DVD Rental Day (2004 - 2010)

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Hey, you know what I finally got around to watching?

 

Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West and good lord was it AWESOME. It's absolutely everything that a Tarantino film isn't. I had passed before because I was always rather upset that Fistful of Dollars and it's sequels were sloppier versions of Yojimbo, yet more widely acclaimed, loved and watched.

 

Also since I just caught a good chunk of it on cable again, I would like to mention that I feel that Sky High may be one of the most underrated film of the Aughts.

 

#3 on my all time superhero films behind Incredibles and Spider-Man 2

[RobertR]

About time you got around to Once Upon a Time in the West. Leone is no Kurosawa, but he's quite good in his own right. You might want to check out Once Upon a Time in America.

 

Stuff, I've seen lately.

 

The Wolfman

There's stuff in here I like. The handsome art direction. Some of the atmosphere. The monster design. Hugo Weaving. The insane asylum sequence. But, in the end, a whole bunch just doesn't work. The mystery is too obvious. Lawrence Talbot isn't sympathetic enough. The love story doesn't really work. And instead of trying to stay classy, if goes for a full on monster rally style climax. Too bad as I have an awful lot of affection for the original.

 

Where the Wild Things Are

Lots of stuff I like, but in the end I just thought it was too obvious and didn't hit the right balance of whimsical to go along with the "growing up is hard, but necessary" theme.

 

Zombieland

A fun romp, but it's no Shaun of the Dead. The biggest issues likely being that the third act makes little sense and it lacks a sense of danger. Woody Harrelson is a riot though and there's a killer cameo, but it's a trifle.

 

Kick-Ass

I liked it, but ultimately think it doesn't quite know what it's trying to say, substituting style and cleverness for a coherent whole. Then again, that's Mark Millar for you. Big Daddy and Hit Girl are simultaneously the best and worst things that happen to the movie. (Nic Cage is a riot though, especially when he pulls out his Adam West impression.) It's fun, it's colorful in the right way, there are good performances, the action is well staged, but I don't think it really stands up to closer examination.

 

Hot Tub Time Machine

Hit and miss for me. A big miss is that they really fail to get the 80s setting right. Yeah, it's a comedy, but something like Back to the Future actually paid attention to when it was set beyond cheap gags. The characters are all underdeveloped and the actors are relied upon to make some spotty material work. Workmanlike would be my take on it.

 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I'm not as wild about it as some, but I think it's a really solid film with a great performance by Noomi Rapace as the title character. The setting of the story is important, as the story plays upon themes of hidden family/national secrets and cultural misogyny, and the harsh seasons and lighting are reflected in some of the harshness of the story. It's a story that's very of the place, and I really liked that. In general, I liked the mystery that was set up, although the steps to the solution seemed contrived in places. I'm not sure if Lisbeth Salander's character really makes sense either. Still, a really solid, interesting film.

 

Robert

[Team Canada]

Watched The Informant last week and enjoyed it.  Best part is Matt Damon's character's running internal monologue.

[pitchleague]

Finally watched 2012 this weekend. I enjoyed it for what it was--a popcorn flick with lots of explosions, etc.

 

Kind of bugged me with the ending, that everything would be just hunky-dorey. Plus, I take it that the giant sun eruptions that started the whole catastrophe just stopped as suddenly as they started? I found it funny that a spot in Western Wisconsin was selected as the new South Pole, though. I would have thought someplace hot, like Arizona or Death Valley would have been funnier--Wisconsin's always cold anyway.

[nsimps]

I'm a little late to the party, so I know some of these might have been discussed already:

 

Black Dynamite - Very funny movie. The intentional snafus and most of the dialogue is great.

 

Zombieland - As stated earlier there a some great scenes including a tremendous cameo, but other parts were very long and drawn out.

 

Cannibal: The Musical: Very disappointing for a Trey Parker film but it has some great moments.

[RobertR]

I'll add [Rec] to my recently watched list. One of the better modern horror films I've seen recently, although if you have an aversion to first person "shakey cam" you'll probably have problems with this movie. It's one of those "people trapped in a location, things get bad" setups, only this time with zombies/infected people. It's fast paced, has a likable lead, only really slows down briefly in the middle to get to know some of the characters, has some genuine scares (and some cheap jump scares), what I think is an interesting twist as to the source of the zombies, and a really good ending. Remade as Quarantine, which I understand was nowhere near as good.

 

Robert

[Katuluu]

[Rec] 2 is even better.

[RobertR]

[Rec] 2 is even better.

So I've heard. I hear rumors that it's going to get a theatrical release in October. Even so, I expect I'll just wait until it makes it's way to Netflix. I've got plenty of horror movies in line for Halloween anyways.

 

Robert

 

[Katuluu]

If you can see it theatrically its a must. That film would play so well on the big screen.

[MJLiverock]

RobertR

 

Great reminder about Once Upon a Time in the West. I bought the DVD years ago out of a $5 bin at Best Buy after seeing it once in college and loving it. It is long but the film is a classic that never seems to get a lot of mention. Now I just have to find the time to watch it again.

 

RE: Girl with the Dragon Tatoo - - Did you read the book first? I just finished the book and must admit being slightly disappointed in it. I don't want to say too much for those on here who haven't read or seen it but I found the first half of the book was really slow with way too much mundane facts and detail without moving the story along. The plot was fairly predictable and there is a problem with the way the book is set up giving away a major clue too early on the ending. It wasnt' the worst book I have read but I just didn't feel like I was reading an incredible work of fiction either.

[RobertR]

EdgarDiazRocks gets the credit for the Once Upon a Time in the West reminder.

 

I haven't read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It's pretty low on my list, honestly. But, the general concensus is that the books aren't great, although they do capture the new millenium well and Lisbeth Salander is rightly seen as a distinct modern heroine.

 

Robert

[heresrobin]

I just want to echo nsimps' shoutout to Black Dynamite. One of my favorite movies of the last year. I think it deserved a lot more pub than it got as it rises above your typical spoof. A lot of love went into making this movie. Michael Jai White deserves some kind of award for his performance. His delivery and his dialogue are major sources of the laughs in this movie.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

"If you can see it theatrically its a must. That film would play so well on the big screen. "

 

Unless it's playing in 3D or on my phone, i'ts not cool.

[RobertR]

To bring up an earlier question about English films being remade in other countries, this fall you can see A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop, which is a remake of Blood Simple.

 

Robert

[MJLiverock]

Sorry to give the props to the wrong poster. EdgarDiaz thanks for reminding me of Once Upon a Time in the West.

 

I do agree with RobertR, the Lisbeth Sanders character is an interesting lead and definately not a shrinking violet type female lead.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Boondock Saints II

Ugh,
where to start. At face value, this was an ok movie. But when
comparing it to Boondock Saints, it's like they took EVERYTHING about
the first movie that made it a cult classic, stuck to the EXACT same
formula, and while they were going through the motions, took great pains
to make fun of the source material.

The end result was a
schlocky mess with a confusing plot, and a bunch of 'insider jokes'
obviously meant to give the movie an almost slapstick/light hearted
feel.

Sure, there were some 'comedic' moments in the first film,
but the comedy bits were more like realistic moments of levity a person
might inject into an otherwise extraordinary situation.

In
this movie, the hokey nonsense was the focus, and when they tried to
shift the focus to the more dramatic parts, it just fell really flat.

Long winded movie review, but I'm horribly disappointed in this film, after being a huge fan of the first one.

5/10

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[Team Canada]

Watched Brothers last week and thought I'd mention that if anyone saw it and wasn't impressed, the original Danish version is worth checking out; I thought it was much better.

[homer]

Now that school is over for the quarter, I've been catching up on my Netflix queue. Here are some I've watched recently:

 

Chaser

Korean film about an ex-cop pimp whose ladies start to go missing. Pretty solid thriller with some good performances. There are some holes in the story and Act II was kind of slow (the movie could have probably been about 30 minutes shorter) but all in all it kept my attention. Some solid camera work and nice gore for those that are into that kind of thing.

 

Dead Man's Shoes

Paddy Considine (was the reporter that gets assassinated in one of the Jason Bourne movies) co-wrote and starred in this brutal drama about a British soldier who returns to his small home town to seek revenge on a gang of thugs that tormented his mentally challenged brother. Considine is good but not great in his role as vicious heavy. I didn't totally buy into the fact that these guys would have been so fearful of him but that's a minor complaint about his performance. The relationship between Considine and his younger brother is subtle and well written. The scenes in which Considine goes about netting revenge are very well done and extremely creepy. He wants to teach the lads a lesson as he inflicts all sorts of pain on them - both physical and psychological. All in all it's a good picture with a non stereotypical revenge pic ending that wraps things up nicely.

 

The Girl Who Played with Fire

Sequel to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, this is the second installment in the Stieg Larssson thriller trilogy (Tattoo is currently in production for an American release). The film centers around a girl (who plays with fire and has a tattoo) who is framed for the murder of a journalist and his girlfriend just as he is about to bust open a sex slave ring involving some very high profile members of government. Along the way we realize that the murders and the girl are interconnected through a plot line that started in the first movie. All in all this is a good movie although not as successful as the first film. I love seeing the seedy underbelly of Swedish society. The Swedes seem so suburban on the surface - even the thugs - that it makes the violence and macabre nature of their proclivities even more unexpected and strange. There are some really bad performances in this episode and it's not as well crafted as the first but still a solid movie. The final installment comes out on DVD in January.

Pillars of the Earth

This 8 part mini series produced by Tony and Ridley Scott is based on the best selling novel by Ken Follett. I actually read the book about 10 years ago and had no idea this was made into a mini series until i stumbled across it during a Netflix search. The story is based in England in the 12th century where the church and the king (in that order) have absolute power. There's a love story, there's deceit, there's political intrigue, there's grand ambition, there's gore, family secrets, disease, murder, rape, incest.....this thing has it all. At the center is the construction of a cathedral which is very grandiose for its time - groundbreaking in some ways. The book goes into much more detail on cathedral building which was fascinating but the film does a good enough job covering what's necessary. All in all I found this a really good piece of drama. I could have watched all 8 episodes in a night if I had the time. Ian McShane (Deadwood) is his usual awesome self as the power hungry Bishop Waleran - the man who manipulates both sides to protect his secret and propel him up the church's ranks.

The Human Centipede

Yikes.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Finally caught Scott Pilgrim vs the World last night, a movie I was actually excited about before it came out simply because Edgar Wright has two AWESOME movies under his belt and it looked interesting. Sadly I agreed with about every review I read of it, an Interesting "Meh"....

 

I wouldn't say it's Wright's fault 'tho, Michael Cera is TERRIBLE and without charisma in the title role the story falls completely apart.

 

Must give props to Kieran Culkin 'tho, that guy is great in everything I've seen him in.

[homer]

The Secret in Their Eyes

 

This Argentinian film from writer director Juan Jose Campanella is simply brilliant. It's about a retired prosecutor who begins writing a novel about a brutal rape and murder case he worked on 25 years earlier. As he delves further into the mystery he uncovers facts about the case and about himself and his relationship with his former boss that bare striking similarities. It's as if the murder mystery unravels two plot lines. The performances are all top notch, the script is terrific, and cinematography incredible (there's one chase scene shot during a soccer match that had me hitting the rewind button two or three times). All in all this is one of the better films I've seen in several months. Not quite as satisfying a script as The Lives of Others but better performances.

 

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