Netflix Tuesday - 8/24

 I need to hear from someone who was around in the 60's and early 70's about the quality of movies that were made about the Vietnam war during this period. Off the top of my head I can't think of any movies that actually addressed the war directly. MASH made a commentary on the war but used a backdrop of the Korean war to make its point. The John Wayne vehicle The Green Berets turned out to be more of a pro-war propaganda piece rather than a film that made any kind of statement on the war.

It wasn't until the late 70's that powerful movies like The Deer Hunter and Coming Home began to show up in theaters. However, these movies attempted to make their point by examining the struggles of those returning home from the war. Aside from Apocalypse Now, it wasn't until the late 80's early 90's, nearly twenty years after the war ended, that we began to see movies that told the story of the soldiers and their experiences in the jungles of Vietnam.

So, how good have the films made about the Iraq/Afghanistan war been? Whether you're for or against the war you probably have to agree that we've had one truly great film on the subject, The Hurt Locker, a really good miniseries, Generation Kill and a mixed bag of other mediocre to terrible movies. Unless you're a big Jake Gyllenhaal fan and you thought Jarhead was the tits (it wasn't).

And on that note......

Green Zone - Don't See -This is just another in an increasingly long line of mediocre to bad movies made about the war in Iraq. Unfortunately, Green Zone follows a very familiar recipe. Get a cast of good talent, Matt Damon, Greg Kinear, Amy Ryan and Brendan Gleeson. Then provide them a poor script to shoot. Ugh. I found myself bored throughout the movie. Maybe it was poor writing or maybe it's just too hard to write a good mystery when the secret is obvious and pretty well known. Either way this movie misses big.






One Day in September - See - Pretty good documentary on the Israeli hostage crisis during the 1972 Munich Olympics. I say good but not great mostly because it drags on a bit too long. The most compelling part the documentary is how badly the Munich/German authorities handled the situation. From their refusal to bring in an experienced military strike force their use of terrible intel to having a strike team quit minutes before they were to spring a trap on the terrorists. The interviews with family members of the hostages border on gut wrenching and you can't help but feel a bit sick and angry while the one surviving terrorist proclaims how proud he is of what they accomplished.



The Losers - Don't See -I hate when actors I really like are in movies I really hate. This is the case with this movie and Idris Elba. You should know him as Stringer Bell from The Wire. If not, stop reading, go to Best Buy and get The Wire box set. You can then return once you've watched all 60 episodes. Don't worry, I'll wait. Don't waste your time with this movie however. It's ridiculously terrible. On top of it being a terrible movie, it stars Chris Evans. The same d-bag that plays The Human Torch in those horrible Fantastic Four movies. I wanted to make a rule that I wouldn't see any more movies this guy is in until I looked up his IMDB resume and saw that he's in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and has been cast as Captain America in the upcoming movie of the same name and then plays the role again in The Avengers. Thanks Hollywood for trying to ruin one of my favorite comics.

The Day of the Jackal - See -The latest in my 70's classics series. There is very little chance a movie like this could be released today. It takes patience to watch this movie. They tell you upfront what is going to happen and when but the story is the journey to the accomplish the objective. The journey develops slow and methodically but never boring. There is a beautiful cat and mouse game being played between the Jackal and the authorities trying to hunt him down and you never know whether he can stay one step ahead of them. All the way up until the last scene the movie keeps you captivated and even in those final moments you're still unsure who you want to succeed. There's a crappy Bruce Willis remake from about 10 years ago called The Jackal. Don't waste your time, it sucks. Go rent this instead it's worth it.

Rollergirls season 1 disc 3 - ? - One disc left then my verdict but I do love me some Roller derby chicks.

Netflix Tuesday - 8/10

Have I mentioned yet that football is coming? I want to go on record that football season should be a national holiday. Yes, the whole season.

Keeping with the football theme, this week's Netflix viewing was like a 125 yard, 2 touchdown Andre Johnson receiving day. Let's get started with the goodness.

A Prophet (Un Prophète) - See it - Maybe I should type that a few more times, See it, See it, See it. I know I can already hear you "I don't want to watch a movie with subtitles. I don't want to read a movie. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa." Get over it and start wearing big boy pants. This is a terrific movie. I heard Lance Zierlein talking about this movie one morning on 1560 The Game. Lance usually gives pretty good movie recommendations, so I checked it out. I was not disappointed. The story follows Malik during a 6 year stretch in a French prison. Malik (an Arab) finds himself caught in the delicate balance between the Corsican mafia, Italian mafia and the Muslims. For those of you who can't think beyond the lower 48, just think Mexican Mafia, Crips and Aryan Brotherhood. The story is riveting, acting superb and wonderfully shot frame by gritty frame. One of the benefits of watching a foreign film is that you usually don't know the actors involved and therefore don't identify them with characters they've played before. If someone were to tell me this film was shot using real prisoners, I wouldn't have an argument against it.  See this movie. 


Kick-Ass - See it - This is the first movie Nicolas Cage has been in that I've loved since Vampire's Kiss in 1988. That's 22 long years of crap movies but Big Daddy makes all those hours of horrible accents and Jerry Bruckheimer abominations almost worth it. Like I've said before, I'm a sucker for superheroes. Even when the superhero is just your everyday ordinary high school geek whose fed up with the local bullies taking his comic money. Now, if you're going to be an ordinary guy trying to be a superhero, it helps when a couple of extraordinary BadAsses like Big Daddy and Hit Girl have your back. Hit Girl is the cutest little killing machine since Natalie Portman in The Professional. Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays the perfectly bumbling, ineffective villain to balance Kick-Ass's superhero. This movie touches all the bases, comedy, action, bloody, teen outcasts, underdog vs. the world.


The Art of the Steal - See it - Albert C. Barnes was an early pharmaceutical millionaire and collector of art. In the early 20th century he became friends with such artists as Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Barnes had a keen eye for art and collected the works of many of the impressionist, and post-impressionist artists. A collection that is now estimated to be worth about $25 billion. However, this documentary is less about the art in the Barnes Collection and more about the lengths to which politicians and power brokers will go to consume and wield as much money and power as they can. The documentary shares the story of how Pennsylvania's politicians have taken it upon themselves to completely disregard the clear wishes of Albert Barnes will and move the collection to Philadelphia for the increased revenue. This movie will piss you off. If it doesn't piss you off then you're probably a Democrat and believe government should control everything anyway or you're a Republican and believe wealthy power brokers should be in control. Either way, the real loser here is individual rights and public trust.


Rollergirls disc 2 - ? - I am loving me some Lunatic, Punky Bruiser, Venis Envy and Jail Bait.

Netflix Tuesday - 8/3

First off, no I still haven't seen Inception but I did add it to my Netflix queue. So expect to see what I thought of it about 9 months from now.

I was a pretty slow week on the Netflix front. With the in-laws visiting this past weekend and the kid without a camp to keep her busy, there just wasn't much time to squeeze in 2 glorious hours of escapism.

Anyhow, I did work in 3 discs. 2 movies and disc one of Rollergirls.



Hot Tub Time Machine - See - My initial thought when I first saw the previews for this movie "probably the dumbest movie title ever." Now this movie isn't on the same comedic level as The Hangover but it's worth a watch. There's more than a couple laugh out loud moments as well as a few gags that fall flat. The lead cast is solid with Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry and Clark Duke. Surprisingly, John Cusack does and adequate job of playing John Cusack. He's like the Harlem Globetrotters of playing John Cusack. I still don't know why Lizzy Caplan or her character was in this movie. Overall, a few good laughs and a little T&A make it all right in my book.



Trust the Man - Don't See - This movie is terrible. I mean I have insomnia, it's on the only channel that comes in and I still wouldn't watch this movie again, bad. Look at the timer 15 times to see how much more I have to endure, bad. It had a promising cast of Billy Crudup, Maggie Gyllenhaal (crush), David Duchovny and Julliane Moore (meh). None of them however could overcome the terrible writing. I can't imagine Billy Crudup ever giving a worse performance. The only thing worse than Crudup's performance was the movie's ending. The ending of this movie rocketed into the pantheon of terrible movie endings. It's right up there with A League of their Own. Do Not See This Movie.



Rollergirls - ??? - I can't give an honest opinion on this yet. I've only seen the first 3 episodes. I will say that I am enjoying it so far but I can't tell if the show is good or if it's just my rollergirl fetish.






I'm very excited about this week's movies. I received Kick-Ass in the mail today and A Prophet arrives tomorrow. Thanks Netflix for getting me something at the top of my queue for once.