Catching Up On My DVD's

Since the weather dropped 100 degrees the other night, my sinuses acted up like a motherfucker; I mean I got the sinus infection to end all sinus infections, so I've been stuck at the house all weekend and decided to start catching up on about a month and a half's worth of DVD's I've acquired and hadn't gotten around to yet.

In the past I've thought about doing a weekly DVD column. Like Chris is at the theater every week watching all the new releases, most Tuesdays, sometimes Wendsdays, you can probably find me at Best Buy stocking up on all the DVD releases for that week. The problem is a lot of the time I'm not watching these things for a few weeks, so by the time I would actually get the reviews up here the things have been out for a month sometimes. But I've thought about some other ways to go about doing it, so you might see something from me in the coming weeks.

Anyways since I've overloaded my brain with quite a few films that came out earlier this year to make sure I get enough 2005 films in the system for my end of the year best and worst lists (there fun to do, what can I say, I'm a dork) I thought I'd throw out some brief thoughts about some of these films and let you know whether they're worth taking a looksy at when you're stuck in the house for an entire weekend.

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

I love the original, and since I read on many occasions how much Tim Burton hated it I wasn't really ever too thrilled about seeing his version. But it got some good notices on this site, and a lot of decent reviews all over the place, so I thought I'd give it a gander. And, suprisingly to me it's pretty good. It's funny, though, that if Burton hated the original so much, I'm surprised he stuck to it so much in terms of the style and sequencing. Granted, it's adapted from a book, but Burton always said the original didn't follow the book close enough. There are some things that are better than the original, most notably the songs; the ones in the original are pretty terrible. And I love the scene after the Oompa Loompas bust out their first number, and everyone talks about how choreographed the whole thing looked.

One problem the film has, and it's a big one, is Johnny Depp's portrayal of Wonka. I love Depp, and I love the fact that he always likes to take chances. Along with Nicholas Cage, he is one of our most creative modern actors. But I feel he really misses the mark completely here. He balances the ledge of a sad sack dope and flat out creepy to the point where the character just comes off kind of pathetic. The scene where he reunites with his dad is cheesy as hell, and Burton proves once again that he is such an outsider and is on an abnormal emotional planet. Whenever he tries to do a heartfelt scene with some humanity in it, they usually turn out exactly like this. If there really are aliens among us, Burton would be my first guess for a possibility. Still, the fact the film remains a good one with the lead performance being so terrible is an interesting aspect in itself. This is easily my favorite Burton film since "Ed Wood." But it's nowhere on that level.

STEALTH
No, no, I wasn't stupid enough to buy this, but I did let Netflix send it to me. And it's as terrible as everyone as said it is. In fact, I think Chris was almost too nice to it, and he made it very clear how much he hated it. The screenplay doesn't even make us believe for one second that these would be the three pilots chosen out of 4,000 to be on these top secret missions. The big surprise death scene of one of the main characters happens so quickly you don't have a second to even dwell on it or feel sad. I was mostly happy for the actor that he didn't have to embarrass himself for another hour. The computer voice is such a blatant ripoff of Hal 2000 that it pisses you off. And the twenty minute "shoreleave" sequence is enough to make you puke. This will be talked about on one of my lists at the end of the year (guess which one), so I'll leave it at this for now.

SAHARA
I actually went to try and see this movie twice in the theater on opening weekend and it was sold out both times. We only have two theaters in Murfreesboro, so even movies that don't make that much money overall tend to be sold out on opening weekend nights. Then I just for whatever reason lost interest in trying to see it; it didn't really get great reviews, but I'm glad I finally caught up to it. This is a very unbelievable film, like most action pictures, but it's very entertaining. Matthew McCongahay and Steve Zahn make for a good duo in a picture like this. Penelope Cruz is cute as a button and does what she can with a throwaway role. It was also nice to see Delroy Lindo again; I was wondering where the hell he had wandered off to. This isn't going to blow your socks off by any means. I think movies like this and last year's equally enjoyable despite it's ridiculousness "National Treasure" is that they are always going to be compared to "Raiders of the Lost Ark." So, if you can deal with the fact that there will never be another "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and just enjoy this film for what it is, you'll have a fun Saturday night watching it in the comforts of your home.

MELINDA AND MELINDA
Woody Allen has not had a real great go at it the past few years. But look at it this way, when you make one if not two films a year for your entire career you're going to have quite a few misses. Even in the late seventies/early eighties when Woody Allen was, as critics will like to throw out, on his hot streak, he still threw out some duds: "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, but Were Afraid to Ask," "Stardust Memories," etc. However, when you have only had one good film since 1995's "Mighty Aphrodite," and that would be "Sweet and Lowdown" (Mike will back me up on how that film has been underappreciated), it's hard to argue Allen's decline.

"Melinda and Melinda" opened up to fairly mediocre reviews this past Spring, and now that I have seen it, I have to say it's been a little undervalued in my opinion. I thought this was a great film. The only thing hindering it is that it has a hard time living up to it's great premise. People at a dinner party are telling a story idea they have for a film, but one person wants it to be a tragedy, and one wants it to be a comedy. So, we get to see the story told from both angles. The problem is even when Allen is doing drama, there's still a hell of a lot of comedy thrown in, so both stories end up being more funny than serious.

But so what, both stories end up being very funny. Will Ferrell plays Woody Allen better than Woody Allen has in years. There's some great dialouge in the film like "I'm sorry my place is such a mess, my cleaning lady won $168 million in the lottery and asked for the day off." Some vintage Allen writing going on here. Radha Mitchell gives two great performances as the title character in both stories. And actors like Amanda Peet, Wallace Shawn, and Steve Carrell get a lot of nice moments to shine.

It's really gratifying to see a great filmmaker come back after a bit of a drought, and with the early word on his other film this year, "Matchpoint," we might get two great films from Allen this year.

LAYER CAKE
I really thought going into this I was about to watch an overhyped film. I have never really liked Guy Ritchie's films, and when I heard his producing partner, Matthew Vaughn was making his directorial debut with this gangster film, I thought it would be just another goofy ass Ritchie film. I was way off.

This is one of the best films I've seen this year, and Matthew Vaughn is a director to watch. It really does piss me off they kicked him off "X3" and hired the untalented hack, Brett Ratner, to take his place. Vaughn could have made one hell of an "X-Men" film.

There is so much double crossing and so many characters in this film, I know I probably missed some stuff. I'll probably be watching this again before the end of the year. But Daniel Craig, who I think will make a hell of a James Bond, gives an Oscar worthy performance here, and Michael Gambon is arguably our most underrated actor working today. And this film has got a hell of an ending. And I don't mean it's got a twist or a hook to it that will shock the hell out of you. The ending just makes perfect sense, and could easily be the best definition of poetic justice that I've ever seen visually. Talking about this film too much would give way too much away. So go rent this now, or just plop down the twenty bucks to own it. I'm pretty damn sure you won't be dissapointed.