Film Review: Beat break boredom with DVD doozies
With Thanksgiving break coming, students might find they have a lot of extra time on their hands but not a lot of new TV to fill it with. Here is a list* of the best in classic movies, cult classics, new releases and TV on DVD to keep you from suffering through reruns or shopping with your mom.
Classics
“Citizen Kane”
1941
Director: Orson Welles
Starring: Joseph Cotton, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick
Description: Orson Welles co-produced and co-wrote this movie based on the life of William Randolph Hearst.
“Casablanca”
1943
Director: Michael Curtiz
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Description: Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart’s troubled love story is set against the Nazi takeover of Europe. This movie is referenced in 1971 Bond movie “Diamonds are Forever” as well as quoted in sitcoms from “The Simpsons” to “That ‘70s Show.”
“The Godfather”
1972
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall
Description: This film won Marlon Brando a Best Actor Oscar, as well as Best Picture at the 1973 Academy awards. The movie about an Italian mob family set the scene for two follow-ups.
“Manchurian Candidate”
1962
Director: John Frankenheimer
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury
Description: This political thriller about a returning soldier being brainwashed into becoming an assassin was re-made in 2004 with Denzel Washington.
“Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”
1964
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden
Description: Stanley Kubrick, who went on to direct other classics like “The Shining” and “A Clockwork Orange,” made this movie about an insane military general who starts a nuclear holocaust.
Staff pick:
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s”
1961
Director: Blake Edwards
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard
Description: Written by Truman Capote, this film features Audrey Hepburn’s classic black dress and big sunglasses look. In 1995, rock-pop group Deep Blue Something wrote a song of the same title that hit No. 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
Runner-ups:
“Wizard of Oz”
1939
Director: Victor Fleming
Starring: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Margaret Hamilton, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley
Description: An adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s children’s novel that changed Dorothy’s silver shoes that take her home to ruby to show off the Technicolor.
“It’s a Wonderful Life”
1946
Director: Frank Capra
Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore
Description: This Christmas classic was James Stewart’s first movie after he came back from fighting in WWII. Though it had little box office success and had trouble passing the censors at the Motion Picture Association of America, the American Film Institute has ranked it in several lists, including No. 11 of the greatest movies of all time.
“Rear Window”
1954
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly
Description: In this movie, a photojournalist laid up in his apartment with broken legs notices the potentially murderous activities of his neighbor. 2007’s “Disturbia” draws heavily on this.
Cult classics
“The Shawshank Redemption”
1994
Director: Frank Darabont
Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman
Description: An accountant, wrongly convicted of murder, learns how to deal with prison life and eventually makes it better for the prisoners around him.
“Pink Flamingos”
1972
Director: John Waters
Starring: David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole
Description: A women named Divine and her family compete for the title of “the filthiest people alive” against a couple who kidnaps and impregnates female hitchhikers to sell the children to gay and lesbian couples and use the profits to invest in their business of selling heroin to school children.
“Harold and Maude”
1971
Director: Hal Ashby
Starring: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles
Description: This movie centers on the relationship between 20-year-old, death-obsessed Harold and 80-year-old, lively Maude.
“Repo Man”
1984
Director: Alex Cox
Starring: Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, Tracey Walter
Description: The misadventures of a frustrated punk rocker who becomes a repo man.
“Pulp Fiction”
1994
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Uma Thurman, John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson
Description: An interweaving story about two philosophical hit men, a crime boss who allegedly (threw a man out a window for giving his wife a foot massage (Warning: link is explicit)), the crime boss’s cocaine-snorting wife and a crooked boxer who fails to throw a fight.
Staff pick:
“The Rocky Horror Picture Show”
1975
Director: Jim Sharman
Starring: Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Meat Loaf
Description: In this musical known for audience participation an uptight couple goes to a mansion for help after their car breaks down only to find kinky things happening inside.
Runner ups:
“Donnie Darko”
2001
Director: Richard Kelly
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Patrick Swayze, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore
Description: A troubled young man struggles with sleepwalking, school and hallucinations that foretell the world’s end.
“The Nightmare Before Christmas”
1993
Director: Henry Selick
Starring: Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara
Description: Written by Tim Burton, this movie is stylishly done in stop-motion. Jake Skellington, the bored the Pumpkin King of Halloween, decides to take over Christmas, with scary results.
“This is Spinal Tap”
1984
Director: Rob Reiner
Starring: Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner
Description: Rob Reiner plays a fake producer making a documentary about the fictitious, clueless rock band Spinal Tap.
New releases
“Hairspray”
Director: Adam Shankman
Starring: John Travolta, Christopher Walken, Nikki Blonsky, Amanda Bynes
Description: Based on a Broadway musical, this movie, featuring John Travolta in drag, is about a ‘60s-era teen defying her mother by appearing on an “American Bandstand”-like show.
“Live Free or Die Hard”
Director: Len Wiseman
Starring: Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant, Justin Long
Description: Bruce Willis reprises one of his most well-known characters, John McClane, to team up with a computer programmer to prevent an internet-based terrorist organization from systematically shutting down the United States.
“Rescue Dawn”
Director: Werner Herzog
Starring: Christian Bale, Zach Grenier, Marshall Bell
Description: Based on a 1997 documentary “Little Dieter Needs to Fly.” A U.S. fighter pilot in the Vietnam War struggles to survive after his plane is shot down on a mission over Laos. Christian Bale lost 55 pounds for this role.
“This is England”
Director: Shane Meadow
Starring: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley.
Description: A troubled boy growing up in 1983’s England is involved with skinheads after a fight. Based on writer and director Shane Meadows’ own turbulent past.
“Paris, je t’aime”
Director: Olivier Assayas, Frédéric Auburtin, Emmanuel Benbihy, Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Isabel Coixet, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Gérard Depardieu, Christopher Doyle, Richard LaGravenese, Vincenzo Natali, Alexander Payne, Bruno Podalydès, Walter Salles, Oliver Schmitz, Nobuhiro Suwa, Daniela Thomas, Tom Tykwer, Gus Van Sant
Description: In different vignettes, directors create shorts named after districts of Paris dealing with love in all its forms and the city of love itself.
Runner-ups:
“La Vie En Rose”
Director: Olivier Dahan
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory.
Description: The biography of France’s iconic singer Edith Piaf.
“Shrek The Third”
Director: Chris Miller, Raman Hui
Starring: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake
Description: When his father-in-law, King Harold, dies, Shrek is looked at as the new king of Far, Far Away. Shrek, not wanting to become king, sets out to install the rebellious Artie as the new king, but his plan hits a snag when a vengeful Prince Charming takes over the kingdom.
“Ocean’s 13”
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon.
Description: George Clooney plays Danny Ocean, the leader of a gang of thieves. This time, the troupe is after a casino owner who crosses one of their own. The prequel to “Ocean’s 13” was remade from the Rat Pack movie.
TV on DVD
“Veronica Mars”
Starring: Kristen Bell, Percy Daggs III, Jason Dohring
Description: High-schooler Veronica Mars, daughter of the local sheriff, cracks crime cases after her best friend is murdered.
“The Office”
Starring: Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski
Description: Based on a British TV show, this is a mockumentary about a group of typical office workers under the management of a clueless boss.
“Dexter”
Starring: Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter
Description: Dexter, an affable police forensics expert, quenches his blood lust by killing criminals who have escaped justice.
“Weeds”
Starring: Mary-Louise Parker, Kevin Nealon, Romany Malco
Description: A comedy about a wife who turns to selling marijuana to support her family after her husband dies.
“Battlestar Galactica”
Starring: Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Tricia Helfer
Description: After losing the war against the Cylon robots, the Battlestar Galactica crew speeds toward the fabled 13th colony, Earth.
Runners-up:
“Friday Night Lights”
Starring: Kyle Chandler, Blue Deckert, Connie Britton
Description: The show is about a high school football team that is the pride and joy of a small town in Texas.
“30 Rock”
Starring: Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Alec Baldwin
Description: Tina Fey, a former “Saturday Night Live” writer, plays Liz Lemon, a head writer of a TV sketch show much like “SNL” who has to deal with an arrogant boss, crazy stars and lazy writers while trying to stay sane and have a romantic life.
“Heroes”
Starring: Hayden Panettiere, Masi Oka, Milo Ventimiglia
Description: A cast of super-powered everyday people try to save the world from evil villains and deadly plagues.
Staff pick:
“Futurama”
Starring: Billy West, Katey Sagal, John Di Maggio
Description: This cartoon was created by Matt Groening, the same brain behind “The Simpsons.” A pizza delivery guy, Fry, who is accidentally frozen in 1999 and wakes up 1,000 years later to work at an interstellar delivery company run by a one-eyed space captain, a morally corrupt robot and a crab-like alien doctor who doesn’t know the first thing about humans.
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