Ye olde movie rental list

[zeade]

Sometimes working at SemiMegaCorp has it's perks. Fer instance, they've started this service with DVD Station where an employee can rent DVDs for $3 for 5 days. You select what DVDs you want via wall-mounted touchscreens that display, obviously along with the movie title name, the box art, trailers, synopsis, cast, reviews, etc. You can search

Comments

[zeade]

Years ahead of its time. It uses shots and lighting that put most modern directors to shame. The story is told in disjointed flashbacks, following a reporter who is looking for the truth behind Kane's dying words. While the surface of the plot is laid bare in a newsreel at the beginning of the movie, the presentation of the story is so well done I wasn't really ever feeling antsy for the next segment. I find myself a little alienated by films that predate me by at least a decade, with anachronisms and acting styles that took their last breath before I took my first, but along with Hitchcock, CK is one of those films that feels so alive and modern as if it had premiered just last week.

I give it ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Jackass

[zeade]

I originally had no desire at all to see Jackass, but too many people whom I considered to not be entirely fucked in the head said it was a must see. While I can not claim a virginally chaste stance to doing the Stupid Thing, I can't help but think that movies like this, more than the super violent video games or the XXX porn at every turn, do more to sway people towards fuknarditude than anything else in society. Look, here are self-described jackasses, having the time of their life beating the shit out of eachother and living to end up on TV and the big screen to revel in their micro-fame, if you're self-destructive enough you might be just so lucky. It's social degeneration, but it's funny social degeneration. As with most pain that doesn't involve people dying, it's funny when it happens to not-you. Some of the stunts were certainly not my bag, but when a guy voluntarily tries out a device called the Bungee Wedgie, nothing but a laff-riot can follow.

I give it ♣ ♣

Re: Jackass

[cheesetruck]

A friend of mine thought it would be a good idea to show this to me.

45 minutes in he decided that it was time for us to stop watching. He'd never seen me so violently opposed to what I was viewing. Ever. And he didn't think it was a good thing at all.

Since then, there have been no more "surprize" movie things. Mind you, some were decent (decent. I didn't say enjoyable. 'Xanadu' was interesting from the Gene Kelly's last movie, and obviously outclassing EVERYONE in it, well, ok, not Olivia, but he was obviously able to carry the movie by himself and pretty much did. Except for Olivia. And I also remember all the songs being on the top 40. Which, today, would just about not even ever happen. ever.)

Anyway. Jackass. I give it -800 stars. For "If you like this please, try the stunts at home."

25th Hour

[zeade]

Spike Lee wanted to make a movie that tapped into the "real" feelings of New Yorkers after 9-11, and out of it came 25th Hour. A beat-up dog is just a dog who wants to fight even harder for what he has, even if all that he has is his scrappy life. While NYC isn't exactly the perfect allegory for a dog run over by a car, it didn't bother me so much. I may have been a bit maudlin thanks to the wine, but I thought Lee was fairly adept at conveying the various levels of anger the terrorist attack created in the characters, although it's not central to the story at all. In particular, where a mirror-self of Edward Norton is telling the entire world to go fuck itself was simultaneously enraging and weepy. Unfortunately, not much else about the movie worked for me. Norton's girlfriend in the movie, while extremely hot, is not much of an actress. But she's extremely hot. Moving on. The supporting friends characters were well done, but their sub-plots were distracting and ultimately meant nothing. The Spike™ Lee™ style of camera

Unbreakable

[zeade]

I already spewed some thoughts on Unbreakable elsewhere. Thanks to the power of copy-n-paste I don't have to make the extra effort to rethink my stance (...SPOILERS

Re: Unbreakable

[cheesetruck]

Film would have been good in 15 minutes.

Period.

The 10 hour version I saw was oh my god boring. At least, I assume it was 10 hours, because I fell asleep about 20 minutes into it and woke up and it was still going, and it wasn't Tuesday anymore.

[mschlock]

Sounds cool!

But maybe not as cool as 72 unwatched movies on an unreleased product...

[zeade]

Um, wow. 72? Better start watching your amassed hoard of movies before they go all stale and bad. I hear bits can turn sour if not reshuffled every N days. Movie night at mschlock's!