Video Reviews

bellview--i love movies

Home | Movie Reviews | Video Roundups | Essays | Game Reviews | Subscribe | Mailbag | About | Search

2001 Fall Video Roundup

11/2/01

Remember, flicks on DVD and VHS are cheaper... 

"Bridget Jones's Diary"

Yep, I skipped this one in a theater, and I would do it again!  But, I have to admit, "Bridget Jones's Diary" was a pretty funny film.  Renee Zellweger--who has mostly stumbled since her biggest film break in "Jerry Maguire"--is great here, and very believable as the title character, a 32-year-old single girl that is constantly being asked why the hell she is so single.  This is a great film that looks at dating past 30, but the film's best scenes all come whenever Jones is hanging out with her married friends.  Nothing is more accurate about married people than when they start questioning why YOU aren't married...maybe single people don't WANT to be married right now, did you ever think about that?

Rating:  $9.50 Show

"Pollock"

What a great movie!  Ed Harris stars as the title character, painter Jackson Pollock, and under his own direction Harris puts together an impressive performance.  It helps that his character is allowed to follow the true story of Pollock's rise-and-fall in the 1940s and 50s art world, and it also helps that Pollock follows all the art character cliches.  So, this makes him a destructive alcoholic and a lost soul, which works well when Pollock ends up cheating on his too-loyal-to-be-true painter wife Lee (Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden).  But, the acting is so good by the two leads that you forget about the cliches altogether, and because I didn't know much about the real-life Pollock, watching the painting scenes was even more intriguing.  Although the final twenty minutes drags on a bit, this is still a great film that I should not have skipped in the theaters.

Rating:  $9.50 Show

"Tigerland"

I heard good things about this movie last year because of the star turn put in by Colin Farrell, and he does not disappoint.  Better, though, is the profanity-laced dialogue that can only be found in a war movie, and this rivals the dialogue from my personal favorite, the Clint Eastwood film "Heartbreak Ridge" and--for the first half of the film, at least--"Full Metal Jacket."  "Tigerland" is set in 1971 as a group of army recruits trains for eight weeks before being sent to Tigerland, a Vietnam training ground that gets the recruits ready for the trip to 'Nam.  In the movie's first ten minutes, I was worried I was going to go deaf from hearing the word fuck so many times!  But, the performances all around are just superb, with the best turns coming from Farrell, Clifton Collins Jr. ("Traffic") as a platoon commander, and Afemo Omilami as one of the staff sergeants.  And, you aren't going to find a more intense experience on video this year...there is always something going on during this one.  Surprisingly, this movie is directed by the same man that brought you the unbelievably shitty "Batman & Robin," Joel Schumacher.  Did he get lucky here?

Rating:  Opening Weekend

"Bill Cosby: Himself"

Yes, I have seen this many times before, but they showed it again on Black Starz! (actual network) two nights ago and I taped in on TiVo.  This is, of course, the seminal stand-up performance of Cosby's career, and it came around the start of the run of "The Cosby Show."  Even now, almost 20 years after it was done, this is my favorite stand-up performance of all time.  The lines are all still classic, from the hilarious chocolate cake sequence ("Dad is great!  Giving us the chocolate cake!") to the random child beatings in the house ("The beatings shall now begin!")  The whole performance is great, but the second half of the show is legendary.  You should still be able to find this on video, and unlike the other films on this list, the Cosby performance is actually suitable for the whole family.

Rating:  Opening Weekend

"To Die For"

This black comedy is from 1995, but it was on one of my 225 channels, so I watched it anyway.  What a film.  Nicole Kidman is spectacular in her role as bitchy wannabe newswoman Suzanne Stone, who wants her good husband (Matt Dillon) murdered so that she can make her break to LA.  And, former Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix plays a high school student that Stone uses to kill off her husband; Phoenix plays someone that is the total opposite of the character he was nominated for in "Gladiator."  Directed by Gus Van Sant ("Good Will Hunting"), this is one worth checking out, if anything for Kidman's best acting ever.

Rating:  $9.50 Show

"Band of Brothers"

I know, this is not on DVD or home video yet.  But, it will be.  And, if you have HBO right now, you might be in luck, because if the suits at HBO corporate do the right thing, they will air all ten episodes of this miniseries this weekend, when the finale is to air on Sunday at 9 PM ET.  Friends, forget "Sex in the City", forget "The Sopranos", forget "The Mind of the Married Man", all good-to-great shows.  "Band of Brothers" is the best thing out there right now.  You don't have to like war movies to like this series...you have to like learning how history REALLY unfolded during World War II by watching actors that you have never heard of over the course of a ten-episode season.  Especially in the current state of affairs here in America, you realize how horrible the idea of war really is when you watch the effect it took on the men that *survived* war life during the early 1940s...before each episode, series executive producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg show interviews with the men that made it back, and that is the most chilling reality of them all.

Rating:  Opening Weekend

 

Comments?  Drop me a line at justin@bellviewmovies.com.

 

Bellview Rating System:

"Opening Weekend":  This is the highest rating a movie can receive.  Reserved for movies that exhibit the highest level of acting, plot, character development, setting...or Salma Hayek.  Not necessarily in that order. 

"$X.XX Show":  This price changes each year due to the inflation of movie prices; currently, it is the $9.50 Show.  While not technically perfect, this is a movie that will still entertain you at a very high level.  "Undercover Brother" falls into this category; it's no "Casablanca", but you'll have a great time watching.  The $9.50 Show won't win any Oscars, but you'll be quoting lines from the thing for ages (see "Office Space"). 

"Matinee":  An average movie that merits no more than a $6.50 viewing at your local theater.  Seeing it for less than $9.50 will make you feel a lot better about yourself.  A movie like "Blue Crush" fits this category; you leave the theater saying "That wasn't too bad...man, did you see that Lakers game last night?" 

"Rental":  This rating indicates a movie that you see in the previews and say to your friend, "I'll be sure to miss that one."  Mostly forgettable, you couldn't lose too much by going to Hollywood Video and paying $3 to watch it with your sig other, but you would only do that if the video store was out of copies of "Ronin."  If you can, see this movie for free.  This is what your TV Guide would give "one and a half stars." 

"Hard Vice":  This rating is the bottom of the barrel.  A movie that only six other human beings have witnessed, this is the worst movie I have ever seen.  A Shannon Tweed "thriller," it is so bad as to be funny during almost every one of its 84 minutes, and includes the worst ending ever put into a movie.  Marginally worse than "Cabin Boy", "The Avengers" or "Leonard, Part 6", this rating means that you should avoid this movie at all costs, or no costs, EVEN IF YOU CAN SEE IT FOR FREE!  (Warning:  strong profanity will be used in all reviews of "Hard Vice"-rated movies.)