Massive Netflix Post #1

Okay, I have so much Netflixing to catch up on that I have to break it all into several posts.
So this is Massive Netflix Post #1.
I may have to do up to 5 of these things.
Onwards!


The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift - Some sequels don't suck. This is one of them.
"Too Fast Too Furious", the sequel to "The Fast And The Furious" (which is not, according to some people, based on a famous
novel called "The Quick And The Dead") was pretty sucky, but this one, number three, is actually fun. An Alabama gearhead
speedfreak kid gets shipped off to his Navy dad who's based in Tokyo. Bamakid discovers the joys of vending machines
everywhere and drifting. After countless hours playing "Need For Speed: Underground" and "Midnight Club 3", I was totally
prepared for this movie, and I wasn't disappointed. I'm a gearhead myself and like big cars with big engines. I used to make
fun of riced-up imports, but after playing those games, I learned to appreciate the nuances of a well-tuned Mazda RX-7 and
the joy of drifting through a turn perfectly. Rice-cookers are not better than muscle cars, they're different.
So anyway, yes, the movie. It's got enough CGI driving to make John Frankenheimer spin in his grave (Frank really hated
special effects driving and did everything to have REAL driving in his films, like "Ronin" and "Grand Prix").
Some of the driving is real, as they had the real Drift King do some driving for them, but you can't tell which is which.
The cars are cool, there's hot Japanese chicks, and the story is decent. If you like cars and hot chicks, check it out!

Doctor Zhivago - From the people who brought "Lawrence Of Arabia", except not as cool.
Yes, it's the great romantic classic epic and other words ending in -ic, like static. This sucker weighs in at 3 hours and
20 minutes and it takes its sweet time getting there. The sibling gave up at the 50-minute mark. I soldiered on because I
figured that 1) it's a classic and 2) I should watch this movie at least once in my life. And dude, directed by David Lean.
But I gotta tell you, it was long, slow, and dull. It was briefly livened up by the appearance of a young Klaus Kinski
as a raving intellectual, but after that, back to the dullness. And the angst! This is based on a Russian book after all,
and set around the time of the Glorious Revolution (1917), so there's hardship aplenty. Those darn Russians...
Stars Omar Shariff, Alec Guiness, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Roy Steiger, Ralph Richardson, and Klaus Kinski.
Terry Gilliam fans may recall that Ralph Richardson played The Supreme Being in "Time Bandits".

The Omen 666 - Line not uttered in the film: "Put the dog down, Damien."
This is a remake. It's just like the original, except it's been updated for the 2000's (the Millies? The Oughties?).
Damien rides a scooter instead of a big wheel. 9/11 and the Columbia disaster are counted among The Signs Of His Coming.
Liev Schreiber plays the ambassador dad and this is his second remake (he played Raymond Prentiss Shaw in the almost
equally pointless remake of that awesome Frank Sinatra/Laurence Harvey/Angela Lansbury film: "The Manchurian Candidate").
The film also stars Julia Stiles, Mia Farrow in an amusing role (if you've seen "Rosemary's Baby"), and Pete Postlethwaite.
Ultimately, the problem with this remake is that there's no suspense. If you've seen the original, you know everything.
It's simply too faithful. Therefore, I can only recommend it to horror/spooky movie fans who never saw the original.

The Notorious Betty Page - Hubba-hubba-hubba!!
A gentle and fairly straightforward film about the "Pin-Up Queen Of The Universe" herself, Ms. Betty Page.
Gretchen Moll plays the lead role and does a bang-up job of capturing Bettie's fun and playful personality.
The supporting cast is pretty good too. The film is in both black and white (for scenes in New York City) and Technicolor
(for scenes in Miami). One nifty bonus on the DVD is a short color film (probably 8mm) of Ms. Betty herself baring (almost)
all, so you can compare and contrast between Moll and Page. An interesting rental of you're into the subject matter,
or curious about Bettie. Parental warning: movie contains full-frontal nudity (and how!).

Out Of The Past - Dames ain't nothin' but trouble!
Recommended to me by the female DJ at work, the one who turned me on to "Night Of The Hunter", another Robert Mitchum flick.
This is film noir at its finest. An RKO release (Howard Hughes, wooh!) directed by Jacques Tourneur (homeboy!) and starring
Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, and Jean Greer. Mitchum is a private dick, Douglas is a well-to-do gangster, and Greer is the
babe who screws things up. And I don't mean in the "ha-ha funny" sense. By the end of the movie, I was hoping Mitchum would
off her. The snappy dialogue is delightful, the heavy smoking and drinking is "de rigueur". Major film noir fun!

Down in the Valley - The San Fernando Valley that is.
Edward Norton stars in this weird little film about a modern-day cowboy lost in the San Fernando Valley.
He meets a cute chick while working his menial gas station attendant job and, on a whim, goes off with her and her friends
to Malibu, losing his job in the process. He's sweet and nice and all but seems just a little off. He tries to ingratiate
himself with the chick's dad and little brother, but said dad will have none of it. Unfortunately, Dad is an ex-marine or
something, and he's got all the tact and warmth of an M-1 Abrams. It's a dysfunctional household for sure.
It reminded me a little bit of "Taxi Driver", so you can see where this movie was going. "Lost" indeed...

The Sentinel - starring Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, Kim Basinger.
By-the-numbers thriller starring Michael Douglas as a veteran Unite States Secret Service agent framed for the murder of
a colleague. He stumbles upon a plot to assassinate the Prez while trying to clear himself. The SS actually provided
technical assistance on this film, so you get a pretty decent portrayal of the agents, their training, and their duties.
If you're into political thrillers, and you miss Jack Ryan, you'll love this one.

The Woods - The good news: Bruce Campbell is in it. The bad news: he doesn't swing into action until the end.
No, this is not an "Evil Dead" side-movie, eventhough the working title of "Evil Dead" was "Into The Woods".
Set in 1965 New England, a neglected teenager named Heather (Agnes Bruckner) is dropped off by her parents (Bruce Campbell
is the hen-pecked husband) at a remote all-girls boarding school deep in the woods. Watched over by sinister headmistress
Ms. Traverse (Patricia Clarkson) and her staff, Heather is tormented by her classmates and is desperate to go home.
Then she starts having horrible visions, and some of the girls start disappearing, and there's something lurking in the
woods, and it becomes a case of "can't sleep, trees will eat me" (well, sort of...).
The movie is directed by the amusingly-named Lucky McKee, who got a "Masters Of Horror" episode all to himself ("Sick Girl").
It's actually spooky and character-driven and not bad at all! I recommend it.


That's all for now.
Keep an eye out for Massive Netflix #2.