DVD Rental Day (2004 - 2010)

[rluzinski]

If Babel had been some random foreign film I had never heard of, perhaps I could have just taken it at face value. It was by no means bad but I just felt like I had been there before, with respect to the three stories. Even the Japanese story was a bit cliche. It was an almost great movie that was let down by an underwhelming plot.

 

But hey, the movie is over 2 hours long and I can't say I was bored, so it it must have done something right.

 

About Departed, I thought it was a very good movie but did I miss something or were there some pretty decent plot holes, especially towards the end.

 

****NOT REALLY A SPOILER BUT JUST IN CASE***

highlight text below to read.....

I mean, being able to delete "records" with one click of the mouse is beyond stupid, IMO. And best guy DeCaprio could trust was a random person calling his phone? Did Marky Mark go in hiding after he took a leave of absence? Mr. 1400 SAT could probably have figured out that going to the FBI was a no brainer.

[Katuluu]

The plot holes were massive in the third act. It was sloppy story telling plain and simple. Toss in the at times over-the-top acting and I can't see The Departed aging well at all. I predict in a decade it will be declared Scorsese's camp "classic".

[rluzinski]

So I wasn't just confused. Good, I feel better now. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[RobertR]

I'll agree that The Departed isn't going to go down as being on the level of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, or Goodfellas. I'd probably put it on the upper end of the tier that includes Cape Fear.

 

That said, since Pan's Labyrinth, Children of Men, and United 93 weren't nominated for Best Picture, I'm not upset with the choice. The Departed is better than Babel, Little Miss Sunshine, and The Queen.

 

Robert

[Katuluu]

Given up on Brick so quickly Robert? At least that was a crime caper that not only had a tangible plot, but had originality to boot. Thankfully that's just one of dozens of movies that were better then The Departed this year.

[homer]

Alright, finally put Brick at the top of my queue so I can see what all the fuss is about. Anybody ever see Primer? Its about two guys that build a time machine. An indy pic done on the cheap, its more about the trouble they cause themselves than any bold special effects. Lots of twists and turns and can be quite confusing at times, but it is one of those movies that you think about for a while afterwards.

[UeckerAddict]

AMERICAN HARDCORE: For those of you interested in the American underground hardcore scene between 1980-1986 (and I know there's a few of you), this is a nice little compendium of interviews and band. I am a fanatic for that stuff and was more than a little upset that they only showed about 10 seconds of every live performance they cut to (who doesn't want to see the Bad Brains do more than a song intro?). Haven't checked out the special features though.

 

A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS: Yeah, I was hoping for something on the Sleepers level, and instead got the little brothers of the two-line characters from Bronx Tale.

 

HOLLYWOODLAND: Worst movie I've seen in a long time. I should have known better. A Ben Affleck movie about a case that has never been solved (I don't feel I'm giving anything away. They mentioned the unsolved status in the previews). What was I thinking?

 

STRANGER THAN FICTION: This Spoon sountrack with a plot is entertaining (I'm not a Will Ferrell fan, but I like him in this kind of role). It's no Adaptation but it has its moments.

 

LIVING IN OBLIVION: Mid nineties Buscemi movie where he plays a low budget film director and everything goes wrong. It's fun to watch, and if you get a chance, I would recommend watching this a Tree's Lounge back-to-back and gain a real appreciation of Buscemi.

 

WHEN WE WERE KINGS: Documentary filmed during the preparation for the Ali/Foreman fight in Zaire. Haven't seen it. Run, do not walk, and find it.

[rluzinski]

Anybody ever see Primer?

 

Saw it, loved it. There's a couple problems with the plot but when the subject matter involves time travel, that's kind of inescapable.

 

Wordplay

 

Documentary covering a national crossword puzzle competition. I find eccentric people very interesting and majority of the contestants covered are certainly that.

[UeckerAddict]

Anybody ever see Primer?

 

I also saw, and walked away thinking, "I think I really liked it, but I'm not sure." I have to see it again because there were things I didn't follow, which is something that I love because finding a confusing film (due to its intellect) is hard. I'm not sure Primer is a film that anyone can see just once without having some questions that require a second viewing. Or maybe I'm just dumb.

[RobertR]

Given up on Brick so quickly Robert? At least that was a crime caper that not only had a tangible plot, but had originality to boot. Thankfully that's just one of dozens of movies that were better then The Departed this year.

 

I just forgot about Brick and to be honest I'm not exactly positive of whether it was eligible this year or not. But I'd agree that it was better than The Departed.

 

Still, I enjoyed The Departed a lot and even if the third act has its share of plot holes, it was always interesting from a technical standpoint, a character standpoint, and a thematic standpoint. And it scores bonus points from me for throwing in an homage shot to The Third Man at the cemetary. It's certainly not Scorsese's best, but he shouldn't have to completely rewire your brain to win an award either.

 

Robert

[Katuluu]

The Departed loses points for that horrendous final shot.

 

And Brick was eligible this year. And I don't expect a movie to completely rewire my brain, but I do expect it to be able to tell a coherent story, which is where The Departed clearly fails. It also doesn't help that The Departed feels more like a mishmash of greatest hits of Scorsese cliches rather then a stand alone piece of quality film making. I'd just rather see him earn the award rather then just snagging a lifetime achievement award a decade early.

 

So there.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[DuWayne Steurer]

Been a while.......

 

Even though I've saw Casino Royale at the theatre, I rented it this weekend anyways. And I liked it just as much. I'm not really analytical of a movie at the theater, I'm just there to be entertained. I really liked this film. Craig is a fantastic Bond, and he did a wonderful job (in my opinion of course) of portraying the "rookie greenhorn" Bond. The plot in this one is much darker and has a lot less "one liner" type humor than the Pierce Brosnan Bonds. The movie seems a bit disjointed, in that the main plot is more or less wrapped up a good 45 minutes before the end, but the end makes sense in that it really helps develop the Bond persona, and gives some insight into his character.

 

I didn't expect to like Stranger Than Fiction, but I did. I guess you must know that you shouldn't expect any Will Ferrel type humor in this one, as it's really nothing close to a comedy. Although I can say I liked the movie, Will Ferrell seemed wasted in the role. He's the last guy I'd cast as a person who has absolutely no sense of humor. Alas, that's just me.

 

Lastly, this one has a bit of back story. Way back when I was a wee lad of 12 or 13, and my brother 10, (I believe this is either 87 or 88 this happened) we were driving past County Stadium one fine summer morning, when we saw a sign that advertised a need for extras for a major Hollywood movie shoot. Of course, unless you live under a rock, you know this is the movie Major League. They filmed a pile of the opening day scenes, and a bunch of Wild Thing "strikeout" scenes. This involved piling everyone in behind the plate, and jumping up and cheering as the batter whiffs. In the last strikeout, you can clearly see my little brother and myself in the front row jump up and throw our arms up (little brother wearing a backwards ball cap) in earnest. We were talking this weekend about my silver screen debut (and only appearance, thus far), and realized my son had never seen the movie. Being a big baseball fan, we figured it was mandatory, so when we rented movies, we also picked this one up.

 

Now, having seen it only on tv for at least the last 10 years, I had forgotten all about the massive, massive amount of F-bombs and general vulgarity this movie contained. I can think of only South Park that might have more dropped F-bombs. Now this doesn't bother me, but maybe not appropriate for a 12 year old kid!

 

Anyways, I'm biased, and a homer (Uecker!), but this movie really stands the test of time, despite the obligatory overuse of every sports cliche in the book.

[DuWayne Steurer]

The wife and kids wanted to see Eragon tonight.

 

 

Yeesh......... That's all I have to say.

 

Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad. (Maybe it was). Sure seemed like the people in charge of this figured if it looked enough like Lord of the Rings, with certain plot similarities, that movie watchers wouldn't notice what a craptastical movie it was.

[jwaltz]

My roommate read Eragon and the second book in the series Eldest and enjoyed those two books. They weren't deep or thought provoking but they were entertaining enough. This past week he watched the movie of Eragon. He absolutely hated it. He said it was the worst adaptation of a book he has ever seen. It was also one of the worst movies he has ever seen. Luckily I didn't watch it with him. He was pretty mad. He doesn't think anybody could have done a worse job. I don't think I'll ever watch it.

[iluvlamp]

Quote:

---

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

---

 

PCU, to me, is the best college movie since Animal House. George Clinton founded Parliment/Funkadelic!!! That man has more talent in one of his fake braids than the Goo Goo Dolls.

[panthernick]

I see the Horrorfest movies are coming out tomorrow......anyone see any of these and have an opinion? I love horror movies, but I see these movies have been getting slammed by the people rating them on Amazon.com. Any opinions?

[homer]

Saw Brick finally....it's saving grace was its originality. These were suburban white kids talking like Mike Hammer - that fact kept sticking with me as I watched and I couldn't shake it. It was really well made, but I don't think I'll be able to defend it so vehemently as other people can. Good rental is about as much praise as I can heap - maybe I need to watch it again.

[PeaveyFury]

I don't chime in a lot to this thread, as I'm usually about a year behind the theatrical/DVD releases because of time constraints and such, but I wanted to chime in on a few movies I've caught recently that didn't get a lot of play in this thread:

 

16 Blocks

 

This movie seems to have flown under everybody's radar, and I enjoyed it. Not much of a plot or at least not a well-developed one, but in a chase-type movie, that's generally unnecessary. Probably worth a look if you've missed it like a lot of people have.

 

United 93

 

This movie was so amazingly done, it's a real shame it wasn't further recognized last year. The use of no major actors was quite effective, as the viewer sees the people involved as just ordinary people, instead of ie Nicholas Cage playing a police man in the other movie about the events. In fact, many of the airline people in the film were actually airline people in real life, not actors. The film was a bit choppy and frantic, but I think that was intentional by the production team to try and convey the chaos and franticness of the events and what was happening behind the scenes. A thoroughly emotional film, and I found myself on the edge of my seat rooting for the passengers as they made their frantic dash for the cockpit and almost desperately hoping they'd make it and save the plane, despite knowing full well what the outcome was going to be. Kind of eerie for me, as I was about 20-30 miles away from the 93 crash site like 10 days after the tragedy.

 

And also saw Capote this week. I found myself enjoying this movie quite a bit for the first hour or so and thought it was quite interesting. But after the inmates moved to death row, it took a very dark turn and really turned into a chilling movie. I thought the last 45 minutes or so dragged on and on, and at one point it really felt like you wanted to just smack Truman upside the head because of the way he was behaving. After seeing the film, I'm very understanding of why Hoffman won the Oscar, as his performance was fantastic, but the film really left something to be desired in the 2nd half.

[diomedeh2]

Fargo

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

 

Man, comments like this always baffle me. Fargo is probably on my short list for all time fav's. I think it's absolutely stunning.

 

Recently saw Fast Food Nation. I wasn't a big fan. One of those films that's really just preaching to the choir, I think. I fully support the concept of the film and the hope that there's enough out there to change the way we think about our food sourcing, but I feel like it was just one of those over the top films that tries to scare you into that belief system.

[Team Canada]

10 Items or Less

 

Short and sweet (70 min), it's a small film about Morgan Freeman (playing himself) getting dropped off at a grocery store in LA to do some research for a possible upcoming role. While there he befriends one of the checkers (Paz Vega, who for some reason I thought was Salma Hayek until the credits), and after realizing he's stranded there, he persuades her to give him a ride. The remainder of the movie revolves around a job interview that she has to go to first.

 

As someone once said, Morgan Freeman could make reading an encylopedia sound enthralling, and this is no exception. The "actor out in the real world" theme makes for a lot of laughs, especially a hysterical sequence at Target (and a revisiting during the credits).

 

I hadn't heard of this movie before watching it, but it made for an enjoyable hour plus.

[Fatter than Joey]

And also saw Capote this week.

 

I liked this as well -- I thought it was interesting more from the aspect of the history/background of "In Cold Blood", than being a biography on Capote.

 

I thought 16 Blocks was decent as well.

[GAME05]

Paz Vega, who for some reason I thought was Salma Hayek until the credits

 

ha ha. I rented the movie, had to stop it :15 in and ff to the end credits just to be sure it wasn't Selma Hayek, too.

[RobertR]

For Your Consideration

 

I was disappointed. Perhaps it was because they were too close to the material, but all I got out of the film was "actors are shallow creatures". Hardly a new insight. There are good performances, notably by Catherine O'Hara and Harry Shearer, but there's nothing substantial to bounce off of. Add to it the excessive number of awards shows limits the impact of the Oscars nowadays and the central premise is unrealistic in any terms.

 

And, maybe it was just my household, but the audio synchronization seemed off which was distracting.

 

Thank You For Smoking

 

Pretty much a pitch perfect black comedy. Extremely focussed and well acted by Aaron Eckhart. I like movies which revolve around people being good at their jobs and making it the story around a tobacco industry lobbyist is too juicy a target to hit any number of points of willful ignorance and hypocrisy, by all sides. A nice little gem.

 

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

 

I laughed hard. Primarily because there's an actual plot there and not just Sacha Baron Cohen making other people look bad (although there is some of that). A lot of the time, his character is the butt of the joke. And stuff like naked men fighting in and out of a hotel room is in completely bad taste and yet funny.

 

and, out in theaters

 

Hot Fuzz

 

A pitch perfect, affectionate send up of action films. Using English cops as the protagonists makes it fresh because an American style cop doing his own thing is decidedly out of place. Add in an editing style that's very reminiscent of Tony Scott/Michael Bay, homages to movies from Bad Boys to Mad Max to High Plains Drifter to The Wicker Man to Chinatown ("Forget it Nick, it's Sandford") to Point Break, among others, and this is a love letter to movie fans.

 

Beyond the homage/parody aspects, the script is very tight. Lines and situations set up early in the film are called back later to often hilarious effect. It's probably a better script than Shaun of the Dead. And the acting is terrific throughout. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have the potential to be one of the great comedic duos of the next decade.

 

Robert

[Team Canada]

I was disappointed.

 

 

I agree, my wife and I were pretty underwhelmed by it. We certainly laughed in places, but it wasn't anything memorable.

[DuWayne Steurer]

(Man, this thread hasn't bumped in a while)

 

Lot's of movies come out that you hear and read are "can't miss" good. I listen to what people say, I read IMDB and other sites to see what's being called a good movie. I know what shows have buzz around them. I make sure I check these movies out. I'd also like to think I'm a reasonably smart guy. If there's a message, or agenda, or a political commentary, I'll usually *get it*.

 

Sometimes though, you're so caught up in the hype, that a movie that turns out to be "pretty good" is a disappointment because you expected more.

 

So with all the hype about what a great show Pan's Labyrinth is, we decided to give it a rent. At the end, I could only wonder why this movie got the buzz that it did. Yes, it was visually stunning at times, but in this day and age, any movie with a decent budget is going to look good. CGI isn't that big a deal anymore. So onto the problems with this movie.

 

1.) The gore. I'm not turned off by gore, but I know a lot are. I didn't think they needed to go over the top as much as they did to display what a despicable character the Captain was.

 

2.) Predictability. I think the hallmark of a *great* movie is one that keeps you guessing, but this really stayed on the track the entire way.

 

3.)Lack of interpretability. I think another thing great movies do is make you think about how things happen, or if they did at all. Yes, there's some gray area about the reality of Ofelia's fantasy world, but that's about it, and that's not really a new concept. (Yes, I know everything in cinema at this point is borrowed from somewhere else)

 

In the end, I was left feeling like I didn't get what was advertised. I think it was a decent movie, but on first viewing, I don't feel like I enjoyed it as much as I could have if the expectations weren't so high.

 

So, the wife and kids also rented Arthur and the Invisibles which I didn't even plan to watch, as I'm not a big fan at all of anything animated, but I found this to be a pretty decent movie. Maybe a little creepy when the character voiced by Madonna is flirting with a character voiced by an 11 year old boy, but whatever.

 

Happily N'ever After. Let's just say if you rent this, you'll be pissed. Terrible movie. I'm betting most people know that going in with Freddie Prinz Jr. being one of the main voices.