A manic Jack Black plays a narcissistic rock god wannabe who inspired a bunch of elementary school kids to rock out in the comedy directed by Richard Linklater.
Tag: 2003
‘The Matrix’ trilogy on HBO Max
The Matrix (1999) has become such a touchstone of American pop culture—referenced, copied, parodied, and parroted)—that it’s hard to remember just how new and different and distinctive it was when it debuted in 1999. Which is not to say that it is completely original. Image Tron as a Greek Myth, or Sim City as an […]
Tony Jaa is ‘Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior’ on Amazon Prime and free on Hoopla
The stocky Thai stuntman turned action hero has an impressive physique, a steel snap to his delivery, and a gymnastic prowess to his style, and it’s all on display in this endearingly naïve martial arts adventure.
’28 Days Later’ – the zombie pandemic on Hulu and Paramount+
28 Days Later (2003), Danny Boyle’s 21st century take on the zombie film, isn’t actually a zombie film, Boyle insists, and technically he’s correct. The springy, savage human monsters aren’t dead, merely infected with an experimental viral weapon called “rage,” which has turned them into mindless animals intent in tearing every living thing they see […]
The delightful live action ‘Peter Pan’ on Peacock
You may feel like you’ve stepped into the pages of a storybook illustrated by Maxfield Parrish when you fly off to Neverland in Peter Pan (2003), P.J. Hogan’s deft and delightful take on the oft-filmed J.M. Barrie classic. Rachel Hurd-Wood brings a tomboyish spirit to Wendy, a girl on the verge of being a young […]
‘Dirty Pretty Things’ – Life in the social margins of London in HBO Max
In Dirty Pretty Things (2003), Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Okwe, a once respected Nigerian doctor just trying to preserve his dignity and integrity under the radar of London society. As an immigrant awaiting resident status, he spends his days hustling as a cabbie with a counterfeit license and his nights working the front desk of a […]
Oscar-winner ‘Mystic River’ on Netflix
Mystic River (2003) – Three adolescent boys write their names in the wet cement of a newly poured sidewalk patch in their Boston neighborhood, but the last boy is interrupted, his name unfinished when he’s taken away in a car by two men who purport to be cops but are child molesters who torture him […]
‘Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World’ on Amazon Prime
Peter Weir’s sweeping nautical adventure Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), based on the beloved novels of Patrick O’Brien, all but blows sea spray from the screen. Russell Crowe is Captain Jack Aubrey of the H.M.S. Surprise, an English officer on the high seas during the Napoleonic wars, and Paul Bettany […]
Bill Murray is ‘Lost in Translation’ on Peacock
Lost in Translation (2003) – Bill Murray is Bob Harris, a former movie star and minor film icon in Japan to shoot a whisky campaign (for which he’ll earn more than he’s seen in many a movie). Set up in a modern hotel the size of a small city while his marriage back home ossifies […]
‘A Tale of Two Sisters’ – a South Korean ghost story on Criterion Channel and Shudder
Ji-woon Kim has proven himself one of the most interesting and versatile filmmakers to come out of South Korea in the past two decades with such films as The Quiet Family (1998), The Good the Bad the Weird (2008), and I Saw the Devil (2010). With the haunting A Tale of Two Sisters (South Korea, […]