The movie awards

It's the first annual movie year in review, which is accomplished by rooting through my ticket stubs from the past 5 years, finding the ones from this year and commenting on them. Let's hurry, because Andy Richter comes on in 20 minutes! These will be in the order that I find them.

The Time Machine - Crap. Crap machine in a hat. Terrible. Boring.

Signs - Holy cow this movie scared the crap out of me. It's one of those ones that starts to fall apart if you think about it too much (Water?!?) but it was great while it was happening, and suspenseful as hell. See it.

In the Bedroom - Some good performances, but I didn't like it as much as a lot of people seemed to.

Lilo and Stitch - Funny, but a little heavy for a kid's movie. Worth seeing for Ving Raimes alone.

About a Boy - To say it's surprisingly good is an understatement. One of my top movies of the year. Touching and funny without being heavy-handed, and a breathtaking Badly Drawn Boy soundtrack. Buy the soundtrack, buy the DVD in January. It's worth it.

Eight Legged Freaks - I saw this movie with Matt, whom I go see bad movies with. On the scale of bad movies, it wasn't that bad. However, I wouldn't see it again.

The Importance of Being Earnest - A good cast in a good play, but you'd have to screw up pretty badly to make a bad movie out of it.

Spider-Man - Thank God! Despite some clunky dialouge and Olympic scenery chewing by Willem Dafoe, a great comic book movie is made, redeeming comic books in the eyes of the public and, most of all, entertaining people. I own the DVD, which is, ultimately, the deciding factor on whether or not I like a movie. Also, I saw it twice in the theatres.

XXX - Another Matt movie. It was really as stupid as it looked.

Minority Report - I liked this one a hell of a lot more than I thought I would. It was actually pretty well done, interesting and exciting. I don't know if I'd buy it, but I'd definitely watch it again.

Amelie - One of the best movies I've seen in years, never mind this year. A treasure that I wouldn't have enjoyed nearly as much if I hadn't seen it with Brooke. Everyone should see it.

Panic Room - Not too bad. Not terribly great. But what is it with David Fincher and fucking up Jared Leto?

A Beautiful Mind - Meh.

Star Wars Episode II - I saw it the same day I saw "About a Boy." Five years from now, guess which one I'll be talking about. As far as I'm concerned, the original trilogy is the only trilogy.

Red Dragon - Tense and suspenseful. Maybe a little too much so. Who would have though that Brett "Rush Hour" Ratner could make a better movie than Ridley Scott?

The Ring - Along with Signs, possibly the scariest movie I've ever seen.

Analyze That - Note to the makers of Analyze That: Comedy comes in threes. You cannot use a running gag SIX TIMES or it becomes stupid.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Better than the first, still not as good as the books, but pretty good indeed.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding - As enjoyable as it was made out to be, and Andrea Martin always rocks.

Spirited Away - Considering my indifference to anime (and my indifference to when I saw a fan-subitled version of this), the dubbed version blew me away. Definitely worth seeing.

I'm sure I saw more movies than that, and if I think of any more I'll let you know. Furthermore, there's at least a baker's dozen movies I still want to see before the year is out. Stay tuned for my thoughts on them if you care for that sort of thing. Until then, save me the aisle seat, or I will spill scalding hot popcorn on you.

Posted by Justin at December 17, 2002 08:28 PM