On the Nose (2001)
Severed Head Predicts Horse Races/Comedy
Irish-made comedy with Robbie Coltrane who has a Aborigine head in a jar that can predict horse races
Films of 2001
The One (2001)
Alternative Universe Hopping Action
Promising idea of an alternate world-hopping film from James Wong, this spends too much time copying moves from The Matrix and lets most of its possibilities pass by
Osmosis Jones (2001)
Talking Germs Inside a Slob's Body
The Farrelly Brothers make a part-animated, part-live action film that is set inside slob Bill Murray’s body where the cells and body functions are all talking characters
The Others (2001)
Ghost Story
Alejandro Amenabar directed ghost story made not longer after The Sixth Sense that works with nicely subtle effect and arrives at an unexpected twist ending that turn the standard haunted house tale on its head
The Perfect Wife (2001)
Psycho-Thriller
Psycho-thriller with Shannon Sturges as a woman who marries Perry King with the intent of destroying his life
Planet of the Apes (2001)
Planet of Talking Apes
Tim Burton’s much disliked remake. Certainly, the ape makeups are superb. While Burton touches many points with the original, he has dropped the biting satire in favour of adventure, while the ending left everyone scratching their heads
The Pledge (2001)
Psycho-Thriller
Slow and subtle Sean Penn directed thriller where Jack Nicholson plays a retired detective haunted by a child murder case
Pootie Tang in “Sine Your Pitty on the Runy Kine” (2001)
Funky Incomprehensible Superhero
Film based on a Saturday Night Life sketch with Lance Crouther as a superhero who speaks a nonsense babble
Possible Loves (2001)
Alternate Life Pathways
Brazilian-made variant on the alternate timelines film showing three very different outcomes of the lives of a man and a woman after a date
Posthumous Memoirs (2001)
Dead Man Narrates His Life Story
Adapted from a classic Brazilian novel, a man narrates his life story from beyond the grave
Pulse (2001)
Japanese Ghost Story
From Japan’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a ghost story that creates an incredibly haunted atmosphere. As with most of Kurosawa’s work, dazzling ideas sit alongside a murky and impenetrable plot where you are baffled trying to make sense of what is happening
Replicant (2001)
Cloned Serial Killer
Halfway reasonable Jean-Claude Van Damme film in which he plays the clone of a serial killer who is brought to life in attempt to track down the original
Return to Pontianak (2001)
Haunted Spirits in the Malaysian Jungle
Singaporean film about tourists experienced haunted spirits in the jungle, this owes much to The Blair Witch Project
Ripper: Letter from Hell (2001)
Modern-Day Jack the Ripper Killings
This has a promising set-up – a series of Jack the Ripper copycat killings taking place in a modern criminology class – that turns out as no more than a standard slasher film
Scary Movie 2 (2001)
Genre Spoof
The first of the Scary Movie sequels. The Wayans Brothers extend the gag beyond the slasher movie to take on the ghost story and exorcism film while aiming squarely for Lowest Common Denominator humour
Scary Tales (2001)
Horror Anthology
A low-budget horror anthology that is rough around the edges but shows promise
Serendipity (2001)
Fate Romance
Romance film where John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale meet and leave their details on random items in the belief luck will bring them back together
Series 7: The Contenders (2001)
Human-Hunting Reality TV Show
Blackly funny film that predates the advent of reality tv about a tv show where people are licensed to hunt each other
Session 9 (2001)
Sinister Abandoned Asylum
Borrowing the Blair Witch aesthetic, Brad Anderson makes a highly effective minimalist horror film about a group of working men encountering something during the clean-up operation of an abandoned asylum
Sexual Predator (2001)
Erotica/Psycho-Thriller
An erotic thriller that stars Angie Everhart as a probation officer who is drawn into the web of her client Richard Grieco who may or may not be a serial killer
Shallow Hal (2001)
Man Suddenly Sees Ugly Girls as Beautiful Comedy
Farrelly Brothers comedy where Jack Black is hypnotised by Tony Robbins and 300 pound Gwyneth Paltrow as beautiful
Shaolin Soccer (2001)
Flying Martial Arts and Soccer
Hilarious Stephen Chow directed/starring film where he parodies The Matrix et al with Buddhist monks using flying martial arts moves to aid a failing soccer team
She Creature (2001)
Mermaid Horror Film
Taking only the name of the 1950s B movie, this is otherwise a horror film about an imprisoned mermaid creature that wields a sinister threat. This works with a modest effectiveness
The Shaft (2001)
Killer Elevator
The English-language remake of the Dutch film The Lift about a killer elevator. Starring a then unknown Naomi Watts in a role that would probably embarrass her now
Shrek (2001)
Animation/Fairytale Spoof
Before this was spun out into a series of ho-hum sequels, the original was an animated film that burst with a freshness and a series of winning voice characterisations
Sleepless (2001)
Giallo Psycho-Thriller
One of the more routine of Dario Argento’s giallo psycho-thrillers. The artily stylistic set-pieces are disappointingly average and even the plot relatively straightforward
Snakeskin (2001)
Surreal New Zealand Road Movie
Melanie Lynskey stars in a New Zealand road movie that becomes a meta film interrogating the imagery of the American road movie
Snow White (2001)
Fairy-Tale
Caroline Thompson, a regular Tim Burton scriptwriter, directs a uniquely revisionist version of the fairytale in which she digs in to explain the origins of many of the familiar aspects of the story
Snowbound (2001)
Psycho-Thriller
Psycho-thriller with Erika Eleniak and Monika Schnarre trapped in a snowbound cabin
Soft for Digging (2001)
Backwoods Haunting
Film made without dialogue about haunted happenings at a cabin in the woods that attains quite a haunted atmosphere
Soul Survivors (2001)
Haunting
This is essentially The Sixth Sense rehashed as a teen horror film and conducted without any finesse – here you can see the twist ending coming miles in advance
Spirit (2001)
Haunting
Banal ghost story mostly noted for starring a teenage Elisabeth Moss
Spirited Away (2001)
Anime/Afterlife Bathhouse
One of the masterpieces of Hayao Miyazaki, a gentle, beautiful work of anime set in an afterlife bathhouse where Miyazaki’s range of extraordinary creatures and quiet tenderness finds something that Western fantasy rarely ever comes near
Spy Kids (2001)
Juvenile Spy Adventures
Robert Rodriguez has a huge amount of fun by recasting James Bond antics with kids. The film was a success that spawned several sequels
Stacy (2001)
Schoolgirl Zombies
A bizarre Japanese film about hordes of schoolgirl zombies
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001)
Genre Director Documentary
Documentary about the life of Stanley Kubrick made by his brother-in-law that lifts the veil on the mystique that surrounded Kubrick in his later years and gives a good deal of insight into his working processes
Teenage Caveman (2001)
Post-Holocaust Teens/Genetically Engineered Superhumans
Larry Clark remakes the old Roger Corman film and makes a beeline for his usual proclivities about teenagers having sex in a fairly outrageous post-apocalyptic work
Thir13en Ghosts (2001)
Haunted House
After the success of their remake of House on Haunted Hill, Dark Castle Entertainment remade another William Castle film here, expanding it with a full arsenal of visual and makeup effects
Thy Neighbor’s Wife (2001)
Psycho-Sexual Thriller
One of the erotic thrillers made after Basic Instinct, essentially an ripoff of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle where a vengeful Kari Wuhrer becomes a nanny seeking vengeance for the death of her husband
Time Lapse (2001)
Action/Memory Erasing Drug
Action film in which an agent tries to prevent a nuclear arms deal after being given a memory-erasing drug
Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001)
Monster Movie
Third of the films in the Tremors series, which have held up surprisingly well in their balance of creature effects and a considerable sense of humour. This adds a series of twists to the premise that are positively hilarious
Trouble Every Day (2001)
Sex and Cannibalism
Acclaimed director Claire Denis makes a quite out there film in which people are obsessively driven to devour others during the act of sex
The Trumpet of the Swan (2001)
Animation/Talking Swans
Animated film based on a book by Charlotte’s Web author E.B. White about a trumpet-playing swan
2001: A Space Travesty (2000)
Intergalactic Farce
Supposedly an Airplane-styled movie parody that takes on 2001: A Space Odyssey (although this soon gets forgotten), this is one of the most painfully unfunny films ever made
Valentine (2001)
Slasher Film
Following the revival of the slasher film with the success of Scream, this was a slick but forgettable studio copycat set around a Valentine’s Day motif
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Reality Bender
The English-language remake of Open Your Eyes, starring Tom Cruise. The Spanish version is still the superior of the two but this stays surprisingly faithful to the original
Venomous (2001)
Deadly Snakes/Plague Outbreak
Low-budget director Fred Olen Ray makes a head-scratching crosshatch between a plague outbreak film and an Animals Amok film with a town being attacked by snakes infected with a deadly virus
Vidocq (2001)
Dark Historical Fantasy
A film based on the real-life figure of Francois Vidocq, who became the world’s first detective, which the film uses as the stepping off point to create an exquisite dark fantasy
Visitor Q (2001)
Catalogue of Perversions/Mysterious Visitor/Black Comedy
One of the key films in the cult of Takashi Miike that has been frequently banned for its taboo-defying outrages in which a mysterious visitor causes a family household to descend into perverse extremes
The Void (2001)
Miniature Black Hole
Film where scientists creates an an atom-sized black hole that has the potential to destroy the Earth
Volcano High (2001)
High School Fantastical Martial Arts
Energetic South Korean attempt to employ the Wu Xia action moves popularised by The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in a high school setting
Waking Life (2001)
Philosophy and Dreaming/Animation
A unique and very original animated film from Richard Linklater where a character wanders through a dream, encountering various people and their different philosophical outlooks
Watchtower (2001)
Psycho-Thriller
Modest psycho-thriller about the psychological games between a psychopathic lighthouse keeper (a fine Tom Berenger) and his young assistant
Wendigo (2001)
Backwoods Stalking/Native Indian Spirit
Early film from Larry Fessenden about a family and a Native American spirit. Much brooding build-up but not much payoff (*)
When Good Ghouls Go Bad (2001)
Children's Halloween Film
Halloween film for children from the pen of horror author R.L. Stine of Goosebumps fame. The children’s horror story (and tv movie) is filled with many insipid and formulaic entries but this is a decent one that is not unafraid to scare people
When Strangers Appear (2001)
Psycho-Thriller
Excellent thriller set around a roadside diner where Radha Mitchell becomes caught between parties hunting the other where seems to be who they appear
Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (2001)
Evil Wish-Granting Djinn
The Wishmaster series was a franchise based around a series of novelty effects wherein a malevolent djinn turned wishes against the wisher. This third entry is the utter nadir of the series
Wu Yen (2001)
Mischievous Fairy
Frenetic Hong Kong comedy about fairy enchantments involving all the cast undergoing gender reversals
WW 3 (2001)
Biowarfare Outbreak Thriller
A routine biowarfare outbreak thriller that holds a fascination in that it imagines the attacker to be al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden two months before 9/11
Zebra Lounge (2001)
Psychopathic Swingers
An erotic thriller where a couple are stalked by psychopathic couple after venturing into the swingers scene, this comes with a ridiculously high-handed condemnatory moralism
Zu Warriors (2001)
Wu Xia Film
Tsui Hark’s follow-up to Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain the film that popularised Wu Xia cinema. The point where Tsui discovered CGI and latches onto it to do more than just show flying swordsmen but create an exquisitely dreamy world of pure fantastique imagination