Here's my views on "Guy -X", "Lives of Others", "Welcome to the Jungle", "Lady Chatterley", "Malicious", and "Redline".  ENJOY!!
 
OK, maybe everyone's is going up but I HAVE seen 61 DVD's from the online store alone.  I always trade in for 3 in the store for every 3 online, so you do the math.  Did anyone but me notice that most of the stuff going to DVD has a horror/slasher/bloodbath kinda theme?  Anyway, here's a brief idea of some of the stuff I've seen in the last 2 weeks.
 
Guy-X (2005):
 
Jason Biggs is on the cover as a slouchy army guy with a bored look.  It runs about 1 hour 40 minutes and is rated 'R'.  My rating:  $5.50 (1.-9.).
Brit with an American accent, Jeremy Northam (Mira Sorvino's husband in the original "Mimic") plays Colonel Woolwrap  (I think that's his rank) in an isolated, Greenland base.  Bigg's plays Rudy, but he's stationed in this bad place because of a case of mistaken identity.  No one cares.  The military guys will remind you of the craziness in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" mixed with 'Mash'.  He quickly learns to go with the flow when trying to escape fails twice.  Any humor in the script got lost somewhere else. 
Natasha McElhone (the girl who tells "Truman" the truth) plays Irene, the base psychologist.  Her personal life succumbs to the isolation, if you get my drift.  By the time Rudy gets there, he's her next.  We are sort of to believe Rudy and she have something special -- OK, whatever.  Rudy finds a hidden hospital ward with a bunch of comatose men and one, Guy X (Michael Ironside) who is on the verge of dying --- for weeks.  In the meantime, he and Rudy form an interesting alliance in which Rudy discovers a government cover up of medical experimentation.  Everything falls apart when Rudy, the base newsletter/communication officer, exposes some hidden secrets.  It's based on the novel, "No One Thinks of Greenland" by John Griesemer.  The script was by Steve Attridge and John Paul Chapple with direction by Saul Metzstein (who's done some strange horror stuff I've never heard of before).  It's weird but watchable if you're not picky.  I liked seeing Jason Biggs having grown into his nose and looking more attractive.
 
 
Lives of Others (2006):
 
Here's one from the Naro that also briefly played at Columbus Regal.   I always wanted to see it but never got around to it.  I was pleasantly surprised at the quality but it was in German with subtitles if you hate to read during a movie.  My rating: $8.00 (1.-9).
Writer/Director Florian Henckel Von Donnersmack (say that 3 times fast), did an exceptional job taking us back to coldwar Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall.  There, the secret police have all authority.  They can make you or your family disappear if you look at them the wrong way.  There are listening devices and cameras everywhere to monitor for anti-government activities.  I remember this being a political joke and a subject of ridicule in many movies of the era.  Police coming with trumped up charges to take you away or make you a spy against your friends and family seems a distant memory now.
German star, Ulrich Muhe who I've seen in nondescript American parts, played Hauptmann Wiesler, a man particularly good at his job and knew it.  (Muhe died of stomach cancer this past June at age 53.)  He truly believes in what he does is as a good patriot.  By chance, he's invited to a stage play by famous artist, Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch).  His boss points out Dreyman as one of the few solid lovers of the German government.  Well, Wiesler takes that almost as a challenge to find the guy's flaws.  Within days, he's set up listening devices in every room and recorders in the attic where they listen 24 hours per day totally without Dreyman knowing.  His girlfriend is a famous stage actress, Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck), who has a drug addiction.  When Wielser gets desperate to get dirt on Dreyman, he uses Christa.  But, by that time, Wiesler has had some epiphany.  He's fallen in adoration of Sieland and tries to warn her but she's too wasted to get it.  His evolution alone is spectacular to see much less the emerging awareness for Dreyman of his government's true corruption. 
It's almost 2 hours and 20 minutes long and is rated 'R'.  There are sex scenes and shower scenes but done with a sense of invasion of privacy not sensuality.  Sieland has sex with the fat, old head of security  because to refuse would be professional death or worse.  Like most of these toads, he plays the 'don't you need the release' card so when she acquiesces, she really wants it -- as if she has a real choice.  Amazing and worthwhile piece of work if you have the time or interest to see it.
 
Welcome To The Jungle:
 
Scene on the cover of a skull and some bloody mess, I took it for another slasher movie. When you read the back, you'll find that it's about 2 couples who go to Africa to find Michael Rockefeller, the real son of the rich family who went missing there in 1961.  My rating: $4.00 (1.-9.).
Two couples of various economic backgrounds get a wild hair and we get a fair storyline.  Sandy Gardiner and Callard Harris play Mandi and Colby.  Colby's got the financial end and some contacts to get them into the militaristic areas of Africa.  Nick Richey and Veronica Sywak play Mikey and Bijou, the other couple who help with the coordination of the trip but more go as a lark.  The whole movie is done like the 'Blair Witch' project with handheld cameras that go in all directions, get bumped with activity, up their noses, down in the floor.... you get the idea.  We get a lot of dialogue off camera that's supposed to let us in on stuff going down.  Like that they admit it's a stupid idea to think the 4 of them will find a guy when the Rockefeller wealth couldn't.
They set off.  Soon they get hot, tired, and chased by guys with guns.  The couples get irritable with each other.  Bijou and Mikey get drunk or stoned every night (OK, first off, who could carry that many bottles in a backpack?).  The frustration and anger is palpable.... oh wait, maybe that was me for renting this.  About half way through the movie, the stupid couple takes off with the map and most of the supplies.  Their end was worthwhile if you can get that far.  Then we get the other couple trying to catch up, finding the first couple, and trying to get back to civilization.  The end was hokey but about the most original thing in the movie. 
Talented writer, Jonathan Hensleigh, wrote the story and directed.  He's also written 'Die Hard 3', 'Jumanji', 'The Saint', and 'Armageddon', to name a few.  I wonder if he bankrolled this one himself.  The run time is 83 minutes and it's rated 'R', mostly for gore.   You can wait for TV. 
 
 
Lady Chatterley's Lover (2006):
 
I am not a literature freak, so I didn't know D.H. Lawrence wrote a bunch of the Lady Chatterley tales.  Evidently this is a French adaptation of the second.  My rating: $7.00 (1.-9.). In French with subtitles.
Beautiful in an 1940's classical sense, Marina Hand is Constance, the long-suffering wife of Sir Clifford (Hippolyte Girardot) who came back from war crippled and in a wheelchair.  She looks depressed but never complains about playing nurse and running the house in the country.  Visitors are few and far between. 
She contemplates suicide but obviously enough that her sister comes to her rescue.  She gets the doctor to recommend her sister get a way and for Clifford to hire a nurse to take over all his personal care needs.  When Constance is freed from her drudgery, she has time to explore their vast estate.  In the gamekeepers hut, she finds peace, nature, and a reawakening of sensuality.  The gamekeeper tries to keep his distance but Constance is too vulnerable.  Their physical and emotional blossoming is done exquisitely.  What I love about European movies is that their stars aren't "perfect".  Jean-Louis Coullo'ch who plays the gamekeeper is middle-aged, somewhat stocky, and less refined.  But his sexiness almost comes from just those qualities -- more real than American stereotypes.  **My favorite scene is their running naked through the forest in the rain.**Constance does indeed go away with her sister.  During that time, she is able to remove the 'rose-colored glasses' and see her true place in the world.  Strangely, it was done well enough that I didn't feel she was a snob, just realistic.  The end is bittersweet but not tragic.
The script was written by Roger Bohbot and Pascale Ferran.  Ferran also directed.  It's rated 'R'.  The run time is an extravagant 168 minutes.  You get a ton of character development in that time, though. 
 
 
Malicious (1995):
 
Briefly, this is another psycho woman who totally manipulates a guy into sleeping with her then thinks she owns him.  The worst part:  Molly Ringwald plays the femme fatale.  My rating: $ 2.00 (1.-9.)
Patrick McGaw plays a star baseball player in college who becomes the subject of adoration of Melissa, a supposed medical student.  He meets her at a party and flirts just a tad before revealing he's taken and trying to disengage himself.  Too Late!!  He's too stupid to resist her even though she's creepily stalking him from the start.  Once bedded, she decides to carve out anyone who would come between them.  The script is from George Sanders with Raul Inglis (who's uncredited according to IMDB).  Virtually unknown, Ian Corson, directed.  He's still unknown.  the run time is about an hour and 1/2 unless you fast forward alot.  It's rated 'R'. The acting isn't so bad but what they are acting is stupid. 
 
 
Redline (2007):
 
A race movie with some fair acting but lots of action and quite a few car crashes.  My rating: $ 6.50 (1.-9.)
There are a bunch of rich guys and their hangers-on who move about the country sponsoring illegal car races with no rules and less safety so they can bet huge pots of money.  Tim Matheson plays a Las Vegas showman with lots of luck.  He's boisterous and loud but stays out of the dirt mostly.  Nathan Phillips who played Sean in "Snakes On A Plane" is Carlo, war veteran home to start over.  He soon gets dragged into racer-brother's sordid life.  Beautiful Nadia Bjorlin gets the best part as singer/race car driver extraordinaire, Natasha.  She's good at singing and runs the shop that 'pimps' expensive cars for rich guys.  We never see her out of skintight or skimpy clothes doing the work, but supposedly she does along with her mother and one other guy.  Dad died in a suspicious car crash years before.
Handsome Scot, Angus Macfadyen plays Michael.  He's fat, scruffy, rich, and thinks he's God's gift in this film.  He's also a bigtime criminal pushing his limits because he's got a debt to pay to some even richer gangsters.  Eddie Griffin appears as Infamous, another 'gangsta' stereotype.  He plays if to the hilt but not with much originality.  Cutie 25 year-old, Jesse Johnson plays Carlo's brother, Jason.  Jason loves speed and risk but doesn't have enough smarts to know his limits. 
Daniel Sadek came up with the story from which Robert Foreman wrote the script.  Andy Cheng, longtime stunt coordinator on films like 'The Rundown', 'Collateral', and 'Mission Impossible 3', directed. The rating is "PG-13" and run time is 95 minutes.  You won't feel cheated for spending money to rent this one.
 
 
Now I'm cross-eyed so forgive any misprints.  I have so many others I could tell you about but I'm going to see "One Missed Call" at 10 PM tonight.  Later. 

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