Home Viewing Highlights of the week

Redbelt (Blu-Ray)
2008, dir. David Mamet. Star. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tim Allen, Alice Braga, Randy Couture, Emily Mortimer

Watched this on Monday night and listened to the audio commentary by Mamet, one of the greatest living American playwrights and screenwriters, and Couture, who I'm told is of the greatest living mixed martial arts fighters. Both have interesting stories to tell about their respective industries, and the film itself, one of my favorites of the year so far, looks crystal clear and sharp in hi-def. If you haven't checked out this film yet, go rent it.


L.A. Confidential (Blu-ray)
1997, dir. Curtis Hanson. Star. Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, Danny Devito, David Strathairn, James Cromwell

After I finished Redbelt, I popped in this classic for the first time in many many years, and for the first time in hi-def. For some reason the opening studio logos look really bad (like old VHS quality) but then the film itself looks amazing. This, along with Chinatown, are probably the two best films noir made since the classic era of that genre/asthetic/whatever you want to call it. It's a great film, just released on Blu-Ray and DVD in a new special edition that includes, among other features, the pilot episode of the failed L.A. Confidential series, starring Keifer Sutherland in Spacey's role. It also acme with a 6 song CD of songs from the 50's era.


Heart of Glass (dvd)
Invincible (dvd)
Even Dwarfs Started Small (dvd)
all dir. by Werner Herzog

Every time I see a Herzog film, I think that's it's my favorite Herzog film ever, and then I pop in a new one and start over again. So far I've seen over a dozen, and not one of them has been uninteresting.

Heart of Glass is about a town desperate to find the secret recipe to ruby glass after the glasssmith dies before bequeathing it upon someone else. Oh, and Herzog had the entire cast hypnotized while they did their parts. Very weird, cool stuff.

Invincible is about a jewish strongman in 1930's Germany, and how he discovers pride in his own religeous identity and fights to protect his people from teh horrors he knows are coming from the Nazis. Stars Tim Roth as a Nazi magician and propaganda artist.

Even Dwarfs Started Small is about a town that is populated by dwarfs, and only dwarfs. As far as I know, this may be the only all-dwarf film I've ever seen.