DVD Rental Day (2011 - ?)

[TheCrew07]

Saw How to Train Your Dragon 2 last week. It's incredible. Stands a good chance of being the best movie I watch all year.

 

I had the first one on the DVR for years, everyone used to make fun of me but I thought it was brilliant and watched it at least once a week in my dead time.

[homer]

Bad Grandpa I admit I laughed out loud at various points in this one. I think the Dickhouse guys rely way too much on toilet humor but when they are on it's really funny. To me, the most fascinating aspects of these "hidden camera" narrative movies (ala Borat) is how kind and compassionate human beings can be. The patience most people show when put in ridiculous circumstances is inspiring. Of course, that's not always funny so in the movie you get the guy with the New York accent who wants to beat up an old man but on the whole people tend to help more than hurt.

 

Boy A This is a film about a young man, Andrew Garfield in his first big role, who has recently been released from some kind of detention center where he's been since he was a boy. Through the course of the film you learn he did something really awful as a youth but aren't quite sure what. The film centers around his efforts to maintain a normal life while living with the horrific act he was involved in as a child. Through the use of flashbacks we see the events that led to the act and how they shape the way he lives in present day. Similar in tone to The Woodsman. I really enjoyed this film.

 

Graceland Filipino movie about a driver for a corrupt government official. The driver is a man of conscience that reluctantly does things for his boss because his wife is very ill and he needs the money for her medical bills. An attempt is made to kidnap the government official's daughter ends up with both the driver's daughter and the official's daughter taken. The police think he's in on it, the government official fires him, and his daughter is gone to some violent guys - he's in the weeds for sure. Lots of twists and turns in this one. Pretty good flick with a good performance from the lead actor.

[Patrick425]

Gravity

 

Watched this last night on HBO. Meh. When it was done my only thought was if Sandra Bullock and George Clooney were not in it, would it have received all the accolades that it received? It's not like they had to put on the performance of their lives to pull off these roles, especially Clooney. In fact, I wonder what he was paid for that film...what a sweet gig that was for him. Sometimes I feel that there are certain films that Hollywood likes to pat themselves on the back about for no real good reason other than maybe the actors that are in the film. This seemed like one of those films to me.

[Raw Biz]

Gravity

 

Watched this last night on HBO. Meh. When it was done my only thought was if Sandra Bullock and George Clooney were not in it, would it have received all the accolades that it received? It's not like they had to put on the performance of their lives to pull off these roles, especially Clooney. In fact, I wonder what he was paid for that film...what a sweet gig that was for him. Sometimes I feel that there are certain films that Hollywood likes to pat themselves on the back about for no real good reason other than maybe the actors that are in the film. This seemed like one of those films to me.

 

Well, to be fair, most of the accolades are thrown at Alfonso Cuaron for the technology and scope of what he did. Sure the story is nothing great. You can't really appreciate it though without experiencing it in the theater. Cuaron basically invented an entire new technology and way of shooting to simulate the space aspect of it. To me, it's a lot like Avator. The story is really nothing special and it doesn't play very well on regular tv but the experience of seeing it in a movie theater is unlike anything else.

[FVBrewerFan]

I saw it in the Movie Theatre. True, the visuals were really cool, but that wore off after 15-20 minutes. The rest of time I was bored silly. I actually started dozing off, literally. And I really WANTED to like this movie too.

[fondybrewfan]

So my little girl has been sick the last 2 nights and we had to hold her the entire night. I never watch movies because when you have two little girls when you can rent and watch a whole movie at once.

 

My thoughts

 

Anchor Man 2 - Frickin terrible. I really loved the 1st one but the second was pretty lame. A couple decent jokes but it was pretty blah

Noah - It was entertaining for what it was; but I was expecting it to follow the biblical story a bit more than it did. I was surprised with how dark the overall movie was and the rock people were kind of over the top ridiculous. I was also pretty off put with the "Noah is going to kill his grandkids" storyline. Really?

 

My little girl is still sick so it will probably be another middle of the night movie again tonight; I was thinking about Gravity.

[homer]

Mystery Road Australian flick about an Aboriginal cop investing the murder of an Aboriginal girl. Racism/classism impedes the cop at every turn. Very solid movie with a thrilling climax. Also stars Hugo Weaving (Mr. Smith from The Matrix movies).

 

Nightcrawler I was able to see an advance copy of this since it's not out on DVD yet. Great film. Gyllenhall is turning into a very fine actor. His ability to morph into character isn't quite on the level of someone like Christian Bale, but he's certainly doing his best to expand his repertoire. Gyllenhaal plays a "nightcrawler" - a guy who chases and films car crashes, police actions, etc. and then sells the footage to local TV. He is an uber capitalist and spares no opportunity to negotiate with anybody. Similarly, he wastes no opportunity to make a name for himself through whatever means necessary. Great commentary on society and 24 hour news cycle. Thumbs up.

[homer]

Blue Ruin Whoa. Unexpectedly awesome indy revenge flick. Macon Blair plays Dwight, a homeless man, who is picked up by police not for committing a petty crime, but to relay news to him about a person from Dwight's past. I won't give too much away about the plot but it's obvious from Dwight's actions that he's preparing for a violent conflict. Written, directed, and shot by Jeremy Saulnier, this is a taught film that stressed me out the entire way. The lead actor is not typical of most men in revenge films (ala Liam Neeson). He has an everyman quality that leads one to believe he could screw up everything at a moment's notice. It certainly adds to the tension. Highly recommend. Several graphic, violent death scenes for those that are into that kind of thing - plus Jan from the Brady Bunch and the annoying older brother in Home Alone make cameos.

 

Available on Netflix instant

[RobertR]

Blue Ruin is very good.

 

I think there are a lot of people around here that would like The Guest. Especially if you have a soft spot for 80s style action movies with synth scores. Plus it has a great lead performance from Dan Stevens that totally blows away anything he did on Downton Abbey.

[RobertR]

I know many will probably wait until home video, but Whiplash is well worth your time. The ending, in particular, is incredible. And it really deserves the highest level of sound quality.

[RobertR]

I found John Wick to be a lot of fun. Ridiculous, to be sure, but full of well choreographed action, colorful characters, and some fun world building. Also, it knows how to relay information without resorting to a ton of exposition.

 

Sometimes, you just want to see a lot of bad guys get shot in the face. John Wick delivers that.

[FVBrewerFan]

Wolf of Wall Street- Finally saw this on Netflix. I liked it, kept me interested knowing the fall was coming and how that would play out. With that said, I would only give it 3 stars- didn't love it as much as most people. Focus was on all the excess, which got old after a while. I get that was the point of the movie, but there's only so many times I need to see Leo do coke off some woman's boobs.

 

Interstellar Wow. One of those movies where you get done watching it, and your mind is spinning. I guess that means it was a really good movie! More like Contact than Gravity, which is a good thing.

[homer]

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

 

Genre bending black and white film that is pretty much unlike anything out there. Best way I can describe it is that it's an Ameri-Iranian Noir Western Vampire flick. The story really drags at points and to me it never quite figures out what it's trying to say but visually it's really cool.

 

Available on Netflix Instant

 

Daredevil I'm about 3/4 of the way through the episodes. It's pretty well done. The one bone I have to pick is that it seems at least twice an episode there are guys pinned to the ground in order to get information out of them. The fight choreography is really good as is the cinematography....and Vincent D'onofrio is incredible as Wilson Fisk - they've really gone out of their way to give the villain some depth.

 

Netflix Instant

[RobertR]

I went through all of the Mad Max films again prior to Fury Road. And, yeah, The Road Warrior is every bit as lean and mean as I remember it.

 

The other two have their moments too, especially the third act of Mad Max. But, of the originals, The Road Warrior is the one that is most required.

 

Fury Road is great, btw.

[homer]

Anyone watching/watched Sense8?

[homer]

Anyone watching True Detective?

[TheCrew07]

Anyone watching True Detective?

 

I watched the first season and by accident I noticed it was on last night. My summer Sunday night viewing is the The Strain on FX and 2 shows from TNT; The Last Ship and Falling Skies. As I'm down with Rachel McAdams and liked season 1 I watched the first episode via On-Demand after I finished up The Strain last night just to see check out season 2. I was intrigued enough enough I was going to watch the 2nd episode but it wasn't in On-Demand for some reason, I briefly started the 3rd but after 5 minutes it was clear skipping an episode was a bad idea so my plan is to catch up on True Detective during the week.

 

Almost all of my shows run on Sunday nights now so I usually watch 2 then catch up with the rest on the DVR later which is an issue with older Time Warner Cable's older DVRs like I have, I can only record 2 shows at once so anything more I'm recording the rerun later that night.

 

Alcoholism seems like it's going to be a common theme again this season, but I'm definitely going to get caught up.

[homer]

Anyone watching True Detective?

 

I watched the first season and by accident I noticed it was on last night. My summer Sunday night viewing is the The Strain on FX and 2 shows from TNT; The Last Ship and Falling Skies. As I'm down with Rachel McAdams and liked season 1 I watched the first episode via On-Demand after I finished up The Strain last night just to see check out season 2. I was intrigued enough enough I was going to watch the 2nd episode but it wasn't in On-Demand for some reason, I briefly started the 3rd but after 5 minutes it was clear skipping an episode was a bad idea so my plan is to catch up on True Detective during the week.

 

Almost all of my shows run on Sunday nights now so I usually watch 2 then catch up with the rest on the DVR later which is an issue with older Time Warner Cable's older DVRs like I have, I can only record 2 shows at once so anything more I'm recording the rerun later that night.

 

Alcoholism seems like it's going to be a common theme again this season, but I'm definitely going to get caught up.

 

 

I'm curious to hear how others feel about season 2. I'm enjoying it even if it's not as good as season one - thing is, you'd be hard pressed to ever match season one so I think some of the disappointment out there is due to lofty expectations. I think if this was the first season of a new show people would be fine with it.

[FVBrewerFan]

My summer Sunday night viewing is the The Strain on FX and 2 shows from TNT; The Last Ship and Falling Skies.

 

How is Falling Skies this season? We watched it from the very beginning, but finally gave up in the middle of last season. Just got way to far out there. But judging from the commercials, looks like it may be back to more battles, less sci-fi? I plan to binge watch the last season since we've already put so much time into it. (We also watch Last Ship...it's ok.)

 

Does anyone watch Tyrant? Pleasantly surprised, one of those shows I look forward to the next episode.

[TheCrew07]

I'm not sure how to describe what happened with the end of 3 without spoiling anything but this season has been pretty intense so far, more like season 1. If you liked Falling Skies you might like Defiance from Syfy which I stumbled into when it was added to Amazon Prime.

 

I saw the Tyrant promos on FX but haven't checked it out.

[thebruce44]

Anyone watching True Detective?

 

I watched the first season and by accident I noticed it was on last night. My summer Sunday night viewing is the The Strain on FX and 2 shows from TNT; The Last Ship and Falling Skies. As I'm down with Rachel McAdams and liked season 1 I watched the first episode via On-Demand after I finished up The Strain last night just to see check out season 2. I was intrigued enough enough I was going to watch the 2nd episode but it wasn't in On-Demand for some reason, I briefly started the 3rd but after 5 minutes it was clear skipping an episode was a bad idea so my plan is to catch up on True Detective during the week.

 

Almost all of my shows run on Sunday nights now so I usually watch 2 then catch up with the rest on the DVR later which is an issue with older Time Warner Cable's older DVRs like I have, I can only record 2 shows at once so anything more I'm recording the rerun later that night.

 

Alcoholism seems like it's going to be a common theme again this season, but I'm definitely going to get caught up.

 

 

I'm curious to hear how others feel about season 2. I'm enjoying it even if it's not as good as season one - thing is, you'd be hard pressed to ever match season one so I think some of the disappointment out there is due to lofty expectations. I think if this was the first season of a new show people would be fine with it.

 

I never expected it to live up to Season 1. With that in mind, its very enjoyable television. There are things that bother me: overly complicated plot, Vince Vaughn's acting, several slow episodes that only advance the plot at the very end. I also don't like that it seems to be following a very similar timeline to Season 1, in that the first 3.5 episodes were story building with some eventual action payoff at the end of Episode 4 and a time skip in the middle.

 

I will say, that action sequence at the end of E4 reminded me of why I love shows on HBO.

[TheCrew07]

Yep I stayed up late to watch episode 4 last night and was rewarded... wow, just wow.

 

I like it but I can understand where it's not for everyone dealing with the darker side of life. I had a real hard time following Breaking Bad all the way through for that reason and I wasn't alone in my circle friends. True Detective just doesn't put me off in the same way.

[homer]

It Follows

 

A classic, low budget, American horror film. Minimal gore but a lot of tension. It's about a young woman who receives a "follower" hell bent on killing her. This is what low budget horror should aspire to be. Really well done with a terrific soundtrack. Harkens back to the early days of the Halloween franchise.

 

Available on Netflix DVD and Amazon Instant.

[homer]

Eraserhead

 

This is David Lynch's first feature. All I can say is....huh???? It looks pretty cool but seriously....huh????

[homer]

La Haine

 

Finally got around to watching this - been meaning to for years. 1995 French film about three youths from the ghettos of Paris. Following a riot amidst ever increasing police violence, their friend lies in a coma after a particularly severe beating from the cops. They have run ins with cops, street gangs, and each other as they decide how they'll move on if/when their friend lives...or dies. Shot in black in white this is really groundbreaking stuff for it's time and it's aged really well. You would never know this film was 20 years old. Highly recommended.

 

Available on Netflix DVD