DVD Rental Day (2004 - 2010)

[brewcrewreview]

I rented "I Trust You To Kill Me" and I thought that was very good.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Gridiron Gang

 

I opened a new membership at Family Video, so I get half price rentals for a month, so I'm taking advantage of it by renting movies I probably wouldn't normally rent.

 

I knew this movie would be full of Hollywood sports movie cliches, and it was. I knew the movie would be full of "good kid turned bad, put in the system and turned good again", and it was. I knew it would have at least a few "inspirational speech" moments, and I knew there'd be a few "tear jerker" moments, and there were. And even though I knew pretty much how this whole thing was going to go, it was still a very good show, from where I sat. Sometimes formula works I guess.

[brewcrewreview]

I actually really enjoyed the Gridiron Gang.

But being a WIAA lincesed high school football referee, the story was very far fetched.

[fstorm1]

More catching up...I suppose there is one thing to be gained be being out on sick leave...

 

Miami Vice-I'm a pretty big fan of Michael Mann, and firmly believe "Heat" is one of the finest America police thrillers ever made, and I've enjoyed all of his films to a certain degree, but I think he misstepped badly with this one. Perhaps it's my bias against Colin Farrell (never seen him give a good performance, his best being Minority Report, and even that was so-so), but almost assuredly it was the writing. I don't think either of the two "heroes"

had anything interesting or deep to say and I developed no emotional attachment to them whatsoever. Not a terrible movie, just not very good.

 

Monster House-I've gotten tired of all the CG animated films coming out these days, and it takes alot for me to even get interested enough in them to rent them (except when my daughter would like to see them), but this was actually pretty good. One of the biggest problems I have with any CGI is motion, and how it tends to look artificial and "slow", especially when whatever is animated is running, but this was very fluid, very nice to look at.

 

The Big White-A very good cast essentially wasted in what turned out to be a fairly lackluster film. At first I was thinking comedy, then not so much, then comedy again, then not so much...well quit screwing around and pick one. Nothing special. This is actually the same way I feel about...

 

The Break Up- I'm a fan of Vince Vaughan, and am man enough in my masculinity to say he's handsome and fun. I'm also a fan of Jennifer Aniston because, well, she's Jennifer Aniston. But this was another lackluster film which couldn't make up it's mind. Sad really when the funniest piece on the disc is the outtake from one of the other characters.

 

King Kong-Peter Jackson's uber long adaptation is apparently much closer to the book than it's 1976 version (yikes), but again, as I felt with all three of the LOTR films, they're too long, feature waaaaaay too many wide panoramic shots, and I failed to develop any actual attachment to the characters, except Kong, which was extremely well realized.

 

Poseidon - Oy vay, even my hero Kurt Russell couldn't save this piece of garbage. As I've mentioned before, attachment to one or more of the characters is important to me (and to alot of other moviegoers), but I've never seen a film where I cared so little about all involved, and how there was no emotional attachment between the characters. Terrible film.

 

Jackass 2- I'm proud that I can be high or lowbrow when it comes to comedy, and I enjoyed much of this sequel, just as I did the first, but I found the "stunts gone wrong" bits considerably funnier than the "gross out" bits.

[twobrewers]

Just a note on Monster House.

 

The name of the town in the movie is "Mayville" The writer is Rob Schrab.

 

Mayville is a town of 5000 people about an hour north of Milwaukee. That was my hometown - and where Rob Schrab is from.

 

Just some trivia for you.

[colbyjack]

Quote:

---

You, Me, and Dupree

 

I was told this movie was laugh out loud funny. It wasn't. It wasn't even *chuckle softly* funny. It's not a bad movie, for a chick flick, but it's not funny, and it doesn't really go anywhere.

---

 

Verbatim, this could be my review of Wedding Crashers.

 

Thank you valpo. Although I think I seem to be one of the few that doesn't find Vince Vaughn funny or charming.

 

My wife and I don't rent movies anymore, relying on HBO for our TV/movie entertainment, but we recently watched Munich which was entertaining (yet a little confusing). I think I need to see it again to soak it all in, but finding three hours to do so isn't easy.

 

I'll give some love for Rome, again, not a rental, but another solid HBO program. Not on the level of The Wire, Six Feet Under or even The Sopranos (which I think is overrated), but it is an entertaining and imaginative interpretation of the time, and has piqued my interest enough to go back and brush up on my Roman history.

[UeckerAddict]

I usually try to rent something that seems hidden on the shelf. A few gems that I've come across:

 

CITY OF GOD Mentioned by Homer earlier. One of the best I've ever seen.

 

PARIS, TEXAS If anyone thought "Eternal Sunshine on the spotless mind" was good, I'd argue this was better.

 

GAME 6 Micheal Keaton as a Red Sox fan on the day of the Buckner game. How could it fail?

 

LIVING IN OBLIVION Steve Buscemi as a B-director who can do nothing right. A modern take on "Ed Wood."

 

BUS 174 Similar to "City of God," but is an actual documentary about a hijacking tragedy in Brazil.

 

TALK RADIO If you're into dialogue this is your chlostrophobic dream. The most unheralded Oliver Stone film, but one of his best.

HAPPINESS ONLY for those with a DARK sense of humor (like me) or hard core Phillip Seymore Hoffman fans.

 

BLOOD SIMPLE The Coens started with a bang.

 

12 ANGRY MEN I never saw the version from the 50s, but the one from the 90s is the best courtroom drama I've ever seen (and there's not even a courtroom. Just a jury room.)

[trouty42]

Ok, I read the thread and didn't see these movies talked about and they are must see's IMO.

 

Glory - Great civil war flick. Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Carey Elwes...story of the 54th Massachusetts regiment made up of all black soldiers and their fight not only in regards to the war, but also for respect and honor as men.

 

The Exorcism of Emily Rose - as far as psycological horror goes...well, I couldn't sleep real well for a couple nights after seeing this one. Just creepy, especially because it's based on real-life events.

 

Others of my faves...

The Big Lebowski - Leave it to the Coen bros to invent a drugged-out hippie private eye. Hilarious.

 

Super Troopers - really funny, and I finally saw Beerfest - another silly fun movie by the same guys.

 

I like David Fincher's flicks, 'tho I haven't seen Alien 3, didn't get into those. Seven, Fight Club (especially Fight Club) and I even liked Panic Room but not as much as the other two.

 

Also, I really liked V for Vendetta - maybe not as mind-blowing as when the original Matrix was released, but like the first Matrix movie I went and saw V three times in the theater.

[Fatter than Joey]

I watched --

 

"The Black Dahlia"

 

This movie was a mess. Probably one of the worst movies I have seen in awhile.

 

They took one of the country's most infamous murders and turned it into a subpar episode of "Crossing Jordan".

 

I watched the DVD extras, hoping to find out more about the history behind the case. All I got to watch was some drivel about how the movie "came together" -- I felt like screaming at the TV "Have you watched this movie, you accomplished nothing that you tried to do".

 

Maybe they watched something on the History Channel and confused it with this movie.

 

Avoid.

[Thats Freakin Sweet]

Jet Li's "Fearless"

 

 

I really enjoyed this flick. It's not as flashy as the usual stuff that's coming from Hong Kong these days, but the story is just as good (if not better). Yes, it's pretty much a 2 hour advertisement for Jin Wu sports, but I can live with that. Every movie has to be about something, after all.

 

If you like martial arts movies, but don't get into the wirework like what you'll see in Hero and Crouching Tiger, you'll probably like this.

 

RoCo, I too really enjoyed this movie. I've always been a fan of Jet Li and have seen all of his foreign and domestic movies, IMO, this is his best. Great cinematography, good story, amazing martial arts. I watched it in Mandarin with the subtitles on and feel this is the best way to watch the film.

 

Crank

 

I am a fan of Jason Statham, so I bought this film. It is wretched, I found nothing in it redeeming in any way, except for Amy Smart.

 

Beerfest

 

The Broken Lizard Comedy troupe makes me laugh, and their latest movie is no different. Just good fun.

[OglivieHomePerm]

Jack@$$ Number 2

Disgusting, vile, hilarious at times. I found it amusing that every time one of the guys would drop his pants for any reason, you could always count on there being at least one festering sore or blister on his backside. Penicillin, anyone?

 

Gridion Gang

I actually enjoyed this movie, despite at least 5 real eye-roll moments. But I guess if you want to watch realistic football, watch a football game, not a movie. It wasn't until the movie was over, and they played actual footage of the real life characters that I realized that this movie should have been a documentary. The "real" Sean Porter has a more commanding screen presence than "the Rock". And I was move moved by the "real" kids than I was by any of the actors.

 

The Descent

I went in with such high hopes for this movie, after being told how scary it was. And it was pretty tense, until the nocturnal cave dwellers started eating everyone. I think this would have been a much better movie had the monsters been downplayed, and the psychological angst of being trapped in a cave had been focused on more.

 

Wicker Man

Don't watch this movie alone, because you need someone to help you make fun of it. Terrible performances all around. I've never seen the original, but I want to see it now, so that I can hate this version even more.

[Thats Freakin Sweet]

bump to keep it on the first page

[mothershipconnection]

Wicker Man

Don't watch this movie alone, because you need someone to help you make fun of it. Terrible performances all around. I've never seen the original, but I want to see it now, so that I can hate this version even more

I haven't seen the original either, but I thought the movie was at least mediocre, considering it starred Nicholas Cage who I don't care for. Of course, the original stars Count Dooku, so it has to be better.

[trouty42]

Wicker Man

Don't watch this movie alone, because you need someone to help you make fun of it. Terrible performances all around. I've never seen the original, but I want to see it now, so that I can hate this version even more

 

I haven't seen the original either, but I thought the movie was at least mediocre, considering it starred Nicholas Cage who I don't care for. Of course, the original stars Count Dooku, so it has to be better.

 

I saw the Nick Cage version and while I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone, it wasn't god-awful.

 

The worst movie I can remember seeing...Dungeons and Dragons: the Movie - now there's a god-awful flick.

[homer]

Anyone see Idiocracy?

 

It's Mike Judge's (Beavis and Butthead, Office Space) movie that was hardly released anywhere. It falls flat as a comedy (although there are some pretty funny parts) and it seems as if they just decided to stop filming on a whim and start editing because the plot is really thin, but maybe that was the intent? Some biting commentary on American culture and society - if you don't get the joke then you are the one that's being made fun of.

[dadofandrew]

If it's the same Judge movie, the studio said "what a piece of crap" and did not release it. Judge told them to allow him to market it elsewhere, they agreed. Judge presented it to others, and they said..."what a piece of crap".

 

Actually, I believe the word is the film was not marketable, not necessarily horrible.

[homer]

Yeah, that's the one. And it's not all that great a movie on the whole, but I felt it was better than most of the schlock they count as comedies these days (Without a Paddle, I'm looking in your direction) and at least worth a rental.

 

EDIT: And they did claim 'not marketable'. It got pretty decent reviews overall. reviews of Idiocracy

[DougJones43]

Recently rented The Illusionist.

 

Overall, I thought it was pretty decent. The performances of Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti are (expectedly) very good, and make the movie worth watching. I also thought the color and cinematography was interesting, and did a good job of setting the mood for the film. The storyline wasn't real smooth, and it was a little obvious. Still, it's worth checking out IMO.

[RobertR]

Re: Idiocracy

 

If you can market something like "Little Man" or "Epic Movie" you can certainly market "a comedy from the director of Office Space". Call it a "modern day Sleeper" or something, but whatever the actual merits of the movie it looks like more a case of office politics than anything else. Did the studio change administrations between greenlighting the movie and release?

 

Certainly, I've seen more than my share of awful movies that got an actual studio push with less going for them.

 

Robert

[dadofandrew]

I recently watched Employee of the Month, and was pleasantly surprised. Certainly not going to replace Airplane on any top ten list, but it was a nice watch. It followed the formula you'd expect, and had a nice supporting cast, Andy Dick was especially humorous.

 

The biggest laugh comes from the break room the "slackers" created in amongst the storage racks. A pair of others came when the manager says "Remember, no more than 25 people in line", and my favorite was when the elderly greeter says hi to the touring district manager, and the DM (played by the little person who was Kramer's friend on Seinfeld) returns the greeting, then while walking away, tells one of his yes men "Get someone older"!

 

So, in closing, you can file it under "It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be".

[homer]

Quote:

---

Did the studio change administrations between greenlighting the movie and release?

---

 

Rumors are floating that Fox wasn't comfortable with the corporate bashing that Starbucks, Carl's Jr., and Fuddruckers take in the movie.

[Katuluu]

Fox took it's own share of lumps in the movie as well. I'm sure that didn't please upper management much.

[fstorm1]

Continuing my catching up...

 

Doom- Let me be the first to say I've played the game exactly once in my life. Didn't do a whole lot for me, and I didn't have any grand expectations for the movie, either. Perhaps that's why I somehow enjoyed this thing, on some low level: my expectations were so low, there really wasn't anywhere for this film but up. It's not great, nor even good, but it was okay in a mindless way. I like Karl Urban enough, and The Rock is certainly charismatic, and I suppose they raised the film up slightly. There's a fairly interesting little plot twist to start the third act, and a sorta nifty "homage" to the game at about the same time. I'd hazard a guess this is probably the best of the "video game to movie" films ever made, though I haven't seen them all.

 

I think from this point on I'm just gonna refer to any film that "does something for me on a low level" as "the Soldier effect", named after one of all time favorite mindless films.

 

Layer Cake- Somewhere along the line, I got the impression this was another "Snatch"-like funny violent British crime movie. Whoops. Note to self: read write ups for films a little more carefully, perhaps twice, if you've had a few Spotted Cows.

Decent enough film, not the "great film" I thought it would be based on reviews.

[brettac1]

This isn't really a rental, but for the past three weeks, IFC has been showing Jose Mojica Marins movies on Friday nights. The last two were "At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul" and "This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse", then last night was "Awakening of the Beast".

 

They're all just weird, horror/goth films (except for the last one, which deals more with the perversion of society), the type of stuff I normally don't watch, but they are just really cool movies, made on shoestring budgets and in Portuguese with subtitles, and I think they were even banned in Brazil.

[Schlitz001]

Idiocracy?

 

Someone besides me actually watched this movie. I was drunk when I rented it and sober when I ended up watching it. I laughed maybe twice. I laughed more at the idea of myself actually renting this movie than during the movie itself. Luke Wilson is funny in the right role (Bottle Rocket), but terrible in the wrong one.

 

I like Mike Judge for Office Space, Beavis and Butthead and even King of the Hill, but I'm not sure why he decided this was a good movie idea.