This Week On DVD and Blu-ray: March 9, 2010
'Precious' and 'Up in the Air' are this week's main films for buying consideration...
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire | |
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| Before making this my top pick of the week I had to watch it again. I love this movie, but I wasn't about to make a purchasing recommendation without having watched it a second time myself. I didn't think that would be fair to you considering this is a hard film to watch at times. That said, after a second viewing, if I was given the duty of handing out the Best Picture Oscar, the producers of Precious would have walked home with the hardware on Sunday night. A Prophet remains my favorite film of 2009 from an entertainment perspective, and other films stack on top of Precious when it comes to movies I would watch repeatedly as evidenced by my top 25 of 2009 where Precious came in at #13, directly behind The Hurt Locker and Up in the Air. But after finally getting a chance to see it again, this film would even leap frog both of those and then some if I had a second chance at my list. This film just hits so many right spots for me, I wish I did have a second chance at that list. It's common practice to rush year end top ten lists, but in a perfect world I would still be compiling my 2008 list and at the end of 2010 I will take a little longer to put mine together than I did in 2009. Then again, what do lists matter outside of their "at the moment" significance anyway? We can look back on them as a snapshot, but things change so quickly they hardly stay relevant for very long. Would I recommend you buy Precious? If you haven't seen it yet, most certainly no. If you have and loved it, most certainly yes! This is a tough film, but it is also a movie about so much more than just a singular topic, which is what many reviewers have made the mistake of painting it as. If you came away from your first viewing of Precious and were able to say it is about just one thing, I recommend you go back again and re-evaluate. After my first viewing, the one word that stuck with me was "hope," but even that is too limiting. This film is filled with hope, love, compassion, recognition, strength, violence, resilience and more. To hate this film is to look at it with too narrow a view. I will probably begin working on a longer review tomorrow, but for now I will limit this film to one word, "excellence," and primarily from a script and acting perspective. I'm not entirely sure Lee Daniels deserved his directing nomination, but I won't argue with Geoffrey Fletcher's screenplay Oscar win and most certainly won't argue Mo'Nique's. To top it off, I don't see how Sandra Bullock can watch this movie and feel she deserved her Oscar. Gabby Sidibe had the performance of 2009 as I said back in January and next year I will be sure to name a personal Best Picture in conjunction with my top ten as a separation between favorite film and best film is one that needs to be made and this film deserves more recognition than it has received, which truly says something. | |
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Up in the Air | |
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| After that long-winded segment on Precious I will be relatively short here. While Up in the Air was placed one notch above Precious on my top 25, it was primarily due to the fact I had a screener of this one and was able to give it a second watch over the holidays where it grew on me a little since my theatrical screening. I still think this is a good movie, but as far as a purchase goes I'm not so sure. I didn't even request a Blu-ray review copy if that means anything to you. | |
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Capitalism: A Love Story | |
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| I agree with a lot of what Michael Moore has to say, but the way he says it can be irksome. This movie is decent, and worth a once over, but when it comes to a purchase that's an idea I can't get behind. | |
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The Stoning of Soraya M. | |
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| I have heard really good things about this movie, but I am yet to see it even though I have a DVD copy here, primarily because it looks like it is sad as hell. While Precious is emotionally devastating, at least it doesn't involve the torture of an innocent woman. Nevertheless, I full intend to give this a watch, if only to watch the great Shohreh Aghdashloo do her thing. She is one hell of an actress and while she does have that well-deserved Oscar-nomination for House of Sand and Fog, I can't help but think she may still have an Oscar-winning performance in her. Maybe The Adjustment Bureau? A film that will be on my long list of early 2011 Oscar Contenders, which is just around the corner… We'll see. | |
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Planet 51 | |
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| I haven't seen this yet, and really have no desire to. | |
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The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day | |
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| Ditto, and add "have no intention to even though I have heard it is better than the original" to the above statement. | |
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Old Dogs | |
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| I received the Blu-ray of this one, but I'll be damned if the overwhelming amount of negative reviews this one received during its theatrical run has me scared to even crack the cellophane. Seriously though, the reviews on this one were so vitriolic it almost seems like this could replace arsenic in a suicide attempt and watching the music video included on this disc below does not help matters. | |
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- Hachi: A Dog's Tale (Richard Gere in what looks like a very sad melodrama)
- Hannah Montana: Miley Says Goodbye
- Greek: Chapter Four
- Tremors: Complete Series
- Paris (I heard this was pretty good)
- Nine Dead (Melissa Joan Hart)
- Good Intentions (LeAnn Rimes and Luke Perry)
- The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Releasing on April 27, 2010 - Nine
Releasing on May 4, 2010 - Leap Year
Releasing on May 4, 2010
- The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Releasing on April 27, 2010 - War of the Worlds
Releasing on June 1, 2010 - Nine
Releasing on May 4, 2010 - Leap Year
Releasing on May 4, 2010
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Totally agree with you on Precious. It is a movie that seems to get better with every watch, and Sidibe should have easily walked out with the best actress gong – out of the other nominees I think that Carey is the only one that even came close.
Wait, there are people out there saying the Boondock Saints sequel was better than the first? I know you are not a fan of the first one, Brad, but I am a huge fan of the first, and HAD to give the sequel a viewing in theaters. Way too sloppy and just down right dumb. Duffy tried way too hard on this one.
I think its technically a better made, better shot, better acted, better directed film than the first. Is it a good film? No. But it's a damn right entertaining one in my opinion. Sometimes I want gay and fat people jokes to go along with my crazy wonton gun violence in a film and for that, "Boondock Saints 2" did its job. For the record I preordered it on Blu-ray and it should be in my mailbox in an hour or so.
I loved "Up in the Air" also, but I'm not sure if it's worthy of a performance. Reitman's best film, and some of Clooney's best work (plus I have a crush on Anna Kendrick as well), but it doesn't seem like a movie that'll hold up after multiple viewings.
I actually enjoyed it more the second time around, but I'm the rare exception that was highly underwhelmed by the film. My overall opinion of the film remains unchanged, though. It is a good movie, not a great one.
The deleted scenes are kind of cool as well, so if you loved it the first time it might be worth buying.
I will definitely be buying Up In the Air, my personal #1 for 2009. I could watch it over and over. As for the Boondock Saints 2, it's not saying much that it is better than the first one since it was one of the worst films I have ever seen. Yea, ever.
I agree with so much of what you just wrote about Precious. So much. I too would have handed it Best Picture. And I'm really glad that you're thinking of stratifying the "best" and "favorite" movies of the year – I've long thought that would be a good move.
If Boondocks Saints II was better than the original, I'd see it. I really liked the first one, but heard the sequel was very bad. primarily due to the absence of Willem Dafoe.