Category: movies

(no spoilers.) I went to see The Italian Job with Connie and Michael on Friday evening. It’s good popcorn-entertainment and I was able to just relax and enjoy it. In some ways, its playful tone reminded me of Ocean’s Eleven — if you liked that movie, you'll probably like this one as well (trivia: Ocean’s Twelve is scheduled for a 2004 release).

It’s rated 67 / Generally Favorable at MetaCritic, which I think is fair (MetaCritic computes a score based on the reviews of several dozen online and dead-tree movie critics). For what it’s worth, Ocean’s Eleven got 75, which is also “Generally Favorable”.

Before going, I hadn’t even seen any trailers or commercials for the movie (though I had seen a segment about it on Ebert & Roeper). But, that was probably all for the best since the trailer — which I watched last night — gives away virtually every spoiler in the film (and I’m not linking to the trailer for that reason). A couple quotes from critics which I think capture the essence of the film:

Wall Street Journal / Joe Morgenstern: “The best car commercial ever, an absolute triumph of product placement, and great fun as a movie in the bargain.”

Washington Post / Stephen Hunter: “For two hours, the bliss of the brainless fluff is yours for the asking. It cheerfully puts the escape back in escapism.”

Entertainment Weekly / Owen Gleiberman: “There's a fair amount of filler in The Italian Job, but it all boils down to the big heist, which has been staged as if it were Fort Knox being robbed by Evel Knievel.”

As an audiophile, I had a minor quibble with one of Seth Green’s lines. He was talking about what he’d like to buy and named a receiver from NAD “with Burr-Brown DACs”. However, he pronounced the letters D-A-C, whereas I’ve only heard “DAC” pronounced as a single word :-/.

I saw an ad for GreenCine in a recent mailing of the DVD Talk newsletter (DVD Talk features news and reviews of new DVD releases). Anyhow, GreenCine is a DVD rental service (like Netflix) but with a focus on availability of alternative DVDs such as foreign films (including Hong Kong cinema) and anime. Not to worry, their site confirms that they have plenty of mainstream flicks as well.

GreenCine carries a select collection of over 10,000 titles, with an accent on indie, art house, classics, foreign, documentary, anime and Asian cinema. You can check out three titles at a time, with no due dates, no late fees...and we pay the postage! Hang on to them as long as you like. Return one...we send you the next one on your list. Only $21.95 a month, flat fee, with a portion of proceeds benefiting film arts organizations. […]

I’ve been thinking about trying a DVD rental service, though I had only heard of Netflix for the most part. I do enjoy anime and kung fu flicks, so this caught my interest. It's priced a bit higher than some of its competitors, but not tremendously so. Still, I checked Google for reviews just to get a second opinion. And, Stark Raving Normal has a thorough review of various DVD rental services. GreenCine was received favorably there as well:

GreenCine is my current favorite DVD rental service. The customer service people have been great, they have the best selection of anime that I have seen from a DVD rental place, lots of cult movies, sci-fi, horror, indie films, foreign cinema, and even a cool little online community of San Francisco movie geeks.

In terms of Things To Buy, I still need a couch and a DVD player before I commit to a DVD rental service (those were both Jason’s, which he took with him). But, if I get to that point, perhaps I'll consider GreenCine.

Last Tuesday, I posted an invitation to see The Matrix Reloaded this Friday (May 16th), but there haven’t been any RSVPs so far. Was it not a good day, or maybe the location was too far? And without more interest, I may have to reschedule it.

If another day would be better for you, let me know. I’ve also noticed that it’s showing at Loews Cityplace as well, if that would work better (at the time of the original post, it was only listed for Loews Keystone at Fandango).

I watched BASEketball over the weekend, recorded from TiVo. I had initialliy thought about inviting a couple friends over, but I soon realized that there’s not much to sit on in the living room (Jason took his futon with him when he moved). D’oh.

I had last seen it back in college, shortly after it became available on video. It was hilarious then, and still very funny today. It probably didn't help that I saw the Comedy Central version (or was it USA?). In particular, Trey & Matt’s colorful use of language was rather muffled in the tv version.

Yasmine Bleeth was pretty hot, or at least that’s what I keep trying to tell myself. Ever since seeing her mugshot on The Smoking Gun from when she was strung-out on cocaine, I keep seeing the zombie version of her face when I see her in films and tv. Yikes, that’s just scary-looking.