**WHAT I WATCHED with pleasure.THE HITS
****Gladiator**: serious punchy acting by Russell Crowe. Joachim Phoenix is creepy best.
*Memento **: time runs backward in this flashback thriller. Lurve Guy Pearce with the scruffy beard. Director Christopher Nolan
*Snatch **: Brad Pitt as the Left Hook wonder boxer, amid twisted plotlines. Funny.
*X-Men**: special effects raise the bar. For fans of sci-fi /comics.
*Almost Famous**: great story of boy following his favorite rock band on tour.
*Traffic**: Michael Douglas preserves his careful enunciation amid drug traffickers and multiple converging plotlines.
*O Brother Where Art Thou**: thoroughly charming story of 3 escaped convicts journey through southern Louisiana - George Clooney.
*Meet the Parents**: boy meets girl meets weird girl’s father who is ex-CIA. Quite funny, Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro.
*High Fidelity**: John Cusack, good actor, dark satiric book by Nick Hornby about music and relationships.
*Erin Brokovich**: Julia Roberts, true story of little guy against big insurance companies
*Chicken Run**: great charming animated film of a cowardly chicken teaching its tribe to fly
*Chocolat**: beautiful visuals, storybook feel story of the sinful effects of chocolate on a small town
*Amores Perros**: high voltage drama, multiple interconnecting plots, gritty action, great actors
*Wonder Boys**: unpredictable
relationship between professor and student. Michael Douglas and Tobey
Maguire. Great characters, wry humor, great script.
*What Lies Beneath**: murder and adultery as creepy as they come, surprisingly dark acting by Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer.
*How the Grinch Stole Christmas **: Jim Carrey in crazy makeup, and great visuals for a children’s tale.
*Shanghai Noon**: Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson - incomprehensible East meets jaded West. Humor on speed. Do not miss.
*WHAT I ALMOST MISSED .GLAD I DIDNT*
*Space Cowboys **: hilarious dialog.
*Small Time Crooks **: Woody Allen, funny movie about amateurs turning crooks, robbed by professionals.
*Bedazzled **: Brendan Frasier in hilarious costumes, Liz Hurley hot as the Devil, lighthearted movie
*Perfect Storm **: unbelievable footage of the biggest storm of the century, and two men in it.
*Red Planet**: This
movie has more going for it than Mission to Mars. Val Kilmer redeems
not bad movie. Plus its sci-fi, couldn’t resist. Definitely watchable.
* The Gift **: Cate
Blanchett as a psychic helping a murder investigation. Very beautiful
visuals, even Keanu Reeves acts and Cate never looked so beautiful.
*WHAT I COULD HAVE MISSED.CATCH IT ON HBO on a boring afternoon*
*Billy Elliott **: boy who wanted to dance, growing up among coal-miners - tough luck, but feel good story.
*Finding Forrester**: famous eccentric author encounters brilliant waster teenager, Sean Connery wasted in a slow moving talkative film.
*The Whole Nine Yards**: Bruce Willis as gangster, and Matthew Perry(Friends) as wannabe gangster. Occasionally funny.
*Pay It Forward **: Earnest boy(Haley Joel Osment) wants to change the world. Bruce Willis. Very sentimental. Bring a towel.
*Keeping the Faith **: Edward Norton, priest, still in love with old school chum, fighting Ben Stiller for her.
*Scary Movie **: The spoofs are funny, but not worth theater bucks.
*Hollow Man:** Kevin Bacon uses super power of invisibility to play Peeping Tom on women.
*Mission to Mars:** Excuse
- its sci-fi. Gary Sinise goes on rescue expedition to Mars, and finds
instead benevolent(and comically elongated) aliens. Its not too bad.
**(Contd in comments - told you this is a long long list)**