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2003 Film Preview
2003 AT A GLANCE
With the Awards season bearing up on us at great speed, it's the time of the year when the studios launch their missiles: the movies they hope will win enough critical and popular mass to be pushed forward for the Academy's consideration. While the films usually take a couple of months to arrive on our shores, it promises to make the first few months of the New Year a prosperous time for cinemagoers. Add to that the usual slate of blockbusters later in the year and there are some rich pickings on their way to our local picture houses in 2003. Tiscali is here to help you pick out the best:
January 2003
The New Year really begins for audiences on the 10th of January when Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York debuts. All the classic rumours have circled this movie like hawks, as if Hollywood is anticipating Miramax to fall flat on its face. However, whether or not the budget has spiralled, it has in fact taken over a year to edit and that shooting was interrupted by constant feuds, it must be remembered at all times that Scorsese is one of the finest American filmmakers alive, and even when he makes a dud - such as the recent Kundun and Bringing Out the Dead- they are always beautiful to look at. We firmly expect it to be one of the biggest movies of the year.
A week later comes one of Hollywood's oddities of the New Millennium. Steven Soderbergh, who seems to have a film out every week (Ocean's Eleven, Full Frontal), has teamed up with George Clooney to remake the Russian sci-fi classic Solaris. The original film has many fans claiming it as the greatest sci-fi film ever made, but at three hours it completely defines the word heavygoing. Just out in America, it has divided critics who fear it will be too smart and cerebral for its own good. Sure to be one of the talking points of the early part of the year.
After a spell away from the big screen - he hasn't been seen since The Beach - Leonardo DiCaprio makes his return in two movies released in very close proximity. Following Gangs of New York, Catch Me If You Can teams DiCaprio with Tom Hanks, where the Titanic superstar plays a conman on the run from Hanks' FBI investigator. Advance word has it that this may be a little gem from Steven Spielberg and its Jan 31 release may well see the return of Leomania.
Look out for: Jennifer Aniston picking up rave reviews for her image-shattering performance in The Good Girl (Jan 10th)...Eminem's lauded debut 8 Mile (Jan 17th)...Roman Polanski's Cannes winner The PianistAbout Schmidt Jan 31st...
Be wary of: Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu battling it out in the US megaflop Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever (Jan 24)...Gabriel Byrne camping it up in the sea horror Ghost Ship (Jan 10th)...and iron stomachs only for the US Number One hit Jackass: The Movie(Jan 24th)...
February 2003
Maverick filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) returns to the big screen with the offbeat comedy Punch Drunk Love (Feb 7th). The following week Ben Affleck takes a career risk when he dons the guise of martial arts superhero Daredevil. Also released on the 14th is The Hours, which sees the heavyweight female trio of Kidman, Moore and Streep as three women whose lives are in some way affected by the work of Virginia Woolf. Oscar buzz is fairly high on this one. Disney release their latest blockbuster - a Thanksgiving flop in the US -Treasure Planet on the same day, and the end of the month sees the debut of Denzel Washington's directorial debut Antwone Fisher.
Be wary of: Final Destination 2 (21st). Is anyone actually waiting for this sequel? Don't be fooled by the starry cast of Welcome to Collinwood (28th) which is a genuine comedic dud - as is The Truth About Charlie (also 28th), where Mark Wahlberg and Thandie Newton singularly fail to create any chemistry...
March
March is shaping up to be a good month for some of the year's odder ideas to have come out of Hollywood. Leading the way is Todd Haynes' glorious tribute to the 1950s melodrama Far From Heaven (March 7th). The same week sees the release of Phone Booth. Delayed after the Washington sniper incidents, it sees Colin Farrell pinned down in a phone box by uncompromising sniper Keifer Sutherland. Auto Focus is the strange and seedy story of American tv star Bob Hogan, with a startling turn by Greg Kinnear in the lead role (also March 7th). A week later sees George Clooney's directorial debut, an equally offbeat biopic of Gong Show host Chuck Barris in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. He is up against Kevin Spacey in The Life of David Gale, the latest film from Alan Parker in which Spacey plays an anti death penalty activist.
Be wary of: Rufus Sewell going all extreme sport in Extreme Ops (March 7th)...Analyze That, which looks like a sneaky tactic by film execs to coin in a few more dollars...
Blockbuster Time
With the awards season by now finished, it's time for the studios to dump some of the lesser quality fare on an unsuspecting public. April looks set to be a very ordinary month for cinemagoers, with the only current glimmer of hope coming in the shape of Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale. But as soon as May arrives, it becomes blockbuster time. The hugely anticipated Matrix Reloaded is scheduled for May 23. From then on and over the rest of the summer, the big movies comes thick and fast. Time for the studios to unleash the big guns - the films that may not be bestowed with honours come the end of the year (except in categories such as sound and special effects), but the ones that keep us going to the multiplexes in our millions. As usual 2003 will see a flurry of blockbusters - but which will rise to the top and which will flop?
May sees another hotly awaited sequel in the shape of X-Men 2 with all of the cast from the original reunited to fight evil. June has two more big follow-ups: Charlie's Angels 2 currently titled Full Throttle, as well as The Fast and The Furious 2 - this time without Vin Diesel. July has one of the year's more interesting studio films. The Hulk sees the very unusual choice of Crouching Tiger's Ang Lee in the director's chair, with Eric Chopper Bana set to don the green body paint. Dreamworks will be hoping for a summer animated hit with Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas with voicework from Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Undoubtedly the biggest hype of the year will be reserved for August when Arnie returns in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. It will be interesting to see if the star, whose fortunes have waned in recent years, will still be able to bring the crowds in.
With the second half of the year already containing some potentially interesting titles such as Tarantino's return with Kill Bill, Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson teamed together in Anger Management and the unlikely remake of The Italian Job, there is likely to be something to raise everyone's curiosity.
January 2003
The New Year really begins for audiences on the 10th of January when Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York debuts. All the classic rumours have circled this movie like hawks, as if Hollywood is anticipating Miramax to fall flat on its face. However, whether or not the budget has spiralled, it has in fact taken over a year to edit and that shooting was interrupted by constant feuds, it must be remembered at all times that Scorsese is one of the finest American filmmakers alive, and even when he makes a dud - such as the recent Kundun and Bringing Out the Dead- they are always beautiful to look at. We firmly expect it to be one of the biggest movies of the year.
A week later comes one of Hollywood's oddities of the New Millennium. Steven Soderbergh, who seems to have a film out every week (Ocean's Eleven, Full Frontal), has teamed up with George Clooney to remake the Russian sci-fi classic Solaris. The original film has many fans claiming it as the greatest sci-fi film ever made, but at three hours it completely defines the word heavygoing. Just out in America, it has divided critics who fear it will be too smart and cerebral for its own good. Sure to be one of the talking points of the early part of the year.
After a spell away from the big screen - he hasn't been seen since The Beach - Leonardo DiCaprio makes his return in two movies released in very close proximity. Following Gangs of New York, Catch Me If You Can teams DiCaprio with Tom Hanks, where the Titanic superstar plays a conman on the run from Hanks' FBI investigator. Advance word has it that this may be a little gem from Steven Spielberg and its Jan 31 release may well see the return of Leomania.
Look out for: Jennifer Aniston picking up rave reviews for her image-shattering performance in The Good Girl (Jan 10th)...Eminem's lauded debut 8 Mile (Jan 17th)...Roman Polanski's Cannes winner The PianistAbout Schmidt Jan 31st...
Be wary of: Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu battling it out in the US megaflop Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever (Jan 24)...Gabriel Byrne camping it up in the sea horror Ghost Ship (Jan 10th)...and iron stomachs only for the US Number One hit Jackass: The Movie(Jan 24th)...
February 2003
Maverick filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) returns to the big screen with the offbeat comedy Punch Drunk Love (Feb 7th). The following week Ben Affleck takes a career risk when he dons the guise of martial arts superhero Daredevil. Also released on the 14th is The Hours, which sees the heavyweight female trio of Kidman, Moore and Streep as three women whose lives are in some way affected by the work of Virginia Woolf. Oscar buzz is fairly high on this one. Disney release their latest blockbuster - a Thanksgiving flop in the US -Treasure Planet on the same day, and the end of the month sees the debut of Denzel Washington's directorial debut Antwone Fisher.
Be wary of: Final Destination 2 (21st). Is anyone actually waiting for this sequel? Don't be fooled by the starry cast of Welcome to Collinwood (28th) which is a genuine comedic dud - as is The Truth About Charlie (also 28th), where Mark Wahlberg and Thandie Newton singularly fail to create any chemistry...
March
March is shaping up to be a good month for some of the year's odder ideas to have come out of Hollywood. Leading the way is Todd Haynes' glorious tribute to the 1950s melodrama Far From Heaven (March 7th). The same week sees the release of Phone Booth. Delayed after the Washington sniper incidents, it sees Colin Farrell pinned down in a phone box by uncompromising sniper Keifer Sutherland. Auto Focus is the strange and seedy story of American tv star Bob Hogan, with a startling turn by Greg Kinnear in the lead role (also March 7th). A week later sees George Clooney's directorial debut, an equally offbeat biopic of Gong Show host Chuck Barris in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. He is up against Kevin Spacey in The Life of David Gale, the latest film from Alan Parker in which Spacey plays an anti death penalty activist.
Be wary of: Rufus Sewell going all extreme sport in Extreme Ops (March 7th)...Analyze That, which looks like a sneaky tactic by film execs to coin in a few more dollars...
Blockbuster Time
With the awards season by now finished, it's time for the studios to dump some of the lesser quality fare on an unsuspecting public. April looks set to be a very ordinary month for cinemagoers, with the only current glimmer of hope coming in the shape of Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale. But as soon as May arrives, it becomes blockbuster time. The hugely anticipated Matrix Reloaded is scheduled for May 23. From then on and over the rest of the summer, the big movies comes thick and fast. Time for the studios to unleash the big guns - the films that may not be bestowed with honours come the end of the year (except in categories such as sound and special effects), but the ones that keep us going to the multiplexes in our millions. As usual 2003 will see a flurry of blockbusters - but which will rise to the top and which will flop?
May sees another hotly awaited sequel in the shape of X-Men 2 with all of the cast from the original reunited to fight evil. June has two more big follow-ups: Charlie's Angels 2 currently titled Full Throttle, as well as The Fast and The Furious 2 - this time without Vin Diesel. July has one of the year's more interesting studio films. The Hulk sees the very unusual choice of Crouching Tiger's Ang Lee in the director's chair, with Eric Chopper Bana set to don the green body paint. Dreamworks will be hoping for a summer animated hit with Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas with voicework from Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Undoubtedly the biggest hype of the year will be reserved for August when Arnie returns in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. It will be interesting to see if the star, whose fortunes have waned in recent years, will still be able to bring the crowds in.
With the second half of the year already containing some potentially interesting titles such as Tarantino's return with Kill Bill, Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson teamed together in Anger Management and the unlikely remake of The Italian Job, there is likely to be something to raise everyone's curiosity.
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