thoughts on latest DVDs seen

true life

We watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, based on the book by Jean-Dominique Bauby. In 1995 Jean-Do was the editor of Elle magazine (in Paris) when he suffered a "cerebrovascular accident", i.e. a debilitating stroke that left him paralyzed and mute, a victim of "Locked-In Syndrome." He communicated by blinking his left eye (and dictated his book by blinks). Sad story but well done and makes you glad for what you have. (In French).

heist

The Lookout was an okay heist flick, but it leaves a question or two and doesn't move too fast.

bloody

I watched David Cronenberg's latest flick, Eastern Promises which stars Viggo Mortensen as a Russian mobster and Naomi Watts as a nurse who gets tangled in mob business. Interesting flick but also has some hard-core violence (the steam room scene). I guess Cronenberg's into that now. Not a date movie, though. The flick has a couple nice surprises.

two

No Country For Old Men: Great flick, bloody, unpredictable.
Walk Hard: So-so comedy, loses steam fast, but boy that Jenna Fischer's sure got a great rack — just saying!

romanticizing war

The last flick Netflix decided to throw my way was Flyboys which stars James Franco among a bunch of young men who decided to join the Lafayette Escadrille — essentially learn to fly and fight in World War I. The aerial scenes are fun. The rest is chock-full of tired clichés and the whole thing suffers from too much "stirring epic" music. I fast-forwarded through the 2nd half and mostly watched the aerial scenes.

hairless hassassin

The latest Netflix movie that wasn't the top of my queue was Hitman which had a few cool fight scenes, a gratuitously naked chick (and upcoming Bond girl), but suffered from being adapted from a videogame and as such was kinda silly and overly unrealistic in spots. Also, tell me that bald hitmen with barcodes tattooed on the backs of their skulls will blend in with the crowd. You gonna sell me a penis enlarger next?

cute stuff

Once again Netflix mailed me my 2nd flick in the queue: Enchanted. Nice turn on the usual fairy tale clichés. Amy Adams is perfect as the always chipper and blissfully naive heroine, Giselle. We thought the kiddos might get into this flick but no, there was "too much talking." It's cute, though and has some laughs and some catchy songs.

Shrek the turd

We recently borrowed the Shrek the Third DVD from the library and I gotta say: Meh. For me, the only good one was the first movie. These sequels aren't keepers.

snatched

The Invasion is another remake of Invasion of the Body-Snatchers, this time starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. Meh. It was okay. I still like the 70s version with Donald Sutherland the best. This new one has a happy ending which doesn't fit as well with the story.

bring out your dead

Every once in a while, I rent a DVD to appease the wife, that is, I get a movie that doesn't feature a blood and guts thriller. This time I got the comedy, Death At A Funeral. This one features English actors directed by Frank Oz as they attend a funeral where many things go wrong. Personally, I enjoyed the guy who accidentally took a hallucinogenic drug before arriving at the funeral.

mixed bag

  • The Brave One: Jodie Foster does a Death Wish thing after an attack in Central Park leaves her beaten and her fiancé dead. The ending is not believable.
  • We Own The Night: Slow-moving drama set in the 80s with some palpable suspense, and a couple of exciting scenes. Stars Joaquin Phoenix.
  • Paprika: Japanese animation that I ultimately couldn't finish watching, mostly because the story made no sense. I quit early on this one.

shoot 'em up

Finally got to see the western 3:10 to Yuma and I liked it. Stars Russell Crowe as the charismatic bad guy and Christian Bale as the hard-luck good guy who's trying to deliver the bad guy to the titular prison train. I watched a couple of the very interesting extras too.

Deux jours à Paris

At first I had to groan watching 2 Days In Paris when confronted with Adam Goldberg's whiny character. Watching grown men whinging about their health, otherwise being a weenie, or acting somewhat like Woody Allen just makes me want to slap the bejeezus out of them. But then the story takes over, the whinyness tones down a bit and it's just too good a story to be annoyed by him. He plays Jack, boyfriend to Julie Delpy's Marion. He's American, she's French, and they've just returned from a less-than-stellar trip to Venice. For two days, they'll be staying with her parents in Paris before heading home to New York. Then they seem to run into a multitude of Marion's ex-boyfriends which tends to make them both a little nuts. This flick was funny without taking cheap shots and had a such a real sense to it — felt like a slice of life. Even with the numerous quirky characters. In addition to starring, Julie Delpy wrote, directed, and composed much of the music for the movie. She's talented.

footloose

Felt like watching something light with dancing so we watched Step Up which featured two leads who may not be the best actors in the world but they can dance. It has the usual clichés but they were expected. Also, I was right when I quickly marked one character for death. Anyone would see that one coming. But based on the trailer, the sequel looks like more fun than the original (and with cooler dancing). I wanna learn hip-hop dancing!

putting the stink in extinction

I fast forwarded through all the dull exposition in Resident Evil: Extinction and watched the movie in about 40 minutes. This zombie franchise passed its sell-by date somewhere during the previous movie. There's nothing new here.

utter shite

Renting The Ten was a big mistake. Easily the worst movie I've rented in the past year. It's supposedly a comedy of ten stories making light of the Ten Commandments. It's unfunny, uninspired, and just unwatchable. I fast-forwarded through more than half of it. What's surprising is the usually strong cast. One note: this flick features Winona Ryder making out with a ventriloquist's dummy but the scene only warrants a raised eyebrow.

Hong Kong inaction

Breaking News is a Hong Kong action flick about a disgraced Hong Kong police force tracking down some bad-ass bandits and coordinating their hunt with the media to elevate the public opinion of the police force. It's only a 90-minute movie but it seemed longer even though I ended up doing a lot of fast-forwarding. I didn't find any of the characters compelling or well-acted and the action was intermittant and too many things just didn't make sense. Also, Hong Kong action flicks have their own set of clichés and this flick used a bunch of 'em. Meh. Give me more of Chow Yun-Fat. Fat's where it's at. (He was not in this flick).

doesn't work

I rented both You Kill Me and No End In Sight. The former is about a hitman (Ben Kingsley, miscast) forced to attend AA meetings and his unlikely love interest is Téa Leoni. Watchable but not that great. The latter flick is a documentary on the aftermath of the war in Iraq. It's hard to tell who comes off as the greater idiot, Donald Rumsfeld or L. Paul Bremer. But wow, to hear some of the details by people in the know of how badly this situation was handled... it just gets your dander up.

I watched several of the extras too. It was very interesting to hear from both (separately) an Iraqi ambassador and an Iraqi journalist. Both of them mention that even as bad as the situation is now (and it's bad, make no mistake), it's still better than Iraq under the rule of Saddam Hussein. The ambassador remembers Baghdad of the late 70s when it was a thriving, secular, cosmopolitan city with people of all different backgrounds living together. The Saddam Hussein came along. Turns out even his grandson was being groomed for eventual dictatorship. I was surprised, after hearing them both tell about the current situation, that it was still preferred to life under Hussein. It's just a shame that the bungling of the war was a major catalyst of many of the serious problems in the region. Fascinating stuff.

giggles and jitters

Several days ago I watched The Simpsons Movie and it kept me chuckling but didn't produce any huge guffaws. Tina, on the other hand, grew bored with it. (We've both grown bored with the TV show which seems to be past its prime. Personally, I miss Phil Hartman's contributions.)

Then, last night, I watched Rescue Dawn which tells the real-life story of U.S. fighter pilot Dieter Dengler, a German-American shot down and captured in Laos during the secret bombing runs that led up to the Vietnam War. Werner Herzog, wrote and directed and in fact had made a documentary about the same subject ten years ago called Little Dieter Needs to Fly. In Rescue Dawn Dieter is portrayed by Christian Bale who does a fine job and he's well supported by Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies. The movie's harrowing subject is Dieter's harsh life in captivity, following by his daring, death-defying escape and eventual rescue. Good flick.

book to screen

Both T and I had read the book and it was nice to see they'd done a good job of translating Stardust to screen. I don't know why this flick didn't do better at the box office, but it's a witty, imaginative fantasy with some winning performances by the leads as well as De Niro (a cross-dressing sky pirate) and Pfeiffer (an evil witch).
2008
Seen at the theatre: 5 movies so far
  • Cloverfield [92]
  • Jumper [88]
  • Horton Hears A Who [88]
  • The Bank Job [95]
  • Iron Man [95]

Seen at home: 24 movies so far
  • The Simpsons Movie [80]
  • Rescue Dawn [92]
  • You Kill Me [77]
  • No End In Sight [95]
  • Breaking News [70]
  • The Ten [10]
  • Resident Evil: Extinction [70]
  • Step Up [84]
  • 2 Days In Paris [93]
  • 3:10 to Yuma [88]
  • Paprika [58]
  • We Own The Night [80]
  • The Brave One [75]
  • Death At A Funeral [80]
  • The Invasion [78]
  • Shrek the Third [78]
  • Enchanted [85]
  • Hitman [82]
  • Flyboys [75]
  • Walk Hard [78]
  • No Country For Old Men [95]
  • Eastern Promises [85]
  • The Lookout [80]
  • The Diving Bell and the Butterfly [87]

2007
Seen at the theatre: 21 movies
  • The Departed [96]
  • Pan's Labyrinth [85]
  • Smokin' Aces [80]
  • Notes on a Scandal [85]
  • 300 [93]
  • Grindhouse [95]
  • Shooter [84]
  • Spider-Man 3 [86]
  • Pirates of the Caribbean:
    At World's End [78]
  • Knocked Up [89]
  • Ocean's Thirteen [83]
  • Live Free or Die Hard [93]
  • Transformers [96]
  • Sunshine [88]
  • Ratatouille [92]
  • The Bourne Ultimatum [92]
  • Shoot 'Em Up [83]
  • The Kingdom [89]
  • Michael Clayton [93]
  • Beowulf [93]
  • The Golden Compass [82]

Seen at home: 49 movies
  • A Prairie Home Companion [70]
  • Somersault [70]
  • District B-13 [88]
  • Talladega Nights [70]
  • Crank [70]
  • The Guardian [65]
  • Jet Li's Fearless [75]
  • Marie Antoinette [60]
  • Hollywoodland [80]
  • The Science of Sleep [70]
  • Borat [85]
  • Casino Royale [95]
  • Fast Food Nation [65]
  • The Holiday [70]
  • Click [79]
  • Cocaine Cowyboys [90]
  • Lies & Alibis [88]
  • Blood Diamond [85]
  • Little Children [88]
  • Children of Men [80]
  • Seraphim Falls [80]
  • The Black Dahlia [75]
  • Old Joy [27]
  • Who Killed The Electric Car? [82]
  • Ghost Rider [70]
  • The Sentinel [75]
  • Eragon [60]
  • Zodiac [88]
  • Renaissance [72]
  • Breach [85]
  • Hot Fuzz [81]
  • Disturbia [88]
  • Blades of Glory [85]
  • Maxed Out [85]
  • Curse of the Golden Flower [90]
  • Black Book [95]
  • The Fountain [70]
  • Volver [80]
  • Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer [60]
  • Love in the Afternoon [50]
  • Surf's Up [84]
  • Pathfinder [77]
  • Next [84]
  • Mr. Brooks [80]
  • Tekkonkinkreet [79]
  • Waitress [78]
  • Superbad [84]
  • Fracture [86]
  • Stardust [90]

2006
Seen at the theatre: 18 movies
  • Syriana [88]
  • Underworld Evolution [85]
  • Ultraviolet [79]
  • V For Vendetta [87]
  • Caché [60]
  • Mission: Impossible III [90]
  • The Da Vinci Code [75]
  • X-Men: The Last Stand [84]
  • Superman Returns [80]
  • Cars [85]
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men's Chest [83]
  • Miami Vice [94]
  • The Illusionist [88]
  • The Prestige [90]
  • Stranger Than Fiction [90]
  • Casino Royale [95]
  • Deja Vu [84]
  • Apocalypto [92]

Seen at home: 53 movies
  • Stage Beauty [65]
  • Wedding Crashers [85]
  • Into The Blue [80]
  • The Transporter 2 [80]
  • Lord of War [82]
  • Broken Flowers [58]
  • The Aristocrats [70]
  • Junebug [85]
  • Crash [88]
  • MirrorMask [79]
  • Domino [86]
  • Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit [88]
  • The Constant Gardener [90]
  • Walk The Line [87]
  • The Legend of Zorro [70]
  • The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe [75]
  • Memoirs of a Geisha [70]
  • Waiting... [84]
  • Casanova [87]
  • Match Point [90]
  • Hoodwinked [75]
  • Deep Blue [82]
  • Shopgirl [84]
  • Flightplan [78]
  • Elizabethtown [60]
  • Fun With Dick and Jane [87]
  • Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang [95]
  • Matador [80]
  • Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story [78]
  • Munich [83]
  • The Family Stone [83]
  • The New World [80]
  • Inside Man [90]
  • Brick [82]
  • Good Night and Good Luck [90]
  • Poseidon [84]
  • Lucky Number Slevin [90]
  • The Notorious Bettie Page [70]
  • Friends With Money [80]
  • The Proposition [83]
  • Monster House [83]
  • The Break-Up [80]
  • Thank You For Smoking [80]
  • Everything Is Illuminated [nr]
  • Nine Lives [60]
  • Nacho Libre [78]
  • Slither [85]
  • Wordplay [85]
  • Beerfest [69]
  • The Ice Harvest [65]
  • Little Miss Sunshine [85]
  • The Devil Wears Prada [72]
  • A Scanner Darkly [80]

2005
Seen at the theatre: 18 movies
  • Elektra [68]
  • Constantine [88]
  • Born Into Brothels [90]
  • Sin City [94]
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [64]
  • Kingdom of Heaven [92]
  • Star Wars: Episode III:
    Revenge of the Sith [90]
  • Mr. & Mrs. Smith [91]
  • Batman Begins [95]
  • War of the Worlds [85]
  • Fantastic Four [78]
  • The Island [80]
  • The 40-Year-Old Virgin [90]
  • Serenity [85]
  • A History of Violence [100]
  • Derailed [78]
  • Aeon Flux [86]
  • King Kong [94]

Seen at home: 56 movies
  • Anchorman [82]
  • Infernal Affairs [80]
  • Stander [85]
  • Intimate Strangers [60]
  • Love Me If You Dare [83]
  • Wicker Park [83]
  • The Forgotten [84]
  • Cellular [91]
  • Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle [87]
  • The L Word (Season 1, disk 1) [77]
  • Ray [89]
  • Dogtown & Z-Boys [65]
  • Dodgeball [77]
  • Eulogy [78]
  • Alien Vs. Predator [79]
  • Shaun of the Dead [81]
  • Resident Evil: Apocalypse [69]
  • Wimbledon [70]
  • De-Lovely [65]
  • Spider-Man 2 [95]
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban [73]
  • Saw [80]
  • Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason [75]
  • Six Feet Under (S2,Vol 4) [78]
  • Deadwood (Season 1, eps 1,2) [85]
  • After The Sunset [65]
  • Ocean's Twelve [85]
  • House of Flying Daggers [89]
  • Blade: Trinity [80]
  • The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou [78]
  • Team America: World Police [75]
  • Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events [85]
  • Assault on Precinct 13 [82]
  • Primer [70]
  • Hostage [85]
  • Hitch [70]
  • A Very Long Engagement [72]
  • Birth [70]
  • The Upside of Anger [83]
  • Kung Fu Hustle [89]
  • Layer Cake [85]
  • Kinsey [85]
  • Sahara [82]
  • Super Size Me [85]
  • Immortal [80]
  • The Ladykillers [65]
  • Unleashed [83]
  • The Interpreter [60]
  • Old Boy [77]
  • The Aviator [92]
  • Stealth [75]
  • Brothers [83]
  • The War of the Worlds [90]
  • The Brothers Grimm [85]
  • The Dukes of Hazzard [73]
  • Must Love Dogs [68]

2004
Seen at the theatre: 28 movies
  • Cold Mountain [90]
  • LOTR: The Return of the King [98]
  • The Triplets of Belleville [90]
  • Hidalgo [79]
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [91]
  • Spartan [87]
  • Hellboy [83]
  • Kill Bill Volume 2 [90]
  • The Punisher [70]
  • Van Helsing [85]
  • Troy [78]
  • The Day After Tomorrow [78]
  • The Chronicles of Riddick [81]
  • Shrek 2 [75]
  • Mean Girls [85]
  • The Terminal [89]
  • Spider-Man 2 [95]
  • I, Robot [90]
  • The Bourne Supremacy [90]
  • Collateral [88]
  • Garden State [82]
  • Hero [78]
  • Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow [87]
  • I [Heart] Huckabees [68]
  • The Incredibles [95]
  • National Treasure [75]
  • Sideways [93]
  • Flight of the Phoenix [73]
2003
Seen at the theatre: 37 movies
  • On Guard! **½
  • Adaptation ***
  • Narc ***¼
  • The Hours ***
  • Confessions of a Dangerous Mind **½
  • Chicago ***
  • The Recruit **¾
  • Daredevil ***¼
  • Tears of the Sun **
  • The Hunted ***¼
  • Dreamcatcher **½
  • The Core *½
  • Phone Booth ***
  • Confidence **¾
  • Identity ***¼
  • X2: X-Men United ***
  • The Matrix Reloaded ***¾
    (saw twice)
  • Bruce Almighty ***
  • The Italian Job **
  • The Hulk **½
  • Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle **½
  • Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ***
  • Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl ***½
  • Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life **
  • Open Range ****
  • Once Upon A Time In Mexico **¾
  • Underworld ***
  • The Rundown ***
  • Lost In Translation ***¼
  • Kill Bill Volume 1 ***½
  • Intolerable Cruelty ***
  • American Splendor **¼
  • The Matrix Revolutions ***¼
  • Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World ***½
  • Love Actually **¼
  • Timeline **
  • The Last Samurai ***
2002
Seen at the theatre: 48 movies
  • The Shipping News *¾
  • Brotherhood of the Wolf ****
  • Black Hawk Down ***
  • The Mothman Prophecies *½
  • Birthday Girl *¾
  • Metropolis *½
  • Gosford Park ***
  • Italian For Beginners **½
  • Hart's War *
  • The Time Machine **
  • We Were Soldiers **½
  • Kissing Jessica Stein ***
  • Panic Room ***
  • Swimming **¾
  • Y Tu Mamá También **
  • Nine Queens ***½
  • Spider-Man ****
  • The Sweetest Thing **½
  • SW2: Attack of the Clones ***
  • Murder By Numbers **
  • About a Boy **¾
  • The Sum of All Fears **
  • The Bourne Identity ****
  • Minority Report ***
  • Reign of Fire **½
  • Road to Perdition *¾
  • Men in Black II ½
  • K-19: The Widowmaker *½
  • Austin Powers in Goldmember **
  • Signs ***
  • Read My Lips *¾
  • XXX ***
  • Possession **¾
  • Spirited Away ***½
  • The Four Feathers **
  • Secretary ***
  • The Transporter ***½
  • One Hour Photo **½
  • Bowling For Columbine ***
  • Below **½
  • Punch-Drunk Love ****
  • The Truth About Charlie **
  • Femme Fatale ***
  • Die Another Day ***½
  • Equilibrium ***
  • Star Trek: Nemesis **½
  • LOTR: The Two Towers ****
  • Gangs of New York ***
2001
Seen at the theatre: 76 movies
  • Cast Away
  • State and Main
  • Traffic
  • O Brother, Where Art Thou?
  • The Gift
  • Snatch[a]
  • Miss Congeniality
  • Valentine
  • Hannibal
  • Shadow of the Vampire
  • Monkeybone
  • 3000 Miles to Graceland
  • 15 Minutes
  • The Mexican
  • Enemy at the Gates
  • Series 7: The Contenders
  • Panic
  • Memento
  • Blow
  • Just Visiting
  • The Tailor of Panama
  • Bridget Jones's Diary
  • Along Came a Spider
  • Spy Kids
  • The Mummy Returns
  • Pollock
  • A Knight's Tale[b]
  • Shrek
  • Angel Eyes
  • Driven
  • Pearl Harbor
  • Moulin Rouge
  • Swordfish
  • Evolution
  • Tomb Raider
  • With a Friend Like Harry...
  • Tillsammans [c]
  • The Sweetest Sound[c]
  • Soft For Digging[c]
  • The Chateau[c]
  • The Fast and the Furious
  • Sexy Beast
  • A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
  • The Score
  • Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
  • Jurassic Park III
  • Kiss of the Dragon
  • Planet of the Apes
  • Ghost World
  • The Others
  • The Deep End
  • American Pie 2
  • Rush Hour 2
  • Ghosts of Mars
  • Happy Accidents
  • The Crimson Rivers
  • Rock Star
  • Serendipity
  • Zoolander
  • Joy Ride
  • Mulholland Drive
  • The Last Castle
  • K-PAX
  • Waking Life
  • The Man Who Wasn't There
  • Heist
  • Amélie
  • Shallow Hal
  • Spy Game
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
  • Behind Enemy Lines
  • Ocean's Eleven
  • Vanilla Sky
  • LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring
  • The Royal Tenenbaums
  • The Devil's Backbone

footnotes:
[a] saw this in 2000 also   [b] saw this one twice   [c] saw at the Nantucket Film Festival

2000
Seen at the theatre: 68 movies
  • Man on the Moon
  • The Talented Mr. Ripley
  • Magnolia
  • The Green Mile
  • Supernova
  • Being John Malkovich
  • Eye of the Beholder
  • Scream 3
  • Sweet & Lowdown
  • The Beach
  • Topsy Turvy
  • Pitch Black
  • Reindeer Games
  • Wonder Boys
  • Mission to Mars
  • Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
  • Erin Brockovich
  • Romeo Must Die
  • Boiler Room
  • High Fidelity
  • The Terrorist
  • Under Solen
  • Keeping the Faith
  • U-571
  • Frequency
  • Gladiator
  • The Big Kahuna
  • Dinosaur
  • Road Trip
  • Mission: Impossible 2
  • Shanghai Noon
  • Gone in 60 Seconds
  • Croupier
  • Titan A.E.
  • Shaft
  • Chicken Run
  • Me Myself & Irene
  • The Perfect Storm
  • The Patriot
  • Scary Movie
  • X-Men
  • What Lies Beneath
  • Groove
  • Hollow Man
  • The Cell
  • The Way of the Gun
  • Nurse Betty
  • The Tao of Steve
  • Girl on the Bridge
  • Space Cowboys
  • Love & Sex
  • Meet the Parents
  • Almost Famous
  • Dancer in the Dark
  • The Contender
  • The Legend of Drunken Master
  • Billy Elliot
  • Charlie's Angels
  • Red Planet
  • The Sixth Day
  • Unbreakable
  • Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas
  • You Can Count On Me
  • Vertical Limit
  • Proof of Life
  • Chocolat
  • Snatch
  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Check out the right-hand column on Movie Notes to see my Eager To See list.
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