Movie Minute

Today I saw Rescue Dawn, the true story of a Vietnam War P.O.W. starring Christian Bale. It wasn't ground breaking as a film but the story certainly was compelling. Bale must be doing some serious damage to his long term health with the bulking up and then losing weight all the time for roles. The man never reaches "Machinist" extremes though his co-star does. I think the dude needs to score some roles which just requires him to look like Christian Bale. (Although I nearly pee my pants every time I think of 'The Dark Knight') It also stars Steve Zahn who was incredible in one of his only serious roles. He gets a gold star for effort...incredibly well done for going out of his comfort zone.

Rescue Dawn was a fluid film but didn't delve into the 'how or why' of war so much as it focused on the simplicity of Dieter Dengler's story...yes I know he has a porn star-esque name! I still give it a 3/5. (probably BECAUSE of the Porn Star name...jk!)


I had a big chat with my fellow lady movie buffs afterwards regarding the writer's strike. We are all getting quite stressed because we're also big fans of television and that will, of course, be the first big impact due to the strike. Movies will come later if it continues. They, meaning writers and suits, will be chatting tomorrow about ending the costly strike. I hope they settle this stuff ASAP...it's just quite silly! (on the suit's part of course)

After the outpouring of desperation due to the possible lack of Heroes, The Office and to my disgust House, we then moved on to the idiocy of Australian DVD manufacturers and cinemas. Firstly, pushing a movie's release back months after it screens in other countries will only encourage people into downloading illegally...the same with delayed DVD releases. What are they thinking?

For example...a normal discussion between my friend, who works at a DVD/Video (pretty much the only one left in the state with VHS) Rental place, and I...
"So when does Hairspray come out on DVD?"..."January I think"..."Really? That's weird"..."Yah it's already on DVD in the States"...."I wonder if there's a DVD rip ready to download?"...




Yeah cinemas and DVD merchants pay attention! Why are the big corporations so blind? They try to fight piracy with laws instead of ingenuity! Beat them guys, beat them at their own game. Go digital! If Hairspray, or say some much cooler title, was available for download from the Film Company's website or an online distributor, I might actually pay for it! Hey they've got a better chance of that than making us all wait months and months for something we know is just being held up by red tape (and which we can get for free from the amazing world wide web). Everyone wants it NOW and they are getting it...and guess what? You big guys are losing all your money...look...there it goes!

To be honest, I have only ever downloaded one movie, and have been given several others, and I don't condone the illegal downloading of films...however, to be even more honest, film companies, distributors etc kind of deserve it. Their fault for being late adopters! Once upon a time they could get away with it, but this is the global digital age and they can't hide things anymore.

I feel like striking myself with a big ol' sign that says, "What do we want? MOVIES. When do we want 'em? NOW!"

They might figure it out in a year or two after they try to rip people off with the whole 'blue ray v. HD' fiasco...can anyone say 8 track?

I'm Jen, and that's today's rant. Have a good one!