Movies by year: 2000

(Keep out of the dark - there are spoilers there!)

Happy long weekend! I went to the beach, it was glorious. And while I was there, I gave some thought to my favourite movies of 2000.

Guy Ritchie gave us another complicated one with Snatch; Hugh Jackman *snicked* his way into my heart in X-Men; George Clooney (our generation's Cary Grant/Clark Gable) brought us on an odyssey in O Brother, Where Art Thou?; Tom Hanks demonstrated once again his awesomeness in Cast Away; M. Night Shyamalan gave us Unbreakable (and yes, I liked it, shut up).

And a thug appeared on our screens and showed us how it's done.

Pitch Black

A transport ship carrying colonists - and a certain bound criminal by the name of Riddick - runs into trouble and crash-lands on a barren planet, losing many crew and passengers in the process. Fry, the only crew member left, initially tried to save her own skin by dumping the passengers during the crash, but is now stepping up to her responsibilities. When one of the survivors is murdered, bounty hunter Johns blames an escaped Riddick, but Fry soon discovers there's something living underground, in the dark, and it's hungry.

Looking for supplies, the group comes across a survey station, where they find a shuttle they may be able to get working using parts from their own downed ship, but they don't have much time - while the planet seems to be in perpetual daylight due to its multiple suns, they soon discover they are not alone, and when night finally falls, the creatures underground will come out and death will come with them.

This is a great scary/action/sci fi flick. Cole Hauser and Rahda Miller might have been the initial draws, but Vin Diesel made this film as the anti-hero. Claudia Black made this before production on Farscape started but it had started broadcasting by the time Pitch Black came out, so she was a nice surprise too.

This was apparently based on Nightfall by Isaac Asimov, but, as is the case with most things like this, it has very little in common - really, just the multiple-sun idea.

What did you think?