Tart (2001)

Tart

Life always looks as if it has more possibilities with the kids who get into trouble, have all of the cash and can follow their libidos wherever it takes them. Cat Storm (Dominique Swain) wants a taste and finds that the consequences can be more than she can afford. She is so blinded by her new BFFs and their rudeness, cruelty, brazen behaviour and foolishness, that she can’t see that, when someone goes too far, they will turn on an outsider and it’s her turn.


Director:  Christina Wayne
Writer:  Christina Wayne
Cast:
Dominique Swain -  Cat Storm
Brad Renfro -  William Sellers
Bijou Phillips -  Delilah Milford
Mischa Barton -  Grace Bailey
Alberta Watson -  Lily Storm
Myles Jeffrey -  Pete Storm
Scott Thompson -  Kenny
Michael Murphy -  Mike Storm
Nora Zehetner -  Peg
Jacob Pitts -  Toby Ligan
Chelse Swain -  Heather Von Strum
Lacey Chabert -  Eloise Logan
Melanie Griffith -  Diane Milford
Shawn Lawrence -  Fred The Doorman
Peter Snider -  Richard Logan
Sherry Miller -  Jane Logan









Birthday Girl (2001)

Birthday Girl

I know a fellow who got himself a mail-order bride. He wasn’t having any success with local ladies and really wanted to have someone with whom he could share his life. One day, he asked me to take some photos of him and was purposefully vague as to the reason. Some time later, he brought her around to introduce me to her and to explain what was going on. I imagine John (Ben Chaplin) knows what my chum’s life was like. Instead of the Philippines, he contacts a marriage broker for women from Russia. His new fiancée Nadia (Nicole Kidman) is a quiet and attractive woman but she doesn’t speak any English. She is affectionate and affable, John is smitten. The sudden arrival of Nadia’s two gregarious cousins, Alexei (Vincent Cassel) and Yuri (Mathieu Kassovitz) put a real crimp in his life and spins his life out of control.


Director:  Jez Butterworth; Piers Thompson
Writer:  Tom Butterworth; Jez Butterworth
Cast:
Nicole Kidman -  Nadia
Ben Chaplin -  John
Vincent Cassel -  Alexei
Mathieu Kassovitz -  Yuri
Kate Evans -  Claire
Jo McInnes -  Waitress
Ben Miller -  Concierge
Sue Maund -  Woman With Lost Hat
Reece Shearsmith -  Porter
Alan Stocks -  Passport official
Steve Pemberton -  Duty Sergeant
Jack Pierce -  Bank Collegue
Sally Phillips -  Karen
J.J. Toba -  Policeman 2
Katya Barton-Chapple -  Young Sophia
Rebecca Clarke -  Bank Collegue









The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Practically everyone has another that they imbue with the traits they admire and hope to emulate. Not all of them live up to the standards and some pass before their admirer expects. How do you cope with such a change? Most go on with a pall hanging over them.

Frodo (Elijah Wood) and the others are forced to travel through the Mines of Moria. They are attacked by Orcs and a Troll, and run into a Balrog, an ancient demon of shadow and fire, while attempting to cross the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. Gandalf (Ian McKellen) faces off against the Balrog on the bridge, letting the others escape, while he falls with the creature into the abyss below. What is Frodo to do?


Director:  Peter Jackson
Writer:  J.R.R. Tolkien; Frances Walsh; Philippa Boyens; Peter Jackson
Cast:
Elijah Wood -  Frodo Baggins
Sean Astin -  Sam Gamgee
Sean Bean -  Boromir
Cate Blanchett -  Galadriel
Orlando Bloom -  Legolas Greenleaf
Ian Holm -  Bilbo Baggins
Ian McKellen -  Gandalf
Christopher Lee -  Saruman
Viggo Mortensen -  Aragorn
Andy Serkis -  Gollum
Billy Boyd -  Pippin
Dominic Monaghan -  Merry
John Rhys-Davies -  Gimli
Liv Tyler -  Arwen
Marton Csokas -  Celeborn
Ian Mune -  Bounder









Amélie (2001)

Amélie

Sometimes it is what happens to others that has a profound impact on our place in the world. It can show us that there is magic all around us or we can play a part in making others think that it exists. Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tautou) is a waitress in a small Montmartre café in Paris when she learns of the death of Princess Diana and she decides it’s time for her to intervene in the lives of those around her. She becomes a guardian angel and a secret matchmaker by working out complex but secret schemes. She leads a blind man to the Metro station, giving him a vivid description of the street he passes along. She persuades her dad to follow his dream of a world tour by stealing his garden gnome and having a flight attendant send pictures of it from all over the world. She convinces her unhappy building concierge that the husband who abandoned her had in fact sent her a final love letter just before his death. She helps Lucien (Jamel Debbouze), a young man who works for Mr. Collignon (Michel Robin) who is the bullying neighbourhood green grocer by playing practical jokes on Collignon that undermines his confidence and eventually has him questioning his own sanity.


Director:  Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Writer:  Guillaume Laurant; Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Cast:
Audrey Tautou -  Amélie Poulain
Mathieu Kassovitz -  Nino Quincampoix
Rufus -  Raphaël Poulain, Amélie’s Father
Lorella Cravotta -  Amandine Poulain
Serge Merlin -  Raymond Dufayel aka Glass Man
Jamel Debbouze -  Lucien
Clotilde Mollet -  Gina, Two Windmills waitress
Claire Maurier -  Suzanne, Owner Two Windmills bar
Isabelle Nanty -  Georgette, Two Windmills Cigarette counter girl
Dominique Pinon -  Joseph
Artus de Penguern -  Hipolito, The Writer
Yolande Moreau -  Madeleine Wallace, concierge
Urbain Cancelier -  Collignon, The Grocer
Maurice Bénichou -  Bretodeau, The Box Man
Michel Robin -  Mr. Collignon
Andrée Damant -  Mrs. Collignon









From Hell (2001)

From Hell

I just love a good conspiracy. So it seems do a lot of people. Just do a quick search of the internet—plugging conspiracy into Google yields about 47.5 million results—and you will see how popular the word is. Sure, some of them might be dictionary definitions and a few might be part of a band name, but most lead to descriptions of some event where there is one or more persons colluding in something nefarious, devious or complex. This movie brings together some of the more popular ones and tosses them together and pours out a mix in a recipe to excite even the least interested of us in the gossip of persons known to just about everyone. Maybe there are some guys in Paraguay who might be puzzled by a story involving Jack the Ripper, the Masons, the British Royal family, the medical doctors, the British constabulary, the hookers of London, the Irish, the gangs of China, the parents of illegitimate children, the pubs of East London, the Industrial Revolution, the use of anisette and laudanum, chasing the dragon with opium, forensic science, John Merrick, Scotland Yard, English poets and authors, surgery and some poor girl’s mum and dad. Yikes, something for all of us.


Director:  Albert Hughes; Allen Hughes
Writer:  Alan Moore; Eddie Campbell; Terry Hayes; Rafael Yglesias
Cast:
Johnny Depp -  Inspector Fred Abberline
Heather Graham -  Mary Kelly
Ian Holm -  Sir William Gull
Robbie Coltrane -  Sergeant Peter Godley
Ian Richardson -  Sir Charles Warren
Jason Flemyng -  Netley, the Coachman
Katrin Cartlidge -  Dark Annie Chapman
Terence Harvey -  Benjamin ‘Ben’ Kidney
Susan Lynch -  Liz Stride
Paul Rhys -  Dr. Ferral
Lesley Sharp -  Kate Eddowes
Estelle Skornik -  Ada
Nicholas McGaughey -  Officer Bolt
Annabelle Apsion -  Polly
Joanna Page -  Ann Crook
Mark Dexter -  Albert Sickert/Prince Edward Albert Victor









Legally Blonde (2001)

Legally Blonde

It is always a struggle to convince other people that there is more to you than just what they see on the surface. How you dress, how you groom, who you hang out with only reflect what you want others to see. It may bear no connection to what you think, what you believe and where your life is going. Think of it as a disguise to distract people from finding out who the real you is or trying to become. Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) may be a Miss Hawaiian Tropic, a calendar girl and a sorority president. But she is bright enough to figure out how to get into Harvard Law, how to intern at a good firm and how to defend a client in a court case. Rather than worry about what she can’t do, Elle spends her time figuring out how she can successfully accomplish what she knows needs to be done and to continue to look good doing it.


Director:  Robert Luketic
Writer:  Amanda Brown; Karen McCullah Lutz; Kirsten Smith
Cast:
Reese Witherspoon -  Elle Woods
Luke Wilson -  Emmett Richmond
Selma Blair -  Vivian Kensington
Matthew Davis -  Warner Huntington III
Victor Garber -  Professor Callahan
Jennifer Coolidge -  Paulette Bonafonté
Holland Taylor -  Professor Stromwell
Ali Larter -  Brooke Taylor Windham
Jessica Cauffiel -  Margot
Alanna Ubach -  Serena
Oz Perkins -  ‘Dorky’ David Kidney
Linda Cardellini -  Chutney Windham
Bruce Thomas -  UPS Guy
Meredith Scott Lynn -  Enid Wexler
Raquel Welch -  Mrs. Windham Vandermark
Samantha Lemole -  Claire









Heartbreakers (2001)

Heartbreakers

Can children learn from the experience of thier parents or are they doomed to proceed on their own and repeat the mistakes of life? After a mediocre score, Page Conners (Jennifer Love Hewitt) threatens to go on the con alone, figuring she knows enough to go solo, and leave her mother and partner Max (Sigourney Weaver) behind. Mom tries to make Page understand how cold and uncaring the world can be but it doesn’t seem that Page is paying much attention. Her mind is made up. Oh dear…


Director:  David Mirkin
Writer:  Robert Dunn; Paul Guay; Stephen Mazur
Cast:
Sigourney Weaver -  Max Conners
Jennifer Love Hewitt -  Page Conners
Ray Liotta -  Dean Cumanno/Vinny Staggliano
Jason Lee -  Jack Withrowe
Anne Bancroft -  Gloria Vogal/Barbara
Jeffrey Jones -  Mr. Appel
Gene Hackman -  William B. Tensy
Nora Dunn -  Miss Madress
Julio Oscar Mechoso -  Leo
Ricky Jay -  Dawson’s Auctioneer
Sarah Silverman -  Linda
Zach Galifianakis -  Bill
Michael Hitchcock -  Davis
Pierre Gonneau -  Priest at First Wedding
Shawn Colvin -  Minister at Second Wedding
Michael Andrew -  Wedding Band Leader









Enigma (2001)

Enigma

I’ve never been to war. I don’t respond well to authority. I don’t play well with others. But I recognize and understand the need for unity, discipline and respect for a command structure for a group to meet their goals. But it is hard to understand the need to sacrifice others for what is perceived as the greater good. Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott ) lays out the possibility of cracking new Nazi signal codes but the expense is the destruction of a convoy of some 140 merchant vessels and their crews. How big a human sacrifice is acceptable? Apparently it is hundreds if not thousands, if you don’t know their names or their families.


Director:  Michael Apted
Writer:  Robert Harris; Tom Stoppard
Cast:
Dougray Scott -  Tom Jericho
Kate Winslet -  Hester Wallace
Saffron Burrows -  Claire Romilly
Jeremy Northam -  Wigram
Nikolaj Coster Waldau -  Jozef ‘Puck’ Pukowski
Tom Hollander -  Logie
Donald Sumpter -  Leveret
Matthew MacFadyen -  Cave
Richard Leaf -  Baxter
Ian Felce -  Proudfoot
Bohdan Poraj -  Pinker
Paul Rattray -  Kingcome
Richard Katz -  De Brooke
Tom Fisher -  Upjohn
Robert Pugh -  Skynner
Corin Redgrave -  Admiral Trowbridge









Saving Silverman (2001)

Saving Silverman

Lifelong buds. You’ve known them since grade school. You’ve shared the joys, triumphs and disappointments throughout the trials and tribulations of growing up. You’re on your own now but you can’t imagine them not being a part of your life. You know they’ll do anything to help you regardless of the consequences to themselves. But when it comes to women… well, testosterone will always trump synapses. Just ask Darren Silverman (Jason Biggs), J.D. (Jack Black), and Wayne (Steve Zahn) who have been friends since birth practically. Darren is set up with Judith (Amanda Peet) who may be the girl of his dreams. In meeting J.D. and Wayne, She gets caught on the wrong end of a beer spray, tumbles backwards out of their broken recliner and is the victim of stray salsa attack. Now Judith insists that Darren is to never see his friends again. Being lads of stealth and cunning, J.D. and Wayne take it upon themselves to kidnap Judith, locking her in their basement. Now what? They haven’t thought that far and Judith isn’t about to crumple girlishly.


Director:  Dennis Dugan
Writer:  Hank Nelken; Greg DePaul
Cast:
Jason Biggs -  Darren Silverman
Steve Zahn -  Wayne Lefessier
Jack Black -  J.D. McNugent
Amanda Peet -  Judith Fessbeggler
Amanda Detmer -  Sandy Perkus
R. Lee Ermey -  Coach Norton
Neil Diamond -  Himself
Kyle Gass -  Bar Dude
Norman Armour -  Minister
Colin Foo -  Old Man
Chris Logan -  Vageet
Esme Lambert -  Raccoon Woman
Max Fomitchev -  Mime
Tony Parsons -  Newscaster
Brett Armstrong -  Brett
Patrick Pfrimmer -  Clayton