Movies

Brief comments on a few movies I've seen; links to the Internet Movie Database are provided if you want more information. No significant spoilers.

Army of Darkness (R/1993; adventure/fantasy/comedy): Amusing.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (PG/2001; animation/adventure): Good, but just your standard action/adventure flick.
Breed, The (R/2001): Dark, moody action/crime/sci-fi. Vampires as a genetic mutation of the human race, their fears of revealing themselves compared with/bolstered by the history of the Holocaust and similar events. Interesting theme and premise, adequately executed, but the plot itself seemed a bit weak.
Dungeons & Dragons (PG-13/2000; adventure/fantasy): Cheesy.
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (PG-13/2001; sci-fi/fantasy; CGI): Mostly eye candy, but the plot is interesting and relatively unique. Makes use of the Gaia Theory.
Knight's Tale, A (PG-13/2001; adventure): A fairly good movie. I loved its rendition of the medieval setting, except for the periodic, jarringly anachronistic elements (such as a stadium full of peasants and nobles alike singing Queen's "We Will Rock You"). According to the behind-the-scenes featurettes included on the DVD, this was done to give it a contemporary feel, but it only served to weaken my ability to take the movie seriously. The one other thing I didn't like about the movie was the romantic subplot; I just couldn't buy it. But maybe that's just because it offends my modern, egalitarian sensibilities. What in the past was called "courtly love," is known in modern parlance as "immature little bitches who like to play mind games." I think the movie would have been better if they'd cut out some of the repetitive jousting shots in favour of more scenes featuring actual character developement, particularly in regards to justifying the lead character's devotion to the love interest; I'm just not enough of a romantic to see "love at first sight" as anything other than a crutch for weak writers. The real problem is that the love interest has nothing going for her besides her beauty; while much ado is made about how she's not just some trophy, it's really the only function she serves in the movie: A trophy that can hang off his arm at parties.
Memento (R/2000): Very good mystery/film noir, but playing in reverse makes it a bit confusing, especially at first. Unique.
Pay It Forward (PG-13/2000; melodrama): Though it was probably intended to be a genuinely inspirational story, it ends up as little more than a shameless tearjerker. And except for a few scenes, it's an exceedingly bland one at that.
Red Planet (PG-13/2000; sci-fi thriller): Needs more of a plot, but not bad for an action flick.
Three to Tango (PG-13/1999; comedy/romance): Quite fun; fluff, but high-quality fluff. Loved Neve Campbell as the female lead.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001; adventure): Better than I expected. It has almost enough of a plot to hold together the action sequences, which are integrated with some truely kick-ass special effects.