OT: movie rentals good and bad

[Dan O]

I do not make it to the movies as much , so I depend on the video store for entertainment .

 

I thought I would mention a few good ones I would recommend .

 

Insomnia : WORTH RENTING !

 

I have always been an Al Pacino fan and Robin Williams is great .Does anyone remember THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP ?

 

Panic Room : WORTH RENTING

 

Just a great movie with Jody Foster .

 

Windtalkers : Worth passing on

 

Great story .....BUT bad script and very predictable .

 

Colateral Damage : Worth passing

 

Someone please help Arnold find another script like TRUE LIES .

 

dano

[saucyjack]

A few I've enjoyed lately....

 

Royal Tennebaums

 

Vanilla Sky(cool soundtrack)

 

Magnolia(ditto)

[Dan O]

Ya know .......I haven't watched Vanilla Sky yet .

 

My wife did . I'll have to check out that flick.

 

Did anyone see Minority Report ? I saw that in NASHVILLE before the start of the NAM show ( last show demonstrating for Ketron ) . It was great imho . dano

[bearded yeti]

Jackass

[saucyjack]

Dano,

definitely check out Vanilla Sky...I usually hate Tom Cruise but it's a cool,weird film.

[ksoper]

Death to Smoochy. Robin Williams is wonderful, Edward Norton is amazing. Danny DeVito doesn't get nearly the credit he deserves for making delightful and quirky films like this.

[mattzen]

I"ve gotta chime in here. Do yourself a favor and watch Abre Los Ojos instead of Vanilla Sky. You will then realise what an awful remake Vanilla Sky really is. The original Spanish movie is one of the best films I've ever seen. They usually have it a Blockbuster on DVD. Abre Los Ojos was such a vivid piece of flim-making it's magic lived in my mind for weeks!

 

Also worth a mention is Jacob's Ladder starring Tim Robbins. A REALLY brilliant film. A bit disturbing though. Watch it if you can take it.

[Dave Pierce]

I enjoyed Windtalkers although it was quite predictable.

 

Insomnia is just fabulous. The POV shots capturing the effects of sleep deprivation are simply brilliant. I've been there, and they got it right.

 

Being a sucker for the occasional well-done romance flick, I really enjoyed Kate and Leopold, although the ending was lame enough that it almost spoiled it. Sssshhhh, don't tell my wife, she thinks I watch those flicks with her as a favor.

 

I rented several other newish movies recently. The fact that I can't remember their names tells you everything you need to know.

 

--Dave

[Analogaddict]

At this time of year, Tim Burton´s "Nightmare before christmas" is a great choice; great animations and music. Two other films that are really nice are Michael Mann´s "Heat" and Steven Soderbergh´s "Traffic", wich is two of my favorite movies. The soundtrack in "Traffic "by Cliff Martinez (and a lot of work by Jeff Rona) is the coolest I´ve heard in many years, and if you have nothing better to do on a rainy day, you can check out Elliot Goldenthal´s hints to Scryabin, and the connections between the story and the visual and aural spaces in "Heat" . Really cool stuff. I´d also like to suggest "Being John Malkovich" and "Grosse Pointe Blank", and for us record lovers, "High Fidelity". If you are in a European state of mind, don´t miss "Fitzcarraldo" and "Aguirre - the wrath of god", where german actor Klaus Kinski goes absolutely nuts in the South American jungle, or Krysztof Kieslowski´s trilogy; "Three colors: white", "T.c: blue" and "T.c: red".

Enjoy!

/J nas

[joegerardi]

Perrennial favorites of mine:

The Name of the Rose. An AMAZING film with Sean Connery.

Amadeus

Ronin with Robert DeNiro.

Band of Brothers came out just yesterday, but I've had it on my hard drive for a year.

Sense and Sensibilities (Yes, a chick flick, but a great chick flick!)

 

New ones I've enjoyed:

Eight Legged Freaks. A fun popcorn movie.

The Accidental Spy. Jackie Chan. 'Nuff said.

[daBowsa]

If anyone is as disillusioned with the MegaGlomoco Video Rental places as I am, and you rent 3 or 4 movies a month, and you have DVD player, I recommend www.netflix.com - it'll change the way you rent and watch movies forever. A+ company, worth a look.

[marino]

Don't know about rentals, much less in the States, but I've seen a few good movies lately:

 

Minority Report - the film is so good it made me digest Tom Cruise for once. An excellent SF thriller, also with much to think about the limits of governement control on our lives. I had read the P.K.Dick book, and while the movie does expand on it quite a bit, it's very respectful of the atmosphere and feel of the original. It's also good as a pure action movie - the FX are amazing.

 

The Pianist - This film won the Cannes festival, and it deserves it. A true story of a musician in the Holocaust. Beautiful and terrible. 'True' and devastating. A masterpiece.

 

Hollywood Ending - The latest Woody Allen movie is one of his best of the last years IMO. Funny, without pretensions, it's just a divertissement, but of the highest kind.

 

Also, allow me to advice against a movie. Since my countryman Roberto Benigni won a couple of Oscars for "Life is Beautiful", everybody was expecting a masterpiece out of "Pinocchio", his version of the classical Italian book. Well, a masterpiece it's not - it just goes on and on, I found no magic in it. Just my opinion of course

[Addix Metzatricity]

Originally posted by dabowsa:

If anyone is as disillusioned with the MegaGlomoco Video Rental places as I am, and you rent 3 or 4 movies a month, and you have DVD player, I recommend www.netflix.com - it'll change the way you rent and watch movies forever. A+ company, worth a look.

I second that recommendation. I've been using them for almost a year.

[Rick K.]

Thumbs up:

 

Sum of all Fears

Insomnia

Changing Lanes

High Crimes

A Walk to Remember

Monsters, Inc.

 

Thumbs down:

 

Royal Tennenbaums

 

These are just recent DVD's we've purchased. We actully quit renting them for $5, when you can buy them for $10 at Blockbuster used.

 

Rick

[Dan O]

I watched the SUM OF ALL FEARS last night .

 

The only thing that bothered me was when the bomb went off . I could have sworn that the football game the PREZ was watching was at night . They rush the president out of the stadium .

 

When the bomb went off , it was daytime . Did anyone else catch this ?

 

I did like CHANGING LANES . Much better than I thought it would be .

What about Panic Room ? I have always liked Forrest Whitaker .

 

dano

 

dano

[Roto]

I'll 3rd the recommendation for Netflix. For $20 a month it's easily worth it if you get through at least 10 movies. Even if you just watch on the weekends it's cheaper and easier than renting at the store. Much bigger selection too.

 

As for movies, I just saw Life as a House and thought it was great.

[bearded yeti]

Originally posted by dano:

What about Panic Room ?

Panic Room was good, and Jodie Foster's cleavage is featured throughout. Seriously, I thought she was above cleavage shots?

[Dan O]

Originally posted by White Chocolate:

Originally posted by dano:

What about Panic Room ?

Panic Room was good, and Jodie Foster's cleavage is featured throughout. Seriously, I thought she was above cleavage shots?

I would rather see Demi Moore's cleavage !

 

dano

[Dave Pierce]

You know, I joined netflix, and I thought it was great. However, I just couldn't get my wife to get into the concept, and therefore I was the only one choosing movies. As a result, I kept having this stack of movies that only I was interested in watching. At that time I was working, and the amount of time I want to spend watching movies at home *by myself* is basically zero. So we kept going to the video store to get movies to watch together, like we've done for years. I finally cancelled the membership.

 

--Dave

[Superbobus]

The last one I rented was SNATCH and I must have been dying of laughing! Can't wait to see Lock, Stock and Two Broken Barrels.

As you see, I running a little behind...

[JimmieWannaB]

Donny Darko - my 17 yr old turned me onto this one. Quirky movie but great screenplay.

 

Hard Days Night - bought the double DVD set. Great nostalgia. Finally understand the "Clean Old Man" reference.

 

Pink Floyd - The Wall - another nostalgia trip. After buying every CD version and making lame A recording off Encore, finally broke down and bought the DVD. Nothing helps feed a dark mood this one.

 

War Live and No Man's Zone - saw War Live at Cinequest last year - waiting for the DVD; bought Man's Land as soon as it came out. I'm not a big foreign film fan, but both of these movies have me taking another look.

 

Queen of the Damned - years ago when I read the book, I had trouble envisioning what type of music "Lestat the Rock Star" would play. Jonathan Davies (Korn) was dead on.

 

Anyone who's looking for inexpensive (cheap) VHS tapes should check out Tower. Almost every MGM title is available for about $5. I picked up 12 tapes that I'm still working through.

[aliengroover]

The only thing that rivals my love for music, is my love for movies.

 

Gotta second:

Insomnia- INCREDIBLE! Gotta buy it soon.

 

Panic Room- Just for the direction and cinematography. It was too cool the way they moved from scene to scene through the floors and walls. It was like a drag race, though. Great finish, but it started out so slow it was at a complete stop.

 

Vanilla Sky- Not for everybody, but great if you're into quirky flicks. My only bone to pick is that I don't like comparing movies (or music for that matter) to the original or the remake or whatever. It's either good or it's not. Vanilla Sky was good in it's own right.

 

Minority Report- On my famed list of "day first" purchases. Saw it the day it was released and will buy it the day it comes out (12/17)

 

Resident Evil- Not into movies like this much, but this one surprised me. KILLER music by Mr. Manson. I've seen it twice, and liked it even better the second time around.

 

The Mothman Prophecies- The only movie that creeped me out more than this was the Exorcist. It's not a scary movie, per se, but a psychological freakfest. I guess what made it get under my skin so much (and others have told me the same) is that it's based on a true story.

 

Notables:

 

Ocean's Eleven, Monster's Inc., Changing Lanes, Sum of All Fears, Dragonfly- only liked one Kevin Costner movie (No Way Out, a fave of mine). Not great movie, but good to watch.

 

Avoid:

 

Royal Tennenbaums- "Forced" to see it cause my then "other" was an extra in it (woopee ) A couple of laughs, but "made for TV"

Peace

[Jotown]

Originally posted by mattzen:

Do yourself a favor and watch Abre Los Ojos. The original Spanish movie is one of the best films I've ever seen. They usually have it a Blockbuster on DVD. Abre Los Ojos was such a vivid piece of flim-making it's magic lived in my mind for weeks!

Cameron Crowe said the same thing.

[daBowsa]

Ok, my MUST RENT list:

 

Memento

Waking Life

The Way Of The Gun

Pi

Being John Malkovich

The Big Lebowski

 

I can't recommend these intelligent, sometimes dark, sometimes humorous flicks highly enough. Movie making at its best.

 

Netflix is great for my wife and I - when we feel like watching a movie, there's always 3 lying around. We fight over the order of movies coming up (we both have the password), but that just adds to the suspense and fun of getting something in the mail every week!

[aliengroover]

Oh yeah, Memento is the movie! Christopher Nolan also directed Insomnia.

Peace

[progfusion74]

"Pi" is one heck of a movie, as is "Memento". I liked Insomnia too. Another movie I sw about 6-7 months ago, and really liked was "The Spanish Prisoner".

[meccajay]

For those of you who liked Insomnia...

 

Go rent FRAILTY!! Now!!!!

 

Bill Paxton directs and stars, along with Matthew McConahey(sp?).. WOW, What a super-suspenseful flick!

 

There's 2 great surprizes at the end, one you see coming and one you WILL NOT!!

[bearded yeti]

Originally posted by dabowsa:

The Big Lebowski

You said it man, NOBODY fucks with the JESUS!!!

[Roto]

Originally posted by dabowsa:

Ok, my MUST RENT list:

 

Memento

Waking Life

The Way Of The Gun

Pi

Being John Malkovich

The Big Lebowski

 

I loved that rug!

The Big Lebowski is one of those love it or hate it movies, same as most Coen brothers' movies. I love all of them except Blood Simple which was their first one.

[bitdump]

No mans land was probally the last good rental surprize for me.