OT: Movie rental suggestions

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Tue May 23, 2006 11:45 am

I watched "The Family Stone" this past weekend based seeing the previews and thinking it looked funny, but it had to be one of the worst screenplays that I've watched in the past year, no joke. My wife and I almost turned it off halfway through the DVD, but stuck it out anyway just to see how stupid the ending would be.

Speaking of which, the ending was so unbelievable and over the top (a main character goes from buying an engagement ring for his girlfriend one afternoon, to falling in love with her sister that night, and the fiance' falls for his brother after one night of drinking and pot smoking?). Not only was the ending awful, but it was so predictable that my 3yr old would have seen it coming if he were allowed to watch. The direction in this movie was flat out awful, I think 60% of the frames were closeups of faces.

What was especially stupid was the way the movie shoved it's liberal viewpoints down your throat, yet the entire premise of the script is that this extremely progressive and accepting family (gay/deaf son with a minority life partner who then adopt a black baby, father/son smoke pot with each other and it's no big deal w/ the family) gets all hard and tough on the main character (the potential fiance') and don't accept her or her viewpoints.

Please don't rent this heavy-handed Hollywood liberal dreck. It was completely garbage.

I've been renting real stinkers lately, hopefully the wife can pick out something better for this weekend (looking at either Syriana or The New World).

grtwhtsk · Post by **grtwhtsk** » Tue May 23, 2006 11:50 am

Thank you Jon for saving me.

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Tue May 23, 2006 12:08 pm

grtwhtsk wrote:Thank you Jon for saving me.

I know this thread is "recommend" a good movie... but someone needs to recommend avoiding bad ones too. hehe

I wish someone had warned me about Ice Harvest, Stay and Family Stone before wasting 7hrs of movie watching and $15 in rental fees.

grtwhtsk · Post by **grtwhtsk** » Tue May 23, 2006 12:16 pm

jondiehl wrote:
grtwhtsk wrote:Thank you Jon for saving me.
I know this thread is "recommend" a good movie... but someone needs to recommend avoiding bad ones too. hehe I wish someone had warned me about Ice Harvest, Stay and Family Stone before wasting 7hrs of movie watching and $15 in rental fees.

Good idea. Wish I had all the hours back from watching really bad movies!

Badgun · Post by **Badgun** » Tue May 23, 2006 2:57 pm

Here's one I was pleasantly surprised by...End Game. Cuba Gooding Jr. is a secret service guy assigned to the president. The president gets shot and soon after the conspiracy hunts begin.

Not as riveting as No Way Out, but the same type of movie. The end is a little unbelievable, but I still enjoyed it very much.

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Tue May 23, 2006 3:10 pm

Badgun wrote:Here's one I was pleasantly surprised by...End Game.

Hmmm... I had that one on my list of "wanting to rent", but then looked it up at IMDB and it seemed to have a ton of negative comments so I steered clear:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0415778/

After a season of 24 and Prison Break, I think I'm done with Presidential conspiracies for now.

Badgun · Post by **Badgun** » Wed May 24, 2006 12:19 am

jondiehl wrote:
Badgun wrote:Here's one I was pleasantly surprised by...End Game.
Hmmm... I had that one on my list of "wanting to rent", but then looked it up at IMDB and it seemed to have a ton of negative comments so I steered clear:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0415778/

After a season of 24 and Prison Break, I think I'm done with Presidential conspiracies for now.

Well, if I paid attention to half of what I read on review sites, I'd have missed out on some great movies. For example, every movie that Rotten Tomatoes gives a poor review, I usually enjoy. But here's a pretty good summation of End Game taken right off the IMDB site:

I love a good action film and this delivers non-stop. Cuba is (as always) excellent, as are Anne, James and the rest of the senior cast. I always love that big smile from Cuba, but never got it from this one. (The story is way too intense!) Without using a spoiler, I will say that I did have some trouble believing a 'civilian' (reporter) would be 'permitted' in on so much but HEY, it's a movie and it works. again, without giving away anything I might have envisioned several other options for the ending, but it still played well. Whatever minor flaws there were in the script (my opinion) were MORE than made up for by the action. It was well shot, but it's largely the editing that keeps you doubting your last guess. Just enough to tease, not enough to be 'confident'. Well worth the admission and time. Go see it!

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Sun May 28, 2006 1:37 am

jondiehl wrote: I've been renting real stinkers lately, hopefully the wife can pick out something better for this weekend (looking at either Syriana or The New World).

Another weekend, another poor choice at the rental counter. I could barely keep my eyes open through Syriana. Basically, it's about corruption with oil companies and government, the Middle East, etc.. but it's completely devoid of any action or drama (don't bother popping the popcorn, you won't need it for this movie, unless you normally sit and watch 2hrs of CSPAN with a bowl of popcorn).

If you watch the trailer for the movie, it's very deceiving. I think Warner edited it to include all 90 seconds of "action" (a few explosions and one kidnapping/torture scene) out of 2hrs of mostly nothing else (with lots of subtitles due to Arabic speaking characters) in an attempt to suck people into watching it as if it were an action flick.

It sort of jumped around all over the place, never really explained what was going on. For the life of me I don't understand why there was any buzz about this movie. The Family Stone was bad too, but at least it had some real dialogue to keep me from nodding off.

Is there anything coming down the DVD new release pipeline that's worth watching? With my recent string of bad luck at picking movies to watch, I might start going back into my DVD collection and rewatching good flicks instead of these nonsense that Hollywood has been greenlighting.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Sun May 28, 2006 5:53 pm

This may be too late but the Constant Gardener was a pretty good movie.

The movies coming out on DVD are real stinkers. No wonder why tickets sales are dropping off.

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Mon May 29, 2006 12:33 am

JRod wrote:This may be too late but the Constant Gardener was a pretty good movie.

Yep, good movie. That was how to make a political thriller type movie. These latest ones like Syriana were more PBS than Hollywood.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Mon May 29, 2006 12:59 am

haven't read the whole thread but a good family movie from a few years ago for the weekend : The Count of Monte Cristo. Stars james caveizel.

And again, the movie Frequency with the same actor (based on a murder mystery + the 69 Mets).

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Mon May 29, 2006 12:13 pm

Good Night and Good Luck was very good. Excellent performances, and it was nice to be reminded of a time when journalists had spines.

I've also been watching the first season of Scrubs, which is well worth renting if you haven't watched the show before. It's absolutely hilarious.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Mon May 29, 2006 12:49 pm

Syriana is one of the best movies I've seen in the last year or so. I didn't expect it to be an action thriller, and thus wasn't disappointed when it turned out not to be one. I hadn't seen such an intellectually engaging movie in quite some time, and despite some practical holes in the plot in the service of the greater thematic issues, I enjoyed it a great deal. Of course, I saw it in a movie theater, which I think makes a big difference to the experience.

I'm sad that I missed Good Night at the theaters. David Strathairn is one of my favorite American actors. I look forward to seeing it soon.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Mon May 29, 2006 12:58 pm

Brando70 wrote:Good Night and Good Luck was very good. Excellent performances, and it was nice to be reminded of a time when journalists had spines.

I thought it was a great movie. Had an interesting response to it--right after watching it, I was telling people that I thought it was good. Then a week passed and I couldn't stop thinking about how enjoyable it was. Can't wait to watch it again, in fact.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:25 am

I'm pretty sure it was mentioned before in this thread, but you guys have got to check out Grandma's Boy. That sh*t was hilarious. It also helps that it was almost entirely about video games...but still, it was definitely a comedy worth checking out. Warning: don't watch it with the wife and kids...seriously.

Badgun · Post by **Badgun** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 8:03 am

dbdynsty25 wrote:I'm pretty sure it was mentioned before in this thread, but you guys have got to check out Grandma's Boy. That sh*t was hilarious. It also helps that it was almost entirely about video games...but still, it was definitely a comedy worth checking out. Warning: don't watch it with the wife and kids...seriously.

Yeah, I thought that was a decent movie.

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:07 am

Brando70 wrote:Good Night and Good Luck was very good. Excellent performances, and it was nice to be reminded of a time when journalists had spines.

Watched it last night. Good movie, although it had more of a documentary/historic feel to it than a Hollywood drama.

I felt the opposite though about journalists and it seemed back then they had no spine (other than Murrow). Now, journalists don't think twice about calling a politician out on the carpet to challenge their views. Back then, it was a huge deal that Murrow did this as everyone else that apposed McCarthy was labeled a communist. I think the point of the movie was to show how Murrow's dealing with McCarthy was a turning point in TV journalism, and doing what he did back then is pretty common place today.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 3:15 pm

Despite the average reviews, I was quite entertained with "16 Blocks". Sure, while some scenes were a little far fetched, the movie moved along quite well. I thought Bruce Willis did a very good job of portraying a drunk, depressed, detective with a chip on his shoulder. His tag along inmate (not sure of his name) was pretty humorous, if a little bit not believeable. Still, I'd recommend it.

I also watched "Spellbound" a few weeks back. I don't agree with the critics that say the film is exciting and intense. I'd say it's a good documentary, just not great.

Anyone going to the theaters to check out Superman Returns?

SoMisss2000 · Post by **SoMisss2000** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 4:10 pm

This movie is probably gay but the wife had been trying to get me to watch The Notebook for some time and of course I wasn't interested. This was before I discovered the hotness that is Rachel McAdams in Wedding Crashers. After seeing that McAdams starred in The Notebook, I stomped down and watched it the other nite when it was on one of the digital cable channels. Good movie.

WillHunting · Post by **WillHunting** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 4:50 pm

The Notebook was a good chick flick. I enjoyed it and Rachael whatever her name is, is easy on the eyes

If you have not seen Mr. & Mrs. Smith yet... DON'T. My wife and I could barely stay awake through this piece of crap. I can't believe it was directed by the same guy who did The Bourne Identity. This movie was nothing but an inside joke for Pitt and Jolie to shack up. Horrible plot (actually, it is practically non-existent), it makes no sense whatsoever, defies any kind of logic and the characters are caricatures. And the bantering between Pitt and Jolie was not funny, and half the movie had Jolie with the what I would like to call "Sucking the Lemon" look (if you don't know what I mean, just watch Renee Zellweger, she always look like she is sucking a piece of lemon).

Anyway, the only entertaining parts of this tragedy are Vince Vaughn's scenes. He was funny but only in comparison to how weak the rest of the movie was....

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 11:06 am

Planning on renting one of the three following movies; "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang", "Cache", or "Transamerica".

If anyone has any opinions on one or all of the above mentioned films, by all means....

Thanks.

WillHunting · Post by **WillHunting** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 11:23 am

We saw V for Vendetta (Preview DVD), it is a good flick. Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith, Lord Elrond from LOTR) is amazing, being able to convey so much with just his body language and voice alone. It is not really an action movie though.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 12:33 pm

SoMisss2000 wrote:This movie is probably gay but the wife had been trying to get me to watch The Notebook for some time and of course I wasn't interested. This was before I discovered the hotness that is Rachel McAdams in Wedding Crashers. After seeing that McAdams starred in The Notebook, I stomped down and watched it the other nite when it was on one of the digital cable channels. Good movie.

Yes, its one of the best gay

movies out there. Never thought Id be saying this but I liked it alot.

spooky157 · Post by **spooky157** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 12:59 pm

XXXIV wrote: Yes, its one of the best gay movies out there. Never thought Id be saying this but I liked it alot.

Since we're talking about gay movies I just rented Brokeback Mountain last week. What a great film.....very different than what I had expected. The fact that the characters are gay was almost incidental. It's really about forbidden love and denial, which made the story much easier to relate to.

Then I rented Crash and thought it was garbage. Too many shallow, cliched characters. There was nothing subtle about the storytelling at all. I guess it's hard to really develop anything fully when you have all these characters and you want to keep the movie under 2 hours.

Up next on my list: Jesus is Magic.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 1:09 pm

The "Notebook" is a better than average film if and only if you do not know the story going in. A friend of mine's wife kind of spoiled the movie for me by remarking about one integral part of the story.

For whatever reason, I just cannot get myself to rent Brokeback Mountain. I'm not homophobic in the least, but it just doesn't really have any appeal to me.