DVD Rental Day (2004 - 2010)

[colbyjack]

I too enjoy Rome, but this season has had it's fair share of really corny moments. Pulo quickly grabbing a horse, and then his wife, to ride to Verinus' aid was one of them, and fading out to the theme music to end this past week's episode was another.

 

It's an interesting and entertaining show, no doubt, but this season, much like the second season of Carnivale, seems to be a little lost. The lack of Cesar's presence I think hurts a lot as well, although we all saw that coming http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif .

 

I don't know the name of the actor that played Cesar, but I know I have seen him in other movies, most recently Munich. He's a great actor that doesn't seem to be very recognizable to the common movie watcher like yours truly, as I'm sure Robert and others will point out a few other stellar roles he's taken.

 

The one thing I am constantly impressed with HBO programs is their casting. They always seem to pick the perfect actors for the perfect roles.

[OglivieHomePerm]

Just finished watching Flags Of Our Fathers and it was excellent. Great insight into the lives of the men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima, and how the photo took on a life of it's own. The public perception of that picture, and the reality of it were quite different. A very enlightening movie.

[OglivieHomePerm]

Flyboys

 

Weak cast, weak script, big budget, big box office flop. It's not the worst movie I've seen, but it isn't very good. Right from the start, there is a scene where a young man professes his joy for going off to war, bids his parents and fiance' farewell, and professes his indestructabilty. Immediately, I flash back to the "Dead Meat" character from the movie, "Hot Shots". Similar moments follow throught the movie. If only the movie was trying to be funny.

 

In once scene, a pilot crash lands in the middle of a gunfight between German and French ground troops. It looked like they just inserted some stock footage from another film for the ground troop footage. Very cheesy looking.

 

At another point, the main character is affected by the loss of some of his fellow pilots in battle, and he is appalled by the lack of "honor" that they are being shown by the other pilots. How does he express his grief? By romancing a beautiful French woman.

[homer]

I've started watching Arrested Development on DVD recently and can't understand why it was cancelled. It's hilarious.

 

Also just saw The Departed last night. It's a great movie although not up to the level of Goodfellas. I thought the editing was odd in that they seemed to cut scenes short and move from one conversation to a different one almost without pause. To me, this made the plot/story development a little confusing at times - especially in the beginning of the movie. Scorcese would also cut music abruptly so I'm guessing there was a reason for this. It may be a little long for some people but the payoff the last 20 minutes is worth it. Without giving it away (as someone did on another thread here - Boo!) you'll probably gasp once or twice.

[Team Canada]

Without giving it away (as someone did on another thread here - Boo!) you'll probably gasp once or twice.

 

I wish he would have ended it like Internal Affairs.

[Dough73]

I bought four new Blu-Rays yesterday.

 

The Departed - Pretty good movie overall and might be a classic to people who get into gangster/mafia movies. I would give it three and a half out of four stars.

 

The Guardian - This movie is about Coast Guard rescue swimmers. Very good movie that I haven't heard anything about. THis movie stars Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Costner. I would give it three out of four stars

 

Grid Iron Gangs - Good story about a football team formed out of a juvenile detention center. This movie stars the Rock and Xzibit. I would give it two and a half out of four stars.

 

Saw 3 - Haven't watched it yet.

[RobertR]

United 93

 

Perhaps something you have to be in the right mood for, but I found it completely gripping and I got emotionally worked up about it. I really don't have a single complaint about how it was made and I found cutting between the air and ground fascinating. Heck, the verbal joke of the Newark control operators being unaware of what's happening outside their window when the first plane hit is a great example of a director thinking about what works best for the narrative rather than going for a cheap money shot.

 

BTW, any "critic" that referred to the movie as being shot "documentary style" should be sent to remedial film studies class. You could argue for "cinema verite" but the movie was anything but a documentary style film.

 

Scorsese on Scorsese

 

On disc 2 of The Departed special edition. Nothing really groundbreaking here, but Scorsese talking about Who's That Knocking on My Door?, Mean Streets, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, The Last Temptation of Christ, Cape Fear, The Age of Innocence, Kundun, Gangs of New York, and The Aviator. Nothing really groundbreaking, but informative.

 

That said, I wish the documentary had gone off the beaten path some. New York, New York, Boxcar Bertha, and Bringing Out the Dead aren't regarded as successes, and it would be interesting to hear what Scorsese thought of them now. Does he regret that safari jacket he wore in The Last Waltz? After Hours seems to be his only unabashed comedy, what does he think of that? How about some thoughts on A Personal Journey Through American Film and My Voyage to Italy? What we hear is good, but kind of one sided.

 

Something I saw at a preview screening

Amazing Grace

It's a bio-pic about British political figure William Wilburforce and his efforts to get the slave trade ended in the late 18th/early 19th centuries. It really seems like a Masterpiece Theater type production, with a little extra expense for the big screen. And it really presents Wilburforce as a saint with not a lot of subtlety. Heck, the first scene of the movie has a sickly Wilburforce get out of his carriage, being drawn by two white horses, to stop some men from whipping a fallen black horse. It's not the last cliche and obvious bit of symbolism that will be used in the movie. But at least they don't end the movie on a piece of dramatic oratory that changes everyone's mind, but the key point is a subtle piece of legislative trickery.

 

The movie at least rises to a Masterpiece Theater level of competence in other areas. Ioan Gruffuld of Fantastic Four turns in a solid performance as Wilburforce and there are solid supporting turns by Michael Gambon, Rufus Sewell, and Albert Finney. There's some nice cinematography as well and any film that ends with Amazing Grace being played by bag pipes has something going for it. And, it's worth noting that Ciarin Hinds, who played Julius Caesar in Rome, has a turn as the main antagonist of the movie although his character is pretty one dimensional. There's also a little moral message about perservering and doing the right thing despite the political climate of the time, that probably can be read a number of ways, not the least opposition to the Iraq War.

 

I'm hesitant to recommend it as I don't think it's any better than competent, but it is well meaning and you probably won't feel guilty about seeing it afterwards.

 

Robert

[Katuluu]

I think if you are going to see a Michael Apted film, you should work thru the Up Series. Or possibly this little guilty pleasure of mine:

 

http://www.sunrisetradingco.com/images/Thunderheart.jpg

[UeckerAddict]

Watched "Bad Boys" the other night. No, not that one. The older one with Sean Penn and Esai Morales. I'd never seen it all the way through, but it is quite entertaining.

 

I tried to rent "The Departed" three nights in a row, but it was all empty from two different places. I've never seen that before.

[Team Canada]

I found it completely gripping and I got emotionally worked up about it. I really don't have a single complaint about how it was made and I found cutting between the air and ground fascinating.

 

I agree. I thought it was very good (I don't think "great" is quite an appropriate term here).

[Fatter than Joey]

I've started watching Arrested Development on DVD recently and can't understand why it was cancelled. It's hilarious.

 

Fox seemed to want to have this show cancelled -- they moved it into just about every time slot available.

 

It's really too bad that this show didnt start out on HBO.

[rluzinski]

Black Dahlia

 

I preferred the plot from the video game, "Max Payne" over this terrible movie. I knew it would be bad but, WOW. I honestly couldn't follow the twisty plot but didn't feel like I was missing out. As all the tattered plots threads get tied up in the end, I found out that my intuition was correct.

 

Josh Hartnett stunk. Aaron Eckhart stunk. Johansson and Swank had nothing to work with (a nice way to say, stunk). They should have cut down this 2 hour movie to about 75 minutes and it might have at least been bearable.

[BrewCrewForever]

I to just watched the Departed last night. I loved it. Going to buy it now. The ending was crazy. I was never a huge Leo Dicaprio fan, but after this movie I have to say he can play a bad you know what. Lot of respect to him and the whole cast they all were awesome. Today Tenacious D's The Pick of Destiny out on DVD. Saw it in theaters funny movie.

[Fatter than Joey]

Black Dahlia

 

That family reminded me of my inlaws -- w/o the wealth, sort of a poor-man's version of that family.

[RobertR]

The Black Dahlia is a great book by James Ellroy. Too bad the movie apparently is anything but.

 

Stuff I've seen:

 

Over the Hedge

 

Don't know exactly why we rented it, except that it was short and looked mildly amusing. There are children's movies and family movies, and I think this is the former. A good voice cast wasn't used to much effect. Except Shatner.

 

My understanding is that the movie is based on a newspaper strip. Judging by the movie, the strip is apparently a warmed over, second rate version of Walt Kelly's Pogo. I'd wait for reprints of that to hit the library.

 

Babel

 

There's a lot to like about the movie on a technical level, it's well acted, and it has an interesting structure. But the actual stories themselves just left me cold. The Moroccan story in particular really didn't cover anything we haven't seen before. And the thread connecting that story to the other two is really slim. Especially the Japanese story.

 

And, unlike what the title implies, communication barriers are hardly a factor in the story. Granted there are some false assumptions and cultural differences shown, but most of the communication barriers are intra-family, not external. With one exception. I thought the Japanese story worked on a number of levels and had a terrific closing shot. The scene in the disco with the subjective visual and audio definitely brought home the isolation of the main character of that story.

 

Perhaps a good rule of thumb is whether any of these stories alone were enough to support a movie. I'd point to the Japanese story as the only exception with the rest needing to draw weight and meaning elsewhere.

 

Robert

[RobertR]

Not a DVD review, but I did see a preview screening this weekend, and some might be interested.

 

The Host

 

A fractured Korean family is reunified due to a crisis involving the youngest member of the family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I almost just want to leave it with that summary, but I guess I should mention that the "crisis" of the movie is the youngest girl in the family gets grabbed by a giant, man-eating, amphibious monster. It's a good old fashioned monster movie, but very well done. It's the spiritual descendant of the original Godzilla with pollution (supposedly based on a real scandal) instead of atomic explosions being the catalyst of the monster. And it's often laugh out loud funny with likable characters. If Godzilla is one ancestor, Tremors is another.

 

It has all the ingredients of a classic monster film, metaphor, a look at modern society, thrills, humor, scares, a twist or two, well done set pieces, good acting, and good special effects. If it wasn't subtitled, I would expect it to be a big hit here when it opens wide. It's destined to be at least a cult hit before the English language remake hits.

 

Robert

[Team Canada]

Science of Sleep

I think I can only describe this as Charlie Kaufman on acid. Gael Garcia Bernal stars and does a fine job, and there are some incredible visuals, but it was just too out there for me.

 

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

The only thing I can say about this is if you want a movie about NY teenagers running around dropping the f-bomb literally every third word, this is your movie.

[danzig6767]

Hard Candy--Could have been a good movie if the if the believability factor didn't keep getting worse as the movie went on.The acting of Ellen Page is pretty good and for awhile it was enjoyable watching her turn the tables on the pedophile,but her character starts to get pretty annoying.The acting by Patrick Wilson was very good through the movie and particularily the castration scene,to bad the overall plot couldn't match the acting.

 

Pi: Faith in Chaos--Very worthy rental about a numbers genius (Sean Guilette) who finds patterns in everything via numbers.Various people/groups want to use his brilliance for their own personal reasons all the while he is struggling to keep his own sanity.Definately not the type of movie everyone would enjoy,i'm sure some would find it boring given it's slow paced nature,but i'm glad i was told to check it out.

[brewers4eric]

The World's Fastest Indian

 

A motorcycle enthusiast at work loaned me his copy of this dvd. Although I haven't seen a movie in a theatre since my daughter was born, I would recommend this movie to anyone.

 

Anthony Hopkins stars as Burt Munroe, who treks from New Zealand to the Utah salt flats to run a time trial on his 1924 Indian. Think of it as an upgrade over the typical road picture. The usual cast of quirky characters is present (although I kept looking for Steve Buscemi to appear and he doesn't), but Hopkins takes the picture to another level with his portrayal.

 

The dvd also contains a fine documentary short on the real life Munroe, and footage of his motorcycle in action on the salt flats.

[valpocrewsader]

Thank You for Smoking

I laughed, I was entertained, I was caught by surprise. Kept me interested, made me think a little, made me want more. A joy to watch, probably watch it again at some point soon. ~3.75 stars.

 

PCU

Kindof a fun movie, but falls short of Van Wilder and probably a few other college/hijinx movies. Overly formulaic. Not really my genre of interest. Woulda got 5.0 stars if Goo Goo Dolls had been the party band like they were supposed to be, instead of Clinton crappiness. ~3.0 stars

 

Big Fish

Seen it before, but watched it again for the first time in years. In plain terms, this is a very special movie that, imo, is lightyears above 99% of the rest of Hollywood junk you'll see in a given year. Not perfect, but ambitious, sensible, and generally successful in its endeavor. ~4.0 stars

 

Fargo

Overrated trash. Couple of good acting performances save it from being even worse. ~1.75 stars

 

Elf

Disappointed. I dislike Will Ferrell almost as much as I dislike Adam Sandler and Jim Carey, but thought maybe Favreau's influence on this movie could bring it up to something better than average. Not terrible, but certainly average. ~2.5 stars

 

Mystic River

Extremely disappointed. Gets my vote for one of the most overrated movies of the 2000s. Take a Law & Order episode, add 60 minutes to it, dumb it down, and there you have it. ~1.75 stars

 

Gone in 60 Seconds

I pretty much hate Nicholas Cage and hate Hollywood special effects and WATFOs, but I still ended up liking this movie. Must be all the car stuff, I have certain weaknesses. ~3.0 stars

 

The Aviator

Except for the scenes involving the Katherine Hepburn character, this was a great movie. Very good performance by DiCaprio. Exciting to follow, nice visuals, intrigue. ~3.25 stars

 

The 40 Year Old Virgin

A pleasant surprise considering pretty much every comedy to come out in the last 15 years has sucked. Nothing here that I'd call "classic", but definitely an example of good casting meeting a good script. Big fan of the actors involved. Strayed away from being too predictable. Didn't harp on the "virgin miscues" that I assumed were going to plague the movie ad nauseum. Well done. ~3.5 stars

 

Blow

Goodfellas II? A little too similar for my taste. For the most part exciting and stuff, but never really grabbed me and won me over. ~2.75 stars

 

Schindler's List

A classic, meaningful, substantial, epic work. Great, great, great performances by Neeson and Fiennes. Could've used more dialogue (damn you Aaron Sorkin!). Movie would've been better without the final scene that pulls you out of the past and into the present. ~4.5 stars

 

Gangs of New York

A terrible, superficial, self-importent, over-Hollywooded crapfest. Probably one of the worst directed, acted, written, shot, produced, etc, etc, movies I've ever seen. You know you're in trouble when the usually-regrettable Cameron Diaz turns out to be the glue that actually holds some of this sloppy mess together to achieve some semblance of decent film making. DiCaprio couldn't be more wrong for his role. I just get the feeling Scorsese got halfway through this tripe and gave up trying to do anything halfway intelligent or dramatic with it. There are people that like this movie?? I guess you throw in enough fight scenes and blown up stuff and there's enough lunkhead males out there to keep something like this from flopping. *Hangs head in shame* ~0.5 stars

[Fatter than Joey]

I rented Clerks 2.

 

I didn't care for it. Specifically I didn't like the actors or the jobs that they did. (I realize they were in #1)

 

The dialogue was incredibly clunky I thought -- You have a show like Seinfeld, where you have their "rants at the diner" -- however, either the dialogue is superior, or the actors do a better job selling it, and you have a funny show.

[homer]

Quote:

---

Pi: Faith in Chaos--Very worthy rental about a numbers genius (Sean Guilette) who finds patterns in everything via numbers.Various people/groups want to use his brilliance for their own personal reasons all the while he is struggling to keep his own sanity.Definately not the type of movie everyone would enjoy,i'm sure some would find it boring given it's slow paced nature,but i'm glad i was told to check it out.

---

 

I saw this a few months ago and for the life of me I can't remember how it ended. It was written and directed by Darren Aronofsky (also directed Requiem for a Dream)

 

The Prestige I really like Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, Memento) and expected a lot going in. It's a good movie about competing magicians in the late 1800's and tries to pull off one of those big 'twist' endings but I saw most of the surprises coming very early so I was kind of let down. Nonetheless, it was a pretty entertaining flick and well done technically (nominated for a few Oscars for art direction and cinematography). And its not bad to stare at Scarlett Johannson in a bustier for a little while.

[parkside21]

Robert, I second your notion (at least it sounded like a notion, albeit tentative) for Babel. I thought it was really, really good. The technical aspects of it reminded me a lot of Traffic, which I didn't like at all, but whatever. Anyways, you're right, the disco scene in Babel had me mumbling to myself "wow, that's so smart, that's such a great way to shoot this". There were a few problems with it, sure, but I thought the movie was really well done and the non-linear way in which it was done worked superbly.

 

Fast Food Nation

Eh...it was okay. It obviously had an agenda, and I'm not sure the dimension of the Mexican side of the story worked very well. For me, I couldn't help be reminded during the whole movie of Thank You For Smoking, and when I have to compare the two, TYFS is just better, even though they deal with different subject matters. That said, if you can get past the agenda, this was an okay movie, but not something I'd want to see again.

 

 

edit: Valpo, give Fargo another try. I saw it about a year after it first came out, and like you, was probably expecting more. However, after watching it again, and again, it's become one of my favorite movies and now I love it and watch it every other month or so. If you have the time, and interest, I really think you'll like it a lot more the second time...and of course, don't take it seriously.

[rluzinski]

I too agree with Robert's assessment of Babel. It was really 3, 45 minute movies spliced together.

[RobertR]

As I said, perhaps not well, I had mixed feelings about Babel. If you are interested in the concept and seeing it in the first place, and you have an interest in how a story is told, you'll get a lot more out of it than if you just want to settle down for a nights entertainment. The only segment that I felt strongly positive about was the Japanese segment. It was a good choice to end on that segment.

 

Robert