watch my unwatched dvds

I confess, I only bought this DVD because it was on sale in HMV for just £3 and I was intrigued by the comic book strips on the cover.

I’ve never heard of the comic strip, but I did like the idea that there is drama in just ordinary life – real ordinary life. It was great seeing the real Harvey Pekar taking part – I do wonder whether his colleagues started watching what they said around him after his strips started getting published.

I love this crime fighting duo :) Can’t imagine what it would have been like if Chris O’Donnell had taken the Agent J role. Surely only Will Smith could get away with lines like: “You know what the difference is between you and me? I make this look good.”

Thought that Vincent D’Onofrio was excellent as well. I became a L&O:CI fan a few years ago, but never realised that he was the Bug until much later!

What a beautiful film! I thought from the cover that it was animation and was amazed to discover that it was filmed on location. The fortitude of the mother and father emperor penguins through harsh blizzards and months of starvation was both awe-inspiring and humbling, and the baby penguins were unbearably cute.

The “behind the scenes” documentary by the film-makers was equally inspiring. You could tell that they completely fell in love with Antarctica.

Wow, it was completely different to what I’d been expecting. I hadn’t seen any trailers but knew that it was yet another adaptation of a Philip K Dick novel, so was thinking that it would be along the lines of Minority Report. Instead it was a world not far removed from our own (with the exception of the scramble suits which fooled any facial recognition software if you were wearing them).

I found it quite uncomfortable viewing, with the sense of unease that went with the constant surveillance and never being quite sure who was who. I had already guessed the identity of “Hank”, but the truth about Arctor’s real mission was really tragic.

The real surprise for me was Rory Cochrane, who I’d last seen in CSI:Miami as Speedle. His drug-induced paranoia was really believable.

I loved the animation – it was amazing how recognisable the actors were with just a few deft pen strokes. I watched the special feature which said that post-production took 18 months to complete the rotoscoping, twice as long as expected. But how beautiful it all looks.

I found it quite hard to get into this film – in fact, I actually stopped after the first 20 minutes and then returned to it a few days later. Enjoyed their trials and tribulations once they reached the cottage and the final scene with Richard E Grant reciting a speech from Hamlet in the rain. Think that I might warm to it more on a 2nd viewing – or having downed a few G&Ts first.

This is a lovely lovely film. It seems strange to say that of a coming of age story that was mostly bittersweet, but everything worked perfectly. One day I would love to visit the castle they used for filming, and also to read the original novel by Dodie Smith.

I never manage to catch this whenever it comes on TV so it was good to finally watch this. Great idea, great film – loved seeing the different ways that Phil reacted to his situation: disbelief, despair, glee at being able to behave as badly as possible and finally making use of his circumstances to learn the piano and help others.

Mixed feelings about this. I adored the first 2 Spiderman films, which I saw at the cinema. I think that my enjoyment of Spidey 3 was probably affected by seeing it only on a small screen.

There seemed to be too much crammed into the film with 3 baddies and multiple love triangles. Though it did give Harry a chance to become a hero at the end – I loved watching the two of them fighting side by side, friends once more. But overall it was terrifically entertaining – the main goal of watching any film for me.

For now, Spidey 2 still remains my favourite.

Nothing worth watching on the TV this evening, so randomly picked a DVD from the pile.

I confess that I bought the DVD after seeing Bill Pullman in While You Were Sleeping recently and wanting to see him in other films. I loved Galaxy Quest (one of the few sci-fi films I’ve seen and immediately wanted to own the DVD) and so decided to give Spaceballs a go.

There were some great moments (the Virgin Alarm!) and a seriously gross villain (Pizza the Hut much more disturbing than Jabba), but I didn’t find it as laugh-out-loud funny as I’d hoped. Maybe I wasn’t in the right mood?

I always go crazy at sale time and snap up films that I missed at the cinema or on TV for just a couple of pounds. But once I get home, they get stacked next to the TV – and there they remain, months later, with the plastic wrappers still intact!

I realised how ridiculous it was when I was watching a film on TV over Xmas and suddenly thought: “Hold on – I already have this film on DVD!”

So I’m going to try to watch at least 1 DVD per month.