And so we begin another week together.  Let’s look at the DVDs, shall we?

• There Will Be Blood

Quite the popular movie amongst the critics.  Isn’t it about 3 hours, though?

• Walk Hard

It’s the Dewey Cox story, which doesn’t sound so exciting until you hear that John C. Reilly is playing Cox. That’s cool.  Also, Cox is madeup.  This whole movie is a sendup of the musician biography film genre, inspired by movies like WALK THE LINE.  Sounds hilarious.  I think it’s a Judd Apatow joint. Yo.

• The 11th Hour

If Al Gore made a movie for the MTV set, this is what he’d come up with. The Leo kid from TITANIC whose last name I’m too lazy to spell correctly at the moment is responsible for this one.

• Lions for Lambs

Ah, more Feel Good political bombast from the Hollywood set.  This time, Robert Redford, Tom Cruise, and Meryl Streep team up for a D.C. story of war, power, influence, etc etc etc.

• Resurrecting the Champ

A boxing movie with Josh Hartnett, Samuel L. Jackson, Teri Hatcher, and even Alan Alda.

• P2

I had never heard of this one, but I love this description:

Stalker in a parking garage. You’ve got to give the makers of P2 credit: They’ve tapped a universal source of anxiety and stretched it out into a feature-length film. Underneath a Manhattan skyscraper, chic businesswoman Angela (Rachel Nichols) is knocking off for the Christmas holiday. Everybody else has cleared out of the garage–everybody but freaky-friendly attendant Tom (Wes Bentley), and his little dog too. Before long, Tom makes it clear that he’d like to have Angela for holiday dinner, whatever that might mean. Our heroine must summon all her resources, and the challenge of a low-cut dinner gown, to fight back. P2 (no, it’s not the sequel to P) at least allows Angela a measure of common sense, as she actually thinks of some logical ways to fight back, and director Franck Khalfoun (working from an idea by Haute Tension guys Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur) does indeed get the most out of the parking garage location. But the movie’s at a loss to make these two characters interesting in any way, even at the Coyote vs. Roadrunner level. Tom’s little quirks, like miming a dance to Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas,” feel like a desperate attempt to add flavor to an otherwise standard-issue creepo. Bentley (best known for American Beauty) does have the face of an obsessive, and Nichols has the face (and did we mention the cleavage?) of a movie star, so they’re not hard to believe. But most of the time this movie is stuck on the wrong floor. –Robert Horton

And now I kinda want to see it.

It reminds me of a funny parking garage story.  Last week, I parked on the third floor of a parking garage and headed straight for the elevator banks.  Pushed the “up” button, waited for the cart.  It was there in a second.  The doors open, and there’s one person inside, who makes a half move for the door, realizes he’s not at the main level, and stops. I walk in and notice there’s no buttons pushed.  So I hit “M” for “Mall” or “Main” or whatever it stands for. And he says, “Street?”  “Yes,” I said back.  “That’ll get you out to the street.”  “Ah, thanks.”

What was he planning on doing?  He got into an elevator, didn’t push a button, and just planned to ride it all day until the doors opened eventually and he could see the street?  At least take a guess and push a button!  When the buttons choices are “M”, 1, 2, 3, and 4, I think the choice is clear.  But still — take a guess.

I wonder how long he was in that elevator cart before I got in?

• Hell’s Kitchen: Season One

Exciting news: This one is “raw and uncensored.”  In other words, you’ll have the option to NOT listen to the beeps. You can hear Chef Ramsay spew a litany of “f” words at helpless schlubs for 44 minutes at a time.  BEAUTIFUL!  It almost makes me want to wait for the DVD on the current season. Almost.

• Matlock, Season One

A whole new generation now can learn about the TV series that’s been the subject of countless punchlines over the last 20 years.  Laugh at it all you will, but I remember watching it as a kid and kinda sorta liking it.  Granted, I was 9 or 10, but still. . .

The last two seasons of THE COSBY SHOW are also out this week, and that’s about it from me. What are you looking most forward to?  Heck, what recent purchases have you been watching lately?

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 7:54 am and is filed under DVD, TV, Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.