February 17, 2009

A Bloated DVD Week

You heard it right, for the first time in a while it's as if we have too many movies hitting stores in a single week. Not all are amazing, but more than a handful are worth picking up, with a few standouts among the bunch. The cream of the crop this week, also my PICK OF THE WEEK, is a movie that flew a bit under the radar after a nice debut at Sundance. It's:
Choke
This was perhaps the toughest Chuck Palahniuk book to adapt, and actor turned filmmaker Clark Gregg was more than up to the task. As I wrote in my original review, he delievered one of the best films of the year. It's a story that goes in some wild directions, but it's anchored by a tremendous lead performance from Sam Rockwell. If you like your humor dark, you'll love this film.
-Essentially my runner up for this week, and in most other weeks would be the top dog, is Bill Maher's religion documentary Religulous. I never reviewed this film when it came out since it was so divisive, and your personal beliefs can't help but filter into the review (for the record, I would have given the film 3 and a half stars, and yes, I'm not religious. Born Jewish, now pretty much an agnostic), so I opted against writing one. Suffice to say, if you like his show, you'll like his film. He rakes organized religion over the coals, but in a witty manner. If you agree with him, it's well worth watching. If not, you'd most likely hate it, so that's that.
-Other films out this week worth a recommendation are, Clint Eastwood's Changeling, which features Angelina Jolie in her Oscar nominated lead role. It's not a perfect film, but it's better than Gran Torino, if that does anything for you. See it for her acting. There's Greg Kinnear's Flash of Genius, which has some of his best acting to date. It's a standard underdog overcoming the odds story, but he makes it very watchable. We also have Quarantine, the surprisingly well above average remake of the Spanish horror film REC, and the gore film The Midnight Meat Train, which is absurd, but somehow entertaining. If the title appeals to you, pick it up.
-Also out but of less quality is the dissapointing Leonardo DiCaprio/Ridley Scott team up Body of Lies, which was way too complicated for its own good. There's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, which was never quite as dark or as funny as it needed to be, the "Dakota Fanning Rape Movie", which is actually called Hounddog, and is just a poor film, regardless of the overhyped scene, and finally....sigh, High School Musical 3: Senior Year. Enough said.
-My Vintage pick this week is Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused. One of my all time favorites, it chronicles's the way school life is on a single sweaty day. It resonates whether you went to school in 1975 or 2005.
-What will you be watching this week?

7 comments:

  1. Choke was pretty good

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  2. more than pretty good to me, but hey, pretty good beats bad

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  3. Love me some Religulous

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  4. I'm finally going to see Changeling, though my expectations are really low (save for Angelina) and I want to watch Dazed and Confused again! Such a great film, and it was like the birth of so many great and up and coming actors

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  5. This is probably fake but this is 'supposedly' a leak of the winneers for this year...

    http://oscars2009leaked.blogspot.com/

    really doubt it, but if it could possibly true...

    i'm going to explode

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  6. I actually really loved Body of Lies. I think Scott needs to rediscover a genre he's really comfortable in right now. I'll be seeing Changeling for the first time.

    As for the "leaks", that's actually a pretty cool list with some decent surprise choices. Even if it is fake, it's a pretty cool list, save for the Amy Adams win o_O

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