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iesikaThursday before last, Mom, Brother, Sister, PBiL and I all went to the closing sale at a video rental place near my house where, we were told, the movies were 75% off. It turned out, once we got there and beat our way through the crowd, that the movies were actually selling for between 80 cents and a dollar each, including new releases and tons of movies that had never been taken out of their shrinkwrap. All together, we got 68 movies for under $50, and then my mom and PBiL went back the next day (separately) to buy gifts for people. By the time we got there, the store was nearly sold out, but I did manage to find a few gems. In addition, I bought a pile of DVDs I’d never seen or even heard of that looked good. Then, everything went all to hell with Cousin, and they were sort of shoved aside. I’ve started watching them, as of late last week, in between work and school and studying for exams (and Mariokart Wii, because Brother is an evil enabler).
So far, these are the ones I’ve watched, with something approaching a review:
Go rent He Was A Quiet Man. Sooo. Good.
So far, these are the ones I’ve watched, with something approaching a review:
October Sky - I bought this one because I can’t imagine being a science teacher and not owning it. I will someday make my students watch this when I have a substitute. It turned out, though, that Brother had somehow never seen it, so I made him. Just in case you haven’t seen it either, it is based on the true story of four teenage boys in a small coal town who decide to build a rocket, after Sputnik passes overhead. They win the national science fair and get to go to college and don’t die of black lung! Yay!
Watership Down – Looks deceptively like a kids movie, but if you’ve read the book (Richard Adams), you know how much it really isn’t. The story centers around the rabbit Hazel and his brother Fiver (whose prophetic visions are rendered in the full psychedelic glory one would expect of a cartoon made in 1978 about talking rabbits), who start a revolution and an exodus from their home warren and take a band of young male rabbits on a search for a new home. Along the way, they encounter preditors, crazy rabbits, hostile rabbits, farm-raised rabbits, predators, and a seagull voiced by Zero Mostel. All in all, the movie was pretty good, though too short at 90 minutes or so. It wasn’t possible to pack all the wonderfulness of the book into the movie. Also, Clover and Hyzenthlay are barely bit parts, leaving, basically, an all male cast. Definitely very pretty animation – lots of watercolor backgrounds.
Kinsey – A biopic of Alfred Kinsey, pioneering sex researcher, who is played by Liam Neeson. He’s really pretty excellent in the role. He does a great job playing up homoerotic tension through quite a few scenes before he and Peter Sarsgaard finally jump each other. Laura Linney plays his wife, and she’s fantastic. John Lithgow, Tim Curry, and Oliver Platt all have really good parts. The acting was great.
He Was A Quiet Man - AMAZING movie. I adored every last detail of this movie, which, according to the director’s commentary, was shot in 21 days without the proper permits and with very minimal funding. Despite that, it’s got a great cast, fabulous cinematography, and a really gripping, twisty plot. Christian Slater stars as Bob Maconal, who’s absolute batshit insane (his goldfish keeps telling him to kill people, for example), and one of the best played characters I’ve ever seen in any movie. I don’t want to give the awesomeness away, though googling the film or hitting the IMDB will probably get you the first major plot twist (and premise of the movie) in about five seconds. It’s on the back of the dvd, actually. So, I knew what was coming – but Brother didn’t, and his jaw dropped. He actually shouted. You’ve got to love a movie that completely throws you for a loop in the first 15 minutes or so. And the fish! Oh god, the fish!
Watership Down – Looks deceptively like a kids movie, but if you’ve read the book (Richard Adams), you know how much it really isn’t. The story centers around the rabbit Hazel and his brother Fiver (whose prophetic visions are rendered in the full psychedelic glory one would expect of a cartoon made in 1978 about talking rabbits), who start a revolution and an exodus from their home warren and take a band of young male rabbits on a search for a new home. Along the way, they encounter preditors, crazy rabbits, hostile rabbits, farm-raised rabbits, predators, and a seagull voiced by Zero Mostel. All in all, the movie was pretty good, though too short at 90 minutes or so. It wasn’t possible to pack all the wonderfulness of the book into the movie. Also, Clover and Hyzenthlay are barely bit parts, leaving, basically, an all male cast. Definitely very pretty animation – lots of watercolor backgrounds.
Kinsey – A biopic of Alfred Kinsey, pioneering sex researcher, who is played by Liam Neeson. He’s really pretty excellent in the role. He does a great job playing up homoerotic tension through quite a few scenes before he and Peter Sarsgaard finally jump each other. Laura Linney plays his wife, and she’s fantastic. John Lithgow, Tim Curry, and Oliver Platt all have really good parts. The acting was great.
He Was A Quiet Man - AMAZING movie. I adored every last detail of this movie, which, according to the director’s commentary, was shot in 21 days without the proper permits and with very minimal funding. Despite that, it’s got a great cast, fabulous cinematography, and a really gripping, twisty plot. Christian Slater stars as Bob Maconal, who’s absolute batshit insane (his goldfish keeps telling him to kill people, for example), and one of the best played characters I’ve ever seen in any movie. I don’t want to give the awesomeness away, though googling the film or hitting the IMDB will probably get you the first major plot twist (and premise of the movie) in about five seconds. It’s on the back of the dvd, actually. So, I knew what was coming – but Brother didn’t, and his jaw dropped. He actually shouted. You’ve got to love a movie that completely throws you for a loop in the first 15 minutes or so. And the fish! Oh god, the fish!
Go rent He Was A Quiet Man. Sooo. Good.
