Monday Morning Poll: Random Weekend Movie Rental

Amelie is one of my favorites. And yet lately I've been thinking about how creepy Amelie is. Also, it's one of those movies where I fell in love with the character and then the star and then was disappointed when the rest of her characters were much different. I guess I should rent it again -- my DVD copy somehow got lost in the hands of my brother -- so I can regain my love.

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In a former life in Cincinnati, I was Mister Art House. Now, the art house is about 40 mins away. So what usually happens is that I hear about some indie opening, try to make a mental note of it, then forget about it completely until it shows up on the shelf at Blockbuster. The latest of these is You Kill Me, with Ben Kingsley. A mob hitman blacks out and misses the biggest hit of his career. So he joins AA--not to get healed, but to get straight enough to do his job. Does he find redemption along the way? What do you think? Anyway, Kingley always impresses, and he even makes that chunk of wood Tea Leoni look good.

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I watched Run Lola Run with my 15 yr old son. I liked it, except the few times he asked why some things were happening. I really enjoyed the movie and would recommend it!

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Where's the "independent neighborhood video store" option on your poll?

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The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Good flick.

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The NZ horror comedy Black Sheep.
Not baaaad at all ;o)

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I don't usually rent movies, I'll just buy them outright. My random weekend purchase was The Beatles' Help! dvd that just came out. I've always enjoyed this off the wall movie and the cleaned up audio and restored print made it worth the buy!

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"Brother From Another Planet." Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish watching it on Saturday, but I was enjoying it.

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KMF: I have never understood this, though I know many people do it. Why would you want to buy outright a movie you might not enjoy, much less want to watch more than once?

jenk: Do "independent neighborhood video stores" still exist? Even the big chains are closing down brick-and-mortar stores around me.

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Catching up on halloween, I rented The Brood, which was ok, but didn't really up the Cronenberg weirdness ante until a little late in the game. I also watched Visconti's The Leopard, which was insanely beautiful, and rather slow.

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I watched Gremlins 2 - The New Batch last night as it was on HBO Family. I had not seen it since it first came out. It is about as I remember it, a pretty poor film that has its moments.

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Independent video store: a dying breed. There was a fantastic place in Dayton OH called Precinct 13. Documentaries, foreign, Hong Kong, indies, Criterion, classics, old obscure TV shows--and just enough Hollywood to attract the suburbanites. He supported local filmmakers, had midnight screenings on the big screen in the store, even rented out the back room for "Magic: The Gathering" or some bullshit. But with Netflix, and a Hollywood or a Blockbuster every half mile, he just couldn't make it work. That's the indie report for Dayton OH--population 175K. Don't know what it's like in your town.

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Yeah, "Amelie" is a great film -- even more astounding that it came from the same director who gave us "Delicatessen," "The City of Lost Children" ... and "Alien: Resurrection." ... OK, new poll: It took Erik six years to get around to seeing "Amelie." But what are the films you've never seen, that have resided in the back of your head like a monkey on your back. My girlfriend's 27 and has never seen "Star Wars" (!) and doesn't seem too intent on doing so soon. Me? Never seen "Casablanca" nor "Gone With the Wind" -- and don't ever plan to. And frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

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Why wouldn't you want to see "Casablanca" or "Gone With The Wind", two wonderful films? This "rebel" attitude is just dumb, and you're just depriving yourself of a great deal of greatness.

If there is one thing I can't understand, it's this kind of willful
ignorance.

I'd also like to back up ElGoucho and voice my appreciation for "The Leopard" which I consider to be one of the best films of the 60's.

Like KMF, I usually just buy movies (have over 1200 films at this point, on LaserDisc, DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray), and usually just watch my own stuff. Over the weekend I saw:

"Shaun of the Dead"
"Hot Fuzz"
"An American Werewolf in London"
"Knocked Up" and
"Transformers"

the first four of which I would wholeheartedly endorse (Transformers is just eye candy, and quite all right as such, but in no way a "good" movie).

On my "todo" list of stuff I've recently acquired are:
Apocalypto
Babel
2001: A Space Odyssey
Dawn of the Dead
Goodfellas
The Descent
The Lives of Others
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

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Jesus, ThriceDamned, do you do anything else with your weekends? Not knocking it, just admiring it...or something. Shame on you, Erik, for waiting so long to see one of the best movies of the past ten years and such an original one at that. As for me, I finally saw The Matador this past weekend and was surprised at how great it was - beyond just the gimmick of seeing Pierce as a loser hitman. I just wish Tailor of Panama got as much press as this one - another Pierce comedic gem. I second Jason's question as perhaps a more interesting one, and will admit to missing out on a lot of old flicks that I know I "should" see but can't bring myself to for one reason or another, a la Seven Samurai and Wild Strawberries. More recently, and apropos of Amelie, I can't seem to bring myself to see A Very Long Engagement despite holding the former up as one of my all-time favorites and having rented it TWICE.

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My queue is filled with films I was recommended, films that look cool, films I want to see again, and a one film that just looks SOOO bad, I have to see it! (that title would be Dracula 3000 by the way). I generally try to hit a good balance between blocks of blockbusters and blocks of more independent features, with the occasional animated film or somethin thrown in between. My current top of the queue:

Eyes Wide Shut
Mulholland Drive
28 Weeks Later
Disturbia
Six Degrees of Separation
Y Tu Mama Tambien

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Fred and Cincinnati Mike--I'm from Seattle, we still have indie stores in a lot of the neighborhoods.

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Glad to hear it, Jenk. I'm sure there are plenty in the big cities, or near universities. Trouble is, WE used to have plenty of them as well, until the chains blew them away. Not just with volume, but also lately with these sneaky BLOCKBUSTER EXCLUSIVES!!! Which, I think was the case with "You Kill Me." Great for me, but death for the little indie store.

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After watching Al Pacino on Inside the Actors Studio (a rental), I rented Panic in Needle Park, his first film. Classic 70s cinema and classic Pacino. BTW love Amilie, I saw it in the local arthouse years ago, own it, and watch it from time to time. Good luck with your panel @ BAFF!

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Random rental this weekend: a Buster Keaton double-feature, "Seven Chances" and "Sherlock Jr". I would wholeheartedly recommend them to others, with no hesitation. These came from the library, but usually I rent from Hollywood Express, the hands-down best mom-and-pop video store in the Greater Boston area.

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