I've been trying to catch up with some of the mainstream Hollywood releases of the past few years, either on video or in the theater. Recently I've seen:
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2004)
A really sweet-natured overcoming adversity comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller. I didn't think it was particularly funny, although I loved the cameo by Lance Armstrong. Still, it hardly offended me at all, and that's saying quite a bit. The misfit cast was well selected, and, while it dragged during the first half, the film built to a solid, if predictable conclusion.
2/5
School of Rock (Richard Linklater, 2003)
For as long as he lives, Jack Black will probably never get a better role than this. I'm not a big Linklater fan, but he managed to keep his hands off this film for the most part, and let the cast do its bit. It was weird seeing Joan Cusack in a film not starring her brother, and I still don't know what all the fuss is about concerning Sarah Silverman, who seems to have no onscreen presence at all.
4/5
Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott, 2001)
In a lot of ways, this film reminded me of Fat Man and Little Boy - a notable European director wants to make a big statement about America and war, and falls flat on his face, due to an overly ambitious production and poor casting. Josh Hartnett was fine, I guess, but there was no real center in this film, with half of the actors (for all their talents, Ewan MacGregor and Orlando Bloom are not believable as US Army Rangers) looking like they're moonlighting from a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the other half, notably Sam Shepard and Tom Sizemore, seemed like they were acting in a WWII film directed by Samuel Fuller... I'm really not sure what Scott was trying to say here, beyond post-Cold War war is a messy business. Was the film an indictment of American involvement in Somalia, or an indictment of the Somali people? Some of the photography was quite beautiful, but in comparison with Claire Denis' Beau Travail, Scott's vision of Western military involvement in coastal East Africa is dull and lifeless.
2/5
The Bourne Identity (Doug Liman, 2002)
I was wary going in, having read the novel (the only one by Ludlum I like) more than two decades ago and still retaining fond memories of the miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain. Still, I'm a sucker for anything with Matt Damon in it, and Chris Cooper and Brian Cox are always enjoyable. In this film, you get exactly what you expected - a high tech Euro-spy thriller with lots of famous sites, car chases, and cool accents. Franke Potente (Lola Rennt) plays the female lead opposite Damon, and she still can't act. However, this film isn't about acting, it's about gizmos, explosions, and plot twists. It delivers on all three, but it certainly doesn't even try to transcend its genre and go for anything more.
3/5
I also tried to watch Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World but I just couldn't bear it for more than 15 minutes.
