How I Met Your Mother: Season 1 (2005)

Netflix Synopsis: When his best friend, Marshall (Jason Segel), announces that he’s finally going to wed his longtime girlfriend (Alyson Hannigan), single guy Ted (Josh Radnor) throws his search for a soul mate into high gear. Via flashback, he recounts to his kids (Lyndsy Fonseca and David Henrie) 25 years later the often-hilarious story of how he met — and eventually married — their mother. Neil Patrick Harris plays Ted’s barhopping buddy.

Review: In Fall 2005, my wife and I saw down to watch the pilot episode of HIMYM and were generally ambivalent in our reactions. Considering our many other Tivo season passes, I never saw a second episode.

Fast forward to early January this year. A good, but much younger, co-worker recommended this show to me. He said it was one of the funniest shows on TV and season 2 was even better. In my curiosity, I gave season 1 a gander and here’s what I discovered:

HIMYM is better than most sitcoms. While it still has that generic network TV feel (unlike more edgy sitcoms like Arrested Development, The Office, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia or, to some extent, Entourage) and an annoying laugh track, the charisma of the actors, the sincerity of the overall plot (… how Ted met his wife) and Barney make this one just a little bit special.

Especially Barney. Played by ex-Doogie Howser, Neil Patrick Harris is in the process of making Barney a star along the likes of Norm from Cheers or Kramer from Seinfeld. A crazy, womanizing, bar hopper, Barney is so “out there” and unpredictable that he’s really just hilarious. And he’s played so amazingly well by NPH that I would probably continue watching this show just for him.

Most episodes serve to move the overall plot forward a bit but there’s solid character development, individual episodes, minor continuing plot threads and rolling jokes that add depth to the show over something like “According to Jim” or any other countless sitcoms with just enough appeal for the masses.

If you like any combination of Romantic comedies, sitcoms like Friends or characters like Kramer from Seinfeld you’ll find something special in HIMYM.

I looking forward to season 2 on DVD.

The Good -
Barney is AWESOME,
All the characters are charismatic and likable,
Some really funny rolling jokes,
Overall plot arcs keep the story moving forward.

The Bad -
Suffers from some traditional network sitcom-isms,
Laugh track is unnecessary and annoying.

The Ugly -
Nothing.

Rating:

Submitted by: Brian 1/31/07

Gridiron Gang (2006)

Netflix Synopsis: When a detention camp probation officer (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) presents his idea to mold dangerous teenage inmates into a successful high school-level football team, none of his superiors thinks he can do it. But with a spirited co-worker (rapper Xzibit) by his side, he just may prove them wrong. This sports-infused drama is based on an Emmy-Award documentary chronicling the creation of the real-life Camp Kilpatrick Mustangs.

Review: There’s a lot to like here. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is actually becoming an actor and, in my opinion, turns in his best performance to date. In fact, the acting all around is generally above what I expected. The direction was good, the characters sufficiently deep and the football scenes are good and realistic.

But.

The plot is mostly just a new spin on the tired sports feel-good movie. In the first 10 minutes you know how this movie will end even if you don’t know the details. You know there will be the “troubled” players that resolve their internal issues sometime during the movie and you know “The Rock” will be the tough guy with a heart of gold. I actually watched this movie with my 10 year old step-grandson and twice he told me exactly what would happen when.

So, unfortunately, there’s just nothing really new here for viewers who have become used to this sort of movie (Coach Carter, Hoosiers, Miracle, Remember the Titans, Radio, The Kid, Karate Kid, Brian’s Song, Legend of Bagger Vance and Rudy… to mention just a few).

Yes, it’s good. If you’re not getting jaded to the genre, I can genuinely recommend this movie. Otherwise… well, if you’re like me, it might end up feeling like just one more drop in a pretty full bucket.

The Good -
“The Rock” is becoming a legitimate actor,
Production values are high,
Direction is good,
Football scenes are realistic,
Character development is satisfying.

The Bad -
Very predictable.

The Ugly -
Nothing.

Rating:

Submitted by: Brian 1/31/07

Sherrybaby (2006)

Netflix Synopsis: Golden Globe-nominated Maggie Gyllenhaal stars in director Laurie Collyer’s feature film debut about a young woman’s struggle for normalcy. After being released from prison, Sherry Swanson (Gyllenhaal) returns to the realities of life, visiting with her parole officer, finding a job and being a mother to her 5-year-old daughter. But complications arise when Swanson learns that in her absence her brother and his wife have become surrogate parents.

Review: If I never see Maggie Gyllenhaal’s breasts again, it will be way too soon. If I think back on this movie, all I remember is Sherry being topless, and sleeping with every man she meets. So although her promiscuity was integral to the plot, it was handled in such a way that it overshadowed the plot. I have to say that most of the acting was very good in this movie. There was also a scene that was quite disturbing (though it did explain some things about Sherry’s character) and personally I felt it could have been handled in a different, less obvious way. I gave this movie two stars, would have been one except the acting and realism of many scenes was good.

Rating:

Submitted by: Karen 1/31/07

Crank (2006)

Netflix Synopsis: Hit man Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) tears through the streets of Los Angeles in a race to save his own life and his girlfriend Eve (Amy Smart) in this ticking time bomb of a thriller. The freelance killer is poisoned when a mob job goes wrong, and the clock starts ticking when Chelios learns he can elude death if he keeps his adrenaline pumping. With no time to waste, Chelios rampages through the city hoping to save Eve and find an antidote.

Review: Interesting movie.

Is that enought to make it “good”? Well, depends on your perspective I suppose but if a cool and original style are enough to make up for a shallow plot and mediocre acting then, well, yeah maybe. The style here is really off beat and serves the movie well. With stopped frames, slowed noises (the cell phone ringing is just bizarre), “melty” vision and odd shots, Crank is never boring and, at times, convinces the viewer they’re just as “high” as the main character.

Unfortunately, the style grossly outpaces the plot, action and acting. It’s not that either of these elements are technically poor but you’ll know all you need to know about the plot here in the first 10 minutes. The action, while frequent, isn’t as pulse-pounding as you might like although the crashed car on the escalator was cool and the public sex was shocking. Finally, the acting isn’t anything special but Jason Stratham (The Italian Job, Cellular) does have some natural charisma. I did like Amy Smart, his blond girlfriend (Butterfly Effect, Felecity), but neither actor had a lot to work with.

The Good -
Great style.

The Bad -
Too much style over substance,
Mediocre acting,
Shallow plot.

The Ugly -
Nothing.

Rating:

Submitted by: Brian 1/31/07

Sherrybaby (2006)

Netflix Synopsis: Golden Globe-nominated Maggie Gyllenhaal stars in director Laurie Collyer’s feature film debut about a young woman’s struggle for normalcy. After being released from prison, Sherry Swanson (Gyllenhaal) returns to the realities of life, visiting with her parole officer, finding a job and being a mother to her 5-year-old daughter. But complications arise when Swanson learns that in her absence her brother and his wife have become surrogate parents.

Review: I think the original working title of this movie must have been “Sherrybooby”. The plot is a great idea in theory but it’s quickly apparent that Sherrybaby is flawed and misguided right from the opening credits. The movie is less about finding redemption within society & family after prison and struggling with the results and temptations of addiction than it is about Maggie Gyllenhaal’s boobs. We see shot after shot after shot of her breasts from various angles. It was very distracting, I couldn’t even concentrate on the story! Not too much of a loss though since the parts of the story I was able to see around Maggie’s breast’s were droll and uninteresting, the ending was abrupt and flat. I should have cared about this woman’s battle to remain rehabilitated. I should have been emotional about her longing to be “Mommy” again to her little girl. If this movie had been given the dignity it deserved, I could have appreciated and sympathized with the character but ultimately all I can focus in is the prominence of Maggie’s upper anatomy. This movie gets 2 stars instead of one from me, only because the actors who played her brother and sister-in-law came across as very believable and the plot points involving their characters had depth (which should have been more fully explored) and were realistic to the situation.

Rating:

Submitted by: Brandy 1/30/07

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Netflix Synopsis: In this fairy tale for adults, 10-year-old Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) stumbles on a decaying labyrinth guarded by Pan (Doug Jones), an ancient satyr who claims to know her destiny. With a new home, a new stepfather (Sergi Lopez) — a Fascist officer in the pro-Franco army — and a new sibling on the way, nothing is familiar to Ofelia in this multiple Oscar-nominated tale set in 1944 Spain from director Guillermo del Toro.

Review: This is a beautiful, wondrous, moving and dark film. I don’t know much about director Guillermo del Toro except that I’ve had another of his films (The Devil’s Backbone) sitting on my Q for the longest time and that his pet subject is this era of pro-Fascist Spain and the telling of the horrors of that era through the eyes of a child.

The two most immediate references that came to my mind were “Life Is Beautiful” (the wonderful film that won Roberto Benigni a well-deserved Oscar for best actor) where the protagonist, his wife and his young son are sent to a Nazi concentration camp during WWII and he pretends it’s an elaborate game to protect his young son) and Hayao Miyazaki (the director of such international box office and critically-acclaimed hits “Spirited Away,” “Princess Mononoke” and “Howl’s Moving Castle”).

Like “Life is Beautiful,” we have here a young, bookish girl, Ofelia, who lives in horrible times and creates a fantasy world to deal with it. Her ailing but loving mother brings them both to live at her stepfather’s home. It is clear that the stepfather has married Ofelia’s mom only because she is pregnant with his son and wants to see the son take on his name. Ofelia’s stepfather is the captain of his pro-Franco troop that has been assigned to an outpost in the countryside to clean out the surrounding hills of the rebels. The cinematography, the amazing color palette, and the fantastical characters we meet, along with the protagonist being a young girl, reminded me of a live-action Hayao Miyazaki film, though much darker and much bleaker.

This may not be necessary but this is likely not a film for young children. We did see some teenagers in the theater but they were accompanied by adults. There are disturbing, though plot-integral, scenes of serious violence in the film and copious amounts of blood are shed. There are also some scenes that are pretty intensely frightening. That said, while the film is dark, the lasting impression that I had in leaving the theater is that it was absolutely beautiful both on the screen and in my mind and heart.

Ofelia’s world, where she is the princess that must complete three tasks before the full moon to be able to reenter the spirit world and rejoin her father as an immortal, is sometimes as frightening and hopeless as the brutal reality of 1944 Spain. The scene with “The Pale Man” is one of the creepiest but hands-down d*mn good scenes I’ve seen all year (my SO actually had to look away) and at one point, Pan the satyr and her magical world forsake her. However, the difference in that world and this is that she has free will in her fantasy world - she is given freedom of choice and, as we all must, must deal with the consequences of that choice. I’m not sure if this was the director’s intention, but cutting the scenes of the worlds against each other, bringing elements of the fantasy world into the real world (i.e., the mandrake under the bed - awesome scene that made me slack-jawed) and eventually showing you the reality in a disconcerting finale, seemed to highlight the absence of free will and independent thought in Ofelia’s real world (as the house doctor basically expresses after giving a euthanizing shot to one of the rebels who is caught, imprisoned and tortured by El Capitan) against her ability to make choices that affect her life in the fantasy world.

The performances are spot-on and Ivana Baquero, who plays Ofelia, will have you in awe and in tears with her. Amazing performance - these young actors must seriously have a maturity well beyond their age. Sergi Lopez does an outstanding job at playing El Capitan and you truly hate him with a passion (my SO’s favorite character - ahh, don’t know what that says about him! lol though he clarifies it’s b/c he does such a good job at making you hate him so much). Finally, I knew I’d seen her somewhere before, but Maribel Verdu (of Y Tu Mama Tambien) plays a difficult role as the housekeeper for El Capitan, confidant of Ofelia and sympathizer with the rebels.

The only thing that I’d say kept me back from 5 stars is that I wanted to see more of Ofelia’s fantasy world. I’d say the proportion shown is about 75-25% - the characters are just so fantastical, intricate and life-like that you want to see more. But that might be my Alice in Wonderland obsession speaking.

Rating:

Submitted by: Audrey 1/30/07

You Can’t Take It With You (1938)

Netflix Synopsis: In this Frank Capra classic, Tony (James Stewart) and Alice (Jean Arthur) meet and fall in love. But things are far from rosy: He’s the son of a millionaire, and she and her wacky family live in a house that’s in the way of the senior Kirby’s construction project. Will an office building literally stand in the way of true love? The movie, adapted from a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, delivers the answer.

Review: The movie starts off with Jimmy Stewart (Tony Kirby) sitting in on a sort of meeting with his father and his colleagues discussing the take over another business. Tony is VP of the bank by default and you can tell he is not the least bit interested but since his family has always been bankers, he too will be one some day. Unfortunately Mr. Kirby has run into a glitch, one family in the 12 blocks he is trying to buy has decided NOT to sell. They try throwing money at this family but no amount will dissuade them from selling. Tony falls in love with Alice, who lives with her Grandpa and other relatives in this house but unbeknownst to any of the characters. Grandpa is quite a delight, takes people in and lets them do what makes them happy, which goes against everything people are led to believe. Of course the 2 families meet, Alice is definitely not of good stock, as the Kirby’s would say, so they are bound and determined to break them up. What ensues is mayhem and a lot of soul searching on everybody’s part. This movie is definitely timeless, it so resonates with today and people’s perceptions and being on top. Grandpa is right, money doesn’t make you a good person, it is what you do for others is what matters. There are some funny moments that had me smiling.

Rating:

Submitted by: Bear 1/29/07

Is Wal-Mart Good for America?: Frontline (2004)

Netflix Synopsis: This PBS series dares to pose a question: Is one of America’s biggest corporations actually ruining the economy? Marching across the nation, the big-box chain brings jobs and much-needed retail options to many towns. But, as a major purveyor of goods, the company’s also hacked away at manufacturing jobs stateside, since the bulk of its products are made in China. Here, “Frontline” examines two cities profoundly affected by the Wal-Mart movement.

Review: Typically with this kind of movie, I don’t write a review, as some people may have a difference of opinion regarding this subject, but for this movie I really felt the need to do so.

I won’t go on a rant as my personal beliefs about Wal-Mart as a company, but I think that anyone who shops there (myself included from time to time) owes it to themselves to see this movie. This movie does not spin or distort any of the facts about how Wal-Mart does business, it just presents them to you in an awakening manner.

Rating:

Submitted by: Richard 1/28/07

Gangs of New York (2002)

Netflix Synopsis: Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated epic focuses on the rise of Irish and Italian gangs in New York in the mid-1800s. When the leader of the Dead Rabbits is assassinated, his son Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio) seeks out the perpetrator, Bill “The Butcher” Poole (a magnificent Daniel Day-Lewis). Along the way he finds love with a street-smart thief (Cameron Diaz).

Review: I loved the characters in this movie, especially Bill the Butcher (played by Daniel Day-Lewis). DiCaprio as an actor is very “hit or miss” for me, but I liked him in this role, and thought he gave a pretty good performance. The only performance I wasn’t impressed with was from Cameron Diaz, but I’m also not much of a fan of hers to begin with, so no surprise there. She felt very fake in most scenes, and I don’t buy her as an actress in a period piece type film.

Scorsese did it right with this one. The movie has a very authentic feel to it, which really helps you feel at home in the story. Everything from the backgrounds, to the extras is done top-notch. Feeling submersed in the setting is one of my favorite things about movies, and this one didn’t let me down.

All in all, this movie was very very good, and it’s a shame it took me 5 years to watch it =P

Rating:

Submitted by: Richard 1/28/07

Hitch (2005)

Netflix Synopsis: Smooth and sexy Alex “Hitch” Hitchens (Will Smith) is the master of seduction in this charming romantic comedy. His specialty? Helping clueless clients make a great first impression so they not only get to the second date, but make someone fall for them. When a gossip reporter (Eva Mendes) starts nosing around his business, however, Hitch finds himself out of moves as he forgets all his lessons and has to figure out a whole new strategy to love.

Review: This was a cute lighthearted comedy starring Will Smith and Eva Mendes. I typically can’t stand Eva Mendes, something about her bugs me, but she was alright in this role. Overconfident man with a secret job meets overconfident woman and when overconfident woman finds out his job she is hurt and upset and we spend some time trying to see this resolved and then they go on to live happily ever after. Despite the fact that the underlying story has been done over and over again in many romantic comedies (Failure to Launch, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) the story was different enough to engage your interest. Kevin James (from King of Queens) was a pleasure to watch and had me laughing at many scenes in the movie. Will Smith has to coach him on how to make a rich beautiful woman fall in love with him, and hilarity that follows is great to watch.

Rating:

Submitted by: Heather 1/28/07