I noticed on my last visit to Blockbuster that sufficient desperation has set in that they’ve decided to offer a NetFlix-style “unlimited rentals” plan… for $24.95 per month (limit 2 rentals at once), which strikes me as rather noncompetitive if you ask me, although I seem to remember NetFlix being significantly cheaper than it is now in the past.

Of course, the fact Blockbuster decided to raise the DVD rental fee to $4.19 hasn’t exactly ensured my continued patronage after I use up my $20 gift card.

My most recent rentals are Love Actually (some of the humor in which, I suspect, is lost on people on this side of the pond—most notably, the plight of the has-been singer trying to get the Christmas #1 is something of a riff on a British tradition of has-beens and never-wases trying to gain glory with a hit Christmas single) and Lost in Translation, the latter of which doesn’t seem to be very cooperative with my laptop for some reason (I couldn’t get Totem to play it at all under Linux, and Windows Media Player won’t let me skip past any of the promo crap on the DVD). So we’ll see if the real DVD player can cope with Lost, and then I’ll run to Blockbuster to return the DVDs.

Well, the conspiracy theorists will have to spin a new yarn about Disney burying Michael Moore’s apolitical magnum opus for political ends, as the Weinstein brothers have snagged themselves a sweetheart deal to get Disney to sell themselves the rights to Fahrenheit: 9/11.

So now we’ll all get to see if it measures up in over-the-top melodramatic impact to The Day After Tomorrow, which Julian Sanchez characterizes as a virtual ad for Bush/Cheney 2004, while a commenter at Dan Drezner’s place calls it “the Left Behind for the environmental left.” More importantly, this news goes to show you that free speech, even when illicitly pursued on someone else’s dime (apparently the Weinstein boys don’t quite understand this whole “owner-employee” relationship thing), is alive and well in America. Hallelujah!

Well, this award will definitely make Michael Moore even more insufferable than he is already. And, here’s your “laugh test” moment:

“I did not set out to make a political film,” Mr. Moore said at a news conference after the ceremony. “I want people to leave thinking that was a good way to spend two hours. The art of this, the cinema, comes before the politics.”

I’m sure that’s what Leni Riefenstahl said too.

Michael Jennings watches a lot of movies aimed at the teen set in the hopes of spotting future stars—or at least, that’s his excuse. Like Michael, I am perplexed at the lack of success Alicia Silverstone has had in her career—of course, I thought Blast from the Past was one of the best romantic comedies in recent years (enhanced by Dave Foley’s role as Alicia’s “queer eye for the straight gal” roommate), and was probably one of a dozen people to actually see the film, so that may be the problem.

Will Baude of Crescat Sententia is enjoying Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; it has become one of my favorite literary works, although I didn’t appreciate it quite as much as I do now when my high school AP English teacher was cramming it down my throat. (I strongly recommend the Norton Critical Edition, linked above.)

Of course, it helps that Conrad’s book has reached archetypical status in contemporary culture, due in large part to its serving as the basis for Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam film, Apocalypse Now.

Update: Will Baude says “the movie that really best translates Heart of Darkness to the screen is Chinatown,” at least according to Ted Cohen. Perhaps at an archetypical level, but the plots are miles apart—most notably: I don’t remember an incest subplot in HoD.

Another Update: Dave Kozyr has a response to Will Baude as well. Furthermore, the documentary about the filming of Apocalypse Now is entitled… Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. I rest my case.

From the Washington Times:

Mr. Boone said that if he were in charge of standards, there would be stringent controls on material.

"It must be majority approved ... voluntary ... and self-imposed," he said, clad in a yellow blazer, black slacks, a canary yellow tie and white leather shoes. "Censorship is healthy for any society, and that goes for arts, entertainment, anything. Self-imposed means that the majority of people say that is what we want, and it can be changed if people's attitudes change, which is how a democratic society works."

Good thing Mr. Boone is not in charge of standards. (Link via Marginal Revolution.)

Monty Python’s Life of Brian is being re-released to theaters.

Perhaps as a double-feature with Passion of the Christ?

To borrow a phrase from another Sci-Fi series, wa-HOOO! But, yeah, I’d like the TV show back too…

Ryan Gabbard inquires:

Anyone else think Liv Tyler was much prettier presenting the music at the Academy Awards than she was playing the most beautiful Elf in Middle-Earth?

Well, it’s your big chance to judge for yourself. Personally, I could have done without the Lisa Loeb glasses, which look fine on Ms. Loeb, but seemed odd on Ms. Tyler.

Will Baude has been inquiring about the DVD industry’s Content Scrambling System (CSS) and its associated region (or locale) coding system. Today he asks:

The question that then plagued me was why DVD-players went along with this system. It makes sense that DVD makers would like the ability to price discriminate in different markets, but wouldn’t Dell disk drives be worth more if they could play discs from all regions? Who gains from the limited switching?

DVD player manufacturers have to license the patents of the DVD Copy Control Association (as well as patents for other systems, like the Macrovision video copy protection scheme) in order for their players to legally play DVDs. The DVDCCA’s licensing provisions require manufacturers to implement the region locking scheme—thus, you can’t get a license to produce a DVD player if you don’t implement the scheme.

Now, some far-east manufacturers evade this requirement by conveniently “forgetting” to lock the DVD region settings of their players, or by leaving secret menus available to allow people to break the DVD region coding scheme. And, it is my understanding that unlicensed players based on the “DeCSS” code circumvent this region lock scheme completely, but I don’t own any DVDs from outside region 1 (USA/Canada), so I’ve never tested this for myself.*

Arguably, the whole system is illegal under WTO rules, which specifically prohibit schemes like region locking and rules against “reverse imports” that are designed to maintain regional price differentials. But given DVD manufacturers’ interests in maximizing their profits (particularly in often egregiously overpriced Region 2 markets like Great Britain) don’t expect this to change anytime soon.

I finally got around to watching Road to Perdition and Sunshine State last night (I rented them on Tuesday…).

Sam Mendes’ Road to Perdition was an incredibly well-made film, even though the plot was largely predictable (or, dare I say, archetypical). Amazing cinematography, wonderful music, and great acting all-around, particularly by Tom Hanks who was playing very much against type (at least at some levels).

I also enjoyed John Sayles’ Sunshine State, although at points it struck me as a remake of Lone Star with the serial numbers filed off—perhaps because this film, like Lone Star, is sort of a celebration of sociologist Mark Granovetter’s concept of weak ties—the idea being that you go into a community and explore the links among its members. Particularly notable were the performances by Edie Falco and James McDaniel.

Anyway, I recommend both films highly.

On TV at the moment on Turner Classic Movies is WarGames, one of my favorite movies from when I was a kid. And, somewhat apropos of Matthew’s discussion of such things, it features Ally Sheedy, my first actress crush.

Also noteworthy: the classic quotes:

Jennifer: [Falkner] wasn’t very old, was he?
David Lightman: Oh, he was pretty old, he was 41.
Jennifer: Wow, that is old.

and, on the “it flew over my head when I was seven” scale:

Malvin: I can’t believe it, Jim. That girl’s standing over there listening and you’re telling him about our back doors?

Then again, I suspect “back door” wasn’t quite in the vernacular in 1983.

John Holbo notes that not only did Hollywood commit the unpardonable sin of making the dreadful 3rd and 4th Alien movies, they’ve now added insult to injury by mixing Greek and Latin roots on the DVD boxed set.

Dad and I saw Master and Commander today, which was most enjoyable—even if I could have done without the ER/Black Hawk Down at sea bits. Swordfights? OK. Arms being amputated with meat cleavers? Merci, non.

Ryan Gabbard of the Audhumlian Conspiracy (whose layout always makes me think I’m reading Crescat Sententia) notes that a film adaptation of Asimov’s I, Robot is going to be on movie screens this summer, starring Will Smith. I saw the trailer at Return of the King and it was moderately amusing—it was produced in the form for an ad for a domestic robot. Hopefully it will turn out well, although I have disturbing thoughts of that awful Robin Williams robot movie from a few years back, Bicentennial Man.

UPDATE: Gabbard also notes that a series of movies based on the Foundation novels is in development. (I only count seven Asimov-written Foundation novels, not eight, though: Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation, Foundation’s Edge, and Foundation and Earth.) Also of note: Alan Tudyk, who played Wash on Firefly, is part of the I, Robot cast.

Dean’s World has uncovered the shocking truth about a Libyan terror plot foiled by an American scientist in 1985.

The Commissar has a masterful political analysis of The Return of the King. Laugh-out-loud line:

Did enjoy Robert Fisk’s review, “After movie let out, I fell in with a bunch of Orcs, and they beat me up. And I don’t blame them; I would have beaten myself up, too.”

Da.

I broke down and went to see The Return of the King (the third installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, for those who reside under rocks) last night. It was very good, despite the air of inevitability that hung over the piece—even someone whose Tolkien is half-remembered and based mostly on cultural osmosis can figure out where the story’s going. And I could have done without the 20 minutes of commercials and trailers before the film.

Anyway, for those into such things, Jacob Levy has more, with spoilers.

Over at Crescat Sententia, Peter Northup has an excellent summary of a colloquium at NYU featuring Lawrence Lessig. The quote that struck me:

There was another interesting exchange concerning an alternate, “conservative” justification for intellectual property rights: the desire to protect the integrity of certain culturally significant works from debasement (this included the first of many references to Disney pornography, and set the stage for a most unexpected digression on Smallville slash, and the public’s interest, or lack thereof, in its production). If we’re willing to prevent someone from painting his historic townhouse chartreuse, can’t we say “no” to Mickey Mouse pornography?

Indeed, as Lessig reminded the audience, the Dr. Seuss estate made just this very argument in support of the Copyright Term Extension Act.

Meanwhile, the mostly negative reviews of the new movie version of The Cat in the Hat are piling on. A few choice quotes:

• “... one of the most repulsive kiddie movies ever made.” – David Edelstein in Slate
  
• “... the producers may as well have skipped the hassle of securing licensing rights and simply called this mess Mike Myers: Asshole in Fur.” – Gregory Weinkauf in the Dallas Observer
  
• “If the producers had dug up Ted Geisel’s body and hung it from a tree, they couldn’t have desecrated the man more.” – Ty Burr in the Boston Globe.
  
• “A vulgar, uninspired lump of poisoned eye candy.” – A. O. Scott in the New York Times
  

Artistic integrity, my ass.

Daniel Drezner and Roger Simon have been mixing it up over their favorite films.

I’ve had a list of 10 movies sitting on my personal home page for a few years; for sake of comparison, here they are (in semi-random order); all of them made in the past 20 years:

1. Lone Star (John Sayles) – Examining the secrets of a small Texas town on the Rio Grande.
2. Secrets and Lies (Mike Leigh) – Examining the secrets of some really messed up people in London.
3. Fargo (Coen Brothers) – A kidnapping gone bad with a very pregnant cop investigating it.
4. A Fish Called Wanda (Charles Crichton and John Cleese) – British lawyer gets involved with a band of jewel thieves.
5. Blood Simple (Coen Brothers) – Woman gets caught cheating on her goofy husband with an almost-equally goofy guy by a psychotic private investigator.
6. Exotica (Atom Egoyan) – Canadian tax inspector hangs out at a strip club.
7. Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mike Newell) – English guy with eccentric friends falls in love with gorgeous American woman.
8. Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarentino) – Airline stewardess gets busted for running drug money for Samuel L. Jackson with a goofy beard.
9. The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan) – Canadian lawyer investigates the aftermath of a horrific bus accident, while he deals with demons of his own.
10. Zero Effect (Jake Kasdan) – World’s weirdest detective (with sidekick who does most of the real work) investigates what happened to a CEO’s keys.

Not a lot of overlap (just one movie) with Dan’s list. If I made a “top 20,” though, I’d probably have Say Anything, Courage Under Fire (which Denzel Washington deserved an Oscar for), Groundhog Day, Schindler’s List, and Saving Private Ryan on my list too. Rounding out the 20, I’d have to add Pulp Fiction, Hoop Dreams, Insomina (the original version with Stellan Skaarsgard), The Spanish Prisoner, Out of Sight, and Gattaca. And probably 50 other movies too that should have made the cut. And if I took off the 20-year restriction…

I went to see American Splendor this afternoon. I’ve never been a very good review writer, and I doubt a review full of nothing but superlatives would be very interesting, so just go read the review from the Memphis Flyer.

And then go see this movie! With the possible execption of Ghost World, it’s the best movie that’s ever been made from a comic book. If you’re the Memphis area, it’s playing at Malco’s Studio on the Square in Midtown.