Email Author Andy Klein

2000 Stories by Andy Klein

• Just Good Enough

  published December 28, 2000

  The year 1999 was too good to last, but did 2000 have to be such a big letdown? Did the best film year in at least a decade and a half have... More >>

• Emotion in Motion

  published December 21, 2000

  For slightly more than a decade, Chinese martial arts films have--directly and indirectly--gained a growing audience in America. Now the genre may... More >>

• Still Fab

  published November 30, 2000

  Thirty-five years ago, at the height of Beatlemania--the phenomenon, not the stage show--some cynics pooh-poohed the notion that the unprecedented... More >>

• Sea Worthy

  published November 9, 2000

  November may mean Thanksgiving to most of you, but in the film biz it means a rush of "serious" films trying to gouge an impression into the short... More >>

• Run Robber Run

  published November 9, 2000

  At first glance, the new Japanese import Non-Stop seems to be a crude knockoff of German director Tom Tykwer's wonderful Run Lola... More >>

• Time Bandits

  published October 19, 2000

  In recent years, the fabulous Chilean-expatriate director Raoul (sometimes Raul) Ruiz has moved from shoestring-budgeted features that could... More >>

• Drunken Re-Master

  published October 19, 2000

  The first thing to know about The Legend of Drunken Master is that there is no Legend of Drunken Master--not really. Miramax/... More >>

• Eye of the Beholder

  published October 12, 2000

  It's nearly impossible to give a film like Under Suspicion a simple thumbs up or thumbs down. Ninety percent of this thriller is... More >>

• Beauty's in the Eye of the Beer-Holder

  published September 28, 2000

  It's a sorry fact that what everybody in Hollywood really wants to do--writer, actor, best boy, and caterer alike--is direct. This has led,... More >>

• Chicago Bull

  published September 21, 2000

  American culture has not been kind to the '60s. Outside of the extraordinarily resilient appeal of the pop music of the time, the period has... More >>

• Mock Speed

  published September 7, 2000

  In 1988 Penelope Spheeris released the amusing rock documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years. Rob Reiner's... More >>

• Fillet this fish

  published September 7, 2000

  Catfish in Black Bean Sauce starts with a promising premise for either a farce or a melodrama: Two Vietnamese-American siblings,... More >>

• Peace at a Price

  published August 31, 2000

  Whatever one might believe about the past centuries of English oppression of the Irish, one thing is sure: No matter how raw a deal they've gotten... More >>

• Demolition Man

  published August 24, 2000

  Despite its late-summer release date--usually a sign of studio jitters--The Art of War is a mostly well-constructed action flick with a... More >>

• Steamed Up

  published August 17, 2000

  The practice of motion-picture production in China is clearly in flux. While films have long emanated from government studios, political changes... More >>

• Star trek

  published August 3, 2000

  It's a pleasure to say that Clint Eastwood reverses his recent downward slide --A Perfect World (1993), The Bridges of Madison... More >>

• Cry hard

  published July 6, 2000

  Why is the film called Disney's The Kid? Is it really possible that the studio was so concerned that someone might actually mistake the... More >>

• Forgive its trespasses

  published July 6, 2000

  Director Alison Maclean, from Canada by way of New Zealand, turns her camera on the American landscape--or, more accurately, the underbelly of the... More >>

• Kitano's kid

  published June 15, 2000

  Kikujiro, the latest release from Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano, is likely to be a surprise to his American fans--possibly even a... More >>

• Mission accomplished

  published May 25, 2000

  Early on in Mission: Impossible 2 (or M:I-2, as the confident Paramount now calls it), hero Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) complains to his... More >>

• Woody's sleeper

  published May 18, 2000

  Woody Allen is back on screen in Small Time Crooks, a bittersweet comedy that in many ways could have been lifted straight from the '30s.... More >>

• An odd bird

  published May 18, 2000

  Yet another version of Hamlet? Will they never stop? Ah, well, at least Michael Almereyda's new adaptation is one of those... More >>

• Times four

  published May 11, 2000

  Digital video is poised to become a major factor in commercial filmmaking, and Time Code, the new feature from Mike Figgis (Leaving Las... More >>

• In the company of men

  published May 11, 2000

  When stars get popular enough (or win enough Oscars), they begin to get to call their own shots: Thus we have The Big Kahuna, the debut... More >>

• Russia without love

  published May 4, 2000

  East-West, the new film from Oscar-winning French director Regis Wargnier (Indochine), is, like Wargnier's earlier film, a drama... More >>