DVD Rental Day (2004 - 2010)

[mothershipconnection]

I just got an email from Blockbuster informing me that the $17.99 plan I have is no longer offered. Now, you only get 5 exchanges at the store per month at that price, or you can still get unlimited but it's $25. I'm not thrilled about this.

[homer]

Has anyone seen "The Bridge" (the doc about Golden Gate jumpers)? If so, what should I watch next: Friedmans or "The Bridge"?

I just watched The Bridge last night. It was a haunting, scary, depressing, terrific movie. A guy setup cameras on both sides of the Golden Gate Bridge and filmed from dawn to dusk for a year. His crew was asked to film anyone acting 'suspiciously' and they caught several people actually committing suicide. It sounds kind of wrong and voyeuristic, but they all had the coast guard and bridge patrol on speed dial if anyone climbed the railing. They were able to save a few lives in the process. The ones they didn't save were people that didn't hesitate after climbing over the railing. But the focus of the movie isn't so much on people jumping off the bridge but what drives people to suicide - whether it's mental illness, severe depression, etc. etc. One young guy jumped but lived to tell the tale - he spoke about his bipolar disorder and how it was so out of control he just couldn't handle it. The sobering thing was that he said as soon as he jumped he wished he hadn't done it. A fascinating film.

[Katuluu]

One thing I found fascinating about "The Bridge" was how many of the friends and families were relatively ok that these people took their lives. They knew of their various struggles with mental illness or physical issues and in general it seemed like they were relieved that their friends/family were finally at peace. Difficult movie to watch but just a great documentary.

[TooLiveBrew]

Just finished watching Downfall, or, auf Deutsch, Der Untergang. It's a re-telling of Hitler's final days in his Berlin bunker. It's in German with subtitles - quite well-translated, imho (a meager 4 yrs. in H.S. - loooong ago), and is a simply stellar film. If you can make it through the tense subject matter, it is simply spellbinding, and anyone that can make it past the 1 1/2 hr. mark simply could not describe anything but being glued to his/her seat with fascination, horror, and hope.

 

The casting is stellar, and I'd describe the movie as more of an ensemble cast than a pic focused soley on Hitler himself. The actor who played Adolf Hitler (better than I ever could have guessed/hoped), Bruno Ganz, actually turned down the role of Oskar Schindler in Spielberg's 1993 epic. The acting, writing, direction, etc. are superb, and I recommend this movie to anyone with even the slightest interst in history. There is no way I could give this movie anything less than four stars. Incredible.

[RobertR]

A couple of movies I've been hoping to catch for awhile.

 

The Fountain

 

Aronofsky's long delayed film about searching for eternal life and accepting death. Told as a series of three stories, one set in the past with a conquistador searching for the Tree of Life/fountain of youth, one set in the present about a cancer scientist obsessively searching for a cure for his dying wife, and one set in the far future with a futuristic astronaut journeying with the Tree of Life to a far nebula. It's very, very earnest. Perhaps too earnest for its own good as it underlines that it has serious thoughts about serious issues and it's going to treat them seriously. That said, it's well acted by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz (and Ellen Burstyn in a small role), it's beautiful to look at, and it's quite heartfelt. The ending is more than a bit esoteric, but I think on a whole the film is quite good, albeit it won't be to everybody's taste.

 

Zodiac

 

Maybe the best American film for the year to date. It pulls off a nice seque from a film about the hunt for a killer, to a film about obsession, paranoia, the search for truth, and dealing with uncertainty. It's thrilling, dark, atmospheric, intelligent, and well acted.

 

Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, and Jake Gyllenhal are all quite good as they lead their own investigations into the real life case and get sucked into the mystery. Mostly, not for the better. I understand that there's a longer director's cut coming out, but I don't see much reason to wait for it. You get a complete story with as much closure as you're going to get, the story is structured very well, and every scene is relevant and has a purpose. Really, I think this is David Fincher's best movie. Unlike some of his other movies, I get the sense that Fincher knows precisely what he wants to say and how he wants to say it in Zodiac. It's focussed.

 

Also, seen recently at the movies.

 

My Kid Could Paint That, Lars and the Real Girl, and Sleuth. I can recommend the former two without much hesitation. I have full fledged reviews over at Al's Ramblings. The new version of Sleuth is a movie that's less than the sum of its parts, Harold Pinter, Michael Caine, Jude Law, and Kenneth Branagh, and pitched for the back row of the theater. The third act really doesn't work. It's not without points of interest and the running time of 85 minutes is a good choice, but it's more of a movie for starting a conversation than one to actually sit down and enjoy.

 

Robert

[homer]

I'm really looking forward to the new Coen brothers movie. It's getting terrific reviews.

[Katuluu]

Sleuth is outright terrible. Please don't waste your hard earned money or valuable time on it. Ever.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with Robert's take on Zodiac. Excellent film that is easily one of the best of the year.

[Principessa21]

I'm really looking forward to the new Coen brothers movie. It's getting terrific reviews.

Me too! Did you see the unrated trailer?

 

RE: The Bridge

I watched it, and Friedmans, not long after my other post. Friedmans was a good documentary, but it just left me with a lot of information and feeling very, very sorry for the mother. And even though I thought the filmmaker did a good job showing both sides, I was still suprised to read that he believed they were innocent. The Bridge, on the other hand, was just fantastic. I found it very touching, and I loved how it was shot. I'd recommend it to almost anyone, even if they're not a documentary fan.

 

I did not like The Fountain at all. The beginning was good but then it just lost me. Though my boyfriend hated the first part, and liked the second. I know two people who love the movie, but still I would have a hard time recommending it to anyone.

 

I just saw this little known movie that was just released on DVD, Murder Party, and really enjoyed it. It's kind of a B-movie, slapstick horror gorefest. Another movie I recently saw was The Tin Drum. It's supposed to be a modern classic. I found it interesting, though the child porn scenes kinda bugged me out. Oh, and if you like the genre, have to agree with TLB and recommend Downfall.

[RobertR]

Halloween weekend.

 

THE MUMMY

The 1930s Universal version. I've seen it before, but some thoughts. It's a slow movie, even if it's only about 80 minutes long, but it fits the title character and it has plenty of atmosphere. Karloff's makeup is great and his performance is quite good too. For those who haven't seen it, the conception of the Mummy owns more to Dracula than it does to the clumping, bandaged monster who forms the popular conception in popular culture. In fact, the Mummy plays more than a bit like a cash in on the popular Dracula of the period, only I'd say that the Mummy is the better movie, less stage bound, a better female lead, better sets (at least once you leave Transylvania in the earlier movie), better humor, and a motivation for the monster, he wants to revive his dead love, that adds an extra dimension of sympathy and romanticism. BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA may owe as much to THE MUMMY as it does to Bram Stoker's book.

 

DAWN OF THE DEAD

 

Romero's 1978 original. Although dated, it's still a film that stands up to time. And helped define a subgenre. Fun, gory, scary, and rife with social commentary.

 

Robert

[RobertR]

Bringing it up to date.

 

Poltergeist

 

Part of my Halloween weekend. It's still interesting on a number of levels. Bringing the haunted house story out of the old gothic houses and into contemporary suburbia is a noteworthy achievement. And it's a film with a lot to say about the contemporary suburban family. Add on to the fact that it's the rare horror movie that manages to scare without actually killing anybody and it still stands out as unique.

 

That said, the third act feels tacked on to me so that they could have a big special effects laden climax. And the explanation doesn't really add anything to me either, as it doesn't explain why this family is targeted. Still, holds up fairly well.

 

Knocked Up

 

It's funny, has a story, is well acted, and is generally intelligent. It's a good movie. That said, I have enough quibbles and criticisms that I don't think it's a great comedy by any stretch. Most of the subplots and supporting character turns don't lead anywhere and just peter out/are forgotten/have no payoff. I don't think Katherine Heigl, despite good work, has a particularly interesting character arc either. A more balanced focus would have led to a better movie, IMO.

 

I purchased Ratatouille although I haven't rewatched the movie yet. I do think it's one of the best movies of the year though. "Lifted" is a very good short film which played in the theater with the feature. Also, "Our Friend the Rat" is a terrific short subject, explaining the history of rats, and mixing many styles of animation. It's a real gem. Not much else for extras though.

 

Robert

[RobertR]

A few more

Yojimbo

Always one of my favorites. I love Kurosawa's deconstruction of the western and gangster genre. Darkly comic, Toshiro Mifune literally saves a town from a continuing feud by killing just about everyone in it. Where the one act of charity almost proves to be his undoing. Flawless cinematography, a terrific pace, great, lightning fast action, and a memorable showdown, sword vs. pistol at high noon, it's a classic. And, maybe directly responsible for Clint Eastwood's career (and perhaps Letters from Iwo Jima).

Transformers

I admit to being perplexed by just what to say about this movie. What can you say about a movie that aims low, but hits it's marks? The special effects are good, the action is comprehensible for once in a Michael Bay film, and Shia LeBeouf goes above and beyond by actually acting engaged with the material. That said, there's nothing beneath the the surface here and giant robots fighting with each other. I suppose it's as good as a Transformers movie was likely to be, take of that what you will.

Less than 48 hours after watching Transformers I watched a preview screening of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which is one of the best films of the year.The perfect antidote for a movie lacking in substance.

Robert

[DuWayne Steurer]

Action night for rentals.

 

War was alright. The action sequences are about what you'd expect considering the main billed actors, but the story line was hard to follow, just about until the end when there's an "oh yeah, now it makes sense" revelation, but until that point, you really just keep scratching your head trying to figure out just what's going on. That's not "fun movie watching", in my opinion.

 

On the other hand, Shoot 'em Up, was a very fun, inventive, well.... shoot 'em up movie that certainly seems to parody the Hollywood notion that good guys never miss what they're aiming at, and the bad guys never hit. Hard to explain, but this is certainly not a run of the mill action flick that barely holds your attention and you've forgotten about it 10 minutes afterwards. Definately give this one a go.

[Ando Calrissian]

The wife and I spent last night catching up on a couple of much hyped films: The Bourne Ultimatum and Super Bad.

 

The Bourne Ultimatum was just great. I don't know what else to say about it really; it was a great last installment for the franchise.

 

Super Bad was Super Disappointing. It had a couple of good moments, but that was about it. I found Jonah Hill's performance to be particularly annoying (which is realize was part of the purpose for his character). He just played the same character he did in Knocked Up bit with a lot more lines and screen time.

 

Tonight though, we'll hopefully see a good one as we've also rented Once.

[RobertR]

I'll follow up.

The Trouble With Harry

Watched this again for the first time in about 20 years. It's one of Hitchcock's few dabbles into straight out comedy. Overall I ended up feeling that history is exactly right about this movie, it's entertaining enough but not to be confused with Hitchcock's many masterpieces.

It's notable on a number of levels. This is Hitchcock's first film with composer Bernard Herman and it's a really strong score. It's also the debut of Shirley Maclaine and she comes off well too. And it's a very good looking film which captures the time and also has an authentic and colorful outdoor feel to it, even when they did transfer shooting indoors. The problem though is that it's very slight. There's really only one joke, nobody is particularly worked up about Harry being dead, and the action principally consists of burying, unburying, and reburying Harry. There's a good gag or two there but not enough to compare to the really superior comedies of the time. And John Forsythe as the male lead simply isn't interesting or charismatic enough to make up for the comedy shortfalls.

Superbad

Yeah, I don't get what the big deal is about this movie either. I liked Michael Cera and the adventures of McLovin (illogical as they proved to be), but that's enough to make it a tolerable rental not some instant classic. Particularly since beyond Jonah Hill, everybody else in the movie was basically a cipher. Particularly the love interests of the movie, the coda was an insult to any claims of reality. Maybe I've gotten old, but the only true note that was struck was the friendship of the main characters and the strain of going off to different colleges.

Once

I watched this Thursday night. Although vastly different in style the two movies that I was reminded of were SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS and BEFORE SUNRISE and I didn't consider it inferior to either. It's a really simple formula, boy meets girl, they fall for each other, and they push each other to get their lives in order, but the two leads are terrific (especially for non-actors), the low budget digital cinematography works to give it a very realistic setting without artifice, and the songs that really tell the story are great. Sometimes simple stories are the best. I hate to use the term "perfect" but I can't imagine how you could change a single thing about the movie to make it better without spoiling what works so well in the first place.

Robert

[Team Canada]

The problem I had with Once is that where most movies are visual experiences that happen to have a sound track, it was an audial experience that happened to have a video track. I love the soundtrack, but I thought it was more a vehicle to get to the next song than any sort of strong plot.

[homer]

I watched Lucky Number Slevin over the weekend and it was a good rental. I wouldn't say it's one of the best of the year or anything but a decent choice for a night at home with popcorn. It seemed like the filmmakers were going for a hybrid between Snatch and The Usual Suspects but could not equal the style of the former and the intelligence of the latter. I had guessed most of the ending 'ah ha!' moments about midway through the picture but was still surprised by a few turn of events.

[brettac1]

http://www.filmforum.org/films/oldjoy/OldJoyKinoposter.jpg

 

Finally got around to watching "Old Joy", and I loved it. It was beautiful all the way around - imagery, score, everything. I think pretty much every guy has been in the shoes of both main characters at one point or another in a friendship (aside from the massage in the hot-tub part).

[DuWayne Steurer]

This thread needs more play. This is where I get a lot of my rental ideas from.

 

Anyways, with a crappy weather weekend, and nothing else to do, we rented a buttload of movies that I just feel inclined to share my thoughts on.

 

Meet the Robinsons. Liked it. Don't like cartoon movies, but this one was well done. Funny for kids and adults, and it moves along at a nice pace. It gets where it's going without a lot of nonsense slowing it down.

 

Dragon Wars. Kids pick. We heard this was a terrible movie. Guess we should have listened closer. The CGI isn't even that good for today's big screen standards.

 

Bourne Ultimatum. Great movie. Wrapped up the series in a neat little package, along with all the usual stuff that made the first 2 movies great. ONE problem I had with this movie (SPOILER ALERT) is the part where Bourne texts Landy and asks her to meet him at the park, most of the other agents left the building. I immediately said to my wife, "He's clearing them out so he can get in". Now, I'm no super-spy or secret agent, and if I knew it was coming, they should have. I realize, it's a movie, suspend your disbelief, but one of the hallmarks of this series has been a very gritty, dark, semi-realistic spygame opus, and it really fell down at this one point. Other than that minor gripe though, I enjoyed it a lot.

 

Stardust. I didn't expect much of this one. Most fantasy movies based on books get too full of themselves, think too big, and end up having plot holes that cant be covered in a 2 hour film. This one didn't do that. Fun movie, with just enough seriousness to keep it from becoming a slapstick comedy. I must add that Robert DeNiro as a gay, cross-dressing pirate is fantastic.

 

3:10 to Yuma. Loved it. I've always been a fan of "modern westerns", and this one didn't disappoint at all.

[molitor fan]

Once

My favorite movie of the last few years. I was totally blown away by the heart of this movie. As Robert said, it was seamless. Made in 17 days for $130,000 the singers/songwriters of this film were outstanding. Only 18 at the time of the film, the main actress is dazzling, and Glen Hansard could not have done a better job with his role. Loved this movie.

Zodiac

Very Long. Very good. Very Smart.

[mothershipconnection]

I went to Blockbuster and they were out of my top 4 or 5 choices (I miss the old days of guaranteed in-stock movies), but I was bored and was trading in my online movies, so the rentals were free. I and ended up with an Elisha Cuthbert double feature: Captivity and He was a Quiet Man.

 

Captivity was just horrible, as the term "torture porn" doesn't do it justice - it's just an awful waste of film.

 

"He was a Quiet Man" was actually really good, IMO. Christian Slater was very good and the plot was interesting. I'd definitely recommend it.

 

Also, my fondness of David Koechner blindly led me to "The Comebacks", a horrible, horrible movie that made "Date Movie" look like an acceptable film. I guess I was expecting a "Necessary Roughness" type of football comedy, but it was just an awful parody film.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Just watched Day Watch, and boy did I like it. The first movie was just okay in my book, stylistic and sharp but kinda two dimensional. But the end of the second movie is just transcendent. I actually wish they just end it there rather than coming up with a third film.

 

Love, love, loved it.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Just watched Day Watch, and boy did I like it. The first move was just okay in my book, stylistic and sharp but kinda two dimensional. But the end of the second movie is just transcendent. I actually wish they just end it there rather than coming up with a third film.

 

Love, love, loved it.

 

That's great news for me. I liked Night Watch, but felt that it kind of dragged on at points. Certainly not enough to dissuade me from seeing Day Watch, but I felt it could have been more than what it was. Your review is going to force me to get Day Watch on my On Demand one of these nights now.

 

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Don't get me wrong. It's still muddled and oddly paced, it's just the solution makes every sense in the world. Also, Bekmambetov knows how to use CGI in his favor rather than his detriment. Perhaps I just haven't seen anything remotely as good in this vein in awhile. It's slightly better than Transformers.

[RobertR]

True Grit

 

Catching up on some older movies. The principal reason to see this one is for John Wayne's performance which is quite good. It's not up to his performances in The Searchers or Red River and his award for this role probably rightly could be considered a career award, but it's likable and naturalistic and stands out in contrast to the young leads around him. Glen Campbell in particular is quite wooden. There's some nice cinematography and a good climax too, but it's not a classic.

 

My Neighbor Totoro

 

For various reasons, I ended up watching one of Miyazaki's earlier animated movies. The animation is gorgeous, the imagination on display in character creation is impressive, and the word cute hardly begins to describe it. Too bad there's no real story here, just a series of vignettes.

 

Across the Universe

There's some impressive numbers in this movie, but it's really for people that are unfamiliar with The Beatles. And The Sixties. The main problem is that it tries to cram the whole Beatles catalog of hits into the movie to the detriment of the main story. As far as I can tell the only reason there's a character named Prudence in the movie is for the song Dear Prudence to be sung at some point. It tries to hard, by at least half, to stuff in enough references, the main characters are named Jude and Lucy, the major supporting characters are named Maxwell who has a hammer at one point, alas not silver, and Sadie, who's indeed sexy, and it tries to hit all of the major points of the sixties. There's too much going on and there's no time in between songs to let the characters breathe. The songs themselves alternate between being completely random and too on the nose.

 

As a series of music videos, it's hit and miss. Some do really work. As a movie as a whole that wants to have a narrative, it's a complete mess.

 

Michael Clayton

 

Saw it in the theater and see that it's out on DVD. It's well acted and the dialogue aims for more than the standard thriller, shooting for the quality of NETWORK during some speeches, but it's really just dressed up John Grisham and the ending is ridiculously pat. Not to mention the villainous corporation thing has been done to death. Clooney, Wilkinson, and Swinton (perhaps most impressively) give fine performances and give it a gravity that might otherwise be lacking. I don't think it's a Best Picture quality film, but I liked it with reservations.

 

Robert

[Katuluu]

Day Watch is far better then Transformers.