The Fast and the Furious (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Rob Cohen (Daylight, Stealth, xXx, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor)
	Actors: Vin Diesel (Pitch Black, Riddick, xXx), Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 10.09.2019, Blu-ray, 40" TV screen
Synopsis: Los Angeles police officer Brian O'Conner (Walker) infiltrates the world of illegal street car racing to try and find a gang of thieves.
Review: I have a lot to say around this movie, maybe not so much about the movie itself. For a while now I have been thinking about watching the whole Fast and Furious saga (8 movies and a spin-off to date). The final push is when I saw a review of the saga by a YouTuber Marcus that had the same idea as me. At the same time, I wanted to start watching less series and more movies, and by movies I mean Blu-Rays and not VOD. So I bought the box-set of eight movies and started from the beginning, slid the disk in my old Blu-ray player that I hadn't used in three years and Waw!, even though I use a medium-quality TV and not my old projector, there is no comparison of image quality between a Blu-Ray and VOD (Netflix) that I am now too used to. Those online services may promise HD (or 4k), it is obvious that the compression has a strong effect on resolution, colors, contrast and depth of the darks. Now about the movie: it is the only one of the saga I had seen before and still is as I remembered it, except that I noticed many more sad details. If you have seen Point Break, you know from the first minute what will happen in this movie so forget about being surprised. Car chases? Yeah but almost only in straight lines as the contenders have to pass first the 1/4 mile line and they do it in less than 10 seconds (but more like a minute in movie time, go figure). I don't see the fun in that, the winner ends up being the one with the most powerful car, and the one that doesn't uses his Nitrogen Oxyde booster too early. But for me that's the extend of the talent one has to have to win... What you do get in this movie are crazy Star Wars-like light-speed effect when they start the booster, that's quite funny. The camera moves are also crazy, making you forget the cheapness of the background effects. And you get to see a lot of colorful tuned cars surrounded by shortly-dressed groupies. The soundtrack is fun (+1 for using a song by the Mexican band Molotov) but totally incoherent: Hip Hop, Electro, Techno, Rock, anything goes. It is nice to see Vin Diesel playing the usual tough guy, Michele Rodriguez overdoing the tough girl, but Paul Walker is quite bad. The story doesn't help, putting him for too long in situations with apparently no acting direction. The one thing that barely saves the movie is how extreme is Brian's decision when it comes to take a side. There for a moment we see some magic between actors, but that's fleeting. And then the movie ends. It was fun to watch for historical reasons, knowing that it will lead to such huge better-done blockbusters, but it is otherwise quite bad. I may revise the rating when I have seen more from the saga.
Rating: 4 /10

Pearl Harbor (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Michael Bay (Transformers 1-5)
	Actors: Ben Affleck (Paycheck, Dogma), Kate Beckinsale (Underworld 1-5, Total Recall), Josh Hartnett (Sin City)
	Country: USA
	Genre: War, Romance, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 02.04.2019, VOD, 42" TV screen.
Synopsis: While the USA are not yet engaged in WWII, Rafe (Affleck) volunteers to go fight in Europe, leaving his best friend Danny (Hartnett) and new girlfriend Evelyn (Beckinsale) behind, on their way to serve in Pearl Harbor, the heavenly location of the USA's Pacific fleet.
Review: Believe it or not, Pearl Harbor may be the most serious movie directed by Michael Bay, right before The Rock and The Island, released between the two but surprisingly also around the same years as more goofy Action comedies like Armageddon and Bad Boys II. In fact he sticks to a rule that you may have verbal exchanges with smiles, make jokes for the ladies and be cocky, but not make fun of anything related to the War. But it doesn't mean that the movie has to be a boring Drama, and that's where Michael Bay did something quite unique, well if you consider the idea of inserting a fictional Dramatic Romance in the middle of a historic event not being a rip-off of James Cameron's Titanic. Bay combines naturally charming actors (Affleck & Hartnett plus others) with wartime romance stories (between nurse and pilots), values like friendship, family and honor, orchestral music and state-of-the-art special effects culminating with the breathtaking attack scene. Hell, he even managed to paint a positive image of the enemy. He sets himself the objective of refreshing a story not told on the big screen with such a magnitude since the 1970's more factual Tora! Tora! Tora!, or as background for The Final Countdown (1980), and I think he succeded. In passing he uses an ensemble cast of breadth reminding of the one of The Longest Day (1962) in its time (I will not link all the movies mentioned): Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October), Mako (Conan the Barbarian, Sand Pebbles, Rising Sun), Jon Voight (National Treasure 1-2), Cuba Gooding Jr. (Men of Honor), Jennifer Garner (Elektra), Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters), William Fichtner (Elysium), Kim Coates (Sons of Anarchy TV-series), Ted McGinley (Married with Children TV-series), Sean Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy 1-2), Tom Sizemore (Red Planet, Black Hawk Down), Colm Feore (The Chronicles of Riddick, Thor), Tom Everett (Air Force One), Michael Shannon (Man of Steel), Leland Orser (Alien: Resurrection). I come now to mention the bi-polarity of the movie: on one hand it is very good-looking, in particular the flying scenes, and the central attack scene is so immersive when watched in good conditions (it was not the case for me this time but I remember the effect it had on my when seen on a good Home Cinema). The quality of that scene is I find underrated, maybe because interleaved with scenes showing our heroes, but I agree with Mickey in his YouTube review that it is a pity that the crew didn't receive more recognition for they work. On the other hand, the romance is sooo cheesy in its unraveling, serious tone, shooting, music... And everything has to be shot perfectly with sunset in the background and low angles and slow motions and camera flashes exploding and the president being so heroic and etc... It often feels overwhelming with feelings. And in the end it explains my rating for this movie, the average between 8/10 for the Action / War scenes and 4/10 for the Romance and cheesiness.
Rating: 6 /10

Shrek (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson
	Actors (voices): Mike Myers (Wayne's World 1-2, Austin Powers 1-3), Eddie Murphy (Coming to America, The Nutty Professor), Cameron Diaz (Charlie's Angels 1-2)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, Fantasy, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 10.08.2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: Shrek the Ogre (Myers) lives peacefully in his swap, scaring away the occasional angry mob. That is until Lord Farquaad banishes all fairy creatures to the very same swamp. He is then forced to go on a quest to free Princess Fiona (Diaz) in company of the annoying Donkey (Murphy).
Review: As I wrote in my review of Shrek 4: Forever After, I have never been a big fan of Shrek. It was nice anyway to watch again how it all started back in 2001. After Antz, Shrek was the second 3D animated movie produced by Dreamworks, at a time when Pixar ruled unchallenged. One can see that the movie is 17 years old by the rather simplicity of the textures, and the static animation sometimes. When you know that on that same year Pixar was giving us the fur quality in Monsters Inc! But Dreamworks and its animation departments have made a huge progress ever since, in both story and animation, to the point of surpassing Pixar that I find has been slowing down since it was bought by Disney. The fairy tale parody is an interesting concept, however I found it a bit too imposed. But the pace of the movie is constantly high, and the story is really full of ideas so I cannot be too hard on it. I was surprised by the original voice of Shrek, which I found too slow and not fitting to the character (I guess I remember better the French one that I have probably heard at my first viewing), and as I said this character's animation I found poor. Donkey on the other hand is very energetic, well animated and Eddy Murphy did a wonderful job to perfectly catch the character. In spite of being a parody, it does follow rules of the Fairy Tale genre up to a satisfying resolution.
Rating: 6 /10

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Ron Howard (Apollo 13, The Da Vinci Code, EdTV)
	Actors: Russell Crowe (Noah, Gladiator), Ed Harris (The Truman Show, A History of Violence), Jennifer Connelly (Requiem for a Dream)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 14.05.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen.
Synopsis: John Nash (Crowe) is a brilliant but asocial mathematician starting his studies. His life will change when he meets Alicia (Connelly) and starts his dream-job.
Review: I hadn't seen this movie in maybe 15 years, and had forgotten how good it was. It belongs to this category of movies about cursed geniuses like The Theory of Everything that I have recently seen, or Good Will Hunting that I think I never have. It is based on a the true story of the real John Nash and even if the events have been tweaked for better cinematographic impact, I found that it is a very poignant story and that Russell Crowe, at the height of his career just after Gladiator, delivers a fantastic performance. He is in tandem with Jennifer Connelly, more beautiful than ever, as they will again be in the 2014 Noah. And more good actors complete the cast like Ed Harris, Christopher Plummer and Paul Bettany that took me a few minutes to replace as the voice of Jarvis and then Vision in Marvel movies like Avengers: Infinity War. I also found the story to be well built, with a twist at mid-movie that makes you wonder what is there left to tell, then be surprised by the resolve of the main couple in front of the difficulties they are facing, and touched by the ending. Definitely a great movie.
Rating: 8 /10

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Simon West (Con Air, The General's Daughter, The Expendables 2)
	Actors: Angelina Jolie (Wanted, Beowulf), Jon Voight (Anaconda, National Treasure 1-2), Iain Glen (Game of Thrones TV-series)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 20.01.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen.
Synopsis: Wealthy British adventurer Lara Croft (Jolie) is sent on a quest for a mysterious triangle with incredible power by clues left by her father (Voight) long gone and that she misses deeply.
Review: This is the first cinema adaptation of the hit video game Tomb Raider that was released in 1996, followed by a sequel every year that hadn't yet ceased to be popular in 2001. So the timing of the movie release was quite perfect. No less perfect is the choice of Angelia Jolie to embody (and what a body) the main character, adventurer in tight shorts whose look is easily recognizable thanks to her two big... guns. The physique of the actress (with some parts enhanced if I remember well what I read in the press at that time) matches quite perfectly what the gamers of the time were fantasizing upon, and which caused the game to receive criticism for being sexist. Well, video games are still mostly played by males and if you look at games from 1996 as well as the most recent Japanese productions, you will see that studios know what those guys like: big guns! In a similar register the character was even ripped off in 2003 for a sleazy erotic production entitled Womb Raider that I have had the bad taste to watch. If this "sexist" approach displeases you, be reassured that the franchise is slowly following the evolution of its gamers as you can see from the look of the heroin in the 2013 reboot of the game franchise, which also inspired a more realistic look for the upcoming cinema adaptation (see posters below) in which the main character is played by the skinny Alicia Vikander (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.). Now that I have established that Lara is perfect, what remains? If it were not adapted from the video game (which Anniversary edition I have recently started to play on PSP), the story would really seem far-fetched, but put back into context it just matches well what the gamers know: some intrigue, a rival archaeologist and bad guys after the same thing (the influence of Indiana Jones is of course present), mysterious artifacts found in forgotten temples after solving some puzzles. Lara does solves a few and does some acrobatics but not as much as in the game, because this is not a game after all. It may look a bit aged now but I like this Tomb Raider that did a very good job at the time, enough to generate a sequel Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. Knowing the quality and consequent fate of the remakes and reboots produced in the recent years, I can easily predict that the 2018 version will be insipid and quickly forgotten after making a quick buck from a young audience with a short attention span.
Rating: 6 /10 The new look of Lara Croft from the 2013 video game. Poster of the 2018 movie.

Shallow Hal (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Bobby & Peter Farrelly (Osmosis Jones, Dumb & Dumber 1-2, Me Myself and Irene)
	Actors:  Jack Black (King Kong, Be Kind Rewind, Nacho Libre), Gwyneth Paltrow (Iron Man 1-3), Jason Alexander
	Country: USA, D
	Genre: Romance, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 19.04.2017, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Hal and Mauricio (Black & Alexander) are constantly looking for the woman of their lies but have very strict criteria. A event will make Hal see the inner beauty of women and fall in love with Rosemary (Paltrow).
Review: Hard to believe that Shallow Hal was released by the Farrelly brothers just one year after their hit Me, Myself and Irene, so much it seems that their approach to Comedy has evolved. As much as the gags by Jim Carrey appeared sometimes forced in the other movie, in Shallow Hal I found that Romance prevailed and that Jack Black was only pushing this feeling in the right direction without imposing his type of humor which I would qualify of "by the absurd" and of which I am not a big fan. Gwyneth Paltrow is not too bad herself, with the not-so-easy task of playing a woman of a different size. She really brings something to it and by watching some of her scenes you get the sense of what a good actor/actress should do. The romantic story must appeal to the female audience but at the same time not repulse the male one that will tag along for the comedy situations and the sexy cast. A good recipe to guarantee a commercial success! There is not much more for me to say, Shallow Hal seems like a good Romantic Comedy based on my limited experience in this genre, although I found it extremely predictable.
Rating: 6 /10

Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001)

	Also Known As: Le voyage de Chihiro, Spirited away
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Hayao Miyazaki
	Actors: -
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 06.01.2016, DVD, Japanese version with French subtitles
Synopsis: The 10-years-old Chiriho is on the way to her new home with her parents. By looking for the new house, the parents enter into a park. When they see a well smelling restaurant and start eating all they can to pay later, Chihiro leaves for a walk and meets the boy Haku. When she comes back almost at night, her parents are pigs and the whole park becomes a village with a huge bathhouse in a magical world full of demons and gods.
Review: The story is wonderful. Not only for the many different fantastic characters but also for the spirit behind it. Here Chihiro gets a lot because she does not want to get much. This humility is a beautiful virtue. The creativity behind each characters is great. In each scene all the characters are showing something special, either something on the topic of humility, or identity, or something funny. Then the recurring characters are surprising as they interact with the only human in town, Chihiro. And all this without the rythm of a Tex Avery, but with the poetry of Miyazaki.  This movie is one of the best anime I have ever seen and also one of the best movies. Big thanks to the Studio Ghibli.
Rating: 8 /10

The Mummy returns (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Stephen Sommers (Odd Thomas, The Mummy, Van Helsing)
	Actors: Brendan Fraser (Encino Man, Journey to the Center of the Earth), Rachel Weisz (The Fountain), John Hannah (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sliding Doors), Arnold Vosloo (G. I. Joe), Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (Pain & Gain, San Andreas)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 27.12.2015, French dubbing, 24" TV
Synopsis: Adventurer Rick O'Connell (Fraser) is now married to Evelyn (Weisz) with child, when they unleash a new ghost from the distant Egyptian past: The Scorpion King (Johnson). Meanwhile, another team is trying to resurrect Imhotep (Vosloo).
Review: Sequel to The Mummy (1999) that was supposed to start a period of remakes of the classic Universal monsters movies (like 1932 The Mummy with Boris Karloff), The Mummy Returns re-uses the same successful team (Sommers, Fraser, Weisz, Vosloo, Hannah and Oded Fehr) with the addition of a kid to the main couple and introducing for the first time in a feature film the Wrestling Champion Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, projecting him on the Action Hero career path that we now know. It is a typical "bigger and louder" sequel exaggerating the characters' traits (coward and funny Hannah, heroic Fraser, forgetful Weisz, all-powerful Vosloo, protective Fehr) while adding new ones (the kid) and displaying more action (the fighting mummies, climax of the first movie, are now shown as hors d'oeuvre) and a more complex and less linear story. This was required to keep on entertaining the audience after the rather good surprise that was the first movie. So putting all of that together and if you are not looking for too deep a meaning, I could recommend The Mummy Returns for an evening of Entertainment. At least it is not kid-oriented like adventure movies of the following years, e.g. Voyage to the Center of the Earth (with Fraser) or Race to Witch Mountain (with the Rock), unsuccessfully leaning more towards The Goonies.
Rating: 5 /10

Monsters, Inc. (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Pete Docter (Up, Inside Out), David Silverman (The Simpsons Movie), Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 2-3, Finding Nemo)
	Actors (voices): Billy Crystal, John Goodman (The Big Lebowski), Mary Gibbs, Steve Buscemi (Con Air, Armageddon), James Coburn (The Great Escape), Jennifer Tilly (Bride of Chucky), Frank Oz (The Empire Strikes Back)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 08.11.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Mike (Crystal) and Sullivan (Goodman) work for a Monsters company that produces energy from the screams of children awaken at night by them coming out from under the bed or in the closet.
Review: Already 14 years ago, Pixar was producing this movie with a digital technology that was evolving incredibly fast. This allowed them to do something far more complex than before, but at the same time I can now see the limitations in the animation of that time. For example a lot of attention was paid to reproduce a good-looking fur for Sullivan, but in contrast I find that the characters and the sets around them lack of detail. For more on the evolution of Pixar one can watch the interesting 2007 documentary The Pixar Story. I can critisize the visual quality with today's eye, but it doesn't really matter because what is great in Monsters Inc. is the original idea (who thought of that?!?) and the way the story unfolds. In a nutshell, the movie manages to provide an all-too-rare quasi-perfect mix of comedy (mainly around Mike), emotion (around Sullivan and Boo) and a little bit of romance (Celia) and drama (with Randall). This is a goal most american computer-animated movied aim at, but very few actually reach it. For more of Mike and Sullivan you can also watch the "prequel" Monsters University from 2013.
Rating: 7 /10

Moulin Rouge! (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Baz Luhrmann
	Actors: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent
	Country: AUS, USA
	Genre: Romance, Music
	Conditions of visioning: 07.03.2015, Bluray,
Synopsis: Christian (McGregor) is a young English poet who left his comfortable family to the Bohemian life in Paris of 1900. He falls for a beautiful courtesan, Satine (Kidmann), of the Moulin Rouge who dates a Duke so that the tenant, Harold Zidler (Broadbent), gets him as investor.
Review: The story is a basic romance that follows the tempo of well known songs of the XXth Century. At least the lyrics. Sometimes also the rythm. The challengeis more musically to switch from one song to another within the same dialogue and this is well done. The style, sound track, dialogues, scenery are very rococo and kitch but it makes a round picture of an imaginative world. You can like it or not. The actors have been casted perfectly for their face expression, even the secondary actors or the ones you see only shortly in the back-ground. That is a very good job.  Finally I did not like much the style but this profusion of creativity must be awarded.
Rating: 5 /10

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Peter Jackson (Bad Taste, The Feebles)
	Actors: Elijah Wood (Maniac, Open Windows), Ian McKellen (X-men), Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Carribean 1-3), Sean Bean (Game of Thrones TV-series), Sean Astin (The Goonies), Viggo Mortensen (A History of Violence)
	Country: USA, NZ
	Genre: Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 17.01.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Frodo the Hobbit (Wood) is entrusted the Ring of Power that could help its Master Sauron enslave Middle-Earth. He sets on a journey to destroy the Ring helped by his trusted friend Sam (Astin) and Gandalf the Magician (McKellen).
Review: Back in 2001, I knew the director Peter Jackson from his debut Kiwi Horror movies Bad Taste, The Feebles and Braindead. Thus I was surprised that he was given the control of such a huge project that is the adaptation of Tolkien's supposedly non-adaptable masterpiece, although I had never read the books (they were not really known in France at that time). In 2001 I was very impressed by the whole story and couldn't wait to know the ending, so I quickly read the three-part book. So I am neither one of the fans that can criticize the movies for being unfaithful to the book, nor one that doesn't know the book, I am in a situation in between so I was not disappointed by the missing bits (Tom Bombadil etc...).  After recently watching The Battle of the Five Armies, I have been thinking about watching the LOTR trilogy again but I was not too excited by the first movie, partly because as it is the oldest of the now six-part adventure (including The Hobbit), it is the one I have seen the most. But I had to start with it, although I am more looking forward to the battles and heroism of the two next movies. I liked watching it again but it doesn't have the same impact as it did the first times I saw it. I will not spent too much time reviewing such a known movie, but I can say I am still impressed by the story-telling capabilities of Peter Jackson: direct, efficient and every shot being immediately identified as a Fantasy painting (the now famous "PJ shots", like the complex aerial views). Actually I had never watched the three movies in Blu-ray since I bought the collector box-set, but I had noticed that the image quality was not as good as I had expected. I spent time trying to adjust my projector for better contrast, resolution and colors but with limited success only. I can't tell if this image quality is due to the film medium used at the time (vs. digital shooting for The Hobbit), or to the fact that the box-set I own was released without the supervision by the director. In any case, it is far from looking as good as any of The Hobbit blu-rays that I own. I am anyway looking forward to the two next movies in which I will look for details that link them to The Hobbit movies like I did in this one (for example the closing scene of The Battle of the Five Armies is one of the first of The Fellowship of the Ring but shot through another viewpoint, very clever and satisfying for the fans).
Rating: 7 /10

From Hell (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: The Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society, The Book of Eli)
	Actors: Johnny Depp (The Ninth Gate), Heather Graham (Austin Powers: the Spy Who Shagged me), Ian Holm (The Lord of the Rings, Alien)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 29.11.2014, DVD, Home cinema
Synopsis: In 1888 London, the Opium-addict inspector Abberline (Depp) is on charge of solving the famous Jack the Ripper case. To gather information he gets closer to the prostitute Mary Kelly (Graham).
Review: I re-discovered this movie in my old pile of DVDs, and was interested by watching it again for several reasons. Like when watching The Ninth Gate, I wanted to appreciate Johnny Depp in his pre-Pirates of the Carribean years. Also I had a good memory of the movie from when I watched it about 6-7 years-ago in this French edition that offers a nice thick paper cover and extras like a documentary on Absinthe that I found particularly interesting at the time. Unfortunately I noticed this time the rather poor quality of the image and sound, and I regret not having watched it in Blu-ray, which could have increased its rating of one point. Besides the excellent performances by Johnny Depp and Ian Holm (I like to re-discover him in more and more movies), the movie had other reasons to succeed: it is adapted from a graphic novel by Alan Moore (Watchmen) which translates into a very original and new take at the classic Jack The Ripper story. This solid original material was adapted for this big screen by the gifted Hugues Brothers from which I also liked Menace II Society (and its soundtrack) and The Book of Eli. And they did a good job at it: the London they depict seems extremely realistic and shady (again, I missed the HD to appreciate fully the effort, especially during the many dark scenes), reminding me of the Sherlock Holmes story that I am reading and that take place ten years-later. The gore parts are well managed (we don't see too much of them but we guess enough thanks to the sound effects) and most importantly the twisted psyche of some characters very well rendered I found.
Rating: 7 /10

Spy Kids (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk Till Dawn, Sin City)
	Actors: Alexa PenaVega, Daryl Sabara, Antonio Banderas (The 13th Warrior), Carla Gugino (Watchmen), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2), Cheech Martin (Machete), Danny Trejo (Machete), Teri Hatcher
	Country: USA
	Genre: Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 03.11.2014, SD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Carmen and Juni Cortez (PenaVega & Sabara) don't know that their parents (Banderas & Gugino) used to be super-spies. When they disappear, the kids go after them with all their wits and gadgets.
Review: This looks like a movie Robert Rodriguez shot for his kids, and from what I read it was indeed his intention. The story is minimalistic, the actors a bunch of known faces that may be the only interest for adults to watch Spy Kids, and the worst are the special effects, made with no intent of looking realistic. I like the design and idea of the all-thumbs robots, but they look as cheap as the rest. Many visual concepts remind Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, although that one dates from four years later... When I think that three sequels were produced...
Rating: 2 /10

Evolution (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters, Twins, Kindergarten Cop)
	Actors: David Duchovny (The X-files TV-series), Orlando Jones, Julianne Moore (Jurassik Park 2), Sean William Scott (American Pie, Welcome to the Jungle)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 07.10.2014, SD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Two high school professors (Duchovny & Jones) investigate the fall of a meteorite near their little town.
Review: Evolution was supposed to be the great comeback of the no less great Ivan Reitman, and in the line of Ghostbusters. The movie feels a bit out of place outside of the 80's and it will definitely never be as cult as Ghostbusters, but it is a good balance of SF and comedy, not as vulgar and exaggerated as I remembered, somewhere between Eight Legged Freaks and Piranha (the 2010 3D version). Most of the exaggeration is concentrated in the characters played by Jones and Scott, at that time in his best shape. The more "serious" actors Duchovny and Moore and nicely used in roles opposite to their usual ones. Mulder from X-files almost winks at the camera when he says "those are aliens" or "the government is lying to us, trust me I know them". The rather simple story is like a buddy-movie but with four characters (well, isn't that like Ghostbusters!). The special effects are pretty good for the time and generous. It has plenty of downsides (the music, simplistic story, exaggerations) but Evolution makes you spend a nice evening if you like the genre.
Rating: 6 /10