Monday, September 10, 2012

English language DVD film recommendations

Excerpts mainly from LoveFilm which we use to hire DVDs

The Help

"Set in Mississippi during the 1960s, Skeeter (Stone) is a southern society girl who returns from college determined to become a writer, but turns her friends' lives and a Mississippi town upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent southern families."

Source Code

A modern day scifi groundhog day which is very good.

Sherlock Holmes
"On a quest to solve a string of mysterious and brutal murders, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and his trusted ally Watson (Jude Law) plunge into a world of dark arts and startling new technologies, where logic, and a good right hook, are the best crime fighting weapons. Explosive action, baffling mystery and astonishing intrigue follow the two in a race to uncover and foil a terrifying plot that threatens to destroy the country. "

As good as it gets
Best Jack Nicholson movie ever
"Melvin Udall is a novelist who delights in his own ability to offend, repulse, affront and wound - not minding who he upsets in the process. It takes waitress Carol Connelly and the unexpected act of kindness of babysitting a neighbour's dog to put him back on track... "

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
A Woody Allen that even Woody Allen haters can love.
"A sizzling, erotically charged, relentlessly hilarious and touching romantic comedy that won Penelope Cruz an Oscar"

Analyze this
A funny one I can watch many times over
"Paul Vitti is one of New York's most powerful gangsters. When it becomes time for Paul Vitti to assume his role as the leader of his crime family, he suddenly starts having panic attacks so seeks help of Ben Sobol, a divorced suburban New York psychiatrist."

The Station Agent - I so so so love this film. Ploddy but superb.
"Finbar McBride inherits an abandoned railway station in rural New Jersey. A dwarf who avoids social contact whenever possible, Fin treks out to the property and moves in. However, his newly isolated life is disrupted by the arrival of the well meaning Joe and Olivia. As Joe and Olivia slowly bring Fin out of his shell, all three people are affected by their newfound friendships."

Little Miss Sunshine
"Little Miss Sunshine is a brazenly satirical and yet deeply human American road comedy. The film introduces audiences to one of the most endearingly fractured families in recent cinema history: the Hoovers, whose trip to a pre-pubescent beauty pageant results not only in comic mayhem but in death, transformation and a moving look at the surprising rewards of being losers in a winning-crazed culture. A runaway hit at the Sundance Film Festival, where it played to standing ovations, the film strikes a nerve with everyone who's ever been awestruck by how their muddled families seem to make it after all."

Law Abiding Citizen
"An everyday guy decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets his family's killers free. His target: The district attorney who orchestrated the deal."

Mamma Mia
For the beautiful Greek island scenery and Abba songs. So very cheesy. Love the bit where Meryl Streep cries in the toilet and the girls outside sing "Chiquitita, what's wrong"

Angus Things and Perfect Snogging
"A light-hearted, yet poignant look into the life of struggling teen, Georgia Nicolson. This tremendously fun rites of passage tale is Britain's answer to the burgeoning teen comedy sub genre."

Love Actually
I love this film but Andrew hates it. "Four Weddings and a Funeral" fall in to that category too.

50 First Dates
"Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) works at a Hawaiian Sea World park as a marine biologist. He enjoys the company of women and spends his time picking up tourists. One of the tourists he befriends is Lucy (Drew Barrymore) and unlike the rest of his flings, who only survive the afternoon, Henry is keen to meet up with her the next day. Unfortunately when the next day arrives, Lucy can't remember ever meeting Henry and he soon discovers that, following an accident, she suffers from short term memory loss. Every day he has to woo her again and again and trust that she falls in love with him every time."

You Don't Mess with The Zohan
Because sometimes we like a ridiculous comedy.
"Funnymen Robert Smigel, Adam Sandler, and Judd Apatow join forces to pen this comedy about an ex-Israeli soldier. Zohan (Sandler) may be a master with weapons and hand-to-hand combat, but all he really wants to do is cut hair in New York City."

City Island
"When prison guard and New York family man, Vince Rizzo, sees a familiar name among the new convicts list, he realizes it belongs to a boy who he fathered 20 years earlier but abandoned. Now married with a new family, Vince takes his long-lost son, Tony Nardella, home with him -- not telling his family who Tony really is. This isn't that unusual, as the Rizzo family is filled with secrets from each other."

The Green Mile
"A hopeful charmer with a hint of the supernatural. The story focuses on Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks), a Louisiana security guard who works on death row during the Great Depression. When John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), a gigantic black man convicted of raping and murdering two white girls, joins the other prisoners on the row, Paul's life is forever altered. Coffey doesn't fit the mold of a psychopathic killer; he's kind, gentle, and afraid of the dark."

Leon
Ah that super Luc Besson makes an English language gem we can all enjoy
"A murder on the streets of New York leads to a deadly game of cat and mouse while an orphaned twelve-year-old girl becomes caught in the middle..."

The Fifth Element
Again thanks Luc
"Good and evil battle for the future of 23rd century Earth in this visually striking big-budget science fiction epic with Bruce Willis. Writer and director Luc Besson began writing the script for The Fifth Element when he was only 16 years old, though he was 38 before he was able to bring it to the screen."

Mulholland Drive

Weird shit that is quite good
"David Lynch strikes again with this literal nightmare of a motion picture--a brilliant, scathing, hysterical, and haunting ode to Hollywood. In the film, a mysterious dark-haired woman (Laura Elena Harring) emerges from an accident with a purse full of cash and a head full of amnesia. Meanwhile, Betty Elms (Naomi Watts), a wide-eyed gal from Deep River, Ontario, has just landed in Los Angeles with dreams of movie stardom. When Betty finds the nameless beauty in her aunt's apartment, she is deeply intrigued by the situation and offers to help her. This sends the two women on a bizarre search for the truth through the macabre, sun-soaked streets of the City of Angels, where the mob, a young film director (Justin Theroux), a studio executive with a tiny head, and an enigmatic figure named the Cowboy all float into the picture, then out again, until there is no longer any distinction between what is dream and what is reality."

Anything Else

Only if you are a Woody Allen fan which I am
"Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci star as a mismatched couple in Woody Allen's funny and well-made romantic comedy ANYTHING ELSE. Biggs plays Jerry Falk, a young comedy writer looking to make it big, while Ricci is Amanda, a self-absorbed free spirit whom men go wild for. They fall for each other instantly near the beginning of the film, then spend the rest of the movie trying to work out their very complex and complicated relationship"

Hannah and her Sisters

Again only those who Woody does not annoy. It's Woody genius. I'll sum it up with my fav quotes from the movie"
“Nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands” E. E. Cummings
“This non person, this haircut that pretends to be a man” Hannah’s mother
“The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.” Tolstoy

The Princess Bride
Based on the brilliant book it is funny and entertaining. It's my writer's template for the perfect novel / screen play.
"Director Rob Reiner breathes vividly colored cinematic life into William Goldman's THE PRINCESS BRIDE, effectively evoking the wondrous, wide-eyed spirit of the witty 1973 novel. When a sick boy (Fred Savage) receives a visit from his doting grandfather (Peter Falk) who intends to read to him from his favorite book, he's not exactly pleased to be extracted from his world of video games. However, his mood quickly changes as he, along with the viewer, is transported to a place out of time-to Florin, a kingdom in the ultimate imaginary land, complete with dashing heroes, cowardly princes, rhyming giants, shrieking eels, rodents of unusual size, fancy swordfights, and yes...even some kissing."

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