I usually have trouble deciding what movie I liked best each year, so I have compiled a list of some of the best features in the movies of 2000.

There wasn't a whole lot of good space movies this year, but definitely the best would have to be Space Cowboys. I really liked this movie. It had a great mix of humor, decent special effects, and pretty realistic space shuttle scenes.

For second place (Linda and Tim will kill me!) I will vote for Red Planet. The plot was predictable, the acting was bad, but the special effects were very cool. Not only that, the guy from the Bad Astronomy web site (www.badastronomy.com) also liked it!

Strangely enough, this wasn't in a disaster movie, but a very short segment in Fight Club. The mid-air collision between the Lear jet and the airliner. Seeing the smaller jet banking toward the window and then seeing the tail slicing through the cabin really made me squirm! The effects even had the wing bouncing up and down in the turbulence as seen through the hole in the side of the plane that people were getting sucked out. Ewwww!!!!!!! (I had to back up the DVD and see that a few times in slow motion).

This would definitely have to go to Hollow Man. The parts where Kevin Bacon fades in and out of visibility were amazing, and very visually believable.

Erin Brockovich--what else do I need to say? I almost expected to see them listed in the credits!

The Insider / Gladiator--I would have to vote on both of these since Lisa Gerrard from Dead Can Dance did parts of the soundtrack from both of these movies. Nobody sings as well as Lisa, so there really isn't any other choice!

The Wall (DVD)--OK, it isn't a new movie, but the DVD is new. The music in this movie is great! If you don't like Pink Floyd, you will after listening to this movie (or should I say long music video?). I'll have to find this one on Ebay and add it to my collection!

The 80 minutes or so during Cast Away when Tom Hanks was stuck on the island. The only sound was the ocean waves in the background. Very cool!

Definitely the kid that goes for a ride in the biplane in Space Cowboys and barfs all over the pilot's windshield! Maybe I like this so much since this almost happened to me when I was flying with a student a few years ago—fortunately he was able to swallow it and didn't dump it in my lap!

For All Mankind--if you haven't figured it out by now, I am kind an aviation/space freak. I was delighted when this one came out on DVD and even more pleased to find that it has been digitally enhanced with an improved soundtrack. Also, all the extras on this DVD make it a "must have" for any space freak.

The Earthlight DVD (85 minutes of Earth orbit video). This DVD has subtitles for about six different languages including KLINGON!!!!

I might add that this has a very cool shuttle launch video in the beginning—crank up that subwoofer!

Of course this would have to go to Mission To Mars. I waited for this movie to come out for about 6 months and was lucky to get a free pass to a preview. If I didn't see it for free, I would be a on a mission to find out where my $7.75 vanished! Gary Sinise, what happened to you did so well in many other movies? :-(

Chicken Run!!! Yay!! I don't think there were clay actors in any other movies this year—except for maybe Mission To Mars.

The final wave in The Perfect Storm--maybe that was the only wave this year actually.

The fight scenes in Fight Club were so excessive and painful-looking that it wins this vote.

Definitely Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's sword fight scenes. If you liked the Obi-Wan and Darth Maul scene from Episode I (actually, that was the only good part!), you will really like the sword fighting in Crouching Tiger, it just keeps going and going and going…

I didn't even get the review posted on Moviepie since I didn't even finish the movie. I'm talking about The Waterboy on DVD! What a piece of CRAP!! Normally, I have a high tolerance for comedy no matter how stupid it is. After 20 minutes I started to fear that I was contaminating the laser in my DVD and had to pull that thing out, put it in the Netflix envelope and toss it back in the mail.

Since I buy everything from the internet these days, I would have to say that Netflix.com is the greatest rental place ever for anyone who likes movies! They have just about every movie around on DVD and I never have to get off my couch and drive over to Blockbuster only to find that there is nothing there worth renting. I used Kosmo.com a few times, but then after I found that they didn't even trust their own employees, I decided to boycott them.