Hollywood finally getting it together in 2002

This past year was rather disappointing from the perspective of your run of the mill filmgoer. Many films were about as entertaining as a colonoscopy. For every "Memento" there was an onslaught of bottom feeders such as "Tomb Raider." \nOnly the concluding weeks of the year offered highly skilled filmmaking in the forms of "The Fellowship of the Rings," "The Royal Tenenbaums," "Vanilla Sky" and "Ali" (despite what many say both Will Smith and this movie rocked). \nOne hopes that Hollywood will improve upon many of the turds they incessantly hurl towards audiences in 2002, and in turn, it will be a banner year for cinema. It's in this hope that film fans seek solace, and as such, I'll run through a series of flicks that shouldn't completely suck.\nThe year should kick off in fine form with the comedy "Orange County." Not only does the flick co-star comedic genius Jack Black, it's also directed by Jake Kasdan whose first film was the criminally underrated "Zero Effect." It opens Friday.\nThe following week Bloomington will receive "Black Hawk Down," a film that was actually released during the last portion of 2001 in New York and L.A. This is the true story of a group of U.S. Rangers sent via helicopter into Mogadishu, Somalia to capture warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Pretty boy Josh Harnett headlines the flick (man, I hope he bites the bullet hard in the first reel). Featured alongside him are Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore ("Saving Private Ryan") and newfangled Australian cult film fixture/future "Incredible Hulk" star, Eric Bana ("Chopper"). Ridley Scott ("Gladiator") directs.\nWar/propaganda films seem to be all the rage this year. Mel Gibson reunites with "Braveheart" collaborator Randall Wallace for "We Were Soldiers," a Vietnam saga. The flick co-stars "American Pie" staple Chris Klein. Hong Kong action maestro John Woo is also lensing a Native American-themed WWII actioneer "Windtalkers," starring Nicholas Cage, half a reservation casino's night staff and Christian "Gleaming the Cube" Slater. I can see it now; cue a flock of doves alongside a bevy of tanks, and blam! you've got one hell of an action sequence.\nSteven Spielberg directs Tom Cruise for the first time in the futuristic sci-fi epic "Minority Report." The film is based off a short story by Phillip K. Dick. He wrote the source material to the highly regarded post-apocalyptic classic, "Blade Runner." If the teaser's any indication this flick should be pretty screwed-up. Hopefully, "Minority Report" will make amends for Spielberg's bastardizing re-release of his family classic "E.T.," in which guns are digitally removed and replaced with walkie-talkies and the classic diss of "penis breath" has altogether been excluded. Self-censorship at its finest. Very wussy, Steve.\nTwo genres making a healthy resurgence in 2002 are the gangster film and flicks derived from comic books. And rightly so, because these films usually rule. Martin Scorsese's needlessly delayed historical Irish gangland pic, "Gangs of New York" will finally be released this summer. Former pantywaist turned badass Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Daniel Day-Lewis star. Sam Mendes, the acclaimed director behind "American Beauty" directs "The Road to Perdition," also a summer release. The flick melds the aforementioned genres in that it's based upon a graphic novel (essentially, a grandiose comic book) by Max Allan Collins and features fictional hitmen, as well as a fictional depiction of Al Capone. Tom Hanks finally breaks his cycle of playing nice, cuddly guys in need of a hug to portray a vengeful hitman. Screen legend Paul Newman and solid character actor Jude Law also star.\n Other comic book films include; "Spiderman" lensed by Sam ("Evil Dead") Raimi and starring a buffed-up Toby Maguire, "Blade 2," in which Wesley Snipes revives his titular role of the vampire hunter and "Daredevil" starring freshly rehabbed Ben Affleck as a blind lawyer/crime fighter.\nMany revered directors will unleash their latest masterworks upon audiences, these include; David Fincher's ("Fight Club") Hitchcockian thriller "Panic Room," Steven Soderbergh's follow-up to his breakthrough hit "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" entitled "Full Frontal," Robert Rodriguez's third installment of the "El Mariachi" series, "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," Kevin Smith's first non-Jay and Silent Bob flick "Jersey Girl" and Spike Jonze again teams with Charlie Kaufman for "Adaptation," their first collaboration was the incredibly bizarre yet no less ingenius "Being John Malkovich."\nOh, and I'm forgetting the next installment of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "The Two Towers" (which should reign), "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" (which should rule) and "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (which is incapable of either).\nIndie flicks will also rock with Roger Avary's ("Killing Zoe") teenybopper-laden adaptation of Bret Easton Ellison's ("American Psycho") novel "The Rules of Attraction," the French import "Brotherhood of the Wolf," which may well become this year's "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon," and "The 51st State" in which Samuel L. Jackson cracks skulls while wearing a kilt.\nLadies and gentleman, 2002 is shaping up to be one helluva year at the movies.