|
| Hunt for Red October | (for the Nth time) |
| NYA
| Three Days of the Condor |
|
| The Replacement Killers |
| NYA
| Starship Troopers | (last half) |
|
| Enemy of the State |
|
| Scent of a Woman |
|
| 8 mm |
|
| Anna and the King |
| NYA
| Austin Powers |
|
| The World Is Not Enough (007) |
|
| Army of Darkness | (Lloyd Movie Night - finally saw the whole thing) |
|
| Evil Dead 2 | (Lloyd Movie Night) |
|
| The Princess Bride | (Lloyd Movie Night) |
|
| Monty Python: And Now For
Something Completely Different |
|
| Bean | (second half of it) |
|
| Sliding Doors |
|
| The Matrix | (again) |
|
| Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam | ("I've already given my heart away") |
|
| Tomorrow Never Dies | (again - had to try out Andy's TV) |
| 
| The Russia House | (last third of it) |
|
| The Dream Team |
|
| Being There |
|
| Liar Liar |
|
| I Love Trouble |
| NYA
| Monty Python: The Meaning of Life |
|
| Tomorrow Never Dies | (again) |
|
| Contact |
|
| Eyes Wide Shut |
|
| Wild Wild West |
|
| LA Story | (again) |
|
| The General's Daughter |
| NYA
| Austin Powers 2 |
|
| Raiders of the Lost Ark | (again) |
| NYA
| Austin Powers | (the second half of it) |
| NYA
| Seven Samauri |
|
| Starwars I: The Phantom Menace |
|
| You've Got Mail |
|
| Entrapment |
|
| The Matrix |
|
| Hackers | (again) |
|
| Pride and Prejudice |
|
| Strictly Ballroom |
|
| Shakespeare in Love |