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DVD Sideways (Full Screen Edition)
With Sideways, Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Storytelling) has become an unlikely but engaging romantic lead. Struggling novelist and wine connoisseur Miles (Giamatti) takes his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church, Wings) on a wine-tasting tour of California vineyards for a kind of extended bachelor party. Almost immediately, Jack's insatiable need to sow some wild oats before his marriage leads them into double-dates with a rambunctious wine pourer (Sandra Oh, Under the Tuscan Sun) and a recently divorced waitress (Virginia Madsen, The Hot Spot)--and Miles discovers a little hope that he hasn't let himself feel in a long time. Sideways is a modest but finely tuned film; with gentle compassion, it explores the failures, struggles, and lowered expectations of mid-life. Giamatti makes regret and self-loathing sympathetic, almost sweet. From the director of Election and About Schmidt. --Bret Fetzer
Make no mistake, Sideways is a bachelor party film. Sure there are only two blokes at the party and the beer kegs have been replaced by pinot noir, but those classic themes of friendship and loyalty are lurking under the surface.
Miles (Paul Giamatti) is a middle-aged high school english teacher, wine connoiseur and unpublished writer. Jack (Thomas Haden-Church) is a part-time actor and full-time ladies man who is soon to be married in to a wealthy family.
As best man, Miles, decides that a tour of California's wine country and an introduction to the finer things in life is the perfect wedding gift for his best friend. Jack on the other hand sees the trip as his one last gasp of sexual freedom.
Jack follows his loins and it doesnt take long before he's hooked up with sexy young wine merchant, Stephanie (Sandra Oh). It's hard to imagine why Miles remains loyal to Jack after the groom-to-be avoids his fiance's calls and convinces himself he is in love with his fling.
Stephanie is unaware of Jack's situation and the ongoing disception threatens not only his impending marriage but also Miles' chance at true love with Stephanie's friend Maya (Virginia Madsen).
Paul Giamatti channels the insecure Miles as he makes us feel for the sensativity of his character without necessarily pitying him. His performance is of grange quality and it would be no exaggeration to say that he saves this film from medicroty.
To his credit Thomas Haden-Church brings the sleazy and shallow Jack to life even if the end result is a largely unlikable character.
Both Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh are fantastic as the sassy and intelligent women that become entangled in the lives of Jack and Miles, although in reality it's hard to imagine women like them ending up with guys like these.
Although frustrating at times Sideways does have its entertaining moments.
Very entertaining
Alexander Payne is getting really good at getting the viewer to look at themselves. I'm awfully tired of hearing reviewers discredit Sideways because the main characters are not appealing. When you look at reality, everyone is far from perfect, and I think Payne's movies force you to see what's funny about all of our shortcomings. Some examples:
Jack sleeps around during the week. If he's able to "get it out of his system," then the marriage may be better in the long run. Maybe. The guy isn't too bright. He's not really guilty of anything terrible, and he's trying to think things through.
Miles often drinks too much. Well, the guy isn't great at dealing with his problems, but let's face it..he's got problems. A somewhat unsatisfying job, he's divorced, not getting published. He, too, is not guilty of anything serious.
Can't we try to see the good in these characters? Jack loves his fiancee, and loves the excitement in his life, and Miles loves to write and loves smart women like Maya. This movie makes me happy because we find that we CAN like characters like these. That's what's so great about Sideways.
What's that you call it? "Character development?" Interesting...
This movie, perhaps better than any other movie with comparable box office revenue in the last two decades, truly develops a selection of unique and interesting characters that you can care about as a viewer.
Paul Giamatti's performance would be his best if there wasn't a movie out there by the name of "American Splendor." Thomas Haden Church, though, is the reason that this movie really works. Rather than playing a letcherous, narcissistic, idiot with no redeeming traits, Church's portrayal of Jack makes him letcherous, narcissistic and stupid, while still leaving room for the viewers to like him. The result is that you find yourself cheering for a character whose behavior would warrant complete disgust.
But isn't that what life is all about? People do not live their lives as protagonists, love interests, and villains. By having the courage to create four central characters that are all lovable, admirable and flawed individuals, this movie offers up a slice of life that will continue to affect you long after watching it.
The only film in recent memory that compares is Lost in Translation, which is also about the development of two very real people over a short period of time. The critical difference between that piece and this one is that Lost in Translation captured its two characters in an unfamiliar environment. Lacking the culture shock element of Lost in Translation, Sideways instead captures the personal growth of people under more empathetic circumstances.
Sweetness that doesn't turn saccharine is hard to find these days; Finding Neverland hits the mark. Much credit is due to the actors: Johnny Depp applies his genius for sly whimsy in his portrayal of playwright J. M. Barrie, who finds inspiration for his greatest creation from four lively boys, the sons of widow Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet, who miraculously fuses romantic yearning with common sense). Though the friendship threatens his already dwindling marriage, Barrie spends endless hours with the boys, pretending to be pirates or Indians--and gradually the elements of Peter Pan take shape in his mind. The relationship between Barrie and the Llewelyn Davies family sparks both an imagined world and a quiet rebellion against the stuffy forces of respectability,... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 22 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Jamie Foxx's uncannily accurate performance isn't the only good thing about Ray. Riding high on a wave of Oscar buzz, Foxx proved himself worthy of all the hype by portraying blind R&B legend Ray Charles in a warts-and-all performance that Charles approved shortly before his death in June 2004. Despite a few dramatic embellishments of actual incidents (such as the suggestion that the accidental drowning of Charles's younger brother caused all the inner demons that Charles would battle into adulthood), the film does a remarkable job of summarizing Charles's strengths as a musical innovator and his weaknesses as a philandering heroin addict who recorded some of his best songs while flying high as a kite. Foxx seems to be channeling Charles himself, and as he did with the life of... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jamie Foxx - Kerry Washington - Regina King Director(s): Taylor Hackford DVD Release Date: Released the 01 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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After creating the last great traditionally animated film of the 20th century, The Iron Giant, filmmaker Brad Bird joined top-drawer studio Pixar to create this exciting, completely entertaining computer-animated film. Bird gives us a family of "supers," a brood of five with special powers desperately trying to fit in with the 9-to-5 suburban lifestyle. Of course, in a more innocent world, Bob and Helen Parr were superheroes, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl. But blasted lawsuits and public disapproval forced them and other supers to go incognito, making it even tougher for their school-age kids, the shy Violet and the aptly named Dash. When a stranger named Mirage (voiced by Elizabeth Pena) secretly recruits Bob for a potential mission, the old glory days spin in his head, even if... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Holly Hunter - Samuel L. Jackson - Jason Lee - Craig T. Nelson DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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From Hollywood's legendary Cocoanut Grove to the pioneering conquest of the wild blue yonder, Martin Scorsese's The Aviator celebrates old-school filmmaking at its finest. We say "old school" only because Scorsese's love of golden-age Hollywood is evident in his approach to his subject--Howard Hughes in his prime (played by Leonardo DiCaprio in his)--and especially in his technical mastery of the medium reflecting his love for classical filmmaking of the studio era. Even when he's using state-of-the-art digital trickery for the film's exciting flight scenes (including one of the most spectacular crashes ever filmed), Scorsese's meticulous attention to art direction... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Leonardo DiCaprio - Cate Blanchett - Kate Beckinsale Director(s): Martin Scorsese DVD Release Date: Released the 24 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Four extremely beautiful people do extremely horrible things to one another in Closer, Mike Nichols' pungent adaptation of Patrick Marber's play that easily marks the Oscar-winning director's best work in years. Anna (Julia Roberts) is a photographer who specializes in portraits of strangers; Dan (Jude Law) is an obituary writer struggling to become a novelist; Alice (Natalie Portman) is an American stripper freshly arrived in London after a bad relationship; and Larry (Clive Owen) is a dermatologist who finds love under the most unlikely of circumstances. When their paths cross it's a dizzying supernova of emotions, as Nichols and Marber adroitly construct various scenes out of their lives that pair them again and again in various permutations of passion, heartbreak, anger,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Mike Nichols DVD Release Date: Released the 29 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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From Hollywood's legendary Cocoanut Grove to the pioneering conquest of the wild blue yonder, Martin Scorsese's The Aviator celebrates old-school filmmaking at its finest. We say "old school" only because Scorsese's love of golden-age Hollywood is evident in his approach to his subject--Howard Hughes in his prime (played by Leonardo DiCaprio in his)--and especially in his technical mastery of the medium reflecting his love for classical filmmaking of the studio era. Even when he's using state-of-the-art digital trickery for the film's exciting flight scenes (including one of the most spectacular crashes ever filmed), Scorsese's meticulous attention to art direction...