This week in DVD - Febuary 5th

Happy Superbowl everyone!  I very much enjoyed the large men of New Yorktown defeating the Sam Adamses of the New England area.

Outrage

You can read my original review here.

In short, I was not a fan of this movie.  It's basically about a bunch of Yakuza killing each other until pretty much everyone is dead.  There's no character development, so you don't care about anyone as they die.  Just a fail of a movie as far as I'm concerned.

1.5 (out of 5) Death Stars - Don't bother with it.

The Thing

I didn't think it was that bad, but it didn't really do anything to stand out from the original.  My recommendation from my original review is still the same.  Rent John Carpenter's The Thing first and then rent this one.

2.5 Death Stars - I think it's worth a rental.

In Time

In my original review I wrote that I was bummed out by this one.  It's a good concept, but poorly executed.  The story needed to explain more and I felt that just about everyone, especially Justin Timberlake, was miscast.

2 Death Stars - It's a mediocre film, but an okay rental if you're bored.

Drive

A well made film and Albert Brooks was robbed on a best supporting actor nomination.  It's a good movie, but with all the priase it got, I do think it's a little overrated now.  Also, this movie really isn't what it seems based on the trailer, so don't expect a movie that's action packed.  It does have some very brutal and violent scenes though.  You can read the original review here.

3.5 Death Stars - Definitely a good rental, especially in you're the mood for something different.

Dream House


This was a mess of a film.  If you've seen the trailer, the 'twist' is spoiled in the trailer.  Even after the twist is revealed, the movie goes on for another 30 minutes not knowing what to do with itself.  I hear that after test screenings, they scrapped the original ending and then re-edited the film.  That seems like a mistake as the current ending is pretty bad and the movie felt like it was confused as to what it wanted to be.

1.5 Death Stars - I can't really recommend it.  It's just not good.

The Double

Another mess of a film that telegraphs every 'twist' in the movie and contains no suspense at all.  Richard Gere felt like he sleepwalked through it.

1 Death Star - It's streaming on Netflix and even then I think you'd be wasting your time.

Everything is Illuminated


This movie is based on the book by Jonathan Safran Foer, who also wrote Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  A friend of mine recommended the movie to me recently and since I had just watched ELaIC a week ago I figured now is as good as time as any to watch this.

I have to say I liked this a lot.  It stars Elijah Wood as Jonathan Safran Foer (the book was expanded from his college thesis) who travels to the Ukraine to find a woman that helped his grandfather during the Holocaust.  While that might sound like a downer, the movie turned out to be a very sweet, funny and emotional tale.  Much of the comedy relief comes from the character, Alex, who sounds like a younger version of Borat.

3.5 Death Stars - I definitely think you should give this a rent if you haven't seen it already.