Category: Comedies - Comedy - Comedy Video - Feature Film-comedy - Movie
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DVD Sideways (Widescreen 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
A deft mix of drama and humor in the California wine country
One of the best movies of 2004 was this highly entertaining 'feel good' drama/comedy of a week-long 2 man bachelor's party. It's kind of a 'mut and jeff' story. Set in the beautiful California wine country, this is an amusing human character study of two guys, old friends from college, and very different from each other in temperament.
The husband-to-be experiences his second guessing, particularly as he encounters any member of the opposite sex as he gleefully views the week as his 'last harrah' and wastes no time nor opportunity to 'live it up'. The other, emotionally conservative, cerebral and introspective, and still lamenting over a failed marriage, is so wrapped up in his own feelings of inadequacy that he doesn't really want to be there in the first place. The dynamic between the two is great. They actually really complement each other in their contrasting yet endearing friendship.
The screenplay is exceptionally well written with very 'human' character flaws revealed in these two rather lovable clowns that are displayed in the most humorous of ways. Along the way they meet up with interesting and provocative women and each guy has a very different reaction to the whole thing. The scenery is of course wonderful and the film also serves as an introductory primer about those who live with an attuned awareness of fine wines. A rather interesting world, it seems almost cult-like. It inspires me to want to take such a trip someday, bouncing from winery to winery, sampling the grapes. Sound like fun? Does to me!
The combination of drama to humor is a deft mix. The story is progressively interesting yet interjected with a lot of dry humor. It really captivates one's interest as these characters are further defined. By the end of the film both of their personalities are revealed to a degree of complexity that is rare for a movie coming out of hollywood these days. Both men have the propensity to deceive themselves, although to greatly different degrees. The net result is the viewer comes away with a good deal of empathy for these flawed characters.
All in all, an excellent, light film that will make you laugh out loud and end up making you feel good. Very well done.
I Never Liked Merlot
Wonderful acting by Paul Giamatti and the beautiful Virginia Madsen highlight this story of two not very likeable guys "last fling" into the California wine country before the less likeable one (Thomas Haden Church) gets married. I understood how Giamatti's and Madsen's characters developed, but couldn't make sense of Haden Church's. Sandra Oh has a great scene as Haden Church's weekend girlfriend.
Bachelor Party
This movie centers on four characters. The two main characters are the two old college odd-couple buddies Jack (Thomas Haden Church) and Miles (Paul Giamatti) hit the road for Jack's last week of freedom before his wedding. Jack is an actor who was on a daytime soap opera once, but now does voiceovers for commercials. And Miles is a mid-school English teacher who fancies him self a novelist.
Miles thinks he is going to introduce his friend into marriage with a tour of the wine country and some golf. While Jack has no morals and wants to just go wild party every night. They both hook up with woman played by Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh. While Jack is getting him self deeper into to trouble each day, Miles is just standing at the edge of life and is waiting to be pushed back into it.
I would have given the movie three stars instead of four, but the acting is superb in this movie. Paul Giamatti is at his best. The movie not only has a plot, but some subtext as well. A well-written script, well edited for timing and flow.
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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Solidly built around a subtle yet commanding performance by Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda emerged as one of the most highly-praised dramas of 2004. In a role that demands his quietly riveting presence in nearly every scene, Cheadle plays real-life hero Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager in the Rwandan capital of Kigali who in 1994 saved 1,200 Rwandan "guests" from certain death during the genocidal clash between tribal Hutus, who slaughtered a million victims, and the horrified Tutsis, who found safe haven or died. Giving his best performance since his breakthrough role in Devil in a Blue Dress, Cheadle plays Rusesabagina as he really was during the ensuing chaos: "an expert in situational ethics" (as described by critic Roger Ebert), doing what he morally had to do, at... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Don Cheadle - Sophie Okonedo Director(s): Terry George DVD Release Date: Released the 12 April 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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Clint Eastwood's 25th film as a director, Million Dollar Baby stands proudly with Unforgiven and Mystic River as the masterwork of a great American filmmaker. In an age of bloated spectacle and computer-generated effects extravaganzas, Eastwood turns an elegant screenplay by Paul Haggis (adapted from the book Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner by F.X. Toole, a pseudonym for veteran boxing manager Jerry Boyd) into a simple, humanitarian example of classical filmmaking, as deeply felt in its heart-wrenching emotions as it is streamlined in its character-driven storytelling. In the course of developing powerful bonds between "white-trash" Missouri waitress and aspiring boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), her grizzled, reluctant trainer Frankie Dunn... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Clint Eastwood - Hilary Swank - Morgan Freeman Director(s): Clint Eastwood DVD Release Date: Released the 12 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Movie studios, by and large, avoid controversial subjects like race the way you might avoid a hive of angry bees. So it's remarkable that Crash even got made; that it's a rich, intelligent, and moving exploration of the interlocking lives of a dozen Los Angeles residents--black, white, latino, Asian, and Persian--is downright amazing. A politically nervous district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his high-strung wife (Sandra Bullock, biting into a welcome change of pace from Miss Congeniality) get car-jacked by an oddly sociological pair of young black men (Larenz Tate and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges); a rich black T.V. director (Terrence Howard) and his wife (Thandie Newton) get pulled over by a white racist cop (Matt Dillon) and his reluctant partner (Ryan Phillipe); a... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Paul Haggis DVD Release Date: Released the 06 September 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...