Jul. 09, 2002 - 3:13 am
i have now seen every movie that was nominated for Best Picture for 2000. and "the other" big Steven Soderbergh film from that year. probably the only one of his films that i'll ever watch of my own volition again will be Ocean's Eleven (2001). this film was pretty good, but it's not getting more than 7/10 from me. oh, and this film is also number 132 on the IMDb's top 250 today.
this movie revolves around quite a few characters and doesn't really have one central character. really there's probably around 15 people or so that it focuses on. everything's related in one way or another though. it entails a drug traffic scenario which involves many cities and people including Washington, Chicago, Tijuana, a "drug czar," his wife and daughter, a bigwig drug dealer and his underlings, some druggie teenagers, American cops, Mexican cops, the Mexican military, and many others. it's really too complicated. i'll just say that it's mostly about what drugs are doing to individuals all the way throughout the distribution process, and how their families and friends are effected by that.
like i said, it's a pretty decent movie. i tend to not be overly romanced by films about drugs, gangsters, stuff like that. see previous reviews like Mean Streets (1973) for proof. and i'm not a huge fan of Steven Soderbergh. i thought his cinematography and editing were a little overboard. too much hand held camera that made me think he was trying to mimic the tv show "Cops." and the color alterations to the film stock were somewhat annoying. like he always shows us Mexico with the yellowed film and the very drab, sanitized parts of Michael Douglas's life as a judge/drug czar with the blue tinted film. regular life received no color alterations. i felt like he was treating his audience like morons telling them how to feel about each scenario a little too distinctly. i don't know. i didn't feel it was really necessary or well thought out.
the best thing about this film for me was seeing Benicio Del Toro's parts. he really gained a lot of respect from me for his work in this film. and he really deserved his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. only the fourth actor to ever receive an Oscar when they spoke primarily in a foreign language in their respective films. the others being Sophia Loren, Roberto Begnini, and Robert De Niro.
well, after last night i picked up my copy of The Twelfth Night from the library and added it to my shelf. it's in line now behind Cold Mountain which i still haven't been working on fervently enough. and i've decided i must see the film Emma (1996) soon. if anyone has any good recommendations on the next "list" of films i should begin on (like i've done the AFI list, the IMDb top 100, Best Pictures), you should send me an email. i haven't thought of anything that excites me too much yet. maybe all movies that were nominated for Best Picture in the 1990s->? oh and everyone needs to watch all the late night tv shows tomorrow night cause some really good people are going to be on including Jude Law and Tom Hanks. promoting Road To Perdition (2002). that is going to be one of the best films of the year let me just say now before it even comes out. i can't wait for this weekend's premier. and i need to ask a certain lady to go with me...