my dvd collection

i watch many movies. some of them i see in the theater, but love them so much i end up buying them and adding them to my (sizable) dvd collection.

aside from giving some thoughts about movies ive seen, and ranking them with a five star system, i have also added a new category that also lists if i have it in my dvd collection. with some hard work, i would like to eventually have a review up for every movie i have. until then, enjoy the reviews and the selection from my dvd collection! (some of the girly movies were diana's, but i am bound by law to claim them since they will be sitting on my shelf...)

also, just so you know, i have many tv seasons on dvd too, but since they dont fall into the category of 'movies', they will not be included.

transporter 3

oh, jason statham, can you do no wrong? i finally got around to seeing this one in the theater. it was a ton of fun! in the story (if you can call it that) we once again meet up with frank, a professional transporter who will deliver goods for a price, no questions asked. this time he is visiting his friend, the french detective, and enjoying a vacation. he is forced, against his will, to deliver another package, and of course violence ensues. the whole 'transporter' series does not in any way rely on story, choosing instead to be an excuse to show statham kicking butt. and butt certainly gets kicked in this one! the best part of the trilogy is that the action ramps up in each one, going from slightly absurd, to downright silly. the fights are basically just there to show statham with his shirt off, and the car chases are an elaborate car commercial for audi.

the third transporter doesn't stray too far away from the path of the first two, sharing the same basic story as the last two, just in different locations. the one drawback of this film is that it is poorly edited. there were a bunch of really cool beats in the action, but due to bad editing, they don't have the fun factor that the first one did.

as far as the franchise goes, this one is better than the bland second one, but not as good as the fun first one.

madagascar 2

i had some free time, it was at the dollar theater- can you blame me? (and i totally understand if you do). i have never seen the first one, but i figured it wouldn't matter too much for this one. i didn't imagine i would find myself saying 'whats going on? i am totally lost!' i had read a couple reviews that said it was actually a decent sequel and was better than it needed to be. that was good enough for me, so i decided to check it out. i've got to say, i was not impressed. the story line was lame, and lifted straight from 'the lion king'. the four main characters are about as simple as they come, and the plot was unbelievably predictable. they all start out happy, each of them runs into some sort of miscommunication with the others and their friendships are in jeopardy- oh no! will they be able to overcome their problems and come together to put the bad guy in his place?!? um, yes. and the biggest problem is this: they arent even funny! all the humor and fun comes from the secondary characters like the penguins and the lemurs. the king lemur, voiced by sacha baron cohen, was by far the best part of the film, he easily stole the show with only about four minutes of time on screen. now, if they make a movie about just him, i'd probably really enjoy that!

seven pounds

i've been told ever since this film came out that i should try my best to avoid any spoilers about the story because it would ruin its potential impact. so i did, and boy am i happy i did! i will be sure to do you the same benefit, so i will not speak at all about the story, the less you know the better.
the film stars will smith, which almost always means it will be good. this is one of his emotional dramas and directed by the same guy who did his last one, 'the pursuit of happyness'. i enjoyed that film, but this one is even better. in this one smith gives a calm, understated performance as a man with a mission and a mysterious past. i am hesitant to say much more about the film at all. all i will say is that if you like a drama that will leave you thinking, it is worth seeing.

the devil wears prada

we had some free time at diana's, and she doesn't have cable and only two channels come in on her antenna, and her movie selection is slim (i.e. almost all chick flicks). most of them i wasn't interested in, or i had seen already. so we popped in this one. i must say, it was better than i expected (granted, my expectations were really really low...). the premise revolves around a girl getting a job at a fashion magazine, her boss is a tyrannical monster, and she has to figure out if its worth it and how to maintain a life outside of work; its basically the exact same story that the television show 'ugly betty' is based on. meryl streep does a great job as the terrible boss, making outrageous demands all the time and then getting very angry when mountains don't move when she tells them to.
the story is fairly predictable and resorts to every chick flick cliche in the book, but it was interesting to peek into the fashion world a little bit. diana loves fashion and enjoys reading fashion magazines. i, on the other hand, don't understand why fashion is important at all (i always loved the quote by oscar wilde 'fashion is an ugliness so atrocious that it must be altered ever six months'). so this movie helped me to see her perspective a little bit more.

death race

you ever just want to watch a stupid trashy action movie? sometimes i do. so last week i did! i went and rented 'death race' and i've got to say, this is probably the greatest trashy action 'B' movie i've ever seen! i must start by admitting that i have loved almost everything jason statham has put out, he's the perfect over-the-top action movie star.
ok, here's the laughable premise: statham has been framed for the murder of his wife and finds himself in jail. the jail keeper has been creating these reality show races to the death as a way of making money to keep the jail in business, and statham must become the new driver of one of the cars. lame, right? wrong! its a silly set up, but it leads to some of the coolest racing car chase scenes in decades! the cars are all tricked out with armor and guns and stuff, and the race plays out like a 'need for speed' video game. the characters are joyfully one-dimensional, but the actors have so much charisma that any more character development would be unnecessary. i'm having a hard time explaining why i loved it so much because all its different parts shouldn't add up to anything special, but the whole is so much greater than it's parts. i guess that can be chalked up to good casting, great directing, and phenomenal editing. this one will soon be added to my dvd collection so i can watch it again and again!