THE BEST AND WORST MOVIES OF 2001

Ogres, wizards take movie box office to fairytale finish

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES(Reuters) - Ogres, wizards, hobbits and all manner of monsters conjured up a record happy ending at the box office in a year darkened by Sept. 11, but Hollywood still needs an Oscar front-runner to give 2001 a fairy-tale finish.

North American ticket sales for 2001 are expected to break the $8 billion barrier for the first time ever, marking a record 10th straight year of annual expansions in total movie receipts, according to projections Monday by box office tracking services.

Contrary to early fears that audiences would retreat from theaters after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City and Washington, movie attendance for the year is expected to equal or exceed 1998's record level of 1.44 billion admissions, said Tom Borys, president of the tracking service ACNielsen EDI.

While lacking a gargantuan smash on the scale of 1999's ''Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace,'' which grossed well over $400 million domestically, 2001 produced a solid crop of commercial successes throughout the year, including 17 films that have topped $100 million and a record five movies that cleared the $200 million mark.

The top three movies of year were made for kids -- the boy-wizard fantasy ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,'' grossing $286 million through Sunday, followed by two animated hits: storybook spoof ``Shrek'' at $267 million and nightmare farce ``Monsters, Inc.'' at $236 million.

Indeed, animated films as a whole enjoyed a banner year, accounting for nearly $800 million, or 10 percent, of the collective box office in 2001, said ACINielsen's Borys.

``We've never had two $200 million grosses in animation before, and we have two this year with 'Shrek' and 'Monsters, Inc.,''' he said.

Rounding out this year's top five performers were sequels to two previous hits -- ``Rush Hour 2,'' the odd-couple action comedy starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker with $226 million, and adventure thriller ``The Mummy Returns'' with $202 million. ''Pearl Harbor'' fell just shy of the $200 million mark with $198.5 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales.

Overall, the box office total is on track to reach $83.5 billion for 2001, up more than 8 percent from last year, thanks partly to higher ticket prices, tracking service Exhibitor Relations said. ACNielsen projects a year-end finish of $8.14 billion.

MURKY OSCAR PICTURE

The upbeat year-end tallies also come despite an unusually murky pre-Oscar season, with virtually no consensus on which films are most likely to garner the five Academy Award nominations for the year's best picture.

Among the year's biggest commercial successes, only one, epic fantasy ``Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,'' is seen as having a shot at Hollywood's highest honor. ``Shrek'' has generated a bit of Oscar buzz. This year for the first time the Academy is giving an award for best animated film.

The recent Golden Globe nominations gave boosts to the musical ``Moulin Rouge'' and drama ``A Beautiful Mind'' but produced no clear front-runners among a diverse field of movies that have divided critics and received little commercial attention as yet.

Films like turbulent family drama ``In the Bedroom,'' combat film ``Black Hawk Down,'' David Lynch's dream-like ``Mulholland Drive,'' the reverse thriller ``Memento'' and Robert Altman's ''Gosford Park'' have also all gained accolades from various critics groups. But many have strong detractors as well.

Compared with last year's roller-coaster ride, when a string of holiday-season hits saved Hollywood from an end-of-summer slump, the year 2001 remained robust year-round.

After a strong start with such films as ``Spy Kids,'' ''Hannibal'' and ``Save the Last Dance,'' the movie industry posted a huge summer -- up 9 percent from the previous year -- with ''Shrek,'' ``Pearl Harbor,'' ``Jurassic Park 3,'' ``Planet of the Apes,'' ``American Pie 2'' and ``The Fast and the Furious.'' The end of the year got another boost from ``Monsters, Inc.,'' ``Harry Potter,'' ``Ocean's Eleven'' and ``Lord of the Rings.''

One measure of the year's strength is evident in the fact that the top 10 films of 2001 collectively grossed about $400 million more than last year's top 10.

Warner Bros., owned by AOL Time Warner , won the race for market share this year with $1.24 billion of the total, catapulted into first place by the success of ``Harry Potter'' and ``Ocean's Eleven.'' Universal Studios, a unit of Vivendi Universal , was second with about $957 million.

Paramount Pictures, owned by Viacom Inc. and Buena Vista Pictures, the movie distribution arm of the Walt Disney Co. , were in a tie for third place.

Reuters/Variety

2001 Films Grossing $100M or More Monday, December 31, 2001

The ticket sales are through Sunday, Dec. 30, 2001.

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - $286 million

2. Shrek - $267 million

3. Monsters, Inc. - $236 million

4. Rush Hour 2 - $226 million

5. The Mummy Returns - $202 million

6. Pearl Harbor - $198.5 million

7. Jurassic Park III - $181 million

8. Planet of the Apes - $180 million

9. Hannibal - $165 million

10. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - $154 million

John L.:  The year of 2001 was a huge year for mainstream movies breaking box office records every week, but it was a little film called "Memento" that took an old plot of a husband trying to find out who has killed his wife and literally flipping it on its head.  Memento's backward's storytelling technique was a gimmick that was actually quite effective in making it the most unforgettable movie of the year.  One of the most forgettable films of this new millennium was "Evolution."  I rated some movies as worse than this, but Ivan Reitman's return to the ensemble monster fighting group was a missed effort.  It should have just been called Ghostbusters 3.  If Dan Aykroyd wasn't in it, I would have thought he would have a good case to sue for copyright infringement.  The makers of the movie spent too much time on special effects and dumb dialogue and not enough on more interesting aspects of high speed evolution on the planet.  The parts of the film that tried to get you into the characters like their singing "Play That Funky Music White Boy" were way too forced and seemed to be separate from anything going on screen.  

As for the rest of the year, there was a mix of really good movies, really bad ones, and some that were okay but fell short.  Tomb Raider, Pearl Harbor, and Planet of the Apes were three movies that many were looking forward to, but disappointed many.  I liked Tomb Raider, but what turned it off from the average movie goer is that it stayed too close to the video game.  Fans of the game, like myself, saw it for the over the top Indiana Jones rip off it was and had fun.  However, since Angelina Jolie does have an Academy Award, most thought she could do better.  Pearl Harbor was criticized for having a cliched love story that overshadowed the true events of December 7, 1941.  The critics were right on that one.  PH could have been much better with a less involved love story and more focus on what lead to the attack.  Planet of the Apes was all action and no substance.  There was no time to fit in any type of social commentary that the originial had.  

The big surprise of the year to me was Nicole Kidman being removed from my list of actresses I can't stand.  She was good in Moulin Rouge, but excellent in The Others.  She may finally get out from under Tom Cruise's shadow.  The best action movie of the year Rush Hour 2.  It also had Zhang Ziyi in it and I am still in love with her.  Chan and Tucker are great and they have the best chemistry since I don't know, Gibson and Glover I guess.  Rush Hour 3 is a must movie to make and with its huge box office in take this year, it is assured.  Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring marks the beginning of a 2 year film epic that continues in 2002 with Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and concludes in 2003 with Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.  The first installment of the J. R. R. Tolkein trilogy was an amazing acheivment and deserves it accolades.  Ian McKellen was amazing as Gandalf and will most likely win an Oscar for his work.  This was one of the few movies this year that had amazing special effects but had the story and characters to back it all up.  The most amazing thing I saw in 2001 on film was the special effects that made 6 foot tall actor, John Rhys Davies 3 and a half feet tall as Gimli the Dwarf.  Peter Jackson has directed a near masterpiece that will stand the test of time.  Fortunately, he had superb source material.  Training Day is another movie that was very entertaining and had great acting that carried an okay script.  Denzel Washington is excellent as the on the edge cop who is both good and evil at the same time.  Ethan Hawke also keeps up with his co-star and gives one of his better performances.  The ending of the movie was a bit absurd, but I the line, "King Kong ain't got shit on me" rules it.  

AI: Artificial Intelligence was another disappointment in 2001. It had an elaborate plot about a mechanical boy trying to be human but it seemed not to want to commit to one idea on how to accomplish that.  The film started out okay, but became too dark with little insight into that dark world.  The endings play out like the alternate ending section found on many dvds.  I guess script problems occur when your head writer (Stanley Kubrick) dies before the final draft.  Scary Movie 2 was a complete mess that should not have been released as it was. This rushed sequel seemed to be missing about 20 to 30 extra minutes to help explain some of its more nonsensical developments like what does the Exorcist parody in the beginning have to do with the rest of the film.  The first film was a classic, but this one should have never been made.  Monkeybone was a little Brendan Fraser comedy released for about 2 minutes last Spring and it too seemed to be missing a whole lot.  Its story of a guy who gets taken over by the cartoon character he created had potential to explore a strange world and give the filmmakers excuses to spend money on special effects, but nothing in this picture came together right at all.  I saw it on dvd and if you look at what they cut out, you will understand how sad the final product is.  Leaving some of those moments in could have helped the movie.  Jet Li did not have a great year making movies in the United States.  The One was okay overall, but his Kiss of the Dragon was very bad and makes me wonder what the big deal about this guy is.  I see Li finally breaking down and probably play the villain in Rush Hour 3.  That would definitely be choice. 

Other movies of note that made an impact in 2001 are Shrek and Monsters Inc.  They showed that computer animation can be fantastic as long as it is made up of fake looking characters.  Realistic computer animation like in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within only works in the video games and is a long long long way away from replacing real humans.  Also, Disney needs to go back to making more family friendly animated musicals like they did 8 and 10 years ago.  Atlantis is fine, but not the best for little kids.  What they should do is keep their Atlantis type cartoons with Touchtone.  The biography movie continues to fail to interest the public at the box office.  In the past few years we have had movies about Larry Flynt and Andy Kaufman that have failed to make money, and this year we had Ali, the story of Cassius Clay.  Will Smith doing the standard Muhammad Ali impersonation was good since Smith's regular acting style resembles it.  When he had to be serious it did not play off too well because we never got into what made Ali tick in terms of his personal life or his strategy in the ring.  There was more time spent on developing Malcolm X than the "Greatest of All Time."  Russell Crowe's turn as the code breaking math teacher with a mental problem in "A Beautiful Mind" will most likely get his second Academy Award and it will be deserved.  He does not over do the insanity of the person, but you get inside his head and experience what he is going through, and Crowe's acting gets his different moods across admirably.  And finally, there was Harry Potter.  It was the highest grossing movie of 2001 and it has spawned a franchise that has about 6 more movies  or more left in it if J. K. Rowling keeps her promise.  The movie kept most of the important parts of the book and changed very little.  Daniel Radcliffe looks just like Potter is described and did a great job.  Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as Hermione and Ron are good enough to get their own movie or book in my opinion.  I have read all of the Potter books and I plan to be there the first day Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is released.  

September 11, 2001 almost made Hollywood rethink the types of movies they make.  Is blowing things up still cool, or is it now inappropriate?  About a month after the terrorists attacks, people went back to the movies and helped 2001 be a record breaking year.  The escapism of cinema will always be popular regardless of real life events.  Fantasy helps us get through the day when real life can be a bit too much.  Next year looks to be quite eventful for films.  Spiderman, Attack of the Clones, Chamber of Secrets, and Two Towers alone should bring in quite the beaucoup bucks.  If my computer does not crash again, the Box Office Reports will be there to cover it.  Bye for now.

JOHN L.'S LIST OF THE 5 BEST MOVIES OF 2001

1.    Memento

2.    The Others

3.    Rush Hour 2

4.    Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

5.    Training Day

JOHN L.'S LIST OF THE 5 WORST MOVIES OF 2001

1.    Evolution

2.    Scary Movie 2

3.    A. I.: Artificial Intelligence

4.    Monkeybone

5.    Kiss of the Dragon