Archive - Thursday, 3 January 2002


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Film Review - The return of Harry Potter and James Bond

Here is a preview of the years films based on what I have been told will be released (the best laid plans!). And it looks like 2002 is going to be another boom year for the screen-trade.

Some of the greatest writers in the world have taken a shot at nailing down the essence of Muhammad Ali. Its a daunting task, but Michael Mann spent 18 months battling to bring the $100 million biopic of the worlds greatest sportsman to the big screen. Will Smith takes the title role in Ali in what might just be a knockout at the Oscars, or perhaps a sucker punch.

Ridley Scotts follow up to Gladiator and Hannibal is a war epic, Black Hawk Down. Josh Hartnett and Ewan McGregor are among the huge cast that will tell the true story of the battle of Mogadishu where an elite force were sent in to abduct two Somalian warlords.

The first major literary adaptation will be The Shipping News, from the Pulitzer prize winning novel by E. Annie Proulx. Kevin Spacey is miscast as the lead, but the director Lasse Hallstrm (The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, Something to Talk About, Whats Eating Gilbert Grape?) is more than capable of making something special of this Newfoundland community tale. January will also see what promises to be one of the most interesting films of the year. Mulholland Drive (a warped, surrealistic film noir set around LAs northern suburbs) was destined to go down as the greatest David Lynch film you never saw. Then Canal Plus rescued the movie and apparently its one of Lynchs richest, strangest movies packed with amnesiac femme fatales, imperilled movie-makers, suitcases full of loot and a dwarf who rides a wheelchair.

Also look out for a remake of Rollerball and another Schwarzenegger film, which I couldnt be bothered to find out more about! And The Count Of Monte Cristo will be wrongly imprisoned by his enemy and escape to seek revenge all over again in at least the eleventh adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel.

But there will a first! Crossroads will not mark the big screen return of Benny, but will be the movie debut for Britney Spears. Three high school girls take a trip across the country. Along the way, they meet a musician who persuades them to go to Los Angeles to compete in a musical contest.

The biggest films to round off winter will be: Alan Moores Jack The Ripper epic From Hell, a jet black tale of murder and Masonic ritual, Steven Soderberghs Rat Pack remake Oceans Eleven with an ensemble cast boasting George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt, and Martin Scorseses Gangs Of New York, a sumptuous 19th century film about the criminal underworld. This long awaited project, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Daniel Day Lewis, promises to be much more than a retread of the directors favourite themes.

In the spring well see some of the biggest movies of the year perhaps. After decades of speculation there WILL be a Spiderman movie this year from Sam Raimi.

The Royal Tenenbaums will be Wes Andersons follow up to his sadly funny gem Rushmore, which I hope will be one of 2002s best films.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller and Luke Wilson star as siblings returning home, where their long-absent father, (Gene Hackman), intends to right his past parental wrongs.

But the biggest so far will be Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones. The kid grows up and is trained by Ben Kenobi. The political trade-wars stuff continues and Jar-Jar Binks will be there too... Need I say more? The summers silliest movie prize will be fought for by Austin Powers, who returns in Goldmember but hell have stiff competition from a live action Scooby Doo, with a CGI animated Scooby-Doo (Sarah Michelle Geller stars as Daphne). But the silliest title will go to Windtalkers.

Nicholas Cage teams up with Christian Slater in the John Woo film about the Navajo Indian code breakers employed during the Second World War.

I think therell be another Mummy, therell definitely be another Men In Black and a Stuart Little alongside a Spy Kids 2. But at the end of the summer we will at last see a film that isnt a sequel, from the king of movie franchising, Stephen Spielberg. Minority Report, delayed for two years while he made A.I., is a sci-fi thriller, which brings Spielberg together with Tom Cruise. I hope it lives up to the hype that will soon start to build.

As the autumn turns to winter there will be the light relief of a romantic comedy (title as yet unknown) from Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant but the end of 2002 will again see the wizards having a magical showdown.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will appear first, if they stop Daniel Radcliffe from growing up too fast. This is going to be hyped further by the release of the fifth book. But then at Christmas Gandalf will grab the hobbits by the scruff of their feet in time for The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers. However, the two of them will have someone else to watch out for as James Bond returns for the 20th time!

A new Star Wars! A new Harry Potter! A new Lord Of The Rings and a new Bond movie, and all the surprise hits in between! Our cup of celluloid runneth over.

Happy New Year.