Thursday, December 29, 2011

Beowulf

Before Sunrise

  • BEFORE SUNRISE (DVD MOVIE)
A heartbroken young Texas journalist meets a beautiful French student on a train bound for Paris, and invites her to share his last night in Vienna.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 6-NOV-2001
Media Type: DVDThis romantic, witty, and ultimately poignant glimpse at two strangers (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) who share thoughts, affections, and past experiences during one 14-hour tryst in Vienna somehow remains writer/director Richard Linklater's (Dazed and Confused, Slacker) most overlooked gem. Delpy, a stunning, low-key Parisian, meets the stammering American Hawke, as the two share a Eurorail seat--she's starting school in Paris, he's finishing a vacation. Their mutual attraction leads to an awkward meeting (beautifully played by each performer), and Hawke suggests that Delpy spend his remaini! ng 14 hours in Vienna with him.

Typically, this skeleton is as much plot as Linklater provides; as usual, he's more interested in concentrating his talents on observing the casual, playful conversations between his leads. His tight time frame allows the characters to say anything to one another, and topics ranging from politics to past romances to fears of the future flow with subtle finesse. The short time frame is also cruel, however, because beneath this love affair lies the painful reality that the two most likely will never see each other again and will be left only with memories--an idea Linklater drives home with an effective snapshot conclusion.

Hardly the trite Gen-X bitch session that many '90s films using this approach become, the film feels more like a Bresson or Rohmer piece, containing sharp perceptions--and flawed humans rather than stereotypes. The protagonists' frank revelations and heated exchanges flow in a stream-of-consciousness style, and its n! o accident that Linklater set the film in Vienna, where Freud ! invented and practiced psychotherapy. --Dave McCoyBEFORE SUNSET - DVD MovieIn 1994, director Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Waking Life) made Before Sunrise, a gorgeous poem of a movie about two strangers (played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) wandering around Vienna, talking, and falling in love. Ten years later, Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy have returned with Before Sunset, which reunites the same characters after Hawke has written a book about that night. Delpy appears at the final book reading of his European tour; they have less than two hours before Hawke has to catch a flight to New York...and in that time, they walk around Paris, talk, and fall in love all over again. It sounds simple, perhaps dull, but it's written with such skill and care and acted with such richness that it's a miracle of filmmaking. On its own, Before Sunset is moving and wonderful; seen right after Before Sunrise, it will break your heart. --B! ret FetzerStudio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 11/09/2010This romantic, witty, and ultimately poignant glimpse at two strangers (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) who share thoughts, affections, and past experiences during one 14-hour tryst in Vienna somehow remains writer/director Richard Linklater's (Dazed and Confused, Slacker) most overlooked gem. Delpy, a stunning, low-key Parisian, meets the stammering American Hawke, as the two share a Eurorail seat--she's starting school in Paris, he's finishing a vacation. Their mutual attraction leads to an awkward meeting (beautifully played by each performer), and Hawke suggests that Delpy spend his remaining 14 hours in Vienna with him.

Typically, this skeleton is as much plot as Linklater provides; as usual, he's more interested in concentrating his talents on observing the casual, playful conversations between his leads. His tight time frame allows the characters to say anything to one another, and topic! s ranging from politics to past romances to fears of the futur! e flow w ith subtle finesse. The short time frame is also cruel, however, because beneath this love affair lies the painful reality that the two most likely will never see each other again and will be left only with memories--an idea Linklater drives home with an effective snapshot conclusion.

Hardly the trite Gen-X bitch session that many '90s films using this approach become, the film feels more like a Bresson or Rohmer piece, containing sharp perceptions--and flawed humans rather than stereotypes. The protagonists' frank revelations and heated exchanges flow in a stream-of-consciousness style, and its no accident that Linklater set the film in Vienna, where Freud invented and practiced psychotherapy. --Dave McCoy

The Hangover (Rated Single-Disc Edition)

  • Condition: New
  • Format: DVD
  • Color; Dolby; Dubbed; DVD; Full Screen; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC
From The Hangover director Todd Phillips, Due Date throws two unlikely companions together on a road trip that turns out to be as life-changing as it is outrageous. Expectant first-time father Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) looks forward to his new child’s due date five days away. As Peter hurries to catch a flight home from Atlanta to be at his wife’s side for the birth, his best intentions go completely awry when an encounter with aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) forces Peter to hitch a ride with Ethan on a cross-country trip that will ultimately destroy several cars, many friendships and Peter’s last nerve.Due Date is such a broad comedy, it needs the width of the whole United States in which to play out. Directo! r Todd Phillips (The Hangover) lets the gross-out comedic charms of his frequent star Zach Galifianakis run wild, which is exactly what Galifianakis fans want. And Robert Downey Jr. reminds viewers of his appealing straight-man comic talents, too. Due Date is like Planes, Trains and Automobiles meets Nine Months with a little of The Odd Couple thrown in. The writing of Due Date is uneven--perhaps a result of its having had a minimum of six screenwriters working on it. And run time, at only 100 or so minutes, seems much longer. But Due Date gets its energy and charge from its two stars and from Phillips's slaphappy direction. Galifianakis plays Ethan, who's a version of every character Galifianakis has played to date--slovenly, irresponsible, and uncensored. Downey is Peter, a straitlaced new father-to-be, who through an improbable series of unfortunate events can find no other way to get across the country for the birth of hi! s first child than to hitch a ride with Ethan. If the situatio! n is som ewhat predictable, the comedic moments are not--though by halfway though the trip, viewers may wonder if Peter will be able to resist strangling Ethan with his own scarf, or worse. The deft supporting cast includes Michelle Monaghan as Peter's wife, Jamie Foxx (in kind of a throwaway role), and Juliette Lewis, appealing and not too ditzy. Viewers who love Phillips's and Galifianakis's trademark slapstick shtick will find plenty to laugh about on this long, strange trip. --A.T. HurleyFrom The Hangover director Todd Phillips, Due Date throws two unlikely companions together on a road trip that turns out to be as life-changing as it is outrageous. Expectant first-time father Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) looks forward to his new child’s due date five days away. As Peter hurries to catch a flight home from Atlanta to be at his wife’s side for the birth, his best intentions go completely awry when an encounter with aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay (Zach ! Galifianakis) forces Peter to hitch a ride with Ethan on a cross-country trip that will ultimately destroy several cars, many friendships and Peter’s last nerve. Due Date is such a broad comedy, it needs the width of the whole United States in which to play out. Director Todd Phillips (The Hangover) lets the gross-out comedic charms of his frequent star Zach Galifianakis run wild, which is exactly what Galifianakis fans want. And Robert Downey Jr. reminds viewers of his appealing straight-man comic talents, too. Due Date is like Planes, Trains and Automobiles meets Nine Months with a little of The Odd Couple thrown in. The writing of Due Date is uneven--perhaps a result of its having had a minimum of six screenwriters working on it. And run time, at only 100 or so minutes, seems much longer. But Due Date gets its energy and charge from its two stars and from Phillips's slaphappy direction. Galifianakis plays Ethan, w! ho's a version of every character Galifianakis has played to d! ate--slo venly, irresponsible, and uncensored. Downey is Peter, a straitlaced new father-to-be, who through an improbable series of unfortunate events can find no other way to get across the country for the birth of his first child than to hitch a ride with Ethan. If the situation is somewhat predictable, the comedic moments are not--though by halfway though the trip, viewers may wonder if Peter will be able to resist strangling Ethan with his own scarf, or worse. The deft supporting cast includes Michelle Monaghan as Peter's wife, Jamie Foxx (in kind of a throwaway role), and Juliette Lewis, appealing and not too ditzy. Viewers who love Phillips's and Galifianakis's trademark slapstick shtick will find plenty to laugh about on this long, strange trip. --A.T. HurleyDue Date is such a broad comedy, it needs the width of the whole United States in which to play out. Director Todd Phillips (The Hangover) lets the gross-out comedic charms of his frequent star Zach Ga! lifianakis run wild, which is exactly what Galifianakis fans want. And Robert Downey Jr. reminds viewers of his appealing straight-man comic talents, too. Due Date is like Planes, Trains and Automobiles meets Nine Months with a little of The Odd Couple thrown in. The writing of Due Date is uneven--perhaps a result of its having had a minimum of six screenwriters working on it. And run time, at only 100 or so minutes, seems much longer. But Due Date gets its energy and charge from its two stars and from Phillips's slaphappy direction. Galifianakis plays Ethan, who's a version of every character Galifianakis has played to date--slovenly, irresponsible, and uncensored. Downey is Peter, a straitlaced new father-to-be, who through an improbable series of unfortunate events can find no other way to get across the country for the birth of his first child than to hitch a ride with Ethan. If the situation is somewhat predictable, the comedic! moments are not--though by halfway though the trip, viewers m! ay wonde r if Peter will be able to resist strangling Ethan with his own scarf, or worse. The deft supporting cast includes Michelle Monaghan as Peter's wife, Jamie Foxx (in kind of a throwaway role), and Juliette Lewis, appealing and not too ditzy. Viewers who love Phillips's and Galifianakis's trademark slapstick shtick will find plenty to laugh about on this long, strange trip. --A.T. HurleyMovie Summary A first time expectant father has an adventurous trip with an aspiring actor while travelling cross country to be with his expecting wife. DVD Details * Actor(s): Robert Jr. Downey * Format: Widescreen * Soundtrack: English * Additional: Additional Footage Behind the Scenes Include Digital Copy * Rating: R * MSRP: $35.99 * Release Date: 2 22 2011 * Number of Discs: 2A las vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures then must retrace their steps in order to find him. Studio: Warner Home Video Rele! ase Date: 12/15/2009 Starring: Bradley Cooper Heather Graham Run time: 100 minutes Rating: RIf you like your humor broadside up, hold the subtlety, you'll want to nurse this Hangover with your best buds. The ensemble cast meshes perfectly--it's like a super-R-rated episode of Friends: silly, slapstick, and completely in the viewer's face. When four pals go to Vegas to celebrate the imminent nuptials of one of them, they partake in a rooftop toast to "a night we'll never forget." But they're in for a big surprise: their celebration drinks were laced with date-rape drugs, so when they awake in their hotel room 12 hours later, not only are they hung over, but they can't remember what they did all night long. Oh, and they're missing the groom-to-be.

The film is so cheerfully raunchy, so fiercely crude, that the humor becomes as intoxicating as the mind-altering substances. The standout in the ensemble is Zach Galifianakis, who is alternately creepy and hilar! ious. Ed Helm (The Office), in addition to his memory, ! loses a tooth in uncomfortably realistic fashion, and Bradley Cooper (He's Just Not That into You) has deadpan comic timing that whips along at the speed of light. "Ma'am, you have an incredible rack," he blares to a pedestrian from the squad car the guys have "borrowed." "I should have been a [bleeping] cop," he tells himself approvingly.

Director Todd Phillips brings back his deft handling of the actors and the dude humor that worked so well in Old School, as well as the unctuous Dan Finnerty, memorable as a lounge/wedding singer in both films. But it's the nonstop volley of jokes--most cheerily politically incorrect--that grabs the audience and thrashes it around the hotel room. Just watch out for the tiger in the bathroom. --A.T. Hurley