Netflix Review: December 08 and January 09

Whew, the holidays kept me busy and I forgot to do a December review! Not that it matters much, I didn't watch very much because of said holidays. But enough chit-chat, onwards.

Brian Regan: Standing up - Oh man, Brian Regan is one of the best comedians out there right now, and he manages to be funny without cursing or being overly crude. He's also the one that coined "Take luck!" and "You too!" Very funny.

A Bridge Too Far - Wow, this movie was epic, and had just about everybody in it. There are probably a dozen big stars, and hundreds of lesser knowns and extras. When it says "a cast of thousands," they aren't kidding. Good movie, World War II stuffs so I naturally enjoyed it.

The Best of Comedy Central Presents - This is a cool collection, because it has eight comedians (Lewis Black, Dane Cook, Jeff Dunham, Jim Gaffigan, Mitch Hedberg, Dimitri Martin, Carlos Mencia, and Brian Regan) and puts all of their half-hour bits together to form one conglomeration of funny. Really good, and since each one is so short, if you don't have much time you can watch one or two and not even use up an hour.

Tron - Yeah, yeah, I'd never seen this. Shocking for the CS major, right? I found it highly amusing and very... cute. Seeing all this old school CS stuff that actually made decent amounts of sense, in a Disney film. I think this movie got more computer stuff right than 95% of modern movies. I really enjoyed it.

Die Hard With a Vengeance - Had to finish out the original Die Hard trilogy. Now this one I remember seeing at some point, because I remember Sam Jackson and the riddles. I liked the riddles bit, but otherwise it was pretty standard action fare. Dump truck vs rushing water was hilarious, though.

Family Guy: Blue Harvest - I'm not much of a Family Guy fan, but this was hilarious. Their take on A New Hope was classic, and the way they fit their characters into the roles of the OT cast was pretty funny. Also the end bit, with Chris (Seth Green) talking to Peter (Seth MacFarlane) about how Robot Chicken beat them to the punch (Seth Green is one of the creators/producers/actors of Robot Chicken) was hilarious.

We Are Marshall - Right, so the whole "you've seen one football movie, you've seen them all," doesn't really apply here. This movie is intense emotionally. It's very well done, and you can feel the sorrow coming off the cast, but also the pure elation when the football team wins one. I'd definitely say check this one out.

Newsies - Hahahaha, oh Disney. So this is what Batman as a teamster boss would be like. Christian Bale dancing and singing was highly amusing. The movie itself... he, pure fluff. I suppose you can't fault it for that. Also funny to see supposed kids smoking blatantly multiple times. If you tried to do that now, everybody would jump down your throat.

Juno - Okay, this movie annoyed me greatly. One, I thought it was supposed to be more comedy than drama, but it was like 60/40 drama to comedy. And most of the comedy was just how many odd things Juno could find to say for shock value. Also it made all the guys (except Juno's dad) out to be jackasses. Jason Bateman's character leaves his wife at the worst possible time. Juno's boyfriend doesn't want to have anything with the kid. Blech.

21 - I really wanted to see this, because one of my professors said at any given time MIT has a team of students in Vegas using gambling as an educational film, and he said he was on one of them. It was a very good movie and I'm actually surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It has just enough of an edge to keep you engaged, but never stress you out, which is something most movies trying to pull this off fail at. I'd recommend.

Regarding Henry - Another good movie, but I'm fairly certain Harrison Ford doesn't make bad movies. Got this one on a recommendation and was glad I did. The degree to which he changes his acting between the beginning and the rest of the movie was interesting. It was also fun to see him discover who he used to be and how he reacted to it. I'd recommend it.

Coming attractions:
Big Bang Theory season 1
Eureka season 1

Netflix Review: November 08

Chinatown - I think I would've enjoyed this movie more if I hadn't been unpacking and cleaning up while I was "watching" it. Though Jack Nicholson before he was well known was cool. Can't really say if I'd recommend it or not.

Witness - This is a great movie. Harrison Ford being a good cop trying to get out of a corrupt system while protecting the kid who saw another cop's murder. Y'all probably knew that. It flows well and has some great scenes that remind you why Ford is a great actor.

Jeff Dunham: Arguing With Myself - Not as good as Spark of Insanity or his new Christmas special, but still pretty amusing. This was prior to Achmed the Dead Terrorist, but while he was still using Sweet Daddy D, so it definitely has its moments.

The Untouchables - Any movie with Sean Connery and Andy Garcia as cops has got to be awesome. This is quite good. It follows the story of Elliot Ness (Keven Costner) and his attempt to take down Al Capone (Robert De Niro) in Chicago. It's well down and pulls off the period piece well.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - Man, this movie has so much wrong with it. Now, I was never a reader of either Fantastic Four OR the Silver Surfer, so I don't know how accurate this story is (not that you REALLY have to worry about accuracy with a comic book movie). But it has a bad plot mixed with blah acting and copious amounts of product placement (to the point where their flying car has Dodge logos all over it and claimed to have a Hemi). I'd avoid it unless you're a diehard FF fan or are just trying to see all the Marvel films.

12 Monkeys - Oh, I love movies like this, where they show you the end of the movie at the beginning, but none of it makes sense because you don't know the characters or location yet, and the rest of the movie slowly pieces it all together. Also the distopian view of the future is kinda crazy. What is it with Bruce Willis and sci-fi epics? Also, Brad Pitt in one of his most amusing roles since Tyler Durden. Check it out.

Coming attractions:
A Bridge Too Far
Tron
Die Hard with a Vengeance
Family Guy: Blue Harvest

What can Blu Do for You?

For those out of the loop, Sony’s Blu-ray disc format is the current high definition format of choice. It beat out Microsoft-backed HD-DVD earlier this year and is the format of choice for moviephiles.

Now you’re asking yourself, “Do I REALLY need all my favorite movies on Blu-ray when I’ve already got them on DVD?” The short answer is no. The long answer is a bit more complicated and will take some explaining.

Movies have only been filmed in high definition (that is, film with a screen resolution of at least 1280x720 pixels) for the last decade, give or take a few years. If you have a standard TV (one that is roughly square), then movies or TV shows will show up as letterbox (where you have the black bars along the top and bottom). If you have an HDTV, the image will fill up your screen.

If movies have only been filmed in HD for such a short amount of time, why do you need a “high definition” version of the film on Blu-ray? You don’t. “High definition” cannot add to a movie that wasn’t filmed with HD in mind. The Sound of Music isn’t going to be any more vivid or pretty on Blu-ray than it is on VHS or DVD.

Movies that have been filmed for HD are going to look more crisp and clear than the DVD variant because they are higher quality. Do not misunderstand, Blu-ray is the superior format, but if the movie wasn’t made for HD then it’s irrelevant.

The reason DVDs became so wildly popular over VHS is because they are far more versatile, cheap, and in general are better quality. The switch from VHS to DVD was a natural progression of the market and technology. The switch from DVD to Blu-ray is a step up in technology but isn’t much of a leap in the market.

Bottom line: if you have an HDTV and money to burn, go with Blu-ray. If you don’t stick to the DVDs except for special occasions such as recent movies.