{"id":1217,"date":"2008-12-19T19:39:08","date_gmt":"2008-12-20T02:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=1217"},"modified":"2011-11-18T09:13:59","modified_gmt":"2011-11-18T16:13:59","slug":"my-inner-ebert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=1217","title":{"rendered":"Paul’s DVD Reviews: My Inner Ebert"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a new blog post category this morning: reviews.\u00a0 Never fear \u2014 they’re short. I’ll start with a few recently-watched movies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nAn American Crime<\/span><\/a> (2007). <\/span>Beautifully acted, and who doesn’t love Ellen Page? But now I better understand those who condemn movies about the underbelly of life. Yes, it’s a true story; no, this is not life as most of us experience it. What does it teach us? Nothing, other than what we already knew: there will always be someone whose depravity exceeds our worst imaginings. Is there a name for this genre? If not, may I suggest one? Depravity porn.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nSophie Scholl – The Final Days<\/span><\/a> (2005). <\/span>If you know your history you know how this story is going to turn out (not many Germans stood up to the Nazis and lived to tell about it), yet the story is edge-of-your-seat suspenseful. An adult film aimed at the heart and mind.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nGet Smart<\/span><\/a> (2008). <\/span>I was expecting some sort of lowest-common-denominator, Leslie Nielsen-style farce, with endlessly repeated sight gags . . . or worse . . . but there was very little of that here.\u00a0 Sure, it’s fluff, but fluff adults can enjoy.\u00a0 Steve Carrell was absolutely terrific. Well done!<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nBlack Book<\/span><\/a> (2006). <\/span>Our notions of life during times of war fall far short of reality.\u00a0 This movie gives us a glimpse of true horror, along with a remarkable story of bravery and heroism.\u00a0 When I watch foreign films like this, I have to fight the urge to delete Hollywood movies from my Netflix queue . . . one minute of Carice Von Houten is worth six hours of spurting blood and exploding cars.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nThe Diving Bell and the Butterfly<\/span><\/a> (2007). A brilliant adaption of Jean-Dominique Bauby’s book about his life after becoming paralyzed, written one letter at a time, by blinking to an alphabet code devised by his caregiver. Absolutely engrossing, rich, and deep.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nThe Incredible Melting Man<\/span><\/a> (1977). The alert flick of alert flicks. If you’ve ever been a fighter or bomber pilot, or a fireman, you know what alert flicks are.\u00a0 They’re the ones you and your buds watch while on alert duty, then watch again and again. I wish I could find this on DVD . . . I’d subject all my friends to it.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

– See all my reviews<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a new blog post category this morning: reviews.\u00a0 Never fear \u2014 they’re short. I’ll start with a few recently-watched movies: An American Crime (2007). Beautifully acted, and who doesn’t love Ellen Page? But now I better understand those who condemn movies about the underbelly of life. Yes, it’s a true story; no, this is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[413,30],"tags":[56],"class_list":["post-1217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies-reviews","category-reviews","tag-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1217"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8234,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions\/8234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}