Newspaper: Rental Queue 1

Rental Queue:

Mamma Mia

A newer release, so a bit higher in price since it’s still ‘on the wall’ at Blockbuster, but worth it if you’re as big a fan of musicals as I am. Or… even slightly less of a fan, since I admit that I’m a bit obsessive in my adoration of the genre. Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth are among the easily recognizable faces flexes their vocal cords in this upbeat romantic comedy. You don’t need to be an ABBA fan to get a kick out of the story, the characters, and the performances. Everything about it screams ‘fun’, and that’s exactly what you’ll have when you watch it.

The Devil Wears Prada

Another Meryl Streep movie, but a real winner. Here she plays a sharp, sarcastic, openly and unabashedly rude magazine editor and her performance alone, without any context of plot or any other characters, is more than enough of a reason to pick this one up. It’s even been on the television recently, in which care you’re ahead of the game if you watched it. It’s a hilarious film, and you really get to see Streep at her best when her character is tested and she softens up.

Charlie Wilson’s War

A good film that features both Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams. Tom Hanks leads the rest of the rather impressive cast as Charlie Wilson, a congressman from Texas who inserts himself in the war between rebels and the Soviets in Afghanistan. Adams plays his secretary/assistant/the girl I wished he would notice instead of Julia Roberts, and does so with quiet enthusiasm and a lot of heart. Hoffman plays a man from the CIA and, even in his first scene, is absolutely hilarious. He hijacks the film and does not give it back. Which is fine by me.

Cold Mountain

I caught this just recently on television. It’s long, but the story is interesting enough to justify it. Of course, my viewing was made even longer by the intermittent commercial breaks, so I can’t really judge it on that basis. Jude Law and Nicole Kidman play two relative strangers who, after only a brief relationship, are split apart by the civil war as Law’s character goes off to fight for the Confederates. Whoops. After he is wounded he goes on a long trek to reunite with his fleeting love, and alone the way he runs into a myriad of interesting characters. Seymour Philip Hoffman is among them, playing an often inebriated Reverend who is chased from his home after trying to kill a servant he had impregnated. Whoops again. An interesting counter point to the Priest he plays in Doubt.

Zodiac

David Fincher, the fascinating director responsible for films like Seven, Fight Club, and Panic Room (listed in decreasing awesomeness), is responsible for the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He also directed one of my top crime thrillers, Zodiac. Starring the doe faced Jake Gyllenhaal, the plot evolves over a number of years as a young cartoonist with an eye for puzzles dedicates himself to finding the identity of an infamous serial killer, the Zodiac. Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards make appearances, and Robert Downey Jr. is memorable as a reporter who helps Gyllenhaal in hopes of finding his one big story. It’s creepy and there are some amazing moments of sheer tension.