2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

The Top 10 of 2002

1. About Schmidt - Alexander Payne + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Dramedy of the Year + Best Road Movie of the Year + Most Deserved Hit of the Year

2. Far from Heaven - Todd Haynes + Best Connecticut Movie of the Year + Best Melodrama of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year + Best Screen Couple of the Year: Julianne Moore & Dennis Haysbert

3. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress/Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise - Dai Sijie + Best Chinese Movie of the Year + Best Political Movie of the Year 

4. All or Nothing - Mike Leigh + Best Drama of the Year + Best English Movie of the Year + Most Under-appreciated Movie of the Year 

5. Frida - Julie Taymor + Best Big Hit Movie of the Year + Best Biopic of the Year + Best Poster of the Year + Breakthrough of the Year: Salma Hayek

6. The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear/Drengen Der Ville Gøre det Umulige/The Boy Who Wanted to Do the Impossible - Jannik Hastrup + Best Animation of the Year + Best Box Office Disaster of the Year +  Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Family Movie of the Year 
 

7. Adaptation - Spike Jonze + Best Adaptation of the Year + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

8. Bloody Sunday - Paul Greengrass + Best Irish Movie of the Year

9. My Big Fat Greek Wedding - Joel Zwick + Best Dollar Return of the Year: 73.74 Times + Best Romcom of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Nia Vardalos

10. 25th Hour - Spike Lee + Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year

Other great movies and TV-series (in alphabetic order)

24 - season 2 - Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, creators + Best Thriller of the Year

Cabin Fever - Eli Roth + Best Debut Movie of the Year + Best Gore Movie of the Year

Dark Water/ 仄暗い水の底から (Honogurai Mizu no Soko Kara) - Hideo Nakata + Best Horror Movie of the Year + Best Japanese Movie of the Year

Die Another Day - Lee Tamahori + Best Action Adventure of the Year

Other good, recommendable movies (in alphabetic order)

28 Days Later - Danny Boyle + Best London Movie of the Year + Best Zombie Movie of the Year

At Kende Sandheden - Nils Malmros + Best B/W Movie of the Year + Best Mega-flop Movie of the Year

Collateral Damage - Andrew Davis + Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 53.68 mil. $ range

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys - Peter Care + Best Independent Movie of the Year

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones - George Lucas + Best Fight Scene of the Year: Yoda vs. County Dooku + Best Space Movie of the Year + Biggest Moneymaker of the Year: 144.72 mil. $ profit range

The Bottom 10 of 2002

1. The Gathering - Brian Gilbert + Most Deserved Flop of the Year + Worst Dollar Return of the Year: 0.07 Times

2. Blood Work - Clint Eastwood

3. Solaris - Steven Soderbergh

4. Open Hearts/Elsker Dig for Evigt - Susanne Bier

5. A Walk to Remember - Adam Shankman

6. Barbershop - Tim Story + Most Overrated Movie of the Year + Most Undeserved Hit of the Year 

7. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind - George Clooney

8. Demonlover - Olivier Assayas + Worst Poster of the Year 

9. Dirty Pretty Things - Stephen Frears

10. Spider - David Cronenberg

Other failed, poor and/or mediocre movies (in alphabetic order)

24 Hour Party People - Michael Winterbottom
Blade II - Guillermo del Toro + Best Monster Movie of the Year
The Bourne Identity - Doug Liman
Bubba Ho-Tep - Don Coscarelli
Dahmer - David Jacobson + Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Jeremy Renner
Deathwatch - Michael J. Bassett
Eight Legged Freaks - Ellory Elkayem

[35 titles in total]

Notes:

The tentative first edition of the 2002 lists hasn't uncovered any masterpiece of the year yet. It has Alexander Payne's divine road movie dramedy About Schmidt at #1, followed by Todd Haynes' sumptuous, affecting melodrama Far from Heaven and Dai Sijie's semi-autobiographical political period drama-romance Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. The Top 10 list goes on with Mike Leigh's funny and socially relevant All or Nothing; Julie Taymor's vigorously acted artist biopic Frida; Jannik Hastrup's originally animated, Greenland-set family fairytale The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear; Spike Jonze's wry, insightful adaptation/non-adaptation Adaptation; Paul Greengrass' vivid, grueling Bloody Sunday; Joel Zwick's crowd-pleasing feel-great romcom My Big Fat Greek Wedding and finally Spike Lee's nuanced post-9/11 New York-drama 25th Hour.
Other great outputs of the year includes a gnarly cabin-in-the-woods body horror (Cabin Fever), a chilling J-horror (Dark Water) and a cartoonish, effervescent Bond spectacle (Die Another Day).
On the Bottom 10 list no less than 4 master filmmakers assert themselves questioningly and prove that quality runs high and low, also among the best:
Brian Gilbert's horror bungle The Gathering is #1 and effectively offed his career; master filmmaker Clint Eastwood's inconsequential, flawed Blood Work and master filmmaker Steven Soderbergh's dull, quizzical sci-fi adaptation Solaris follow suit.
The list goes on with master filmmaker Susanne Bier's excruciating Dogme drama Open Hearts; Adam Shankman's banal teen romance A Walk to Remember; Tim Story's tiring talk-heavy sleep-inducer Barbershop; George Clooney's curious game-show Cold War debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind; Olivier Assayas' unlikely porn industry thriller Demonlover; master filmmaker Stephen Frears' illegal immigrant drama Dirty Pretty Things, and finally David Cronenberg's taxing schizophrenia portrait Spider.
Another great filmmaker batting under average in 2002 is Guillermo Del Toro with Blade II. George Clooney figures prominently in 2 titles on the Bottom 10; Solaris and as director of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. And action superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger suffered one of his career's worst flops with the year's costliest flop, good actioner Collateral, which had its release botched by the 9/11 attacks the year before, - as audiences still apparently were unwilling to go for an action vehicle about foreign terrorism on US soil the following year.

Biggest flops of the year:

[The loss is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]  

1. Collateral - 53.68 mil. $ range
2. Blood Work - 37.32 mil. $ range
3. Solaris - 35 mil. $ range
4. The Gathering - 17.48 mil. $ range
5. Confessions of A Dangerous Mind  - 16.8 mil. $ range
6. Eight Legged Freaks - 11.68 mil. $ range
7. The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys - 11.2 mil. $ range
8. All or Nothing - 7.88 mil. $ range
9. Spider - 7.68 mil. $ range
10. Demonlover - 6.92 mil. $ range

= Combined losses: 205.64 mil. $


Biggest hits of the year:

[The gain is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]

1. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones - 144.72 mil. $ range
2. My Big Fat Greek Wedding - 142.48 mil. $ range
3. Die Another Day - 30.76 mil. $ range
4. The Bourne Identity - 25.6 mil. $ range
5. 28 Days Later - 25.08 mil. $ range
6. Barbershop - 18.8 mil. $ range
7. About Schmidt - 12.32 mil. $ range
8. Cabin Fever - 10.7 mil. $ range
9. Frida - 10.48 mil. $ range
10. A Walk to Remember - 7.16 mil. $ range

= Combined profits: 428.1 mil. $

2002 titles currently on the watch-list:

Comedian, The Emperor's Club, Blissfully Yours, Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat, Rabbit-Proof Fence

Previous annual lists:
    
2019 in films - according to Film Excess 
2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess  
2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2014 in films - according to Film Excess
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2013 in films - according to Film Excess    
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess   
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess   
2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess   

What do you think of the 2002 lists?
Which 2002 titles are at the top and bottom of your lists?
Which worthwhile 2002 titles are missing on the watch-list?

Dirty Pretty Things (2002) - Good performances anchor Frears' flawed, overrated illegal immigrant drama

♥♥♥

With the piquant title font style and the disrobed star Audrey Tautou under a saucy, mysterious tagline, the poster for Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things hikes up expectations with sex

A hotel receptionist from Africa and a cleaning lady from Turkey, who are both illegal immigrants in London, share their adversities with each other for a while.

Dirty Pretty Things is written by Steven Knight (Allied (2016)) and directed by English master filmmaker Stephen Frears (Gumshoe (1971)).
It is an overly celebrated film with several weak points in its script and portrayal of reality: Sophie Okonedo's (Father & Son (2009, miniseries)) African prostitute character is eloquent and above-it-all; and our hotel 'heroes'' Chinese friend let both of them stay at the morgue where he lives, simply because he is sweet. Besides these dubious instances there's the fact the Chiwetel Ejiofor's (Savannah (2013)) Okwe character is a for me unacceptable hero, because he has fled from his own daughter in Nigeria, basically to live more comfortably in Europe.
What makes Dirty Pretty Things worthwhile anyway are the good performances from Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou (Happy End (2003)), and in supporting parts Zlatko Buric (Iqbal & den Hemmelige Opskrift (2015)) and Sergi López (The Boat Race (2009)).
The story is perplexing, and meant to be so, but it deflates when probed. It runs with a clichéd feeling of pity for economical migrants and refugees, but that view could also easily be subverted by the findings in Dirty Pretty Things: The film could also be taken to say something along the lines of; 'don't become an illegal immigrant in the first place, as they are only humiliated and degraded', (the message to the non-Westerner), and to the West; 'keep illegal immigrants out; they attract exploitative bastards and give rise to tragedies, sad destinies and a disbandment of the union of the established society'.

Related posts:

Stephen Frears:   Top 10: Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Top 10: The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess

Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) - Streep, Frears and Co. drop us a delightful present 

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV] 

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

Philomena (2013) - Dench astounds in Frears' powerful true-story drama

Watch a scene from the film here

Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: 13.9 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.39 times its cost)
[Dirty Pretty Things premiered 5 September (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 97 minutes. Shooting took place in the UK, including London. The film opened #36 to a 100k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #18 and in 493 theaters (different weeks), grossing 8.1 mil. $ (58.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 1.3 mil. $ (9.4 %) and the UK with 852k $ (6.1 %). The film was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, lost to Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation. It was also nominated for 2 BAFTAs, won 4/7 British Independent Spirit award nominations, was nominated for 6 European Film awards, won 2 National Board of Review awards, an award in Venice and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. Frears returned with The Deal (2003, TV movie), The Route V50 (2004, short) and theatrically with Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005). Tautou returned in Lost Seamen/Les Marins Perdus (2003). Dirty Pretty Things is certified fresh at 94 % with a 7.83/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Dirty Pretty Things?

Young Ahmed/Le Jeune Ahmed (2019) - Bold and important cinema at its best

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Belgian Movie of the Year + Best Box Office Disaster of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year + Most Under-appreciated Movie of the Year

The head of a boy mixed up badly by Islam, the poster for Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's Young Ahmed

Ahmed is a young teenage boy, who has changed radically due to the influence of a local radical imam. He is now convinced that the teacher who has helped him overcome dyslexia is a heathen, and that he will serve Allah by killing her.

Young Ahmed is written and directed by Belgian master filmmaker brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Falsch (1987)).
It follows the Dardenne modus operandi of being an observant portrayal of individuals of small means, who are in a life crisis. Like one of their past best films, The Kid with a Bike/Le Gamin au Vélo (2011), Young Ahmed is about an adolescent. The film gives real insights into the obsessive nature of radical Islam and portrays how ingrained and hard to remove a persuasion in this misdirection can be, like hardened grease on this inside of a human skull.
As the poor, deranged boy without a father, who turns on his Belgian mother and compulsively washes hands and mouth (of the world and his immediate surroundings' 'uncleanliness'), Idir Ben Addi is remarkable, and his harsh facial expressions and awkward body disconnect perfectly expresses the human handicap that religious fanaticism has made him a (dangerous) victim of. The film also has terrific performances from Myriem Akheddiou (The Benefit of the Doubt/Une Part d'Ombre (2017)) as Ahmed's patient, taxed teacher and victim, Claire Bodson (Our Children/À Perdre la Raison (2012)) as his outraged, wounded mother, and young Victoria Bluck as the beautiful girl Louise, who shows affection for Ahmed at the farm where he is attempted normalized, - but who won't follow him into the doldrums of Islam.
The Dardennes have rarely picked a more timely or bold topic for a film than here, following countless cases of radicalization and Islamic terrorism in their native Belgium and many neighboring European countries in the last decade. Young Ahmed leaves it to the audience to explain why Ahmed exactly winds up radicalized; but the clues are there: The local, assertive radical imam, the missing father and Western mother (ready to be blamed for anything by a naturally rebellious youth), and the mysterious X individual quality (or curse?) that makes one out of maybe 100 people fiercely religious while the 99 others are much less so. The film observes with elegant photography (by Benoît Dervaux (Post Partum (2013)), SPOILER how Ahmed quite deviously decides to manipulate his surroundings into thinking that he is de-radicalizing, - just so that he can attempt to murder his teacher again.
We are left to make our own conclusions based on the highly naturalistic, - and deeply terrible, - story that unfolds in the film, which is ultimately not without hope and humanism, which characterize all of the Dardenne films. I was especially appalled by the Belgian authorities' uniform willingness to accommodate Ahmed's fanatical religiousness: asking his permission before playing the radio; helping him with the time continually to please his sick praying routines etc. etc. - when these inhibitions all stemmed from the core of the very problem in the boy's troubled life: Islam. Young Ahmed should be seen widely and used in classrooms across the world.

 

Related post:

 

2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 6.1 mil. €, approximately 6.91 mil. $
Box office: 1.5 mil. $
= Box office disaster
[Young Ahmed premiered 20 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 84 minutes. 14 companies and support bodies were involved with financing and making the film. Screen Brussels' investment of 115k € in the film is listed as 1.86 % of the full budget, which therefore comes to 6.1 mil. €. The film opened #66 to a 4k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it spread to 4 theaters but only lessened in position before getting wiped out by the corona pandemic, which has hurt its release in general. It grossed 21k $ (1.5 % of the total gross) in North America. The 3 biggest markets have been; France with 1.1 mil. $ (78.6 %), Italy with 159k $ (11.4 %) and the Netherlands with 113k $ (8 %). The film has one market announced to open in soon; Hungary on 2 July. It won the Best Director award in Cannes; it was nominated for a César award and won 2/9 Magritte award nominations (Belgium's Oscar), among other honors. The Dardenne brothers do not have an announced next film yet, and Addi also does not have any upcoming role announced yet. Young Ahmed is rotten at 58 % with a 6.68/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Young Ahmed?

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress/Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise (2002) - Sijie's sensual, resonant ode to youth and everything laid to waste by Communist China

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Chinese Movie of the Year + Best Political Movie of the Year 

The softly contoured young stars lie closely together with a book on this intriguing poster for Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

On an ordered three year re-education stay in a remote Chinese village during chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution, two young men steal literature and inaugurate a young local seamstress in its forbidden blessings.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is written and directed by great Chinese filmmaker Dai Sijie (Niu-Peng (1989)), adapting his own same-titled, semi-autobiographical 2000 novel, with Nadine Perront (The Chinese Botanist's Daughters (2006)) contributing writing.
Here is a gorgeously photographed (by Jean-Marie Dreujou (Wolf Totem (2015))) political romance drama with a sensually impressionistic nature. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is deeply compelling and moving, showing us new particulars of the horrors of Mao's Communist regime with great authority.
The film has great performances; not least Xun Zhou (The Silent War (2012)) is fabulous. The score by Pujian Wang is beautiful. The protagonist's swimming around in the ending doesn't come off entirely natural.
But the Chinese government's flooding of the paradisiacal area shown in the film is as unbelievable as it is unbearable. It concludes a film that is rare in its successful mix of being funny, intelligent, deep and extremely poignant.

 

Related post:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Sijie gives a 12-minute interview in French in this video

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 5.2 mil. $
= Uncertain
[Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress premiered 16 May (Cannes Film Festival, in the Un Certain Regard section) and runs 111 minutes. 11 production companies and governmental support bodies were involved with financing and making the film. Shooting took place from ? - May 2001 in Paris, France and in China, including Shanghai. The necessary permission to film in China took 7 months to procure and only came with the simultaneous understanding that the film would be banned from getting screened in China. The film did not get a general release in the US until 2005, and only in New York: It opened #67 to a 16k $ first weekend in 1 theater, peaking at #49 and in 22 theaters (different weeks), grossing 666k $ (12.8 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Germany with 1.1 mil. $ (21.2 %), North America and France with 662k $ (12.7 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, translating to two notches lower than this one. Sijie returned with The Chinese Botanist's Daughters (2006). Zhou returned in Where Have All the Flowers Gone/Na shi hua kai (2002). Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is certified fresh at 77 % with a 6.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress?

Barbershop (2002) - Story's tiring, overrated chatterbox hit

♥♥

+ Most Undeserved Hit of the Year 

A collection of endeared stars align curbside on this poster for Tim Story's Barbershop

Calvin is a dreamer, but his dreams cost money, and therefore the barbershop that he has inherited from his father is nearly bankrupt. Now he decides to sell it, - but is that the right decision?

Barbershop is written by Mark Brown (The Salon (2005)), Don D. Scott (House Party: Tonight's the Night (2013, video)) and Marshall Todd (Woke (2020, TV-series)) and directed by Tim Story (One of Us Tripped (1997)).
Ice Cube (Ride Along (2014)) is pretty good as Calvin, and Anthony Anderson ('Til Death (2006-07)) has comedic chops, - but unfortunately he is mostly tasked with yelling in Barbershop. The same type of problem goes for Eve (Flashbacks of a Fool (2008)), who doesn't seem to be doing anything at her job besides hollering aloud about apple juice and other matters.
Cedric the Entertainer (Dance Fu (2011))'s character is a tiring know-it-all who talks incessantly; and similarly to the film's languid story, he moves around in grounds that are very close to self-parody while often dripping more or less truthful 'wisdom' into the mortar.
The major problem for the plot in Barbershop is that Calvin is dead tired of his shop, - SPOILER but then changes his mind about it anyway. Where the new-found realization comes from on this apparently normal day in the small chatterbox that we look in on is a mystery. The staff soon becomes extremely tiring for the audience as well (as they are for Calvin), and it is involuntarily funny how very few customers the barbers have, and how exceedingly rarely they seem to actually get paid in proper money. - What kind of a business is this? ...

 

Related post:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 12 mil. $
Box office: 77 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned 6.41 times its cost)
[Barbershop premiered 7 August (USA) and runs 102 minutes. Shooting took place in Chicago, Illinois from ? - January 2002. The film opened #1 to a 20.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it was #1 for a second weekend and then spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#3-#5), grossing 75.7 mil. $ (98.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 230k $ (0.3 %) and New Zealand with 51k $ (0.07 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. The film spun a franchise; the first sequel was Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004), and after that came a spin-off, a TV-series and in 2014 a second sequel. Story returned with Taxi (2004). Cube returned in The Bernie Mack Show (2002, TV-series) and theatrically in Friday After Next (2002). Barbershop is certified fresh at 83 % with a 6.59/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Barbershop?

The Bourne Identity (2002) - Terrific action in Liman & Co.'s spy adaptation

♥♥♥

Star Matt Damon runs in a black outfit with a gun aim on his chest on this poster for Doug Liman's The Bourne Identity

A man gets rescued out of the Mediterranean Sea. He has no memory of who he is, but his unusual skills and clues lead him on track to uncover his identity as a clandestine weapon of the CIA.

The Bourne Identity is written by Tony Gilroy (State of Play (2009)) and W. Blake Herron (Skin Art (1993)), adapting Robert Ludlum's (The Gemini Contenders (1976)) same-titled 1980 novel, and directed by Doug Liman (Getting In (1994)).
Matt Damon (The Martian (2015)) is intense and motivated in this first entry of the successful Bourne franchise, which is especially interesting for its well-shot action scenes; especially an excellent car chase and some good fight scenes: The fight scene in the apartment, which the girl involved Marie (Franka Potente (Romulus My Father (2007))) witnesses, must be among the decade's best.
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's (Delta of Venus (1995)) is fierce as the film's repugnant, African leader heavy, while the other stars involved don't make real impressions, and the plot never becomes very concrete or suspenseful. Another reservation against The Bourne Identity: The maybe gypsy Marie is a vague character, who almost doesn't protest at all to be suddenly hijacked onto Bourne's deadly quest.

Related posts:

Bourne franchise: The Bourne Legacy (2012) or, Bourne 4: Hokum
Doug Liman: Fair Game (2010) or, The Intelligence War

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 60 mil. $
Box office: 214 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.56 times its cost)
[The Bourne Identity premiered 6 June (Los Angeles) and runs 119 minutes. Liman was a long-time fan of the novel and spent years getting it to the screen. Brad Pitt, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Russell Crowe were approached to star, before Damon was cast. Shooting took place in Greece, Spain, Italy, including Rome, Prague, Czech Republic, Paris, France and in Switzerland from October 2000 - ?. The shoot ran long, with reshoots and contentment between Liman and the studio executives, and reportedly ran 8 mil. $ over budget. - Though the final budget listed curiously still is the pre-production agreed upon 60 mil. $. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Scooby-Doo, to a 27.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weeks in the top 5 (#4-#5) and grossed 121.6 mil. $ (56.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 13.1 mil. $ (6.1 %) and the UK with 12.3 mil. $ (5.7 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Bourne returned in The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and the franchise went on with 3 more sequels to date. Liman returned with Indie Is Great (2002, short), The O.C. (2003, TV-series) and theatrically with Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). Damon returned in The Bernie Mack Show (2002, TV-series) and theatrically in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002). The Bourne Identity is certified fresh at 83 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Bourne Identity?