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15 years ago - December 8, 2000

Vertical Limit
Chris O’Donnell, Bill Paxton, Robin Tunney, and Scott Glenn star in this thriller about a mountain climbing expedition gone wrong on the peak of K2. Director Martin Campbell was coming off of two successes with GoldenEye and The Mask of Zorro. Reviews for this movie were mixed. Vertical Limit opened at #2 behind How the Grinch Stole Christmas in its fourth week in the top spot, with $15.5 million from 2,307 theaters. The movie’s gross of $69 million would have been a decent result were it not for the $75 million production budget. This movie marks O'Donnell's most recent role as lead in a significant feature film, but he landed a successful position on TV with NCIS: Los Angeles starting in 2009.

Proof of Life
Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan co-star in this thriller about a kidnap & ransom expert who develops a too-close relationship with the woman who hires him to recover her husband from a kidnapping in South America. Unlike other one-man-army rescue movies like Missing in Action and Rambo, this movie treated the topic more realistically thanks to a screenplay by Tony Gilroy. He would go on to write The Bourne Identity as his next project. 2000 was a big year for Crowe, having starred in Gladiator earlier that summer. He delivers a good performance here along with David Caruso in a supporting role. Critics pointed out the that the onscreen chemistry between Crowe and Meg Ryan didn’t work, while tabloids pointed out that they had had a real life affair during filming which lead to Ryan and her husband Dennis Quaid to officially divorce in July 2001. Proof of Life opened at #3 with $10.2 million from 2,705 theaters and eventually grossed $32.5 million in the U.S.

Dungeons & Dragons
Justin Whalin and Marlon Wayons star as a pair of thieves who fight against an evil mage played by Jeremy Irons in this adventure based on the role-playing game. Despite the decades-long history of the game and other sword-and-sorcerer movie releases over that time, D&D had only had a TV series run in the mid 1980s, making this the first official live action theatrical release for the property. Released a year before Peter Jackson’s epic Lord of the Rings trilogy would begin, this movie took on a campy comedy tone, which resulted in unfavorable reviews. This was Courtney Solomon’s first project as director and he didn’t fare much better with his followup, An American Haunting. Dungeons & Dragons opened at #5 behind Unbreakable with $7.2 million from 2,078 theaters and suffered 65%+ drop-offs each week for the next month, eventually earning only $15.2 million in the U.S.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
While Hollywood had been interested in martial arts movies for decades - highlighted by Bruce Lee in the 1970s, The Karate Kid in the 1980s, and Jackie Chan in the 1990s - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a breakout success that triggered an appreciation for high quality treatment of Chinese martial arts drama in the wuxia genre. Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, and Chang Chen star in this story set in the 18th century about a young girl who wishes to be a great warrior, and a famed sword called the Green Destiny. Director Ang Lee had helped 1995’s Sense and Sensibility earn seven Oscar nominations (though he was not nominated himself), and again delivered a visual and dramatic masterpiece, this time with cinematographer Peter Pau.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon earned 10 Oscar nominations - this time including one for Lee - and won Best Cinematography, Best Music (by Dun Tan), Best Art Direction, and Best Foreign Language Film. The response from critics and audiences was excellent, making the movie the highest-grossing foreign-language film ever to play in U.S. theaters. Opening this weekend at 16 theaters, it made an average of $41,450 per site. The release gradually expanded to over 2,000 theaters by the end of March. By the time it left U.S. theaters it had grossed $128 million in the U.S. and a total of $213 million worldwide. The success of this film led to Zhang Ziyi starring in similar epic warrior dramas such as The Warrior, Hero, and House of Flying Daggers, as well as Rush Hour 2 and Memoirs of a Geisha. A sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is expected to see U.S. theatrical and Netflix release in 2016, starring Michelle Yeoh.

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