Club 50 Wrap-Up: 1998

Years Completed:
1988 | 1989 | 1995 | 1998 | 1999 | 2001 | 2002 
2003 | 2005 | 2007 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013

At first glance, 1998 was a very original year. There were only 3 sequels in the top 50 at the box office. None of those three were in the top ten, which is insane by today's standards. But '98 was all about the duplicates. There were two asteroid movies (Armageddon, Deep Impact), two insect movies (A Bug's Life, Antz), and two Adam Sandler movies (The Wedding Singer, The Water Boy). IMAX got into the game with three different educational films that inched their way up the chart for years (Everest, T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous, Mysteries of Egypt). And while there weren't many sequels, there were all sorts of remakes (Doctor Dolittle, You've Got Mail) and reboots (Godzilla), not mention TV shows getting the bump (The X-Files, The Rugrats Movie). I've said some form of this before. As much as we go after current Hollywood for the ridiculous number of sequels, it wasn't much better then. It was just a little less obvious. With all the duplication going on, only 9 movies from the 50 have had sequels so far, which is a little low.

It was a pretty standard year from an Oscar perspective. Only three of the best picture nominees (Winner - Shakespeare in Love, Life is Beautiful, Saving Private Ryan) broke the top 50, with Ryan even being the highest grossing movie of the year. The other two nominees, The Thin Red Line (#59) and Elizabeth (#65) weren't far off.

To wind down each year as I complete them, I'm going to hand out a few superlatives or anecdotal awards to highlight some of the highs and lows of the year's top 50 box office earners.

First Seen: The Wedding Singer

This was a lot of firsts for me. It was the first movie I saw on opening night - I'm pretty sure. That was the first time I'd ever seen more than one movie in theaters on the same day (Titanic in the afternoon and The Wedding Singer that night). That day may have even been the first time I saw PG-13 movies in theaters. Don't hold me to that though.

Last Seen: A Civil Action

With a title that generic, it's a wonder I remembered to get to it at all.

Happiest Surprise:  The Truman Show

It turns out that this Jim Carrey guy is more than a rubberfaced comedian.

Biggest Disappointment: Lost in Space

Part of me wanted to believe the the movie that finally knocked Titanic out of the #1 spot in the box office was something special, not just the movie that happened to have an ok opening on Titanic's 16th weekend.

Looked Better Then: The Waterboy

Remember the days when Adam Sandler movies weren't the Nickelback of the movie industry? It's a shame that his current run of movies has soured people on the early successes.

Looks Better Now: The Truman Show

At the time, we really didn't know just how accurate it was about reality TV. More importantly, with other acclaimed performances in Man on the Moon and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, it's become more clear that this wasn't a fluke for Jim Carrey.

Favorite: Saving Private Ryan

Perhaps the greatest war movie ever made. I'm pretty confident that if Spielberg hadn't won the Oscar for Schindler's List just a couple years before, this would've stormed the Oscars like it was Normandy.

2nd Favorite: The Truman Show

Aren't you tired of me bringing this up yet? It's a damn good movie and a fun thought experiment.

3rd Favorite: The Wedding Singer

It's a shame that every time Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler are in a movie together it's not this delightful.

Honorable Mention:

Mulan

Featuring some of the best songs from the Disney Renaissance.

Life Is Beautiful

Over the years, I've heard a lot of people offer a lot of valid reasons to not like this movie. But, you see, I'm not dead inside, so I enjoy it.

A Bug's Life

It's hard to remember a time when Pixar had to prove itself to audiences.

Small Soldiers

This continues to be one of the more perplexing movies out there. The toys and advertising were clearly aimed at younger children, but they opted for the PG-13 rating. That doesn't matter as much these days (Marvel regularly is PG-13 and even the new Star Wars movie is), but I've always thought that prevented it from being a bigger hit in 1998.

Least Favorite: The Horse Whisperer

There's two strong contenders here in The Horse Whisperer and City of Angels. They're both sleepy movies that I checked out of several times while watching. ScarJo is too young to appreciate in The HW and City of Angels at least has "Iris" to its credit and is a full hour shorter than The HW. That inches it ahead in the standings. Make no mistake though, both movies are dreadful.

Delayed Reaction: The Lawnmower Man

The Pitch: These computer graphics are going to blow your mind.

How I Came Into It: 5 years later, those computer graphics never blow your mind.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) I mean, it was on my list. It's also fun to see pre-Bond Pierce Brosnan. I basically have Mrs. Doubtfire and now this.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Seriously, I'm getting far to close to the end. This is another Stephen King adaptation. It's got that campy acting and the computer stuff doesn't hold up. I don't know if people thought it looked good at the time. I imagine it's more like watching Disclosure.

Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: One Fine Day

The Pitch: Two pretty single parents fall in love over the course of the longest day this side of Phil Connors.

How I Came Into It: George Clooney's pre-Danny Ocean career fascinates me. Before that, he was working the system to get good or strategic jobs, but he didn't have his pick of them. This is basically his second movie role and it's a polar opposite of From Dusk Till Dawn. The only other time he opted to do a RomCom also happened to be a Coen Brothers movie, which barely counts.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) One wonders if Clooney didn't dip back into RomComs after this entirely because he's too good at them. In a lot of ways, One Fine Day is the most formulaic of all Romantic Comedies. The actors play perfectly to type - Clooney is roguish, charming, and not responsible. Michelle Pfeiffer is overbearing, but likable when she smiles. It's got another young Mae Whitman sighting, so that's pretty cool.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Ok, logistically, I don't understand how that day could happen. I'm not even from that city and I'm pretty sure that's logistically unfeasible. Also, Pfeiffer's role veers over the line from uptight to unlikable. That puts her in that frustrating territory of only being likable because Clooney's character likes her.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Club 50 Wrap-Up: 1999

Years Completed:
1988 | 1989 | 1995 | 1999 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2005 | 2007 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013

Was this the year that the sequel took over. Only four movies in the top 50 were sequels, but three of those (The Phantom Menace, Toy Story 2, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me) were among the top four grossing movie that year. A total of 12 movies from that year have had sequels since (including all four of that year's sequels).

Television popularity continued to show its strength as well with Pokemon and South Park getting movies (arguably Inspector Gadget counts toward this as well).

The most interesting thing about this year has to be the massive success of horror movies. The Sixth Sense and The Blair Witch Project both took over pop culture for a while there. The similarly titled The Haunting and The House on Haunted Hill both did quite well. Sleepy Hollow too. You can't find another year outside of maybe 1973 where over 10% of the money from the top 50 in the box office came from horror movies. I kind of want to break this down even more to make it clear how much of an outlier that is.

It was a good year for Oscar nominees. Only The Insider (#69) didn't make it into the top 50. The Sixth Sense, The Green Mile, and American Beauty made over $100 million domestically. The Cider House Rules still made a respectable $57 million.

To wind down each year as I complete them, I'm going to hand out a few superlatives or anecdotal awards to highlight some of the highs and lows of the year's top 50 box office earners.

First Seen: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

I'll always hold a special place in my heart for The Phantom Menace. It was the first time I was really blown away by seeing something in a movie theater. It was such a sensory overload in the best way. 

Last Seen: Message in a Bottle

And now the world know who Nicholas Sparks is.

Happiest Surprise: Bowfinger

Steve Martin is a genius. There's just no other explanation.

Biggest Disappointment: Three Kings

This was actually a pretty disappointing year. There's The World Is Not Enough, which is one of the worst Bond movies in quite some time. Pokemon: The First Movie had one job to do - have a lot of Pokemon fights - and failed to even have that. Three Kings takes it though. I've heard nothing but the most glowing reviews for this movie. It's...ok. It didn't impress me at all.

Looked Better Then: The Sixth Sense

It's still M. Night Shaymalan's best overall movie. All people remember it for is the twist though.

Looks Better Now: Toy Story 2

This might be the best Toy Story movie of all, which is really saying something.

Favorite: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

It has my favorite light saber fight and "Duel of the Fates". What more do you need?

2nd Favorite: Galaxy Quest

Where the hell did this movie come from? It had a journeyman TV director. This is the only IMDB credit for the screen writers. It is a near perfect satire of though.

3rd Favorite: Bowfinger

Honestly, it's the premiere night scene that made it for me.

Honorable Mention: 

Toy Story 2

The world of Toy Story was too big to be limited to one great movie.

The Matrix

The most influential movie of 1999?

American Pie

Admit it. You also say this and thought "This'll have three sequels and four straight-to-DVD spinoffs."

South Park - Bigger Longer and Uncut

One of the great musicals of the last two decades. No joke.

Notting Hill

Richard Curtis script + Hugh Grant + Julia Roberts = delightful.

Least Favorite: Message in a Bottle

There's a lot of easy targets: Wild Wild West, Inspector Gadget, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, but I'm going with Message in a Bottle for just doing an awful job with what's actually an interesting premise.

Delayed Reaction: Sleepwalkers

The Pitch: What if vampires were afraid of cats?

How I Came Into It: It's notable in that it is one of the few times Stephen King wrote an original screenplay. That should count for something.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) This has a very specific tone and feel. It really owns its B-movie vibe.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: It certainly can't help that I couldn't name a single actor in this movie other than  Ron Perlman in a small role. I'm not really into campy horror. This wasn't scary other than the acting. I guess if you really need a Stephen King fix, it might be worth seeing.

Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend

Club 50 Wrap-Up: 1988

Years Completed:
1988 | 1989 | 1995 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2005 | 2007 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013

It's strange to see a year so not dominated by PG 13 Action Franchises. 7 of the top 10 movies were comedies. 21 of the top 50 I'd classify as comedies. That doesn't happen anymore. I've haven't checked the numbers for every year, but that must be one of the highest concentrations of comedies ever.

Not only that, but since 1987 (where I start the Club 50 list) this is the highest share of the box office by G and PG rated movies. The number is significantly more than any year other than 1989. I'm not sure if it's a matter of family films being more popular or if the nature of family films have changed. The studios have leaned into PG-13 over time because they can do more without risking audience exclusion (the age is suggested, not required like an R rating). Keep in mind, the PG-13 rating was still pretty new at the time. They were still figuring it out.

This lack of action franchises also helped the Oscar movies. All five Oscar nominees made the top 50. In fact, they all broke the top 35. I'm not sure when else that's happened, especially since then. Rain Man, the Best Picture winner was even the highest grossing movie of the year, which has only happened three other times since then (Forrest Gump - 1994, Titanic - 1997, Return of the King - 2003), and this is certainly the least assuming of that group to do it.

All that doesn't leave much room for retreads. There were only six sequels in the top 50 that year, plus two Disney reissues (I bet they miss that cash cow). Only 9 of the movies have had sequels made since, which feels low as well. It was a different time then.

To wind down each year as I complete them, I'm going to hand out a few superlatives or anecdotal awards to highlight some of the highs and lows of the year's top 50 box office earners.

First Seen: The Land Before Time

It must be. I know I didn't see anything in theaters. Of the options, I remember watching this several times. Damn my parents for not being obsessive note takers like me.

Last Seen: Gorillas in the Mist

I've given up on the dream of saving the best for last. As long as it's a good movie, that'll do. This was a good movie.

Happiest Surprise: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

I had zero knowledge or awareness of this movie before doing this list and I was so pleased to find it. Steve Martin and Michael Caine are dynamite together. This is even one of my favorite Wikipedia reads for a movie.

Biggest Disappointment: Punchline

The idea about Tom Hanks and Sally Field as rising stand up comedians excited me to no end. Sadly, David Seltzer's depiction of that world is about the hackiest thing I've ever seen.

Looked Better Then: The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

Any time O.J. Simpson is that high on the call sheet, a movie's reputation is going to take a hit.

Looks Better Now: Die Hard

With each sequel getting more awful, the original looks ever better.

Favorite: Die Hard

The only debate about this movie these days is whether it's a Christmas movie or not*. This is one of the quintessential action movies.

*It's not**.

**By my definition.

2nd Favorite: Big

Tom Hanks is a national treasure, and this is the movie that solidified that.

3rd Favorite: Rain Man

Definitely a good movie. Definitely.

Honorable Mention:

I'll be honest, a whole lot of the movies in this category fall under the "I wish I remembered it better" category.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Anybody else get the feeling that the myth of this movie has outpaced the actual movie? These days intellectual property rights are king, so the idea of Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny in the same movie is hard to believe.

Scrooged

Apparently, all it takes to make A Christmas Carol feel fresh again is Bill Murray. That's not much of a surprise.

Midnight Run

This is half-speculative. I've seen the movie, but I don't remember it that well. I did like it though, and at this point I've heard so many people speak of it fondly that I'm certain I've missed something.

Dangerous Liaisons

I mean, I still like Cruel Intentions better. This is pretty good though.

Tucker: The Man and His Dream

This one stuck with me for a while. Its kitschy feel has grown on me as has the optimistic approach to it.

Least Favorite: Cocktail

I didn't realize I could dislike a Tom Cruise movie this much.

Movie Reaction: The Huntsman: Winter's War

Formula: (Snow White and the Huntsman * Frozen) - Kristen Stewart

I'm not sure why The Huntsman: Winter's War exists. I'm not sure that many people do know. Snow White and the Huntsman was a moderate success, with a great deal of the success owed to Kristen Stewart's residual Twilight star power. Snow White tied itself off well to be a standalone. Queen Ravenna was dead. Hemsworth hasn't successfully opened a non-Thor movie in the time in between.The only thing that necessitates this movie exist is Hollywood's fear of making expensive movies that aren't tied into other properties or stories.

That doesn't mean that Winter's War has to be bad though. On paper, the movie looks like an improvement. Chris Hemsworth is still around. While he can't open a movie by himself, he gets good results in an ensemble. Charlize Theron was by far the best thing about Snow White, so bringing her back by any mean necessary is a smart move. I like Kristen Stewart, but I'll take the combo of Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain over her in a heartbeat. The trailers promised an epic throw down between Theron's evil queen and Blunt's heartbroken ice queen. I went into this movie figuring there would be about five minutes of bad exposition to connect Winter's War back to Snow White, but after that there was no reason this couldn't be great. Or at least a type of great that fully embraced the craziness.

That's not quite what I got. The movie begins with the two sister queens. It establishes that Blunt becomes the ice queen, Freya, after a betrayal by her lover leaves her infant child dead. She then builds an army from the children of the villages she attacks, which is where she finds and young Sara and Eric who grow up to become Chastain and Hemsworth. Those two fall in love and, because of a fake-out, end up separated. Then, skip 7 years for Snow White and the Huntsman to happen, get a body double for Kristen Stewart, and cue the five minutes of painful exposition to connect the two movies. The majority of the movie follows Hemsworth and the SAG minimum number of dwarves required for a movie in the Snow White universe. They are on a mission from Snow White to retrieve or destroy queen Ravenna's evil mirror, which apparently is exactly like the Ring of Power. Along the way, they pick up some lady dwarves and Sara. A couple more fake-outs happen, then, mercilessly late in the movie, it finally becomes about Ravenna vs. Freya for the minimum amount of time possible.

I've identified three major issues I had with the story. (This will move into spoiler territory, though I'm probably doing you a favor)

1. There are too many fake-outs and almost none of them are earned. There's Ravenna having caused Freya's child to be killed, which is sort of explained. There's Eric thinking Sara has been killed (It's never explained why Freya did that. If she's leaving Eric for dead, why not actually kill him?). There's Sara thinking Eric was killed by the goblin explosion. There's Sara being a double agent for Freya. There's the under-developed minority character randomly changing sides. It got on my nerves how much the movie wasn't trusting the audience with any information.
2. They advertised a much different movie in trailers and TV spots. There wasn't nearly enough Theron, who again, I'll remind you was by far the best thing about Snow White. And there was even less of Freya vs. Ravenna.
3. The issue that most people had with The Hobbit movies was that to fill the time for a trilogy, Peter Jackson and co. had to included every footnote and side story they could find about Middle Earth as filler. The way that Winter's War works around Snow White and the Huntsman makes this whole movie feel like filler. Maybe the better comparison in 300: Rise of an Empire, which also took place before and after a self-contained movie that had no interest in a sequel.

That's not to say there aren't things to like about Winter's War. Chastain and Hemsworth have good chemistry. I'd've liked to see a movie about them as a team rather than tacking on a lot of contrivances about their relationship. They work well when they get along. The dwarves were good comic relief. A more developed version of Freya alone and her relationship with her wicked sister could've added a lot to the movie, because those two actresses are too good to be used so little.

Universal had an opportunity to swing big with The Huntsman: Winter's War and make something really interesting. The first movie wasn't beloved, so they could pick and choose which elements to bring back or leave behind. They were smart enough to not attempt this without Charlize Theron. Opting to continue trying to be a not-quite-Lord of the Rings results in another forgettable albeit watchable fantasy epic. The waste of on screen talent (Thor and a trio of Oscar nominated actresses) is just plain wrong.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli & Baloo (1997)

The Pitch: It's the Jungle Book story, only Live-Action and awful. Dreadfully awful.

How I Came Into It: This is why research and attentiveness are important. One of the hardest to find movies on my list has been Disney's live action The Jungle Book from 1994. I've taken to getting these from used DVD shops a lot now, because even Netflix doesn't have some of these. Well, I got so excited when I saw a box for a live action Jungle Book that I didn't read it any closer, and that's how I got and watched this by mistake.

I'm not even going to bother with my normal sections for what I liked and didn't like. This is an awful movie. It's poorly acted. It looks cheap as hell. It's boring. It depresses me that only six years after The Rocketeer Billy Campbell's career had come to this. It ruined my day when I first watched it. Now it's ruined my day writing about it*.

*I try to churn these out soon after watching them. I had to wait a few days on this. It's pretty bad.

Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Inside Man

The Pitch: What would it be like if a bank heist was intelligently handled by criminals who actually had a plan that they thought out?

How I Came Into It: It's...it's finally happened. My last Denzel Washington movie from my Club 50 list. That must mean I'm near the end. You need to understand, by far, he is the most successful actor whose movies I never would've gotten to if not for this project. It's makes Steven Seagal's list look pitiful. There's a ton of his movies I would've seen  regardless. Training Day, Remember the Titans, Man on Fire, etc. Some things I simply would never miss. But then you get to 2 Guns and Glory and Safe House and The Pelican Brief and Unstoppable and Crimson Tide and The Book of Eli and Courage Under Fire and Deja Vu and The Manchurian Candidate and - I could stop here but I won't - The Hurricane and The Bone Collector and The Siege and The Preacher's Wife. This is the last one, and I feel like I deserve a merit badge or something.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) First of all, I had no idea this was a Spike Lee movie. It's perhaps the least he's ever infused himself with a movie. This played like any other competent crime/hostage/suspense movie. Most of what I liked is that the whole plan feels thought through. I feel like the writer of the screenplay actually researched and interviewed people to get this right. It's pretty rare to read a tagline that describes something as "a brilliant heist" and not disagree.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: I'll admit, as the plan starts to reveal itself, I was less interested. Once it starts being about Nazi war crimes and secret diamonds, I didn't care as much. That's where 'effective' and 'elaborate' diverge for me.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: The Shaggy Dog

The Pitch: Tim Allen is a father and a lawyer who turns into a dog.

How I Came Into It: When was the last time Tim Allen was in a movie you liked? Better yet, excluding voice work (Toy Story), he's made three movies that I've liked. Galaxy Quest is an all-time great comedy. The Santa Clause is just short of being a top tier Christmas classic. Joe Somebody, I don't know why, but I've happily watched probably a dozen times. Beyond that, it's a lot of bad family movies like Jungle 2 Jungle and The Santa Clause sequels or other toothless comedies (Wild Dogs). The odds were low that The Shaggy Dog would be the fourth movie of his I'd like.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Remember before Iron Man?  A movie like this could actually get Robert Downey Jr. in a supporting role as the villain. It's hard to believe now. He's the only person in this cast whose career trajectory when up at any point since then. Watching the movie, you understand why that is.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Truth be told, this is a pretty benign movie. It was easy to watch, which is more than a lot of movies can say. You do age out of an appreciation for it. There's nothing in this for an adult audience to cling to. There are no jokes that are meant to fly over kids' heads without them realizing. No great actor is stealthily doing better work than the script demands. The script isn't "surprisingly tight". The director didn't work especially hard to make this look good in an attempt to secure a better job in the future (He followed this up with Norbit and Meet Dave, if that tells you anything). There is simply no value to this above adolescence.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: A Civil Action

The Pitch: John Travolta is Erin Brockavich, without the boobs.

How I Came Into It: "Based on a true story" is one of the scariest things to see going into a movie. There's a constant pull between sticking to the facts and making it cinematic. There is no "perfect balance". The best you can hope for is that the things that work about it so completely eclipse the things that don't that it doesn't even matter. Luckily, I knew nothing about this actual case, so I chose to look at this a pure fiction.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) I enjoyed just about everything that was happening on the side in the movie. Robert Duvall is so at ease that I'd believe it if you told me that all he did is nap in between takes and didn't learn his lines until right before his scenes. I imagine the casting for The Judge saw him in this and learned all the wrong lessons from it. William H. Macy is in his own movie most of the time, but it works because he sells the hell out of it. Even James Gandolfini gets a lot to play in only a few scenes.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: The problem I had with this is with John Travolta. The movie never figures out what he is. He's a high powered lawyer, an ambulance chaser. He gets a speeding ticket driving to AND from the town. He's a rebel! Somehow, he switches to being all or nothing for this case, losing everything he owns for it. And he's content with that. The thing is, I have to believe it. Because, at no point did I feel close enough to the character to know what his actual motivation is. Is he a bleeding heart? Is hubris driving him? I don't know.
Also, apparently this movie cost close to $75 million to make, back in 1998. How is that possible? I have to assume all of the actors made an ass-ton of money. Otherwise, I don't get it.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: The Purge: Anarchy

The Pitch: This time, we'll leave the house.

How I Came Into It: The Purge is a simple and easy premise. They could make a dozen movies about this and still find new angles to look at it. Because of that, one poorly received movie - I rather hated the first one - isn't enough to make me give up on the franchise. Besides, this has QB1. How could I not want to see it?

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) I like the idea of the first movie a lot. It all takes place in that house. It's a good, low budget structure and the claustrophobia of it could really play to scares well. Unfortunately, they botched that, so it was nice to see them try a new angle by going into the city. They had a lot of fun coming up with the kind of people who would exist in a Purge. This was more played as an adventure movie than a scary movie, which worked pretty well.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: I'd really like to see the version of this that trusted the audience to pick up on the social commentary. A version of this that was handled with any delicacy and used any subtlety would be really creepy and could still be exciting. As I said, I'm completely on board with the concept. In the hands of the current creative team, I'd rather not waste another 12 hours.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: LA Story

The Pitch: Steve Martin finds love in a surreal version of L.A.

How I Came Into It: While I didn't know much about this movie specifically, this Club 50 project has gotten me to finally get around to seeing a lot of Steve Martin movies. Movies such as Roxanne and Bowfinger have only solidified my love of Martin. I looked at it as a treat to have one more left on the list.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) This is such a beautifully strange movie. It has equal parts contempt and love for Los Angeles. To some extent, it outpaces Fletch with all the underplayed humor. It's a denser movie than it seems. I'll definitely need to see it again before I can come close to forming a real opinion on it.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: One of the main reasons I'll need to see this again sometime is because a lot of the things about this movie are things that instantly turn me off. I've grown tired of movies and TV shows pointing out how phony L.A. is. By now, I get it. Try to find a way to work through your issues that doesn't cost 10 million dollars. It also doesn't help that a good amount of it ends up being local humor. Sure, I know more about L.A. than I do Omaha. That doesn't mean I relate. As I mentioned, these are things that immediately put me on edge. Now that I know it's coming, I can appreciate the grace notes of the film more in the future.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Movie Reaction: The Jungle Book

Formula: The Jungle Book / The Jungle Book

It's starting to feel like Disney has found the cheat code for Hollywood. For years, they maximized profits by reissuing old animated hits back into theaters. They've had the Disney Vault, which allows them to re-release those same movies on VHS/DVD/Bluray to much fanfare, and by controlling the window of release, increase the demand. Now, they're just taking the same old stories, making them live-action, and reaping in profits while also managing to not damage the reputation of the original films. It's not even fair.

This year's iteration comes in the form of Jon Favreau's wonderful adaptation of The Jungle Book.
I'll admit, I wasn't looking forward to this one very much. The 1967 animated feature is not one of my favorites. In fact, I barely even remember it. The 1994 live action movie is nothing special (although that's more of a sequel). I heard that this version would still feature CGI talking animals and the only human character is a kid working on his first movie. That's a formula for disaster most of the time.  I trust that Jon Favreau wouldn't sign on to a doomed project (you know, except Zathura). Then, news of the voice cast started coming in. Ben Kingsley as Bagheera. Idris Elba as Shere Khan. Bill Murray as Baloo! So, I decided to give this a chance and I'm glad I did.

This is very much the Jungle Book story that you know. There's a few beats that are changed from the animated movie, mostly taking it in a darker direction. The music is all gone except for a couple cases when they couldn't help themselves. I don't remember the original movie playing this much like The Lion King, but this one certainly did. That's not a complaint. It's a good story spine to use. The real stars are the characters anyway. The Jungle Book is filled with great characters and Favreau has a great time exploring all of them.

This is delightful mix of voices. Idris Elba should be tapped to play bad guys more. He's so charming and frightening when he wants to be. Between The Force Awakens and now this, I have to believe that Lupita Nyong'o (as Raksha) has a long career of voice work ahead of her. That voice has such great warmth and wisdom. Christopher Walken's King Louie is a bit on the nose, as is Ben Kingsley's Bagheera. I'm ok with obvious casting if it's the right casting though. Scarlett Johannson makes for an interesting, although underused Kaa. I think most of the fun of Bill Murray's Baloo is just knowing that he's recording it with a grin on his face the whole time. And none of this works without a good Mowgli. Neel Sethi isn't a revelation, but he's pretty good. Even fully trained actors can have trouble working with characters who aren't there and he sells that much. It really feels like he's talking to a jungle full of animals.

Visually, this is a great looking movie. The jungle isn't realistic. It's not meant to be. It's what a jungle looks like when you see it in your head. Kind of like how the fairy godmother part of last year's Cinderella didn't even try to ground itself in reality, this is the jungle that needs to exist for this story. The talking animals are less distracting than I thought they'd be. The mouths moving don't look natural. They are understated though, so you can spend most of the time appreciating how good the rest of the animation looks.

It's really is hard to say why The Jungle Book works. It just does. It gets you laughing. It gets you excited. It gets you emotional. The world and the characters are fully realized which is the most important thing. Everything comes together just right. It's difficult for me to find a reason not to recommend this.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Message in a Bottle

The Pitch: A woman finds a message in a bottle...and love.

How I Came Into It: I didn't realize that this is the Nicholas Sparks adaptation that started it all. It makes so much sense now that I think about it. It is decidedly older than the movies that followed (as in, the cast is older). I don't dislike Sparks stories, sight unseen. Still, I went in with certain expectations.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Kevin Costner and Robin Wright are both respected and awarded actors who brought whatever they could to this. I'd certainly say that fans of Sparks' novels/movie would find this equally enjoyable. So, maybe it's just not my genre. The premise is pretty interesting, tracking down this man who wrote a letter in a bottle.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: That interesting premise is only the first 15 minutes of the movie. That's the entire hook, then it turns into a generic romance movie. They literally cover the most interesting aspect of a two hour movie in the time it takes some movies to get through the opening credits. And then Costner goes and dies like an idiot. Thankfully, I knew what to expect, given that it was a Nicholas Sparks adaptation, so little of it surprised me. That didn't make it good though.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Gorillas in the Mist

The Pitch: Sigourney Weaver as a woman who sometimes acts like gorillas.

How I Came Into It: Well, I thought this was about Jane Goodall, so I was only partially aware of what this was. By all accounts, Dian Fossey was a much stranger character than Fossey. Sigourney Weaver looked like smart casting. Having never looked up Fossey before, I wasn't sure how much of a story there was to this.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Weaver is indeed very good playing Fossey. Anyone who can pull off acting like a monkey with dignity still in tact deserves some recognition. She really makes this all watchable, as this isn't a film, it's a performance piece.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Weaver has a performance but not much of a character. From the little I've read up on Fossey since watching this, she's a far more interesting character than they let her be in the movie. I guess the fear was that if she was too unhinged then she wouldn't be a sympathetic lead. So, they removed most of the crazy, then forgot to replace it with much of anything else.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Club 50 Wrap-Up: 2002

Years Completed:
1989 | 1995 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013

2002 was a pretty standard year in the box office. Hollywood was in the middle of a lot of things. Spider Man was the second big test of the Marvel super hero brand (after X-Men). The Two Towers determined that Lord of the Rings was not going away. The Harry Potter movies were gaining steam. The middle Star Wars movie of the new trilogy came out. Scorsese moved on to a new go-to actor with Leonardo DiCaprio in Gangs of New York. While Unbreakable did fine in 2000, Signs was M. Night Shaymalan's big follow up to The Sixth Sense. Die Another Day tested the current James Bond model and The Mummy tried out The Scorpion King to see if The Rock was a star. Looking at the numbers backs up the "in-between" status as well. In the top 50, 13 movies were sequels and at least 19 have had sequels since (Yeah, My Big Fat Greek Wedding is supposedly still getting a sequel).
Of the Oscar nominees, only 3 of the 5 made the cut (The Two Towers, Chicago, Gangs of New York). The Hours (#56) was barely outside that though. Only The Pianist didn't even sniff top 50 territory (#80) - hardly a surprise.

A slightly deeper look does uncover a small trend that year. A lot of singers were getting into movies. Beyonce and Eminem made their on-screen debuts in Austin Power Goldmember and 8 Mile respectively. Lil' Bow Wow made the jump too with Like Mike. Jennifer Lopez (Maid in Manhattan) and Ice Cube (Barbershop) had already made the transition, but they still count toward the plurality.

To wind down each year as I complete them, I'm going to hand out a few superlatives or anecdotal awards to highlight some of the highs and lows of the year's top 50 box office earners.

First Seen: Spider-Man

If memory serves, it was on May 4th, 2002, a showtime a little after 8:00 PM. I saw it with my dad. It was a good night. We were part of that record breaking $114 million weekend (which looks positively quaint now*.

*In case you were wondering, it obliterated the previous record of $90 million, that had only been standing for a few months, belonging to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Before that, The Lost World: Jurassic Park ($72 million). Before that, Batman Forever ($53 million) in 1995. If you need any further proof of a change in the box office model, that opening weekend record more than doubled in only 7 years.

Last Seen: Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

I'm sorry, but there's no way that you can convince me that this is a notable movie.

Happiest Surprise: The Ring

Let's see, I was probably 15 at the time when I saw this. I hadn't really sought out horror movies that fucked with my head yet, so this kind of blew my mind. It is still one of my favorite scary movies. It only answers the questions that it has too*. This was a great introduction for me to Naomi Watts.

*The more a horror movie explains, the worse it tends to be.

Biggest Disappointment: Signs

I remember the moment that I realized that M. Night Shaymalan was a product with diminishing returns: "Swing away Merill."

Looked Better Then: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

I was tempted to put the little indie movie that could (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) in this spot. But, the fact that it is such a singular hit*. That the movie isn't all that great is almost beside the point. No, Attack of the Clones is the obvious choice. I even like the movie, but it's aged poorly. The CGI doesn't look as good as it once did, and the clunky dialogue and wooden performances stand out even more over time. Even the kickass Battle of Geonosis couldn't save its reputation a decade down the line.

*Highest grossing movie to never be #1 in the box office. Highest grossing Romantic Comedy ever. 2nd slowest movie to $200 million. It made more money than the other 373 movies IFC films has released ever - Combined - Plus $70 million. Insane!

Looks Better Now: Gangs of New York

This is continually the hardest category to pick. I was tempted to go with Insomnia for proving that Christopher Nolan wasn't lightning in a bottle (Memento). Gangs of New York struck me though. Leonardo diCaprio vs. Daniel Day-Lewis only looks better with each passing year. It's one of the more engrossing productions Scorsese has had. Seriously, this is better than a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, isn't it?

Favorite: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

My favorite of the Lord of the Rings movies. Few movies earn the description "epic" more than this one. The Battle of Helm's Deep, as far as I'm concerned, is the greatest battle sequence ever made.

2nd Favorite: The Ring

This was the first horror movie I really loved. It still freaks me out. It's why I stopped watching VHS tapes - that, and that DVD player got.

3rd Favorite: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

The one down side to The Force Awakens coming out is that I have to listen to a whole new wave of people bashing the prequels. They are flawed movies, but they're still a lot of fun. Basically everything on Geonosis is entertaining (Ok, except for battle droid C-3PO). The mystery surrounding the clones that Obi-Wan investigates is plenty interesting. Take out Anakin and Padme on Naboo and suddenly it's a much better movie.

Honorable Mention:

Spider-Man

Sam Rami got the superhero movie right with this launch of a franchise. Looking back, it seems like such a sure thing.

Minority Report

I like the Tom Cruise/Stephen Spielberg pairing. It's basically The Fugitive set in the future and I dig that.

Catch Me If You Can

I like the Tom Hank/Stephen Spielberg pairing. And let's not forget, this is the film that introduced many of us to Amy Adams.

Drumline

If anyone can explain why I've seen this movie so many times and not tired of it, I'd appreciate it. Nick Cannon, Charles Stone III, or really anyone not named Zoe Saldana have yet to follow this up with anything better.

Two Weeks Notice

Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock are two of the actors I enjoy watching the most. Of course I'm going to like one with them double headlining.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

This is the movie with the most slavish devotion to the corresponding book of any of the movies. When the source material is so strong, that's a good thing.

Gangs of New York

It's the Scorsese movie that I've come to appreciate by the most since I first saw it.

Least Favorite: About Schmidt

I'm calling it. I don't get Alexander Payne's movies. He and I, we're not on the same wave length. Also, having seen this finally, I have to wonder why more people weren't floating comparisons to this when Nebraska came out.