What was Denzel Washington thinking? Fresh off roles in 1998’s The Hurricane (Academy Award Winner – Lead Actor), the nationally recognized 2000’s Remember the Titans, and 2002’s Training Day (Academy Award Winner – Lead Actor), Denzel was arguably at the peak of his acting career. He likely commanded (or was close to it) more guaranteed money per film than any other actor in America. He probably was receiving dozens of roles at a single time. And yet he chose to accept the lead role in unproven Nick Cassavetes’s (Alpha Dog, She’s So Lovely) 2002’s John Q.
Category Archives: 2002
The Hours (2002)
Oh, man, what a fantastic movie is. This was actually my second viewing of The Hours. I first watched it back in 2010 and remembered being extremely surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I would not have given this movie a chance back when it came out in 2002, but my interests in films have changed dramatically since then. Now that’s not to say I still can’t enjoy a blockbuster (I actually watched Captain America: Civil War earlier in the same day and loved it), but I am much more into the human aspect of independent dramas like The Hours than I am about action movies or comedies. This movie deals with depression, a topic that I am, unfortunately, very familiar with. And it does it from three different time periods with three different stories that are loosely at times (and not so loosely) during others. This movie knotted Nicole Kidman (Cold Mountain, Rabbit Hole) with, surprisingly, just her third nomination to date (as of May 2016) and her first and only win. With a prosthetic nose, she was virtually unrecognizable as Virginia Woolf. But it wasn’t her physical characteristics that stood out. It was how she immersed herself in the role of a woman who you would think had it all but was so mentally troubled that she could not find any happiness in her life. An accomplished actress, this is the performance of her career in a movie that shouldn’t be missed by anybody who views life with a cup half empty sort of mentality.
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Far From Heaven (2002)
One of my five favorite previews for 2015 has been for the movie Carol which is, more or less, Cate Blanchett narrating a quick story about her life in 1952 New York City. We don’t learn much about it other than she’s married to Kyle Chandler and that not everything is what it seems to be. At the start and then again at the end of the trailer, Blanchett mentions how everything comes full circle. The trailer is captivating and made me want to see it. It’s directed by Todd Haynes, who has filmed just one movie (I’m Not There) between 2015’s Carol and 2002’s Far From Heaven. In Carol, Haynes returned to what worked in Far From Heaven. We return to 1950s Northeast America. In both movies, Haynes craftily tells the stories of lives that are less perfect than they appear.
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Narc (2002)
Jason Patric can play a police detective as well as anyone can. Patric would have been excellent on a show like The Shield. Seeing Patric in a reoccurring role and watching him delve deeper and deeper into his character, regardless of which direction that character might have gone, would have been something special. But Patrick has always been, and probably always will be, a silver-screen performer. He is undoubtedly not an A-lister, and his role has become few and far between. But, outside of Speed 2: Cruise Control, he always brings his A-game. For Patric, that involves grit, determination, and a deep understanding of the character he will be portraying. In my opinion, Patric was born to play the roles of undercover detectives, police officers, narcs, etc. He’s got the look. He understands the lingo. He’s scuzzy enough to pull it off but can invoke just the right amount of sympathy for viewers to believe in him and know that he’s one of the “good guys.”
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The Rookie (2002)
I was much less impressed with my second viewing of John Lee Hancock’s 2002 The Rookie (The Blind Side, The Alamo) than when I watched it for the first time back in 2004. This is one of those movies that you only need to see once in your life. Unfortunately, much like The Express, this “inspirational” story of overcoming the odds to reach a dream movie gets lost in the masses compared to other sports dramas based on true stories.