2001

Swordfish

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Swordfish. Silver Pictures 2001.
Swordfish. Silver Pictures 2001.

Before watching the movie:

This hinges around a digital heist, but the summaries focus on the persuasion required to get the hacker to hack. Even Hollywood hacking can’t sustain a whole film (even The Net is mostly real-world action), so I expect very little of the excitement actually comes from a guy sitting at a laptop typing until the money is stolen.

I have the impression of the mastermind of the heist as a figure not directly involved in the plot aside from hiring people, coercing people, and hiring people to coerce, but there’s one more headliner than I would expect in that notion, so maybe he’s in the middle of it all, giving orders. I know far too little of use for comment beforehand.

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Zoolander

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Zoolander. Paramount Pictures 2001.
Zoolander. Paramount Pictures 2001.

Before watching the movie:

I remember all my classmates in middle school going nuts about this movie when it came out. I had no idea what it was other than a funny name and some incessantly repeated, grammatically shaky line about a school. I later learned Zoolander is a fashion model, and he has a rival model, and that’s about it. Apparently there’s an international assassination plot that he gets involved with somehow, but that’s not funny enough for people to talk about, I guess.

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Escanaba in da Moonlight

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Escanaba In Da Moonlight. Purple Rose Productions 2000.
Escanaba In Da Moonlight. Purple Rose Productions 2001.

Before watching the movie:

Jeff Daniels plays a hunter who has to end his dry spell soon, prompting a change of habits or superstitions or something. Weird things happen. I really don’t know what to expect.

I think this started as a play, since I recall first hearing of it as a community theater production.

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Rat Race

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Rat Race. Alphaville Films/Zucker Productions 2001.
Rat Race. Alphaville Films/Zucker Productions 2001.

Before watching the movie:

I’m fairly sure this is the movie I recall coming out at a time when I was too young to be interested in it, but I thought that it was a few years earlier, like 1997 or 98. Still, I definitely remember the title, nothing with that title came out in the 90s, and the summary is about what I remember.

I was surprised by the star-studded cast. Most of them are people I wouldn’t have heard of in 2001, but I know now are big names. I’m not sure if I knew any of them other than Whoopi Goldberg and Cuba Gooding Jr. at the time. I guess I knew of John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson, but I didn’t know they were in this movie.

I also just found out this is vaguely based on It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, which make sense, because it reminds me of “The Amazing Race” and that movie. Hopefully, it will have better pacing than “Mad World”, which dragged a bit at times from having to support so many characters and generally being long enough to be the only nonmusical film I know of with an intermission.

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The Majestic

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The Majestic.Castle Rock Entertainment 2001.

Before watching the movie:

Eleven years ago sometimes seems like not very long. Sometimes it’s still odd to me to think that a movie that’s so well established wasn’t always there. I remember seeing the poster for The Majestic at a theater when it was running.

I never really gave much thought to the fact that this is set in the McCarthy-era 50s. I’m especially fond of the 50s, and this is one of the more interesting aspects of the decade.

The story seems to center around a theater, which is sure to please movie people, but in light of Hugo and The Artist cleaning up recently, I wonder if there are really that many more movies about movies or if it just seems like that because waxing nostalgic about farming, dentistry, or factory work doesn’t trip the self-gratification alert.

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AI: Artificial Intelligence

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A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. Warner Brothers 2001.

Before watching the movie:

It’s not often that I come across a science fiction movie that I’m not looking forward to seeing. This film should have everything going for it. It was made recently, so should have a clean, appealing aesthetic. It’s about robots and what it means to be human. It was made by Stephen Spielberg. So why have I put this off for ten years?

I’m not looking forward to the story. It sounds too sad for me to enjoy. A child android is programmed to be completely human, but he’s still a robot in society’s eyes. Wait, that sounds like Bicentennial Man without Robin Williams. The problem I expect is that the robot in that movie was on a quest to make society understand him, but in this movie, since he is a child, I only expect harsh treatment and crying. Admittedly, that’s a little too simplistic. I fully expect this one to fall in the category of movies I liked better than I expected because my expectations were too low.

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