2002
2009: Lost Memories
(2002)
Sang-hak Lee, Si-myung Lee, Carl Macek (dialogue: English version)
5 wins & 2 nominations.
There are breakpoints in the history, the result of a single event may change the whole course... In 1909, an assassination attempt of a Japanese governor fails - the assassin was shot by a soldier. Now, in 2009, Korea is just another state of the Japan Empire and Seoul has become a major city. A Korean resistance group called Hureisenjin is formed to fight for liberty and independence. Two cops, a Japanese and a Korean (who denies his heritage) are investigating the actions of this "terrorist" group. And their work lead them to an artifact of the ancient Korean religion of "Sun and Moon".
24 Hour Party People
(2002)
Frank Cottrell Boyce (screenplay)
1 win & 12 nominations.
In 1976, Tony Wilson sets up Factory Records and brings Manchester's music to the world.
28 Days Later...
(2002)
Alex Garland
9 wins & 26 nominations.
Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.
Blade II
(2002)
Marv Wolfman (character), Gene Colan (character), David S. Goyer
6 wins & 9 nominations.
Blade forms an uneasy alliance with the vampire council in order to combat the Reaper vampires who feed on vampires.
Bowling for Columbine
(2002)
Michael Moore
Won 1 Oscar. Another 35 wins & 10 nominations.
The United States of America is notorious for its astronomical number of people killed by firearms for a developed nation without a civil war. With his signature sense of angry humor, activist filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to explore the roots of this bloodshed. In doing so, he learns that the conventional answers of easy availability of guns, violent national history, violent entertainment and even poverty are inadequate to explain this violence when other cultures share those same factors without the equivalent carnage. In order to arrive at a possible explanation, Michael Moore takes on a deeper examination of America's culture of fear, bigotry and violence in a nation with widespread gun ownership. Furthermore, he seeks to investigate and confront the powerful elite political and corporate interests fanning this culture for their own unscrupulous gain.
Bubba Ho-Tep
(2002)
Joe R. Lansdale (short story), Don Coscarelli (screenplay)
7 wins & 9 nominations.
Elvis and JFK, both alive and in nursing homes, fight for the souls of their fellow residents as they battle an ancient Egyptian Mummy.
Bus 174
(2002)
Bráulio Mantovani, José Padilha
12 wins & 6 nominations.
Documentary depicts what happened in Rio de Janeiro on June 12th 2000, when bus 174 was taken by an armed young man, threatening to shoot all the passengers. Transmitted live on all Brazilian TV networks, this shocking and tragic-ending event became one of violence's most shocking portraits, and one of the scariest examples of police incompetence and abuse in recent years.
Cabin Fever
(2002)
Eli Roth, Randy Pearlstein, Eli Roth (story)
2 wins & 11 nominations.
The college friends Paul, Karen, Bert, Marcy and Jeff rent an isolated cabin in the woods to spend a week together. When they arrive, a man contaminated with a weird disease asks for help to them, but they get in panic and burn the man, who falls in the water reservoir and dies. The whole group, except Karen, makes a pact of drinking only beer along the week without knowing where the dead body is. When Karen drinks tap water and gets the disease, the group begins their journey to hell.
Changing Lanes
(2002)
Chap Taylor (story), Chap Taylor (screenplay), Michael Tolkin (screenplay)
7 nominations.
An attorney in a rush to make a court appointment to file legal papers involving a multi-million dollar trust accidentally collides with an alcoholic insurance salesman, who also is a rush for a court appointment involving the custody of his children. The attorney leaves the scene of the accident and strands the salesman, causing him to miss his custody hearing. During the process of the post-crash discussion, the attorney accidentally drops the papers he needs to present in court. The judge gives him until the end of the day to present the papers and thus begins a cat and mouse game between the proponents. A few questionable actions later on both parties' part, they finally start questioning their actions and their lives. In the end, both come to new understanding of what is important and appear to be set in new ethical and moral directions. Contains mild violence and profanity.
City of God
(2002)
Paulo Lins (novel), Bráulio Mantovani (screenplay)
Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 65 wins & 35 nominations.
Brazil, 1960's, City of God. The Tender Trio robs motels and gas trucks. Younger kids watch and learn well...too well. 1970's: Li'l Zé has prospered very well and owns the city. He causes violence and fear as he wipes out rival gangs without mercy. His best friend Bené is the only one to keep him on the good side of sanity. Rocket has watched these two gain power for years, and he wants no part of it. Yet he keeps getting swept up in the madness. All he wants to do is take pictures. 1980's: Things are out of control between the last two remaining gangs...will it ever end? Welcome to the City of God.
Cypher
(2002)
Brian King
5 wins & 3 nominations.
An unsuspecting, disenchanted man finds himself working as a spy in the dangerous, high-stakes world of corporate espionage. Quickly getting way over-his-head, he teams up with a mysterious femme fatale.
Dark Water
(2002)
Kôji Suzuki (novel), Ken'ichi Suzuki (screenplay), Yoshihiro Nakamura (screenplay)
6 wins & 1 nomination.
A mother and her 6 year old daughter move into a creepy apartment whose every surface is permeated by water.
Dog Soldiers
(2002)
Neil Marshall
5 wins & 7 nominations.
A British Squad is sent on a training mission in the Highlands of Scotland against Special Operations squad. Ignoring the childish "campfire" stories heard about the area, they continue with their mission and come across the bloody remains of the Special Ops Squad, and a fierce howling is pitching the night sky... With two mortally wounded men, they make an escape, running into a zoologist by the name of Megan - who knows exactly what hunts them. What began as what they thought was a training mission turns into a battle for their lives against the most unlikely enemies they would have expected - werewolves.
Equilibrium
(2002)
Kurt Wimmer
2 nominations
In a futuristic world, a strict regime has eliminated war by suppressing emotions: books, art and music are strictly forbidden and feeling is a crime punishable by death. Cleric John Preston (Bale) is a top ranking government agent responsible for destroying those who resist the rules. When he misses a dose of Prozium, a mind-altering drug that hinders emotion, Preston, who has been trained to enforce the strict laws of the new regime, suddenly becomes the only person capable of overthrowing it.
Gangs of New York
(2002)
Jay Cocks (story), Jay Cocks (screenplay), Steven Zaillian (screenplay), Kenneth Lonergan (screenplay)
Nominated for 10 Oscars. Another 44 wins & 93 nominations.
In 1863, Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points area of New York City seeking revenge against Bill the Butcher, his father's killer.
Ghost Ship
(2002)
Mark Hanlon (story), Mark Hanlon (screenplay), John Pogue (screenplay)
1 nomination.
After discovering a passenger ship missing since 1962 floating adrift on the Bering Sea, salvagers claim the vessel as their own. Once they begin towing the ghost ship towards harbor, a series of bizarre ocurrences happen and the group becomes trapped inside the ship, which they soon learn is inhabited by a demonic creature.
H
(2002)
Jong-hyuk Lee
1 nomination.
A serial killer named Shin-Hyun gives himself up to police. He confesses to committing a series of particularly horrifying murders of exclusively female victims. He is imprisoned, awaiting the death sentence for his crimes. Yet the killings do not stop. They continue with all the same characteristics trademarks of the Shin-Hyun serial killings. The case is re-opened when two more bodies are discovered, both pregnant women. One is found in the city's landfill site, and the other is horrifically murdered on a public bus. Detective Mi Yun (played by Yum Jung-Ah), and her newly appointed partner, Detective Kang (played by Ji Jin-Hee), are assigned to the case. Mi Yun and Kang have difficulty working with each other, as their personalities and working methods are constantly in conflict. Detective Kang goes about his new job buoyantly and enthusiastically. He follows a new suspect, Huh, and eventually catches him in the act of brutally murdering a woman in a crowded techno bar. Huh is taken into custody after Kang shoots and wounds him at the scene of the crime. Once again, the case seems to be solved with this spectacular arrest. Yet the murders continue in copy-cat style. The police desperately hunt for new leads. They start an in-depth investigation of a Doctor Chu, who is Shin-Hyun's psychiatrist. But progress is frustrated when Dr Chu becomes a victim of the copy-cat killings herself. The murdered psychiatrist's former boyfriend quickly becomes the prime suspect, a fanatical character named Choi. All the pieces in the mystery are finally starting to fit together, and the case seems almost resolved. But all efforts are suddenly frustrated once again, when Choi takes his own life. But still, the killings do not stop with his death. The case gets more complicated, when even the police themselves appear to become suspects in the murders. In unraveling this mystery, everyone involved is pushed to the limits of human understanding.
Infernal Affairs
(2002)
Alan Mak, Felix Chong
23 wins & 21 nominations.
A story between a mole in the police department and an undercover cop. Their objectives are the same: to find out who is the mole, and who is the cop.
Insomnia
(2002)
Hillary Seitz (screenplay), Nikolaj Frobenius, Erik Skjoldbjærg
1 win & 10 nominations.
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.
Irreversible
(2002)
Gaspar Noé
3 wins & 9 nominations.
Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in the underpass.