Fletch's Favored Five: 2002 in Film

Now, the fifth in a continuing series in which I count down my favorites from a particular year in film. Previous entries:

1997 * 1991 * 1984 * 1988

I'm going to use my friend Wikipedia to kickstart my brain, year by year, and I'll throw out a Favored Five here and there. If you want to refresh your memory in a similar fashion, just go to Wiki and type "[four-character year] in film." Here's the one for 2002. I won't pretend that Wiki is the end-all, be-all of filmic knowledge or that these yearly lists are 100% accurate, but they're an excellent place to start and a great resource.

2002
I've seen much of what was released in 2002, and...it was not good. None of the movies on either my Favored Five or the honorable mentions list will ever sniff my Top 10 (or 20), and though I may be missing some less notable movies that I haven't seen that could be good (that's a lot of qualifiers) like 24 Hour Party People or something, I could find only a handful of higher profile flicks that I missed, and none of them were wide releases or anything like that, if they even made their way into my town. Yes, I desperately need to see City of God, but short of that, I don't feel as though I'm missing much.

Also, Chicago won Best Picture in 2002. Not a banner year for filmmaking.

Notable movies not yet seen:
About a Boy
City of God
Infernal Affairs
The Pianist

Honorable mentions:
Adaptation
The Hours
One Hour Photo
Signs
Spider-Man

5. Catch Me If You Can
The first of two films in my top five directed by Steven Spielberg. Quite a year for a man with an already impressive resume. Catch is a meaningless lark, but a brilliantly made one nonetheless, with an all-time great opening credits sequence, a globe-trotting protagonist, Chris Walken, and a deep cast that includes a who's who list of current female leads (Amy Adams, Liz Banks, Garner and Pompeo). What's not to love?

4. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The eight-hour battle set piece at Helm's Deep doesn't really do all that much for me (particularly the slaptsticky elements), but that's nitpicking at the what's still one of the best action/adventure pics of the decade. Carried by the usual strong performance of Viggo Mortensen, as well as his groovy relationship with Orlando Bloom's Legolas and the should-have-been-starmaking role for Karl Urban, doing his best Brad Pitt circa Legends of the Fall impression (kinda). Points to Brad Dourif's Wormtongue as well, though I dig Gandalf the Grey a lot more than the amnesiac White version.

3. 28 Days Later
I haven't seen all that many, but this is the most well-made zombie film (yea Nick, I said it) not named Shaun of the Dead. The first 40 minutes is phenomenal, and though the film does the Danny Boyle-trademarked Going Off the Rails in the Final Act, it's not nearly enough to take away from the overall quality.

2. Minority Report
Speaking of awful endings, I can't think of an ending that killed an otherwise great movie for Mrs. Fletch more. The similarly trademarked Spielbergian Happy Ending bothered me, but not to the extent it did so many others; what bothers me more is that Cruise's wife is played by the Chick From Cold Case that Can't Stop Squinting. God, she's annoying. Anyway, tremendous action flick here, fueled by yet another kickass Phillip K. Dick story. Everyone, even Colin Farrell killing another American accent shines, particularly the spellbinding Samantha Morton. I can't believe I don't own this on DVD.

1. The Bourne Identity
Like the somewhat similar Ronin, this is a no bullsh*t action film that never insults your intelligence. Sure, the amnesiac angle is a bit of a stretch, but aside from that setup (inherited from the Robert Ludlum novels), it's played straight-up, and director Doug Liman (doing his best work outside of Go) gets the perfect straight man in Matt Damon, who established himself as a brainy-yet-still-tough guy spy. The action is somewhat sparse, but in an era where we've overburdened with shootouts and explosions, the tension in between makes the few explosive scenes all the better.