DVD update

Rundown of some movies I've watched on DVD recently:

March of the Penguins: I heard some teenaged guys talking about this at Blockbuster the other day and one of them was going on about how it's basically just a National Geographic special and how he doesn't see how it could be so great. I mean, that is partly true. But what sets this apart is the quality of filmmaking. I don't really enjoy nature stuff on TV because no matter how interesting the subject matter, the presentation is dry. In March of the Penguins, Morgan Freeman's warm narration is terrific and the music is wonderful. Plus those penguins are just so damn cute.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Just incredibly incredibly weird. The source material (and Roald Dahl in general) is weird to begin with, but leave it up to Tim Burton to make it even weirder. The Oompa Loompas (all played by one actor) really creeped me out, Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka was also pretty creepy, and all the other children were, well, creepy too. I suppose this all helped in making Charlie and his family all the more normal and sympathetic, which they definitely were, but man, everything was still so creepy. I was never really a fan of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory either, so I guess I just prefer Roald Dahl's stuff remaining on the page with their little line sketch illustrations.

Crash: A little too consciously controversial and serious for my taste I think. The large ensemble cast does a good job and the stories are told well, but everything was so dramatic and I was kind of meh about the storylines intersecting in the way that they did. And man, the movie made me seriously not want to ever live in LA. I mean, I shouldn't be one to talk since I'm from New York, but LA was really not presented in a very good light.

Hitch: I'm usually a sucker for romantic comedies but somehow this one didn't hold my attention very well. The actors all did a relatively good job and parts of it were funny and sweet but in general it was a little too long and a little too predictable. Yes, I know all romantic comedies are predictable, but the conflict separating the main couples wasn't convincing or interesting enough and at some points I was just really bored...