“It was wrong of you to lock me up. I had to hurt myself to get out. And I know you’re in here, because I can smell your brains.” — Thom Matthews as Freddy in The Return of the Living Dead (1985).
If you think you’ve seen a lot of DVD reviews here lately, you have. It’s because I’m doubling the frequency of DVD review posts in an effort to catch up with movies I’ve watched and reviewed.
 |
Katyn (2007) Somber, depressing, vividly told. I knew what happened at Katyn, but knew nothing of the lives of the families, nor of the few survivors who tried to tell the truth about what actually happened in the face of Soviet lies and most Poles’ refusal to confront the past. One jarring note, to me at least, was that the movie completely ignored the parallel and much larger Jewish massacre. Of course this was not a story about the Jews, it was a story about the murder of captured Polish officers by the occupying Soviets. But still. Not one word, not one hint. I suspect this is an accurate reflection of what non-Jewish Poles saw during and after the war: they didn’t see it, because they didn’t care. |
 |
American Violet (2008) Another movie in the tradition of Erin Brockovich and Silkwood, this time about a young black mother wrongfully arrested by a racist Texas DA and pressured to plead to a crime she didn’t commit, and the ACLU lawyers who get her off. Good rabble-rousing stuff, based on a true story. A little preachy in parts, but genuinely moving. |
 |
Killshot (2008) I’ll have to re-read the novel to be sure, but I feel that much of Elmore Leonard’s characteristic cool and feel for dialogue is missing from this movie. Other movie adaptations of Elmore Leonard novels . . . Jackie Brown, Get Shorty, Mr. Majestyk, Be Cool, 3:10 to Yuma . . . had it. Killshot doesn’t, and what’s left is basically Mickey Rourke, who carries the movie almost single-handedly. If you’re a Mickey Rourke fan, you’ll enjoy Killshot. If you’re a rabid Elmore Leonard fan, you’ll be disappointed. I’m both, so I’m somewhere in the middle. Worth seeing, but not that great. But hey, some of it was filmed in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, my home town, and how many movies can you say that about? This might just be the only one . . . so I’ll nudge my rating up from 2.5 to 3 stars. |
 |
Big Fan (2009) Pretty good dark comedy about a man who lives for his football team. He has the perfect job, night shift at a parking lot, where he can listen to sports broadcasts and compose scripts for late-night calls to a favorite radio sports show. When his hero quarterback beats him up at a strip club, his fandom is tested. I didn’t think I’d like this, because football and sports in general hold no interest for me, but I loved watching Patton Oswalt play this somehow-compelling character . . . and I loved the climax in the mens’ room at a Philadelphia sports pub. Good stuff. |
 |
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) I’m probably the last person in America to see this movie. My friends disliked it, saying it was too long, too dull, too dark, too concerned with teenage romance. It was all of those things, but also one of the best Harry Potter films I’ve seen. This one is all Harry, Hermione, Ron (all of whom I like much better as young adults), and Dumbledore (wait a minute, didn’t he die in an earlier book/movie . . . oh never mind). Other characters — Hagrid, Snape, Draco Malfoy — make appearances but are entirely peripheral, and Voldemort is present only by implication. The end was rather sudden and left me hanging, as if finishing a chapter in the middle of a book. But it guarantees a big audience for the sequel. |
 |
In the Loop (2009) Smart, fast, incisive, wicked political satire . . . except you come away thinking In the Loop isn’t satire at all, but instead a parting of the curtains of power, an unauthorized glimpse of how things really work. Two kinds of people will love this movie: one, the terminally cynical; two, former idealists who’ve had the dreams kicked out of them. In the Loop follows in the footsteps of Dr. Strangelove. It’s West Wing for grownups. It’s what Wag the Dog could have been if Hollywood hadn’t gotten hold of it. It’s the blackest of black comedies, and the joke is that the movers & shakers of the world don’t give the tiniest shit about the young men and women they send off to die on the battlefield. All the actors are great, but two standouts for me were James Gandolfini as a moral US Army general and David Rasche as a power-seeking cross between John Bolton and Donald Rumsfeld — you can cut the megalomania with a knife. I could watch In the Loop again and again . . . that’s how much I liked it. |
 |
Magnolia (1999) This was Crash before there was Crash — and I think it’s the better film. I didn’t get a guru-on-the-mountaintop lesson from Magnolia, but I did feel as if I learned something important about the vagaries of coincidence and the interweaving of lives, and that’s good enough for me. Magnolia sucked me in. I cared about the characters and was on the edge of my seat the entire three hours. The quality of the acting was superb throughout, and I thought the pacing was just right. The infamous rain of frogs is shocking, funny, unforgettable . . . and fits in perfectly with the movie’s theme of coincidence. This one needs to be in my DVD library . . . it’s a keeper. |
 |
A Perfect Getaway (2009) I guess thrillers these days have to have a twist, and even though I began to suspect the nature of the twist early on, A Perfect Getaway creates a lot of suspense en route, and the climax is suitably gory. This will probably be a very popular DVD rental, because it delivers the full DVD rental experience. Which is to say it’s pretty good, and it’s fun. |
 |
Up (2009) A surprisingly excellent movie from Pixar. I’m a sucker for dirigibles and grand adventures; Up has both, and more. The animation is brilliant, the visuals spectacular, the vision smart and imaginative. I don’t normally go in for “family entertainment,” but I have to say it’s nice to know it’s still out there. I was more impressed by Up than I thought I’d be, and don’t mind admitting it. Who’d a thunk animated features would ever be this good? |
 |
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (2009) I felt like I was watching an extended episode of CSI — which is to say this movie is strictly TV-grade. It has a low rating on Netflix but I rented it anyway because it has Michael Douglas in it. But Douglas, though his character is central to the plot, is mostly a walk-on, clearly brought in to give the film star power. The other two leads, Amber Tamblyn and Jesse Metcalfe, are just pretty faces, not at all believable in their roles. You can see the twist coming a mile away, so there’s not even much of a surprise at the now-obligatory surprise ending. A thoroughly ho-hum DVD experience. |