BRFF Night Five: Heaven (2/19/07)

Well, the easy way out was Tom Hanks. Unfortunately, Apollo 13 was just too long to start at 8:45 pm, so we had to go another direction, and I think it turned out for the best by hitting a movie that we might have missed otherwise. After a few minutes on imdb.com, I realized that Giovanni Ribisi was in SPR and Heaven, a title I had picked up in a deepdiscountdvd.com sale late last year as a blind buy on recommendation from dvdtalk.com. Anyway, I had forgotten about it until I noticed the title. I also noticed that Cate Blanchett was in it and Babel was at the top of my Netflix queue. Perfect.

This film is hard to explain. The box makes it sound action-packed but it's really more of a character study of two people. I had a hard time buying the characters motivations at certain parts of the movie. I appreciated some nice stylistic touches and some of the cinematography, but ultimately never felt very connected with Ribisi's character. After watching the special features on the disc I liked the movie a little bit more, but still am not sold on this one. Not a bad watch, but I don't see myself in a hurry to watch it again. I'll call it a 4.

BRFF Night Four, Take Two: Saving Private Ryan (2/17/07)

After getting off to a rough start, we used Matt Damon's sleazy lawyer from Chasing Amy to get over to Saving Private Ryan. I saw SPR in theaters when it was originally released (1997?) and did not like it much. I bought the DVD a year or so ago as a tech demo basically and because it came in a nice box with two WWII documentaries that looked interesting.

So, the BRFF brings out another movie that I would never had watched without the impetus of the game. Great!

I liked SPR a lot more than I did the first time I saw it. I remember thinking that the opening Omaha Beach scene was too grisly to watch and that the second half of the film felt contrived. Maybe I'm just older and wiser now, but the film stuck many more chords with me this time around. I guess I don't think you have to defend SPR. To me, it's a solid film and I'll give it a 9.

BRFF Night Four: Jay and Silent Bob Stike Back? (2/17/07)

Night four started innocently enough. Jay and Silent Bob Stike Back was available on Blu-Ray, so I Netflixed it. It worked well coming out of Chasing Amy. After all, you can use Kevin Smith, Jay Mewes, Ben Affleck, and Jason Lee to name a few.

We sat down with a nice pepperoni pizza and started watching. Jamie was committed in the spirit of the game. After all, this was a great link to the last movie. I had not seen this one since I winced through most of it at the theater. I had never bought the DVD, which should have been enough to remind me why I hadn't.

In short, we made it about 20 minutes. As soon as Shannon Elizabeth shows up this movie falls apart. I mean, there's the cutesy references to other movies at the beginning and stuff, but man. This is classic Kevin Smith trying way too hard. I couldn't do it. I finished my pizza and hit eject. Our first Bed Rest Film Fest abortion. I am not counting this movie. So, we're back to Chasing Amy and we need a link.

BRFF Night Three: Chasing Amy (2/13/07)

Night three. We used Casey Affleck (yes, I am serious) to bring us to another old favorite, Chasing Amy. This is another title that I hadn't wached in about 5-6 years.

I used to love Kevin Smith. Then, Dogma happened. Then, Jay & Silent Bob Stike Back happened. Both of those movies were HUGE let-downs for me. Jersey Girl wasn't as bad as people made it out to be, IMO. I enjoyed Clerks 2.

Anyway, I really couldn't watch a Kevin Smith movie there for a while. I just felt like he had jumped the shark. To me, I will never be able to enjoy the original Jersey Trilogy as much as I did when I was 18-22. I guess the scripts just do not ring as true to me anymore. The cute references to the other movies kind of annoy me. The good news is that Chasing Amy is a decent movie. It's not perfect, but for Kevin Smith, it's pretty darn good. He isn't trying too hard here. He lets a lot of it come naturally. To me, the ending is kind of an indie-film cop-out. The ending did not seem to reflect the development of the characters and seems like a "look at me, I'm a serious movie" ploy. If the characters work it out in the end in the spirit of the development of their relationship, this is a much better movie. I give it a 7.

BRFF Night Two: Good Will Hunting (2/12/07)

Night two: Ben Afflieck brought us back to Good Will Hunting, a favorite of mine from high school/college that I hadn't watched in about 5 years. I dusted off the old Alliance anamorpic DVD and sat back.


Overall, this movie holds up pretty well for me. The story is a little bit over the top and heavy-handed, but the characters are likable and you want to root for these guys. Affleck looks very fresh-faced in this one and you don't bring as much baggage to the table watching his performance. Nice movie with good direction. 8.

Night One: Hollywoodland (2/11/07)

The game started off innocently enough with a Netflix title, Hollywoodland. At some point, I decided that we would watch another Ben Affleck movie the next night and start the game.

I enjoyed Holllywoodland. I'm usually up for a good noir title. I really enjoy biopics, so this was right up my alley. As always, I would love to see a good 20 or 30 minute documentary about the subject of the movie included as an extra on the disc. At the end of the day, this one gets a solid 7 from me.

Six Degrees Of My Movie Collection

Well, Jamie is on bed rest with the twins, so we have started a fun film fest. Here is the concept: every night we watch a movie with an actor that was in the previous night's movie. We have made a couple of exceptions, notably, we subbed in Breakfast at Tiffany's on Valentine's Day.

The rules of the game:
1) Each movie has to have an actor or director from the film the previous night.
2) If you can change actors, you should.
3) Netflix DVDs must be worked into the schedule.
4) Netflix and the library can be used to find DVDs to link together if we get stuck, but priority must lie with DVDs we own.

Why do this? Primarily for fun, but also because it's a great way to force yourself to watch DVDs that you wouldn't normally pull off the shelf.


The following posts will get us caught up on what we've done so far.


BTW, my DVD collection can be viewed HERE
An awesome way to connect movies by actors: Star Links