The Story Suffering from a severe case of depression, toy company CEO Walter Black (Mel Gibson) begins using a beaver hand puppet to help him open up to his family. With his father seemingly going insane, adolescent son Porter (Anton Yelchin) pushes for his parents to get a divorce. From Netflix.com
This is another one Liz made me watch. She read the script and wouldn't stop talking about it. Don't tell her, but she's got pretty good taste.
I know the world thinks that Mel Gibson has lost his marbles, and that may be true. I still need you guys to see this movie. He sucks you into Walter's depression and the effects it has on his family. It truly tears them apart, and I couldn't peel my eyes away from the screen until I knew how things turned out for them.
Also, there is a fight scene between Mel and the beaver. That's right folks, Mel beats himself up. Enjoy.
If You Liked: Sunshine Cleaning, It's Kind of a Funny Story, City Island
The Story: Written, directed and produced by John Wells ("The West Wing"), this indie drama stars Ben Affleck as a successful businessman who comes face-to-face with America's downsizing epidemic when he loses his job and is forced to take a construction gig. Rounding out the all-star cast are Kevin Costner as Affleck's brother-in-law, Tommy Lee Jones as a conflicted corporate bigwig and Chris Cooper as a paranoid executive. From Netflix.com
I was surprised when The Company Men showed up in my mailbox. See, I have this terrible habit of adding movies to our netflix que based on the poster, and forgetting about it. Pictures always get me. Nevertheless, Liz has a very strict "we picked it, we watch it" policy. Sometimes I hate her for that cause I end up watching crap like Black Circle Boys and Sunshine, but this time it worked out really good for me.
Now, the casting alone deserves your full attention here. I mean, Chris Cooper, Craig T. Nelson, Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones together in one movie. You can't get better than that. For the girls, there is no one better than Maria Bello. I will admit that I am not a Ben Affleck fan, but he is phenomenal in this film
For those of you who may be tired of stories about our terrible economy, I ask that you give this movie a shot. Wells tells a very real story here. We get to see how the economy effects these men in every aspect of their lives. Right down to the way they walk. Each man handles his crises wildly different from the other and they struggle in ways that anyone can relate to.
The Story: Bob Parr, a.k.a. Mr. Incredible, tries to cope as a normal civilian after he and the rest of the world's superheros are forced into retirement. When an opportunity for a some hero moonlighting turns out to be more than Bob can handle alone, his 'super' family goes on a mission to rescue him from an new evil villan.
The Incredibles is one of the best things to ever come out of Pixar Animation Studios. (Second only to Toy Story, maybe) It has action and adventure mixed perfectly with an incredibly funny wit. Its story is universal, and its characters are just so darn lovable!
Not buying it? Well, neither was Allie. She use to get really furious when ABC Family played The Incredibles because she knew it meant 2 hours of cartoon watching, and if it's not Disney, Allie doesn't want it. But then, one fateful day, that is so vividly pressed in my memory, we caught TI from the very beginning. Allie watched, at first only because she had no choice. Then something happened...a laugh. Followed by another laugh and another. Pretty soon Allie realized something that I had known for years. The Incredibles is TOTALLY WICKED! Don't believe us? Try it out for yourself, if you dare.
If You Liked: Toy Story, Monsters Inc., WALL-E, A Bug's Life
The Story: A seemingly perfect couple move into an upscale gated community with their equally perfect teenagers. The Joneses have better goods and game than any other family in town. The only problem is they're not a family -- they are employees of a stealth marketing organization, and they know how to make everyone else want what they've got. From The Internet Movie Database
A & I were totally bummed when our local theater passed on the Indi film The Joneses. Luckily, we caught it one night in our hotel after a long road trip, and it did not disappoint.
Here is the laundry list of reasons why we enjoyed this one. The concept was clever and not something we’ve already seen a hundred times. The characters are real and likeable and played by some pretty decent actors. David Duchovny is dreamy. Finally, it’s a good story on top of a funny satire about American consumerism.
We give The Joneses an A plus for putting a new spin on the dysfunctional family.
If You Liked: Heartbreakers, The Truman Show, The Stepford Wives
The Story: After several months in a mental institution, Anna still cannot remember what happened the night her mother died. Her therapist sends her home, hoping that the past is behind her, but home is not the same. Her mother's nurse is now her stepmother to be, and this new mommy dearest has a past of her own.
Neither Liz nor I have ever been into the supernatural thriller sub-genre of horror movies. You know, the ones about ghosts and demons and freaky little kids. I mean, a demon possessed girl who's stuck in a well simply cannot crawl out of your TV. She's STUCK IN A WELL!!! When the ghost/monster is too outrageous to be believable, we just don't buy it. Horror movies need to be based in reality for them to truly scare us.
That's why we both hesitated to watch The Uninvited. It seemed to fall into that supernatural horror category. We watched it anyway. We were running out of decent horror movies to recommend to customers at the Buster, and we both like Elizabeth Banks. Anyway, I'm glad we watched it because The Uninvited is one of the best scary movies I've seen in a long time. The freaky-things-jumping-out-at-you parts are subtle but very freaky. The entire movie gives you that whole, bad things are about to happen vibe and just then when the tension builds to the point of exploding...
Oh, I can't tell you, but it's good. The Uninvited is a horror movie with good scary parts and a good story. Who knew they could co-exist so peacefully?
If You Liked: The Others, What Lies Beneath, The Ring, A Perfect Getaway
The Story: Three drag queens on a road trip from New York to Hollywood are forced to spend the weekend in a small country town.
Patrick Swayze and Wesley Snipes in drag. If that doesn’t make you want to watch this movie, then I don’t know what else to say.
Allie recently found To Wong Foo in a sale bin at FYE for two bucks and totally freaked. Needless to say, we now own it. Our collection of the best comedies of the 90’s is one step closer to being complete!
Why do we like TWF so much? Many reasons, but most importantly it is mind blowing to see how well the dudes from Road House and Blade can master the snap. I didn’t even realize that John Leguizamo was the Latin drag queen until we were twenty minutes into it the other day. There’s also some pretty funny dialog. Oh, and there’s an actual uplifting story in there too, so next time it’s movie night with the girls, pull this one out of the comedy section at the Buster. You won’t be disappointed.
If You Liked: Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, First Wives Club, The Birdcage, SHAG
The Story: FBI Agent Jennifer Marsh thought she had seen it all, until a tech savvy psycho begins to use the internet as a murder weapon.
So, you've probably already realized this, but I like cop movies. Doesn't matter what's going on, as long as the good guys are fighting the bad guys. And no, not all cop movies are the same.
This sounds weird, but I love the killer in this movie. This was the first movie I remember with the "internet can kill you" idea, and I think they play this card the best.
Online or not, this bad guy has the most inventive kills. He is just bat $#*! crazy and creeps me out like no other. I always sleep with a light on after watching this one.
If You Liked: The Watcher, Chaos, Payback, Unthinkable
The Story: A CIA black ops team is betrayed and left for dead, so they set out to find the man responsible.
Hollywood has been putting comic books on the big screen for almost as long as it’s been around. When they stick to the classics, it’s great. Where would supper blockbusters be without the Superman and Batman franchises? In recent years, however, they’ve been going over comics that we normal people have never heard of. Liz and I are not so into this. Watchmen was weird and long. Sin City was depressing and gimmicky. Don’t even get me started on The Sprit. For these reasons, and others, Liz and I tend to stay away from anything based on the graphic novel. Lucky for us, we had no idea that The Losers started out as one.
The Losers has everything you want in a big action flick. The tough, yet wounded hero and his cool posse, a super-evil, super slime-ball villain, and thirty minutes of explosions. It’s good on the story front as well. It held our attention the whole way through. It’s also very believable when you put it up against other graphic-novel-to-feature films. Plus, The Losers has some decent one-liners and a hot chick, for those of you who are into that sort of thing.
We also love The Losers for its characters. They’re interesting and memorable without the whole I crush cans on my forehead for no reason vide you can sometimes get from action flick characters. It helps that the actors playing these characters are pretty decent. They have a good onscreen chemistry too. Chris Evens and Columbus Short bring some welcomed comedy to their characters. Zoe Saldana and Idris Elba pull off a fight scene with some awesome stunts. Altogether, The Losers is the best action movie I’ve seen in years.
If You Liked: The A-Team, S.W.A.T., The Fast & Furious, GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra
The Story: An anxiety-ridden nerd teams up with a wild warrior to survive in a post-apocalyptic world that's filled with flesh-eating zombies.
For most of my life, I have avoided the zombie movie bandwagon, avoiding films like 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead. I know people who swear that my life is incomplete with out them, but to tell you the truth, I’m just not that interested. Zombies are ugly and gross and all RAAH! I don’t need to see someone eating someone else’s intestines. No thank you. So, imagine how surprised I was at myself when I popped Zombieland into the DVD player. Very surprised.
There are two reasons why I decided to watch Zombieland. One, Allie liked the cover box and decided we should watch it. Allie has a thing for movie covers. If it looks good, she’ll watch it. If someone makes a complete and utter flop of a film about day lilies in their garage on a hundred dollar budget with the worst actors ever, Allie will watch it knowing all this as long as the cover box is visually appealing. I blame cover boxes and posters for 90% of the movies on the Do Not Watch list. The second reason I choose to watch Zombieland is even simpler. Nothing else was coming out at the Buster that weekend.
So, into the DVD player went a movie that I was already pre-programmed to hate, and you know what? I love-loved it. If approached with the right attitude and narrator, zombies are hilarious. Watching Woody Harrelson bash in their skulls with a banjo is pretty entertaining as well. What impressed me most about Zombieland, however, was the fact that there was a pretty good plot tied in with all of the gruesomeness. Plus, the four main characters are likable and real. Zombieland rocked.
We give Zombieland an A plus for being a movie that anyone can enjoy. It’s been out on DVD for over six months, and I’ve never once had a customer say anything negative about it. Ever. That is a rarity. People hate on everything except for Zombieland and The Lion King. Go figure.
The Story Suffering from a severe case of depression, toy company CEO Walter Black (Mel Gibson) begins using a beaver hand puppet to help him open up to his family. With his father seemingly going insane, adolescent son Porter (Anton Yelchin) pushes for his parents to get a divorce. From Netflix.com 
