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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Poll: What Did You See In 2002?

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Matthew Fluxington

16:25 / 09.12.02

Very simply, I'm curious about what films you saw in theatre in 2002. You can just list them off, comment on them, rank them, whatever. This may help jog your memory.

This is what I've seen (hopefully I'm not forgetting anything):

Panic Room
No Such Thing
Spider-Man
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Minority Report
Signs
Austin Powers: Goldmember
Igby Goes Down
Autofocus
Secretary
Bowling For Columbine
Solaris
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
8 Mile
Punch Drunk Love
Adaptation

will see in upcoming weeks:

About Schmidt
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Catch Me If You Can

I would say that without question, Adaptation was the best film of the bunch, with Igby Goes Down as a very very very distant second.

12:13 / 10.12.02

Erm... in theaters? POWERPUFF GIRLS and LILO AND STITCH.

We will be going to see THE TWO TOWERS, though.

12:15 / 10.12.02

Oh, and Flux: you saw NO SUCH THING on the big screen? You have my condolences...

Time for a Hal Hartley thread, methinks. Give me a few hours to gather some quotes and links...

Matthew Fluxington

12:51 / 10.12.02

Yes, I did. I saw it with Flyboy, actually.

12:58 / 10.12.02

You poor, poor bastards. At least you had each other.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

13:15 / 10.12.02

Is this just cinema? I tend to watch most stuff on video, see... but..

24 Hour Party People
Spider-Man (um, twice, shamefully)
Resident Evil (oh, the shame)
Minority Report
Back to the Future trilogy

But on video I saw (and some of this was catching up from last year)

Lord of the Rings
Ghost World (about 4 times)
The Royal Tenenbaums (which reminds me I really must buy this)
Star Wars Episode II
Austin Powers: Goldmember

oh, and I had to catch up from way back with the Big Lebowski.

And I will definitely be going to see The Two Towers, and hopefully Doniie Darko at the cinema... (it's been on here yet...I hope)

13:52 / 10.12.02

I don't go/can't afford to go to the cinema as much as I would like, but...

I saw:
Spiderman - I've loudly expressed my opinion on this film already...
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - mmm, Snape.
Minority Report - Quite enjoyed it, apart from the Gap ad break in the middle.
Kandahar
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (twice) - no fucking comment. However, the Leicester Square showing I went to did have the bonus of a personal appearance by Anthony Daniels aka C3PO.
Scooby Doo - unmitigated shite, but I was out with someone and it was the best thing on.
Eight Legged Freaks - I saw it with an arachnophobe who wasn't scared...need I say more?

And that may very well be it...

I plan to see The Two Towers, Donnie Darko and 28 Days Later.

13:54 / 10.12.02

What a weird list I have:

Kate & Leopold (stop looking at me like that)
Lord of the Rings
Gosford Park
Amelie
Brotherhood of the Loups
Iris
Spiderman
Donnie Darko
Lilo and Stitch
Minority Report
Signs
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

...those were the ones we saw in theaters, we watch a lot of stuff on DVD too --let's see... Shrek, Dark City, The House of Yes, Swordfish, Sopranos Season 2, The French Connection, Zoolander, Titus, Irma La Douce, Blade, Farewell My Concubine, Unbreakable, Lawrence of Arabia, Ghost World, High Noon, Sopranos Season 3, Blade II, a bunch of Power Puff Girls, The Cat's Meow, horrible 84 Charing Cross Road. Frenzy. The Poseidon Adventure of course, multiple times. And we just watched The Living Daylights.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:02 / 10.12.02

Jack, you'd better be writing that from the perspective of a disappointed Hartley fan who felt it didn't live up to his high standards, or you and I are going to have good-natured but heartfelt words. Again.

What did I see this year? Well, rather than just list everything I can tell you that the two films that made the biggest impression on me were The Royal Tenenbaums and Donnie Darko, with RT just gaining the edge... Morvern Callar was good too... I'll have to jog my memory a bit...

Tryphena Absent

14:35 / 10.12.02

This should make a ridiculously long list:

24 Hour Party People
Spider-Man
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Star Wars episode two
Gosford Park
Donnie Darko
The Royal Tenenbaums
Forty Days and Forty Nights
Die Another Day
28 Days Later
My Little Eye
Crossroads
About a Boy
Blade 2
Panic Room

There are more but the further back I go the less I remember - I liked Donnie Darko, Gosford Park and About a Boy best with Spiderman a close runner up.

14:45 / 10.12.02

um... ok, not including rereleases of old films, festival screenings, one-off weird shit fests etc., I think I caught, in no particular order;

28 Days Later
Mulholland Drive
Attack of the Clones
Gosford Park
Lost in La Mancha
Brotherhood of the Wolf*
that Mexican movie about the dumb teenagers with all the sex in it*
Minority Report*
The Experiment (I think that's what it was called .. unwatchably macho German movie about social experiement going horribly wrong?)*
Group (feminist indie movie featuring Carrie Brownstein - really good actually)
Kissing Jessica Stein*
The Royal Tenenbaums - saw it on an aeroplane if that counts..

Films marked with an * I didn't like much, incidentally.

Foust is SO authentic

14:46 / 10.12.02

The most memorable movies I've seen for the first time this year:

Signs
The Sixth Sense
Princess Mononoke
Ep. II: AotC
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Spiderman
Happiness
Black Hawk Down
Emperor's Club
Metropolis
Ravenous
The Ring
Insomnia
Fight Club
Wonder Boys
High Fidelity

14:53 / 10.12.02

Jack, you'd better be writing that from the perspective of a disappointed Hartley fan who felt it didn't live up to his high standards...

Emphatically a Hartley fan. But No Such Thing would have been a horrible movie no matter who had made it. A shocking drop-off in quality.

Murray Hamhandler

15:29 / 10.12.02

I didn't indulge much in the entertainment spectrum this year. Maybe it was because I was broke most of the time, maybe there just wasn't much to indulge in. For instance, I maybe only bought 30 CD's all year (as opposed to my usual 100+). Here's my mostly lackluster list:

Minority Report
Signs
Insomnia
Panic Room
Road To Perdition
Spider-Man
Attack Of The Clones
About A Boy
Spirited Away
Punch-Drunk Love

...and I think that's all I've seen this year that actually came out this year. Liked the last two quite a bit, felt a bit "meh" about the rest. Bowling For Columbine just came out here this week, so will definitely try to get to that before it departs. Will see the new Harry Potter once my roommate sees the first one. Excitedly awaiting The Two Towers, About Schmidt, Adaptation, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

15:38 / 10.12.02

Damn, I see about a movie a week... so how many weeks are there in a year? (I should have kept the pay stubs.) Um, basically I've seen most movies mentioned. With I think the exception of 28 Days Later and Adaptation cause they aren't really out yet in Miami and 8 legged freaks cause it looks shitty.

15:39 / 10.12.02

At the Picture House, saw only (in order of enjoyment)

Gosford Park
Spiderman
28 Days Later
Minority Report
Monsters Inc.
Das Experiment
Blade 2

Toss up between the first three for most enjoyable couple of hours in the dark.

Was Series 7: The Contenders this year? Liked it a lot.

Really missing Edinburgh's cinemas-on-the-doorstep. Nipping out to the flicks on a whim just hasn't been an option in London.

15:42 / 10.12.02

How do drive-ins count? Cuz that's where I saw Harry Potter, Chamber of Secrets.

What else was in theaters... I can't really remember where 2001 dropped off and 2002 started. Was Amelie this year?

Sketchy memories:
Frida (worth a watch, more for the visuals than the script).
The Good Girl
Lilo & Stitch
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Ghost World (or was that last year?)
Star Wars II:Attack of the Clones (or was *that* last year?)
About A Boy
That Dogma99 film about the Italian lessons.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding

There were more on DVD and video than I can count.

"Castle Freak" being among the more notable.

Matthew Fluxington

16:34 / 10.12.02

Ghost World is indeed a 2001 film, and that's when I saw it, but it was in theatrical release in 2002, particularly in non-US markets. There's a few films being mentioned in this thread that I saw in late 2001 - The Royal Tenenbaums, Gosford Park, Lord of the Rings (ugh). Though I didn't see it in a theatre, I do count Donnie Darko as being one of the theatrical high points of my 2002...

17:01 / 10.12.02

In order of best to worst-

Igby Goes Down
Bowling For Columbine
Secretary
The Good Girl
Minority Report
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Austin Powers: Goldmember
Spider-Man (on DVD)

I think I must have seen more films this year - anyhow, these are the only ones that people have mentioned that were released in 2002. I still want to see Autofocus, Adaptation, Gangs of New York, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and the Two Towers before the year is over. I'll probably manage two of 'em

Matthew Fluxington

17:34 / 10.12.02

Wow, you really liked Attack of the Clones more than Spider-Man? For real?

I'd wait for Autofocus to hit video stores, Todd. It wasn't anything too special, though there were a few pretty good scenes in it. Save for $10 for another film, I say.

17:57 / 10.12.02

Here's the deal - My reactions to both of those movies were colored by what I was expecting, based on what people who'd seen them I said. The advance word for Attack of the Clones was that it was horrible. I went in thinking it would be worse than the Phantom Menace, which it wasn't. So I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't suck quite so bad.

Spiderman, everyone said was very good. I though the special effects were cheesy as hell (it looked like a bad PS2 game) and the story was boring and suspenseless. If you had the slightest, the very slightest, acquaintance with Spiderman (and I never followed the book), you knew exactly how the story would end up, etc. There was no dramatic tension, heck, no good action sequences, even. They didn't utilize some very talented actors. Perhaps the Michael Chabon scripted sequel will be better. Probably not.

So yeah, Attack of the Clones was better than Spiderman.

-----

I want to see Morvern Caller as well. I'm not sure when that opens in the states.

Murray Hamhandler

20:52 / 10.12.02

Agreed, Todd. Clones was the clear winner of the summer over Spider-Man for me. Spidey definitely got the "meh" vote from me, but Clones (while definitely no shining moment of American cinema) inspired a bit of the awe that I felt watching the original Star Wars films as a kid.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

21:55 / 10.12.02

Hm. I watched Attack of Clones on video the other day and thought it was awful. And yet I caught The Phantom Menace on telly the other day and found myself enjoying it quite a bit (as in: the same feeling I get from a regular Star Wars film).

Maybe I was just in the mood. I feel like I should watch Attack of the Clones again now... but it just feels so... wrong.

But my highlights this year were defnitely the Royal Tenenbaums and Amelie (which I'm gonna send to my granny form Christmas!).

23:52 / 10.12.02

Ooh... I forgot Human Nature...probably because it has such a forgettable title. It was Daft Punk director Michel Gondry's feature debut, directing a Charlie Kauffmann script, with Tim Robbins and Patricia Arquette. It was very good, extremely funny in parts.

In my list....hmmm....the thing is, there hasn't been a movie that's stood out as wonderful and enduring this year. Igby Goes Down, Secretery, Bowling for Columbine, Human Nature and the Good Girl were all very accomplished, intermittedly excellent, but not life-changing. I suppose the fact that I even liked that many movies so far this year is a good thing, but I haven't yet seen something as good as the bumper crop of 1999 films (Being John Malkovich, Fight Club, Rushmore, Matrix, American Movie, and others) that made that year so exciting for film. This year has been by no means a stinker, but I haven't seen anything great yet.

23:54 / 10.12.02

Yeah, so far even 2001 has it over 2002 - Mulholland Drive, The Royal Tenenbaums, Amelie, Ghost World, Donnie Darko, Lord of the Rings - i liked all of those enough to get them on DVD. I can't say I'm excited to buy Igby Goes Down or Secretary...

Murray Hamhandler

00:33 / 11.12.02

Actually, I would argue that this year, on the whole, has been a stinker. "Meh" across the board, w/a very few bright stars. I totally agree about '99, though, and think it just might've been the best year for movies in...10-15 years? Maybe more?

02:43 / 11.12.02

I obsessed about Bring It On for a period there. Awesome. And it seems to be the only thing worth remembering.

02:50 / 11.12.02

Lies, all lies. This year has:

Adaptation
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Max
Spirited Away
The Happiness of the Katakuris
Metropolis (gloriously restored)
Far From Heaven
Spider

Sadly, to the public at large, many of these will end up being next year's films.

I am, however, amused to see that with all the high-profile bitching about Hollywood that goes on here, their product makes up the bulk of the lists above.

I also saw No Such Thing in the theatre (as I'd prefer to see every film - I detest home viewing) and was not unsatisfied. It's a tremendously bad film in many ways, yet there remained glimmers of hope, and I greatly enjoyed Robert Burke, who finally got a chance to open up whilst hiding under latex.

(Acutally, it seems that Spider isn't even going to get a limited release this year. Too bad. I'm looking forward to it.)

03:36 / 11.12.02

I used to go to the movies all the time, but living in a town of 10,000 for the first half of the year, then moving to a city that's spread out so far it takes an hour by bus to get to the cinema, well, I'm surprised I saw anything.

Spider-Man
Star Wars Episode 2 (against my will)
Lilo and Stitch!
Minority Report

I attended an animation festival, but it was all shorts, so I don't know if that counts. Didn't rent much in the way of movies, either. About to pop in Point Blank to celebrate holiday freedom from school.

And Bring It On, is fab.

03:39 / 11.12.02

Oh! And I'm going to see Spirited Away in a week! Finally! It's the only film released this year that I felt any anticipation for.

07:30 / 11.12.02

In no particular order:

Avalon - my fave for the year, especially the Ostbloc ruins
Mulholland Drive - good plotting
Dia De la Besta (great Spanish comic take on The Omen)
Ghost World
The Long Good Friday
Gosford Park
Attack of the Clones - first in Russian, then in English. The Russian dubbing actor for Jar-Jar did a good job, I vaguely remember
xXx - good dumb fun. Snowboarding slopes only a half hour outside Prague!
Minority Report - I liked the watchdog plants
Donnie Darko - crappy .avi version so far :-p
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Vidocq - great supernatural murder mystery, in Paris on the eve of the 1830 revolution
24 Hour Party People
The Wicker Man, full DVD! - Keep warm by singing "Summer is Icumin In"
Grin Without a Cat - Chris Marker ("La Jetee") documentary about the global decline of the Left, 1967-1977
Can Dialectics Break Bricks? - Rene Vienet, 1973, English subtitles by Keith Sanborn. Korean kung-fu movie overdubbed by French Situationists
Shock Treatment (1981) - underrated sequel to Rocky horror. Bride of Frankenstein, premonition of Prozac Nation, and there really *is* a Denton.

In the Mirror of Maya Deren (documentary), then Kenneth Anger's movies, by way of comparison

Looking forward to:

I, Claudius - entire series on DVD, only e50.00 from Dutch Filmworks!
28 Days Later on .avi, because it doesn't open here until next April
The Master and Margarita - 1989 Polish TV miniseries based on the book by Mikhail Bulgakov. I ordered it from Amazon
The Final Programme DVD (NTSC) - also ordered from Amazon. My PC can play it.

wembley can change in 28 days

08:05 / 11.12.02

Wow - I really don't go to the cinema anymore. I saw about 50 films on video, but I didn't see anything new in theatres... of course, I'm seeing LOTR tomorrow night (last year, LOTR was the only thing I saw in cinemas as well. Obviously this has to stop).

When I was in Berlin, however, the freiluft kinos were calling:

Der Himmel über Berlin (twice)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (dubbed into german)
Wallace and Grommit Totale (all 3 short films, whee!)
Casablanca, in a cold little cinema at HackesherHöfe.

08:06 / 11.12.02

Loosely grouped after liking:

Mulholland Drive
Waking Life
Donnie Darko
The Man Who Wasn’t There
Hable con Ella
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (yes, I did)

Black Hawk Down
All or Nothing
Gosford Park
The Road to Perdition
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain

Små Ulykker / Minor Mishaps
Spider-Man
The Others
Ice Age
Monsters Inc.
Ghost World
Lilo & Stitch
Monster’s Ball
Metropolis
Sexy Beast
In the Bedroom

Elsker Dig for Evigt / Open Hearts
Pollock
At Kende Sandheden / Facing the Truth
Requiem for a Dream
Storytelling
Minority Report
Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself
The Royal Tenenbaums
Blade II
Vanilla Sky
Spy Games
Mutant Aliens
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Red Dragon
From Hell
Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones
Signs
xXx
Treasure Planet

... and I have One Hour Photo tonight.

The Natural Way

08:10 / 11.12.02

Attacking Clones

Lord of the Rings (because I saw it about 4 times. And I'm going to see the Two Towers at the Leicester Sq. Odeon next Wednesday morning, so nyah!)

Mulholland Drive (saw this 3 times - oooh, the love!)

Donnie

BAUMS! (not because I did, but because I SHOULD have done. Something kept pulling me away. It's like Donnie....the wrong thing happened....it didn't happen like that....)

Spiderman (yeah...whatever....)

Ghost World (Huh-fuckin'-zah!)

Gosford Park

Have been a shocking bastard with the lack of culture-vulturing this year... Must see more good movies. Haven't even seen Callar or Columbine yet.

But, anyway...will be going to see them AND: City of God; that new film with the nice lady from Amelie (who, I gather, isn't playing such a nice lady in this'n') and a whole bunch of other stuff on the Duke of York's Dec program.

If I include videos we'll be here all day. And night. And it'll never get sexy or good.

10:43 / 11.12.02

This is as comprehensive as I can remember and prove from ticket stubs, but I'm sure I've seen more than this. (This, incidentally, is only a list of films I saw at the cinema for the first time, which is why some older movies are in there). NB: I watch LOTS of movies. I an a movie-gimp.

Spiderman
Attack of the Clones
Eight Legged Freaks
Resident Evil
Latana
Minority Report
Signs
The Bourne Identity
Hable Con Ella (Talk to Her)
XXX
Die Another Day
Bowling for Columbine
All or Nothing
Dead Man
Donnie Darko
Spirited Away
Red Dragon
Flash Gordon
Lost In La Mancha
Porco Rosso
Sidewalks of New York
Mulholland Drive
Ocean's Eleven
Insomnia (remake)
Heist
The Son's Room
In The Bedroom
Sex and Lucia
Gosford Park
Road To Perdition
24 Hour Party People
The Man Who Wasn't There
Fellowship of the Ring
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Croupier
Panic Room
The Royal Tennenbaums
Austin Powers in Goldmember

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