FullReviews Index
DVD Pick: "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the best films I've ever seen about trying to get back together after a bad breakup. I found Jim Carrey as the shy Joel and Kate Winslet as the free-spirited Clementine to be very appealing romantic leads. Read a DVD review of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
DVD Pick: [i]The 40-Year-Old Virgin[/i] Widescreen Unrated Edition
I got quite a few big laughs out of the raunchy, but sweet, comedy "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" when I saw it at one of those supersaver theaters, and I enjoyed watching it even more at home on DVD. I was quite impressed with the performance of Steve Carell, who makes the title character very likable. Read an in-depth DVD review of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" Widescreen Unrated Edition.
DVD Pick: Nosferatu
Your wife has a beautiful neck, says the Count to the man who has brought him some real estate documents in Murnau's Nosferatu, the earliest important screen adaptation of Stoker's novel Dracula. I would characterize Murnau's version of the story as an allegorical tale about a love triangle formed by a young married couple and a vampire. I don't consider the movie to be scary in a panic-inducing sort of way, but I do find it eerie, unsettling, and haunting. Read a review of this movie on DVD.
DVD Pick: "The Bourne Supremacy"
Matt Damon again plays C.I.A.-trained assassin Jason Bourne in the action thriller The Bourne Supremacy, the follow-up to The Bourne Identity. Like its predecessor, I found Supremacy to be a slick, well-paced, grown-up entertainment. Read a review of the movie The Bourne Supremacy on DVD.
DVD Pick: "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"
Read a review of the movie and the special features on The Lord of the Rings DVD set.
DVD Pick: "Me and You and Everyone We Know"
Me and You and Everyone We Know is the debut feature-length film of writer-director Miranda July, who had previously achieved prominence in the art world as a performance and video artist. When I watched this movie on DVD, I found it to be humanistic and accessible, as well as a work of beguiling originality. Read a full-length review of Me and You and Everyone We Know on DVD.
DVD Pick: "Bubble"
Directed by Steven Soderbergh ("Traffic," "Ocean's Eleven," "sex, lies and videotape"), "Bubble" (2005) is a dark little movie about a murder in a small Ohio town. When I watched it on DVD, I found it riveting.
DVD Pick: The Da Vinci Code
Home Video/DVD Guide Ivana Redwine reviews the movie The Da Vinci Code on DVD.
DVD Pick: The 400 Blows (Fox Lorber)
Truffaut's The 400 Blows is a lyrical and accessible movie that appears on most lists of great films. I'd say it's the best movie ever made about adolescence. Read a review of the DVD version of this movie and take a detailed look at the special features on this DVD.
DVD Pick: Jarhead
Jarhead (2005) is a meditative military drama based on a Gulf War memoir written by former Marine Anthony Swofford. The movie follows Tony "Swoff" Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) from boot camp to combat in Kuwait. Watching the film was for me rather like reading the diary of a young man caught up in a love-hate relationship with the Corps, but he has experiences in it he wouldn't trade for anything. For Swoff, his Marine Corps service is a rite of passage.
DVD Pick: Pride & Prejudice
I think Pride & Prejudice (2005) is quite deserving of its four Academy Award nominations: Best Actress (Keira Knightley), Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Original Score. I was thoroughly entertained by this delightful movie, which is an adaptation of Jane Austen's classic 1813 novel. I consider Keira Knightley's performance in the role of Elizabeth Bennet brilliant, and Pride & Prejudice is strong in every facet of filmmaking. Read a review of Pride & Prejudice on DVD.
DVD Pick: "Pulse"
I would categorize Pulse as a psychological horror film, but it's very different from mainstream horror movies. Read a review of Pulse on DVD.
DVD Pick: "Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"
The voices of Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes are among those heard in "Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (2005), a film which has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Animated Feature category. The movie is suitable for children, but I expect most adults will find it delightful as well. When I watched it on DVD without any kids present, it gave me a few big laughs and a lot of chuckles, and there was a grin on my face almost all the way through.
DVD Pick: "Saraband"
Ingmar Bergman proclaimed that "Fanny & Alexander" (1984) would be the last film he ever directed, but years later he changed his mind. The result was "Saraband" (2003), a movie made for Swedish television that I consider to be outstanding. Read a review of "Saraband" on DVD.
DVD Pick: "Broken Flowers"
Bill Murray gives a superb performance as the star of "Broken Flowers" (2005), a bittersweet film that also features appearances by Sharon Stone, Julie Delpy, Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton and Jeffrey Wright. I found this movie, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, highly enjoyable when I watched it on DVD. Read a review of "Broken Flowers" on DVD.
DVD Pick: "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room"
In Enron The Smartest Guys in the Room, writer-director Alex Gibney gives his version of the story, and I would describe his film as an op-ed piece. I found it to be one of the most informative, thought-provoking and entertaining documentaries I have ever seen. Read a review of Enron The Smartest Guys in the Room on DVD.
DVD Pick: "The Constant Gardener"
The Constant Gardener is a political thriller starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. I enjoyed this movie as a slick, smart entertainment, but I didn't make much of a connection with it emotionally. Read a review of The Constant Gardener on DVD.
DVD Pick: "2046"
"This movie is about how a person deals with his love stories in the past." So says writer-director Wong Kar Wai about his film "2046" (2004) in the behind-the-scenes documentary on the DVD. The movie centers around a man named Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung) recalling his relationships with women in Hong Kong and Singapore in the 1960's. Read a review of "2046" on DVD.
DVD Pick: "Millions"
When I watched this "Millions" on DVD, I smiled a lot and laughed out loud several times. But the film also brought me close to tears. I rate it as one of the best Christmas movies ever made and consider it a worthy competitor to "It's a Wonderful Life." Read a full-length review of "Millions" on DVD
DVD Pick: "Cinderella Man"
Cinderella Man is an old-fashioned, well-crafted, feel-good sports biopic, and I think it makes a nearly perfect star vehicle for Russell Crowe as boxing great James J. Braddock. I found this movie very entertaining when I watched it at home on DVD. Read a review of Cinderella Man on DVD.
DVD Pick: "March of the Penguins"
What made the documentary March of the Penguins so fascinating to me was the way the filmmakers dramatized the life-and-death struggle of the penguins against their harsh environment. Read a review of March of the Penguins on DVD.
DVD Pick: "Ugetsu"
Read a review of Ugetsu on DVD.
DVD Pick: "Boudu Saved From Drowning"
Jean Renoir is most famous for directing Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game, but before those two great films, he made the classic French-language comedy Boudu Saved From Drowning. Boudu is one of the relatively few movies that not only makes me chuckle while I'm watching it, but makes me smile every time I think about it later.
DVD Pick: "No Direction Home"
No Direction Home is Martin Scorsese's documentary about the early career of American singer-composer Bob Dylan. It has aired on television on both PBS and the BBC, but I watched it on DVD. It's the best music documentary I've seen, and I consider it among the best documentaries of any kind. Although it has a total running time of nearly three-and-a-half hours, I found it so engaging that the time passed quickly for me. Read a review of this movie on DVD.
DVD Pick: "The Deer Hunter" Legacy Series Edition
The Deer Hunter is a powerful drama starring Robert De Niro. The movie was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won five, including Best Picture. It ranks 79th on AFI's list of the 100 Greatest American Films. The movie is set in the first half of the 1970's—a time when, it seems to me, Americans' consciousness of themselves as a people went through a major change. And I believe the great strength of "The Deer Hunter" is that it captures certain aspects of that painful transition.