More movies that begin with T.
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Twister (1996, 113 min, PG13) ** - Directed by Jan de Bont, starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. One of the quintessential special effects “features” utterly devoid of any real human element. Stormchasers and bystanders flee from wave after wave of soon-to-be-obsolete computer-generated tornadoes and Dolby sound effects. All the characterizations, relationships, and dialogue feel like they’ve been put in to appease some cinema god whose only concern is that there are people present in a movie, not that they are dimensional or interesting; “Twister” would have been better with no people at all.
Two for the Road (1966, 111 min, NR) ***1/2 – Directed by Stanley Donen, starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. The direct ancestor of both “Annie Hall” and “Eyes Wide Shut” jumps back and forth in the life of a married couple (Hepburn and Finney). The innocence of their youthful romance on a frugal trip through Europe is threatened by infidelity, mid-life financial ups and down, and children. One of the few English-language films that treats a wedding as the beginning and not the end.
200 Cigarettes (1997, 101 min, R) *1/2 – Directed by Risa Bramon Garcia, starring Christina Ricci, Paul Rudd, Jay Mohr, Dave Chapelle, and Courtney Love. Unfunny evidence that the establishment has taken over and rendered obsolete the American independent movie of the 1990s. Multiple storylines and a large cast lead up to a New Year’s Eve party in 1981. Every quirk, plot twist, or attempt to be funny or clever feels labored and artificial; eccentricity is no fun when it feels forced from the outside instead of springing naturally from some integral inside.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, 148 min, G) **** – Directed & co-written by Stanley Kubrick, starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, and Douglas Rain. Oscar-winning special effects bring to life one of the greatest films of all time, about nothing less than mankind’s place in the universe. Beginning with man’s prehistoric, ape-like roots, traveling to a future of spaceships and floating weapons platforms, and ultimately into a supernatural destiny, mankind is haunted over millions of years by faceless black monoliths from outer space. Are they aliens, or are they Kubrick’s embodiment of the hand of God, so powerful and unknowable that it can simply only be a featureless, faceless wall? The movie is packed with classic images: the use of tools being revealed to an early human; the Greatest Cut in the History of Cinema (a bone thrown into the air by a prehistoric ape turns into a spaceship); the battle of wills between the supercomputer HAL (voice of Rain) and the two astronauts (Dullea and Lockwood) who represent mankind’s emotionless, mechanical destiny; and the fantastic “stargate” sequence, in which a lone astronaut travels who-knows-where. 1992 and 2002 “Sight & Sound” Ten Best Movies of All Time, #21 on the AFI’s Top 100 American Films.
Two Weeks Notice (2002, 101 min, PG13) *** – Directed & written by Marc Lawrence, starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock. Charming romantic diversion about a self-centered rich womanizer (Grant) who hires an activist lawyer so he can have a conscience, and the activist lawyer (Bullock) who takes the job because she wants an excuse to not accomplish any of her great goals. The movie succeeds mostly because it puts off going on romantic comedy autopilot for as long as possible, and because Grant’s delivery of obnoxious dialogue is so casually apologetic, as if to say “I’m sorry I’m such an awful person, but that’s the way it is.”
Traffic (2000, 147 min, R) ***1/2 – Directed by Stephen Soderbergh, starring Benicio Del Toro, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Don Cheadle. Modern day epic about drug trafficking from South America into the United States. Soderbergh tells three entwined stories, each with a vastly different color scheme: a wealthy socialite (Zeta-Jones) finds out her husband is a dealer and must choose new loyalties; the new US drug czar (Douglas) discovers his daughter is an addict; and, best of all, a Mexican cop (Del Toro) learns just how bent and complicated the whole situation is. Oscars for Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actor Del Toro, from Puerto Rico, for a performance in Mexican-style Spanish.
Training Day (2001, 120 min, R) *** - Directed by Antoine Fuqua, starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. Nothing’s tougher than a rookie cop’s first day on the job—unless he’s a movie cop, in which case his first day will be about 10,000 times more eventful than in real life. A young cop’s (Hawke) first day in plainclothes is spent with a larger-than-life Machiavellian detective (Washington) who leads him into what might be a test and what might be a conspiracy. Washington won the Oscar for his role as a man who lets “the ends justify the means” go too far.
Trainspotting (1996, 94 min, R) *** - Directed by Danny Boyle, starring Ewan McGregor, Ewan Bremmer, and Robert Carlyle. Kinetic and surreal cult favorite about a group of young Scottish drug addicts. They go nightclubbing, get fired, get high, screw around, and eventually turn to petty theft. As the addicts’ circles grow smaller and smaller one (McGregor) becomes determined to break the habit. Characterized by nearly incomprehensible Scottish slang, a thumping techno soundtrack, and an engaging struggle against the forces of nihilism.
True Grit (1969, 128 min, PG) *** - Directed by Henry Hathaway, starring John Wayne, Glen Campbell, and Kim Darby. A good movie, despite being proof that the old-fashioned Hollywood Western was getting really worn out. A tough-as-nails orphan girl (Darby) hires an old gunfighter (Wayne, morbidly obese, sans an eyeball, and winning an Oscar for it) and a young upstart (Campbell) to avenge her dead parents. The orphan is full of spunk, Wayne is crotchety as all get out, and Campbell is a chauvanist, but they learn to get along. Includes a great moment in which the Duke works the lever on his repeating rifle with one hand and we know the baddies are as good as dead.
True Romance (1993, 120 min, R) **1/2 – Directed by Tony Scott, starring Christian Slater, Rosanna Arquette, and Dennis Hopper. A hooker (Arquette) running to Hollywood with a nice guy (Slater) cross an angry pimp, drug dealers, and the mob. From a script by Quentin Tarantino (“Pulp Fiction”), “True Romance” plays more like a sketchbook of barely connected noir and pulp episodes than a story, complete with terrific actors like Hopper, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, Brad Pitt, Gary Oldman, and Samuel L. Jackson in one scene cameos. Each bit is entertaining, but they don’t really add up to anything, and director Scott (“Top Gun”) is too glossy and shallow for all of Tarantino’s irony.