Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)

7.5/10
Not one of my picks, but I'd never seen it, so what the hell. I hate to use the phrase "I enjoyed it more than I thought I would" because it makes me seem like I was out to hate it, but really, it's just because musicals and romance are not my go-to genres. It was pretty good, though it can't hope to sustain the frantic, breathless pace of the first third or so...so the rest of the movie seems a little slow in comparison. Ewan MacGregor was good and Nicole Kidman impressed me a lot with a range I'd not seen from her. The story is more something to get people into singing and dancing situations and less anything substantial to hang on to (especially when the end is revealed at the beginning) but that's OK. The costumes and sets are eye-popping enough on their own.

Treed Murray (William Phillips, 2001)

6/10
The things I find watching MPix late at night. Mostly Canadian movies that never got/don't really deserve a whole lot of attention. This one is about a guy (Murray) who climbs up a tree in a park to escape the wrath of a local gang of stereotypical street ruffians that he's unwisely angered. With both sides refusing to blink first, we're left to watch the psychological warfare that unfolds. Considering it's a movie with 7 actors and it all takes place in or around a tree, it's impressive enough for what it is. Things unfold generally as expected and the acting is solid all around. A decent enough distraction for the 80 minutes it took of my life. Godawful title though.

A Beautiful Mind (Ron Howard, 2001)

8/10
Good movie. Flawed, but good. And Russell Crowe was great (how he lost Best Actor to Denzel Washington for Training Day is absolutely incomprehensible). The movie is too long though and the pacing is stilted, particularly in the first hour which can be something of a chore to get through. There are also a few detours into unbearably mawkish moments that are pure Oscar baiting, but once it picks up, its hard not to be fascinated.

Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe, 2001)

2/10
I'll give it two points for Penelope Cruz who alone manages to not make the entire film a waste of 2 hours. This is the kind of movie where the longer it goes and as more is revealed, the less interested and more frustrated you become with where things are going. For director Cameron Crowe, this is the kind of career misfire on par with Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain - the difference is Aronofsky seems to have recovered with The Wrestler while Crowe (according to dismal reviews for Elizabethtown) has not and even though this is a remake, he deserves his share of blame. Every single "twist" is telegraphed well before it happens, and the amount of pop culture references combined with the over-bearing, all-too-hip soundtrack is sickening. The scene with Tom Cruise shouting "TECH SUPPOOOOORRRT!!!" while "Good Vibrations" blares in the background was probably seen by somebody involved as some sort of ironic zenith of surrealism - it is embarassing and hilarious in equal turns. And lines like "but I'm blowing your mind, aren't I" and "your panel of observers is waiting for you to choose" smack of pure pretention. What a waste.

Monsters, Inc. (Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich & David Silverman, 2001)

8/10
Really good, really cute movie. It was just a lot of fun. The animation is really incredible, I have no idea how Pixar does it.

Zoolander (Ben Stiller, 2001)

6/10
I think my friends overhyped it before I saw it but it was still better than I expected. Some really funny moments and definitely not as stupid as it seems to be at first glance.

The Score (Frank Oz, 2001)

7/10
Enjoyable but cliché suspense/heist movie...De Niro, Norton and Brando were all great, it's too bad they were all so underused on such a pedestrian script. Who didn't see the ending coming a million miles away? Anyway, it was still a fun watch.