Category: 2000s

Occasionally chronicling the often dry nature of legislative discourse, this film follows the life of William Wilberforce, portrayed by Ioan Gruffudd, who repeatedly tried to pass anti-slavery laws through the British parliament. Despite the strains it caused on his health, he continued to push forward on what was at the time a very unpopular idea due to the number of vested interests various MPs had in continuing the slave trade. A little slow in its narrative, the film doesn’t shy from providing evidence of the horrors of slavery even as witnessed from far across the ocean and Gruffudd offers a sympathetic character in the fight for abolition.

Continuing the tale of Matt Damon’s amnesiac agent Jason Bourne, when it looks like Jason’s warning to leave him ignore has been compromised, he is drawn back into more Treadstone conspiracies. I know there are people who love these films, but I’m not one of them. The action sequences are good, but the plot is unnecessarily twisty and turny, still resulting in the expected ending after all its convolutions.  

Ernie Davis was the first Black player to win the Heisman Trophy. This film, featuring Rob Brown as Davis, chronicles his all too short career. A fairly standard inspirational sports biopic, it also features the requisite fudging with historical accuracy. What it does do well is provide some insight into the experiences of Black players as they played against unintegrated teams, here culminating in brawls during the 1960 Cotton Bowl, and establishes Davis as one of a string of great Black players from Syracuse University, which included Jim Brown and Floyd Little.  

Unnamed protagonist Wiley Wiggins moves through a lucid, dream-like state experiencing and participating in philosophical conversations on the nature of reality. I can’t say that I really followed most of what was going on in the film or if I even kept engaged throughout. I can’t even say for sure if I’d actually could have seen the film before, but maybe that makes sense with such a topic. I’m not really a fan of philosophical discussions in general, but I did at least dig the fitting insertion of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delphy’s characters from the Before series.

Successful talk show host Martin Lawrence travels to Georgia with his Survivor-winning fiancé Joy Bryant and his ten year old son for his parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary. Once they arrive, it becomes understandable why Martin generally does not visit home as most of his family treats him horribly. That is the way with a lot of families but here it’s played for not really funny laughs. His relationship with his parents, James Earl Jones and Margaret Avery, could have been a good exploration on how people are sometimes too tough on the ones they love, but it barely touches the surface and just makes Jones mean and unpleasant. Showing that he learned from the best, Lawrence turns on his ambitious girlfriend and only has eyes for a high school sweetheart. I liked Michael Clarke Duncan as Martin’s brother, but his family is fat shamed at every possible chance.

Lifelong friends Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan originally bonded over a mutual love for hip hop music. Now, with both of them having careers in the industry, they begin rethinking the platonic nature of their relationship. A romantic comedy thrives on the attractiveness of its leads and this film has that in abundance, but the quality of the storytelling is strongest when it focuses more on their love for hip hop than any interest they have in each other. They both are willing to throw away that have much more chemistry. A secondary romance between mutual friends Yasiin Bey and Queen Latifah has cute potential but that opportunity is floundered.   

Set during the Great Depression, or a similar time period, the mysterious Nicole Kidman, on the run from gangsters, arrives in Dogville, a dilapidated former mining town in the Rocky Mountains. The pious townspeople offer her refuge in exchange for an hour of daily servitude for each of its residents. Reminiscent of a production of Our Town, it is staged on a barren set with meager furnishings and chalk outlines representing buildings, belying a folksy charm and innocence that is nowhere to be found in this film. With an almost three hour run time, it is the rare film that feels much shorter than it actually is, holding my attention throughout. The film progresses in ways that are predictable but indescribable, an obvious parable on the worst humanity has to offer.

I haven’t seen this film since it first came out, but when I tried to skip ahead to The Bourne Ultimatum, I had a hard time following so thus begins a small Bourne marathon. Italian fishermen rescue Matt Damon, with two gunshots in his back and total amnesia, from the Mediterranean Sea. Discovering he has a vast array of unexpected skills, he takes on the name of Jason Bourne and begins the search for his true identity. Matt Damon makes for a strange action hero, but that accentuates his early confusion as he realizes his abilities. It’s a solid actioner with an impressive cast, including Chris Cooper, Franka Potente, and Brian Cox, but it’s still easily forgettable by the time it’s over.  

Florida Keys police chief Denzel Washington races against his detective estranged wife Eva Mendes and the DEA in finding out who murdered his mistress Sanaa Lathan and her abusive husband Dean Cain before he becomes the chief suspect in the case. Fairly predictable with a dumb ending (just take the money, idiots), it is sold on a solid performance by Washington. A somewhat Hitchcockian protagonist, he is in way over his head before he even realizes he’s near the water.