JACK AND JILL

The greatest movie of all time finally comes to DVD. Check out Daniel Tompkins’ review of the theatrical version, and pretend he wrote it for the DVD version.

https://popfilter.co/2011/11/bottom-feeders-jack-jill/

THE SKIN I LIVE IN

*** (out of ****)

The second greatest movie of all time finally comes to DVD. Coincidentally, the podcast friends reviewed it. Lucky for you, they didn’t just delete the podcast, but saved it on the internet!

https://popfilter.co/2012/03/popfilter-podcast-35/

SENNA

*** (out of ****)

Sometimes, the most magical documentaries come when everything falls apart, or when the planned story takes an unforeseen left turn, completely changing the point of the movie, and turning it into something much different, and much better. But for every one of those, how many docs take a right turn during filming, where everything falls apart and they lose their movie? There’s no reason we would ever hear of these movies, so I will just venture a guess and say that this happens to 25,000 documentaries every day. The best way to insure this doesn’t happen? Don’t go film your documentary. Find a bunch of footage of a story that not everyone knows, but is so perfect that it could only be a documentary, because if it was a scripted Hollywood movie, no one would believe it.

All of the elements are here: sports, which is automatic drama; a hero, beloved by his country due to his ability to do sports; an born antagonist who you can’t help but root against, partly because he is also good at sports, and partly because he is such a fucking asshole; and an early death, imperative if you’re going to be a legend; and “action” scenes that make big budget Hollywood shots of car races look like cut scenes from Ridge Racer on Game Gear. The Friday Night Lights of F1 Racing, you don’t already need to be a fan. In fact, it might be better if you’re not. That way every twist and turn in the movie (besides the ones I’ve already spoiled) comes off as a surprise. Besides, who is actually a fan of Formula 1 racing? You  know it’s people driving cars, right?

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MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL

As far as I can tell, this is the first time Holy Grail has been on Blu Ray, which seems weird. The movies that are usually the first out of the gate for new platforms are loud action movies and films that geeks love. I’m assuming that you either don’t care about this movie, or you can quote the entire thing (there seems to be very little middle ground), so I’ll just move on to the special features. All of the commentaries from previous editions are here, but the big selling point seems to be something called The Holy Book of Days: Second Screen. This is an iPad app that you can sync with the movie and use it while you watch. The app is not available until the movie comes out, so no one really has a lot of information. On paper, it seems like it could be one of the most informative, in-depth documentary style special feature ever. I’m sure this is what they intended, but the whole thing will come off as a disappointment. A good enough selling point for you to shell out twenty bucks to have a ninth copy of this? As if you needed any reason at all.

GAME OF THRONES: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON

All of the people who were just about to download this for free can stop, as they can now legally buy this on Amazon for $35, or the price of having HBO for a week. Game of Thrones seems like genre-porn, if you just go by the ads, and the nerds screaming at each other about the differences between the show and the book, but the fantasy genre is only a small part of the story. You don’t have to be a Mafia fan to enjoy The Sopranos, you don’t have to be a football fan to like Friday Night Lights (I only have to mention it one more time in this article in order to fulfill my quota), and you don’t have to be a virgin to watch Game of Thrones. It isn’t without its faults, including prioritizing issues and a feeling that everything it does is equally interesting, but that doesn’t keep it from being an extremely compelling political drama, with only the rarest appearance of a dungeon or dragon. Also, it’s one of the 2011 Incest All-Stars, and that’s all the reason you need to watch it.

-Ryan Haley

Friday Night Lights.