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What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:30:50 -0700

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. In addition to the titles below you can also bring home the blockbuster hit 10,000 B.C. and kid-friendly The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Definitely, Maybe
It's not a perfect movie, but I found myself totally happy with the charming Definitely, Maybe, despite a few faults. The main characters are nicely thought-out and far easier to identify with than characters in other romcoms this year like, say, Fool's Gold. Plus, Abigail Breslin is always an adorable treat.

The film follows Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds), a recent divorcee attempting to explain the complications of love to his smart little girl (Breslin). The movie takes on a How I Met Your Mother plot structure, going back in time to the three major loves of of Will's life: Emily (Elizabeth Banks), April (Isla Fisher) and Summer (Rachel Weisz). He doesn't reveal to Breslin's character or the audience who the mother is and it's unclear who he'll end up with. Overall, it's a fun twist on the old romcom formula. If it didn't seem worthy of movie theater prices, you'll definitely (maybe?) feel good about watching this at home.

Special features include commentary with director Adam Brooks and Ryan Reynolds and deleted scenes.

Two more animated movies so read more.

Persepolis
There was a lot of good stuff out in theaters when Persepolis came to theaters and I'm so glad I was able to make the time to see this touching film based on the popular autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi. The movie is visually something you never really see in popular animation, mostly drawn in black and white with big, bold, basic shapes. Rather than aiming for realism, the beauty of the animation lies in its simplicity.

The film is voiced in French with subtitles, and follows a young Marjane in 1978 Iran. Set against the backdrop of political upheaval, Persepolis tells Marjane's coming-of-age story, including her eventual separation from her beloved family. Full of warmth, humor, and a unique perspective on growing up in the non-West, it's no wonder the film earned an Oscar nomination.

Special features include an English language version of the film featuring the voices of Chiara Mastroianni, Sean Penn, Catherine Deneuve, Gena Rowlands and Iggy Pop, and the 2007 Cannes Film Festival press conference Q&A with cast and crew.

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs
Another feature-length Futurama movie hits DVD stands and once again the fans go wild! In this one, the story picks up where Bender's Big Score left off. Netflix has a good plot summary: "The crew at Planet Express must work overtime to seal a portal between their universe and an alternate universe ruled by the gargantuan alien Yivo (David Cross), whose Earth-conquering plans include making Fry the pope of the alternate realm."

Special guest voices include Brittany Murphy and Stephen Hawking, and special features include: Futurama The Lost Adventure: A long-lost, full-length adventure produced for the Futurama Video Game, and a "Meet Yivo!" featurette with David Cross.

What Do You Think About the Best Animated Film?

BuzzSugar — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:01:12 -0800

Ratatouille just won Best Animated Feature Film! This was a great category this year that included Persepolis and Surf's Up. What do you think of this win?

Image courtesy of Disney/Buena Vista Entertainment

Buzz News Roundup, 2/18

BuzzSugar — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:30:01 -0800

Jordin Sparks will open for Alicia Keys on her North American As I Am tour that kicks off April 19 in Hampton, Virginia, E! Online reports.
HBO's long-awaited adaptation of David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography John Adams has a premiere date, according to Zap2It. The seven-part miniseries starring Paul Giamatti will start on Sunday, March 16.
ComingSoon has news that the same guys who wrote Saw IV and Saw V will write the Hellraiser remake Clive Barker Presents: Hellraiser.
French writer and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet has died today at age 85, Reuters reports. Robbe-Grillet first came to fame as a novelist who rejected conventional writing structures in a style that came to be known as the "new novel."
Variety writes that Persepolis was screened legally in Iran, despite the fact that the way the film presents the Iranian Revolution had originally outraged the government.
MTV will run a 22-minute sneak peek of Internet series Quarterlife prior to the show's premiere on NBC. The Futon Critic has the details.
A national autism group is demanding an apology from CBS over a remark a contestant on Big Brother made, writes the Associated Press. The contestant who made the remark said he works for an autism foundation.
Billboard has the news that American Idol is teaming up with iTunes to offer downloads of every performance from the top 24 contestants. Full songs will be 99 cents, while full videos of the final 12 contestants will be $1.99. Don't we get this kind of thing for free from other networks?

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Persepolis: A World That's Not So Black and White

BuzzSugar — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 06:30:00 -0800

In many ways Persepolis is a familiar coming-of-age story that is universally relatable for anyone who struggled to find an identity on the way to adulthood or who found the overnight changes to the teenage body freaky. On the other hand, the comic-book animation and writer/co-director Marjane Satrapi's honest telling of her extraordinary adolescence in Iran make this movie something altogether unique.

Persepolis is based on the best-selling comic book-as-memoir written by Satrapi, which recounts her life growing up in a politically tumultuous era of Iranian history that persists today. Full of humor and wry observations about her younger self, this film is a fresh take on how resilient the human spirit can be despite extremely repressive tyrannical regimes. To find out the other reasons I recommend this fabulous Oscar-nominated movie, read more

Marjane is a precocious little girl obsessed with Bruce Lee karate moves and adored by her upper-middle class parents and grandmother. If the modern images of Iranian women cloaked in dark robes say one thing about their status in this society, the female characters portrayed in Persepolis say something entirely different. Though living under the Shah's dictatorship, the well-educated adults in the story passionately discuss leftist politics and willfully defy the protocols of the day by throwing secret parties for their friends. But soon enough, a revolution begins to stir and whatever hopes her parents have for a more free society are soon crushed when a new Islamic regime takes over.

The situation worsens as Marjane comes of age in a war-torn country ruled by an intolerant regime. To her parents' horror, Marjane's precociousness turns to pure rebellion, talking back to teachers and purchasing American punk music off the street. Desperate, her parents send her off to Vienna, but joining the Western world as an awkward teen from a place many don't understand presents a new set of complications (including romantic ones). Marjane no longer fits into the country of her youth, but is unsure of how to reconcile this with her love of her family and an ambivalence toward the West.

Voiced by a superb cast of accomplished French actors including Catherine Deneuve, Simon Akbarian, and Danielle Darrieux, the characters in Persepolis are exquisitely developed and nuanced. The grandmother is an especially lively mix of old-world traditions and modern-day sass. It's hard to believe all this is conveyed through a palette that is merely variations of gray. And though you sometimes feel as hopeless as Marjane, Satrapi's wonderfully modern, almost art deco-inspired animation reminds you that this young girl became a woman who fulfilled her wildest dreams, despite all odds.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures

Movie Preview: Persepolis

BuzzSugar — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:30:00 -0800

Big-name films like Sweeney Todd and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem will be getting most of the attention this holiday season, but I'm quite intrigued by a much smaller, very different film that will also be hitting theaters on Christmas day. Persepolis, based on Marjane Satrapi's graphic novels, is an animated coming-of-age story about a young Iranian girl finding her way during the Islamic Revolution.

The story follows nine-year-old Marjane as she rebels against her family, witnesses the execution of an uncle, and moves away from Iran, back home, and ultimately away yet again. Her story mixes the hallmarks of any adolescence - testing the boundaries of her family, discovering punk music - with a political environment that most of us have never experienced.

From the trailer, the animation style is remarkably true to Satrapi's art, keeping the whimsy in a story that could be overwhelmingly serious. I'll definitely be picking up Persepolis and Persepolis 2 before this movie comes out. To check out the trailer, just read more

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