DVD Rental Rap

CRANK (2006)
Jason Statham's char plays an assassin who has been poisoned with a "Beijing Cocktail" which will kill him unless he keeps his adrenaline up. Naturally, he goes after the bad guys who did it. Although I'm a fan of Statham, and this movie features great film school editing tricks, it's not a good flick. Big snooze. C-

Notes on a Scandal (2006)
I love Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench — they got me to rent this film. Overly faux-literary, with not a single likable character, slow pacing, and GWAHHH subject matter, this movie was an absolute painful bomb for me. D

Tristram Shandy - A Cock and Bull Story (2005)
Sounds good as a premise: take a classic novel (Sterne's Tristram Shandy) and interweave it with a modern crew making a film of it. Hey, a similar concept worked for The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981). Difference is, FLT had Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons, and even better, it had A PLOT! This movie is charmless, pointless, full of ponces poncing about, no plot, little comedy. One thing this movie does capture, is what it is like to make a movie. C+

Just when I was beginning to lose faith in the Film industry as a whole, I finally got to see a good one. A real movie:

The Last King of Scotland (2006)
James MacAvoy (whom some may remember as Faun Tumnus in "Narnia") plays a young Scottish doctor, who ends up in Idi Amin's Uganda in the late 1970s. Forrest Whitaker gives the performance of a lifetime (for which he won the Oscar). It was without a doubt the best and most honest acting performance in a long time; absolutely staggering. It's saying something, to say that there were scenes in which MacAvoy outshone him. First time feature director MacDonald (who has an Oscar as a documentary director) acquits himself well under what could not have been ideal location shoots. The film is tactile, and the screenplay fluid, based on Floden's excellent book. This movie is by no means pleasant watching, but it is a worthwhile film. The ending, for me, left a smidgen to be desired, and for that reason I give it an A-.